Thinking Aloud
Faith, life science, society, the universe, people, humour, God.
God’s broken shape sorter
The church is supposed to accept everyone that God brings, in all their wonderful variety. It’s a beautiful idea, but somewhere along the line has our heavenly shape-sorter got a bit broken?
Easter week – a visual timeline
It may look like a map of the London Underground, but this is a cunning visual representation of who did what and when in the week surrounding Jesus’s death. Look at it for more than a few seconds and you’ll be reaching for your Bible to check it out!
When is Easter 2012
This is the 2012 edition of our famous annual list of the dates of the movable feasts around the Easter season. It includes Lent, Easter and Pentecost. These things are a great mystery to many people, but our number-crunchers have worked day and night to provide these dates.
Lent – are you giving up?
Giving something up for Lent seems to get more popular all the time, and Social Media are awash with it. They are also first on the list of things to give up – leaving the conundrum of how to tell people what you’ve given up!
Where in the world?
The typical DramatisDei customer lives in the UK or on the west coast of the USA or around the Great Lakes of USA/Canada or on the Australian East Coast or New Zealand…
Happy Christmas
White Wine In The Sun by Tim Minchin – a sentimental atheist song about Christmas. It’s very good really, if a little odd. Discuss.
Satnavitivity
Ever wondered why the wise men were late to the birth of Jesus? Satnavitivity reveals the simple truth.
Quickfire Nativity
We love funny videos. We love the Christmas story. We love it when they go together.
Help – Christmas is coming!
Like everyone else we at DramatisDei are forced to think about Christmas sooner than we want to. Also like everyone else we want to complain about it. Moan moan moan.
Insured against rapture
The end of the world didn’t happen – but apparently it will later this year. How are you prepared for the end? Some people have got rapture insurance, others have got pet care arrangements. Should we laugh or cry?
Is it time for same-sex partnership ceremonies in church?
The UK Government is consulting on whether to allow churches to host civil same-sex partnership ceremonies. Is this a good solution?
Is the climate changing? It depends how you ask the question!
A poll reveals that those on the right of American politics are more inclined to believe in climate change than global warming. It’s all in the wording!
A hell of a debate 2 – love wins what?
The debate over Rob Bell’s “Love Wins” has raised some interesting issues, in particular this one – what did Christ save you from or to? Is my salvation the same as yours?
The minor skirmish of the church door
Your church is open and very very busy – but does the rest of the world know it is open? How does your church look from the street? This is the sad story of one man’s petulant battle with the church door.
When is Easter this year?
Whenever two or three Christians gather together they ask themselves one question – when is Easter this year? That festival appears to bob about almost randomly. So – when is Easter this year? And why?
Epiphany, the BBC Nativity and the Star of Bethlehem
The Epiphany is when we celebrate the Magi visiting the new-born king. But what was this star they followed? The BBC Nativity suggested a conjunction of planets. Have they got it right?
Epiphany and the walls look bare
Epiphany is the traditional ending to Christmas, but as the pretty lights and colourful decorations get stowed away for eleven months the walls look kind of bare…
How to make advent shine at your church
Advent is a fantastic ready-made theme – the light coming into the darkness of the world, complete with candles as a twinkly visual aid. The question is, how do we make it that little bit different from last year so that people keep listening? Fortunately others have walked there before and left us the fruits of their labours.
Have an ethical Christmas!
Could ethical gifts give you a new perspective this Christmas? As the economic conditions continue to looks gloomy and the factories of southern China struggle to cater for all our crazy advertisement-fuelled whims this festive season, the ethical gift catalogues blossom. Here is a pick.
Does your youth group have a legal name?
A Christian youth project in Sheffield has been threatened with legal action by an American Christian television station because its name is already registered by the station. Should a church have to check such names? Should big Christian organisations act this way?
