Something New 2019 - St George's Paddington

Something New in 2019:

WELCOMED – we asked but why are there so many churches today? We discovered that when people encounter Jesus they are transformed. We reflected on Saul’s conversion and the birth of the early church. We wondered about it all with dominos, silkscreen printing, chemical reactions and we had a special challenge for high schoolers.

HOPE – we asked but why was Jesus so special and reflected on the women at the empty tomb (from Luke 24), exploring the meaning of resurrection and the hope it offers everyone. We played with a giant ball, went to the theatre to see a play, made a take home Easter garden and undertook a crime scene investigation to work out what happened to Jesus’ body.

LOVE – for Easter we considered the amazing love story of Jesus’ death and resurrection that makes the cross the symbol of Christianity. We’re asking ‘but why did Jesus die?’ exploring God’s incredible love for his world and the peace, forgiveness and life he wants for all of creation! We had love letter writing, love song karaoke and an Easter Egg hunt.

NARNIA – we watched ‘The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe’ to explore the ideas of sacrifice and redemption with Edmund, Lucy, Susan and Peter. A great time of popcorn & reflection was had by all!

BE BRAVE.CHOOSE KIND – Reflecting on the Good Samaritan story, a very familiar story within the Western tradition, we explored Jesus’ challenging words provoking opposition from his contemporaries and his radical call to follow him in love of neighbour. We enjoyed figurine play, film making and clips from ‘Wonder’.

WINTERSTORYTELLING – A great night sharing tales of ‘homecoming’around the fire with soup, toasties & hot chocolate. We heard of International travels, Sturt’s exploration in the desert, the Prodigal Son story, Jonah’s journey and more.

THE PRACTICE OF PRAYER – we reflected on Jesus’ own practice of prayer and the Lord’s Prayer that he gave to his disciples. We walked labyrinths, made bead prayer bracelets, did mindful colouring and undertook a chocolate prayer challenge.

GRATITUDE – we talked giving thanks to God for all that’s good, noticing and paying attention to all the blessings we have. We reflected on the story of the ten lepers who Jesus heals and the one who comes back to say thanks from Luke 17. We celebrated the good with gardening, a street library. We thought through the story making story telling origami cubes and participated in a gratitude circle, sharing things we were thankful for and giving thanks to God.

PEACE – As our community celebrated Halloween we talked about facing our fears. We engaged with the story of Jesus meeting a disturbed man in a graveyard and bringing peace. We had some halloween themed cooking, science experiments and balloon fun. All the while reflecting on what we do with our fears in a broken and unpredictable world.

GENEROSITY – We recalled the Christmas story and interviewed the wise ones who travelled from afar. We celebrated with a green screen dress-up nativity photo shoot, TEAR useful gift cards (talking about being generous to those who don’t have what we do), we made gifts and cards to share with others and created Advent Wreathes to use throughout Advent with readings and reflections. We finished with some Christmas Carol singing.

You can see the summary of our gathering in 2018 here.

Photos from previous Something New gatherings: