Pastoral Principles The Course

How can we learn to relate better to one another across the differences and diversity that we find in our church communities? This five-session course is designed to help identify the roadblocks that can so easily hinder us from understanding each other better and loving each other more deeply. The course encourages us to find creative ways to grow and learn together in the love of God. The course is based on the Church of England’s Pastoral Principles for Living Well Together. These Principles identify six ‘pervading evils’ that hinder our growth as Christians, hurt other people and create barriers that stop our churches from growing into Christian communities of welcome and belonging. Each session focuses on one or two of these ‘evils’ and includes resources for Bible study, refection, discussion and worship. Free accompanying videos are available via www.churchofengland.org/PAG By exploring these in our everyday lives and relationships, the course helps us to play our part in seeking unity in our church communities as well as in the wider community. It can be used to explore particular topics about which there is disagreement, or used simply as a means of becoming a community that lives more fully in the way of Christ.

How can we learn to relate better to one another across the differences and diversity that we find in our church communities? This five-session course is designed to help identify the roadblocks that can so easily hinder us from understanding each other better and loving each other more deeply. The course encourages us to find creative ways to grow and learn together in the love of God. The course is based on the Church of England's Pastoral Principles for Living Well Together. These Principles identify six 'pervading evils' that hinder our growth as Christians, hurt other people and create barriers that stop our churches from growing into Christian communities of welcome and belonging. Each session focuses on one or two of these 'evils' and includes resources for Bible study, refection, discussion and worship. Free accompanying videos are available via www.churchofengland.org/PAG By exploring these in our everyday lives and relationships, the course helps us to play our part in seeking unity in our church communities as well as in the wider community. It can be used to explore particular topics about which there is disagreement, or used simply as a means of becoming a community that lives more fully in the way of Christ. Pack of 6 copies.

Living in Love and Faith: The Course aims to help Christians think more deeply about what it means to be human. It provides a structured and accessible way for local groups to engage in and reflect on Living in Love and Faith, a major exploration of Christian teaching and learning about identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage. The five sessions of the course each address a key question: • What does it mean to learn together as followers of Jesus Christ? • How does our identity in Christ relate to sex and gender? • What kinds of relationships does God call us to? • Where do our bodies and sex fit in to all of this? • How do diversity and difference affect our life together as a church? Each session includes an opening reflection about learning together, followed by teaching, time for discussion and Bible study. The sessions end with an invitation to reflect on our learning, bringing it to God in prayer. As well as providing notes for those leading groups, the course also signposts the relevant sections of the Living in Love and Faith book as well as recommending films, podcasts and other digital resources available.

Practical Ways to Support and Care for Your Pastor Do you pray for your pastors? Do you encourage them? Do you have realistic expectations for them? The office of pastor is simultaneously a rewarding and draining position. Pastors today have immense pressure on their shoulders and they need the support of their congregations. Peter Orr has written Fight for Your Pastor as an exhortation for church members to stand behind their pastors through the difficulties of ministry. Orr specifies ways in which congregations can be intentional in caring for church leaders, including prayer, encouragement, generosity, and forgiveness. Featuring stories from current pastors about their struggles, this book is perfect for thoughtful church members eager to understand the weight of their pastors' positions and support leaders in their important ministry. For Thoughtful Christians: Specifically those wanting to know more about their pastors and how to care for them Current: Features insight from pastors about their personal experiences in ministry Applicable: Gives practical examples of how to love and care for pastors, including specific prayers for church leaders and the best ways to encourage them

Issues of gender and sexuality are intrinsic to people’s experience: their sense of identity, their lives and the loving relationships that shape and sustain them. The life and mission of the Church of England – and of the worldwide Anglican Communion – are affected by the deep, and sometimes painful, disagreements about these matters, divisions brought into sharper focus because of society’s changing perspectives and practices, especially in relation to LGTBI+ people. Living in Love and Faith sets out to inspire people to think more deeply both about what it means to be human, and to live in love and faith with one another. It tackles the tough questions and the divisions among Christians about what it means to be holy in a society in which understandings and practices of gender, sexuality and marriage continue to change. Commissioned and led by the Bishops of the Church of England, the Living in Love and Faith project has involved many people across the Church and beyond, bringing together a great diversity and depth of expertise, conviction and experience to explore these matters by studying what the Bible, theology, history and the social and biological sciences have to say. After a Foreword from the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, the book opens with an invitation from the Bishops of the Church of England to embark on a learning journey in five parts: Part One sets current questions about human identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage in the context of God’s gift of life. Part Two takes a careful and dispassionate look at what is happening in the world with regard to identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage. Part Three explores current Christian thinking and discussions about human identity, sexuality, and marriage. In the light of the good news of Jesus Christ, how do Christians understand and respond to the trends observed in Part Two? Part Four considers what it means for us as individuals and as a church to be Christ-like when it comes to matters of identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage. Part Five invites the reader into a conversation between some of the people who have been involved in writing this book who, having engaged with and written Parts One to Four, nevertheless come to different conclusions. Amid the biblical, theological, historical and scientific exploration, each part includes Encounters with real, contemporary disciples of Christ whose stories raise questions which ask us to discern where God is active in human lives. The book ends with an appeal from the Bishops to join them in a period of discernment and decision-making following the publication of Living in Love and Faith. The Living in Love and Faith book is accompanied by a range of free digital resources including films, podcasts and an online library, together with Living in Love and Faith: The Course, a 5-session course which is designed to help local groups engage with the resources, also published by Church House Publishing.

Jesus’ saving Paschal work continues today in the liturgy and sacraments. They have the power to sanctify and beatify those who engage the liturgy with proper minds and hearts. In this comprehensive and accessible book, Christopher Carstens opens up the ritual elements mystagogically: that is, he leads participants from what they can sense—a calendar day, a musical instrument, and word—to what is otherwise undetectable: Jesus Christ. He examines the core meaning of each liturgical element in creation, in the culture, in the Old Testament, in Christ, and in heaven. This book is an excellent resource for pastors, seminarians, permanent deacons and deacon candidates, lay ministers, and parish liturgy coordinators.

This course study of 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus (the Pastoral Epistles) is meant to help candidates for Christian ministry discover how the principles of New testament church leadership can be related to the 21st century Church, and so equip them for Christian ministry as they lead the church of God in a modern context.