Lent Course 2012

For churches around Selly Oak Birmingham coming together at Lent/Easter is becoming a strong ecumenical pull. This year we adopted a new format, to begin and end the season with a formal joint service at the Selly Oak Methodist Church and the Weoley Hill United Reformed Church respectively. Professor John Hull of the University of Birmingham, an erudite and eloquent speaker has been our guest speaker. Of course he did not disappoint at the first meeting which was well attended.

We chose for our use this time the lent study course of the Churches Together in Britain and Ireland (CTBI). The theme is The way to Freedom, inspired by the courageous life of late German pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was executed by the Nazis for joining the resistance movement that sought to topple Hitler in order to bring his reign of terror to quick end. It is debatable whether Christians should take active, or any, part at all in such plots. What should be our response to social and personal evil?

In the first two studies we were challenged to re-examine the question of Freedom and then Discipline. Can these work together or are they opposed to each other? What do you think? By the way what is freedom? Are we really free? What kinds of freedom are there? Of course, these questions can be endless. But let us take a look at a classic definition of freedom which is 'the power or right to act, speak or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint'. Going by this definition it is obvious that people in prison or those who live under a dictatorship are not free. But what about people in so called 'free societies' whose every movement is tracked by overhead cameras, can they be said to be free?

What about discipline, does it curtail or enhance people's freedom? Think about these and let's talk again soon. God bless you. Shalom.

George