• St. Vinnies - This Time it’s Personal - really?

    NiallJuly 30, 2008

    You may know I have previously had a rant about the quality of the food that the local St. Vinnies hands out to those in need. However, I have just seen the latest ad campaign that they will be running and want to share it here and let you know that while I think it is great, the campaign might raise funds and tickle the tear-ducts and wallets of Mr & Mrs Aussie Consumer, but that means nothing if the services you are providing are given with the same thoughtfulness and effort that the fund raising is made with.

    As a Catholic charity, I would hope that the main motivation of the group is to serve and love like Jesus - and not contribute to the bottom line of the Catholic church (or that matter any church group, I’m not trying to pick on the Catholic church especially!). (more…)

    Posted in Australia, Media, Social Justice, TV Ad |
    No Comments »

    Wow - even an atheist gets it right!

    NiallJuly 10, 2008

    New film coming out called Religulous -here’s the trailer from youtube!

    I was following the trail after seeing the trailer for Religulous on the Apple site and ended up on disbeliefnet where there is an article called “Jesus and His Magic Kingdom“. So, I start reading and was pleased to see and I agree with the author over the following (minus some of the hyperbole!).

    After hanging around at his house until he was 30 years old, Jesus struck out on his own, and his act soon gained a strong following. As his entourage grew larger, and more dependent on him to make them look cool, he decided to mix in a few lessons he picked up from his real dad. He taught them some doctrines of faith, like charity, compassion, non-violence, tolerance and love – values that the church established in his name would selectively forget about centuries later.

    The part that I love though is the last sentence! I couldn’t agree more with this statement! Great stuff! Not sure about the rest of the site or the movie (although the movie does look good and has some great moments in the trailer where it explores the above statement, especially all the showy, glamorous “Christian” and religious figures yhe world.

    Posted in Jesus, church life, film, youtube |
    No Comments »

    Great Article about The Dining Room

    NiallJune 11, 2008

    The local paper, The Leader ran an article about The Dining Room, where I volunteer and am doing my placement for my course. It is an interview with David Knoop, the social worker who handles The Dining Room. Have a read - I would love to hear your comments.

    Posted in Social Justice, croydon |
    No Comments »

    So, early Christians did meet in a Church Building!?

    Niall

    I was reading my RSS reader this morning over a coffee and almost spilt my coffee over myself and my laptop when I read one of the headlines streaming from the ABC. The headline was “World’s first church unearthed in Jordan” - so, there I was thinking they had unearthed a mass grave of early Christians, slaughtered by the Empire of the time.

    But no. The article goes on to say that archaeologists have unearthed a shelter, or place where early Christians hid. (more…)

    Posted in Church, Media, Web |
    No Comments »