The threat and promise of resurrection in good and evil

At catechism yesterday we tried to tackle the small issues of good and evil, the meaning of faith and the cross ...
The mobile phone photos here show part of how we worked with this. We went through some old newspapers and magazines choosing pictures of good and evil and then made a good and evil collage. Interestingly we had more material for the good collage than for the evil one which was perhaps heartening!
We had first tried to begin to understand the big questions around good and evil by reading the story of Cain and Abel. After we had made the collages we first did a bit of remembered Bible and then read the whole of the passion narrative in Luke's gospel before and after lunch together. Noone seemed bored.
Just before the end of our time together I said right now we're going to destroy our works of art and make something new out of them. So we chopped up the good and evil collages and then used the different pieces created to make a cross (well actually three crosses as we had rather more material than we expected). The cross is a complex symbol, both a sign of torture and death and of resurrection and hope.
So yesterday's catechism was in may ways an attempt at a theology of the cross using glue scissors and wasate paper. I think it worked quite well, helping us in Lenten time to prepare for and understand some of Easter's threat and promise.

Sidney writing from Afghanistan at change.org

Our friend Sidney Traynham has grown a beard in recent months, though we only know this thanks to his facebook picture. Sidney is currently working in Pakistan and Afghanistan and is writing regularly on War and Peace at change.org. What he writes is humourous, thoughtful and thought-provoking. This is what it says abotu him on the side bar:

Sidney Traynham is an aid worker and writer working in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Over the past several years he has lived and worked from Geneva to Zimbabwe -- while reporting from disaster zones in Africa, Asia and Latin America. He is hopeful four days of the week and practical the other three (though he doesn't think hope and practicality are mutually exclusive).

Meanwhile I recommend his piece about condoms vs. viagra for bringing a smile but also making a very serious point. As do all the best stories about condoms it involves cucmbers of course.
Take care out there Sidney, thinking of you.