December Newsletter

Click on the link below to access a downloadable PDF
of the new edition of the TABS newsletter -

December Newsletter

KEYNOTE ADDRESSES

As promised, you can click on these links to access downloadable PDF versions of Rex Hunt's ketnote addresses, graciously provided by Rex for your perusal - 

NBS Gathering 2011 Keynote Address 1 - Bible

NBS Gathering 2011 Keynote Address 2 - Jesus

NBS Gathering 2011 Keynote Address 3 - Christmas


Rex has also posting them on his own site at
http://www.rexaehuntprogressive.com/articles.html
So you can view them there too if you would like to,
along with his other sermons, liturgies and other useful
resources he has made available.

greetings from SA

To my dear friends gathering this weekend in Victoria - I am sorry to not be with you, and feel quite strange to be missing my first gathering in 6 (i think) years.

I am excited to be presiding at the wedding of one of the music teachers who teaches in my church tomorrow, and to be present at the first open day for Nunyara Conference Centre (where we held the 2010 gathering), which is the neighbour of my church on Sunday.

May the stories you tell and live this weekend enrich your souls, inspire you, and travel back with you to breathe new life into your communities.

Much love,

Sarah Agnew - minister @ belair uniting church & sarah tells stories

ALSO AVAILABLE AT THE 2011 GATHERING BOOKSTALL

MUSIC RESOURCES TO BE AVAILABLE AT THE 2011 GATHERING BOOKSTALL

MAP TO LAKE DEWAR

Click to Enlarge

GATHERING REGISTRATION

This is the registration form for the 2011 Gathering to print off - 

KEYNOTE SPEAKER GATHERING 2011

OUR MUSICIAN

WHAT TO LOOK FORWARD TO...

NBSA GATHERING INFO

Hi all,

Given the brochure is being a little tempermental, I thought I might post the information on it like this. Remember to get your registrations in as soon as possible or just let Annette Buckley know you're coming.

melgage203@netspace.net.au

2011 Gathering

The 2011 Gathering is fast approaching, and the team is getting excited!
We welcome to the blog our second author, Dustin Liebelt, who will post updates about the gathering to whet your appetite!
All are welcome to the annual gatherings of the network, experienced tellers and new, for a weekend of resourcing and networking, developing storytelling skills and nurturing our passion for story.
Rex Hunt is the keynote speaker, and Faye White will again lead worship as she has for past Victorian based gatherings.
So head over to the gathering page, download the form and get yourself registered! Then stay tuned to the blog for news of the gathering as it comes to hand.

International Festival Gathering - first snapshots

view of accommodation suites

While the international festival gathering of the network of biblical storytellers is predominantly a gathering for the USA network, it is an international event, with tellers from Canada, the UK, Australia and Italy, and quite a focus on the international storytelling mission of the network and members of the network with other organisations, into places like the Gambia, Papua New Guinea and South East Asia. Later this year, the first festival gathering for Canada will be held, which is a cause for some excitement, as is a gathering for 140 pastors and their partners in Cambodia, made possible by considerable fundraising efforts of the network in the USA. For the network in Australia, we are excited by emerging partnerships with Indigenous Australian storytellers and storytellers in Indonesia, and it was good to be able to share this news with our friends here, sharing the gifts we have to encourage the gift of storytelling we share with our neighbours all over the world.
One of the highlights for me this week was the telling of the story of the young David by Matteo, from Italy. Not only is he obviously a gifted storyteller who can weave music into the telling to great effect, but his telling was all the more remarkable for being carried out in a second language, struggling to find the right word very very rarely. As a young man, Matteo conveyed well the internal struggles of boys yearning to be men already and brought humour and insight into the story I had not encountered before. I have a deeper understanding of the story; can see it from David's point of view more clearly now, because of Matteo's telling.
Another story that has new images for me is the story of the man brought by friends on a mat to Jesus for healing. First, Zac told the story in worship, using a big stick - it's like a hiker's pole I guess, light wood, and engraved. Zac says it was a gift from a friend that sat in the garage until he discovered storytelling, and found it a help to sway in and out of characters, as he can't do this with his voice. In this story, Zac used the stick to 'dig' a hole in the roof - a subtle but I found very effective gesture that brought the story to life in a new way for me. Second, we used this story in a workshop on bibliodrama, that introduced to me a way of exporing biblical stories friends had mentioned to me but that I had yet to encounter. When I tell stories, I will often invite listeners to 'wonder' about the story, voicing the questions we have of the text, characters, time and place. Bibliodrama invites listeners to pause at various points in the story and imagine themselves into the story - you are the people carrying the mat, tell us who you are, why you are here, what you are feeling when the crowd won't let you through to the house. Some of the insights were unexpected - even one I voiced was something new. As we were exploring the man's response when he was healed, and moving out through the crowd, I had him thinking 'now you move' of the crowd ...

our conference building at Ridgecrest Conference Centre,
Asheville, North Carolina USA

The other lingering thought for me at this point is the last workshop I did this morning, with Rabbi Rachmiel Tobesman. We were exploring the pursuer of peace, how hard it is to work for peace, costly, and certainly not a passive inaction. And as we did, I was struck by how the Rabbi's presence with us here at this Christian gathering was itself an act of peace making, as many Jews are still guided by fear and mistrust in their relations with Christians, who have been the instigators of so much suffering for the Jewish poeple throughout history. It must take much courage to be here, and to continue in relationships with Christians in this way in the face of misunderstanding and criticism from his community. I am grateful for his model, as much as for his stories and his words.

visiting storyteller

Bruce Kuln is an actor from the states who tells the gospel of Luke. He is being brought out by the bible society. He is starting his tour in Perth and going to Adelaide, and on to all the states (Except NT!) this is happening form the 22^nd July to the 7 or so of August. His itinerary is below.

You can buy tickets at www.kjv11.com.au (then click on Bruce Kuln at the top) You can also see a video of Bruce in action.

Check out when Bruce will be coming to a location near you, spread the word, and get along! 

Date	Time	State	Venue
22 Jul	7pm	WA	Subiaco Church of Christ - purchase now!
23 Jul	2pm	WA	Karrinyup Anglican Church - purchase now!
23 Jul	7pm	WA	Mount Pleasant Baptist Church - purchase now!
26 Jul	7pm	SA	Concordia College, Highgate - purchase now!
27 Jul	7pm	SA	Scots Church, Adelaide - purchase now!
29 Jul	7pm	VIC	Melbourne City Conference Centre - purchase now!
30 Jul	7pm	VIC	One Community Church, Blackburn - purchase now!
1 Aug	7.30pm	TAS	Sir Raymond Ferrall Centre, Mowbray (Launceston) - purchase now!
2 Aug	7.30pm	TAS	Stanley Burbury Theatre, Sandy Bay (Hobart) - purchase now!
4 Aug	7.30pm	NSW	Abbotsleigh school for girls, Wahroonga - purchase now!
5 Aug	7.30pm	NSW	Village Church Annandale - purchase now!
6Aug	7pm	QLD	Metro Church, Seventeen Mile Rocks - purchase now!
7 Aug	7.30pm	QLD	Metro Church, Taigum - purchase now!

Storytelling workshop

Biblical Storytelling – A Workshop

Did not our hearts burn within us as Jesus told us God’s story

Hosted by the Brisbane Biblical Storytellers Guild

A gathering of people who delight to tell God’s story

Saturday 9 July 2011 9.15am to 4.00pm

At: Brisbane North Church of Christ: 12 Emerald St Kedron   

Topic: Learning & telling our Biblical story – practical skills & techniques

+ The Principles & Practice, Theory & theology, & opportunities to learn a story

Presenters: Judy Seymour & Jeff Lawrence (M.Min); experienced Biblical storytellers & workshop presenters & members of the Network of Biblical Storytellers

For Whom?  All who love God’s story and school & RE teachers, catechists, chaplains, spiritual directors, worship/liturgy readers, preachers, ministers, parents, counselors

Cost: $10.00 – School students free  

Lunch:  BYO – Morning tea provided

Bring: Bible, pen & paper

Contact   Judy 07 32034193   or   Jeff 07 33141404 (M) 0421 337431

Email   Jeff:  thestorycatcher@optusnet.com.au  Website:  www.thestorycatcher.com.au

Book Review : Archbishop Desmond Tutu: Children of God Storybook Bible

Archbishop Desmond Tutu: Children of God Storybook Bible

London: Collins, 2010

This is a beautifully presented book, with high quality art from around the world to illustrate the stories. I really like the way the different artists paint in such varied styles, portraying a variety of peoples, so that this really is a book for children all over the world.

Archbishop Tutu has greatly simplified the stories, condensing them into half a dozen paragraphs. But the essence, the core message of the story is always skilfully communicated.

I picked up the book and read it from start to finish, and the compilation reads well as a whole; it picks up the major threads of the biblical texts as well as gently raising from obscurity some of the less frequently told and less well known stories. The story of Esther is there, for instance, which appears in the lectionary just once over the three year cycle, as is one from the book of Revelation, which is often avoided because of its complexities.

This book portrays the breadth of the Biblical stories, and the breadth of the audience for this foundational Sacred Text, in its choice of stories, in the telling of stories of women and children as well as the men, and in the stunning artwork.

And though it’s not tied to the lectionary, I have been able to use it in gathered worship with the children of my congregation on a couple of occasions. To be honest, I found the stories a little short for that purpose, though the artwork is a wonderful aid to the telling, and the prayer at the end of each story is a helpful way to finish.

I particularly like the way that, in the New Testament stories, Archbishop Tutu refers to the Kingdom of God as God’s dream. I found this to be, for adults and children, a very invitational, accessible way of naming what God is offering through Jesus – it grabs your imagination and invites you, too, to dream.

Speaking of language, I am a little disappointed that God is still referred to with the masculine pronoun – though it isn’t dominant, and ‘God’ is used more often than ‘He’. For a book that otherwise breaks down some of the barriers to inclusivity into God’s dream through language and image, I would have liked to see this one gone, too.

This is a tiny criticism of a book about which there is nothing else not to like – this is a beautiful gift for a child, a congregation, for ourselves.

Available from: MediaCom Education