Thursday 10th November - Last video from Ephesus - St Polycarp

 Here's the link to the video and commentary

Next week we'll start a series on the 'O' Antiphons... if you want to find out more before then, well, google, google google!

Music

It it is well with my soul

In Paradisum - Faure

In paradisum deducant te angeli; in tuo adventu suscipiant te martyres, et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Jerusalem. Chorus angelorum te suscipiat, et cum Lazaro quondam paupere æternam habeas requiem.

"May the angels lead you into paradise; may the martyrs receive you at your arrival and lead you to the holy city Jerusalem. May choirs of angels receive you and with Lazarus, once (a) poor (man), may you have eternal rest."

 

Saturday 29th October - Miletus - Paul's tearful farewell

 

Here is the Link to this week's video and commentary.

Paul meets up with all the elders at Miletus before leaving - forever.

(If you want to recap on any of the videos in Part 2, here's the link to the complete set) 

Music;

Forth in thy Name O Lord I go (one of my favourites!)

 Gloria Gloria, Taize

Thursday 13th October - The Fish - Ancient Christian Symbols

 

And the link to the video and commentary on the Bible Society Website  

We are all very familiar with the fish symbol below in all its many forms. But this shape is NOT the one in the video!

This site has more to say about the symbol that is scratched into the stones at Ephesus. There is a story that the shape scratched into the stones was used to play a game called tabla. What a wonderful way to spread the story of Jesus throughout the Roman Empire - if the story were true...

Jesu, joy of my desiring (Voces 8)

Alleluia alleluia for the Lord God Almighty reigns

Psalm 23 - You restore my soul

Thursday 22nd September - Ephesus - the one about Luxury

 

This is the last of the first group of 6 videos about Ephesus. Next week we will move on to the second group.

Here's the link to the video and the associated commentary

And a set of hymns sung by Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band, in the style of the Gallery Musicians, heard in rural churches until the church organ gradually took over in the 19th century.

 The first one is 'who would true valour see' - one of my favourites and appropriate for this week.

  

Friday 15th September - The one about Nike

 The video of Ephesus for next week is here and is called 

In view of how busy and involved we all are, can I recommend reading Ephesians chapter 6 verses 10 onwards? It's the 'Put on the whole armour of God' bit;

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 

Put on the full armour of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 

Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 

Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.  (Good News Bible)

Here are some STRONG SONGS

Simon Cowell is pretty cheeky to this Pastor, but then the song starts....

and a lullabye (I know it is not a 'religious' song, but I always imagine Jesus singing it to me... )

12th July - Ephesus (1)

The previous posts were by way of catching up on what we have looked at so far.

Now we are returning to the New Testament, and Acts chapters 19 and 20 when Paul was in Ephesus.

Over the next weeks, the plan is to watch the Bible Society Bible Trek videos.

For the next three weeks we will use the first set of videos on Ephesus - videos 1,2 and 3. If you are using a phone or tablet, use this link to click on 'show more' under the video for all the extra information! I am not sure if this comes up if you use the links below;

The videos are just a couple of minutes long, and are of the places in Ephesus that Paul might have seen, with a commentary by Dr Andrew Ollerton. At the same time, we can read through (or listen to!) Acts Chapter 19 a couple of times.

Make sure you click on 'show more' under the video for all the extra information! 

There's also Paul's letter to the Ephesians which we we could read at the same time - it's up to each one of us to do as little or as much as we want.

We can decide next week how slowly or quickly we plan to do this.