Exploring Christianity

Tonight we had our third session of our Bermondsey Christian Training Course, a three-term course, beginning this term with the Christianity Explored course, a great introduction to Christianity for new or not-yet-Christians, and an ideal refresher course for those who have been Christians for some time.

Rugger-playing vicar-cum-evangelist, Rico Tice (left), from All Souls Church, just off Oxford Street, is the presenter of the videos that set the theme of each night.

Week one introduces Mark's Gospel as the good news about Jesus Christ. Week two looks at the identity of Jesus. Week three asks why he came and looks at the problem of sin.

During the week we are all reading a couple of chapters of Mark and we spend the first ten minutes or so talking about what we have read before we watch the video and have a further period of discussion in groups.

Around 50 people have signed up for the course which is repeated at St Anne's on Saturday morning. There is a good mix of St James and St Annes people on Wednesdays and Saturdays and that is one of the strengths of the course for us as a new united benefice of two churches working together.

Perhaps the most memorable thing from tonight's video was Rico's statement that Jesus came 'for people who realise they are bad, not for people who think they are good.' Interestingly enough, we were looking at the very same point at school assembly today in our series on 'people who met Jesus' with the story of the sinful woman who anointed Jesus' feet at the home of Simon the Pharisee.