History

Back by popular demand (from Phoebe), we're going on our 4th pilgrimage walk to Hailes Abbey, near Cheltenham, this Sunday, 15 July 2007.

We did this pilgrimage walk before, back on 12 November 2006, but of course it was out of season and Hailes Abbey was closed. Phoebe asked if we could go back when it was open, so that's exactly what we're doing this Sunday.

Anyone is welcome to join us!

Last night we had our third evening on Anabaptism, my personal confession about why I call myself an Anabaptist. The previous evenings were Who Were the Anabaptists? and Anabaptist Lives.

We had quite a full house, including a visit from a tourist on this website, which was great. I had a blast, but then it was an evening about something I'm deeply passionate about, so I was always going to enjoy it, wasn't I?

Anyway, I thought I'd upload the presentation I created to the site, which you can download below. The presentation is in PowerPoint format, and, as before, I've also created a clickable QuickTime to this page.

Here it is.

Last night we had the second of our evenings exploring the roots and routes of Anabaptism. Previously we looked at the question 'Who were the Anabaptists?'. Last night's session was discovering some of the stories of the early Anabaptists, their lives, their impact and their deaths, frequently as martyrs.

Many of the stories are taken from Martyrs Mirror, an astonishing book that is a remembrance of the godly lives and staggering deaths of Anabaptist martyrs between 1524 and 1660 and thousands of other early Christians. Martyrs Mirror records the lives of both well known and anonymous martyrs, many of whom are merely listed as one of a number who died on a given day, nothing more.

We looked at the lives of some of the key figures in the birth and growth of Anabaptism, such as Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, Michael Sattler, my personal hero Balthasar Hübmaier, Menno Simons (who gave his name to the Mennoites) and Jacob Hutter (I would have loved to have looked at others, such as Pilgram Marpeck, Dirk Philips, Hans Denck, Jakob Ammann (who gave his name to the Amish) and more - but there's never enough time!) And we also read some of the brief summaries of the lives and deaths of less well known Anabaptist Martyrs (taken fom the From Anabaptist Seed section of the Third Way Café site).

Anyway, as before, I've uploaded to this page the PowerPoint version of the Keynote slides I used for the evening, and I've created a clickable QuickTime of the Keynote slides. And there's notes below, too.

Last night we had a Thursday evening gathering exploring the roots and routes of Anabaptism. I suggested doing this because, from time to time, I've slipped into conversation something about an Anabaptist perspective without really saying how why Anabaptism is important to me or indeed what Anabaptism really is or who the Anabaptists were and are still.

This evening was the first of three (also on 22/02/07 - 'Anabaptist Lives' - and 01/03/07 - 'Why I Am an Anabaptist'), and I thought I'd put here on the site a QuickTime and a Powerpoint of the Keynote slides I used last night. The QuickTime is an interactive movie, so you need to click on the slides to make them progress. Obviously these are only bullet points and I narrated much more detail for each slide than is presented. I'll try and put some indicators below.

Found this on Google Video. Don't have a TV so never saw it whenever it was broadcast, but it is a brilliant portrayal of global politics and the future of the planet by comedian Robert Newman (of Newman and Baddiel fame).