Dear Online Friends,
You may recall that I wrote a few months ago as we were in the early days of the COVID-19 lockdown. As we all know, things have been turbulent and confusing, with different statistics, different analyses of causes and consequence, and – disturbingly – different political messages being attached to the whole thing.
Clearly all this constitutes a call both to lament and to prayer – for our leaders, especially scientific and medical advisors, for hospitals, doctors and nurses, for researchers hoping against hope to find the right ways both of curing the disease and of preventing its further spread. All that should now assumed as part of our Christian responsibility.
But in the middle of it all, as some churches are able to meet for worship (albeit in spaced-out 'social distancing', and in most cases without singing) and others are still only meeting electronically, many are rightly considering different options about what to do to sustain our various ministries of mutual teaching and encouragement – especially if meeting together is still impossible.
We would like to help by providing,
free of charge
(normally $149.99!), our course,
Paul and His Letter to the Ephesians: Small Group Edition to anyone who wishes to have it. You'll discover God's ultimate intention: bringing forth the joining of 'heaven' and 'earth' to reunite what had been fractured long ago. In the process, Paul addresses the need for unity and holiness as marks of the in-Messiah people, and stresses the vital importance of ongoing 'spiritual warfare'. Sounds like a word for our times.
Do please, then, feel free to enroll in this course, and use it as you see fit with your friends. Perhaps you may wish to contact your pastor or church leader and ask him or her to enroll as well. St Paul often found himself ministering by letter to small groups of 'dispersed' congregations; Ephesians itself is probably a 'circular' to churches Paul wasn't able to visit at the time. As we find ourselves in similar troubling situations I hope this might help. This course, then, comes as a gift to you in this time of uncertainty and alarm.
This course will be available, then, at
no cost. We will send you an email directing you to the link which will be valid for 3 days. Please take a moment to
Sign Up Here and then share this information with other individuals and church leaders.
With warm good wishes,
TOM WRIGHT
Prof N.T. Wright
St Andrews and Oxford
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