My son phoned late last night to say that there are major articles by Rowan Williams and Jonathan Sacks in the New Statesman out today 9th. I've found the article by RW in full and a bit about the JS one. Uploaded here. Great to link RE with our world, our society and the events in our nation. Can you photocopy one big and put it up on a notice-board surrounded by pertinent questions? Good for a corridor where many pass by. Competition for the best captions and answers to the questions?

Life, Death and Funeral Rites - an experiential - spiritual approach - arising from a question on Save RE forum, I have outlined an experiential/spiritual approach which you may like to adapt to your situation. I aim to add background info re some different religions and denominations, some 'order of service&' sheets from real funerals, poems and texts interesting obituaries, music and videos - suggestions welcome. this is such an important topic and not easy to engage with - so I hope this helps. Your comments and feedback welcome as always.

Some info about Interfaith week and how it is being celebrated I'll add more later.

The first of these readings is from my June 27th 2013 blog, reflecting on the pregnancy of my cat I plan to add other inspiring or insightful readings related to pregnancy, abortion, sex and family life. I may also add the group-work / role-play notes I have used with success when exploring this topic with GCSE classes

This is my favourite of all my sisters songs - and one of the earliest. She composed it at Christmas, in Bethlehem, in 1967 - where tourists pushed and shoved to get to the 'spot where Jesus was born&' and haggled over souvenirs - while snow fell on freezing streets and soldiers arrested her black African colleague and interrogated him three times that day. It is a powerful and moving meditation on the real meaning of Christmas. For the CD &';All Shall Be Well' original songs of peace, of winter and of Christmas, contact - 'Jill Slee Blackadder' <Jill.blackadder@btinternet.com>,

2 Dec (1) - Nov 28 (2) - 29th (Ma's birthday.) Both with photos 13 - 16 Dec our Nelson Mandela prog, 17 - 21st bit from Deepak Chopra and Christmas Day Radio 26- 28th - daughter in India + Chopra insights on relationships. Jan 7th, update, family, Chrisn/Muslm orgs working with ex-gang-Members 14th work + half-milliion mark 15 - 19 Jan inc sponsors for son? and &'tummy trouble.&'; 9th Feb hospital and poems. 13th - 20th Feb inc photos 23rd a long blog inc resource on Sala/God interfaith events + photos + poems. March 14-18 includes bits from Liverpool RE Confrnc 18 - 21 new job?

Continuing blog. Will add more later. 12th - Moiza the cat 13th also - Quaker Meeting and visiting Mum's friend B now in a different hospital. 14 - 15 + an outline of my son's presentation on how to combat stress (which finished the College term off in a great way) quotes from Ch 2 of Gita 21st about Camden Market and Tagore 22-3 about gas charges 24th about family and Christmas, love and forgiveness Christmas Day about carols and a wild 'cheerfulness challenge' successfully met. 27th includes poems and readings about love and change from my Teacher's online library

This is not really part of the Meditation-Blog as that was something quite unique, to share my experiences in New York and my my daily meditation at the beautiful Meditation Garden I loved to visit every morning. But if there are any experiences here - back in England - which relate to issues which I mentioned or explored in that blog, I feel it is useful to share these as part of the 'appendix.' For now I feel inspired to continue to share my life in a small way here. The one about 13 - 15th relates to Remembrance Sunday. With love and thanks for all your encouragement. DMC

this is a resource in process, but because it will be good if more people work on it than me - and because, inspired by some videos which my friends brought to my attention I would like to meet people who would be interested in creating some great interfaith discussion videos - I am making it available here at this early stage. True this is not a worksheet or power-point but different articles on an important RE topic, selected over a period of more than a week, is a very useful start. Love and Peace DurgaMata

The basic PPT takes pupils through this topic and includes videos. It begins with a youtube link and has another youtube link in the middle. Activities are positioned at the end of each day of the fire. I did this with year 8 students and we moved on to a Group-Work project. Some of my methods and materials for successful groupwork will be included here. After the project I did not want to lose the additional research that had not been used by our class, so I added additional research to make an 'extended PPT' and added colour to the slides. I've added Team Leader Record Sheets, Checklist for preparing the presentations, Presentation and Feedback Worksheet and some completed Presentation and Feedback Sheets. After the informative slides (50 for the standard one and 75 for the extended one) I added some of the displays the groups in my class produced for their Group Presentations.

The main document comes from a thread on Save RE, responding to a website which calls for the subject Religious Education to be renamed. I disagree and set out my views here. I answer others who comment on this. Alongside this I include some articles. In the first document - three articles from the BBC website. 1) from July 2013 when Mr Gove admitted how his policies harm RE. 2) Ofsteds report, criticising the quality of RE. 3) refers to the current report by the Religious Education Council - on a suggested Curriculum content for RE.

This is a resource to get classes thinking about many things - the meaning of life, what makes people happy, travel, taking risks and safety, what is pilgrimage? what makes our lives fulfilled? who and what is important to us? Who are the Sufis and how do they fit into the wider picture of Islam and more...

This is a series of 11 slides depicting Jesus as Asian, mostly Chinese or Indian. It is in process as many images are not the right shape for a ppt slide so I will have to adjust them in Adobe. But it does give a great idea of the way that Christians everywhere think of Jesus as their Brother, as their Friend, His divine aspect is beyond the confines of one time or place, one nation or race.

celebrates the relationship between a Spiritual Teacher / students or disciples, a time when Hindus re-dedicate themselves to their spiritual life. There are parallels here Islam during Ramadan and Judaism in celebrating the Sabbath. a summary of Wikki on this, as a separate file, with questions is in process. If anyone uses this and would like to share lesson plan and feedback, that would be great. I aim to create some activities around this information. Happy Guru Purnima.

This is a series of anecdotes and reflections from a book I am writing called 'Sunlight and Shadow, Spirituality at Work in School.&' Uploaded as a resource in response to a teacher asking about anti-Semitism, it begins with reflections on a class visit to a synagogue and then explores the question of &';Why are there so many religions? Sri Ramakrishna's models of God and other models which explore the concept of oneness and diversity in religion are also included.

I gathered this material in response to a request for a lesson about prayer. A friend has found this really powerful - using it effectively in relation to several problems in school and at home. With the inspiration of the question on a thread about how to make a lesson on prayer more experiential and less theoretical - I was inspired to spend a few hours researching into it. I aim to add to this resource - and especially add more links to videos from youtube which could be used in class. I suggest you introduce this in lessons about - Prayer, forgiveness and the existence of God.

More articles and information will be added. Please give me a pm with suggestions. more articles here - thanks for suggestions and please continue to keep them coming - also comment on how you may use these in class. I hope to continue to add to and update this resource Thanks - DurgaMata

A ppt slide show of 21 images of Jesus from a European perspective. It is in process as many images are not the right shape for a ppt slide so I will have to adjust them in Adobe. But it does give a great idea of the way that Christians everywhere think of Jesus as their Brother, as their Friend, His divine aspect is beyond the confines of one time or place, one nation or race. They can and they do, wherever they live, whatever their race or culture, claim Jesus as their own.

This simple overview of Hinduism can be used to revise or consolidate a unit of KS3 work or to refresh and introduce a unit for further study in KS4. Including both a Word Search and Cross-Word Puzzle to reinforce Key Words, this resource will link with further ones which explore each area in more detail. Currently Under Construction.....

This story arises from an art exercise in preparation for some animation work. The brief gave three 'random-generated&' words (Party, Aeroplane and Waiting) and asked for &';a scary story.' This story was inspired by my concern for all who are suffering from political upheaval around the world, especially in Syria, Chechenia, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and so many other parts of the world. Use as a starter or stimulus for a unit of work on refugees and asylum seekers, war and peace or even aspects of Islam in today&'s world. I&';d love some feedback.