Explore Being With through
Courses for Living

Welcome, this page is designed to help you understand more about Being With: Courses for Living (the white book) as we introduce each course.

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The sessions go beyond telling the story of the bible, although some kind of a story is assumed: they also communicate a way of reading the Bible critically yet devotionally – as a historical document yet also as a text through which the Holy Spirit can speak to us today. The talks dovetail with the theological outlook described in the original Being With course: that is, that being with us in Christ was the reason for creation, and that the cross demonstrates this utter and eternal commitment rather than working as a mechanism for alleviating our human predicament of guilt and mortality.

A sense of what a healthy relationship with oneself might be.

How we understand our dependence on the planet and learn to shape our lives of faith with this dependence as a central feature.

The church has been impoverished because it has failed to receive the gifts God has given it through those the world (and often the church) has often marginalised or excluded. It can’t change that pattern unless it becomes aware of it; and part of such awareness is to realise that none of these categories are truly ‘other’ or ever have been. Six categories are covered - gender, race, class, sexuality, disability and old age.

Looking more deeply at the 8 dimensions of Being With - presence, attention, mystery, delight, participation, partnership, enjoyment, glory.

This course is intended as an immediate follow-on course for those who’ve enjoyed the Being With course and would like either to discover more about how the ideas connect to being part of the church, or more specifically to recognise publicly that they are or have become a Christian and accordingly to be prepared for baptism and/or confirmation.

Death is a shadow over all of our lives. We encounter it through caring for a loved one facing a terminal illness, through the experience of bereavement, and through facing the approach of our own end. Grief and fear are perhaps our deepest emotions. The hope that Christianity offers is that the God who made us wills to be with us forever and will make a new relationship with us beyond the constraints of our mortal existence. Yet we still experience loss and anxiety. We find strength in the trust and solidarity we can experience in and with one another. We are not alone. It’s never the wrong time to do such a course. Differences of background and context are beneficial. Tears and other deep emotions are welcome.

This is to prepare parents and potentially godparents, for the - baptism of their infant child, and can be easily adapted for adult baptism. It looks at Christianity, parenthood, raising a child in the faith, and the nature of participating in the church.

Designed for preparation for a conventional marriage, preliminary to a same-sex civil partnership (or marriage where that is appropriate), or ‘marriage enrichment’ for any couple looking to enhance their relationship or recommit after a setback.

This course is for anybody, not just those planning or raising a family, and it begins with the realisation that each of us might well not have existed and the miracle by which we do. The group will share joy and pain and learn from each other while discussing wider assumptions and considerations around having children in the company of those who might have had children long ago or not at all.