Over one hundred people from across the Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn gathered in St Saviour’s Cathedral, Goulburn, on Saturday, 17th August, to think more and pray more about the Hope25 project. We were blessed to have Glen Scrivener, from Speak Life, speak to us for two of our sessions together. Glen encouraged us to think about the kind, faithful, and gentle work of sharing our hope in Jesus.
Glen offered four simple conversation options that we might be able to use to explore hope in Jesus. He suggested starting a sentence with: “The thing I love about Jesus is…” or “What I love about my church is…” We were invited to have conversations with one another to complete this sentence and try out how we might share this with someone else.
Glen reminded us of the generosity of the sower who scatters seed, in Jesus’ parable of the four soils. He spoke about the power of measuring the success of our efforts to share hope in Jesus, by considering how we are scattering seeds. Through the Hope25 season of sharing Jesus (Easter to Pentecost 2025) we will be looking for any ways we might scatter the good news of hope in Jesus.
Also, at the Hope25 training event at the Cathedral, we heard about some resources that may be useful in pursuing this shared work. There was testimony from two ministry units about some of their early thoughts about how they were looking to engage with Hope25 and what it might look like for them to grow in their own hope in Jesus and to overflow with hope.
We also heard about some resources being used in parishes: the Ripple Effect, a course equipping people to be ready for conversations of hope, and the 321 Course, which can be used to briefly explain the hope that Christians have.
This event provided really useful input and encouragement to keep praying and thinking about the shape that Hope25 might take in our agencies and parishes, and every corner of our Diocese.
Rev Jonathan Holt, Diocese of Canberra