Great Lives

Another great BBC Radio 4 programme. Unfortunately you'll have to listen to Great Lives quickly before it is replaced by another one! The reason I recommend this week's episode is because Ann Widdecombe has chosen Pope John Paul II as the "Great Live" to be discussed. His "life, character, charisma and holiness" is reflected upon in this programme.

Beyond Belief

I cannot recommend Radio 4 enough. Not only does it have a huge variety of informative and entertaining programmes, but many of these can be listened to again in order to help you understand religious and ethical issues better.

Beyond Belief is one of these programmes. Click on the link, then you can choose to listen to the Conversion programme if you are in Year 11, or the Ashura, Sunni and Shia programme if you are in Sixth Form. Or just choose any of the topics that interest you!

Martin Luther King

My Year 11 class has been set homework based on the life, beliefs and actions of Martin Luther King.

This homework is to be a substantial piece of writing, for example an obituary, a mindmap, a factfile, a eulogy, a speech, a letter, a newspaper report, a powerpoint, or perhaps something else that you can think of. (Check with me that it's okay.) I have looked up some relevant websites.

Remember, websites can be biased and may contain inaccuracies. It's always good to double check your facts!

The King Centre
Nobel Peace Prize Winner
Wikipedia
Time Magazine: 100 Most Influencial Leaders

And here's MLK's famous "I have a dream" speech:

Source - YouTube, "I Have A Dream"

Christian Denominations

I've just found this tree ... You can find out about the different branches of Christianity. Click to find out more about different Christian Denominations.

The Mass

One piece of Year 10 homework this week was to describe the Mass. We looked at most of the structure of the Mass in school. Here are a couple of websites to help you with your homework and/or revision.

Wiki description of the Mass

A list of sites about the Sacraments

Have fun!

Fairtrade Fortnight

Fairtrade Fortnight is coming up soon ... Year 9s will be learning about how we can become more conscious of fairly traded products, which will follow on from the work that you have been doing on the conscience. Can we keep a clear conscience if we buy products that have not been fairly traded, and, instead, buy products - bananas, coffee, trainers, footballs, flowers - that have been produced to bring large profits to a few people while those who work on harvesting or making them get very little?

Watch out for more on Fairtrade Fortnight ...

Big Brother ... Racist?

I was hoping to avoid Big Brother ... but when it makes not only the front page of the Evening Standard, and many broadsheet Indian newspapers, and is discussed in Parliament and on the Radio 4 news (and click here for a BBC link), then I suppose it ought to be on this blog!

In case you've not been following the news, there have (to date) been almost 20,000 complaints made to Ofcom, the watchdog body that overseas the media. People have been complaining that some of the contestants (namely Jade, Jade's mother and boyfriend, Danielle and Jo) have been bullying, and making racist comments about, Shilpa Shetty, a Bollywood star.

Gordon Brown is in India today, and he has been asked many questions about Big Brother by people who are extremely upset with the treatment seen of Shilpa. At the moment, Channel 4 are saying that there's not much they can do about it when Shilpa has not complained ... however, many of the comments have been made behind her back.

If you worked for Endemol, or Channel 4, what would you do? Would you want to stop showing the show, or pull out the main offenders to talk to them, or let things run and see how the main culprits respond when they are finally voted out? What would a Christian response be? How would you react if you were one of the celebrities in the house? Who do you respect most, out of the housemates?