six programmes
Each 20-minute programme takes a theme from the Jesus society text.
| Bishop Peter visits people who are already changing lives for good in churches and communities around Somerset, and reflects on what is means to be the church in 21st-century Britain. Click on the title for more about each programme |
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For each programme, the accompanying study booklet offers questions for discussion and individual reflection together with an encounter with Scripture.
Programme 1: Introduction and You handle wisdom by trusting
Bishop Peter at Snow Hill in Bath
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Beginning at the Holy Thorn at Glastonbury, Bishop Peter introduces the ‘Jesus Society’ text and explores ways in which we develop trust in a suspicious world. He re-visits the Snow Hill estate in Bath, where he was once a youth worker, and meets a group of teenagers in the village of Ditcheat, who with the help of their Vicar, have shown that, despite the stereotypes, they can be trusted.
Encounter with Scripture: Mark 6: 45 - 53
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Programme 2: You handle leadership by serving
St Augustine's School student |
As he looks at different models of leadership inside and outside the church, Bishop Peter visits Long Ashton Church of England Primary School, and St Augustine’s Roman Catholic/Anglican school in Taunton. He meets a Catholic priest with experience in the slums of Latin America, and an Anglican priest who leads a ‘Casualty’ team in a local A and E department, as well as sheep farmer Rob Walrond. In Weston-super-Mare, he meets the leaders and users of Somewhere to Go, a Christian day centre for vulnerable adults who live on the street.
Encounter with Scripture: John 10: 11 - 18
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Programme 3: You handle offenders by forgiving
Camilla Carr |
The programme starts with a powerful interview with Camilla Carr, recounting her capture by Chechen fighters and the rape which followed. She talks about her path to forgiveness. In Taunton, school students talk to Bishop Peter about restorative justice, and we explore the meaning of the Peace, Confession and Absolution which form such a key part of Anglican worship. The Revd Ann Sargent gives her own account of being challenged to forgive by working alongside Tutsi and Hutu colleagues in Africa.
Encounter with scripture: Matthew 18: 21 - 35
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Programme 4: You handle money by sharing
Bishop Peter interviews David Constantine |
Starting on the Bournville Estate in Weston-super-Mare, Bishop Peter looks at ways in which Christians help others, with a food cupboard for the poor. He meets Margaret Bibby, a Taunton pensioner who has devoted her resources to helping orphans in Zambia, and meets the founder of Motivation, a Backwell-based charity that designs and provides wheelchairs and other mobility equipment to Third World countries. Closer to home, a glider flight enables him to wonder at Somerset’s rich environmental heritage, and he hears how the Carymoor Environmental Centre is helping to teach people about responsibility for creation.
Encounter with Scripture: Luke 6: 21, 24 - 25; Acts 2: 43 - 47
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Programme 5: You handle enemies by loving; you handle violence by suffering
Street Pastors in
Weston-super-Mare |
Bishop Peter begins by looking at the situation of Palestine in the time of Jesus: an oppressed country ruled by a cruel occupying power. This, he says, affects how the gospels were written and how we make sense of them: the ‘good news’ of the gospel challenges the status quo. And we still live in a world where walls are set up between people and communities. In Weston-super-Mare he finds out about the ‘Street Pastors’, a church initiative to offer care to young people on the streets at night.
Encounter with Scripture: Isaiah 53: 1 - 12
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Programme 6: You have a new attitude towards everything
David Garmston
interviews Bishop Peter
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In this final programme, Bishop Peter, back at Wells, is interviewed in depth by BBC Points West’s David Garmston. David presses Bishop Peter on the issues raised during the first five programmes, teasing out what it means for us to think differently about the church in this changing world. The programme ends with a challenge from Bishop Peter to everyone who has been watching the series.
Encounter with Scripture: Luke 6: 20 – 49
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