Marilyn Burrell
The friendly face that goes with the friendly voice at Maritime Conference AVEL

AVEL UPDATE
May 2007

Here you will find descriptions of videos that have been added to the Maritime Conference AVEL collection between June, 2006 and May, 2007.

• Spirit Connection Programmes (VHS, DVD)
• Affirming Congregations: Three Stories (DVD)
• Sipakapa NO (VHS, DVD)
• In the Name of Love: Baptism Resource for Congregations (DVD Kit)
• In the Name of Love: Baptism Resource for Parents (DVD)
• Keeping the Vision Alive: Saving Healthcare in Canada (VHS)
• Issues before General Council 39 (VHS, DVD)
• L’Arche: caring, educating, inspiring (VHS)
• Belonging: The Search for Acceptance (VHS)
• Holy Pictures: A Meditation on Stillness and Silence (DVD)
• Saving Jesus (from producers of Living the Questions) (DVD)
• Celebrate What's Right With The World (DVD 22 mins)
• What Do You Believe? (DVD)
• Barrington Bunny (DVD)
• Twelve Ordinary Men (DVD)
• Grandmothers: The unsung heroes of Africa (DVD)
• List of DVD copies of older VHS resources that have been added to AVEL.

For information on many of our 1,200 titles, go back to the AVEL link on the Maritime Conference web page. For even more information, check www.united-church.ca and search for AVEL or ONLINE CATALOGUE.

Affirming Congregations: Three Stories

Creating inclusive communities and embracing diversity, regardless of sexual orientation, is vital to the life and work of Affirm congregations and ministries. Here are two stories of United Church congregations who have made the choice to be Affirming Congregations. One story comes from Saint John, NB, one from Edmonton, AB, and the other comes from Vancouver, BC. This compelling 3-part DVD tells the stories of three congregations: -Queen Square Centenary in St. John, NB -Southminster-Steinhauer in Edmonton, AB -Trinity in Vancouver, BC Each took the difficult and courageous steps to become a congregation that openly welcomes gay, lesbian, and transgendered people. And each was changed and revitalized in the process.

Sipakapa NO: A documentary video that demonstrates the Mayan People’s resistance to God Mining: Sipakapa, San Marcos, Guatemala

In 2005, Montana Exploradora, subsidiary of the Canadian/US transnational company Glamis Gold, received 45 million US dollars in financing from the World Bank to exploit an open-pit gold mine in Guatemala. A Community Consultation was held in Sipakapa on June 18, 2005, to establish whether the population would accept or reject mining exploitation in its municipality. The result was a resounding "NO" to mining. This documentary analyses the debate on mining exploitation and demonstrates the dignity of the Sipakapan People as they fight to defend their autonomy in the face of encroaching neoliberal mega projects.

In the Name of Love: Baptism Resource for Congregations (DVD Kit)

This kit includes printed material, a DVD-ROM with text files that can be customized, a baptism video, and video interviews. The package includes background material to be shared with those inquiring about baptism, an outline for a baptism preparation session, and resources that a congregation can use to support those who have been baptized.

Companion DVD-ROM for parents:
In the Name of Love: Baptism Resource for Parents (DVD)

A perfect gift for parents, this DVD-ROM includes a short video about baptism, additional video interviews, and text and image files parents can adapt to commemorate their own experience. It also includes text files with ideas for spiritual practices in the home. Files require a computer with DVD drive to access. Videos can be viewed on a DVD player or computer with DVD drive.

Keeping the Vision Alive: Saving Healthcare in Canada (VHS, 12 mins)

Faith & the Common Good worked for several years - particularly during 2002 - to create an opportunity for inter-faith dialogue on the state of the health care system in Canada so that we could mobilize faith communities to participate in the public process created by the Romanow Commission, raise public awareness of the faith based values underpinning public policy decisions on the health care system, and influence the direction of the national health care system. To this end, we developed an educational video with accompanying workshop guidelines and carried out regional workshops in 15 cities across Canada.

Issues before General Council 39 (VHS and DVD, 28 mins)

Spirit Connection June 11, 2006. Issues before the 39th General Council Host Royal Orr and Untied Church minister Laura Lockhart highlight a number of key issues to be examined by the 39th General Council in August in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Topics to be discussed with guests include investment in Palestine, living faithfully in empire, the Emerging Spirit campaign, and isolation in ministry.

L’Arche: caring, educating, inspiring (VHS, 9 mins)

What is L'Arche? This beautiful and inspiring short film introduces a new vision of care giving. With 190 homes and work settings in 26 communities across Canada, L'Arche is building a compassionate Canadian society through its programs.

Belonging: The Search for Acceptance (VHS, 51 mins)

This film essay is a documentary film about the social vision of Jean Vanier. This film essay develops the theme of belonging from many angles, drawing upon the social vision of Jean Vanier and including comments from various other respected thinkers and the first-hand experiences of a wide variety of individuals. The theme of respect and appreciation for diversity is strong. The film probes the relationship between personal identity, role, and knowing oneself, and it examines experiences of belonging and alienation in school and work environments, in community, in family and marriage, among refugees, and in the broader global society in which we live. The message of the film is powerful and provokes deep thinking about one's personal and spiritual growth. The film is 50 minutes in length, divided into six segments of 6-12 minutes each. The theme of "belonging" is treated from a different perspective in each segment. The video is accompanied by a study guide.

Holy Pictures (DVD, 57 mins)

Holy Pictures stresses the importance of stillness and silence in the spiritual life. This exquisitely crafted film reflects St. Francis of Assisi's passion for prayerful solitude, often in far-off mountaintop hermitages where he earnestly sought God's will for his life.

Saving Jesus (2 DVD set with CD computer files)

Ever feel like Jesus has been kidnapped by the Christian Right? Saving Jesus is a revolutionary dvd-based small group exploration of Jesus Christ for the third millennium. Featuring leading religious voices of our day, the 12-week program includes a printable participant reader and a facilitator guide offering discussion questions. The basic format for each weekly 1 -1 ½ hour session includes conversation around the readings, a 20-minute video segment and guided discussion. Join Marcus Borg, John Dominic Crossan, Matthew Fox, Amy-Jill Levine, James Forbes and a host of others for a conversation around the relevance of Jesus Christ for today.

Contributors:
John Bell, Marcus Borg, Rita Nakashima Brock, Walter Brueggemann, John Cobb, John Dominic Crossan, James Forbes, Matthew Fox, Lloyd Geering, R Hans Küng, Amy-Jill Levine, Pat McMahon, Rebecca Ann Parker, Helen Prejean, Tex Sample, Bernard Brandon Scott, Luther Smith, Howard Thurman, John Shelby Spong, Jim & Jean Strathdee, Emilie Townes

Sessions:
1) Introduction: Jesus through the Ages
2) Who was Jesus? Featuring Matthew Fox
3) What Can We Know About Jesus (and How)?
4) The World into Which Jesus Was Born Featuring John Dominic Crossan
5) Jesus' Birth: Incarnation
6) Teachings of Jesus: Wisdom Tradition Featuring Bernard Brandon Scott
7) Jesus' Program: The Kingdom of God Featuring John Dominic Crossan
8) Jesus' Ministry of Compassion
9) Killing Jesus, Part One: Who Killed Jesus? Featuring Amy-Jill Levine & Helen Prejean
10) Killing Jesus, Part Two: The Atonement Featuring Rita Nakashima Brock and Rebecca Ann Parker
11) The Resurrection of Christ Featuring James Forbes
12) Why Jesus Is Worth Saving Featuring Marcus Borg

Celebrate What's Right With The World (DVD 22 mins)

This inspirational, best-selling training program utilizes stunning photography and powerful dialogue to help viewers approach their lives with celebration, confidence, and grace. In Celebrate What's Right with the World, Dewitt Jones asks: Do we choose to see possibilities? Do we really believe they're there? He assures us that there is always more than one right answer. Celebrating what's right with the world helps us recognize the possibilities and find solutions for many of the challenges before us.

What Do You Believe? (DVD, 49 mins.; Youth)

In this award-winning documentary featured on PBS, Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, Pagan, Native American, and Jewish Teens share their most personal struggles and beliefs about faith, morality, suffering and death, prayer, the purpose of life and the divine. Without a hint of dogma they candidly discuss everything from hormones to heaven, deflate misperceptions and stereotypes at every turn, and make a strong case for a more tolerant America.

Barrington Bunny (DVD , 8 mins.; Children)

Barrington Bunny hasn't been included in anyone's Christmas Eve Celebrations. He's alone - the only bunny in the forest - and he wants to share Christmas with someone. How can he escape his loneliness and isolation? Through this animation classic, Barrington helps viewers 5 discover the value that each individual holds and the place that each creature fills as a member of a larger family.

Twelve Ordinary Men (DVD, 60 mins. plus bonus features; Youth and Adults)

Twelve men—the apostles of Jesus Christ who were otherwise unremarkable men—were touched by God in a way no one else had previously experienced and somehow managed to spread Jesus’ good news throughout the known world in a span of a single lifetime. Who were these men? How did they accomplish such a miraculous feat? What happened to them after the crucifixion of Jesus? Exploring the answers to these and many other questions about Jesus’ disciples, Twelve Ordinary Men features interviews with leading scholars, exciting re-creations and authentic footage that look beyond the peaceful image of saints in stained-glass windows to reveal the true and stirring stories of Jesus’ closest followers.

Extra features:

• Bonus interviews
• The differences between an apostle and a disciple
• Life and legends of the apostles
• Examination of the Crucifixion
• History of the birth of Christianity
• Churchwide Bible study for preteens, youth and adults
• PowerPoint church presentation with handouts
• Pastor's sermon outline and listener's notes

Grandmothers: The unsung heroes of Africa (DVD , 8 mins)

A moving half-hour film highlighting the crucial role grandmothers play not only in caring for AIDS orphans but also in holding their families and communities together. Through intimate portraits of four African grandmothers — Salome, Catarina, Karmela and Matilda — the film invites the world to listen to their stories and take action.

DVD copies of older VHS resources that have been added to AVEL

• Bedbug Bible Gang: Christmas Show
• Beginning the Faith Journey (1982)
• Children: Our Present and Our Future (2002)
• Christian Faith in a Violent World:
      Spirit Connection Programme, December 29, 1997
• Genetically Modified Food (2002)
• Legend of the Three Trees
• Native Justice: Spirit Connection Programme, April 11, 2001
• Places of Worship (1992)
• Questions of Faith Series II
• Sacred & Secular: 1998 Lenten Series
• Search for Healing (1993) (Native Residential Schools)
• Seven Storytellers of Faith: 1997 Lenten Series
• Soul Maps: Spirit Connection Programme, March 14, 2001
• Threads of Justice: Spirit Connection Special: Nov. 17/97
• Who Do You Say That I Am? (1994)

How Groups and Individuals Are Using AVEL Resources

Personal study

Videos and DVDs are used for personal study and meditation.

Collection of clips from several resources

Clips from several resources shown for a study theme or to promote a study or mission theme—"you don't have to show the whole thing."

Studies designed around a theme or book

Programs can be designed to include an assortment of resources, books, videos, or DVDs all around the same theme. Or to supplement study of a book, like Anne Martin's Exploring Faith Questions. Your AVEL Consultant can help with ideas and suggestions.

Get others involved in selecting videos and DVDs

Host a "preview party" to consider resources for an upcoming event or workshop. Circulate some AVEL resources for previewing and then come together to discuss and to make plans.

AVEL RESOURCES HAVE PUBLIC PERFORMANCE RIGHTS

The Canadian Copyright Act* applies to any public (group) use of a "home use" film/movie that is rented, purchased or borrowed. If public performance rights have not been granted by an authorized agent you will be infringing on this law and maybe subject to civil liabilities. So, please do not take chances!