Welcome to the first edition of the RESource e-newsletter which aims to alert you to aspects of RESource that may be especially topical or useful and to new material on the site.

We also hope it reminds you of ‘what’s on’ in and around  Melbourne that might help you with your role of educating students in faith.

Amazing Grace is the story of William Wilberforce’s campaign to end slavery. Called ‘the Liberator’ for his role in bringing about the end of slavery in the early 19th Century, Wilberforce struggled to overcome intense opposition from those who had made their fortunes in the sugar industry which depended on slavery (or so they argued). It is on general release and well worth seeing.

Helder Camara Lecture: Archbishop of Dijon, Roland Minnerath, Caesar’s Coin: How Should Church and State Interact? 7.30 Wednesday 29th August, Newman College Parkville following a Requiem Mass for Cardinal Lustiger in Newman College chapel at 6.00pm.

Looking into the future a little, a presentation by Claire Renkin on ‘Advent in Art’ is scheduled for Saturday 6 October. Further details as they come to hand.

Harry Potter is hitting the screens again with his unique blend of magic and mayhem. Exploring Harry's influence on young readers leads to a discussion of the pros and cons of censorship.

RESource is a unique resource for religious education teachers developed by the Melbourne Catholic Education Office. Primarily for teachers in secondary Catholic schools, it aims to gather and present the best web sites on topics of Belief, Ethics, Scripture and Church History embedded in an informative introductory text.

A highlight of the site is its Worship component which provides suggestions and models for classroom prayer and worship, many of them enriched with beautiful images or brief visual reflections. Set aside time at your planning meetings to explore ways to use this resource in your classroom.

Candy Broad’s private member's bill to decriminalise abortion is making news at the moment. The abortion issue is discussed in full in the Ethics module (Early Life) on RESource. 

Meanwhile the whole question of faith has been under fire with Richard Dawkins The God Delusion (Have you read Terry Eagleton’s response?) and Christopher Hitchens’ God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (Frank Brennan’s review is here) featuring in newspapers and TV discussions.

A series of units based on the Creed are now available in our new module Beliefs. Click on the Beliefs button to explore the value and reasonableness of faith.