C.S. Lewis Churches’ Information Pack - EastSide Arts. Lewis... · Service of the Word (Anglican)...

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Contents

Introduction to the booklet 02

C.S. Lewis factsheet and timeline 04

Service outlines 08 Service of the Word (Anglican) 10 Hymns and selected readings from Lewis’ work 18

Relevant passages from Lewis’ work 32

Sunday School sessions 58

Sermon outline 72

C.S. Lewis Festival – possible events churches could put on 76

C.S. Lewis Churches’ Information Pack


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Introduction to the booklet

Welcome to this C.S. Lewis Churches Pack. It has been prepared by and produced by EastSide Arts C.S. Lewis Festival as a resource to Churches who may wish to celebrate the legacy of C.S. Lewis during their worship. Availability is not limited to Churches in East Belfast but to Churches throughout the city and beyond. An online version of this information pack can be found at the EastSide Arts website www.eastsidearts.netEach year the C.S. Lewis Festival takes place in and around the 18th-29th November, dates associated with the birth and death of the famous author. Many Christians today will owe some or much of their understanding of Christianity in the modern world to the thinking of C.S. Lewis, whether they realise it or not.

Lewis’ works of Christian Apologetics are quoted today by writers and speakers across the world. His works of fiction range from esoteric science fiction to some of the most famous children’s literature of all time. The Chronicles of Narnia have inspired millions of children and adults since their creation, and their dramatization for the silver screen has included box office takings of around £1 billion.

All of this is to say that, in the works of C.S. Lewis, there is a wealth of riches to be mined for devotional, evangelistic and edifying purposes. We hope that you will find these documents of some help if you decide to engage with these rich works in your church setting.


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Factsheet and Timeline

This timeline has two purposes. The first is to give a context for speakers/children’s leaders as they introduce the subject of C.S. Lewis in a service or a lesson. The second is to put his work in a wider context – his connection to the two World Wars is very relevant to his making the Pevensie children evacuees in The Chronicles of Narnia for example.


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C.S. Lewis Factsheet & Timeline

1894 29 August Albert Lewis married Flora Hamilton1895 16 June Warren Hamilton Lewis (C.S. Lewis’ brother, known as Warnie) was born1898 29 November C.S. Lewis was born in Dundela Villas 1899 29 January C.S. Lewis was baptised in St Mark’s Dundela1905 21 April The Lewis family moved into ‘Little Lea’. 10 May Warnie was sent to Wynyard boarding school in Watford, aged 9 1908 24 March Albert Lewis’ father had a stroke and died on 2 April 23 August Flora Lewis died (C.S. Lewis was 9 years and 8 months old) 18 September C.S. Lewis and Warnie left for school in England 19 September C.S. Lewis started at Wynyard School1910 12 July C.S. Lewis’ last day at Wynyard as the School closed September C.S. Lewis was enrolled as a boarder at Campbell College November Experiencing chest problems C.S. Lewis spent 2 months at home 1911 January C.S. Lewis & Warnie travelled to Malvern and CS started at Cherbourg Preparatory School Malvern1913 June C.S. Lewis finished at Cherbourg Preparatory School Malvern July Warnie was expelled from Malvern College for smoking 10 September Warnie began studying with William T Kirkpatrick to cram for Sandhurst 18 September C.S. Lewis entered Malvern College but was not very happy and was bullied1914 February Warnie entered Sandhurst 19 September C.S. Lewis was sent for private tuition with William T Kirkpatrick in Surrey 4 November Warnie was deployed to France 28 November C.S. Lewis returned to Belfast to be confirmed at St Mark’s while still a non-believer1916 4 December C.S. Lewis took his first entrance exam for University College Oxford1917 26 April C.S. Lewis arrived at University College Oxford with only twelve students 7 May C.S. Lewis joined his battalion encamped at Keble College Oxford and shared a room with Edward (Paddy) Moore 25 September C.S. Lewis was commissioned as 3rd Battalion Somerset Light Infantry officer October Edward (Paddy) Moore was posted to France with the Rifle Brigade 15 November The Somerset Light Infantry were ordered to the front in France to a base-camp at Monchy- Le-Preux France and then to the trenches at the front-line1918 Late January C.S. Lewis was hospitalised with trench fever 28 February C.S. Lewis re-joined his battalion at Famboux and began a 4 day tour 24 March Edward (Paddy) Moore was killed at Pargny France 12-14 April C.S. Lewis took 60 German soldiers hostage 15 April C.S. Lewis was seriously injured by friendly fire and hospitalised at Etaple 24 April Warnie borrowed a motorcycle and travelled 50 miles to see his brother 25 May C.S. Lewis arrived at Endsleigh Palace Hospital London and later transferred to Ashton Court Long Ashton, Bristol to convalesce until October 27 December C.S. Lewis was demobbed and joined Warnie and their father at Little Lea1919 Mid-January C.S. Lewis returned to Oxford as an under-graduate 20 March His Spirits in Bondage poetry collection was published as Clive Hamilton 4 April C.S. Lewis gained a first in honours moderation1920 31 March C.S. Lewis gained a First Class Honours in Classical Moderations1921 June C.S. Lewis and the Moores set up a joint household in Headington1922 4 August C.S. Lewis was awarded a first in “Greats” (Literae Humaniores)1925 20 May C.S. Lewis applied for and was finally awarded a fellowship in English at Magdalen College. He was no longer financially dependent on his father1926 11 May C.S. Lewis met JRR Tolkien 18 September Dymera narrative poem was published under the name of Clive Hamilton –C.S. Lewis’ pseudo name


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1929 Summer term C.S. Lewis accepted the reality of God with the help of Tolkien and others 25 September Albert Lewis died just after C.S. Lewis had returned to Oxford1930 July C.S. Lewis purchased The Kilns Oxford and moved in October1931 28 September C.S. Lewis returned fully to Christianity on a trip to Whipsnade Zoo 16-29 August C.S. Lewis wrote A Pilgrim’s Regress while staying in Belfast1933 25 May A Pilgrim’s Regress was published 21 May The Allegory of Love was published and won the Hawthornden Prize1937 21 September The Hobbit was published by Tolkien1938 2 September Out of the Silent Planet was published with the support of Tolkien1940 18 October The Problem of Pain was published1941 6-27 August C.S. Lewis gave 4 religious talks on the BBC Home Service (and soon 5 more)1942 8 October A Preface to Paradise Lost was published 9 February The Screwtape Letters, dedicated to Tolkien, were published April C.S. Lewis gives the first of his talks to the RAF in Abingdon Autumn C.S. Lewis gave eight more broadcast talks on the BBC1943 The Abolition of Man (based on 3 lectures) was published 20 April Perelandra, his second sci fi book was published1944 Spring He gave a series of 7 more talks broadcast on the BBC March Beyond Personality – the Christian idea of God was published from his talks1945 16 August That Hideous Strength, the 3rd in the sci fi trilogy was published 1946 14 January The Great Divorce was published1947 12 May Miracles, a preliminary study was published1948 16 October The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was published1951 15 October Prince Caspian published1952 Mere Christianity, based on his broadcast lectures, was published 1 September Voyage of the Dawn Treader was published 24 September C.S. Lewis met Joy Gresham for the first time1953 7 September The Silver Chair was published 10 October Warnies’ The Splendid Century: Life in France of Louis XIV was published 17 December The Greshams visited the Kilns for 4 days1954 January The Horse and his Boy was published 4 June C.S. Lewis given Cambridge Medieval and Renaissance England Professorship 29 July Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings was published, dedicated to the Inklings 16 September English Literature in the Sixteenth Century was published1955 7 January C.S. Lewis took up residence and duties at Magdalene College Cambridge 19 September Surprised by Joy, C.S. Lewis’ spiritual autobiography was published May The Magician’s Nephew was published1956 March C.S. Lewis’ The Last Battle Till We have Faces were published 23 April C.S. Lewis married Joy Davidman in Oxford Registry Office Autumn Joy Davidman was diagnosed with cancer 24 December C.S. Lewis announced their marriage in The Times1957 21 March C.S. Lewis married Joy Davidman in Churchill Hospital1958 8 September Reflections on the Psalms was published1960 28 March The Four Loves was published 13 July Joy Davidman died (aged 45)1961 A Grief Observed was published1963 August C.S. Lewis took on Walter Hooper as his secretary 22 November C.S. Lewis died (the same day as President John Kennedy was assassinated)1973 9 April WH ‘Warnie’ Lewis died


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Service Outlines

Service 1 uses a ‘Carol Service’ format, with hymns and readings selected from the works of C.S. Lewis. It is, of course, easy to swap the readings for other choices. Service 2 follows an outline for a ‘Service of the Word’ and is perhaps more suitable in churches that rely on responsorial liturgy. These services were first used around the anniversary of the death of C.S. Lewis, which is 22nd November. The Sunday nearest this celebrates the ‘Kingship of Christ’ in the revised common lectionary. As Kingship is an important theme for Lewis, especially in The Chronicles of Narnia, the hymns, scripture readings and excerpts from Lewis’ writings have been chosen to reflect this. Both services could be adapted to suit other times of the year or to highlight different themes.


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SERVICE OF THE WORD

THE GATHERING OF GOD’S PEOPLE

Opening SentencesLet your heart hold fast my words; get wisdom; do not forsake her,and she will keep you; love her, and she will guard you. Proverbs 4.4,6Wisdom will open his mouth in the midst of the assembly.He will find gladness and a crown of rejoicing. Ecclesiasticus 15.5,6

Processional HymnThe Lord is King! Lift up your voice,

Josiah Conder (1789-1855) altd

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The BiddingAs we gather this morningso we celebrate the life and witness of C.S. Lewis,academic, author and pilgrimHis was the faith that believed in a God of creativity,his was the faith that responded to the God of creationwith great gifts of imagination and intelligence,his was the faith that walked a lion up a hill,that broke the table and introduced millions to the deeper magic.His was the faith that told of the great King.And so it is that we meet on the Feast of Christ’s Kingship.Let us come before God with hearts of thankfulness,and as we look back on the legacy of C.S. Lewis,let us look forward to the legacy of faith shared by all in East Belfast and beyond.


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Excerpt from ‘Mere Christianity’“This is the whole of Christianity. There is nothing else. It is so easy to get muddled about that. It is easy to think that the Church has a lot of different objects—education, building, missions, holding services. Just as it is easy to think the State has a lot of different objects—military, political, economic, and what not. But in a way things are much simpler than that. The State exists simply to promote and to protect the ordinary happiness of human beings in this life. A husband and wife chatting over a fire, a couple of friends having a game of darts in a pub, a man reading a book in his own room or digging in his own garden— that is what the State is there for. And unless they are helping to increase and prolong and protect such moments, all the laws, parliaments, armies, courts, police, economics, etc., are simply a waste of time. In the same way the Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became Man for no other purpose. It is even doubtful, you know, whether the whole universe was created for any other purpose.”

PenitenceWe run the race set before us, surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. Therefore let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which clings so closely, bringing them to Jesus in penitence and faith. Hebrews 12.1

Let us humbly confess our sins to Almighty God.Please kneel or sit.

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You were sent to preach the good news of lightin the darkness of the world:Lord, have mercy.Lord, have mercy.

You were sent to plant in our hearts the seed of eternal life:Christ, have mercy.Christ, have mercy.

You were sent to reconcile us to yourselfby the shedding of your blood:Lord, have mercy.Lord, have mercy.

May the God of love and powerforgive you and free you from your sins,heal and strengthen you by his Spirit, and raise you to new life in Christ our Lord.Amen.

Excerpt from the remaining recording of C.S. LewisBeyond Personality: The New Men broadcast on BBC Radio, 21 March 1944Please sit.

At the beginning of these talks I said there were Personalities in God.Well, I go further now. There are no real personalities anywhereelse. I mean, no full, complete personalities. It’s only when you allowyourself to be drawn into His life that you turn into a true person. But,on the other hand, it’s just no good at all going to Christ for the sake ofdeveloping a fuller personality. As long as that’s what you’re botheringabout, you haven’t begun. Because the very first step towards getting areal self is to forget about the self. It will come only if you’re lookingfor something else. That holds, you know, even for earthly matters.Even in literature or art, no man who cares about originality will ever beoriginal. It’s the man who’s only thinking about doing a good job ortelling the truth who becomes really original, and doesn’t notice it. Evenin social life you never make a good impression on other people untilyou stop thinking what sort of impression you make.

That principle runs all through life from the top to the bottom. Give upyourself and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you willsave it. Submit to death, submit with every fibre of your being, and youwill find eternal life. Look for Christ and you will get Him, and withHim everything else thrown in. Look for yourself and you will get onlyhatred, loneliness, despair, and ruin.

The CollectsPlease sit or kneel.The Collect of the Kingship of Christ


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Eternal Father,whose Son Jesus Christ ascended to the throne of heaventhat he might rule over all things as Lord and King:Keep the Church in the unity of the Spiritand in the bond of peace,and bring the whole created order to worship at his feet,who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,one God, now and for ever. Amen.

The Collect of C.S. LewisAlmighty God, whose servant C.S. Lewis received of your gracesingular gifts of insight in understanding the truth of Christ Jesus,and of eloquence and clarity in presenting that truth to his readers:Raise up in our day faithful interpreters of your Word,that we, being set free from all error and unbelief,may come to the knowledge that makes us wise unto salvation:through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,one God, now and forever. Amen.

PROCLAIMING AND RECEIVING THE WORD Psalm 19 (Said or sung)

Scripture Reading: John 18:33-37Please sit.

Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ Jesus answered, ‘Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?’ Pilate replied, ‘I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?’ Jesus answered, ‘My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.’ Pilate asked him, ‘So you are a king?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.’This is the Word of the Lord.Thanks be to God.

HymnPlease stand to sing.Rise up and serve the Lord!

William P. Merrill (1867-1954) altd


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The SermonPlease sit after the opening prayer.

Excerpt from ‘Surprised by Joy’Please sit.

“You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England. I did not then see what is now the most shining and obvious thing; the Divine humility which will accept a convert even on such terms. The Prodigal Son at least walked home on his own feet. But who can duly adore that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape? The words “compelleintrare,” compel them to come in, have been so abused be wicked men that we shudder at them; but, properly understood, they plumb the depth of the Divine mercy. The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation.”

Offertory HymnPlease stand to sing.King of glory, King of peace,

George Herbert (1593-1633)


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THE PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE

The PrayersPlease kneel or sit.

In thanksgiving, let us pray to the Lord and giver of life.Let us praise God for his revelation of truth and transcendent beautyto C S Lewis: for Lewis’s longing for God, and his perception ofdivine reality, and for his deep appreciation of the strength and freshnessof God’s love in ordinary situations.Let us bless the Lord:Thanks be to God.

Let us praise God for C S Lewis’s Christian vocation to inspire and toteach: for his love of debate and discussion, for his commitment toreason and the discovery of the truth, and for his passion to commendthe credibility and reality of God.Let us bless the Lord:Thanks be to God.

Let us praise God for C S Lewis’s academic life: for his contributionto scholarly research, for his commitment to the imaginative andliterary worlds which shaped his own writing and communication, andfor his respect for the power of great literature to open new horizons.Let us bless the Lord:Thanks be to God.

Let us praise God for C S Lewis’s vision and creativity: for hisimagination and ability to communicate lucidly to children andadults alike, for his care as a correspondent, for his skill as an author,poet and broadcaster, for his understanding of the human condition, andhis joy in the glorious vitality of creation.Let us bless the Lord:Thanks be to God.


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Let us pray for all those who take inspiration from C S Lewis’ life andwork: for teachers and apologists, catechists and mystics,playwrights, film-makers, novelists, and poets, and for those seekingafter God, or pondering the mysteries of existence.Lord, hear us: Lord, graciously hear us.

Almighty God, you have proclaimed your eternal truth by thevoice of prophets and evangelists: direct and bless, we beseech you, those who in our generation speak where many listen, and writewhat many read, that they may do their part in making the heart of thepeople wise, its mind sound, and its will righteous; to the honour ofJesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Watching in hope for the coming of Christ’s Kingdom, we are bold topray:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thykingdom come; thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven.Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, aswe forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not intotemptation; but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, thepower, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

Recessional Hymn Please stand to sing.

Angel Voices, ever singingFrancis Pott (1832-1909)

The BlessingGod grant you grace to be good servants of Christ Jesus,nourished on the words of the faithand on the sound teaching that you have followed;and the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,be among you and remain with you always.Amen.


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Hymns and Selected Readings from Lewis’ WorkThe liturgy opens with the following words:I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen,not only because I see it but because by it I see everything else.

HymnLord for the YearsTimothy Dudley-Smith

The BiddingAs we gather [this morning]so we celebrate the life and witness of C.S. Lewis,academic, author, and pilgrim.His was the faith that believed in a God of creativity,his was the faith that responded to the God of creationwith great gifts of imagination and intelligence,his was the faith that walked a lion up a hill,that broke the table and introduced millions to the deeper magic.


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His was the faith that told of the great King.

And so it is that we meet on the Feast of Christ’s Kingship/on this Day that the Lord has made.Let us come before God with hearts of thankfulness,and as we look back on the legacy of C.S. Lewis,let us look forward to the legacy of faith shared by all in [our community].

Let us pray,Eternal Father, whose Son Jesus Christ ascended to the throne of heaventhat he might rule over all things as Lord and King:Keep the Church in the unity of the Spirit and in the bond of peace,and bring the whole created order to worship at his feet,who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,one God, now and for ever.Amen.

First Reading From Perelandra “The Great Dance does not wait to be perfect until the peoples of the Low Worlds are gathered into it. We speak not of when it will begin. It has begun from before always. There was no time when we did not rejoice before His face as now. The dance which we dance is at the centre and for the dance all things were made. Blessed be He!”Another said, “Never did He make two things the same; never did He utter one word twice. After earths, not better earths but beasts; after beasts, not better beasts but spirits. After a falling, not recovery but a new creation. Out of the new creation, not a third but the mode of change itself is changed for ever. Blessed be He!”And another said, “It is loaded with justice as a tree bows down with fruit. All is righteousness and there is no equality. Not as when stones lie side by side, but as when stones support and are supported in an arch, such is His order; rule and obedience, begetting and bearing, heat glancing down, life growing up. Blessed be He!” .…“All which is not itself the Great Dance was made in order that He might come down into it. In the Fallen World He prepared for Himself a body and was united with the Dust and made it glorious for ever. This is the end and final cause of all creating, and the sin whereby it came is called Fortunate and the world where this was enacted is the centre of worlds. Blessed be He!”


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HymnYour Kingdom Come, O GodLewis Hensley

Second ReadingFrom the Silver Chair “Are you not thirsty?” said the Lion.“I’m dying of thirst,” said Jill.“Then drink,” said the Lion.“May I—could I—would you mind going away while I do?” said Jill.The Lion answered this only by a look and a very low growl. And as Jill gazed at its motionless bulk, she realized that she might as well have asked the whole mountain to move aside for her convenience.The delicious rippling noise of the stream was driving her nearly frantic.“Will you promise not to—do anything to me, if I do come?” said Jill.“I make no promise,” said the Lion.


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Jill was so thirsty now that, without noticing it, she had come a step nearer.“Do you eat girls?” she said.“I have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and emperors, cities and realms,” said the Lion. It didn’t say this as if it were boasting, nor as if it were sorry, nor as if it were angry. It just said it.“I daren’t come and drink,” said Jill.“Then you will die of thirst,” said the Lion.“Oh dear!” said Jill, coming another step nearer. “I suppose I must go and look for another stream then.”“There is no other stream,” said the Lion.It never occurred to Jill to disbelieve the Lion—no one who had seen his stern face could do that—and her mind suddenly made itself up. It was the worst thing she had ever had to do, but she went forward to the stream, knelt down, and began scooping up water in her hand. It was the coldest, most refreshing water she had ever tasted. You didn’t need to drink much of it, for it quenched your thirst at once.

HymnThe King of Love my Shepherd isHenry W Baker


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Third ReadingFrom The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

“They say Aslan is on the move—perhaps has already landed.”And now a very curious thing happened. None of the children knew who Aslan was any more than you do; but the moment the Beaver had spoken these words everyone felt quite different. Perhaps it has sometimes happened to you in a dream that someone says something which you don’t understand but in the dream it feels as if it had some enormous meaning— either a terrifying one which turns the whole dream into a nightmare or else a lovely meaning too lovely to put into words, which makes the dream so beautiful that you remember it all your life and are always wishing you could get into that dream again. It was like that now. At the name of Aslan each one of the children felt something jump in its inside. Edmund felt a sensation of mysterious horror. Peter felt suddenly brave and adventurous. Susan felt as if some delicious smell or some delightful strain of music had just floated by her. And Lucy got the feeling you have when you wake up in the morning and realize that it is the beginning of the holidays or the beginning of summer.

HymnAt the Name of Jesus/In the Name of JesusCaroline M. Nod


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Fourth ReadingFrom The Collected Lettersof C.S. Lewis, Vol II

Don’t bother about the idea that God ‘has known for millions of years exactly what you are about to pray’. That isn’t what it’s like. God is hearing you now, just as simply as a mother hears a child. The difference His timelessness makes is that this now (which slips away from you even as you say the word now) is for Him infinite. If you must think of His timelessness at all, don’t think of Him havinglooked forward to this moment for millions of years: think that to Him you are always praying this prayer. But there’s really no need to bring it in. You have gone into the Temple (‘one day in Thy court is better than a thousand’) and found Him, as always, there. That is all you need to bother about.


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Psalm 84 (Said or Sung)

Fifth ReadingFrom The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe

“Oh, you’re real, you’re real! Oh, Aslan!” cried Lucy, and both girls flung themselves upon him and covered him with kisses.“But what does it all mean?” asked Susan when they were somewhat calmer.“It means,” said Aslan, “that though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward. And now—”“Oh yes. Now?” said Lucy, jumping up and clapping her hands.“Oh, children,” said the Lion, “I feel my strength coming back to me. Oh, children, catch me if you can!” He stood for a second, his eyes very bright, his limbs quivering, lashing himself with his tail. Then he made a leap high over their heads and landed on the other side of the Table. Laughing, though she didn’t know why, Lucy scrambled over it to reach him. Aslan leaped again. A mad chase began. Round and round the hilltop he led them, now hopelessly out of their reach, now letting them almost catch his tail, now diving between them, now tossing them in the air with his huge and beautifully velveted paws and catching them again, and now stopping unexpectedly so that all three of them rolled over together in a happy laughing heap of fur and arms and legs. It was such a romp as no one has ever had except in Narnia; and whether it was more like playing with a thunderstorm or playing with a kitten Lucy could never make up her mind.


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Anthem

The PrayersLet us praise God for his revelation of truth and transcendent beautyto C S Lewis: for Lewis’s longing for God, and his perception ofdivine reality, and for his deep appreciation of the strength and freshnessof God’s love in ordinary situations.Let us bless the Lord:Thanks be to God.

Let us praise God for C S Lewis’s Christian vocation to inspire and toteach: for his love of debate and discussion, for his commitment toreason and the discovery of the truth, and for his passion to commendthe credibility and reality of God.Let us bless the Lord:Thanks be to God.

Let us praise God for C S Lewis’s academic life: for his contributionto scholarly research, for his commitment to the imaginative andliterary worlds which shaped his own writing and communication, andfor his respect for the power of great literature to open new horizons.Let us bless the Lord:Thanks be to God.

Let us praise God for C S Lewis’s vision and creativity: for hisimagination and ability to communicate lucidly to children andadults alike, for his care as a correspondent, for his skill as an author,poet and broadcaster, for his understanding of the human condition, andhis joy in the glorious vitality of creation.Let us bless the Lord:Thanks be to God.

Let us pray for all those who take inspiration from C S Lewis’ life andwork: for teachers and apologists, catechists and mystics,playwrights, film-makers, novelists, and poets, and for those seekingafter God, or pondering the mysteries of existence.Lord, hear us:Lord, graciously hear us.

Almighty God, who hast proclaimed thine eternal truth by thevoice of prophets and evangelists: direct and bless, we beseechthee, those who in our generation speak where many listen, and writewhat many read, that they may do their part in making the heart of thepeople wise, its mind sound, and its will righteous; to the honour ofJesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Watching in hope for the coming of Christ’s Kingdom, we are bold to pray:


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OUR Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thykingdom come; thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven.Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, aswe forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not intotemptation; but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, thepower, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

Sixth ReadingFrom The Horse and His Boy

Once more he felt the warm breath of the Thing on his hand and face.“There,” it said, “that is not the breath of a ghost. Tell me your sorrows.”Shasta was a little reassured by the breath: so he told how he had never known his real father or mother and had been brought up sternly by the fisherman. And then he told the story of his escape and how they were chased by lions and forced to swim for their lives; and of all their dangers in Tashbaan and about his night among the tombs and how the beasts howled at him out of the desert. And he told about the heat and thirst of their desert journey and how they were almost at their goal when another lion chased them and wounded Aravis. . . .

“I do not call you unfortunate,” said the Large Voice.“Don’t you think it was bad luck to meet so many lions?” said Shasta.“There was only one lion,” said the Voice.“What on earth do you mean? I’ve just told you there were at least two the first night, and—”“There was only one: but he was swift of foot.”“How do you know?”“I was the lion.”

And as Shasta gaped with open mouth and said nothing, the voice continued. “I was the lion who forced you to join with Aravis. I was the cat who comforted you among the houses of the dead. I was the lion who drove the jackals from you while you slept. I was the lion who gave the Horses the new strength of fear for the last mile so that you should reach King Lune in time. And I was the lion you do not remember who pushed the boat in which you lay, a child near death, so that it came to shore where a man sat, wakeful at midnight, to receive you.”


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HymnThy Hand, O God, has guided Edward Hayes Plumptre

Seventh ReadingFrom the Weight of Glory

In speaking of this desire for our own far-off country, which we find in ourselves even now, I feel a certain shyness. I am almost committing an indecency. I am trying to rip open the inconsolable secret in each one of you—the secret which hurts so much that you take your revenge on it by calling it names like Nostalgia and Romanticism and Adolescence: the secret also which pierces with such sweetness that when, in very intimate conversation, the mention of it becomes imminent, we grow awkward and affect to laugh at ourselves: the secret we cannot hide and cannot tell, though


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we desire to do both. We cannot tell it because it is a desire for something that has never actually appeared in our experience. We cannot hide it because our experience is constantly suggesting it, and we betray ourselves like lovers at the mention of a name. Our commonest expedient is to call it beauty and behave as if that had settled the matter. Wordsworth’s expedient was to identify it with certain moments in his own past. But all this is a cheat. If Wordsworth had gone back to those moments in the past, he would not have found the thing itself, but only the reminder of it; what he remembered would turn out to be itself a remembering. The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These things—the beauty, the memory of our own past—are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.Apparently, then, our lifelong nostalgia, our longing to be re- united with something in the universe from which we now feel cut off, to be on the inside of some door which we have always seen from the outside, is no mere neurotic fancy, but the truest index of our real situation. And to be at last summoned inside would be both glory and honour beyond all our merits and also the healing of that old ache. The whole man is to drink joy from the fountain of joy.

Hymn Put Thou Thy Trust in God J. Wesley & P. Herhardt


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Eighth ReadingFrom The Weight of Glory

“There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendours. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn: We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously—no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner—no mere tolerance, or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. … yourneighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian neighbour, he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ verelatitat—the glorifier and the glorified, Glory Himself, is truly hidden.”

Hymn 517 Brother, Sister, Let me Serve You Richard A.M. Gillard


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The Blessing

Ninth Reading“You’ll understand when you see him.”“But shall we see him?” asked Susan.“Why, Daughter of Eve, that’s what I brought you here for. I’m to lead you where you shall meet him,” said Mr. Beaver.“Is—is he a man?” asked Lucy.“Aslan a man!” said Mr. Beaver sternly. “Certainly not. I tell you he is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-beyond-the-Sea. Don’t you know who is the King of Beasts? Aslan is a lion—the Lion, the great Lion.”“Ooh!” said Susan, “I’d thought he was a man. Is he—quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”“That you will, dearie, and no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver; “if there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.”“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ’Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”


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Recessional HymnChrist Triumphant, Ever ReigningMichael Saward


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Relevant Passages from C.S Lewis’ Work

These selected readings offer interesting and inspirational quotes from the range of Lewis’ writings. They are intended very much as a starting point and the list is by no means exhaustive. They could be used as part of a service, or quoted in a sermon or address.

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Relevant Passages from Lewis’ WorkWhen you come to knowing God, the initiative lies on His side. If He does not show Himself, nothing you can do will enable you to find Him. And, in fact, He shows much more of Himself to some people than to others—not because He has favourites, but because it is impossible for Him to show Himself to a man whose whole mind and character are in the wrong condition. Just as sunlight, though it has no favourites, cannot be reflected in a dusty mirror as clearly as in a clean one.

You can put this another way by saying that while in other sciences the instruments you use are things external to yourself (things like microscopes and telescopes), the instrument through which you see God is your whole self. And if a man’s self is not kept clean and bright, his glimpse of God will be blurred—like the Moon seen through a dirty telescope. That is why horrible nations have horrible religions: they have been looking at God through a dirty lens.

From Mere ChristianityCompiled in A Year with C.S. Lewis

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen; not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.

From The Weight of GloryCompiled in Words to Live By


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“They say Aslan is on the move—perhaps has already landed.”

And now a very curious thing happened. None of the children knew who Aslan was any more than you do; but the moment the Beaver had spoken these words everyone felt quite different. Perhaps it has sometimes happened to you in a dream that someone says something which you don’t understand but in the dream it feels as if it had some enormous meaning— either a terrifying one which turns the whole dream into a nightmare or else a lovely meaning too lovely to put into words, which makes the dream so beautiful that you remember it all your life and are always wishing you could get into that dream again. It was like that now. At the name of Aslan each one of the children felt something jump in its inside. Edmund felt a sensation of mysterious horror. Peter felt suddenly brave and adventurous. Susan felt as if some delicious smell or some delightful strain of music had just floated by her. And Lucy got the feeling you have when you wake up in the morning and realize that it is the beginning of the holidays or the beginning of summer.

From The Lion, the Witch, and the WardrobeCompiled in A Year with Aslan

If you do not take the distinction between good and bad very seriously, then it is easy to say that anything you find in this world is a part of God. But, of course, if you think some things really bad, and God really good, then you cannot talk like that. You must believe that God is separate from the world and that some of the things we see in it are contrary to His will. Confronted with a cancer or a slum the Pantheist can say, ‘If you could only see it from the divine point of view, you would realise that this also is God.’ The Christian replies, ‘Don’t talk damned nonsense.’ For Christianity is a fighting religion. It thinks God made the world—that space and time, heat and cold, and all the colours and tastes, and all the animals and vegetables, are things that God ‘made up out of His head’ as a man makes up a story. But it also thinks that a great many things have gone wrong with the world that God made and that God insists, and insists very loudly, on our putting them right again.



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“Are you not thirsty?” said the Lion.

“I’m dying of thirst,” said Jill.

“Then drink,” said the Lion.

“May I—could I—would you mind going away while I do?” said Jill.The Lion answered this only by a look and a very low growl. And as Jill gazed at its motionless bulk, she realized that she might as well have asked the whole mountain to move aside for her convenience.

The delicious rippling noise of the stream was driving her nearly frantic.

“Will you promise not to—do anything to me, if I do come?” said Jill.

“I make no promise,” said the Lion.

Jill was so thirsty now that, without noticing it, she had come a step nearer.

“Do you eat girls?” she said.

“I have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and emperors, cities and realms,” said the Lion. It didn’t say this as if it were boasting, nor as if it were sorry, nor as if it were angry. It just said it.

“I daren’t come and drink,” said Jill.

“Then you will die of thirst,” said the Lion.

“Oh dear!” said Jill, coming another step nearer. “I suppose I must go and look for another stream then.”

“There is no other stream,” said the Lion.

It never occurred to Jill to disbelieve the Lion—no one who had seen his stern face could do that—and her mind suddenly made itself up. It was the worst thing she had ever had to do, but she went forward to the stream, knelt down, and began scooping up water in her hand. It was the coldest, most refreshing water she had ever tasted. You didn’t need to drink much of it, for it quenched your thirst at once.

From The Silver ChairCompiled in A Year with Aslan


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TO MARY WILLIS SHELBURNE: On how to rehearse for death and how to diminish fear.17 June 1963

Pain is terrible, but surely you need not have fear as well? Can you not see death as the friend and deliverer? It means stripping off that body which is tormenting you: like taking off a hair- shirt or getting out of a dungeon. What is there to be afraid of? You have long attempted (and none of us does more) a Christian life. Your sins are confessed and absolved. Has this world been so kind to you that you should leave it with regret? There are better things ahead than any we leave behind.

Remember, though we struggle against things because we are afraid of them, it is often the other way round—we get afraid because we struggle. Are you struggling, resisting? Don’t you think Our Lord says to you ‘Peace, child, peace. Relax. Let go. Underneath are the everlasting arms. Let go, I will catch you. Do you trust me so little?’

Of course, this may not be the end. Then make it a good rehearsal.

Yours (and like you a tired traveller near the journey’s end) Jack

From The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume IIICompiled in Yours, Jack


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“I cannot set myself to any work or sport today, Jewel,” said the King. “I can think of nothing but this wonderful news. Think you we shall hear more of it today?”

“They are the most wonderful tidings ever heard in our days or our fathers’ or our grandfathers’ days, Sire,” said Jewel, “if they are true.”

“How can they choose but be true?” said the King. “It is more than a week ago that the first birds came flying over us saying, Aslan is here, Aslan has come to Narnia again. And after that it was the squirrels. They had not seen him, but they said it was certain he was in the woods. Then came the Stag. He said he had seen him with his own eyes, a great way off, by moonlight, in Lantern Waste. Then came that dark Man with the beard, the merchant from Calormen. The Calormenes care nothing for Aslan as we do; but the man spoke of it as a thing beyond doubt. And there was the Badger last night; he too had seen Aslan.”

“Indeed, Sire,” answered Jewel, “I believe it all. If I seem not to, it is only that my joy is too great to let my belief settle itself. It is almost too beautiful to believe.”

“Yes,” said the King with a great sigh, almost a shiver, of delight. “It is beyond all that I ever hoped for in all my life.”

From The Last BattleCompiled in A Year with Aslan


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Screwtape offers ways to cleverly exploit the Patient’s dry spell:

But there is an even better way of exploiting the trough; I mean through the patient’s own thoughts about it. As always, the first step is to keep knowledge out of his mind. Do not let him suspect the law of undulation. Let him assume that the first ardours of his conversion might have been expected to last, and ought to have lasted, forever, and that his present dryness is an equally permanent condition. Having once got this misconception well fixed in his head, you may then proceed in various ways. It all depends on whether your man is of the desponding type who can be tempted to despair, or of the wishful-thinking type who can be assured that all is well. The former type is getting rare among the humans. If your patient should happen to belong to it, everything is easy. You have only got to keep him out of the way of experienced Christians (an easy task nowadays), to direct his attention to the appropriate passages in scripture, and then to set him to work on the desperate design of recovering his old feelings by sheer will-power, and the game is ours. If he is of the more hopeful type your job is to make him acquiesce in the present low temperature of his spirit and gradually become content with it, persuading himself that it is not so low after all. In a week or two you will be making him doubt whether the first days of his Christianity were not, perhaps, a little excessive. Talk to him about ‘moderation in all things’. If you can once get him to the point of thinking that ‘religion is all very well up to a point’, you can feel quite happy about his soul. A moderated religion is as good for us as no religion at all—and more amusing.

From The Screwtape LettersCompiled in A Year with C.S. Lewis


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“You’ll understand when you see him.”

“But shall we see him?” asked Susan.

“Why, Daughter of Eve, that’s what I brought you here for. I’m to lead you where you shall meet him,” said Mr. Beaver.

“Is—is he a man?” asked Lucy.

“Aslan a man!” said Mr. Beaver sternly. “Certainly not. I tell you he is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-beyond-the-Sea. Don’t you know who is the King of Beasts? Aslan is a lion—the Lion, the great Lion.”

“Ooh!” said Susan, “I’d thought he was a man. Is he—quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”

“That you will, dearie, and no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver; “if there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.”

“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.

“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ’Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”



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Everyone who believes in God at all believes that He knows what you and I are going to do tomorrow. But if He knows I am going to do so-and-so, how can I be free to do otherwise? Well, here once again, the difficulty comes from thinking that God is progressing along the Timeline like us: the only difference being that He can see ahead and we cannot. Well, if that were true, if God foresaw our acts, it would be very hard to understand how we could be free not to do them. But suppose God is outside and above the Time-line. In that case, what we call ‘tomorrow’ is visible to Him in just the same way as what we call ‘today’. All the days are ‘Now’ for Him. He does not remember you doing things yesterday; He simply sees you doing them, because, though you have lost yesterday, He has not. He does not ‘foresee’ you doing things tomorrow; He simply sees you doing them: because, though tomorrow is not yet there for you, it is for Him. You never supposed that your actions at this moment were any less free because God knows what you are doing. Well, He knows your tomorrow’s actions in just the same way—because He is already in tomorrow and can simply watch you. In a sense, He does not know your action till you have done it: but then the moment at which you have done it is already ‘Now’ for Him.



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On celebration“The Great Dance does not wait to be perfect until the peoples of the Low Worlds are gathered into it. We speak not of when it will begin. It has begun from before always. There was no time when we did not rejoice before His face as now. The dance which we dance is at the centre and for the dance all things were made. Blessed be He!”

Another said, “Never did He make two things the same; never did He utter one word twice. After earths, not better earths but beasts; after beasts, not better beasts but spirits. After a falling, not recovery but a new creation. Out of the new creation, not a third but the mode of change itself is changed for ever. Blessed be He!”

And another said, “It is loaded with justice as a tree bows down with fruit. All is righteousness and there is no equality. Not as when stones lie side by side, but as when stones support and are supported in an arch, such is His order; rule and obedience, begetting and bearing, heat glancing down, life growing up. Blessed be He!”

One said, “They who add years to years in lumpish aggregation, or miles to miles and galaxies to galaxies, shall not come near His greatness. The day of the fields of Arbol will fade and the days of Deep Heaven itself are numbered. Not thus is He great. He dwells (all of Him dwells) within the seed of the smallest flower and is not cramped: Deep Heaven is inside Him who is inside the seed and does not distend Him. Blessed be He!”

“The edge of each nature borders on that whereof it contains no shadow or similitude. Of many points one line; of many lines one shape; of many shapes one solid body; of many senses and thoughts one person; of three persons, Himself. As is the circle to the sphere, so are the ancient worlds that needed no redemption to that world wherein He was born and died. As is a point to a line, so is that world to the far-off fruits of its redeeming. Blessed be He!”

“Yet the circle is not less round than the sphere, and the sphere is the home and fatherland of circles. Infinite multitudes of circles lie enclosed in every sphere, and if they spoke they would say, For us were spheres created. Let no mouth open to gainsay them. Blessed be He!”

“The peoples of the ancient worlds who never sinned, for whom He never came down, are the peoples for whose sake the Low Worlds were made. For though the healing what was wounded and the straightening what was bent is a new dimension of glory, yet the straight was not made that it might be bent nor the whole that it might be wounded. The ancient peoples are at the centre. Blessed be He!”

“All which is not itself the Great Dance was made in order that He might come down into it. In the Fallen World He prepared for Himself a body and was united with the the sin whereby it came is called Fortunate and the world where this was enacted is the centre of worlds. Blessed be He!”

From PerelandraCompiled in Words to Live By


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“Oh, yes! Tell us about Aslan!” said several voices at once; for once again that strange feeling—like the first signs of spring, like good news, had come over them.

“Who is Aslan?” asked Susan.

“Aslan?” said Mr. Beaver. “Why, don’t you know? He’s the King. He’s the Lord of the whole wood, but not often here, you understand. Never in my time or my father’s time. But the word has reached us that he has come back. He is in Narnia at this moment. He’ll settle the White Queen all right. It is he, not you, that will save Mr. Tumnus.”

“She won’t turn him into stone too?” said Edmund.

“Lord love you, Son of Adam, what a simple thing to say!” answered Mr. Beaver with a great laugh. “Turn him into stone? If she can stand on her two feet and look him in the face it’ll be the most she can do and more than I expect of her. No, no. He’ll put all to rights as it says in an old rhyme in these parts:

Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight,At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more,When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death,And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again.



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For it is not so much of our time and so much of our attention that God demands; it is not even all our time and all our attention; it is our-selves. For each of us the Baptist’s words are true: “He must increase and I decrease.” He will be infinitely merciful to our repeated failures; I know no promise that He will accept a deliberate compromise. For He has, in the last resort, nothing to give us but Himself; and He can give that only insofar as our self-affirming will retires and makes room for Him in our souls. Let us make up our minds to it; there will be nothing “of our own” left over to live on, no “ordinary” life. I do not mean that each of us will necessarily be called to be a martyr or even an ascetic. That’s as may be. For some (nobody knows which) the Christian life will include much leisure, many occupations we naturally like. But these will be received from God’s hands. In a perfect Christian they would be as much part of his “religion,” his “service,” as his hardest duties, and his feasts would be as Christian as his fasts. What cannot be admitted—what must exist only as an undefeated but daily resisted enemy—is the idea of something that is “our own,” some area in which we are to be “out of school,” on which God has no claim.

For He claims all, because He is love and must bless. He cannot bless us unless He has us. When we try to keep within us an area that is our own, we try to keep an area of death. Therefore, in love, He claims all. There’s no bargaining with Him.

From The Weight of GloryCompiled in A Year with C.S. Lewis


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“If you go back to the others now, and wake them up; and tell them you have seen me again; and that you must all get up at once and follow me—what will happen? There is only one way of finding out.”

“Do you mean that is what you want me to do?” gasped Lucy.

“Yes, little one,” said Aslan.

“Will the others see you too?” asked Lucy.

“Certainly not at first,” said Aslan. “Later on, it depends.”

“But they won’t believe me!” said Lucy.

“It doesn’t matter,” said Aslan. . . . Lucy buried her head in his mane to hide from his face. But there must have been magic in his mane. She could feel lion-strength going into her. Quite suddenly she sat up.

“I’m sorry, Aslan,” she said. “I’m ready now.”

“Now you are a lioness,” said Aslan. “And now all Narnia will be renewed. But come. We have no time to lose.”

He got up and walked with stately, noiseless paces back to the belt of dancing trees through which she had just come: and Lucy went with him, laying a rather tremulous hand on his mane. . . .

“Now, child,” said Aslan, when they had left the trees behind them, “I will wait here. Go and wake the others and tell them to follow. If they will not, then you at least must follow me alone.”

From Prince CaspianCompiled in A Year with Aslan


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All sorts of people are fond of repeating the Christian statement that ‘God is love’. But they seem not to notice that the words ‘God is love’ have no real meaning unless God contains at least two Persons. Love is something that one person has for another person. If God was a single person, then before the world was made, He was not love. Of course, what these people mean when they say that God is love is often something quite different: they really mean ‘Love is God’. They really mean that our feelings of love, however and wherever they arise, and whatever results they produce, are to be treated with great respect. Perhaps they are: but that is something quite different from what Christians mean by the statement ‘God is love’. They believe that the living, dynamic activity of love has been going on in God forever and has created everything else.And that, by the way, is perhaps the most important difference between Christianity and all other religions: that in Christianity God is not a static thing—not even a person—but a dynamic, pulsating activity, a life, almost a kind of drama. Almost, if you will not think me irreverent, a kind of dance.


Now the whole offer which Christianity makes is this: that we can, if we let God have His way, come to share in the life of Christ. If we do, we shall then be sharing a life which was begotten, not made, which always has existed and always will exist. Christ is the Son of God. If we share in this kind of life we also shall be sons of God. We shall love the Father as He does and the Holy Ghost will arise in us. He came to this world and became a man in order to spread to other men the kind of life He has—by what I call ‘good infection’. Every Christian is to become a little Christ. The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else.



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Screwtape reveals a powerful tool for distraction:

What we want, if men become Christians at all, is to keep them in the state of mind I call ‘Christianity And’. You know—Christianity and the Crisis, Christianity and the New Psychology, Christianity and the New Order, Christianity and Faith Healing, Christianity and Psychical Research, Christianity and Vegetarianism, Christianity and Spelling Reform. If they must be Christians let them at least be Christians with a difference. Substitute for the faith itself some Fashion with a Christian colouring. Work on their horror of the Same Old Thing.The horror of the Same Old Thing is one of the most valuable passions we have produced in the human heart—an endless source of heresies in religion, folly in counsel, infidelity in marriage, and inconstancy in friendship. The humans live in time, and experience reality successively. To experience much of it, therefore, they must experience many different things; in other words, they must experience change. And since they need change, the Enemy (being a hedonist at heart) has made change pleasurable to them, just as He has made eating pleasurable. But since He does not wish them to make change, any more than eating, an end in itself, He has balanced the love of change in them by a love of permanence. He has contrived to gratify both tastes together in the very world He has made, by that union of change and permanence which we call Rhythm. He gives them the seasons, each season different yet every year the same, so that spring is always felt as a novelty yet always as the recurrence of an immemorial theme. He gives them in His Church a spiritual year; they change from a fast to a feast, but it is the same feast as before.

From The Screwtape LettersCompiled in A Year with C.S. Lewis


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TO MISS BRECKENRIDGE: On the problem in prayer of God’s foreknowledge; and on the Fall and evolution.

1 August 1949

Don’t bother about the idea that God ‘has known for millions of years exactly what you are about to pray’. That isn’t what it’s like. God is hearing you now, just as simply as a mother hears a child. The difference His timelessness makes is that this now (which slips away from you even as you say the word now) is for Him infinite. If you must think of His timelessness at all, don’t think of Him having looked forward to this moment for millions of years: think that to Him you are always praying this prayer. But there’s really no need to bring it in. You have gone into the Temple (‘one day in Thy court is better than a thousand’ [Psalm 84:10]) and found Him, as always, there. That is all you need to bother about.

There is no relation of any importance between the Fall and Evolution. The doctrine of Evolution is that organisms have changed, sometimes for what we call (biologically) the better . . . quite often for what we call (biologically) the worse. . . . The doctrine of the Fall is that at one particular point one species, Man, tumbled down a moral cliff. There is neither opposition nor support between the two doctrines. . . . Evolution is not only not a doctrine of moral improvements, but of biological changes, some improvements, some deteriorations.

From The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume II


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TO HILA NEWMAN, an eleven-year-old girl who had sent Lewis her drawings and a letter of appreciation for the first three Chronicles of Narnia: On Lewis’s care not to decode the Chronicles of Narnia.

3 June 1953

Thank you so much for your lovely letter and pictures. I realised at once that the coloured one was not a particular scene but a sort of line-up like what you would have at the very end if it was a play instead of stories.The [Voyage of the] DAWN TREADER is not to be the last: There are to be 4 more, 7 in all. Didn’t you notice that Aslan said nothing about Eustace not going back? I thought the best of your pictures was the one of Mr. Tumnus at the bottom of the letter.

As to Aslan’s other name, well I want you to guess. Has there never been anyone in this world who (1.) Arrived at the same time as Father Christmas. (2.) Said he was the son of the Great Emperor. (3.) Gave himself up for someone else’s fault to be jeered at and killed by wicked people. (4.) Came to life again. (5.) Is sometimes spoken of as a Lamb (see the end of the Dawn Treader). Don’t you really know His name in this world? Think it over and let me know your answer!Reepicheep in your coloured picture has just the right perky, cheeky expression. I love real mice. There are lots in my rooms in College but I have never set a trap. When I sit up late working they poke their heads out from behind the curtains just as if they were saying, ‘Hi! Time for youto go to bed. We want to come out and play.’

From The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume IIICompiled in Yours, Jack


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“Oh, you’re real, you’re real! Oh, Aslan!” cried Lucy, and both girls flung themselves upon him and covered him with kisses.

“But what does it all mean?” asked Susan when they were somewhat calmer.

“It means,” said Aslan, “that though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward. And now—”

“Oh yes. Now?” said Lucy, jumping up and clapping her hands.

“Oh, children,” said the Lion, “I feel my strength coming back to me. Oh, children, catch me if you can!” He stood for a second, his eyes very bright, his limbs quivering, lashing himself with his tail. Then he made a leap high over their heads and landed on the other side of the Table. Laughing, though she didn’t know why, Lucy scrambled over it to reach him. Aslan leaped again. A mad chase began. Round and round the hilltop he led them, now hopelessly out of their reach, now letting them almost catch his tail, now diving between them, now tossing them in the air with his huge and beautifully velveted paws and catching them again, and now stopping unexpectedly so that all three of them rolled over together in a happy laughing heap of fur and arms and legs. It was such a romp as no one has ever had except in Narnia; and whether it was more like playing with a thunderstorm or playing with a kitten Lucy could never make up her mind.


On goodnessThere is but one good; that is God. Everything else is good when it looks to Him and bad when it turns from Him. And the higher and mightier it is in the natural order, the more demoniac it will be if it rebels. It’s not out of bad mice or bad fleas you make demons, but out of bad archangels. The false religion of lust is baser than the false religion of mother-love or patriotism or art: but lust is less likely to be made into a religion.

From The Great DivorceCompiled in Words to Live By


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There have been times when I think we do not desire heaven; but more often I find myself wondering whether, in our heart of hearts, we have ever desired anything else. You may have noticed that the books you really love are bound together by a secret thread. You know very well what is the common quality that makes you love them, though you cannot put it into words: but most of your friends do not see it at all, and often wonder why, liking this, you should also like that. Again, you have stood before some landscape, which seems to embody what you have been looking for all your life; and then turned to the friend at your side who appears to be seeing what you saw—but at the first words a gulf yawns between you, and you realise that this landscape means something totally different to him, that he is pursuing an alien vision and cares nothing for the ineffable suggestion by which you are transported. Even in your hobbies, has there not always been some secret attraction which the others are curiously ignorant of—something, not to be identified with, but always on the verge of breaking through, the smell of cut wood in the workshop or the clap-clap of water against the boat’s side?

From The Problem of PainCompiled in A Year with C.S. Lewis

On happinessWhat Satan put into the heads of our remote ancestors was the idea that they could “be like gods”—could set up on their own as if they had created themselves—be their own masters—invent some sort of happiness for themselves outside God, apart from God. And out of that hopeless attempt has come nearly all that we call human history—money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery—the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.

God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.

From Mere ChristianityCompiled in Words to Live By


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Once more he felt the warm breath of the Thing on his hand and face.

“There,” it said, “that is not the breath of a ghost. Tell me your sorrows.”Shasta was a little reassured by the breath: so he told how he had never known his real father or mother and had been brought up sternly by the fisherman. And then he told the story of his escape and how they were chased by lions and forced to swim for their lives; and of all their dangers in Tashbaan and about his night among the tombs and how the beasts howled at him out of the desert. And he told about the heat and thirst of their desert journey and how they were almost at their goal when another lion chased them and wounded Aravis. . . .

“I do not call you unfortunate,” said the Large Voice.

“Don’t you think it was bad luck to meet so many lions?” said Shasta.

“There was only one lion,” said the Voice.

“What on earth do you mean? I’ve just told you there were at least two the first night, and—”

“There was only one: but he was swift of foot.”

“How do you know?”

“I was the lion.”

And as Shasta gaped with open mouth and said nothing, the voice continued. “I was the lion who forced you to join with Aravis. I was the cat who comforted you among the houses of the dead. I was the lion who drove the jackals from you while you slept. I was the lion who gave the Horses the new strength of fear for the last mile so that you should reach King Lune in time. And I was the lion you do not remember who pushed the boat in which you lay, a child near death, so that it came to shore where a man sat, wakeful at midnight, to receive you.”

From The Horse and His BoyCompiled in A Year with Aslan


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To become new men means losing what we now call ‘ourselves’. Out of our selves, into Christ, we must go. His will is to become ours and we are to think His thoughts, to ‘have the mind of Christ’ as the Bible says. And if Christ is one, and if He is thus to be ‘in’ us all, shall we not be exactly the same? It certainly sounds like it; but in fact it is not so.

It is difficult here to get a good illustration; because, of course, no other two things are related to each other just as the Creator is related to one of His creatures. But I will try two very imperfect illustrations which may give a hint of the truth. Imagine a lot of people who have always lived in the dark. You come and try to describe to them what light is like. You might tell them that if they come into the light that same light would fall on them all and they would all reflect it and thus become what we call visible. Is it not quite possible that they would imagine that, since they were all receiving the same light, and all reacting to it in the same way (i.e. all reflecting it), they would all look alike? Whereas you and I know that the light will in fact bring out, or show up, how different they are. Or again, suppose a person who knew nothing about salt. You give him a pinch to taste and he experiences a particular strong, sharp taste. You then tell him that in your country people use salt in all their cookery. Might he not reply ‘In that case I suppose all your dishes taste exactly the same: because the taste of that stuff you have just given me is so strong that it will kill the taste of everything else.’ But you and I know that the real effect of salt is exactly the opposite. So far from killing the taste of the egg and the tripe and the cabbage, it actually brings it out. They do not show their real taste till you have added the salt.



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The more we get what we now call ‘ourselves’ out of the way and let Him take us over, the more truly ourselves we become. There is so much of Him that millions and millions of ‘little Christs’, all different, will still be too few to express Him fully. He made them all. He invented— as an author invents characters in a novel—all the different men that you and I were intended to be. In that sense our real selves are all waiting for us in Him. It is no good trying to ‘be myself ’ without Him. The more I resist Him and try to live on my own, the more I become dominated by my own heredity and upbringing and surroundings and natural desires. In fact what I so proudly call ‘Myself ’ becomes merely the meeting place for trains of events which I never started and which I cannot stop. What I call ‘My wishes’ become merely the desires thrown up by my physical organism or pumped into me by other men’s thoughts or even suggested to me by devils. Eggs and alcohol and a good night’s sleep will be the real origins of what I flatter myself by regarding as my own highly personal and discriminating decision to make love to the girl opposite to me in the railway carriage. Propaganda will be the real origin of what I regard as my own personal political ideas. I am not, in my natural state, nearly so much of a person as I like to believe: most of what I call ‘me’ can be very easily explained. It is when I turn to Christ, when I give myself up to His Personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own.


On GodIt is always shocking to meet life where we thought we were alone. “Look out!” we cry, “it’s alive.” And therefore this is the very point at which so many draw back—I would have done so myself if I could—and proceed no further with Christianity. An “impersonal God”—well and good. A subjective God of beauty, truth and goodness, inside our own heads—better still. A formless life- force surging through us, a vast power which we can tap—best of all. But God Himself, alive, pulling at the other end of the cord, perhaps approaching at an infinite speed, the hunter, king, husband—that is quite another matter. There comes a moment when the children who have been playing at burglars hush suddenly: was that a real footstep in the hall? There comes a moment when people who have been dabbling in religion (“Man’s search for God”!) suddenly draw back. Supposing we really found Him? We never meant it to come to that! Worse still, supposing He had found us!

From MiraclesCompiled in Words to Live By


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There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendours. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn: We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously—no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner—no mere tolerance, or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian neighbour, he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ verelatitat—the glorifier and the glorified, Glory Himself, is truly hidden.

From The Weight of GloryCompiled in A Year with C.S. Lewis

This is the whole of Christianity. There is nothing else. It is so easy to get muddled about that. It is easy to think that the Church has a lot of different objects—education, building, missions, holding services. Just as it is easy to think the State has a lot of different objects—military, political, economic, and what not. But in a way things are much simpler than that. The State exists simply to promote and to protect the ordinary happiness of human beings in this life. A husband and wife chatting over a fire, a couple of friends having a game of darts in a pub, a man reading a book in his own room or digging in his own garden— that is what the State is there for. And unless they are helping to increase and prolong and protect such moments, all the laws, parliaments, armies, courts, police, economics, etc., are simply a waste of time. In the same way the Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became Man for no other purpose. It is even doubtful, you know, whether the whole universe was created for any other purpose.



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[Digory] thought of his Mother, and he thought of the great hopes he had had, and how they were all dying away, and a lump came into his throat and tears in his eyes, and he blurted out: “But please, please—won’t you—can’t you give me something that will cure Mother?” Up till then he had been looking at the Lion’s great feet and the huge claws on them; now, in his despair, he looked up at its face. What he saw surprised him as much as anything in his whole life. For the tawny face was bent down near his own and (wonder of wonders) great shining tears stood in the Lion’s eyes. They were such big, bright tears compared with Digory’s own that for a moment he felt as if the Lion must really be sorrier about his Mother than he was himself.

“My son, my son,” said Aslan. “I know. Grief is great. Only you and I in this land know that yet. Let us be good to one another.”

From The Magician’s NephewCompiled in A Year with Aslan


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On joyIn speaking of this desire for our own far-off country, which we find in ourselves even now, I feel a certain shyness. I am almost committing an indecency. I am trying to rip open the inconsolable secret in each one of you—the secret which hurts so much that you take your revenge on it by calling it names like Nostalgia and Romanticism and Adolescence: the secret also which pierces with such sweetness that when, in very intimate conversation, the mention of it becomes imminent, we grow awkward and affect to laugh at ourselves: the secret we cannot hide and cannot tell, though we desire to do both. We cannot tell it because it is a desire for something that has never actually appeared in our experience. We cannot hide it because our experience is constantly suggesting it, and we betray ourselves like lovers at the mention of a name. Our commonest expedient is to call it beauty and behave as if that had settled the matter. Wordsworth’s expedient was to identify it with certain moments in his own past. But all this is a cheat. If Wordsworth had gone back to those moments in the past, he would not have found the thing itself, but only the reminder of it; what he remembered would turn out to be itself a remembering. The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These things—the beauty, the memory of our own past—are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited. . . .

Apparently, then, our lifelong nostalgia, our longing to be re- united with something in the universe from which we now feel cut off, to be on the inside of some door which we have always seen from the outside, is no mere neurotic fancy, but the truest index of our real situation. And to be at last summoned inside would be both glory and honour beyond all our merits and also the healing of that old ache. . . . The whole man is to drink joy from the fountain of joy.

From The Weight of GloryCompiled in Words to Live By


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Sunday School Sessions

These two sessions take teaching themes from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and apply them for Sunday school or Children’s Club. The depth of the talk, and the craft activities, can be tailored to suit most primary school ages. For early years/KS1 children it may be best to prepare all of the materials for the craft activities in advance – with shapes pre-cut and so on. We are grateful to Ellen Deehan, of St Mark’s, for preparing these materials.


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SESSION 1

‘THE LOVE OF A LION’

Tasks• Nominate one person to be the White Witch and one person to be Aslan• Children

Game – Aslan Freeze Tag• Nominate one person to be the White Witch and one person to be Aslan• Children must stay clear of the witch, otherwise they will be frozen • If caught, they must stand still and can only be freed by Aslan’s breath• The number of witches and Aslans can be increased

Video clip • Watch the video clip from the movie ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ The clip shows Aslan’s death and him coming to life again• Discussion points • Why do you think this happened? • How do you think Aslan felt? • How do you think Lucy and Susan felt?

Into the Bible – Matthew 27:45-28:10

Introducing…• What happened to the video clip is a lot like what happened to Jesus. In the film, Aslan dies to save Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter and in fact, he died to save the whole of Narnia from the witch because he loved them all so much • This is a lot like what Jesus did for us. God loves us so much that he sent his son down to die for us so that we could be happy like everyone was in the film • He sent his son to die for us so that we could be safe

Getting ready• Begin to tell the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection. The children can be used as characters in the story, miming as it is read. The possible cast list: • Jesus • Friends • Two Marys • Guard • Angel


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Action!• Jesus died on a Friday afternoon. Friends quickly placed his body in a tomb cut into a rocky hillside and blocked the entrance with a great stone. Guards were went to secure the tomb• On Sunday, when two women, one called Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were visiting the tomb, they felt a great earthquake• They saw an angel come and roll away the stone from the entrance of the tomb. The guards were so frightened that they shook and fainted!• The angel told the women not to be afraid, that Jesus was not there for he had risen. This meant that Jesus was alive! The angel told them to go quickly and tell Jesus’ friends that he is alive.

Memory Verse

“For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die buy have eternal life” (John 3:16)

• Discuss this with the children and explain any difficult words/meanings

Craft – Memory Verse Wardrobes

• Give each child a copy of the included worksheet with the lion’s face on it. • The children can colour in the wardrobe, the lion’s face and the memory verse• Allow the children to cut and stick the memory verse into the middle of the wardrobe• The lion’s face is to become the wardrobe doors• Once the face is coloured in, allow the children to cut the face out and cut in half. They should then stick the two halves done to make doors


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“For

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SESSION 2

‘THE BATTLE OF NARNIA’

Learning Aim• To name the pieces of the armour of God• To understand how we can prepare ourselves to live for God

Game – Dress the soldier• Children should be split into 4 teams• Leave a pile of old clothes, including hats and boots in the centre of a circle• The children should collect some clothes from the pile and dress one child in an armour• The fastest team wins• The teams can then explain their choices

Video clip • Watch the video clip from the movie ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’• The clip shows the children receiving gifts from Father Christmas• Discussion points • Why do you think this happened? • How do you think the children felt? • Can you remember what gifts they received?

Into the Bible – Ephesians 6:10- 18

Introducing…• In the film, the children had to get ready for a battle between them and the White Witch. They received different gifts from Father Christmas to help them and prepare them for the battle. We can be just like the children in the film because there are ways we can prepare ourselves for living a life with God. In the Bible, it talks about very important armour that we can put on to help us live our life.


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Getting ready• Draw around one child on a flipchart page. Using the flash cards, tell the story of the armour of God and allow the children to add the different parts onto the page. Alternatively, you can use them to dress someone up or you can use clothes and accessories if you wish. You should also talk through the different items and see if the children know what they are used for. The cards should follow: • Belt of truth • Breastplate of righteousness • Shoes of readiness • Shield of faith • Helmet of salvation • Sword of the spirit

Action!Finally, build up your strength in union with the Lord and by means of his mighty power. Put on all the armor that God gives you, so that you will be able to stand up against the Devil’s evil tricks. For we are not fighting against human beings but against the wicked spiritual forces in the heavenly world, the rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers of this dark age. So put on God’s armor now! Then when the evil day comes, you will be able to resist the enemy’s attacks; and after fighting to the end, you will still hold your ground.

So stand ready, with truth as a belt tight around your waist, with righteousness as your breastplate, and as your shoes the readiness to announce the Good News of peace. At all times carry faith as a shield; for with it you will be able to put out all the burning arrows shot by the Evil One. And accept salvation as a helmet, and the word of God as the sword, which the Spirit gives you. Do all this in prayer, asking for God’s help. Pray on every occasion, as the Spirit leads. For this reason keep alert and never give up; pray always for allGod’s people.

Memory Verse “Put on all the armour that God gives you, so that you will be able to stand up against the Devil’s evil tricks” (Ephesians 6:11)

• Discuss this with the children and explain any difficult words/meanings

Craft – Dress Lucy or Peter in the armour of God• Allow the children to pick either a Lucy or Peter to dress in the armour of God• They should also be given a page with the different parts and can colour and cut these out • They should then stick them onto the characters in the correct place • On the back of the characters, they should stick or write the memory verse


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Sermon Outline

This is a brief structure that can be used as a Sermon outline that depends heavily on the The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which is the most recognisable of Lewis’ works. There are themes in his fiction and his theological writings that can easily be worked into sermons and a quick online search will lead to many resources.


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C.S. Lewis, Faith and Second Chances

C.S. Lewis is one of the most famous Christian writers of the 21st Century• His work includes Christian Apologetics (he didn’t really think of himself as a theologian)• Of course it includes fiction as well – sci-fi and children’s fiction.• You may want to include some other facts about Lewis from the timeline in the pack.

In hindsight, it’s probably easy to transplant something of C.S. Lewis personality into many of his characters• The boy whose beloved mother died while he was a young child is easy to see in Digory from Magician’s Nephew• The arrogant young man who easily dismissed anything that couldn’t be empirically proven rings bells with Eustace in Dawn Treader• Perhaps one of the best fleshed out characters in Narnia is Edmund…he starts out in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as one of the ‘villains’ on this side of the wardrobe as he relentlessly mocks his siblings, especially Lucy• Although he is a victim of the White Witch, his journey of discovery in the book is one that includes a painful path to his freedom and ultimate redemption• He is someone who didn’t believe, and even after being presented with evidence of what Lucy told him he refused to believe before ultimately realising that his hope lay not in the empty promises of the White Witch but in Aslan, the King of the Forest.• This could be seen as something of a microcosm of the faith journey C.S. Lewis himself took

While Edmund isn’t a Messianic character we can see lessons from his journey that point us to Jesus:

Temptation• Jesus faced a choice between the promises of his Father and the lies of the devil as he was tempted in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11)• Unlike Edmund, who had no ammunition with which to repel the White Witch, Jesus was equipped through his knowledge of the Bible to reply to the temptation

Trials• Jesus faced great trials, not least in the journey from Gethsemane to the cross• He begged for the trials to come (the cup) to be taken from him (Luke 22:39-46)• Edmund was severely wounded as he faced up to his responsibilities and joined the battle against the White Witch

Is it possible that Edmund’s journey may also seem familiar to some of us?• During his journey, he would re-enter Narnia not once but twice, as well as in the final climax of The Last Battle and each of these journeys would be testing and challenging• It is in our own journeys that we are tested, challenged and ultimately purified in the fire, we pray, as we prepare to enter eternity with God


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The Chronicles of Narnia present us with an allegory – a story that tells the Christian gospel in a creative way. But in fact they also present us with pointers for our own journeys of faith. • Whether relating to Edmund, or some other character, you can find journeys that will mirror your own• And as you journey with those characters you can find ways in to biblical truths that may challenge and inspire you• Thank God for C.S. Lewis, and for all that he has given us to aid our pursuit of the God who loves us.


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C.S. Lewis Festival – possible events churches could put onIn addition to a themed C.S. Lewis church service, churches may be keen to put on, or host other events during the Festival. These may be:

• Only for members of the congregation and friends• Free events for the public (and included in the Festival programme)• Ticketed events for the public (and included in the Festival programme)

The Festival depends on a great deal of voluntary effort. Your church may be willing to plan and organise its own event(s) as part of the Festival. If so we can help you market it by putting it in the Festival programme. If you would like to host an event that is in the festival programme we would prefer that you get in touch as soon as possible. If you decide to host a talk or sermon after the programme for the Festival has been finalised EastSide Arts will still promote it through social media and other outlets. Alternatively you may be willing to offer to host an event organised by the Festival team by providing premises.

EastSide Arts would also appreciate it if you could distribute the Festival Programmes to congregation members and encourage them to attend some of the events taking place during the Festival.

The following are some events that you may like to consider putting on or hosting but you may also have ideas of your own. We are very happy to discuss additional suggestions with you.

Film (The Festival may be able to provide the relevant DVD)Show a documentary film about the life of C.S. LewisShow one of the two Shadowlands films about C.S. Lewis and Joy GreshamShow one or more of the Chronicles of Narnia films

Tours & TrailsOrganise a group to undertake the self-guided C.S. Lewis Trail around C.S. Lewis sites in East Belfast (The Festival can provide the written material and map to follow)Commission a guided C.S. Lewis Bus Tour around C.S. Lewis sites in East Belfast (The Festival may be able to suggest a potential guide)Commission a Nearly True family tour of C.S. Lewis sites in East Belfast

Talks (The Festival may be able to suggest appropriate speakers)An illustrated talk on the life of C.S. LewisA talk about the faith of C.S. LewisA talk about C.S. Lewis and Grief, based on C.S. Lewis’ book A Grief ObservedA talk on C.S. Lewis and Christian Spirituality

1 To put on ticketed events (i.e. not free) a church is required to have an entertainments licence


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A talk about what the Narnia Chronicles are trying to tell usA talk about C.S. Lewis’ science fiction books and their messageA talk about C.S. Lewis and the PsalmsA talk about C.S. Lewis’ Four LovesA talk about C.S. Lewis’ PoetryA talk on C.S. Lewis’ contribution to medieval and renaissance literatureAn illustrated talk on Strandtown when C.S. Lewis was a childA TenX9 storytelling event on What C.S. Lewis means to me?A ‘Socratic Society’ style debate on God and religion

Creative writing workshops (The Festival may be able to suggest facilitators)A creative writing workshop for adultsA creative writing for adults writing for childrenA workshop on Illustrating children’s booksA workshop on Memoir writing, drawing on surprised by joyAn arts & crafts Workshop on a Narnia theme

Children’s eventsA children’s story-writing competition Storytelling workshops for children from the Narnia ChroniclesShow one or more of the Narnia Chronicles films for children

CostsThe costs of putting on different kinds of events will vary. Showing a free film or documentary in the church hall will have little costs involved as will undertaking the self-guided tour. An event that involves a speaker or facilitator is likely to require a fee for the speaker/facilitator.

Ticketed events, which the audience pays for, can recoup some or all of the costs from the sale of tickets to the public but such charged events require an entertainments licence.

For any information on how to proceed with organising an event for the festival or for further information about facilitators and entertainments licenses please contact Jacqueline O’Hagan directly at [email protected] or telephone on 02890451900

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