Day Three. Part One.

And it was morning. The Third Day.

After breakfast, rooms had to be vacated - Nunyara is a popular venue, and preparations were beginning for the next arrivals, a group from Kidney Australia, young folk with adult leaders and supporters having some time out in this place of healing.

But the biblical storytelling gathering wasn't done yet.
Shorter worship, a song and a prayer, was followed by the story of Jonah artfully told by Gillian, and then the final installment of the story of Esther from Annette. We remarked later how it seemed important to those who recorded this story to reiterate that, though granted permission, the Jews did not take plunder from those they killed ...

We took some time then to discuss some business of the network: information on how we're managing membership and a network of friends who receive information and news; roles in the network and on the board - watch the web for a new blog for the network of biblical storytellers australia (though, really, does the world need more blogs from sarahsstories ?); news about the desire of the board to support storytellers attending the australian and international gatherings in order to nurture this gift, particularly in young folk; and updates on finances and the mini-magazine.

As we broke for morning tea, our guest workshop leaders for the day arrived, Chris to lead a workshop on narrative and healing, and Andrew one on imagination and storytelling. The animated responses following both indicated that they were well received. The coordinating team was thanked and congratulated for the workshop on narrative and healing - the invitation was issued to Chris because I had participated in a one-week course introducing narrative therapy at the Dulwich Centre just before the gathering last year and was raving about all I had learnt and discovered, and the interest in those I shared this enthusiasm with inspired me to ask Chris to come along. I am so glad I did. Andrew writes the Lost Sheep books, which are delightful, and people were buzzing with energy following his session.
I led a workshop, too, in which we explored narrative threads and how the broader narrative can help us to glean meaning for the smaller stories we often are invited to tell. We began with Matt 28:1-10, 16-20, and the theme of incarnation in Matthew's story of Jesus, which led to the importance of embodiment of a story for the telling of a story well. After some discussion of the community in which Matthew's story is thought to have emerged (Jews in the diaspora, disconnected from home, from the synagogue and not part of the Gentile world), our conversation ranged all through Matthew's story, and over the Old Testament, letters of and not of Paul, and the art of storytelling generally. Thank you to the group for rich discussion and helpful discoveries for each other.