Bournagain

Every now and then a film comes out which is greatly anticipated at our place, and the next Narnia film, Prince Caspian is definitely one of them. We have the release date in the calendar, and I’m sure we will probably end up reading the book again to at least one of our children before then (not for the first time). I still have my old copies of the Narnia chronicles that I read and re-read until all the pages started falling out – we have just had to retire my decrepit copy of The Silver Chair after one last nostalgic reading to our 9-year old. These stories have been part of my mental furniture for years, and before I really new anything about being a Christian, I recognise now that they stirred in me my first God-longings.

Of course, I know I’ll be disappointed with the film, as one always is to a certain extent with films made from one’s favourite books. But I think they did a pretty good job with the first film, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the filmmakers have imagined Narnia in the years leading up to Caspian’s reign.

Here’s the first trailer, and if you’re a Narnia junky, take a look at news of the movie on NarniaWeb.

Hope for Europe has recently launched a new publication called Hope Magazine. It’s got some excellent articles which give a biblical perspective on Europe’s past, present and future. Sign up and you’ll be sent a .pdf of the Autumn 2006 edition which has an interesting article by Sir Fred Catherwood (former Vice President of the European parliament) on the way 2,000 years of Christian influence has formed the Europe of today. While you’re there take a look at the wider Hope for Europe site.

It’s edited by Jeff Fountain, European director for YWAM – definitely a commentator worth reading. He has a regular email newsletter entitled Weekly Word. I have enjoyed reading a positive perspective on what’s going down in Europe today, and what it means as a Christian to live as a person of hope. He also talks a lot about this in his book Living as People of Hope.