# Welcome to the Epistles! The Epistles reflection site is up and running. This is the [[Home]] Page, the first page you see when you access the Epistles. The first steps you might want to do: 1. [Register an account](/-/register). You need to do this if you want more than an anonymous account. Anonymous users are limited in what facilities are available. 2. [Edit your Home](/Home/edit)! Do not like the change? Visit the page [history](/Home/history) and revert any change ever made. 3. You can [attach](/Home/attachments) images and other files to any page and then display them and link to them inside the page. 4. [Create new pages](/-/create)! If you need help with the Markdown syntax, check out the [Markdown guide](/-/help/syntax). 5. Read the [user guide](/-/help) and learn about other features. If you have any suggestions, feature requests or run into any issues, please reach out and report them to John Hurst. # What is Epistles for? Well you may ask. It is an initiative of the Faith Development Group, and it is proposed as a "peer to peer instruction and faith enrichment tool". ## How does it work? We all have faith beliefs that we can share. Sharing these beliefs has two immediate advantages: a) both you and the person(s) you share with get to know what others believe, and b) hearing others beliefs give us insight in the depth and perceptions of faith, and makes us all aware of the intrinsic spirituality of others. But do we share that much? Yes, at church we can participate in what is usually a one-way sharing from leaders to the congregation, and that is itself intrinsically good. But if the congregation is (say) 100 people, then there are 99 other people to share with, and each of those sharings can work in both directions. So there is a total of 198 possible sharings! I suppose you might say "_But I can't possibly talk to 99 other people about my faith. I just don't have time to do that!_" Enter Epistles. You share once with the Epistles some of your faith understandings and beliefs, and immediately 99 other people can gain an insight into your perceptions of your relationship with God, and with Christ. Russell Crawford and Susan Karoly, in their leadership of 10am worship on Sunday 19 Jan 2025, spoke of each of us discerning the gifts of the spirit that we each might perceive. I have made a start on mine in my home page, [John Hurst](/-/JohnHurst). ## How is it different from other digital media? Epistles is a form of social media. Before you take offence, listen to how it is different from them. It is intended to be much less formal, much more casual, and a much more welcoming place to share conversations with other parishioners. It is a place for sharing, a place for jotting down insights that you may have gleaned from listening to a sermon, reading a book, watching TV, or just talking with fellow parishioners. We hope you see it the same way. ## Why the name "Epistles"? Sort of like the letters in the New Testament. Most of them were written by Paul the Apostle, as advice to fledgling faith communities learning to come to grips with the faith challenges of their day. We have different faith challenges, but may still learn a lot from reading not only Paul's epistles, but all those other "epistles" written by people of faith (think of _Letters and Papers from Prison_, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer). So too we may learn from the writings of our fellow parishioners, aka their jottings in this "Epistles". ## An Example I've just listened to Ian Fergusson's Australia Day reflections on One body, Many members. At the end, he asked us to turn to our neighbour and share our prayers for Australia Day. That's a wonderful opportunity, but think of the power of that sharing if it is with all of us, rather than just one other person. That is my prayer for these Epistles!