A ROMANTIC DINNER, AND GREAT TIPS FOR MARRIAGE
The Marriage Course, a unique and practical seven week course will start on Wednesday 11th August at 6.45 pm at St Mark’s Anglican Church. The course is open to all married and cohabiting couples and covers many of the most challenging areas of marriage – money, communication, forgiveness, in-laws and sex. The Marriage Course is an excellent tool for couples in a time when Australia’s divorce rate is around 40%, and 37% of cohabiting couples split up before their child’s fifth birthday. The course provides practical tools and advice to help any couple improve and strengthen their relationship.
The course was started in 1996 by Nicky and Sila Lee at Holy Trinity Brompton in London. The total number of courses running worldwide is now over 3000 – in addition to those run across the UK, 68 other countries also run courses.
John Smith, a leader of the Brentwood Marriage Course said, ‘Building and maintaining a relationship over a number of years takes effort. The Marriage Course is great at providing practical tools that couples can use on a daily basis to help keep their relationship healthy.’
Each week of the course starts with a chance for the couple to have a romantic candlelit dinner together in a relaxing atmosphere. Then, there is a short talk on a specific subject, interspersed with film clips of couples sharing their own experiences and street interviews with people from around the world. The sessions feature regular breaks for the couple to chat about the topics. They sit at their own table and talk only to each other – there is never any group work. The topics covered include:
· Building Strong Foundations
· The Art of Communication
· Resolving Conflicts
· The Power of Forgiveness
· Good Sex
· The Impact of Family – Past and Present
· Love in Action
All couples are welcome, whether they’ve been together for one year or sixty-one years, whether they are married or living together, and whether they consider themselves to have a strong relationship or are struggling. Although the course is based on Christian principles, its practical tools are applicable to all couples whether they are churchgoers or not.
Simone and Rachid did the course. Simone said: ‘We’d been married for six years, and I thought we had a pretty good marriage. But it was great to take some time out each week to focus on our relationship away from all the distractions of family life. The Marriage Course helped us to talk through things that could have become problems in the future. We learnt that it’s no good just to sweep issues under the carpet – they need to be addressed so that there’s no room for resentment to build between us.’
Anyone interested in attending the course, which costs $150 per couple, including all meals, should contact Andrew Moore.