The Missing Blogger

What can I say?  Apologies for my absence.  I have been a little bit busy.  Moving house, silent retreating and ontological change can really cut into your internet time!

On Saturday I was ordained deacon in the Church of England!

Looks like I have finally made it to the beginning of my journey.

Guess I had better change the “about me” page

Inter-Faith Sharing Guidelines Drawn Up

The issue of how to share faith within a multifaith context is one that the church has been struggling with in West Yorkshire for many recent years.  I attended a two week residential training course as part of my ministerial training where we looked at issues of social cohesion and multi-faith working and was left feeling a little desolate.  My experiences were that other faith groups were derogatory and proselytising whilst we ourselves were discussing how as Christians we were to try to avoid these issues.  And at the same time there was always a nagging doubt in the back of our minds… something about… good news.

It is with this in mind that I excitedly read the news that The Christian Muslim Forum have come up with guidelines for how to share faith with integrity and respect for each other.  Living and working in West Yorkshire, this isn’t a hypothetical situation!  Lets hope that this filters down to the ground!

What Church Isn’t

An intersting post from Brad Ruggles.

I am Alive!!

Sorry I haven’t blogged in ages!  In the last month I have moved out of my flat, moved into temporary accommodation, moved into my new house and visited the wonders of Ancient Egypt.  As you can probably guess, this has been a really busy time!  Unfortunately I haven’t had internet access for over a month now other than through my mobile phone.  Not the best medium for metablogging over here at wordpress - more the microblogging tool really.

Whilst have been away, Jon has done a cartoon based upon my last post. Typical that I miss the conversation by being on another continent!

Next week I will have hot and cold running broadband in the comfort of my own home!  Time to deal with the 34gig of photographs I took whilst in Egypt.  That should be good relaxing preparation for ordination in two weeks time

The Relationship Between the Emerging and the Inherited Church

Now there are some things that you don’t expect to hear from a Cathedral Dean.  Here is the one I heard today:

The church needs to be more flexible. We’ve got too big and stagnant.  The institution is finding it difficult to move.  We need to man the lifeboats.

When ships relied upon sails they could become stranded because of a lack of wind.  When the wind drops you take to the lifeboats and pull the bigger ship along into the future.

Not being an ancient mariner I am unable to confirm the historical accuracy of his words.  However, it is a beautiful illustration for the future of the church.  Truly unexpected coming from one so high within the institution.  Very humbling!

Women in the Emerging Church

I think I will just leave it as a direct transcription of the Emergent Kiwi’s tweet.

Are all those people that throw rocks at emerging church for being male-centric blogging this? http://christianity21.com/

Moving On

Appologies to those of you who have come to my blog recently and discovered no new material.  I am currently sat in the middle of a house filled with boxes and the removal firm arrive tomorrow.  I move into the house in the Parish ready for… the scary bit when they ordain me at Petertide.  Eeeek!

I haven’t abandoned the blog and virtuality, merely had to deal with reality.  Packing, cleaning, decorating and stressing out.  Hopefully I will be back along soon with something new about something useful.

There is Nothing British about the BNP

The elections are looming.  Church Mouse has posted a blog about the BNP.

I’m not sure how I feel about this video response to the BNP but it does highlight the issue in quite an uncomfortable way.

Don’t let the BNP try to claim Jesus as one of their own.  It is time to stand up and be counted!  Get out and vote and use your cross wisely!

Church Based Blogs and Internet Communication

After to my recent post about Giles Fraser brief article for the Church Times about how blogs can be bad for the soul I have been carrying on as normal and occasionally dabbling in the internet.  However, I have been noticing a lot of home truths emerge from what Giles Fraser said.  I also went to a seminar on non-internet based church communication that I think also applies in this situation.  The third thing that informs this post is that I went on the train to the football on Saturday and watched Boro get beaten by Man Utd.

Dave Walker made perhaps the most poignant blog on the topic of Christian blogging by giving up trying to comment upon it.  I’ll leave him to speak for himself:

I’ve spent a lot of time going through blogs and comments this afternoon and had planned to write about some of the responses to the article. But I’ve found the experience to be (as Giles describes it) “bad for (my) spiritual health” so I’m just posting some links to those sites that I had planned to link to. I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions.

• Stand Firm: Giles Fraser: Thank you Lord I am not like those other bloggers….
• Mad Priest: Bishop Fraser defends his turf
• Philip Ritchie: Bad for the soul
• Frances Wookey: Love one another

I think his links make Giles Fraser points quite well.

Over the last few days on the blogsphere I have been really disheartened by the uncharitable nature in which people discuss things with each other.  It seems that there are many easy targets out there for Christians to stick the knife into each other.  I went to one particularly harsh blog article criticising a local thriving cafe church because it wasn’t “a valid church” as it wasn’t a traditional looking mass.  In theological ‘debate’, everyone tends to get a raw deal.  As a man, I noticed that ‘men’ tend to get a raw deal as one giant stereotypical collective.  As though all men are wife beaters and sexual predators.  But then I realised that women also get a raw deal in the ‘debate’.  Then I noticed that it also applies to ’conservatives’, ‘liberals’, ‘bishops’, ‘Catholics’, ‘protestants’, ‘homosexuals’, ’straight people’, ‘fresh expressions’, ‘emergents’, ‘traditional worshippers’, ‘traditionalists’, ‘foreigners’…. the list goes on forever.  People seem to be able to suspend reason when examining their own corner from which they come out fighting but are able to make ridiculous comparisons for those of a differing opinion.  I can’t count the number of times that I have seen people likened to one form of sex offender or another.  Things that people would never say face to face.

It strikes me that people are blogging from their own bedroom and as such feel like they are on “home territory”.  It is as if this gives a license to create or perpetuate wild stereotypes that are painted with broad brushes from the “home ground”.  It also allows a small group to appear quite big and gain momentum.  This is suspect is in much the same way that a football fan tends to be quite quiet in isolation whereas a football crowd tend to say some of the most outrageous things.  To illustrate, on the train to and from the football I was sat with Man Utd fans and we were getting on really well.  There was a bit of banter about the coming match and how we supported different teams.  This was contrasted as we walked to the ground where a big group of Man Utd ‘fans’ were chanting something horrific about the 96 dead at Hillsborough.

For Christians when we add the internet to the mix, a local issue can be circulated worldwide via email and blogs and a small group can arteficially inflate their numbers.  This petition for example started as a Church of Scotland matter and many Scottish people signed it.  If you scroll to the bottom you will see that it has become a hotbed of activity… for US, Brazilian, Chinese, Canadian and Australian petitioners.

The lecture on communication used the diagram I remember from teacher training to illustrate that what you say isn’t always what is heard.

As the transmitter makes the initial point, it is subject to the medium in which it is transmitted.  The music it is set to, the images used within or around the message, even the font used can convey part of the message.  Obviously for the feedback or reply, the message is subject to the exact same principles.

If the internet is the medium that is being used, it inevitably becomes part of the message.  I wonder if a more accurate internet version of the diagram would be:

 

Perhaps I need to take a break from virtuality for as Giles Fraser and Dave Walker have both pointed out it is becoming “bad for (my) spiritual health”.

Why blogs can be bad for the soul

An interesting article in the church times this week about Christians blogging.  What do people think?