links for 2009-11-26
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More play goodness from Pat Kane around the way that play powers/shapes the development of the internet. Internet as playground and factory.
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I would follow me obviously! @watusi if you are interested. But I like the fact that Jesus is up there in the top 2.
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Hilarious! The beauty, the irony.
Add comment November 27, 2009
links for 2009-11-18
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Thought provoking graphic from the Google Internet Summit 09 via Matt Stone's blog on internet use on one day.
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Some thoughts from the Arch B of C on resisting the Pope's new Anglican Ordinariate – or Anglican priests and cross-over types.
Add comment November 18, 2009
As a Christian what should I read?
As you probably already know there is an ongoing anxiety that drives people to this blog – it’s the question of whether particular music is Christian or non-Christian and what it means to listen to it. The key posts that have generated interest and discussion are about Foo Fighters. I am intrigued by this debate and I wonder if it crosses into other media too.
I run an online web magazine for thinking Christian women called Ordinary Eve and recently I have been asked to review some books for a company called Alban Books. They are all very Christian focused and have reading notes at the end for reading groups or for personal reflection. Some of them are really great and some of them really aren’t (we have a policy on the site of recommending rather than reviewing so you will only get the good’uns from us and we won’t spill about the others).
It’s been interesting for me because, as a general rule, I don’t read specifically Christian fiction. This is partly because I think the quality may not be that good and partly because, as with music, I believe that popular culture is the culture we live in and there is nothing wrong with enjoying the pleasure of good writing whatever the religious or un-religious persuasion of the person writing. In fact GP Taylor when he talks to Christian writing audiences really tries to encourage them to aim for the popular market, not restrict themselves to the Christian agents and booksellers. And he’s topped the New York Times bestseller list so there must be something in his opinion, don’t you think?
So my question is – are there similar anxieties around reading as there are around music? Or is it just parental and priestly paranoia about “rock and roll lifestyles” that fuels a concern with modern music and no other media is perceived to be dangerous?
Add comment November 18, 2009
links for 2009-11-17
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Thought provoking graphic from the Google Internet Summit 09 via Matt Stone's blog on internet use on one day.
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Some thoughts from the Arch B of C on resisting the Pope's new Anglican Ordinariate – or Anglican priests and cross-over types.
Add comment November 18, 2009
Charter for Compassion
I am a big fan of TED, if you haven’t been there yet make sure you go because there is a lot of amazing content, speakers and ideas there to be enjoyed and reflected on, access to people who you would never have heard of otherwise. They have a prize for people who have innovative ideas to change the world. The most recent winner of this is Karen Armstrong who has asked for help to create and propogate a Charter of Compassion to try and bring peoples together under this banner.
At the moment I am confused about this, confused as to whether my assessment of it is wrong or right and I would love any feedback you have to bring to it.
Essentially I feel that creating a charter for something that is already enshrined in the religious systems of the world but is fundamentally ignored by political and economic powers is at worst pointless and at best utopian. Those people that would affirm this charter are essentially those who don’t need convincing. What will this charter acheive? Is it valuable to state the blindingly obvious?
It refers quite often (though it kind of tries not to ) on “religious conflict” missing the point that most “religious conflict” springs not from faith in God or a higher power, but from economic drivers (The Irish situation) or, more fundamentally, from ethnic differences (Bosnian/Serbian conflict).
I hesitate to sign up to this charter because, as a Christian, I should fundamentally be doing this stuff anyway and I don’t need to tell the world about it. I also don’t think adding my voice to this will change the nature of humanity, it’s too distant, to disengaged, it’s a feel good experience that requires nothing of us, nothing of the miltia crucifying Christians in Sudan, nothing of the soldier insulting and abusing Muslims in detention camps.
Plus – what is compassion, really? There are some interesting TED talks about compassion that give different perspectives that I think will help, but the site doesn’t give any direction as to the kind of situations in which compassion may not be the obvious response but might truly be needed. Apparently there will be suggestions about this so maybe I am jumping the gun!
There are many touching stories of compassion on the site, but this only proves that compassion is actually alive and well, it’s just not big enough or prevalent enough – and hasn’t that always been the case?
Well, I will take off my cynical hat now and say that I hope that this charter does increase the sum of compassion in the world, but if people who are already going to church or consider themselves ethical humans with a moral framework are not showing compassion already I fear this won’t change that.
Any thoughts? Maybe this is a cultural thing and I am being too English and reserved about it. Am I right in thinking that this just a feel good project that requires nothing of us or am I in fact refusing to be compassionate by not engaging in it?
Add comment November 13, 2009
Ecumenism and an apology
Firstly and before I go on to write about what I want to write about today I want to apologise for being so tardy in publicising the comments everyone made on Foo Fighters and the comment from LettyandDollyin our continued argument about what it means to be Christian (check it out as there are some really good points coming up and we all need to be clear where we stand). I have no good excuses I have just been rather busy!
And now to my main thoughts today. Today I have mostly been thinking about….
Ecumenism – Or why what the Pope said matters
I have lived a slightly unorthodox religious life. I am aware of that. I have worshipped in more churches in my short life than most people even visit. Because my father was in the forces we moved on average every 3 years. Some churches we went to were lively with large congregations, some churches were tiny, my family was the congregation. Some churches used guitars, some had statues of the Virgin and some even used incense. I have been confirmed as a Methodist and an Anglican ( in the same ceremony) I have married a Catholic and I visit a Catholic nun for spiritual direction and take retreats at a Catholic monastery.
With a background like this it is easy for me to see the common ground that we all have as Christians. Everywhere I have been accepted and loved by the Christians I have met – whether we hold the same beliefs about prayer, intercession and communion or not. Almost all liturgies are the same, down to the very words. (In fact our words and structure of worship as Christians are even incredibly close to the structure of a Jewish service I have been too – which shouldn’t surprise any of us.)
The point I am making is that our differences – our liturgies, our approaches, the physical things we hold so closely to that we think make us different from other denominations are really not that different. This is why what the Pope has done recently – allowing a kind of Anglican enclave to be grafted onto the Catholic Church while retaining many of the more distinctive Anglican prayers, liturgy etc to remain – is of great interest to me. It opens the doors to more Anglicans joining the Catholic Church in a kind of half way house move that means they can retain their Anglicanism but take communion with Catholics. And this issue of communion has always been the cause of most emotional worry and concern to me – specifically the refusal of the Catholic Church to allow Anglicans to take communion. The very point where we as Christians are supposed to be united, the unifying meal that springs out of the Jewish statement of identity in the Passover feast, the common action that distinguishes Christians from any other faith group- is restricted We can worship together, we can’t eat together. I feel a bit like the Samaritan woman whenever I go to a Catholic service (which I do quite a bit with my husband).
Why is this important? Well, maybe it will help to start to break down barriers between us. Maybe the stuck in the mud attitude of Forward in Faith to women priests and homosexuals will become the Trojan Horse by which we as Catholics and Protestants begin to discover our common language, instead of focusing on what divides us.
God does what he wants despite us, that is one thing I do know and anything that can draw us closer together should be celebrated. I watch with interest and with hope because when we finally leave this earth I can’t believe the first thing God is going to ask any of us is
“And what denomination are you?”
2 comments November 1, 2009
I have just spent a happy 15 minutes playing the latest game from the C4 education team and sixtostart. It’s called smokescreen and it’s a cunning way to engage C4’s education audience in real issues around online identity and digital safety etc.
Have a go to get into the mind of your nearest 14 year old – and get your nearest 14 year old to have a go so that they understand that implications and pitfalls of identity online.
Gaming well, learning well.
Add comment September 9, 2009
Summer of music 2
Hooray! Only 2 days to Greenbelt and I am rather over-excited (though that could just be the Diet Coke). Appropriately enough for any of you who have been following my discussions with LettyandDolly on the post links-for-2009-08-05 one of the first events is a talk entitled “Is Britain Christian and does it have to be?” so obviously I will be attending that!
Then looking forward to Ann Morisy’s talk on “time to re-envision our faith” – though I must declare an interest as she goes to my church – and to Pete Rollins who is always fascinating and is talking about “The birth of Christianity and the death of meaning.” and Jon Bounds on all things interwebs.
But this is about music! So who am I looking forward to hearing?
Duke Special
Athlete
Dans le Sac and Scroobius Pip
Royksopp (!!)
and Cornershop
And that is why I like festivals. I don’t have to move half an inch to hit a great band all weekend. Bliss.
Add comment August 26, 2009
links for 2009-08-05
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I went to PGL for my summer holiday camp experience but I really valued the first time I went to Greenbelt and was able to socialised with 30,000 other Christians. The chance to play and be yourself in a society where our faith is increasingly a minority one can only be valuable for young people who know what they believe.
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Downloadable paper on using web 2.0 in churches.
12 comments August 6, 2009
links for 2009-07-23
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It just made me laugh! And yoga can be very spiritual.
Add comment July 24, 2009
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