Progressive Evangelical Feed by IPC

A short while ago I checked out from the library and watched Missing, a movie starring Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek. It’s an intense political thriller by director Costa-Gavras. I did not know anything of Costa-Gavras, so I decided to do a little research on him. Costa-Gavras is one of the most respected directors today, the creator of political thrillers that expose government corruption and deceit.

Here is some information on Costa-Gavras from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costa_Gavras). Constantinos Gavras was born on February 13, 1933 to a poor family in the village of Loutra Iraias, Greece. His father had been a member of the left-wing branch of the Greek Resistance during World War II, and was imprisoned after the war as a suspected communist. Costa-Gavras went to France to study of law in 1951, and in 1956 he studied film. In his early years he worked with the famed French directors Yves Allegret, Jean Giono and Rene Clair. He directed his first film in 1965.

Costa-Gavras is reknowned as a master of the political thriller. Michael Wood, a teacher of English and comparative literature in Princeton, wrote in the booklet accompanying the DVD of Missing:

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Recession? What recession?

You can "google" this information from lots of sources, but Bill sent me this one from here, which seems most consistent with other sources.

I know my "Christmas Wish List" has been seriously cut. My family is, likewise, looking at gifts that are more "practical" as well as homemade.

That being said, it's also a sign of the times to be more generous with others whose "practical needs" are much more serious than our own.

What to get for that 'person who has everything'? How about a generous contribution in her/his name to an agency that helps those in need - at home or around the world?

Anyway, looks like too many of us will have too many places left to do our Christmas Shopping. Pray for all those who have or will lose their jobs. Pray for the leadership of this country. Pray for an end to the greed in our own hearts which equates getting "more stuff" with greater happiness that the greed in human hearts will be transformed into generosity.

Circuit City
155 stores closing
6 in NE Ohio
2 will remain open in NE Ohio

Ann Taylor
117 Stores to close nationwide
Closings planned over the next 3 years
No specifics announced

Lane Bryant

40 Stores closing nationwide

Fashion Bug
100 stores closing nationwide

Catherine’s

10 stores closing nationwide

KB Toys

150 stores closing nationwide
Akron location remains open

Eddie Bauer
27 stores closing nationwide

Cache
14 stores closed but several others open

CompUSA
All stores closed

Dillards
Closed Middletown, Ohio store in April

Disney Store
98 stores closed nationwide

Home Depot
15 stores closed nationwide
2 in Ohio – Findley & Lima
Won’t open 50 stores planned for 2009
Hurt specifically byeal estate crisis

Talbots
78 men's and children's stores closed by September

Fifteen furniture chains closed last year, up from 10 in 2006 and five in 2005, according to Furniture/Today, a trade publication. Two of the largest, Wickes and Domain, closed this year.

Pacific Sunwear
154 remaining Demo stores closing

Foot Locker
140 stores closing by end of 2008

Linens N’ Things
371 stores liquidating
All set to be closed by Jan. 1

Macy’s
Already Closed: Rolling Acres Mall
Akron Canton Centre, Canton
Randall Park Mall, North Randall

Movie Gallery
160 stores as part of reorganization plan to exit bankruptcy

Zales
100 Stores

J. C. Penney, Lowe’s and Office Depot are scaling back or delaying expansion. Office Depot had planned to open 150 stores this year, but will now open 75.

Sprint Nextel
125 retail locations

By Steve Knight:

Joshua Case in Atlanta says he is the new National Coordinator of Emergent Village … and so are you!

In this short video to launch a viral campaign (see below), Case says, “I, and a few friends of mine, are urging everyone who are involved in the conversation, wherever you are, to stand up and take your place within this conversation. ... Stand up and claim the role of National Director, so that we’re able to see this movement continue on.”

Troy Bronsink has added his voice, errr, written response (his microphone apparently doesn’t work), as well:

What about you? Add your voice by posting a video response to Joshua on YouTube.

UPDATE: There’s now a Facebook group you can join to show your solidarity: I Am the Emergent National Coordinator

UPDATE 2: Troy Bronsink expands upon this campaign to elect yourself the new National Coordinator of Emergent Village: “Sure this is tongue-in-cheek. [But] we need people starting things (like the regional gatherings that have risen up, the podcasts and blogs, the churches, the community organizing, the magazine ideas … people do do stuff around here!) instead of learning to expect EV to start things. This is what we say every month at the Atlanta Cohort, ‘Emergent belongs to you. Whatever you bring to the table, mixed with our four practices/values, and that equals emergent. No more. No less. So lets figure out what we want to make of it’ ...

“And as we evolve into a more centralized or increasingly decentralized conversation I think this is a chance for participants of the village, no matter what neighborhood you’re in, to lean into agency. Leaning into this is taking the risk of using our gifts … So, pull the sword out of your stone! Blaze a trail. Start your own Emergent neighborhood-inside-the-village. Your the people you’ve been waiting for.” Read the whole thing

Steve Knight is local organizer for the Charlotte Emergent Cohort and a member of the Coordinating Group for Emergent Village.

This time, Clumber, that brilliant cyberpup, has absolutely outdone himself.

This is the fourth and last in his series.

Fifty days off your time in Purgatory if you can name all the Cyberwitnesses.

Go and visit his artwork.

Be inspired. And remember:

Pray THROUGH the icon, not TO the icon.

By Tim Keel, re-posted from timkeel.com:

Mike Crawford is the worship pastor at Jacob’s Well. He came on staff here as an extreme act of faith seven years ago. Part of the deal was that we would raise money and build a recording studio. We did that. It took five years. It was finished less than a year ago with 90% of the design and labor led by Mike and built by a handful of men from our congregation on Monday nights.

Once the studio was completed, Mike began the process of recording a CD of the music created at Jacob’s Well over his time leading us. However, by the time the studio was finished and he was finally free to record, he had more music than would fit on one CD. It was at that point that Mike made the first of several great decisions: he decided to record it all and make it a double CD — 14 songs.

Listening to it draws me back to each of the passages of Scripture that animated the writing of it. It also reminds me of the life that has happened over the same time, a kind of soundtrack for our church. The whole thing is an amazing product of our community.

So, I hope you’ll take the opportunity to buy this record and consume it whole.

Mike Crawford and his Secret Siblings present Songs from Jacob’s Well Volumes I & II: “Even the Darkness Will Not Be Dark to You” — Order Online Now

UPDATE: Jake Bouma expounds on his earlier pronouncement: “I think this album is one of the best worship albums in the past 5 years, if not the best.”

Today, he concludes, “Buy this album immediately. If you’re a worship leader, try to buy it sooner than immediately. I could go on and on about Song’s from Jacob’s Well, but it will do you better to just experience it yourself.”

Watch Jake’s blog for his interview with Mike Crawford, which will be posted in several installments over the next week.

Tim Keel is the founding pastor of Jacob’s Well Church in Kansas City, Missouri. Tim also serves on the board of directors for Emergent Village.

Gregg DesElms from California contacted Crossleft and asked that this be published on the site. It is interesting and thoughtful. Jim

At the Nationwide Protest Against Proposition 8
On the steps of City Hall in Napa, California
Saturday, November 15, 2008 at 10:30 AM PST

Peace and Blessings to you all. My name is Gregg DesElms. Though I live in Napa, I am a sworn Deputy Commissioner of Civil Ceremonies for Santa Clara County, down in San Jose. And let me just get this out of the way up front: It’s a character flaw, I realize, but I am proudly heterosexual. So, for the next few minutes, if it’s okay with all of you, I’d like to talk about how being party to the same-sex marriage experience in the way that I have has affected this particular heterosexual.

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Now that I have your attention . . .

I often get emails from colleagues around the country, asking for my opinion/advice about difficult situations which arise from time to time in the parish. I am always honored, but truth be told, it is more often the case that I seek the advice of my colleagues when I get into a situation I feel completely unprepared to address with any sense of confidence or knowledge.

Sometimes I just call and sometimes we carry on a conversation in cyberspace. I'm always so grateful to know we have such wonderful, competent clergy in the Household of God. Yes, we have our 'clunkers' but for the most part, the ones who are stellar absolutely shine!

I have posted below my comments to a brother clergy who was about to have a couple from his congregation come visit him. Seems that this couple know a couple who have a young son. From the age of three, this young boy has identified as female.

The parents have supported that child in his gender identification, allowing him to wear feminine clothes and play with toys that are more typically embraced by the female gender of the species.

He's now off to elementary school and his parents have instructed his teachers to do likewise, including a feminine version of his name. Just for sake of conversation, let's say his name is 'Paul' and they've instructed the teachers to call him 'Paula'.

The parishioners who are friends of this couple find this distressing and have made an appointment with their rector to discuss it. My colleague wrote to ask for advice. Here's what I said.

A confession: I'm pretty much shooting from the hip here. I'm confident that I know what Jesus would do. The real reason for posting this is to ask, "What would YOU do?"

If there are those of you who read this blog who have information or access to information on this subject, I'd be deeply grateful to receive it.

Thanks to all of you in advance for what I know will be your brilliant information.

Oh wait. One last thing: The posters above are from the Would Jesus Discriminate? Campaign. You can find out more information and join the discussion here.

Okay, 0ff you go, then..

UPDATE: Today just happens to be Transgender Remembrance Day. You can find more information here.


My dear brother,

I have no doubt that others will have far better information than I and better access to appropriate resources - especially in your neighborhood. So, I'm a little hesitant to offer what little I know. I happen to have the evening off (thank you Jesus) so I have the time right now, and, because you know I adore you, I'm willing to give it my best shot.

Believe it or not, I've been in similar situations three times in the past 10 years. I have one kid in my congregation I've been watching for the past 6 years and I have no doubt that we're headed into "crisis" soon. He's now 10 and, well, I could be wrong, but I strongly suspect he has Klinefelter Syndrome - "genetically female, pragmatically male". (Ms. Conroy concurs, which is very important, as you know.)

This may be more information than you need or want, but very, very briefly this means that, instead of inheriting x chromosome from mom and y from dad, these men inherit an extra x chromosome from either mom or dad. They are either xx with an extra y or as xy with an extra x. At puberty, they do not develop facial or body hair or deep voices and heavy muscles and some experience breast growth.

So, for what it's worth, here's my best shot - not as a Transgender person but as a pastor - AND not knowing important particulars of your situation (neither, apparently, do you).

I'm going to give you some medical information, but please let it play as "background music" to your interactions with your parishioners. Your primary role is as their pastor. I don't have to remind you of that, but I don't want you to get too tied up in the medical information and lose your primary focus.

First: Forgive me, but I'm not clear: Is this a problem for your parishioners or for the affected family? You don't need to answer me, but get clear about this for yourself.

If it is not a problem for the "affected family", but it IS for your parishioners, then you begin, I think, with exploring with your parishioners their "problem" - their feelings - helping them work through the roots of their discomfort and offering some concrete suggestions about how they might be helpful to the parents and their child.

Be on the alert to see if this has touched something deeper in them and assess if you think they need to talk more about it with a professional in this field. Check beforehand to see what the appropriate referral resources are for them in your community. You might also want to check with those community resources in terms of booklets or recommended books you can provide them with.

If it is a problem for the affected family, which is a problem for your parishioners, then you are obviously on different path.

The first thing to remind yourself is that there is Sexual Identity and then there is Sexual Orientation.

Remember that there are four components to Sexual Identity

1. Biological Sex (various chromosomal, hormonal and anatomical factors)
2 His or her gender identification (sense of being male or female)
3. The person's social sex role (the cultural definition of being male or female)
4. The person's sexual orientation

It is important to remember that these four components are not isolated but interact with each other to form the whole, healthy human being.

There are, as you know, three components to Sexual Orientation

1. Arousal patterns (including fantasy)
2. Affective preferences
3. Behavior (patterns of physical contact with others)

In the interest of time, to put this very, very briefly and simplistically (understanding that it is a very complex issue), there are two possibilities of the cause of his gender identity "confusion" or "crisis."

(I apologize for those terms. They are not mine, but belong to the medical profession which, in Western medicine, has its basis in assumed pathology. They sound so judgmental, don't they? I'm sorry.)

1. Physical (chromosomes, hormones and anatomical factors)
2. Psychological (it's important to note that as a healthy term, not always indicating pathology)

1. Physical: We all learned in the 5th grade about chromosomes and that we "all" have an x = female and y = male chromosome. That's not exactly true. We don't "all" have xy chromosomes.

Some of us have xxy chromosomes, sometimes known as "Superwoman"

Some have xyy chromosomes, sometimes known, of course, as "Superman"

The interesting thing is that about one person in every 500 has a karyotype other than xx or xy. About one in 1,000 women has three x chromosomes instead of the usual two (me included, btw). Some have as many as 4 x plus two y's.

As recently as 1996, eight women in the Olympic Games tested as "not women" who had been observed while urinating and not disqualified on that basis - only after chromosomal analysis (Yes, one of the indignities of Olympic testing is that you have to be observed while urinating.)

To get right to the point: I would say that the first thing this kiddo needs is genetic analysis. If he hasn't been tested, your parishioners can be real friends in strongly urging the parents to speak to their pediatrician and get a referral to a pediatric genetic specialist. It's not the only answer, and the situation is much more complicated than a simple blood test, but it's an important place to begin to sort out the complex puzzle pieces to this child's identity.

2. Psychological

This has to do with this child's inherent and/or intuitive sense about being male or being female. He may have had a very early role identification 'crisis" or "confusion' which is not unusual but it is significant. From the copy of your parishioner's email to you I'm reading some negative judgment on his/her part in terms of how the parents have approached this (Of course, I could be wrong, but that's how I read it.).

There is no way of knowing - for them or us - whether or not the parent's approach to this was correct or incorrect, from a psychological standpoint. Which leads me to this piece of advice:

Along with the genetic testing, the child needs to be seen by a pediatric psychologist or psychiatrist for further assessment and testing - preferably in concert with the pediatric genetic specialist. The best approach would be to find a 'team' that works on this issue. I know there are several clinics in NYC and Boston as well as one in Baltimore at Johns Hopkins, where some of the original work by John Money was done. I can't believe your local Medical Center or some equivalent teaching hospital doesn't have this resource.

Again, many people hear: "He needs a psychological or psychiatric evaluation" and immediately interpret it as judgment or a message of some sort of pathology. That is absolutely not the case. This is about acquiring information that will help put the puzzle pieces together to help make this child - this family - whole (if, in fact that is part of the "problem")

The important thing for you in your role as pastor is to reduce the anxiety and distress of your parishioners.

1. Allow them to express these feelings in the open, non-judgmental, non-anxious presence of their trusted and loving pastor.

2. Active listening - including check in and feedback at appropriate intervals like, "So, I'm hearing you say ____, is that right?"

3. Provide them with information that gives them the message that this is not "the end of the world," or "an abomination"; that this kiddo is a Child of God and not a "freak"; and that his parents, if they haven't already, need to seek out and secure the services of professionals who can help them help their child grow into a whole, healthy human being, with a positive gender identification that may differ (at least, right now), from his external, physical gender identification - whatever that might be.

4. Have some resources to give them to better educate themselves. I urge you to do that for yourself, as well. I have been helped enormously by Virginia Ramey Mollenkott's "Omnigender" - chock full of good information and stories. However, I don't know your parishioners so I don't know if that would be an appropriate place for them to start their own educational journey.

There are lots of other books and resources. You might want to visit the TransEpiscopal webpage and leave a message for some assistance and advice.

There's lots. lots more to this, including all the components of the term 'Transgender', but I'll stop here. Don't hesitate to call me if you need to talk this through.

God has called you to do a mighty work of justice and peace with this family. I know you will be as much of a blessing to them as you are to us all.

By Brent Bill, re-posted from Holy Ordinary:

Well, it’s drawing nigh, a least. Based on Phyllis Tickle’s book of the same name, The Great Emergence will be a time of worship, discussion, dreaming, interaction, and thinking about the current state of and future possibilities for Christianity.

Tickle’s thesis that the Great Emergence that is upon us is a once in a five hundred year event should, by itself, lead to lots of lively discussion and debate. After all, that’s a pretty audacious assertion, to compare what it is happening in the Emergent movement to the Great Schism, the Great Reformation, and other “Great” motions and seismic changes throughout Christian history.

And so is her statement that “It is not unreasonable to assume that by the time the Great Emergence has reached maturity, about 60% of practicing American Christians will be emergent or some clear variant thereof.”

That’s a pretty heady prediction. And one that has huge ramifications for those of us who gather in congregations, work with congregations, and teach leaders of congregations. What does the Great Emergence mean for us?

I invite you to join the discussion by attending The Great Emergence. And, on the day before the event (December 4), various hypenated-emergent groups are meeting (Presby-mergents, etc.). If you’re a Convergent (emergent Quaker) or other interested Friend, come early and join in a discussion of what it means for Friends. I’ll look for a place for lunch and discussion. Contact me if you’re interested in such a meeting!

Learn more about The Great Emergence National Event
(December 5-6 in Memphis, TN) and register online now

Editor’s Note: Please enter “BLOG” in the “Coupon Code” field when you register. You won’t save any money, but you just might help send an intrepid blogger to the event with you for free!

Brent Bill is executive vice president of the Indianapolis Center for Congregations and the author of Sacred Compass: The Art of Spiritual Discernment.

I don't know, you tell me, but I think the look on the Queen's face in that last frame says it all.

Perhaps His Grace is making his own ungracious comment about the millinery fashion statements of his wife and daughter.

Somebody cue the Fab four:

Calling it "an outrageous and horrifying crime," Janet Murguía, President and CEO of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States, condemned the fatal beating of a Long Island man on Saturday night. Marcello Lucero, a 37-year-old man from Patchogue, Long Island, was the apparent victim of a hate crime by seven teenagers who were arraigned today for his murder. According to Newsday, Suffolk County police say that the defendants "simply wanted to beat up someone who looked Hispanic."

"While we are grateful that the authorities have taken swift action," Murguía said, "it is important for all Americans to understand that this is part of an alarming trend taking place nationwide." FBI hate crime statistics show that attacks against Latinos have been on the rise over the past four years. Similarly, the Southern Poverty Law Center has reported that the number of hate groups targeting Latinos and immigrants has also increased over the same period.

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On November 8, 2008, Marcello Lucero was brutally stabbed to death by a group of teenagers because they thought he was Mexican. In response to the murder of Lucero, local authorities have encouraged others who have been victims of similar crimes in Long Island to come forward. Last night, WCBS-TV reported that a second Long Island resident, Carlos Orellana, alleged a similar gang attack. Orellana asserts that his assailants' attacks were coupled with racial slurs.

These race-related crimes are not anomalies in Long Island. The AP reports that "tensions" over immigration have been acute in Suffolk County for years now. A brief review of recent history reveals that:

Eight short years ago, two Mexican men were beaten in Farmingville by people who had offered them work. Farmingville is ten miles from where the stabbing of Lucero occurred.
On the Fourth of July in 2003, teens set fire to the Farmingville house of a Mexican family who barely escaped with their lives.
In 2005, four teens attacked two Mexican immigrants fishing in Long Island. Shouting racial slurs, the teens beat and stole both of the victims' money.

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Bloggers,

This Thursday (11/20) at 11am EST (8am PST), the Long Island Immigrant Alliance, the Workplace Project, the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC) and the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) will be holding a call for bloggers on last week's Suffolk county hate killing. A man was killed last week because a couple of teenagers were looking to do some damage to a "Mexican". The action of these teens, all under 18, however, is only the latest expression of hate happening in Long Island and the nation as a whole. The tragic death of this man must be seen as an urgent warning and call to action. We will be holding a call to talk about this horrible crime in Long Island, as well as the broader national implications this Thursday, at 11am EST. To date, there has been some media coverage of this incident but there needs to be more. We are hoping to bring more attention to this issue through this call. What happened last week is an outrage and we need to have elected officials and local communities taking note and ensuring that another death is prevented before it's too late.

Please RSVP for this important event to kesquivel@nclr.org. Send any questions you have in anticipation of this call to kesquivel@nclr.org.

What: Blogger Call on Suffolk Hate Killing
When: Thursday, 11am EST
Where: Call in #: 712-432-1620; Access code: 540585 #

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By Daniel Ehniss:

There is a young movement here in Germany which carries the name »Emergent Deutschland«. After some years of informal networking of people who were asking questions on how to follow God in the way of Jesus in our culture, three friends decided to ask some of the people they knew if they were interested in establishing some form of network where these questions could be thought and talked about in a more open way. Relationships had been growing on a personal level either through meeting or the Internet, and we wanted to open the dialogue up to people we didn’t know at that time. As a result of that, about 10 people met in early 2007 to talk about possibilities of an open network for people seeking new ways of following God in our time.

The first time this network arrived on the surface was in late 2007 when we organized two day-conferences with Brian McLaren and Jason Clark in Marburg and Hamburg. The official start of the open network called Emergent Deutschland took place on our first Emergent Forum on the first weekend of the Advent. On that weekend we had some inputs from Brian and Jason, hosted some workshops by people from the network and had time for open space. A lot of people attended the first forum and connected to something which was a movement that was realized by more and more people here in Germany, and the emergent conversation started to shift from an informal movement to a movement with faces, a place to meet, and people to connect with.

One of our goals for the first forum was to create a space for people to connect and interact on topics they wanted to go deeper. The so-called initiatives ranged from church planters, emergent communes to social justice, a group concerned with equality of women and men, and a group for theological dialogue. Beside these initiatives who grouped around topics, some local initiatives began. In this last year, a lot of interaction on different levels throughout this network took place, and the initiatives gained momentum. As a result of this, the upcoming Forum will focus on the dialogue taking place in the emergent movement. We will meet from November 28 to 30 in a historic church building in Erlangen.

This year’s forum will start Friday night (November 28) with moderated dialogue on dinner tables where we want to open up space to share stories and talk about questions and insights. On Saturday (November 29), there will be two short inputs about contextualisation and equality, which will be surrounded by dialogue at the tables. The afternoon is for workshops and open space which will result in an open night with sharing the thoughts of the afternoon. On Sunday (November 30), we will share what happenend in the initatives and will talk about the formal structures of the network. We will blog about the forum on our blog (which Google Reader can now translate for you from German into English). If you are reading this and are interested in attending the forum, you are warmly welcomed, and we would love for you to sign in on our website.

Daniel Ehniss is a father, theologian, webdesigner, and coffeelover who lives in Karlsruhe and is part of the emergent movement in Germany.

Originally posted at Talk to Action.

The Catholic Right, Part Seventy-two

In the wake of the passage of California's Proposition 8, I was left wondering how such a forward-thinking state could simultaneously help propel an African-American to the White House while denying gay people the dignity of marriage equality. I was also left wondering about the misplaced priorities of a vocal and increasingly belligerent faction of the hierarchy, and how that faction and its allies are adversely affecting both American Catholicism and the greater society.

The hierarchy along with the prominent assistance of the Knights of Columbus did more than its share to roll back marriage equality in California. But among the reform minded Catholics that spoke out against Prop. 8, was the independent Catholic lay group Call to Action.

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Recently I watched Amen, a Costa-Gavras film about an SS officer and a Jesuit priest trying to get the Vatican to denounce the Holocaust. It was very critical of the Pope for his feeble response to the atrocities being committed against millions of Jewish lives. How fair is that criticism? I decided to research the actions of the two popes during the 1930s and 1940s and see how they reacted to Adolph Hitler and his policy against the Jews. Pope Pius XI, the pope during most of the 1930s, was increasingly confrontational of Hitler and the Nazis as their actions began to affect more people. Pope Pius XII, the wartime pope, privately approved of sheltering Jewish refugees in church property, but he never publicly condemned the shipping of Jews in concentration camps and the killing of Jewish lives. The two different reactions of the two popes offers a microcosm of the way religion has dealt with authoritarian governments and atrocities against its citizens.

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By Nic Paton:

Being a hermeneutically-inclined generalist, I am always fascinated by the potential of discovering even a tiny grain of meaning. Now as you may know hermeneutics is the art and craft of interpretation, generally between languages or contexts, or as in the question to hand, the (relatively) new blogging medium.

The new media
I grew up with pre-millennial categories of communication: telephones for talking, telegraphs for fast writing, “snail” mail for slower writing, faxing for instant written transmission, books at the long wave end of the written spectrum, 33 rpm albums for big musical ideas, and 45 rpm for silly ditties, radio for broadcast music, Walkmans for personal music, cinema for serious visual art, television for popular visual broadcast, Oxford Dictionary and World Book for looking stuff up, and a guitar (just to “punish my ma”).

Now of course, its email, Skype, cell phones, iPod, Xbox, DVDs, mp3, Facebook, YouTube, Google, Amazon, Imax, wiki, and Ableton Live, in addition to some hardy survivors from the last century. But it’s not only the media which have changed; it’s the job descriptions too.

My medium of choice over the last two years has been Blogging. After 50,000 hits and copious contributions to people’s blogs, I consider myself in a position to do some hermeneutics on my praxis.

A new vocation
As a blogger, who am I? Who have I done out of a “job”, and what vocations have I been part in creating?

Firstly, I am an author, wrestling with ideas and words. But also a journalist, writing for “immediate release”. Oh yes I’m also my own scribe and secretary, layout artist, and publisher. I deal in fonts, illustrations, proofreading, footnotes, and references. I research, investigate, connect, edit, and crosscheck. For starters.

Many a time I have felt like a pastor, dealing with questions of theology, community, and spirit. Or therapist, fielding peoples intimate questions, or their unprocessed “stuff”. At times, conversations have got quite heated, entertainingly so, and I feel like a talk show host. Curating and facilitating the threads of culture in the making, I run both casual and structured polls. [Geek alert] It’s helped to have worked with programming languages and computer technologies, because I want wierd_picture_2.bmp to open in a new browser, but this hyperlink to trigger some client side script. [End geek alert]

Very occasionally, I get to offer an expert opinion. I can pontificate on music, database technologies, and some theology. But it’s really not about me; the buzz comes from being part of something infinitely larger than my own big world. I probably should concentrate more on my art: Composing, Recording, and VJ projects, but there is too much going on, a lot of conversations to be part of. Or so I tell myself.

Guttenberg ++
Blogging is a fascinating conglomeration of ideas. It draws on multiple earlier technologies and practices, but results in something distinctly different. In my opinion, it is a good realisation of what is referred to in SciFi and Sociology as “the groupmind”.

Blogging is conversational, yet written rather than spoken. It is conversational, yet recorded and retained, unlike the spoken which is transient. A place between music and painting, performance and the plastic arts, in words. It is written, yet instantly published. It is more mediated than a voice conversation, yet less mediated than a letter to the editor (and weirdly, although it is written, it is easily forgotten). It supports multiple media and hyperlinks to relevant (or not) ideas.

A good example of the new conception of a traditional concept is the Open Source Sermon, organised by Rob Brink. For a postmortem, see his retrospective. Ikon, of course, have to take it one further in their Open Source Community.

A new Gospel?
The 21st century has brought with it a revolution in communications. That is precisely why I am fascinated with the Gospel and hermeneutics at this juncture. Most of our classic issues as Christians are being deconstructed and re-imagined.

In the history of the written word, we have moved from the single immutable authoritative source (The Hebrew scribe tradition), through a world of diverse epistles (The New Testament), through the subsequent canonization of the Bible (Between 150 and 420 A.D.) in a written orthodoxy, the dissemination and popularisation of that canon (The reformation), through an exponential curve of cross-cultural translation, to now: a multi-source, multimedia, pluralistic, constantly changing river of ideas.

I am struck between the interplay of the Hebraic Dabhar (Word), and the Greek Logos (written, timeless?) and Rhema (spoken, revealed?) notions. Upon examination it appears that very few usages of the phrase “Word of God” refer exclusively to the written scripture. The usual expression of the Word is breathed, spoken, or enacted.

I wonder if post enlightenment overemphasis of Logos (as the written) has not resulted in the Modern inability to appreciate conversation, mystery and metaphor, and ultimately grace? And whether blogging is not an expression of a need to return to some of the pre-modern ideas of “The Word”.

So engage, if you will, brave new emergent tribe, these questions:

What limitations with the written are not overcome by the blogging paradigm? Are we repeating our mistakes?

If the gospel is both message (content) and medium (form), how is it “incarnating” into socially networked online culture? Is it in fact possible to “become flesh” in a virtual, non-physical environment?

What might distinguish the Christian message from any other message out there? How must that message adapt in the saturated, online, multimedia, world?

Nic Paton—Postmodern Liturgist, multi-instrumentalist, VJ, and scullery theologian—lives in Cape Town, South Africa, and contributes to Emerging Africa.

Our Clumber has been a very busy pup. Painting icons, he is.

In this one, he reminds us, "Pray THROUGH the icon not TO the icon."

Good call, mate.

And THIS one leaves me speechless and unable to pray - save rolling my eyes to heaven and wishing it would go away.

He's quite a pious pup, that Clumber.

How many "Saints and Sinners" can you name?

In this short video, filmed during Soularize 2007, N.T. Wright discusses the decline of the church in the West, it’s growth in the “developing world,” and the possibility of a post-emerging church:

“I see possibilities for a post-post-modern Christian faith, which will look quite different from the modernist forms, due to the liberal and conservative stand-off which we still suffer from. And which will look different also from to the postmodern form, which the emerging church has to live in because that’s where we are at the moment. But there will be something out beyond that.

“You can’t put postmodernity on a pedestal and say, ‘There we are. We’ve got it. Because we aren’t modern anymore, this is where we’ve got to stay forever and ever.’ You can’t live like that. We have to see ourselves as in transition to something different, to something bigger …”
—Bishop N.T. Wright

(HT: View From The Basement via Mike Todd)

Note: As I wrote yesterday, this past Sunday was our twice-a-year celebration of the ministry of our young people. The Confirmation Class, along with the High School and Middle School Youth Groups plan the liturgy, read the lessons, lead the prayers and the hymns they select, bring up the oblations and give the dismissal.

The process tests my patience, leads me to question my already questionable sanity, and the high energy of the service leaves me completely exhausted, but at the end, I'm delirious with joy.

This year, two kids gave the testimony in place of the homily. I am so proud of them I could simply burst.

I present them to you with joy and pride. They are gospel parables of how investing your blessings in unlikely places like two adolescent boys will return to you in double measure, pressed down, and overflowing. (See Matthew 25:14-30)

2008 Mission Trip Reflection
by Jeffrey

This summer started off perfectly for me, I hung out with friends, went to the pool and just relaxed. And then came the news that would cause a wrinkle in the fabric of my carefully laid out summer plains.

That wrinkle was the 2008 mission trip to Parsons KS. When my mom informed me that I would be going I complained, moaned and pestered her not to make me go. If you did not know what me and my mom are talking about, who would believe that she was about to violate the Eighth amendment preventing cruel and unusual punishment?

Well all of my complaining did little because I found myself on the morning of July 20th standing on line to weigh my bags at Newark liberty international airport. The trip to Kansas City Missouri took about three hours and once there we had to rent a minivan and two SUVs to carry us the rest of the way to Parsons, KS.

During the trip, I got to meet some of the people who would be leading the trip. There was Tim the master planer, John the talented musician, Suzy the person who kept every body real and Courtney the toy maker ( no really that what she dose).

The road portion of the trip confirmed what many people had told me to expect in Kansas and to sum it up in one word: corn, lots and lots and lots of corn.

Now Parsons proper is a lovely little town with small stores and quaint little shops and other nick-knack stores. However, the houses were in a much more dire shape. Many looked as though they had not been painted in well over fifteen years and some had roofs that where sagging. This was just a hint of what was to come.

We arrived at Parson’s middle school a little late due to the fact that we were one of the few groups to have flown. My notions about the trip soon began to dissipate. The school was air conditioned and the room that we would sleep in was quite comfortable. We ended up sharing the room with a Lutheran church group from Illinois.

Later on we were all assigned into different work crews with different tasks. My crew was assigned to fix up a house whose family had adopted seven, yes seven kids. The father was a minister and the mother was a teacher’s aid. They told me a few years back a terrible tornado had come through and wrecked havoc on the town. A tree had blown into there house and they had barley enough money to pay for the repairs. Since then they had not been able to paint their house or keep up with scheduled maintenance.

That is where we come in. We helped paint a whole side of a three story house. We replaced a section of the porch and then primed and painted the whole front of the house. After that, we sanded and painted the side of a toy house so that the family’s younger kids could once again play in it.

After the first day of work we received a pleasant surprise from our resident’s father. He brought us donuts and told us how long he had prayed and looked for help to come to this all but forgotten town. A few moments later, a van carrying cold water donated from the local newspaper came around and believe me this was very welcome in a climate of hot and humid weather.

These two events got me thinking about the theme of this trip which was “Love Out Loud”. All throughout the week we had heard this slogan “Love Out Loud”. The term had been discussed in detail at our nightly devotions, but I still did not understand what it means to “Love Out Loud”?

This was a question that had nagged at my thoughts throughout the week, but after the week was over, I believed I had finally understood what “Loving Out Loud” is. Mind you, different people may have completely different interpretations, but here is mine.

In Chatham, New Providence and Madison, we have only begun to be affected by this worsening economy, but this town of Parsons, KS had lingered on the brink for so long and finally pushed over by a devastating tornado. They had prayed for help to rebuild and to reenergize the community, but most of all, to not be forgotten. To know that people would hear about what happened to this community and come help.

That help came when 12 kids from Chatham and hundreds others from around the country gathered for a week of rebuilding houses, but more importantly, rebuilding lives and families. This is “Loving Out Loud”.

Showing people that you care and that they are not invisible and help is out there. “Loving Out Loud” is the volunteers from the local newspapers who came to the homes we were working on and gave us cold water on the hottest days. “Loving Out Loud” is the cafeteria ladies at the Parsons Middle School who prepared our meals and fed us.

Remember that wrinkle in the fabric of my carefully laid out summer plans I told you about in the beginning? Well that wrinkle was the best thing that happened to me over the summer! Amen.

2008 Mission Trip Reflection
by Gregory

Parsons, KS was my second mission trip and with each mission trip, I learn a little more about myself. I feel lucky to live in a town like Chatham and going to places like Belize and Parsons, KS and seeing how people live in other parts of the world makes me realize how fortunate I am.

My work crew for the week consisted of youth from Texas, Illinois and Minnesota. We worked hard everyday at our resident’s home and we would share stories about our home states. Our resident’s house we worked on was damaged six years ago in a tornado and the assignment we were given was to repaint the entire house. We worked hard and completed our project in four days and the family thought their house looks great!

Our family consisted of Colleen the Mom, who worked at the local paper, her daughter and her grandson. It felt so good helping this family and I know the people of Parsons were glad we were there.

The people of Parsons were very nice and would come up to us and thank us. One man even gave us money, which our work crew decided to use for the family. We bought a toy truck for Colleen’s grandson and also a picture frame with a picture of our work crew in it so Colleen would always remember us.

Every night after dinner, we would have evening program with everyone followed by devotions with our youth group. Devotions are a time when we would gather with our youth group and chaperones to reflect and share our day’s activities with one another.

Every night we were tired, but had such a feeling of accomplishment knowing we were helping people who needed us and giving of ourselves. We would then relate what we had done to bible passages and sing songs lead by John Mayer, one of our chaperones. Every night the St. Paul’s group would get together, play games and have bedtime stories. It was a great bonding experience for us.


Wednesday night is known as “cry night”, which lived up to its name. It was a time to reflect on your life and choices we’ve made and this made me realized how much my family meant to me. I’ll admit, I don’t always tell my family how much they mean to me, so I decided to call my Mom that evening to let her know…and of course I got her voicemail, but I left her a message which she received later that evening and she too cried!

As I reflected on my week, I thought of all the new friends I have made and still keep in touch with. The things I have learned about myself like being able to set my mind on a project and completing it. I realized how much faith plays in my everyday life and that giving of yourself makes you feel good. I also realized how much of a difference one person can make and that it really doesn’t take that much effort.

When I got home, I wanted to keep that feeling and spirit from the mission trip going, but I found it difficult as I adjusted back to “real life”. In an attempt to keep that feeling and spirit from the mission trip in my everyday life, I try to do something to help my Mom or grandparents every week, to give back to them what they have given to me… unconditional love.

I am looking forward to our next mission trip in June 2009 to West Virginia and all the new experiences that will bring. Amen!

There is a conspiracy afoot in the church, one that I'd like to invite you to join.

The Diocese of Massachusetts recently passed a resolution to ask the National Episcopal Church at General Convention, July, 2009, to add St. Andronicus and Junia on the calendar of Lesser Feasts and Fasts on May 17 for trail use basis.

The Diocese of Newark, where I am resident, will also consider it at our Diocesan Convention in January.

You can read the explanation below, but I'll give you a little heads up on the bottom line reason: "Adding this feast to our calendar would balance it so that it would reflect the truth that the Risen Christ entrusted the Gospel ministry to both men and women."

I think that's a great reason, don't you? If you do, feel free to cut and paste the resolution below and submit it to your diocese for consideration.

Join the conspiracy to make the church's calendar of Saints more representative of the fullness of our vocation - lay and ordained - to the ministry of Christ Jesus.

And, if your not Episcopalian, talk it over with your priest anyway and be prepared to have an interesting conversation.

If you are of a religious persuasion that doesn't include 'the saints', or should you not belong to any 'organized religion' (not that the Episcopal Church is all that 'organized' a religion), consider doing a little research on these two saints, and let their lives inspire you to conspire with us.

I mean, really: when was the last time you were invited into a religious conspiracy?

Never mind. Don't answer that. Read on:

Feast of St. Andronicus and Junia

Resolved that this ___ convention of the Diocese of Newark submit to the General Convention to add to the calendar on a trial use basis the feast day on May 17 for Saints Andronicus and Junia, Apostles, mentioned in Romans 16:7 and venerated for 1400 years in Eastern Orthodoxy and for over three decades in Anglican Churches in the U.S.A. and Canada.

Explanation:

The Bible verse mentioning these saints, written by St. Paul, says, “Greet Andronicus and Junia, my relatives and prison companions; they are notable Apostles, and they were in Christ before me.” These Apostle saints who model evangelism, building up local Churches, women and men working together in the Church, prison ministry and faithfulness despite persecution—all needs of the Church today—are suitable models in the Communion of Saints for all the baptized. We believe this feast can function with these different emphases as supplementary and complementary for different people, not contradictory or competing concerns. Paul called them outstanding Apostles and we feel it would be fitting if the wider church would honor them in like fashion.

Since 1984 some parishes in the Episcopal Church have celebrated this feast day, long hidden from our knowledge by the mistranslation of Junia’s name in Romans 16:7. (The evidence for the correct translation has now been well documented by Dr. Eldon J. Epp.) God the Holy Spirit gave both these saints gifts, and the Spirit is giving men and women in our diocese gifts, and we can see how our call to use our gifts for the mission of the Church is an echo of their discipleship. They also represent for us our acceptance of the Spirit calling both men and women to all lay and ordained ministries in our Church.

Adding this feast to our calendar would balance it so that it would reflect the truth that the Risen Christ entrusted the Gospel ministry to both men and women. The Diocese of Massachusetts began formal trial use observance of this feast in 2007, and by 2008 parishes in at least seven dioceses observed this feast, from Rome to Iowa to Texas to Hawaii. In 2009 even more parishes and dioceses will be observing this feast.