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Talk Amongst Yourselves: I've been comitted.
2008-05-28 11:24:00
I was reading an article the other day about the famous (imfamous) media campaigner Mary Whitehouse; where she was described as "a comitted Christian". What struck me was that in the context of the article this was not a good thing - indeed it was a signpost that Mary Whitehouse was barking mad and bloody annoying. I paused for a moment and tried to recall the times I've seen that description applied to people in various articles - and sure enough, every time it carried an ostensibly negative connotation.In some respects it seems to me that the description "a comitted Christian" works the same way as when a reporter or news-reader describes someone as a "homosexual" rather than as gay or lesbian. It's "code" for this person is depraved, sick, and needs both our pity and our disdain.What is even more intriguing to me is that I am unable to think of examples of positive tags for "comitted Christians" who are appearing in articles or reports. That is, just as lesbian, or gay, is the ...
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Life, Links & Das Elefant
2008-05-17 16:28:00
It's always nice to come across useful resources online. I thought I'd share these couple with you by way of saying: "I'm still here, and Oh, check these out . . . "Religion News Service - their tagline is that they are a secular news service dedicated to unbiased reporting of religious news. As many of us know - regardless of your particular tradition - "unbiased" religious news is sometimes hard to come by.Religion & Ethics News Weekly - Another fine PBS based program. I've been enjoying it for the past six or eight months. Check out this week's report on Muslim televangelism - very interesting.While you're hopefully enjoying these I'm going to be doing battle with Das Elefant. I think I've finally cut off the legs.
More About: Life , Links

Why?
2008-05-01 10:55:00
My friend Micki Shirey a UCC pastor in Oregon has a lovely blog here. She's been "tagged" with a simple, but rather interesting question - why blog? what are the rules? and of course the obligatory tag three others. I'll start by saying, Chris, John, and Tim are "IT"!Why do I blog? Hmmmmm . . . . well I've got two blogs and each serves a different function. I'm posting different answers on the other so you'll have to visit that one too (grin). Here, my purpose is to explore and give voice to things OC/IC I think we as a movement need to be more visible, not less; and we need to articulate our ideas and theologies from an OC/IC perspective rather than falling into step with the tunes of other traditions. I believe that in sharing our story, in exploring our ideas with one another we discover that as diverse as our motley movement is, we share more in common with one another than we sometimes think. I think that in that process of talking, sharing, and realising common ground, we...

Christ is Risen!
2008-04-29 09:55:00
Happy Easter everyone! I'm soooo far behind on projects - other than trying desperately to finish the thesis from hell (Das Elefant) so I've yet to post a "proper" Pascha message, or the not quite finished updated version of the Indie Voices web pages, or any of the interviews I conducted just before lent . . . sigh. Most of my energy has been expended on Das Elefant because I'm determined to finish the damn thing soon. I'm almost there, just a little bit further, I can almost feel that final draft in my hand . . . . aaaargh!Needless to say we've been celebrating here at GCHQ and hope you have been too. We've decided to leave the WFP logo and link up for a while longer - as many of you are aware the international food crisis is in full swing. I read in this weekend's paper that if you give up meat one day a week you'll make a substantial positive impact on your so called carbon footprint. What is more - cattle take up something like 3 times the amount of grain to produce 1kg...
More About: Christ

My Kingdom Is Not of This World: An Imperfect Reflection on the Olympic Tor
2008-04-09 11:02:00
Over the past few days I?ve been watching with interest the protests facing the Olympic torch as it went from Greece, to London, to Paris, and yesterday to San Francisco. This weekend, prior to its arrival in London, a number of public figures, including Steve Redgrave, spoke out against the protests saying that sport should not be the pawn of politics. These figures were ostensibly making the argument that the messy symbolism and realities of ?politics? are and ought to be distinct from the ?pure? symbolism of Olympic sport.The problem with this line of argument is that it falls flat on its face in the first instance. A quick glance at the IOC?s own material on the Olympic ideal demonstrates that the Olympic organisers themselves are unable to separate themselves from the real world ? indeed, they are compelled to be fully involved in bringing about positive political change. The Olympic Truce is a prominent feature on the IOC?s web site describing the Olympic charter. Here they em...
More About: Kingdom , World , Social Justice , Reflection

Myth vs. Logos - Ways of Considering Belief
2008-04-01 10:38:00
I?m nearly finished reading Karen Armstrong?s A Short History of Myth (ISBN 1841956449), in which she makes a statement that fits well with something I said in this post last week regarding the debate between science and religion. Armstrong describes two ?categories? myth and logos. Logos , she says is concern with fact ? observable, measurable, fact. Myth, on the other hand reaches into our inner self and (along with our accompanying actions) transforms our character, our ?person?. That is of course until, due to circumstances such as changes in society, that myth is no longer able to reach us, and inspire.One of the drawbacks of having codified our mythology in writing is the fact that unlike predominately oral societies that allow the mythology to develop - once written our mythology ceases to change.Up until about the time of the Reformation, myth and logos, in western society, were complimentary. Since then logos has overtaken, and indeed is used to undermine myth. Thus, when w...
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Lunch For One - Feed A Family
2008-03-27 12:44:00
A week or so ago a bushel of wheat reached a record $20 on the Minneapolis Grain Exchange. This is 5 times the price of a year ago when a bushel of wheat cost only $4. Wheat is a core agricultural product. Its spiralling cost means that basic food stuffs like bread, cakes, and even your office lunch are now more expensive than they were just a year ago. Wheat is also a key ingredient in animal feed ? this means that meat is also more expensive now than it was twelve months ago.Last month the UN World Food Programme raised the alarm when it announced that unless it can raise an extra $500 million to compensate for spiralling food prices, they may have to ration their aid to individuals, or worse ? cut back on sorely needed projects.In the week before the beginning of Lent I made some calls to the WFP and learned that for the money I spend each week on meat in our grocery order, our household can feed five families! Talk about having one?s conscience pricked! In the Sermon on the Plai...
More About: Family , Lunch , Feed

Seeking Explanation
2008-03-25 11:40:00
Over the past few months I?ve been mulling over the question: ?Why believe?. Increasingly I like my partner?s answer to the question: because Christ?s teaching is compelling. That it is. But I am not entirely satisfied with this answer alone. So I?ve been very interested in the increasingly vocal debate ? here in the UK at least - over the past year between the theist and atheist camps.What has caught my attention of late is the battle over science. Regular readers will know that my community here in London participated in this year?s Clergy Letter Project (we?re still working on our video series which seems to be expanding in scope at a frightening pace!). This morning I am reading Julian Baggini?s A Short Introduction to Atheism (OUP, ISBN 019 280 424 3) and it struck me that one element of the debate is the contention that at least one of the primary purposes of religion is to explain the world around us.I don?t know about you, but I have a problem with this. In my experience of...
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London Area Visitors . . . .
2008-03-11 10:48:00
Regular visitors from the London area might like to know that my local community/mission site has been updated (and usually is updated regularly). You can visit it by clicking here.
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Full Immersion - Lent as a refresher in Christian life
2008-03-11 10:35:00
Lent began as communal act of solidarity with those preparing to be initiated into the Christian life through baptism. During the period leading up to the eve of Pascha, converts were intensively instructed in the teachings and spirituality of the Christian assembly. When Jesus spent 40 days in the desert, in prayer, fasting, and eventually testing by the Adversary, he prepared for his ministry of teaching, and signs (Lk. . Likewise, the 40 year sojourn of Israel in the desert shaped, and prepared them for a life of fidelity and success. Paul, writing to the Corinthians, reminds us that in our spiritual life (read: in life generally) we ought to train to win, or risk the possibility of being disqualified (1Cor 9.24-7).Our Christian life is an active life. We do not merely assent to a set of ideas and doctrines. Instead we strive to live the teaching and example of Christ. One of the functions of our sacramental communities is to support and encourage one another in our training. Ind...
More About: Life , Full , Immersion , Lent

Lent
2008-03-06 12:55:00
I know that most of the regulars here follow the western liturgical cycle rather than the eastern. As you are coming to the end of Lent , and me and my community are getting ready to enter it, I'm curious - what has been your individual lenten discipline, and what did you gain from it, and the time of preparation for Pascha?Moreover, Im curious about what other OC/IC communities did together during Lent: did you support a charity, have study days, or maybe a concerted effort at outreach? If so how did this contribute to your sense of benefitting from Lent? Did you notice a change in your community because of this project?My little fellowhsip here in London has chosen to support the World Food Program during Lent. Recently there has been a great deal of reporting on how the rising affluence of some areas like China, in addition to the rising cost of fuel, and the push for turning food crops into fuel, combines to make aid projects more difficult. We're going to donate the money we w...
More About: Social Justice

Bible Meme - oh oh I'll play this one!
2008-03-05 00:19:00
1. What translation of the Bible do you like best?In English? That would have to be NJB or NAB all others pale in comparison.2. Old or New Testament?New Testament - all the way. We ARE Chrstians afterall (grin). 3. Favorite Book of the Bible?Um, erm, ahhhh . . . bugger! Well . . . . I guess if pressed I'd have to say its a toss up between . . . Luke-Acts (yes I'm cheating!) and Romans though John is pretty close there too.4. Favorite Chapter?Chapter of . . . . (3) or just any "chapter"? I'm afraid I'm at a disadvantage here - I'm not a "chapter & verse" kinda guy. But I am rather partial to Psalm 8. 5. Favorite Verse? (feel free to explain yourself if you have to)See (4) above6. Bible character you think you?re most like?never thought of it. I'll get back to you. 7. One thing from the Bible that confuses you?Hebrews - it just seems so . . . .out of sync in so many ways. 8. Moses or Paul?Paul.9. A teaching from the Bible that you struggle with or don?t get?I guess I s...
More About: Meme , Play

Tech Free Sunday 5
2008-03-03 18:40:00
All went largely according to plan this week. In preparation for doing an icon on an Osterrich egg (I've got some ideas for small triptych's and possibly a silver panagia) I'm teaching myself to paint the "cartoon" or the outline for the icon directly on the surface. To now I've drawn it first on paper, then transferred it. This has always been unsatisfactory to me because it makes a mess, and you've got to remember to reverse lettering, and face directions (depending on your transfer method) etc. So I spent yesterday evening drawing - or more correctly painting - cartoons. It was a joy.I also did something new and completely different. I did . . . . spinning! Yes some of you may wonder if my PhD topic is starting to affect my brain. No, I'm not trying to re-create the annunciation! But there is something . . . thoughtful, about spinning. Something that, like heschiya clears your mind from the distractions around you and allows you to simply sit, and be, and listen. You can re...
More About: Tech , Free , Sunday

Saint's A' Leaping!
2008-02-29 14:20:00
So, at breakfast this morning we fell into the topic of today being 29 Feb - i.e. a leap year. I've seen a few humorous articles in the paper about it in the past week or so but gave it very little thought. Until this morning . . .As we were musing over it being 29 Feb I wondered out loud - so, is there a feast day today; or is it "blank"? What is more - does the poor sod whose feast day it is only get comemmorated once every four years (bummer!)?We amused our selves with the possibilities over pancakes and toast. Well it could be a "movable" commemoration. Yes, but then you'd see a note in the meneon about moving it forward or backward. Maybe it is a "saint free day" - in which case the world is ending, news at eleven!I've just pulled out my BDW and lo! There is a commemoration for today. St. John Cassian, a disciple of Chrysostom, who was ordained in Rome, founded two monastaries (one for each gender) in Marseille, where he died in AD 435. He was apparently a rather good writer...

Tech Free Sunday 4
2008-02-25 13:04:00
The whole idea behind tech-free sabbath is to bring something to the experience that is part of my own cultivation of spiritual practice. Rather than merely "giving up" my computer for the day. Over the three previous weeks that sense of direction has been lacking. This week I gave the day a bit more focus - I'm re-claiming my artistic expression - in the context of faith of course (grin). Over the past two or three years - largely due to Das Elefant (my PhD thesis) I've not given much space for drawing, painting, and more important to me - iconography. I've only produced a few small pieces in the past few years, my brushes and paints, my many icon books have been gathering dust in their various repositories, neglected and unloved. That all began to change yesterday.I would like to think of tech free sabbath as something that offers me something for the rest of the week. What I did then was to sit and prepare some sketching surfaces - to refresh my memory of things like sacred ge...
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Oh bother, I stepped in it . . . .
2008-02-20 11:15:00
I must admit I take perverse pleasure in reading the legal sections of the Old Testament - sometimes you've just got to sit, laugh, and wonder, what was going on that made this particular point worthy of recording."You must have a latrine outside the camp, and go out to this; you must have a trowel in your equipment and, when you sqat outsde, you must scrape a hole with it, then turn round and cover up your excrement. For Yahweh your God goes about the inside of your campt to guard you and put your enemeis at your mercy." (Dt. 23.13-15)This one had me laughing and asking some rather . . . . unfortunate questions.First, the suggestion here is that Yahweh likes to keep his sandals clean. It's O.K. to be wading knee deep in the blood of your enemies, (borrowing here from the tales of Anat), its quite another to have to step outside the camp, grab a stick and scrape the bottom of your chrysolite sandal.Second, one wonders, what other tribes might have done, or even what Israelites did...

Tech Free Sunday 3
2008-02-18 10:26:00
I realised how dependent I am on my techno toys yesterday afternoon. There were about four things I wanted to do - including write up a piece for my thesis, and finish a writing project I'd promised another IC bishop - all of them were "computer dependent". I found it oddly un-nerving yesterday to leave the computer un-touched; so much so that I had to "force" myself to do other things - in this case baking. I made a cake, baked bread (which I normally do on Sat or early Sunday so we have bread for Liturgy), and experimented with an Indian recipie.I did do some reading for Das Elefant - which given the sporadic nature of said activity, produced some useful stuff.The thing is - the whole idea behind tech-free Sunday is to move away from the unconscious "work" we insert into our free time and allow for other things to take root, or in this case since things spiritual have long since been planted in me - to escape the dappled light of shade in favour of a sunny spot. Ok Ok I took the ...
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Tech Free Sabbath - The Second Coming
2008-02-12 11:16:00
This past Sunday was week two of my experiment. The first Sunday went well - but I was I think more concientious about what I was doing and why so the reflective elements of the experience were in full drive on the day. This week however, things. . . . .got lost in the frey. It was a full day, a busy day - more in terms of how my partner and I interacted and what we accomplished in that interaction than in general business that is not in keeping with the idea of "sabbath".The constant glow of the computer screen having been dimmed and silenced meant that conversation replaced the clickity click of keys. Don't mis-understand me, my other half and I talk and engage with one another constantly - even when we are mindlessly surfing the net. But there is a difference in . . . .quality, or maybe better, effectiveness when all your attention is in the moment rather than being divided between the information being collected by the eyes, and the "other" information being collected by the ea...
More About: Tech , Free , Sabbath , Second Coming

Sex: The defining issue of contemporary Christianity?
2008-02-12 10:49:00
This morning I was reading the BBC News web site and an article about Abp. Rowan Williams' recent difficulties over a lecture he gave the other day. I was struck by the switch in the article from discussing the fallout, the mis-reporting, and misinterpretation of the Abp.'s words, to the split in the Anglican communion over traditionalism and sexuality. Yesterday I interviewed Rev. Denise Donato of Spiritus Christi Church in New York for the Indie Voices Archive Project. During the course of our time together we talked about how sex, and sexuality has become the defining issue of Christianity today - and how we as OC/IC believers are often described in relation to, and defined by our sexual theology. This, for me, raises a raft of interesting and challenging questions about our place in the wider spectrum of Christianity.Yesterday when talking with Rev. Donato I wondered outloud if this emphasis on sex and sexuality is the fallout from centuries of defining the church's spiritua...
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I'm All Verklempt, Tawlk Amongst Yourselves, I Give You A Topic . . . . .
2008-02-04 18:13:00
Some of you know already I paint icons. I'm always on the look out for the unusual ones - one's I've not seen before but grab me, move me, and make me think about our faith in new and different ways. I think this one qualifies!It's a 17th century Balkan icon - I've only ever seen one other example that is even vaguely similar (in the Eastern Tradition).What do you think?
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An Experiment: Tech Free Sabbath
2008-02-04 09:39:00
In yesterdays Guardian there is an article - an excerpt from a book actually - by a chap who decided to live a biblical life for a year - literally. One of the things he had to come to grips with was keeping Sabbath . Like many of us he is surrounded by techno-toys: blackberry, laptop, mobile, play station (not in this house!)etc.. He is also a workaholic, something of an undiagnosed pathology in our modern society. We are perversely compelled to always be "seen" to be doing something - preferrably something to make profit. Laptops and blackberrys make workaholism an almost seamless part of our daily life. My partner until this time last year, worked for six years at a firm where workaholism was not merely the norm, it was an oppressive excess. It was not uncommon for me to wake up in the wee hours of the morning to the blue-green glow of a blackberry screen next to my head! Weekends away were not "just for us" rather they were an awkward threesome that included his manipulative mist...
More About: Tech , Free , Experiment

Resources for Evolution Weekend
2008-02-01 11:52:00
In the run up to Evolution Weekend we've been looking at some resources. This is a recent 88 page book produced by the National Academies Press and available online for free (both inline and as a PDF). The argument in part is that there is (or ought not to be) conflict between science and religion. I'm listening to the inaugural podcast whilst typing this, and plan to read the book this afternoon.
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Playing With "Devotion"
2008-01-25 17:51:00
Jas Elsner points out that in the late antique period people engaged in devotional and cult activity without necessarily concerning themselves with the fine points of belief or dogma. Right now I?m working on an edit of a section of my PhD thesis exploring issues of early Marian cult and devotion. One of the more interesting elements that is emerging is that late antique bishops and theologians were sometimes anxious about the consequences of the devotional practices of people. The author of the Martyrdom of Polycarp (2nd century) for example makes it a point to instruct the reader in the appropriate attitude to have toward the martyrs. Epiphanius of Salamis, writing around 375 is positively scandalised at the devotions he hears about directed toward Mary. Nestorius who briefly held the arch-episcopal throne complained to Celestine, then Bishop of Rome that people were treating Mary as though she were herself divine.Devotion al practice and ?belief? has a way of changing, shifting, a...

Science & Religion Links
2008-01-24 11:12:00
In preparation for the upcoming Clergy Letter Project weekend (8-10 Feb) I fell into this series of links and essays over at beliefnet.
More About: Science , Religion , Links

Clergy Letter Project: Your Ideas?
2008-01-21 13:18:00
Regular visitors will know that my little fellowship here in London is participating in this year's Clergy Letter Project . Now in its third year, the project aims to explore the interrelationship between science and religion - as well as countering the growing fundamentalist mis-representation of our faith.What we are aiming to do is to create a series of small vids talking about some of the issues involved. We've got a theologian (yours truly) and a geneticist (a fellow OC/IC believer) participating. I'm hoping that in the run up to Feb 8-10 we might have some interesting exchanges here on the blog that will feed the creative process and help shape the videos.What are your thoughts on the realationship between science and religion? How have recent debates (fuelled by figures such as Dawkins) informed or shaped your thinking? What do you see as the contribution we OC/IC folk can make to this conversation?
More About: Ideas

Extreme Pilgrim: Into the Desert
2008-01-20 18:20:00
The third and final insatllment of Pete Owen-Jones' series on spirituality is really rather good. Indeed it seems to me that while all three were interesting they got better as the series progressed. The show aired this past Friday - you can still view it by clicking here for the next few days at least.This time he's in the Egyptian desert following in the footsepts of St. Antony. For three weeks he lives in a cave, praying, and listening to the silence - and the occasional "wild dog". I think I resonated well with this installment not only becuase it is a tradition that is familiar to me (both by academic training, and personal sprituality) but because having done so much back-country camping in the "wilderness" in the US before coming to the UK - I can readily appreciate some of the things he describes - and their connection to that particular spiritual discipline.While this last installment did not have any profoundly moving reflections - like last week's reflection on gratit...
More About: Extreme , Prayer , Desert

Conversion: A Bit of Reading
2008-01-15 10:49:00
You may remember earlier posts here about conversion. I've long found it unsettling how the wider OC/IC community does not often encourage, or talk about converting from X to and OC/IC identity. What is interesting is that in a number of the interviews I've conducted for the Indie Voices Archive this topic has been raised directly or indirectly in the conversation - this by way of pointing out that others are thinking about similar issues.I'm about half way through an interesting little book I picked up a week ago: Conversion : Old Worlds and New (ISBN 1580461239); a collection of essays exploring cultural/historical/theological issues involved in historic conversion and missionary settings.One essay talks about resisting conversion within the Christian tradition - that is resisting outside pressures to convert either to Protestantism or Roman Catholicism in in the late medieval period. This particular essay was interesting in our OC/IC setting because - for me at least - it raise...
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Extreme Pilgrim: The Hindu Experience
2008-01-15 10:44:00
Last Friday's episode of Extreme Pilgrim (which you can view by clicking here - for the next few days at least) was far better than the first. The Rev. Pete Owen Jones became a sadhu for a few weeks. The first portion of the show is the rather chaotic process of getting connected to the experience. The remainder is what's really got the good stuff. I was particularly taken by his brief reflection on gratitude. For those interested in asceticism - spirituality - and indeed the link between the "whole" person and the spiritual life - this series is a very nice primer, and gets one thinking. I'm looking forward to the next and I believe last edition - visiting Coptic hermits, and practicing heschyia - a tradition I'm personally attached to.
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Where's Alexis? Why Is He Not Posting?
2008-01-15 10:37:00
Sorry I've not been posting as much as usual. I'm making a "push" to finish Das Elefant (also known as the PhD Thesis from Hell). I've only got three more chapters to finalise and . . . . well . . . . that'll give me a full draft. What happens next I'm not sure but I'm determined to finish this damn thing in the next few months.In addition I'm sooooo behind on other projects its not even funny. You'll notice I've not posted the promised web re-design for the Archive (for reason see above). I've not finished the edits of existing interviews for said Archive (for reason see above). Though I'm still conducting interviews (that's easy - I just sit & talk to people and record the conversation - he he he). Here in London we're gearing up for our part in this year's Clergy Letter Project (due out Feb. 8-10). I'm trying to finish my part in a collection of essays on OC/IC episcopal ministry (which I think my share is pushing the "overdue" mark).Oh. . . . . and there is ...

Extreme Pilgrim Series - Hmmm Interesting
2008-01-06 15:02:00
The BBC is now airing a new series by the Anglican Vicar Pete Owen Jones - I've enjoyed his earlier series and looked forward to seeing this one. Extreme Pilgrim is a three part exploration of the disjunction between lived spirituality and the life we lead in modern Western society. What is more he makes a valid point (from his own Anglican point of view - but I think equally relevant across the Christian spectrum) that Christianity as expressed now, has become too abstract and intellectual.G and I talked about this a bit yesterday at lunch and he pointed out - and I think I agree with him - that this process was really set into motion with the Reformation. Once your sole point of reference is the Bible and the customs and traditions of lived spirituality are expunged - there is little left but to read, and rationalise.The first part of Owen Jones' series was on the other day - he starts to reconnect body & spirit by first visiting a Shoulin monastary. You can watch the whole ...
More About: Interesting , Series , Prayer , Eres