Labyrinth for mostly beginners

Well, at a few minutes past eleven in Shanandoah 'B' room at the Hotel Roanoke I finaaly decided that it was time to begin 'my' workshop on the labyrinth at Diocesan Council. Actually a really nice group of people most of whom had not had a go before. I did a brief intro mostly with suggestions of how people often used a labyrinth and made the offer to prebrief or debrief the extraverts who wanted to talk out loud to process their reflections in a corner of the room away from the walkers, then pretty much left people to it. We must have had close to 20 people on the mat [courtesy of St.John's Lynchburg, I gather -thanks people!] and pretty much they walked it in 30 minutes first to last. Some interesting discussion in the debriefing corner and in plenary afterwards. It seemed to me that a lot of the attraction seemed to be in the region of finding a timespace to get away from everyday concerns in order to have meditation/time with God. I suspect that the bodiliness of this meditation technique is a big help.

For me, I found myself reflecting on why the labyrinth at Chartres should have been installed in the first place .... I found myself musing over the importance of pilgrimmage in medieval times and wondered whether part of it was to provide some of the spiritual benefits of pilgrimmage in a small space, constrained time and safe environment .... ? In fact, on checking later I discovered [not unsurprisingly] that this is in all probability one of the uses that would have been made of it.

I also flagged up to the workshoppers that there was the BYFC variety too. Worth a go; shame I couldn't have arranged the logistics to have brought it here. Shame too that we couldn't get the thing set up for the whole day but spaceand security issues prevented it. Another time perhaps.

Episcopal Church in Southwestern Virginia

So here I am sitting at a PC at the media centre of the council for the episcopal Diocese of Southhwestern Virginia surrounded by southern-states accents and the smell of coffee. I'm actually also waiting for the labyrinth to be set up that in about 40 minutes I'm supposed to be helping people to make use of. The Hotel Roanoke has become a hive of activity and full of people embracing friends thay haven't seen awhile and earnest conversations in corners. On the whole I'd have to say people are in good heart, though.

Last night I co-presided at communion with a woman priest of the diocese of SwVa in a fairly straight ECUSA eucharist [save for the multimedia intercessions and having the presider in two persons -and it was in the round, a modern language Lord's Prayer was used, people came and stood round the communion table to receive -okay so not so straight]. We divided up the service and the Eucharistic prayer for two voices. Our biggest challenge was being in the centre of the room and finding a good way to talk to everyone. For the sermon I ended up walking around a bit and Clare and I opted to make sure that where we addressed the rest of the congregation we simply looked to them; we needed to avoid apparently talking to one another when we were standing opposite one another at the communion table.

Earlier in the evening we'd said a little about the diocesan link from our perspective to adult youth leaders. I said that I thought that we were a church divided by a common heritage [shades of ?was it Churchill? "divided by a common language"]. I had met the assumption on the part of episcopalians that the CofE was pretty much like ECUSA in churchmanship etc. The episcopal church in the USA is pretty catholic -much more so that most CofE churches I've been involved with. So I repeated to them Revd Bob Stamps [he who wrote 'God and man at table are sat down'] who was doing a PhD when I was training for ordination and he told us that he felt that many of us would actualy find his church [the United Methodist Church] more like what we used to than much of ECUSA.

They seemed to take quite well my observation that for us coming to ECUSA was a little like stepping into church life in the 1950's. I didn't have time to go into that much at the time but on reflection I think it was mostly about the style of worship and a liturgical conservatism that is unhappy with more contemporary music and flexibility in putting content together -the canons covereing worship matters seem more tightly defined and defining than ours. This all seems very odd becasue theologically ECUSA seems to come out as quite a bit more liberal on the whole than the CofE [though we are dealing with generalities here -with all the problems that such brings].

Any way that's about all I can do now so maybe later today....

Walking and driving

The funny thing about being driven around places is that we have rarely got a proper sense of where we are. The car journey induces a sense of dys-topia; unconnected places where we alight. Tracy and I have both had a sense of not really knowing where we are in Roanoke. So this morning we walked from the hotel to a coffe bar for breakfast [and that's a study in itself: all those people having breakfast -the place is open from 6.30am]. Then we walked to Evans House [the diocesan office building] and as a result we feel we have a much clearer sense of place.

It is worth noting how the car has reshaped USAmerican towns -even more so than in UK. It is almost impossible to find a significant bookshop or supermarket in the centre of Roanoke; there are a couple of malls on the fringes of the town. But if we were without a car in Roanoke and not close to one of those I don't know how we would live; perhaps we'd rely on the market that happens in the town square? So my question is how do those who don't have cars -presumably some disabled, some low income people are in this kind of position. I did see a bus but I don't have an impression that there are many of them around here.

Youth@council

This coming weekend -starting tonight- we will be attending the Episcopal diocese of Southwestern Virginia's council in Roanoke, Va. It's the equivalent of the CofE's diocesan synod but it happens once a year over a full weekend. I've been asked to be chaplain to the youth event that shadows council as well as to contribute a workshop to the main council on Saturday [I'll be facilitating a simple labyrinth in fact]. For the "youth@council" event I'm leading worship, preaching about the eucharist and leading a workshop on basic mediation techniques. I've had some at-distance involvement in planning worship too. Tracy will be leading a workshop [twice I think] on creative intercession leading which should also feed into the corporate worship.

It's a small diocese in terms of participating churches [57 or so] and so in English terms it's remarkable that there are something like 112 youth coming [and that was number limited]. There is a greater sense of Episcopal /Anglican identity than in our post-denominational English scene.

Apparently -for the first time since the current bishop started here- there is going to be some debate at council which could involve conflictual views. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, it revolves around the apointment of Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire. The way to refer to this is "since last summer" -that seems to be the code phrase for the appointment and its aftermath.

I gather that the SwVa diocesan funding has taken a turn for the worse with parishes finding it harder to meet their pledges following indivuduals and families [and sometimes congregations] finding themselves unwilling to subsidise a national church decision that they have problems with. Some are saying that such opposition is only about 10% of the church. However I wonder whether that would rise if there was a realistic possibility of realignment and the legal issues of property were resolved in favour of local congregations. I'm also aware [not around here at the moment though] that there are a number of congregations in the USA of breakaway churches which still look to the Anglican tradition and may even include 'Anglican' in their titles. I wonder how possible it could be that such groups could be part of a realignment as some have suggested could be on the cards. It's hard to tell and it all depends on who you talk with but it's clear that they're still in a wait-and-see stage.

America -one small corner.

Being in USA is a strange experience: on the one hand there are all the trappings of modern life to the max, on the other the [episcopal] church seems strangely 1950's in so many ways. It's seems odd to see so many church buildings [and so many of them varieties of Baptist]. They seem to get really excited about simple creativity in worship and about clergy who seem to be somewhat relaxed socially and liturgically informal.

Our biggest note is how hard it wold be to live here without a car [which I/we don't have in UK]. A society with little public transport outside of metropolitan areas and it structures lifestyles and everyday unnoticed choices; the amount of space taken up by a relatively small population is interesting. Perhaps it more closely mirrors the ecological footprint in real physical space rather than the statistical space which measures a European eco-footprint. We have seen few pedestrians outside of twsn and cities and we feel like the car is king. Towns are more noticibly structured with out of town shopping and small niche shops in the centre. It becomes easy to understand how hard it is to contemplate weaning this nation off fossil carbon. It will have to be done by pricing and policy; the social imagination to do things otherwise is just not there [nor is it in England and I increasingly think of the south of England as reflecting the same car-based social structuring].

We chose to travel from Washington by train. A journey that would have taken about 2 hours in UK by train took 3-4 hours [allowing for an hours late departure -jokes indicate this may not be unusual]. It's a puzzle as to why the train seems not to exceed the road speed limit. Still the compensation is that the thing is set up to deal with long journeys: big seats, lots of leg-room, waht seem to be excessive amounts of on-board crew who count you off [presumably to rescue sleeping passengers from the inconvenience of waking up hundreds of miles from their stop and having to wait a day for a train back the other way]. We reckoned Amtrak carriages at European speeds would be brilliant. just needs a US train entrepreneur to make it happen and they could give the ar=irlines a run for their money.

sleep is good for your creativity

I've long been a believer in the power of 'sleeping on something' to help you to approach it better and here is the evidence to suport the impressionistic and anecdotal evidence. Research from a German university seems to indicate people working better at problems afte having looked over the problem and then having a good night's sleep.

My worry is that as a society we're so into bad habits of work that lack of sleep and stress-related sleep problems are robbing us of our best opportunities and productivity. The paradox would be that by resting better we achieve more. Some church leaders I know could do with such a perspective.

Heavy agenda and serious issues facing General Synod

This article in the Church Times touches on someting I drew attention to a little while back [New provincial structure for the CofE? Jan 7 '04] with the article by Gareth Miller. Well Gareth's idea has been seen and commented on by the ABofC -who apparently suggested something similar himself 20 years ago and still seems to think it's worth an airing I would guess.

So look at Tuesday's General Synod agenda [follow the leads and use the title here to do a search if necessary] "The Dioceses Measure had been very little used, said Dr Colin Podmore of the Dioceses’ Commission, but there needed to be a review of diocesan structures. Some people argued for reducing the number of bishops and dioceses, and thus the administrative costs; others argued for more, smaller dioceses, with shared administration." [CT Jan 7]. Gareth's suggestions are to increase the number of provinces, smaller dioceses collaborating and sharing resources provincially, one bishop and one archdeacon per diocese, dioceses closely following local authority boundaries.

It seems significant to me that this will be the same day that the emerging church debate takes place because I actually think that a structure like this would be a real help to being able to foster alternative and emerging forms of church. If you want to see a really encouraging comment on the subject of the CofE and emerging church ...

Archbishop's fund for emerging church?

A few days ago I mentioned the church commissioners ideas for paying bishops differentely which was proposed to release money for new initiatives. Well, in Jonny Baker's blog [see above link] it may be that we get the clue as to where that money could go and why the commissioners have suggested it ... ? Perhaps? If so that it also indicates that the thinking has gone quite far with the commissioners being involved and that it is being lined up for major debate. But Jonny's post is ambiguous -is it that the money was being supposed to come from private funds? "I think we should we told!"

An Economic Approach to Theology of the Lord’s Prayer

Giacomo Costa in this article writes: "It is probably incorrect to think that in Jesus’ view the moral dangers of wealth beset only a Rockefeller, or a Bill Gates, or any other tycoon. They beset all who have enough imagination not to undervalue the future with respect to the present… they beset all of us. To be rich, it is enough to have an unconstrained imagination."

Which has to be one of the best definitions of wealthiness I've come across: it fingers us in the west without engaging in the politics of envy or of pity. Put it together with my post earlier about happiness and income where £7,500 seems to be the point at which further increases in income do not add to happiness or a sense of wellbeing and we have a fairly good basis for a political economy of enough, perhaps.

Behind the mask

Recently Christian Aid published this calling for the way that TNC's etc are legislated for so that environmental and social responsibility is built in rather than optional. In the article from Green Futures "Turning the worm": the same kind of thing is suggested -is this an idea whose time is coming?

For a more radical suggestion try: rewritecode. From the AdBusters stable also comes another article on the historical role of corporations both as fomenters of revolution and then as counter-progressive and how the idea and practice of the corporation has evolved and the dangers of Multinational Agreement on Investment (MAI) -should it re-emerge.

In the Rewrite the code article a kind of nothing buttery with regard to the identity of corporations which says they are nothing but rules, decisions seems to be around. However I would question this: NT language about the Powers and the concept of emergence seems to suggest that we can assign them some kind of agency and identity. I do warm to the idea of 'genetic modification' of corporate entities. When we try to make them into machines for revenue generation problems accumulate because that's not all they are for and they are rather more chaotic than simple machines. We need rather to recall them to their God-given purposes as servants ['angels' if you like] of human welfare. This 'genetic modification' is known in scripture as 'spiritual warfare'. It seems to me that Christian Aid and others are involved precisely in this activity and so must we be.

Discuss... I know I will if I manage to get my hoped-for-PhD off the ground.

Burning Fossil Fuels Has A Measurable Cooling Effect On The Climate

-sounds a bit counter to the prevailing wisdom -but it's been postulated for a good while -that more clouds means less solar radiation reached the earth therefore a cooling effect. Of course it doesn't seem to be enough to offset the increased insulating effect of clouds and carbon dioxide retaining the heat that does get through ... but it may mean that perhaps things could be worse. Remember that the effects of global warming are based on observation as well as theory; this isn't an "all clear" on global warming.

Money won't buy happiness

Check this out from the article referenced from Green Futures: "The only exception to the Money doesn't buy happiness? rule is in the case of those on very low incomes -around £7,500 per year or less- where increased income does indeed appear to translate into higher levels of life satisfaction. Once they're over the poverty threshold, though, further riches have little long-term effect."
It's worth looking at the whole article as it draws on a lot of studies on wellbeing and happiness

So if more money won't make most of us happier, what will? -Well there are some clues on that too ... though I trust most reader might already have some idea about what they might be.

Jesus -Mel Gibson's film

Yeah this is it if you've heard the rumours -some Jewish groups are said to be unhappy about Mel Gibson film. Now I can't yet comment; not seen it, however I have also heard that having seen it, many Jewish viewers have left a lot happier -though I can't lay my hands on that report as yet [let me know if you can].

What is interesting, potentially, about this is the inteface between belief/religion and offensive attitudes and behaviours. That is where someone's belief is offensive to someone else. In this case -assuming the film follows the gospels and doesn't dump all the blameorthe crucifixion on the whole Jewish race [and I probably need to say that I have never taken the mesage of the gospels in that way -it's clear that human beings are in the frame and in a sense we are each and every one of us implicated -but that's another story]- the only way this could be is that some might object to Jesus being portrayed and the Messiah as offensive to Jewish faith, or to the crucifixion as offensive to Muslim faith, as would portraying him as claiming or assenting to be called "Son of God" [the latter is blasphemous in Muslim eyes]. There's no getting away from the fact that some beliefs aill not only contradict others but that those contradictions may be in some way offensive, implicitly.

In universities -where I have a stake as a chaplain- we have in the last couple of years seen an attempt by and admittedly 'out of the mainstream' muslim leader to seek to ban proselytising or defaming other faiths in British universities. You may think that this is okay -but how will it be defined? What would happen in effect would be the freedom to express contrary views such as alluded to above would be eroded for everyone and academic freedom would be eroded along with it. That's not to say that we should allow aggressive or underhand recruitment or proclamation -but usually such behaviours are covered in harassment/bullying policies.

But I would worry about any policy that made it possible for someone to take disciplinary action against me for simply expressing in a conversation that I believed Jesus to be the Son of God because another party to that conversation held a belief system in which that claim is blasphemous. If we are not careful in the way we frame policy we run that danger.

Death by Powerpoint

Okay I'm getting into this a bit too -Maggi Dawn mentioned it, Steve Taylor originated the comment and various comments are posted. Having now read Steve's original comments [under the subtitle " Does the emperor have any new clothes?" I would have to say that I'm sympathetic -and I use a powerpoint substitute! However I'm trying to make sure that it's not just simply used as a quick and less-fussy way to change slides [a souped up OHP, if you like]. There are artistic possibilites and there is a question about whether it supports another priviledged medium [usually talking] or whether it can be used artistically. It has the power to present loops, animated gif's, pictures that support or 'critique' other content -it could be a somewhat more versitle slide projector. I guess the data projector can be a more versatile slide projector -could be intereesting possibilities for doing the layering stuff that those nice people at Visions do with slides -hmmmm.

Oh, and don't use m$ ppt go open source and get OpenOffice.org [for free!] -it even read and exports .ppt files.

Online theology -the real deal

So many theological offerings on the net are less that meaty; you can't say that of this! Particularly commended is the article on the economic interpretation of the Lord's prayer and violence and the atonement.

Celebrating Christmas -or not

I know it's late -but perhaps now's the time to think about it before it's too late and Xmas 2004 is nearly upon us- but I clocked this on Maggi Dawn's blog and it attracted me because it says pretty much what I've been suggesting, on the quiet [bah! humbug!] for years -partly based on my own experience of having lived in Spain over 1979-80 and finding Christmas day celebrated in a way more like most people in England celebrate Easter [bit of holiday, big food ...] and the whole present stuff left till "Reyes" [="Kings"]. Given what is being said about sales figures before and after Christmas day perhaps the idea of mutating how we do Yuletide is one whose time has come?

The other thing we could think of is reclaiming Christmas as a twelve-day feast ending with Epiphany ... How about spreading out all the good stuff over 12 days ... Not rushing to get presents and cards there by 24 December 'cos we're comfortable with getting there somewhere in the 12-day ... perhaps now with time to deliver stuff ourselves, personally, with the gift of time .... go on -you know you want to!

All of which also gets me wondering: what do AltWorship groups do with Christmas -we've been a bit quiet about that....

a study in fundy religious change

Eileen Barker of LSE / INFORM put me onto this; I'd heard rumours that the JW's were shifting abit on the blood transfusion thing a bit and lo and behold here's a pressure group partly within the WatchTower domain. Interesting things to note, imho: note the loyalty to the WTS, the pressure from people involved in pastoral situations involving the particular difficult doctrine. the gentle reappraisal of accepted teaching. Lessons here for other areas of desired religious change - do I hear Jihadist Islam?

Spiritual Tourism

I just wish I could get hold of the original article in Cosmo that inspired this piece. If you want to get a bigger and broader view of the issues in this article related specifically to Christian faith then it might be as well to read Pete Ward's "Liquid Church" [link ] -which draws a lot on Zygmunt Bauman's "Liquid Modernity". But if you'd like to look at some of the issues related to a broader spiritual canvass then Paul Heelas' "New Age Movement" [ link ] could be a good place to start.

The clear issue is that the metanarrative of western life has become shopping [don't believe those people who say post-modernity is about skepticism towards metanarratives -it's skepticism towards all of them except shopping ;-) ] so we have a situation where the way that people frame their spiritual searching is shaped by shopping -so the way to go is to pick out all the bits you like from various religions or philosophies or ... whatever ... and remix it to something congenial.

Of course the downside to this is that money is being made of the back of it as we employ our consumerist strategies of buying stuff as the sacrament of taking into ourselves the 'spiritual' or intangible qualities that are advertised or that we feel are invested in the product. In some ways it probably isn't so different to people buying relics or medallions from medieval shrines ....
... Anyhow, what concerns me is that people who have little true concern for the spiritual welfare of their clients/customers are ripping them off and making their spiritual longings merely into a way of profit [See Susan Howatch's "The high Flyer" or "The Heartbreaker" as a novelistic expose of this].

As with all syncretisms, this syncretism is not really a blending of different faiths or pov's, but rather an covert imperialism by some co-ordinating philosophy which relativises the other faiths to its own metanarrative or fulcrum-idea[s]. If you'd like to read more try Christian Uniqueness Reconsidered: The Myth of a Pluralistic Theology of Religions by Gavin D'Costa [ link ].

Truly there is nothing new under the sun.

Green Futures

I'll add this to my links but I wanted to signal that I've found this magazine a real help in thinking through and knowing about the interface between environment, technology, business and governance. Commendation to you.

Netizens not nerds

This report tells us what has been apparent to most people for a while; that your typical net user is no longer the 'needs-to-get-a-life' nerd of stereotypical fame. No we're people who have a social life, read books and generally watch less TV [except if like me the TV is on in the background as I surf -I just love lots of info channels at once].

My informal observation of our kids led me to think that maybe internet usage [a lot of it IRC] was drastically reducing hours in front of the tele. There's an interesting set of implications to be teased out and researched about media usage in the wired home. Then the question has to be asked -what will this plus the technologies of cable, TiVo etc do to broadcasting? -Narrowcasting? Perhaps. What happens when our favourite soaps are delivered via broadband+ connections, when wireless connectivity is normal and when screens get flat, cheap and ubiquitous?

Then I ask myself: what does this mean for Christian community and worship? Especially, it seems to me, when you're in cell churches .... ?

A Pacifist in US state Senate

Isn't this intriguing? I think I'm really stunned and impressed that the guy got elected in the first place, but encouraged too that there are people in US politics who are asking these kind of questions and being able to use their influence.

Replacing the twin towers: a wind and a prayer

I must've missed the plans for what should replace the twin towers -I had rather hoped they would go for a memorial but what they seem to be looking at isn't bad. The article highlighted here shows a picture of the plans and outlines a radical couple of ideas: one that they have a wind turbine on the building to generate c.20% of the energy for the tower. The second is to put prayers for peace on the turbine blades in a way remniscent of Tibetan prayer wheels.

Hurrah for the turbines; though, can't they up the renewable contribution to energy needs? [photovoltaics ought to be able to contribute heavily].

I don't think that prayer actually works that way [people pray -I don't think we can automate it; it requires an engagement of who we are with as-much-as-we can-grasp of-Who-God-is; but perhaps if we really are shallow and unconcerned then perhaps automated praying is a good idea] but as an artistic call to prayer and a corporate expression of hope it is pretty good. I'm just wondering how they will handle all the issues around plurality of faith and secularity of public life in USA....

Votes, money and corporate takeovers

A couple of months ago I read "Jennifer Government" by Max Barry -a novel of the not-too-distant future where corporations rule the world, government is weak and people take surnames from their employer [John Nike, Helen MacDonalds and ... well, Jennifer Government -the eponymous hero works for the government as a police officer]. It seems both unlikely yet a possible trajectory and when I read the article here, well, I just thought that this would be how it begins.

It also brings about the issue of living in a world dominated by an economic superpower: we don't even have the vote in the first place! It can be frustrating to see a government make changes or decide business as usual which affect all of our lives and those of our children [trade rules, environment, military decisions etc etc] and yet we have no direct appeal or recourse to that government ...

US soldiers meet a pacifist

I loved this story -got it as you might guess from Sojorners- the thing that got me was in the first place that US military commanders should single out a US citizen because he spoke out against the Iraq intervention. What really impressed me though was the response -it may have been laughed at but it was brave and might just have pricked a conscience or two. God bless John Dear for bleesing those troops in the way he did.

It's great that John has the opportunity to pursue his objection to US military intervention in Iraq but the fact that he has that freedom shouldn't be used as an excuse for the harrassment he received. I guess he could argue that US government resources were used for a domestic political end ....

I'm beginning to think that "alternative worship" is the unsung scarcely noticed renewal of church in England. Yet another service this time in Thame, Oxfordshire has surfaced -
http://www.gaultney.com/public/up/index.html -
and looks really interesting. They seem to focus most on the 'art gallery' model of using installations that can be accessed by the worshipper/user in ways that suit the individual yet they seem to overcpme the potential fragmentation of this by holding a service at some point in the proceedings which is not a compulsory thing for attendees, simply a part of the whole thing. In this way they seem to be honouring the radical individualism that many identify as part of the postmodern mood. Of course the difficulty with following that trend in worship is that the sense of being 'body' and of 'one anothering' is imperilled.
I suspect that this will be one of the real debates in the whole 'movement'.

And yet I also wonder whether it will turn out to be a defining debate within postmodernism because while there does seem to be a radically individualist streak at the moment, the philosophical undercurrents, it seems to me, are about recognising the cultural relativity of individual decisions and ways and our cultural formedness as individuals. The whole thing about linguistic relativity arises out of a recognition that language is a communal artefact, for example. And then the post-modern feminsit critiques of enlightment rationality seem to pull away from unmitigated individualism too: in the recognition of bodiliness and connection. And then there's the whole issue of wholistic /ecological and connectionalist insights becoming more mainstream through ecological and systems thinking. Wonder how this divergence will play out: individualist consumerism vs. wholistic connectionalism?

New provincial structure for the CofE?

Talking of bishops and management of the CofE, If you go to the Church Times Website and feed in the following details on the search facility [actually just the author and the "features" category will get you there]:
"To find a new direction for the Church, use a map". 28 March 2003. "Gareth Miller"
You will find an article proposing a radical redrawing of the provincial and diocesan map of Anglican England. Part of the proposal is that by doing so we encourage diocese and bishops to work together and to share resources provincially [a bit more like ECUSA -which administratively seems to have something going for it]. So why not lookat this while we're about it? -nah! The CofE doing something radical and visionary? Sorry -wrong planet.

Bishops and stipends

Now here's something to cause me to get on a hobby horse: bishops of the Church of England may soon have to be paid for by their dioceses directly. We are told "At present, the commissioners pay £4 million a year in bishops’ stipends and £9.8 million in their office and working costs." Now some of us have been saying for years that the equalisation of stipends which means that all Church of England stipendiary clergy are paid roughly the same- should also apply to so-called 'senior clergy'. If a stipend is an amount paid to keep one from taking other work to support onself then what is the justification for the higher stipends of bishops and deans and archdeacons? Perhaps this possibility may concentrate minds and get dioceses thinking.

I've said a number of times that if [and it's such a big 'if' that a word hasn't been invented to modify 'if' sufficiently to say how miniscule I believe the chance to be] I were made a bishop I hope I would have the courage to eschew the 'top-up fees' that currently go with the post -you could employ another half clergy or more for the extra.

Then again doesn't all this throw into question just what we think Bishops ought to be doing?

Some Eco stuff

Try this for concretising the cost of not dealing with climate change now:
"if just one flood broke through the Thames Barrier it would cost around £30bn in damage to London, roughly 2% of GDP." a top British scientist spells out the implications of not acting on climate change and restates that climate change is more serious than terrorism as a threat.
link

However, if you want to think a bit about the terrorism threat try this article which seems to say that the AlQaeda threat could be around for 50 years:
go here

In fact this article is quite interesting in several ways. It focusses on the military and inteligence ways of dealing with it. Surely one of the things we have to learn [not least from the Irish situation] is that there can be no lasting solution to threats of terrorism without dealing with the causes and that throws us straight back to the geopolitics of the USA, Europe etc and their/our political and collective decisions about energy use and lifestyle -there's no getting away from the ecological angle even if you think the terrorist threat is most major. In addition to energy use we might also think about the threat posed by unfair trade rules in building resentment in some quarters and the likelihood of land use changes bringing about migratory forces. A juster world is a safer world.

Recently been told that my last stuff on eco matters had accidentally transposed the same URL for different articles. Unhappily this appears to mean that now the delightful article on Christmas lights and the amount of 'leccy they use has been lost -I cannot find the original reference. Perhaps someone else can but I've been trawling through my records and cannot find the way to bring the right article up from the archives or even using Google.
Shucks. Never fear, if I find it I'll let it be known here!

On another point arising from email conversation today:
http://www.unification911.org/default.htm
tells us " point little realized is that there also definitely exists a similarity of belief common to all religions that is more pronounced today than ever before. Imagine what would happen if the people of the world were to focus on the similarities of belief rather than our differences.
Imagine...
The point is that if we have our attention on similarities, then there is less attention available to focus on differences."

And this sound very well but reacting to a very similar post I found myself responding:
"I'm involved with a good bit of interfaith and religious diversity stuff through inner city ministry and University and college chaplaincy and I don't find
commonalities unabiguously there. superficial similarities but so embedded
in different narratives and mental furniture that they proove to be
mirage-likenesses quite often. Unless you want to explain the similarities
phenomenologically in which case you are imperialistically imposing
interpretive categories from yet another world view.... I just don't think
that we are all the same really. Like Rowan Williams [our archbishop] says;
religions are each asking different questions so they are not really
speaking of the same things on the whole. However that may mean there's some mileage in sharing the questions.

Melting pot philosophy hasn't worked in racial relationships, not sure why
we think it might work in religion... -I'm being provocative ;-) "

I fear that such pushes to unify religions say more about a kind of modernist imperialism [or some other kind of self-priviledged spiritual viewpoint] than doing justice by the concerns of spiritual philosphies and religions in themselves. The British theologian Gavin D'Costa has written very helpfully about this. His book "The Meeting of Religions and the Trinity." is a good place to start -though you could chat a bit and read a review at
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m2065/1_54/87425989/p1/article.jhtml

Every so Often I put together a trawl of news on ecological matter that interest me and send it to my diocesan email group today I offer it here also. I don't know how long these links will remain live though...

This story seems to be about getting a right sense of proportion on global priorities; terrorism is much lesser a threat than global warming etc -especially as climate change is already putting pressure on populations and resources which will result in the conditions making violent and anti-western sentiment more likely -that's my take.
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_853549.html

I love to find stories like this; cheaper photo-electric cells could be just round the corner: these may be less efficient but so cheap to make that the loss of efficiency would not be a concern in generation markets. This brings the decentralised production of energy so much closer.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/biztech/10/02/solar.cells.reut/index.html

I have to confess that the concerned bit of me looked at the outside Christmas lights this year [and is it me or did there seem to be more this year than ever] and wondered how much extra carbon they were loading into the atmosphere. Well this article tells us how much and helps us understand how it could be changed....
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/biztech/10/02/solar.cells.reut/index.html

Solar panel at a school in Wales and they're even looking at the prospect of selling surplus electricity into the national grid -perhaps church should see solar panel as a potential earner in the long term -think about it; if it could work for a school in Wales ...!
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/biztech/10/02/solar.cells.reut/index.html

Wondered where we might be up to with Wave power? Well check this out -Scotland seems to the THE happening place for renewables if the press is anything to go by.
http://www.r-p-a.org.uk/content/images/articles/Wavegen%20press%20release%20040109.pdf

Global dimming? Yes, apparently less sunlight is reaching the earth's surface over the last 30 years [3% reduction] -though they're still working on what the effects of this are for climate or what causes it anyway. It will have an effect on solar energy -but it's not huge just yet.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/feature/story/0,13026,1108853,00.html

Climate change is affecting us now -especially in terms of disease; so it's not just a future threat any more.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1105118,00.html

Read this and think: India is densely populated; where will these people go? Then think about where they have historically gone and the geo-political ramifications...
http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2003/12/11/1071125594849.html
In the light of that then it's kind of nice to read this:
http://www.spacedaily.com/2003/031205162046.qj8w46y0.html
but the sum of money is really not a lot in comparison with the size of the problem or the hundreds of billions that are being proposed to put a space station on the moon and other outer space stuff.

This story shows how we are all about to start paying dearly for climat change -and I mean literally with money.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,12374,1104257,00.html

This is interesting: "The world's Inuit intend to launch a human-rights case against the United States, condemning its role in the global warming that they say threatens them with extinction." gotta read more.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20031211/INUIT11//?query=kyoto

Ther's always some who are attracted to quick fix technical solutions rather than deal with the problem more radically and healthily. So burying carbon dioxide in the ground really pushes the buttons for some:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-12-08-carbondioxide-usat_x.htm

Well I reckon there could end up being a good few threads of interest: Christian; post modern; ecological; alternative worship; linux; justice and fair trade;bits of theology; cultural studies; and of-the-moment rants.

So if any of this and even something of how it fits together in at least one mind seems to intrigue stick with it....

Hey ho! Let us go.