Being a short response on the latest travails of an archbishop.
It's the recurring problem of a leader, a hugely-intelligent and thoughtful leader, finding that actually all people want are soundbites and stereotypes.
Most of the population, and much of the press, it would seem, don't actually want to use their brains! Never mind the fact that the interview which precipitated all this comes on the back of a densely-worded and highly thoughtful 8000 word public lecture. Never mind the distinction between the principles of Sharia law and some of the rather heavy-handed punishments handed down by Islamic courts in some parts of the world.
Archbishop Rowan, and many Christians can't win: we try to engage with real issues with depth and sensitivity - and find that we're told we should stay out of them. Then in the next breath we're told to be more active in wider society and help find solutions, not problems.
As long as our answers are acceptable to the everyone else, that is. In which case they are not answers, simply mere affirmations.
There was someone else who found that as well: he was called Jesus.
Saturday, 9 February 2008
Thursday, 7 February 2008
A good start?
"...whenever you begin any good work, beg most earnestly of Him to perfect it..."I'm very good at starting things, and pretty appalling at finishing them. I tend to sit fairly closely to the principle that most people are content with 75%, or even less, and therefore never claim perfection.
The passage which struck me this morning from the Rule of St Benedict is elementary. It is both simple and profound, and for someone like me, with a tendency to rush into things and forget the basics, is profoundly challenging.
To speak of beginning a good work also implies, to me, that we have an awareness of the nature of that work at the very outset. It is certainly true that we can have a very strong awareness of when something we are about to do is not good, selfish or even evil. Whether we can assess all the potentials of our works is, I think, less certain, as is a genuine grappling with starting a course of action which may be good, but about which we are unsure.
All the better then to engage in the second phrase, to beg of Him (God), "most earnestly to perfect it".
To commend good intentions to God seems pretty obvious, yet is still something I can easily fail to do. In the need to fulfil the regular commitments, the sermon or the meeting, the temptation remains to simply get on with it, and to trust that the God we serve in Jesus will bless it and bring it to fruition. And yet, that is a misapplication of faith, a presumption - and I do it all the time.
And neither is it enough to simply pray. There are times, true enough, when an "arrow prayer," a quick, immediate prayer, is the only possible or practical response. This is not really the case, however, in beginning a good work, if that is, we take work to be something of an extended nature.
I was preaching last night in the Ash Wednesday service, based upon Isaiah 58 and Matthew 16, that real prayer, like real fasting, is a time-consuming and costly business. And it's true. What better way than to seek to begin, and to hallow, to consecrate, a work of good intention. How much does the very action of the prayer transform the practice, I wonder?
And finally, notice what we are encouraged to seek of God's involvement in the task. Completion? The drawing of a line according to our standards of a job well done? No. The target is the conclusion of the work according to the divine standard, not of ending, nor adequacy, but of perfection.
Perfection is most definitely a state that can only truly be achieved by God, the action of the divine, not simply our own. Perfection, in his eyes, may not be the same as ours either - which is a slight digression and a topic for another time, perhaps.
The good work, rooted in prayer, seeking the divinely-willed conclusion, is to be our goal. Earnest prayer is in itself a sacrifice of time and effort, not too dissimilar to the foundations of a building, I would guess. It leaves time and space for dialogue with God, time for an awareness of our strengths and limitations.
And it's something that I know I don't do even half as often as I should. Maybe in the founding prayer too all the worries about the many tasks which need to be done will reveal those most important to God rather than to us. Or to me.
Wednesday, 6 February 2008
Word and Play
It's one thing to know that you've not blogged awhile, but another to do so.
However my lack of words has been more than matched by a torrent of poetry from my friend David. And so without further ado, another one of his.
And with that I must turn to an act of Lenten penance, in folding and stapling the service orders for Ash Wednesday - as if failing to create my own ash and being forced to ask for help (a thing I intensely dislike) were not enough!
However my lack of words has been more than matched by a torrent of poetry from my friend David. And so without further ado, another one of his.
Word and Play
If there is
the slightest chance
of getting some play
out of a word,
I will.
For play is exhilarating.
I’m ex-hill.
Over the top.
At any rate,
I love the freedom of the plain.
Plainly,
puns happen
when I’m creative,
coasting,
with the wind behind me.
It can be a bit of a blow to others
when I wind them up.
They’ve been known to say
how peaceful it used to be.
Whether or not the wind changes,
they must brace themselves
for a pair of puns
at a moment’s notice.
My word,
it is inherently clear
that I got this bug from my parents.
To keep generating like this,
and producing a battery of puns
takes training.
So, prepare for the worst.
A nice flow will continue.
You have my word for it.
(C) David Grieve 2008
And with that I must turn to an act of Lenten penance, in folding and stapling the service orders for Ash Wednesday - as if failing to create my own ash and being forced to ask for help (a thing I intensely dislike) were not enough!
Thursday, 24 January 2008
Happy New Year. What do you mean, I'm late?
Ok, so it's been too long, but nevertheless here's wishes for a happy new year to all readers.
I hadn't realised it had been over a month, but there you are. Somehow I don't think you'll get a blow-by-blow account of all the doings, although for my memory's sake as much as anything else, I will say this: "Treat Midnight Service at Christmas as if it's a Sunday Service and try to rota people to do things. And remember to say thank you for all the things people do do without asking for recognition, and without whom things get rather hairy." You know who you are!
Long time back someone, I think it was Maggi, commented about how good a habit it was to write something daily if you aspired to be a writer, and that blogs were a good medium for that. And it's true. But they aren't the only medium, and since I got enticed into being an administrator for the Eshraval game I occasionally mention, a lot of my spare time has been focussed there. I was on the brink of quitting it entirely just before Christmas, and just before I could sound someone out about it all everything changed. In the week after Christmas serious creativity returned too, which is good news.... even if it does feel like it's waning again in the face of work pressures. (It really is very difficult to do two half jobs without feeling compelled to turn them into two-thirds jobs. It involves learning to stubbornly say "no", ring-fencing your time, being prepared to disappoint people - especially yourself, and accepting your limits.)
Those who know me by now will realise that it's at about this point in the post that I finally get around to what I was going to type, and while I've had a good set of questions from a regular reader over Facebook which I may, or may not answer here (see, I'm not ignoring you), all I really wanted to comment on was this...
It's funny how language works, or is interpreted. For example I saw a van a few days ago identifying itself as belonging to the "Reverse Logistics Division." Now I know, I think, what "logistics" are. But "reverse logistics"?
Is that something about sending the wrong parcel to the wrong person in the wrong place and at the wrong time?
:)
I hadn't realised it had been over a month, but there you are. Somehow I don't think you'll get a blow-by-blow account of all the doings, although for my memory's sake as much as anything else, I will say this: "Treat Midnight Service at Christmas as if it's a Sunday Service and try to rota people to do things. And remember to say thank you for all the things people do do without asking for recognition, and without whom things get rather hairy." You know who you are!
Long time back someone, I think it was Maggi, commented about how good a habit it was to write something daily if you aspired to be a writer, and that blogs were a good medium for that. And it's true. But they aren't the only medium, and since I got enticed into being an administrator for the Eshraval game I occasionally mention, a lot of my spare time has been focussed there. I was on the brink of quitting it entirely just before Christmas, and just before I could sound someone out about it all everything changed. In the week after Christmas serious creativity returned too, which is good news.... even if it does feel like it's waning again in the face of work pressures. (It really is very difficult to do two half jobs without feeling compelled to turn them into two-thirds jobs. It involves learning to stubbornly say "no", ring-fencing your time, being prepared to disappoint people - especially yourself, and accepting your limits.)
Those who know me by now will realise that it's at about this point in the post that I finally get around to what I was going to type, and while I've had a good set of questions from a regular reader over Facebook which I may, or may not answer here (see, I'm not ignoring you), all I really wanted to comment on was this...
It's funny how language works, or is interpreted. For example I saw a van a few days ago identifying itself as belonging to the "Reverse Logistics Division." Now I know, I think, what "logistics" are. But "reverse logistics"?
Is that something about sending the wrong parcel to the wrong person in the wrong place and at the wrong time?
:)
Saturday, 22 December 2007
Arabic Hymn of The Nativity
Thanks to Andii over at Nouslife for this rather wonderful reminder of the Middle Eastern roots of our faith, as well as the reminder that not all Arabs are Muslims. He writes:
For me the interest is also that this Christian hymn at first sounds like what we associate with the adhan, the call to prayer in a masjid (mosque). And to hear this plays a part, for me, in realising that there is a far more ancient set of traditions that Islam drew on for its religious expressions (another being the prostrations in prayer which probably came from the practice of Byzantine monks in the middle east, in fact I'm actually wondering whether there is mileage in looking at Islam as a form of laicised monasticism).Nouslife is a wonderful place for things to ponder - check it out.
Anyway, enjoy. And the linguists might also enjoy spotting similarities to Hebrew and odd words and phrases that you recognise from elsewhere.
I'm also interested in the way that essentially static images (mostly icons) are used to give an interesting and helpful 'moving' storyboard.
Tuesday, 18 December 2007
Facebook: Feelgood or Force for Change
It shouldn't come as a surprise to most of my readers that I'm on Facebook - indeed I'm sure some of you have found this blog from it. (After all, the nifty little sitemeter gadget is an efficient little spy...)
Facebook, and other social networking sites like it, often provoke an interesting variety of reactions, from incomprehension through suspicion through avid fandom, and all stages in between. It can be a highly addictive medium, after all. What starts as a simple means of keeping in touch with friends spreads. I must confess to browsing through the lists of my friends friends in the hope of reconnecting with other old friends and acquaintances, and very rewarding it is too.
Then there's a variety of rather simple and simplistic games, all carefully packaged to draw you in further and help you to waste precious time during work hours playing Tetris or Scrabble look-a-likes.
If that wasn't enough there's the opportunity to identify yourself with various pre-existing networks, through the medium of common email addresses from what I can tell, which explains how my only network is EMUT.*
Then there are groups, opportunities to join with folks of a like mind, either by invitation or by random, ranging from the entirely serious through the darkly humorous, the slightly morbid and the gently (or not so gently) ridiculous. There's even causes, which I haven't yet really explored, simply because I don't quite trust anything that purports to donate money simply for membership.
And it's all free. To join costs you nothing, or rather, costs nothing in money. And here, possibly, is the Dark Side. Every application you add gets your personal details in the form of an email address, and the right to look at your other data, so far as I can tell. There have been warnings about grounds for possible identity theft - for example your "friends" can see everything you put there (although there are privacy options), including potentially useful information for stealing your identity, or helping to access other "secure" on-line sites. It wouldn't be too easy to gather details like "pet's name" (a frequent reminder for passwords), or "first school" and the like. Using them wouldn't be so easy, but not that difficult either for the dedicated cyber-criminal.
On top of that there's the danger of what could be termed "cyber-stalking." That old acquaintance you thought so much of a while back? They might (and often do) post all sorts of photographs of themselves. Combine that with a willingness to impart seemingly random information to on-line interviews and your left with a strange mix of permissive voyeurism and the feeling of knowing someone when really you do not.
As usual (and this is typical ENTJ behaviour, I'm led to believe) I've only just reached the point I wanted to post about...
It took me a while to find out about the televisual protest of Archbishop John Sentamu recently. and I'm impressed. A grand act in keeping with the prophetic actions of the Old Testament Prophets. Of itself it will achieve nothing though. That is not cynicism, that is blatant fact. A hardened individual like Robert Mugabe (however charitable or not you may wish to be about him) will not be quaking in his boots as a result.
I am, however, somewhat of a cynical and sceptical bent. So when a Facebook group "York vs Mugabe" sprang up my main question was "is there really any point in my joining this?" Set aside the literal issue of the title, with me not being in York, but what is it. Yes, a bunch of like-minded people, and, forgive my cynicism again, naybe some folks who would like to jump on a bandwagon. Don't get me wrong - I applaud the Archbishop. But the point of the prophetic is to speak a word, that at least in part, brings change. Which brings me back to the original question, "is there really any point in my joining this?" If I don't do something, then the answer is no.
Now all that would be a really rather and negative post if I left it there, but then I stumbled upon this, Power of Facebook affects law.
The question it begs of me, and all of us, is really whether I'm willing to get up and do something, or whether I just sit behind my keyboard pontificating?
(*EMUT - East Midlands University Town)
Facebook, and other social networking sites like it, often provoke an interesting variety of reactions, from incomprehension through suspicion through avid fandom, and all stages in between. It can be a highly addictive medium, after all. What starts as a simple means of keeping in touch with friends spreads. I must confess to browsing through the lists of my friends friends in the hope of reconnecting with other old friends and acquaintances, and very rewarding it is too.
Then there's a variety of rather simple and simplistic games, all carefully packaged to draw you in further and help you to waste precious time during work hours playing Tetris or Scrabble look-a-likes.
If that wasn't enough there's the opportunity to identify yourself with various pre-existing networks, through the medium of common email addresses from what I can tell, which explains how my only network is EMUT.*
Then there are groups, opportunities to join with folks of a like mind, either by invitation or by random, ranging from the entirely serious through the darkly humorous, the slightly morbid and the gently (or not so gently) ridiculous. There's even causes, which I haven't yet really explored, simply because I don't quite trust anything that purports to donate money simply for membership.
And it's all free. To join costs you nothing, or rather, costs nothing in money. And here, possibly, is the Dark Side. Every application you add gets your personal details in the form of an email address, and the right to look at your other data, so far as I can tell. There have been warnings about grounds for possible identity theft - for example your "friends" can see everything you put there (although there are privacy options), including potentially useful information for stealing your identity, or helping to access other "secure" on-line sites. It wouldn't be too easy to gather details like "pet's name" (a frequent reminder for passwords), or "first school" and the like. Using them wouldn't be so easy, but not that difficult either for the dedicated cyber-criminal.
On top of that there's the danger of what could be termed "cyber-stalking." That old acquaintance you thought so much of a while back? They might (and often do) post all sorts of photographs of themselves. Combine that with a willingness to impart seemingly random information to on-line interviews and your left with a strange mix of permissive voyeurism and the feeling of knowing someone when really you do not.
As usual (and this is typical ENTJ behaviour, I'm led to believe) I've only just reached the point I wanted to post about...
It took me a while to find out about the televisual protest of Archbishop John Sentamu recently. and I'm impressed. A grand act in keeping with the prophetic actions of the Old Testament Prophets. Of itself it will achieve nothing though. That is not cynicism, that is blatant fact. A hardened individual like Robert Mugabe (however charitable or not you may wish to be about him) will not be quaking in his boots as a result.
I am, however, somewhat of a cynical and sceptical bent. So when a Facebook group "York vs Mugabe" sprang up my main question was "is there really any point in my joining this?" Set aside the literal issue of the title, with me not being in York, but what is it. Yes, a bunch of like-minded people, and, forgive my cynicism again, naybe some folks who would like to jump on a bandwagon. Don't get me wrong - I applaud the Archbishop. But the point of the prophetic is to speak a word, that at least in part, brings change. Which brings me back to the original question, "is there really any point in my joining this?" If I don't do something, then the answer is no.
Now all that would be a really rather and negative post if I left it there, but then I stumbled upon this, Power of Facebook affects law.
The question it begs of me, and all of us, is really whether I'm willing to get up and do something, or whether I just sit behind my keyboard pontificating?
(*EMUT - East Midlands University Town)
Monday, 17 December 2007
Keeping up with God
Another one of David's poems. And a rather fine one, I think:
*Keeping up with God?*
Keeping up with God?
Some hope!
Down to earth,
conceived as an outcast,
he cries as a baby,
eludes a child-killer,
flees as a refugee,
seeks political asylum,
is worshipped as royalty
and marked as elected
but grows in obscurity
and disappears from sight
till, tried and tested, he emerges
to defy expectations,
redefine religion,
reorder hierarchies,
alienate authorities,
rip open disgrace and death
and keep all his promises,
welcoming all respondents.
Keeping up with God?
What a hope!
© David Grieve 2007
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