headwayyouth- phil smith's blog

1 link= 1 ton of carbon emissions offset, fair swap!

DeepMarket.com, "a blog that researches new techniques for stock market analysis," is teaming up with CarbonFund.org to offset 1 ton of carbon emissions for every blog that links to it. Technorati suggests there  are 147 links thus far but I'm confident that without much effort the emerging church blogosphere could double that!

“In working with Carbonfund.org, I hope to encourage bloggers to go beyond the debate about climate change,” said Eric Cahoon, who writes the DeepMarket.com blog. “This challenge to bloggers is to help create awareness of actions they can take now – such as taking advantage of energy efficient appliances and reducing the energy they use. In working with Carbonfung.org, they can have further impact by reducing carbon emissions, supporting renewable energy and reforestation projects.”

“Solving the problem of global warming and our addiction to oil and fossil fuels will take innovative ideas and creative thinking,” said Carbonfund.org President Eric Carlson. “Deepmarket.com is showing that good business can go hand in hand with a better environment. We applaud Deepmarket.com for this creative, unique and effective way to educate millions of people about global warming while also supporting the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions.”

According to the program, Deepmarket.com, which is already a supporter of Carbonfund.org and has offset its carbon footprint, will offset one ton of carbon dioxide emissions with Carbonfund.org for every blog that links to Deepmarket.com. The program costs fellow bloggers nothing to participate."

Dear Don...

In Saturday's article there was an article entitled, Accept it: we're married, lesbian couple tells judge. Needless to say it included a quote from the religious right, this time care of Don Horrocks, head of public affairs at the Evangelical Alliance (pictured right).

'Where does it stop?' Horrocks asked. 'Soon there will be people wanting to marry their horse or perhaps three or four people all want to get married. If the word marriage is going to be infinitely plastic it loses all meaning.'

'We said this would happen all along,' Horrocks said. 'We know that when the homosexual lobby get one thing they move on to the next stage. It was always going to be the case that once they had got civil partnerships somebody who had been married in Canada would mount a test case in Britain.'

The above quote more than riled me. The ignorance of someone to compare gay marriage to marrying a horse is astonishing, and the man's got a Phd!!! Anyway, I've decided productively vent my frustration by writing to Mr Horrocks. Anyone wishing to read the letter can do so by clicking here.

P.s Don's face reminds me of someone off the TV but I'm not sure who. If anyone can help there will be the handsome reward of two fair trade chocolate bars!!!

Fine post...

My blog reading is pathetically narrow. In contrast Zoe, the wonderful wife to be, reads impressively widely- though she really should be revising!!! Today she pointed me in the direction of this post, from amalah (one of these professional bloggers from the states).

The post is a great read. Amalah grew up in a 'fundamentalist Evangelical church' but rejected it (for good reason) during her teenage years. I'd really recommend a read but if you can't be bothered, then maybe these particular fine closing words will convince you,

"I'm not an atheist. I'm not even an agnostic. I still believe in something. I believe in God, but not in His people. I don't believe in the intolerant and legalistic bullshit that goes on in His name.

The word "Christian" carries so much baggage for me I almost bite my tongue every time I say it. I wish I knew how to fix that. I wish I could say the word with pride instead of rushing to clarify that I'm not like THOSE Christians.

I'm not the Christian I once was. But when you're taught that's the only type of Christian who counts, you can't help but wonder if you're actually nothing at all."

Jolly exciting news; Monastery Revisted and the Convent

Those who enjoyed the monastery will no doubt be pleased to read the following;

"The Monastery Revisited reports on the progress of the five men and of the monks since the end of the series and will be broadcast on BBC TWO in June ’06. That same month will see the beginning of The Convent on BBC TWO when four modern women spend 40 days and nights in the strictly enclosed convent of the Poor Clares in Arundel, Sussex."
Finding Sanctuary

Checked out the Beeb and it's definately true!

 

Religion on the box

Interesting to read this article in the Observer yesterday about the rise of religious programmes on the television. From Priest Idol and the Monastery to Manchester Passion they're everywhere and the polls seem to show that they're still proving popular, so there is more to come;

The bbc "has asked Nigel Stafford-Clark, the acclaimed producer of Bleak House, to apply the same techniques he used in brilliantly adapting Dickens to make a classic, popular drama series about Christ, The Passion, primarily for BBC1, but with obvious international sales appeal. The aim is to depict anew the life of Jesus and the events leading up to his crucifixion in an intense, nightly soap-style drama, building to a climax during the Easter week of 2008.

McLaren's Musings

So I appreciate that this is a little late, but here are my thoughts about Brian McLaren’s seminar last week.

The first thing that struck me about Brian was his gentle approach. Although he made no reference to this fact it is well known that Brian receives what is best described as hate male and a significant part of the Christian right in America seriously doubt Brian’s position in the book of life. Nevertheless Brian is always gracious about his critics and throughout the session didn’t have a bad word to say about anyone. I particularly liked his reasoning behind this; I the second session Brian focused on TallSkinnyKiwi’s ‘Deep Ecclesiology’. I didn’t fully understand what he had to say, but the gist was that whether we’re Anglo-Catholic or house church, we’re all church and therefore we must learn to encourage (rather than criticise) one another. This is especially important, argued McLaren, in terms of justice, because there is so much to be done (i.e. with a child dying every three seconds we need everybody doing social action irrespective of our theological differences).

Building on this I questioned Mr McLaren himself on current disagreements in the church McLaren’s response was that we should not attack other churches. Rather we (whoever we are) should do what we feel is right and see what happens. Rather pragmatic, but quite refreshing me thinks…

Another interesting point came in the midst of the first session while McLaren was exploring the transition through modernity to postmodernity (which he called emergent culture) and beyond. McLaren likened this transition to the discoveries of Copernicus and Galileo. At that time the theology of the church was based on a certain model of the universe (the earth was at its centre) and so there was great concern at the findings of Copernicus and Galileo because the presumption was that when the old worldview went, the church would go with it. Similarly today the church has become so reliant upon modernist thinking that any move from that ideology is, for the church, seen as worrying; as society rejects reason, perhaps it will reject religion as well? Probably not suggests McLaren, and so the church must adapt and carefully consider this new thinking.

However, and this is where it gets really interesting, McLaren did not suggest that everyone should read his books and other similar pieces of work, but rather those that are sitting pretty in their current way of thinking and not doing anyone any harm should just be left to their own devices, in fact they should be discouraged from reading such work (one of McLaren’s friend, whom he studied with, having studied postmodern philosophy in the seventies decided it was incompatible with his faith). On the one hand I see what McLaren is saying, on the other I think such writings are important so that those in the church can understand a little more about those of us that are (at best) on the fringes.

It was a bit of a detour on my way to a meeting at Cliff College. But I'm glad I went. And thanks ot the guys out there from Glasgow who invited me to their table when they saw me eating alone prior to the event :-)

For all those who have ever found themselves in an awkward situation...

Some of you may have read about this in the papers over the weekend. Shiny Shiny has the hilarious footage of the BBC taxi driver who was, in an unfortunate series of events, whisked into a BBC studio and interviewed about something he new nothing about... well worth a watch!

Letter to God

Those of you outside of the north-east probably will not have heard about this story. Dean Pike died after an arson attack on his house. Two weeks before he died he wrote this letter. It makes me smile a lot...

"Dear God, I'm sending this letter to say I am very happy with all the people in the world that don't go around killing other people for no reason.

"Also, I'm happy with all the sports you can do in the world like football, hockey, rugby and a lot of others. I'm even happy with the way I look apart from my glasses. But I'm not happy with the war in Iraq because it is not nice to kill another human being. I add that the way people bully other people that don't harm a fly.

"The things I would like to stay the same is that when your mams and dads go to work they need to earn the money to get food and stuff so God change the awful things in life and keep the good stuff running. Dean P."

Creatives take note!

Nothing makes me smile more than a white, middle-class clergymen who thinks he's creative and so after reading this story I'm smiling a lot. Rev Paul Finch is making his sermons available as podcasts. Intrigued by the quote; "It gives that opportunity of being able to hear somebody speak in a live situation and the quality is exceptional." Wonder if he's talking about the sound quality or the quality of his sermons...

On a brighter note I'm off to hear Brian McLaren in Teeside on Thursday and can't wait! Expect a full report later this week.

Archbishop woos hoodie generation

BBC report that yesterday John Sentamu doned a hoodie while speaking at a conference in Bradford; urging delegates not to judge young people by their fashion choices... loving your work, Archbish, loving your work!