headwayyouth- phil smith's blog

Anglican Ecology

Sharing God's Planet is an impressive report by the Church of England on the environment. The recommendations of the report are due to be implemented from Autumn this year.
The publicity that has gone alongside Sharing God's Planet is the kind of publicity that I think the church should be receiving. As reported by the Church Times, the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Richard Chartres, has said that buying a car or flying on holiday are "selfish choices" and "a symptom of sin".

Interviewed about his comments in BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Monday, the Bishop said: "Obviously it’s not my business to issue fatwas, just like that, against flying. But it is very important that people should be helped to take responsibility for the decisions they make; and people of faith — Christians, certainly, and others, as well — regard ‘living in sin’ as an idea which has sometimes been presented in rather a small way: living in sin is really living a life that is turned in upon itself."

They were talking about the report on Radio 5 last week and the presenter was arguing that as per usual this was the church acting all high and mighty, telling people how to live their lives, but when it comes to the environment I think the church should speak out, as such things don't just effect individuals that are responsible for these decisions, but (disproportionately) the world's poor and God's planet, of which we are the stewards.

For more information check out www.shrinkingthefootprint.cofe.anglican.org/

So much excitement

I'm in the midst of moving house for the fifth time in less than twelve month. I'd like to point out that this is not because I'm a bad tenant (though that may be true), but because my landlord is selling up. This has meant temporarily moving about three quarters of my record collection to the in-laws loft; good grief do I really have this many records?

On a much brighter note, tomorrow the Macbook arrives. Unsurprisingly I have that strange Christmas Eve sensation.

Equally good news, as mentioned by Mr Baker, Typepad have finally made tagging accessible for us amateurs!

Food for free...

Yes free food, but don't get to excited as it's not for for you!
The Hunger Site is celebrating it's seventh birthday. The concept behind the site is wonderfully simple; go to the homepage, click on the 'Help Feed the Hungry' button and you're taken to a page full of adverts for ethical gifts and clothing. For every click one cup of food is sent to feed those suffering in developing nations or states caught up in war (particularly timely as one of the countries they operate in is Lebanon); the cost of this being subsidised by the adverts you see.
Thanks to Hippyshoppper for the link

Old News

Today the Times published research into that great debate of who is the greatest English football club. They awarded three points for a win and one point for a draw of every match each club has played since the start of the English football league.
Top of the league: you guessed it, the mighty reds (L-I-V-E-R-P-O-O-L F-C)!
Barky's toffee (Everton) were sixth in the table and Jonny Baker's Chelski were 14th; just behind Huddersfield Town.

That bloody mess

Over the past two weeks the news has increasingly been dominated by the worstening situation in the Middle-East. The images of blown out bridges and blood covered children have been more graphic than usual but the disproportionate retaliation from the Israeli army is exactly what I have come to expect- incidentally a sarcastic note of thanks to America for continuing to supply all the weapons that the Israeli army could ever use; genius George W., genius (Ruthe has more on that here)!
Now Ehud Olmet has had the chance to prove he's as hard as his predecessor it seems we may start to get somewhere, but what is of even more concern than the dreadful loss of life caused by this crisis is the long-term effect that this is having on the attitude of the Arab community towards Israel. In today's Guardian Rami Khouri (editor of your favourite broadsheet Beirut's Daily Star) highlights three areas of concern:

1. a steady loss of fear by ordinary Arabs in the face of Israel's military superiority
2. a determined quest for more effective means of technical and military resistance to Israeli occupation and subjugation of Palestinians and other Arabs
3. a strong political backlash against the prevailing governing elites in the Arab world who have quietly acquiesced to Israeli-American wishes.

Khouri continues,

"The Lebanon and Palestine situations today reveal a key political and psychological dynamic that defines several hundred million Arabs, and a few billion like-minded people around the world. It is that peace and quiet in the Middle East requires three things: Arabs and Israelis must be treated equally; both domestically and internationally, the rule of law must define the actions of governments and all members of society; and the core conflict between Palestine and Israel must be resolved in a fair, legal and sustainable manner.

Because these principles are ignored, we suffer outbreaks of military savagery by Israelis and Arabs alike, for the sixth decade in a row. The flurry of international diplomacy last week to calm things down was impressive for its range and energy. But it will fail if it only aims to place an international buffer force between Hizbollah and Israel, and leaves the rest of the Arab-Israeli situation just as it is."

Amen brother, Amen!
And now I've got rid of anonymous commenting I won't get any nutters saying Israel can do what it likes because it's God's chosen nation. Well I might do but at least I'll know who they are!

Is it just me...

... or does hot weather slow down time?

Vision's webcast

News from Sue, over at Visions in York:

"We've started experimenting with putting our services as streamable quicktime movies on the web which are up for just two weeks each. Its 
early days yet and we have had some teething probs, the sound was a bit naff in the earlier experiments,  so it doesn't always work,and 
its rough and ready camerawork as editing a file that big would be too horrible.... but we're getting there.  We actually started doing it because one of our members moved away and was missing us terribly  so there was quite an urgent need for us to get something working. Of  course there are probs with interactivity and stuff, but I suppose we  could always send folks the "props" for that week if we got organised."

If you fancy it, then this is the place to go!

Ethical and cheap as chips!

The reason ethical food and clothing costs more is because it's ethical and ethical is by it's nature more expensive than unethical- why else would companies act unethically?) Sometimes however the world order changes and- thanks to the generousity of some great companies- ethical becomes incredibly affordable; you guessed it the People Tree and Howies summer sales have begun!

The Producers @ Drury Lane

Last Saturday I went to London for the second time in less than one week. Thankfully it was pleasure and not business; tomorrow is Zoe's parents silver wedding anniversary so they planned the weekend away; clearly a ploy to nullifying in-law jokes.
On Saturday night we went to see the Producers in Covent Gardens and it was stunning. "Don't be stupid, be a smarty, come and join the Nazi party!"  might be a little close to the bone, but in the midst of a camp portrayal of Hitler it was hilarious.
Jason Clark was sharing his love of London last week and increasingly i can see where he is coming from. It's so big and there is so much going on; so many people, so many places, such variety. In contrast Newcastle is somewhat homogeneous; dare I say it boring...

Saying that I don't like the idea of experiencing the current heatwave on the Piccadilly line everyday... much prefer the Tynemouth coast!

New book...

Having finished Tony Parsons latest novel- not bad but not half as good as Man and Boy- I've recently started reading God's Politics. Really enjoying it. Best quote thus far;

'God is personal, but never private. If God is not personal, there is little meaning to faith. It becomes merely a philosophy or a set of teachings from religious figures who died long ago. Without a personal God, there is no personal dimension to belief. There is no relationship to God, no redemption, salvation, grace, or forgiveness. There is no spiritual transformation without a personal God, and no power that can really change our lives beyond mere self-improvement. …

However, that personal God is never private. Restricting God to private space was the great heresy of the twentieth-century American evangelicalism. Denying the public God is a denial of biblical faith itself, a rejection of the prophets, the apostles, and Jesus himself. Exclusively private faith degenerates into a narrow religion, excessively preoccupied with individual and sexual morality while almost oblivious to the biblical demands for public justice. In the end, private faith becomes a merely cultural religion providing the assurances of righteousness for people just like us. …

Our private religions have failed, but we must not lose a personal God. Instead of trying to strike an elusive ‘balance’ between private piety and the social gospel, we must go to the heart of prophetic religion itself in which a personal God demands public justice as an act of worship. We meet the personal God in the public arena and are invited to take our relationship to that God right into the struggle for justice. Indeed, without that personal relationship we will lose the political struggle. That shift—bringing the personal God into the public arena—is at the heart of the prophet’s message and will transform both our religion and our politics.'