“perhaps true beauty is something that draws our attention at second glance, once the judgement of a first glance has realised it’s mistake”
It’s great to see on the Editors Blog that the BBC are trying to redress the balance of negative journalism towards young people by involving 250 schools in a “massive journalism deployment” involving 10,000 young people aged 11-14.
Stories that have already been filed include items on social networking, mobile phones, living with cancer, and campaigning on Darfur. Other school reporters have covered battery farming, what makes them happy and media images of teenagers.
Other students are reporting on News 24, Radio Five Live and 40 local radio stations – as well as at outside broadcasts in Belfast, Aberdeen and Snowdonia. And there are web-based radio and TV “channels” for the day being streamed live on the website.
Look out for the reports across the BBC this Thursday (13th March), and check out the School Report website to see the fruits of their efforts.
“If Church is not a building you go to but a community you belong to, then when and how that meets can have no boundaries.”
“If we assume everyone who comes to Church ‘ought to know what to do’, we shouldn’t be surprised if they don’t stay long.”
Alternative, more provocative title: Brian McLaren in a blouse?
“The excerpt is from an episode from the 14th season of E.R. titled ‘Atonement’. A man looking for answers does not find what he needs in a post-modern view of religion.”
So the planet warms and the Kenyans kill their neighbors and we tweet about nothing and hope the servers hold out.
Facebook, Twitter, and Bird Flu – Jeffrey Zeldman
- Purpose: what are we here for?
- everything else should be measured up against this
- Values: what is important to us?
- values are often not what you make up, but are what you observe about yourselves and the way you do things…
- Vision: where are we going?
- vision should be imaginable, desirable, feasible, focussed, flexible and communicable
- Strategy: how will we get there?
- plans to make it work – reality is shown up when you think about strategy
- Goals: what will we do and by when?
- goals help you to make a start
Strategy and goals are likely to change as you travel along the journey – they are contextual – and change because they are based on the latest information – as you learn lessons and build up knowledge your strategy and goals are likely to change.
My name is Ricky Rew and I’m addicted to Threadless.
I’ve just completed a long overdue update to the Threadless page to add the shirts from my last three orders – another 18 shirts!! The question I’m asked most often is “where do you get your cool/excellent/great/funny t-shirts from?”. The answer, of course, is Threadless. The second most popular question is “how many Threadless t-shirts do you have?”. To be honest I didn’t know the answer – so I thought I’d count up.
The answer is a staggering 58! If you don’t believe me you can head over to the Threadless page and count them for yourself.
For my Culture, Society & Mission module I’m currently reading Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture
“The Christian movement must be the living, breathing promise to society that it is possible to live out the values of Christ – that is, to be a radical, troubling alternative to the power imbalances in the empire. In a world of greed and consumerism, the Church ought to be a community of generosity and selflessness. In a host empire that is committed to marginalising the poor, resisting the place of women, causing suffering to the disenfranchised, the Christian community must be generous to a fault, pursuant of justice, flushed with mercy.” – p15
“Responsibility cannot be preached: it can only be borne, and the only possible place to begin is with oneself.” – p17 (quoting Vaclav Havel)
“Not all [oppressed and faithful Christians] are rescued from the lions, but somehow, under God’s great grace, their faithfulness eventually will elicit praises from the mouths of their oppressors.” – p17
“By imagining himself to be autonomous, Pilate demonstrates his own folly, and Jesus calls him on it. Like Jesus, exiles must avoid such phony and seductive autonomy. Allhuman life is at the mercy of God and is expected to yield to God’s sovereignty and carry out the diving purposes of justice, love and mercy.” – p20
“We have imprisoned Him [Jesus] in a stained glass cell, and want only to worship Him, never to follow Him.” – p52
“The key to building missional proximity is frequency and spontaneity.” – p62
“God’s presence charges all our activities with glory.” – p67
“We must never tire of doing little things for the love of God, who considers not the magnitude of the work, but the love.” – p68 [quote Brother Lawrence]
“Jesus called us to take up our cross and follow Him. And it’s important to note that for all the discreet medieval art of the Vatican Museum, Jesus died stark naked, covered by nothing but His own dried blood. His hands held no mitre, no staff, no symbol of power. They were empty but for the nails, as big as our thumbs, that anchored Him to that cross.” – p71
“By living expansive lives of justice, kindness, hospitality and generosity, we model the life of Jesus to those who would never attend a Church service or read the New Testament. [...] We will, like Jesus, go naked and empty-handed to others, with no motive other than to show them grace and practice mercy.” – p74
Yesterday I lad the Brigade Service at Church on the theme of “A Different Christmas”. We had a quiz based around the following Christmas statistics (source) and then reflected on them and what they say about how we ‘celebrate’ Christmas:
- £600 million – spent on decorations annually
- 2 million metres – of fairy lights put up each year
- 15 hours – average time spent Christmas shopping (presents only, not food)
- 8000 tonnes – of wrapping paper discarded (enough to wrap island of Guernsey)
- 46 million – toys thrown away each year
- £1.2 billion – value of unwanted gifts each year
- 64% of over 45s said – they felt Christmas had ‘lost its magic’
- 50% of teachers said – their school would be incorporating a non-Christian Christmas celebration
World Vision have produced a video, called “no child should have to endure this”, which highlights the problem with our approach to Christmas.
I mentioned that I’ve had two conversations since Christmas with young people whose excitement about presents was bursting out of them – and they weren’t typical gifts. One was bought an alternative gift by her mum which fed a donkey for a month, and the other had bought a gift for her mum which would provide dinner for 100 school children. We talked about the benefits of different ‘alternative’ gift catalogues such as Living Gifts from Tearfund, Great Gifts from World Vision, Unwrapped from Oxfam and Present Aid from Christian Aid, before moving on to consider the needs of those around us. We then spent about 10-15 minutes in small groups considering the question:
How can we live differently and meet the practical needs of our neighbours next Christmas?
Next we discussed the thoughts of the groups, making notes as we went. The Amicus members will be considering the feedback in September, and we’ll seek to encourage everyone in the Church to put the ideas into practice at the end of the year with the intention of enjoying a different Christmas. We’ll revisit the topic in our October Parade Service and kick things off.
