Mythology Synchroblog

I've just learnt about an interesting mythology synchroblog, which everyone is welcome to participate in. Unfortunately there's not much time left -- target date tomorrow.

Mythology Blog: Between Old and New Moons � Mythology Synchroblog 5 Reminder (Also Messing around with Typealyzer and Gender Analyzer):

Mythology Synchroblog:

This is a reminder that the Mythology Synchroblog is just around the corner (Dec 1). It’s not to late to join in. Everyone is welcome to participate. So please let us know if you’re interested in the comments below.

The Topic for the Mythology Synchroblog is Mythical Monsters and Otherworldly Entities. The Deadline/Post Date is December 1st.

And then there's also the Darkness Synchroblog due on 10 December. Details should be available at Upcoming Synchroblogs, though they are not there yet. In the meantime you can learn more at Square No More: Darkness and Light as Motifs of Spirituality: Next SynchroBlog

Synchroblog on immigration

Yesterday some bloggers had a synchroblog on immigration.

A synchroblog is when a group of bloggers decide to post articles on the same topic at about the same time, with links to each other's posts, so that you can surf through the posts and get a variety of views on the topic. Thanks to Sonja Andrews for coordinating this month's synchroblog, and for reviving it.

• Jonathan Brink – Immigration Synchroblog
• Mike Victorino at Still A Night Owl – Being the Flag
• Liz Dyer at Grace Rules – Together We Can Make Dreams Come True
• Sonnie Swentson-Forbes at Hey Sonnie – Immigration Stories
• Matt Stone at Glocal Christianity – Is Xenophobia Ever Christlike?
• Kathy Escobar at the carnival in my head – it’s a lot easier to be against immigration when you have papers
• Steve Hayes at Khanya – Christians and the Immigration Issue
• Ellen Haroutunian - Give Me Your Tired
• Bethany Stedman – Choosing Love Instead of Fear
• Pete Houston at Peter’s Progress – Of Rape and Refuge and Eyes Wide Shut
• Joshua Seek – Loving Our Immigrant Brother
• Amanda MacInnis at Cheese Wearing Theology – Christians and Immigration
• Sonja Andrews at Calacirian – You’re Absolutely Right
• Peter Walker – Synchroblog – Immigration Reform
• Steven Calascione at Eirenikos – The Jealousy of Migration
• George Elerick at The Love Revolution – We’re Not Kings or Gods
• Beth Patterson at Virtual Tea House – What we resist not only persists but will eventually become our landlord
• K. W. Leslie at The Evening of Kent - On American Immigration

This synchroblog was specifically on Christians and the immigration issue. Why just Christians? Aren't others concerned about it?

Well part of the answer is to be found in a blog post that isn't part of the synchroblog, but perhaps ought to be:The New Litmus Test | Solomon Hezekiah:

All of my friends (and yes, I have a few) who used to go on and on about abortion now go on and on about immigration. The level of perjorative that used to be reserved for those favouring abortion rights or, at worst, abortion providers, are now reserved for those favouring leniency toward undocumented immigrants. In fact, if anything, it is worse. In reading around the conservative blogosphere and even in talking to individuals face-to-face (because people tend to be much less restrained in the pseudonyminous detachment of the internet), opposing views are treated with anger, aggression, and a remarkable lack of civility.

That was written by an American living in the UK, which shows that the problem is international. In South Africa immigration has been linked to xenophobia, and some South African newspapers, notably The Sun, have published articles calculated sto stir up hostility to "illegal aliens". I've been told that in Australia "asylum seekers" is a dirty word.

But the dirtiest thing of all is that in America it appears that the "new litmus test" is being applied by people who like to call themselves Christians.

May Synchroblog: Christianity and film

The topic for the May synchroblog is Christianity and film.

A synchroblog is when a number of people write in their blogs on the same broad topic on the same day, and each provides a link to the posts of the others in theirs, making it easy for people to see the topic from various points of view.

A couple of synchrobloggers have blogs that deal with the horror film genre, such as Theofantastique and Gospel of the living dead, but that's not everyone's cup of tea, so the topic has been broadened to Christianty and the movies generally, and perhaps TV series as well.

We rarely go out to the scopes any more, maybe once a year to see the next Harry Potter film (is anyone planning to do their synchroblog on those?), and usually watch them at home on the small screen. One that I might have gone to see, if it had been shown here in Tshwane, is Pan's Labyrinth, which several people have blogged about. But it has not been shown at all, so we'll have to wait until it's available on DVD or something.

If you're planning to join the May synchroblog, it will be on Wednesday 16th May. Please e-mail your topic and the name and URL of your blog to Phil Wyman at pastorphil@salemgathering.com by Monday 14th May.

There is also a mailing list for regular synchrobloggers, which you can join here, or send e-mail to: synchroblog-request@p2ptrust.org or to synchroblog-owner@p2ptrust.org.

If you'd like to know where the idea of synchroblogging started, see Square No More: Synchronizing a Blog on Syncretism

Synchroblogs -- maturity and post-charismatic

The synchroblog phenomenon seems to be taking off.

It was started as a once-off thing by Phil Wyman and John Smulo in December 2006, when they proposed that a group of Christian bloggers, mostly with an interest in the "emerging church" movement, all blog on the same general topic on the same day, to compare and contrast different views. The topic of the first one was Syncretism.

Some people liked it, and agreed to continue to do a synchroblog once a month. This month's topic, published today, is "maturity" -- what it means to be adult. You can find my contribution at Adult content, with links to the other contributions -- there are nearly 20 contributions this month.

There is a mailing list for the regular participants in the synchroblog, where they discuss future topics, when they will post etc.

The idea seems to be catching on now.

There is at least one other Christian synchroblog, and next month they will be having a post-charismatic synchroblog. As Jonathan Stegall puts it

Should you be unaware of what a post-charismatic is, give the above blogs, as well as Mike Morrell’s, parts of this blog, and several others, a perusal. In any case, I had actually been planning to give an account of my first encounter with the Spirit. In the near future, I believe I will be telling my story, in a very broad way, for the people of Revolution.

If you're interested in that one, you can find more at robbymac: Getting Here From There (Synchro-blog Invitation)

There has also been a Pagan/Mythology Synchroblog, and several more. There's even a controversy about synchroblogs. To see just how popular it is becoming, check on Technorati for synchroblog. You might be surprised.

May synchroblog - films, TV series etc

A few months ago John Smulo and Phil Wyman suggested that a few of us try to synchronise our blogs by posting on the same day on the same topic, which was syncretism . Each person posted, and Phil Wyman provided a list of links to the other synchrobloggers, which we also posted.

That was back in December 2006.

People found it interesting, so it was decided to do it monthly -- in January we blogged about spiritual warfare (see Notes from underground: Thoughts on Spiritual Warfare (synchroblog)), in February about love and so on. Not everyone could participate every month, but a couple more joined in most months. A mailing list was started to coordinate the arrangements -- mainly collecting and posting a list of the participating blogs and the titles of their synchroblog posts.

We've actually succeeded in adding a new word to the language -- synchroblog -- because others have started synchroblogs too now.

The May synchroblog will be on the topic of film (which can be broadly interpreted as movies and TV series etc) and the Christian faith. This is mainly because a couple of synchrobloggers are ardent fans of horror flicks, and even have blogs dedicated to discussing them. In this case you people don't have to blog on horror films. It's open to discussion of all genres.

If you'd like to participate this time round, contact Mike (mike@hingston.demon.co.uk) and ask to be included in the mailing list, so you can see what other titles will be, and add your own to the list. Otherwise let Phil Wyman know by 10 May at the latest -- the name, title and the URL of your blog. The synchroblog usually takes place on the 12th-15th of the month.

Pies, tarts and Synchroblog

Sweet Violet, an American living in South Africa, writes about the difference between American and South African Christmas customs: A View from the Other Side: Christmas on the Other Side

One of the things that comes up in the discussion is the difference between pies and tarts. To me the distinction is that a pie always has a pastry crust on top, whereas a tart does not. In America, it seems, the difference has something to do with size. So we have milk tart (which is a kind of custard tart, or a jam tart, and quiche is a variety of tart. But mince pies are pies, even if made of fruit mince rather than flesh meat.

South Africans do sometimes confuse them, though, especially those for whom English is a second language. A lawyer friend once told me of a judge, who, in sentencing a recently-convicted accused, said "He had a finger in every tart in town."

Sweet Violet also mentioned turkeys, which she said were not part of South African Christmas celebrations. My memory is different, but perhaps because I grew up on a smallholding in Sunningdale, just outside Johannesburg, where we had chickens, ducks and turkeys. We always had turkey for Christmas (and sometimes sold them to our customers for that purpose).

In recent years years, however, turkeys have been more difficult to find. I attribute this to the Rainbow chicken boom of the 1960s, when traditional poultry farms were replaced by battery hens, initially near Camperdown, Natal, but later all over the country. Turkeys didn't fit the pattern, and demand was seasonal, so it was probably uneconomic to raise turkeys.

One could still get turkeys in supermarkets, though, but they were imported from America. I had visions of all the supermarkets in the USA bundling up their unsold turkeys on the day after Thanksgiving, and airfreighting them to Pick 'n Pay in time for Christmas. They came wrapped in plastic, and the label proclaimed them as "self-basting", which made me wonder what kind of sinister genetic modifications had been carried out on them!

Talking about Christmas reminds me of this month's Synchroblog, with the theme Redeeming the season. As Phil Wyman writes:

Redeeming the Season is the Topic for this month's SynchroBlog. Now there are a variety of seasons being celebrated at the end of each year from Christmas to Hannukah to Eid al-Adha and Muharram, from the Winter Solstice to Kwanzaa and Yule. Some people celebrate none of these seasonal holydays, and do so for good reason. Below is a variety of responses to the subject of redeeming the season. From the discipline of simplicity, to uninhibited celebration, to refraining from celebrating, to celebrating another's holyday for the purpose of identificational evangelism the subject is explored.

This is a kind of anniversary synchroblog, the first one having been held in December 2006, at the instigation of Phil Wyman and John Smulo, when a group of us blogged on the theme of "Syncretism.

This month's synchroblog is on the theme of "Redeeming the season", and here are the links to the posts:

Swords into Plowshares at Sonja Andrew's Calacirian
Fanning the Flickering Flame of Advent at Paul Walker's Out of the Cocoon
Lainie Petersen at Headspace
Eager Longing at Elizaphanian
The Battle Rages at Bryan Riley's Charis Shalom
Secularizing Christmas at JohnSmulo.com
There's Something About Mary at Hello Said Jenelle
Geocentric Versus Anthropocentric Holydays at Phil Wyman's Square No More
Celebrating Christmas in a Pluralistic Society at Matt Stone's Journeys in Between
The Ghost of Christmas Past at Erin Word's Decompressing Faith
Redeeming the season -- season of redemption by Steve Hayes
Remembering the Incarnation at Alan Knox' The Assembling of the Church
A Biblical Response to a Secular Christmas by Glenn Ansley's Bad Theology
Happy Life Day at The Agent B Files
What's So Bad About Christmas? at Julie Clawson's One Hand Clapping

Synchroblogging Is Back

A synchroblog is when a group of bloggers wrote about the same general topic on the same day, and post links to each other's posts, so that people can easily surf from post to post and see the same general topic from different points of view.

The theme of September's synchroblog is Christians and the immigration issue and you can read more about it on Synchroblogging Is Back | Grace Rules Weblog:

CHRISTIANS AND THE IMMIGRATION ISSUE – 9/8/2010 (second Wednesday of the month) As Congress debates how to handle illegal immigrants already within U.S. borders and how to more effectively handle hopeful immigrants in the future, Christians will need to consider what it means to love these new neighbors in our midst.

Please email your name, name of blog, title of post and link to: Sonja Andrews at synchroblog@gmail.com by close of business CST on 9/7/2010 if you would like to be included in this synchroblog.

Please ignore the US-centric blurb, and feel free to write about it even if you don't live in the USA and don't want to emigrate there.

Oh yes, and there is still time to participate, as the synchroblog is to be on 8 September, and you need to send in the details of your post by Tuesday 7 September (and not 9 July!)

October Synchroblog - Christian responses to Halloween

The October Synchroblog is on Christian responses to Halloween. As usual, you will find a variety of views expressed by 24 bloggers from various places around the world. Here are links to the posts (revised 28 October, with links to actual posts):

• Phil Wyman - The Christians and the Pagans meet for Samhain
  
• Lainie Petersen - Our own private zombie: Death and the spirit of Fear
  
• Julie Clawson - Trappings of a world in which we do not believe
  
• John Morehead - Rethinking Evangelical postures on Halloween
  
• Sonja Andrews - Vampire protection
  
• Adam Gonneman - What's so bad about Halloween?
  
• Reba Baskett - Halloween....why all the madness?
  
• Steve Hayes - Who stole Halloween?
  
• KW Leslie - The Christian Harvest Festival
  
• John Smulo - Hallmark Halloween
  
• Erin Word - H-A-double-L-O-double-U-double-E-N
  
• Mike Bursell - Hallowe'en
  
• Sam Norton - Do not be afraid
  
• Steve Hollinghurst - Removing Christendom from Halloween
  
• David Fisher - Vampires or leeches
  
• Sally Coleman - Encountering hallow-tide creatively
  
• Kay - Halloween: four perspectives
  
• Johnny Beloved - Apples and razorblades
  
• Alan Knox - Fall Festivals and scary masks
  
• Dan Allen - Why Christians don't like zombies
  
• Paul Walker - Peering through the negatives of mission
  
• Sea Raven - The Season of Samhain
  
• Lew A - Halloween: My experiences
  
• Timothy Victor - Appropriating Halloween and creating liminal times
  
• Nic Paton - Making space for Halloween
  
• Barb - The heart of a child
  
• Bryan Riley - Bloated body parts
  

Follow-ups and spin-offs

While not actually part of the October Synchroblogs, the following are posts that either linked to it, or followed up on the general theme. Notes and comments by Steve Hayes.

• Metapagan - Those Christians again! -- a Neopagan response to the Halloween synchroblog
  
• Metapagan - Pagans talk about Samhain -- a roundup of Pagan blog postings about Samhain
  
• Steve Hayes - Halloween - learning from Synchroblog -- what one participant learnt from the Halloween synchroblog
  
• Dana Bailey What to do about Halloween -- another Christian response.
  
• John Morehead - Imaginarium, Cornerstone and Days of the Dead -- Halloween is sometimes linked with All Souls Day, which is two days later. John Morehead examines parallels with the Mexican Day of the Dead.
  
• Steve Hayes - Days of the Dead and Halloween -- Steve Hayes looks at the idea of a day of the dead.
  
• Cornerstone - Imaginarium -- Days of the Dead
  

Anatomy of exile

This month's synchroblog, in the week in which Lent begins, is on Experiences in the wilderness. March Synchroblog – Experiences In The Wilderness – 3/9/2011 | synchroblog:

During the season of Lent we are reminded that all of us experience wilderness times in our lives – times of searching, of mourning, of anticipating, of waiting, of watching, of unknowing, of struggling, of preparation. Join us during the season of Lent for this month’s synchroblog as we reflect and share insights and thoughts about “Experiences In The Wilderness”.

As I look back on my life I can recall several experiences that could be said to be experiences of the wilderness, some literal, some figurative.

• Flight into exile in the UK
• Being fired by the Anglican bishop of Natal
• Being deported from Namibia
• Churchlessness

I won't go into all the details of all these now; for the sake of those who might be interested, I've linked a couple of them to other posts that give some more details.

The first, flight into exile in the UK, was not a real wilderness experience, though it felt like it at the time. I had finished my BA degree at the University of Natal, and was working as a bus driver in Johannesburg to try to raise money for postgraduate study in the UK. I needed to be in the UK at the end of September, but in January a man from the Security Police phoned me and wanted to see me. I thought he was either going to give me a banning order, or confiscate my passport, so I scarpered the same night, driving to Bulawayo and catching a plane to London from there. When I got back two-and-a-half years later they came and confiscated my passport. It wasn't really exile, but it felt like it because of the sudden and unexpected parting from friends and family and arriving in a strange country with no money and no job. I felt, in a very mild way, what refugees must feel like.

The last, churchlessness, was when we left the Anglican Church in 1985, and asked to join the Orthodox Church, which entailed writing a letter to the bishop. The bishop referred the letter to the Pope, who said he must refer it to the Holy Synod, but then died before the Holy Synod could consider it. The Anglican Church sent a lawyer after me, who unfairly and unjustly accused me of stealing church property, and was extremely nasty about it. So we were left in a kind of ecclesiastical wilderness, and at times both Val and I entertained thoughts of going up to the railway line that runs over the road from us and throwing ourselves under a passing train. Neither of us told the other about these thoughts until long afterwards; it was definitely a spiritual wilderness experience.

After being deported from Namibia I read a book called The anatomy of exile: a semantic and historical study, and though I can now remember very little of what it said, it made me reflect on the experience of exile, and to realise that what I missed most was not so much places, as people.

But in Lent, and especially in the first week of Lent, we are reminded that all our earthly experiences of exile are actually pointers to a larger exile, and the hymns of the church focus on the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise.

In Western theology there is the idea of dwelling in the Land of Unlikeness, where we have lost the likeness of God in which we were created.

In the Orthodox Church we have the picture of of Adam weeping at the gates of Paradise and lamenting:

The Word of God the Father,
begotten before the ages,
in the latter times willed to be incarnate of the Virgin
and endured crucifixion unto death.
He has saved mortal man//
by His Resurrection.

v. (6) If You, O Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with You.

Tone 6 (from the Lenten Triodion)

The Lord took a handful of dust from the earth.
He breathed into it, and created me, a living man.
He made me lord and master of all things on earth;
truly I enjoyed the life of the Angels.
But Satan the deceiver tempted me in the guise of a serpent;
I ate the forbidden fruit and forfeited the glory of God.
Now I have been delivered to the earth through death.//
O my compassionate Lord, call me back to Eden!

v. (5) For Your name's sake I have waited for You, O Lord, my soul has waited for Your word; my soul has hoped on the Lord.

When the Enemy tempted me,
I disobeyed Your command, O Lord.
I exchanged the glory of my mortal body for shame and nakedness.
Now I must wear garments of skins and fig-leaves;
I am condemned to eat the bread of bitter hardship in the sweat of my
brow.
The earth is cursed and brings forth thorns and husks for me.
O Lord, You took on flesh from the Virgin in the fullness of time;//
call me back and restore me to Eden!

v. (4) From the morning watch until night, from the morning watch, let Israel hope on the Lord!

O Paradise, garden of delight and beauty,
dwelling-place made perfect by God,
unending gladness and eternal joy,
the hope of the Prophets and the home of the saints,
by the music of your rustling leaves beseech the Creator of all
to open the gates which my sins have closed,
that I may partake of the Tree of Life and Grace,//
which was given to me in the beginning!

v. (3) For with the Lord there is mercy and with Him is plenteous redemption, and He will deliver Israel from all his iniquities.
____
This post is part of a Synchroblog, in which several bloggers post articles on the same general theme. This month's theme is "Experiences in the Wilderness", and here are some other blog posts on the theme.

• Patrick (at Dual Ravens) was prolific with a four part series called “Musings” and they can be found here: Part One, Part Two, Part Three and Part Four
• Katherine Gunn at A Voice in the Desert writes What is Wilderness?
• Wendy McCaig giving us a View from the Bridge brings A Voice Calling in the Wilderness
• EmmaNadine who describes Life By List wonders about Life in the Wilderness
• Tammy Carter of Blessing the Beloved is taking a rest as she Puts down the axe
• Jeremy Myers writing at Til He Comes ponders The Gaping Chasm of Suicide
• kathy escobar shares the carnival in my head and writes about belonging
• Steve Hayes of Notes from underground describes Anatomy of exile
• Marta Layton at Marta’s Mathoms writes On Sabbaths, Mountain-Tops… and Brothers’ Keepers
• Liz Dyer at Grace Rules discovers Beauty In The Wilderness

Synchroblog for International Women's Day

Today, 8 March, is International Women's Day, and it has captured the imagination of a group of Christians, many of them in the USA, enough to inspire them to have a synchroblog to mark the occasion. So people who participated have blogged on women of the Bible, or Christian women in history.

Here are links to some of the blog posts that are already up, and you should find more links at the end of each post to follow them.

• Julie Clawson on The God Who Sees
• Steve Hayes on St. Theodora the Iconodule
• Sonja Andrews on Aunt Jemima
• Sensuous Wife on A Single Mom in the Bible
• Minnowspeaks on Celebrating Women
• Michelle Van Loon on The Persistent Widow
• Lyn Hallawell on International Women’s Day
  
• Heather on The Strength of Biblical Women
• Shawna Atteberry on The Daughter of Mary Magdalene
• Christine Sine on women who impacted her life
• Susan Barnes on International Women’s Day
• Ellen Haroutunian on Out from Under the Veil
• Liz Dyer on Mary and Martha: A Story about God’s Radical Hospitality
• Bethany Stedman on Shiprah and Puah
  
• Dan Brennan on Mary Magdalene

I had never paid much attention to International Women's Day before, partly because we have a national Women's Day on 9th August, which is a public holiday. So I looked up Internatonal Women's Day, and discovered a little about its history. It seems that is very much a socialist festival, and I found it quite interesting that many of the women who are participating in this synchroblog are Americans of evangelical Christian background. According to the news media, American evangelicals are almost synonymous with the "religious right", and so the very fact of this synchroblog breaks stereotypes, not only about women, but also about the "religious right" and the American aversion to "socialism".

I thought the easiest way to write it was to look up saints commemorated on 8 March, and to blog about any women saints commemorated on that day. It turned out that it was the first Sunday in Lent, the Sunday of Orthodoxy, and so it seemed logical to write about St Theodora the Iconodule, who established the practice of observing the First Sunday of Lent in this way -- a shrewd move, because it has probably protected the Orthodox Church from iconoclasm to this day.

Square No More: Next Synchroblog - Wednesday, October 24th

The next synchroblog will be on Wednesday 24 October, and will be on the theme of Christian responses to Hallowe'en. If anyone would like to participate, you should let Phil Wyman know a couple of says before, here: Square No More: Next Synchroblog - Wednesday, October 24th. He will then send you a list of links to other synchrobloggers that you can put at the end of your post. You need to send him the title of your post and the URL of your blog.

The aim of a synchroblog is for a number of people to blog on the same general topic on the same day, so that one can look at the topic from a variety of points of view.

This time round, I will probably be posting my contribution on my other blog Khanya, and will also be posting it earlier than the deadline date, in case Telkom has cut us off from the web, as usually happens at the end of the month.

Synchroblog - altered states of consciousness

For the last few months a group of Christian bloggers have been doing a synchroblog -- blogging on the same general subject on the same day. Previous subjects have been syncretism, spiritual warfare and love.

This month's topic will be "Altered states of consciousness", and the synchronised blogging will take place on about 14 March 2007 (actual appearance of the postings will depend on time zones).

One of the interesting things about synchroblogging is that one can look at the same topic from a variety of points of view. So watch this space on or about 14 March.

And if you'd like to know more on synchroblogging, and perhaps take part yourself, click on the synchroblog label below, or on the Technorati tag here: synchroblog

Synchroblog on light and dark

Phil Wyman has issued a reminder that we are doing the next SynchroBlog this coming
Wednesday on the theme of "Light and Dark as Motifs of Spirituality."

Posts should be up by December 10th (the evening of the 9th is always a good time for North Americans to post, since the rest of the world is ahead)

How to get Involved

E-mail Phil Wyman with an affirmative letting him know that you are participating.

Also as soon as you have your blog posted send him the direct link to the post, and we will get you hooked up.

How to get the most out of it

Phil will send out list of links, and they can be added to the bottom of your own post. By having the list on your site, you ensure that you are networked together with all your fellow Synchies, and people who are following the synchroblog can just surf from one post to the next. As they finish reading one post they just click the next one on the list.

So, let Phil know if you are in, and send him your title and direct URL as soon as possible. Some won't know their URL until the day of posting, but that's cool, as long as you let Phil know that you are in, and let him have have your blog URL ahead of time.

This synchroblog also marks the beginning of the third year of synchroblogging.

Here are links to some of the posts already up:

• Kathy Escobar at The carnival in my head on Light: I'll take a sliver any day.
• Beth Patterson of Virtual Tea House on Advent: awaiting the ancient and ever new.
• J.R. Miller of More than cake on Discover light in the darkness.
• Steve Hayes at Khanya on Lord of the Dark.
• Adam Gonnerman of Igneous Quill on In darkness.
• Julie Clawson of One hand clapping on Darkness and light.
• Susan Barnes: and here's a photo of one I made earlier.
• Liz Dyer of Grace Rules says What the heck.
• Erin Word of Decompressing faith on Fire and Sacrifice.
• Joshua Jinno at the Ante-Church on Practice Round: Light and Dark as spiritual motifs.
• Phil Wyman at Square no more on Darkness: a thin place for my soul.
• Lainie Peterson at Headspace on What the mirror doesn't tell me.
• Ellen Harountun on Holy Darkness.
• Jeff Goins at Pilgrimage of the heart on Walking in the light:walking with Jesus.
• Beth Stedman at Coffee Klatch on Light is coming.
• KW Leslie at The Daily Christian Show on Darkness versus Blackness.
  

Square No More: Next SynchroBlog - Sept 17th - on Maturity

Square No More: Next SynchroBlog - Sept 17th - on Maturity: "The next posting for our SynchroBlog event will be September 17th, and the subject is Maturity.

September 17th SynchroBlog - Discussing Maturity in the Light of our Faith"

Interfaith dialogue and Religionrap

About 10-15 years ago I belonged to the RELIGION conference on the RIME BBS network. It was an interesting forum where people of different religious backgrounds and traditions discussed various topics and learnt about each other's beliefs and practices.

BBS networks and forums began to die after 2000, partly because much of the software that made them so useful was not Y2K compatible, and there were bugs in the date format, and partly because Windows 95 and later versions hid the software one needed to access BBS networks.

But I still miss that forum.

There were interesting people there, like Deke Barker, Soonand Myosurus, John Eveland and many more.

Recently there has been a proposal for an interfaith synchroblog. That is OK, but it is not really the best medium for interfaith dialogue. In a blog individuals express their views, and people can respond to each individual by way of comments. But there is no real back-and-forth discussion.

A couple of us have therefore started an interfaith discussion forum, called Religionrap. I hope that if any of the people from the old RIME religion conference are around and see this, they may join in. I hope that the people who want an interfaith synchroblog will also join in -- after all, there has to be somewhere where one can discuss the topic for the next synchroblog, and some of the points raised in the synchroblog.

For anyone interested, the people who started it are me, Steve Hayes, an Orthodox Christian from South Africa, and Yvonne Aburrow, a Wiccan Unitarian from England. For the time being we are the moderators, to try to keep discussion civil.

Group Email Addresses

Post message:	religionrap@yahoogroups.com
Subscribe:	religionrap-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Unsubscribe:	religionrap-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
List owner:	religionrap-owner@yahoogroups.com

Or got to the web site at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/religionrap/

Interfaith synchroblog and forum

A group of us are planning to have a synchroblog on 8 October on the general topic "Interreligious dialogue".

If you would like to take part, just write a blog post on that day with your thoughts on interreligious dialogue, and, as soon as you have posted it, send me information about your post (see below) and add the list of other participants in the synchroblog to your post when the list is available. You should also tag your post with "metareligionrap" and a tag for your own religious (or irreligious) background, and post it to del.icio.us with those tags too. They will then appear on the Metareligion blog aggregator at http://religionrap.blogspot.com

I suggest that we post as follows:

People in North and South America post in the early morning
People in Europe and Africa post about noon
People in the Middle East, India etc post midafternoon
People in eastern Asia, Australia, New Zealand etc post in the evening

As soon as you have posted your contribution, copy the URL for your post from your browser and send it to me in an e-mail message in the following format

NA Poster's name
BL Poster's blog name
TI Title of your post
URL Url of your post
REL Your religious background
EM Your e-mail address

If you use that format -- with the preceding tags in capital letters followed by a single space, and each piece of information on a separate line (it can word-wrap), I will be able to import it straight into a database without re-typing, and produce a report with the HTML code for the links which can then be appended to your post. I will post them on my contribution, and the easiest thing will be to copy and paste them from there. But I will also send it by e-mail to all the registered contributors (to the e-mail address you provide, so don't munge it).

If you send it to me by e-mail at

shayes (at) dunelm.org.uk


it will avoid cluttering up the mailing lists with lots of messages about addresses and titles of blog posts.

We will discuss the Synchroblog post on the interfaith forum Religionrap

For what it's worth the membership of the interfaith list (Religionrap) is as follows (so far):

Pagan 53%
Christian 23%
Jewish 7%
Buddhist 7%
Other 7%

No Muslims or Hindus yet, it seems.

If you want to know more about the Religionrap discussion forum see Notes from underground: Interfaith dialogue and Religionrap.

God's politics - synchroblog

The theme of this month's Synchroblog is "The politics of God". A bit awkward, that. I could write quite a bit about God and human politics, but the subject seems quite clearly limited to God's politics.

It would be easy to think that God's politics must be monarchist. After all, the synoptic gospels have a great deal to say about the "Kingdom" of God, in which God is the king.

In church services we have the same thing. At the beginning of the Divine Liturgy the priest announces "Blessed be the kingdom of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit."

In baptism we are asked if we believe in Jesus Christ as king and God.

So the evidence is pretty strong: God's politics are monarchist.

St Matthew's Gospel has a variation. He talks about the "Kingdom of Heaven" rather than the "Kingdom of God", but the effect is much the same, though. Heaven, we are told, was a euphemism for "God" in the first century.

And concerning that, St Paul urges the Philippians not to set their hearts on earthly things, but says that "our politics is in heaven" (Philippians 4:20). Actually the word he uses, politevma, is translated in many varying ways -- "commonwealth", "citizenship" and even (KJV) "conversation". I can't help thinking that "conversation" must have meant something very different in Jacobean English to what it means today. But whatever it meant back then, I understand it today to mean that our politics should be God's politics.

And to the Colossians he says (Colossians 3:1-4)

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Whatever else that means, it means we should not take earthly politics too seriously. Christians can never say, "My country, right or wrong", because our country is heaven, and our citizenship is primarily in the Kingdom of Heaven and not in any earthly republic or monarchy or dictatorship. Our politics is in heaven, and so we cannot take earthly political parties and movements too seriously.

And the Kingdom of heaven is not like earthly kingdoms and republics and dictatorships. As Jesus told his disciples, it would be difficult for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God (Mark 10:26) and he went on to say

You know that those who are supposed to rule over the nations lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you; but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be the slave of all (Mark 10:42-43)

So Jesus represents a kingdom that is radically different from the kingdoms of this world, from the rulers of the nations. And this radical difference is shown by St Paul in I Cor 15:24, when Christ delivers the kingdom to God the Father, having put down all rule, all authority, all power. What kind of kingdom is without rule (arche), without authority (exousia), without power (dynamis)?

An anarchic kingdom, that's what.

The Kingdom of God is without rule (an-archy), without authority, without power.

That is the politics of God, and that is our politics as Christians; we are citizens of an anarchic kingdom, a royal anarchy.

____________

This post is part of a synchroblog, in which a number of bloggers blog on the same general theme on about the same day. The theme of this synchroblog is "God's politics", and other synchrobloggers blogging on this theme are listed below. Please visit their blogs to to see what others have to say on the topic

Phil Wyman at Phil Wyman's Square No More
Lainie Petersen at Headspace
Jonathan Brink enters The Political Fray
Adam Gonnerman explains The Living Christ's Present Reign
Sonja Andrews at Calacirian
Mike Bursell at Mike's Musings
Sally Coleman at Eternal Echoes
Steve Hayes on God's Politics
Matthew Stone at Matt Stone Journeys in Between
Steve Hollinghurst at On Earth as in Heaven
KW Leslie tells us about God's Politics
Julie Clawson at One Hand Clapping
Dan Stone at The Tense Before
Alan Knox asks Is God Red, Blue, or Purple?
Beth Patterson at The Virtual Teahouse
Erin Word at Decompressing Faith

Interreligious dialogue

This post is part of a synchoblog (synchronised blog) from people of different religious backgroounds on the topic of Interreligious Dialogue.

Like many others, I've blogged on this topic before, and so I won't repeat everything I've said in previous posts here, but will rather provide links to the other posts, with some commentary, and apologies to those who have read them before, especially since two of them were posted as part of Christian synchroblogs.

Taken together, they are quite long, so I hope people won't find them too boring.

In many ways they are a response to the views of some Christian theologians, whose views on interreligious dialogue I disagree with.

Notes from underground: Christianity: inclusive or exclusive? (Synchroblog)

Notes from underground: Theology of religions

Notes from underground: Theology of religion and interreligious dialogue

Notes from underground: Christianity, paganism and literature (synchroblog)

Notes from underground: Towards a theology of religions

As far as I can see there are three ways in which one can approach interreligious dialogue.

1. Avoidance
2. Finding common ground
3. Discovering similarities and differences

There can be many reasons for avoiding interreligious dialogue, including the idea that since all others are wrong, dialogue is not needed. All that is needed is a monologue from us to tell "them" the error of their ways, because we have the truth.

The "finding common ground" approach is usually based on an attempt to find something that everyone can agree on, such as "tolerance", and that the only thing we will not tolerate is intolerance. Unfortunately this means that we often overlook areas of real disagreement.

I'm an Orthodox Christian, and I believe what an Orthodox theologian, Fr Thomas Hopko, had to say about tolerance:

Tolerance is always in order when it means that we coexist peacefully with people whose ideas and manners differ from our own, even when to do so is to risk the impression that truth is relative and all customs and mores are equally acceptable (as happens in North America).

Tolerance is never in order when it means that we remain idle before wickedness which harms human beings and destroys God's creation.

To be tolerant is to be neither indifferent nor relativistic. Neither is it to sanction injustice or to be permissive of evil. Injustice is intolerable and evil has no rights. But the only weapons which Christians may use against injustice and evil are personal persuasion and political legislation, both of which are to be enacted in an atmosphere of respect. While Christians are permitted under certain conditions to participate in police and military actions to enforce civil laws and to oppose criminality, we may not obey evil laws nor resort to evil actions in defence of the good. This means that Christians are inevitably called to suffer in this age, and perhaps even to die. This is our gospel, our witness and our defence.

To me tolerance means co-existing peacefully with people whose ideas and manners differ from my own. If it means no more than that, it means at least that.

If I discuss religion with people whose ideas differ from my own, then I want to be sure that if I disagree, then I disagree with their actual beliefs and not a caricature of them, and if I agree, then I agree with their actual beliefs, and not a caricature of them. This approach does sometimes, however, cause clashes with exponents of the Baha'i faith, who believe that all religions are fundamentally the same, and that theirs is a harmonisation of all of them. That can lead them to overlook areas of real disagreement.

In interreligious dialogue then, there are four elements:

1. Your religion
2. My religion
3. Your interpretation of my religion
4. My interpretation of your religion

Unless all four are present, we don't have dialogue, but two monologues.

_______

List of participants

Here are links to the other participants in this synchroblog

• J. R. Miller (Christian) of More Than Cake on A Christian Approach to Interfaith Dialogue"


• Liz Dyer (Christian) of Grace Rules on Interreligious Dialogue: Risky Business


• Matt Stone (Christian) of Glocal Christianity on Is
  Interfaith Interfaith enough?


• Steve Hayes (Christian Orthodox) of Notes from underground on Interreligious dialogue


• K.W. Leslie (Christian / Pentecostal / Assemblies of God) of The Evening of Kent on Gathering with the pagans.


• Phil Wyman (Christian) of Square No More on A Christian Presenter at Pagan Pride!?


• Beth Patterson (Liberal Christian w/ Celtic undertones) of Virtual Tea House on Same Stove, Different Teapots


• Jarred Harris (Pagan/Vanic Witch) of The Musings of a Confused Man on Interfaith relationships


• Yvonne Aburrow (Wiccan Unitarian) of the dance of the elements on Only connect


• Andii Bowsher (Christian) of nouslife on More Tea Wicca?

And here's a link for some matters arising from this synchroblog.

The State should get out of the marriage business

I recently posted the following paper for discussion in the Christianity and Society forum.

Marriage in South Africa

Marriage and other social and domestic partnerships

Dr Stephen Hayes

1 Introduction

The Constitutional Court in South Africa has ruled that the
Marriage Act is unconstitutional, because it does not make
provision for marriage of persons of the same sex.

There has therefore been a proposal that legislation should be
amended to make provision for this.

The purpose of this paper is to suggest that the Marriage Act be
repealed altogether, and that marriage should cease to be the
concern of the State, but should for the most part be dealt with
by civil society.

One of the main concerns that has led to calls for changes to the
present system is the need for clarity about legal status and
inheritance. In this paper I suggest that these can be dealt with
by new legislation for the registration of social and domestic
partnerships of various kinds.

2 Social & domestic partnerships

Marriage is one of several kinds of social and domestic part-
nerships that can be found in society, and existed in most
societies long before there was any state regulation of it. In
some societies it has religious dimensions, but different
religions have different views about it.

2.1 Different views of marriage

For some, marriage is a union of two people of different sexes.
For others, it can involve more than two people. In both these,
however, one of the purposes of marriage has been the procreation
of children, and this has given marriage a legal and social
dimension with regard to such matters as inheritance. One of the
legal consequences of marriage has been that the parties to a
marriage become "next of kin" to each other. This is important
for such things as intestate succession, and rights of visiting
in hospital when one of the parties is seriously ill, etc.

Because South Africa is a multicultural country, there are many
different views of what constitutes marriage, and any attempt by
the State to regulate marriage too closely will cause dis-
satisfaction among some groups.

2.2 Other social and domestic partnerships

There have been various other kinds of social and domestic part-
nerships that have not enjoyed the legal recognition of marriage.

If the Marriage Act were to be repealed, there should be new
legislation provide for marriage and other social and domestic
partnerships to have similar legal consequences to those that
marriage has had in the past.

Such partnerships include (but are not necessarily limited to)
the following:

* Monogamous marriage

* Polygamous marriage

* Unions of two people of the same sex

* Unions of two or more people of the same or different
sexes

* Long-term communities, such as monasteries

* Unmarried siblings who live together

New legislation could provide for the registration of such part-
nerships and spell out some of the legal consequences, which
could, in some cases, be varied as the legal consequences of
marriage can now be varied by ante-nuptial contract.

Registration should be a secular, neutral process, like the
registration of births and deaths. There are no religious birth
or death registration officers. Social and domestic partnerships
should be registered in the same way, and their dissolution, if
it occurs, could be registered in the same way. Provision could
be made, in cases where it might be desirable, for the Master of
the High Court to supervise the winding up of estates of
dissolved partnerships, as is now done for the estates of
deceased, insolvent or mentally incapacitated persons.

Religious or cultural ceremonies could be held to inaugurate any
of these partnerships, some of them, or none of them, Such
ceremonies should not be a prerequisite or a necessary con-
sequence of registration, though evidence that people had par-
ticipated in such a ceremony could, where appropriate, be taken
as evidence that they intended to register their partnership.

Religious and cultural groups should not be obliged to perform
ceremonies in connection with any or all of these partnerships,
nor to approve of all such partnerships, and should be entitled
to urge their members not to participate in some forms of
partnership that they regard as undesirable.

3 Conclusion and recommendations

I therefore suggest that the State should withdraw from the
marriage business altogether, and leave it up to different groups
in civil society, whether religious or cultural, to determine
what marriage is for their members, and what kinds of part-
nerships are acceptable or unacceptable for their members. There
should be no religious "marriage officers" in religious groups
who perform marriage ceremonies on behalf of the state.

The Marriage Act should be repealed, and replaced by legislation
providing for the registration of various kinds of social and
domestic partnerships, and for the legal consequences of such
partnerships.

2006-09-16

See also The Theology of Christian Marriage.

_____

Synchroblog

This post has been linked to the Synchroblog for October 2010: Same-sex marriage synchroblog | Khanya. Click on the link to see the other posts in the synchroblog.

Synchroblog on leadership

Today we are having a Synchroblog on leadership -- a group of (mostly) Christian bloggers around the world are blogging on their thoughts on leadership, and what leadership means.

• Jonathan Brink - Letter To The President
• Adam Gonnerman - Aspiring to the Episcopate
• Kai - Leadership - Is Servant Leadership a Broken Model?
• Sally Coleman - In the world but not of it- servant leadership for the 21st Century Church
• Alan Knox - Submission is given not taken
• Joe Miller - Elders Lead a Healthy Family: The Future
• Cobus van Wyngaard - Empowering leadership
• Steve Hayes - Servant leadership
• Geoff Matheson - Leadership
• John Smulo - Australian Leadership Lessons
• Helen Mildenhall - Leadership
• Tyler Savage - Moral Leadership - Is it what we need?
• Bryan Riley - Leading is to Listen and Obey
• Susan Barnes - Give someone else a turn!
• Liz Dyer - A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Polls…
• Lionel Woods - Why Diverse Leadership is Good for America
• Julie Clawson - Leadership Expectations
• Ellen Haroutunian - A New Kind Of Leadership
• Matt Stone - Converting Leadership

There is quite a variety among the posts, but also some common points. Some have focused on political leaders (it is the American general election today), and others have focused on church leaders, and some have compared and contrasted them.

My own contribution is on Servant leadership.

One of the most interesting ones, in the light of the US general election, is John Smulo's blog. In his actual synchroblog post he compares Australian and American styles of leadership, but immediately preceding it is a poll, in which he asks readers to indicate which way they will vote in the US general election.

He has two polls, one for Americans, and one for non-Americans -- the latter are asked to say which way they would vote if they were Americans.

Since John Smulo's blog is a Christian one, and most of his readers are presumably Christian, it shows an interesting difference between American Christians and Christians in the rest of the world, at least at the time of writing.

American Christians are split equally between the two main parties - 32% say they will vote for the Democrats, 32% for the Republicans, a few Libertarians and a few more "other".

Non-Americans show a very different pattern. None (so far) support the Republicans. It's 72.7 Democrat and 27.3% Green.

Perhaps that pattern will change as more people vote, but it seems to have important missional implications. American missionaries often travel to other parts of the world, but often do not realise quite how much the culture of other people, including that of other Christians, differs from theirs.

People in other countries, however, often have a better perception of American thinking, because American news media are all pervasive, and propagate the American worldview to most parts of the world. But even if people are aware of that worldview, they don't always accept it, as John's poll seems to show. Of course it's still a very small sample, but it will be interesting to see how it changes as more people vote.