A Youth of the Apocalypse

Well, it's nice to see that there are still some youth of the apocalypse around!

A Youth of the Apocalypse

Anyone know what happened to the Death to the world zine?

If you don't know what that is, check for more info here:

Вовкина болтовня: 'Death to the World': Punks turned Monks

The da Vinci code

I saw a thing on the History Channel about the da Vinci code.

Here I was thinking that this is one film that cannot be worse than the book. Now I'm not so sure.

Little Gidding : Monasticism Anyone?

In my other blog I posted an item about the first steps to estalishing an Orthodox monastery in Southern Africa. Then i came across this.

Little Gidding : Monasticism Anyone?

It seems that there is a lot of interest in monasticism nowadays. One of te best brief introductions I've found on the web, however, is Orthodox monasticism. But that doesn't answer the questions about Protestant monasticism.

I'm familiar with a number of Anglican religious orders -- the Community of the Resurrection, the Community of the Holy Name, and a few others, and I'm interested in finding our more about one in Zimbabwe, the Community of the Holy Fire.

And then there's Orthodox Monk: Vows of the Tonsure to the Great Schema

JESUS THE RADICAL PASTOR: Why Do People Want To Believe The Da Vinci Code?

Well, that's an interesting question...

JESUS THE RADICAL PASTOR: Why Do People Want To Believe The Da Vinci Code?

I once got into a discussion on a newsgroup about it, and came to the conclusion that The da Vinci code appeals to the same kind of people who avidly read books like Who moved my cheese?.

Nashville Cohort: Radical Orthodoxy Resources

A few years ago I heard Graham Ward lecture on Narrative and revelation at the University of South Africa. He was touted as a proponent of "Radical Orthodoxy". The name appealed to me, though I'm not too sure of the concept.

Nashville Cohort: Radical Orthodoxy Resources

Much longer ago, in 1966, a bloke called Bob Towler interviewed me. He was doing a sociological study on theological education, and wanted to know my churchmanship. There were five choices:

1. Anglo-Catholic
2. Prayerbook Catholic
3. Modern churchman
4. Liberal Evangelical
5. Conservative Evangelical

I said "none of the above", but that wouldn't do. So I suggested both (1) and (5), but that wouldn't do either. He said he would put me down as "Prayerbook Catholic" because I was from South Africa, and the last guy he had met from South Africa was one of those.

Over the next few days this stuck in my mind. How would I describe my "churchmanship", or ecclesiastical position, or whatever it was. Eventually I settled on "Revolutionary Orthodox", even though that wasn't one of Bob Towler's choices.

It was based on G.K. Chesterton's idea that as long as the vision of heaven is always changing, the vision of earth will always remain exactly the same.

I'm not sure how that fits in with "Radical Orthodoxy" -- does anyone know?

Another link to related topics is in Elwe's Journal on "Both ends of the spectrum.

From a Different Viewpoint: By 'rendering' Suspects to Torturers America Sinks to the Moral Level of Saddam

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one concerned about this "rendering" business.

From a Different Viewpoint: By 'rendering' Suspects to Torturers America Sinks to the Moral Level of Saddam

But I'm still curious about who came up with this extraodinary dysphemism, which suggests knackered nags being sent to the glue factory to be rendered.

US "rendering" of political prisoners

I've just found a web site with more information about this "rendering" lark. While not quite as bad as it sounded at first, it sounds horrific enough.

One wonders whether the dysphemism arose from ignorance, or whether it arose as a secret macabre joke within the CIA, which leaked out. And I notice the news source puts it in quotation marks -- at least they seem to be doubtful about the acceptability of the term.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6185393/site/newsweek/

US "rendering" political prisoners

I just caught the tail end of a news broadcast, which said that the USA was "rendering" political prisoners, and were apparently trying to justify this process to the world.

I found this quite astrounding.

Are they really making soap out of their political prisoners, as the Nazis with theirs?

Perhaps this will become clear in a follow-up news broadcast, but for the moment it creates horrific pictures.

Strangest dream

On Sky News this morning I saw in interesting feature that gave me hope for this violent world. It showed an Israeli rabbi, Arik Ascherman, organising Israeli Jews to help Palestinians in the West Bank with their olive harvest, and so trying to bring peace and reconciliation in a violent society.

I thought it worth blogging, by when I went to the Sky News web site, there was nothing to be found. It seemed to have been expunged from the record, as if the whole thing as a dream. Perhaps I was dreaming when I thought I saw it.

Last night I had the strangest dream
I never had before
I dreamed the world had all agreed
to put an end to war.

I did a web search, and the nearest thing I could find was the following, but no sign of todays story on Sky News.

http://www.afsc.org/israel-palestine/learn/nonviolence-and-the-olive-harvest.htm

When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion
then were we like unto them that dream
Then was our mouth filled with laughter
and our tonge with joy.

Perhaps it was a dream after all.

SAKYA MONASTERY VLOGS

SAKYA MONASTERY VLOGS

I wonder if any Orthodox Christian monasteries do anything like this?

Seek and ye shall find

I've lost touch with a few old friends, and so I've entered their details in a "reverse people finder" at:

http://who-me.com/

I've subsequently found a couple of them.

One found me through my web page, which shouldn't be too difficult. Another I found through Google -- entering her name in normal search brought up too many hits. But I searched images, and wondered how easy it would be to recognise someone after 30 years. Well, bingo. Up popped an image, and my old friend had changed, of course, but was still recognisable.

So I haven't yet found anyone through who-me, but I'm still hoping.