I have been requested to produce badges through the liturgical seasons. You will find badges for Ordinary Time, and the HTML to add to your website or blog on the home page. OK – you’ve twisted my arm and I’ve made “After Pentecost” and “After Trinity” badges for you as well…
Tag Archive for 'websites'
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The Great Emergence: How Christianity Is Changing and Why (Hardcover)
by Phyllis Tickle (Author) 176 pages
Publisher: Baker Books (October 1, 2008)
This book is about a very significant development within Christianity – and hence the world. The first point about this book is that it is not large. At around 60,000 words it is a fast read. And fast-paced. Tickle brings together an enormous wealth of facts and concepts spanning the whole of Christian history. She interweaves Albert Einstein and physics, psychology, the automobile, Karl Marx, drugs, feminism, Alcoholics Anonymous, the effects of wars, and so on. She fits her points into simple metaphors and diagrams. One might argue with some of her details, but the overall generalisations certainly are strong.
It is some of the details that did take me by surprise. I was surprised by Tickle’s repeatedly referring, without apology, to the Christian Sunday as “the Sabbath”, particularly within her context, and her recurring attempts to include Judaism within her analysis. Similarly “the Dark Ages” was used repeatedly, again without apology – whereas many scholars would now use “Early Middle Ages”. Or her seeing Mormons as the fourth great Abrahamic faith alongside Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Or (as an Episcopalian herself) her appearing to lump Anglicanism in with continental Protestantism rather than a reformed catholic movement ante-dating and anticipating much in post-Vatican II Roman Catholicism.
The biggest weakness of the book, in my opinion, is that if a reader has no idea at the start of the book what emergent Christianity regularly refers to, what an emergent community might currently look like, they may very well still not have the slightest idea by the end of the book. When she does point to a form of emergent Christianity it is to the “signs and wonders” movement associated with John Wimber, an approach that again might surprise many who see themselves as emergent, but cannot identify with Wimber’s approach.
Tickle rightly highlights the significance of the internet in the changes occurring within Christianity. What she fails to mention is that it is often not “emergent Christianity” but regularly the more conservative to fundamentalist forms of Christianity, from pro-Tridentine Mass Roman Catholics to selectively biblically literalist protestants who have the better websites, higher ranking, and greatest number of hits on the internet.
I am not convinced, as Tickle makes so much of in her book, that of necessity there is a “Great” transforming event within Christianity and Judaism every 500 years. And I do not think that the book would have suffered if that theory was abandoned. I think far more strongly are the phases of pre-Constantinian Christianity, Constantinian “established” Christianity, and our movement now into a post-Constantinian situation. We can still learn from transformative events such as the sixteenth century Reformation, and also compare and contrast with pre-Constantinian Christianity.
She helpfully sees the more conservative parts of her four-sided current Christianity as providing ballast in our movement forward. We all need each other and can learn from each other. There is certainly much of value within this book, and I recommend it as a good read. But I cannot recommend it unreservedly as there is much in it that is open to debate. Hence, it may be a good book to engender such discussion within a group – including of church leaders. Members of such a group could decide how much to prepare from the book before a meeting highlighting what they found helpful, what they disagreed with, what they sought a group discussion on, and how they might apply what they have discussed to enhance their community in our new context.
I have been requested to produce badges through the liturgical seasons. I have again been requested for an Easter season badge. You will find it, and the HTML to add to your website or blog on the home page.
If you are a member of facebook you can join those encouraging the concept of a 50-day Easter. Facebook people can also send the 50-day Easter badge to their friends.
More about the 50-day Easter Season here.
Worship and spirituality rightly engenders strong emotion. So far comments have been positive. Today there are approximately 170 visitors to this site an hour – I am hence wanting to develop a comments policy and comments guidelines that will continue a generally positive, enriching, useful experience for visitors to this site. This policy will complement the site’s privacy policy.
- Please do not take it to heart if you have placed a comment and it does not appear here. Many good comments have accidentally been automatically filtered into the spam folder. As spam increases it may not be noticed, and hence a good comment may not appear here. Apologies in advance.
- Do not send anonymous comments. They will normally not be approved.
- You are encouraged to place comments that are positive, useful, and enrich the experience of visitors here. Adding further content, expanding or clarifying content, providing a complementary approach will all helpfully do this.
- Not all comments are automatically published. Comments are chosen from those sent here.
Unfortunately there are many sites on which flaming, ad hominem responses, trolling, and worship wars are thriving. This site will not be such a place. Sadly many of us have seen excellent sites close because of the increasing inappropriate interchange.
You can follow comments (and posts) by the Entries Feed and Comments Feed at the bottom of the page.
Please enhance this policy and these guidelines by sending me your comments on this draft, including examples of good policies, guidelines, and practice.
This site now has a single RSS feed. Previously there were two separate feeds – one had updates to the “home page” and parts of the site. A completely separate one gave updates for the blog. Those who used the “site” RSS feed will now find that they – by magic (technically called a 301 redirect) – are now getting the same feed as those using the blog feed. In order to make the feed work effectively for all, I think I will need to highlight some of the additions to the “home page” in short blog posts. You can find the RSS feed in the usual places (the browser address bar at the top, or scroll down to the last links at the bottom of this page).
Celebrating Eucharist and other PDFs
There are some ongoing computer issues. Some PDF files have (long) been missing from this site. A way to bypass the issues has been found (more magic!) Most significantly the Celebrating Eucharist PDF files are now back online.
I always appreciate being told about links that don’t work and other issues with the site. Better to be told several times than not at all – so don’t think: “Oh, Bosco will know about that”. The site is now so vast, there is no way I can keep track of everything.
Google has just promoted the PageRank of this website www.liturgy.co.nz from PageRank 5 to PageRank 6. PageRank is Google’s view of the importance of a page. In a search in Google for “liturgy” there are only four sites of PageRank 6 and that is the highest PageRank for that search term.
There are a great number of online tools to check PageRank of a site. Here is the link to just one such tool. Here is Wikipedia’s explanation of PageRank.
The three other PageRank 6 “liturgy” sites are:
- Wikipedia “liturgy” and “Mass (liturgy)“
- The Center for Liturgy Sunday Website
- An Anglican Liturgical Library
Thank you to all of you for your ongoing encouragement of my work on this site (voluntary and in my “spare” time). Thanks to those of you who link from your sites and blogs – if you place a link, please let me know so I can acknowledge that and link back.
Showcase
The following illustrate putting into practice my Make your own free, simple website quickly
If you want your site to be considered for a future showcase, please send me the web address.
St Andrews Anglican Church, Cambridge The vicar, Rev. Andrew Hedge, tells me it took him a couple of hours to produce this website from scratch following my instructions, never having used wordpress previously!
Most of that has been experimenting with different themes, playing around with photos for the banners and learning the system.
I like the way the tabs are easily made, by making pages and not just posts.
Your instructions were helpful to get started and I soon found my way through the tabs at the bottom of the “Write – Pages” page to learn how to control comments etc. I particularly found your instructions about making the front page a static page very helpful. I think that without that information I probably would have lost interest in the usefulness of Wordpress because it would have appeared to just be a site for continual blogging.
Andrew found that some images were slow to load. Reducing the resolution and image file size prior to uploading may help that and not affect the final look in any way. That, of course, also takes time!
Andrew wanted to put an email address on the site. I am very wary about putting an email address straight onto the internet unless you have good filters for spam. You can, of course, rewrite email addresses: liturgy.co.nz AT gmail DOT com, or similar. There are also instructions for encrypting an email address here and here. Another way I suggested is to leave comments “open” on a contact page and just moderate the comments – never placing them on the site with an introduction to that effect. Andrew has followed that suggestion here.
Another very attractive site produced following my instruction is the “work in continual progress” by Union Presbyterian Church. This also makes very good use of Google Maps which will be explained in the resources.
And of course there also continues to be my original parish of St Isidore of Seville.
Resources
There are a number of simple, free, online resources that quickly enhance and enlarge your website:
- I have already mentioned You Tube. After joining you can upload video clips. You can embed videos onto your website – copy and paste what is in the “embed” window to the right of the video clip onto where you want it to go on your site. This is a good example.
- Flickr is a similar site for photographs. After joining you can upload photos from events, groups, leadership. These can be set for public or private. You can put links from your site to individual photos or a collection of photos.
- Picasa is similar to Flickr but part of Google. You can see a good example of its use as a link on the bottom of this post of mine.
- Yahoo Groups can powerfully expand your site. You can store documents, photos, organise calendars, and have a variety of discussions organised into threads. You could have a number of different groups linked to your site. They can be moderated, partially moderated, or a free for all. They can even be a service-outreach beyond your community providing a place for safe discussion or advice…
- Google Groups are similar to Yahoo Groups but part of Google.
- Google Maps can be used well to indicate where your community meets.
- Facebook is a very popular social networking site. You can form a group or have a page in relation to your site and/or community. You can even raise money through “causes”.
- Bebo is similar to Facebook. You will need to ascertain which is more appropriate for your context. Or both.
- And you may go even more powerfully – and create your own social networking site – your own ning.
Don’t forget
Your free, simple, powerful website has its own “Blog stats” on your dashboard so you can see what is working and what is not. A thousand people have already visited my St Isidore’s parish site!
And also – don’t forget to link your site to “Liturgy” www.liturgy.co.nz
And if you want to have your site considered for a future showcase – email the URL to me.
Write about this post and the introduction. Let others know about this site and what it offers.
Update February 10 2010: Wordpress has been upgraded since this post. Click for a new version of this post which is available here.
I am surprised (that’s a polite way of say “appalled”) that there are Christian communities, parishes, etc, that do not have a website – or have one that is unattractive, difficult (almost impossible!) to find your way around, and completely out of date!
I am setting myself a task of, from time to time, producing an example of a parish/Christian Community website. It will have the following criteria
- It will cost nothing – there will be no cost for anything from software to hosting
- It will be simple – so that anyone can set up a website
- It will be quick – so that busy people can set it up, and keep it up to date
My first attempt is using wordpress.com. Log in, and play around – if you don’t like it – it really doesn’t matter. There is help for wordpress. Some of the information about wordpress, and the videos, for example, on youtube, often refer to previous versions and can be confusing for the beginner – but, positively, do point to general principles of how to use this platform.
I made the following website in less than an hour: The website of the Parish of St Isidore of Seville. The “Front page” is normally the blog – the vicar, pastor, or any other person, could use it as a blog. I decided to close the comments on all pages and create several “pages” rather than “posts”.
A “page” or “static page” has unchanging content – unless the webmaster changes it – and does not (need to) have a date on it. A “blog” (short for Web log) always has a date (and so is in danger of appearing dated!) It is regularly used as an online personal journal – though clearly that concept can be adapted.
You could use the “front page” like a blog, with weekly updates (or as often as you like), for notices, reflections, sermons, whatever (you can switch comments on or off, and moderate them or not). I’ve got St Isidore’s site looking primarily as a website and less like a blog to show you that option – adapting wordpress (initially a blogging platform) for our needs of making a simple, free website.
Make your website
Click on “Write” and choose “page” to create a new page. Easiest for starting is to use “visual” and under that click the last button on the right (hover to read “show kitchen sink”). Save what you have done – then you can “preview”. Clicking “publish” makes it visible on the web. You can delay what you write being visible on the web and have it appear automatically at a fixed time and date by clicking “edit” above “publish” changing details there and then clicking “publish” (very useful if you want to plan ahead, or you will be away – don’t forget to click “publish” or it won’t appear on your specified date and time).
You can change the look of your website completely in one click under “design”. I chose a design in which you can change the “custom header” and I’ve used a (copyright free from Wikipedia) picture of Canterbury cathedral. All the content of your website is independent from its look – so you can change the look with one click (including when you tire of its current look).
I added a video clip from youtube. Go to the video on youtube you wish to add. Copy the information in the “embed” box, paste it where you want the video to appear. Save. Publish. Done.
You can authorise a team of people to be able to work on your website – so that several people can be responsible for it (”users”). Children’s ministry updates that section. Someone else adds the text and recording of Sunday’s sermon. Someone else keeps the service times and notices fresh. The sky is the limit. It is free, simple, and fast.
If you have not done anything like this previously PLAY AROUND WITH IT – you cannot damage anything. If it does not look right, or does not work as you would like – all is easily changed.
One final (slightly) tricky bit that will make your site look even cooler.
You can add as many pages to your site as you like – but initially the front page is the blog – and so always has a date. If you want the front page to be a “static page”, not blog-looking:
- Create the page you want to be your front page. I made “Welcome to our parish” and put what I wanted there. Save & publish.
- If you still want to use the blogging facility somewhere else on your site: create a page where you want that to go (I called mine “This week”) and write nothing on it. Save & publish.
Now, breathe deeply for a moment, here comes the tricky bit:
We want “Welcome to our parish” to be the front page. Go to “Settings” click “Reading” (Settings > Reading) and put Front page displays Front page “Welcome to our parish” Posts page “This week”. Save changes (Don’t forget this!) Last bit: if you now check your site you will find “Welcome to our parish” AND Front page.
We don’t want the same page twice. So we will “bury” the second occurrence deeper into our site: Go to the page “Welcome to our parish” page (Manage > pages – open the actual page). By using “Page parent” bury the second version under another page (in my case I made the page parent “This week”). SAVE (Don’t forget – easily done!). Check your site. All completed.
- If you don’t want to use the blog function at all: at the Settings > Reading, leave Front page displays Posts page to “select”.
Don’t forget: if something is not appearing on your site – you may have forgotten to save (changes); you may have forgotten to publish.
THERE IS A PRICE for my efforts at making it easy for you. Please, when you have your website, place a link to “Liturgy” www.liturgy.co.nz. (”write” “links” – go to manage links first and remove the two standard links – you don’t need those).
Enjoy yourself – getting online has never been this easy
Please contact me with any questions or comments that I can incorporate into future assistance.
Showcase of websites following these instructions and further resources
Discussion has led to producing this WORSHIP FIRST badge to add to blogs and websites.
The HTML for adding this badge to your blog or website is:
I contend worship of God is primary and central to our Christian life and mission. Most of us, I think, understand that, and so Christian community mission statements (and individuals’ ones) normally include – and regularly lead off – with a commitment to worship.
Hence, my astonishment when significant mission statements do not. The Anglican mission statement, good as far as it goes, is one that immediately springs to mind as one that does not include worship in the mission of the church:
- To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom
- To teach, baptise and nurture new believers
- To respond to human need by loving service
- To seek to transform unjust structures of society
- To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth
(Bonds of Affection-1984 ACC-6 p49, Mission in a Broken World-1990 ACC-8 p101)
I understand that the Anglican Consultative Council has discussed incorporating worship into the mission statement, but has not come to any agreement. Worship, liturgy, was once regarded not only as central to the mission of the Anglican Church, but one could argue, that in Anglicanism, more than any other denomination, it was worship that was the glue that held it together. Worship within Anglicanism was a shared, agreed, common spiritual practice – common prayer, common worship – and one might have various interpretations held around the agreed common practice. In my opinion, the diminution of the focus on worship and the increasing fragmentation of Anglicanism are causally related.
In my own province of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, I understand it was Archbishop Brian Davies who encouraged the inclusion of worship in our province’s constitution with declarations that the church
is called to offer worship and service to God in the power of the Holy Spirit
and a reworking of the five-fold mission statement in the constitution to read
the mission of the church includes
teaching, baptising and nurturing believers within eucharistic communities of faith.
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