A sort of ending

As the liturgical year comes to a close so does this blog.....

Here is my sermon of yesterday:

REMEMBER ME
“Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” Luke 23.42

Yesterday we remembered an early English king whose adherence to his Christian faith led to his martyrdom. He was Edmund, king and martyr, now commemorated in the city and cathedral of St Edmundsbury. He refused to renounce his faith in Christ when the invading Danes defeated his army. They tied him to a tree, shot him with arrows, and finally beheaded him. England is still ruled by a Christian monarch. Both Edmund and Elizabeth’s rule is under God. They are servants of Christ, the immortal and universal King.

Today’s Feast of Christ the King is a wonderful way to end the Church’s liturgical year. We have worshipped Jesus as the Babe of Bethlehem, as the Man of Galilee, the Saviour of Calvary, and as the Risen Lord. At His Ascension He returned to Heaven. At the right hand of the Father He reigns over a Kingdom that shall have no end. Hallelujah! Amen!

A month ago, when I last preached here, we saw the prayer of the humble tax collector in the Temple as a model for our prayer as we approach God - ‘Lord, be merciful to me a sinner’. Today we find the prayer of the penitent thief on Calvary a model as we approach Christ, the Eternal and Universal King – ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom’. When we look upon the Crucified we do not see a common criminal being executed but a crowned King on his throne. We fling ourselves at His feet, as unworthy subjects, and trust His promise that we too will be with Him in Paradise – today, tomorrow, and for ever. Some crucifixes represent all this as ‘Christus Victor’, robed and wearing a crown rather than naked with thorn wreath, as in the chapel at Parcevall Hall, the Bradford Diocesan Retreat House, where I presided, preached, and prayed frequently in days gone by.

There is a legend about the penitent thief that he wasn’t meeting our Lord for the first time on Calvary. Their first meeting was when Mary and Joseph fled from Bethlehem to Egypt with the infant Jesus and they are attacked by brigands. One young brigand could not bear to lay hands on the beautiful baby and pleaded with his fellow brigands to let the Holy Family go free. When they agreed he addressed the child: ‘O most blessed of children, if ever there come a time for having mercy on me, remember me and forget not this hour’. The sequel is in today’s gospel.
The word ‘Paradise’ is a Persian word meaning ‘a walled garden’. When a Persian King wished do a subject a special honour he would invite him to walk with him in his walled garden. To be in paradise is to be in close and intimate company with the King.

As our eucharist proceeds we shall use the special preface for today’s prayer of consecration which includes these words ‘Father, you have anointed Christ the Lord, your only Son, to be our great high priest and king of all creation… with all the heavenly host we proclaim your glory and join in their unending hymn of praise:’ Then we shall be invited to ‘draw near with faith and take this holy sacrament’. May I suggest we think of the petition of the penitent thief as we come saying in our hearts ‘Jesus, remember me in your kingdom’. Let us see Him Crucified and call Him King. Let us receive Him in Communion and go out to love and serve Him.

Blog update

It is two months since my last blog.

I am now into a new settled pattern of using a library computer facility three times a week.

Maybe the approaching Advent will prompt me to come to some decision about future contributions.

Comments welcome.

Blogging Crisis

The gap in my daily blog after an unbroken number of years is due to dulverton computer not functioning. Maybe sometime before it is corrected or we get a replacement. This note being added at local library facility.

Perhaps the time has come to review and restart on a new , less frequent basis. Make a positive from a negative.

Silver Surfers' Day

Watch Silver Surfers Ambassador Sir Terry Wogan on the BBC Breakfast Sofa talking about the benefits of surfing the net and Silver Surfers’ Day on Friday 21st May

Silver Surfers’ Day is the biggest, national campaign to promote use of digital technologies by older people. It is run by Digital Unite and was started in 2002. Silver Surfers’ Day is its ninth glorious year. It’s on Friday 21 May.

On Silver Surfers’ Day we support people and organisations all over the UK to open their doors and give local older people a taste of what the digital world has to offer them at a Silver Surfers’ Day Event.

Silver Surfers’ Day Events involve digital skills and digital technology and older people in some way, but exactly how is up to you. We have loads of suggestions and learning materials for you to use, but you can decide whether you explore the web, do some digital photography, set up blogs, Tweet for a day, use Wii or gaming to entice people in.

On Silver Surfers’ Day last year, 400 Event Holders registered more than 1,000 events. In 2010, we’re planning – with your support – to promote even more.

Anyone can become an Event Holder – big, small, local, national – if you’re already working with older people, if you are passionate about supporting them to be digitally literate, then Silver Surfers’ Day is for you.

Selling Your Soul

If you bought something from British retailer GameStation on April 1 this year, you might regret it. A lot. Forever. Theymodified their online contract this day for all purchasers. You know, that thing you always click through without reading — the one that has the checkbox “I have read and do accept these terms.” Well, it turns out you might want to pay attention next time. Here’s what many people agreed to on that day:

By placing an order via this Web site on the first day of the fourth month of the year 2010 Anno Domini, you agree to grant Us a non transferable option to claim, for now and for ever more, your immortal soul. Should We wish to exercise this option, you agree to surrender your immortal soul, and any claim you may have on it, within 5 (five) working days of receiving written notification from gamestation.co.uk or one of its duly authorised minions.

Funny? Yes. Inspiring? Perhaps. I’m thinking of adding some terms & conditions to the fine print in the back of our Sunday leaflets. “By receiving Holy Communion in this service, you indicate your acceptance of the following terms…” (reported by an American blogger)

Giving Up for Lent

The following is not from me but from a fellow clerical blogger:

"I've been rehearsing the reasons for giving the blog a break during Lent, and concluded that if they apply from Wednesday, then they actually apply now too....

1. Time: important stuff is being neglected, and spending an hour or so a day composing here and reading other people's stuff will yield a whole working weeks worth of time for Lent. I'm also ending up doing things late at night and playing catch-up a lot, which means there's too many plates spinning. This one can drop.

2. Vanity: it's nice to have a blog that people visit, and revisit. It's nice to get linked. It's nice to get comments. But if even 20% of my motivation for blogging is to get the approval and custom of others to bolster my fragile ego, then that's 20% too much. I imagine that's an under-estimate. Why else would I check the number of visitors on a daily basis?

3. This week there's been a sobering comparison between the number of followers I have on Twitter, and visitors to the blog, and the number of birthday cards which actually arrived. I'm poor at keeping in touch with people at the best of times, but I don't want to trade the few decent friendships I have for hundreds of acquaintances who, though it's nice to have them, didn't notice when I wasn't there before and won't remember if I'm not around in a few months. It's time to give time to the important stuff.

4. I don't actually process information properly any more. Every piece of news is potential blog fodder, rather than something I properly read/listen to. My concentration span is getting shorter - I can't sit through something as simple as the main BBC news without flicking through the red button and other channels. That's not something I want to continue - to work properly, to pay attention to my kids and my wife, to engage properly with God's world, I need to be able to concentrate, to listen, to take things seriously as they are not as things that I can use for a bit more blurb on here.

5. Compulsion: I enjoy blogging, but (this is partly vanity again) there's a compulsion to post things every day, to respond quickly to what's going on rather than reflecting at leisure. Richard Foster - my guru on spiritual disciplines - recommends that we fast from anything we sense is becoming a compulsion.

and the more I think about these things, the more it doesn't really make sense to wait until Wednesday. If they're valid, they're valid today. So I'm off until Easter, and we'll see what happens then."

Pope supports blogging

Pope urges priests to use new technology

POPE BENEDICT XVI has urged priests to use new media and digital technology to help them

proclaim the gospel. Releasing his message for World Communications Day, Sunday 16 May, the

Pope said: “Priests stand at the threshold of a new era,” and were called to use new media “ever

more effectively at the service of the Word”. He challenged priests to “proclaim the gospel by

employing the new generation of audiovisual resources” such as videos, blogs, and websites.

The blogger Returns

Sorry about my absence since 19 th but our computer has been out of action.

Important events have been Sentamu visits to St Saviour on Sunday and consecration of new bishop for Whitby in York Minster yesterday.

And removal of witnessing Christian from the Celebrity Big Brother House.....

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THE Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, paid a special visit to a Scarborough church yesterday to deliver a sermon encouraging greater faith and hope among people in the town.

Dr Sentamu was preaching at St Saviour’s Church, in Gladstone Road, and spoke to a congregation of more than 100 people about the life of Ananias, who was chosen by God for his readiness and willingness to carry out his duties.

During the evensong service, led by Peter Williams and assistant priest Fr Graham Waring, Dr Sentamu addressed worshippers in an occasionally animated sermon by appealing for positivity during unsettled times and calling on them to repeat the faithfulness shown by Ananias.

He said: “The church is made up of ready, willing and faithful disciples. Through Christ we can overcome all things and we should all see an opportunity in every difficulty, a rose instead of a thorn, and turn ordinary lives into extraordinary ones.

“In Haiti, after the recent earthquake disaster, there was a young boy who had been trapped for eight days but when he was found he was waving to the cameras and almost saying ‘look at me’.”

“That is the robust faith we must have and our faith should be infectious because far more vital than what we do is what we are.”

Dr Sentamu also told the congregation he had thoroughly enjoyed his visit to Scarborough and the church – which is currently without a priest – and joked about making them pray for a new one.

He added: “It is nice to be here in Scarborough at St Saviour’s Church and I would like to thank Fr Graham Waring, Peter Williams and the church wardens for keeping the services going during the interregnum.

“I am praying that you will soon get another priest and I urge you, if you aren’t already, to do the same.

“In fact, you should do it straight away or I will come looking for you and make sure you do!”.

THE new Bishop of Whitby has been consecrated at York Minster by the Archbishop of York.

Bishop Martin Warner, formerly the Canon Treasurer of St Paul’s Cathedral, was consecrated as the new Bishop of Whitby by Dr John Sentamu at a ceremony yesterday.

Bishop Warner said: “Preparations for the consecration in York Minster have been humbling and astonishing. People going back to my childhood have sent messages of prayer and support. “They all seem to think this is what God is calling me to do, and after a time you begin to believe it! Also, the opportunity to be an ambassador for Jesus Christ in one of the most varied and exciting parts of Britain is what keeps me going when I think of the awesome responsibility of being a bishop. I’m looking forward to learning the art of my new life and work.”

Dr John Sentamu described Bishop Warner as a “man of great faith and integrity who has a real heart for serving the community”. He said: “I am sure that his passion for helping others will shine through.”

Bishop Warner replaces the Right Rev Robert Ladds, who resigned to return to life as a parish priest in London.

Actor Stephen Baldwin has become the fourth celebrity to be evicted from the Celebrity Big Brother house.

The crowd chanted "Get Stephen out" as host Davina McCall delivered the news the public had indeed done that.

The born-again Christian showed off a "Jesus" message T-shirt and looked up to the sky as he left the house to audible boos amid the cheers.

Returning the compliment

I see that this blog has been given a link from the Forward in Faith site: http://forwardinfaith.com/

Welcome to any new readers arriving here via that route. Please feel free to comment on anything you find here.

The computer being used is a communal facility provided free in our hobbies room.

Anyone retired or approaching retirement from a Forward in Faith parish would be very welcome here as new residents. I would be happy to correspond with anyone who has questions to ask.

Bloggers Unite

I enjoy reading the blogs of others especially those recommended on the Forward in Faith site.

Fr Trevor Jones, St Peter's, London Docks has suggested an Anglo-Catholic Bloggers Conference in the latest edition of Forward Plus.

St Peter's London Docks
The diary of an Anglo-Catholic parish, within Forward in Faith and in the Jurisdiction of the Bishop of Fulham.

http://www.peterite.blogspot.com/

I see that I appear on the back of the new edition of Forward Plus, the free Forward in Faith tabloid, available at your local Forward in Faith parish or from F in F themselves (edition here illustrated NOT the latest)...terms and conditions apply!I suggested a few weeks ago an Anglo-Catholic bloggers conference, perhaps at Walsingham and have been, with an F in F tongue firmly placed in a cheek, taken up on the idea. May S. Isidore of Seville pray for this idea.

Patron of the Internet

ISIDORE OF SEVILLE, SAINT
ĭzˈədôrˌ, c.560–636, Spanish churchman and encyclopedist, bishop of Seville, Doctor of the Church. Born of a noble Hispano-Roman family from Cartagena, he spent his youth under the supervision of his brother St. Leander, powerful bishop of Seville, and may have helped the latter in the extirpation of Arianism among the Visigoths. During his own tenure of the bishopric (from c.600) Isidore wielded considerable ecclesiastical power; he presided at the second Council of Seville (619) and at the fourth national Council of Toledo (633). He is best known, however, for his voluminous writings. His most influential work is the Etymologies or Origins, an encyclopedic treatise that aims to set down all the knowledge of the time. It is a comprehensive work in plan, and it transmitted to scholars of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance a great measure of classical learning. It was, however, a completely derived work, unenlightened by firsthand observation, and sometimes faulty in its scholarship. His Historia de Regibus Gothorum, Vandalorum et Suevorum [history of the reigns of the Goths, Vandals, and Suevi] continues to be useful in studying the early history of Spain. He also wrote many treatises on theology, language, natural history, and other subjects. His great learning and defense of education before the rising tide of Gothic barbarism was important to the development of Spanish culture. Feast: Apr. 4.

No blog day

Out of town all day - back tomorrow.

GodTube

GodTube is a free video sharing website much like YouTube, but which specializes in Christian-themed videos. In particular, GodTube has been compared to Conservapedia, a Christian conservative encyclopedia opposed to Wikipedia, and MyChurch, a Christian version of MySpace.

GodTube takes religion to the internet masses
By Tom Leonard in New York

GodTube, which was recently named America's fastest-growing website, drew more than four million users last month.

Based heavily on secular sites, the Texas-based organisation combines the video clip-sharing principle of YouTube, the social networking feature of Facebook and live webcasting.

Current hits include videos of a Christan rap song called That Book You Got Makes Me So Holy, a squirrel singing I Will Always Love You and a clip of a little girl lisping Psalm 23 from memory that has been viewed nearly 4.5 million times.

Other popular attractions include music, comedy and heated theological debates, and the site contains more than 25,000 videos, with 300 to 500 fresh ones arriving each day. Their content is monitored by a 10-strong team of seminary students.

Members of other religions are invited to participate on the GodTube.com website, but they cannot proselytise.

Atheists are welcome, too, and they may share their point of view "as long as it's done respectfully".

Similar sites target Muslim and Jewish audiences but none with so much success as GodTube.

The venture, which is backed by many big churches and Christian product retailers, was officially launched in August.

Chris Wyatt, GodTube's founder, said he set it up because churches were having difficulty reaching young people "in a language they can understand". Asked what Jesus would think of the site, he said it was more appropriate to ask "what Jesus would be downloading".

He points out that GodTube users on Sunday mornings outnumber the congregation of the megachurch pastor Joel Osteen in Houston.

Mr Wyatt, 38, said the site — which is not a church but a media company — earns money from advertising, selling subscriptions to ministries which want to broadcast more frequently and by selling demographic data about its users.

GodTube is expanding so rapidly that it recently launched its own news service. Another spin-off, Godcaster, will soon allow any church in the world to stream its services for free.

Mr Wyatt, a theological college student, describes the site as a neutral "Switzerland" open to various theological viewpoints.

However, that has not stopped different denominations using GodTube to take potshots at each other.

Videos being viewed recently include "Why Pentecostalism is not of God", "Mormonism exposed", and "The papacy is NOT biblical".

Mr Wyatt, who has had to put off training for the ministry, said: "Its success was a major surprise, but doing this site has been a great joy."

First Anniversary

Today is the first anniversary of this blog.

At number 351 it means I haven't missed many days.
The main beneficiary has been myself. My format and content have helped me have a main focus thought each day in line with my statement below the title "Dulverton Ramblings". I blog in one other place using a different style. This is on My Telegraph where I set out to provoke as much comment as possible to gather in a variety of views on a given topic. There I am trying to keep religious, Christian, views afloat amidst the general mix.

The Story of Blogger

Blogger was started by a tiny company in San Francisco called Pyra Labs in August of 1999. This was in the midst of the dot-com boom. But we were not exactly a VC-funded, party-throwing, football-in-the-lobby-playing, free-beer-drinking outfit. (Unless it was other people's free beer.)

We were three friends, funded by doing annoying contract web projects for big companies, trying to make our own grand entrance onto the Internet landscape. What we were originally trying to do does not matter so much now. But while doing it, we created Blogger, more or less on a whim and thought — Hmmm...this is interesting.

Blogger took off, in a small way, and eventually a bigger way, over a couple years. We raised a little money (but stayed small). And then the bust happened, and we ran out of money, and our fun little journey got less fun. We narrowly survived, not all in one piece, but kept the service going the whole time (most days) and started building it back up.

Things were going well again in 2002. We had hundreds of thousands of users, though still just a few people. And then, something unexpected happened: Google wanted to buy us. Yes, that Google

We liked Google a lot. And they liked blogs. So we were amenable to the idea. And it worked out nicely.

Now we are a small (but slightly bigger than before) team in Google focusing on helping people have their own voice on the web and organising the world's information from the personal perspective. Which has pretty much always been our whole deal.

The Blogger Help group

An unmoderated forum for discussion about Blogger. We encourage you to search for answers, ask questions, and maybe even share your own advice. While this forum is intended as a place for Blogger users to assist one another, from time to time Google representatives, nicknamed Blogger Employee, Blogger Employee Helper and Blogger Buzzer will post tips and clarifications. These are the only Google representatives that post to the group and their messages will appear with a badge. Note: only posts marked with a Google badge are approved by Google.

To make the most of your experience in the Blogger Help Group, follow these discussion guidelines and tips for using our forum service:

Discussion Guidelines

1. Keep it safe. Remember, your posts can be read by users around the world. Don't make the mistake of posting personal information of any kind, especially your passwords, phone number or credit card number. No Google representative will ever ask for this information in a group post.

2. Keep it clean. These groups are for users of all ages, so do your part to keep a lid on the foul language and grouchy attitudes.

3. Keep it on-topic. We reserve the right to delete messages that are intentionally off-topic -- like commercial advertisements or other promotional material, spamming/excessive multi-posting, chain letters, and binary (non-text) postings.

4. Be nice to newbies. Many Blogger users turn to this group for advice. Remember to be patient and courteous with all users seeking help, especially those who are just getting started.

Tips for Using Google Groups

1. Before you post a new question, search or browse for the answer in the Blogger Help group,as well as the Blogger Help Center [ http://help.blogger.com ]. There's a fair chance your question has been asked and answered before.

2. Signatures are generally unnecessary when posting to Groups. As you'll notice, signatures can become repetitive and make the thread hard to read. If you need to use a signature, keep it short and sweet.

3. In the same spirit, try to keep the quoting of previous posts to a minimum. Wading through multiple copies of the same post, in the same thread, can be exasperating.

4. If you need help using Google Groups, just click on the "Help" link at the top of any page.

A Few Last Words:

1. Please be certain to read the Google Groups Terms of Service, available at http://groups.google.com/intl/en/googlegroups/terms_of_service.html , as these are the guidelines under which Blogger Help will run.

2. We believe that this diverse group of people with a strong common interest will naturally build a safe and productive community, without the need for formal moderation. However, should you see a post in the forum which you feel is counter to the health of your community, please be aware of how you may take action, as outlined on this page: http://groups.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=7900

3. Enjoy yourself, build a great community, have your questions answered, and be helpful in turn!

The New Confessional

At this year's Edinburgh fringe Oliver Mann created a play from blogs - ten to be exact. The result "Bloggers: Real Internet Diaries" is created from the blogs of a mother of three who discusses her nymphomania, Eva an agoraphobic who works for a sex chat line, a young man in the throes of a break up with his girl friend etc. The play's producer, Simon Raven, a blogger himself believes that blogging is a contemporary version of confession "Previously, one would confess one's sins to the local wiseman or priest. These days you confess to the community at large in the blogosphere". Feedback comes from other bloggers.

The differences, as well as the similarities, are important.
Christian confession is never simply person to person but also person to God. Repenting before the God who hears, loves, and forgives is all important. With blogging there is no joy of absolution. "Go in peace your sins are forgiven".

Careless talk costs lives

Today's title was a war time slogan warning citizens to be careful in their conversations not to give away helpful information to potential enemies.

At jobs.telegraph.co.uk we are warned "carefree talk online can cost your job". Basing his lead article on "Killer Web Content" by Gerry McGovern journalist Richard Tyler advises that jobseekers should think twice before posting their thoughts online as employers are starting to vet potential employees by searching the web. Companies, it seems, have become wary of self-publicists and will even fire staff for comments made in their personal online diaries. Before the web denial could be used in self defence if something said or written was suddenly deemed not politically correct but now the web has become a global memory bank available always and everfywhere. Political figures, Church leaders, and Ordinary citizens have been caught out recently and payed a heavy price for their "indiscretions". Even out of hours blogging, it seems, can be hazardous. Many companies veto such activity in work time or on working systems.

Does any of this inhibit a silver serfer like myself? I'm not sure but it is something to keep at the back of one's mind whilst practising what one had previously assumed to be a harmless retirement activity.

Perhaps a more socially active use of one's time is called for like the group(average age over 80)
featured in last night's Channel 4 Young@Heart for more than two hours. It was moving and inspiring. Billing themselves as "Pensioners behaving badly", Young@Heart revealed themselves as a chorus like no other. In place of Gilbert and Sullivan this group of OAPs, which includes a 93 year old blitz surviving GI bride and a 75 year old who suffers from acute spinal problems, perform punk, hip hop, and miserablist indie rock to packed houses whereever they go (not only in America but many other aprts of the world too). The TV documentary last night was dedicated to 3 members who died during the making of the programme and who featured heavily in it - "the show must go on" was the attitude. It was an amusing and moving couple of hours which captured the emotional impact of the group's necessarily constant state of change.
They achieve an amazing reception as they perform before the inmates of a local prison immediately after being informed of the death of one of their number who was due to sing solo at the concert. Even the member featured prominently on the poster of the climatic community concert was dead and awaiting burial as they got on with the show and just about brought the house down at the end. There's something about the human spirit in adversity. It was good to see unashamed open acknowledgement of the part that faith played in many of these lives.

We just clicked

Today's title is not mine but borrowed from Theodora Stites "First Person" article in the "Stella" magazine distributed as part of yesterday's "Sunday Telegraph".

In this article Theodora addresses the question "Why bother actually meeting someone when you can have a network of virtual friends at the press of a button?" She goes on to describe her obsession with the relationships she has developed through signing up to various internet sites.
They include
Friendster views
My iTunes
MySpace
Match.com
Facebook
Text Messages
Instant Messenger
Emails
Blogs
Nerve account
"I spend the majority of my time searching for new communities and ways to connect" she confesses. She has been tempted by
Plazes.com
Fark.com
Second Life
"I honestly don't know why anyone wants to socialise in person anymore. It's so difficult to concentrate on talking to just one person at a time."

I can see that a fairly new blogger like me will have to be careful if I am not sell my soul to a pseudo world of internet make-belief.

Testing

This should arrive at my blog spot if all ok. let's
see
pa

Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com

Comments welcome!

Today's title entered at a central library facility. Just wanted to check my blog is accessible away from my own Dulverton computer facility. Will see this afternoon when I actually enter today's content at home. - Yes, all OK.....

When I started this blog about a month ago I wasn't sure I would keep it going but I have made a daily posting. I was also a little unsure who I was doing it for. First of all for myself. A kind of online diary which might help me each day to focus on a concern or interest and clarify my thoughts. The title "Dulverton Ramblings" suggested I shouldn't mind if other residents here read what I was writing. This computer at which I sit is a house facility, in a public room, where anyone can use it and there is nothing to stop anyone who wishes logging on and reading my blogs. Only two or three have their own computers. So far I haven't broadcast the address, maybe I am ready to do that now - both in house and beyond, through correspondence and emails. I write under a pseudonym and do not display my email address. If I am serious about welcoming comments perhaps these details should change. Does everyone realise that they can comment simply by clicking on "comment" at the close of each posting and using the on screen facility provided?

Yesterday I read what others have written about encouraging responsive comment to blog material. I am happy to persue an open policy - all may read, anyone may comment.

This residence of 34 flats is owned and operated by the Church of England Pensions Board for their pensioners. There are a number of other such residences in other parts of the country. I have wondered about initiating some kind of email and blog networking with residents at the other locations.

Christmas mailing will be sent out soon and I will probably include information and an invite at the same time.

In other words I am open for interaction with others on matters of mutual interest using this blog as one of the vehicles.

So, anyone out there interested?

GMT

Yes!

Time Zone

I have just found out how to change time settings for my bloggs to GMT - I think! So this is just to see if I have.....