Blogging, Volunteers, and Local Democracy

Drat, I go away for a few days break, and Somerset springs to life.

Somerton is about 12 miles north of Yeovil, nice little place, with plenty of character, and some good local churches. Last week most of the town council walked out. Why? Initial reports suggested that it was all the work of one lone local blog (Muck & Brass), and that they'd got fed up with his criticism of the council.

Some of the reportage:
Newsnight (starts about 19min in, will expire in a couple of days). Slightly patronising. The clip is reproduced on Michael Cricks blog in Youtube format.
Western Gazette (local paper). Love the 'internet blogger'. Didn't realise there were other sorts ;-)
BBC, which cuts and pastes from the Gazette.
The Mail, and Times.

Some thoughts:
1. People do get hurt, even by mild terms of abuse like 'clown' and 'jackass'. See 6.

2. It's hard to know exactly what went on as an outsider, but it seems that the blog itself has catalysed the local community to take more interest in their council. It will be interesting to see if the energy generated as critics turns into energy generated to stand as councillors. On the national stage, we're all quite happy to have a pop at MP's, but will we see hordes of people putting themselves forwards as candidates in May?

3. The blogger himself has been the target for vandalism and abuse. There's been a cost to him and his family for saying what he's said. That's pretty shocking, and if there is a link to his criticism of the council, then comparisons with the Wild West become valid.

4. Reading through Muck and Brass, there seem to be several legitimate concerns: the way the council spends money, conflict of business and council interests, freedom of information requests and transparency. These are the kind of things a local council should expect from the people it serves. Scrutiny is part of democracy - the unwritten contract is that the scrutiny should be fair, and that the elected representatives should be answerable.

5. The 'lone blogger' angle is far from the whole story. Over 100 local people attended the meeting last week where the councillors walked out. The blog has perhaps been a catalyst for this. In many ways its an online version of the letters pages of the local paper, where we get several letters a week about what the local council is up to. The fact that the blogger names himself, and goes in person to the council meetings, makes it part of a conversation, rather than anonymous sniping from the sidelines. If that can't be part of healthy local democracy, then that's bad news.

6. Volunteering itself is a complex thing: people offer their time and energy for all sorts of reasons, and holding volunteers to account it trickier than doing it with folk who are paid. Paid people at least know it's a fair cop if they're not doing their job, but volunteers are doing it 'out of the goodness of their hearts' (hopefully). They're also doing it (in many cases) because nobody else has stepped forward, and they can feel taken for granted and put upon if folk merely criticise, but don't offer any help or any constructive feedback. In a naturally critical culture like England, that's a bit of a problem, and one we experience in the church too.

Elsewhere, I notice that blogging is part of the local response to the Olympics developments in London - see Leabank Square, and LifeIsland, a blog devoted to some local allotments which were moved out to make way for the Olympic site. They're taking on a slightly bigger beast, and without the same dramatic results as in Somerton. But the blogs provide a forum for campaigning and feedback that simply didn't exist 10 years ago. Yes there can be mass, Twitter-induced hysteria, which doesn't serve anyone, but the web now has to be an integral part of local and national democracy. Having said that, it doesn't replace it.

Which makes it all the more frustrating that one of our local council sites is the slowest in the country. But perhaps I should contact them about it, rather than just whine about it here. (Just visited to check my facts, and it's actually a lot quicker than it used to be, so I emailed them to say thankyou).

'5 Deeply De-Christian Doctrines'

Joe has tagged me with this challenge:

List 5 doctrines that are taught within the Christian church that you believe to be deeply de-Christian.

I may be a bit flexible with 'taught', as some of what's below is about practice, and what's taught by inference as well as explicitly.

Ok, here goes.
1. That its ok to sing songs expressing 200% devotion to God, even if you are half-hearted and lukewarm.

2. That the gospel can be reduced entirely to Jesus' death on the cross.

3. That mission can be reduced entirely to human activity for justice

4. Red letter bibles, which put all Jesus words in a different colour, thus giving the impression that Jesus main job was to dish up words. Christian discipleship is thus all about doing what the words tell you, and Jesus incarnate life as a human being, and what he did, isn't really that important.

5. That you shouldn't interrupt what's going on at the front because, clearly, these people are more important than you.

5a that to be a really anointed Christian leader/get onto the speaking team at major festivals (which is pretty much the same thing?) you need brown shoes, faded jeans, a pinstripe shirt and a large church. Being a man helps.

I tag Doug Chaplin, Lanky Anglican, Gary Alderson and Zoomtard

Church of England - 42% carbon cut in 11 years

The CofE has just launched its environmental strategy, aiming for a 42% cut in the carbon footprint of church buildings by 2020. Here are some of the targets:

- Carbon reduction target of 80% by 2050, with an interim target of 42% by 2020
- Annual carbon and energy reports for all parishes and dioceses by 2016
- All church buildings to have carbon footprints calculated and recommendations made by 2012
- Advice for all parishes on choosing green energy tariffs by 2010
- Tree-planting to be encouraged on church land
- ‘Eco-twinning’ between UK and developing world parishes, faced with early effects of climate change
- New Climate Justice Fund offering aid to churches in the developing world
- All dioceses to target Fair Trade status before 2016

the full 'Church and Earth' report is available for download here. Will have to look through the small print to see if there's some more permissive planning laws on Grade 1 buildings that'll allow us to put solar panels on the church roof.

From the dust of the earth

fantastic. Ht Tim Abbott

Winner of Ukraines Got Talent. I wonder if UK culture is capable of producing and celebrating something of such beauty? On the positive side, if it wasn't for Simon Cowell inventing the show, this wouldn't be on Youtube getting well over 6 million hits.

Bookshops for Sale, ex-SPCK

Phil Groom reports that some of the former SPCK bookshop premises are now up for sale, as the Charity Commissioners go about the process of selling assets of what used to be The Society of St. Stephen the Great (SSG). SSG, as regular readers may recall, was taken over by the Commissioners earlier this year, and a settlement reached with former staff who had been unfairly dismissed.

At least 2 shops are up for sale. Durham remains the only shop in operation by the Brewer brothers, the SSG owners (now trading under a new name in a ruse to avoid paying their creditors). It's still odd that the CC haven't taken Durham over as well, but the Cathedral have given notice on the shop, so it will be closed by April 2010 whatever happens, and hopefully reopened under newer and better management.

Having said that, there may not be many assets to realise at Durham, as a look at the shelves (above) reveals. However, if you're after a 2nd hand car, keep an eye out for this one. Coming soon to an auction near you.

Sin and Misery

"Failure to attain a deeply satisfying life always has the effect of making sinful actions seem attractive. Here lies the strength of temptation.

this is no less true if the failure is caused by our efforts to be what we regard as 'spiritual'. Normally, overcoming temptation will be easier if we are basically happy in our lives. To cut off the joys and pleasures associated with our bodily and social existence as 'unspiritual', then, can actually ahve the effect of weakening us in our efforts to do what is right."

Dallas Willard, 'the Spirit of the Disciplines' p81

A place of beauty

For some reason I never linked it at the time, but around this time last year, some folks set up a prayer room in a secondary school, for students to use as they wanted. Accounts of the room are here and here.

I even got a sense of peace and stillness just reading about it, which is pretty unusual for me. Here's some of the poems written by students using the room:

here are a few of the amazing Letters From God that the students have been writing;
"If you don't love me, I will love youIf you don't care for me, I will care for youSo think - why should it be this way?"

"Everyone is beautiful
Everyone is special
Everyone is different
Everyone is smart
A poem from God to you all
Good luck!"

"No matter what, I will love you, watch over you and care for you. In the good times and the bad times. God"

"Never forget that I am with you always. I am protecting you and guiding you all the way. I love you and will never stop loving you. When you sin I will forgive you. I am your God."

"If you have a problem,
I will listen and not judge.
God"

"Dear Child
Calm down
Breathe and relax
God is love."

Celebration Disease

Recently struck by a passage from Bob Hopkins & Mike Breen 'Clusters'

"As the local building gets more grand, it mirrors the cathedral in layout. As local gifts develop, the single sackbut is repalced by the orchestra, and then a smaller version of the cathedral organ. Then the parish church added the cathedral procession wtih robed choir and associated servers all adding to the colour and pageant.

And subtly begins the separation into a non-congregation..... even the impersonal, anonymous characteristic of the cathedral seems to have filtered down to the parish congregation. As a child i was taken religiously to our parish church but no one would speak to each other, let alone minister to one another with gifts and interaction.

All the good qualities that make the Cathedral celebration such a blessing, have turned up as curses of the local congregation to make it what it's not supposed to be."

I don't know how historically accurate this is, but the picture rings true. The parish church, the local gathered community, morphs from a congregation - an interactive gathering of the body of Christ - into a spectator sport, as everything they've seen on pilgrimage to the Cathedral gets imported into parish worship.

The same thing has a modern parallel, as pilgrims to New Wine or Spring Harvest return loaded with new songs and the latest guitar chord, and seek to recreate Big Top Worship in the 25-strong 9am congregation in a draughty Victorian barn. The same perhaps applies to Walsingham, but I don't really move in those circles, so I'm not sure.

Are celebrations simply a bigger and better version of what we do every Sunday in our churches? Or, to put it another way, is what we do every Sunday in our churches supposed to be a smaller and more local version of what we experience at big celebrations? Or should they be more distinct from one another?

The church of Acts met for worship, teaching, prayer, fellowship and food - we manage the first two, have someone lead us in prayer for the third, manage the 4th over coffee if people don't have to rush off to fix the roast, and the food is custard creams, or hobnobs if you're lucky. The dynamics of meeting in a home, around a table, as the natural place for worship, teaching, prayer and fellowship, has been traded in for the more formal setting of the theatre/classroom. That works if you don't need to interact with what's going on up front, with the 'performance'. But does that really serve the gathered local church in its life as the body of Christ?

Breen & Hopkins book is about 'clusters' - drawing on several large UK churches who now break their congregations into groups of 30-50, as a natural sized gathering for mission and fellowship. These either have a neighbourhood focus, or focus on particular subcultures (e.g. clubbers, the homeless, a school, old folks homes). The cell group remains key for pastoral support and accountability, and the larger celebration for teaching and vision, but it seems to be the 'cluster' sized community - small enough that everyone knows everyone else, but big enough to actually get things done - which is proving most effective in mission. Cells are too scary for new members, and ironically so are the big celebrations, as the pool for 'come to church' invitations is fished to exhaustion.

Questions
- how accurate is this picture?

- how do clusters work in places which aren't megachurches like Chorleywood and St. Thomas' Sheffield?

- is this an admission of the failure of cell church as the latest mission solution - and how big a part do structures actually play anyway?

- The 'clusters' literature suggests that this is the structural change which will unlock mission through the local church. Perhaps, but how do you apply the logic to a church that only has 50 members? A big church can maintain both its Sunday gathering, and cluster life. A smaller church doesn't have the resources to do both, does it?

Comments may take some time to appear, as I'm not at my desk much in the next couple of days. But please post them anyway!