I just realised this morning that we’ve been working on this project, we call the “Theo-blog” for four years and . . .one month (well 4 years, 1 month, and 3 days) now. Happy birthday blog!

When I started this experiment back in April 2006 I never imagined that it would have the staying power that it has had. Why? Because blogging is fickle and most blogs are created, and abandoned within the first year or so (at least that’s what I’ve read) – and I did not expect that our effort here would be any different from “the norm” in this regard. Try it, see what happens, learn from it, maybe make some new connections with other interested folk and move on. That was the attitude I had coming into this.

So has it worked?

Well, yes, after a fashion. Through the connections we’ve made we’ve made new contacts in the Indie community. Through the process of writing, reflecting, and engaging with others doing the same thing about the same topics I’ve come to better understand the “why” and the “process” of some elements of theology and the history of the OC/IC movement. It has also occasionally made me think about things in entirely new ways, as well as changing my mind on long held assumptions.

So here’s to another four years, one month and three days . . .

I realised this afternoon that I’d not yet revisited the Indie Voices Archive page to re-organise it after the move from Blogger to Wordpress. I thought – since we’re getting ready to do some more interviews – that it is well past time to get this part of the site underway. I give you the new revised Indie Voices Archive page - which will over the coming months develop to include a broader range of interviewees and interview topics. Suggestions are welcome on the topic front by the way.

You may have already noticed that we’ve made some changes to our Kiosk page. As part of our ongoing campaign to highlight creative indie folk we’ve added a few things – including two, yes 2 – lines of T-Shirt designers.

First our own. Occasionally we make a graphic for something and really like it (and hope you do to). We thought that it might be fun, that if people enjoyed that particular graphic – they ought to be able to enjoy it in a different context. Thus, we offer you our T-Shirt Factory (which also does bags and buttons). Thus far we’ve experimented with a few items – but we’ve got a few more planned. For American visitors we’re working to keep the prices down because we know that the Pound/Dollar exchnage rate is . . . well . . . a little high – sorry about that. We are looking into some other options for you.

One of those options however, is our friend Huw (another indie creative type) he’s got a neat kiosk of Eastern Rite designs called Doxos Swag (pretty cool name huh?) and we have included a link to his project on our kiosk page.

For the record – the goal of the exercise is not to make money but to highlight, and to encourage the wide spectrum of scholarship and creativity within the indie community. We’ve got the talent – we (all of us) ought to flaunt it (grin)!

Today is the 6 year anniversary of Siobhan’s ordination. Talk about an auspicious feast to be ordained on (Transfiguration).

Many Years!

We’ve been sitting on this for a few weeks now – whilst some loose ends were tidied. On 15 March Rev. Siobhan Houston joined the community. Siobhan was ordained by +Martha Schultz in 2003. She’s a Denver resident, and is working to build a community there.

Siobhan was one of the first interviewees for the Indie Voices Archive Project (yes – we’re still working on that, grin). You can see her interview by clicking here. Siobhan earned her masters in Theological Studies from Harvard, and has recently finished a doctoral program through the Graduate Theological Foundation. She’s an accomplished writer, having just finished a history of the emergence of indie Western Esoteric Christianity (soon to be released by Apocryphile Press).

Right so my French course has ended. I survived, and the next level is in October. All I have to do is refresh and use what I’ve learned occasionally between now and then. One reason I broke down and took the course is so that I could look at some of the source material for 19th century OC/IC historical research – not all of it is translated into English or German.

Last week – we set the time aside to knock off editing the last chapters of Das Elefant (a.k.a – the PhD thesis from hell). This was successful, but now I’m rather anxiously awaiting a response from my supervisor. Is there a light at the end of this tunnel? I bloody well hope so!

This by way of saying I’ve got a back-log of posts and post ideas to sift through and write up, some of them might seem a bit out of sync with your sense of the progression of time but I still think they’re worth a visit.

Normal service is resuming – thanks for your patience.

If you have not already visited Huw’s blog today – do so, do it NOW and read this post.

Sorry no posts thus far this week – I’ve been on an intensive (6 hours a day) French course. Now maybe I can read the letters of Abp. Varlet? . . . non.

On this day in 1994 – the Synod was founded. How cool is that! Come to think of it – it is rather amzaing that we’re still going! We’ve had the typical ups & downs of any community, and quite a few “pruning” exercises – but for an OC/IC community to last this long is really something to celebrate I think.

Is delayed. Should be up in the next 48 hours – we’ve got company – yeah.