Bože! independent catholic ideas, identity & theology
Creating OC/IC Resources
New Book
After many months of indecision I have finally published my MA thesis on the emergence of the Virgin Mary as a figure of female asceticism in the third and fourth centuries. You can pick up a copy by clicking here. Primarily through the writings of Origen and Athanasius I trace the development of the image [...]
Media Literacy – Can We Do Better?
We have been exploring the use of the net, and technology generally in an OC/IC context here for over a year now. But one thing that has not yet been mentioned (I think) is the idea of “media literacy” in OC/IC projects. This article by the Utne Reader – brings that idea crashing home. The [...]
Fear & Friendship – Breaking Barriers of Isolation
We’ve often talked about the ideas and images of what constitutes “church” many converts to the indie life inherit or bring with them into the community. Tim Cravens has just posted a reflection on one aspect of this – the sense of embarrassment many indie clergy feel over not having our own buildings, salaried clergy [...]
It’s Good to Find the Overlooked . . .
Rummaging around PBS’ Religion & Ethics Newsweekly this morning I fell into this report from this past November exploring religion on-line that I had not previously seen. The report is interesting because it looks at a number of real-time examples of how more than 1 in 4 adults are now using the internet solely or [...]
Let Us Stand Aright, Let Us Scroll Down to the Holy Gospel . . .
Via Huw I saw this post this morning on Kirkepiscatoid (don’t even ask me to pronounce it!) about a . . . well. . . ecclesiastical “spat” over a Gospel book. While I actively avoid posting on anything but OC/IC issues this caught my eye because it does touch on a theme we’ve had going [...]
Christ Is (Almost) Risen! – Oh Work With Me Jesus!
Huw, another OC/IC Easterner has created this wonderful compilation of Paschal Troparia – sit down, relax, and have a good giggle over it. Tweet
Make Disciples of All Men
There has been a small flood of articles on “conversion” in today’s religious news round-up. The two that caught my eye are a BBC report (here) on the Church of England’s consideration of a motion re-emphasising its explicit aim of converting people to Christianity; and Andrew Brown’s post (here on Guardian CIFBelief) reflecting on “evangelisation” [...]
How to Use Twitter With OC/IC Theoblogging
When I first encountered Twitter over a year ago, I frankly thought it was a naff invasion of privacy and walked away. I’ve since done some reading, observing, and re-thinking and . . . well. . . I’m “tentatively” changing my mind. Indeed I figured that it would be useful to give Twitter a fair [...]
Now The Tricky Part: Getting Them Talking
There is definitely something working within our OC/IC context that inhibits engagement generally, and sustained engagement particularly. I am not entirely certain what this “something” is, I have some working theories and would very much like to read yours. However, I find it disheartening to compare our sites (or lack thereof) with, for example, Episcopal, [...]
Stay! Find A Niche And Stay There.
One tip I see over and over again is be consistent. That is to say restrain the themes of your blog to a particular set. You may have noticed that I never write about the politics and issues of other sacramental traditions here – it is a conscious decision one that keeps this site focussed [...]
Making Our Voices Heard – OC/IC Blogging 101
I regularly rummage around the net looking for tips on better blogging. My thinking is, if this site is going to be a useful resource for the OC/IC community then I need to invest in making it as attractive and user friendly as possible. Most of the articles and sites I’ve read are designed for [...]
Furthering Discussion – Shifting Sand, Raising the Level of Engagement
We’ve got a thread going talking about raising the level of identification within our community with our OC/IC tradition. I’ve been asking for your ideas – and look forward to hearing more of them. However, as I was making my “rounds” this afternoon it dawned on me that I’d not put A, and B, and [...]
Shifting Sand – Where Do We Go From Here?
I stumbled across this article about the current state of the Ecumenical Catholics (+Shirilau) this morning. The overarching theme of the text is that “alternative” Christian communities (in this case a rather large OC/IC community) are suffering a loss in membership now that the “mainline” churches are becoming more LGB friendly. To my mind it [...]
Spread The Love
Last week, I think it was, I posted about encouraging other OC/IC ISM scholars and talented others to publish more – to make our voices available and heard not only within our community, but also within a wider audience. I’d like to take this moment to draw your attention to the work of a close [...]
Blog! Blog Now!
I have a confession to make – I would be in ecstasy if every individual OC/IC believer had a blog – and added something to it at least once every two weeks. My overarching reason stems from an idea that I’ve been banging on about for at least four years now that is the simple [...]
Following The Thread: Publishing Within
Here then, is the link to the “publishing arm” of our friends at the ICCC in Philadelphia – at present they’ve produced a couple of prayerbooks and their own collection of canons. Tweet
Housekeeping: Tidy Here, Edit There . . .
We’ve tidied up our LULU storefront, in preparation for some upcoming projects. In addition, a second edition, as it were, of the canons is now available. Three canons have been substantively altered (actually this was done at a synod meeting over a year ago – we’ve just been to busy to actually “publish” the changes); [...]
Art, New Media, And The Case For God
Over the past two years I’ve posted more than once about the interaction between new media, outreach, and sparking creative projects within the community. Here, at Iconia Menachem Wecker has written a post well worth reading. In it he observes that many religious communities using new media are failing to take the opportunity to present [...]
New Media and OC/IC Communities & Projects
Over the past couple of years – ever since I discovered the glories of SKYPE I’ve been interested in how OC/IC communities, and projects (like our own Indie Voices Archive) can use various new media to reach out beyond the small groups we work within. I’ve done a bit of blogging on it in the [...]
Migne PG Online
I’m a big fan of the Internet Archive – it’s where we store the interviews for the Indie Voices Archive, it is also where I store my other vids too. The Internet Archive is great for another reason – there are loads of 19th and early 20th century theology resources there, available free to all. [...]
New Diggs! Normal Programming Resuming!
After a few weeks of testing the new system on my personal blog and site; and spending some time thinking about the best method of consolidation and presentation, I’ve finally begun the process of moving the blog, the web pages, and the Indie Voices Archive to its new home. I’m hoping that I’ve given consideration [...]
Clergy Letter Project: Your Ideas?
Regular visitors will know that my little fellowship here in London is participating in this year’s Clergy Letter Project. Now in its third year, the project aims to explore the interrelationship between science and religion – as well as countering the growing fundamentalist mis-representation of our faith. What we are aiming to do is to [...]
"God’s Publisher" gone digital
When he was alive, it is said that J.P. Migne the prolific publisher of greek patristic material and the famous “PG” or Patralogia Grecae was nick-named God’s Publisher. For those interested in playing with original source material in the original language PG is an invaluable resource – sadly one that is both out of print, [...]
OC/IC Artists & Craftspeople
A while back I wrote this post on Christian art. I had cause to re-visit it this morning, while looking over this year’s re-design of my local community’s web page. It has got me thinking: where are our OC/IC artists and craftspeople: painters, carvers, jewellers, embroiderers, writers, poets, musicians – the people who through their [...]