Bože! A Grace Catholic Project
Archive for November, 2008
Ikon Sketching
I’ve been doing some sketches for an ikon I’ve got it narrowed down to two – Ignatius of Antioch (one I’ve always wanted to do and never have), and a Theotokos. Who knows, I might do both. Tweet
Faith & Art In Context – What Context?
Yesterday the Times carried an article stating that Cardinal O’Connor “called for the National Gallery to surrender a Renaissance masterpiece [the baptism of Christ by Piero della Francesca] – because it is a “work of faith” rather than art.” He went on to comment that works such as this 15th century painting ought to be [...]
Faith Art Interplay
Last week I posted on Menachem Wecker’s essay in which he explores how art can be a media for reconsidering faith in a creative, and consumerist society. This week, Mark Lawson writing for the Guardian’s CIF Belief section delves into the interplay of art and faith. There have been a number of instances in the [...]
You Might Enjoy . . .
Recently I’ve been enjoying the Guardian’s Comment Is Free: Belief section which can only be found online. Tweet
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); [...]
Personhood, Worth, Speculating God
In a post two weeks ago I raised the question of when personhood begins. Andrew Brown, writing for the Guardian the other day describes a debate between the secular philosopher John Harris, and Professor David Jones of St. Mary’s College (Roman Catholic) which raised an even more useful (and perhaps even more unanswerable) question: what [...]
Movement Within The Movement: Common Cause At Christmas
There are various ways that we “commune” with people not physically present at liturgical celebrations – and by this I mean that we establish, or re-enforce our relationship with them – this is, afterall what sacramentalism is all about – connecting with another. Inspired by Jordan Stratford’s recent posting of the Advent Conspiracy vid on [...]
I Call You Friend . . .
Throughout my 20 years of active OC/IC life I’ve encountered dozens of attempts by individuals and groups to forge a unified OC/IC (now ISM) “body”; particularly in the US. Every one of them fails miserably, and – at least in those cases I’ve closely observed – creates more division, and at least three more “synods” [...]
Looking Toward The Feast
It’s that time of year again – when our community here in London starts looking at which charity we’re going to highlight and make a contribution to for the feast of the Nativity. It’s been our custom for a number of years now to pick one or two and share their work with you – [...]
“Attack! Attack! . . . . hey, where did everybody go?
Matthew Streib writes a post worth reading here at SOMA – one that made me reflect on some of the methods of “outreach” I’ve witnessed in the OC/IC community over the years. “Be faithful” “Be church” – these are two phrases I’ve used off & on over the years to encourage people to simply be [...]
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 [...]
Witches Made Me Do Theology . . . Differently
Last night I watched a very sad report on Channel 4 documenting the plight of children in Nigeria who are tortured, shunned, and even killed because “Christian” evangelists accuse them of being witches. Before I delve into some of the other thoughts this raised for me I would like to encourage you to click here, [...]
When Ought We To Pause, And Say It’s Time To Stop?
As our medical technology advances, and the skill of surgeons and other medical professionals is able to refine complex procedures prolonging life we find ourselves being faced with a raft of new questions directly linked to the theology and ethics of treatment. Two questions are attracting my attention this week due to a recent event [...]
The RA Does Byzantium
Last week we went to the Royal Academy’s new Byzantium exhibit. While it was certainly a mistake to go within the first week of its opening (it was heaving); overall we were very impressed with the items they chose to exhibit. The icons in the latter 2/3 were amazing, it was particularly nice to see [...]
Ministry Online – Considering Ekklesia 2.0
Folks over at Church Marketing Sucks have produced a must read series of short articles on “community“. The third installment tackles ministry on the internet; here, the author Brad Abare recounts a comment by a conference participant who noted that the distinction between “online” and “offline” interaction is no longer relevant – that they are [...]
What Does It Mean To Be A Christian?
I came across this vid over at Emergent Village and it started me thinking again about what it means to belive, why we believe, and how we express and share that conviction in the little things – daily life. Interestingly enough, this vid is also closely tied in with yesterday’s post on helping the poor [...]
How Do We “Help” the Poor?
We see “the poor” all around us – sometimes in surprising ways and places (thus my use in quotes) – Here’s an interesting link and vid produced by the . . . decidedly “conservative” Acton Institute – while I’m not 100% behind some of the conclusions presented in the video it is thought provoking, and [...]
It’s Life . . . . But Perhaps Not As We Now Conceptualise It
This morning we had an interesting conversation about aspects of Colorado’s Proposition 48, defining “personhood” as the moment of conception, which was (I think I read this right) defeated by a 3:1 margin in yesterday’s election. When does “life” begin? My geneticist other half made the comment that – strictly speaking, the genetic code is [...]