Bishop Sues Blogger

Virtue Online:

The ultra-liberal Anglican Bishop of Niagara, the Rt. Rev. Michael Bird has sued an orthodox Anglican blogger, a layman, alleging that he was libeled 31 times on Anglican Samizdat, a blog by David Jenkins that presents facts and pokes satirical fun at liberal Anglican leaders who depart from “the faith once for all delivered to the saints.”

The Bishop of Niagara was one of his targets.

The claim seeks:

* $400,000 in damages plus court and legal costs.
* An interim and permanent injunction to shut down Anglican Samizdat.
* An interim and permanent injunction prohibiting Jenkins from publishing further comments about Michael Bird…

Read the whole report here.

And from the conclusion:

It is very funny, our political realm is full of daily insults from one politician to another, but no one sues, nor would they get away with it. It is considered debate. It seems that some high-level Anglicans believe in the god of relativism, until their own dear little noses are out of joint. Then, instead of examining their conscience, they call in a litigation professional. How Christ-like. Do you think Jesus would have sued Pontius Pilate, given the chance? Can anyone take seriously ever again the much-ballyhooed “dialoguing” of the ACofC? When put to the test by its own authors, it crumbles sadly.

The Anglican Samizdat (which I have on occasion linked to before) is here.

 

Stats for the Day…

So far… (Just in case you thought this blog wasn’t that widely read.)

[...]

Nice to be back.

Sorry if that disappoints some…

 

More on Blogging Priests

Fr Anthony Chadwick reflects:

Fr Stephen Smuts has reflected one of my closely-held convictions, that blogging can be a true Christian ministry… As I have experienced, the blog (or for that matter other social media like Facebook and Twitter) can be used for good or evil. If used for the purpose of pastoral ministry and Christian teaching, then it is excellent and should be encouraged by bishops and religious superiors.

It is spiritually and emotionally wearing, especially when we have to deal with conflict, in an environment where a person would be more evil or lacking in empathy in his or her expression than he or she would dare in a face-to-face situation. In a way, this is reassuring to the priest who asks himself whether blogging really is a true ministry…

You can read the whole post here.

There are more and more of us priests doing it and writing blogs on our own account as well as on behalf of our Churches. Many bishops are only beginning to discover what the Internet really is and what it is not. Church websites are vital, but the dynamism of the blog is what keeps it interesting to follow…

He understands the concept and medium of blogging well.

 

Priests on the Blogs

A thorny issue… for some… Priests and blogs. The new media. The room for evangelism is tremendous.  Furthering the cause of Christ. For others, this is simply a no-brainer:

The Pope Emeritus gets it.

“Priests stand at the threshold of a new era… as new technologies create deeper forms of relationship across greater distances, priests are called to respond pastorally by putting the media ever more effectively at the service of the Word…

Give a ‘soul’ to the fabric of communications that makes up the ‘Web’.”

Patriarch Kirill gets it.

“Blogs and social networks give us new opportunities for the Christian mission” at a time when the Church comes under attacks more often than before, the patriarch said. “Not to be present there means to display our helplessness and lack of care for the salvation of our brothers.”

“Now that social media shows a huge interest, although not always a sound one, in church life, our duty is to convert it for a good cause, to create conditions for young people to know about Christ, know the truth about the life of people inside the Church,”

These guys (Anglican Catholics) get it.

Speaking of the Anglican Catholics, Fr Ed Bakker, today, asks the question: How should one behave as a Priest on a blog?

With so many Priests being involved in blogging I think it would be good if we had a guideline how to behave , especially when we deal with those, who just happen to disagree with us and make comments, which perhaps are not appropriate…

For the rest, go here.

He concludes with the Collect of Purity. We need a lot more purity and charity, all-around.

Again, the cause of Christ and His Gospel must be furthered. There are souls to be saved!

Blog, Priests, blog!

The Church should be building platforms of social influence that extend well beyond the four walls of the Sunday experience.

All God’s people: Go forth into the digital world and proclaim the good news!

 

The Anglican Catholic

Clearly understanding (unlike some ecclesiastical blogophobes out there) the full value and tremendous potential of blogs, since having left the Traditional Anglican Communion for the Anglican Catholic Church, Fr Anthony Chadwick has started up a new blog simply entitled: The Anglican Catholic.

From the about page:

This blog is inspired by my previous and present experience of blogging and is intended to be a direct organ of communication of the Church to which I belong as a priest. My personal blog enables me to express myself more freely whilst upholding my promises as a cleric of this Church. This blog is designed to supplement existing organs of information such as the Church’s official websites…

Besides Fr Chadwick, the other contributors presently listed are Deacon Jonathan Munn and Fr Ed Bakker.

 

So I See, Google Reader

Is to retire soon! I get most of my feeds there.

News that service will be taken down sparks online petitions and protest site.

Google is killing off Google Reader, its less-than-mainstream RSS aggregation tool, citing declining popularity.

The service will be taken down on 1 July. In a Google blogpost on the company’s “spring clean”, the firm’s senior vice-president of technical infrastructure, Urs Hölzle, said Reader launched in 2005 to help people track updates on their favourite sites, and it will be retired despite a loyal following.

“Users and developers interested in RSS alternatives can export their data, including their subscriptions, with Google Takeout over the course of the next four months,” he wrote.

RSS, which stands for either rich site summary or really simple syndication, became a familiar fixture on news sites in particular, encouraging users to subscribe to updates in their RSS reader via its distinctive orange button.

I should protest too!

BTW has anybody got any alternative aggregator suggestions? Just in case…

 

Blogging

… will be next to zero for the week, again. I will away from the Internet for most of this week (and the next couple after this). Please keep me in you prayers and I’ll probably be back on the blog towards the coming weekend. God bless.

Patriarch Kirill: Sow Wheat Among the Web-tares

On the eChurch Blog:

Last month Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill lamented Orthodox bloggers publicly insulting each other, which I can only imagine must be an Orthodox phenomenon as it doesn’t happen in Catholic or Protestant Internet circles:

…that the diversity of ideas inherent in church circles sometimes assumes absurd forms in the Internet environment.

“In the web space groups of church liberals and conservatives are appearing that are not looking for the truth, divine truth but a means of finding fault, stinging each other. This is a very sad tendency,” he said at a diocesan assembly in Moscow ahead of New Year.

He said that divisions and feuds within the church “are evidence of infantility, childishness in faith which sometimes assumes ruffian forms.”

It would now seem the good Patriarch is advocating the strategy of sowing wheat among the web-tares:

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia on Saturday lamented a high number of antichurch internet posts and said the Russian Orthodox Church he leads should be present in social networks to tell the truth to its audience.

“Blogs and social networks give us new opportunities for the Christian mission” at a time when the Church comes under attacks more often than before, the patriarch said. “Not to be present there means to display our helplessness and lack of care for the salvation of our brothers.”

“Now that social media shows a huge interest, although not always a sound one, in church life, our duty is to convert it for a good cause, to create conditions for young people to know about Christ, know the truth about the life of people inside the Church,” Patriarch Kirill said.

“When a person makes a query on church life in an internet search engine, he finds a lot of lies, hypocrisy and hatred,” the patriarch said at a meeting of the Russian Orthodox Church’s Bishops Council in downtown Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral.

“These are the visible results of activity by the enemy of mankind,” he said.

This of course comes hot on the heals of the superb address given by the Pope on social media, which I think can be summed up as follows:

“Go into all the digital world and preach the good news to all creation.” (Mark 16:15 with slight modification)

Interesting in that the Patriarch and the Pope are of the greatest Christian spiritual leaders of our time, and they have seen and identified the potential of social media for the good; unlike others who would simply suppress and basically wish away social media in its various forms like the blogs. Perhaps it is time to elevate our  thinking and realise the ‘new opportunities for the Christian mission’, and not simply sit around with our heads buried in some dusty old liturgical books. The cause of Christ and his Gospel must be furthered. There are souls to be saved. And the Church should be making good use of the opportunity for building platforms of social influence that extend well beyond the four walls of the Sunday experience.

 

A Quote…

Or two…

When you criticize someone with followers, the followers recognize that, if you are correct, they have been sucked in. If they had been sucked in, then they must not be too bright, or at least they were not well enough informed to form a critical judgment which would have led them to identify their leader as someone not worth following. So, a criticism of the leader produces a particular response in the followers. They feel that there has been an attack on them personally. The critic is saying, loud and clear, that anyone who has followed this particular leader is not a good judge of character, intellect, or facts. They are quite correct. This is exactly what the critic is saying.”

―    Gary North

So, if I could translate the above quote, and apply it to this particular blog (and blogger) if you will, then that would include all:

of you.

Oh yes, I said ‘two’:

Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do.

― Benjamin Franklin

And one last one:

Never explain: Your friends don’t need it and your enemies won’t believe you anyhow.

― Anon

Notice

Blogging will be lite as I will be away for most of the week.

With blessings.