On Saturday I posted about Sherif Hassan, an Egyptian Christian who was detained at Cairo Airport while attempting to visit his family with his British wife Emma.
I am pleased to report that, according to the latest news posted on the Facebook group, Sherif is now back safely in the UK. To those who wrote and/or prayed, thank you.
I found this interview with Bishop Gene Robinson very interesting.
H/T Ruth Gledhill
I am not sure that many conservatives I know would quite accept his claim as he defines “conservative” here, but I think many of his points are well made. What do you think?
Sherif Hassan is an Egyptian citizen and a Christian. Back in the summer he married Emma, a British citizen. Earlier this month they travelled to Egypt to join his family after the death of his father and to introduce Emma to the rest of his extended family. On arrival at Cairo airport, Emma was immediately deported, while Sherif was arrested on no charge. The reason for his arrest and detention appears to be connected with his peaceful exercise of his Christian faith.
Mark Meynell has set up a website which has details of what has happened since, together with details of how you can be involved inhelping to release Sherif and return him to his wife and family. Please take a look here.
Here is the letter I wrote for our parish magazines this month:
Dear friends,
We have heard a lot about “new media” or “social media” over the last few months, even years. First there was e-mail – sending personal or business messages from one computer to another via the internet. Then there was phone texting, sending short messages via mobile telephones. Now we have “social networking” where messages, photos and even short video clips can be posted on internet sites such as Facebook or Twitter. What began as a college student’s attempt to provide a sort of electronic bulletin board for his fellow students has turned into a computerised social experience encompassing millions of people worldwide. The story of this development has even been told in the film The Social Network.
And with the development of a new generation of mobile phones, it is possible to connect with friends and family via these sites from almost anywhere.
There are good and bad aspects to this of course. There have been instances where information posted on social network sites has been used to commit crime, or where people have lost jobs because their bosses saw something that had been intended just for friends or family to see. Social networks can be an excuse not to engage with people in “real life,” as in a recent case where a company fired some of its employees by a text message. Some things are still better done face-to-face. But where used intelligently, social media can be a great way to keep in touch with people far away, and charities as well as businesses are finding the networks can be useful in connecting with people who may be interested in their products and causes.
Social networks are, of course, simply the latest example of changes in human communication. Earlier examples include the inventions of writing (where a philosopher bemoaned the fact that it would reduce people’s capacity to remember), printing, the telegraph, film and television. Each of these altered the way in which people thought and communicated, and subtly altered the messages they conveyed. Social media are no different.
But the Bible also records a change in medium to communicate a message. In the Old Testament, God spoke through special people, the prophets. Where these words were written down, they were transmitted through books of stories, poetry and laws. God was revealed as a God who wanted to communicate with people. In the New Testament, however, God “changed the medium.” No longer was his communication simply in the form of words, whether written or spoken. Instead, God chose to reveal himself in person, the person of Jesus. Instead of listening to, or reading, words, humans had the chance to see for themselves what God was like. “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father,” Jesus told his followers at the Last Supper (John 14:9).
This is what Christians call “the Incarnation”, and the beginning is the familiar Christmas story of Jesus being born as a human baby in a stable in Bethlehem. “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14). But, of course, this is only the first chapter of the story. Jesus grew up, lived and taught and performed signs that God’s reign has already begun. He died a very human death and rose again to give us the hope of new life. And, since Pentecost, he lives through his people, the Church, by the power of the Holy Spirit. This means that WE are now part of this same story, part of God’s message to the world.
So this Christmas, let’s wonder again at the story of the God who communicates with us in person. Let’s remind ourselves not only of that first chapter, but also the rest of the story. And let’s remind ourselves of the part each of us is called to play in continuing to transit God’s message of love, peace, hope and redemption to the world.
I wish you all a very blessed and happy Christmas.
Having passed through Toronto a couple of months ago, this cartoon resonated with me.
H/T Vic the Vicar
Matt over at the Church of No People has this thought-provoking piece, sparked by a visit to an exhibition of work by contemporary Chinese artists. Although written from an American perspective, much of what he says translates to the UK context. It serves as a reminder that, while some claim that Christians are facing persecution in this country, and in the western world more generally, what we face is trivial compared to the suffering faced by Christians elsewhere and at different times.
Which leads me to ponder on our use of language. As Christians we, of all people, should be careful about the kind of language we use. We deal, week in and week out, with things that can only be expressed at the limits of our language. As we read our Bibles we are conscious that truth about God requires us strain human language to those limits. We do ourselves no favours if we misuse language by exaggerating our claims. If we do this often, than we have no language left to express the extremes of our experience. And if we begin to talk about persecution when what we really face is a small diminution of our historic prestige and privileges, what will we call the pressure faced, for example, by our sisters and brothers in Pakistan or Iraq?
And there are other instances of sloppy use of language, especially when it comes to imputing motives to those with whom we disagree. To label others as “fascistic”, or to compare them to the BNP because they do not share our viewpoint is a devaluation of language. It may express how we feel, but is it true? It is always dangerous to impute motives to others, and I would suggest that often it comes close to bearing false witness against our neighbour.
Of course, Jesus was not above the use of a bit of robust language and hyperbole himself, according to the Gospel accounts. Nor was Paul. But, like the boy who cried “Wolf!”, overuse of this langauge tends to dull its effect. Just because Jesus and Paul occasionally had harsh things to say should not be taken to give us carte blanche to allow our own emotions to run away with us in our use of language. Jesus, the Word of God made flesh, was, John tells us, “full of grace and truth.” Shouldn’t we, his followers, also be?
Thanks to Phil Ritchie for alerting me to this meme. It works like this:
1) Turn on your MP3 player or music player on your computer.
2) Go to SHUFFLE songs mode.
3) Write down the first 15 songs that come up–song title and artist–NO editing/cheating, please.
(Image courtesy Filomena Scalise)
So I did this with my iTunes library and these are the results:
1) Elgar Cello Concerto (2nd movement)
2) The Great Silkie by Trees (an electric folk band I listened to in the 70s)
3) Make Love by Angie Stone feat. Musiz
4) Winter from The Seasons by Haydn
5) Dirty Mind by Jeff Beck feat. Imogen Heap
6) Mahler Symphony No. 5
7) Free Loop by Daniel Powter
8) Autumn from Haydn’s The Seasons
9) I’ve Got to See You Again, Norah Jones
10) Gorecki, Three Pieces in Old Style (III)
11) Gorecki, Symphony of Sorrowful Songs (1st movement)
12) Office de l’Exaltation de la Sainte Croix sung by the Benedictine monks of St. Wandville de Fontenell
13) Groove Armada, If Everybody Looked the Same
14) Getting Scared, Imogen Heap
15) Flicks, Frou Frou
Just one edit/cheat on the list – No. 8 first came up with a 4-year-old sermon from a Canadian church (The Meeting House in Oakville, ON), but hey! this is supposed to be a MUSIC meme, right? (And should it be a coincidence that WordPress interpreted this number as a smiley?)
Well there’s a fair bit of classical music on the list, with Haydn and Gorecki both represented twice, Elgar and Mahler, and even some slavonic liturgy.
Imogen Heap and Frou Frou appear courtesy of recommendations from my two sons. I have to take full responsibility for the rest.
Finally, the meme works by “tagging” someone else to pass it on. Anyone reading this who hasn’t already been tagged should consider themselves to have been tagged now.
A Tree in the Forest 