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As if its not easy enough to take the mickey out of the Anglican church. In a time of great uncertainty, job losses, wildcat strikes and global political instability a clerical fashion show really isn't what we need right now. What really breaks this mouse's tiny heart is the fact that it was organised by someone who really should know better. Steve Goddard from Ship of Fools does the Public Relations for the CRE and organised the event. He recruited his clergy models on this message board. I'm a big fan of the Ship, but this was a bad idea.

Father Richard Maudsley, who voluntarily took part in this collective insanity, said, "Clergy on the catwalk is an ideal opportunity for ordinary people outside the church to see that priests, while called to serve God, do live in the real world." Thus he proved that he doesn't live in the real world at all.

Goddard seems to have been glad about the publicity, but fails to have noticed that all the coverage is gently mocking the event in a tone that mixes amusement and bewilderment (see The Metro and The Telegraph for good examples).

Nice one guys and gals, you've just dragged us just a few inches further away from meaningful cultural engagement.

The imitation of Obama

Mouse was intrigued by Nick Robinson's blog about how the political debate in the UK has been influenced by Obama. Essentially, his analysis is that all UK politicians are, for now, desperately trying to jump on the presidential bandwagon by painting themselves as closest to Obama. I thought this wasn't a bad strategy ... so which UK religious leaders are learning the lessons and pitching Christianity as "the change we can believe in"? We're not even on the page. I really don't recommend that religious leaders take lessons from politicians, but the point is that Obamania is one of the biggest cultural and political movements in the world at the moment. The man has become the most powerful man in the world, and has transfixed the world with his message of hope. He's also a Christian. But the UK religious press and authorities seem to have missed that fact. Shame.

The atheist bus

Good to see that comment on the atheist bus hasn't died yet. You'd be mistaken for thinking that this is the most exciting thing to happen to some Christians for years. At least some decent cartoons are starting to come out.

Mouse thinks that we can wrap up this debate pretty quickly - here are the salient points:

1. Yes, its a rubbish slogan from the atheists, we all know that;
   
2. Its good that people are talking about religion, even if it does start with a negative viewpoint;
   
3. The power of the web can be used for atheism as well as for the Lord!

If the last point doesn't make any sense, you are probably unaware that the whole campaign started on a blog. The campaign managed to raise over £150,000 so far. What's really telling is the response from Alpha. Now this Mouse is a big fan of Alpha, but their attempt to raise funds for Alpha advertising on buses using the same justgiving website was a disaster. It mostly provoked even more atheists to offer the minimum contribution just to get the chance to slag off Alpha or Christianity in the comments field. This type of thing can't come from a top down initiative from a large Christian institution. Real cultural engagement has to be spontaneous and bottom up ... the natural territory of the blogger.

Gordon Ramsey - role model

Lots of talk in the blogosphere about the idea of Gordon Ramsey being a role model for Christian youth. There's a decent summary on the Church Times blog. The gist seems to be that the editor of Youthwork magazine has put out a ready to use sermon on Ramsey's life comparing it to Job to connect better with youth. Comment seems to focus on it being a publicity stunt or on the fact that the foul mouthed egg boiler is a notably bad role model in many ways.

The Mouse's take on this is that it shows that the editor of Youthwork magazine seems to have very little insight into youth. If you'd stretched some analogy to make David Beckham a role model they would, at least, have picked someone who is actually popular with today's youth. Why pick a chef? One of the central themes is that his early dreams of playing professional football were ended through 'divine intervention' when he suffered a career ending injury. This enabled him to follow his true calling as a sweary TV chef. I suspect most young people would consider a God who ends football careers and consign these talented people to working in kitchens to be a rather cruel and very uncool one.

Anglican groupings

Mouse is despairing over the groupings within the Anglican church. I was reading about the renewal of the Anglican church during the evangelical revival of the 18th century, and thinking about revival today. The early evangelicals were viewed suspiciously, and even within the Anglican church the Wesleys, John Whitefield and the Methodists were viewed suspiciously. As such, 'goupings' within the church emerged and eventually caused a split within the church.

Today there are more 'groupings' within the church than you can even count. CEEC, FCA, Fulcrum, Anglican Mainstream, Reform ... the list goes on and on. But what is the point of these groups? Is it to find new ways to engage with the nation? Is it to develop new models of church growth? No. It is to provide yet another talking shop designed to position one political faction within the church against another. Mouse thinks this is a total waste of time and effort. Could these people stop pumping out hot air, and start engaging with those outside the church? I should admit that not all Anglican groupings are this bad. Evangelical Alliance does put out some good stuff to support churches and change society, for example. But this is a rare exception.

I've got a little project on the go checking out Doicese websites and Bishop's websites. So far, I've only found one Bishop with a Blog (the excellent Mike Hill, Bishop of Bristol). Unfortunately he hasn't updated it since December 2007. I'm just looking for a Bishop / Diocese who is attempting to reach out to the world in the 21st century. It would save me some time if you know of a decent Diocese or Bishop's website that is designed to engage with people outside the church.

Now an interesting thing is developing within the Catholic church. The Pope now has a YouTube channel and the UK Catholic church has a shiny new website (much better than the achingly dull CofE effort). Could the Catholic church overturn centuries of tradition and start engaging with people where they are?

Update: As if to prove the point, here's a typical spat between factions that cannot possibly be of any interest to anyone outside a tiny hardcore of introspective Anglicans.

The Christian Blogosphere 2

I had a bit of post blog guilt after my post on the dearth of quality and paucity of vision in the Christian blogosphere, so thought I should celebrate some of the better blogs out there. There has been some interest recently with an event organised by the Evangelical Alliance on blogging and Web 2.0 (hate the phrase, but you know what I mean), and Premier's Christian web and blog awards. I won't list the sites, but guide you to some 'best of' lists that others have compiled.

So, if you're after a quick guide to Christian blogs, here's a starter for 10:

Christian web and blog awards, organised by Premier - http://www.christianblogawards.com/

Godblogs - an event in September 2008 organised by the Evangelical Alliance - htttp://www.eauk.org/slipstream/resources/blogosphere.cfm

Iain Dale's top 10 religious blogs - a bit old, but is a good listing - http://iaindale.blogspot.com/2007/09/guide-to-blogging-2007-top-ten.html

UK God Blogs from Quantum Tea, a long list of mostly decent blogs - http://www.quantumtea.com/ukgodblogs/

I still maintain that these blogs fall into three categories:

1) news and commentary
2) rants
3) dull theological debate

I'm yet to find one that has a real editorial vision about shaping Christian opinion in the UK ... unless you can prove me wrong!

Mouse

Rules for comments

Just so you know - there are no rules. I will delete comments when I feel they are offensive, but generally will not censor or edit anything that you contribute. I feel this is an important blogging principle, which I will change as and when I see fit.

The Christian Blogosphere

It seems to me that the Blogosphere is underdeveloped in the Christian world. In a number of spheres bloggers are having a significant influence on decision makers and opinion formers, yet there are no equivalents in the Christian world.

In politics, for example, blogs like Conservative Home, Iain Dale, Guido Fawkes and now LabourList are important institutions on the political landscape. Earlier this year Guido Fawkes became the first blog to force a ministerial resignation when he posted revelations about donations to Peter Hain's deputy leadership fund.

In the media it is now essential for journalists to publish a blog to develop a loyal readership outside their periodic broadcasts or newspaper columns. And no serious business person in the City of London over the past two months would fail to consult Robert Peston's blog alongside their copy of the FT to stay in touch with the latest business news. This has reached the extent where people are seriously questioning whether Peston's blogging is distorting the markets.

Wider society is, of course, way ahead of the institutions. The social networking phenomenom is part of same trend. It allows individuals to stay in touch in large numbers and share information at the speed of light (almost literally).

And yet the Church has nothing like it. There are certainly a mountain of Christian bloggers. These are mostly individuals with a desire to express their faith by scribbling intently as they work out their personal theology. Interesting as this is, it is not the force for cultural change that seems to be developing elsewhere. Where is the Iain Dale or Guido Fawkes of the Church? Or the Anglican version of ConservativeHome? Perhaps these figures to exist ... but I haven't found them yet. There are some great websites like Ship of Fools and experimental interent churches, like Church of Fools (sponsored by the Methodist Church) and St Pixels, but these are primarily designed to be places to allow individuals to interact in a Christian setting, rather than to be opinion shaping forums.

Maybe you disagree. Perhaps this is the place where it all starts? I guess this blog is about exploring this issue and seeing where it goes. Over the coming weeks and months I'll be connecting with the Christian bloggosphere, and trying to see how mainstream church opinion can be shaped by it.

Introduction

Welcome to the ChurchMousePublishing. A blog for Christians without power, authority or influence. The way I look at it, they are exactly the kind of people God loves. But in this world of Obamania, OK! and Celebrity Big Brother us mice have to go underground (so to speak) and onto the interweb.

In this first post I'll let you into my secrets as to who I am. Only so that you can understand my prejudices and biases, you understand. Not for any vain purposes.

Well I am an anglican church mouse. Which is to say, I'm a church mouse who lives in an anglican church. I have an evangelical outlook, but I'm open minded enough to see God at work in pretty much any denomination. My outlook is not to get obsessed with doctrinal differences, although I think they are probably important. Its just that there is so much to do that I don't have the time or inclination to work out where I disagree with other Christians. Frankly it makes my head hurt. What does make my whiskers tingle, however, is to have a good chin wag with other church mice.