Communiques

Communiques seem to be the thing of the moment. There were loads of them from the Primates meeting in Alexandria, now there are more in the run up to the G20, whilst we expect the output from the G20 itself will be a communique. Mouse is sure that in the good old days these meetings would simply produce a statement. Why have we upped the pretension to now call them communiques?

Mouse doesn't like to be outdone, so is thinking of releasing his own communique. Suggestions welcome what I should cover. I then look forward to arguing with you over the wording for hours before compromising and releasing a watered down version.

WWJD with the BNP?

He certainly wouldn't vote for them. However, their latest campaign would have you think that they are a Christian party. Ekklesia break the story that the BNP is putting out posters for the European elections with an image of Christ with a Bible quote, "If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also". It then says, "What would Jesus do. Vote BNP". Oh no he bloody wouldn't. There's more of this garbage on the Ekklesia site, but Mouse can't bring himself to repeat it.

Mouse is utterly gobsmacked to think that these people could dare to speak a Christian message. Mouse thought the atheist buses were ultimately a bit of harmless but pointless fun, but this really does take the you know what.

Mouse wasn't sure whether it was worthwhile banning clergy from membership of the BNP at the recent general synod, but at least it was a clear statement that their views are absolutely opposed to the core Christian message.

Mouse hopes that there will be some pretty strong statements from all Churches setting out precisely why the BNP message of hatred and intolerance is fundamentally not in line with Jesus teaching.

This comes hot on the heels of news of a Baptist BNP minister at the comically named Barton in the Beans chapel. Mouse hopes the Baptists will act on these revelations.

Update: The adverts have now been condemned by the Baptists, Methodists and United Reformed Church. The good old CofE have 'refused to comment'. Come on Rowan - you're on a roll at the moment!

Also, see Justin Brett's (member of General Synod) comment below for a correction on my point about what happened at the Synod. It wasn't quite how Mouse said it. Thanks for the contribution Justin.

Bells won't ring out for St George

Spoilsport Bishops seem to be almost entirely indifferent to a proposal to ring church bells on St George's day. One Libby Alexander wrote to all 44 Diocesan Bishops with the suggestion, and only five replied backing it. The Mail is not happy. Interestingly both the Bishop of London and the Bishop of Southwark, who between them cover pretty much the whole of London, both backed the idea.

Mouse thinks its a great idea. It is almost more strange to think that the Church of England would not mark its national Saint's day. Mouse's advice to those Bishops who backed the idea is just to do it anyway. If the good old CofE waited for consensus on every issue, we'd be here a very long time before we .... hold on. Ah.

Religion in the media

News has emerged that the Archbishop of Canterbury is concerned about religious coverage by the BBC, and has made his feelings known to the Director General.

There is a long tradition of politicians feeling bias against them by the BBC. Back in the 1980s the BBC was known in Tory ranks as the Bolshevik Broadcasting Corporation. More recently, New Labour felt under attack including the major incident when the claim was made on the BBC that the Government had 'sexed up' the dossier on evidence of Iraq's military capability.

However, the Archbishop's concern seems a little different. He is simply pointing out that the quantity and quality of religious broadcasting has declined. The issue is that the BBC is a public service broadcaster, paid for by the license fee (a tax in all but name). It has a statutory duty to produce 'public service' content. As such, everyone feels they have a right to say what the BBC should and shouldn't cover, and to claim unfairness when they are not even-handed in every way.

Mouse thinks that religious content is pretty poor overall. It tends to be either dull in the form of programming like Songs of Praise or Sunday Worship, or extremist in programmes like Deborah 13: Servant of God on BBC3. However, I point the finger of blame not at the BBC, but at the lack of Christian film and programme makers out there making things that the BBC and other channels would show.

Pope's press officer to resign

Mouse has commented a number of times on the disastrous media management at the Vatican in the past few weeks and months. According to Italian and German press reports the Pope's press officer, Fr Federico Lombardi, is to resign following the series of media catastrophes.

Only yesterday Mouse wrote, "Mouse is utterly bemused by this inept media management."

Recent disasters have included poor handling of the SSPX issue, which involved welcoming a holocaust denier back into the Catholic church and most recently attempting to re-write the Pope's words when he said that condoms make AIDS problem in Africa worse. At the time Damian Thompson again commented, saying, "Time for a sacking".

Lets hope things pick up for the Holy Father with a new man in the job.

Churchdaq

The Churchmouse's weekly round up of the religious stocks and shares market news.


The Pentecostal index rose on claims from the Assemblies of God Africa that they will be baptising 10m new believers over the next 10 years. The CofE 100 rose on guidance from the government on how they could access government funding for local services. The Catholic sell off continued, on further bad press for the Holy Father, while good coverage of the Methodist response to the G20 and nuclear arms reduction lifted the Methodist 250 index.

On the individual stocks the surprise mover of the week was Catholic Bishop Arthur Roche, up on speculation that he is soon to pick up position of Archbishop of Westminster and succeed Cardinal O'Connor. Baroness Warsi was up after being named most powerful Muslim woman in the Muslim Women's Power List. Church buildings were up after the Government launched an initiative to make better use of them, and open up sources of funding for churches. Rowan Williams rose on strong comments about climate change, and the Put People First coalition which included many prominent Christian organisations rose towards the end of the week on a successful and peaceful protest march.

Losers this week included the Pope, who continued to struggle in the wake of his comment that condoms may make the AIDS problem worse, this week being attacked by the medical journal The Lancet. Bishop Michael Nasir-Ali, Bishop of Rochester, announced his resignation this week after a difficult few months. In the US market, President Obama faced a backlash from Catholics in advance of a talk at Notre Dame University in light of his pro-life positions. The Muslim council of Britain fell then was temporarily suspended from the market following the Government's decision to suspend relations with them in response to the alleged extremism of the deputy head of the organisation. Henry Bellingham MP also fell after attacking the good old CofE for its lack of leadership.

Jade Goody was taken off the market at the start of the week, a tragically short time after her initial appearance earlier in the month.

Lancet has a dig at the Pope

The Pope's comments on condoms, where he said that they make the AIDS problem worse, have now been widely commented on. Latest to condemn to Holy Father is the medical journal The Lancet. They don't pull any punches, saying, ""When any influential person, be it a religious or political figure, makes a false scientific statement that could be devastating to the health of millions of people, they should retract or correct the public record,".

Quite right, says the Mouse. It is rather astonishing how the Vatican has dealt (or not) with this crisis. The only real response was an attempt to change history and make out that the Pope didn't really say what everyone heard him say.

Mouse is utterly bemused by this inept media management. It would have been the easiest thing in the world to simply say that the Pope didn't mean it as it came out. He was merely reiterating Catholic teaching that abstinence and fidelity are the only foolproof ways of preventing the spread of AIDS. Not everyone would have agreed with that position, but its better than being attacked from all sides like at present.

Its easy to criticise, but ...

Its very easy to point and criticise, but when it comes to our elected representatives there is some justification in holding them to account.

A couple of stories popped up yesterday while Mouse was looking at climate change and the G20. Dizzy reveals that the Department for Energy & Climate Change's office got the lowest rating in its energy efficiency certificate. Then the Blog Father Iain Dale showed emails from the Parliament's IT department telling MPs and staff to support Earth Hour by switching off lights and PCs, whilst also telling them to leave their PCs on to enable an essential upgrade to take place.

Mouse shouldn't really point and criticise, but ...

Angels and Demons - the Vatican's response

No I don't mean actual angels and demons - I mean the sequel to the Da Vinci Code. The Vatican has advised a tempered Catholic response to the film. They have said that, although a ban would be justified, its highly unlikely. So Catholics should just point out that the film is a work of fiction and get on with their lives. Mouse thinks this is the most sensible thing to have come out of the Vatican for some time.

The films are fiction. The initial response by Catholics to the Da Vinci Code was to call for a ban, arguing that the mix of fact and fiction distorted the historical record. Yes there are elements of fact in it, but not many. Following that line of argument you would end up calling the Wizard of Oz a mix of fact and fiction in that it depicts Dorothy as a real human being with a real pet dog.

Christians should leave the outraged response to fiction well alone. The church has stood in the face of persecution for two thousand years. It will take more than Dan Brown to break it.

Canon Andrew White, the vicar of Baghdad, writes today that Iraq is the most dangerous place in the world to be a Christian. Mouse suggest that Christians draw attention to real persecution if they want to complain. There's plenty of it out there.

Friday round up

Here's my round up from the blogosphere. Ten of the best from the blogs this week, just a little later than usual:

1. Quarentina gets his head round the credit crunch at All Souls

2. 2 Church Mice on the fuzzy faith of the British

3. Bishop Nick Baines on the loss of the local

4. Top headline grabbing from George Pitcher with post offices in churches shocker

5. Damian Thompson reckons the Guardian is getting closer to Islamists

6. Stephen Beer on Blair's piety

7. A near Twogcast from Bishop David Thompson on the Government's strategy for church buildings

8. Archbishop Cranmer on the Muslim Power Women list

9. Railway Stations of the Cross in the Church Times Blog

10. Thinking Anglicans on the G20, climate change and the Church

A 300 year old law that affects 1 person - top priority?

Yes, back in the news is the story about the government looking to change the Act of Settlement. This government has attacked the Tories for being a party for the few and not the many. Well this law preventing the heir to the throne from marrying a Catholic affects precisely one person, and he doesn't seem too bothered about it being happily married already. Not only that, but his Son seems quite settled too, so presumably the government is fighting for the rights of William's future children?

So why has the government started spinning about it now?

The impact of this coverage is to distract the media from whatever else is going on. Right now the big stories are:

1) a civil war between the PM, his Chancellor and the Governor of the Bank of England;
2) the embarrassment of over a million people watching Brown being savaged in the European Parliament; and
3) Brown backing down on his ambitions for a fiscal stimulus package being agreed at the G20 as it becomes clear this is impossible).

Damian Thompson sees this move as an attempt to 'neuter' Catholics, by which he means buy their silence in the face of what is essentially a government agenda quite opposed to many Catholic values. Mouse has commented before on Labour's attempts to woo the Catholic vote, and on its apparent success. This time it looks like the spin doctors are doing a good job of keeping this trivia in the news.

Incidentally, Mouse also observes that it looks pretty bad when Anglican Bishops oppose the move. The Bishop of Winchester is quite right when he says that it would be a constitutional nightmare to simply repeal the Act of Settlement, but the way he has said it makes it look like he is opposed to any reform of what is quite clearly a straight-forward piece of old-school religious discrimination.

The point he should be making is that Gordon Brown and this government have much more pressing matters in preventing an economic and environmental meltdown than in reforming a 300 year old law that affects one person.

The new Church

Jonny Baker from the Church Mission Society (CMS) discusses a piece in the Church Times about the news that CMS has been officially recognised as a 'community' within the good old CofE. Exactly what this means is not clear, but its an interesting piece from Jonny about what the future may hold. Essentially it seems to be a formal acknowledgement from the good old CofE that CMS is a form of church community in its own right. This is almost certain to be labelled in CofE jargon as a 'fresh expression of church', although CMS is actually around 200 years old.

What interests the Mouse is that this comes at a time when there is much debate about the future of the Anglican Communion. Mouse can't help feeling that developments like this show us a way forward. CMS does great work to actively show God's love to those who may not have felt it before. Mouse is happy to hear that being more formally acknowledged by the good old CofE. If only the world wide Anglican Communion could spend more of its time thinking about how to develop mission of this type in local communities, and less of its time arguing over whether to ordain women bishops or gay clergy, Mouse thinks the Church would be in a much better state.

Church and planet

Rowan's put in a pretty decent effort at raising the stakes on climate change. Lots of coverage in the press (neat summary from the Church Times blog with links to lots of the coverage).

Mouse thinks that this is a good attempt, but we're still speaking the language of justice and hope when we need to speak the language of cost and benefit.

One of the points that Rowan makes is that left to their own politicians will do nothing. This is not because they care, but because there is a cost involved in investing in green technologies. Taxes have to be raised. Money has to be redirected from other spending priorities. This economic cost is a political cost to the politicians. To counter that, we need to point to the economic benefits - in the short term, this is an investment in jobs during a recession. In the long term it is an investment to avoid a total economic calamity. This type of thinking is backed up by serious research, such as the Stern Report.

Mouse has pointed out before that this is a rather grubby debate to have. Its much easier for a religious leader to take the moral high ground and argue passionately for justice. But it won't achieve anything. Mouse thinks that we'll all have to study a little economics and a little politics to make a difference on climate change.

Stop grumbling about the Muslim Women Power List

We all know that it is a load of old fluff, but why so much complaint? The Blogs are full of grumbles about the Muslim Women Power List, mainly because it is meaningless and tax payer funded to boot. But so what - that's not the point.

We all know that the various rich lists are based on phoney and imperfect data, but they're still an interesting read. We know that the various power lists are a massively subjective poll, based on absolutely no data without any real and credible definition of what 'power' means. But that's not the point. The purpose of the survey is to celebrate the achievement of Muslim women, not to provide an objective and auditable record of the power exerted by these women.

Mouse totally agrees with the critics and thinks they should just shut up.

Atheism on the curriculum

From September students will be able to study a GCSE from one of the largest exam bodies that includes studying druids, Rastafarians and atheism. No bad thing, according to the British Humanist Association. Some commentators, such as Andrew Brown agree, arguing that atheism is a state of mind that must be taught to counter the natural instincts that incline the mind towards the divine.

Mouse isn't against leaning about any of these things. I just hope it isn't mistaken for religous studies. Learning about the influence of Bob Marley in the 1970s should not be equated to learning about the world's great religions. Unfortunatly it looks like the general down-grading of the curriculum is applying to religious studies courses. Students will be learning about religious attitudes to genetically modified food and inter-faith marriages, when they don't know the basics about the major world faiths.

G20 protesting

Mouse is looking forward to the G20 protests. The Church Times neatly summarise the activities. They point out to make sure you don't pop up at the wrong protest, as there are quite a few. The Put People First demo is the mainstream protest supported by Christian Aid, Tearfund, and a large number of other worthy Christian organisations. The Bishop of London is speaking at the Church service to kick off the march, so it sounds pretty safe.

Interestingly it looks like there will be a large amount of Twittering and Blogging from the march, so if anything does kick off, we'll have real time updates to keep track of it all.

Mouse's only concern about this demo is that the tent is a very broad one, and the aims are therefore so broad ("Jobs, Justice, Climate") that its hard to see what specific action the movement as a whole is advocating (the 12 point 'policy platform' is so broad and sweeping it lacks any credible detail). The movement seems to be modelling itself on the Make Poverty History initiative. By contrast MPH made its demands very clear and specific, and Mouse thinks this could be the downfall of Put People First.

Inter Faith week

The Government has announced that we are to have our first ever 'inter faith week' in Britain this coming November. The week will be 'facilitated' (presumably meaning organised) by the Inter Faith Network. Mouse has seen some of their work along the lines of inter faith cricket matches and football matches. Its great fun.

But is it part of a government strategy, and if so what is it supposed to achieve? The British Humanist Association has already protested on the grounds that it excludes those who do not have a faith. It comes hot on the heels of news that the Government is keen for 'faith communities' (can't stand the term) to get better access to government funding for the public services they offer their communities. So on the one hand it looks like the Government is trying to promote strong communities with churches and faith groups at the heart. I like the idea, but am slightly skeptical that in the past this Government has not exactly been keen on the role of the Church in society, so feel a little bit of pre-election positioning.

However, Mouse can't quite see where an Inter Faith event fits into this. If you look at things from a different perspective, it looks far less like a coherent strategy for 'community cohesion' or the role of 'faith communities' in wider society. This news comes in the same week as tensions between the Government and the Muslim Council of Britain and a new terror strategy which has a big focus on 'community cohesion' to counter the threat of a small independent home-grown terrorist.

The answer is probably that all these things are just not connected. However, I probably wouldn't feel that way if I was a young Muslim. I would see the government trying to get me to play football with the local church, whilst at the same time it is attacking the MCB and looking nervous that I might be a terrorist. Mouse thinks the government needs to look harder at what is its role in all this. Creating an environment in which people of different faith and ethnicity can get along together is partly the governments role in areas such as housing, education and equality. Beyond that, it gets into much messier and confusing territory.

Mouse thinks that Inter Faith initiatives are great, but are generally nothing to do with the Government. They would be far better spending their time in preventing housing and educational segregation than in organising football matches.

Faith and funding

Top headline grabbing from the Telegraph and George Pitcher yesterday. "Post Offices in Church: Bring it on!" shouts Pitcher in response to a report from the Government and the good old CofE about how Churches can access public sector funding sources more effectively.

Essentially it is a very dull report setting out the sources of funding available for various public service type activities, and argues that churches and 'faith communities' (Mouse hates the term with a passion) could access those funds better for the public service activities they offer their local communities.

Great stuff, says the Mouse. But hold on. Why don't Churches access these funds already. The report talks about overcoming “squeamishness” from funding providers. Mouse would put it more strongly. Often, they are ideologically opposed to Christians receiving these funds. In Mouse's own experience he has witnessed his local authority oppose initiatives from his church, then set up near-identical rival initiatives within the remit of the local authority.

But also, there is "squeamishness" from Churches about having the Christian ethos of their service diluted through the secular influence of government funding. This is understandable, but can usually be dealt with through careful positioning.

The Mouse sees this initiative as having the potential to make a big difference to local churches. Far too often a vibrant and successful initiative, such as a parent and toddler group or a debt counselling service, is cut short. This is often because the initial enthusiasm of the small group of volunteers is sucked out of them and squashed flat by the rigour of running a project in their spare time. Some funding could help them to grown the initiative with some professional support, and that can only be a good thing.

Incidentally, Mouse's favourite section of the report is Appendix A - "A guide to the Guidance". There is another Appendix entitled, "Organisation of the CofE". Funny there isn't a section on the disorganisation of the CofE, but that may be saved for another report.

Other Church Mice

Mouse thinks he's officially the best blogging church mouse on the interweb. Here are the other church mouse blogs I've found. The Merry Church Mouse is a pretty good blog, if you're into sewing. The others are pretty poor efforts.

The Merry Church Mouse (sewing related)

The National Pastoral Life Centre blog - doesn't seem to have been updated since June 2008

The Old Church Mouse a short lived blog in Feb 2008

The Church Mouse Chronicals - an extremely sporadic blog from an American audio technology consultant

Update. A couple of fellow Mice (@johannaclare via Twitter and Fibre Fairy in the comments below) have pointed me to 2 Church Mice, which is a great blog by a couple of fantastic Mice.

Religious battle on the buses still going

Mouse went out yesterday and noticed three buses with religious slogans. One was a new one on the Mouse which repeated the atheist slogan but added, "and pray you're not wrong" from these folk. He has pointed out before that the whole atheist bus Vs Christian bus thing is rather boring, but hadn't realised just how widespread the problem is.


Does anyone really think that bus advertising is a genuine spiritual battleground? So can we move on now? Mouse thinks the only winner from this bizarre phenomenon is the bus company.

Williams: Britain 'haunted' by religion

What on earth did he mean? Williams has given a lecture in which he said that Britain is neither a secular society nor a religiously divided one. He said that "I believe we are living in a country that is uncomfortably haunted by the memory of religion and doesn't quite know what to do with it". This is classic Rowan Williams. I'm sure if you study the lecture with academic rigour you'll find deep spiritual truth. However, the vast majority of the population who read about this stuff in newspapers will simply be left wondering what it all meant.

I'm happy to try to help the Archbishop out on this one. I think he was simply trying to say that we have a big religious history in this country, but that is changing. The government and wider civic society no longer know how to engage with the church - afraid to give preference to one religion over another, and afraid to give the religious preferential treatment over the secular, but recognising the positive effect that religion can have. Mouse thinks this explains why we keep getting called a 'faith community' now, and may even explain current confusion over what to do with the MCB.

What would be really interesting would be to offer a simply solution, but that really would be out of character for our Archbishop.

Akinola and the state of the Anglican church

So the Anglican Church in Nigeria, lead by Archbishop Akinola, has recognised the controversial new province of North America. So what? Archbishop Akinola has been in the headlines around the world for his support for legislation in Nigeria imposing strict punishments on homosexual relationships and marriages. The ACNA is a conservative faction within the church in North America which has established a new 'province' within the Anglican Church along conservative lines.

Many have been writing about these developments excitedly, pitching it as the much awaited split in the Anglican Communion.

Bishop Alan Wilson made the point some time ago that the Anglican Church is simply too disorganised to split. This was not meant as a criticism of the church's organisational ability, but merely as an observation that it has no organisational coherence in the way the Catholic Church does. Bishop Alan observes, "Just like the Apostolic Church in Corinth, it’s always going down the pan, always sneered at and despised, always dying, yet behold we live."

Mouse thinks we have a growing body of evidence to support this view. The position of the ACNA and the Nigerian church are now far from clear, but they somehow remain and life continues. If anything, Mouse finds this a reassuring position. The headline writers would like to paint a picture of the church as one on the brink of a major and severe split. The reality is that any split is likely to occur gradually over time. That has probably already started, but the end state is far from clear.

Christians brace for release of Religulous

A religious satire opens in Britain next week. Religulous, a film from the makers of Borat, is a deliberate attempt to 'demolish' religion. It previewed back in October in the UK, and early reviews showed that it doesn't take itself too seriously, but does directly attack religion in general, and Christianity in particular.

Mouse will wait to see what impact the film makes, but is certain of one thing. If Christians greet the film with the kind of outrage and indignation with which they have greeted films like The Life of Brian in the past, they will merely be seen as bigots with something to hide. Uncomfortable as it is, the Church will simply have to say that it disagrees with the arguments, but is glad to have the opportunity to have the debate.

The Westminster saga

The saga that is the selection of a successor for Cardinal O'Connor drags on and on. Ruth Gledhill has been providing a running commentary on her blog, and in her latest post she says that 'anything could happen still'. The problem now is that it is clear there is pretty serious disagreement over the post. There is something to be said for the Papal success approach of locking everyone in a room until they agree. The current approach makes the church look political and divided.

Mouse's advice is simply to stop leaking names, and sort it out as quickly as possible.

Churchdaq

A new feature for your sabbath afternoons. Mouse's review of the week's winners and losers on the Church stock market of popularity.

Overall the Catholic Church was trading down on heavy selling of Pope Benedict XVI stocks after some disastrous comments on AIDS in Africa and continued dithering over the appointment of the next Archbishop of Westminster. Despite denials, these comments generated negative sentiment in the markets that didn't recover by close of trading. This continued the negative sentiment generated last week by comments that the washing machine had liberated women.

The CofE was up on a series of good news for individual stocks (below), although this was somewhat off-set by news that some were seeking de-baptism where they had been baptised as infants, but grown to be atheist adults.

On the individual stocks, Archbishop John Sentamu and Nick Baines both rose on news they had joined Twitter. The all clear for two of the Church's theological training colleges, Wycliffe Hall and St Stephen's House, lifted their stock prices.

Heavy selling continued in the Pope for his comments on AIDS in Africa, and in Archbishop Akinola for his support of criminal sanctions for homosexuality in Nigeria. Bishop Nigel McCullock, Bishop of Manchester, suffered a slight loss of confidence from the market when an email failure put him out of touch for 10 days. Services were restored, and confidence began to return, reversing some of the losses on the Bishop's stock.

The Rev Nicky Gumbel fluctuated on news that he was strongly opposing the sale of St Mark's church in Mayfair, but he finished up on the week as the markets viewed this as a positive sign for the health of HTB.

Bishop Michael Scott-Joynt, Bishop of Winchester, dropped a little after his comments on the future of the Church of England were selectively quoted. These early losses were largely reversed by the end of the week.

There was a major IPO in the market, with Gazza entering the market. The sale price was heavily discounted by the market, due to the troubled history of this stock. A smaller stock entered the market for the first time this week. The National Foundation for the Preservation of the Political Reformed Principles, a group of Dutch Protestants appeared in the market for the first time. The stock immediately fell dramatically, however, as they opposed the European Union flag for conflicting with their religious convictions, in its resemblance to images associated with the Virgin Mary in Roman Catholic art.

Labour is hanging on to the Catholic vote

Mouse has blogged on the Government's courting of the Catholic vote before. It seems to be working. In the latest edition of Total Politics, Andrew Hawkins from ComRes looks at the available polling data related to religious beliefs and concludes that the Catholic vote is staying more loyal to Labour than Anglicans. Whilst there has always been a tendency for Anglicans to be more Tory friendly than Labour, there still seems an unusual level of loyalty by Catholic voters.

Ed West in the Telegraph thinks this is a form of masochism. He says, "Labour may have ditched Marx but it has also ditched Methodism, and within its ranks are many strident anti-Christians who think Catholicism the most perverted strain of a reactionary cult, and who want to drive religion out of every area of life. Under Labour we have had the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, the incredibly illiberal and cruel Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations (better known as the gay adoption law) and frequent attacks by that privately educated thug Ed Balls on church schools. And every time the Government puts the boot in, the Catholic Church says, "more sir, more".

Paul Waugh, in the Evening Standard, meanwhile reports on calls from the Vatican for Gordon Brown to be given the Nobel Prize for economics of all things. The argument is that Brown is trying to maintain aid flows to poor nations despite the recession. Ironic, since many believe Brown to be one of the reasons why the recession is expected by the IMF to be worse in Britain than in almost all other developed economies.

Mouse finds this all rather disconcerting. The Catholic Church does have a liking for centralised power structures, but this hardly explains the love in with the Church hierarchy and the loyalty of the congregations. Perhaps it is more simple and Brown's overtures to the Pope and Cardinal O'Connor are paying dividends.

Blair finds a new reason why he didn't 'do' God in office

In the past Blair maintained that the reason he didn't 'do' God whilst in office was because he would have been regarded as a 'nutter' by the cruel media and unforgiving heathen masses. However, he has now found a new reason. In the New Statesman Blair writes an article under the title, "Why we should all do God".

"While in office, it was best, in my view, not to shout that too loudly from the rooftops, lest it be thought that I was trying to claim some kind of moral superiority for myself or my party" says Blair. "On the rare occasions when I did talk about religion, it tended to be misrepresented to suit the political purposes of others. That was the reason why “we did not do God”."

Today Paul Waugh reports on the evidence heard in the Commons Public Administration Select Committee where we heard senior civil servants say that Parliament behaved terribly by letting the Government off the hook for their handling of the build up to the Iraq war, and that the public still hasn't heard the worst of it. There seems little danger to the Mouse of Blair claiming any moral authority at all.

Friday round up

Here's my round up from the blogosphere. Ten of the best from the blogs this week:

1. The Faith Central guide to St Patrick's day by Bess Twiston-Davies

2. Bartholomew's Notes on the BNP vicar

3. Ruth Gledhill on Gazza getting God

4. Dave Walker on the Church Times blog on the email outage at the Diocese of Manchester

5. Damian Thompson reckons the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales have let the Pope down

6. Bishop David Thomson's underwear theology

7. Tall Skinny Kiwi surveys the online church in the Church Times Blog

8. Andrew Brown on the ethics of robots at war

9. Bishop Nick Baines on Philip Pullman's problem

10. Ed West on why Catholics love to the kicked around by Ed Balls

Interesting news from Spain

In light of the Pope's comments on condoms and AIDS in Africa, we now hear that Spain is sending a million condoms to Africa. Lets just hope that ship doesn't get hijacked by Somali pirates.

What makes that more interesting is news that Spain plans to relax its anti-abortion laws, and in response the Catholic Church in Spain is launching a new anti-abortion campaign.

Looks to Mouse like there is some social change going on in Spain that the Church needs to understand.

Selling the family silverware

News that Nicky Gumbel and HTB are not happy about the sale of a nearby church. St Mark's Mayfair is destined to become a luxury SPA, whilst Rev Nicky reckons he needs the space to house his ever growing flock. Ruth Gledhill gets the scoop, but the focus on the spat between the Diocese and its largest church doesn't quite touch on the wider point about the widespread sale of declining churches in Britain.

The argument over St Mark's seems to be basically one over whether it is a lost cause to try to refurbish the church and return it to its original purpose. The number of churches that are now luxury flats, office buildings and the like show that this dilemma is not uncommon. The cost of major refurbishment work is often well beyond the means of all but the very largest churches in Britain, and many churches suffer the pincer movement of declining memberships at the same time.

In this case, Mouse thinks it is a scandal that the Diocese is prepared to let this church go when there is an alternative solution. Churches are a part of our national heritage, and letting them go is a mistake that cannot be reversed.

Papal falability

The Pope recently admitted 'mistakes'. This was in relation to the row over the holocaust denier Bishop Williamson of the SSPX society, who was brought back into the Catholic Church. But Mouse is reviewing his press lately, and humbly suggests a few more mistakes, in the form of the following media disasters.

1. Pope silent after the collapse of the Legionaries of Christ after their leader was revealed to be living a double life.
2. The Catholic Church in Brazil excommunicate the doctors and mother of a 9 year old rape victim for assisting in an abortion. The girl had been raped by her step father and became pregnant. The Archbishop said that the abortion was a worse crime than the rape, and as such the rapist was not excommunicated.
3. On his way to Africa, the Pope says that condoms make the AIDS problem worse.

By the strict dogma of the church, there is nothing wrong in any of these decisions or actions. Its just when common sense is applied, and headline writers get going, that they look like clangers. These are huge failings in media management.

The effect of these actions is, for example, that the Church is seen as taking the side of a hypocrite in the Legionaries of Christ, rather than standing up for those he duped. It is seen as taking the side of a rapist, and standing against his child victim. I'm sure that nothing could be further from the truth, but to those outside the church, that is how it looks. It seems to the Mouse to be ... a mistake.

Twogcasting

Mouse has invented a new word. Twogcasting. Its a mixture of Twittering, blogging and podcasting, and it may be the future.

Back in 2005 it was all the rage to pose important people the question, "what's on your iPod". George Bush got the treatment, amongst many others, as the iPod was a new phenomenon and it was meant to say something about you. Clearly things have moved on. Or have they? Mouse thinks it is now an interesting question again. Not because I want to know what music you've ripped from your 1990s CD collection, but because I'm interested in which podcasts you follow.

Mouse is pretty into podcasting, and thinks of it as the prettier, but less intelligent, younger sister of blogging. Blogging is more like journalism on the go. It favours shorter opinion pieces, but with the flexibility to link into the multi-media interweb, its a powerful way to communicate. Podcasting has to be lighter on content as it is likely to be listened to on the move, rather than read carefully with one's full attention, but can be equally engaging.

Lately Twitter has entered the mix, as a form of micro-blogging, drawing the Facebook approach to social networking into the blogging world. Many bloggers (such as the Mouse) have Twitter linked to their blog, and supplement it with additional Tweets in a more dynamic form of communication with 'followers' than the strict formalities of a comments page would allow.

So we've got our three elements there - Twitter - Blog - Podcasting. At the moment, Twitter doesn't handle multi-media well. Blogs are OK for multimedia, but are inflexible in the delivery mechanisms (essentially you have to be online, or use a desktop feed aggregater). Podcasting is great when on the go, but is one dimensional - it is sound only. Mouse is now going to make a prediction. Mouse reckons that with the improvements in portable computing, such as the iPhone, these three media will come together. The software isn't there yet, but why can't my blog allow some narrated comment over the top of dynamic multi-media content, with a real-time Twitter-style interface for comment and interaction?

One day, my readers. One day soon.

Mouse will start an occasional feature to recognise those pioneering the way with early examples of Twogcasting, and will keep you posted as and when.

First up - the newly revamped greenbelt blog, along with podcast and numerous Twitterers.

The Big One - First ArchTwishop

John Sentamu is the first Archbishop on Twitter.

I had planned on stopping announcements of Twittering Bishops, but Big John's Twittering is newsworthy.

The Mousification of the church is beginning.

H/T Church Times blog.

Update: For those sceptics who think this may be a fake, the Church Times blog links to the Archbishop's press officer on Twitter, who clearly believes it to be a real account.

First Jade, now Gazza

I did not see that coming.

Fallen football star Paul "Gazza" Gasgoigne has found God. In an extraordinary interview with Sky News he talks about his suicide attempts, his near death experiences battling alcohol addiction and how he has found God.

Everyone of the Mouse's generation has a soft spot in their heart for Gazza, and hopes the Lord will help him through his battles with addiction. Gazza seems to be finding strength from God to fight his demons.

You can watch the interview on Sky's website.

This article is brought to you by ...

Some of you may be celebrating St Patrick's day on March 17th. Mouse has noted over the past few years how the festival has been increasingly hijacked in the UK by Guinness. This may have developed through the 1990s when Irish bars sprung up on every street corner in the south of England, but the trend is undeniable. Mouse, being English and non-religious in his youth, never celebrated St Patrick's day. That means the date is not burned onto his consciousness. He now no longer needs to try to remember it, because he is sure to see a vast number of Guinness signs appearing in every pub he passes in the run up to the 17th of March.

That led Mouse to think about corporate take-overs of other religious festivals. The top five would have to be:

1. Guinness on St Patrick's day
2. Cadbury's Cream Eggs at Easter
3. Jiff Lemon on Shrove Tuesday
4. Clinton Cards taking over Mothering Sunday (yes it was originally a religious festival)
5. The hot cross bun industry taking over Good Friday

Mouse thinks it would be rather fun to simply to allow official sponsorship of religious festivals by the Church. If Cadbury's would go fair trade for its cream eggs, why shouldn't we give them out in Church in return for a handsome contribution to the organ fund? Considering how much companies pay to be the 'official toilet roll of the Olympics', or the equivalent for whatever they make, I imagine they would pay through to nose to be 'the official calendar of Advent 2010'. That could go a long way to plugging the hole in the church's pension fund, and might head off the normal moaners who complain about the commercialisation of Christmas / Easter / others.

FYI if you thought that Coca Cola 'invented' the modern image of Santa Clause, it turns out this isn't true.

Bishop Nick Baines joins Twitter

Mouse just received an email from top blogging Bishop Nick Baines, Bishop of Croydon, to say that he's joined Twitter.

Mouse thoroughly recommends his blog, and welcomes his Bishopness to the Twittersphere.

Update: David Rossdale, Bishop of Grimsby, has also joined Twitter today.

Shock headline of the week

The 'Bears and Woods' award goes to Christian Today for their headline, "Vicars to encourage church weddings".

This is ostensibly a story about the Diocese of Hereford taking part in a wedding fayre to encourage couples to marry in church. This also links with the good old CofE's Your Church Wedding initiative. Then it struck the Mouse. Why on earth is this news?

The real story is that the church doesn't think it has to advertise its services, or compete with the many other things that people chose to do instead of church based activities. Mouse often overhears young couples wondering into his church and tentatively approaching the vicar to ask, "how do we get married in a church?".

Weddings is just one sphere in which this is true, but there are many others. It is true that the church should not be advertising itself in the same way as other organisations and activities, but in an age when fewer and fewer people grow up in a church environment, it is ever more important for the church to articulate its message in new and relevant ways.

I hope the stall at the wedding fayre in Hereford Diocese included more than information about the available church buildings. I hope it also told the young couples that they could attend marriage preparation courses in advance of the big day, and that the churches would provide support for them and their family throughout their married life.

Or perhaps they should just be left to figure that out for themselves.

Welcome to another Twittering Bishop

Welcome Bishop David Thompson onto Twitter. He explains in his blog. Not one to claim credit for others actions, but Mouse did write this in an email exchange with Bishop David less than 24 hours before he signed up.

David

Just another thought. You might want to try setting up a Twitter account. You can hook that up to update from your blog with twitterfeed. Bishop Alan Wilson is a prolific Twitterer, and Pete Broadbent is an occasional Twitterer too.

Mouse

The Mouse is delighted that the church hierarchy is engaging with the grass roots in this way. Well done your Bishopness.

Update: If you go to Bishop David's Twitter stream, he credits the Mouse in his sixth entry.

Skating to return to Malmesbury Abbey

Great news that skateboarding at Malmesbury Abbey is to return next year. Mouse doesn't quite understand what its about, but I love the way a 12th century Abbey has opened itself up to this youth event.

Mouse has learned from this that there is a Christian skateboarding organisation and is really pleased with this kind of cultural engagement. Obviously it is outside the mainstream church, but events like the one at Malmesbury Abbey bring it back into heart of the church.

You can read about this year's event on the Abbey's Youth blog. Mouse says, get your gear on and go for it. I've not yet found a skating bishop, but I'm sure there is one somewhere.

Pope will visit Britain (according to the Telegraph)

Telegraph claim 'senior Vatican sources' have confirmed the visit will go ahead. However, they've hedged their bets a bit saying that it won't be announced until the end of the year, so no-one will remember this story by then.

Interestingly they also claim, "Sources close to Gordon Brown said that controversial plans to reform the 1701 Act of Settlement are 'very much alive' - despite official statements to the contrary." This is the Act that would prevent a Catholic from becoming King or Queen.

The Telegraph story comments on strained relations with the Catholic church after the Embryo Bill, which potentially allows research using human-animal hybrid embryos, and disagreements over homosexual equality, particularly with Catholic adoption agencies.

Mouse simply can't believe that at a time like this, with economic turmoil causing huge social strain and Labour at least 10 points behind in the polls ahead of an election next year, anyone in government is seriously focused on changing the Act of Settlement. It would require consensus across 53 Commonwealth countries which would take a huge diplomatic effort.

I doubt many would disagree now that the ban of Catholics becoming King or Queen is now a relic of history, but there seems absolutely no reason to change it right now, and this government really should have better things to do.

Mouse has commented on the government's courting of the Catholic vote before, so there is a chance this is just more spinning from the government.

Debaptism and engagement with atheists

Great copy this morning, with the story in the BBC (online and on TV) that atheists are seeking a means of debaptising those who were involuntarily baptised as children and are now atheists.

John Hunt is a pioneer of the campaign. He tried to get his name struck off the baptism register at St Jude's in Thornton Heath, London. Clearly this is a non-starter as the register is a historical record, and it should not be retrospectively changed. Top blogging Bishop Nick Baines is the local Bishop in this case, and he commented that it is rather like trying to "expunge Trotsky from the photos". Well, sort of. Apparently the Diocese of Southwark has advised Mr Hunt to take out an advert in the London Gazette stating that he has renounced his baptism, which, incredibly, he has done. He has also created his own '100% unofficial de-baptism certificate', which you can purchase from the National Secular Society for the bargain price of £3.00.

Mouse is particularly interested in the way the church engages with atheists, and wonders whether we could do a little better in this case. The general approach to infant baptising is to spend some time with the parents discussing the reasons for baptism and the biblical and cultural importance of the act. This would be followed by a ceremony during which a commitment is made. Could we not offer the same service to those considering renouncing their baptism? I'm sure Nicky Gumbel could come up with an 'Alpha for debaptism candidates' designed to make them think twice before committing their life to no God.

There seems to have been an escalation in atheist action against Christianity in general, and the Church of England in particular, recently. They pick on the good old CofE on the basis that it is the established church, so has a unique position in Britain that should be removed. Many in the church would agree with that, on the basis this position causes more problems than it solves.

On the other hand, I wouldn't want good Bishops like Nick Baines to spend too much of their valuable time with the likes of John Hunt, who clearly have far too much time on their hands.

Did you do something funny for money?

Red Nose Day / Comic Relief / RND is sometimes a slightly awkward event for some Christians. The trouble is, its the wrong kind of charity. Its a one off, celebrity driven, secular kind of charity. One that encourages you to give your spare change, rather than to give sacrificially in response to God's love. That's just not a Christian kind of charity. This could explain why the Mouse has heard hardly a whisper of RND in the Christian media.

But that seems rather to miss the point. At the time of writing, Comic Relief has raised £57,809,938. That's right folks, however you cut it, its a huge sum of money going to really worthy causes. That number is sure to rise in the coming weeks, as further contributions are collected. It really does work in terms of mobilising millions of people in a mass movement to give to those in need. Mouse compares this to the annual arm twisting that takes place in his church to convince half a dozen reluctant parishioners to rattle a tin at the local train station for Christian Aid week for a return of £12, $1 and a button.

Mouse thinks lessons should be learnt from the secular world.

The God spot in Andrew Brown's brain

One of the stories in today's Friday round up is a piece by Andrew Brown, from his Guardian blog, on the story that scientists claimed to have found a 'God Spot' in the brain. This spot is meant to be the area 'responsible' for religious belief.

Mouse does not often agree with Mr Brown, however, on this occasion he has landed on the side of rationality. Brown says that this kind of claim, "highlights almost everything that is wrong about the way that science and religion are generally reported in the press." Well said Andrew.

In actual fact, what the scientists have found is that a particular region in the brain becomes active in the religious when they are considering their Lord. That should hardly be a surprise and is clearly not proof, as the headline writers implied, that the activity is the cause of the religious beliefs.

But what struck Mouse was the fact that Brown himself had claimed in an earlier post that there is an 'evolutionary benefit' to religious fanaticism. He uses the heightening of tensions in the Arab / Israeli conflict to illustrate his 'point'. What his argument comes down to is the claim that religious belief is an evolutionary trait, as religious zealots are willing to 'outfight' their secular neighbours. Its pretty poor stuff, and fails at the first hurdle that almost all wars are based on factors like competition for resources, power struggles and oppression.

Mouse thinks it rather ironic that Brown managed to put together an extremely weak argument that religious belief is an evolutionary trait, but rises above the same claim made by someone else on the back of some serious scientific research. Still, Andrew seems to have got there in the end.

Friday round up

Here's my round up from the blogosphere. Ten of the best from the blogs this week:


1. Nick Baines on the anniversary of the death of Martin Niemoeller

2. Andy Roberts makes Mouse feel better about his Facebook woes

3. The Ugley Vicar on the Buddhist Bishop

4. More from Bishop Nick on Jade Goody's baptism

5. Thinking Anglicans explain ecclesiology

6. Ruth Gledhill tells us the Pope will start using the internet

7. Dizzy celebrates world kidney day - did you?

8. Cranmer is not impressed by the policing of the Luton demo

9. Bess Twiston Davies on the Starbuck Zionist conspiracy in Faith Central

10. Andrew Brown on the brain's God spot

Surefish church website awards - nominations open

If you reckon your church website is the best, now is your moment. Surefish have opened nominations for their church website awards. The categories are:

• - Local Church Website of the Year
• - Regional Website of the Year
• - Christian Blog of the Year
• - Denominational Website of the Year
• - Christian Youth Website of the Year
• - Most Innovative Christian Website of the Year

The awards are being run in conjunction with the Church Times. You have until May 26 to nominate and voting opens in June for the Local Church Website category. The rest are chosen by 'a panel of experts'.

Celebrate Mohammed's birthday in church

The Catholic Archbishop of Birmingham, Vincent Nichols, has got himself into a little hot water by allowing the Catholic university college chapel to be used for an event celebrating the Prophet Mohammed's birth. Some are shocked at his decision, which he has defended in the name of Muslim / Catholic relations. The event was organised by the university's Islamic Society and it seems to be a simple case of using the building. But Damian Thompson (usually a pretty sound source for all things Catholic) tells us that priests in Birmingham are outraged.

What gives this a little more spice is the fact that the Cardinals are meeting at the Vatican to decide who will be the next Archbishop of Westminster. Archbishop Nichols now seems an outsider for the post, but if he is selected this story could have more legs.

The Luton loonies

Without a hint or irony Omar Bakri Mohammad said, "My brothers...are living in a free democracy and wanted to express a view that is shared by many people. Britain is a multi-cultural society and they have not done anything wrong. I am very proud of the protesters."

It was a rather distasteful protest aimed at soldiers returning from Afghanistan. These guys are clearly loonies, and many have pointed out the irony that they are the first to complain about offensive comments on Islam, yet now celebrate the importance of free speech and democratic multicultural values. Ruth Gledhill, as usual, does a thorough job looking at the situation, whilst George Pitcher says it more simply. I agree with George that this motley crew are nothing to be proud of. They seem to have achieved nothing more than to invite ridicule.

The Church's mammon and where £1.2bn of it has gone

In May 2008 the Church Commissioners reported that the good old CofE's assets were worth £5.67bn. This seemed like quite a lot of money to the Mouse. They boasted that the return of 9.4% put the Commissioners in the top two per cent of comparable UK investment funds. It all sounded great.

The detail of the report showed that there were significant holdings in the stock market, property and in corporate bonds. The biggest share holdings were in oil companies Royal Dutch Shell (£180.2 million) and BP (£144.3 million), with Vodafone third at £133.7 million, and HSBC fourth at £125.6 million. There were also shares in pharmaceutical companies such as GlaxoSmithKline and Roche; supermarkets such as Tesco, Morrison’s, Marks and Spencer, and Sainsbury’s; food manufacturers such as Cadbury Schweppes and Nestlé; and software giants such as Microsoft, Apple, and Google (all within the fund's ethical investment guidelines).

Hindsight can be a wonderful thing, but sometimes it can make you sick. We now hear the Commissioners report that the fund has lost around 22% of its value, equating to around £1.2bn.

For a business, this sort of loss would be pretty disastrous. Shareholders would probably lose their dividend, staff would probably be laid off, heads would probably roll in the boardroom. But at the good old CofE the Commissioners have tried hard to put a positive spin on things. Andrew Brown, secretary to the Church Commissioners, told the Church Times that they would not cut diocesan finding this year saying that the 22% loss was not as bad as the stock market in general. He also said, “It’s good news that we are able to make available the money in capital markets that we said we would. We are no different from any other investor: we have the same pressures as any other investor.” Mouse thinks you different from other investors in a number of important ways.

Mouse thinks this is totally unacceptable. I'd like to know why the church was chasing market leading returns by investing in the high risk stock market and what sort of investment advice did they receive that failed to tell them to divest of the high risk securities before the poop hit the fan?

Ultra conservative investment portfolios were not fashionable at the height of the bull market, but conservative institutions such as Lloyd's of London (the insurance market, not to be confused with the bank) accepted lower returns and are now laughing at those who have lost their shirts.

A quick look at the 2007 annual report shows the scale of the problem. The fund was targeting a return of 5% above inflation, an insanely high target for an institution like the church. That high level of reward can only be achieved by taking a high level of risk.

The fund was made up of over 60% equities and only 5% in low risk cash and bonds. There were also big holdings in property, at a time when it was widely predicted that the property market was over-inflated. Compare this with the Lloyd's of London investment portfolio. That held around 70% in cash and bonds and only 10% in risky equities. They generated a more conservative, but still healthy, return of a little under 6%.

Andreas Whittan Smith is the First Church Estate Commissioner opens his introduction to last years accounts with the words, "The substantial funds of the Church Commissioners are managed on the basis that they are a perpetual endowment. They are to last, if you like, for ever." He commented, "I believe our position is prudent."

Well the Mouse doesn't.

The report is stuffed full of quotes that make the toes curl with the benefit of hindsight, such as, "We are looking to extend our holdings beyond the UK commercial property market. Chief Surveyor Joseph Cannon says ‘Our purchase of a stake in a Manhattan-based residential property fund has produced strong returns in 2007 and will contribute to the future long-term strength and diversity of our fund.’ Well the US property market could hardly have tanked more than it did in the subsequent 12 months.

The impact of all this is yet to be fully understood, but will undoubtedly be serious. The Church Commissioners are an important source of funds for the good old CofE. The church pension scheme, currently in deficit to the tune of £140m, was funded by over £100m in 2007 by the Church Commissioners. The Commissioners also contributed around 18% of the Church's funding last year.

Mouse thinks that there must be a serious review of the mandate of this investment fund, as well as its governance, to make sure there is an appropriate target return for the fund and an appropriate risk appetite. Not only should that money be managed for the long term benefit of the mission and ministry of the church, but how can the church talk to families and communities about the prudent management of their finances with this as the backdrop?

If this year's annual report takes as long as last year's to produce, we can look forward to reading the gory details in about six weeks time. Mouse will post more when that is out in the open.