June 2004

An idea for documenting the changes in urban landscapes in the US. It’s nice to see people thinking about the depth of time, rather than the fact that their email wasn’t delivered in 5 seconds. The concept is for cameras to capture 1000 years of history through time-lapse photography.

I especially like the idea of having time-lapse cameras to track urban growth or wilderness destruction.Mara Vatz’ alternative looks good too.

Instead of documenting the changes of already well-developed urban areas for a millennium, why not put a camera over America’s as-yet undeveloped open space for just one decade? That way people could see, in a three-minute film, just how quickly we are devouring the last of the American “wilderness.” Or, in keeping with Raimi’s urban theme, document a decade’s worth of growth for small- to medium-sized cities. The results might have interesting implications for city planning and urban development.

See:

• Technology Review: One Thousand Years in Pictures
• CNN.com - A dream of a 1,000-year camera - Jun 29, 2004

Just writing up some stuff on different approaches to technology. From those who see technology as liberator, to those who see it as oppressor, and those who see it as value-neutral. Then this popped up in the newsreader.

Somedays a doctrine of total depravity seems to get it right.

Wired News: Pursuing the Libido’s Dark Side

And as for the comment by the developer that

it’s vital to remember that what happens in the game stays in the game. Therefore, he added, people shouldn’t be afraid that the game’s players will step away from their computers filled with violent lust.

I’m not convinced that people don’t take the thoughts of their hearts with them into the game. Mark 7:14-16 springs to mind:

Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a man can make him ‘unclean’ by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him ‘unclean.’”

What’s inside of human beings that would want to make them play this game?

Obviously a case of technology building a better, brighter world for us all. (”sarcasm mode” there folks) Somedays you just despair of us ever doing the right thing.

++ Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy ++

Just seeing if I can post nicely from NewNewsWire. If it works out okay I might upgrade from the Lite version to get the web log editing tools.

Posting this on behalf of a friend who knows both the artist and the director. Looks really interesting. See bottom of the posting for dates and times as well as links to more detailed information.

With refreshing honesty and directness Briar March’s debut film Allie Eagle and me depicts the life and work of New Zealand artist Allie Eagle. Structured around the preparation for Allie Eagle’s recent exhibition, Sudden Imperative, the young filmmaker reflects on how the older artist’ s feminist priorities have shifted. By exploring the issues of spirituality, and art-making, both women consider the impact of their own generation’s art and thinking.

In New Zealand, Allie Eagle is recognised as a significant contributor to the Women’s Art Movement of the 1970s and 80s. At that time she was regarded as one of the most hardcore feminist activists of her generation, totally committed to political processes which celebrated and empowered women. In the film, Allie Eagle addresses her concern that audiences and critics have often locked her work into a feminist time warp. This concern is the driving force behind her new show, in which the artist now embraces the Christian faith of her childhood.

You can see the film at the following times:

Auckland (with Sheilas: 28 Years On)
Academy Sunday 11 July at 1.00 pm
Academy Monday 12 July at 6.00 pm
Academy Thursday 15 July at 10.15 am

Wellington
Lunctime screenings:
City Gallery Tuesday 27 July at 12.15 pm
City Gallery Tuesday 27 July at 1.30 pm

If you live in Christchurch or Dunedin then I believe Chrysalis Seed Trust in Christchurch are arranging special screenings down south. Check with them.

Here’s the Press release.
And the film festival web site.

Very busy this week. PhD chapter due, course marking and then off to Melbourne on Saturday. Plus all the other normal things that happen in a week.

Anyway, back to the interaction of creation, humanity, eschatology and Christology with technoscience. And the coffee.

Couple of recent cartoon strips from UserFriendly on blogging.

UserFriendly June 12, 2004
UserFriendly June 13, 2004

Interesting first part of an interview with Douglas Coupland on God, life, death, meaning and Corinthians at the Damaris: Interview with Douglas Coupland.

Thinking about 1 Cor 13 for a group study in the next day or so and remembered this line by Mma Ramotswe in The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith.

I love all the people whom God made, but I especially know how to love the people who live in this place.

We are called to love God and our neighbour, to love our enemies and so on. But it’s hard to do that in a concrete way if we don’t know something of those people. And that knowledge, learnt in many ways, brings the insight to know how to love these people or this person in this place and at this time. It’s the how that moves love from the abstract to the practical and real.

Trying hard to be constructive and encouraging.

Trying hard not to be like a vitriolic American/NZ Idol judge.

But at times it’s all so trying…

Strands of U2’s song “Grace” keep running through my head - “Grace finds beauty in everything.”

As an aside I had a classmate who had the following left on his Uni essays by the marker on two occasions.

“An artist once painted an painting by lowering a running motorcycle into a bath of paint and splattering the paint onto the canvas - your essay resembles this.”

And on another bad day all it had on it was the Bible reference Dan 5:7-8.

Took him (and the door to our room) a while to recover.

Essay marking time again. Seems a bit like this lost manuscript of Zech 5:1-3.

“Again I looked up and saw a pile of essays. And he said to me, ‘What do you see?’ I answered, ‘I see a pile of essays; its length is twenty cubits, and its width ten cubits.’ Then he said to me, ‘This is the curse that goes out over the face of the whole land…’”

Teaching is great but marking sucks sometimes. Especially when you’ve got other things that need doing too.

Another quote from Ronald Cole-Turner’s excellent short paper “Science, Technology and Mission.”

Very likely, computers and the Internet will create new horizontal ecclesiastical structures that will overlay traditional vertical structures, such as denominations, or local association, such as local ecumenical councils. Alongside these will rise new linkages built upon digitized networks and electronic pathways. These new forms of non-local structure will follow special concerns or forms of mission rather than geography or denomination, and they will permit heightened levels of interactivity and mutuality. At the same time, denominations might experience new strength and vitality as the attain an increase ability to link local congregations into a truly connectional or organic reality, capable of subtle feedback loops and heightened self-awareness.

The paper’s now 4-5 years old but what we’re seeing out there in the blogosphere seems very much in tune with this. I like his view that it’s not either traditional or non-traditional/emerging churches that take advantage of this but both.

So it’s Friday - the birds are singing, the sun is shining and life is good. The dark hours (or “long, dark teatime of the soul”) of another Thursday have departed.

Had a nice morning visiting another theology PhD student, drinking excellent coffee (Phil works in a shop specializing in coffee machines) and chatting about life as a post-grad with kids.

Also, found out today that I’d been awarded a scholarship to attend the annual ANZATS (Australian and New Zealand Association of Theological Schools) conference in Melbourne in a few weeks time. I thought that it was a long shot when I applied but I’m jetting over the Tasman in early July.

The conference is entitled “The Glory of God: Humanity Fully Alive” and the key note speakers are talking on the Eastern Orthodox contribution to theology. Should be good for me as my thesis and recent teaching have used and commented upon Orthodox insights.

More conference details at:
United Faculty of Theology
ANZATS ConferencePage

Today is a Thursday - arguably the day of the week which always seems the most stressful for me. Like Arthur Dent in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - “This must be Thursday. I could never get the hang of Thursdays”.

I dip into lots of different books from time to time looking for poems or prayers that seem to capture the moment. Today this poem/prayer by Michel Quoist in his book “Prayers of Life” seemed appropriate.

The Wire Fence

The wires are holding hands around the holes;
To avoid breaking the ring, they hold tight the neighbouring wrist,
And thus it is with holes that they make a fence.
Lord, there are lots of holes in my life.
There are some in the lives of my neighbours.
But if you wish, we shall all hold hands,
We shall hold very tight,
And together we shall make a fine roll of fence to adorn Paradise.

Still thinking about creation I went back through some back issues of Reality Magazine just skimming and came across the following article.

Reality. Issue 52: “The Green-Fingered God” by�David�Crawley

I appreciated David’s teaching and guidance while studying for my BD a few years back, and in my final year combined the theology major with spiritual formation fieldwork to help me balance the rational and experiential. He also introduced me to Hildegard.

Another interesting article on a similar theme I came across as well is Reality. Issue 39: Is God Green? by Mark Laurent

“A mistake about creation will lead to a mistake about God.” (Thomas Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles II. 2. 3)

New Zealand have retained the IRB Sevens overall crown for the fifth time, despite losing to England in the final of the IRB Sevens London 22-19. The Kiwi’s just needed to make it to the semi-finals to assure them of the title but given some of the upsets this year that wasn’t a given.

It’s been a great year to watch Sevens with lots of different nations making huge progress in their performance. NZ, England, Fiji, South African and Argentina all had their chances this year. And teams from Canada, Kenya, Scotland and Georgia all push the major players each tournament. The TV coverage has sucked but hopefully with the Sevens World Cup next season that will improve.

Full details at: IRB Sevens 2003/4:New Zealand retain crown

I found this prayer for Trinity Sunday a while back in one of Tom Wright’s books (New Tasks for a Renewed Church).

Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth:
   Set up you kingdom in our midst.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God:
   Have mercy on me, a sinner.

Holy Spirit, breath of the living God:
   Renew me and all the world.

Just read that Richard Biggs (44), the actor who played “Dr. Stephen Franklin” in B5, died in May 21. Apparently he just got out of bed on morning and collapsed with a tear in his aorta. Survived by his wife and two young sons (2 & 4).

Biggs was one of the B5 cast who always had time for the fans and used his popularity to raise funds for various charities and schools, especially for the deaf. (He suffered hearing impairment himself.)

The LA Time obituary is here: Richard Biggs, 44; Television Actor Known for Featured Roles in ‘Babylon 5,’ ‘Days of Our Lives’.

JMS posted on USENET here: Today We Lost Richard Biggs.

Good comments by Steve at e~mergent kiwi: pentecost evening about the Spirit at Pentecost fulfilling the hope that all, not just a few select ones, are now able to receive, partake in and enjoy the Spirit of God.

Reminds me of this prayer I found a few years back.

Lord, help us to discover the fervour of the early Christians
And the power of the first evangelisation,
That morning of Pentecost, as it started
In the cenacle of Jerusalem
Where your disciples, with Mary, gathered in prayer,
Awaited, Father, the fulfillment of your promise.
Give us the grace to be renewed
‘In Spirit and in fire.’
Teach us to speak to the world in tongues of fire,
Let us bring to an end this time of uncertainty
Where Christians are timid and mute
Discussing anxiously problems of today,
As in the past on the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus,
Without realising that the Master is risen and alive.

Cardinal Leon-Joseph Suenens,
extract from ‘Prayer for the Year 2000’.

I like how Pentecost has gone on for me this year. Not just a Sunday morning but the whole week as I read different people reflections, comments and interaction with it.

Seen yesterday in a short story by Doug Hawes:

How strange that only one room in my house is called the living room: what do I do in the rest of it then?

Take an existing house group study topic - Ecclesiastes and the speculative wisdom of the Teacher - as a starting colour.

Draw in the threads of Maggi’s reflections on the disciples waiting after the Ascension as Christ commanded them to.

Weave it together with the Teacher’s reflections on there being different times or seasons in life.

There is a time for action, and a time for waiting.

Weave it in.

Mesh in some thoughts on the different journeys that the disciples had in coming “through the door” into the upper room and to Pentecost. (Thomas - doubt, Peter - denial, and others like Mary Magdalene - the empty tomb, Mary the mother of Jesus - the death of a son).

Weave it together.

Braid in one of the responsive pieces, “Doors”, from the Pentecost section of Jonny Baker’s book Alternative Worship.

Weave it in.

Entwine Steve’s e~mergent kiwi: pentecost confession near the end.

Weave it all together and try it on for size.

Thanks to all who contribute their own colours and textures of yarn. Much appreciated.

Interesting article by David J.A. Clines on academic publishing - both self-publishing on the web and publishing through journals and like.

Publishers: Who Needs Them?

Always nice to find someone else who’s thinking about the same questions as you. In his paper “Science, Technology and Mission” Ronald Cole-Turner writes,

Can theology � that communal process by which the church�s faith seeks to understand � can theology aim at understanding technology? Can we put the words God and technology together in any kind of meaningful sentence? Can theology guess what God is doing in today�s technology? Or by our silence do we leave it utterly godless? Can we have a theology of technology that comprehends, gives meaning to, dares to influence the direction and set limits to this explosion of new powers?

See: Cole-Turner, Ronald. “Science, Technology and Mission.” In The Local Church in a Global Era: Reflections for a New Century, ed. Max L. Stackhouse, Tim Dearborn and Scott Paeth, 100-112. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000.