September 2007

PhD graduation yesterday! Kim and I had breakfast with the theology staff and graduands in on campus, before we went to the graduation chapel service at Maclaurin Chapel, and then I took part in the procession from campus to the Auckland Town Hall. The ceremony yesterday morning was for Education, Theology, and Creative Arts and Industries, and as “Graduand #1” I was first across the stage.

As well as Kim, my parents (from Melbourne) were there, along with Kim’s folks (from the Bay of Plenty), and my supervisors (Nicola Hoggard Creegan and Martin Sutherland) were both there too. And Kim’s aunt was there as a marshal - checking I made it onto the stage in one piece. A good day all round, and a chance to catch up briefly with fellow theology PhD graduate, Brian Harris (whose thesis was on the theology of Stanley Grenz, and who shared the same supervisors).

Finally it feels like I’ve finished. And it feels good to be at the end of this journey.

From the graduation chapel service

Gracious God,
   Remember students and scholars
   engaged in the adventure of learning.
In our search for knowledge
   may we not forget your wisdom.
To our intellectual discoveries
   may we bring the mind of Christ.
Through our study and research
   may we serve your healing and justice.
      Amen

Here’s the family (Kim’s folks, Kim and me, my folks), and a couple of snaps of Brian and me with the supervisors.

The new daylight savings dates for New Zealand got missed out by Apple in their updates so here’s a link to a page with updates on it for the new DST information. DST starts this weekend in NZ. See New Zealand 2007 daylight savings update for Mac OS X.

Hat tip to: TidBITS Macs & Mac OS X: Daylight Saving Time Rules Fixed for New Zealand:

BTW - I’ve been reading TidBITS since it was available as Hypercard stacks way, way back in 1990. I admire their longevity and commitment in a field that has seen many come and go in that time.

School holidays + other things means that this will be a slow blogging week.

If you’ve got a lot of old computer bits and pieces to get rid of then check out the eDay schedule for next week.

From the eDay 2007 web site:

Electronic waste (e-waste) can seriously harm the environment, wildlife and human health when dumped in landfills.

eDay is a drive-through recycling event which gives you the opportunity to dispose of old computers or mobile phones in an environmentally sustainable way.

eDay 2007 is on Saturday 29 September (9am – 3pm) in 10 locations across the country and Sunday 30 September (10am – 2pm) in Auckland. It’s easy to get involved – and it’s free.

Well, obviously I think the answer is yes
Anyway, that’s the title that the editors of sPanz (the quarterly magazine of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa-New Zealand) put on the editorial I wrote for this quarter’s issue.

You can read it at Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand // Media: Should we have a theological perspective on technology?.

Two notes:

1. The picture here is of the garden path mentioned in the article
2. sPanz ‘graduated’ me a couple of weeks early. PhD graduation is next week.

Yes, indeed. It’s International Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Arrr!

As a fan of the Doctor from way back (I think I started watching around 1974) I’m intrigued by this: ‘Christlike’ Dr Who in church service | Metro.co.uk.

Article in the local paper on the juxtapositioning of electronic ads for Hell’s Pizzas with the Bible College of New Zealand and the local funeral home. Hell arrives at heaven’s door - Auckland news on Stuff.co.nz. While the pizzas taste good, they don’t get my custom because I think there’s enough problems in the world without someone glorifying (and commodifying) those problems as pizza flavours. (Still, I imagine it would make a nice case study for someone doing the meat offered to idols and freedom in Christ themes in 1 Cor).

I saw something similar last year at the prize-giving for the kids’ soccer club. The club was supported by both Hell’s Pizzas and the local Baptist church trust (among other sponsors) but they’d put those two up next to each other on the sponsors’ signage.

Relating to the post from a few days ago (Greenflame · Practical reflection upon one’s faith), Mary Hess has a post on her Tensengrites blog about Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary launching a free, online learning program, as well as links to other similar projects and some comments on them.

See Tensegrities » Free, online theological education

Stu’s blog - Stu’s a-Musings - bites the digital dust (along with its archives! No!) There are seasons for these things, but it’s sad to see someone on the blogroll disappear. I appreciated Stu’s honesty and public wrestling with stuff over there, but fully understand why he’d want to stop. Thanks for the memories, Stu.

Perhaps, like Andrew, we can live in hope for Stu to reinvent his digital presence anew.

Death by PowerPoint is an interesting online slideshow presentation about how not to do slideshow presentations (via Tensegrities » Powerpoint “stuff”).

A timely link as I’m currently collating material about the effective use of presentation software.

Interesting article on Wired’s web site about developments that see brain-machine interfaces moving from therapeutic domains and into the entertainment world, and medical concerns about that. see BCI - Brain to Control Games Directly, Maybe Vice Versa

One of my favourite authors, Madeleine L’Engle, has died at the age of 88. I first encountered her work at primary school when I borrowed A Wrinkle In Time from the school library. I read it several times, and then forgot about her work until a few years back when I was working on an essay about principalities and powers in the apostle Paul’s writings and I came across a footnote in a commentary pointing to her book A Swiftly Tilting Planet and her portrayal of the Ecthroi. I borrowed that book from the library and was hooked again.

Since then I’ve bought a boxed set of her Time Quartet, and coincidentally read Many Waters at the same time as I was working on translating texts from Genesis 1-11 in a Pentateuch course. I thoroughly enjoyed her spiritual autobiographical work Bright Evening Star: Mystery of the Incarnation.

If you’ve never read any of her books, do yourself a favour and check some of them out. You might have to look in the ‘young adults’ section, though that’s how the books were marketed, and not necessarily whom they were written for.

Related links:

• Her official web site: www.madeleinelengle.com
• Obituaries at Episcopal Life Online, New York Times, and Reuters.
• Christianity Today has reprinted online their 1979 article Supernatural Sagas of Good and Evil about L’Engle along with a link to an interview and some other material.

One of the perennial questions that comes up when people think about robots and artificial intelligence is the ‘does it have a soul?’ question. A more significant question might be ‘can the robot dance?’ That, in itself, might be a sign the that robot has ’soul’
Japanese Robot Keepon Dances to Spoon Hit, “Don’t You Evah” (YouTube link of the music video at this site).

Recently I’ve been thinking frequently about the place of practical theological reflection by those in the church who have no time or energy for formalized theological study programmes but still have a desire to integrate their faith in the real world. The practical outworking of faith in ways that connect with their stage and place in life brought about by, not only intellectual engagement, but also integration in a community that challenges and encourages people. With this in mind I was interested to see the following in the past couple of days.

Firstly, Mark Stevens over at Welcome to the Emergent Pilgrim Blog: From the Seminaries to the Pews reflects a bit upon the recent article From the Seminaries to the Pews | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction.

And then over at the Deep Church project blog a post on A deep church curriculum….

I’m still thinking about the gap between things like Alpha-type endeavours, Sunday sermons and prewritten Bible studies, and the more formalized (and costly, in terms of money and time) certificate, diploma and degrees courses run out of seminaries, Bible Colleges and like. What kings of things would fit there?

Out shopping for birthday presents at the weekend when I stumbled across a copy of Cult Themes - ITV 50 - Classic TV Show Theme Tunes which somehow had to find it’s way into the shopping basket. Some of the tracks are the original TV themes music, others are very good covers (not some guy in his garage with a synthesizer). I’m not particularly interested in many of the non-UK shows (though the Mission Impossible track seems a good rendition), but I’ve been looking for a copy of the Stingray theme music for a while now and there it was (along with the extended version of the UFO theme complete with clicking teletypes).

Listening to the CDs begged the question - did the BBC release a CD with the various incarnations of the Doctor Who theme? There are various MP3 clips over at BBC - Doctor Who - Sounds but no theme music.

Oh, and I’m really enjoying Season 3 of Doctor Who which is finally playing here. Nice to see the Season 2 episode ‘Girl in a Fireplace’ pick up a Hugo Award, and I’ll be trying and track down a copy of my favourite Doctor Who (Tom Baker) story Pyramids of Mars to watch again. Spent most of those four episodes watching it from behind the couch, if my memory serves me right. Far more creepy in places than similar Stargate episodes.

Radio New Zealand National’s Nine-to-Noon programme had an interview last Thursday concerning the potential resumption of clinical trials of xenotransplantation techniques to help treat Type 1 Diabetes (through the implantation of pig tissue in a person’s pancreas). See Radio New Zealand National : Programmes A-Z : Nine to Noon : Thu, 30 August with the interview available as an MP3 here.

Related links:

• Toi te Taiao: the Bioethics Council - Publications
• Greenflame · Pastoral implications for everyday xenotransplantation
• Greenflame · Bioethics/Biotech