BlackPhi Webitorial Ramblings

News & Comment From A Christian's Perspective

Premier Internet Television - Posted 29th April, 2006

Interesting news this week from Premier Media, the group who broadcast Premier Christian Radio in London. They are soon to be amongst the first wave of broadcasters to send television programs over the internet:-

Premier.tv (www.premier.tv) will broadcast a large selection of Christian programmes for viewers to watch anytime they wish. No longer will viewers be restricted by a programme schedule or setting the video recorder. Christian news and current affairs programmes will sit alongside interviews with political leaders and sermons from well known preachers. Premier Lifeline will provide specially commissioned short features providing information and help on issues such as depression, healing and bereavement. Lighter programmes, including films with a Christian theme, are also planned. International development charities and other organisations will be able to show short documentaries. There will be space for individuals and churches to contribute their own material.

Jeff Lucas had this to say:

I am really delighted to hear about the launch of Premier.tv. So often, Christians tend to lag behind the rest of the world when it comes to innovation, particularly technology. Here we are, for once, on the cutting edge with Premier's new on-demand broadband television channel.

I wholeheartedly agree with that, but ... there is a colloquial term amongst IT people for what Jeff describes as the 'cutting edge' - we call it the 'bleeding edge' of technology. Things can go horribly and expensively wrong for early adopters. Nevertheless the possible benefit is high too, there are only going to be a small number of broadband TV channels to choose from for some time, probably, so Premier can potentially gain a much higher profile by being among the front-runners.

If you have broadband and are interested, you can sign up for news at www.premier.tv.

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CBC Media Team, RIP - Posted 29th April, 2006

When Christine, Martyn and I started the Media Team we had a simple vision: to help the church to communicate with people around the fringes of the church and beyond. I described the website and magazine to a church meeting as being intended to be windows on the church, that people could look through to see Jesus at work.

It didn't really work like that - the website got net-curtains, curtains, blinds, shutters and now, I'm told, ought to be a 'shop window' - doubtless with plastic dummies: no blemishes, but no life. Meanwhile the church newsletter has been turned into a purely in-house affair and Christine Surridge, the prime mover behind the vision, is leaving after the next edition. Only Denise Witham is left, writing occasional news items for Caversham Bridge.

This webitorial started as a final effort to breathe life into the website. I'm not really sure what purpose it serves now, but I've had some encouraging words (thank-you!), so I'll keep it going for a while and see what turns up. I can't really solicit articles in church any more, but if you have something to say please get in touch.

My thanks go to all who have been on the media team over the years, to all who have contributed to the magazine and website, and to Christine for her work as team leader and magazine editor.

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Ramblings Update - Posted 23rd April, 2006

Okay, these pages are now the BlackPhi Webitorial Ramblings - disconnected from the Caversham Baptist Church website. I've not decided yet what, if anything, to do with them; I have decided to resign as editor of the CBC website. I expect when a successor is appointed he or she will bring their own distinctive (and hopefully outward-looking) vision to it. There's a very good chance they'll be better than me at the church politics, which should help a lot.

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Webitorials, Accountability & Vision - Posted 21st April, 2006

It was inevitable really, but still a little depressing. Pressure is coming on to remove editorial comment from the CBC website. Basically it is a question of vision, I think, but first let's reiterate some formalities. In the very first post, Introduction, I made it clear:

Hopefully, a section called 'Webitorial Ramblings' is obviously opinion that doesn't necessarily reflect the view of the church as a whole. Just in case it's not so obvious: nothing here makes any claim to be in any way representative of the views of Caversham Baptist Church: it is just stuff that I, as website editor, choose to publish, and strictly my responsibility. I hope that's clear.

I also said that postings don't have to be by me. There is a set of Posting Guidelines provided to help:

If you have any ideas for a posting, please send it to me: mailto:webitorial@blackphi.co.uk. The ideal length for a posting is around three to four hundred words (3-4 paragraphs)... The basic style is intended to be friendly and fairly informal: try to keep sentence and paragraph lengths down, and please avoid religious jargon.

This is an opinion column so it is fine to be opinionated, but it is not good to be destructive. These pages are attached to the Caversham Baptist Church website: opinions expressed here need not necessarily reflect the views of the church as a whole, but they must be appropriate for a church website. Courtesy, responsibility and common sense are key.

What I haven't provided previously is anything about disputes (accountability in the jargon). What if you disagree with something I've written? There is a comment link at the bottom of each posting. What if you don't think the posting should exist? Or what if you have sent a comment or posting and I have refused to publish it? You could try emailing me, obviously, but what if you still aren't happy? The website comes under the Media Team, so (if you are part of CBC) the person to contact is the media team leader, Christine Surridge. After that the Church Leadership Team are responsible for overseeing the ministry teams, so the best bet is to contact one of those or email the Church Secretary. They have the authority to do pretty much as they wish with the church website (subject to the members' meeting).

I mentioned vision at the beginning. There are basically two views on church websites: either they are outward-looking, intended to be seen and read by the general internet public, as well as people who might have a specific interest in CBC. For this they need to be topical, open, frequently updated and relevant to people's interests. Alternatively they can be in-house, cozy-club websites, everything checked and double-checked by committee, full of religious jargon and following the party line of the church (or more likely the pastor/minister) religiously. I'm not keen on religion, I believe Jesus died to free us from those chains, but we'll see what happens.

Update 23rd April, 2006: These pages are no longer attached to the church website, so a large chunk of the above no longer applies. The vision point does does, though.

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Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem - Posted 21st April, 2006

Caversham Baptist Church sends its sympathy to those affected by the murderous suicide bomb in Tel Aviv last Monday.

Update 23rd April, 2006: It is notable that much of the media follow-up carefully blames Hamas for these murders, even though they were carried out by Islamic Jihad. Hamas has actually held a ceasefire for over a year, whereas Islamic Jihad have long openly promoted suicide bombings as a 'legitimate' weapon.

The problem I have with all this, as a Christian, is that on the one hand murdering civilians is plainly wrong; but on the other hand I don't have a useful alternative to offer. It would be tricky enough exhorting Christians to 'turn the other cheek' in the face of injustice and provocation, when I am not standing in their position. At least in Christianity peacemaking is seen as a virtue in itself, although South Africa showed how important active resistance to injustice is, even more so when violent means are rejected. In this case, though, the people involved are of another faith, Islam.

It would be nice to point Muslims to a 'better way': that in Christianity love and justice walk hand-in-hand. This is tricky though when so many right-wing Christian groups actively support Israeli aggression. So much for Christian witness!

God has long held a special interest in this little patch of land. Our trust has to be that He will, in His own time, sort it out: that "the wolf will lie down with the lamb", and the Palestinian activist and the Israeli activist will strive together for justice and peace for all. In the meantime, pray for the peace of Jerusalem. In the words of the Bishop of Jerusalem:

Keep up your prayers, for they are very important. We may at times feel helpless, and we do. But we offer all our helplessness to God in prayer, always hoping to meet him in the future, not only in the past, as he appears to us risen from the dead, proclaiming peace among his disciples, and all his followers, but also showing his wounded hands and side and manifesting forth that there can be, and there is another way for the world, other than that of power and retaliation.

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Image of a Creator God - Posted 20th April, 2006

It was a busy week in church last week, with the children's holiday club, the Good Friday service, the Easter display on Saturday, Rob Newey's concert/multimedia presentation on Saturday evening, then the Easter Sunday celebrations. As ever, the holiday club was amazing, but what really impressed me this Easter was the sheer quality of the Easter display on Saturday. In essence, it was flower arranging meets carpentry, with a display of artwork from local primary schools thrown in, telling the Easter story. The sheer scale, imagination and creativity were simply wonderful! Normally I do these postings as one picture to three or four paragraphs of text; this one is the other way around (with apologies to dialup users - although I have kept the pictures as small as I sensibly can).

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Sunday's Comin! - Posted 14th April, 2006, Good Friday

What is there to say about Good Friday that hasn't already been said, better than I could possibly do? Not a lot, so here are some quotes from a sermon at a Philadelphian church, made famous by Tony Campolo, amongst others:-

It's Friday; and Jesus was dead on the tree. But that was Friday, and Sunday's comin'!

It was Friday and Mary was cryin' her eyes out and the disciples were runnin' around like sheep without a shepherd. But that was Friday, and Sunday's comin'!

It was Friday. The cynics were looking at the world and sayin', 'As things have been so shall they ever be. You can't change anything...' But they didn't know that it was only Friday... and that Sunday's comin'.

It was Friday, and on Friday Pilate thought he had washed his hands of a lot of trouble. The Pharisees were struttin' around and pokin' each other in the ribs. They thought they were back in charge. But it was Friday! And Sunday's comin'!

And so on, for an hour and a half. And at the end the preacher just yells out "It's Friday" and all five hundred present yelled back "But Sunday's comin'".

Maybe for you this is a Bad Friday. Maybe for you the time is one of darkness and pain. My prayer is that you may know Jesus' comfort and healing, and that the time may come when you too can join in the cry "But Sunday's comin'".

Thank you for reading. May God bless you this Easter.

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Forgive & Forget? - by Sue Allum, posted 5th April, 2006

How many times do we hear those words? A small argument can be resolved if one party says, "Oh, let’s forgive and forget". But what if the transgressor has done more than just a minor annoyance - what if it was a real crime against a loved one or us? How easy would those words be then?

A few weeks ago television’s Coronation Street ran a story line involving one of its longest running characters, Emily Bishop. A devoted Christian lady, she's a stalwart in her local church. A newcomer to the congregation, Ed, needed accommodation, and who better to offer it than Emily. Ed was "A lovely young Christian man", to quote Emily - on the surface maybe - but the characters' lines were to unfold in a sinister way.

20 years previously Emily’s husband had been murdered in a factory hold up. Yes, you guessed it: by Ed, who confesses to Emily that he had come to ask for her forgiveness. At the moment of his confession it was like a barrier fell between them as quick as a flash of lightning. One second, Emily was that sweet Christian lady, the next a woman bent on revenge for her husband’s death. How could Ed befriend her, gain her confidence then drop a bombshell like this!

She vowed to her friends that she could never forgive her husband’s murderer. Over the next a few episodes the story follows Emily’s struggle to come to terms with the man who was begging for her forgiveness. Slowly she realized that more than hurting Ed she was hurting herself, because she wouldn't forgive him. Ed had served his punishment in prison - but she was being judge and jury over again, and it was giving her no peace. Finally, she did forgive Ed, but we are left not knowing if she would ever forget.

Could you forgive a man who sinned against you? -- Jesus did when he died on the cross for the sin of all mankind.
Could you forget that sin? -- Jesus does: the Bible says, "Your sin is cast into the depths of the sea and remembered no more".

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Strange, but is it True? - Posted 1st April, 2006

If you've read April's Caversham Bridge Talking Point, you will have seen the report that a school is "banning hot-cross buns", in an excess of political correctness. A sad story, if true. But is it true?

IPCGM ("It's Political Correctness Gone Mad") stories are a perennial feature of Christmas these days, and the Sunday Telegraph had to apologise in 2003 for running a false IPCGM story about Easter. This latest story is carried on all sorts of religious news sites on the internet, all with more or less the same wording, but I only found one online reference on a serious news site.

If you think about it, this is quite an odd story: it is dated February 6th, well before the beginning of Lent, so why were suppliers sending hot cross buns, anyway? The source for the story is supposed to be the Suffolk Evening Star, yet a search of its website found nothing. Presumably it doesn't consider this story to be one of its finest.

Finally, I found a website (don't click if you are easily offended) which had some hard information. It links to both the original story and a follow-up article in The Evening Star. (I don't know how on earth CB found it, even when I knew the articles were there The Evening Star's website search denied its existence.) In the articles Tina Jackson, the headteacher involved, makes the point that hot cross buns are a seasonal food, a celebration of Easter, so they are not appropriate in January. I agree with her. She says that they do plan to serve them at the school before the Easter break.

The Evening Star got the story picked up by the national press, which is a local newspaper's version of glory. Miss Jackson got some very nasty hate mail, and a brutal lesson in what not to say to the press (she seems to have been new to headteaching). A lot of readers across the world got a cheap thrill of indignation.

And Richard Kingsbury got a good hook for a powerful Talking Point. If you live in, or near, Caversham (or can get a copy of Caverham Bridge from someone who does) I recommend reading it: he makes some good points. I think his tease at the end was a little naughty though: Jesus paid the price of salvation for everyone, but each of us has the choice of how we respond. Everyone has to choose, life or death. What's your choice?

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