Winding Up God for Summer

First, some housekeeping. Some of you may have noticed that in the Facebook and Twitter worlds I am little more than an apparition. To those of who noticed and took the time to comment through the kind ministrations of others, thank you. The simple fact is that I discovered the hard way some of the dangers of social media, and felt that deletion was the right and proper action to take at the time. It was a tough choice, but a needful one, and the resultant hole in my mediocre life is not insignificant. 

Secondly, my absence from blogging. I am a serious advocate of the view that if you have nothing worth saying, don't just say something to keep the hit rate flowing. Many bloggers fail in this and you the readers deserve better. I look back and see my own proclivities in the world of inane waffle and choose now to write only when a worthy thought (or not so worthy) emerges. 

Thirdly, I have found time that I didn't know that I had. Take life and subtract Facebook, Twitter and pointless blogging and you are left with a hole that can contain the reading of books and the embracing of twins! I have managed to read "The Godseeker's Guide" (Rabbi Blue) and am fast consuming "If This is A Man" (Primo Levi) - who would have thought that I would find time to read. There are lessons to be learned about managing social media, but only from the stand-point of the former addict presently absent. 

So, to the post. As a curate (and an idealistic one at that) I used to rail against the tendency to wind down ecclesiastical operations in time for the school summer holiday. I would be the first to observe that God didn't take a holiday so why should we. Oh, the simple life of curacy. My sainted Training Incumbent would do as he often did and utter "calm down dear" in the face of my protests. However, it is right to say that incumbency and all that Vicaring lark brings with it a more balanced sense of self-preservation. 

The thing is, during August you have two choices (as the Vicar). First is that you tear yourself a new tailpipe upon the stress of wondering where everyone is (the simple answer being 'on holiday'). Alternatively, you can be realistic and take the lead of the punters and thereby take the size 11 from off the gas. A lack of self-aware honesty is probably a significant cause of clergy stress and burn-out (aside from poor gin, another cause). August is a gift for stopping, or simply slowing to a less frantic pace. As ever, we measure our ministries in the volume assigned to task and not to the quality of our life's own experience. The other way of putting it is that God probably needs more of me at Christmas and not in August. Even God is telling me to give it a rest - perhaps the Omnipotent One does take a break in Ibiza after all. 

So, I have told the gang this end that during the summer holiday (framed and mitigated by the teaching profession, of which God is surely a member too) I will be less visible even if still available. I need to write, I need to pray, I need to rest and I need to think. For a whole manner of reasons, 2013 has been a shit of a year and I wonder if it isn't time to take ownership and make good. It isn't easy, that said, because this computer is an unforgiving matriarch who has a look - a knowing look - that observes that she has been neglected for too many moments. 

The Absolute Truth About Blogging

It has been a while since I pondered romantically about this eejit's errand we call Blogging. As I have said on a number of occasions, I cannot claim any level of expertise, only a modicum of experience. 

Fellow-bloggette Anita Mathias was concerned during the summer that the material we write on a given day is there once and oft forgotten. That was my concern once to - and frankly, why you lot don't print this stuff off and paste it to your walls escapes me - after all, am I not the blogging answer to perfect infallibility? No.

It is a concern though. We write and sometimes our pearls are shiny - and there is a worry that something half decent might be buried in the soft silt of Mad Priest's last battle with the Established Church. However, as I think I mentioned, I am a pragmatic type of bloke - so I went searching through the statistics to see what you delightful people have looked at in the last 28 days. 

I have written less than a dozen posts in that time, none of which is probably the fodder of the pearl mountain   - so one would reasonably assume that dying of boredom, you scarpered and left me to it. But no. I have a friend, and on this occasion it isn't Jayzuss. It is Google and all things SEO (search engine optimization, if you please). 

In the last 28 days, 246 of my past posts have been accessed and read (which is to say that someone remained on the page for more than 20 seconds, and therefore not simply peeling the picture off). They weren't just the 246 most recent ones either, but taken from across this body of written bilge that I presume to publish. The list of 'top posts' also conveys a list of posts most visited in the same period - and they come from a broad reach of time. Actually, that they are often older posts speaks poorly of current quality, but that is another matter entirely. 

The moral of the story then is this. If people are looking for it, they will find it. The internet is quite unlike a book insofar as when a page is turned the previous one is hidden from view in perpetuity. No - the alarming truth is that once it is written, it can never be unwritten and can be searched out. That is why, brothers and sisters, I have opted not to re-post posts. Why trouble you a second time?

500 Not Out

Well, I am rather delighted to say that this is my 500th post in this 'ere blog. It is proof, were any needed, that this priest can not just concoct one or a dozen daft notions but many hundreds. 

I think that I have been blogging for about 14 months now, and have found it to be a most satisfying way of spending a spare fifteen-odd minutes some days of the week. I have learned as much about me as you have, and I know that there are those of you out there that have read every jolly letter. That in itself is a humbling fact to absorb, and I thank all of you most sincerely. 

So then - what of this blog. It is always a work in progress and this blogger a blogger in training. There are many hundreds of far better offerings than this, and I thank them too for teaching many lessons in what it is I try to do here. As I think back, I can count an incomplete Lent Course, an incomplete series of how to attract men into churches, far too many red-faced rants, a couple of experimental liturgies, some needless reactions to having had buttons pressed, many times when I have been wrong, a few when I was right, a change of name, some giggles, some good ideas (I think), and many many new acquaintances and friends. In other words, I'd do it all over again. 

I still believe in the valency of blogging. I think that the world is starting to too, with people facing conviction for stuff that appears in micro-blogs, and other social media sites. I read a story of a woman fined millions because of defamatory remarks made on her own blog. This is real, the words are real, the sentiment is real, the effect intentional (mostly) and it exists through eternity. We blog carelessly at our peril, and sadly, many do. 

I reach people in places I haven't even heard of, and by posts I would never have predicted. Most days, now, well over a thousand hits land here (and only 976 of them are me), and my top five posts of all time are:

 #Facepalm

Blogging in Television Drama

Humuhumunukunukuapua'a

In The Cause of Good

I Just Gotta be Me

Oddly, none of these is overtly Christian, if even religious at all. It perhaps goes to show that if we God-botherers stop trying so hard, we might just get somewhere. 

I am not sure how to end this post other than to say thank you to those of you read this, and to bear with me as I struggle to find time to write. Be assured I still want to, and this Vernacular Fool ain't going nowhere. 

Trolls and Blogging

I can't speak for all bloggers, only for those who blog in a conspicuous Christian setting, those who speak of their faith and their life's experience. 

As with all activities, there are the Detractors. I think that it is part of life in general, the equal and opposite force that represents the antithesis of what you are doing. One only needs to think of light and dark to know that life is often a selection of two-sided coins.

As is blogging, and all such activities.

I was reminded yesterday (by two friends) of a pernicious breed of human that hides in gloomy sweaty bedrooms, seeking here and seeking there for what in the blogosphere they might devour. In the trade we call them Trolls, and they are very often sallow-skinned, sunken-eyed, fetid Gollom-a-likes who have no appreciable life of their own. So they make themselves a nuisance in the lives of others. Have I laboured the point enough? They really are very slimy and unpleasant (and they reputedly smell of wee). 

Blogging is a form of journalling where the blogger, very often, is exposing him or herself in the act of simply being honest. In our blogs, we lay down our thoughts and fully expect (and hope) that people might react in a constructive and meaningful way. We cherish disagreement where that disagreement is born of a mutual respect and it is, after all, the basis of all good dialogue.

Trolls don't do that. In the temporal world, they would be the window-licking type who hides in a doorway only to jump out and tell you that your nose is too big or your breath smells. In blogging terms, they appear in comments box of our sites and broadly insult us, deride our work and mock the honesty with which it was delivered. Religious folk are, I think, more vulnerable to these Pointless People. We speak of matters that command no tangible proof, of things that we feel over and above what we know - and when Trolls appear to muddy the waters for no appreciable reason, it becomes hurtful. Sadly, these Lumps of Goo are often outspoken and prolific, and when they find a hapless blogger, act as near-stalkers and as bullies. I met one such  pratt yesterday. They are the people who will laugh in the sidelines when you tell your children that you love them, emerging like puffed up comedians to tell them that love is lie. 

Many Trolls will read this post and some might even comment. You know the comment of a Troll, as they often go by the name "Anonymous". You know who you are, silly people, and so do we. 

Social Media and Fainting by Numbers

Once upon a time, before even the Baby Jesus was a twinkle in the Father's eye, people first grunted and then spun out loquacious and erudite conversation with one another. Then, as the human capacity for invention increased, we started faxing papyri to one another and making use of the telephone. In the mano-a-monkey interaction, we learned how to pucker and wave our arms about to convey greater meaning to our grunts and tics. And so, dear readers, communication was born. 

Evening and morning. The first social-media. 

The measure of 'success' in that world was a reciprocal response, a reaction, a new friendship. That said, the moment was had and it vanished for ever. A word was whispered then never to be heard again. A smile stopped a heart-beat but was forgotten. The communication was transient, the effect lasting. 

And so it came to pass that there came the Wise Men (and Ladies) who, by their efforts, gave rise to the Dawn of the Gadget. God saw and knew that it was good. Evening and morning - the second social-media. During the geeky revelry, there came a serpent - its name was Wikio, and it was hell-bent on wreaking unholy havoc in the Eden of the Gadget world of Parlay. The doe-eyes gadgeteers installed the widget unto their bloggies and partook of the Forbidden Fruit - the age of innocence collapsed and so it happened that those caught in the new world of social media could quantify their activity. 

In other words, social media in the present age can give you numbers and reports. I get emails telling me who I have 'spoken' to, with what effect, under what level of reach and to which extent of influence. The serpent Wikio was quickly joined by the demons Klout and Feedjit, then the arch Leviathan Empire Avenue. All these things are, in one form or another, measuring devices. They chastise you when you have said too little, and reward you when you have been busy. For competitive men like me, it is like having an aggressive Mistress (not that I have the first idea how that would feel, you understand). I sometimes find myself making inane comments on Twitter because my Klout number fell, or posting some drivel on here because my Wikio number was lower than a snake's belly.

This is dangerous. I know I am not alone, but it is very compelling to those of us who care how we are perceived and received. Being social, in all its facets, is vulnerable under the auspices of self-measure. The much lamented Church Mouse used to post monthly the Wikio blog rankings, and the comments confirm that we bloggers and Tweeters really do care if we are successful in what we do. Gain is great; slump or decline is mortal tragedy. I regard this is a problem, and one I am trying to resolve. My rankings buttons will start to go as I try to be sure in my mind (and allow you the same) that I am doing what I do online for right reason, not simply for numerical success!

Is Social Media a Prawn Cocktail?

This last weekend saw my inaugural voyage in the great ship The Christian New Media Conference. 

Now, you will either fall into two camps: those who went or would have been interested in so doing, or else those who have no idea what sort of conference that may be. If you are of the latter disposition, then think prayers and know that we were described as "geeks" with alarming frequency, added to which we were all sporting a dozen gadgets apiece, and you will get the idea. It was, basically, a gathering of bloggers, Tweeters, Facebookers and those who aspire to such levity.

One of my own concerns with social media as a 'world' is that it connects with tangible reality in the way that Kermit the Frog's legs and arms do - which is to say, they are never in the same shot at the same time. It is, without doubt, a part of reality as real people have real interactions. The matter and the fruits of social media are very real and for that I love it, embrace it and do all I can to compel others to come in.

Then we went and had our "Geeks Gathering" where I met three people (among many others), and to whom this post is warmly dedicated. They are three Christian ministers, who, alarmingly, seemed to be on the wavelength that I seem to exist on. It was the first time I had met them in my life, and I am glad that I did. Through social media, they are gentlemen with whom I had had various quantities of interaction through the gadget-mitigated world - but Saturday was the first time that I had ever actually met them.

And it was good. I venture to say that it was better. We had lunch together and a couple of beers apiece and we sorted out the world. It was a truly wonderful time - so it begs a question. In the great meal of life, is social media a good hearty starter? Nothing beats that 'face to face' stuff for me, the main course - and I doubt I could have engaged with those people from Saturday over a month of Sundays on Twitter and cover the ground that we did in an hour behind a pint! 

Social Media is one tool among many, in the various modes it exists, to bring people into contact with others. To be fair, I may not have been sat anywhere with anyone on Saturday without it, so from that point of view, I am endlessly grateful to my social-media life. I will always wonder though, if in the end, we are always called to move on to the main course and be with people, in proximity, like wot we used to. 

I want to thank the wonderful people with whom I spent time of Saturday, the lads and others who didn't bother joining us for lunch and everyone else who tolerated my tomfoolery, modest rages and all those other little facets of 'me' that emerge in lecture theatres. I was delighted to have met you!

On Not Letting Blogging Eclipse my Faith

I was looking down the list of esteemed bloggers that grace the side of my own posts. I am glad that they are there, and they are there because I chose them deliberately. 

In the same twenty-four hour period, two things happened. The first was that it dawned on me that I hadn't added to that number (or subtracted as it is right to do from time to time when blogs fall fallow). The second was the discovery of a blog that made a considerable impact on me, and caused me to notice something that has been been missing (save for a couple of salient exceptions) from the "notes" that comprise the "chord" of my blogroll! 

The very nature of blogging in the present is that it tends to err towards response to issues and situations that come up in the world. Some are more adversarial or didactic than others, while some lean in the direction of self-counselling. That is a very nature of the beast. What seems to be lacking more and more, in my opinion, is a blog that attends to the spiritual dimension in a more conspicuous way. When discovering such a blog, only then do I realise what I am missing. 

The blog in question is iBenedictines. I found my way to this site after its author, Digitalnun, "followed" me on Twitter. I read it and found peace. Simple. I realised very quickly that an instinct that I once had (and caused me to start the now fallow and wholly spiritual Flight Diaries) is that blogging is an increasingly un-spiritual affair (save for the motivation of its writers, of which I offer no criticism in that regard). My own blog is a case in point - and if you trawl for overtly spiritual posts, you would be hard pressed to find many.

Accepting that I am what I am, and I write as I write, I am not proposing a substantive change in the style or content of this (nearly) award winning act of near perfection. Rather, like all good journals and magazines, I am going to add a few more blogs whose eyes are altogether more fixed on the face of Christ rather than the outpourings of the world's media. We need all of it, but we need all of it! Well, I certainly need a valuable boost to my Spiritual Blog Quotient, even if you don't!

Thank you to Digitalnun and the Sisters in West Oxfordshire for teaching me a lesson about need. To the rest of you (who may not have found iBenedictines) - follow and read earnestly. You will be glad you did. 

So Your Church Wants Social Media ...

My firm belief is that every church needs to engage with social media and start to use it. To not engage with social media is about the same as not making use of email, telephones or the combustion-engine motor-car simply because they seem to be modern irrelevances. The simple fact is that more and more people in the West are engaging in dialogue moderated and delivered through social media. 

I also acknowledge that it isn't as simple as just wanting to engage with and harness the benefits of social media, because our congregations and parish councils are often populated by those unaccustomed to the electronic, regard their advent as suspect at best and who may in turn become isolated by its introduction. This said, if we took the same view over history, people wouldn't have Bibles in their personal possession and the art of reading would remain the province of the landed gentry. Progress is necessary and indeed vital, so long as it is tailored to bring with it those who are vulnerable to its effects (usually by immediate isolation).

With this in mind, and following on from conversations already had on the subject, I though I would jot down my thoughts as to the process that parishes could use to bring this development to life. I am mindful that parishes already have varying degrees of involvement with social media, though they may not use that label!

What Is It? Social Media is the overarching title for direct communication by way of the internet. Any parish with a website of any capacity or capability is already engaged with social media, albeit passively. The current understanding of social media is more specifically concerned with actions of communication, often in real-time and often solely over the internet - be those actions in the form of 'chat', instant message, blogging or micro-blogging. A parish community unfamiliar with this mode of communicating would need to appreciate the subtleties and drawbacks (as well as the great opportunities) of this form of faceless communication. 

Who? This may seem an odd consideration for a parish, but this is a decision not to be taken lightly. The one doing the communicating is placed in a position of considerable power, often speaking on behalf of the entire community to a very wide and unpredictable audience. Someone with some experience of social media (and its nuances and its vernacular), supported and moderated by at least one other person would be advisable. This ensures that the 'output' is broad and balanced, and not rooted in the aspirations and 'hobby-horses' of the operator. Needless to day, the person concerned should always hold in their mind that they always speak for their community, and anything that emerges in the social media is hard to remove. 

Planning - If a parish is to engage in social media, it would make all sorts of sense to have the agreement of the parish council (or its equivalent). To do something positive and new can be a risk-laden proposition and it is easy for the operator to be left high-and-dry if any problems arise later. The organisation as a whole should take ownership of the initiative, even if at the hands of one or two specific individuals (operators). They should also be familiar with the output as a matter of course. 

Planning 2 - Boundary setting is very important. What is off-limits to the wider world? What is the core message? How does the community preserve the operator? What happens if things go wrong? Do you discuss services or acts of worship? Do you comment on sermons or talks? What about images? Recordings and audio capture? How is orthodoxy maintained?These are all clear decisions that need to be made and probably a myriad more. 

Accountability - who is accountable - The operator? The council or leadership team? Someone needs to be, after all. If accountability is given, can it be taken back later? Who hold passwords and where? With accountability comes responsibility and the same questions need to be settled.

Document - to my mind, a document stating who does what and under what terms, on what media forum and to what purpose - all need to be documented. I would go so far as to state that they need to be filed with official papers like Minutes and votes taken. They are all layers of protection either for the operator or the organisation. 

Review - the leadership team/council should review the output in conjunction with the appointed operator, and on a regular basis. When someone speaks on their behalf in front of possibly millions of people (in the case of Twitter and blogs), the community needs to be aware of the essence of that commentary and respond accordingly. 

If there are substantial doubts - then don't do it until those doubts are assuaged or gone. Engines such as Facebook has caused concerns for many people, regarding secrecy and the dissemination of information to third parties. Because things cannot be unsaid or easily un-published, it is better to be positive about such a venture before launching forth on it, rather than stepping tentatively into a perceived minefield. One is a pleasure, the other a constant source of stress. 

These are my own thoughts. There is nothing to stop anyone doing anything, but 'in whose name' makes a considerable difference. In simple terms, the greater number of people who are involved in the evolution of such a development the better - given that in the early days, its outworking is in the hands of a small minority. 

Lastly, let social media not become the first word and the last. There are always people in our communities for whom this activity is exclusive and into which they could ever venture. Make social media but one means of communicating with the wider world, and certainly never at the expense of inter-personal or tangible means which grant access to all. 

More Good News

I was delighted and humbled to open an email that told me that I am one of the Finalists in the 'Best Christian Blogs' category in the Christian New Media Awards 2011. Who'd have thought that this drivel would get so far in a competition graced by some remarkable good entries (for the full list, follow this link)?

I do this because I enjoy it and because I am supported by reader, commenters and other friends. Without you there really isn't any point. So I thank you most sincerely. 

What a week!

Twitterquette

The subject of good manners within social media has been written about many times over. Only not here - so here I go.

I am focussing upon Twitter in particular following a rather annoying thing that peeves me just a little bit. In simple terms, I sent a Tweet (a message of 140 characters or less, if by now you are unsure) to a priest who knows me personally and who holds some authority in the church (I lean on the word 'some'). Said priest then ignored me despite being rather active on the site. It wasn't a world-class message that I sent, but did demand a reply. I was ignored.

There are always little rules that accompany social interaction. Were there not, then rudeness and poor behaviour would quickly reign. On the whole, these rules require no printing or formal drafting, because they are the rules of good manners, and are largely innate in most of us. 

I think I was peeved because the priest in question is a conspicuous self-promoter and manifestly ambitious. I have no real concern with that, until they become too levitous to speak to others. Exchanged messages with bishops, even archbishops - that is fine. Just not curates. Grrr

With all things concerning the social media, I believe in absolute terms that you should never utter a word there that you wouldn't be prepared to say in person. It is easy to be one person in the flesh and quite another in the online world. In the real world, when someone addresses me, I respond. In the online world, I am not rude about someone for fun (or even to be serious), though I am happy with being critical in appropriate measure. I am happy to take criticism if it is warranted and the person delivering it has the right or insight so to do. If I borrow something from someone else, I try to ask first and thank them after. If I like something, I tell others, but I remember not to accidentally let that thing become mine. 

And so it is with social media, and especially Twitter and blogging. Ideas are (more or less) property. Interactions are no less real than any that would take place in my lounge over coffee. Equally, that means that I listen as much as I speak and I don't keep repeating myself - frequent offenses in social media, especially Twitter. If I address someone, I fairly well expect a reply. I try hard to afford that behaviour to others and look back on messages received when I have been offline, and reply to them in one form or another. When people propagate my ideas, I like to thank them. It seems obvious to me. 

So, person-in-question - please stop ignoring us mere lesser mortals on the ground. It is rude and it is unacceptable, and after all, you are a priest and that demands even more good behaviour. Enough said. 

But don't just take my word for it ...

With thanks to the ever excellent somegreybloke

Changes to This Blog

This is just a quick post to tell you that I am going to tweak this old site a little. As a former retailer, I embrace the effects of a little  re-merchandising.

So, gone is the map telling me where you are from. You know where you live and you don't need me to tell you. Gone is the Twitter box because if you were interested, you would have an account of your own and don't need to eavesdrop here. Gone is the Wordle thing, because it was boring and I am not here to bore you (much).

I have added my Vernacular Video Bar, which I will use to house a new video clip from time to time. It will be what has caught my eye or interests me, or of bits of music that I love. I think it add a dynamism to a site that is characterised by stillness of image. Take it or leave it, of course - but I will keep it mixed and will tell you more about me than most of my words.

Also, as an aside, I thought that I would advocate the place of Apture in this blog. From time to time you will see little symbols besides words. They will be links and the symbol, if you hold your mouse over it, will open a new dialogue box with some extra material in. It means that you don't need to keep flitting. I hate flitting. Do you hate flitting? An example would be Sacrament for links to text or King's College Choir for video (it takes the video symbol a little while to appear after posting, I ought to say)

I am interest to know what you think. Please say if there is anything you would like to see added or removed (any comments that have the word 'delete' will not be treated kindly and there will be tears before bedtime). I am among you as one who serves, after all. 

The Seven Links Project - A Reflection on Blogs

The premis of this exercise is simple. It is the propagation and turning of the soil that is our blog. It is fair to say that bloggers just never really stop, and while some posts see the light of day a few more times after the moment of their posting, the string of pearls that we fashion means that the pearl of the today is the one forgotten tomorrow.

This project was started by a blogger hitherto unknown to me - Katie at Trip Base. This then lead, by way of a plethora of the perverse and a gaggle of the great to the wonderful Perpetua of Perpetually in Transit. Her endeavour under this banner mentioned your humble servant's name, and so here I am. In reading her (and other) versions of this, I have valued the opportunity to find gold that had become buried, to discover a blogger or two that I hadn't discovered before, and to reflect upon my own work, its gems and its cowpats. So, kids - some rules:

• To participate the blogger must be nominated by another blogger - Check
• He/she publishes their 7 links on their own blog. One link for each category - Do-able
• He/she nominates up to five more bloggers to take part - Yessir

My most beautiful post - Through The Eyes of Children

This post makes me cry whenever I stumble over it, and now is no exception. It is also one of my very earliest posts (one of the first dozen or so here). It marked the day when I sat with one of my daughters as the news of the earthquake in Haiti piped over the airwaves. I surprise myself at times, and I can't fully believe that I wrote that post. 

My most popular post - Hmmm, what to do ...

The issue with popularity is that is subjective. I will therefore attend to the statistically most popular, and then the one that generated the most intense attention at the point of posting (a more appropriate measure I think)

(i) Statistical - Blogging in Television Drama - this was a daft and pointless little post made at the end of watching a TV programme. It is a post one writes at the end of a day because it is the 'dead time' and so a miscellany appears that barely causes a ripple if posted at night. This one (with a couple of others) was discovered by the BBC and features on its Holby City page. I have received many thousands of hits because of that. 

(ii) Immediacy - A Liturgy for the Ordering of Studies and Other Rooms of Labour - This is how my mind works, I am afraid to say. Someone lays down a challenge and I try to meet it, with full flourish. I love to dabble with the instruments of our faith's practice, and writing a daft act of worship is one such way. A very recent post, it knocked Gizza Job II off the top slot here, a post that had the same effect a year ago. [I note that I have fashioned links for three posticles here - and for that I apologise, or not, as the case may be]

My most controversial post - The Might of Women [Bloggers]

I have discovered that it is not the lambasting of the English Defence League, the Conservative Party or evangelicals that brings the greatest risk for me, but defending women - in this case, in the blogosphere (I should note that the risk here is indeed from women). This post attended to a little issue that I had met elsewhere and that had upset me. I partly wish I hadn't bothered, though the stream of comments on the blog itself was mild when compared to the Twitter stream and Facebook stuff that didn't thank me for my words.

My most helpful post - Again a tough one by dint of the lack of a suitable measure - but I will pitch for Dad, Junior and The Spook

One of the very few posts never to receive a comment, it is the one piece of my work that has been consistently read week in and week out across the world. It was the post, written just at the point of its feast day, when I posited my model of the Holy Trinity. Such was the 'uptake' (and requests to use it elsewhere) that I posted the full text of a paper that I wrote, and from which this post was derived. 

A post whose success surprises me - Humuhumunukunukuapua'a

This was another of those daft posts that, on this occasion, attended to the great hurry that we are always in these days. It is also a heftily searched word on Google and Bing apparently, and when you name your post with a word whose search results puts your blog post on its first page, you receive much unexpected traffic and interest. 

A post I feel didn't get the attention it deserved - The Beauty of Hands

A tough category, because I don't think that my posts deserve anything - I am grateful that anyone reads. There are also many that I wish I had posted in the last six month with the exposure I now enjoy rather than in the first months when only five loyal and wonderful people read this bilge. The post in the first category would have also featured here - and more because I want the world to know about my beautiful daughters. You can't blame a loving dad, can you?

The post I am most proud of - Getting it Wrong

I find it very hard to outwardly acknowledge my failings. This is partly to do with coming from a business world where such admissions constituted the Shoghun Sword of the Harakiri and partly because I am just crap at it. This post killed me to write, killed me to post and killed me to read back. I needed to do it, and it marks the beginning of a process that I needed to undergo. 

Five Bloggers - the hard bit ...

I know so many good bloggers, and I hope not to cause offence by omission. I will go for variety of style, I think!

 - James at Shoghun's Space and also Accidental Observer - Jim is a veteran of our Armed Services whom I claim the honour of having met. His body is broken through injury, and his mind often dulled by the drugs that they give him, but a true decent and noble man. Not a bad writer either!

 - Mr CatOlick - This cat offers a blog unlike anyone else. His is a visual feast, of the animated and drawn, and his observation of our comical church is remarkable. This guy deserves a far greater audience given the quality of what he produces. A true pioneer ...

 - Jean at Tregear Vean - this is a wonderful blog written by a wonderful woman with a very balanced view of life. When I start to climb out of my pram on various issues, I look for this blog to calm me, grant me perspective, and to take me on literary jaunts that I have grown to love. 

 - Siobhan at Random Doodles From a Curate's Wife - the story of a journey made alongside an accredited ministry, and of family life inside a Vicarage which is not my own. A source of comfort, amusement and thought provocation, this is also a blogger who clearly wrestles with her own calling in the midst of all of this. 

 - Tenon Saw at It's All a Bit Poor - frankly a man (one assumes) after my own heart. I like to read words that do no sycophancy or hat-tipping, that are not derivative and say it like it is. This is blogger for that. 

There. My work here is done. I enjoyed that! I thank Perpetua most warmly for the chance to do this. Blogging is great thing, and long may it last. Incidentally, if you weren't aware, I write another blog very infrequently under a different guise. See what you think, if you get a moment. 

All Change

This is partly a test post and partly an observation ...

... but Blogger went and changed tonight. Every jolly thing is different 'behind the scenes' and that is a little bewildering to say the least. Needless to say, I will work through all of the apparent changes and work out what is what, but first dabbles suggest a stylising, not a tectonic shift in the software. 

What is clear is that there are options available to me that weren't an hour ago, so I will play around with them. If anything untoward happens in this blog, please just bear with me. 

It raises an interesting point though. The joy of blogging is that is accessible to people who may be entirely new to computing, and the 'dashboard' was very user friendly. Big changes in layout at the very least could very well frighten off some, and that would be a shame. Whilst I think the 'back room' of Blogger is a pretty place compared to before, it is new and unfamiliar. Warning or notes would have been good!

The Statistical Yield of This Blog

Some graph or other

If you are new to blogging, you may well wonder what the world of your 'numbers' may look like after a while. 

My modus-operandi is simple:

• Christian in flavour
• Spontaneous posting
• Breadth of topic within the scope of the previous two points
• Written as a priest with a due sense of responsibility to that ministry
• Of me, in my style, and authentic (and with a little humour where appropriate)

That is what I do when I blog. This is not a derivative blog, and it either lives or dies by that sword. So, if you want to know how life will be in a year and a half after starting (making some wild assumptions about frequency, audience and other stuff), I offer my own experience as a sort of digital plimsoll-line. 

• This blog has been read in 79 languages
• This blog has been accessed in 117 countries
• Average page-views per visit has remained constant since the beginning
• Two thirds of my traffic, on average, is constituted by returning visitors
• Increases in traffic and page-views has increased steadily over time and not in line with periods of increased or decreased posting (barring peaks and troughs on a day to day basis)
• New visitors as a percentage  of the overall visitor count has steadily increased 
• This blog has been linked on c300 other websites (by volume the BBC has generated most visitors, followed by Facebook with Twitter high in that list)
• The blog has been found and accessed from 755 unique internet searches ('the vernacular curate', 'vernacular curate' and 'humuhumunukunukuapua'a' being the top three searches)

In themselves, these are just numbers and mean little. The reason why I have produced them is to underwrite my own view that bloggers have an affect that they may never predict at the start. I have opted not to play the 'volume of visitors' game because I know who the bigger blogs are and so do you, but I find interest in some of the underlying numbers. I am humbled by all of this, if I am honest - and the statistic that is never available through Analytics is that of readers who have valued the words on this page. 

If you are starting out, or in the first throes, take comfort from this information. This blog really is small-pototoes compared to some, but as cottage-industry gospel-infections go, wider than your typical pandemic! It also shows you how the silliest or most abstract posts may actually be the ones read most around this world of ours.

Blessed be the Trigger Reef Fish!

What is a Blog?

Given that today is the middle day of the year and that the evenings are starting to close in, it seems a good time to review what it is we bloggers do - blog. 

This is hard on the heels of a brief dialogue held elsewhere in the comments box on a previous post where Jonathan and I exchanged ideas very briefly.

We spun over the issue of what a blog is, whether mine or his is such a thing and how they sit in  the current manifestation of the blogosphere. I have been thinking over this issue among the many others that crowd my tiny mind, and wondered if he is right to posit that blogs, in the 'pure' form are journals or diaries. 

Most Christian blogs are strings of pearls, each comprising many distinct and separate posts about many and varied subjects. Yes, some blogs have an axe to grind or a pre-occupation, but that is perhaps to be expected. Some blogs root their posts very clearly in the needs and psyche of the blogger whereas other rarely speak of the writer at all (which is not to say that they don't tell of the writer, for they are different things entirely). This blog, for example, is one such string. Rarely (if at all) will you ever find two posts side to side that are on the same topic. This is partly because my mind doesn't work that way, and partly because I favour the unpredictable 'product' of such a blog myself. Frankly, I tire of blogs that batter on about single topics - but that is just me.

Jonathan is, I think right, in that blogs were truer to their fuller name - 'weblogs' when they were personal journals. They have been around since Jesus was a lad, and started life as early electronic bulletin boards. Since the late '90s they have evolved into and from online diaries into their present manifestation, as described above. It is claimed that there are 158million live blogs - and I am guessing that in style terms, they cover just about everything. I think that this variety is less important than the other motivation that is made manifest in blogs - statistics. 

Some bloggers do not ever speak of statistics. Some bloggers will claim that they are unimportant but will never waste an opportunity to mention their expanded array, and others are conspicuously statistically minded. As with church life, those of the different denominations (in terms of stats) are marginally suspicious of those who are different. The no-stats brigade regard the stats-crew as obsessed by exposure and numbers,   that they play to the popular audience, for example. It appears to be the case that long-term bloggers are less gripped by the numbers, and that is perhaps because in the early days [years] of blogging, bloggers remain marginally unsure of their effect. I am certainly of that disposition. Am I right? Am I wrong? Who knows - except that bloggers who bang on about numbers lots and lots are tedious - another personal view. 

So, what is a blog. Yes, once it was a diary, or a bulletin board. Today, it is just about anything that slaps the name above it. Purists will not be convinced, and the recent additions to the blogosphere will not care. In the end, the difference between the blogs is a great joy. For me, a diary blog would not float my boat unless the person writing it was significant to me in one way or another. 

What is a blog? What is the place of stats counters? Are bloggers too fixated on readers, followers and page-hits? Does it matter? Thoughts please ...

New Blog - Two Steps Forward

This week's featured blog is 

Two Steps Forward

It is the work of Rachel Firth, the about-to-be Vicar of St. Stephen's in Lindley, somewhere north of London. She is about to complete her curacy at Halifax Minster, and is new to this blogging lark.

I have got to know Rachel a little through the life I live through Twitter and her views are to the point, apposite and very calmly laid out. Posts of my own here have benefitted from her comments, and she is not afraid to wrestle with the issues plighting the blogosphere. Her perspective on matters is, to say the least, proving to be refreshing. 

A liturgist, a ++Rowan loyalist - perhaps you can see why I might choose to champion this blogger and her writing. She can even make a dalmatic look acceptable, and that alone makes her worth a punt. 

Please give her blog a try, follow it, and you will not be sorry - or your money back.

...and please keep your recommendations coming in.

I give my thanks to the excellent Rev Robb Sutherland, the Rocking Reverend, who recommended Rachel's blog to me. His well established blog [Changing Worship] is worth a read too, and a more decent geezer you will hard pressed to find. 

Social Media and The Church - A Critique

Hold on a moment Cloakey; what's this? Aren't you an author of the case in favour?

People in my position (which is to say a public minister of religion with a care to express a view to a wider audience) should always know where the failings are with those things that they would otherwise gladly extol. I will always write warmly about social media, especially blogging - but I would be acting in an imbalanced way if I were not to devote some time and effort reflecting on the weaknesses that exist within it, of which there are many. I don't think that there is a more effective way of undermining my own position than to ignore its pitfalls. I believe, too, that I have a basic duty to balance. 

I spoke in a recent post about how social media can work for a church, and how a gulf is broadening between those who are conversant with all of this, and those who are not. To be sure, social media is of profound value in attracting people to our doors and to the Gospel. Of that there is less and less doubt. Attracting people to the doors of our churches only deals with one section of our society however, and is in danger of ignoring that other section - the ones already within them. 

Accessibility - social media attracts and enters many people's lives in the space and time where they are. However, it is also as true to say that social media is a considerable obstacle to the majority of practicing Christians. If everyone reading this now thought honestly about the parish community of which they are part (if they are part), they would not perceive a population well blessed with the gadgets of our age or their means of communicating. Statistically, ours is a community of those of advanced years on average and of that number only single numbers of percents of them would, for example, have a Facebook account, let alone be able to do something with it. What is normal for our 'average' Christians (please forgive the term) are books, penned letters and telephone calls. How so many people can communicate meaningfully in 140 characters or less, Twitter-style, is a mystery to most of humankind, let alone my parish nonagenarians. In our quest to further the cause of social media, we need to be absolutely clear who is included and who is excluded by this development.

Infection - An important thing in my own missiological thinking, it is something with which we need to exercise care. Taking bloggers as an example, and as I have said before, among its joys are the freedom to write ones thoughts, engage in dialogue, and to learn new things through the widely acknowledged 'community' of blogging. That is great in the good times, but perilous in the bad. Blogs have, for many, a kind of mystique which is neither earned nor warranted. That it is written means that it must be true - or so some think. The danger is, that any whacko can write a blog (you are reading the words of one such person now). I am free, in absolute terms, to peddle any twaddle I like - dodgy notions, ropey theology, skewed personal prejudices, plain simple heresies. That I would do so wearing a dog-collar means that some could, and would, be seduced by my words. I see it in other places. Collusion in the blogger-reader-commenter relationship is considerable and in my opinion, dangerous. Infection is great when it the right virus that gets passed on. Social media at its least potent is a happy process of leaning on doors that are already ajar; preaching to the converted. 

Potential for harm - fortunately, in most civilised societies, it is still not acceptable to insult people to their faces simply for having a view different to our own. Name calling is still mostly found on the asphalt of school playgrounds. Invective is typically moderated by being in polite company who can challenge and moderate a good old rant. Except for social media. The playground for the passive-aggressive, the front-row seat for the name caller and the soap-box for the ranter - social media provides the 'behind the glass' phenomenon that allows civilised people to regress to a reduced base place! Only since I have ventured into the world of social media have I been insulted so aggressively, been called names that would shock most people, and witnessed the aggrandising withering of the perpetual victim (none of which would have ever happened had I been standing there with them, all 6' of me). This stuff I can handle. I know people who have also been subject to this stuff who could not, and were hurt by it. Social media allows a freedom that can promote growth and the best of encounters, but is also a gladiator's pit where the lions will, and do, bite hard. 

Community - Church is, and the Body of Christ is - community. Community, until the last two or three years, has been made up of people talking to and with other people, in proximity. Social media allows people at the opposite ends of the world to converse in real-time, and that is where it is at its best - but also friends and even married couples who have begun to rely on social media perhaps more than a chat over breakfast. I can, if I so chose, communicate with an entire world of people over an entire day - without speaking a word or moving from my seat. I have long been a supporter of 'e-churches' and was associated with i-church in its early days - yet I wondered how such a disparate gathering of eclectic folk (all wonderful, some still firm friends) could be regarded as community. It had a sense of the diaspora about it, yes, but also the feeling of a hidy-hole for the disaffected. Anything that stops people being in physical proximity with other people has the potential to erode communities if left unchecked. As a means of communicating with real-people, social media is priceless, but it needs to have a heart to galvanise people in the temporal arena too. In other words, social media should be a means, never the end. 

These are just some thoughts that, in the spirit of honestly and transparency, I express here. These thoughts have always been there and so you may be reassured that I am not having a change of heart. However, we are in the early days of social media, so it remains deliciously edgy and experimental at times. That is fine, until we use it as a potent tool among those who don't understand it.