Blogging

Two notes from Ed.

editorNote 1: Some readers may have noticed that in addition to a new layout, this blog now has a new URL – jasongoroncy.com. But, in the immortal words of Douglas Adams, ‘Don’t panic!’ Those who visit the old ‘cruciality’ address(es) will be automatically directed to their new equivalent, and those who subscribe to posts via the RSS feed or via email will continue to receive that service uninterrupted (or so I am led to believe). Please let me know if you encounter any problems accessing a page.

Note 2a: I’m wondering about replacing the ‘Some Current Reading’ section (in the sidebar) with ‘Good Recent Reads’, highlighting what have been my favourite reads during the previous month. This is because it seems to be more helpful to draw readers’ attention to books that one has most appreciated than to inform (or to show off) about what one is currently reading, although I accept that there may be some uses for the latter too. Might add film and music as well; in which case it may have to be under the title ‘Good Reads, Sounds and Films’. If anyone has any strong opinions to share on this subject, I’m all ears.

Note 2b: Please return now to what you were doing before you were rudely interrupted by this broadcast.

– Ed.

A wee note to those who read this blog via the RSS feed

RSS feedTo those who read this blog’s content via the RSS feed,

Thank you for being a regular reader of Per Crucem ad Lucem via the feed. You will all almost certainly know by now that Google Reader will be retiring on 1 July. If Google Reader has been your preferred feed reader, and you’re an RSS junkie like me, then you will need to choose a new reader. If you’re yet to choose a replacement reader, it’s really time to do a bit of homework. Certainly there is no shortage of sites listing the pros and cons of the various readers, but the mainline options seem to be The Old Reader, NewsBlur, Feedly, Bloglines, Digg, Feedreader, Newsvibe, Pulse, Tiny Tiny RSS, FeedDemon and Yahoo Pipes. For what it’s worth, and these decisions are highly subjective, my first choice of reader – by far – is Feedly.

Of course, dear readers of this blog can also subscribe to posts here at PCaL via email. There are even some of you who get the email in addition to the feed; double points! If you fill out the form on the right hand side (on the desktop version), each new post will magically appear in your inbox. How cool is that!

Thanks again for your interest, interaction and encouragement.

Pax christi,

Jason

Apologies

Apologies to those who receive this blog’s posts via the email subscription and who inadvertently received an unbaked, or at least half-baked, version of the previous post. It was typed up on the WordPress app (as was this apology) while I was both horizontal and half asleep and I had meant to save the post as a draft and work on it sometime after the birds announced the new day.

I understand that such sloppiness indicates neither the end of the world nor a sign of such.

some thursday afternoon link love

Finally, I want to give a big shout out to a friend, minister and musician named Malcolm Gordon. Malcs has been busy writing material for his latest album. (You can check out some of his earlier work here and here. You can even get some of it for free here.) The songs have grown out of his preaching ministry at St Paul’s Presbyterian in Katikati, in the Bay of Plenty. For a while now, Malcs has known that most of our theology (good and bad) is sung. He writes: ‘That’s how we retain and take ownership of anything, we hum it, we whistle it – we take the word made flesh and make it a song’.

Malcolm has recently stepped out of parish ministry to make more space for this wildly unpredictable gift of music, and he’s about to head into the studio to record an album that has the tentative working title, ‘Into the deep.’ You can listen to the title track itself here:

About this song, Malcolm writes: ‘This song seems to capture the incredible feeling of being out of our depth as we seek to follow the call of God into something that doesn’t even seem to exist yet. Still God’s word is a creative word, making so as it calls us to – well here’s hoping!’

Malcolm is currently and shamelessly trying to raise funds to complete the album through the mixing and mastering stage. So if you like what you hear, and want the church to hear more of it, and sing more of it, then please consider helping him out through this campaign on Social backing.

Live blog: women’s 200 metre final, London Olympics

0800: I’m waiting for the final of the women’s 200-metre race to begin. I’m watching it on free-to-air tv. I have a mug of earl grey tea and an empty breakfast bowl. I’m liking the look of Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and wishing that I had her hair.

0801: They’re off!

0801: They seem to be running faster than I could. This will not be a surprise to many.

0801: Allyson Felix has won. Her hair is definitely not as cool.

0802: Not sure the live blog format quite works for these events.

0810: I’m still thinking about Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce’s hair. Time for a shower and to get ready for work.

Thanks for stopping by

Since moving this blog from Blogger to WordPress, Per Crucem ad Lucem has received over one million hits. I’m not suggesting that there is any correlation between these two facts. I simply wanted to say ‘Thank you’ for visiting, for commenting, for sharing links, for leaving, and then for stopping by again.

Like most bloggers, I guess, I’ve wondered, from time to time, about packing in the mouse, but then something happens, and the mouse … well, the batteries get changed or re-charged and off we go again. It will not always be so, of course. With probably even less claim to life than grass and flowers, this blog (and its author) will wither and fade (Isa 40.8). Indeed, among its raisons d’être is to bear witness to this hope. But for now, and in the words of Dag Hammarskjöld, ‘For all that has been – thanks. To all that will be – yes’.

some friday link love

The biggest threat to science and scientific progress is not religion or religious believers, with our superstitious or supernatural beliefs, but the arrogance of those atheist fundamentalists among the scientific community who believe that science is the only legitimate and conceivable way to explain or understand the world – and who antagonise a sceptical public in the process.

On productivity … mmm

While much is abstruse in these caliginous times, and most blogging seems to be ‘for babes and the shallower type of women’ (as W.B. Selbie described the preaching of his own day), one thing is clear: Ben Myers has not been influenced in the slightest by my wife’s assessment of me. Apparently, I’m ‘relentlessly productive’ at something.

Now there’s a thought.

Speaking of such lists, check out John Crace’s latest piece on 2011’s ‘must reads’.

And speaking of productive, you may like to check out Rowan Williams’ wee chat with Bridget Kendall (of the BBC’s One to One program) about Dostoevsky.

A new layout

Regular readers of Per Crucem ad Lucem may have noticed that of late I’ve been playing around a little with the template and layout of this blog. Seemed like a good idea at the time (i.e., I felt it needed a sprucing up), and it offered me a nice break from writing lectures (and blog posts for that matter). Anyway, any thoughts you may have about the new layout will be gratefully received.

William Cavanaugh interviews

The Centre for Public Christianity has made available a three-part video interview with William Cavanaugh:

1. The myth of religious violence

2. Consumerism and Spirituality

3. The Post GFC World

Also, around the traps:

Blogging Presbyterian Ministers

I guess that it is encouraging to see blogging catching on among Presbyterian ministers (and their partners) here in Aotearoa New Zealand. Here’s a list (repeated in the sidebar) of those that I know of:

Am I missing anyone?

And while I’m in ‘give ’em a plug’ mode, there’s a few other Pressie-tribe sites that are worth noting:

 

 

 

Saturday Link Love

A wee reminder

A wee reminder that our Who said it? competition ends tomorrow. Responses for this one have been a bit light on thus far (to say the least).

Perhaps a prize might have been a good incentive; and here was I thinking that serious theologians might be above such triviality …

Then again, perhaps I can arrange something …

‘Who shall unseal the years, the years!’: Around the traps

‘For myself I am an optimist – it does not seem to be much use being anything else’

invisible man

Sauntering through the week …
Taieri Gorge Railway

Along the Taieri Gorge Railway

Humans



 

Rick Floyd: Retired Pastor Ruminates

Rick Floyd is Pastor Emeritus of First Church of Christ in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where he served for 22 years. He has authored A Course in Basic Christianity and When I Survey the Wondrous Cross: Reflections on the Atonement, a wonderful study which draws heavily upon the staurology of PT Forsyth (and which is all the better for doing so!)

He has a great nose (for theology that is) and his blog, Retired Pastor Ruminates, is one of my regular theo-blog stopping places. Many of Rick’s reflections bear witness to the sparks created at the intersection between pastoral ministry and theology, and draw sensibly on a lifetime of intimate and public engaging in both. To be sure, I never miss reading one of his posts, even those wherein he deliberates on things completely irrelevant like the Boston Red Sox. Regular readers of Per Crucem ad Lucem might consider adding Rick’s blog to your list and/or to your feed. Need a reason? Rick’s latest post on Karl Barth and preaching is all the reason you should require. He has also posted recently on Lesslie Newbigin, a Prayer for a Retired Pastor and a recipe for borscht.

Dietrich by the path …

Last Light

[Image: Colin Webb,  ‘Last Light’]