What follows is the result of an evening Kate and I spent wandering through the World Wide Web. We approached it as a pilgrimage, expecting to find encounters with God in what is good and true. We have recorded the positive experiences of what we found.
Information sites
First of all we looked up the obvious sites – Iona community, make poverty history, fair trade.
www.iona.org.uk
www.makepovertyhistory.org/schools/index.shtml#teachingresources_full
www.fairtrade.org.uk
www.makepovertyhistory.org – download Tony Blair’s response to the “The World Can’t Wait” campaign
Useful Resources
This led us to find the ethical careers site, which may be of interest to those of you who are still in the working part of your life, or know one of the increasing number of people who have a desire for their work to have an ethical purpose as well as material benefit. It also has tips on things like setting up a recycling scheme, which may well be applicable to churches as well as offices.
Does any of this sound familiar?
- I want a career with a decent salary that doesn’t compromise people or the environment
- I really want to work for a charity but I don’t have a clue where to start looking
- How can I go about setting up a recycling scheme in my office?
- Can I work with big business and still be ethical?
- I have made the wrong career choice – where can I find an alternative career doing something I believe in
guidance available at - www.ethicalcareers.org – careers information with an ethical slant
Emerging Online Living Church
We then went a bit further down the spirituality line. The re:jesus site is worth exploring, it has both practical advice and inspiration. The 24-7 prayer site is very exciting, and currently has a news item about GP Taylor, of Shadowmancer fame.
The Bede site has a wealth of documentation from the early church in this country, and is a great resource.
- www.rejesus.co.uk
- free downloadable resources for combining spirituality and your workplace
- www.bede.net/spiritual.html
- www.24-7prayer.com A rediscovery of the importance of reflective prayer, monastic living and mission- led church life.
Within the last set of websites you can get an idea of the range of resources that can be found. You can view images of the Book of Kells and wonder at the skill of those who kept the faith alive in the W est while the Roman empire crumbled, and then find out about the 24 -7 movement which has only been in existence for a decade or so.
Are you interested in thinking about what the church will look like in 50 years time?
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=g98V6V1DyiU Then watch this video reporting on what the emerging church looks like now.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=nPRKCmYuCWA - Another video, this one explores the relationship between art and worship.
With access to information and inspirational speakers like this in the comfort of your home, why bother getting up early on a Sunday morning and coming to sit on an old hard pew? There are many reasons, I’ll leave you to remind yourself of them! If, after reading all of this, you are ready to embrace aspects of the digital age then perhaps you might want to express the timeless faith of Christianity with the aid of this site:
www.theworkofthepeople.com - audio visual resources for the information and communication technology age.
Or you could visit www.scottishchristian.com where a Christian has been keeping an eye on how the church is represented online for a number of years now.
Fun and Beauty
And of course, there are websites made by people who just want to express their love for Jesus by using the skills they have: www.godlimations.com – games and animations made by a Christian. Even if you are not particularly keen on the sort of thing he makes, you might find it interesting to think about how many people associated with the church have these skills and wether or not they are relevant if we are to continue in the apostolic tradition of handing on the truth of the gospel to all cultures.
Or if you find that you are one of those people for whom appreciation of the ordinary is a way in which you give thanks for creation, perhaps you would like to get involved in the Geograph project. It is an attempt to record images of every thing marked on the ordnance survey maps covering every square kilometre of the British Isles. www.geograph.org.uk
One of the amazing things about the internet is that it provides access to free information at home or for anyone who can get to a library. It also allows people who have had nowhere to express themselves before to have a global stage. However, this same freedom and lack of censorship also creates dangers. Whatever your thoughts and concerns about the role it plays in society the World Wide Web is here. The initial concept of an internet was designed to survive a nuclear war, so its likely to last, and its up to us as Christians to decide how to engage with it.
