The most demonic of redundancies November 18, 2007
Posted by Wade Rockett in Church.add a comment
“After the last century, to offer more spilt blood to the earth, under any circumstances, seems the most demonic of redundancies.”
- ochlophobist, in a comment on “Orthodoxy and Torture“
Hanging art July 11, 2007
Posted by Wade Rockett in Art, Church.add a comment
When J.P. and Gwyn’s wedding was over on Saturday, Angela, Debi, and I crept back into the nave and hung the artwork for our upcoming exhibition Speaking in Tongues: The Spirit Unleashed.
The pieces look great together. I think this is a really strong show.
The opening reception is Thursday evening from 6 PM to 8 PM with live music from 7 to 7:30. Here’s a map, if you’d like to come!
(x/p to artsblog)
What you get when you let me write copy for your church website June 10, 2007
Posted by Wade Rockett in Church, Writing.add a comment
Peace and Love are always at work in us June 3, 2007
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“Our courteous Lord does not want His servants to despair even if they fall frequently and grievously. Our falling does not stop His loving us. Peace and love are always at work in us, but we are not always in peace and love.”
After which, N’Sync’s Lance Bass will discuss the life and philosophy of Oscar Wilde May 7, 2007
Posted by Wade Rockett in Church, Intarweb, What.add a comment
On ABC News, some atheists who are popular on YouTube will go head to head with the former star of Growing Pains over God’s existence.
Sadder still, the Calladus Blog (where I learned of this) reports:
The Fresno Atheist group are discussing getting together to watch the debate.
Yes, not only will somebody watch this, but an organization created to “promote rational thinking” is using the Internet to coordinate a gathering to watch a television show in which Kirk Cameron weighs in on the Big Questions.
I guess they’ll have to move the meeting of the Kant discussion group to another night because whoa! Somebody’s gonna out-argue Kirk Cameron!
My short story “Moshe’s Lament” April 23, 2007
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In honor of International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day, I’m posting my short story “Moshe’s Lament” on the Web. I read the story during the Great Vigil of Easter at Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Kenmore.
Listen to the audio of the reading here
(You can read and listen to a couple of other swell creative Vigil presentations at the Redeemer Arts and Music blog.)
Paschal status messages April 9, 2007
Posted by Wade Rockett in Church, Google.add a comment
Two of the folks from my church are on Google Talk.
Tonya’s status message is Christos Anesti!
Hunter’s status message is Alithos Anesti!
Which is funny if you know the history of our (Episcopal) church. For almost a decade we hosted a Greek Orthodox congregation, and it kinda rubbed off on us.
Good Friday April 6, 2007
Posted by Wade Rockett in Church.add a comment
At this liturgy, the first thing to strike our senses is the unfamiliar barrenness of the worship space. There is nothing to distract our attention from the Cross and the saving events we commemorate. It is a time of great solemnity. However, the profundity of the liturgy should not be confused with mourning. We are not conducting a “funeral for Jesus”. Instead, with awe, we contemplate the deep redemptive love of God and its meaning for ourselves and the World.
(Link)
Really good art at Redeemer March 30, 2007
Posted by Wade Rockett in Art, Church.add a comment
Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Kenmore is hosting an art exhibit throughout the Easter season entitled, “Visions of the Cross: Artists’ reflections on the Stations of the Cross“. My wife Angela is curating the show, which contains not a single image of Boxing Jesus.
“Stations”, ©Andrea Pratt 2007
She’s been writing about each of the participating artists and their work at her own blog, and at the Redeemer Arts and Music blog. Fascinating stuff!
The artwork goes on display on April 1st (Palm Sunday), with an artist reception Thursday, April 12 from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM.
I will of course be there in my dual role as Artist’s Husband and Gofer.
Ash Wednesday, and the PC as a distraction machine February 21, 2007
Posted by Wade Rockett in Church, Life, Work, Writing.add a comment
Cory Doctorow says it when he’s talking about e-books: It’s hard to read anything long form on a computer screen, not necessarily because it bugs our eyes, but because computers demand that you use them as computers and not as books. They’re there for reading, yes, but also for e-mail, games, Web browsing, writing, chatting, video watching, sound editing, music making, music listening, and on
and on
and on.
It’s hard to do any single thing on a computer, because all the while the device is dangling the opportunity to do something else in front of your eyes.
This is why, when I need to buckle down and get moving on a stalled piece, I print out the materials that I need, walk to the other side of the building, and hole up in an empty office. Within a half an hour of being unplugged I’ve gotten my act together.
…there’s an inherent problem with always being online: you’re too connected. You wind up in the role of passive observer. Things come to you. You react instead of act. You can easily spend too much time “marking things as read,” reading RSS feeds, watching YouTube clips, or whatever else.
When you go offline, that equation changes. You have to be active. Since you can’t input, you output. If you don’t do something, nothing happens.
Kathy Sierra of Creating Passionate Users:
Worst of all, this onslaught is keeping us from doing the one thing that makes most of us the happiest… being in flow. Flow requires a depth of thinking and a focus of attention that all that context-switching prevents. Flow requires a challenging use of our knowledge and skills, and that’s quite different from mindless tasks we can multitask (eating and watching tv, etc.) Flow means we need a certain amount of time to load our knowledge and skills into our brain RAM. And the more big or small interruptions we have, the less likely we are to ever get there.
And not only are we stopping ourselves from ever getting in flow, we’re stopping ourselves from ever getting really good at something. From becoming experts. The brain scientists now tell us that becoming an expert is not a matter of being a prodigy, it’s a matter of being able to focus.
Being offline. Focusing. Simplifying. And you know, today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent: the season in which we adopt spiritual disciplines that help us focus as we prepare for Easter.
It’s a small step toward cutting through all of the noise in my life, but I think I’m going to begin Lent by deleting all of my RSS feeds and starting from scratch.
