I won't lie to you, I'm pessimistic (now there's a surprise). Bishop Kieran Conry, the man whose name is down to supervise this research has his name on the front page of the reclaimthefuture.org.uk website. He and his interim team will speak with the existing Diocesan Youth Services and ask how things are and they will all reply "great thanks" and then they will be asked about future development. "More of the same please.." they will reply. "Only this time, can it be less religious looking..." National Youth Sunday 2009 will be entitled "SimplyCafod" and will come with liturgical suggestions such as getting somebody's mum to say mass in the garden in vestments made from bin-bags.

As has been pointed out before - it's one thing to write a blog criticising those who are working with young people, quite another thing to say something constructive.

So, here goes. Here's my attempt to talk... constructively... about youth ministry...

General Formation

I think we can all agree that youth services and youth work in general exists to fulfil a need. Otherwise there is, quite literally, no need for them (duh). If we can identify the need then we can identify what youth work services are for and then (my favourite part) we can figure out what went wrong and fix it.

Beginning with the wider concept of formation. Formation begins as a baby when we first experience the love of our parents and continues throughout our lives. It consists of learning (as we are evangelised and receive catechises) but also spiritual growth as our prayer life develops and we partake in the sacraments. The ultimate goal of formation is to form ourselves in the image of Christ.

Charting our Formation

I find the following visualisation is very helpful, it's not perfect, but it's helpful.

We can't measure formation empirically (like we measure height or weight) but we are all aware of different levels of formation. A five year old who has just learned the Our Father clearly has 'less' formation than a thirty year old priest. We talk about people being 'well formed' or who have 'not had much formation'.

I think that allows us to draw the following chart...

I hope I didn't lose you there. Charts like this (usually with distance and time) are a part of GCSE physics (I know, because I recently helped Ella's brother with his revision) but many of you may not have been to school for a while so allow me to explain.

The chart above has two axis, along the horizontal axis we have 'Age' and along the vertical we have 'Formation'. The line traces the amount of formation a typical Catholic might have received according to their age.

At the left hand side you can see young Catholics begin life with no formation and rapidly get lots and lots (hence the steep curve). They are constantly learning hymns and how to pray, about love and friendship, about Noah's ark and Jesus and so on.

As the Chart progresses it levels out. For much of adult life (the right hand end) much less formation happens. I'm not saying that's how it should be, I'm saying that's how it is. For most Catholics, most of their formation occurred when they were a child.

If this were an inspirational blog entry, I would now ask you to break in to groups and talk about what your own chart would look like. Joking aside, I would be interested to see what other people's charts might look like.

Now, I'm going to mark up that chart a little bit...

The Required Formation Line

I spoke earlier about a five year old having less formation than a priest. Somewhere in between I think we can say there is a line that is crossed, a 'level of formation' which is required to get by in life as a Catholic adult. I don't want to get in to a discussion right now about what formation is required for a Catholic to survive in a very hostile secular adult world. The point is, that there is a level of formation required.

The grey line on the chart marks this point. The point where our formation crosses that line and we become mature Catholics, perhaps it happens at confirmation, perhaps not until we are much older. Clearly a child who just completed their first communion preparation is below that line (contraception? what's that?) while one would hope that most adult Catholics are above it. I would suggest that any adult who is below that line is probably going to end up a lapsed Catholic sooner or later.

Think about this for a moment - what level of formation are you at? Are you over this line or under it? What sort of formation do you think a person needs to survive as a Catholic in a hostile secular world?

The Age Line

The vertical blue line on the other hand, marks the age at which a person has to live in the adult world. Don't mistake this line for the age at which a person is an adult. If you are fourteen when your friend turns to you and tells you she is thinking of having an abortion - bang - you have hit that line. For most people I would guess that line is around sixteen (when you can buy beer, have sex and get an abortion) but perhaps for some it is older. Certainly it is getting younger and younger and we are kidding ourselves if we think it is anywhere close to thirty-five.

Again, it might help you to stop and think about your own life. When did you cross that blue line? When did you hit an adult challenge to your faith? How old were you when, for instance, you started taking yourself to Mass?

Limits

The interesting thing is this. The blue age line creates a hard limit by which the grey line needs to be met. If we don't have enough formation to survive in the adult world, by the time we need to live in the adult world - we're going to have problems.

That's the real challenge of youth work, that limit. I'm, sure all of us can think of friends who have hit the wrong line first, perhaps it was us. Maybe they got a boyfriend and had sex before they understood the Churches teaching on human sexuality or maybe they still found mass boring (because they didn't understand it) at an age when they were expected to go to adult masses. Maybe they met an atheist friend with clever arguments... You get the idea...

The two lines form two areas...

I think this chart is really nice because it shows neatly the relationship between youth work and adult formation.

The Two Areas

The yellow area is the shortfall between the formation required to survive and function as a mature Catholic. The youth work exists to make this yellow area as small as possible.

The green area is the extra formation above the bare minimum. Adult formation exists to make this green area as big as possible.

The Adult Formation people, in order to make their area as big as possible, should be grabbing young people as soon as they are over that grey line. If a seventeen year old can cope with a diocesan training day for extraordinary ministers or a talk on the creed, they should be encouraged to go.

The Youth Department, in order to make their area as small as possible, should see the conversion of young people in to young adults as their primary aim. They should be looking at what adult formation are doing and asking "how can we prepare young people for that?

The Two Tasks of Youth Ministry

Diocesan Youth Services, Chaplaincy Teams, Youth Officers, Parish Youth Groups, Youth Masses and Children's Liturgies all exist for only one reason and one reason only: That yellow triangle.

People are not born adults which is why youth ministry exists to achieve two vital goals: Bridging the gap and closing the Gap.

Bridging the Gap

The requirement for bridging the gap is most extreme when we are little children. Little children can't follow readings, can't understand homilies, don't want to keep quiet, need to ask questions. We bridge that gap by giving them children's liturgies - a place where they don't have to keep quiet, can ask questions, get a simple explanation of the readings.

As we get older, the need to bridge the gap should get smaller. Older children can follow readings, though perhaps they struggle to understand the homily and socialise with old people. So we bridge the gap with youth groups where they can socialise with one another and where the priest can preach to their level.

By the time a child is turning in to an adult, the bridge should be getting imperceptibly small. They should be getting better and better at following readings, understanding homilies, socialising with old people and so on. If the bridges are getting bigger and bigger - something is seriously wrong.

Closing the Gap

We can't compensate for the gap forever. We can make the mass simpler, but we can't make the arguments for remaining chaste simpler. We can't ask the atheists to kindly write books with easier arguments in them. Eventually, young people will need to get by as adults.

Closing the gap means forming our young people so that they need less and less bridges. If they find mass boring, we need to teach them to appreciate the mass more for what it is and not for it's entertainment value. If they struggle with the Churches teaching on human sexuality, we need to teach them to understand it.

Closing the gap is vital. Closing the gap means giving young people the formation they need to be confident adult Catholics with a firm grasp of the Catholic faith. Able not to just to understand it, but to appreciate it and live it and want to share it.

What Went Wrong

The above charts were hypothetical. The chart below is, sadly, very real. The chart below shows the formation of, well, pretty much my entire generation and the children in our Catholic schools to this very day...

Firstly. Formation is not continuous - many parishes have no children's liturgies or what they do have is just colouring in sessions, no Catechism classes like the Indian children have. Religious Education in schools is a joke. Formation occurs only in sudden bursts around the time of sacramental preparation. Three times - first communion/confession is the first, confirmation is the second and (for some) marriage preparation is the last.

See that red arrow?

That is the key. Right there. That's what we need to fix. That shortfall.

Formation is totally inadequate. Young Catholics are completely unprepared for adult life. The secular world hits them like a freight train. That shortfall is the reason pretty much everybody I went to school with no longer goes to mass.

That red arrow is their inability to reconcile suffering with an all loving God, it's their inability to understand the Church's teaching on marriage, it's the way they find mass boring (because they don't understand it), it's the way their history is so bad that they read Dan Brown and think 'oooh, how interesting', I always wondered if the Church might have albino assassins.

The Main Problem in Youth Ministry Today

The mistake we have made is simple, we have done everything precisely backwards:

Our bridges (which should be temporary) are permanent.
Our gap closing formation (which should be permanent) is temporary.

Our bridges (children's liturgies, youth groups, simple language, etc) should be temporary. They should be short term things that young people grow out of. Instead, we are attempting to make them permanent. Instead of young people growing up to join the adult world, we are trying to pull down the adult world to meet young people, even when the young people are thirty and have kids of their own.

This is exemplified by the Diocesan Youth Manager who on hearing the Pope lead the Lord's prayer in Latin did not say "we need to be forming young people to deal with this" but instead said that the Pope "came across as exclusive". Better that the entire worldwide Church refrains from using any Latin (a permanent bridging of the gap) than young people are formed to learn a few Latin prayers.

Meanwhile, our formation (which should be formation for life) is temporary. Instead of forming young people so that they can cope with all the challenges ahead, we form them for their first communion so that they can cope with saying "Amen" when the priest says "The Body of Christ". We form them for that but we don't form them for waking up one Sunday morning at university and wondering "Why do I even bother going to Mass?"

Turning Things Around

If we are going to fix youth ministry, we need to literally turn it on it's head.

We need to begin to see bridging the gap as temporary (you can't go to children's liturgy forever) and closing the gap with formation as a permanent. We need to start asking ourselves "okay, so these kids need entertainment during mass, how are we going to make sure that's not still true when they turn eighteen?"

We need to begin to see formation as permanent. Formation needs to stop being a last minute elastoplast job where we teach kids a couple of prayers by rote in the hope that they don't embarrass us too much when they make their first communion. The formation we give today needs to serve our young people for the rest of their lives.

A Quick Example

It's really very simple. When we spot a shortfall in formation (let's imagine young people can't say basic Latin prayers with the Pope) we need to do one of two things.

a) If the young people are really incapable (because they are six, or deaf, or law graduates) then we bridge the gap. Temporarily. While we work towards a time when...

b) If the young people are capable of learning "Hello, My name is John" in French at school then they can probably learn a few Latin prayers as well. Help them to stop depending on the bridge.

So what now?

Two things need to be done. Firstly, We need to find out exactly what that red arrow up there represents. A list could be made of everything from "People find Mass is boring because they don't understand what's going on" to "People disagree with the Church on... [whatever]".

Second - just this: Start making an effort to form our young people so that those problems are no longer problems. If young people find Mass boring, we should be seeing teaching from the youth service on how to help young people appreciate mass for what is it (and not how much fun it is).

I don't really have much to say beyond that. This is supposed to be a blog not a piece of coursework - my final point is this. That people are not falling away from the Church because they don't understand the importance of living simply, they are falling away because they don't understand the mass and because they don't understand Humanae Vitae.

I will be confident that youth work is being done properly when instead of using her space in the Middlesbrough voice to bash Latin, the Youth Manager begins to use it to write articles like "How to get the most out of a boring Mass" or "Why I won't be having sex until I'm married". Heavens, even "I believe in God" would be a start.

As the previous two Popes have pointed out. Young people thrive on challenges. We need to challenge them to (literally) reach for the heavens, to stand up as heroes and saints against the problems the world is going to bring.

As Chesterton observed: It's easy for a dead fish to go with the current, but it takes something alive to go against it.

Let's not repeat the last twenty years all over again. Let's have decent youth ministry that brings our kids up to swim against the current.

Because the current is getting stronger.

Being an agency of the Catholic Bishop's Conference of England and Wales is a pretty big deal. CAFOD (Catholic Agency for Overseas Development) have a big office in London, employ quite a few people and have a definite presence in every Catholic school. CASE (Catholic Agency in Support of Evangelisation) have only been going a couple of years but they already run three web sites and are churning out resources all over the place.

Catholic Youth Services, therefore, is pretty important. They have certainly hindered my life in youth work on many occasions - many times when I have disagreed with something our Youth Office has done, they have come back with "we are following the guidance from Catholic Youth Services".

Imagine my surprise then, when I read this...

Following the closure of the Catholic Youth Services earlier this year, the Bishops of England and Wales have instructed that research is to be carried out to determine the current provision for youth ministry within the Dioceses, and directions for further development. This work will be carried out by an Interim Youth Ministry Co-ordinator under the supervision of Bishop Kieran Conry, within the Bishops' Department of Evangelisation and Catechesis.

[link]

Does anybody else recall the closure of the Catholic Youth Services earlier this year because I didn't. Did they run out of money? Were they closed down for being a big pile of pap? What happened? It's a mystery. Agencies of the Bishop's Conference don't just disapear.

I always said that you could close down Catholic Youth Services and nobody would notice, turns out it's true. Somehow, this year's National Youth Sunday got organised anyway. According to the Reclaimthefuture.org website it was a joint effort by the livesimply network and the youth ministry community in England and Wales.

It raises serious questions for our own Diocesan Youth Service - what exactly are they for?

The pastor of a mega-church says he will challenge married congregants during his sermon Sunday to have sex for seven straight days – and he plans to practice what he preaches.

"We're going to give it a try," said the Rev. Ed Young, who has four children with his wife of 26 years.

Young, 47, said he believes society promotes promiscuity and he wants to reclaim sex for married couples. Sex should be a nurturing, spiritual act that strengthens marriages, he said.

"God says sex should be between a married man and a woman," Young said. "I think it's one of the greatest things you can do for your kids because so goes the marriage, so goes the family."

[link]

Sniggering aside, I agree. Sex belongs to married couples and like the man says... "Sex should be a nurturing, spiritual act that strengthens marriages".

It is not a good thing that sex is widely perceived to be an intrinsically bad thing that the Catholic Church reluctantly allows it's people to enjoy under certain circumstances.

Update: Just noticed that this also answers Fiona's question... How Young is Young? He's 47. Case closed.

Anyways, I thought I would help you pass the time with this wonderful collection of tilt-shift photography - photos of real things taken to look like models. In the olden days you needed a special lens but these days it's all done with computers (I think).

I had a little go myself on the West Hull Parishes...

Update: As Mark correctly surmised in the comments below, I haven't forked out for a helicopter, though I may be forking out some hefty legal bills if I don't credit the source of the Aerial Photos which was Microsoft's Live Search Maps which has a cool 'Birds Eye' view that Google maps/Earth lacks.

http://promise.livesimply.org.uk/LiveChastely

If you have done it. Have you asked somebody else to do it? Huh? Huh?

Very exciting news for anybody who wants to see more evangelisation...

‘Fanning The Flames’: Strategic parish evangelisation training on the largest scale ever

Parish Evangelisation Training 2009

Are you passionate about your faith but feel you need some support in knowing how to share it? Does the word ‘Evangelisation’ conjure up feelings of fear or confusion? Maybe you and your parish would like to take a concrete step and explore starting up an outreach team? Perhaps you’re already doing it and are in need of resources? Wherever you are on your journey, a unique training opportunity is being offered to Catholic parishes during 2009.

The initiative is called ‘Fanning the Flames’ and is being offered by the Catholic Agency to Support Evangelisation (CASE), which is working in partnership with Catholic Evangelisation Services (the creators of the CaFE resources). A full list of training dates will be published in the New Year, and fliers and posters will also be made available.

Mgr Keith Barltrop, Director of CASE, said: “This is a first for England and Wales. Never before has evangelisation training been offered on such a large scale and in such a strategic way. Everyone is welcome to attend an event. Come and be supported in playing your part in home mission, and if you can’t come, please pray for its success. We all have a role in fanning the flames of faith.”

During this Jubilee Year of St Paul which ends in June 2009, the theme of the tour is sourced from one of his letters to Timothy. We read: "That is why I am reminding you now to fan into a flame the gift that God gave you when I laid my hands on you. God's gift was not a spirit of timidity, but the Spirit of power, and love, and self-control. So you are never to be ashamed of witnessing to the Lord ..." (2 Timothy 1: 6-8). In the same vein, it is hoped that the training days will enable people to make active their gifts and give them the practical tools to go out and bear fruit.

Every region in both countries will host an event. The hope is that the venues offered will include a good geographical spread so as to enable as many Catholics as possible to attend an event. Many ‘tour dates’ have already been confirmed and include Gateshead, Nottingham, London, Hull and Portsmouth, amongst others.

Go Hull!

Liesel Detemple, who is the Resources Manager at Catholic Evangelisation Services, said: “What better response could we make to the year that the Church has dedicated to St Paul, than by taking the call to evangelise more seriously. We don’t have to look very far to see that now is the time for mission, and the training days and resources are here to build on what parishes are already doing, as well as enable them to reach out in new and creative ways.”

It is hoped that every parish will send at least four representatives to receive training. A suggested donation to help cover costs is &163;10 per person. To find out more and to register the names of participants from your parish please see: www.caseresources.org.uk; e-mail: info@caseresources.org.uk; tel: 0207 901 4863. Also see: www.faithcafe.org.

[link]

Sounds like a step in the right direction.

My big worry with anything like this is that we drop everything we would have done in order to do this and then it turns out to be pap.

We should all pray really hard that it doesn't turn out to be an attempt by CaFE to hijack CASE and sell more outrageously priced (&163;99 for 3 hours of video) DVDs.

And MAN they are cheesy.

ANGRY Birmingham MP Clare Short today branded her old Catholic school "incredibly rude" after it withdrew a prize-giving invitation because of parents' objections to her stance on abortion.

Ms Short, the now independent MP for Ladywood, was due to have attended her former school, the Catholic St Paul's School for Girls in Edgbaston tomorrow night.

But the invite to the 62-year-old former International Development Secretary, who captured Ladywood for Labour in 1983, has now been scrapped after a group of parents threatened a vigil outside the school gates during the prize-giving event.

When news of the withdrawn invitation was revealed by the Birmingham Mail to Ms Short, she said: "This shows how incredibly rude they are and is the same reason so many Catholic girls cease to be Catholics.

"It is the height of bad manners but I am pleased to have the evening to myself."

No Shorty - The height of bad manners is voting in favour of making it legal to have little babies ripped out of their mothers womb and shredded in to tiny pieces.

The reason so many Catholic girls cease to be Catholics is simple - we stop teaching them about Catholicism when they are six. They are still singing "who put the colours in the rainbow" when they are fourteen and when they turn sixteen we invite pro-abortion MP's to come and give them awards.

Also bad manners, is calling your school "Catholic" and then requiring parents to organise protests before you tell the aforementioned MP to get lost. Once upon a time, a Catholic school was a school that was Catholic, now it seems a Catholic school is one that feels obliged to occasionally humour religious people when they make a fuss (and only if it's a big fuss).

The planned protest was co-ordinated by parent, and mother of ten, Jackie Parkes through her blog on the internet.

Mrs Parkes, 46, who lives in Edgbaston, said: "We found out by letter that Clare Short was being invited to the school to present awards to pupils.

"But it's a Catholic school and Clare Short has a record of voting in favour of abortion. Just because she's an MP, and a former pupil, doesn't make her a good role model.

"I currently have four girls at St Paul's and we are very much into Catholic education."

Mrs Parkes, who has eight daughters and two sons aged eight to 21, said about 20 parents were due to attend the peaceful protest outside the school from 7pm.

She said she was later told by the Oratory Catholic Church in Edgbaston that the invitation to Miss Short had been withdrawn.

"This is a victory for the wishes of parents who felt she shouldn't have been invited," added Mrs Parkes.

As I have said before - Many headteachers and priests literally bully parents and laypeople by abusing their position of authority to claim authority to re-define what it means to be Catholic. A headteacher has no authority to re-define what it means to be a Catholic school. A priest has no authority to re-define the Catholic faith. They have authority only to pass on what is true.

When a layperson stands up for what is right or true, they can expect to be put down with ad hominem arguments. You know the thing "I've been a teacher for 25 years so I think I know better than you" or "You should be less judgemental and have more trust for your priest" etc...

As Jackie Parkes has ably demonstrated. Those people are now dinosaurs. The days of a localised magisterium are coming to a close. It's only when the tide goes out that we find out who is swimming naked. The tide is rapidly going out because the blogs are here.

The people who should have changed their ways because God is watching, will soon find out that the world is watching.

[link to article]

I suggested as I was leaving that perhaps a new set of chalices might be in order to enhance and add even more dignity to the liturgy.

[link]

10am - 4pm
St Mary's, Brigg
Saturday 29th November

Activities, Talks, Mass & Confession, Benediction

Lunch will be a shared table - Tea and Coffee Provided

Telephone: 01652 652221
Email: stmarysbrigg@btinternet.com

But it's a classic...

This dyslexic walks in to a bra...

[chart source]

Step 1: Go to google.com and type in 'catholics come home'. Click the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button...

The "I'm Feeling Lucky" button takes you to the page that Google thinks is the best match for your search. In this case, it's the website of catholicscomehome.org, an American ministry that invites lapsed Catholics back to Church.

Step 2: Go to google.com again, only this time instead of 'come', type 'go', like so...

Remember to click "I'm Feeling Lucky"

Still feeling lucky?

Good eh? Remember - Google is never wrong.

"As the consultation progressed I would ask: 'What are you doing for young people in your community?' and would get the answer: 'Oh we have lots of things for young people.' But when I asked: 'Where are your young people in the Masses?' they would say: 'Didn't you see them? They were behind the pillars or just outside the doors.' But they often meant children because I'd have been there all weekend and more often than not I could count the people in their 20s and 30s who had been in Mass on one hand. Sometimes there were five, or three, or nil over the course of a weekend."

[link]

What he doesn't mention is how many are girls. ¿Dónde está The Men? That's the question...

She made me do it...

Ella's mum's mum came over from Poland during the war. Every now and then we get sent some tasty sausage and yummy asbestos like sweet stuff and little yellow sweets with cows on.

I had no idea it was a special day in Poland. Nobody tells me anything.

If only there were more such places.

This meeting is open. Journalists are allowed in. The minutes are published. You can read the agenda, watch streaming videos of the press conferences and read transcripts of what was said on the Bishop's own website.

In England, the Bishops Conference meetings are held in secret. Why is that?

Just askin'...

"The world is rapidly being divided into two camps, the comradeship of anti-Christ and the brotherhood of Christ. The lines between these two are being drawn. How long the battle will be we know not; whether swords will have to be unsheathed we know not; whether blood will have to be shed we know not; whether it will be an armed conflict we know not. But in a conflict between truth and darkness, truth cannot lose."

She started it...

She writes...

I have prayed on this whole situation, normally I can deal with any adversity, not this one. I question why? God through prayer can grant every gift and blessing, his wisdom also, to allow me to do as I have to with this legal matter.

We are in effect calling upon our massive Catholic family to come forward and help a family member.

I am in no doubt that there is a Catholic whiz in legal matters might even be a Priest. I prayed and so many people have come back to me saying there must be someone in the Catholic community that can help. I do not know how to reach them.

I know there are lawyers who do some work pro bono (for free) - this is a very good cause. If anybody is (or knows of) somebody who may be able to help - please get in touch. If you email me (james@lovingit.co.uk) I can pass your message along.

Can you spot the Roman Catholic Chaplain?

If you must know, it's the guy on the right. It's not really fair of me to make remarks about priests who don't dress like priests based on this one photo. Perhaps he was working in the garden or something when they took that photo.

It would be much fairer, to take a glance at the vestments he chose to wear when Bishop Drainey came to bless the chapel at More House.

I can imagine it now... "The Bishop is coming to bless our chapel, the actual Bishop, successor of the Apostles.. better dig out the posh vestments..."

Oh never mind.

For the first time in almost half a century, Vatican administration staff will clock in for work as part of a clampdown on slackers

...

All Holy See employees will be given magnetic badges and forced to clock in and out in an effort to track their movements and ensure they're working a full day

...

The Holy See, which according to its annual financial statement has 2,748 employees including priests and lay people, has also devised an evaluation system to reward hard workers and punish slackers, the spokesman said. According to the new measures, prolonged absences will result in pay cuts while virtuous employees can benefit from bonuses.

[link]

Reminds me of when I sent off for an application form for the recent youth worker position...

Diocese of Middlesbrough Youth Office Working Practices

1. An email outlining the week's work will be sent on Monday morning from Youth Workers to the Youth Manager. On Friday, a further email detailing the success of the work will be sent.

2. Written records detailing contents of all sessions undertaken by the Youth Service members should be sent, either electronically or by surface mail, once a week to the Youth Office. They can then be used by lay leaders and form an audit trail for the Trustees of the work undertaken.

3. Regular email or telephone contact is to be maintained between the Youth Workers and the Youth Manager.

4. All members of the Youth Service will complete the Youth Service weekly log sheet and send copies to the Youth Office.

5. There will be regular meetings...

It goes on...

I am particularly interested in the phrase "They can then be used by lay leaders." How do lay leaders set about getting hold of these "Written records detailing contents of all sessions undertaken by the Youth Service members"?

It's been at least year now since Ella and Michelle filled in forms as parish youth volunteers and sent them off to the Youth Service giving their contact information so they could be kept up to date with what is going on.

So far they have heard nothing.

At what point does the word slackers become appropriate?

"appeal to children to think for themselves; to look at the evidence. Always look at the evidence" - Richard Dawkins

What I continue to find fascinating is the way Richard Dawkins continuously makes appeals to our freedom to think freely. As far as I can see, our intellectual freedom is the most convincing evidence for spiritual reality that we have.

Richard Dawkins says...

"I am very comfortable with the idea that we can override biology with free will. Indeed, I encourage people all the time to do it."

"...Free will is a very difficult philosophical question and it's not one that has anything to do with religion..."

"I'm not interested in free will."

[link]

But I can only really see two options:

No Free Will - If there is no free will then we can't, as Dawkin's puts it "override biology with free will". Without free will we are simply highly evolved meat machines following the rules of biology. Under one set of physical conditions we will murder our wife, under another set we won't. It's out of our control. If a man does something "wrong" we can't blame him, it's not his fault. Physics did it.

Free Will - If there is free will then we can "override biology with free will". But think about what that means for a moment. Under one set of physical conditions we would have murdered our wife but we can choose not too, under another set we wouldn't have murdered out wife but we can choose to do so. Free will means that man has the power to defy the laws of physics. It means that man is more than a machine. It means that man is a miracle.

GK Chesterton says...

This is the real fact. You cannot live without dogmas about these things. You cannot act for twenty-four hours without deciding either to hold people responsible or not to hold them responsible. Theology is a product far more practical than chemistry.

[link]

It doesn't matter if we take a Newtonian deterministic view where the world is like a snooker table and if we know the position and speed of all the balls then we can predict what happens next (in which case, our minds are not free, they are as predictable as balls on a snooker table) or if you take a Quantum mechanical view where the world is a bit crazy and has apparently random phenomena (in which case, our minds are not free, our choices are random).

Even unknown unimaginable sci-fi scientific discoveries of the future - if they involve 'stuff' (particles, snooker balls, fields, whatever) that follows rules (e.g. if science can say anything about them) then that's not free will. That's stuff following rules.

Free will cannot be explained scientifically. Every act of free will requires some exemption from the laws of physics.

If free will isn't a natural biological phenomenon, what is it? A supernatural phenomenon? A spiritual phenomenon?

It has everything to do with religion.

Reminds me of this...

Welcome to the youth service section of the Diocese of Middlesbrough website.

...

Please read the following Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy. By using this site you agree to be legally bound by them.

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By visiting this blog you have agreed to send me miiiiilions of dollars.

Mwah ha ha.

Or not.

Every blogger has been there and if they haven't, they will (if they are blogging properly)...

But you went public! Duh! The letter to my 12 year old lands on our mat at half term while we were minding our own business & we were shocked to see Clare Short's name. Am I mistaken...but isn't Ms Short a Public Figure? Or is she coming in Privately? I'm absolutely furious about this (Sr to me), me..to tell you the truth we're equally furious over this. But you could have come & ...me..but you could have NOT invited her in the first place. Sr..we had a great conference in the spring..me..I know Sr..it's at the top of my blog...Sr..oh blogs..I haven't got time for them.

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What is it about Priests and Teachers etc who think they can run things that directly affect hundreds of people and then their misdeeds (not mistakes, intentional misdeeds) be kept a private secret and everybody will ask them things privately and accept what they are told and not question anything.

Bullies is what I call them.

Big fish in little ponds who get away with being their own miniature pope's with "I spent years in seminary so I think I know more than you..." or "I've been teaching twenty-five years..."

Well the blogs are here. The ponds just filled up and merged in to one. The big fish ain't looking so big any more. Bullies don't operate so well when everybody is watching.

Anyway, a big well done to Jackie Parkes whose daughter got a letter in the middle of half term informing her that Clare Short (pro-abortion MP) would be coming to give out awards at her Catholic school (Jackie has four girls at the school). Catholic Hero Mum of 10 is kicking up a storm, she's even had a letter from Clare Short though it's even less impressive than the letter I got from Alan Johnson.

I think Jackie deserves our support, we can help by sending polite emails to the School at: enquiry@stpaulgl.bham.sch.uk.

It will only take a few seconds. In my short email, I told them that I've heard they are inviting Clare Short to give out awards, that I know about her pro-abortion voting record (she also voted for the recent HFE bill) and that I do not think it appropriate for her to be held up as a role model for young girls.

I don't think a rant is required... they just need to know that people have noticed. Let me know in the comments if you receive a reply.

What is a Facilitation Course and who do they expect to go to it when it's from Monday 9am until Tuesday 5pm with an overnight stay?

Where is this Liturgy Training Day, Hull and who do they expect to go to it when it's on a Tuesday from 9.30am until 12.30pm (that's not a day)?

Perhaps if they actually spoke to the people run youth groups they might discover that we have jobs.

(Yeah, so I could be nicer, but they don't speak to the nice youth group leaders either...)

Impatient people should skip to about 40 seconds.

Ignore the chairs. This is a photo from just before Bishop Drainey's ordination, he doesn't usually sit directly in front of the altar during mass.

No, I don't like the ugly cross either. Still - at least it's a cross and not once of those weird resurrection statue things where Christ appears to be sort of flying off the wall. Yes, I know that Pope Benedict has upgraded his ugly cross for a much nicer once but Bishop Drainey has been busy and I'm sure he's working on it.

Spot the Tabernacle? Me neither. That's because it's in it's own special chapel. It's the latest thing (if by 'latest thing' you mean 'it was hip in the seventies').

Anyway... what you will have spotted is the awful unspeakably ugly puke dribbling down the wall. Since Pope Benedict has recently got rid of his ugly alien altar. I thought it might be fun to speculate... if Bishop Drainey were to get rid of his ugly puke wall, what might he replace it with?

It shouldn't be too expensive to get a large format print of some decent art and paste it over the top. A Pantocrator might be good. How about this one from Cefalu...

It shouldn't offend anybody because it hasn't got any sort of crucifixion in it. Alternatively, you could go 'Last Judgement'. I like this one from the Duomo in Florence:

Lovely. I particularly like the way it has religion in it.

Of course, if money is a problem, they could always go for the St Joseph's, West Hull look (paint the wall white and stick a cross on it):

In all honesty though, anything would be better than what we have at the moment. Even a picture from the front of a department store in Hull...

That's right, there's more religious symbolism on BHS than on Middlesbrough Cathedral. I reckon you could have someone actually puke on the wall and it would be an improvement. At least then it would be sacred art... what with our our humanity being our divinity and all that.

Don't forget to enjoy my fruity comic strip on the origin of the Middlesbrough Reredos.