Cheers Mark - Good point! I think that there is a danger that we separate the body and the spirit and neglect the earthly body. Body is more than a carrier of the spirit. Bodily resurrection yes, but what does that look like? Is it this body - or a perfectified version of it? Is it a new body? Christ's resurrected body was similar yet different from his earthly body, both recognised and unrecognised. Maybe ours will be similar yet different, and within that there is a newness about them to. Which I'm pleased about as this ingrowing toenail has been hurting for about six months now...

Hi Alan, thanks for the post. Perhaps I was over zealous in deleting all your comments, I felt your last few were personal and not constructive and hence I deleted them all. Ben

and you two too! b

Thanks Karen, it's a bit dark.

lol - okay a bit of hyperbole there...

thanks Charlie!

I will have a look! Cheers Paul.

or we're all a tad stuck and inaccurate!

alan, I welcome critique but if there is use of foul language then I delete it.

hey andrew, hope you're doing okay! I use ScribeFire its okay but could do with a spell checker...

It may encourage 'them', or they may roll their eyes and be turned off for the rest of their lives. Of course there is space for everyone. The redemption of the charts is, I would suggest, a sub-plot...We do need to be reminded of hope at Easter. I'm not disputing that. This just feels like 'if we throw enough cr*p some of it is bound to stick...' ;-)

yeah that'll be echo then! Obviously, quickly typed notes so the nuances of what the ABS was saying re edges centre are not in here. A ful transcript and maybe audio file will be on the FX site early next week.

Very Good! That's truly a compliment coming from Fielding! Of course you're very welcome to use them. hope you're doing okay. b

Hi Cheryl, yeah what's the name of the book with the papers in? b

My thinking is that there needs to be a space in which the conversation can happen. Synods, no are not the place for that, bit listening to one anothers stories is vitally important. I think that as soon as we start to polarise then we angle for a fight. I hope that the church is a space to listen to one another, that's when opionions are changed rather than fighting one another with our right opinions. I hope that the church creates a space to listen to stories, rather than dogma, i need to listen to the stories of FOCA and they need to listen to my stoies. This is what I mean by debate - maybe I should have used the word dialogue - as that is a more acurate description of what i mean. btw I'm always hopefully naive! I think of it as a good trait!

Hi Ric Firstly, I think that the situation in Uganda in not one for debate, the laws need opposing and I wish that the archbishops would say something about it. Secondly, I may be wrong and society is more tolerant that I think it is. I know that in the circles that I move, social-liberal, educated types then there is no debate. I'm just not sure that this is the universal view point. I'm just looking for ways of engaging with those who's views will be less tolerant. Happy Christmas! Ben

it's not my thought...i nicked it! Read Beyond Homelessness by Walsh and Bouma-Prediger - esp. chapter on Postmodern homelessness

cid's name is latty not latte! but close enough...

Interesting been thinking about the consumerist one a bit today. I'm not really a fan of contrasting FE with the parish system, it has the danger of idealising one at the expense of the other. BTW - did you get into beautifulpeople.com

The book is based on sound quantative studies, with this conclusion coming from the disparity between the fact that between 1950 and 1980 there was a 68% rise in the happiness that teenagers said that they felt but there were increasing levels of anxiety, depression and other symptom of unhappiness during this time. What was the cause of that? The authors claim that we have an unhealthy self-esteem or threatened egotism and that one way to cope with this is to promote a level of happiness that is not really there. They compare Japan with the USA, (Japan being the most equal and USA the most unequal in rich market economies) they claim that in Japan people are far more likely to me self-critical and put there success down to the other factors rather than themselves. Whereas in the USA people are more likely to attribute individual successes to their own ability... One issue that I have with the study is that it is so western...

I don't think it's bad but i have a concern when our identity is so fragile that we need to big ourselves up. Surely our identity and our security should be in God. It's also that whole I wanna be a christian celebrity thing which really winds me up, I can't see how that is glorifying to anyone other than self, and I see in Jesus a person that always pointed away from himself to the father. I think that we're called to be signposts and far to often we can't point to ourselves rather God.

Andrew - I struggle with it to! I think that I'd prefer to hide my light that embarrassingly self-promote...I think it's simply about keeping that inner check on ourselves and being aware of it. Janet - I know who that is!!!