I AM The Children's Formation Officer

So much for the "year of discernment." So much for mentoring. So much for our input. The Associate Program Officer Trainees have pretty much settled into the positions that will be ours when the "Trainee" gets dropped from our job titles.

Actually, they've pretty much dropped it already. Note the two versions of my job title, here (and where, I would like to know, is the new picture I submitted to replace this 6 1/2 year-old one?) and here.

So, if I am the the Associate Program Officer for Children's Formation, and I'm being held accountable as an Associate Program Officer, then I'm just going to operate accordingly. The Center Director freely acknowledges that she knows virtually nothing about Christian Formation, which means she relies on me when it comes to children and the Church. I AM the subject matter expert.

Peace,
Jeff

Election Humor

These three pictures have been circulating around the Internet over the last week, and probably longer. The bottom one I saw for the first time last night. I'm surprised someone didn't forward it to me earlier, knowing my interest in all things Oz...

Peace,

Jeff

Point-And-Click Eucharist

On Friday I picked up this week's copy of Newsweek at a newsstand in Grand Central Terminal to read on the train home. Some weeks I pick up Time. As I started to peruse the issue, I was stopped by the title "Click in Remembrance of Me," with a picture of a priest holding up a communion wafer as if before an altar. The focus of the article is "communion on line," and it highlighted one web site.

The Rev. Thomas Madron's holycommunionontheweb.com features a service that can be done at any time.

The other celebrant named in the article was Zeph Daniel. I googled him and looked at his pates. I thought they were just plain weird. Nor was his site the only one I found that I thought was weird.

That doesn't mean I don't think there might be some merit to exploring the concept. Nor will it be the only blending of ceremony and technology that our culture looks at, if Phyllis Tickle's concept of the church re-forming itself has validity, which I think it does. More about that when I've finished reading her The Great Emergence.

In the meantime, go take a look for yourself.

Peace,
Jeff