electronic fellowship Posts

Lazy guy I am, I'm going to cut-and-paste a comment I left over at Rich the Brooklyn Quaker's blog in response to his post What This Christian Is Looking For In Quakerism. There's been quite a good discussion in the comments. In them Rich poses this analogy:

During the Great Depression and World War II, I have been told that Franklin Roosevelt rallied the spirits of the American people with his "fireside chats". These radio broadcasts communicated information, projected hope, and called for specific responses from his listeners; including some acts of self-sacrifice and unselfishness... Often people would gather in small groups around their radios to hear these broadcasts, they would talk about what Roosevelt had said, and to some extent they were guided in their daily lives by some of what they had heard.

On electronic fellowships, online magazines and the freedom of this patchwork of independent cross-linked blogs: "Maybe the web's form of hyperlinking is actually superior to Old Media publishing. I love how I can put forward a strong vision of Quakerism without offending anyone--any put-off readers can hit the "back" button. With my Subjective Guide to Quaker Blogs and my On the Web posts I highlight the bloggers I find particularly interesting, even when I'm not in perfect theological unity. I like that I can have discussions back and forth with Friends who I don't exactly agree with. I have nothing to announce, no clear plan forward and no money to do anything anyway. But I thought it'd be interesting to hear what others have been thinking along these lines."

If you can get past the trendy phrases, there's some interesting ideas in Small Ritual - Network and portfolio church on Steve Collin's website. There are a lot of link-minded fellowships among Friends these days, held together by email and regular gatherings. For many these connections are more important that their local meetings. I'm a big fan of localism even though so much of my life is conducted with friends I rarely see face-to-face. I certainly relate to the angst he describes and am intrigued by the suggestion that both are possible:

We end up in a state of angst over whether we are 'local' enough and whether we shouldn't be trying harder to make 'local community', all the while devaluing the actual relationships and communities we operate in - somehow not counting them as 'real' or as arenas for the Gospel because they're not local or are mediated electronically.

Don't miss What would Jesus Wear and Spiritual Signage posts on the same site. Found via Jordan Cooper--he has good commentary on this too .