A hidden message for Easter?
It's Easter! A time for new things, and prompted by the latest Media Guardian podcast, a time for someone in communications, albeit church communications, to try blogging. Apparently we've all got to do it, otherwise we are being 'lazy'! That's a challenge I simply can't duck.
So here goes. Just a brief biog first ... John Carter, eight years in BBC radio, ten years a parish priest and nine years almost as a fullfime press officer for, of all things, the Church of England, which, let's be honest, get's more than it's fair share of bad press. If you've done the maths let me also say I think I look young for my years.
Church in a spin, is intended to be provocative, and attract people idly searching through google for words like 'church', 'spin' - and, I suppose, 'in a'. I'm going to stray from the party line frequently, get critical and sometimes angry. And I'm going to post about once a week I suppose unless demand increases..
Behind the bishops
Today, Good Friday, I'm feeling a little bit annoyed with some of my fellow church 'spin doctors'. Most dioceses (and the Church of England is divided into 43 of them) have one - a communications officer or press officer. We all get on like a house on fire (erm hem) and have online discussions every day. But this week, we've been having an online spat about Bishop's easter sermons of all things. Would you like to know what the Bishop of - lets say Riponshire- is going to say this Sunday? Would you be interested if he was going to support Dan Brown, or proclaim the Gospel of Judas as a new revelation, or defect to Rome? I know I would-- though of course they won't say any of these things and will stick to the core two thousand year old message of resurrection hope and new life. Despite this, the Sunday Times among other organs, is still interested, and seeking to get a clue about what some of our bishops will say - and then make it sound interesting. Yet, suddenly there's the sound of drawbridges being raised, phones left off the hook and evasive humming and harring.
Now call me naive and old fashioned, but we have a gospel to proclaim, don't we? I wish Christopher Morgan would ring me. I mean, I don't actually know what my own diocesan bishop will be preaching - and he will be doing it thousands of miles away in Sri Lanka - but you'd have thought if the Sunday Times really was looking for something controversial, it would come to the bishop who is allegedly one of the more liberal in the CofE. And I could make something up. (No, you didn't hear me say that). Yet, as I sit here, the phone steadfastly refuses to ring. I'm very disappointed.
I did get a call from the Sunday programme on radio 4, earlier this week, but that was it. Maybe there's a religious journalist's email list where they say things like, 'don't bother with that one, its just the usual 'easter is more than just bunnies and eggs' children's talk - nothing there on the Da Vinci Code, or even Judas.' Come to think of it, there probably is. But more than that, I'm a bit disappointed that, when you've got a chance to talk to a wider audience about the most important day in the Christian calendar, you get all coy about it. Has the church lost the plot? Have we taken our eye off the ball? Answers on a postcard please!
posted by John Carter @ 8:00 am
1 Comments:
I found your blog very informative and educational are the bishops really being that snooty about Dan Brown et al. You could say that the new interest in the biblical scene is a plus for the church albeit a sideswipe at the New Testament and the established church. At least it got people reaching for their bibles again if only to check historical references etc. At the basest of levels it illuminates the scriptures and it fleshes out the characters that most of the readers had forgotten since childhood. It isn't going to create a new movement to the church on sundays but the bishops should put in their oar and join in the discussion otherwise the more sensationalist reader will cry conspiracy.
Also do the bishops or their staff think their Easter message is going to change the world and to leak it is tantamount to leaking state secrets. maybe they should get out more.
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