Church in a spin

I see Stephen Bates is still at it …the now non-religious correspondent is on page 2 of today’s Grauniad sounding off about the Archbishop of Canterbury and claiming he has been thrown into a political controversy thanks to his remarks in a Muslim magazine. You have to get three quarters of the way through the piece to discover that this political controversy amounts to a blogger in America called Katherine who didn't like what he reportedly said. Gosh. Rowan must be worried.

Guardian editors were, of course, probably a bit piqued to see the story on the Sunday Times’ front page when it had been totally missed on Saturday’s Guardian or in Sunday’s Observer, its sister paper. We know SB doesn’t think much of the ABC but the worst he does here is accuse the ST of selective reporting. Gosh again. The Grauniad would never do that. (I like it really.)

I was doing the Sunday Paper review on the newly crowned local radio station of the year yesterday. Yes BBC Radio Leeds has won the award again for its lively and informative approach. Whether the slot from 8am to 8.30am was lively and informative I leave the listeners to judge but we certainly romped through seven or eight stories including both of the main religious stories – the Archbishop of Canterbury, and more interestingly the one on the front page of the Sunday Telegraph about Tony Blair and his decision not to go pubic on his faith because people would think he was a ‘nutter’.

Richard Staples was also keen to talk about Borders and their ‘O Come All Ye Faithless’ cards (see previous blog), and I found I had revised my views a bit. As an ironic commentary on Richard Dawkins and his dismal faithlessness, the cards have grown on me a bit. I’m seeing them now as a bit of a send-up, knowingly and humorously shooting themselves in the foot – though that’s after I’ve had time to think about them and discuss them on the radio. Maybe I’m being a bit too sophisticated.

Still trying to get my Power Point presentation together for the gathering of DC’s (Diocesan Commmunicators) in London on December 6th. I’ve been searching the interweb for hours in an attempt to get hold of the excellently produced Caritas TV adverts to download, but so far nothing. I did however manage to download, edit and embed an interview with the head of the Vatican website, a Sister Judith Zoebelein. Remarkable woman - she has been in that post since 1995. Ive had to keep it to a minute or so, but if you watch the whole thing (see it here) its quite funny when they get onto the subject of Second Life – clearly some confusion, not helped by the French student who is asking the question but quite enlightening.

The website itself still looks like it did ten years ago and appears to have been created in the dark ages, and with a staff of 17 (‘not enough’ according to Sister Judith) you’d think they’d have done something about the design. Several people I met in Rome were a bit despairing of the site, but although it's a bit dull on the outside, it's quite sophisticated once you get into it. Sort of like the Da Vinci Code in reverse.