"Reconsider Ordination Now"?

Over on his Beliefnet blog "The New Christians," Tony Jones, the former National Coordinator of Emergent Village, recently made a series of posts on his frustrations with church bureaucracy and ordination. Touched off when a friend of his was refused ordination for a second time and Tony proposed an 'extra-denominational' ordination), the blog posts continued into an examination of the institution of ordination.

In "Reconsider Ordination Now", Jones links to the response of his friend John D'Elia, the pastor of the American Church in London. Jones responds to the response, and in further posts shares an (anti-) ordination sermon he preached at a friends ordination service, responses to feedback on these posts from his readers, and a brief history of ordination in the early church.

Whether one agrees with Tony's final conclusions or not, these posts are a thoughtful and thought-provoking series. What do you think? Is all right with ordination, or do we need to rethink our systems (and the reasons behind them) from the ground up?

You can find all these posts in Tony's May archives here.

"Crystals versus Christ"?
"Spiritual, but not religious" is the way many people describe themselves (perhaps you are one of them). In an article from this past January in BBC's online news magazine, Jolyon Jenkins takes a look at a couple of different approaches by the Church of England (aka the Anglican church) to see if people who describe themselves this way can find a home in Christianity. Mark Berry is an Anglican missionary in Telford, UK who doesn't consider himself an evangelist. Originally sent to Telford because it has one of the lowest church-going rates in Britain, Berry runs a small church out of his home, attends psychic fairs, and tries to connect with people are spiritual seekers.

Ven. Bob Jackson is taking a different approach. Citing a survey reporting that "there are about three million people in this country who would consider going to church if only someone invited them," Jackson wants to focus on making established churches more inviting. Enter the "Fresh Expressions" program, which Jackson refers to as the church's quot;R&D department...aimed at finding new forms of church for those reluctant to set foot in a traditional building."

Check out the story at here.

"Carrie Prejean, God's Prophet or Porn Star?"
Some will remember the kerfuffle a few weeks back over Miss California (Carrie Prejean) and her answer to a question at the Miss USA beauty pageant. When asked by a judge whether she thought gay marriage should be legal, she responded: "I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman." Although the furor over the episode has largely died down, Paula Cooley over at Religion Dispatches revisits it to examine some of the theology behind some of Prejean's religious right defenders.

Cooley's article does come close to being a polemic - putting Prejean in the role of presumptuous spokesperson - which seems from the facts presented in the article to be unfair. It does, however, also make an important point - the apparent moral and theological hypocrisy of those who condemn gay marriage, but think nothing of making women sexual objects for public consumption. As the author puts it, this is "shrouding sexual titillation and drooling voyeurism with the patina of beauty and virtue." What the reader is left with is a thought-provoking, if problematic, discussion of some true theological and moral blind spots.

To make up your own mind about the merits of Cooley's argument, check out her article here.