The thing about blogging is that most people still don't understand its power yet. It is power sufficient to make new networks or break a traditional organisation.
The church that I work in has always been an early adopter of technology – electic light, organ etc all arrived here before they arrived anywhere else. Predictably, they took on someone who was into internet technologies, resulting in an early church website (not a website about the early church, don't be silly!) and what I think was probably the first blog in the Scottish Episcopal Church. (I'd be interested to be proved wrong about this).
I've always held that the net is about people not information. Blogging has the power to bind such interesting networks that I am surprised that some still have to be told what it is. I know that my sermons and daily posts are read from coast to coast in Scotland and in the US too. Who can do that without the net?
Most blogs are drivel, of course. But that is the point. Once you find someone you know or someone who writes about something you are interested in, you are already an insider.
I cannot remember who it was who realised the potential for political blogging by posing the question “Could a blogger become [US] President?” Perhaps it was www.andrewsullivan.com – I don't know. What is the equivalent question in the church today – “Could a blogger become a bishop?” or “Could a bishop become a blogger?”
Re: Blogging
I'm sure there will be a blogging Bishop in the not too distant future – one who has a thing about blogging hats – and the blogging head to fit!
Blogging is brave though- might even be brave enough to try it some time
Re: Blogging
From an ECUSA perspective, I suspect that it would be much easier for a blogger to become a bishop than for a bishop to become a blogger. If a bishop hasn’t developed the discipline of writing regularly for an audience before becoming bishop, s/he’ll have a hard time starting it amidst all of the other demands of the office. On the other hand, I can see a longtime blogger being elected bishop of a diocese in part because the people of the diocese feel they know the blogger better than other non-blogging candidates. Of course, that could also be a liability. In my own experience of blogging, I know that I sometimes say things that are less polished or considered on my blog than I’d say in an academic paper or a sermon. If delegates electing a bishop are comparing one candidates’ blog to other candidates’ paper publications, they may judge the blogger more harshly, especially if they’re not familiar with Internet conventions.
BTW, I really enjoy your blog. I first got to know Anglicanism when I was living in Scotland, and I was confirmed at St. John’s Edinburgh when +Neville Chamberlain was rector. I miss Scotland and the church there a great deal, and appreciate being able to visit via thurible.net.
Re: Blogging
On LiveJournal we post rather then blog – although it’s the same thing, I know… – so perhps one day we might have a Posting Pope?!!
(and I still find it scary and exciting that people across the globe read my daily ramblings)