Author: Halldór Guðmundsson

Manneskjan og/eða kerfið

Árið eftir að ég hætti störfum sem framkvæmdastjóri ÆSKR (Æskulýðssambands kirkjunnar í Reykjavíkurprófastsdæmum), notaði ég mikið af tíma mínum í lestur og skrif um persónuleikabresti, velti upp spurningum hvað það merkti að kirkjan væri öllum opin og að allir væru velkomnir. Brennipunkturinn í vangaveltum mínum var mjög einstaklingsbundin og undir sterkum áhrifum einstaklingshyggju pietismans. Continue reading Manneskjan og/eða kerfið

Manneskjan og/eða kerfið

Árið eftir að ég hætti störfum sem framkvæmdastjóri ÆSKR (Æskulýðssambands kirkjunnar í Reykjavíkurprófastsdæmum), notaði ég mikið af tíma mínum í lestur og skrif um persónuleikabresti, velti upp spurningum hvað það merkti að kirkjan væri öllum opin og að allir væru velkomnir. Brennipunkturinn í vangaveltum mínum var mjög einstaklingsbundin og undir sterkum áhrifum einstaklingshyggju pietismans. Continue reading Manneskjan og/eða kerfið

A mixed up (and messed up) understanding

It is useful here to make a distinction between confidentiality and secrecy. A commitment to secrecy is a commitment never, under any circumstance, to share the information in question. This commitment on the part of the priest is inherent in a sacramental confession. Confidentiality, on the other hand, means holding information in trust and sharing it only in the interest of the person involved — with their permission, or in order to seek consultation with another professional, or in order to protect others from being harmed. The ethic of confidentiality is intended to assist people in getting help for their problems; it is not intended to prevent people from being held accountable for their harmful actions or to keep them from getting the help they need. Continue reading A mixed up (and messed up) understanding

Hið Heilaga Ísland

Frábært innlegg um aðskilnað ríkis og kirkju. Að öllu leiti mjög vel unnið og greinargott. Eina athugasemdin sem ég hef er að eitthvað segir mér að eignir lúthersku kirkjunnar í upphafi 20. aldar séu ekki endilega jafn tengdar við eignir katólsku kirkjunnar fyrir siðbreytingu eins og séra Hjörtur Magni heldur fram. En ég er reyndar ekki sérfræðingur um meintar eignir kirkjunnar í upphafi 20. aldar.

via vantru.is frá Hið Heilaga Ísland on Vimeo.

Að gleðjast með skaparanum

Mig langar að lesa úr Litla Prinsinum eftir Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

– Stjörnurnar eru ekki eins fyrir alla. Fyrir suma sem ferðast eru stjörnurnar leiðarljós. Fyrir aðra eru þær ekkert nema smáljós. Fyrir aðra sem eru lærðir eru þær viðfangsefni. Fyrir kaupsýslumanninn minn voru þær gull. En allar þessar stjörnur eru þöglar. Fyrir þig verða stjörnurnar öðruvísi en fyrir alla aðra… Continue reading Að gleðjast með skaparanum

Confidentiality in the Church

From the article Confidentiality in the Church: What the Pastor Knows and Tells, by D. Elizabeth Audette.

A recent survey I conducted of 300 Congregational clergy and laity uncovered some assumptions about confidentiality. No members of the group articulated ecclesial or theological grounds for their assumptions. Continue reading Confidentiality in the Church

Death of British Christianity

Britain is now the most irreligious country on earth. This island has shed superstition faster and more completely than anywhere else. Some 63 percent of us are non-believers, according to an ICM study, while 82 percent say religion is a cause of harmful division.

through orvitinn.com from The slow, whiny death of British Christianity : Johann Hari.

How To Downgrade your iPhone 3G

Many of its marquee features aren’t compatible with our two-year-old handsets anyway—no multitasking, no nifty orientation lock, not even background wallpaper. And worst of all, it hobbles our once-functional phones until they’re near-useless. Apps crash, or they’re teeth-pullingly slow to open. Download speeds are so slow we feel like we’re back on dialup.

from How To Downgrade your iPhone 3G to iOS 3.1.3 | Mac|Life via John Kalis on Facebook.

Why I Hang in There

I hang in there for several reasons. First, if I want to be affiliated with any group of human beings, sooner or later I will be associated with bigotry, intolerance, violence, stupidity, and pride. In fact, even if I stand alone, distancing myself from every other group, I know that within me there are the seeds of all these things. So there’s no escaping the human condition.

Second, if I were to leave to join some new religion that claims to have – at last! – perfected the way of being pristine and genuine through and through, we all know where that’s going to lead. There’s one thing worse than a failed old religion: a naïve and arrogant new one. In that light, maybe only religions that have acknowledged and learned from their failures have much to offer.

From My Take: Why I support Anne Rice but am still a Christian – Religion – CNN.com Blogs.

Sóley og félagar

Markmið félagsins er að styðja við starfsemi systur Victo sem hefur opnað faðm sinn fyrir heimilislausum börnum í Togo. Hún rekur barnaheimili í bænum Aneho í Togo, auk þess sem hún styður skólagöngu skjólstæðinga sinna og liðsinnir þeim sem eldri eru við að koma undir sig fótunum með því að styrkja menntun þeirra og styðja
þau út í atvinnulífið.

sjá nánar Sóley og félagar.

Leaving ELCA (or not)

Out of 10.230 congregations in ELCA, 199 have already taken two votes and decided to leave ELCA due to its decision at Church Wide Assembly 2009. When this is written 136 are in the process of making the second vote to leave after having passed the first. This means that in case all of the 136 decide to leave, ELCA has decreased in number of congregations by 3.2%.

What would be an interesting statistics in comparison with this number, is the number of members that have left. My assumption is that congregations that are most likely to leave are on average larger than those that stay. This is of course only a feeling, based on only one example (UALC) and a gut feeling about the nature of congregations. Of course I might be wrong.

based on pretty good lutherans » Blog Archive » ELCA by-the-numbers and numbers from the ELCA site.

Brain Theory

The term “triune brain” describes three levels of the brain; the reactive brain (brainstem), the feeling brain (limbic), and the thinking brain (neo-cortex). When anxiety arises the reactive brain takes over, and we become more instinctive in our action.

This understanding of the brain plays a role in Bowen’s Family Systems Theory, which focuses on being “less-anxious” presence (the correct phrase is “non-anxious presence,” but we are only non-anxious when we are dead), attempting to allow the thinking brain to function even when the anxiety in the surroundings is running high.

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke offers a good overview of the brain on their website, called Brain Basics: Know Your Brain.

Spiritual formation: a family matter

In his article “Spiritual formation: a family matter,” C. Ellis Nelson writes about spiritual formation in light of Shemá.

Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.  Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deut 6.4-9)

Nelson emphasizes that if God is not part of an upbringing in a household, “children will, under ordinary circumstances, either fashion a private idea of God, become unaware of God’s existence, or consider God unimportant.” Direct teaching by some kind of religious institution or authority can not substitute for the family in this regard. Nelson claims:

Direct teachings about God are important but what is taught can get split off from the events of daily life. If this happens, then the children may begin to develop a legalistic, obey-the-rules type of relation to God or a dogmatic, I-know the-truth style of religion.

Relational Youth Ministry

Andrew Root’s article “Reexamining Relational Youth Ministry: Implications from the Theology of Bonhoeffer” is an excellent reminder that youth ministry should not be about creating a place of influence but a place of sharing. The question the church must ask according to Root is:

Will we seek to hire young, magnetic individuals who can use relationships as a means to an end, or will we, all of us (youth workers, volunteers, and congregation members), bravely take the initiative to walk into the center of adolescents’ deepest sufferings and joys, standing with and for them, sharing their place? In this way relationships are an end, the concrete presence of Christ in the world.

Word & World –  Summer 2006.

Organizing Armageddon

The most persistent systemic problem with big international aid efforts, one highlighted in virtually every major study, is that no one is in charge. In a major catastrophe, thousands of high-minded, highly motivated folks pour in from all over the world. Each big agency has its own style and priorities, and each sets up its own supply chain of planes, ships, and trucks. They compete with one another for resources, duplicate one another’s efforts, and generally get in one another’s way.

from Organizing Armageddon: What We Learned From the Haiti Earthquake via Derek Hoven.

What is not mentioned in the article, and is even more catastrophic is the fact that very few of those aid efforts utilize and work with locals, allowing the locals to participate in the decision-making process.  This is perhaps best understood by the fact that no Haitian is addressed in the article except for the negative image of a muscular man stalling the Red Cross in their effort to deliver food.