forgiveness
I have been reading AnneDroid lately, a prison chaplain who blogs at Get Out Of Jail Free.
There is some great stuff on her site, including this really good post on Forgiveness - in a few short paragraphs she sums up some of the most profound truths about forgiving wrongdoing, what forgiveness is, what it isn’t, what are the limits and its freedoms.
Bitterness is more than just a negative outlook on life. It’s a very destructive and self-destructive power. It’s just like a dangerous, poisonous mould or spore because it thrives in the dark recesses of the heart and feeds on every new thought of spite or hatred that comes our way…
…On the other hand, forgiveness is a door to peace and happiness. It is a small, narrow, hard-to-find door, and can’t be entered without stooping humbly. But no matter how long the search, it can be found and it has the potential to lead to the most amazing freedom.
Forgiving has absolutely nothing to do with human fairness…
But it does mean making a conscious decision to stop hating, because hating can never help…
She also has a recommendation for further reading, always good. Go read!
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Maggi has kept a blog since September 2003, writing about theology and faith, the arts and literature, and a little about life and random nonsense...
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Have you asked the archbishops whether they or their staffs follow any of the blogs? Does what is happening in the blogosphere have any effect on how Lambeth & York view themselves? There are plenty of blogs that would be a waste of their time, certainly, but are there any ones they would/do truly value, and if so, why?
Related question: What constructive role can the blogosphere play in the “Windsor Process”?
To answer the first part of Nathan’s question, yes the Archbishops’ staff read blogs, but tend to do so sparingly (you’d do nothing else if you read them all) and also with the obligatory pinch of salt to be applied to the effusively positive or destructively negative.
Blogs are – by their nature – a personal point of view and although some claim to be speaking for a multitude, this is rarely the case, especially some of those written by our more ‘virtuous’/'firm standing’ cousins in the US.
I can’t speak for Lambeth but here in York if there’s is something partiularly insightful or prescient in a blog, then it’s good to able to share that with the Archbishop. Additionaly there will be occasions – such as with this blog – where we will link to it from our own site rather than replicating on the Archbishop’s own site.
For the blogs to have a telling effect on how we see ourselves I think they would need to be informed and thoughtful – rather than simply opinionated – which immeditaely reduces the number of blogs which have those qualities. We will all have our own views on which blogs fit into which category.