“Spending time with the family” is, of course, often sneered at as an excuse offered by politicians when they are booted out of office for some misdemeanour. But it’s a pity, it seems to me, that such an honourable reason for doing anything should have become an excuse for failure. In the case of the Mouse, I applaud his strength of mind, for it’s no easy thing when one is a bit of a minor star (of the blogosphere or anywhere else), deliberately to step out of the spotlight.

We are surrounded on all sides by celebrity culture, and the notion that unless you consistently get attention for what you do you are somehow not “cutting it”. And the Church quietly endorses another, equally toxic tendency – the idea that we must always say yes to serving others, no matter what the expense to ourselves. A mix of personal ambition and a deep seated sense of duty makes it astonishingly difficult to walk away from something that is going well.

A few years ago I was a minor star of the blogosphere myself. I blogged about five times a week (a very different kind of blog than Mouse’s, although also with faith and religion as a central thread) and felt increasingly committed to writing for my readers. There came a point when I was asked to write some books, and at first it seemed easy enough to swap blogging for books. I was surprised, though, that I found it very difficult to leave the blog alone. Blogging has instant response: you publish within a day or so of writing your piece, and within hours the comments flow. With books, you research for months, write for months, and then when the script is off the desk it’s about another 10 months before it appears as a book, and the response is mostly in the form of reviews – one step removed from the connectedness one builds up with blog readers. Nevertheless I determinedly concentrated on writing in a different format. Five years and four books later I’m glad I did; but on reflection the greatest lesson was not about the different qualities and kinds of writing, but about letting go of something good in order to lay hold of something better.

The really hard lesson, though, for many involved in ministries of one kind and another is to believe that spending time with your family is that “something better”. The family are the ones who pay the price when we are over-occupied and over-committed. I have turned down several fantastic career opportunities because – as a single parent – there’s a high level of presence at home that I need to put in for my son. But as he rolls into his teenage years happy, well adjusted, and still glad to be in the company of his mother, I reckon I picked the better option.

I was very struck a few years back by Billy Graham’s reflections on his 90th birthday. The interviewer from Christianity Today asked Dr Graham, “Do you have any regrets as you look back on your life?”. Graham replied:

I regret that I didn’t spend more time with my family; I’m sure Ruth and the children paid a heavy price for all the times I was absent. I always tell younger evangelists not to feel like they have to accept every invitation they get, or be absent from home so much. We can do so much today through modern communications. And then I also wish I had studied more, and spent more time in prayer.

Perhaps we have this choice before us in our celebrity culture: we can either to go for the spotlight and ignore the fact that the results will be utterly shallow, or we can make the choice to dig deeper in every aspect of life and seek the things that last. To make deep and lasting relationships, we need to make time regularly for family and friends. And to write and think and speak at a level that does more than merely scratch the surface, we need to retreat every now and then – into the library or the chapel – get out of the shallows and swim in the deep blue sea.

My prayers and appreciation go out to The Church Mouse – for more than two years of excellent blogging, but also today for the rather moving example of choosing the better path.

Mouse notes his surprise that the NSS is wasting its time given that

council members can end the practice themselves if they want to, simply by a vote of the council…

but also wonders why they picked on the tiny Bideford Council:

Perhaps that was the point – to pick on a small council which cannot fund a proper defence first, in order to establish the precedent.

Go here for the story
and here for the Mayor of Bideford’s letter to the Guardian

I am of the view that councils should not be forced to pray, and neither should they be forced NOT to pray. They are grown ups. They should be allowed to pray if they want to. What do you think?

This is what Mouse says about his new site:

Regular readers of the Mouse will know that for some time he has been
keeping track on Archbishops, Bishops and Clergy on twitter through
his Twurch of England Twitter stream. Mouse finds this a fascinating
way to engage with the church. It is rather like having a permanent
invitation to listen in on someone’s conversation and join in whenever
you want. In fact, that’s exactly what it is.

Mouse currently follows around 70 people in this Twitter stream,
including one Archbishop (John Sentamu) and nine bishops (Alan Wilson,
David Hamid, David Rossdale, David Tomson, Lee Rayfield, Mike Hill,
Nick Baines, Pete Broadbent and Steven Croft). Mouse provides his
readers with an occasional top 10 tweeters in the Twurch, based on
statistics from Twitter Gradr.

Then Mouse had an idea.

The thing about the sidebar widget is that it is not very engaging. It
does not really let you get involved in the conversation – the exact
opposite of Twitter. So Mouse recruited vicar, tweeter and geek Rev
Peter Ould to help build something a little more fun.

The Twurch of England website now allows you to follow the
conversation in real time and log-in to twitter and get involved. The
site has a blog, where Mouse will offer up his periodic stats and
other views on what the Twurch is discussing, but also hopes that it
will be an ‘open blog’, where the majority of posts will come from
others who want to discuss how the church is engaging with those
outside it. You can grab the side-bar widget for your own blog /
website too.

The Twurch of England is, of course, on twitter itself. Please do get
in touch if you know of any more clergy or bishops who should be
included in the list. For the time being it will be just clergy and
bishops, but in future may expand (e.g. to ordinands).

Mouse was delighted that the good old CofE even seemed keen on the
idea:

The Church of England is happy that this site is available as a hub
for people seeking to engage with the church and its various tweeters.
[CofE spokesman]

The blog kicks off with a guest post from one of the Twurch’s most
active tweeters, Bishop Alan Wilson on ten reasons why he tweets.

Finally, before you respond with theological questions about a church
that only contains clergy, that is not the idea at all. The Twurch is
open to everyone to engage with, its only the twitter livestream which
is limited, as this is an interesting way of engaging with the church.

Comments, suggestions, ideas all very welcome.