A new site for the London trip

I have created a  new site to keep you all up-to-date with the trip to London.

Trip diary and news loaded as often as possible.

Click here to link to the site.

Email me any news here

Skype

My latest Skype software up-grade was to version 5.1.0.935, downloaded on the same day that Microsoft announced a  US$8B+ purchase of Skype. 

Having been a Skype user from it's early days,  I now would find it difficult to communicate as frequently as I do (across the globe and locally) at minimal expense, without Skype.

Using Skype I can have a real-time face-to-face conversations with colleagues and family anywhere in the world  - providing  they have an internet connection to their computer or mobile device.

Using Skype to share documents and live desktop activities allows an ability to be 'virtually' present at meetings and  gatherings as never before. Be it a Board Meeting or a 30th Birthday Party.

You will see that I have included a Skype icon on this Blog and also on my main website . These will allow you to make an internet call directly to me. If i am not at a Skype enabled device it will route through to a landline or mobile telephone.

Otherwise you can reach me at Skype on: bpschaplain

If you want to download the free version of Skype Click Here

Twitter and Facebook V. Blogging

I am beginning to think that the reason some of us aren't Blogging so much as before is because we expose ourselves to too-much information on Social Net-Working sites, then  we spend time responding to those posts or articles, that there is very little time left to blog or very little left to be said in a blog that we haven't posted or commented on elsewhere. (That was a long, lawyer-like sentence - apologies.)

A web-page or a blog in the early days - pre Twitter, Facebook, linkedin and picture hosting sites -  was a great way to share news and pictures with family and friends around the globe. Today, especially with the evolution of software such as Tweetdeck, we can access all of this information - whilst editing the bits we really are interested in - and respond in typographical soundbites.

That is probably the equivalent in Characters  of six to seven Tweets.

Post Scriptum: It is also very difficult to compose a blog on an iPhone: another reason for Tweeting and Fb.

Press Release from the DIocese of Ballarat

PRESS RELEASE

ANGLICAN DIOCESE OF BALLARAT

Embargoed until 11.30am (EST) on Saturday 19 June 2010

Announcement on behalf of Bishop Michael Hough

Bishop Michael Hough has tendered his resignation as the Bishop of Ballarat with his last

day in office to be Monday, 20 December 2010, following a service of the Laying up of the

Pastoral Staff on Sunday, 19 December 2010.

Bishop Michael says that he has come to this decision with a heavy heart, and after much

prayer and reflection on the unity of the Diocese and its mission.

Bishop Michael hopes that in his stepping aside, the People of God in the diocese will

commit with fresh vigour to make known the transforming mystery and love of Christ to all

people in the diocese of Ballarat.

The Bishop hopes that the diocese will continue with its mandate for mission, enlivening

our traditions and liturgies throughout the diocese in all kinds of faith communities, bringing

those outside the Church into a relationship with God; with the poor and marginalised

continuing to be a priority.

Announcement on behalf of the Complainants

In late 2008, a number of clergy and lay people of the Diocese of Ballarat or with previous

connection to the Diocese of Ballarat together brought individual Complaints concerning

the conduct of the Bishop of Ballarat before the Episcopal Standards Commission of the

Anglican Church of Australia.

After a long process, the Complaints have been resolved by a confidential Deed of

Settlement negotiated and entered into by the Complainants, the Bishop of Ballarat and the

Diocese of Ballarat. As a result, the Complainants have withdrawn their Complaints.

The settlement has been made possible by the commitment of all the parties involved to

the unity and mission of the Church in the Diocese of Ballarat.

Social Networking Media

"Where have you been?"  "Is all well?"  "Given up on Fb?"

I have been surprised by the number of emails that I have received these last few weeks containing comments like those above. Whilst  I am part  of the demographic that supposedly makes up the  largest group of Social Networking Media users (SNMUs), I refrain from letting it run my life.

It is good to be able to catch up with family and friends across the globe and to be informed of their joys and troubles almost the instant something happens,  but does this always require a written comment or acknowledgment that the post/tweet/blog has been read?  I use the application 'Tweetdeck' on my iPhone, MacBook and the iMacs around the house. When the application is minimalised it opens a window briefly above any open application when someone or some topic I am following has a hit. This includes twitter feeds, twitter searches, linkedin, facebook, alerts from the fire brigade about local incidents and from the railways (V Line) about train cancellations or delays. I can also review all posts during a specific time-frame from the man tweetdeck screen.

So whilst I haven't been posting much in recent weeks,  I have been keeping an eye on things - locally and globally - and feel informed.

In addition to the  usual Holy Week and Easter things,  I have been writing and working on a couple of projects. Today I think I have hopefully avoided the flu to the extent that some others around me have suffered.

My next blog post should look at why all of the most recent blogs  have been about water?

Another weather-related blog post

Heavy rain had been forecast for the Melbourne metropolitan area this afternoon but when I left Ballarat this morning the skies were cloudless and blue.  Lunchtime  in Melbourne was very pleasant although  a little warm. After a post-lunch visit to the Central Catholic Bookshop (I am never  quite sure just what the 'Central' part of the title is claiming)  I walked back to the main railway station wondering just when the 'cool change' was going to arrive.

Wisely I had abounded my summer raincoat and instead took my faithful Swaine Adeney Brigg umbrella - It is my favorite (and having just looked at the website via the link above to see what a replacement would cost I will not be offering to lend it out again in a hurry) and  this proved to be a wise move as nothing but a Barbour or Dry-as-a-bone would have kept out the rain that came.


My train was delayed and then cancelled along with all of the others.  An attempt to exist the station  - whilst the announcer proclaimed "this is the result of very, very, very extreme weather" -  was delayed due to flash-flooding outside of the station.

Fortunately the Bishop was also in Melbourne, attending a late-afternoon meeting with the Premier, and he had decided to drive in rather than take the train. So after meeting up with the Registrar's daughter (like me stranded in the Big Smoke) we left a note on the Bishop's windscreen and  headed to the closet watering hole beside St Paul's Cathedral (Y&J's)  and waited for the Bishop to finish his meeting. The drive home was much appreciated.

The pictures are of the flash-flooding in and around Southern Cross Station.

 

Deo Gratia - The 'Rain' has come

After two-and-a-half weeks of sweltering in the humid heat with a broken air conditioning system that was not being fixed, the clergy and lay-staff at Ballarat's Anglican Cathedral and Bishop's Registry, welcomed the rain and associated cool change that arrived late this afternoon.

Perhaps the engineers - who have not been to investigate the problem -  or, latterly,  return desperate calls - think that the church only works on Sunday and so can wait.

Perhaps they have forgotten the many people that come for a free breakfast or  a food parcel and who have also had to endure the oppressive conditions.

Suits have been shed for shorts; cassocks have been closeted for cassalbs, shoes supplanted with  sandals. Prayers are being offered for the chance to sport Boots and Brollies!