epiScope

She's baa-aaack...

...and many, many thanks to Program Officer for Public Affairs Neva Rae Fox for taking the 'Scope as your editor was away dealing with a death in the family. It's good to be back.

"Obey the laws, and wear the gauze. Protect your jaws from septic paws."

Between cross-continental travel and a very bad case of flumonia, la grippe, or what your Editor's Mama always called the "galloping epizootie," it's been too quiet on the 'Scope for the past few days. We tender our sincerest apologies and are working diligently to catch (aaaaaahhhhh-CHOO! 'scuze us) up.

Epigram courtesy of the ever-imaginative City of San Francisco, circa 1918.

Avoidance

Anglican websites avoid the issues too
By David Bowen
Financial Times
February 18 2008

Do you work for a fractured organisation that is busy avoiding the difficult issues? Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, does which is why I have been looking at anglican websites this week. And guess what – they are fractured and busy avoiding the issues too.

The Archbishop said last week that people may be able to seek justice in the UK under different legal systems, including Sharia. This caused quite a stink, and the news bulletins soon announced that he had published clarification on his website. I would guess it has never seen anything like the traffic.

The site, which is pleasantly designed if unremarkable, has a link under Latest News labelled “What did the Archbishop actually say?”. The explanation is subtle, as one might expect from Dr Williams. I wouldn’t criticise his office for that, but I would suggest that a bit more emphasis should be given to the issue. ‘What did he say?’ is a clear line, but it is tucked away among other links and could easily be missed by (for example) a journalist in a hurry. At the least it suggests that Dr Williams does not want to draw attention to the issue.

It’s all here … guess the FT hasn't found epiScope yet.

Don't be evil, Google!

'Old fuddy-duddy' fights back over Google sacking
Stephen Hutcheon
Sydney (AU) Morning Herald
15 October 2007

Google's reputation as a hip and happening employer was cemented earlier this year when Fortune magazine anointed the Silicon Valley outfit as America's Best Company to Work For.

According to the magazine, workers at the Googleplex - the nickname given to the company's vast headquarters complex near San Francisco - enjoy conditions more akin to something you'd find at a five star resort.

Googlers enjoy a host of perks including free food from 11 gourmet cafeterias, subsidised exercise and language classes, laundry facilities, hairdressers, masseurs and even a personal concierge to help them make reservations.

Little wonder that the internet search company reportedly receives some 1300 job applications a day.

But not everyone considers the Googleplex to be a workers' paradise - especially not Brian Reid, an experienced computer scientist on the north side of 50.

Google's former director of operations and engineering has been locked in a legal battle with his erstwhile employer for the past three years over a case of wrongful dismissal.

It’s all here …and in addition to being a dedicated Episcopalian and Anglican, and the publisher and News Centre Editor of Anglicans Online, Dr. Reid… 

Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables...

"... that he may run that readeth it." (Habakkuk 2:2)

There are a couple of clinkers that keep turning up in stories like bad pennies, and if your editor corrected every single one of them as they occur she would not get anything else done, so let this serve as a General Media Advisory concerning two matters. The first involves statements such as these:

The 2003 Episcopal Church consecration of Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, the first bishop known to be in an openly gay relationship in more than four centuries of church history…

The 77-million-member fellowship has been splintering since 2003, when Episcopalians consecrated the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

The Anglican fellowship has been splintering since 2003, when Episcopalians consecrated the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

The American House of Bishops also intensified pressure on Dr Williams to allow Bishop Gene Robinson, Anglicanism's first openly gay bishop…

We will type this very slowly, in accordance with the prophet Habakkuk's admonition:
+Gene. Is. Not. The. First. Openly. Gay. Bishop.

The first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church was the Rt. Rev. Otis Charles, who publicly announced his homosexuality upon his retirement in September 1993. There have been others in Christianity and the worldwide Anglican Communion, and for an interesting discussion and some more names, go here.

The second matter is this:

Liberal American bishops threw the Archbishop of Canterbury a lifeline in his efforts to avert Anglican schism by agreeing to halt appointments of gay bishops…

At issue is the ordination of gays and the blessing of gay unions, a controversy that was inflamed with the appointment in 2003 of the Rev. Gene Robinson…

Dearest UK reporters: We know the English-speaking world is in many cases divided by a common language, but this has gone past the point of tediousness. We Yanks elect our bishops. Elect, not appoint. We have nominations and candidates and ballots and votes and everything. It matters deeply to us to use this word, even more than that "boot/bonnet" thing for "hood/trunk" matters to youse guys. Please?

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I'm back...

...anything happen while I was gone?

Kidding.

Many thanks to epiScope guest editor Neva Rae Fox for ably blogging in my absence.

And now, to the headlines...

What's an epiScope?

Well, for one thing, it’s not an e·pi·sko·pe... at least not the way Episcopalians usually hear the word: as a synonym for the office of bishop--an overseer or presiding officer of the Church.

No, this is something a little different.

“An episcope is an optical device for projecting flat opaque images, like postcards, prints, photographs, pages of books, but also three-dimensional objects like coins, insects and leaves, on to a screen. The object is usually placed upside down, mostly at the rear of the lantern, sometimes at the bottom or top, as the image will be inverted by the projection lens. An intense light, often from two sources, illuminates the object from the sides. A part of the reflected light passes the projecting lens which projects an image on to the screen.” In other words, it’s what we used to call an “opaque projector.”

That sounds like a pretty good thing for a blog to do: “project flat images and three-dimensional objects onto a screen, often illuminated by an intense light from at least two sources.”

At the very least it can bring some of the issues and people into better focus, illuminate them, and perhaps even render them a little less opaque ... as we continue looking over the Episcopal Church.