Constantine 1700

Constantine 1700
Originally uploaded by Dawnriser.

York is celebrating. 1700 years ago a young Constantine was made Emperor of the Roman Empire in the city, when his father Constantius died. This procession followed a short service in York Minster. It led the way to the Museum Gardens where schoolchildren performed and re enacted scenes from Roman Life in the city in the fourth century AD.
Constantine is renowned for creating Christendom. You can read more about him here.
It was an exciting event with lots of colour. Constantine was made up to be the same shade of turquoise as the bronze sculpture of him outside the south door of the minster. The Archbishop of York was in his purple and schoolchildren paraded with multicoloured costumes and cardboard instruments. Huge gun metal grey leopards joined the procession with other religious leaders in white.
How much Constantine embraced the Christian faith is open to question. He certainly saw political advantage in recognising the growing number of Christians who until his time had been outlawed. He also upheld the cross as a ensign to lead his troops into battle. He also forced the Christian leaders of the time to holds the Council of Nicea to thrash pout what they really believed - hence the Nicean Creed. So the world can look back 1700 years and acknowledge that this young emperor would bring about significant change to the religious and political landscape of the world. But under his rule the Roman Empire suffered decline and began to lose it's grip as the dominant power in the world. Perhaps it was inevitable that a system based on tyranny and brutality would change substantially when it's leader imposed Christianity on his people.

More questions than answers

Thanks to Richard Rohr and Andrew Dowsett for this post:

Questions
“Jesus is asked 183 questions directly in the four Gospels. He only answered three of them forthrightly. The others he either ignored, kept silent about, asked a question in return, changed the subject, told a story or gave an audio/visual aid to make his point, told them it was the wrong question, revealed their insincerity or hypocrisy, made the exactly opposite point, or redirected the question elsewhere!
Check it out for yourself. He himself asks 307 questions, which would seem to set a pattern for imitation. Considering this, it is really rather amazing that the church became an official answering machine and a very self assured program for ‘sin management’.
Many, if not most, of Jesus' teaching would never pass contemporary orthodoxy tests in either the Roman Office or the Southern Baptist Convention. Most of his statements are so open to misinterpretation that should he teach today, he would probably be called a ‘relativist’ in almost all areas except one: his insistence upon the goodness and reliability of God. That was his only consistent absolute.”

Franciscan priest Richard Rohr, writing in Third Way magazine (summer 2006, Vol 29 No 6, page 27).

Heatsteria - the meltdown

Feeling the heat
Originally uploaded by Dawnriser.

This was a tall rectanglar candle lamp until it took the full blaze of the sun this week. It was in our front room - we were rather fond of it.
Joan suggested waiting for another hot day so that she could re-form it. Don't hold your breath for the before and after shots.

Despite the melt down no hot weather records were broken in York except a record performance by Yorkhsire Water who managed to burst seven water mains in the city. It was caused by an electrical fault that pumped water at high pressure when it's control panel indicated that a full water tower was empty. The pumps worked overtime to fill it up and POP. Hundreds of people without water for a few hours, houses flooded and holes in the road.

Dawnriser Picture Show

I've just started two new blogs.

The Dawnriser Picture Show is a place to explore your own memories through pictures of mine from Flickr.
It works like this. I post one of pictures and if it sparks a memory for you share it with me as a comment. The first picture was taken last Sunday at the York Mystery plays. It's a scene about Palm Sunday. If this one doesn't work for you, there'll be another along soon.

The other new blog is called Useractive and it's on a site for people with connections to The Alpha Course. An exploration of Christianity. You'll be seeing a new promotional campaign soon under the broad heading Is there more to life than this? You may like it - have a look (both the blog and the course)

Tuna Chunks

This is a music video - of sorts. It was inspired by the sound prompts my brother in law recorded for his mum who was blind. The yellow caps on the cans are magnetic and contain a voice recording chip. When he stocked up the cupboard he identified each can with a short clip. Press the button and you know what's in the tin.

One day I noticed the musical tone of his voice and that a tune could composed by pressing the buttons in the right sequence. So I recorded this film on my phone. I discovered later that other people in the family had noticed the same thing.

Sadly, Mum passed away recently so there will be no more recordings like this one.

Mass heatsteria

It could be the hottest July day in the UK since 1911. Apparently this is significant. Broadcasts this morning are warning me of the consequences of extreem heat should I be daft enough to go out in the mid day sun. Was Rudyard Kipling right? "Mad dogs and Englishmen go out ....... "

I wonder what happened in July 1911. Were there special editions of The Times and the Daily Chronicle on the streets? Column inches filled with health experts and meteorologists spouting on about high factor sun cream, temperatures and humidity. I doubt it. I'm sure people in Britain had their own way of coping with the heat without the siren calls of the media. As Joan, my resident historian wife, pointed out - pale was the fashion for women and to stay like that they sheltered under their parasols. Presumably only ladies of a certain status.

I'm a media person but this morning's broadcasts are beginning to annoy me. If asked, they will point to the warnings issued by the Met Office and the NHS. I suppose it's just so long since the last heat wave - at least a year. Certainly not 97 years. Whatever happened to common sense.

Now they're talking about installing Air Conditioning. Whilst I know how pleasant it is to work in an aircon building - can we really justify the damage to the environment based on a few days when the termperature soars.

Writing this has lowered my temperature by a few degrees already. More light - less heat. Please.

Neema's story on BBC1 and BBC2

The digital story told by Neema from Walsall has been featured on BBC2s Newsround and on the BBC1 Midlands Today regional news summary. I'm so proud that her self made story has been recognised by the networks. Well done Neema - and thank you for your message of peace.

Seven seven

I listen to stories - that's my job. Sometimes a story and storyteller fix themselves deep in my mind. Neema is one of those storytellers. She was in Tavistock Square on July 7th last year when a suicide bomber blew up the number 30 bus.
I was running a storytelling event for young people in Walsall. Neema was the last in the storycircle. I realised this story was special. It features today on BBC Black Country Local TV. (This links to the BBC Broadband Portal)

I was at home last July 7th, sitting at the table at which I'm writing now. I wrote into this blog as the terror unfolded. First on Radio 5 live and later on BBC News the full horror of what had happened was revealed. The first call I remember that indicated that it was a terrorist attack was when a caller to Matthew Banister talked about the bus in Tavistock Square. He described how the roof had been peeled back and people were screaming and running from the scene. We had been attacked. I say we, because it was an angry outburst against the whole nation.

Last week's New Statesman carried an article about one of the bombers, Shezad Tanweer and the writer Shiv Malik speculated about what may have motivated him

Perhaps this is the rub. Perhaps mainstream society didn’t
simply lose Tanweer to a bunch of brainwashing Islamofascist
gangsters. Perhaps in the village-like, insulated atmosphere
of Beeston, he came to regard the Mullah Crew not just as part
of a brave new Islamic world, but also as the most attractive
and dynamic path towards helping his community, both locally
and internationally.
After all, if they could get heroin addicts off heroin and turn
them back into productive members of society, maybe they
could do other things, bigger things, that most people would
think impossible. Maybe, against the background of war in
Aghanistan and Iraq, they could do something to change
British government policy.

This week a video of Shezad Tanweer was broadcast by Al-Jazeerer, in which he warns that the attacks on Britain will get worse. We may not have "simply lost Tanweer to a bunch of brainwashing Islamofascist gangsters" but there's no doubt that he was lost. His actions are unforgiveable.

Today many many others will feel the loss of people they loved - innocent victims. I trust they will find some meaning as they reflect and mourn today.

Who do you blame?

We're out of the World Cup. England was defeated by Portugal in a match that ended in ignominy for the nation that invented Association Football.
Wayne Rooney was dismissed from the pitch in an incident that appeared to come from his frustration with the poor progress of the match. He had spent the first hour as the only player in attack and his opportunities to score a goal had been almost nil. The lad is young and can be hot headed. He decided to go and make it happen on his own. He valiantly took on several opposition players who tugged his shirt, held his waist and generally tried to block him from his quest. As he stumbled, his boot landed in the groin of one of his assailants. The Portuguese players seized on this chance to get rid of England's only remaining striker with a protest that could have been directed by a top film maker. Rooney's frustration boiled over, he shoved his Manchester United team mate, Christiano Ronaldo and out came the referee's red card. He was off.
The remaining ten men fought on for the rest of the match, through extra time. No one scored. Stalemate brought the inevitable penalty shoot out. The Portuguese goalie was brilliant. He saved three of our penalties. Portugal failed to find the goalmouth with two of their shots. We lost it, they didn't win. All the same our lads are back in the UK. The captain, David Beckham has resigned, Ronaldo and Rooney say their professional relationship remains intact and life goes on.
Who do I blame? Sven Goran Ericsson. As coach he should not have put Rooney in such an exposed position. Due to his poor management the hopes of the entire nation rested on the shoulders of a twenty year old striker.