Pew Study on Religion and the " Millennial" Generation

The Pew Forum recently issued a report on religious attitudes among the so-called "Millennials" in the U.S. These are people born between 1980 and 1991. The report is part of series of reports by Pew about this generation. You can read the entire report here. In summary, this generation of people (currently aged 18-29) are no less likely to believe in God or an afterlife that previous generations. In fact, by some measures they are even more "spiritual" than the generation that preceded them (Gen-X). They even report praying with a frequency that closely tracks with how previous generations prayed when they were that age. The big difference is that Millennials have less affiliation with any particular faith group. In other words, they believe in God, but not the organized church (or synagogue, for that matter).

Welcome to the new, post-denominational world of Christianity. Young people believe in God and don't mind praying, but they don't necessarily want to belong to a group or be boxed into a particular tradition. This is a trend that I've heard a lot about, of course, and it's central to the Emerging Church/Fresh Expression movements. However, it's nice to see some real data to back it up.

Reading this report just re-confirms that COTM needs to develop some projects along these lines. The River, Sanctuary, The Bridge, and others ought to give us encouragement that we can gather a group of Christians together in downtown Toronto. "Aslan is on the move," as some of my churchy friends like to say, but are we moving with him?

-t

President Obama and Religion...

This is so good I just had to repost in its entirety. Andrew Gerns posted this in the Episcopal Cafe blog:


A year ago, the big question was "where would the Obamas go to church?" From a human interest angle, it was right up there with what kind of dog they'd get and where the girls would go to school. Everyone had ideas about what church community they would join. A year later, the Obamas have not joined a church and have taken a private approach to their faith expression and formation, one that does not routinely include a faith community.

Ariel Sabar of the Boston Globe reports:

...since President Obama took office a year ago, his faith has largely receded from public view. He has attended church in the capital only four times, and worshiped half a dozen times at a secluded Camp David chapel. He prays privately, reads a “daily devotional’’ that aides send to his BlackBerry, and talks to pastors by phone, but seldom frames policies in spiritual terms.

The greater privacy reflects not a slackening of devotion, but a desire to shield his spirituality from the maw of politics and strike an inclusive tone at a time of competing national priorities and continuing partisan division, according to people close to the White House on faith issues.

“There are several ways that he is continuing to grow in his faith, all of them - or practically of all them - he’s trying to keep as private and personal as possible so they will not be politicized,’’ said Pastor Joel C. Hunter, who is part of an inner circle of pastors the president consults by phone for spiritual guidance.

The apparent lack of interest in a public religious life has been noticed by some religious leaders and political analysts, who say it opens Obama to questions of sincerity. Others point out that his support among religious voters his campaign attracted might be threatened as well.

“You can’t be using the church just to get elected and then push the church to the side,’’ said the Rev. Wilfredo De Jesus, a prominent Chicago pastor who had campaigned for Obama among Hispanic evangelicals, many of whom had voted in earlier elections for George W. Bush. “If the president says he’s Christian, then in his narrative, and in his speeches and in his life, that should be displayed.’’

Some say his administration has just had too much on the plate:

“We have a recession, we have the health care agenda - Obama has taken on so much, why add one more thing, especially one that you can’t legislate on?’’ said Professor Alan Wolfe, director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College.

Of course, the president has concerns that very few Americans have to worry about. Security, for one thing, and the fact that someone has actually counted how many times and where he and his family have gone to church. He also has resources that most Americans do not have: aides who text him devotions, military chaplains who can come in and out of the White House or Camp David, and a circle of pastors who can advise him by phone.

The missing ingredient is community. In this respect, the church-shopping Obamas of a year ago and the private faith that uses personal resources is a position that is like many Americans, who can shop for a faith that suits their needs and tastes on-line, in stores and in the media. While institutional religion declines in trust and support, the idea of a community of faith often gets lost.

(source for all of the above)

Anglican Church of Canada Calendar Part II

A few days ago I posted a link to an online version of the the Anglican Church of Canada's Calendar. I decided to split the Calendar between Sundays/Principal Feasts in one Calendar and Holy Days/Memorials/Commemorations in the other. Why? Because the lesser feasts and fasts might be a little too much information for many people. So this way you can choose to have just the Sundays and Principal Feasts or the whole thing. So.... Here's the link to Holy Days, Memorials, and Commorations....

I'm basing this on McCausland's Ordo, incidentally. So if you need more detail, like what the readings are, I suggest you pick up a copy of the Ordo at the Anglican Book Centre. If there is a mistake in my data entry into the Ordo--please let me know and I'll correct it.

If you are using an electronic calendar programme like Outlook or iCal or a Blackberry, you can "subscribe" to this and other calendars. It's one of the best aspects of these kinds of calendar. For instance, when I look at my iPhone calendar I see my personal, confidential calendar as well as the schedule of liturgies and events at COTM, Canadian Civic Holidays, and now the church calendar. Cool.



So now all you Anglicans can see the liturgical calendar superimposed on whatever electronic appointment calendar you use. The rest of you can print out blank calendars with this information if that your desire (see the little print icon?).

Cheers!

-t

Talk about "Iron Chef"

According to the NYTimes, robotics researchers around the world have been working on developing robots capable of cooking (or at least, serving) food. Check out the "Snackbot," for example.

Snackbot is a mobile robot, about the size of a very small human, that rolls around on wheels, and will be delivering snacks to students, faculty, and office workers at Carnegie Mellon University. A Snackbot research team of faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates from more than three departments at Carnegie Mellon created Snackbot as a platform for studying human-robot interaction in the real world.

Snackbot is meant as an ongoing platform for research. The Snackbot will support research into robust autonomous operation in office environments. Our efforts range from multi-sensor fusion algorithms for perception, reasoning about dynamic spaces,communicating with people through verbal and non-verbal mechanisms, and planning with incomplete information.

The research will allow the robot to navigate through congested areas in a socially acceptable fashion, detect individual people moving near the robot, recognize when someone that the robot knows approaches it, and autonomously learn to recognize new objects. Snackbot will support research in the fields of design and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) on using sound, motion, and form for human-robot interaction. Snackbot will support behavioral science research on such topics as personalization and people’s relationships with interactive objects, and research on snack services drawn from behavioral economics. (source)

But Snackbot seems like a pizza-ordering bachelor compared to the AIC-AI Cooking Robot. It is "able, at the touch of a button, to fry, bake, boil and steam its way through thousands of Chinese delicacies from at least three culinary regions" (source). But this is just the beginning.

Last June, at the International Food Machinery and Technology Expo in Tokyo, a broad-shouldered Motoman SDA-10 robot with spatulas for arms made okonomiyaki (savory pancakes) for attendees; another robot grabbed sushi with an eerily realistic hand; and still another, the Dynamizer, sliced cucumbers at inhumanly fast speeds and occasionally complained about being tired and wanting to go home. (source)

A complaining chef bot? That's a nice touch, but check this out:

Then, a month later in Nagoya, Japan, the Famen restaurant opened, with two giant yellow robot arms preparing up to 800 bowls of ramen a day. When it’s slow, the robots act out a scripted comedy routine and spar with knives. (source)

I think I would go just to see the robots spar with knives. That would be worth it. A guy I know who works in robotics tells me that most of the Sushi served in Tokyo is actually made by robots in centralized Sushi Factories and then delivered by truck fresh each morning. Human attendants feed the machine fish and other ingredients cut to standard shapes and the robot does the rest.

But the real goal of this current generation of Iron Chefs is not simply to make food efficiently, that they can do. The new frontier is to interact with humans while doing it. One bar-bot named Cynthia made drinks in a London Bar until the bar was sold. "She whirls into action, pouring drinks to perfection, mixing them, recounting awful jokes and chuckling to herself while frightened customers feel grateful she’s not allowed out from behind the bar" (source). Does that sound like a drink you want to have?

-t

Chin-Up, Canada, You're Okay!

Timothy Egan writes in the New York Times today about the collective modesty of Canadians that prevents them from expressing their nationalism in the way that they deserve.

It seems like eons ago that the opening ceremony, a triumph complete with magical bears and sub-surface killer whales, prompted some Canadians to take a long overdue bow.

“It made me proud to be from here,” said Ian Brown, writing in The Globe and Mail, a Canadian national paper. But then he added, “I hesitate to say it. Such declarations are always unwise.”

No. Say it! Can you imagine an American being afraid to make such a simple declaration of national chauvinism? “Maybe for a while again,” Mr. Brown concluded, “we can feel alright about being Canadian.”

The prime minister, Stephen Harper, had to make a similar pitch last week in front of the British Columbia Parliament. He urged Canadians to show “an uncharacteristic outburst of patriotism and pride.”

Why the prodding? Why the lack of self-esteem? Canada — snap out of it! You’re gorgeous, baby, you’re sophisticated, you live well. No need for an apology. (source)

Yes, we do live well up here: low crime, beautiful cities, universal health care. We pay too much for phone and internet service, it's true, and I do find the characteristic modesty of Canadians gets in the way of entrepreneurial ministry. Yet among nations Canada has a LOT to be proud about, and the lack of a single national origin myth (read your John Rolston Saul) shouldn't prevent us from having a little pride in our country! The olympics are a good chance to show off!

-t

Yacht Rock

Jack (aka "Topper Dandy"), my roommate for two years at Hampden-Sydney, has a hilarious music project: Three Sheets to The Wind. They play Yacht Rock--think Steely Dan, Magnum PI, and Crosby, Stills, and Nash. Also think boat shoes, gin, and white chinos. Got it?

Back in college Jack and some other friends had a band called "Where the Sidewalk Ends." I was their "Spiritual Advisor" (I'm credited in the liner notes)--which also meant I was a kind of a Roadie. It was a blast. We went to a lot of parties. Drank a lot of free beer. Learned a lot about sound engineering, too.

Anyway, Jack is very skillful on the guitar and currently lives in Richmond, VA. It's been a few years since I've seen him, but a few days before I saw this clip I had a strange dream about him....



Good times; good times.

-t

Anglican Church of Canada Calendar

Ok, those of you who use some kind of electronic calendar on your Blackberry or iPhone or with iCal (on a mac) or Outlook (on a PC) know about how you can "subscribe" to various calendars. For example, when I look at my calendar application either on my PC or on my smart phone I see not only my personal appointments and events, but I also see the church's events and services. Simple. My personal calendar is protected, naturally, but the church's calendar of services is publicly available. People can view it on-line or subscribe to it using their favourite calendar programme (like Outlook or iCal or whatever they have on their phone or PDA).

But there doesn't seem to be a public electronic calendar for the Anglican Church of Canada. You can subscribe to various Roman Catholic and Episcopal Calendars, but none for Anglicans of Canada! So.... I went ahead and created one for the next year based on McClauslands' Ordo. Right now it's just Sundays and Principal Feasts, but I'll make one for Holy Days and Memorials and Commemorations at some point in the future. In the mean time, you're welcome! Here's a preview and the link:



So now all you Anglicans can see the liturgical calendar superimposed on whatever electronic appointment calendar you use. The rest of you can print out blank calendars with this information if that your desire (see the little print icon?).

Cheers!

-t

NASA Scientists Announce Mission to Approach Girl

I came across this hilarious article in the Onion today:



-t

The Trump Tower!

Hey, I know that guy! That's Chris, one of my closest friends here in Toronto. He's the Superintendent for Construction on the Trump Tower at the corner of Bay and Adelaide in downtown Toronto. This video has him talking some about the project.



The video doesn't say this, but Chris and his wife are from Seattle. He was brought to Toronto for this project because he has experience with a particular construction technique called pre-stressed concrete. If understand it correctly, if you put concrete under load laterally via cables running through the material, it can bear more weight for a given thickness than more traditional floor designs. I can safely say that Chris knows more about concrete than anybody I know (including my architect friends)!

-t

Sermon - Epiphany 5 2010

Here is my prophetic sermon from Super Bowl Sunday. I was using the big game to explore crisis, call, and response.



-t

Snow

One of my sisters lives in Virginia, just outside D.C. A neighbour took this picture:



That helps put the slight dusting we got in Toronto last night in perspective!

-t

Sermon - Epiphany 4 2010

Brendan Caldwell, one of our parishioners, preached this sermon on Epiphany 4. In general I think we have far too few occasions for lay preaching in the church. I mean, if our people have nothing to preach about than how on earth are they going to spread the Gospel?

Brendan did a good job. Seems like quoting C.S. Lewis is going to be a kind of signature for him!




-t