Hard News by Russell Brown

pastor and “worship curator”
As long as he pays tax he can anoint himself with whatever fancy title he wants to

pastor and “worship curator”
As long as he pays tax he can anoint himself with whatever fancy title he wants to

He's an interesting guy. Big on the qualities of tea.

Im sure he's a lovely chap, and maybe there is a meditative quality to tea making I dont have any experience in that.
Theres two broad categories when it comes to making societies "better" not the world please, individual and communal.
We're pretty much fucked at present communally (in the global sense, and the problems we now face are global) because most of the people in the upper echelons of our societies are "spiritually dead' I put it in scare quotes because it needs much explanation, more than I can be bothered with here.
And that includes, I would say, all practitioners in the dark arts of the god/worship business.
And as individuals we are still scared because we still havent found a way to live with " the existential angst of a conscious being aware of its own death" a subject we engage in many activities and spend much money to avoid.
Or have just forgotten how to live with it and not be arseholes.
Yeah so the qualities of tea doesnt quite cut it for me. Sorry.

god like creature who have developed spacetime engineering technology

Whatever!
We are incapable of taking responsibility for our own actions and will find any reason however fanciful to carry on what we are doing, is the human trait I find least endearing.

I was hoping tea was some kind of euphemism, before I write the guy off as another dick selling snake oil.

I was hoping tea was some kind of euphemism, before I write the guy off as another dick selling snake oil.

Jeez, chill out. I asked him because I'm interested in the way churches foster community. Mark was recommended by my mate the Rev Frank Ritchie, with whom I disagree on the existence of a deity, but whose sense and humanity I rate highly.

And yes, it's actual tea. I love the idea of convening around a shared activity.

If God is dead, your time is everything is the best thing I've read for ages on religion, atheism, community, Marx, and value :)

churches foster community.

Thats one way of putting it and I am quite chill, thanks for your concern, always have been. My greatest happiness is helping others deal with all their life problems

May I recommend this fine novel about tea and society:
Memory of Water by Emmi Itäranta
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18505844-memory-of-water

The act of making tea is quite different in English and Japanese cultures. The meditative zen mastery of the act is usually done in complete silence with the aim of stilling the mind through total concentration on the physical acts performed with the hope the stillness achieved has flow on effects thru ones life.
Very different from having a bit of a natter, chewing the fat if you will over a cuppa, sorry shared activity
Book looks good tho
Bill Mollison a co-founder of Permaculture warned of water becoming a source of conflict 50 years ago, Climate change hadnt hit high gear back then, nor had neo liberalism, which brought on water being sold in plastic bottles. A double disaster.

Sad - but inevitable - to hear that the Auckland**Pasifika Festival** has been cancelled for a second year.

I hear a lot about social distancing - but surely we'd have to keep that up until a vaccine is available... a year or more they say (much less if you are Trump).