http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com Liturgical liberals and political progressives, together! Thu, 26 Apr 2007 13:57:52 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Last weekend three folks from the first Progressive Faith Blog Con gathered for a sweet reason — the baptism of PFBC co-founder Thurman’s twin sons. The boys were baptized at an Episcopal church in Secaucus, and for a special twist, they received Jewish and Muslim blessings from Rachel and Hussein. ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2007/04/26/a-blog-con-encounter/ Months of radio silence, and suddenly two posts in one day — go figure!   Consider this a PSA. If you’re interested in keeping abreast of PFBC developments, there are two ways you can do that: Obviously you can read this blog, either by visiting the site regularly or subscribing to our ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2007/04/16/keeping-up-with-pfbc/ Hi, all! After much conversation on the conference-planning email list which was established at the first blog con last summer, we’ve decided that the PBFC will be a biennial event, so we’re planning to hold our second conference in summer of 2008. Those of us who are active in domestic ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2007/04/16/update/ Hi gang! Long time no blog, I realize; apologies for the lengthy radio silence. Thurman just posted over at Street Prophets, asking whether there’s general interest in a second annual Prog Faith Blog Con coming to pass (and, as a related query, who out there might be willing to join the ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2007/01/24/pfbc-ii/ Emily Ronald from The Pluralism Project has posted her post-con write-up. She talks about exploring a new means of communication, defines blogging, and recollects and summarizes the weekend’s events, panels, and conversations. Well worth a read. Thanks, Emily! http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/08/15/con-report/ This week’s Progressive Faith Blog Carnival is being hosted at Metacentricities. We have a new Carnival Page up, so please have a look. Also, if you would like to host a carnival (we need hosts!!!) please drop an email to carnival@progressivefaithblogcon.com. There are some other changes afoot, like a webring, and ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/08/06/august-6th-carnival/ Um, I’m gonna say this one was called due to excessive heat and pretend like it isn’t every bit as hot today as it was yesterday when I forgot to post this. Anyway, here we go: Take a highbrow look at how spirituality is necessary for humanity. Then ponder the meaning ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/07/31/carnival-time/ If you’re interested in hosting the Carnival, leave a comment and I’ll get you set up for it. http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/07/26/carnival-7/ Emily Ronald of The Pluralism Project, who many of us had the pleasure of meeting at the blog con a few weekends ago, asked me to pass along the following tidbit. She writes: Having promoted it a bit at the convention, I thought I’d extend the invitation again. Faith bloggers may ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/07/25/pluralism-resources/ A new carnival is up. If you forgot a link, put it in the comments at Solidly Average. Also, if you’d like to host the carnival - and you can do so next week or any time after that - please send me an email at texan-at-xpatriatedtexan-dot-com. ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/07/24/carnival-6/ Shanta offered an overview of the weekend, including some good words about hopes for the future. Michelle posted notes from the Saturday evening roundtable. And Reverend Bruce posted the text of his remarks from last night — don’t miss this one! Rabbi Jill Jacobs posted an overview here. Mata H. posted a beautiful weekend ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/07/16/liveblogging-post-4/ There’s been more liveblogging! Michelle posted Progressive Faith Blog Con, Saturday morning and a writeup of the Faith in politics panel. Photos are also beginning to appear; here are some of Lorianne’s photos, and here is a photoset I started earlier today. Reverend Bruce offers a ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/07/16/liveblogging-post-3/ Here are the accumulated tools from the Saturday Morning Talkign Tech Panel, with Michelle Murrain (Pearlbear’s Blog,) Chris Walton, (Philocrites,) and Stephen Rockwell (CrossLeft.) Blogging tools: Typepad - online service Blogger - online service Blogsome - online service MoveableType - software Wordpress - open source software Drupal - open source software Scoop - ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/07/15/tools-from-talking-tech-panel/ Lorianne at Hoarded Ordinaries posted a photo-illustrated piece about the weekend, starting with last night’s service and moving into the heart of today: Plugging in. Islamoyankee at Islamicate posted a hyperlinked list of good stuff from the Talking Tech panel, and some notes on the Faith and politics panel. Chris at ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/07/15/more-liveblogging-links/ Pearlbear transcribed the first panel of the morning for us in the irc channel. (Thank you so so much!) We hope to have audio of all of the panels eventually too,  but for now, here’s our first chat transcript of the day… Jul 15 09:43:15 <pearlbear>    Panel #1 - Roots and ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/07/15/roots-and-branches-irc-log/ A bunch of us are liveblogging the conference; here’s an attempt to round up liveblogged posts so far. Posts at Velveteen Rabbi: - Friday - Roots and Branches - J-blogosphere breakout - Blogging Scripture - all conference posts: here Posts at Islamicate: - Pluralism - Beginnings - Blogging text Posts at ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/07/15/coming-to-you-live-from-montclair/ The New Jersey Jewish News ran an article about our con! Religion, liberalism, and Web savvy are the watchwords of the first Progressive Faith Blog Con, a convention to be held over the July 14 weekend in the Conference Center at Montclair State University. Jews and Christians, Buddhists and ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/07/15/blog-con-in-the-press/ The irc channel is open, so if you’re online today and want to hang out, please do; just go to freenode.net and join channel #progfaithblogcon (per the instructions here.) We’re about to begin morning meditation, so the channel may be quiet for a while yet, but I wanted to let y’all ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/07/15/good-morning-and-irc/ Namaste. Shalom. Salaam. Merry Meet. And welcome brothers and sisters. Ladies and Gentlemen, people of all faiths, welcome to the inaugural edition of the Progressive Faith Bloggers Conference. When I first reached out to Rachel six months ago to find out if this idea of ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/07/15/opening-remarks-at-the-blogcon/ Hello from the beautiful conference center at Montclair State University! The blog con has begun: tonight Thurman made some beautiful opening remarks (which I hope he’ll post here eventually) and then I led an erev Shabbat (Sabbath eve) service with Harriet’s exquisite melodic help. I posted the siddur (prayerbook) from that service, ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/07/15/the-blog-con-has-begun/ I smiled to see Thurman’s post here this morning about what led to the creation of this gathering, since I made my own post over at Velveteen Rabbi about that last night ("The night before blog con.") The folks on the planning committee have delightfully complementary interests in ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/07/14/poised-to-dive-in/ This evening, the curtain will go up on the first ever Progressive Faith BlogCon.  The concept started six months ago when Rachel Barenblat of Velveteen Rabbi and myself both looked at the GodBlogCon and found it to be far too oriented on Conservative Christians to be representative of our faiths. ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/07/14/today-progressive-faith-gets-moving/ As I wrote yesterday, there are many among the group widely labled as the "Christian Right" who are much less than thrilled about the "sudden" appearance of a loosely oranized group of liberals/progressives (is there any other kind of group of liberals/progressives?) who are speaking openly about their faith and ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/07/14/why-i-must-do-this-part-two/ I just drove past the hotel, and the signage has not changed. So, although your reservations are for La Quinta, you’ll have to look for the sign that says “Wellesley Inn”. It is accessible from Rt. 3 in the east bound lanes only. If you are coming ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/07/13/getting-to-the-hotel-and-conference-center/ From a book I am currently reading:   Western civilization is passing through a social revolution unparalleled in history for scope and power.  Its coming was inevitable.  The religious, political, and intellectual revolutions of the past five cneturies, which together created the modern world, necessarily had to culminate in an economic and ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/07/12/why-i-must-do-this-part-one/ It occurs to me that it’d be nice to be able to track con-related posts — posts made before the con, at the con, and after the con. Technorati tags and del.icio.us tags seem like a good way to do that. (Edited to add: flickr tags, too!) So if you ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/07/12/tracking-con-related-posts/ For the last several weeks we’ve been keeping track of who’s coming to the con here. But I thought I’d post that information here on the main page of the con blog, too, so you can easily see who’s joining us. The list of bloggers we know will be there includes:   ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/07/12/whos-coming-to-the-con-updated/ We’ve made progress in finding folks to transcribe Saturday’s panels for the irc channel so that non-local folks can "listen in." Michelle (from Pearlbear’s Blog) has graciously agreed to transcribe the morning’s first panel, "Roots and Branches;" Alex (from Faith in Public Life) has graciously offered to transcribe the ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/07/11/irc-instructions/ Time is growing short - only one week until the first Progressive Faith Blog Con is (gulp) history. Then we will begin planning for the next one. Will we, as our very own Velveteen Rabbi quipped, meet "Next year, in Texas!"? I dunno - but we want ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/07/09/carnival-5/ One of next weekend’s panels will be a series of breakout sessions, each centered around a different religious blogosphere. We’ve planned breakout groups for Jewish bloggers, Christian bloggers, Muslim bloggers, Buddhist bloggers and Pagan bloggers. (It’s not clear whether we’ll have enough folks from each of those communities present to ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/07/09/food-for-thought/ A couple of folks have asked me about hitching/sharing a ride to and from the con. Having seen the registration list, I know we’re coming from all over New England, and though some of us are taking public transport others might prefer to carpool. So I thought I’d start a thread ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/07/06/ridesharing/ The blog con will be upon us soon — startlingly soon! Here’s a quick update on a few logistical matters.  Thing the first: We’ve only had a couple of applications for our scholarships, and we still have some funds. So if you’d like to apply for funding to attend ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/07/05/three-things/ Here’s some things you need to know about getting to and from the BlogCon. If you can arrange to at all, fly into Newark Liberty Airport or take Amtrack to the Newark Liberty Airport Stop.  We will have transportation from that point to the hotel.  If you are going to need ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/07/04/transportation/ At long last, here’s the official schedule for the Prog Faith Blog Con! Naturally conference attendees will get copies of this when the con rolls around, but we wanted to make it available beforehand, to give folks a foretaste of just how terrific this is going to be. If you’d ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/07/03/conference-schedule/ The carnival is up at Surviving the Workday.  To make things easier, it’s even broken up in parts: Part One Part Two Part Three http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/07/03/carnival-4/ I spent most of yesterday driving down from upstate New York, so I forgot to post the Carnival. Better late than never, so here we go: We start out looking at the nature of reality. Then we taste a bit of Georgia reality. We wonder what will happen ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/06/26/belated-carnival/ I just made a fairly lengthy post over at my own blog about the process of planning the Friday evening erev Shabbat service for the blog con (which is coming up pretty soon — just three weeks away!) Among other things, I wrote: Ideally the service ought to be inclusive ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/06/22/thinking-about-worship/ Good news, all: I’m delighted to announce that we’re able to offer some modest scholarship money to folks who want to attend the Progressive Faith Blog Con but aren’t able to afford it comfortably. Please use your own discretion in deciding whether or not to apply for scholarship funding. Our funds ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/06/21/blog-con-scholarships/ Thanks to everyone who’s registered thus far! It’s really exciting seeing registrations start to roll in. Almost everyone who’s registered thus far has offered to help with a panel or two, which is awesome. We’re working on the panel distribution — making sure that every panel has at least a few ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/06/21/general-update/ We’ve had a bit of growing pains here lately. Updating the blog meant that we lost the archives for the old carnivals, but I think that they have probably served their place and we’re moving full speed ahead. I start off by looking at a tale of racial ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/06/18/carnival-3/ Drumroll, please: the Progressive Faith Blog Con has a new website! The site includes a FAQ page, which answers questions like "where is the con again?" (Montclair, NJ) and "where should we stay?" (we have an official con hotel) and "how about bloggers who are shomer Shabbat and can’t ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/06/12/new-site-registration-open/ We’re working on a FAQ ("frequently asked questions") page for the Progressive Faith Blog Con. The FAQ will answer questions like "what is this thing again?" and "where do we stay?" and "how about bloggers who are shomer Shabbos?" and so on. That FAQ is here. Feel free to check it ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/06/06/blog-con-faq/ Okay, I got a real shock this week when I went to work out group rates for the hotel I thought was in a perfect place for the Conference. Instead of a hotel, I saw a big mound of dirt and several bulldozers. Eeek! That won’t work! So ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/05/28/blogcon-lodging/ A new carnival is up at Lo-Fi Tribe. Next week we move to Jesus Was a Liberal. Thanks. http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/05/28/carnival-2/ The new Carnival is up at Raising Kaine. Many thanks for Lowell for organizing this week. Next week, the Lo Fi Tribe will take over the Carni. http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/05/21/new-carnival/ This week’s edition of the Progressive Faith Blog Carnival is up, hosted by Tiel of Knocking from Inside. It’s fantastic — a ton of terrific links. Poetry, prayer, thoughts on work and institutional dynamics and gender, musings on religious labels, religion and politics and everything in between… good stuff. ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/05/17/carnival-is-up/ We have corrected the technical problems with PAYPAL. We now have a paypal account to accept donations directly: If you do choose to make a contribution, please also follow that up with an email to me at xpatriated_texan-at-yahoo-dot-com and let me know. All of us here working on the planning of the BlogCon ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/05/04/donations-accepted/ A while back when I posted the most recent draft of the schedule for the Progressive Faith Blog Con, I promised that I would post some explanatory words about "ecumenical worship." Here goes! The Wikipedia entry on Ecumenism says that "in its broadest meaning ecumenism is the religious initiative towards ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/05/02/ecumenical-worship/ Rabbi Rami Shapiro (author of many excellent books; his blog is called Toto) posted recently about religious progressives — what the term means, and how it might be reconceptualized. I think his post might be interesting to the Progressive Faith Blog Con community. He writes:  I have a contrarian streak; I need ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/05/01/what-is-a-religious-progressive-anyway/ Montclair State University is the second largest public university in the state of New Jersey. It’s located in Upper Montclair, New Jersey. For those who will be flying, the nearest airport is Newark International, which is also known as Newark Liberty. The airline abbreviation is EWR. The campus ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/05/01/msu-and-public-transportation/ After a cyber "rain out" the Carnival has set up shop here. Next week, it will be at A Small Group of Thoughtful, Committed Citizens. Don’t forget to barrage us with submissions at ProgFaithCarnival-at-yahoo-dot-com. Be sure to put "Submission" in the title line. If you’d ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/04/30/carnival/ The conference schedule has been a major focus for the planning committee lately. It’s still a work-in-progress, of course — hence the "v2.1" at the top; we’ve already been through several iterations, and there will surely be more. With that disclaimer, here’s our current draft. Questions, comments, and suggestions ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/04/25/conference-schedule-draft-v21/ Panel 1: Roots and Branches, The Nature of Our Community      Duration: 1:15 Ø      Blogging about our distinct scriptural and ritual traditions Ø      Ecumenical and interfaith blogging engagement Ø      Reaching out to those more conservative than ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/04/18/draft-panel-agenda/ Welcome to the new Progressive Faith Con Blog — the blog home of the Progressive Faith Blog Con. (You’d probably figured that out already, right?) If you’re reading this, perhaps you already know that we’re planning the first-ever gathering of bloggers of progressive faith — by which we mean bloggers whose ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/04/18/hello-world/ We’ve got some nifty new Prog Faith Blog Con graphics, which you’re welcome to use on your site or blog. (Please save them to your own hard drive and upload them to your server, instead of just linking the images here.) Enjoy! ... http://progfaithblogcon.blogsome.com/2006/04/18/new-graphics/