Appropriating Halloween and Creating Liminal Times

Danger! Syncretism ahoy!

(Part of the Samhain Synchroblog “A Christian response to Halloween“.) 

In the very small corner of my early Christian experience with a very small segment of the Christian pool, references to Christmas and Easter were met with disapproval. The former, Christmas, was viewed completely secularised and celebrating the latter, Easter, meant Christians were inadvertently worship Ishtar. Halloween was viewed with much superstition as a Satanic event, with roots in Druidism. It wasn’t till much later in life that I discovered the concept of syncretism and linked my mentors objection to it. They, like many others including myself, were simply seeking to distinguish between the core of our faith and what that meant and looked like apart from “man-made religion”, and syncretism was viewed as something damaging to the faith and people.

Years later I’ve moved to another small corner of the Christian faith and experience. Now I ask, “Can we celebrate Halloween as a Christian event? Is there any hope for it? Or by linking Christianity and Halloween are we creating a syncrotistic – read bad idea – event? What elements of Halloween can we take and make appropriate use of as a vehicle for engaging Christ and Spirit?”

Upcoming post (Oct 24) Halloween

I’m going to be syncroblogging about around the theme “A Christian Response to Halloween” on Wed 24 Oct. A syncro blog, at least in my understanding, is a bunch of people blogging around the same theme at the same time (without reading anyone else’s posts fist). Each person syncroblogging references everyone else posting on the same subject.

Is anyone else keen to syncroblog? Visit http://squarenomore.blogspot.com/2007/10/next-synchroblog-wednesday-october-24th.html and sign up.

Where do we find our parrallel’s?

The imagery used for pasturing in Scripture focuses on the shepherd caring for his flock. Though some traditional churches preserve this image as one of the primary focuses of their pastors, many contemporary churches seem to shift the focus toward the CEO as their model, particularly for their senior pastor. Understandably, there are numerous iterations as to what a pastor looks like and what their primary functions are within the churches they lead.

I have no doubt that those serving any given community will move through the stages of self or full-time employment to part-time employment while also working in the community through to, perhaps, having all of their time taken up in various ways by the community. This brings me to my real question.

With the shift toward postmodernism and the emerging church, how do we conceive the role of the pastor and other forms of professional ministry?

Beyond anonymity – just one small step

Hmmmm. Blogging is new to me. This is my first blog. Ever. After joining Facebook and participating in one or two discussions there, this is my first step out into the virtual world with a virtual identity linked to who I am, what I do and what I think. Needless to say I’m more comfortable with anonymity. There’s safety knowing that I’m safely tucked away with my own thoughts and feelings never really “out there”. I guess this post means I’m no longer a virgin blogger?