Welcome to this week's newest members of the PCUSA web ring!
1) Dressed for Dancing: a pilgrim exploring the intersections of faith and life. I’m Kerri Peterson-Davis serving a PCUSA congregation in NE Ohio with my spouse Jeff. The viewpoints here are mine so don’t blame Jeff, the wonderful congregation I serve, the PCUSA or my favorite childhood dog, Sammy.
2) The Abecedarian Disciple: Thoughts from a Novice Christian. Occasionally, I have been referred to as an "expert" in various topics (such as Christian theology, biblical studies, and faith development). But I'm not sure I can claim such a title. As I see it, no one ever reaches full mastery of discipleship, or comprehends the full scope of religious matters. Speaking from personal experience, although I have been a Christian all my life, the longer I walk this mortal plane, the more dimension I discover to faith. . . especially my own. And the more I discover, the more I realize I don't know. As such, I have begun to describe myself as a "novice" Christian, or as an "abecedarian disciple." The word "abecedarian" is defined by "Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary" in this manner: "Pertaining to, or formed by, the letters of the alphabet; alphabetic; hence, rudimentary." But "abecedarian" also describes a person who is a novice learning the rudiments of some subject. This is how I view myself, as a novice learning the rudiments of faithfulness. Another, lesser known, definition of "abecedarian" is a psalm, hymn or other composition in which distinct portions or verses commence with successive letters of the alphabet. Psalm 119 in Hebrew is a good example. To play with this additional definition, I like to believe that my novitiate Christianity is more than a series of lessons for me. Perhaps one day I can look back on my life and see the rudimentary discoveries have come together as a hymn of praise to God.
These blogs also join the new blogroll (Members of Our Community - In Development) which can be found at the bottom of the right-hand sidebar. Please check the new blogroll for your site, and if you don't see yourself listed, please click the link to apply to join the ring! The new blogroll will be moving up and replacing the older list soon.
This is a great way of highlighting the new bloggers, Sarahlynn. Will the new list have the update feature? This is something handy that I use to visit the blogs - I dislike going to a blog that hasn't been updated in a long time.
ReplyDeleteAlso, some of the blogs listed in the new roll are only showing their urls instead of their blog titles.
Finally, you have done some wonderful work in revamping the whole site. It's taken a lot of pressure off of me. Thank you.
Unfortunately, I cannot update the current blog roll. It was created in a separate program, Blogrolling, and I don't have access to that account.
ReplyDeleteThe new blogroll was created through a Blogger widget, which I prefer for a number of technological reasons (having used both Blogger and Blogrolling for my own blog rolls).
Unfortunately, at this time, Blogger does not offer exactly the same "updated!" feature as Blogrolling. The Blogger options for each blog in the blog roll are:
- Icon
- Title of most recent item
- Snippet of most recent item
- Date of last update
Showing the date of last update is very useful, but adds an extra line to each entry, which makes the list of blogs very long.
I'm OK with that, but would be interested to hear from others: is the convenience of seeing when blogs were recently updated worth having to scroll through a list that's twice as long?
As far as how some of the blogs are listed inconsistently (all lower case, all upper case, by URL only) I can go into the blog roll and edit that. I have been slightly reluctant to do so, because currently what shows up is how bloggers enter their own blog titles on their websites. (Blogger grabs that automatically.)
I like the idea of letting people decide how they'll be listed, but have definitely been considering listing each blog by name (when available; not all blogs have titles) rather than URL for consistency in the blogroll.
All these considerations are part of my process of updating the blog roll, and I appreciate any suggestions/input.
Another question: What to do with the sites on the current blog roll who are not members of the web ring? (The new blog roll is currently a list of the sites that have joined the PCUSA web ring.) I plan to email them each directly to invite them to join the ring. If email doesn't work or I receive no response, should their sites be copied over to the new blogroll or left off? (I'm leaning toward coopying them over.)
As always, feedback is appreciated.
Thanks!
Welcome new bloggers!
ReplyDeleteI would go with a date of the last update, Sarahlynn. It's a very useful tool to read some current thoughts.
ReplyDeleteI'm not showing up on the new blogring. Andrew Seely
ReplyDeletewww.andrewseely.com
". . . Perhaps one day I can look back on my life and see the rudimentary discoveries have come together as a hymn of praise to God."
ReplyDeleteI love this part. Very nice!