Just FYI, Type Thing

From a while back, when I thought there was a hope for the sect of Anglicanism. I chose ‘Binky’ because it seemed harmless and stupid– while I’m not– and because it signalled a certain sauciness and lack of “Damn, I’m Good!” which besets too many in the mainstream media & blogosphere. ‘WebElf?’ Because ‘Web Sexton’ seemed too insider-churchy. No big.

 

http://www.anglicanfederation.ca/pdf/michaels_memo030407.pdf

Meet a Web Elf!

In early 2004, a Washington Times article identified what it called “a group of determined Internet jockeys whose reach encircles the globe”, a group motivated by what the Times identified as “a spiritual calling to get the news out”. It was the opinion of the Times columnist, Julia Duin, that this group was having a profound influence on the Anglican world.

Recently we’ve been blessed with the help and assistance of one of the original pioneers in this field of grassroots Anglican Internet communications. He is a Canadian, an Anglican, a Maritimer – and he is known around the internet world as Binky the Web Elf. Many of us just call him The Man!

inky (as we’ll reverently refer to him) became fascinated with the possibilities of personal Internet communication back in 1994 when his father, always interested in the latest technology, demonstrated, during a visit, the wonders of instant email and website information. Binky quickly grasped the possibilities. As a member of the Prayer Book Society of Canada (a co-founder of the Essentials Movement), he was intrigued with the possibilities for getting ‘the word’ out which he recognized could be developed within these Internet technologies. In spare time, he began to build a website for the Society with, as he says, “no clue” how to do it! But he persisted, was on-line by 1996, and was soon developing on-line resources of the kind of Anglican documents and writings which the institutional church was actively discouraging.

During the next two years, Binky increasingly recognized the urgent need to enable Anglican voices other than the ‘official’ ones – to be heard. “Spin” needed to be met with some plain rebuttal and counter-spin if anything like actual, open, instructive dialogue were to happen in the developing crisis within the global Anglican Church.

The need grew more urgent with the approach of 1998 and the Lambeth Conference. There were issues and resolutions on the table that were critical to the future of the Communion. Too much was at stake to leave all reporting in the hands of a single controlling bureaucratic agency, particularly when that agency’s proper detachment appeared to many to be seriously compromised.

And thus CaNN was created – Classical Anglican Net News- an allusion, of course, to CNN and its aura of instant breaking global news. News – and lots of it- did pour out from Lambeth. CaNN reported it daily from its own correspondents ‘on the ground’. It continued to report daily as the news continued to pour out in the aftermath of the Conference. In fact it has never really stopped since. The fast moving story of the Anglican Communion since the last Lambeth Conference has commanded huge interest, produced vast content, and demanded constant reporting. Binky and CaNN have provided it – and even the opposition check it out!

In the same Washington Times piece, Binky is quoted: “The ordinary people may not have the theological tools to stand up to their leaders. They often don’t have that extra bit of information that allows them to say this is their church, too. Now through the Internet, their story is being told.” In a recent conversation we shared with him, Binky noted that it has always been important to him to try to present all sides in the reporting of an event or issue. “We have to do this if we’re at all serious about actual dialogue”.

Binky has helped many people to get that “extra bit of information”. He has supported the development of many of the ‘blogs’ (short for web logs) that now enliven and inform the global conversation going on within our church. Now-famous voices like Titusonenine amongst others acknowledge the help they have received from that intrepid Canadian Web Elf.

In his classically modest* way, Binky shared with us some of the bouquets he’s received recently. They come from a Who’s Who of Anglican writers and observers:

“As one who has to read a lot of publications and websites for his work — writing Touchstone magazine’s blogsite and news section — I find I can pick up more information from a wider range of sources, and pick it up faster, from CANN than from almost any other source.”
– David Mills, Touchstone Magazine Editor

“I hear rumors about people called Web Elves. Or perhaps it is only one person or being who does not sleep. This is a mystery. But one thing is for sure. All over the world there are reporters who look to CaNN as the quickest and most up-to-date guide to the wacky world of online Anglican URLs. It is hard to remember what the Anglican ommunion was like before Binky. The odds are good that he will outlive it.”
– Professor Terry Mattingly, journalist, Get Religion Editor

“Reading CaNN gives me hope for the future, and a laugh (plus food for thought) when I need it: today. Couldn’t cope as well with the daily onslaught of bad news if it weren’t for the Web Elves.”
– Kathy Shaidle, writer / author / blogger

“…one of the best sites is Classical Anglican Net News, which has its own site for the primates’ meeting. The orthodox blog, based in Canada, appraises everything from a conservative point of view (and often a biting one at hat) and continually searches the net for any Anglican tidbits…. if you’re looking for a comprehensive collection compiling everything from bloggers to denominational publications, check out CANN…”
– Christianity Today Weblog

“Here at Anglican Mainstream, our first port of call for all the news and views about the Anglican Communion is CaNN. For a fresh and lively but orthodox insight into what’s happening, there’s no other place to be.”
– Peter Ould, Web Director, Anglican Mainstream, UK

“As an evangelical Christian journalist based in British Columbia, CaNN has proven itself to me over and over again as an invaluable resource on the ongoing controversies within the Anglican Communion, especially as they pertain to the diocese of New Westminster. It is extraordinarily comprehensive and always up-to-date.”
– Frank Stirk, Vancouver, BC

“An up-to-date, classified and most useful entry into the goings-on of Anglicans in their crisis over authority and sexuality.”
– The Rev’d Dr. Peter Toon, theologian,
PBS-USA Vice-President and Emissary-at-Large

We too salute his achievements and we’d like to add another bouquet –

“CANN puts the entire Anglican world at my electronic doorstep every day. Morning coffee and CANN … a reat complimentarity!!”
– Michael Edward, Anglican Essentials Federation

But – do meet the Web Elf for yourself at http://webelf.wordpress.com/

– END –

* Ed: Humble 5-time winner of the global ‘Most Likely To Be Really Modest” Prize, the International Humilitas Award, not to mention…. well, we won’t mention them.