Hello friends from TheOOZE,

Last week, we re-launched TheOOZE.com with a new magazine format featuring fresh voices from around the globe. If you haven't had a chance to check out the new look and feel, be sure to visit the 'new and improved' website for daily, engaging content.

As we re-launch, here are three ways to stay informed:

1. Click "Like" on our Facebook page.
   In fact, head on over to Facebook for a special video message from Shane Claiborne that you won't want to miss.

2. Follow TheOOZE on Twitter.

3. Subscribe to TheOOZE RSS feed.

Also, if you haven't claimed your username for the new message board, click here to let us know.

Thank you for 12 years of support and encouragement as TheOOZE has created a platform for the conversation to flourish. You are the reason why TheOOZE exists, and we're excited about what the future holds.

Have a great week!

Spencer

ADVENT
by Marcus Goodyear

Every string of electric Christmas is a promise
begun across the ocean in a factory–run
by children maybe–that the light will shine.
You must be ready to make the unexpected
purchase in the midst of all the Jesus buys,
egg nog and rum, port, chocolates, toys and toys.
read more

LOCKED DOWN THEOLOGY
by Ed Cyzewski

While speaking to a room full of prison inmates, I realized I had a big problem. I had just told them about my book Coffeehouse Theology, and they wanted to know about it. Some even wanted a copy. As I started to explain the basics of my book, I realized that a significant part of my book wasn’t going to help them. That is, unless they were interested in postmodern philosophy and able to connect to the internet.
read more

TECHNOLOGY AND THEOLOGY:
STOP SKIMMING AND DEEP-DIVE AGAIN
by Kester Brewin

The many of us who read The Ooze will probably have more than a few things in common, and I don’t think I’d be putting down totally foolish money to bet that an interest in technology and theology would be two of them. For the past year or so I’ve been exploring these two passions in a series of events called Apple. We take a room in a pub in London and try to engage theologically with the technological changes that we see around us. Discussions have ranged from ‘is my Facebook self my real self’ to ‘is institutional religion an outmoded organizational technology.’ We tweet and argue and drink beer and try to work out if Jesus would ever consider healing my glitchy modem. read more

AN OPEN LETTER FROM SALLY MORGENTHALER
by Sally Morganthaler

Dear Spencer and Fellow Ooz-ers,
Thanks for inviting me to share in the great re-launch of the Ooze. Brings back memories of our first interview ten or so years ago…you and Dave Trotter, hanging out in your just-purchased Newport bungalow. I couldn’t help being a wee bit jealous. There you were, doing “ministry” in the sand…combing the beaches, the sidewalks, and the web for any child of God who still had a pulse. read more

CONSIDER THE LILLIES
by Mako Fujimura

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? read more