'NET VIEWS'

The Internet is one of those topics. It turns up more and more these days --- newspapers and television documentaries are full of terrible warnings about what the children of prospective subscribers may find.

The aspect which seems to be very rarely mentioned is the community feeling which builds within the 'newsgroups' and 'mailing lists.'

'Newsgroup' is the name given to a semi-organised collection of messages copied to a vast number of computers all around the world. Each newsgroup has an assigned name and, therefore, subject. For example, a newsgroup called 'rec.sport.jetski' would be used for discussing Jetski's and their use in sport! Most newsgroups are named in this 'obvious' manner. One of the newsgroups which I enjoy reading is called 'alt.books.pratchett' which is concerned with the writings of the science fantasy writer Terry Pratchett (who personally contributes to the group). A sense of fellowship builds up amongst the contributors --- even though they are often in different countries all over the world: Europe, America, Australia and so on.

'Mailing lists' are slightly different, they are much more controlled and (normally) have a specific owner who controls who may or may not have access to the list.

One such list is named 'Cursillo' --- no prizes for guessing its subject matter! It is an open list, which generally is read and contributed to by members of Cursillo communities and the other three day weekend communities, such as Walk To Emmaus.

Following is a couple of examples of comments which have been submitted to the Cursillo list.

The first is from DeJuan Jackson, I'm not too sure exactly where he is from: geography is not one of my strong points at the best of times, but a medium where there are no boundaries to cross over, and everything is a local phone call away, makes it even harder to work out where people are from!

The second is from Sue Davis. She is the Communications Coordinator at the NEC (National Episcopal Cursillo) Office in America.

Geoff Riley

May God's wrath be in your life to temper it. May God's love be in your life to soften the blows. May God's grace be in your life so that you may keep it. And may God's strength be in your life so the you may live it.

DeJuan Jackson <jackson@seas.smu.edu> Mon, 1 Apr 1996 12:39:56 -0600

The Cursillo method is a means by which we grow in our relationship with Christ, experience Christian Community in action in a way that challenges our response to the Gospel, and provides us with a way of life that exemplifies Christ centeredness.

Sue Davies <Glysdishd@aol.com> Wed, 1 May 1996 09:23:31 -0400

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