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©1999 The Society of Archbishop Justus, Ltd

Hallo again to all, on this Sunday after Christmas, which, being the 26th of December, some call 'Boxing Day'. Wondering just what that is? So was Brian. He looked around the Internet for some definition of what Boxing Day might be, ignoring those that mentioned Mike Tyson, to find the best explanation of Boxing Day in the World Book Encyclopedia. The short answer is that the holiday is so old that nobody really knows for sure what the name means. Boxing Day is celebrated in Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.

Five years old on 27 December 1999

Monday, the 27th of December 1999 marks the fifth birthday of the founding of Anglicans Online. Tod Maffin, founding editor, reminisces about our beginning and Brian Reid follows up with a crisp look at where we are now. We'd love it if you'd take a moment and tell us what Anglicans Online means to you--and perhaps let us know when you first started stopping by. As we read back through the correspondence surrounding Tod's announcement of the creation of Anglicans Online, the thing that we find the most astounding is that in 1994, most Internet-savvy people did not yet know what the Web was. Tod knew, and he showed people what could be done with it.

Every hundred years the world's astronomers and scholars get together to tell the public that they have to wait another year for the century to end, and every hundred years the public ignores them completely. We at Anglicans Online know perfectly well that the century doesn't actually end for another year, but we're pretending that we don't know, so that we can celebrate with the rest of Christendom. Who wants to go to a party a year late?

Thus we can say that this edition of AO is our last of this century, so of course time is on our mind. The Church Times features a delightful article by Tom Wright called 'The Wheel, the Clock, and the River', and you'll need to have a read to see how they all link. Perhaps you're glad that the hype about the Millennium Dome in London only has a bit more time to live. We had a look at it tonight through the eye of the live WebCam tucked into the Trinity Buoy Wharf in the Thames and thought it looked remarkably dull. Another journalist suggests it was staggeringly disappointing.

One of your editors has a love of sundials, and she found it more interesting to look at the WebCam focussed on the sundial at Pembroke College, Cambridge University. To be different, we offer you our equivalent of the Millennium Dome: a do-it-yourself portable sundial--just add sun. (Here's a version you can print at a decent size and resolution.)

Humans seem intent on finding significance at the turn of every century and especially at the turn of 1000 years. The British Museum offers an exhibit of the apocalyptic side of time and its reckoning, and if you're in London you may want to stop in.

We're pleased that some things continue quite unapocalyptically at Anglicans Online. We offer you several new parish web sites, a cathedral, and a veritable cornucopia of news, from dressed-down bishops to A N Wilson, Jerry Hall, and HM Queen Elizabeth. Get the scoop at our News Centre and the full roster of the latest sites at New This Week.

As we head into 2000 AD, the Churches Advertising Network in the UK stakes its claim on love. We do, too (although we might have created a slightly different poster). Wherever you will be on the stroke of midnight, 31 December, may the blessing of God, the love of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the grace and comfort of the Holy Spirit be with you--and with us all. Ever onward!

See you next week, next year, next century.

Cynthia McFarland cmcf@justus.anglican.org		Brian Reid reid@justus.anglican.org

Last updated: 26 December 1999
URL: http://anglicansonline.org