Strategic argument mapping

Includes bibliographical references (p. 38)

Assessing and Enabling Effective Lay Ministry in Scotland: Lay Ministry and its Place in the Changing Reality of Scottish Catholicism

The purpose of the dissertation is to assess where and how full-time, stable, lay ministry is developing in Scotland and to understand the ways in which lay ministry could grow and thrive with adequate resources and formation. The background to the dissertation is the changing circumstances of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland. Numbers of priests and consecrated religious have sharply declined in recent decades and there has been an on-going decline in levels of practice. Parishes are increasingly relying on their greatest asset: the laity. Within this cohort some are called to positions of pastoral leadership as pastoral assistants, chaplains, or youth workers. My interest in this topic arises from my work in such contexts over the last thirty years. Despite the emerging reality I found a dearth of literature about lay ministry or new models of ministry in the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland. Noel Timms’ extensive research project Diocesan Dispositions and Parish Voices (2001) does, usefully, include findings from two Scottish dioceses. In contrast the pastoral reality of lay ministry has been extensively researched in the United States and the thesis draws on the considerable study of Lay Ecclesial Ministry that has taken place there. The new ecclesiological vision which emerged from Vatican II emphasised the common priesthood of all the baptised. This, together with a renewed historical consciousness, has led some theologians to call for a greater diversity in ministry within the Roman Catholic Church. Other theologians believe that change is only possible through deconstruction of the Tradition. In this thesis I aim to pursue the following lines of enquiry: - What place does lay ministry have in the changing reality of Scottish Catholicism? What factors make for effective lay ministry? What elements would need to be put in place to enable the further development of lay ministry? The research process involved semi-structured interviews with diocesan personnel in seven of the eight Scottish dioceses and two case-studies of parishes with lay ecclesial ministers. The research found that ministry flourishes where there is an attitude of openness, where positive relationships are built, where there is the motivation and intention to actively create a total ministering community and where there is the practice of pastoral planning. The research revealed that across all the dioceses there are considerable theological and psychological barriers to be overcome before lay ministry can flourish. Contradiction and ambiguity in ecclesiological understanding has further contributed to the hesitant acceptance of lay ministers in Scotland. At the present time there is also a lack of synchronisation between the hermeneutical lens operating in postmodern culture and the philosophical understanding underpinning magisterial statements made in a pre-modern or modern era. Dialogue, solidarity and community were noted to be of particular importance for mission and ministry in postmodernity. A ministerial model of collaboration and co-responsibility can provide the vitality needed to enable this mission

An analysis of the morphology and submarine landslide potential of the upper and middle continental slope offshore Fraser Island, Queensland, Australia

This study presents an investigation into the geomorphological, sedimentological and geotechnical properties of submarine landslides present on the continental slope offshore Fraser Island. An extensive range of previously undiscovered features including marginal plateaus, linear rills, ridges and gullies, canyon systems, as well as slides and slumps were identified. Gravity cores (5.65 m and 3.64 m long) taken in the ‘Upper Slope Slide’ (25 km2 in area, 200-300 m thick), and the ‘Middle Slope Slide’ (11 km2 in area, 100-150 m thick) indicate the slide scars contain drapes of Pleistocene to Recent hemipelagic mud. Shorter gravity cores (1.33 m and 0.43 m long) taken adjacent to both slides terminated in stiff muds of upper Pliocene to lower Pleistocene age (Upper Slope Slide), and upper Miocene to lower Pliocene age (Middle Slope Slide). This unique pattern shows that the sediment is being accumulated and protected inside the slide hollows, while being actively removed from the exposed adjacent slopes, most likely by abrasion. Biostratigraphic ages determined for the basal material demonstrate that the seafloor surfaces at both sites are effectively erosional unconformities. The basal, stiff sediments on the upper slope was deposited between 2 and 2.5 Ma BP; this material was scoured and then buried beneath a 1 m thick sediment drape at 0.45 Ma BP. Sediments exposed on the seafloor adjacent to the Middle Slope Slide were dated at around 6-8.5 Ma BP. This indicates that the smooth upper continental slope developed its morphology by the late-mid Pleistocene, while the middle slope is a Post-Pliocene feature. It is thought that Pliocene-Pleistocene geological events including fluctuations in the intensity of surface and abyssal ocean currents are responsible for re-sculpting the continental slope’s morphology and have a) increased abrasion and erosion of the middle and upper slope; while b) suppressed sediment delivery

Proficient or Deficient? Pre-service Elementary Teachers\u27 Social Studies Content Knowledge in the Era of NCLB

Millennial generation pre-service teachers enrolled in undergraduate social studies methods courses are largely the products of NCLB and the concomitant marginalization of social studies during their K-12 education experience. This study examined a sample (N=136) of pre-service elementary teachers’ entry-point social studies content knowledge strengths and weaknesses over a three-year time frame and the degree to which NCLB era K-12 content standards had an impact on pre-service teachers’ entry-point content knowledge scores. The unintended consequences of NCLB on pre-service elementary teachers’ social studies content knowledge and recommendations for intervention and continuous improvement are presented in this paper

The role of news media knowledge for how people use social media for news in five countries

Concern over misinformation on social media has amplified calls to improve the public’s knowledge about how news is produced, distributed and financed. This study investigates the relationship between people’s news media knowledge and the ways in which they use social media for news using online survey data in five countries: the United Kingdom, United States, Germany, Spain and Sweden ( N = 10,595). We find that people with higher news media knowledge are more likely to include social media in their news repertoire – but not as their main or only source of news. Second, we find that news media knowledge is positively associated with paying attention to source and editorial cues. When it comes to different social endorsement cues, news media knowledge is positively associated with paying attention to the person who shared the news, but negatively associated with paying attention to the number of likes, comments and shares