Ship of Fools is a UK-based Christian satirical website.

Origins

Ship of Fools was first launched as a magazine in 1977. The magazine folded in 1983 and was resurrected as an internet magazine website and

bulletin board system A bulletin board system (BBS), also called computer bulletin board service (CBBS), is a computer server running software that allows users to connect to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, the user can perform functions such as ...

community

forum Forum or The Forum (plural forums or fora) may refer to: Common uses * Forum (legal), designated space for public expression in the United States *Forum (Roman), open public space within a Roman city **Roman Forum, most famous example *Internet ...

in 1998. Subtitled "the magazine of Christian unrest", Ship of Fools pokes fun and asks critical questions about the Christian faith. The site is part magazine and part web community.

Leadership

Ship of Fools was founded and is edited by Simon Jenkins (editor) and Stephen Goddard (co-editor). Jenkins is an author, designer and

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and ...

from London (not to be confused with Sir

Simon Jenkins Sir Simon David Jenkins (born 10 June 1943) is a British author, a newspaper columnist and editor. He was editor of the ''Evening Standard'' from 1976 to 1978 and of ''The Times'' from 1990 to 1992. Jenkins chaired the National Trust from 20 ...

, former Editor of

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

and author of ''England's Thousand Best Churches''). Goddard is a journalist and

public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. P ...

consultant; both have formal

theological Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

education. They also perform a show, ''Ship of Fools Live'', in churches, universities and elsewhere, with excerpts from the site's magazine content. The show toured in the United States in February 2004.

Website

The website presents itself as

ecumenical Ecumenism (), also spelled oecumenism, is the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships among their churches and promote Christian unity. The adjec ...

/pan-Christian, although the prevailing ethos is English-speaking

Trinitarian The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the Fa ...

Christianity. The diversity of the users range from complete atheists to evangelical and liberal Christians. Notable features of Ship of Fools website are: * "The Mystery Worshipper" – reports on church services made by anonymous worshippers. The intention is to give feedback on how they appear to outsiders and first-time visitors. * "Gadgets for God" – kitsch Christian-based products on the internet. * "Features & Projects" – irregular columns and a range of projects including "R Father" (2001 competition for rewriting the Lord's prayer as a text message) and "Church of Fools" (see below). * Discussion boards – debate and discussion amongst registered members, who are known as ("shipmates"). "Church of Fools", an online 3D interactive church, originally ran as a multi-user environment from May to September 2004, before moving to its own website and eventually becoming St Pixels"Glory be to God online"

Church Times The ''Church Times'' is an independent Anglican weekly newspaper based in London and published in the United Kingdom on Fridays. History The ''Church Times'' was founded on 7 February 1863 by George Josiah Palmer, a printer. It fought for the ...

20 April 2007 (whose last service was on Facebook in 2015). In April 2020, "Church of Fools" returned to the Ship of Fools website in response to the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

crisis.

Other Activities

Ship of Fools sometimes leaves the internet for the real world. There are frequent "Shipmeets" where shipmates get together at different locations around the world. Ship of Fools also ran a

Ned Flanders Nedward "Ned" Flanders Jr. is a fictional character in the animated television series ''The Simpsons'', voiced by Harry Shearer and first appearing in the series premiere episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire." He is the good-natured, chee ...

Night at the Christian festival

Greenbelt A green belt is a policy and land-use zone designation used in land-use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wild, or agricultural land surrounding or neighboring urban areas. Similar concepts are greenways or green wedges, which hav ...

References

External links

*
St Pixels
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ship of Fools (Website) Religious comedy websites Online magazines published in the United Kingdom Magazines established in 1977 Magazines disestablished in 1983 Internet properties established in 1998 Christian websites British comedy websites Online magazines with defunct print editions Defunct magazines published in the United Kingdom