A disgraced Bishop evaded prosecution for decades after intervention by a member of the Royal family, Cabinet Ministers and a Lord Chief Justice, a court heard yesterday.

The former Bishop of Gloucester, now aged 83, groomed and abused 18 aspiring young priests over a period spanning 15 years.

Mr Justice Wilkie, sitting at the Old Bailey, jailed Ball for two years and eight months for his offending on Wednesday.

But, before being sentenced, the court heard how Ball escaped justice over the same charges years earlier after he was given support by a member of the Royal family and Establishment figures.

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You can check here and there. This is what stood out to me:

70 The walls of upper city of Jerusalem were battered down by Romans

1920 Eight Chicago White Sox players were charged with fixing the 1919 World Series

1937 The 1st Santa Claus Training School opened in Albion, NY

1950 U.S. Army and Marine troops liberate Seoul, South Korea

1968 The Musical Hair opens in London as censors withdraw

1996 Rwandan Pastor Elizaphan Ntakirutimana (73) was charged with ordering the slaughter of hundreds of Tutsis in Kibuye in 1994. It was charged that he had arranged that they seek refuge in his Seventh Day Adventist Church, whereupon he called in Hutus to kill them

What stood out to you–KSH?

The Archbishop of Canterbury’s invitation yesterday to all primates to meet in January to thrash out their differences is a bold attempt to end the arguments that have brought the Anglican church to the brink of schism. It is also a high-risk strategy, with splits and walkouts more likely than agreement or even agreement to disagree. Why has he taken this step now?
First, he is determined to focus Anglicans on the most serious issues confronting Christians today, from violence and persecution in the Middle East to poverty and the protection of vulnerable children throughout the developing world. This is impossible as long as they are wasting their energies quarrelling among themselves. Like Rowan Williams, his predecessor, he wants to keep the 80 million-strong communion together, but not at any price. So he is proposing a looser, less imperial structure. A church can decide not to remain in communion with every other one, as long as it retains a clear link with Canterbury. As a source at Lambeth Palace suggests, it is not a divorce; more like sleeping in separate beds.
Second, the archbishop, a former oil executive, likes clarity. The communion cannot go on pretending that all is well when it is not.

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From the Catholic Employment Network:

God, our Father, I turn to you seeking your divine help and guidance as I look for suitable employment. I need your wisdom to guide my footsteps along the right path, and to lead me to find the proper things to say and do in this quest. I wish to use the gifts and talents you have given me, but I need the opportunity to do so with gainful employment. Do not abandon me, dear Father, in this search, but rather grant me this favor I seek so that I may return to you with praise and thanksgiving for your gracious assistance. Grant this through Christ, our Lord. Amen

But I trust in thee, O LORD, I say, “Thou art my God.” My times are in thy hand; deliver me from the hand of my enemies and persecutors! Let thy face shine on thy servant; save me in thy steadfast love!

–Psalm 31:15-16

And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church. And when they came to him, he said to them:

“You yourselves know how I lived among you all the time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which befell me through the plots of the Jews; how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance to God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, bound in the Spirit, not knowing what shall befall me there; except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me.
But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may accomplish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. And now, behold, I know that all you among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom will see my face no more. Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God which he obtained with the blood of his own Son. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities, and to those who were with me. In all things I have shown you that by so toiling one must help the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, ”˜It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

And when he had spoken thus, he knelt down and prayed with them all. And they all wept and embraced Paul and kissed him, sorrowing most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they should see his face no more. And they brought him to the ship.

–Acts 20:17-38

Episcopal Bishop William Love’s opposition to same-sex marriage in defiance of the recent 78th general convention of the Episcopal Church that affirmed marriage equality has roiled the Albany diocese and caused parishioners to quit the Cathedral of All Saints in protest.

In a July 18 pastoral letter in response to last month’s convention and June’s historic Supreme Court ruling guaranteeing nationwide rights for same-sex marriage, Love cited a Book of Common Prayer definition of marriage as a “solemn and public covenant between a man and a woman.”

Love was among just seven out of more than 100 bishops across the United States who flouted the convention’s stance and publicly opposed same-sex marriage.

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If you’ve ever sent racy text messages or revealing selfies to your sweetie, you’re not alone. More than 4 out of 5 adults in a new study reported sexting ”“ that is, sending or receiving sexually explicit text messages or pictures on their phones ”“ in the last year. And they were glad they did.

“Sexting is a prevalent behavior that adults engage in for a variety of reasons,” wrote study authors Emily Stasko, a doctoral student in psychology at Drexel University, and Pamela A. Geller, a professor who runs the Women’s Health Psychology Lab at Drexel. “These findings indicate a robust relationship between sexting and sexual satisfaction.”

To get a clearer picture of the state of sexting among American adults, Stasko and Geller enlisted 870 heterosexual adults to answer an online survey about sexting. The participants ranged in age between 18 and 82, with an average age of 35. The survey takers were recruited through the Internet site Amazon Mechanical Turk, and whites and women were overrepresented compared with the U.S. population as a whole.

Read it all from the LA Times.

Jackson was an artist of unease. She wrote about identity, madness and the horror of ordinary life, in crisp, adroit prose. Her fiction recalls such various talents as Dorothy Parker, Flannery O’Connor, Daphne du Maurier, Roald Dahl and Jorge Luis Borges ”” which is a way of saying that she was a true original. Her best work has “the plausibility of myth”, as The New York Times put it. Rather surprisingly, for readers who came to her through human sacrifice, the occult etc, she also wrote two apparently charming memoirs which ”” I quote from the preface of the new book ”” “artfully chronicled the joys and difficulties of bringing up four garrulous, rambunctious children”.

After attending Syracuse University, Jackson married the critic Stanley Edgar Hyman and settled in North Bennington, Vermont, where Hyman taught at a liberal arts college. According to one autobiographical piece printed here, she wrote when she wasn’t “vacuuming the living-room rug or driving the children to school or trying to find something different to serve for dinner tonight”.

Let Me Tell You is one of several articles of Jacksoniana ”” including a new biography ”” that will be brought out this year, the 50th anniversary of her early death. It supplements the two main collections of her shorter work: The Lottery and Other Stories, and Come Along with Me, which was edited by Hyman. The book is an anthology of previously uncollected and unpublished pieces found among her papers. It represents not just the scraping of the barrel, but the second scraping of the barrel (after Just an Ordinary Day, published in 2009).

The surprise is not that it contains iffy and substandard pieces, which it does, but that several of the stories are so striking.

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“We are very quick to criticise street preachers”, says British street preacher who faces a retrial at the end of July.
After having been found guilty of violating Section 5 of the Public Order Act earlier this year, UK street preacher Mike Overd faces a retrial on Friday 31st July.

Cleared of all charges in his first court appearance in 2012, the Taunton-based ex-paratrooper and his legal representatives at Christian Concern are confident that they will get another not guilty verdict at the end of the month.

Section 5 of the British Public Order Act has to do with offences related to causing harassment, alarm or distress by using threatening, abusive or insulting words and/ or behaviour.

We took some time to catch up with Overd to find out more about his trial and his message.

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And all the assembly kept silence; and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. After they finished speaking, James replied, “Brethren, listen to me. Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. And with this the words of the prophets agree, as it is written,

”˜After this I will return,
and I will rebuild the dwelling of David, which has fallen;
I will rebuild its ruins,
and I will set it up,
that the rest of men may seek the Lord,
and all the Gentiles who are called by my name,
says the Lord, who has made these things known from of old.’

Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, but should write to them to abstain from the pollutions of idols and from unchastity and from what is strangled and from blood. For from early generations Moses has had in every city those who preach him, for he is read every sabbath in the synagogues.”

–Acts 15:12-21

THE Bahamas will “inevitably” face “immense pressure” to let gays and lesbians marry in this country, retired Anglican Archbishop Drexel Gomez told The Tribune yesterday as pastors across the country responded from their pulpits to the US Supreme Court’s decision to legalise same-sex marriage nationwide.

“I expected the ruling which came down from the US Supreme Court,” Archbishop Gomez said when contacted yesterday. “It’s happening all across the western world and promulgated by governments. It’s all a part of a new man-made doctrine, an attempt to extend democracy principles to human life.”

“I don’t think there will be immediate implications for The Bahamas, but it’s inevitable now and only a matter of time before pressure will be brought to bear on our government by the United States.

“In terms of aid and relationships, the tendency is historically for the US to have its way and to ensure that you go their way when they give you aid and assistance. It can only be done through laws and if it means changing the laws I still maintain that the traditional teaching on marriage is biblical and represents God’s wish for the ways in which human begins can relate to each other.”

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The Church of England will continue to invest in fossil-fuel companies, but will pull out its money if they stop listening to its demands to tackle climate change, the General Synod agreed on Monday.

Two motions on climate change were passed with overwhelming majorities, after the Synod heard that climate change was a “spiritual problem” and that there was a “moral imperative” to act. The debates were informed by pleas from Anglicans across the Communion. The Bishop of Fiji had told his counterpart in Salisbury: “The waters are coming up to our necks.”

The first motion, on combating climate change, anticipates the global summit that is due to take place in Paris in December. It urges governments to “agree long-term pathways to a low-carbon future” and endorses the World Bank’s call for the ending of fossil-fuel subsidies. It also looks inward, requesting the development of new “eco-theological resources” and encouraging parishes and dioceses to encourage a fast for climate change on the first day of each month.

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As a Christian, I believe that religious freedom ”” the choice of how we follow God and, indeed, whether we choose to follow God at all ”” is given in creation, and in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. Jesus gave those he encountered absolute freedom of choice as to whether to follow him or not: the thieves on either side of Jesus, as he hung on the cross, were given a choice whether to believe in him: one turned to him, the other cursed him. That is freedom. It is a freedom that should apply to people whatever their faith, or those who are atheists.

Those of us who are followers of Jesus are called to obedience to Him. We bear witness to Jesus Christ, of course, yet we must never compel or manipulate people into faith. This is why the church’s sporadic record of compelling obedience to its teachings through violence and coercion is a cause for humility and shame.

It is all too easy to think that faith is an optional extra or a consumer choice, that choosing whether to believe in God is like deciding which type of car to buy. Humans are made in the image of God, so our religious beliefs are a core part of what it is to be human. To take away a person’s freedom of belief or non-belief is to violate the core of their humanity.

At the same time, more work needs to be done to develop the language used by political and religious leaders to talk about religious belief in their own contexts, and the quality with which we understand the beliefs of others. Religion defines us. For me, there is quite literally nothing more important than knowing, loving and serving Jesus Christ.

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To thee, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
O my God, in thee I trust,
let me not be put to shame;
let not my enemies exult over me.
Yea, let none that wait for thee be put to shame;
let them be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.

Make me to know thy ways, O Lord;
teach me thy paths.
Lead me in thy truth, and teach me,
for thou art the God of my salvation;
for thee I wait all the day long.

–Psalm 25:1-4

Priestly leaders do not dominate: they mediate. By entering into the experience of others, they create and forge community by reconciling what would otherwise be at loggerheads, or separated. They make connections between unlikely people and institutions, and hold together communities that might other- wise break apart in disunity and division.

Priestly leaders do not placate, they perfect. Rather than aim to keep everyone happy, they are fiercely dedicated, not to the furtherance of their own careers, but to the nurture, growth and development of those in their care, and the institutions they are called to preserve and develop, even when that means making tough and unpopular decisions. They keep their eye on the goal, the big picture, the ultimate purpose of all things.

Finally, the purpose of their work is not self-glorification, but offering. They work hard, not out of some secular work ethic, but because they remember that the goal of their work as leaders is not ultimately the success of their organisation, the year-end profit margin, or even the number of people affected, but to serve a much greater and higher goal: the creation of something good, life-giving, and worth while ”” an offering worthy of God the Creator himself.

Read it all from the Church Times.

What did you want to tell the country in the wake of the shooting?

“I knew that we needed to put on a face for this state (for Friday morning national TV interviews), which was that we were hurt and that we were sad, but that we were together. I wanted the country to know that the people of South Carolina love their God, love their country and love their state but, more importantly, they love each other. … I take great pride in the state, talking about what we build and what we do and tourism and all. The people of South Carolina, I love bragging on them. So, I just didn’t want them to think (the shooting is) who we were.”

Were you worried that the perception of South Carolina changed?

“No, I was concerned about those nine families and that church family and the people of South Carolina. It was so obvious how broken everybody was. Going through Charleston, they were devastated. That was all I could think about, was how was I going to heal the state. I didn’t care about anything else.

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Almighty God, whose blessed apostles Peter and Paul glorified thee by their martyrdom: Grant that thy Church, instructed by their teaching and example, and knit together in unity by thy Spirit, may ever stand firm upon the one foundation, which is Jesus Christ our Lord; who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the same Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Roberts’s unequivocal disagreement is somewhat startling, especially as the conservative-leaning justice seemed to be searching for a middle ground just a few months ago during oral arguments on the case, reported The Washington Post’s Robert Barnes.

The chief justice has a particular obligation “to try to achieve consensus,” Roberts has said.

But Roberts didn’t agree with the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision to expand federal rights to legally married gay couples. And he made clear Friday that no consensus is worth a decision he feels oversteps the court’s constitutional bounds.

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About 350 people packed the Whitfield Center at Charleston Southern on Monday to honor the life of Sharonda Singleton and to pray for her son, CSU baseball player Chris Singleton.

Sharonda Singleton, the girls’ track coach and speech pathologist at Goose Creek High School, was one of nine victims in the shooting last week at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. The mother of three, she also was a minister at the historic church.

At the prayer service, CSU baseball coach Stuart Lake talked about “how special a person Chris’ mom was.”

“She was the parent you want to have in coaching,” Lake said. “Ms. Singleton represented everything I hope that me and my wife can be as a parent to our son. She was there, and Chris knew she was there. But she allowed him to grow, and as a freshman he went through some tough times on the baseball field.

Read it all from the local paper.

As reported in the Guardian yesterday, the Bishop of Buckingham put forward three points in support of Jeremy Pemberton’s employment tribunal case against Bishop Richard Inwood.

All three points are remarkably weak, but they need challenging in case they gain further credence.

First, he says that Canon B 30 gives a ”˜lousy definition’ of marriage because it cannot tell you who is and is not married. It is perfectly true that the Canon does not tell you who the state may think is married. What it does tell you very clearly, however, on the basis of the teaching of Christ in the Gospels (Matthew 19:3-12, Mark 10:2-12) and what is said in the Book of Common Prayer, is what the Church of England understands marriage to be and on this basis it is clear that Jeremy Pemberton is not married regardless of what the state may say. The state may say that black is white but that does not make it so.

Secondly, he argues that the first part of the Canon, drawn from the Convocation resolutions of 1938 was not originally making ”˜a doctrinal point.’ Actually, yes it was….

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A white man opened fire during a prayer meeting inside a historic black church in downtown Charleston on Wednesday night, killing nine people, including the pastor, in an assault that authorities described as a hate crime. The shooter remained at large Thursday morning.

Police Chief Greg Mullen said he believed the attack at the Emanuel AME Church was a hate crime, and police were looking for a white male in his early 20s. Mullen said the scene was chaotic when police arrived, and the officers thought they had the suspect tracked with a police dog, but he got away.

“We will put all effort, we will put all resources and we will put all of our energy into finding this individual who committed this crime tonight,” he said.

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With few exceptions, online hate preachers play a central role in the poisoning of these people’s minds. That is why Lord Carlile is right to call for a compelling “counter-narrative” to be fostered to counter the murderous propaganda of jihadists, harnessing if necessary the expertise of video game makers. But this battleground is not entirely virtual. Hundreds of young Britons are absconding, killing and some are dying in the real world. It is in the real world that they must be intercepted.

A leading West Yorkshire imam likened the grooming of young Muslims for violence to the grooming of children for sex by paedophiles. There are doubtless similarities, but none that absolve community leaders of an urgent responsibility to do more to immunise young Muslims from the powerful pull of jihadist websites. The same imam said of the disappearances of teenagers heading for Syria: “We never find out before.” This is a depressing admission of defeat. It is precisely the moderate Muslim leadership, working with parents and teachers, that needs to find out before it is too late.

It is failing in this and in its basic duty to face down IS[IS] recruiters with sufficient vigour.

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The homeless and working poor of Summerville have a reliable source of dinner at least two nights a week, thanks to the Expanding the Table food truck serving as the city’s mobile soup kitchen.

When Ashley Ridge Church’s Outreach Director Marty Thomas found himself looking for a way to donate the church’s outreach fund last fall, Jenn Williams, the pastor of Ashley Ridge, urged him to look for something that would be more long-lasting than just a check.

“We wanted a tangible outreach,” Williams said. “We started having conversations with One80 Place to see what was out there and what gaps there were in Summerville.”

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Thirty years ago, a British newspaper took an unscientific survey of current and former intelligence agents, asking them which fictional work best captured the realities of their profession. Would it be John Le Carré, Ian Fleming, Robert Ludlum? To the amazement of most readers, the book that won easily was G.K. Chesterton’s The Man Who Was Thursday, published in 1908.

This was so surprising because of the book’s early date, but also its powerful mystical and Christian content: Chesterton subtitled it “a nightmare.” But perhaps the choice was not so startling. Looking at the problems Western intelligence agencies confront fighting terrorism today, Chesterton’s fantasy looks more relevant than ever, and more like a practical how-to guide.

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The Bishop of Horsham announced today (June 10) that he has stepped down from a traditionalists’ committee following a period of strenuous theological reflection over the issue of women bishops.

The Rt Rev Mark Sowerby has resigned from the Society’s Council of Bishops, a Church of England body whose members will generally ordain women as deacons, but for theological reasons and as a matter of personal conscience are unable to accept women as priests and bishops.

Bishop Mark said today that he now wishes to accept women into all these roles and as a consequence he has written a personal letter to the Bishop of Wakefield, chair of the council.

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Make our hearts to burn within us, O Christ, as we walk with thee in the way and listen to thy words; that we may go in the strength of thy presence and thy truth all our journey through, and at its end behold thee, in the glory of the eternal Trinity, God for ever and ever.

–Eric Milner-White (1884-1963)

Open your hearts to us; we have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have taken advantage of no one. I do not say this to condemn you, for I said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together. I have great confidence in you; I have great pride in you; I am filled with comfort. With all our affliction, I am overjoyed.
For even when we came into Macedo”²nia, our bodies had no rest but we were afflicted at every turn””fighting without and fear within. But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not only by his coming but also by the comfort with which he was comforted in you, as he told us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced still more. For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it (though I did regret it), for I see that that letter grieved you, though only for a while. As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting; for you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret, but worldly grief produces death. For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! At every point you have proved yourselves guiltless in the matter. So although I wrote to you, it was not on account of the one who did the wrong, nor on account of the one who suffered the wrong, but in order that your zeal for us might be revealed to you in the sight of God. Therefore we are comforted.

–2 Corinthians 7:2-16

Which brings us to our second term, “wedding.” One could argue that my original question is moot for the simple reason that there is no such thing as homosexual weddings. You can no more witness a homosexual wedding than you could draw a square circle. Weddings are between men and women. That said, those participating in these events believe they are participating in a wedding. Our attendance, no matter how well intentioned, encourages them in their delusion. Which is one key reason why they so object to our not attending their weddings, or our not beautifying them with cakes and flowers. If we won’t admit that the naked emperor is dressed to the nines, the state will be called and we will be ruined.

Homosexuality is at one and the same time like other sins and unlike other sins. It is like other sins in that it is forgivable, and a sin for which Jesus died. After all, such once were we (I Corinthians 6:9-11). While the behavior is rightly revolting, those caught up in it bear God’s image and are not beyond the reach of grace. It is unlike some sins, however, for two reasons. First, it is gross and heinous sin. The folly that all sins are equal has done great damage in the church and in the world. All sins are cosmic rebellion and are due the eternal wrath of God. But that doesn’t mean they are equal. Second, unlike most other sins, this is a sin that its practitioners insist is no sin at all. Greed is wicked, but we don’t have parades celebrating it. This is a sin that in our day glories in its shame. Do we really want to join in that glory by attending their “weddings?”

I know it is difficult. I know it is painful and can divide families. I know it makes us look to the world like bigots and haters. But that, friends, is a shame we truly can glory in, for He promises us blessing (Matthew 5:10-12). This doesn’t, of course, mean we abandon homosexuals, or have nothing to do with them. Jesus often met sinners where they were. But He always called them to come to Him. He calls us to do the same.

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I will take comments on this submitted by email only to KSHarmon[at]mindspring[dot]com.

What should Christians be doing to be more effective at spreading the good news. Is church planting a key tool?

ES: Church planting is certainly a key tool. However, it is not the only tool. But, let’s start there.

Most churches are plateaued or declining as we regularly hear from the National Church Life Survey. The fact is that most of those churches do not want to make the necessary changes to grow again. Thus, new churches are needed.

That’s a spiritual truth, but also a sociological one. New expressions grow faster than old.

And, Australia needs many more new churches””new communities of faith. Even if you are the city of churches, Adelaide has lots of lovely buildings, but needs many more vibrant congregations.

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