The question of how baseball could be so cruel to this city may be answered some day. It existed in horrible form in the nation’s capital for decades, and then it vanished for 33 years. It came back gnarled and wretched for seven more seasons, only to yield to this blissful summer, to the moment Friday past midnight when Drew Storen stood on the mound at chilled Nationals Park and, with two outs in the ninth inning, threw 13 pitches that could have moved the Washington Nationals four wins from the World Series.

The St. Louis Cardinals would not allow it. Baseball, this town’s cold mistress, the sport that dares you to love it, would not let it happen. The Nationals led the Cardinals by six runs after three innings. They led by two runs after eight innings. Washington’s miserable relationship with baseball had been exorcised, until it materialized in a more wrenching, twisted fashion than ever seen before….

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Read it all. Also, the AP has more there.

At 20 years old, Anastaysia Thomas has dreams of traveling to new places and working as a world-class massage therapist. Her plan is as foolproof as anyone’s: get into a good school and work like crazy until things fall into place.

She juggles a full-time load of college classes and more than 30 hours a week waitressing at a local pub in Hampton, Va., working hard toward reaching her goals. But next fall, she will graduate with 80 percent of her tuition left to pay and no guarantee of a job.

This year – when the cost of attending a public college can top $20k a year, $50k for private universities – two out of three students graduated with college debt averaging $25,250. The total outstanding student loan debt in the country exceeds $1 trillion – more than Americans owe in credit card or car loan debt.

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Almighty God, in whom we live and move and have our being, who hast made us for thyself, so that our hearts are restless till they rest in thee: Grant us purity of heart and strength of purpose, that no selfish passion may hinder us from knowing thy will, no weakness from doing it; but that in thy light we may see light clearly, and in thy service find our perfect freedom; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

–Saint Augustine (354-430)

Shiites…make up about 15 percent of Muslims globally and in America…[and] until recently, differences [between Shiites and other Muslims such as Sunnis] mattered little in the United States, where the two groups bonded as Muslim minorities and prayed in the same mosques.

“There weren’t enough of either to justify the cost of building sectarian mosques, and because in general, early generation immigrants were less focused on establishing formal houses of worship,” said Andrea Stanton, a religious studies professor at the University of Denver.

That is changing, however, as American Shiites are increasingly establishing their own mosques. According to “The American Mosque 2011,” a survey sponsored by several Muslim American organizations, 7 percent of roughly 2,100 mosques in America are Shiite, and most have been built in the last 20 years.

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In a question and answer session at the end of a densely theological lecture on the nature of the individual, organised by the religion think tank Theos, Dr Williams admitted some of his statements, which have touched controversially on issues from the Iraq war to government economic policies, were risky.

He said: “I just don’t think that it will do to be too cautious in a job like this, you are here, as is true for any archbishop, you are here to try and say what you believe you have been given to say – by which I don’t mean by divine inspiration.

“To try and share a particular picture of what the world is like, what God is like, which of course leads you into sometimes risky and anything but infallible judgments about particular issues of the day.”

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The white smoke may not yet have gone up, but the 16 members of the Crown Nominations Commission are trying to decide who should succeed Rowan Williams as Archbishop of Canterbury.

It is difficult to imagine such a large committee coming to a very sensible decision, particularly when those assembled under the chairmanship of Lord Luce will have been chosen with an almost painful inclusiveness: High Church bishop matching Low Church bishop, a woman priest matching an evangelical layman and so forth.

Nevertheless, they must come to a decision, knowing that whoever they choose must make decisions that risk pulling the whole Church apart. Rowan Williams is handing on to his successor something like a vase with an irreparable crack. One false move over the question of gay marriage, gay priests or women bishops and the handsome old antique will fall apart in his successor’s hands.

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A couple from South Carolina will be the first Americans to receive a highly distinguished global science award for their work in sustainable safe water solutions.

George and Molly Greene will be awarded the SolarWorld Einstein Award at a ceremony in Frankfurt, Germany Tuesday evening. The couple founded Water Missions International, a non-profit Christian engineering organization that provides clean water solutions to disaster victims worldwide.

WMI also provides safe water solutions in 49 developing countries.

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If you had to guess the profile of a person most likely to commit suicide, chances are you would conjure up the image of an angst-ridden teenage boy or young man. Ten years ago, you would have been right; men aged 15-24 were the highest risk group.

However, the Samaritans last week warned that middle-aged men are more likely to take their own life than any other group; older men now account for just under half of the 5,600 or so suicides a year in the UK.

Over the past eight years the number of younger men (while still worrying) who commit suicide has gone down, while the rate of suicides of men aged between 35 and 54 has gone up, almost unnoticed.

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In the passage where the New Testament says that every one must work, it gives as a reason “in order that he may have something to give to those in need.” Charity-giving to the poor-is an essential part of Christian morality: in the frightening parable of the sheep and the goats it seems to be the point on which everything turns. Some people nowadays say that charity ought to be unnecessary and that instead of giving to the poor we ought to be producing a society in which there were no poor to give to. They may be quite right in saying that we ought to produce that kind of society. But if anyone thinks that, as a consequence, you can stop giving in the meantime, then he has parted company with all Christian morality. I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc, is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little. If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charitable expenditure excludes them. I am speaking now of “charities” in the common way. Particular cases of distress among your own relatives, friends, neighbours or employees, which God, as it were, forces upon your notice, may demand much more: even to the crippling and endangering of your own position. For many of us the great obstacle to charity lies not in our luxurious living or desire for more money, but in our fear-fear of insecurity. This must often be recognised as a temptation.Sometimes our pride also hinders our charity; we are tempted to spend more than we ought on the showy forms of generosity (tipping, hospitality) and less than we ought on those who really need our help.

—Mere Christianity (New York: Harper Collins, 2001), Book III, Chapter 3 [emphasis mine]

Father Juan Chapa, a New Testament scholar at the University of Navarra in Spain, told Catholic News Service that the “Gospels don’t mention marriage, not because they wanted to hide something, but because it was clear that Jesus did not get married, and it’s consistent in the church’s tradition.”

He also noted that the gnostic gospel genre to which the fragment evidently belongs is one of stories about Jesus that mainly take place after the resurrection, using language that is heavily allegorical. Thus, he said, the fragment’s relevant words –“Jesus said to them, ‘My wife'” — were likely not meant as a literal assertion about the life of the historical Jesus.

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In 1992, there was one person on disability for every 35 workers. It is now about one for every 16 workers.

If disability had stayed at the pre-recession growth trend, unemployment would be at least 1% higher, and perhaps as much as 2%.

Bottom line is that true unemployment is closer to 10% and perhaps significantly more. We just don’t know. Underemployment is still in the range of 16%. And that does not count people who have a job for which they are far overqualified and who are making much less money than they would if they could find a job in their chosen field. I should note to all those people who think I am being overly pessimistic that John Williams at Shadow Stats, who uses the US government methodology from 30 years ago, tells us that U-6 unemployment is around 23%. The difference is in how you create the model. The feds keep changing the rules, and it should be no surprise that with each new rule the number of people officially counted as unemployed drops. And if you can’t find a job, whether you are officially unemployed or not, it’s no fun.

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The Secretary General of the Anglican Communion has responded to an article in today’s The Telegraph newspaper that inaccurately stated: “The Anglican Church is drawing up plans… that would see the introduction of a ‘presidential’ figure to take over some of the global role of the Archbishop of Canterbury.”
“The opening paragraph of this article is mischievous,” said Canon Kenneth Kearon. “There are no such plans. The Archbishop of Canterbury simply said in the interview that he could see that in the future there might be some reflection on how the administrative load associated with the Anglican Communion might be better shared.
“The Anglican Communion has several decision-making bodies, one of which is meeting in a few months’ time. Nothing like what this newspaper has suggested is on the agenda.”

Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness;

To the end that [my] glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever.

–Psalm 30:11-12 (KJV)

A Song of Ascents. Of David. O LORD, my heart is not lifted up, my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a child quieted at its mother’s breast; like a child that is quieted is my soul. O Israel, hope in the LORD from this time forth and for evermore.

–Psalm 131

The most senior openly gay cleric in Britain has accused the Church of England of pursuing a “morally contemptible” policy on same-sex marriage, denouncing it for moving “in the opposite direction” to society and criticising Rowan Williams for changing his “public position” on the issue as soon as he was made Archbishop of Canterbury.

In a new preface to his 1990 booklet on gay relationships, Jeffrey John, the Dean of St Albans, writes that, by setting themselves against same-sex marriage, the bishops of the Church have prioritised the union of the Anglican communion over the rights of gay Christians.

“This policy may be institutionally expedient, but it is morally contemptible,” he writes in an abridged extract of the preface published in the Guardian. “Worst of all, by appeasing their persecutors it betrays the truly heroic gay Christians of Africa who stand up for justice and truth at risk of their lives. For the mission of the Church of England the present policy is a disaster.”

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Welcome to All Saints’ Episcopal Church located in NE Philadelphia. We have been a worshiping and ministering presence in the Torresdale section of the city for 240 years. Since our beginning in 1772 we have evolved to address the needs of our local community, the greater Philadelphia area and the global community as well.

In this 21st century we are learning what the Apostle Paul meant in his Letter to the Galatians, “… for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” Spend a Sunday with us and you will discover Paul’s words in action. People joining you in the pews come from all around NE Philadelphia. We are men and women and children. We are young and old. Some of us are white and some are black. Some have families and some are single. Some of us are straight and some of us are gay. Some of us are people of means and some of us struggle to make ends meet. But when we kneel at the communion rail, hands stretched out, we are, as Garrison Keillor described his own experience of an Episcopal church, “A real anthology of the faith.” We are, indeed, all one in Christ Jesus.

It is our Baptismal Covenant that helps us understand what community in action means. All Baptismal candidates from infancy to maturity are invited to put their whole trust in the grace and love of Jesus Christ our Lord. In the covenant we are asked to embrace life-giving commitments…

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On June 11, 1966, Charles Schulz gave the commencement address at St. Mary’s College in California. This address is found in his autobiographical collection, My Life with Charlie Brown. Schulz noted that commencement speakers cover many topics. He recalls doing the previous year’s Peanuts Christmas show. He wanted some way to indicate how children search for the true meaning of Christmas.

After some reflection, Schulz tells us: “I finally decided that every idea we had was an idea that really avoided the essential truth which was that the true meaning of Christmas could be found only in the Gospel according to St. Luke and so we had Linus recite those famous passages.” No doubt, “avoiding” the essential truths of Christmas and of Christianity itself is a major industry. Linus seems to be almost the only person we know who can at least tell us the story. The “story” when heard, I suspect, still unsettles and uplifts many different souls.

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O Almighty God, who by thy holy apostle hast called upon us to present our bodies to thee a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, which is our reasonable service: Graciously hear us, we beseech thee, O Lord, and grant that we may so dedicate ourselves wholly to thy service that henceforth we may live only to thy glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

–From the Liturgy of the Catholic Apostolic Church

“Sikhism is a religion that originated about 500 years ago in Italy [sic].”
~ CBS This Morning reporter on the shootings at a Wisconsin Sikh temple

I’ve been bemoaning the media’s inability to get Catholicism right for a very long time, but it struck me this morning that maybe there really isn’t a specifically anti-Catholic bias out there in journalism land. The media’s talent for being tone-deaf on religion appears to be wide-ranging and indiscriminate.

The reporting on the tragic shootings at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin yesterday make this tone-deafness very clear. Most news outlets managed to insult two religious traditions at once in their ham-handed attempts to describe the event. Few were as far off base as the CBS reporter who placed Sikhism’s origins in Italy instead of India (one of them-there I-countries being pretty much the same as any other when you’re talking about religion, I guess), but most provided no insight into the faith of the victims beyond the details that Sikh men wear colorful turbans and do not shave their beards, while many Sikh women wear head coverings””like, well, the YouKnowWhoiban. Wading into their mouths with both feet, nearly every reporter or writer quickly went on to make the point that Sikhs practice a peaceful religion. They’re not, in other words (or even in these exact words, which many reports used), “Muslims or other terrorists.”

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Truly an amazing game.

3-3 with just a few minutes left.

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In thee, O LORD, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame! In thy righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline thy ear to me, and save me! Be thou to me a rock of refuge, a strong fortress, to save me, for thou art my rock and my fortress.

–Psalm 71:1-3

Oxford University students will no longer have to wear gender-specific academic clothing after concerns it was unfair to the transgender community.

It will mean men can attend formal occasions in skirts and stockings and women in suits and bow ties.

The new rules come after a motion by the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Queer society (LGBTQ Soc) was passed by the students’ union earlier this year.

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

In 1990, 10 percent of births to white women with some post-secondary schooling, but not a college degree, occurred outside of marriage. Now it’s 30 percent. Forty-one percent of all births in the U.S. happen outside of marriage, up from 17 percent 30 years ago.

All the studies show that, without the stable presence of a father in the home, kids are poorer, have more problems in school and in their academic performance and face a worse economic future. They’re also more likely to become teenage parents and extend the cycle.

It would be great if both presidential candidates would read this story and be motivated by its lessons.

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Over 100 participants, from 21 of the 38 Provinces of the Anglican Communion, representing the vast majority of practicing Anglicans in the world, gathered together in Bangkok, Thailand for the “Global South Conference on the Decade of Mission and Networking” July 16-21, 2012. In attendance were thirteen Primates from the Global South as well as other “mission partners” from other parts of the Anglican Communion, including four representatives of the Communion Partners fellowship of the Episcopal Church, U.S.A. (Bishop Michael Smith, Bishop Dan Martins, Dean Tony Clark and Father Chuck Alley) who had been invited by the Global South Primates’ Network.

Some background: why were participants from the Communion Partners fellowship invited to this Global South Conference?

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Douthat rightly acknowledges the social contributions that liberal Christianity has made in the 20th century, from women’s suffrage, to fair labor laws, to civil rights. It has been doing the same for the rights of gays and lesbians. And he cites historian Gary Dorrien in reminding us that leaders of those earlier social movements had “deep grounding in Bible study, family devotions, personal prayer and worship.” The Christianity that is emerging from this time of transition promises to embrace just this holy union””of love of God and service to humanity and the world.

Controversies over social issues and theological conviction will persist. But the hunger is real for a way of being Christian that recognizes that understandings of scripture and church teaching must evolve over time, and that to be a Christian is to have an inquiring mind and a discerning heart.

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Read it all at Global South Anglican and also note the Conference Communiqué [Update: and Bishop Dan Martins’ daily diary from the Conference here (Sat 14th July 2012 onwards)]

6. We note with great sadness the passing of Resolution A049 at the 77th General Convention of The Episcopal Church which authorized a liturgy for blessing same-sex unions. This action confirms our disappointment that The Episcopal Church has no regard for the concerns and convictions of the vast majority of Anglicans worldwide.

7. We stand in solidarity with our brethren in the Communion Partners who have dissented from this action. We uphold them in prayer and support them in fellowship as they continue in their commitment to the evangelical faith and catholic order of the Church, as expressed in their Minority Report known as The Indianapolis Statement.

8. We also appreciate and support all the faithful in Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) as well as those in the Anglican Church in Canada who remain true to our biblical and historic faith.

9. We deeply respect and appreciate our historical and spiritual relationship with the See of Canterbury. We have written to the Crown Nominations Commission with concerns from the Global South and important principles for consideration as it nominates candidates for the appointment of a new Archbishop of Canterbury.

10. We have appointed a new Global South Primates Steering Committee (GSPSC) comprising:

10.1 The Most Rev Dr Mouneer Anis as Chairman

10.2 The Most Rev Nicholas Okoh as Vice-Chairman

10.3 The Most Rev Ian Ernest as Honorary Secretary

10.4 The Most Rev Bolly Lapok as Honorary Treasurer

10.5 The Most Rev Stephen Than as an Elected Member

10.6 The Most Rev Henri Isingoma as an Elected Member

10.7 The Most Rev Hector Zavala as an Elected Member

10.8 The Most Rev Dr Eliud Wabukala as an Elected Member

10.9 The Most Rev Daniel Deng as an Elected Member

11. We have also invited the Primates of the Provinces of West Africa and Melanesia to be co-opted members of this Steering Committee.

See also the associated Communiqué of the Global South Primates [Update: and Bishop Dan Martins’ daily diary from the Conference here (Sat 14th July 2012 onwards)]
…with the theme “Be Transformed by the Renewing of the Mind to Obedience of Faith for Holistic Mission in a Radically Changing Global Landscape” (Rom 12.1f; 2 Tim 4.7)

1. This Conference is a response to the call at the 4th Global South to South Encounter in Singapore April 2010 to gather leaders from Provinces of the Global South and other mission partners, which are unequivocally committed to the apostolic-historic faith for the Global South Conference on Decade of Mission and Networking.

2. We received with thanks a note of greeting from Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who affirmed his support for the work of the Conference.

3. Similarly, we also received with thanks a note of greeting from Elder Fu Xianwei, Chairman of the National Committee of Three Self Patriotic Movement of the Protestant Churches of China. He affirmed his friendship with the Global South Anglican Churches and continual desire for further dialogue and partnership in ministry.

4. More than 100 delegates from provinces in the Global South (comprising Africa, Asia, the Pacific and South America) gathered together in prayer, fellowship and listening to the teaching of the Word. We were also joined by a number of our mission partners from other parts of the Communion and various Mission agencies.

Read it all at Global South Anglican