(Please note the following–it is their headline, not mine; also it is on the top left of the front page of the Times Ipad edition. As for the print edition it is on the top left above the fold and you can see a picture of it here–KSH).

An openly gay government minister today condemns the Church of England for its use of judgmental language on the divisive issue of same-sex marriage.

In an interview with The Times, Nick Herbert, who is in a civil partnership, said: “I consider myself to be a Christian and I’ve never in my life felt more distant from the Church than I do at the moment.”

The Minister for Policing and Criminal Justice added: “I think that some Christian leaders have said things that, when heard by gay people, sound highly judgmental or intolerant. We all have to be careful of our language.”

Read it all (requires subscription).

Some hazy adumbrations of a doctrine of the Fall can be found in Paganism; but it is quite astonishing how rarely outside Christianity we find””I am not sure we ever find””a real doctrine of Creation.

–C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock, ed. Walter Hooper (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1970), p.149

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Now I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is bound to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any avail, but faith working through love. You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view than mine; and he who is troubling you will bear his judgment, whoever he is. But if I, brethren, still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? In that case the stumbling block of the cross has been removed. I wish those who unsettle you would mutilate themselves! For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another take heed that you are not consumed by one another.

–Galatians 5:1-15

Most Americans are bored or baffled by Europe. Try explaining the latest news about Greek politics or Spanish banks, and their eyelids begin to droop. So, at the end of a four-week road trip round Europe, let me try putting this in familiar American terms.

Imagine that the United States had never ratified the Constitution and was still working with the 1781 Articles of Confederation. Imagine a tiny federal government with almost no revenue. Only the states get to tax and borrow. Now imagine that Nevada has a debt in excess of 150 percent of the state’s gross domestic product. Imagine, too, the beginning of a massive bank run in California. And imagine that unemployment in these states is above 20 percent, with youth unemployment twice as high. Picture riots in Las Vegas and a general strike in Los Angeles

Now imagine that the only way to deal with these problems is for Nevada and California to go cap in hand to Virginia or Texas””where unemployment today really is half what it is in Nevada……This is pretty much where Europe finds itself today.

Read it all.

So now to the crux of the matter. Should we still support this legislation? This diocese has 14 members of General Synod. From traditional Anglo-Catholic to conservative evangelical (and pretty much everything in between), we represent the spectrum of views on this and many other issues. When electing us, the diocese did a good job of making sure every voice was heard. This isn’t the same in other dioceses. It gives us strength.

I believe these amendments will give succour to those who were beginning to feel more and more marginalised. I hope that some who were thinking of voting against the measure will now vote in favour, or at least decide to abstain. At the same time the second amendment I have spoken about has hurt and confused a large number of people, and especially many women priests. I want them to know that I understand their anxiety. Nevertheless, I also want all of you to know that despite my own misgivings I will still be voting for the legislation. I will not be asking for it to be returned to the dioceses and looked at again….

Read it all.

Almighty and everlasting God, in whom we live and move and have our being: Grant unto us such purity of heart and strength of purpose that no selfish passion may hinder us from knowing thy will, and no weakness from doing it; but in thy light may we see light, and in thy service find perfect freedom; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

–A Prayer from the Uppingham School

[Nathan] Baxter, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania, will announce his decision this weekend at the 142nd annual diocesan convention in State College. Three-hundred people from the 66 parishes in the 24-county diocese will attend.

Although the Episcopal Church has ordained openly gay bishops in the United States, it has not taken an official stand on gay marriage.

“The Episcopal Church says that homosexuality in and of itself is not a sin,” Baxter said. “We are called to love and respect all persons as being loved by God. I am listening to all views as I discern whether to approve blessing same-sex unions.”

Read it all.

Until they leave, Colonel [Shawn] Daniel warned them sternly, they have a difficult job to do.

“Afghanistan will have the best chance possible to stand on its own feet,” he said. “Until then we have to look after ourselves.”

America is preparing to end its longest war. It is already getting ready to draw down its troops so that in two and a half years nearly all will be gone from this country. Back home, the attention of most Americans has long since shifted elsewhere.

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Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, with the euro under renewed pressure from Spanish banks and the coming Greek election, said on Thursday that the answer is “more Europe,” with moves “step by step” toward a fiscal and political union of countries using the euro.

But how much more Europe does Europe want?…

Further union implies more sacrifice of national sovereignty than leaders of many countries want ”” let alone their voters, who have an increasingly low opinion in general of “Brussels” and of its largely faceless and unelected technocrats.

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The Archbishop of Armagh, Primate of All Ireland and Metropolitan, The Most Revd Alan Harper, OBE, has announced his intention to retire later this year. The decision will take effect from 1 October 2012.

Archbishop Harper, who is 68, has been a bishop for 10 years having served as Bishop of Connor from 2002 to 2007; he was elected as Archbishop of Armagh in January 2007 and enthroned in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh on 16 March 2007.

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Sister [Margaret] Farley, a past president of the Catholic Theological Society of America and an award-winning scholar, responded in a statement: “I can only clarify that the book was not intended to be an expression of current official Catholic teaching, nor was it aimed specifically against this teaching. It is of a different genre altogether.”

The book, she said, offers “contemporary interpretations” of justice and fairness in human sexual relations, moving away from a “taboo morality” and drawing on “present-day scientific, philosophical, theological, and biblical resources.”

The formal censure comes only weeks after the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a stinging reprimand of the main coordinating group of American nuns, prompting many Catholics across the country to turn out in defense of the nuns with protests, petitions and vigils.

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Trevar Dahl spends an hour before school each morning studying the Bible with seven other teens.

“It’s the best way to start the day, and it helps us with a pretty good knowledge of Scripture,” said Trevar, a 16-year-old junior at Cloverleaf High School near Lodi, Calif. “We attend classes for four years. We call it seminary.”

Seminary, or the study of religious history and Scripture among high school Students in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, includes courses on the Old and New Testaments, the Book of Mormon and church doctrine, covenants and history. The program has been part of the Mormon tradition for 100 years and has grown from 70 students to nearly 370,000 in more than 140 countries.

Read it all.

What about religious freedom, especially to evangelize and convert from Islam? Isn’t this restricted under Shari’ah?

This section of the agreement is both encouragingly clear and elusively vague. “Respect for beliefs and sanctities is obligatory” is followed by “prevention of any contempt of others’ belief or incitement of hatred is a compulsory social responsibility of loyal citizens.” How much limitation does the word “contempt” impose on religious freedom?

[Andrea] Zaki [vice president of the Protestant Churches of Egypt]: “Evangelism and changing one’s faith is a very problematic area. I want the Westerner to understand that Muslims think of changing faith in the same way one thinks of changing gender””that is, it is never contemplated.

Read it all.

India’s coalition government just celebrated the third anniversary of its tenure with a self-congratulatory banquet that could not have been more poorly timed: India’s currency, the rupee, is falling; investment is down; inflation is rising; and deficits are eating away at government coffers.

While short-term growth has slowed but not ground to a halt, India’s problems have dampened hopes that it, along with China and other non-Western economies, might help revive the global economy, as happened after the 2008 financial crisis. Instead, India is now facing a political reckoning, as the country’s elected leaders must address difficult, politically unpopular decisions ”” or risk even deeper problems.

“When India was being run comparatively well in 2008, they seemed to cope with these external shocks, at least from a financial perspective,” said Glenn Levine, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics in Sydney, Australia. “I think people are starting to question the long-term Indian story. That is the difference now.”

Read it all.

Check it out via the Telegraph via a Twitter post by @Pawelmorski. Heh.

Update: Here is another image on the cover of Bloomberg Businessweek

[Kathleen] Sebelius is an unusually provocative choice by Georgetown….

As governor of Kansas she vetoed four anti-abortion bills and was unusually close to the late partial-birth-abortion specialist George Tiller, assassinated by an anti-abortion zealot in 2009. She protected Tiller from litigation and criminal prosecution and he became one of her major political donors. The Sebelius administration destroyed subpoenaed documents sought for years in criminal proceedings against Planned Parenthood for failure to report large numbers of child rapes. The originals somehow disappeared in 2005 and the copies were “routinely” discarded or destroyed by a Sebelius appointee in 2009. Planned Parenthood is also a large and regular donor to Sebelius.

Read it all.

When the Good Lord was creating mothers, He was into his sixth day of “overtime” when an angel appeared and said, “You’re doing a lot of fiddling around on this one.”

And the Lord said, “Have you read the specs on this order?”

Ӣ She has to be completely washable, but not plastic;
”¢ Have 180 movable parts… all replaceable;
Ӣ Run on black coffee and leftovers;
Ӣ Have a lap that disappears when she stands up;
Ӣ A kiss that can cure anything from a broken leg to a disappointed love affair;
”¢ And six pairs of hands.”

The angel shook her head slowly and said, “Six pairs of hands… no way.”

Read it all.

Guess first, then read the whole list.

An Orange County Superior Court judge on Thursday ruled in favor of the Episcopal Church in its long-running legal dispute over the rightful ownership of the properties of two congregations that seceded from the church years ago.

Judge Kim Dunning granted a motion for summary judgment filed by the Episcopal Church in its cases against St. David’s Anglican Church in North Hollywood and All Saints Anglican Church in Long Beach, declaring the church properties were held in trust for the diocese and national church.

St. David’s and All Saints left the six-county Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles and the national church in 2004 because of differences over biblical interpretations and liberal views on homosexuality and other issues.

Read it all.

As the May 4 ”“ 10 meeting of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) drew to a close, participants emphasized the importance of social witness and openness in ecumenical dialogue.

“There seem to be many obstacles from a human point of view, and it does not seem likely to have fully visible unity in the near future,” New Zealand Anglican Archbishop David Moxon, the co-chairperson of the meeting, said on May 8. “We can, however, do a lot of things together during this slow process,” he added.

Read it all.

“When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field to its very border, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the LORD your God. “You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another. And you shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the LORD. “You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired servant shall not remain with you all night until the morning. You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God: I am the LORD. “You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. You shall not go up and down as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand forth against the life of your neighbor: I am the LORD. “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason with your neighbor, lest you bear sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear any grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.

–Leviticus 19:9-18

“Beware of practicing your piety before men in order to be seen by them; for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. “Thus, when you give alms, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Matthew 6:1-6

The numbers led [Donald ] Stern to the same “inescapable conclusion” made by scores of sociologists, pastors, and pundits observing the post-Jim Crow black family: “There is a crisis in gender relations in the African American community. This is a painful reality.”

Should a public health department””perceived as a government monolith unqualified to counsel individual men and women””try to change citizens’ gender relations, encouraging fidelity, responsibility, and stable two-parent families?

When it costs a city $205 million every year in taxpayer dollars, say Stern and a number of Christians in Richmond, the answer is clear.

Read it all.

The Episcopal Church has held an ongoing debate regarding gay clergy for decades and began ordaining openly gay priests in the ”˜90s, a gay bishop in 2003 and a lesbian bishop in 2010, but the issue of homosexuality continues to elicit debate.

Individual rectors will get to choose whether to offer the new rites for same-sex couples””if approved””at their congregations.

“While I long for the day when there will be full marriage equality in the Church and in the State, I consider this a very important step in that process,” said the Rev. Lisa Hunt, rector at St. Stephens, in a letter to parishioners. “St. Stephen’s has an opportunity to witness to the action of God in our midst in the lives of couples in our community.”

Read it all.

Americans’ financial comfort is the lowest Gallup has measured to date, with 60% saying they currently have enough money to live comfortably and 39% saying they do not. Americans’ peace of mind with their finances was fairly stable at a high level from the first asking of the question in 2002 through 2007, but has since faltered.

Read it all.

And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. “You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your manservant, or your maidservant, or your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates; for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it. “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the LORD your God gives you. “You shall not kill. “You shall not commit adultery. “You shall not steal. “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor’s.” Now when all the people perceived the thunderings and the lightnings and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled; and they stood afar off, and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will hear; but let not God speak to us, lest we die.” And Moses said to the people, “Do not fear; for God has come to prove you, and that the fear of him may be before your eyes, that you may not sin.” And the people stood afar off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.

–Exodus 20:1-21

Today is Day 3 of the FCA Leadership Conference. Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali is addressing the delegates this morning. Tonight, there will be a discussion on the current state of the Anglican Communion.

This is posted especially for your prayers and intercessions–KSH.

Christians in the UK are turning increasingly to social media sites like Facebook to share their faith, new research has found.

In a survey on attitudes to online mission by Christian Vision and Premier Christian Media, 64% said they were using social networks like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to share their faith in an intentional way.

Read it all.

Social Security, which pays retirement and disability benefits to 56 million Americans, will exhaust its reserves by 2033, three years sooner than previously estimated, a new government report said Monday.

The forecast raises pressure on the White House and Congress to tackle the entitlement program, which many politicians fear changing because of potential voter backlash.

Read it all.

Well-integrated business leaders can respond to the rigorous demands placed upon them with a servant attitude, recalling Jesus who washed the feet of His disciples. Leadership in this servant spirit is different from the authoritarian exercise of power too often present in business organisations. It distinguishes Christian executives and the work environment which they seek to foster. In living business responsibilities in such a manner, in developing true servant leadership, they give freely of their expertise and abilities. In figuratively washing the feet of their collaborators, business leaders realise more fully their noble calling.

An important part of the business leader’s vocation is practising ethical social principles while conducting the normal rhythms of the business world. This entails seeing clearly the situation, judging with principles that foster the integral development of people, and acting in a way which implements these principles in light of one’s unique circumstances and in a manner consistent with the teaching of the Faith. The rest of this document is organised accordingly: see, judge, act.

Read it all (32 page pdf).