Amid the pageantry and rousing hymns of a centuries-old liturgy to consecrate a new bishop, hundreds of Utah Episcopalians learned something Saturday about their new, slightly built shepherd:

Bishop Scott Hayashi’s avatar ”” the figure he chooses to represent him ”” is a sumo wrestler.

“That tells you all kinds of things about your new bishop,” mused the Rev. Jeffrey D. Lee, the bishop of Chicago whom Hayashi served as a canon the past five years.

Lee preached the sermon to the 700 Episcopalians, 25 visiting bishops and leaders of other Salt Lake City faiths who gathered at The Grand America Hotel. But he also primed those in Hayashi’s flock for what to expect of the church’s 11th bishop.

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So with yourselves; since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.

–1 Corinthians 14:12

Keith Olbermann’s political contributions have come back to haunt him.

MSNBC President Phil Griffin just issued this statement: “I became aware of Keith’s political contributions late last night. Mindful of NBC News policy and standards, I have suspended him indefinitely without pay.”

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From the unintentionally funny headline department?

O Lord, whose way is perfect: Help us, we pray thee, always to trust in thy goodness; that walking with thee in faith, and following thee in all simplicity, we may possess quiet and contented minds, and cast all our care on thee, because thou carest for us; for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord.

–Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)

Lots of interesting stuff to look through–check it out.

The nation’s biggest public-works project, a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River, was canceled Wednesday when the governor of New Jersey announced that his state didn’t have the money to pay its share of the almost $9-billion cost.

Gov. Christopher Christie, a Republican, who came into office last year promising fiscal restraint, said New Jersey couldn’t afford the construction overruns. He previously rejected any gasoline tax increase to pay for the project.

“In the end, my decision does not change,” Christie said at a news conference. “I cannot place upon the citizens of New Jersey an open-ended letter of credit, and that’s what this project represents.”

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Now as they went on their way, he entered a village; and a woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching.

–Luke 10:38-39

Which of these three, do you think, proved neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed mercy on him.” And Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

–Luke 10:36-37

The Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh of the Episcopal Church formally began a search for its next bishop today (October 16, 2010), as deputies to the 145th Annual Convention approved a resolution calling for an episcopal election 18-months from now.

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This is highly recommended–Fitz Allison at his best–KSH.

He was told there was a party at a brick house on Osborne Place, a quiet block set on a steep hill in the Bronx. He showed up last Sunday night as instructed, with plenty of cans of malt liquor. What he walked into was not a party at all, but a night of torture ”” he was sodomized, burned and whipped.

All punishment, the police said Friday, for being gay.

Read it all from the front page of today’s New York Times.

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

September consumer confidence in the United States slipped to its lowest levels since February, driven by a deteriorating labor market and business conditions, according to a private report released Tuesday.

The Conference Board, an industry group, said its index of consumer attitudes fell to 48.5 points in September from a revised 53.2 in August.

Inflation expectations eased slightly, even after the Federal Reserve has said it is ready to take action to keep yields down in an effort to stimulate growth. Consumers’ one-year inflation expectations edged down to 4.9 percent from 5.0 percent the previous month.

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If you want to know about God, you might want to talk to an atheist.

Heresy? Perhaps. But a survey that measured Americans’ knowledge of religion found that atheists and agnostics knew more, on average, than followers of most major faiths. In fact, the gaps in knowledge among some of the faithful may give new meaning to the term “blind faith.”

A majority of Protestants, for instance, couldn’t identify Martin Luther as the driving force behind the Protestant Reformation, according to the survey, released Tuesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. Four in 10 Catholics misunderstood the meaning of their church’s central ritual, incorrectly saying that the bread and wine used in Holy Communion are intended to merely symbolize the body and blood of Christ, not actually become them.

Atheists and agnostics — those who believe there is no God or who aren’t sure — were more likely to answer the survey’s questions correctly. Jews and Mormons ranked just below them in the survey’s measurement of religious knowledge — so close as to be statistically tied.

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O God of love, we yield thee hearty thanks for whatsoever thou hast given us richly to enjoy; for health of mind and body, for the love and care of home, for the joys of friendship, and for every good gift of happiness and strength. We praise thee for thy servants who by their example and encouragement have helped us on our way, and for every vision of thyself which thou hast given us in sacrament or prayer; and we humbly beseech thee that all these thy benefits we may use in thy service, and to the glory of thy holy name; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord.

Somewhere in the country, though, there is a politician who is going to try to lead us out of this logjam. Whoever that person is, I hope he or she is listening carefully to what the public is saying. Because when you listen carefully, you notice the public anger doesn’t quite match the political class anger. The political class is angry about ideological things: bloated government or the predatory rich. The public seems to be angry about values.

The heart of any moral system is the connection between action and consequences. Today’s public anger rises from the belief that this connection has been severed in one realm after another.

Financiers send the world into recession and don’t seem to suffer. Neighbors take on huge mortgages and then just walk away when they go underwater. Washington politicians avoid living within their means. Federal agencies fail and get rewarded with more responsibilities.

What the country is really looking for is a restoration of responsibility. If some smart leader is going to help us get out of ideological gridlock, that leader will reframe politics around this end.

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Relations between the Catholic Church and the Church of England were strengthened by the Pope’s visit, according to leading Anglican bishops, writes Victoria Combe.

The Bishop of Oxford and the Bishop of Guildford both spoke of the positive impact the papal visit will have on strengthening ties between the denominations.

The Rt Rev John Pritchard, Bishop of Oxford, said he was struck by the emphasis on “common stories and friendship” by both the Pope and Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams.

The Rt Rev Christopher Hill, of Guildford, a passionate ecumenist, said the visit had “given real encouragement to local churches to work together”. He also said Pope Benedict’s visit had helped heal any hurt felt among bishops about the Vatican’s proposal for an Anglican Ordinariate.

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Come, Holy Spirit, we do know You; You have often overshadowed us. Come, more fully take possession of us. Standing now as we feel we are right up at the mercy seat our very highest prayer is for perfect holiness, complete consecration, entire cleansing from every evil. Take our heart, our head, our hands, our feet, and use us all for You. Lord take our substance, let us not hoard it for ourselves, nor spend it for ourselves. Take our talent let us not try to educate ourselves that we may have the reputation of being wise, but let every gain of mental attainment be still that we may serve You better.

May every breath be for You; may every minute be spent for You. Help us to live while we live and while we are busy in the world as we must be, for we are called to it, may we sanctify the world for Your service. May we be lumps of salt in the midst of society. May our spirit and temper as well as our conversation be heavenly; may there be an influence about us that shall make the world the better before we leave it. Lord hear us in this thing.

–C.H. Spurgeon

(Via Email–KSH).

Today our Rector, The Rev. Donald Armstrong, accepted a plea agreement offered by the Pueblo District Attorney which precludes the pending trial and begins to bring to conclusion this long and torturous ordeal for our congregation and the larger Christian Community.

Specifically, Father Armstrong made an Alford plea, which is a special plea used when there is no admission of guilt or basis of fact for the charge, but the charge, in this case a misdemeanor, is accepted to take advantage of an offer, in this case to reduce the original 20 Felony counts to a single misdemeanor.

We are grateful to Don and Jessie for their courage, strength, and witness during this time of personal persecution. Over these last years God has blessed us greatly as individuals and as a congregation.

In preparation for the now canceled trial we have become convinced even more strongly that controversies within the larger denominational church were the catalyst for the Diocese’s investigation and complaint, for the purpose of silencing our bold and successful defense of orthodoxy through our parish’s life, discipline, and teaching ministry.

We believe that the courts are not the place to deal with theological differences, and that to have allowed this dispute to continue to be played out in the news by going to trial would have served only to diminish all Christian witness. With this plea offer now in place such further harm to the entire church in this already difficult age for Christianity will be prevented.

We further believe the disparity between the magnitude of charges made against Father Armstrong by the Episcopal Diocese and the final content of the plea agreement vindicates not only Father Armstrong, but also clearly affirms our confidence that we ran an effective and well managed church in our days at the helm of Grace & St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, and continue to do so at St. George’s Anglican Church.

With only a restitution hearing to be held in the distant future, this essentially concludes this long and expensive attempt to silence orthodox resistance to theological innovations in the Episcopal Church. We are thankful we can now move forward under our Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns, into a future productive for the Kingdom of God.

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

Pueblo Special prosecutor Stephen Jones announced today that former…[Episcopal] priest Donald Armstrong, ex-pastor of Grace Church in Colorado Springs, has entered a “no-contest” plea to felony theft in exchange for a deferred judgement and sentence.

Armstrong, 61, indicted by a 4th Judicial District grand jury in 2009 on 20 counts of felony theft, was accused of embezzling almost $300,000 from church and trust funds over eight years to pay for his two children’s college.

Armstrong and his loyal congregation already had lost a civil trial last year to determine who owned Grace Church and St. Stephen’s Parish, a historic downtown property valued at about $17 million.

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

And they told Mor’decai what Esther had said. Then Mor’decai told them to return answer to Esther, “Think not that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

–Esther 4:12-14

Pope Benedict could not have been clearer about why he is here. May Britain “always maintain its respect for those traditional values and cultural expressions that more aggressive forms of secularism no longer value or even tolerate,” he said, before reminding the nation of “the Christian foundation that underpins its freedoms,” citing William Wilberforce and Florence Nightingale, and Britain’s sacrifice in standing against Nazism.

Why does this history lesson matter? Because of a narrative that pits human rights against religion, freedom against faith, justice against the Church. In this narrative, societies broke free from the shackles of their inheritance somewhere in the 18th century and ushered in a glorious epoch of emancipation and liberty, leaving the Church seething in the wings.

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Now when they had passed through Amphip’olis and Apollo’nia, they came to Thessaloni’ca, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul went in, as was his custom, and for three weeks he argued with them from the scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” And some of them were persuaded, and joined Paul and Silas; as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women.

–Acts 17:1-4

We call to mind, O God, before thy throne of grace all those whom thou hast given to be near and dear to us, and all for whom we are specially bound to pray, beseeching thee to remember them all for good, and to fulfill as may be expedient for them all their desires and wants. We commend to thee any who may have wronged us, whether by word or deed, beseeching thee to forgive them and us all our sins, and to bring us to thy heavenly kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

–Gavin Hamilton

As the United Kingdom braces to receive one of the best-known and most controversial figures on the planet, Pope Benedict XVI, a question hangs over the state visit: Why is he coming?

The leader of the world’s 1 billion-plus Catholics does not particularly like to travel, Benedict biographer David Gibson says.

Since a high-profile visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories nearly a year-and-a-half ago, he’s gone only to a handful of small countries not far from Rome — racking up nothing like the number of air miles logged by his predecessor, Pope John Paul II.

And the United Kingdom is not a Catholic country. On the contrary, Britain’s break from Rome in the 16th century echoes, if faintly, to the present day, with laws on the books forbidding the heir to the British throne from marrying a Catholic.

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There are just over 40 of them and each is very fine. There is a slideshow option if you prefer to go that route–KSH.

Almighty and everlasting God, we thank thee for thy servant Alexander Crummell, whom thou didst call to preach the Gospel to those who were far off and to those who were near. Raise up, we beseech thee, in this and every land evangelists and heralds of thy kingdom, that thy Church may proclaim the unsearchable riches of our Savior Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

O Thou King eternal, immortal, invisible, thou only wise God our Saviour: Hasten, we beseech thee, the coming of thy kingdom upon earth, and draw the whole world of mankind into willing obedience to thy blessed reign. Overcome all the enemies of Christ, and bring low every power that is exalted against him; and let thy Holy Spirit rule the hearts of men in righteousness and love; through the victory of Christ our Lord.

–Book of Common Order

Then Mary, when she came where Jesus was and saw him, fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled; and he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept.

–John 11:32-35