[Philip Brenner, University of Michigan research fellow with the Institute for Social Research]…plowed through 400 surveys and time diaries across four decades with three quarters of a million respondents in 13 nations to find that Americans exaggerate their church attendance more than anyone else.

About 23% of Americans actually do attend church “regularly” (two or three times a month or more) according to time diaries (in which people account for 24 hours of recent activity). But 35% to 45% say they attend regularly when asked on surveys….

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The Auckland service will be led by Anglican Church and Catholic Church leaders and will feature representatives from other faiths and the wider Auckland community.

“At times like this, it is important for the community to come together to remember those who have been lost and support those left behind,” says Anglican Bishop of Auckland, the Right Reverend Ross Bay.

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If you go to the BBC 3 Programme link here, you can find Elizabeth Poston’s beautiful piece (my favorite) beginning at around 11:55 (it lasts just over three minutes).

Check it out.

The five pages of guidelines advise clergy on how to plan an act of worship, including offering those in “stable committed same-gender relationships” the option of a eu­charist. The guidelines specify that there should be no exchange of consents, or signing of a register, and that no prayers of nuptial blessing from any marriage liturgy used any­where in the Anglican Com­munion should be said over the couple.

The Archbishop of Toronto, the Most Revd Colin Johnson, said that he expects that between five and ten parishes will wish to move towards using the guidelines for same-sex blessings. Consensus will need to have been reached in the parishes before permission to carry out bless­ings will be granted.

The Archbishop said: “Not all will welcome this development: some because it goes too far, some because it is not nearly enough. You will note that there are strong affirmations in these guidelines assuring a con­tinued and honoured place in all aspects of diocesan life for those who do not agree with this res­ponse.”

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From here:

The chill from the language of destruction, evil, and suffering that Jesus uses in…[Luke’s] Gospel will confront us in other vivid ways, as we stop to remember those from our own time, our own land, and perhaps our own family and neighbourhood, who have died in the context of war. We shall gather at war memorials, stand in silence, and confront our own need for the hope and vision of peace.

Remembrance Sunday is not the moment to attempt a prophecy about the future, or apportion blame for the past. Rather, it is the opportunity to be silent and to reflect on the sum of wartime grief and loss, military and civilian, knowing that of ourselves we cannot restore life that has been lost: that belongs to God.

But we can commit ourselves to shaping a world of justice and of peace. And if the words we speak in making that solemn commitment do not have the whole truth within them, may the memorials to our dead sting us into shame and repentance.

Veterans’ Day in 2010 falls on Thursday, November 11. In most years and most times, Veterans’ Day passes in our churches with little or no mention. Historically and traditionally, Veterans’ Day has been more a civic than a sacred observance. As with New Years Day, Mother’s Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, and others, Veterans’ Day is not a part of the liturgical calendar ”” although sometimes local congregations will observe these days in some manner in Sunday congregational worship.

Check it out and note especially the Litany from The Book of Worship for United States Forces (1974) at the bottom.

To repeat the words of the Archbishop of Canterbury: “But again ”˜pastoral response’ has been interpreted very differently and there are those [”¦] who would say: ”˜Well, pastoral response means rites of blessing’, and I’m not very happy about that.” The Archbishop is not alone in his feelings. But the bishops of the Diocese of Toronto have decided to pour more fuel upon the smoldering flames of that unhappiness.

Interestingly, the Toronto Guidelines tell us that parishes can go forward with requesting to be designated as places where same-sex blessings can be performed only when some kind of “consensus” within it has been found on the matter. This is further explained as follows: “Consensus is not total agreement; however, every effort should be made to reach a decision where everyone feels heard and is willing to live with the wider body’s decision.” This is explicitly qualified in this manner: “The way forward should not be achieved or prevented by a few taking an opposing view to the vast majority”.

An obvious question arises in the face of this definition of consensus and its requirements: is there in fact a “consensus” of this kind in the Diocese of Toronto around the motives, meaning, and substance of the new Guidelines? The process for putting the Guidelines together precluded such a consensus, and the implementation of the Guidelines moves forward without it. How should those within, but also those outside of the diocese interpret this failure to discern consensus? For we should also ask another and related question: where do the bishops of the Diocese of Toronto stand vis a vis the “consensus” of the Communion’s bishops and her “consultative organs”, a consensus that in fact is equivalent in this case to a unanimity? Do they stand with the “vast majority”? Or do they stand with “a very few taking an opposing view” that is thereby seeking to “prevent” a “way forward” towards the healing of the Communion? Does this matter to them?

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Diocesan Diversity ”“ The Diocese of Toronto honours and appreciates the diversity represented in its parishes and clergy. This diversity will continue to be reflected in the selection and appointment of clergy, and in the membership of committees and councils of the diocese. We recognize there are theological and cultural differences across our diocese and within parishes which are strained by both the limits and permission represented in blessing same gender relationships.

–All congregations and individual Anglicans are called to exercise pastoral generosity one to another.
–Permission to participate in blessings of same gender commitments will be extended only to those parishes and clergy who fulfill the requirements noted above and are granted permission by the diocesan bishop.
–No clergy nor parishes will be required to participate in the blessing of same gender relationships.
–Clergy who object to blessing same gender relationships will be asked to exercise pastoral generosity by referring same gender couples seeking a blessing, if requested, to the Area Bishop.
–Clergy who support blessing same gender couples will be asked to exercise pastoral sensitivity to those in their parish who are not in agreement with the parish designation.

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Ministering in the “middle of this cauldron of multicultural activity” that is Harvard Square, the Rev. Joseph Robinson, rector of Christ Church Cambridge in the Diocese of Massachusetts says he wants to be able to welcome everyone, including same-gender couples who want their relationships blessed.

“And what they’re asking of me is that it’s the same for everyone, that it’s done with intention, truthfulness and that it begins with the words ‘dearly beloved,'” Robinson told the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music Oct. 19 during a hearing here. “It needs to sound like something that’s recognizable.”

“Whatever we do, whatever we offer our people, let it be eloquent, let it be truthful, let it be prayer and let it be common because those are the things which are the strengths of our church,” Robinson added.

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It is not easy in the age of the soundbite, to convey what original sin actually meant to Augustine or Cranmer. Christians have sometimes isolated it and turned it into a form of designer self-loathing. Original sin is only a component in Augustine’s bigger narrative around baptism. Glass-half-full people will point out that in his scheme of Grace and Salvation, all you actually have to do to deal with the worst of original sin is dunk the baby.

What remains thereafter can be rather positive. Societies based on Augustinian theology have, in fact, cheerfully accomplished all kinds of technical and aesthetic lovely things. What remains after original sin has been dealt with, in Augustine’s scheme by baptism, is a pervasive awareness of imperfection and fallibility, with the humility to say “there but for the grace of God go I”. Paradoxically, some of the highest achieving societies in the world have Augustinian roots, Lutheran or Catholic.

However gloomy and distasteful it is to drive by a motorway pile-up, a degree of honest fear, combined with acknowledgement that a car is perpetually crashable, not perfectly invincible, seems to make drivers better not worse. It characteristically enhances rather than inhibits performance.

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What is the biggest obstacle to the growth of the church in Britain today? Creeping secularisation? Richard Dawkins? Infighting over women bishops or gay clergy? Let me make another suggestion: how about the continued existence of pews?

For the first 1,500 years of the church’s life, pews were extremely rare. In most medieval churches people stood or sat on the floor, with only a narrow bench around the edge of the building for seating. Eastern Orthodox churches never got around to having pews ”“ still today in Russia and Greece, worshippers stand.

When they did gradually get introduced, pews were a mixed blessing. They were intimately connected with social division and hierarchy, with pews ranked according to social standing. The rich would have large grand stalls at the front and woe betide anyone who sat in the wrong one. They were exclusive then, and they are exclusive now. Pews today effectively exclude the 90 per cent of people who are not regular attenders of services.

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All creatures great and small are gathering at St Paul’s Anglican Cathedral in Nicosia today as animal loving crowds take their pets along to a special blessing.

Part of a worldwide celebration to mark the recent World Animal Day on October 4, the Saint Francis Blessing of the Animals received a very good response when a similar event was held at the Cathedral a few years back.
World Animal Day was established in 1931 at a convention of ecologists in Florence as a way of highlighting the plight of endangered species. Since then it has grown to encompass all kinds of animal life and is widely celebrated in countries around the world. October 4 was specifically chosen as World Animal Day as it coincides with the Feast Day of St Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals.

“St Francis is usually depicted surrounded by and holding various animals,” says the St Paul’s Cathedral Dean, Father John Tyrrell. “Religious blessings are now very popular in many countries, especially England and North America. People who live on farms out in the country even take their horses down to the nearby chapel.”

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The Rev. Chuck Culpepper leads St. Alexis Episcopal Church in an old warehouse building at 650 E. South St. in Jackson.

Four years ago, the congregation renovated the warehouse built circa 1920 that once housed a furniture store.

“We have done our best to keep the industrial look,” Ward said. “It gives us what we are looking for, which is something that’s different and easily accessible to some who are put off by normal church.”

Culpepper said the building also gives the 80-member congregation more community visibility.

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Eleven months out of the year, the parishioners of New York City can safely attend Sunday services with no reasonable fear of interlopers, television cameras or quizzical members of the press.

But this is the electoral playoff season of October, when aspiring statesmen show up on doorsteps more often than jack-o’-lanterns. That means politicians are descending on the pews.

By noon on Sunday, three churches along a single two-mile stretch of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, had played host to three of New York State’s more prominent elected officials: the state’s attorney general and comptroller, both of whom are running for statewide office, and the mayor of New York City.

Coincidence? In campaigns, there may be no such thing.

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It had been sometime since I had visited a parking lot before a National Football League game. In my previous career, and even during seminary, I followed television camera crews into special parking lots and flashed press passes at the media gates. So I guess you could say I had never “tailgated” at a Charger game in my hometown of San Diego or, for that matter, anywhere else.

I saw something called a Ravenswalk at Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium, filled with bands, merchants, contests, games, food and fans. Lots of fans. It was the Baltimore Ravens’ home opener and we at the Diocese of Maryland thought we should offer Holy Eucharist in the parking lot for Episcopalians who have to choose between church or football on the handful of Sundays the Ravens are in town.

One of our parishes had done this three seasons ago. The rector then, the Rev. Scott Slater, is now the canon to the ordinary. He encouraged us as we had plans in the works when he joined the staff this summer….

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Doug De Vries describes Sunday evening worship as “a lot less formal” than the morning service at Plymouth Heights Christian Reformed Church.

It’s also a lot less crowded.

Plymouth Heights is in step with a larger trend of declining evening attendance in evangelical denominations that long have cherished a heritage of worshiping twice on Sunday. Some evening services are more intimate; others have been cancelled or replaced by an alternative.

“It’s a business question that has been asked,” said De Vries, the church’s minister of music. “People are spending time with their family (on Sunday nights) or using that time to get together in small groups. We were concerned that we were squandering resources to put the evening service together.”

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Although he serves as Vice-Chancellor of the Diocese of Nashville and also assists at the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Fr. [Prentice] Dean has been given permission by his bishop to form an Anglican Use group, which he has done. Our Lady of Martyrs Anglican Use Society is hosting its first event ”“ Solemn Evensong and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. This will take place on Thursday, October 7, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. at The Church of the Assumption, 1227 7th Avenue, North, Nashville, Tennessee.

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Many people assume that there has been a steady decline in worship attendance for all the mainline denominations since the mid-1960s””the era when most of them began to see their memberships decline. But trends in attendance””usually thought to be a better indicator of church vitality than trends in membership””have actually followed their own patterns.

For example, the Episcopal Church re ported higher attendance in 2000 than in any year since 1991, the year the denomination began recording attendance figures. The United Methodist Church re ported worship attendance figures in 2000 that were higher than those in the mid-1980s. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America had relatively flat attendance rates in the years before 2001, and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in the 1990s had several years showing modest gains in attendance.

But the years following 2001 have shown a deep recession in worship attendance (see graph below). The losses in worshipers year after year were more dramatic than what data from the previous decade would have predicted.

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The Bishop of Warrington has issued a rallying call to the town’s community ahead of Back to Church day next Sunday, September 26.

Bishop Richard Blackburn is hoping people who have not been to church for weeks, months, or years will try the modern church.

Congregations have been handing out invitations to friends and family, and the bishop wants to further extend this invitation to the whole of Warrington.

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During the Jewish “Days of Awe,” culminating with Yom Kippur, many Conservative Jews will be turning the pages of a prayer book that no longer regards God as “awesome.”

The word, which has become an all-purpose exclamation that spread from Valley Girls to much of American teenagerdom, has lost its spiritual punch and dignity, say the authors of a new book for the High Holy Days that tries to bring the prayers in tune with contemporary times.

The authors prefer “awe-inspiring.”

“If you say God is awesome, you are immediately in street language, rather than inspiring language,” said Rabbi Edward Feld, who headed the committee that over 12 years wrote and translated the new book.

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The point here is that the funeral liturgy is public worship for the Church ”“ with its own expectations and limitations ”“ and not primarily a memorial service for the one who has died. The homily, therefore, should focus on Jesus Christ and His saving death and resurrection, and not become a testimony ”“ as well-deserved as it might be ”“ to the deceased.

Obviously it’s fitting, even during the homily, to offer sympathy and support to the grieving community, and to say good things about the deceased, to highlight their positive virtues and contributions. But that personal tribute should never be the primary focus of the homily.

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Read it all and watch the video–so appropriate on this day.

Listen and enjoy it–from one of the Episcopal Church’s really gifted musicians–KSH.

Almost 100 parishes across the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne will take part in Back to Church Sunday (BTCS) on 12 September.

“The idea is that through a personal invitation to a friend or acquaintance those who have stopped attending church will return,” explained Paul White, Bishop of the Southern Region, who is co-ordinating Back to Church Sunday for the Diocese.

The theme of the day is ‘Come as you are’, designed to reassure guests that they are welcome in church without expectations and without feeling they have to measure up to a particular standard.

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A vicar has been jailed for four years for carrying out hundreds of fake marriages to bypass immigration law.

The Reverend Alex Brown conducted 360 sham marriages during a four-year period at the Church of St Peter and St Paul in St Leonards, East Sussex.

Co-defendants Vladimir Buchak, 33, and solicitor and pastor Michael Adelasoye, 50, were also jailed for four years.

The Crown Prosecution Service said it was thought to be the largest sham marriage case yet brought to court.

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When services for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, begin on Wednesday evening, Sept. 8, more than 150,000 congregants in synagogues throughout the U.S. and Canada will turn a new leaf””literally””as they open a brand new High Holidays prayer book, “Mahzor Lev Shalem.”

Edited and published under the auspices of Judaism’s Conservative movement and its Rabbinical Assembly, this attractive and accessible volume aims to welcome and involve as broad a community as possible during the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services, which attract the largest gatherings to synagogues each year.

Indeed, as many as 90% of those attending High Holidays services are not regular synagogue-goers, estimates Rabbi Edward Feld, the prayer book’s senior editor. So it was not easy to assemble a “mahzor” (the traditional name for the High Holidays prayer book) that engages the regulars but will also appeal to those sitting in the pews who have little or no connection to Judaism the rest of the year….

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Vicars in Greater Manchester are to be coached on how to spot bogus marriages.

The UK Border Agency is issuing guidance to clergy across the north west after a spate of fake weddings were exposed during immigration raids.

In recent months, immigration teams have swooped on a number of suspected sham ceremonies in local register offices following tip-offs that brides and grooms did not even speak the same language.

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A Presbyterian court on Friday (Aug. 27) found a retired California pastor guilty of violating church rules and her ordination vows by performing same-sex marriages while it was briefly legal in the state in 2008.

The Rev. Jane Spahr, 68, did not deny presiding at as many as 16 ceremonies, even though her denomination, the Presbyterian Church (USA), prohibits ministers from stating, implying or representing same-sex unions as marriages.

The Napa, Calif.-based Permanent Judicial Commission of the Presbytery of the Redwoods found Spahr guilty by a 4-2 vote, concluding she persisted in a “pattern or practice of disobedience.”

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A lesbian minister, who officiated at more than a dozen same-sex weddings during the brief window gay marriage was legal in California, goes to trial Thursday before a Presbyterian court, charged with violating her denomination’s constitution.

The case of the Rev. Jane Adams Spahr has gained national attention because “what is being tested is the definition of marriage” in the Presbyterian faith, said the Rev. Carmen Fowler, president of the Presbyterian Lay Committee, a conservative organization that opposes same-sex marriage.

Spahr’s trial, which will be held in Napa, begins less than three weeks after a federal court judge ruled that California’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. And it underscores the awkward position in which changing civil law places many clergy members.

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