To have a coherent and rational debate about the tenets of the Christianity is perfectly natural. To have a virulent, almost irrational attack upon it claiming that what is being said is self evidently true is dangerous, not just because it refuses to allow any contrary viewpoint but also because it affects the public perception of religion. It leads, for example, to local authorities calling Christmas ”˜Winterval’, to hospitals removing all Christian symbols from hospital chapels, or to schools refusing to put on nativity plays, or allowing children to send Christmas cards with a Christian message, or airlines refusing staff the freedom to wear a cross round their necks.

All of this is what I would call the new ”˜fundamentalism’ of our age and any kind of fundamentalism, be it Biblical, atheistic or Islamic, is dangerous, because it allows no room for disagreement, for doubt, for debate, for discussion. It leads to the language of expulsion and exclusivity, of extremism and polarisation, and the claim that because God is on our side, He is not on yours.

Contrast all that with the message of the angel to the shepherds in the nativity story in St Luke’s Gospel, “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people”. It is a message of joy and good news for everyone
”“ no one is excluded, everyone is embraced, from the shepherds, who would have been seen as nobodies by respectable Jewish society, to the magi – Gentiles, who would have been strangers in the land.

The Gospel writers make the point that Jesus is the focus of all God’s promises and purposes from the beginning of creation. God is not exclusive, he is on the side of the whole of humanity with all its variety.

Read it all.

You’re just welcome for who you are. It’s a bit of a paradox.

We usually spend the weeks before Christmas in a feverish nightmare of anxiety and driven busyness, as if we were going to celebrate the festival by making our normal situation even worse! But then there comes a moment when we really have to take time out if we’re going to stay sane. That’s the moment when people start thinking about church.

We still have this half-buried conviction that church is a place where, at least at this time of year, we ought to be able to feel at home. We turn up, tired and overwrought, perhaps, still thinking vaguely about what we haven’t done and need to do before tomorrow. And then the story unfolds. Yes, this is our story, and yes, we can for a moment believe that this birth makes a difference. Yes, God cares about the kind of world we want to see and his faithful love is the basis of what makes a really liveable life. And no, we don’t have to do anything for this time except take it in. There are no entrance qualifications. The door of Jesus’s stable is open and anyone can come in and sit down.

None of this ”“ I can hear the atheist protesting ”“ means it’s true, surely? Not in itself, no. But it suggests that, if God is a “delusion”, as some would like us to believe, then quite a lot more of our human life is a delusion as well, including many of our deepest values and our hopes for forgiveness and peace. All sorts of things will make up your mind about whether it is true or not ”“ and naturally I want people to believe it is and I’m happy to have the arguments. But you will never understand why it might matter for it to be true unless you can take in what the Christmas story is saying to us about who we are and the world we live in.

So, arrive early! There are millions who still want to ask these questions and hear the story. And there are millions for whom it’s not just a piece of our “heritage” ”“ a stately home to visit ”“ but a place to live. God is for life, not just for Christmas.

Read it all.

Once again, we come to the Holiday Season, a deeply religious time that each of us observes, in his own way, by going to the mall of his choice.

— Dave Barry

“The Diocese of South Carolina and I face a very different set of challenges and opportunities, and l’m looking forward to how we can affect positively the life of the Episcopal Church,” [Mark Lawrence]… said.

He said that, with the exception of a couple of occasions, he has not preached church politics from his pulpit at St. Paul’s.

“I use the pulpit to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” he said.

He did, however, at one time defend “the San Joaquin Diocesan Standing Committee’s posture for an appeal for an alternative primatial oversight,” by a leader other than Jefferts Schori.

“That was not a move to leave the Episcopal Church,” Lawrence said. “That was the overture that seven or so dioceses were asking from the Archbishop of Canterbury.

“At that time, the question was, ”˜How can we differentiate ourselves in such a way from the leadership in the Episcopal Church in order that we may maintain our place within the Episcopal Church?’” he said.

Read it all.

Sure, the season invites a lot of clatter, from deck-the-halling Pepsi commercials to the predictable prattle over some alleged “war on Christmas.” But for most of us, the holiday remains a time of family, a time of reflection, and a time of love.

Which is why, this Christmas, my thoughts keep returning to the 184,000 American soldiers currently stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan, honoring our nation with their service while fighting wars whose consequences have nothing and everything to do with the humanity at the heart of the holiday.

It is easy to say “let us remember our troops” during the Christmas season, but how many of us really understand the painful nobility of this sacrifice? Who among us can actually put ourselves in the dusty boots of these men and women, and imagine what it must be like to spend this most beloved of holidays away from those who give our spirits their greatest nourishment, our lives their greatest purpose?

In Baghdad, it is hardly Christmasy. Temperatures are mild, sand swirls instead of snow, and the closest our soldiers can get to the serene sounds of church bells and caroling is the enchanting call to prayer from the local mosques ”” and even that is all too often disrupted by the thunder of gunfire and roadside bombs.

Read it all.

Local scientists have inscribed the entire Hebrew text of the Jewish Bible onto a space less than half the size of grain of sugar.

Nanotechnology experts at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa say the surface of the text measures less than 0.5 square millimeters (0.01 square inches). They chose the Jewish Bible to highlight how vast quantities of information can be stored in minimum amounts of space.

It took the team about an hour to etch the 300,000 words of the Bible onto a tiny silicon surface, says Ohad Zohar, the university’s scientific adviser for educational programs. The Technion’s microscopic Bible was created by blasting tiny particles called gallium ions at an object that then rebounded, causing an etching affect.

When a particle beam is directed toward a point on the surface, the gold atoms bounce off and expose the silicon layer underneath just like a hammer and chisel, Zohar explains. He adds that the technology will in the future be used as a way to store vast amounts of data on bio-molecules and DNA.

Read it all.

Christmas is here again despite all covert and overt attempts to wish it away. The celebration in remembrance of the love of God in giving the Saviour to the world is so important, it cannot be wished away.

Though few human beings rejoiced at the birth of the baby Jesus, the Gospels tell about multitudes rejoicing in the heavens, about a bright star leading wise men to worship the new born king, and they also tell about the trouble his birth brought to those unwilling to have him as their Lord and King.

The incarnation is the divine condescension. The birth of Christ which we celebrate is the decisive divine intervention into human history. By it, history is measured and judged. Before the birth of Christ, all of history is categorized as era ”˜Before Christ’ (B.C.) and since then, we have been in the era of ”˜the year of Our Lord’ (anno domini, A.D.)

Today, multitudes of human beings join the angels to rejoice. Christians shining as light lead many to Christ and there still exists, great trouble among those who would not have Jesus. Efforts to turn Christmas into a mere holiday season continue unabated all around us. ”˜Christmas Greetings’ are replaced with ”˜Season Greetings’ as if it possible to have a Christmas without Christ. ”˜B.C.’ and ”˜A.D’ are changed to ”˜B.C.E.’ (Before Common Era), and ”˜C.E’ (Common Era) all in an attempt to conceal the fact that Jesus came to save an erring world from sin and eternal condemnation.

The cross of Christ which is the main reason we boast (Gal. 6:14) remains a stumbling block and a symbol of offense to those unwilling to receive God’s free gift of salvation. (Romans 9: 33) Under the guise of political correctness, symbols of Christianity in our daily lives and history are being challenged and subtly removed. All these subtle and calculated attempts of the non-believing world to mislead the unsuspecting believers and make them deny Christ should not deter us from celebrating for we are confident the efforts are bound to fail. As we celebrate Jesus’ birth this year, let us be mindful of the activities of the first celebrants; the joyous angels who while celebrating proclaimed the Good News to the shepherds.

We should also be bold to proclaim to an increasingly secularized world, the good news of the Saviour-born. We call on all Christians in positions of authority and indeed all ministers of the Gospel to vigorously resist attempts to remove Christ from Christmas and His centrality and importance in human history. We should be vigilant and avoid being misguided and misled by their seemingly innocent and socially acceptable philosophy. In being politically correct, we should not join in denying Christ his rightful place. Let all of us unashamedly proclaim the news of the greatest gift of all, the love behind the gift and peace the gift brings to all. Jesus the Christ is our Saviour, Lord, King and the best gift ever given by God to humanity. (John 3:16)

May God incarnate, give you true joy as you celebrate Him this Christmas and throughout the coming year.

Every Blessing,

Signed

The Most Revd. Peter J Akinola, CON,
Archbishop, Metropolitan and Primate of all Nigeria.

“You are talking to someone who loves the tradition of the church. It is my heritage,” Bishop Schofield said during an interview with a reporter from The Living Church. “I don’t have any personal antagonism toward The Episcopal Church or its leaders, but day by day they seem to depart more and more from what is asked of us in scripture.

“It is not my wish to leave The Episcopal Church. If I saw signs that they were returning [to the historic faith] it is possible I would approach my convention about revisiting this decision.”

Bishop Schofield said he has grown frustrated with those who continue to characterize the current division in the church as the work of a small minority.

“Thousands of members are leaving The Episcopal Church every week,” he said. “San Joaquin is not the point. That just happens to be where a majority of evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics are concentrated. For more than 20 years they have tried to drive us away. As a protest movement, I would hope that this would have an effect on The Episcopal Church.”

Read it all.

Americans are falling behind on their credit card payments at an alarming rate, sending delinquencies and defaults surging by double-digit percentages in the last year and prompting warnings of worse to come.

An Associated Press analysis of financial data from the country’s largest card issuers also found that the greatest rise was among accounts more than 90 days in arrears.

Experts say these signs of the deterioration of finances of many households are partly a byproduct of the subprime mortgage crisis and could spell more trouble ahead for an already sputtering economy.

“Debt eventually leaks into other areas, whether it starts with the mortgage and goes to the credit card or vice versa,” said Cliff Tan, a visiting scholar at Stanford University and an expert on credit risk. “We’re starting to see leaks now.”

The value of credit card accounts at least 30 days late jumped 26 percent to $17.3 billion in October from a year earlier at 17 large credit card trusts examined by the AP. That represented more than 4 percent of the total outstanding principal balances owed to the trusts on credit cards that were issued by banks such as Bank of America and Capital One and for retailers like Home Depot and Wal-Mart.

Read it all.

The great unknown of college life gave Ryan Buell pause when he left his home in Sumter to attend Penn State University. But far more frightening experiences awaited him.

In 2001, while majoring in journalism, Buell formed the Paranormal Research Society (PRS) to investigate the spooky and unexplained.

Now he’s one of the stars of a new A&E network series, “Paranormal State,” which chronicles PRS cases.

We talked with the 25-year-old about the haunted, possession and fate.

How did the Paranormal Research Society come about?

I had an experience when I was young that was frightening. And I didn’t have anyone to talk to, especially growing up in the South. It was especially taboo down there. … I was kind of taught to just forget about it and pretend like it never happened.

When I moved to Penn State, I said, “I want to do something a little more serious,” and I wanted to learn about paranormal investigating. … I researched this and that, and I was surprised there was nothing. So I was left in this predicament of OK, do I wait till one day while I’m in college someone starts something, or do I start it? And so I decided to start it.

Was it a one-man show at first?

It was me at first. … It was kind of a weird thing, and people definitely raised their eyebrows about it. But you know, people came. I was surprised. … And now we have faculty, staff and graduates who are part of it. It’s not just students anymore.

Why do you think people have always shown up?

I think we’ve always had an interest in the unexplained. I mean it’s part of who we are. I’d almost go as far as saying it’s in our DNA. Ever since man was around, we always realized there was a supernatural element to life. Is there a God? Is there an afterlife?… I think that now, more so than ever, people are much more willing to take the time and question what’s out there.

Read it all. I just love that last section–quoting it would be a great way to start an evangelism class or an adult sunday school class on apologetics, for example.

Holiday shopping online could save more than time. Researchers say it might also help save the planet.

A holiday-themed study by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory suggests that even a modest number of shopping trips to the mall can create a large volume of carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles – the so-called greenhouse gases linked to global warming in the atmosphere.

“Using several assumptions and data from several authoritative sources, we can reasonably estimate that nearly a half-billion kilograms of carbon dioxide are kept out of the atmosphere by shopping online,” environmental researcher Jesse Miller said Thursday.

That’s roughly 500,000 metric tons, according to the scientist at the Department of Energy research complex.

Read it all.

The problem, at this point, is a lack of clarity as to what Dr Williams means and intends. It would be remarkable, given what else he says in this letter, if he then sought to treat TEC and the Global South with strict parity, on the one hand with regard to reinterpreting Scripture and on the other hand with regard to cross-border interventions: remarkable because the former has precipitated the crisis and the latter has responded to it. Nevertheless, a certain doubt remains.

Despite this, however, there is some reason to be positive. Dr Williams has acknowledged that the Anglican Communion must have boundaries. Moreover, in identifying these he has rightly put Scripture first, and has insisted that a novel reading of Scripture cannot simply be imposed by one group in the Church as acceptable over against the wider reading and the longer tradition.

Most importantly, he affirms that the reading of Scripture currently adopted by TEC and others (if it is a ”˜reading’ at all), renders its recognition as Anglican (and therefore traditionally Christian) problematic, to say the least.

More questionable is his attempt to finesse the continuing acceptance of TEC by the rest of the Anglican Communion by an appeal to the fact that some elements within TEC want to distance themselves from it!

Most difficult of all, however, is his attempt to isolate into watertight compartments the three elements of his boundaries: Scripture, ministry and mission. Indeed, his presenting the boundaries in that order is also problematic, for mission is, in the end, surely more important than the formal nature of our ministries.

It is precisely here that the decisions and actions of TEC most clearly confront Dr Williams’ analysis. As Dr Bonnie Perry, partnered gay clergywoman, Rector of All Saints Church, Chicago, and candidate for the episcopate of California has said recently, ”˜Some people call it the gay agenda, but we call it the Gospel Agenda.’ It cannot be argued, in the present circumstances, that although TEC’s reading of Scripture may be defective, its mission is intact. Nor can it be suggested that because its ministry contains some who are faithful to the Communion’s understanding of Scripture, the province is thereby faithful to the Communion’s notion of ”˜church’.

Yet for all this, Dr Williams must be commended for giving a lead ”” for stepping up to the plate when it was needed. We may (indeed, I do) disagree with some of what he has said. But we need not (and I do not) disagree with it all, even though considerable anxieties may remain.

Read it all.

One by one, the sacred relics — a medal of the Virgin Mary, a crucifix and other revered objects — are taken from a cupboard and placed on an altar for a Christmas Eve rite passed down through centuries from Japan’s earliest Christians.

Then, kneeling in the simple hall built where martyrs are said to have been burned on this tiny, remote island 400 years ago, five elders murmur chants as they bow and make the sign of the cross.

The kimono-clad deacons are descendants of “Kakure Kirishitan,” or Hidden Christians, who kept their religion alive on Ikitsuki and in other isolated pockets of Japan during 250 years of suppression, adapting their rites to the demands of secrecy and blending them with local beliefs.

These days, the religion faces a modern threat of extinction as young people, like those elsewhere in rural Japan, leave their homes in search of jobs, drifting away from their gods and the rituals that honor them.

Read it all.

Comedian Ricky Gervais has engaged in a debate about theology with the Archbishop of Canterbury ”“ confessing at the end that he might have “blown his image” by taking life seriously.

The ‘Office’ star told Dr Rowan Williams he was concerned about “brainwashing” of children who are sent to faith schools at an early age, comparing teaching that God exists to belief in Father Christmas.

“Because I believe in evolution, I believe that a child’s brain is a sponge, and it is meant to be because it believes everything it is taught because it has to survive,” Gervais said on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Simon Mayo show.

“I think if the first thing you are exposed to is that there is a God and you should do these things, I think there is a problem with that.

“For example, if your kids at the age of seven came to you and said: ’There isn’t a Santa is there?’ you would say: ’No there isn’t’ would you?”

Dr Williams replied that faith schools expose children to the full range of human experience and values and he did not believe they indoctrinated people.

Read it all.

A mother in Rockville, Maryland, bought a tadpole for her daughter in 1989. The frog it became, Gilly, is still going strong, causing an inquiry into the lifespan of a pet frog is questioned. Amphibian experts say pet frogs are a lot heartier and longer-lived than gold fish, hamsters or even cats.

This is really a lot of fun, listen to it all from NPR.

Well worth the time.

Roman Catholicism, bolstered by an influx of immigrants from Eastern Europe and Africa, has overtaken the Anglican Church as the nation’s most dominant religious group, figures obtained by the Sunday Telegraph reveal.

A survey by Christian Research shows that the number of people going to Mass last year stood at 861,000 compared to only 852,000 Anglicans worshipping each Sunday. Leading figures from the Church of England have warned that it could become a minority faith.

Read it all and consider posting a comment.

Good heavens. Read it all.

As Christmas draws near, Pastor John Foster won’t be decorating a tree, shopping for last-minute gifts or working on a holiday sermon for his flock. After all, it’s been 50 years since Christmas was anything more than a day of the week to him.

He’s one of very few American Christians who follow what used to be the norm in many Protestant denominations — rejecting the celebration of Christmas on religious grounds.

“People don’t think of it this way, but it’s really a secular holiday,” said Foster, a Princeton-based pastor in the United Church of God. He last celebrated Christmas when he was 8.

His church’s objection to Christmas is rare among U.S. Christians. Gallup polls from 1994 to 2005 consistently show that more than 90 percent of adults say they celebrate Christmas, including 84 percent of non-Christians.

That’s a huge change from an earlier era, when many Protestants ignored or actively opposed the holiday. But as it gradually became popular as a family celebration, churches followed their members in making peace with Christmas.

The change didn’t happen overnight. Through much of the 19th century, schools and businesses remained open, Congress met in session and some churches closed their doors, lest errant worshippers try to furtively commemorate the day.

Read it all.

So it is very understandable that Tony Blair should convert. But what about the difficulties – and they are great? He has been a great champion of embryonic stem cell research. This involves the destruction of the tiny multiplying bundle of cells that form the early embryo. According to the Roman Catholic Catechism, ‘human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception’. In other words, the early embryo has to be accorded the full rights of a baby. This also rules out in vitro fertilisation, for this involves the destruction of some of the fertilised eggs. All this without even taking into account his voting record on abortion.

Then there is the question of gay relationships and his support for civil partnerships. As a Catholic there can be no question of Tony Blair now advocating their blessing.

There are also the old theological difficulties. A huge amount has been achieved in recent years by the international commission of Anglican and Roman Catholic theologians. On issues such as the Eucharist, misunderstandings have been overcome and substantial agreement reached. But on two areas there is still a big divide. One is any idea of the Pope being an oracle in his own right, as opposed to the linchpin of the college of bishops. The other involves dogmas such as the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption, which Anglicans may believe if they like, but which since the 19th century have been matters of basic faith for Roman Catholics.

Read it all.

A friend emailed me this–see what you make of it–KSH.

Protocol 142/07

December 25, 2007
The Nativity of Christ

What shall we offer You, O Christ,
Who for our sakes has appeared on earth as a man?
(From the Vespers of the Nativity)

To the Most Reverend Hierarchs, the Reverend Priests and Deacons, the Monks and Nuns, the Presidents and Members of the Parish Councils of the Greek Orthodox Communities, the Distinguished Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the Day, Afternoon, and Church Schools, the Philoptochos Sisterhoods, the Youth, the Hellenic Organizations, and the entire Greek Orthodox Family in America

Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

On this glorious day of the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ we celebrate the truly historical, universal, and eternal event of His Incarnation. It is historical, for at the divinely appointed time He entered our human history by being conceived and formed in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and was born of her in a cave in Bethlehem. It is universal because the Son of God, the divine Logos of Creation, took upon himself human flesh and blood so that He might redeem us and all of the universe from the burden of sin and death. His Incarnation and birth has eternal significance because through His life, we are offered life, not just a mortal and earthly life, but unending life. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). The gift of the Lord and the gift of life are the greatest offerings presented to humankind. God the Father gave his Son, and the Son gave Himself so that we might be restored to the life and communion for which we were created.

It is in this gift that we see and experience the true nature of giving. First, our Lord gave himself freely. He did this because of His great love for us. Jesus became like us in every way with the exception of sin. He began his life in the womb, then as an infant. He endured temptation, suffering and death, and He affirmed the power of faith through His Resurrection. In this revelation of God¹s love, our Lord has given completely, freely, and willingly so that we might be saved.

Second, Christ offered himself in humility. He did not enter this world in all of the trappings of royalty and might. He did not come seeking fame, political power, and wealth. It would appear that He came in weakness and obscurity and that His meager beginnings would be no match for worldly authority. But in His humility was His power. In entering our humanity, our Lord exalted what had been made low by sin and death. As the Son of God Incarnate, He affirmed the divine imprint on our creation and our lives. Through His birth, life, teaching, and miracles He baffled the so-called wise of this world, brought down pride and spiritual arrogance, and illumined the path of truth so that all might enter His kingdom.

Third, the offering of our Lord was one of peace. His compassionate sacrifice of himself was not accomplished through violence. His birth signified that His cause was life, and even through His death He revealed His power to give and uphold life. The peace offered by Christ is an enduring peace that is experienced and sustained not by the sword, but through faith and love.

Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Let us contemplate what our Lord has offered to us, especially during this time of year when we give to one another. Giving can and should be a blessed and beautiful act toward others when we know the true nature of giving. Our Lord has given to us freely, and in humility and love. In the challenges of our lives and the uncertainty of our world He gives us peace. What can we offer to Him and to one another? In our celebration of this great Feast of the Nativity, we can affirm our faith in Him. We can and should offer all of our being for His glory and service, sharing in the life, love, and peace that will be ours for all eternity.

With paternal love in Christ,

+DEMETRIOS
Archbishop of America

———————————————————–

The Presiding Bishop’s Christmas message 2007

(ENS)

Eyes to see

Finding Immanuel as immigrant, wanderer, child

In what form will you find the Christ child this year? The fact of the Incarnation in a weak and helpless babe says something significant about where we focus our search. I am convinced that it is part of our call to exercise a “preferential option” on behalf of the poor, weak, sick, and marginalized. The long arc of biblical thinking and theologizing has to do with seeing God’s care for those who have no other helper. Indeed, Jesus is understood as that helper for all who fail, by the world’s terms, to save themselves. More accurately, we understand that Jesus is that helper for all.

One of the great gifts of the way in which those in our cultural surroundings celebrate Christmas is the focus on children and on those who have few human helpers. We delight in the wonder of children as Christmas approaches, and many of us make an extra effort to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, and care for the needy. The challenge is to let our seasonal “seeing” transform the way we meet our neighbors through the rest of the year, and through all the coming years.

How might we begin to see that child in those around us: strangers and aliens (both Immanuel and Immigrants); wanderers (Homeless, like Mary and Joseph, for whom there was no room); widows and orphans (Social Outcasts); babe born in Bethlehem (Palestinian and Israeli alike; or the boy babies whom both Pharaoh and Herod sought to kill); divine feeder of thousands (Soup Kitchen worker); and savior of the world (Peacemaker, Bringer of Justice for All, Reconciler, Just and Gracious Lawgiver…). If God comes among us as a helpless child, then the divine presence is truly all around us. Where will you meet Jesus this Christmas?

(Hat tip: ykw)

Even in an era of mass immigration that has produced suburban tamale shops alongside halal meat markets and created a market for television programming in Hindi and Arabic, places of worship remain bastions of racial and ethnic uniformity. And that makes the case of one brick church in Springfield particularly remarkable.

On a recent Sunday morning at the Word of Life Assembly of God Church, pink-cheeked Virginia native David Gorman skipped in a conga line in Swahili Sunday school while a Kenyan preacher played an accordion and a Singaporean woman led jubilant hymns. Filipinos analyzed Bible passages in a classroom.

Later, as the Sierra Leonean choir prepared to perform in the sanctuary, D. Wendel Cover, the folksy white pastor, listed the nations of the world and asked worshipers to stand when they heard their homelands.

He seemed a bit dismayed to find just 80 represented.

“Our country’s becoming more international,” Cover, 73, said in an interview. He has led the formerly majority-white Pentecostal church for three decades. “The next generation is going to be American. If the church doesn’t realize that, they’re going to lose a whole generation.”

Read it all.

Each year, Fred R. Shapiro, the editor of the Yale Book of Quotations, produces a list of the year’s top 10 quotes. See what you make of his choices.

In the dimly lit sanctuary of a large brick church at the north end of Main Street, more than 100 people move to light Christian rock music. Children, recently resettled refugees from Burundi, are splayed out on the floor with coloring books. A man in jeans and a sweater stands nearby, swaying and holding his palms heavenward.

“What can wash away my sins,” the group sings. “Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”

Grace Fellowship in Nashua is part of a growing movement of evangelical Christians in New Hampshire, a group that includes nearly 1 in 5 Republican primary voters and that could play an important role in the state’s Jan. 8 election. Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and an ordained Baptist minister, has preached in four New Hampshire churches, and is hoping to connect with religious conservatives.

Yet those who worship at Grace Fellowship and other New Hampshire churches point to many ways in which they differ from evangelicals outside New England, particularly in the South and Southwest, who are the backbone of the religious right in America and, in Iowa and South Carolina, provide a base of support for Huckabee.

Outside New England, evangelical megachurches are commonplace, attracting thousands or even tens of thousands. In New Hampshire, evangelical churches tend to be smaller – and more independent.

Read it all.

Rob and Kim Goldman wanted to welcome their first-born daughter, Sienna, into the world in a special way.

“My family kept asking me over and over again when I was going to have the baby baptized,” Kim Goldman said.

But a traditional church baptism didn’t feel right for the Goldman family, who live in Staten Island, N.Y. Kim was raised Catholic, and Rob is Jewish. While they follow traditions of both religions, neither regularly attend church or synagogue.

So the Goldmans decided to welcome Sienna with a different kind of ceremony: a baby blessing.

Read it all.

Roman Catholics have overtaken Anglicans as the country’s dominant religious group. More people attend Mass every Sunday than worship with the Church of England, figures seen by The Sunday Telegraph show.

This means that the established Church has lost its place as the nation’s most popular Christian denomination after more than four centuries of unrivalled influence following the Reformation.

Last night, leading figures gave warning that the Church of England could become a minority faith and that the findings should act as a wake-up call.

The statistics show that attendance at Anglican Sunday services has dropped by 20 per cent since 2000. A survey of 37,000 churches, to be published in the new year, shows the number of people going to Sunday Mass in England last year averaged 861,000, compared with 852,000 Anglicans ­worshipping.

Read it all.

An inspiring story of a school transformed.

The Complete Book of Aunts covers everything from aunts in literature and film, to remembrances from nieces and nephews who had unusual relationships with their aunts. Rupert Christiansen, co-author, speaks with NPR’s Scott Simon.

Listen to it all from NPR.

Watch it all and note carefully the man who says Christianity is not a religion but is instead something else.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (to use its proper name) is arguably America’s most important indigenous religion. It is a universal faith, but also “very American”, reckon Richard and Joan Ostling, authors of the excellent “Mormon America: The Power and the Promise”. Its history is entangled with America’s. Like American settlers, Mormons were pioneers who travelled far for religious freedom. Like America, Mormonism has grown fast. Smith had 26,000 followers when he died. Now he has more than 13m, more than half of them outside America. And within America, by one estimate, Mormonism is the fourth-largest denomination.

As it has grown, it has moved towards the mainstream. Its leaders renounced polygamy in 1890. Its members, following Smith’s view that the American constitution was divinely inspired, are patriotic and prone to public service. Mormons are also one of the best-behaved groups in America. Practising ones shun alcohol, cigarettes and even coffee. They work hard, marry, have lots of children and set aside an evening each week for quality time with the family. The 53,000 dark-suited, white-shirted, tie-wearing Mormon missionaries who fish for souls around the world can seem like America personified: earnest, friendly, optimistic, fond of Jesus and eager to tell you about it.

Yet many Americans have doubts about Mormonism. Only 53% of non-Mormon Americans think Mormons are Christian, despite the words “Jesus Christ” in the church’s name. Many evangelical Protestants think them heretics””the ruder ones regularly heckle Mormon conferences. Some secular Americans voice the opposite complaint: that Mormons are too pious and too likely to knock on your door.

Read it all.