The Anglican Church of Kenya is today expected to ordain two American bishops in a bid to counter a splinter group advocating for gay marriage.
The head of ACK, Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi, said the conflicts in the church had left members without pastoral direction. Nzimbi told the Press at the ACK headquarters in Nairobi that the ordination of Mr Bill Atwood and Mr William Murdoch was the church’s way of providing a temporary solution.
Father Bill Terry of St. Anna’s Episcopal Church in New Orleans wants everyone to know what’s happening in New Orleans: too many murders with too few people held accountable.
He keeps track of the slayings on what he calls the “murder board,” a plastic board that hangs outside his church. He started listing murder victims earlier this year to humanize the headlines.
At first, the names were neatly typed by a printer. But as the killings continued at a rampant pace, he says, he resorted to adding victims’ names by hand with permanent marker.
“Numbers are very easy to deal with emotionally. When it becomes a human being, then we start to personalize and it’s harder to deal with. I want people to squirm. I want people to feel uncomfortable about the murders going on in the city,” Father Bill told CNN.
A day after thousands of schoolchildren began reciting the revised Texas pledge honoring “one state under God,” an atheist couple asked a federal judge in Dallas that the language be immediately removed.
Legislators inserted the language into the pledge earlier this year to mirror the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance.
U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade denied the request late Tuesday by David Wallace Croft and his wife, Shannon, for a preliminary injunction to stop the use of the pledge before any trial. No trial date has been set. An unidentified John and Jane Doe are also parties to the case.
“The U.S. Supreme Court has made it abundantly clear for decades that patriotic tributes to God are allowed under the Constitution,” state solicitor general Ted Cruz argued in court.
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The Texas pledge revised by legislators this year now reads:
“Honor the Texas flag; I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible.”
The election of Abdullah Gul as President of Turkey closes a stormy chapter in Turkish politics in the most satisfactory possible way. An accomplished diplomat who as foreign minister negotiated the terms of Turkey’s accession into the European Union, Mr Gul was by far the strongest candidate. He won the parliamentary vote by a convincing majority in the third and final round.
That Mr Gul faced obstacles to his election, and nonetheless prevailed, testifies not only to the strength of his determination, but to the robustness of Turkey’s institutions. In April, at the first time of asking, Mr Gul was blocked by the secular opposition parties which saw his Islamic background as a threat to the state. The stalemate, which was reinforced by street demonstrations, was broken by the Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who called an early general election. His Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has Islamic roots, won a new mandate with an increased majority. Mr Gul renewed his candidacy, and has now won.
This was a textbook example of how Turkey’s political system is supposed to function ”“ through democratic elections and parliamentary votes. Yet there were fears, inside and outside the country, that it might not prove equal to the task.
The Rev. Tracey Lind’s nomination comes as conservatives in the worldwide Anglican Communion are demanding that its U.S. branch no longer consecrate openly gay bishops.
“I believe that accepting this nomination is what God is asking of me,” Lind said in a statement. She’s dean of Trinity Cathedral in Cleveland and author of Interrupted by God.
» Lind is among a list of five bishop candidates that includes three women. No woman has ever been a finalist, the diocese said.
Bishop James Stanton of Dallas, a catalyst in the global effort against gay bishops, called Lind’s nomination distressing.
“It’s an action that says Chicago really doesn’t care what the rest of the Anglican Communion says,” he told the Sun-Times.
A leader in the Southern Baptist Convention says religious leaders have a “moral imperative” to urge Congress to allow the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to regulate cigarettes.
Richard Land, head of public policy for the SBC, was among leaders from several religious denominations who gathered at a Nashville church today to urge members of the Tennessee congressional delegation to support such legislation.
From Zenit:
The liturgy should inspire Catholics to contribute to bettering the world with testimony and social action, says Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.
Secretary of State Cardinal Bertone said this in a message sent on behalf of Benedict XVI to the 58th Italian National Liturgical Week, in progress in Spoleto through Friday.
“To live as a Christian, we must harmonize personal faithfulness to Christ with ‘citizenship,’ with a commitment to being present in the world as his witnesses,” Cardinal Bertone wrote.
He continued: “Each liturgical celebration helps to carry out a wise reading of history with an attentive discernment of events, so that the soul of believers will open to the eschatological prospective that enables them to work in the earthly city while looking beyond what is passing, to catch a glimpse of the Risen One.
“Christians, throughout history, knew how to recognize what is good, true, noble and positive in the various societies in which they found themselves.
“Aware of Christ’s invitation to be ‘salt’ and ‘leaven’ of the earth, they worked, sustained by the Holy Spirit, to animate, with the richness of evangelical love, the cultures and traditions of their time.”
Leona Helmsley’s dog will continue to live an opulent life, and then be buried alongside her in a mausoleum. But two of Helmsley’s grandchildren got nothing from the late luxury hotelier and real estate billionaire’s estate.
Helmsley left her beloved white Maltese, named Trouble, a $12 million trust fund, according to her will, which was made public Tuesday in surrogate court.
She also left millions for her brother, Alvin Rosenthal, who was named to care for Trouble in her absence, as well as two of four grandchildren from her late son Jay Panzirer — so long as they visit their father’s grave site once each calendar year.
Otherwise, she wrote, neither will get a penny of the $5 million she left for each.
When atheist Sam Harris wrote his 2004 bestseller The End of Faith, a radical attack on religious belief in any form, he was prepared for strong rebuttals from Christians.
What may have surprised him was the vitriol in which many of the emails and letters were couched. The most hostile messages came from Christians (not Muslims or Hindus). “The truth is,” he explained in the forward to his latest bestseller, Letter to a Christian Nation, “that many who claim to be transformed by God’s love are deeply, even murderously, intolerant of criticism.”
“How do I know this?” he asked rhetorically. “The most disturbed of my correspondents always cite chapter and verse.” Indeed, Letter to a Christian Nation is his response to those vituperative critics and yet another weapon in the armory of people hostile to Christianity.
I am not surprised that Harris attracted negative feedback. What disturbs me, however, is the extent to which some Christians have turned themselves into the self-appointed attack dogs of Christendom. They seem determined to savage not only opponents of Christianity, but also fellow believers of whose doctrinal positions they disapprove.
Well, okay, so Marie Antoinette never said, “Let them eat cake.” When Rousseau wrote those words, Marie was just 11 years old and living in Austria. But Americans used to like the story that, when the French queen was told by an official that the people were angry because they had no bread, she responded, “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche.” We liked to imagine her saying it with a snarl and a curled lip. She was a luxury bimbo whose Âout-Âof-Âcontrol spending grated on the poor and unfortunate French people. We fought a revolution to separate ourselves from exactly that kind of uppercrustiness. She got her just “Âdesserts.”
But that was 200 years ago. Now cake is one of our favorite foods, part of the fifth food group, totally unnecessary luxury consumption. We’re not talking about a few crumbs, but the real stuff. Brioche by the loaf. Not for nothing has Marie become a favorite subject for current infotainment. Novelists, historians, biographers, and even hip young filmmaker Sofia Coppola are telling her story, not because we want her reviled but because we want to be like Âher.
And we’re doing a pretty good job. Luxury spending in the United States has been growing more than four times as fast as overall spending, and the rest of the West is not far behind. You might think that modern wannabe Maries are grayhairs with poodles. Not so. This spending is being done by younger and younger consumers. Take a walk up Fifth Avenue, and then, at 58th, cross over and continue up Madison. You’ll see who is swarming through the stores with names we all recognize: Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Prada, Dior, Coach. . . . Or cruise Worth Avenue or Rodeo Drive, and you’ll see the same furious down-marketing and up-crusting. This is the Twinkiefication of Âdeluxe.
A related and largely unreported phenomenon is the growing number of churches — our own congregation being one of them — who reject the old conservative vs. liberal storyline. These congregations consider themselves neither liberal nor conservative (though their individual members represent a wide spectrum of theological views). Recognizing that human understanding of the mind of Christ is imperfect at best they choose to make the love of Christ — experienced in their common worship of the Living God — the basis of Christian community, rather than agreement on a broad spectrum of doctrinal principles (unity, rather than uniformity). Not that doctrine is unimportant, only that it is secondary to the love of Christ, and that God is more than capable of sorting us out on these issues over the long haul. This emerging concept of Church is not limited to the Episcopal Church, but is springing up across almost all denominational boundaries. And these churches are growing.
I have friends — brothers and sisters in Christ — from across the theological continuum: conservative and liberal and all points in between. They all have a story to tell about the transforming love of Christ. They are all working in their own ways to bring about the reign of God. And as a previous seminary professor of mine once said, “I always agree with my friends.” I just think is always better when we try to speak the truth to each other — the whole truth — and to do it with love.
The Rev. Van McCalister, public relations officer for the diocese, said the change in date was primarily made to give the voting members of convention time for prayer and careful consideration of the unusually large number of important events scheduled this fall. These include the fall meeting of the House of Bishops, at which the bishops are expected to consider requests made of The Episcopal Church by the primates of the Anglican Communion.
“We are very aware of the fact that this is a very important transitional moment, no matter how the vote goes,” Fr. McCalister said. “We’re just in a ”˜wait-and-see’ mode right now, however.”
Last year diocesan clergy and lay delegates approved the first reading of controversial changes to remove language acknowledging the diocese as a constituent part of The Episcopal Church from its constitution and canons. In order to be approved, the changes must pass at two consecutive conventions. If approved it is possible that the diocese would face a legal challenge.
THE late Rudi Dornbusch, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, once remarked: “None of the post-war expansions died of old age. They were all murdered by the Fed.” Every recession since 1945, with the exception of the one in 2001, was preceded by a sharp rise in inflation that forced the central bank to raise interest rates. But today’s Federal Reserve is no serial killer. It seems keener on blood transfusions than on bloodletting.
When the Fed cut its discount rate on August 17th, it admitted for the first time that the credit crunch could hurt the economy. The markets are betting it will soon cut its main federal funds rate. Economists are arguing vigorously about how much damage falling house prices and the subprime mortgage crisis will do. But there is one question that is rarely asked: even if a downturn is in the offing, should the Fed try to prevent it?
I don’t have a conclusion. What’s next is in God’s hands.
I’m reasonably certain that institutional TEC will not rejoin Christianity any time soon. That means a) I will be out of TEC altogether or b) I will remain in it under some kind of dhimmitude. I have made preparation either way, and will walk through whatever door God opens. I am blessed by my family’s courage and support in this ”“ they will endure whatever sufferings or sacrifices come.
A few weeks ago, as we prayed together, my wife and I were drawn to Romans 5:8 ”“ “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” The seemingly trivial word “while” is what caught us. We are in Dr. Seuss’ “Waiting Place”; or sitting like explorers on a becalmed sea. “While” we wait, “while” God’s plan unfolds, we’ve done all that we can to argue points, explore options, and make choices. We’ve done all we can to warn Good Shepherd about TEC’s corruption (and we’ve been clear and emphatic about this). We’ve knocked on other doors. “While” the conclusion remains open, there’s no more to do.
“While” we wait for what’s next, we rely on what Scripture tells us: God does not need us to force a particular outcome. “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” And it is on the cross ”“ the one that TEC rejects but that still “towers over the wrecks of time”- where God will always show his love for us, wherever we are.
I’ve taken fierce pride in being a local. When I travel I’m a junky for talk about the city. Someone will ask “So, how is it down there?” I launch into a litany. There are busted traffic lights, leaky sewer lines, mountains of debris, the skyrocketing murder rate, miles of desolation, and the levees still aren’t fixed. But you should come, I say. It’s like a battered beauty queen. Hard to look at, and messed up even more on the inside, but still so regal and charming. This is where the listener I’ve taken hostage turns away slowly to engage someone less insane.
They don’t understand that I’m in love. I talk to friends about New Orleans like a dysfunctional romance. I gush over it one day, then call up bawling and heartbroken the next. Why can’t it change? Stop being self-destructive and violent? It has so much potential.
Recently, my blinders started to come off. It was building for awhile. My friend Helen Hill was murdered in her home;other friends have been mugged. We don’t go out much any more…
But then there was this hot Friday night last month. I went on the perfect date with New Orleans . Saw live, local music, danced with friends on the stage, then headed home through my neighborhood of craftsman cottages and angel trumpet trees.
A block from my door, I was attacked from behind by a stranger. I escaped, with the help of my roommate. The case is moving forward, so I can’t say much more than that.
Now I’m a jilted lover of the city. I’m angry and confused. Which is the real New Orleans? The one that’s violent and desperate? Or the one that coos softly, and caresses me? The answer, of course, is both.
Gay rights advocates lauded the Chicago nominations as a sign of progress and greater equality in church leadership.
“The big news today is that discernment has trumped discrimination in the Diocese of Chicago,” said Susan Russell, president of Integrity, an advocacy group for gay Episcopalians.
Meanwhile, conservatives rolled their eyes.
“Chicago’s action is simply flying in the face of the desire of the Anglican Communion,” said Springfield Bishop Peter Beckwith. “It’s a slap in the face.”
Rev. Kendall Harmon, a conservative theologian from South Carolina, said …”I think it represents a steely determination on the part of the Episcopal Church leadership to pursue its new theology no matter what,…It’s injecting more difficult dynamics in an already deeply frayed family fracas and that’s a shame.”
Many people think they know what addiction is, but despite non-experts’ willingness to opine on its treatment and whether Britney or Lindsay’s rehab was tough enough, the term is still a battleground. Is addiction a disease? A moral weakness? A disorder caused by drug or alcohol use, or a compulsive behavior that can also occur in relation to sex, food and maybe even video games?
As a former cocaine and heroin addict, these questions have long fascinated me. I want to know why, in three years, I went from being an Ivy League student to a daily IV drug user who weighed 80 pounds. I want to know why I got hooked, when many of my fellow drug users did not.
A bill was introduced in Congress this spring to change the name of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to the National Institute on Diseases of Addiction, and the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse (NIAAA) to the National Institute on Alcohol Disorders and Health. In a press release introducing the legislation, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) said, “By changing the way we talk about addiction, we change the way people think about addiction, both of which are critical steps in getting past the social stigma too often associated with the disease.”
But opinion polls find weak support for the concept of addiction as a disease, despite years of advocacy by such agencies as NIDA and NIAAA and by recovery groups. A 2002 Hart poll found that most people thought alcoholism was about half disease, half weakness; just 9 percent viewed it wholly as a disease.
So what does science have to say?
The nation’s poverty rate dropped last year, the first significant decline since President Bush took office.
The Census Bureau reported Tuesday that 36.5 million Americans, or 12.3 percent ”” were living in poverty last year. That’s down from 12.6 percent in 2005.
The median household income was $48,200, a slight increase from the previous year. But the number of people without health insurance also increased, to 47 million.
BEIJING ”” Police in China’s capital said Tuesday they will start patrolling the Web using animated beat officers that pop up on a user’s browser and walk, bike or drive across the screen warning them to stay away from illegal Internet content
(Press Release)
“The big news today is that discernment has trumped discrimination in the Diocese of Chicago,” said Integrity President Susan Russell. “The inclusion of the Very Rev. Tracey Lind on the list of five extraordinarily qualified candidates for Bishop of Chicago is a bold step forward and a sign of hope and encouragement not only to LGBT Episcopalians but to the whole church. Her experience and leadership make her an excellent candidate and Integrity applauds the Diocese of Chicago for not allowing the forces advocating bigotry over ability to dominate their nomination process.
It is long past time for the Episcopal Church to acknowledge that B033 — the 2006 resolution designed to prevent the election of a gay or lesbian bishop — has failed in its attempt to balance the unity of the Anglican Communion on the backs of the LGBT faithful. There is no turning back on the full inclusion of the baptized into the Body of Christ — only moving forward into God’s future as an Episcopal Church committed to mission and ministry, to unity in diversity.
Integrity extends congratulations to all the candidates, any one of whom will make a fine bishop for the Episcopal Church. The Diocese of Chicago’s diverse list of qualified candidates is a sign of the end the ‘season of fasting’ at the expense of the vocations of gays and lesbians in the Episcopal Church and the whole church should rejoice and be glad in that!
(The Reverend) Susan Russell, President
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Monday a diplomatic push by the world’s powers to rein in Tehran’s nuclear program was the only alternative to “an Iranian bomb or the bombing of Iran.”
In his first major foreign policy speech, Sarkozy emphasized his existing foreign policy priorities, such as opposing Turkish membership of the European Union and pushing for a new Mediterranean Union that he hopes will include Ankara.
Archbishop Helder Camara once wrote:
“Pilgrim: when your ship, long moored in harbour, gives you the illusion of being a house; when your ship begins to put down roots in the stagnant water by the quay: put out to sea! Save your boat’s journeying soul, and your own pilgrim soul, cost what it may.”
There are some churches that resemble houses, and some that resemble ships. One well-known hymn, Christ is Made the Sure Foundation, suggests the church is like a house and Christ the cornerstone. With sure biblical foundations the church will be rock-solid, able to withstand the storms of change and doubt. If one considers the church to be more like a ship than a house, however, then the Bible ceases to be a brick to fortify your structure but is spiritual food for the journey. The traditions of the church cease to be rules to keep but helpful hints to guide. God too changes.
When he heard the question — “Do you want to know where the others are buried?” — Aristotle Flessor knew the mystery that haunted his family was far greater than he imagined.
It wasn’t just his sister-in-law who was buried in an unmarked grave in Evergreen Park more than 70 years ago, but 160 other young children had graves, mostly unmarked, there as well, a cemetery worker told him.
Stunned, Flessor took that information back to his friends at Sts. Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church in Palos Hills. And, together, they worked to erect a monument in honor of the dead, calling it “A Child of God Memorial.”
Flessor, who first inquired about his relative three years ago, didn’t live long enough to see the monument, which is set to be unveiled at 10 a.m. Saturday at Evergreen Cemetery and Mausoleum.
But a longtime friend and fellow parishioner, Frank Manta, carried on his work, visiting the cemetery and learning the names of the children. Manta, with a group of supporters, including Flessor’s brother, Lee, raised about $52,000 for the monument: a 6-ton black granite marker that stands more than 7 feet high.
The monument bears the names of the deceased and includes a statue of Christ with two small children.
Davies-Flindall has not always felt strongly in favour of same-sex blessings. She started “with the question” and soon associated advocating for this issue with her humanitarian work through the Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund.
“I hear stories of people who feel deeply about a church they think of as their own, but don’t feel accepted in it,” she said. “People said ‘I love this
church but I can’t stay.’ It made me understand that I need to look more seriously at the argument.”
The issue is around same-sex blessings rather than same-sex marriage because when it first arose, the latter was not legal in Canada, Oulton said. Same-sex blessings involves the church blessing a civil union that was legalized elsewhere. The issue has affected many Protestant denominations, he said.
Oulton will not say if he is for or against same-sex blessings, only that the church should proceed “very carefully.” Any movement needs broader consensus, he said.
“The push is very divisive at this stage of the game,” he said. “My feeling is that we need to continue to have the conversation. It’s trying to sort out the mind and will of God, which is complicated at the best of times.”
He also felt that people were frustrated with the votes at General Synod.
“I don’t think we did what we were asked to do at all,” he said. “People were very frustrated. I really believe it’s critically important we encourage diverse people with diverse viewpoints to stay at the table.”
It’s not just a problem for the working poor, credit counselors say. Many middle- and upper-class households have come to view credit card debt as a reality of modern life.
“The psychology about carrying credit card debt has changed. What used to be a shame is just an additional way to buy stuff, and stuff is the operative word here,” said Catherine Williams, vice president of financial literacy at Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Greater Chicago.
Freda Price, a divorced mother of two in Bethlehem, Pa., is trying to get her credit card debt under control. Five years ago, Price had a $49,000 mortgage and no significant credit card balances. But she now is struggling with $100,000 in mortgage and credit card balances because she has refinanced and used the cards to pay for attorneys in a long-running dispute over child custody with her ex-husband.
Price is close to hitting the maximum borrowing limit on her four credit cards, which are consuming about $300 a month in minimum payments. She finds herself charging gas and groceries on the cards, which she doesn’t like.
“The sad thing is I never had any of this debt before,” she said. “I have to pay the minimum because I can’t afford much more.”
Price’s credit cards also are preventing her from saving for retirement. She is contributing only 1 percent to her 401(k) plan even though her insurance company employer matches up to 3 percent.
“I’m just between a rock and a hard place. I pack my lunch. I get the newspaper at the house. We don’t go out to eat. We don’t do much of anything,” said Price, 51. “I was always very thrifty, but I don’t know where else to cut.”
“On average, people overestimate how distressed they will be following a breakup,” Finkel said in a telephone interview.
The nine-month study involved college students who had been dating at least two months who filled out questionnaires every two weeks. They gathered data from 26 people ”” 10 women and 16 men ”” who broke up with their partners during the first six months of the study.
The participants’ forecasts of distress two weeks before the breakup were compared to their actual experience as recorded over four different periods of time.
Woody Allen famously pointed out that the problem is not that God doesn’t exist, but that he is an underachiever. The philosophical tendency for at least the past three centuries has been to assume that the human estimation of God is more significant than the divine estimation of humanity. And “evil” names the extent to which, in human estimation, God’s purposes have invariably been found wanting.
In a lucid treatment of this perennial conundrum, N. T. Wright argues that pondering the “problem of evil” is an activity that displaces us from the business of implementing the healing, restorative justice of God. The problem of evil is philosophically located in theoretical analysis of an inherently distant God””that is, the deist God of the Enlightenment. By contrast, Wright engages with the scriptural God, revealed through narrative rather than theory and addressed through lament, obedience, discipleship and faith rather than through dispassionate analysis””in short, the God of Jesus Christ. Christ’s death and resurrection, the promise and embodiment of forgiveness, and the hope of God’s final victory make the people of God a people who bring into the present a reconciliation that is assured in the future.
“We are not invading other people’s territory as such but preaching the gospel, the way it was brought to us, the way it is written,” [kenyan Archbishop Benjamin] Nzimbi said.
And he said the only way to bridge the schism was for the liberal churches to repent: “The way we can have one understanding is through repentance, that is the key word.”
The primate denied the Africans were motivated by monetary gain to consecrate American priests.
“It is not a question of finances,” Nzimbi said. “Here in Africa we are used to living under difficult situations and we are not ready to compromise because of finances. No.”