By George Conger.

Wrangling over Robert Mugabe, homosexuality, the place of The Episcopal Church within the Anglican Communion, and the aspirations of national churches, marked the General Synod of the Province of Central Africa, held Sept 6-8 in the southern Malawi town of Mangochi.

Initial reports on the proceedings of Synod have been contradictory. The government backed Harare Herald reported the Province had been dissolved, following the withdrawal of the Zimbabwe dioceses, angered over an insufficiently fierce condemnation of homosexuality and the Western Churches.

However, the Bishop of Botswana, the Rt Rev Trevor Mwamba emailed Religious Intelligence saying the “Province is still intact.”

Preliminary reports from Malawi indicate a conservative turn within the Province. Three Zimbabwe dioceses, led by the controversial Bishop of Harare, Dr Nolbert Kunonga, were able to block resolutions proposed by Bishop Mwamba on the crisis in Zimbabwe. They argued such political matters were beyond the scope of the Province’s deliberations and meddled in the political affairs of the sovereign dioceses and countries.

Taking up the cry of homosexuality, Dr Kunonga was able to shift attention away from the political and economic crisis in the region on to the disputes within the Anglican Communion. A resolution reiterating the Provinces commitment to the principles enunciated by the 1998 Lambeth Resolution 1.10 was adopted, but Dr Kunonga is said to have rejected this stance as not sufficiently strong. According to a report in the Herald, the Diocese of Harare and Manicaland and a third Zimbabwe diocese have quit the Province, in protest, forcing the Province to break apart. A point denied by Bishop Mwamba.

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“Some provinces [country branches] are saying they will not attend a meeting where decisions are agreed upon but are not implemented,” Nzimbi told Cybercast News Service in an interview. “We agreed [at the last Lambeth, in 1998] that we should delay the consecration of gay bishops but the American church went ahead and did it.”

He said the reason given by those thinking about or planning to stay away is that the homosexuality issue has splintered the unity that bound the Anglican Communion together. “Our unity is based on common faith in Jesus Christ but gay priesthood has broken that so we may have nothing in common.”

Nzimbi did not name the countries or regions that may refuse to attend.

He said the Anglican Church in Kenya would make its decision by December. He did feel, however, that participating and having dialogue would be better than declining to attend altogether.

Church leaders opposed to the ordination of homosexuals would be eager to meet with like-minded bishops at the conference and decide the way forward on the issue, he added.

“The main issue is interpretation of the Bible. The Anglican Church needs revival because of many issues [in dispute], but consecration of gay bishops was the breaking point,” Nzimbi said.

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The Episcopal Church has suspended one of its priests, Anne Holmes Redding, for one year after her announcement this summer that she is both a Christian and a Muslim. A local Muslim leader’s speech to Redding’s church two years ago inspired her to begin attending Muslim prayer services while she was still serving her local diocese.

Listen to it all from NPR’s Day to Day Program. Pay particular attention to what she says she believes about Jesus.

Working from home can be lonely. So a group of New Yorkers has come up with an alternative to the office. Every few weeks, telecommuters gather at private homes to work in shared space on unrelated projects.

Listen to it all from NPR.

For people who’ve tuned into this year’s presidential debates, it’s clear the candidates aren’t hesitant to talk religion. Apparently, that makes a lot of sense.

Most Americans (almost 70 percent) say they want a president with strong religious beliefs, and they are comfortable with the discussion of faith in the election campaign. In fact, 38 percent say there’s “too little” discussion of religion, according to the latest Pew poll on religion and politics, released Sept. 6.

“It’s an interesting election cycle in that we have this high level of discussion on faith and values in both political parties … [and] 38 percent still want more,” says John Green, senior fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life in Washington.

The role religion will play in voters’ political choices, however, remains far from clear. Paradoxically, the front-runners in both parties ”“ Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton ”“ are currently perceived as the least religious among the candidates.

Hot-button social issues of concern to religious activists are taking a back seat to Iraq and domestic issues, even among Evangelicals. Seventy-eight percent of Americans cite domestic issues (such as the economy, healthcare, and the environment) and 72 percent cite Iraq as very important in their decisions, while 38 percent cite social issues such as abortion and gay marriage.

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Read it carefully and read it all.

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[Rowan Williams]… has been warning some of his colleagues, he said, that “the underlying issue is not going to go away.” Acts and decisions by one province have an impact — and sometimes a cost — elsewhere, and it is “an illusion” to imagine otherwise. “If we’re going to be in any sense a global communion and not just the loosest possible federation of local churches, then not only do we have to ask about primacy, we have to ask about structures of responsibility.” And he detects “a very strong groundswell of opinion in many quarters” toward that conclusion.

Maybe, but the Episcopal church in the United States took no such global view when it ordained Gene Robinson to the episcopate. Indeed, the presiding bishop at the time, Frank Griswold, announced that “we thought it was a local matter.” For the American Anglicans, what they have done in ordaining Robinson, according to the procedures laid down in their church’s constitution, is a legitimate prophetic action in the cause of justice and human rights. They have always regarded themselves as the cutting edge of the communion, and since the foundation of their church in the wake of the American Revolution, have understood their General Convention to be juridically independent.

Williams, as always, sees both sides of the question. “I do accept that there are moments when people say, truth before unity. I understand why the Reformation happened, why in the 1930s the German church divided so violently, where the only unity that could have survived the acceptance of Hitler’s racial laws was a unity which absolutely undermined the integrity of the church.” He commented: “Clearly some people in the United States have seen this as that sort of moment. I don’t.”

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Welcome to the Alice in Wonderland world of “process” which so dominates the upper echelons of the leadership life of the Episcopal Church. If words COULD be interpreted in a way that does not favor the leadership’s goals, they are not, but when the wording does, they are interpeted that way, restrictively. There is some talk that this whole conflict and crisis among Anglicans is all about power, and it is not primarily about power, actually, but about truth and other things. Yet power plays a role, it is just that TEC leadership does not do much self-criticism about how they exercise their own power. Words mean what those in leadership in TEC want them to mean in too many instances. One wishes there would be some self-scrutiny on such matters because the implications would be considerable. The lack of honesty in this church in some matters has become intolerable. People are saying one thing and doing another and using words to mislead others into thinking they are not doing what in fact they are doing….

The key language in this resolution may be found here: Lambeth “cannot advise the legitimising or blessing of same sex unions.” Anglican practice needs to be in accord with anglican teaching. Therefore, there can be no pastoral practice in a local setting which either is or is seen to be somehow “legitimising or blessing”¦same sex unions.” And this means that local blessings, whether in houses or churches or wherever, and whether they have official sanctioned liturgies or not, cannot be done, if they are of non-celibate same sex couples.

Lest there be any doubt about this, the Archbishop of Canterbury said at the concluding press conference of the Tanzania primates meeting:

The teaching of the Anglican Church remains that homosexual activity is not compatible with scripture.

Read it all. And note that Bishop Councell’s article posted below is exactly legitimizing a same sex union in his diocese. This is the new theology and practice which TEC has embraced. Why will its leaders not admit this openly and honestly? Do they lack the courage of their convictions?

Those who practice homosexuality have no chance of living the abundant life of which Jesus spoke. The objective studies (the results of which rarely appear in main stream media even when the research is done by pro gay and lesbian groups) are clear and compelling with regard to the inordinately high levels of social, emotional, spiritual, and physical difficulties experienced by those captured by the gay and lesbian way of life.

Given that an Episcopal priest is a shepherd of a local Christian flock, the question for the parishes of Cape May County is do we want a shepherd who has herself chosen a path that cannot lead to human fulfillment? To be a shepherd of God’s people one must minimally have the Creator’s view on what needs to be in place for individuals to experience the abundant life in Christ. So out of care for the well being of those who seek true spiritual guidance, installing a priest, a spiritual leader, who is a practitioner and defender of homosexuality is, by any measure the wrong way to go for Christians who seek the robust human flourishing of their fellow pilgrims.

Read it all. This article is posted as an alternative viewpoint to that of the Bishop of New Jersey posted earlier. An explanation from the editor is here.

Most Americans believe the nation’s founders wrote Christianity into the Constitution, and people are less likely to say freedom to worship covers religious groups they consider extreme, a poll out today finds.

The survey measuring attitudes toward freedom of religion, speech and the press found that 55% believe erroneously that the Constitution establishes a Christian nation. In the survey, which is conducted annually by the First Amendment Center, a non-partisan educational group, three out of four people who identify themselves as evangelical or Republican believe that the Constitution establishes a Christian nation. About half of Democrats and independents do.

Most respondents, 58%, say teachers in public schools should be allowed to lead prayers. That is an increase from 2005, when 52% supported teacher-led prayer in public schools.

More people, 43%, say public schools should be allowed to put on Nativity re-enactments with Christian music than in 2005, when 36% did.

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It appears to many of us ”“ bishops, clergy, laity ”“ that a moment of decision has arrived in the Anglican Communion. The Windsor Report and Primates Communiques from Dromantine and Dar es Salaam have asked The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada to take clear actions committing these two Provinces of the Anglican Communion to “walking together” rather than “walking apart” from the Communion. After four years the official, as well as general, response from The Episcopal Church seems to be “we’ll do it our way.” Moreover rejection (by both the House of Bishops and Executive Council) of proposals to allow sufficient integrity to dioceses like Pittsburgh, concerning traditional Faith and Order, now seem all but final. A last minute reversal by the House of Bishops (prior to a September 30th deadline established by the Communion) seems most unlikely. In light of these events, with heavy hearts, and for the sake of our mission it appears the time has come to begin the process of realignment within the Anglican Communion.

Constitutional changes proposed for consideration at the 142nd Annual Convention would begin the process to exercise our right to end the accession of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh to the constitution and canons of The Episcopal Church of the United States of America. The accession clause first appeared in the Constitution of our Diocese in 1868. The effect of the changes would make clear the right to end any claim of spiritual or canonical authority of the General Convention over the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh and would allow the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh to realign itself with another Province of the Anglican Communion. The proposed changes are written in such a way, however, that continuing membership in The Episcopal Church remains a possibility if The Episcopal Church were to reverse its “walk apart” from the Anglican Communion.

Where are we going? Nowhere. We stand where we have always stood. We are who we have always been. It is The Episcopal Church that has moved. It is The Episcopal Church that has become something new. If the Convention adopts the constitutional amendments proposed, it is re-alignment within the Anglican Communion that would be made possible. The argument is that this re-alignment would free the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh from any claim that it can be forced to be something different, from being carried somewhere outside the mainstream of Anglicanism, from being lured somewhere outside the mainstream of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.

Because the accession clause is a feature of our local diocesan constitution, adoption of the changes requires the action of two successive annual conventions. The proposed changes would therefore not take effect immediately, but would open a season of planning, discussion and decision-making in preparation for the second vote in 2008.

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September 11, 2007 – Today, the Diocesan Council of The Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh began formal process that could lead to changes in its diocesan constitution by forwarding resolutions to Pittsburgh’s Diocesan Convention Nov. 2-3. If ultimately passed by Diocesan Convention, those changes will open the door for the diocese to remain within mainstream Anglicanism even as the wider Episcopal Church continues to cut those ties.

“We are praying that the Episcopal Church’s House of Bishops makes these votes unnecessary by unequivocally accepting all the requests of the worldwide Anglican Communion when they meet in New Orleans Sept. 20-25,” said the Rev. David Rucker, president of Diocesan Council. “While we continue to pray for the House we must also prepare for the very real possibility they will not respond favorably. Thus, we are beginning the process that will allow our convention to consider this action in the event the Episcopal Church does not turn back,” he added. The release of convention resolutions conforms to Pittsburgh’s internal rules of order that require any proposed resolutions to be made public well in advance of the meeting itself.

To maintain the Episcopal Church’s standing in the worldwide communion, the House of Bishops has until September 30 to take a number of steps. Among the actions requested of the House of Bishops by the leadership of the worldwide communion is an agreement to participate in a specific oversight plan for American Episcopalians who do not accept the liberal direction of the Episcopal Church.

Acting in March 2007, the House of Bishops rejected in advance the creation of this system of oversight for conservatives and hinted that they would not be able to act on the other requests. Actions by The Episcopal Church’s Executive Council in June further signaled the church leadership’s decision to allow no internal solution.

The Episcopal Church has been steadily moving away from biblical Christianity for more than 30 years. Church leaders are on record denying basic Christian truths, especially concerning the uniqueness of atonement and salvation by Jesus Christ and the primacy of Scripture in determining moral and theological teaching. The Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh, as well as a number of other dioceses, has worked for years to reconcile its differences with The Episcopal Church, or, failing that, arrange for an orderly and charitable parting of ways. Those efforts have been unsuccessful.

A text of the proposed constituional amendment is here.

For the first time in six years, Sept. 11 fell on a Tuesday, the same day the planes flew into the buildings and changed everything.

Yet much was different at the increasingly familiar ceremony in Lower Manhattan, where families of the dead, public officials and visitors gathered to mourn and remember.

Unlike the awful, brilliant day of the attacks, this year’s skies were moody and dark, alternately threatening and delivering rain. The ceremony took place not at ground zero, where construction cranes now rise like tentative fingers of hope, but near its southeastern corner, in Zuccotti Park.

The families began trickling in at 7 a.m., some clutching bouquets of flowers, others holding heart-shaped balloons, eventually filling the park by the hundreds and taking refuge from sporadic drizzle under a sea of dark umbrellas.

And then, as it has for five years before, the remembrance ceremony assumed its recognizable form. At 8:40 a.m., the Brooklyn Youth Chorus took the stage, and sang “The Star-Spangled Banner,” their voices sounding like angels as mourners held aloft photos of people who, to them, are angels now, too. Afterward, the drummer for the New York Police Department marching band sounded a mournful heartbeat, and then the bagpipers began.

At 8:46 a.m., the moment the first plane struck the North Tower, a bell was sounded, as it has for six years now, and the gathered masses bowed their heads.

“On that day, we felt isolated, but not for long, and not from each other,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said. “New Yorkers rushed to the site, not knowing which place was safe or if there was more danger ahead. They weren’t sure of anything except that they had to be here. Six years have passed, and our place is still by your side.” In Washington, unlike previous anniversaries of the attack, President Bush spent the day in the city after attending a service at St. John’s Episcopal Church and holding a moment of silence on the South Lawn of the White House.

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We in the Diocese of New Jersey respect the discernment of the local congregations as they search for and call clergy to serve in leadership. All clergy candidates are subject to the same reference and background checks, including conversations with the bishops and deployment officers of those applying from other dioceses. Among the questions that I always ask is the following, based upon one of the ordination vows in our Book of Common Prayer: “Is this priest’s personal life a wholesome example to the people?”
I believe that gay and lesbian clergy, living in monogamous, faithful and stable unions, are a wholesome example to the people of our churches. Once assured of that, I welcome congregations to call such clergy to lead them in their life and ministry.
I have met the Rev. Debra Bullock, who comes with the very highest recommendations from her seminary faculty and from the clergy and lay leaders where she served in Chicago. She is a faithful, dedicated, hard-working, warm and talented priest. She will bring new life and new energy to St. Barnabas in Villas and to St. Mary’s, Stone Harbor.
I welcome her to this Diocese and I give thanks that she and her partner will join our Episcopal community.

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The Diocese of Quincy, headquartered in Peoria, Illinois, announced today that it will consider proposals at its October Synod that would cut its ties with the General Convention of the Episcopal Church if leaders of that Church continue to pull away from mainstream Anglicanism.

The Archbishops of the Anglican Communion have set September 30th as the deadline for the Episcopal Church’s House of Bishops to give “unequivocal” assurance that they will stop advocating teaching and practices that are incompatible with Holy Scripture.

“We’re praying the House of Bishops will have a change of heart when they meet in New Orleans September 20th-25th,” said Bishop Keith Ackerman of Quincy. “As a diocese, our goal has always been to uphold the historic faith and order of the Church. This is reflected in our diocesan Constitution. If the Episcopal Church refuses to turn back, we will be forced to make a decision.”

Fr. John Spencer, President of the Quincy Standing Committee, made it clear that the Diocese is not trying to preempt the upcoming meeting of the House of Bishops. “We’re required to finalize proposed Synod resolutions now to meet canonical deadlines. It’s not our intention to prejudge what the House of Bishops may or may not do when they meet later this month.”

Spencer also stressed that Quincy is not acting alone. “Other dioceses will consider similar proposals this fall,” he said. “They will announce their plans in due course. If the Episcopal Church continues to reject the pleas and counsel of the Anglican Communion, we’ll be compelled to seek a home in a different Province of the Communion where we can practice the Christian faith in good conscience.”

Quincy would join hundreds of parishes that have cut ties with the Episcopal Church in recent years to affiliate with overseas Provinces of the Communion. Many Episcopal Church leaders are on record denying basic Christian teaching such as the uniqueness of salvation through Jesus Christ and the primacy of Scripture in determining theological and moral teaching.

“It’s become obvious over three decades,” Bishop Ackerman said, “that two churches now exist under the same name. The original church encompasses the parishes and dioceses like Quincy who are committed to the authority of Holy Scripture and Christian orthodoxy. The second is a new culturally-driven religion that advocates revolutionary social change and has abandoned orthodox Christianity. Sadly, this new group has gained control of the national General Convention and Executive Council. Leaders of the Anglican Communion have repeatedly asked the Episcopal Church to repent and heal the schism they’ve caused in our Communion. The Episcopal Church has simply refused.”

Last year, Quincy and six other dioceses asked for alternative oversight from an Archbishop outside of the United States. The House of Bishops and Executive Council both rejected the most recent proposal earlier this year.

“We’ve gone the extra mile in demonstrating patience,” Spencer said, “and then some. But many of our people are simply unwilling to wait any longer, when we see absolutely no sign that the Episcopal Church will hear the pleas of our Anglican brothers and sisters around the world and turn back from the destructive path it is on.”

There are a lot of reasons why the emotional half-life of 9/11 has been so short, many of them good, or at least understandable. We haven’t been (successfully) attacked at home since 9/11, for example.

But it’s important to remember that from the outset, the media took it as their sworn duty to keep Americans from getting too riled up about 9/11. I wrote a column about it back in March of 2002. Back then the news networks especially saw it as imperative that we not let our outrage get out of hand. I can understand the sentiment, but it’s worth noting that such sentiments vanished entirely during hurricane Katrina. After 9/11, the press withheld objectively accurate and factual images from the public, lest the rubes get too riled up. After Katrina, the press endlessly recycled inaccurate and exaggerated information in order to keep everyone upset. The difference speaks volumes.

Read it all.

We are ordained leaders in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, and we write to our fellow Anglicans across this Church in this season of great importance concerning our future. We are glad followers of Jesus Christ, working for the mission of his Gospel, and have for decades labored for the reform and renewal of the Episcopal Church under Holy Scripture and through the Holy Spirit. We are deeply thankful for this call upon our lives; we love the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and we love this Church.
We write in a season where it is evident that differences of faith and practice have torn our Church and our Communion, perhaps beyond mending. We have all experienced this rending in painful and personal ways.
The presenting issue is the question of human sexuality, but underlying issues go deeper, to the very heart of our faith, including our understanding of the Triune God, the devastating impact of the fall upon human nature, the unique work of Jesus as the only Savior of the world, our understanding of God’s Gospel mission to the world, the interdependence of our Communion, and ”“ above it all ”“ the final authority and full trustworthiness of Holy Scripture guiding us through these matters. Though our faith is in concert with the majority of our Communion and the historical roots of our Church, we now find ourselves fundamentally divided from the majority of the leadership in the Episcopal Church over these issues of first importance.

We have noticed a widespread and growing trend in The Episcopal Church: in many places congregations and dioceses are no longer free to recruit, develop or choose leaders who share their faith and values; mandatory diocesan assessments are used to fund causes that many believe are in opposition to their own principles; and, if the trend continues, acceptance of behavior Scripture reveals to be immoral and destructive will be soon required. Litigation and presentments are being widely used against congregations and their leaders who in conscience resist or who seek the freedom to realign with other parts of our Communion. It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that opposition to classical, creedal, biblical theology and to our ministries is being orchestrated from the highest levels of the Episcopal Church. We wonder if we really are welcome here.
Mindful of Jesus’ guidance we have worked to bring our concerns to the leadership of the Anglican Communion. We have been heartened by the broad attention and support we have received. We hoped that the Lambeth Conference, the Windsor Report, and the Tanzania Communiqué would provide a workable way forward for our ministries and the Anglican Communion itself.
We were stunned by the rapid, summary dismissal of the Tanzania Communiqué by our House of Bishops and Executive Council early this year. We understood this to signal a decided rejection of Communion authority, of our most deeply held values, and of our future ministries. We believe there shall be no viable long term future for our ministries in this church unless we make unacceptable compromises on matters of first importance. Many of us sense we are being compelled to realign. All of us believe we must act to protect the churches and people we serve. We now fear for the future of the Anglican Communion itself.
We do not want to act in haste or in a spirit of judgment. We are concerned that the history of the Church is littered with the wreckage of strife and division, and we do not wish to add to the ruins. We are mindful that our own hands are not clean in the development of this history, and are particularly brokenhearted over the pride that has too often accompanied our witness. We beg God and others across our Church for the forgiveness we need and for the opportunity for a different future than the one we fear is rapidly coming upon us. More than anything we wish to see God’s Gospel healing upon our Church.

We have an urgent request for our leaders as they take counsel in the months to come.
In all humility, with all prayer, and with great respect for the importance of your leadership in God’s Church, we beg you, implore you, to reconsider and comply with the unanimous requests of the Anglican Primates in the Tanzania Communiqué.
We believe this plan to offer the greatest and perhaps last opportunity for a much needed halt in the rending of our Church and for the ”˜grace space’ that might offer us a different, ordered, and hopeful way forward.
We shall be much in prayer in the coming weeks, seeking the leading and help of Him whose grace upholds us all.
Signed
The Rev. John P. Bailey, Vicar, St. Andrew’s Church, New Kensington
The Rev. Ronald J. Baillie, Vicar, Church of the Good Samaritan, Liberty Boro
The Rev. Dr. James Bauer, Priest, Indiana
The Rev. Douglas R. Blakelock, Rector, St. Mark’s Church, Johnstown
The Rev. Dr. Dennett Buettner, Priest in Charge, Church of the Savior, Ambridge
The Rev. Stanley Burdock, Rector, Christ Church, Brownsville
The Rev. Donald W. Bushyager, Assistant Rector, St. David’s Church, Peters Twp
The Rev. Geoffrey W. Chapman, Rector, St Stephen’s Church, Sewickley
The Rev. James Chester, Deacon, Shepherd’s Heart Fellowship, Pittsburgh
The Rev. Dr. Ruth E. Correll, Assistant & Chaplain, St. Francis Church and Day School, Potomac, MD
The Rev. Dr. Daniel F. Crawford, Rector, St. Thomas-in-the-Fields Church, Gibsonia
The Rev. John T. Cruikshank, Rector, All Saints Church, Brighton Heights, Pittsburgh
The Rev. Dallam G. Ferneyhough, Priest-in-Charge, St. Luke’s Church, Georgetown
The Rev. John E. Fierro, Rector, St. Paul’s Church, Monongahela
The Rev. James Forrest, Associate Rector, St. David’s Church, Peters Twp
The Rev. Matthew Frey, Rector, Church of the Advent, Brookline
The Rev. Dr. Jack Gabig, Director of the Children &Youth Initiative, Anglican Communion Network, Pittsburgh
The Rev. Canon Mary M Hays, Canon Missioner, Diocese of Pittsburgh
The Rev. John Heidengren, Rector, Prince of Peace Church, Aliquippa
The Rev. Marc Jacobson, Priest, Manila, Philippines
The Rev. Sam Jampetro, Church Planter, Coraopolis
The Rev. Paul Johnson, Assistant, Trinity Cathedral, Pittsburgh
The Rev. Carrie Klukas, Deacon in Residence, Trinity Cathedral, Pittsburgh
The Rev. Christopher M. Klukas, Rector, St. Martin’s Church, Monroeville
The Rev. Dr. Grant LeMarquand, Associate Professor of Biblical Studies & Mission, Trinity School for Ministry, Ambridge
The Rev. Canon John A. Macdonald, Director of the Stanway Institute for World Mission & Evangelism and Assistant Professor of Mission & Evangelism, Trinity School for Ministry, Ambridge
The Rev. Canon Dr. J. Douglas McGlynn, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Parish Ministry, Nashotah House Theological Seminary, Nashotah WI
The Rev. Christine McIlvain, Deacon, Christ Church, North Hills
The Rev. Peggy Means, Assistant Rector, Christ Church Greensburg and Associate Priest, Seeds of Hope Church, Bloomfield
The Rev. Jonathan N. Millard, Rector, Church of the Ascension, Pittsburgh
The Rev. Gary D. Miller, Rector, Church of the Holy Innocents, Leechburg
The Rev. James C. Morehead, Assistant Rector, Shepherd’s Heart Fellowship, Pittsburgh
The Very Rev. Dr. Peter C. Moore, Dean Emeritus, Trinity School for Ministry, Ambridge
The Rev. James C. Morehead, Assistant Rector, Shepherd’s Heart Fellowship, Pittsburgh
The Rev. Jeffrey Murph, Rector, St. Thomas Church, Oakmont
The Rev. Andrew Ray, Assistant Rector, Fox Chapel Church
The Rev. David B. Rucker, Rector, All Saints Church, Rosedale
The Rev. Rebecca C. Spanos, Deacon, Shepherd’s Heart Fellowship, Pittsburgh
The Rev. Elaine Storm, Assistant Rector, St. Philip’s Church Moon Twp
The Rev. Dr. Justyn Terry, Associate Professor of Systematic Theology, Trinity School for Ministry, Ambridge
The Rev. David D. Wilson, Rector, St. Paul’s Church, Kittanning
The Rev. Karen Woods, Deacon, Seeds of Hope Missionary Fellowship, Pittsburgh
The Rev. Michael D. Wurschmidt, Rector, Shepherd’s Heart Fellowship, Pittsburgh
The Rev. Dr. Mark Zimmerman, Rector, St. Francis-in-the-Field Church, Somerset

Watch and listen to it all.

The day after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the headline in Paris’ Le Monde newspaper read “We are all Americans”. Liane Hansen speaks with Jean-Marie Colombani, who wrote the article that ran beneath that headline about his reflections on that time.

Listen to it all from NPR.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology authority last week decided to allow licences to create cytoplasmic hybrid embryos for research purposes. These consist of an animal egg with its nucleus (containing its DNA) removed and the nucleus of a human cell inserted. The embryos are destroyed before they are 14 days old. Scientists want to create them in order to investigate debilitating, untreatable medical conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s and motor neurone disease.

There is fierce opposition to the HFEA’s decision, not least from the Roman Catholic Church. Yet the head of the Authority’s ethics and law committee is a churchman: the former Anglican Bishop of Oxford, Richard Harries – now Lord Harries. He told Sunday what ethical considerations his committee took into account.

Listen to it all from the BBC.

President Bush’s strategy to bind the US military into Iraq for the remainder of his term – and probably beyond – was sharply challenged by both Republican and Democratic Senators today.

In the second day of the Congressional progress report on Iraq, the upbeat assessment from General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker received a much rougher ride than it had yesterday at the House of Representatives.

Barack Obama, a leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination next year, said: “We have now set the bar so low that modest improvement in what was a completely chaotic situation is considered success. And it’s not. This continues to be a disastrous foreign policy mistake.”

The presence of Mr Obama along with a clutch of other presidential candidates gave today’s Senate committee hearings added political charge. Senior Republicans present have been nervously eyeing the prospect of entering the 2008 election without a consensus on Iraq.

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Over 5,000 people have signed a petition demanding The Episcopal Church (TEC) in the USA reveals how much money it has spent since 2004 on litigation against individuals and parishes.

The online petition, sponsored by the American Anglican Council (AAC), was signed by 3,583 Episcopalians and 1,747 Non-Episcopal Anglicans.

The Rev Canon David C Anderson, President and CEO of the AAC said, “This petition represents a cry from thousands of current and former members of the Episcopal Church.”

The petition is just one way concerned Christians are speaking out against TEC and its continued lawsuits against former parishes, priests and members.

Read it all.

Stacey Jutila knows the halls well. She has walked miles in those halls. She knows Moses, and all the rest of the Bible. Plenty of the Koran too. Jutila, 32, is the night chaplain at Children’s. She is among the few ordained ministers assigned full time to the night watch of a hospital, in Chicago or beyond. Usually, nights are covered by whoever happens to be on call. Maybe a student. Maybe someone who drew the short stick.

Not so at Children’s. Folks there listened to the nurses, the doctors. Listened most of all to parents who cried out for someone to lean on when the place, finally, is quiet. When you can hear the sounds that don’t sound one bit like home.

“Nighttime here, especially in the [intensive care unit], is the hardest time anywhere,” says Carly Haniszewski, 29, of northwest suburban Huntley. Her only child, 2-year-old Teagan, has a brain tumor and, beginning June 1, the day after the toppling toddler fell flat on her face off a couch, and everyone, especially her mother and father, realized something was wrong, very wrong, she spent 71 nights in intensive care, took six trips to the O.R., was twice told she would not live through the night.

“Your family’s all gone,” the mother explains of the curse of the nighttime. “The floor has become quiet. You hear more of a hospital, the machines. You don’t hear a ventilator until it’s nighttime. You can hear every breath of the bag. You know that that noise is giving your child that breath, and without it, she couldn’t stay alive.

Read it all.

Check it out.

The claim of those who organized this is:

We are evangelical and catholic Anglicans, and fellow travelers from the wider household of God, assembled and summoned to a common labor in the ecumenical Church of Christ, not least through the present struggles and gifts of our communities.

We recognize that the Anglican Communion””the first instance of ecclesiality with which we, in this particular online assembly, wrestle for a blessing””is incomplete by itself, because we have seen with our eyes and touched with our hands the wounds of our Lord’s body: the countless factions and disputes that do not bring Him glory, leaving us all together far short of our call to “share,” as sisters and brothers visibly united, in the “partnership” of His offering (I Cor 10.14ff.).

In a sense it has ever been so. We recall St Paul’s outrage with the Corinthians, who “came together (synerchesthai) ”¦not for the better but for the worse,” a sobering point too-little reflected upon in our day by those, on all sides, who find the Church’s unity and orthodoxy uncomplicated””either simply given, or obviously taken away. Against both of these views, Paul insists that “there have to be factions (hairesis) among you, for only so will it become clear who among you are genuine” (I Cor 11.17-19). And yet the Apostle does not on that account “commend” the Corinthians for showing “contempt for the Church of God and humiliat[ing] those who have nothing” (I Cor 11:22). Rather, Paul’s argument devolves to his prior exhortation to learn from the “example” of “Israel,” “written down to instruct us,” “so that we might not desire evil” but instead the singular “blessing that we bless.” Only upon this, objective basis: the blood and body of Christ unveiled, will the Corinthians learn to “do everything for the glory of God,” that is, to “give no offense to Jews or Greeks or to the Church,” to “please everyone in everything,” and not seek their “own advantage,” so that “many”¦ may be saved” (I Cor 10).

The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, Bishop of New Hampshire, said Sept. 10 that he has been talking with members of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s staff and will attend next year’s Lambeth Conference in whatever capacity he is permitted as long as he is given a voice.

“I’m going to do my best to be at the table,” Bishop Robinson said. “More than anything I wish I could be in the same room with Archbishop [Peter] Akinola [of Nigeria] so he could hear from my own lips how God has transformed me through scripture. The miracle is that I heard God’s voice in scripture. I am fiercely committed to it. It literally saved my life.”

Bishop Robinson delivered an address at the General Theological Seminary on reconciliation efforts on human sexuality within the Anglican Communion as part of the “Reconciliation at the Roundtable” conference Sept. 10-12 at the seminary’s newly opened Desmond Tutu Center. He began by comparing his invitation to speak on reconciliation within the Anglican Communion to inviting a fox to lecture on reconciliation within a henhouse.

“Either this was a stroke of genius or a profoundly disturbing decision,” he said. “You will get to be the judge.”

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The federal appeals court in San Francisco yesterday upheld a death sentence from a jury that had consulted the Bible’s teachings on capital punishment.

In a second decision on the role of religion in the criminal justice system, the same court ruled Friday that requiring a former prisoner on parole to attend meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous violated the First Amendment’s ban on government establishment of religion.

In the capital case, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit split 9 to 6 on the question of whether notes including Bible verses prepared by the jury’s foreman and used during sentencing deliberations required reversal of the death sentence imposed on Stevie L. Fields in 1979.

Mr. Fields, on parole after serving time for manslaughter, committed a series of rapes, kidnappings and robberies, and murdered Rosemary Cobbs, a student librarian at the University of Southern California.

After the jury convicted Mr. Fields and while it was deliberating his sentence, the foreman, Rodney White, conducted outside research, consulting several reference works and preparing a list of pros and cons on the death penalty that he shared with fellow jurors. On the pro side, he quoted passages from the Bible, including this one from Exodus: “He that smiteth a man, so that he dies, shall surely be put to death.”

Judge Pamela Ann Rymer, writing for the majority, said there was no need to decide whether there had been juror misconduct, “because even assuming there was, we are persuaded that White’s notes had no substantial and injurious effect or influence.”

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Turn on the sitcom that is the hottest television show in Russia, and it all seems so familiar. Moored to his living room couch is a shoe salesman who is more interested in watching sports than conjugal relations. His wife has shocking hair and an even more shocking mouth. A couple of ne’er-do-well teenagers round out this bawdy, bickering bunch.

In fact, the show is an authorized copy of the American sitcom “Married With Children,” with a Russian cast and dialogue but scripts that hew closely to those of the original. This knockoff is such a sensation, especially among younger viewers, that its actors have become household names, and advertisements for its new season are plastered around Moscow.

A drumbeat of anti-Americanism may be coming from the Kremlin these days, but across Russia people are embracing that quintessentially American genre, the television sitcom, not to mention one of its brassiest examples. And curiously enough, it is the Russian government that has effectively brought “Married With Children” to this land, which somehow made it through the latter half of the 20th century without the benefit of the laugh track.

The show’s success says something not only about changing tastes here but also about Russia’s standing. Sitcoms are typically grounded in middle-class life and poke fun at it. The popularity of Russian versions of “Married With Children” and other adaptations of American sitcoms suggests that Russia has gained enough stability and wealth in recent years that these jokes resonate with viewers.

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Interesting stuff.

Peters Creek Presbyterian Church voted 273-86 yesterday to leave the Presbyterian Church (USA ) for the more theologically conservative Evangelical Presbyterian Church.

The vote — which included two abstentions — represented more than half the church’s full membership of 595 and just over 75 percent of the 361 ballots cast. Those percentages would meet the standard that Washington Presbytery set in July to consider allowing churches that want to move to the other denomination to do so along with their property.

But because Peters Creek initiated its move before that plan was adopted, the presbytery is not required to consider those numbers in its case. In the absence of such a local plan, denominational law says that the property belongs to the denomination.

“We have placed the future of this ministry into your hands and into the hands of Washington Presbytery,” the Rev. L. Rus Howard said in a prayer after the decision was announced. “Help us treat each other with love and grace and mercy.”

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