Monthly Archives: November 2007

Pope to make first visit to U.S. in 2008

Benedict XVI will make his first visit to the USA as pope next year, going to the 9/11 Ground Zero site, addressing the United Nations and saying Masses at baseball stadiums in Washington and New York.
Nearly 300 bishops stood to applaud after the pope’s U.S. representative, Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Pietro Sambi, announced the plans Monday at the opening session of the three-day fall meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The visit, set for April 15-20, will coincide with Benedict’s 81st birthday and the third anniversary of his papal election. As a cardinal, he visited the USA twice.

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Posted in * Religion News & Commentary, Other Churches, Roman Catholic

USA Today: For a nation in denial, the buck drops here

The dollar is under siege. This time the assailants are not just currency traders. They are the likes of supermodel Gisele Bundchen, who prefers not to be paid with it, and rapper Jay-Z, who palms a wad of 500 euro notes in his latest video.

It may be easy to shrug this off. What lingerie models think about global economic trends might be even more insignificant than what movie stars think about presidential candidates. At last word, Bundchen’s boyfriend, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, was still accepting his paychecks in dollars. And if Europeans want to circulate a 500 euro note that becomes international drug dealers’ currency of choice, so be it.

But when pop culture starts dissing the dollar, smug dismissal is not such a good idea. The falling buck ”” now worth less than the Canadian dollar and down 40% against the euro ”” hits middle America hard by making everything from steel to gasoline more expensive.

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Posted in * Economics, Politics, Economy

A Soldier Returns Home

Makes the heart really glad–don’t miss it.

Posted in * Culture-Watch, * Economics, Politics, Iraq War, Military / Armed Forces

Episcopal bishop of Oregon decides time is right to step down

Western Oregon Episcopalians are buzzing since their bishop, the Rt. Rev. Johncy Itty, decided after four years that it’s time to start searching for his successor.

Itty, who at 40 was the youngest Episcopal bishop when he was elected in 2003, caused the stir at the diocese’s annual convention in early November. He thanked God for his years here and said his decision is “in recognition of personal, professional and family needs.”

In an interview this week, he said he wanted to give a “heads up” so the transition wouldn’t be a surprise. He said he has no particular plans about what he’ll do next. The entire selection process, which can take two years, won’t start until January.

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Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, Episcopal Church (TEC), TEC Bishops

New haven for US dioceses on offer: CEN

American dioceses that wish to quit the Episcopal Church will be welcomed into the Church of the Province of the Southern Cone.

The South American general synod, meeting Nov 4-8 at St. Paul’s Church in Valparaíso, Chile, agreed to adopt stray dioceses and ecclesial entities from the North American churches. The vote marks an intensification in the Anglican Communion’s wars over doctrine and discipline as for the first time, ecclesial entities, not just individuals, have been offered a theological refuge.

Presiding Bishop Gregory Venables, who was reelected to a new term as primate by the synod, told The Church of England Newspaper the offer of refuge simply recognized the existing splits within the Church. The Southern Cone was not precipitating a crisis and invading the Episcopal Church, he explained last month, but was offering a safe haven within the Anglican Communion for those wishing to flee.

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Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, Anglican Provinces, Cono Sur [formerly Southern Cone], Episcopal Church (TEC), TEC Conflicts

Christ Church Savannah Responds to the Diocesan lawsuit Against it

Via email:

November 14, 2007– Savannah, Georgia””Today the chancellor of Christ Church released the following statement regarding the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia’s complaint regarding the status of property owned by Christ Church.

Christ Church Chancellor Neil Creasy offered the following, “While we are disappointed, we are not entirely surprised that Bishop Louttit has taken this action against us, because the national Episcopal Church has been using actual and threatened litigation to attempt to intimidate orthodox parishes nationwide. Contrary to the claims of the Diocese, Christ Church continues to own its real estate and other property as it always has. Christ Church continues to operate as an historic Anglican parish, faithful to Holy Scripture and the historic doctrine and discipline as understood by Anglicans (including Episcopalians) for nearly five hundred years. Its rector and clergy continue to serve as fully recognized Anglican priests and deacons.

“We find such aggressive legal action a departure from Christian charity, and continue to pray for the Diocese of Georgia and Bishop Louttit that a more reasonable way forward may be forthcoming. Nevertheless, we are fully prepared to defend the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to defend our property if the Episcopal Church and its local representatives try to silence us by trying to take it.

“At this point, the Diocese of Georgia has not communicated with us directly about the actual filing of this lawsuit, and our present response is based on media reports only. We will reserve further comment until such a time that we can thoroughly review the legal documents as they become available to us.”

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, * Culture-Watch, Episcopal Church (TEC), Law & Legal Issues, TEC Conflicts, TEC Conflicts: Georgia

Andrew Carey: Why I was Wrong About Katharine Jefferts Schori

I had high hopes for Katharine Jefferts Schori when she was elected Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church of the USA. Although she appeared to be on the extreme ”˜left’ of the Anglican spectrum in many of her actions and statements, it was clear that here was a person of great depth, and a hinterland beyond church politics. There was a possibility at one stage that she might even attempt to lead the Episcopal Church into a process of reconciliation internally and with the Anglican Communion, at least temporarily stalling the lemming-like dash of her Church into heterodox oblivion.

It seems I was mistaken. So far she has shown the same adaptability of her predecessor. Like Bishop Frank Griswold she’s signed statements at Primates’ Meetings and then gone on to reject them in every particular. It always struck me as the height of absurdity that Bishop Griswold could sign the Primates’ Communiqué from the October 2003 meeting of the Primates, warning his own Church that to consecrate Gene Robinson would result in the ”˜tearing of the fabric’ of the Communion and then to preside at the consecration of Robinson himself only a month or two later. His adaptability owed itself to his oft-expressed belief in ”˜pluriform truths’. Consequently, he could enter into the opposing truths of the Primates, and the Episcopal Church, simultaneously. Most people would call this duplicity, his defenders would probably call it ”˜postmodernism’.
Interestingly enough, while ditching the nauseating term ”˜pluriform’, Katharine Jefferts Schori has taken a similar trajectory. At the Primates’ Tanzania meeting she assented to a communiqué calling on the Episcopal Church to put in place moratoria on same-sex blessings and consecrations, to cease lawsuits, and to provide a system of ”˜alternative primatial oversight’ which reported to an international Anglican panel, of which she herself would be a member. Months later, it turns out, that she didn’t mean this at all. Sure, the American House of Bishops have promised some restraint over elections of practicing homosexual bishops, but they’ve said nothing meaningful about either samesex blessings or instituted any real changes to their system of ”˜extended’ Episcopal visitation which is rejected by the very people it is intended to serve. But the area in which she has most betrayed the very same statement which she once signed up to, is on the matter of lawsuits. It feels impossible to keep count of the number of priests deposed by dioceses, or the number of disputes over property throughout the Episcopal Church. The biggest, of course, will be over dioceses extricating themselves from the Episcopal Church and linking to other Anglican provinces. It seems clear that Southern Cone is preparing to take dioceses under their wing, but there may also be African provinces prepared to offer similar ”˜oversight’ to so-called ”˜network’ dioceses. These dioceses argue that to be part of the Episcopal Church is a voluntary agreement, and testify that the diocese is the fundamental unit of the Church and the Bishop’s link to the Anglicanism through the recognition of the Archbishop of Canterbury is unrelated to the Provincial structures. So far three dioceses: San Joaquin, Fort Worth and Pittsburgh have taken steps to remove clauses relating to unqualified accession to the constitution and canons of the Episcopal Church from their own diocesan constitutions. These steps require votes at two diocesan conventions. It is by no means certain that these moves at the second convention will gain the required votes, but Presiding Bishop Schori is out to get them.
In recent open letters to the dioceses she has threatened the bishops with deposition, under the almost summary procedure of a canon on the abandonment of communion. The canon is a housekeeping exercise, a way of deposing priests, and bishops separately who have already departed the Episcopal Church to another church completely. There is no trial, no ecclesiastical court, just a determination of abandonment of communion by a communion, a period of two months to recant, a hearing at the House of Bishops and a vote by the bishops. Ordinarily this canon shouldn’t be used until a bishop has actually departed communion, but the Presiding Bishop intends to use this measure, rather than presentment and a trial of a bishop, in order to hasten matters along. She will then declare the dioceses vacant, gather the parishes which remain loyal and have them elect a new bishop. Furthermore, it is the intention of the Episcopal Church to make sure that no churches, or dioceses, align themselves to any other part of the Anglican Communion and take their property with them. So the path she has chosen is not to seek reconciliation and peace with priests and bishops opposed to the direction of the Episcopal Church but to threaten them – thereby alienating them further. There is no doubt that this will be read widely as a further abandonment of the Anglican Communion by the Episcopal Church. But it may also be a sign that at last their true colours are being revealed and the dominant liberal faction in the Episcopal Church is resigned to accepting the logic of their position and going it alone.

–This article appears in the Church of England Newspaper, November 16, 2007 edition, page 12

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, - Anglican: Analysis, Episcopal Church (TEC), Presiding Bishop, TEC Conflicts, TEC Polity & Canons

President Bush and Relatives of Fallen Lean on Each Other

Late one night last year, while her husband was an Army scout in Iraq, Melissa Storey sat in the quiet of her bedroom to write President Bush a letter. She wanted him to know “we believed in him.” And after Staff Sgt. Clint Storey, 30, was killed by a roadside bomb, his widow put pen to paper again.

“I felt like I needed to let him know I don’t hate him because my husband is dead,” Mrs. Storey said, “that I don’t blame him for Clint dying over there.”

The correspondence did not go unnoticed. In May, Mrs. Storey received a surprise telephone call from the White House inviting her to a Memorial Day reception there. As she mingled at the elegant gathering, too nervous to eat, her 5-year-old daughter clutching her dress, her infant son cradled in her arms, a military aide appeared. The president wanted to see her in the Oval Office.

The Storeys, of Palmer, Mass., joined a growing list of bereaved families granted a private audience with the commander in chief. As Mr. Bush forges ahead with the war in Iraq, these “families of the fallen,” as the White House calls them, are one constituency he can still count on, a powerful reminder to an unpopular president that even in the face of heartbreaking loss, some still believe he is doing the right thing.

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Posted in * Culture-Watch, * Economics, Politics, Iraq War, Military / Armed Forces

Judge Allows N.J. Probe into Civil Unions Flap to Continue

A federal judge has ruled that New Jersey officials can continue an investigation into whether a Methodist group violated the rights of two lesbian couples when it refused to rent a seaside pavilion for their civil union ceremonies.

U.S. District Judge Joel Pisano dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association as a pre-emptive strike. The association claimed its constitutional rights would be violated were it forced to allow civil unions, which conflict with Methodist doctrine, to be performed at the pavilion in Ocean Grove, N.J.

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Posted in * Culture-Watch, * Religion News & Commentary, --Civil Unions & Partnerships, Law & Legal Issues, Methodist, Other Churches, Sexuality

Notable and Quotable

“You will find it a very good practice always to verify your references, sir!”

–Martin Joseph Routh (1755-1854), President of Magdalene College, Oxford, for 63 years

Posted in Uncategorized

African Crucible: Cast as Witches, Then Cast Out

Domingos Pedro was only 12 years old when his father died. The passing was sudden; the cause was a mystery to doctors. But not to Domingos’s relatives.

They gathered that afternoon in Domingos’s mud-clay house, he said, seized him and bound his legs with rope. They tossed the rope over the house’s rafters and hoisted him up until he was suspended headfirst over the hard dirt floor. Then they told him they would cut the rope if he did not confess to murdering his father.

“They were yelling, ”˜Witch! Witch!’” Domingos recalled, tears rolling down his face. “There were so many people all shouting at me at the same time.”

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Posted in Uncategorized

Episcopal Diocese of Georgia Files Suit Against Christ Church, Savannah

(Savannah) ”“ The former rector and vestry of Christ Church, Savannah should return all real and personal property to the Diocese of Georgia immediately. That according to a “Petition for Declaratory Judgment Interlocutory and Permanent Injunction and for Damages” filed on behalf of the Episcopal Bishop of Georgia in Chatham Superior Court November 14, 2007.

The Diocese of Georgia is petitioning the Court to declare that the former rector and vestry may not divert, alienate, or use the real or personal property of Christ Church except for the Church’s mission, as provided by and in accordance with the Constitutions and canons of the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Georgia; to declare that all real and personal property of Christ Church is held in trust for the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Georgia; and issue a permanent injunction ordering defendants to stop diverting, alienating, or using the real or personal property of Christ Church except for the Church’s mission, as provided by the Constitutions and canons of the Church and the Diocese of Georgia; to render to the Diocese an accounting of all real and personal property held by Christ Church as of March 30, 2006 and also as of September 30, 2007; and to relinquish control of the real and personal property held by Christ Church to the Diocese of Georgia; to award judgment in favor of the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia and against the former rector for all pecuniary benefits received by him from Christ Church from March 30, 2006; award judgment against the former rector and vestry for all sums used for and diverted to purposes other than for the mission and ministry of the Episcopal Church; and award such further relief as may be necessary and proper.

According to the Petition, former rector Marcus B. Robertson and the then wardens of Christ Church filed with the Georgia Secretary of State amended articles of incorporation purporting to repeal and annul prior articles of incorporation and removing any reference to the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Georgia on or about March 30, 2006. The Bishop of the Diocese of Georgia was never notified of this action; however Robertson continued to receive pecuniary benefits from Christ Church.

By resolution dated September 30, 2007, and by letter dated October 1, 2007 Robertson and the former vestry of Christ Church advised the Bishop that they had placed themselves under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Church of the Province of Uganda and had removed themselves from the ecclesiastical authority of the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Georgia.

The defendants did not seek authorization, and neither the Bishop nor any other authority of the Diocese has granted authorization, for Christ Church to terminate its relationship as a parish in the Diocese of Georgia. Further the defendants did not seek authorization, and The Bishop of Georgia has not authorized defendants, to occupy and use the real property of Christ Church for the purpose of worshipping in alignment with the Anglican Province of Uganda, any mission of the Anglican Province of Uganda, or any other body or entity.
Robertson is no longer a priest in the Episcopal Church or the Diocese of Georgia, and he is no longer rector of Christ Church. Based on the departure of Robertson and the wardens and other members of the vestry from the Episcopal Church and their alignment with the Church of the Province of Uganda and further based on the requirements of Episcopal Church Canon I.17.8, the Bishop removed each defendant from his or her position at Christ Church. By their formal alignment with the Church of Uganda and their departure from union with the Diocese of Georgia, defendants have relinquished all legal right to possess or control the real and personal property held by Christ Church.

In order to make provisions for the spiritual guidance and pastoral care of the remaining members of Christ Episcopal Parish who wish to continue within the doctrine, discipline, and worship of, and to continue the mission of, the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Georgia., the Bishop of Georgia has appointed The Reverend Canon Neal Phelps as priest-in-charge of Christ Church; and commended the remaining members of Christ Church to Father Phelps’ care. In order to fulfill his duties as priest-in-charge and to care for the remaining members of Christ Church, Father Phelps is entitled under the laws of the Episcopal Church and the Diocese to the possession and use of the real and personal property of Christ Church.

However, by letter dated October 1, 2007, Robertson and the former vestry of Christ Church publicly disavowed the interests of the Diocese and the Episcopal Church to the Church’s property and asserted that the property would be used by them as part of the Church of Uganda. They continue to claim possession and control of the real and personal property of Christ Church to this date.

According to the complaint, the real and personal property of Christ Church may lawfully be used only for the mission of the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Georgia, and such property continues to be subject to the trust for the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Georgia, to be used by those and for those who continue to worship in union with and carry out the mission of the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Georgia.

Posted in Uncategorized

An Article Profiling the Episcopal Bishop of Central New York

The local Episcopal bishop has been busy.

In late September, Bishop Gladstone “Skip” Adams traveled to New Orleans to meet with other bishops to discuss how the Episcopal Church might remain in communion with the worldwide Anglican church amid disagreements over homosexuality and biblical authority.

He supported a statement from the House of Bishops that agrees not to consecrate “any candidate to the episcopate whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on the communion.” That, he translated in a recent interview, means no other gay men or lesbians will become bishops until the church’s General Convention rules on the issue.

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Posted in Uncategorized

HSBC mortgage losses rise in US

HSBC Holdings PLC, Europe’s biggest bank, reported another big hit from exposure to the U.S. mortgage crisis Wednesday and warned that bad debts could increase if the U.S. housing market weakens further.

However, the bank’s shares rose 3 percent as it reassured investors that third-quarter profits for its global business were ahead of last year, despite the $3.4 billion (2.3 billion euros) impairment charge at its U.S. consumer finance division, HSBC Finance Corp.

The charge was higher than anticipated by analysts and significantly above the $1.9 billion and $2.2 billion booked in the first and second quarter respectively. The division also added $3.4 billion to its credit loss reserves.

HSBC said it would close or consolidate up to 260 more HSBC Finance Corp. branches, adding to 100 branches it had announced previously and taking the number of remaining branches to around 1,000.

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Posted in Uncategorized

From the Caribbean: Church, community afraid to talk about sex

The church and religious community need to stop being afraid to talk about sex.

That is the contention from Dr. Gerry Seale, Chief Executive Officer and General Secretary, Evangelical Association of the Caribbean, as he shared findings of the Evangelical Youth Survey with those gathered at the Hilton Hotel for the Faith-Based HIV Symposium sponsored by the Religious Advisory Committee on National Affairs, UNAIDS and the Faith-Based Committee of the National HIV/AIDS Commission.

The survey was answered by 405 young people from various denominations across the island. Of these respondents, he revealed that one per cent indicated that they were HIV positive.

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Posted in Uncategorized

Fort Worth Synod to consider joining Southern Cone

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Posted in Uncategorized

Mortgage Woes Damage a GE Bond Fund

SHORT-TERM INSTITUTIONAL BOND RUN MANAGED by General Electric Asset Management apparently has suffered losses in mortgage and asset-backed securities and is offering investors the option to redeem their holdings at 96 cents on the dollar.

The setback at GE Asset Management’s GEAM Trust Enhanced Cash Trust is the latest in a series of problems encountered by money-market and short-term bond funds from the turmoil in the mortgage and asset-securities markets.

Legg Mason, Wachovia and Bank of America have had to provide financial support to their money-market funds to prevent their funds from “breaking the buck,” or falling below the $1 asset value that money funds seek to preserve.

The GE fund, totaling $5 billion, is an “enhanced” cash fund, meaning it seeks to provide a slightly higher yield than a money-market fund while preserving principal and maintaining an asset value of $1 per share.
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Posted in * Economics, Politics, Economy

Death and rebirth are needed if the visible unity of the church is to be achieved

Pentecostal theologian and scholar Cheryl Bridges-Johns proposed a radical reinvention of the ecumenical movement in a keynote address delivered on the third day of the Global Christian Forum which takes place 6-9 November in Limuru, near Nairobi, Kenya.

Bridges-Johns, a professor at the Theological Seminary of the Church of God in Cleveland (Tennessee), US, sparked a vivid discussion with her lecture, which elaborated on a statement from the 1961 New Delhi assembly of the World Council of Churches : « the achievement of unity will involve nothing less than a death and rebirth of many forms of church life as we have known them ».

For Bridges-Johns, what is dying is « the old ’mainstream’ ecumenical paradigm, » as « the structures built to create and sustain the visible unity of the church are no longer viable ». As a result, « a new form of ecumenism is needed that is able to embrace the challenges of world-wide Christianity ». The Global Christian Forum « represents such an effort ». It is one instance of « a number of new ecumenical tables » that have arisen over the last decade or so.

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Posted in * Religion News & Commentary, Ecumenical Relations

Thomas L. Friedman: Coulda, woulda, shoulda

Two dates – two numbers. Read them and weep for what could have, and should have, been. On Sept. 11, 2001, the OPEC basket oil price was $25.50 a barrel. On Nov. 13, 2007, the OPEC basket price was around $90 a barrel.

In the wake of 9/11, some of us pleaded for a “patriot tax” on gasoline of $1 or more a gallon to diminish the transfers of wealth we were making to the very countries who were indirectly financing the ideologies of intolerance that were killing Americans and in order to spur innovation in energy efficiency by U.S. manufacturers.

But no, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney had a better idea. And the Democrats went along for the ride. They were all going to let the market work and not let our government shape that market – like OPEC does.

You’d think that one person, just one, running for Congress or the Senate would take a flier and say: “Oh, what the heck. I’m going to lose anyway. Why not tell the truth? I’ll support a gasoline tax.”

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Posted in * Economics, Politics, Energy, Natural Resources

Nashotah Graduate Refused Ordination In The Diocese of Los Angeles

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Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, Episcopal Church (TEC), Seminary / Theological Education, TEC Conflicts, TEC Conflicts: Los Angeles, Theology

Colorado Supreme Court Clears Way for Egg Rights Showdown

The Colorado Supreme Court cleared the way Tuesday for an anti-abortion group to collect signatures for a ballot measure that would define a fertilized egg as a person.

The court approved the language of the proposal, rejecting a challenge from abortion-rights supporters who argued it was misleading and dealt with more than one subject in violation of the state constitution.

If approved by voters, the measure would give fertilized eggs the state constitutional protections of inalienable rights, justice and due process.

“Proponents of this initiative have publicly stated that the goal is to make all abortion illegal ”” but nothing in the language of the initiative or its title even mentions abortion,” Kathryn Wittneben of NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado said in a statement. “If that’s not misleading, I don’t know what is.”

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Posted in * Culture-Watch, Life Ethics, Religion & Culture

A World Without Writers

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Posted in Uncategorized

Peter Beinart: The Devil in Every Fan

Last week we New England Patriots fans learned that Bill Belichick, our team’s wildly successful head coach, cheats. Turns out that in the first game of the season, one of Belichick’s assistants improperly videotaped the defensive coaches of the opposing New York Jets, trying to steal their signs. As punishment, the Pats were stripped of future draft picks and fined, as was Belichick. Across the nation, sports writers wagged their fingers. Editorials called Belichick a disgrace. And us fans? Well, when Belichick’s mug appeared on the video screen just before the Pats’ second game, the hometown crowd cheered so loudly and so long that Belichick actually waved. Some diehards unveiled a banner reading in bill we trust.

I wish I could say I was surprised. In truth, Pats fans already knew that Belichick doesn’t play by Marquis of Queensberry rules. This February former linebacker Ted Johnson alleged that Belichick made him practice even after he suffered a concussion and that today he has brain damage so severe that he can barely get out of bed. But in Boston those earlier revelations–like these new ones–haven’t hurt Belichick’s popularity a bit. And there’s only one thing that could: losing.

That’s the dirty little secret about sports fans. We’re basically amoral. Kant said that acting ethically means treating other people as ends in and of themselves, not merely as means to our own desires. I happened to catch this in the doctor’s office yesterday waiting for an appointment after missing it when it orginally came out. Read it all.

Posted in * Culture-Watch, Ethics / Moral Theology, Sports, Theology

The Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne raises childhood depression concerns

MARK COLVIN: The Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne believes depression among young people is now so bad that many have effectively had their childhood stolen from them.

Dr Philip Freier says society is making children stressed, forcing them to grow up too early and sexualising them.

He’s now calling for a national inquiry into the state of childhood in Australia.

Dr Freier spoke to our Youth Affairs Reporter, Michael Turtle.

PHILIP FREIER: Talking about situations. Not just of people being unhappy but situations where we think there is up to 100,000 young people in Australia who are actually impaired from normal participation in life. So a very serious growth in people for whom that mental health issue is quite a limitation on their development.

MICHAEL TURTLE: Why do you think this is the case?

PHILIP FREIER: Well, I think there is a lot of reasons and some of them are to do with society and the way in which we push young children into almost adult like decisions and role models. But I’ve called on the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition to support having a national enquiry into childhood because that I think that there is enough evidence that there is a crisis that we are in the middle of that needs to have all the best information and research put together to guide how we develop public policy.

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Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, * Culture-Watch, Anglican Church of Australia, Anglican Provinces, Children, Psychology

Richard Rubin on the Last Living American Veteran of World War I

BY any conceivable measure, Frank Buckles has led an extraordinary life. Born on a farm in Missouri in February 1901, he saw his first automobile in his hometown in 1905, and his first airplane at the Illinois State Fair in 1907. At 15 he moved on his own to Oklahoma and went to work in a bank; in the 1940s, he spent more than three years as a Japanese prisoner of war. When he returned to the United States, he married, had a daughter and bought a farm near Charles Town, W. Va., where he lives to this day. He drove a tractor until he was 104.

But even more significant than the remarkable details of Mr. Buckles’s life is what he represents: Of the two million soldiers the United States sent to France in World War I, he is the only one left.

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Posted in * Culture-Watch, Military / Armed Forces

BabyBlue's Look at Day One in the Virginia Anglican/Episcopal Church Trial

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Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, * Culture-Watch, Episcopal Church (TEC), Law & Legal Issues, TEC Conflicts, TEC Conflicts: Virginia

Washington Post: Trial Begins in Clash Over Va. Church Property

After voting to leave, the 11 churches placed themselves within a Virginia-based branch of the Church of Nigeria — another wing in the Communion.

The Virginia diocese is arguing that there was no division, but rather that individuals unhappy with the Episcopal Church chose to leave. The diocese and the national church, which are both parties in the case, say that the Episcopal Church is hierarchical and therefore a “division” can only happen if there is a vote of its governing body.

But those on the breakaway side say it was the Episcopal Church that “left” by letting stand the 2003 installation of a gay bishop in New Hampshire. The national church “has willfully torn the fabric of the communion at the deepest level,” attorney Steffen N. Johnson said yesterday in his opening argument.

They called as witnesses two U.S. church historians to discuss how church disputes were settled at the time the law was passed.

Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Randy I. Bellows has said he will rule on this case next month. Regardless of how he rules, a second trial will be held on lawsuits brought by the diocese and national church against the breakaway churches. That action asks the Circuit Court to declare the diocese the rightful owner of all property. The suits also asked the court to force the breakaway congregations off the 11 properties, which they have occupied since the votes in December and January.

Bellows’s ruling in the first trial will help whichever side he rules for in the second, representatives on both sides said.

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Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, * Culture-Watch, Episcopal Church (TEC), Law & Legal Issues, TEC Conflicts, TEC Conflicts: Virginia

Virginia court delves into Episcopal Church split

The congregations, including The Falls Church in Falls Church and Truro Church in Fairfax, argue that they are entitled to keep their land and houses of worship because the congregations overwhelmingly voted to disaffiliate with the Episcopal Church.

The diocese argues that church members who disagree theologically are permitted to leave the congregations as individuals, but have no right to take church property with them.

The disaffected congregations, now members of a breakaway group called the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, or CANA, say the 1867 law is on their side. It states that a majority vote will determine whether a congregation can realign and retain its property when a church faces internal division.

Episcopal leaders argue that the state law does not apply in this case because there has been no formal division recognized by the Episcopal hierarchy.

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Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, * Culture-Watch, Episcopal Church (TEC), Law & Legal Issues, TEC Conflicts, TEC Conflicts: Virginia

Robin Eames lead Anglicans on North Korea visit

The former Church of Ireland Primate, Lord Robin Eames, is leading an Anglican Communion delegation in North Korea, on behalf of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams.

Lord Eames left Northern Ireland this week to meet up with a group of other Anglicans, including the primates of South Korea, the United States and Japan.

Prior to his departure, Lord Eames told the Belfast Telegraph: “The visit to North Korea is linked to humanitarian aid provided by the Anglican Communion and the project concludes with an international peace conference in South Korea at the weekend.

“During this meeting I will be delivering a keynote speech from the Archbishop of Canterbury.”

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Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, * International News & Commentary, Anglican Provinces, Archbishop of Canterbury, Asia, Church of Ireland

Bishop Graham Chadwick RIP

The apartheid era in South Africa produced Anglican Church leaders who stood out against injustice. Bishop Graham Chadwick, as Bishop of Kimberley and Kuruman, following the example of one of his predecessors, Bishop Crowder, was expelled from the country for his actions. The Welsh-born bishop was finally escorted by the security police to Kimberley airport where 50,000 protesters joined in voicing their contempt at his deportation.

Graham Charles Chadwick was born in 1923 in Mid-Wales. The early death of his father led the family to relocate to Swansea, where Chadwick attended Swansea Grammar School. In 1942 he joined the RNVR. With his great gift for languages, he was selected to learn Japanese, before serving as an intelligence officer on flagships in the Pacific. He lost a close friend when he survived a kamikaze attack on HMS Formidable, and in 1946 he acted as an interrogator of war criminals.

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Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, Anglican Church of Southern Africa, Anglican Provinces