A Pastoral Letter
From the Bishop of Central Florida
To be Read or Otherwise Distributed in All the Congregations
Of the Diocese of Central Florida
by
The Right Rev. John W. Howe

Introduction

Dear People of God: Brothers and Sisters in Christ, in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit:

It has been my privilege to serve you, first as Bishop Coadjutor and then as Bishop of Central Florida for a total of nineteen years. During this time I have ordained more than 250 men and women to the diaconate and priesthood. We have welcomed 189 priests to new ministries as Rectors, Vicars and Assistants. We have planted 14 new congregations (only two of which did not survive). In nineteen years a Diocese can grow and change dramatically, and this one surely has.

Sadly, in the past several months the Diocese of Central Florida has seen the clergy and some of the members of eight of our congregations choose to “disaffiliate” from The Episcopal Church and, therefore, from the Diocese, as well. This has been costly in terms of relationships and finances, and in diminishing the Body of Christ.

It seems fitting to pause to reflect on the questions: Who are we”¦ now? What are the “core values” of the Diocese of Central Florida? Where are we going? What is God calling this Diocese to do and to be?

Jesus is the Way

Let me begin with myself. I promised, on April 15, 1989, to “guard the faith, unity, and discipline of the Church” to the very best of my ability, and to “proclaim Christ’s resurrection, interpret his Gospel, and testify to his sovereignty as Lord of lords and King of kings.”[i] In a day in which many in leadership in The Episcopal Church and other churches are saying that Jesus is “a way,” or, perhaps, “my way,” I am committed to Jesus’ own proclamation that he is “the way, the truth and the life,” and “no one comes to the Father except through me.”[/i]

The Word of God

Every member of the clergy of The Episcopal Church has declared his or her conviction that the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the Word of God, containing “all things necessary to salvation.”[iii][iii] I am committed to holding myself and the clergy of this Diocese to that declaration. And, in the words of the Prayer Book still in use at the time I became a priest (1968), I remain committed to my promise to “banish and drive away from the Church all erroneous and strange doctrines contrary to God’s Word.”[iv][iv]

Discipleship

Every member of The Episcopal Church has renounced the world, the flesh and the devil, and promised to turn to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, putting our whole trust in his grace and love, and following and obeying him as our Lord.[v][v] These are extremely significant promises, and any diocese that truly upholds them will become as a shining city on a hill, and salt and light to The Episcopal Church, the Anglican Communion, and the larger community in general.

The Anglican Communion

The Diocese of Central Florida understands itself to be “a constituent member of the Anglican Communion, a Fellowship within the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, of those duly constituted Dioceses, Provinces, and regional Churches in Communion with the See of Canterbury, upholding and propagating the historic Faith and Order as set forth in the Book of Common Prayer.”[vi][vi] We have affirmed our overwhelming commitment to The Windsor Report[vii][vii] and the emerging Anglican Communion Covenant.[viii][viii] As a diocese we acknowledge our primary ecclesiastical allegiance to be to the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church of Christ.[ix][ix]

Evangelism and Worship

By the actions of successive Annual and Special Conventions, the Diocese of Central Florida has repeatedly and consistently affirmed the Faith of the Church as it is set forth in the Nicene and Apostles’ Creeds, and in particular, the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as God come among us as perfect man. We believe it is the mission of the Church “to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.”[x][x] We understand evangelism to be “the presentation of the claims of Christ in the power of the Spirit to a world in need by a Church in love.”[xi][xi] We are committed to “taking Central Florida for Christ.”[xii][xii] We call all people to “repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus,”[xiii][xiii] and we invite them to the waters of baptism that they might join us at the Table of the Lord.[xiv][xiv]

Church Planting

We are committed to planting new congregations, and growing existing ones,[xv][xv] extending the love of God and the welcome of his Church to every person, regardless of race, gender, social or economic status, or past behavior. In inviting people “to know Christ and to make him known”[xvi][xvi] we also urge them and ourselves to become his true disciples: men and women, boys and girls who earnestly repent of our sins, seek to live in love and charity with our neighbors, and intend to lead new lives, following the commandments of God and walking in his holy ways, as revealed to us in the Scriptures, our ultimate standard and rule of life.[xvii][xvii]

Social Context

We are committed to serving the communities in which we live, recalling the admonition of Jeremiah: “Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you”¦and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”[xviii][xviii] From the support of Anchor House in Auburndale to House of Hope in Orlando, to Kairos throughout the Diocese, to Mustard Seed Ministries in Fort Pierce, to our companion relationship with the Diocese of Honduras, the Diocese of Central Florida takes an extraordinary interest in serving the needs of people in the local and international community with food, housing, advocacy, medical and psychological services, and a host of other things.

Youth Ministry

We are committed to ministry to the next generation, understanding that out of all the people who ever make a commitment to Jesus Christ, over 90% do so before the age of twenty.[xix][xix] We are deeply grateful for the “resurrection” of Camp Wingmann to assist in this ministry (in addition to Canterbury, which is geared much more to adults).

Human Sexuality

The Diocese of Central Florida has reaffirmed by a super majority in Convention the Church’s Biblical and traditional understanding of human sexuality.[xx][xx] We adopted without dissent the canonical requirement that, “All members of the clergy of this Diocese, having subscribed to the Declaration required by Article VIII of the National Constitution, shall be under the obligation to model in their own lives the received teaching of the Church that all its members are to abstain from sexual relations outside of Holy Matrimony.”[xxi][xxi] The canons and the code of ethics for the Diocese stipulate that “Clergy are to affirm marriage as the only appropriate setting for sexual intimacy.”[xxii][xxii]

A Troubled Household

We are painfully aware that not all of these commitments are shared throughout The Episcopal Church. Because they are not, some of our members, clergy and lay, have chosen to “disaffiliate” from The Episcopal Church and align with other Anglican jurisdictions or alternative denominational structures. We respect their decisions, we are saddened by their departure, and we offer them our continued love and prayers. But we believe we are in the mainstream of historic Anglicanism, and the positions we hold are those of the overwhelming majority of the world’s Anglicans and other Christians today.[xxiii][xxiii] We believe it remains our calling to be faithful disciples: Lay Persons, Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, members of faithful parishes and a faithful diocese within a troubled household.[xxiv][xxiv]

Remaining Steadfast

We believe that unless we were required to do something that Scripture and conscience forbids, or forbidden to do something that Scripture and conscience requires, we have no reason to abandon the responsibilities to which the Lord has called us. We are committed to fulfilling the responsibilities to which the Lord has called us in our baptismal covenant promises and ordination vows.[xxv][xxv]

Encouraging Each Other

We remain committed to making the Great Commandment and the Great Commission the twin priorities of the Diocese of Central Florida.[xxvi][xxvi] We strive to encourage each other to remain “faithful to Jesus, loyal to the Gospel, obedient to God’s Word, filled with his Spirit, rejoicing in his love.”[xxvii][xxvii]

* * * *

What is the purpose of these reflections, and how might they shape our life together?

First, I am recommitting myself to these core values on the anniversary of my consecration, and I invite the Diocese to reflect on these commitments that we might strengthen our common life and faith, and that we might bear a united witness to Central Florida, to The Episcopal Church, and to the world at large. I invite the clergy of the Diocese to join me in committing themselves individually and as a collegial body to these core values.

Second, I am calling our Diocese to a renewed emphasis on the teaching ministry of the Church with these core values as the foundation and standard. We have begun two projects at the Diocesan level of our common life. 1) The resources of Cathedral Tapes are being transcribed onto CDs and a digital library to be a lasting resource to the Diocese and the larger Church. 2) The Christian Formation Commission is beginning a project to identify and make available to all the “best practices” of the diocese in the areas of teaching, discipleship, baptismal, confirmation, marital, and parenting preparation, etc. We seek to develop a curriculum of teaching and practice that will be available to the Diocese and the larger Church.

Third, these reflections will be made available to any member of the clergy expressing interest in coming into positions of leadership in this Diocese in the future. This, I believe, is who we are, and we will look for support of and commitment to these values on the part of any who might wish to join us

Fourth, I encourage the leadership structures of our diocese at all levels from the Diocesan Board, Standing Committee, and Commissions to parish vestries, School Boards, parish commissions and committees to examine and evaluate their stewardship of the resources of Christ’s Church. We have been entrusted with an awesome and sacred calling. Our time, talent, and treasure must align around strengthening and preserving our most sacred commitments and stimulating progress and creativity for the fulfillment of the Gospel mandate: that all of creation unite under the one head, Jesus Christ the Lord. Let us contend as one to that end.

It is my fervent hope, and, I believe, the hope of many, that this diocese will continue in this faithful witness far beyond my own tenure as Diocesan Bishop.

A Prayer for the Church

Gracious Father, we pray for your holy Catholic Church. Fill it with all truth, in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt, purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in any thing it is amiss, reform it. Where it is right, strengthen it; where it is in want, provide for it; where it is divided, reunite it; for the sake of Jesus Christ your Son our Savior. Amen.

For the Mission of the Church

Everliving God, whose will it is that all should come to you through your Son Jesus Christ: Inspire our witness to him, that all may know the power of his forgiveness and the hope of his resurrection; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

For the Diocese

O God, by your grace you have called us in this Diocese to a goodly fellowship of faith. Bless our Bishops and other clergy, and all our people. Grant that your Word may be truly preached and truly heard, your Sacraments faithfully administered and faithfully received. By your Spirit, fashion our lives according to the example of your love to all among whom we live; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

——————————————————————————————————————
[i] The charge to a Bishop-elect, Book of Common Prayer (1979), p. 517
[ii][ii] John 14:6
[iii][iii] The Declaration of Conformity, Book of Common Prayer (1979), p. 513, 526, 538
[iv][iv] The Ordering of Priests, Book of Common Prayer (1928), p. 542
[v][v] Holy Baptism, Book of Common Prayer (1979), p. 302, 303
[vi][vi] Preamble to the Constitution of The Episcopal Church, and adopted on first reading as an amendment to Article III of the Constitution of the Diocese of Central Florida, January 26, 2008
[vii][vii] Resolution R-1, passed by the Thirty-Sixth Annual Convention of the Diocese, January 29, 2005
[viii][viii] Resolution A-2B, passed by the Thirty-Eighth Annual Convention of the Diocese, January 27, 2007
[ix][ix] Article III of the Constitution of the Diocese of Central Florida
[x][x] The Catechism, Book of Common Prayer (1979), p. 855
[xi][xi] Author’s definition, adopted by the Anglican International Conference on Spiritual Renewal held in Canterbury, England July 1978
[xii][xii] Theme of the Thirty-Ninth Annual Convention of the Diocese of Central Florida, January 26, 2008
[xiii][xiii] Acts 20:21
[xiv][xiv] The Episcopal Church’s Canon I.17.5
[xv][xv] Bishop’s Vision Statement, July 16, 1999
[xvi][xvi] Mission Statement first developed at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Darien, Connecticut
[xvii][xvii] Invitation to Confession of Sin, Book of Common Prayer (1979), p. 330
[xviii][xviii] Jeremiah 29:7
[xix][xix] Bishop’s Address, Twenty-Ninth Annual Convention, January 31, 1998
[xx][xx] Special Convention of the Diocese, September 20, 2003
[xxi][xxi] Canon XVI, Section 10, Diocese of Central Florida, adopted January 25, 1992
[xxii][xxii] Code of Ethics for Clergy in the Diocese of Central Florida, revised October 18, 1993
[xxiii][xxiii] Cf. Resolution 1:10 of The Lambeth Conference, 1998; the vote was 526 to 70, with 45 abstentions
[xxiv][xxiv] ”¦according to John, Central Florida Episcopalian, January 2008
[xxv][xxv] Freeing Our Relationships, Bishop’s Teaching Series, Cathedral Tapes
[xxvi][xxvi] Bishop’s Vision Statement, July 16, 1999.
[xxvii][xxvii] Bishop’s Convention Homily, January 25, 2008

Be fruitful and multiply,” says the book of Genesis, and Lord knows we have. To the tune of more than 300 million at home and more than 6 billion abroad. But as we go about the heavenly task of multiplying, a poignant question arises: Might our religion be killing us?

We all remember the Aztecs. Some say their religion, with its penchant for violence and human sacrifice, played a critical role in the destruction of their civilization. We moderns are far more sophisticated, of course, but if we persist with some of our religious practices, we could be heading down the same disastrous dog trot. Sort of a reverse Noah story. Noah is credited with saving humanity during the big flood. We could be the ones who get blamed for destroying it.

Here’s why. The hundreds of scientists who make up the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned recently that the environmental crisis is more dire than originally believed. We might have reached a tipping point. Even if we stop producing harmful greenhouse gases immediately, temperatures could continue to rise and ocean levels along with them for the next 1,000 years. How much? The IPPC says by as much as 11 degrees this century with a corresponding rise in ocean levels of nearly 2 feet. Other scientists, such as Britain’s James Lovelock (who is credited with discovering that chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, were polluting the atmosphere), say it will be far worse and happen sooner. Both predictions portend drought, starvation and species extinction.

Read the whole thing.

The Democrats are doing everything they can to blow this presidential election. This is a skill that comes naturally to the party. There is no such thing as a can’t-miss year for the Democrats. They are truly gifted at finding ways to lose.

Jimmy Carter managed to win the White House in 1976 by looking pious and riding a wave of anti-Watergate revulsion. After four hapless years, he dutifully handed the keys back to the G.O.P.

Bill Clinton tried hard to lose, with sex scandals and whatnot, during the 1992 campaign. But Ross Perot wouldn’t let him. Mr. Clinton won with a piddling 43 percent of the vote. For eight years, Mr. Clinton tried to throw the presidency away (with sex scandals and whatnot), but he was never able to succeed.

That’s been it for the party for the past 40 years. The Democrats have become so psychologically battered by these many decades in the leadership wilderness that they consider the Clinton years, during which the president was impeached and they lost control of both houses of Congress, to have been a period of triumph.

Now comes 2008, a can’t-lose year if there ever was one. A united Democratic Party should be able to win this election in a walk. The economy is terrible and getting worse. The Republicans are demoralized. John McCain is no J.F.K. And the country wants to elect a Democrat.

So what are the Democrats doing? The Clintons are running around with flamethrowers, gleefully trying to incinerate the prospects of the party’s leading candidate, Barack Obama. As Bill Clinton put it last month: “If a politician doesn’t want to get beat up, he shouldn’t run for office.”

Read it all.

Confronted with these deeper questions concerning the origin and destiny of mankind, Christianity proposes Jesus of Nazareth.

—Pope Benedict XVI in his talk to the interfaith gathering.

I sometimes think that Catholic theology operates on a super high frequency that just doesn’t register on some people’s hearing. That’s the conclusion I came to when I read veteran NY Times Vatican-beat reporter Alessandra Stanley’s summing up of the papal visit so far. Comparing it to Prince Charles’ second wedding to Camilla Parker Bowles, (in contrast to JPII’s more Princess Diana-like “extravanga” visits) was clever, but trite. Has the trip, for her, really been about “seamlessly binding together the thorniest Vatican troubles ”” pedophile priests, shrinking parishes, nonobservant believers ”” with papal mystique and fun Vatican facts.” This is someone who has covered the Vatican for years. She has ears to hear (and eyes to read)””did she miss the substance of the Pope’s statements, which were nothing less than a radical critique of how American Catholics live their faith?

Read it all.

Americans don’t contemplate these big questions much. Reflection is especially rare in the celebrity culture, where “there is no such thing as bad publicity.” Time in rehab ”” drug, alcohol or whatever ”” has become a veritable rite of passage for the young and famous. Indeed, telling the story of one’s rise from the ashes of addiction has become a career-extending strategy for those past their prime.

With all the pictures of stars happily leaving the clinic, young people may assume that there are always nets to catch their fall. They forget those who didn’t make it into rehab. Not everyone gets a second or third act.

Although AP wrote the Spears obituary purely for business reasons, it may have also done the star a service. Like the mock Korean funerals, the obituary could shock Spears into imagining her extinction ”” and thus mend her ways. In a similar vein, a court ordered troubled young actress Lindsay Lohan to work in a morgue following a drunken-driving incident.

Perhaps all those who indulge in high-risk behavior should be presented with their obituary, dressed in funeral robes and placed in a coffin. Sounds morbid, but that could be the most important thing that ever happened to them.

Read the whole piece.

If you’re feeling blue, you might want to think twice before you head out for a little shopping.

That’s because research shows sad people are willing to pay significantly more money for everyday items such as a water bottle.

Cynthia Cryder, a doctoral student at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, recently explored the issue of emotion and spending in a simple experiment. She got some young people to come into the psychology lab, then showed film clips.

Read or listen to it all.

As head of the Episcopal Church, the Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori’s style has been more affected by her training as a scientist than by her gender, she said Friday.

Before her ordination into the priesthood in 1994, Jefferts Schori earned a doctorate in oceanography. She learned to build from a hypothesis, test alternatives and weigh perspectives before drawing final conclusions. That scientific approach has helped Jefferts Schori, the 2.5 million-member Episcopal Church’s first female presiding bishop, maintain her composure amid increasing tension over the church’s elevation of a gay bishop. It also helps her balance all the competing claims on her time.

Jefferts Schori will dedicate the new Episcopal Church Center of Utah in downtown Salt Lake City today, as well as preach in a special, celebratory service at St. Mark’s Cathedral next door. She also is scheduled to meet with the LDS Church First Presidency and Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.

“We understand our mission as reconciling the world to God in Christ,” she said in an interview. “That means peacemaking, working toward social justice, and healing human beings in their psyche, souls and physical bodies.”

Read it all.

A Catholic priest from California who attended Mass with the Pope in New York at the weekend said afterwards that he thought His Holiness might have been “a little stunned and surprised by the warm welcome he’s received”. This is entirely possible. The US has a way of surprising visitors, whether they be Benedict XVI or tourists attracted by the exchange rate and then won over by a diversity and generosity of spirit that defy stereotypes. But the real surprises of the Pope’s visit have been for his hosts. Few of them can have expected him to be so candid on the subject of the sexual abuse crisis that has threatened the foundations of the Catholic Church in America; so forthright on the role of human rights and the UN in international affairs; or so disarming on his own youth, shaped as it was by Nazism.

Read it all.

No matter how thin Occam’s razor slices the voting at the recent HoB meeting, one thing is painfully clear.

This vote does not pass the…[impropriety] test. It stinks.

It is so…[poorly done] and weak to go forward on voice vote only, for of course, there would be No recorded vote, so:

1) No one knows how many were in the house to vote on the motion.
2) No one knows how many in the house were entitled to vote.
3) No one knows how may voted for the motion.
4) No one knows who voted for the motion
5) No one knows if any of the bishops who were present but not entitled to vote, voted anyway, for one mumbled “Aye” sounds much like another.
6) …[It appears] the bishops there made sure that they have their political shelter of plausible deniability in place.

—Scottsreb in a comment on a previous thread about San Joaquin

As for a proposed alternative course, I would respond, “What [another name deleted] said,” only raise him a level. I don’t think a telephone poll is a good enough response. It doesn’t address the root problem, which is that, technically, there was a valid vote on the question of deposing Bishop Schofield, and the motion failed. That question is therefore settled: He is not deposed, because the number of Aye votes was less than a majority of “the whole number…entitled to vote”. (This, BTW, is precisely what prevented the legitimate Standing Committee of San Joaquin from stepping in an assuming the role of Ecclesiastical Authority; I have it on good authority that they were within a hair-trigger of doing so when the procedural fiasco was revealed, preventing them from acting.) What the PB needs to do is invite the Title IV Review Committee to provide a finding of abandonment with a fresh date (this should not be too difficult), get the three Seniors to consent to an inhibition, serve said inhibition, and bring the matter before the September HOB meeting in Utah, with the understanding of the level of consent needed for a valid deposition. The case of Bishop Cox is more complicated, because the PB neglected her canonical duty of inhibiting him before brining the question before the House, so there was no valid vote, whatever the outcome. So, once again, we need a fresh finding from the Review Committee (a five-minute conference call should suffice), and then the whole rest of the process. Yes, this sounds fastidious to an onerous degree. But nothing other than this course of action will serve to restore trust that the leaders of this Church are committed to abiding by the rules of this Church. Anything less will only hasten the political meltdown that we are in the middle of.

Read it all.

Watch the whole heartwarming story.

Check it out.

Today this stadium has resounded with passages from Holy Scripture bearing on the reality of the family. We have heard the plea and promise made by the young widow Ruth: “Wherever you go I will go, wherever you lodge I will lodge, your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Wherever you die I will die and there be buried” (Ro 1:16-17). To hear these words is to be moved with a deep feeling for the strength of family ties: stronger than the fear of hardships to be faced; stronger than the fear of exile in an unfamiliar land; stronger than the fear of possible rejection. The bond that unites a family is not only a matter of natural kinship or of shared life and experience. It is essentially a holy and religious bond. Marriage and the family are sacred realities.

The sacredness of Christian marriage consists in the fact that in God’s plan the marriage covenant between a man and a woman becomes the image and symbol of the covenant which unites God and his people (cf. Hos 2:21; Jer 3:6-13; Is 54:5-10). It is the sign of Christ’s love for his Church (cf. Eph 5:32). Because God’s love is faithful and irrevocable, so those who have been married in Christ are called to remain faithful to each other forever. Did not Jesus himself say to us: “What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder” (cf. Mt 19:6)?

Contemporary society has a special need of the witness of couples who persevere in their union as an eloquent, even if sometimes suffering, sign in our human condition of the steadfastness of God’s love. Day after day Christian married couples are called to open their hearts ever more to the Holy Spirit, whose power never fails and who enables them to love each other as Christ has loved us. And, as St. Paul writes to the Galatians, “the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patient endurance, kindness, generosity, faith, mildness and chastity” (Gal 5:22-23). All of this constitutes the rule of life and the program of personal development of Christian couples. And each Christian community has a great responsibility to sustain couples in their love.

—Pope John Paul II in Columbia, South Carolina, during his U.S. Visit; Elizabeth and I were there together in the stands of William Brice Stadium on that day and remember it as a powerful witness to Christian unity. I did not note until this week that it was September 11–KSH.

Update: There is more on the then Pope’s South Carolina visit in 1987 here.

The Rev. Stan Gerber has preached his last sermon at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Tomball. On Sunday, the Episcopal priest, most of his staff and an expected majority of churchgoers will worship in a local junior high school.

Their departure is the latest casualty in the ongoing crisis in the Episcopal Church and the doctrinal debate between conservatives and liberals over sexuality and biblical interpretation. Nationwide, about 55 churches and a California diocese also have left the national denomination over its liberal stands.

From an “orthodox” point of view, Gerber said, “The culture has begun to influence the church, rather than the church influencing the culture.”

Conservative Episcopalians point to 2003 as the breaking point. That’s when V. Gene Robinson, an openly gay priest living with his male partner, was confirmed as the bishop of New Hampshire by the church’s General Assembly.

Read it all.

The first reading also makes clear, as we see from the imposition of hands on the first deacons, that the Church’s unity is “apostolic”. It is a visible unity, grounded in the Apostles whom Christ chose and appointed as witnesses to his resurrection, and it is born of what the Scriptures call “the obedience of faith” (Rom 1:5; cf. Acts 6:7).

“Authority” ”¦ “obedience”. To be frank, these are not easy words to speak nowadays. Words like these represent a “stumbling stone” for many of our contemporaries, especially in a society which rightly places a high value on personal freedom. Yet, in the light of our faith in Jesus Christ – “the way and the truth and the life” – we come to see the fullest meaning, value, and indeed beauty, of those words. The Gospel teaches us that true freedom, the freedom of the children of God, is found only in the self-surrender which is part of the mystery of love. Only by losing ourselves, the Lord tells us, do we truly find ourselves (cf. Lk 17:33). True freedom blossoms when we turn away from the burden of sin, which clouds our perceptions and weakens our resolve, and find the source of our ultimate happiness in him who is infinite love, infinite freedom, infinite life. “In his will is our peace”.

Real freedom, then, is God’s gracious gift, the fruit of conversion to his truth, the truth which makes us free (cf. Jn 8:32). And this freedom in truth brings in its wake a new and liberating way of seeing reality. When we put on “the mind of Christ” (cf. Phil 2:5), new horizons open before us! In the light of faith, within the communion of the Church, we also find the inspiration and strength to become a leaven of the Gospel in the world. We become the light of the world, the salt of the earth (cf. Mt 5:13-14), entrusted with the “apostolate” of making our own lives, and the world in which we live, conform ever more fully to God’s saving plan.

Read it all.

The Internal Revenue Service expects to lose more than $37 million by using private debt collectors to pursue tax scofflaws through a program that has outraged consumers and led to charges on Capitol Hill that the agency is wasting money for work that IRS agents could do more effectively.

Since 2006, the agency has used three companies to go after a $1 billion slice of the nation’s unpaid taxes. Despite aggressive collection tactics, the companies have rounded up only $49 million, little more than half of what it has cost the IRS to implement the program. The debt collectors have pocketed commissions of up to 24 percent.

Now, as Americans file their 2007 taxes, Democratic leaders want to end the effort.

“This program is the hood ornament for incompetence,” said Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.), a leading critic who has introduced a bill to stop the program. The measure has 23 co-sponsors, all but one of them Democrats. “It makes no sense at all to be turning over these tax accounts to private tax collectors that end up costing the taxpayers money.”

Read it all.

Sixteen-year-old Sarah Taylor knows what texting while driving could cause: danger for the person behind the wheel and anyone else on the road.

That’s why the North Charleston teen thinks it’s a good idea that the state might stop new drivers from using their phones while on the road. But will they listen? That’s another question.

“I do think it will be a big uproar if it does actually go through,” Sarah said. “Nobody is going to follow it.”

The bill would allow law enforcement to stop 15- and 16-year-old drivers if they are caught text messaging or talking on a phone without a hands-free device, although the provisions allow for emergency communication.

The issue pits personal rights against safety concerns and is sure to be controversial when the House debates the proposed legislation, said Rep. Bob Walker, R-Landrum.

“You know as well as I do, all of us, young people included, are going to be distracted, listening to the radio, talking on our phones, eating food,” he said.

Read it all.

Mrs Mortimer’s spiritual heir is the former Lonely Planet writer Thomas Kohnstamm, who cheerfully admitted this week that he had written a section of the Colombia guide without having visited the country. Bogus travel writing has a long and inglorious history, but in another way Kohnstamm is representative of a wider and more modern malaise: writers reviewing books they have not read, politicians claiming to have braved dangers they never faced, novelists depicting places they have not seen, memoirists describing a past that never happened, journalists making up stories about people that never existed, and, most pernicious of all, writers simply cutting and pasting words they have not written.

In most cases this is not active deception, but rather a strange cultural blurring of truth and fiction, the confusion of first-hand knowledge with second-hand electronic cuttings, the elision of personal experience with a reality borrowed or imagined from elsewhere.

This is the victory of information over experience. In Wiki-world, where so much semi-reliable information is available at the push of a button, there is no need to see something first-hand in order to be able to describe it with conviction and authority. A comparison of Paris guidebooks reveals entire chunks of identical text for some tourist spots: why actually visit somewhere to find out what it is like when one can merely paste together a version of reality?

Read it all.

So let me make two brief observations on the problem of “attrition”, which I hope will stimulate further reflection.

First, as you know, it is becoming more and more difficult, in our Western societies, to speak in a meaningful way of “salvation”. Yet salvation ”“ deliverance from the reality of evil, and the gift of new life and freedom in Christ ”“ is at the heart of the Gospel. We need to discover, as I have suggested, new and engaging ways of proclaiming this message and awakening a thirst for the fulfillment which only Christ can bring. It is in the Church’s liturgy, and above all in the sacrament of the Eucharist, that these realities are most powerfully expressed and lived in the life of believers; perhaps we still have much to do in realizing the Council’s vision of the liturgy as the exercise of the common priesthood and the impetus for a fruitful apostolate in the world.

Second, we need to acknowledge with concern the almost complete eclipse of an eschatological sense in many of our traditionally Christian societies. As you know, I have pointed to this problem in the Encyclical Spe Salvi. Suffice it to say that faith and hope are not limited to this world: as theological virtues, they unite us with the Lord and draw us toward the fulfillment not only of our personal destiny but also that of all creation. Faith and hope are the inspiration and basis of our efforts to prepare for the coming of the Kingdom of God. In Christianity, there can be no room for purely private religion: Christ is the Savior of the world, and, as members of his Body and sharers in his prophetic, priestly and royal munera, we cannot separate our love for him from our commitment to the building up of the Church and the extension of his Kingdom. To the extent that religion becomes a purely private affair, it loses its very soul.

Let me conclude by stating the obvious. The fields are still ripe for harvesting (cf. Jn 4:35); God continues to give the growth (cf. 1 Cor 3:6). We can and must believe, with the late Pope John Paul II, that God is preparing a new springtime for Christianity (cf. Redemptoris Missio, 86). What is needed above all, at this time in the history of the Church in America, is a renewal of that apostolic zeal which inspires her shepherds actively to seek out the lost, to bind up those who have been wounded, and to bring strength to those who are languishing (cf. Ez 34:16). And this, as I have said, calls for new ways of thinking based on a sound diagnosis of today’s challenges and a commitment to unity in the service of the Church’s mission to the present generation.

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O God of love, compassion, and healing,
look on us, people of many different faiths and traditions,
who gather today at this site,
the scene of incredible violence and pain.

We ask you in your goodness
to give eternal light and peace
to all who died here-
the heroic first-responders:
our fire fighters, police officers,
emergency service workers, and Port Authority personnel,
along with all the innocent men and women
who were victims of this tragedy
simply because their work or service
brought them here on September 11, 2001.

We ask you, in your compassion
to bring healing to those
who, because of their presence here that day,
suffer from injuries and illness.
Heal, too, the pain of still-grieving families
and all who lost loved ones in this tragedy.
Give them strength to continue their lives with courage and hope.

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“Tell your readers that widowhood has little to recommend it. I still miss my husband dreadfully.”

–LaVonne Neff, “Three Women Out of Four: How the church can meet the needs of its widows,” Christianity Today (Nov 8, 1985), p. 30

No family action more fully reveals the glory of Christian grace than to see children lovingly supplying the needs of their older parents — visiting them, making them feel comfortable, loved and wanted if they have to be supported outside the home, or opening their homes and allowing them to be a central part of their life. I am grateful that my wife’s mother lived with us for twenty-seven years in our home, and was loved and enjoyed as part of our family during all that time. Now, because of her failing health, it is necessary for her to be in a nursing home, but we visit her very often, we never let her feel lonely and unwanted.

I have been in rest homes that were horror pits, where older people were abandoned by their families — some of them Christian families. Month after month went by and no one went to visit these older people; they drifted off into senility. These homes, where people simply exist, are like animal cages.

There is a great ministry open to many in the congregation who have time to visit these homes and be surrogate children to older parents who have no one to look out for them. This is a wonderful, loving ministry for some to undertake. The apostle closes by saying that God takes note of these things; he is concerned about the weak and the helpless.

It is interesting to observe today that economic conditions are now forcing families to face up to these obligations. On the Today Show the other day, a family from the Midwest was interviewed. The children had grown up and established their own homes, while the parents were living alone in the big old house. The house was too big for the parents to keep up and they were contemplating selling it, but then economic pressure began to force the children, who had moved away, to find some way of solving their problems. They all ended up mutually agreeing to move back into the old home — the parents, children, and grandchildren. They worked out loving arrangements — a certain part of the house was kept free for the grandparents to escape to when the clutter and noise became too much. This family recaptured elements that were lost by the independent desire of each family to have a home of its own.

We have lost so much of the interrelationships between generations. God is forcing us, by economic means, to face up again to the need to live together and to enjoy one another.

—Ray Stedman (in 1981)

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us,

looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

–Hebrews 12:1,2

But another, growing problem lies in the fact that “fundamental Christian beliefs and practices are sometimes changed within communities by so-called ‘prophetic actions’ that are based” on a reading of Christianity “not always consonant” with that found in the Bible and in Christian tradition.

While the pope did not offer specific examples, he has in the past questioned Christian communities that have decided to ordain women to the priesthood and episcopacy or to bless homosexual unions and ordain openly gay men and women.

The pope’s concerns obviously extend to the Anglican Communion and its troubled relations with the U.S. Episcopal Church and some dioceses in Canada.

The Anglican Communion is attempting to find ways to strengthen its structures for ensuring that one national member does not take actions that make other members of the communion uncomfortable. At times, bishops have been named to oversee pastoral care of members who do not go along with the changes.

Pope Benedict said it was unfortunate that some church communities have given up “the attempt to act as a unified body, choosing instead to function according to the idea of ‘local options.'”

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Hi. Thanks for posting so much about the Holy Father. I’m home sick with the flu so got to watch a lot of the activities.

It was absolutely transcendent and transforming. It occurred to me that he was talking to US too, those of us who are in ordained ministry. I think he’s done more for spreading the Gospel in these few days than most denominational heads do in a lifetime.

And what of today? Who bears witness to the Good News of Jesus on the streets of New York, in the troubled neighborhoods of large cities, in the places where the young gather, seeking someone in whom they can trust? God is our origin and our destination, and Jesus the way. The path of that journey twists and turns ─ just as it did for our saints ─ through the joys and the trials of ordinary, everyday life: within your families, at school or college, during your recreation activities, and in your parish communities. All these places are marked by the culture in which you are growing up. As young Americans you are offered many opportunities for personal development, and you are brought up with a sense of generosity, service and fairness. Yet you do not need me to tell you that there are also difficulties: activities and mindsets which stifle hope, pathways which seem to lead to happiness and fulfillment but in fact end only in confusion and fear.

My own years as a teenager were marred by a sinister regime that thought it had all the answers; its influence grew ”“ infiltrating schools and civic bodies, as well as politics and even religion ”“ before it was fully recognized for the monster it was. It banished God and thus became impervious to anything true and good. Many of your grandparents and great-grandparents will have recounted the horror of the destruction that ensued. Indeed, some of them came to America precisely to escape such terror.

Let us thank God that today many people of your generation are able to enjoy the liberties which have arisen through the extension of democracy and respect for human rights. Let us thank God for all those who strive to ensure that you can grow up in an environment that nurtures what is beautiful, good, and true: your parents and grandparents, your teachers and priests, those civic leaders who seek what is right and just.

The power to destroy does, however, remain. To pretend otherwise would be to fool ourselves. Yet, it never triumphs; it is defeated.

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God has blessed you with life, and with differing talents and gifts. Through these you are able to serve him and society in various ways. While some people’s contributions seem great and others’ more modest, the witness value of our efforts is always a sign of hope for everyone.

Sometimes it is challenging to find a reason for what appears only as a difficulty to be overcome or even pain to be endured. Yet our faith helps us to break open the horizon beyond our own selves in order to see life as God does. God’s unconditional love, which bathes every human individual, points to a meaning and purpose for all human life. Through his Cross, Jesus in fact draws us into his saving love (cf. Jn 12:32) and in so doing shows us the way ahead – the way of hope which transfigures us all, so that we too, become bearers of that hope and charity for others.

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Pope Benedict XVI continues his tour of the United States on Saturday ”” the third anniversary of his election as pontiff. He began the day with a Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City and then spent the afternoon at a mass rally for young people in Yonkers, N.Y. His opening act? Kelly Clarkson.

Nearly 20,000 young people came to see the pontiff, who urged them to take the liturgy seriously and to have hope in Jesus.

Listen to it all from NPR.

Benedict decried the “splintering” of Christian churches over “so-called ‘prophetic actions’ that are based on a hermeneutic not always consonant with the datum of Scripture and Tradition.” Such actions, he said, cause Christian communities to “give up the attempt to act as a unified body, choosing instead to function according to the idea of ‘local options,'” thus losing their connections to Christians in other times and places. Some, but not all, interpreted that as a veiled reference to controversy in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion.

“I think he did us the honor of giving us a serious address that I think needs to be read and reflected upon,” said New York’s Bishop Mark Sisk. Asked whether he thought Benedict had singled out the Episcopal Church in his remarks, Sisk responded, “It’s possible–but I would be rather surprised. I don’t think he was trying to send shots across the bow at particular churches. I think he spoke in a respectful way and I didn’t see that as a shot at the Episcopal Church.”

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