In my view a painfully accurate analysis.

The greening of religion, although long overdue, is really a quite natural phenomenon. The texts of many faiths, indeed most, at some point reference the stewardship of this earth. More surprising is that today, secular environmental groups are seizing the opportunity to reach out to faith communities.

A Sierra Club report highlights faith-based environmental initiatives in all 50 states “spiritually motivated grassroots efforts to protect the planet.” One line leaps off the page: “Lasting social change rarely takes place without the active engagement of communities of faith.” Indeed. Think of the U.S. civil rights movement, Solidarity in Poland and the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. Social change does not stick without the glue of religion.

But as these two movements one based on the love of God, the other on the love of the earth intersect, we should celebrate the initiative while remaining aware of the challenges and inevitable spats that await this quite remarkable marriage.

Read it all.

Never has a financial crisis focused so starkly on moral, ethical and even spiritual issues. The words used by commentators have run the gamut of emotions: greed, dishonesty and fear, panic replacing confidence, risk and hubris versus prudence, and faith in the banking system or lack of it. Never have the virtues of trust and integrity been more needed in the global economy.

The whole edifice was built on maximising profit, and a dishonest assessment of individual borrowers’ creditworthiness. It was bound to end in tears, and now millions pay the price in increased taxes and unemployment. Despite the pain, it may all be healthy in the long run. The crisis is a chance to re-examine fundamental motives; and to ask how capitalism at its best is supposed to work. Where is our faith place? In markets and profit? Or in something deeper?

Read it all.

OSAMA bin Laden is planning an attack against the United States that will “outdo by far” September 11, an Arab newspaper in London has reported.

And according to a former senior Yemeni al-Qaeda operative, the terrorist organisation has entered a “positive phase”, reinforcing specific training camps around the world that will lead the next “wave of action” against the West.

The warning, on the front page of an Arabic newspaper published in London, Al-Quds Al-Arabi – and widely reported in the major Italian papers – quotes a person described as being “very close to al-Qaeda” in Yemen.

Read it all.

The Anglican Church of Canada, looking for a new way to reach the faithful, has launched its own official page on the popular social networking site Facebook.

“It’s an exciting new step for us,” Brian Bukowski, Web manager for the church, told the Anglican Journal.

“We’ve been waiting for the right time to step into social networking, and Facebook is so well established at this point. We know our page can be effective there.”

Read it all.

[The Rev. John] Spencer said the church recognizes the decision was not unanimous. By a separate action, the synod made provisions for a nine-month grace period during which members can withdraw from the diocese in order to stay in the national Episcopal Church.

“It is a matter of allowing everyone to follow their consciences in these very difficult times, without recrimination,” Spencer said.

The Rev. John Throop, a local Episcopalian minister, said he anticipated the breakaway and transferred to the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago last year for that reason. Throop does not consider himself an extreme liberal, but he said his new diocese is more accepting of his point of view.

“I’m grieved that it has come to this, but I knew it was coming, and there was nothing I could do to persuade leaders to think otherwise,” Throop said. “I pray for God’s grace to be with them.”

Read it all.

Emily Becker wanted to be married by age 30. In June, at age 28, she and Joe Becker, 29, were married. They were the last of their group to tie the knot.

Even though they began dating in 2003 ”” around the same time as most of their friends ”” “it took us almost twice as long to get married,” she says. “We both knew we wanted to marry each other. We just kept having to put it off.”

he reason? Careers. Both are doctors. They spent four years in medical school. Three years of residency were in different cities. They got engaged in October of last year and now live in San Francisco.

“If we had been together in the same city, I think maybe we would have married sooner,” he says.

Read it all.

Just over a year ago, in that Consecration service, I stood at the chancel steps of this Cathedral and answered the questions posed to me by our Metropolitan, Caleb Lawrence. I had no idea then, just how two of those promises would need to be held in such a state of tension in this early stage of my episcopacy: “Will you boldly proclaim and interpret the gospel of Christ, enlightening the minds and stirring up the conscience of your people?” and “Will you share with your fellow bishops in the government of the whole church ”¦?”

Over the past several months, I have endeavoured to prayerfully and faithfully wrestle with these two critical duties of a bishop in the Church and at times dealing with the issue of the blessing of same sex unions has felt like a monumental task and a heavy burden to bear. How do I keep in balance the responsibility I feel toward those who have elected me as their bishop, while at the same time remaining faithful and loyal to the members of our National Church and the Anglican Communion? So many times I have prayed for the wisdom of Solomon around this issue and I continue to wait upon God for a more complete answer.

However my faithful attempt to respond to this responsibility and challenge has now been made public, on Monday in the form of my response to the Statement of the House of Bishops and my more detailed release yesterday that outlines our next steps as we move forward. I am fully aware that some on both sides of the issue will see this as a lack of wise leadership on my part and I accept that. Having consulted as widely as possible, across our own diocese, across our country, at the House of Bishops (including many discussions with our Primate), and of course at Lambeth, I believe that I have come to a better understanding of what is at stake and what the implications are of the decisions we make at this critical period in the history of our Church. There is time set aside on tomorrow’s agenda for me to hear directly from members of synod in response to these announcements.

Read it all.

This was a decisive but not an overwhelming victory for Barack Obama and the Democrats. As I put it in the lead of my U.S. News column for next week, it was a victory that was overdetermined and underdelivered.

Read it all.

Uh oh. We all know where this leads. American myths are seductively powerful: You really want to believe them. Yes, it’s an incontestably wonderful thing that the U.S. public, saddled for two centuries with an appalling history of slavery and its legacy, has voted a biracial man into the most powerful office in the country.

But if racism was America’s original sin, arrogance runs a close second. Some time next year, the United States is going to wake up and realize much of the world already hated it way before George W. Bush took office, and hates it still. (Anyone who has backpacked around Europe with a Canadian flag realizes this.) And with these sorts of prideful comments, the U.S. is in danger of becoming the reformed smoker of race relations, lecturing every other country about civil rights.

While the pride is understandable, it’s a tad misplaced. Black men were granted suffrage in 1870. It took another 50 years for women to receive the vote, and the U.S. has yet to elect a woman to the highest office, while dozens of countries including India, Israel, Britain, New Zealand and Germany have all been governed by women who were democratically elected. (Kim Campbell sort of counts, too.) Hell, even Ukraine’s prime minister is a woman.

Important to hear perspectives from north of the border–especially in a time like this. Read it all.

As is the case with our brother and sister Anglicans in the Dioceses of Montreal and Ottawa, I believe we are among those who have been called by God to speak with a prophetic voice on this subject. I, therefore, intend to ask for a rite to be developed for the blessing of same sex couples who have been civilly married, along with a process to enable these blessings to take place that will at the same time honour the diversity of tradition and theology that exists across Niagara.

It is my hope that this process would move ahead as expeditiously as possible and that I will be in a position to report back to the Diocese within the next few months.
I want to assure you and be absolutely clear, that all clergy and all parishes will be fully free to follow their own conscience in this matter, as and when we are able to move forward.

Read it all.

The United States military since 2004 has used broad, secret authority to carry out nearly a dozen previously undisclosed attacks against Al Qaeda and other militants in Syria, Pakistan and elsewhere, according to senior American officials.

These military raids, typically carried out by Special Operations forces, were authorized by a classified order that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld signed in the spring of 2004 with the approval of President George W. Bush, the officials said. The secret order gave the military new authority to attack the Qaeda terrorist network anywhere in the world, and a more sweeping mandate to conduct operations in countries not at war with the United States.

In 2006, for example, a Navy Seal team raided a suspected militants’ compound in the Bajaur region of Pakistan, according to a former top official of the Central Intelligence Agency. Officials watched the entire mission ”” captured by the video camera of a remotely piloted Predator aircraft ”” in real time in the CIA’s Counterterrorist Center at the agency’s headquarters in Virginia 7,000 miles away.

Read it all.

U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown will call on governments around the world to coordinate tax and spending policies to shore up a slowing world economy.

“We must use the power of multilateralism to establish a global consensus on a new, decisive and systemic approach to strengthening the global economy,” Brown will say today, according to a text released by his office. After committing more than $3 trillion to bail out the banking system, governments must now turn to “international co-ordination of fiscal and monetary policy,” he will say.

Brown’s comments, to be made in a speech to London’s banking community, set out the U.K.’s position going into a meeting of world leaders in Washington Nov. 15. A coordinated program to trim taxes and boost spending would give Brown political cover to allow Britain’s budget deficit to swell when the Treasury announces its plans in coming weeks.

Read it all.

Israeli police rushed into one of Christianity’s holiest churches Sunday and arrested two clergyman after an argument between monks erupted into a brawl next to the site of Jesus’ tomb.

The clash between Armenian and Greek Orthodox monks broke out in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, revered as the site of Jesus’ crucifixion, burial and resurrection.

Makes the heart sad–read it all.

The following is the originally proposed Resolution of Policy on Same-Gender Blessings:

RESOLVED, That the Diocese of Oregon supports the full and equal participation of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered persons in all rites and rituals of the Episcopal Church and the blessing of same-gender unions by the clergy who wish to provide such blessings. Clergy deciding as a matter of conviction not to perform same-gender blessings are asked to refer couples seeking such blessings to clergy who choose to provide this pastoral ministry.

Explanation

By adopting this resolution the Diocese:

”¢ Takes action consistent with The Episcopal Church’s position “that homosexual persons are children of God who have a full and equal claim with other persons upon the love, acceptance and pastoral concern and care of the Church.” (General Convention 1976-A069)

”¢ Encourages full and equal pastoral response to all couples (whether of the same or opposite genders) as a matter of conscience and integrity, including appropriate preparation and education about the responsibilities of entering into a life-long, intentional, Christian relationship, mindful of the teaching that “such relationships be characterized by fidelity, monogamy, mutual affection and respect, careful, honest communication and the holy love which enables those in such relations to see in each other the image of God.” (General Convention 2000-D039).

”¢ Affirms the Christian community’s participation in supporting couples as they live out their holy commitments to each other.

Implications/Financial Impact

Adopting this resolution has no impact on expenditures by the Diocese.

””Respectfully submitted by the dean and vestry of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral to the Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Oregon.

Resolutions Committee Statement

The committee decision was to adhere to General Convention moratorium on public rite of blessing of same-gender unions. To be incongruent with that position will cause divisiveness at a time when unity and cohesiveness is most desirable in the Diocese. The Committee therefore recommends a “do not pass.”

(Please note that the resolutions committee recommended against the motion in its originally proposed form; this and one other proposed resolution and a canon change submission may be found here–KSH).

According to an email received the following is the resolution that actually passed:

Resolution of Policy on Same-Gender Blessings
November 2008

RESOLVE[D], that the Diocese of Oregon meeting in November 2008 in its 120th Convention recognizes in accordance with General Convention Resolution C051 (2003), that local faith communities are operating within the bounds of our common life when they explore and experience liturgies celebrating and blessing same-gender unions, and

RESOLVE[D], that the Diocese direct the Convocations under the guidance of the Standing Committee to provide opportunities for full dialogue regarding access to, and equal participation of all God’s people who are members of our Church, including those who are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered, in all the rites and sacraments of the Episcopal Church, to include access to blessings of relationships and unions that are based on mutual love and respect, fidelity, monogamy, and a mutual life-long commitment, and

RESOLVE[D], that the Convocation Presidents and Deans work together cooperatively to assure that these issues are discussed fully at specially called or regularly scheduled Convocation meetings that take place beginning with the conclusion of Convention 2008 and before the commencement of Convention 2009, and

RESOLVE[D], that the Presidents and Deans of the Convocations of the Diocese will work together to develop a report on the results of the Convocation dialogues, and based on this report will develop recommendations to Standing Committee and Convention on how the Diocese of Oregon might proceed to support the clergy as they strive to respond pastorally to the needs of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people, as children of God.

Here is one:

R08-4
Development of Liturgical Rites for Same-Gender Unions

Resolved: This 102nd Annual Council of the Diocese of Atlanta approves the following resolution to the 76th General Convention of The Episcopal Church, meeting in Anaheim, California, in 2009; and be it further

Resolved: This council directs the Secretary of Council to transmit the following resolution to the Secretary of the General Convention:

Resolved: The House of __________ concurring, the 76th General Convention of The Episcopal Church authorizes the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music to develop appropriate rites for the celebration and blessing of the sacred unions of gay and lesbian persons, taking into account the variety of civil arrangements for such unions available in the regions served by the church; and be it further

Resolved: that such rite or rites shall be presented at the 77th General Convention of the Episcopal Church.
EXPLANATION

In light of events following the Lambeth Conference of 2008, it is clear that our charitable restraint and response to the Windsor Report in the matter of our declining to develop a rite or rites to allow the celebration and blessing of sacred unions for people of the same gender has not had the effect of preserving unity and civility between those who believe such unions may be good and moral and those who cannot conceive as such a possibility being within the bounds of Christian faith and the Anglican Tradition. It is also clear that while a great many Episcopalians remain undecided about their own beliefs in these matters, they recognize both the desirability of allowing those who seek to make such commitments in the midst of their community of faith to do so; and that the reality that the cost of our charity has been at the expense of one clear minority within our church; and further that there is no compelling reason that these brothers and sisters should have to continue to bear the burden of that charity.

The development of such a rite or rites by and for the whole church will allow a restoration of decency and order from diocese to diocese under the guidance of each bishop, the ensuring of theological integrity to such rites and the capacity of the church to “sanction” and declare such committed relationships among people of the same gender to be both moral and fully within the bounds of our common life.

Submitted by: The Rev. Geoffrey M. St.J. Hoare, The Rev. Charles M. Girardeau,
The Rev. Noelle York-Simmons, The Rev. Elizabeth Shows Caffey
All Saints’, Atlanta

Please do read them all.

This is one hell of a way to win.

Barack Obama owes his victory in large measure to the prospect of the longest and deepest economic downturn in a quarter-century and perhaps since the Great Depression. If he performs well, he could become a great president. If he flubs it, he could get the same reception as Jimmy Carter. In the crassest political terms, it was good luck to have the financial crisis hit so close to the election. But Obama’s lucky streak will end in a hurry if he can’t find a way out of this mess. He will also have to manage expectations: Even if he does everything perfectly, we probably won’t turn the corner for 18 months, and the downturn could last far longer than that.

Read it all.

[Archbishop Fred] Hiltz is under no illusions about the challenges facing the Canadian Anglican church.

“We’re in the midst of a period of major transition, which is never an easy time for a lot of people,” said Hiltz.

“I think there is a real longing from a lot of Anglicans to come to a resolution of the same-sex blessings debate. It’s nothing new; we’ve been grappling with this issue for 30 years.”
The national church has recommended a moratorium on same-sex blessings for two years, until the matter can hopefully be resolved once and for all at the general synod meeting in June 2010. However, a number of dioceses, most notably New Westminster in the greater Vancouver area, have approved same-sex blessings.

Hiltz says the key to the survival of the Canadian Anglican church may be to agree to disagree.

“I don’t think we may ever be able to come to a consensus on this issue,” said Hiltz.

“It may come down to allowing some space for local options. Then, we need to address the bigger issue of how do we live together with our differences, but do it with grace, not by condemning each other.”

Read it all.

I am rubbing my eyes in disbelief and wonder. It can’t be true that Barack Obama, the son of a Kenyan, is the next president of the United States.

But it is true, exhilaratingly true. An unbelievable turnaround. I want to jump and dance and shout, as I did after voting for the first time in my native South Africa on April 27, 1994.

We owe our glorious victory over the awfulness of apartheid in South Africa in large part to the support we received from the international community, including the United States, and we will always be deeply grateful. But for those of us who have looked to America for inspiration as we struggled for democracy and human rights, these past seven years have been lean ones.

Read it all.

Dr. Bouteneff: Many times, you have reminded ecumenical gatherings of the important witness Orthodox Christians make in the theological, moral, and ethical spheres. Do you believe that ecumenical dialogue holds promise?

Bp. Hilarion: After more than thirteen years of intensive ecumenical involvement I can declare my profound disappointment with the existing forms of “official” ecumenism as represented by the World Council of Churches, the Conference of European Churches and other similar organizations. My impression is that they have exhausted their initial potential. Theologically they lead us nowhere. They produce texts that, for the most part, are pale and uninspiring. The reason for this is that these organizations include representatives of a wide variety of churches, from the most “conservative” to the most “liberal.” And the diversity of views is so great that they cannot say much in common except for a polite and politically correct talk about “common call to unity,” “mutual commitment” and “shared responsibility.”

I see that there is now a deep-seated discrepancy between those churches which strive to preserve the Holy Tradition and those that constantly revise it to fit modern standards. This divergence is as evident at the level of religious teaching, including doctrine and ecclesiology, as it is at the level of church practice, such as worship and morality.

In my opinion, the recent liberalization of teaching and practice in many Protestant communities has greatly alienated them from both the Orthodox and the Roman Catholics. It has also undermined the common Christian witness to the secularized world. The voice of Christendom is nowadays deeply disunited: we preach contradictory moral standards, our doctrinal positions are divergent, and our social perspectives vary a great deal. One wonders whether we can still speak at all of “Christianity” or whether it would be more accurate to refer to “Christianities,” that is to say, markedly diverse versions of the Christian faith.

Under these circumstances I am not optimistic about the dialogue with the Protestant communities. I am also far less optimistic about the Anglican-Orthodox dialogue than my beloved teacher Metropolitan Kallistos Ware. In my opinion, the only two promising ecumenical dialogues are between the Orthodox and the Roman Catholics, and between the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox families. While there are well-known theological differences between these three traditions, there is also very much in common: we all believe in Christ as fully human and fully divine, we all uphold the apostolic succession of hierarchy and de facto recognize each others’ sacraments.

Read it all.

Following the unexpected resignation of Quincy Bishop Keith Ackerman, which was effective November 1, the synod convened without a sitting bishop. The Rev. Canon Edward den Blaauwen, rector of Christ Church, Moline, and a member of the Standing Committee, was appointed to preside at Synod’s business meetings.

At the opening session of the synod on November 7, which was closed to the public, Spencer reported that Ackerman was on hand to ceremonially “pass the gavel” to den Blaauwen.

Following the votes to realign, a letter was read from Archbishop Gregory Venables, primate of the Southern Cone, in which he reported that he had appointed den Blaauwen as Vicar General of the new diocesan unit, in the absence of a sitting bishop.

Den Blaauwen who also serves as executive administrator for Forward in Faith North America, of which Ackerman is president, attended the Global Anglican Futures Conference in June. He also accompanied Ackerman to the Lambeth Conference this past summer.

Spencer noted that no plans have yet been made for a search for a new bishop.

“Our focus has been entirely about just getting through this synod for now,” he said.

Read it all.

I sometimes wonder what life in the church would be like if we had never ever developed the concept of winning and losing. In many of the great controversies that face the church at the moment, and Lord knows there are enough of those, many of those controversies it seems to me increasingly clear that nobody’s going to win. In other words, there is not going to be a situation of sublime clarity in which one group’s views will prevail because the other group simply says, ‘Oh I see it all now.’ But if we’re not in the business of winning and losing like that, what does the church look like? What if we were sufficiently unafraid, (and there’s a key word) sufficiently unafraid to be able to put winning and losing on the back burner, to move away from the notion that my triumph is another’s loss. What if we were able to think of the health of the Christian community in terms of our ability or otherwise, our freedom or otherwise, to connect one another with the wellsprings of reconciliation. Let me go back to a phrase I used a bit earlier: ‘Sin is healed by solidarity’.

The monks of the desert were looking for solitude, but not isolation. A good deal of research has been done in the last couple of decades on the importance of community to these people. And the way in which time and again in the narratives and the sayings that stem from them, time and again point is reinforced. Only in the relations they have with one another can the love and the mercy of God appear and become effective. And those mutual relations have to do with that identification, that solidarity, that willingness to stand with the accused and the condemned. And somehow it’s in that action that the real healing occurs. Prayers and fasting, sleepless nights and asceticism, well various of the fathers take varying views of it. Most of them are rather sceptical about how significant that is. But if you are able in some sense, to take away what in you stands between God and the neighbour, then your own healing, as well as the other person’s healing, is set forward.

So asceticism is not simply about loading your body with chains, spending 30 years on top of a pillar, sleeping two hours a night, or whatever, or even working for a merchant bank, it’s about learning to contain that aspect of acquisitive human instinct that drives us constantly to compete and to ignore what’s around us.

Asceticism is a purification of seeing. It’s not a self-punishment, but a way of opening the eyes.

Dated, bit still of interest. Read it all.

Proposition 8 has passed, denying to some the right enjoyed by other citizens in California, the right to marry. Now, the central question for the courts to decide is: Are gays in California equal, or can members of certain churches declare them constitutionally inferior?

The approval of a constitutional ban on gay marriage raises troubling but age-old issues concerning the lines between religion and government. Before the founders of our country separated church and state, there were hundreds of years of turmoil caused by one religion dominating the government and using it against nonbelievers.

In the aftermath of Tuesday’s vote, do gays and lesbians in California have a reason to believe that they have been abused, discriminated against and relegated to a separate-but-equal status?

Yes, and that’s why this fight is far from over.

Read it all.

Nuclear power plants smaller than a garden shed and able to power 20,000 homes will be on sale within five years, say scientists at Los Alamos, the US government laboratory which developed the first atomic bomb.

The miniature reactors will be factory-sealed, contain no weapons-grade material, have no moving parts and will be nearly impossible to steal because they will be encased in concrete and buried underground.

The US government has licensed the technology to Hyperion, a New Mexico-based company which said last week that it has taken its first firm orders and plans to start mass production within five years. ‘Our goal is to generate electricity for 10 cents a watt anywhere in the world,’ said John Deal, chief executive of Hyperion. ‘They will cost approximately $25m [£13m] each. For a community with 10,000 households, that is a very affordable $250 per home.’

Read it all.

The Most Reverend Benjamin Nzimbi, the Primate and Archbishop has created a profile that will linger on long after he has left the ACK hierarchy.

To many people, the Bishop of All Saints Cathedral is a man of many faces. His voice was full of pain and compassion when he joined other clergymen in calling for peace following chaos that rocked the country after the disputed national elections early this year.

Yet, he was forthright and uncompromising when he stated the church’s stand against the ordination of gay bishops in the church. He has never shied away from calling on the Government officials to be more accountable in discharging their services to the citizenry.

Yet away from the glare of the cameras and the pulpit, Nzimbi, is a simple man, who loves eating fish and ugali with his hands, forget modern cutlery.

This, he says is how people ought to see him.

Read it all.

When people talk about the ongoing tumult in the stock market, they typically blame investors’ lack of information. There’s the uncertainty about the future state of the economy. There’s the confusion about what the government will do next with its ever-changing bailout program. And there’s the mystery of what the mortgage-backed securities clogging bank balance sheets are really worth. Yet, even with all these lurking unknowns, investors have far more information today than ever before. Your ordinary day trader, if any of those still exist, enjoys far greater access to economic and market data than men like J. P. Morgan did when they were running Wall Street. But this information isn’t necessarily making investors, or the market, any smarter. In fact, what may be driving the market crazy of late is that it knows too much.

The problem isn’t so much the never-ending stream of surveys, studies, and statistics””retail sales, housing prices, consumer confidence, unemployment claims, and so on. These numbers, though of varying accuracy and usefulness, at least offer a picture of what’s happening in the economy””which is, in the long run, the fundamental driver of stock prices. The real problem is that investors are also deluged with another data stream; namely, all the trading information from the world’s many markets, which gives them a constant, noisy, and often misleading impression of what other investors are thinking.

Read it all.