Hey I admit it, since we have three dogs I am biased. But this is a wonderfully uplifting piece–watch it all.

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Watch it all.

I will take comments on this submitted by email only to at KSHarmon[at]mindspring[dot]com.

The global financial crash is an opportunity for Christian witness in a fallen world, the Primate of the West Indies has said. Speaking to the 108th synod of the Diocese of the Bahamas on Oct 26 at Christ Church Cathedral in Nassau, Archbishop Drexel Gomez said “the short-term difficulties that now confront us may be God’s means of illuminating the silver lining which is now ours to grasp.”

The senior primate of the Anglican Communion, Archbishop Gomez steps down from office on Dec 31. In his final diocesan synod address he called upon lawmakers to forge a common front against the economic slump.

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Clergy and congregants from more than 40 states gathered in front of the Department of Treasury on Tuesday to pray for Secretary Henry Paulson and members of Congress to put an end to the home foreclosure crisis.

PICO, a network of faith-based community organizations that helps provide affordable housing, is demanding that the Treasury require all banks receiving a chunk of the federal bailout package to adopt systematic loan modifications that could keep 2 million people from losing their homes, they said.

“We want them to look at the bigger picture. Don’t just look at Wall Street, look at Main Street. Look at the man next door who is working hard and really paying taxes,” said Marvin Webb, the assistant pastor of Peniel Full Gospel Baptist Church in El Sobrante, Calif. “We are asking the secretary and Congress to keep people in their homes.”

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For millions of years, invisible streams of water have run deep in the earth below Manhattan at a constant temperature of 65 degrees, a source of energy that seems beyond exhaustion ”” and beyond reach. But eight months ago, a seminary in Chelsea began to pump water from those streams to heat its buildings in the winter and cool them in the summer.

“It’s forever noiseless, forever pollution-less, forever carbon-free,” said Maureen Burnley, the executive vice president of the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church.

For the seminary, and now about 60 other places in Manhattan, the unseen bounty of the earth is being harvested by geothermal pumps. Manhattan is geologically suited for these deep wells. From a depth of 1,500 to 1,800 feet, the pumps deliver the consistently moderate temperatures of underground water to the surface, where it works like a refrigerant. It carries energy.

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Almighty God, by whose grace thy servant Elizabeth of Hungary recognized and honored Jesus in the poor of this world: Grant that we, following her example, may with love and gladness serve those in any need or trouble, in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

Paralysed after being attacked by neo-Nazis, Noel Martin is planning a trip to Switzerland to commit suicide. Here, disabled broadcaster Liz Carr, who met Noel for a BBC Radio 5 Live report, writes an open letter urging him to think again.

Dear Noel,

Having met you last week, I felt the need to write and continue our discussion about your decision to end your life soon. I don’t write this as someone with strong religious or pro-life views but as another disabled person, who like you uses a wheelchair, who became disabled and who needs round-the-clock assistance in their life.

Noel, is your life really not worth living?

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Florida’s public employee pension plan has lost more than a quarter of its peak value, but Gov. Charlie Crist and other officials Monday said the fund is built for the long haul and there’s no need to panic.

They said Florida has fared no worse than most big investors — a bit better than some major Wall Street indicators — due to slumps in the stock market, real estate and other segments of the national and world economies.

The fund, which covers state and local government employees including teachers, lost $37.9 billion — 27 percent — over 13 months through Oct. 31, said Dennis MacKee, spokesman for the State Board of Administration. That dropped its value to $100.5 billion.

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Two great English Cardinals, the Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801-1890) and Cardinal Reginald Pole (1500-1558), the last Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury appointed by the Holy See, were commemorated in Oxford during the evening of Monday November 17 2008.

A memorable and ecumenical reception and dinner was hosted by Oriel College to mark the completion of the publication of The Letters and Diaries of John Henry Newman, described by scholars as the greatest collection of letters of its kind in the English language.

The series was begun by Fr Stephen Dessain, the distinguished Newman scholar and a member of Cardinal Newman’s Birmingham Oratory, during the late 1950s. Volume Xl, the first in the series to be published, and covering the start of Newman’s Catholic years, was published during 1961. Volume XXXII, the last to be published, appeared on October 9 this year, the anniversary of Newman’s reception into the Catholic Church in 1845.

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Watch it all–makes the heart glad.

When a 15-year-old comes into Wile-e’s bar looking for a cold beer, the bartender, Mike Whaley, is happy to serve it up ”” as long as a parent is there to give permission.

“If they’re 15, 16, 17, it’s fine if they want to sit down and have a few beers,” said Mr. Whaley, who owns the tavern in this small town in southern Wisconsin.

While it might raise some eyebrows in most of America, it is perfectly legal in Wisconsin. Minors can drink alcohol in a bar or restaurant in Wisconsin if they are accompanied by a parent or legal guardian who gives consent. While there is no state law setting a minimum age, bartenders can use their discretion in deciding whom to serve.

When it comes to drinking, it seems, no state keeps pace with Wisconsin. This state, long famous for its breweries, has led the nation in binge drinking in every year since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began its surveys on the problem more than a decade ago. Binge drinking is defined as five drinks in a sitting for a man, four for a woman.

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The formation of this new “province” appears to be a fait accompli. It will presumably provide formal stability for the congregations and their plants who have left TEC and the Anglican Church of Canada, as well as some kind of more easily grasped relationship with some other parts of the Anglican Communion. It is important to note, however, that such a new grouping will also not solve the problems of traditional Anglicans in North America , and that it will pose new problems to the Communion as a whole. As a member of the Covenant Design Group, committed to a particular work of providing a new framework for faithful communion life in Christ among Anglicans, I want to be clear about how the pressing forward of this new grouping within its stated terms poses some serious problems….

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The MTA’s doomsday budget will wipe out the W line, zap the Z line and ax more than 1,500 NYC Transit jobs, the Daily News has learned.

The list of bus and subway cuts the Metropolitan Transportation Authority will unveil at its monthly board meeting Thursday is extensive and potentially bruising, sources said.

Riders can expect longer waits, more-crowded rides and having to make additional transfers to get to their destinations if the draconian moves are put into effect.

“Oh, this is not good,” said Gladeys Loaiza, a housekeeper from Queens who rides the W train. “When I get on in the morning, I can’t sit now. What’s it going to be like when the W train is gone?”

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From 2005:

Ken Pool is making good money. On weekdays, he shows up at 7 a.m. at Ford Motor Co.’s Michigan Truck Plant in Wayne, signs in, and then starts working — on a crossword puzzle. Pool hates the monotony, but the pay is good: more than $31 an hour, plus benefits.

“We just go in and play crossword puzzles, watch videos that someone brings in or read the newspaper,” he says. “Otherwise, I’ve just sat.”

Pool is one of more than 12,000 American autoworkers who, instead of installing windshields or bending sheet metal, spend their days counting the hours in a jobs bank set up by Detroit automakers and Delphi Corp. as part of an extraordinary job security agreement with the United Auto Workers union.

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By making it so expensive to keep paying idled workers, the UAW thought Detroit automakers would avoid layoffs. By discouraging layoffs, the union thought it could prevent outsourcing.

That strategy has worked but at the expense of the domestic auto industry’s long-term viability

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ANiC Bishop Donald Harvey said he hopes that the draft of the new province’s constitution, which is scheduled to be made public in Chicago on Dec. 3, could be discussed at the primates’ meeting in Alexandria, Egypt in February.

Although the Common Cause Partnership only represents about 100,000 Anglicans (3,000 in Canada) ”“ those who have left the Anglican Church of Canada and the Episcopal Church in the U.S. largely over blessing same-sex unions and the ordination of an openly gay bishop ”“ ANiC leaders are confident that the support of conservative primates who represent about 40 million Anglicans in the Global South means that their proposal will have to be taken seriously. “I think the GAFCON [Global Anglican Future Conference] primates are the ones that would push for it for us. They have already indicated they would,” said Bishop Harvey. “It may take longer than we’re hoping simply because of procedural things, but if it goes before the primates and we get even a qualified sense [of acceptance], it would be progress,” he said.

Bishop Harvey warned of dire consequences for the global communion if the primates reject the idea of the new province in Egypt. “Then it goes to the GAFCON primates, and it could be anything after that point ¬”“ it really could,” he said. “I think it would be painful and cause decisions to be made that would be unfortunate for the communion as a whole. It would cause more fragmentation.”

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Read it all.