From here:

Let me get this straight:

A 20-year association with a radically leftist, anti-American, racist preacher whom Obama referred to as a spiritual adviser meant absolutely nothing about Obama’s judgment or philosophy, and illustrated only the bigotry of those who dared criticize it.

A 20-minute association with one of the country’s most well-liked, mainstream evangelical preachers who happens to support traditional marriage cannot be countenanced and illustrates only the bigotry of those who would dare allow it.

Got it.

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“We continue to believe the Division Statute is a violation of the United States and Virginia constitutions because it intrudes into the freedom of the Episcopal Church and other hierarchical churches to organize and govern themselves,” said the Rt. Rev. Peter James Lee, bishop of Virginia. “Within the Episcopal Church, we may have theological disagreements, but those disagreements are ours to resolve according to the rules of our own governance.” Bishop Lee further stated, “We call on the CANA congregation occupying The Falls Church property to drop their claim on the endowment fund, and thus allow The Falls Church Episcopal to use the endowment for desperately needed outreach in the Falls Church area, in line with the original purpose of the fund.”

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(Press release) The judge presiding in the church property trial between the Episcopal Church and eleven former congregations, now affiliated with the Anglican District of Virginia (ADV), ruled in the congregations’ favor today. The final rulings in this case concerned whether four parcels of property owned by the Anglican congregations were covered by the congregations’ Division petitions.

“We welcome these final, favorable rulings in this case. This has been a long process and we are grateful that the court has agreed with us,” said Jim Oakes, vice-chairman of ADV. “It is gratifying to see the court recognize that the true owner of The Historic Falls Church is The Falls Church’s congregation, not the denomination, and that the building is protected by the Division Statute. The Falls Church has held and cared for this property for over 200 years.”
“We hope that The Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Virginia will realize that it is time to stop this legal battle. In these economic times, we should be focused on helping our communities and spreading the Gospel, not spending millions of dollars on ongoing legal battles. The money we have been forced to spend to keep our property from being forcibly taken away from us is money that could have been spent in more productive ways.

“While the judge ruled that issues surrounding The Falls Church Endowment Fund will be heard at a later date, ADV is confident that we will prevail on this last outstanding issue,” Oakes said.

On April 3, 2008, Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Randy Bellows issued a landmark ruling that acknowledged a division within The Episcopal Church, the Diocese of Virginia and the larger Anglican Communion. Judge Bellows affirmed that the Anglican congregations in Virginia could invoke the Virginia Division Statute (Virginia Code § 57-9) in their defense. The Virginia Division Statute states that majority rule should apply when a division in a denomination or diocese results in the disaffiliation of an organized group of congregations. On June 27, 2008, Judge Bellows issued a ruling that confirmed the constitutionality of Virginia Division Statute (Virginia Code § 57-9) under the First Amendment. On August 22, 2008, he issued a ruling that upheld the constitutionality of the Division Statute under the Contracts Clause of the Constitution.

“We hope that the Diocese will reconsider its previous promises to appeal. While we are prepared to continue to defend ourselves, we are ready to put this litigation behind us so we can focus our time, money and effort on the work of the Gospel,” Oakes concluded.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Sometimes it is helpful to state the obvious: as a species, Homo sapiens are not nocturnal animals. If we were exhibited in some intergalactic zoo we would not be housed with the night-foraging creatures. We are a diurnal species. Our eyes are not the wide, round eyes of owls nor even of lemurs, which glean the faintest trace of light in the darkest of nights. Maybe you can remember when you were a child and awoke in the middle of the night. Even a misplaced coat draped over a chair could become a most sinister looking figure. Fear of the night has motivated our race in past ages to devise many kinds of unusual lights. From Kings in Babylon to Kubla Khan, from Alexandria to Rome the human race has constructed search lights, pyres and lighthouses on one continent after another.
Today in our well insulated neighborhoods where lights are just a switch away, we may think we have left behind the primitive night-fears of our ancestors. But are there not times when you get out of your car on a dark street, or walk down a darkened corridor, that some shadowy presence seems to follow or lurk around the next corner? Driving down a winding mountain road at night your head lights suddenly go out, the brake peddle pushes clear to the floor and just as your car careens off into the utter darkness of the canyon you awaken from your dream. Crawling back to consciousness you’re left momentarily feeling your helplessness in the darkness.

Is it any wonder the lights of Advent and Christmas, the flickering of candles and the logs burning in the fireplace bring a heartwarming glow to the lengthening nights of December? The true message of Christmas, however, goes far deeper than this nostalgic glow. Yet light is still at its center. The prologue to John’s gospel echoes down the centuries to human beings still groping and lost in a darkened cosmos”” “In him [Christ] was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:4-5). For John, the darkness is an apt symbol for the presence of evil in the universe, in our civilizations and their systems, and in our personal lives. In Jesus Christ the divine light shines through the darkness of the world as we receive him into our lives. So the gospel continues “”¦the true light that enlightens every one was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not. He came to his own home, and his own people received him not. But to all who received him, who believe in his name, he gave power to become children of God”¦.” (John 1:9-12)

It is this Christ and the luminosity of the life and light he brings into our darkened lives that is the truest meaning of Christmas. It glows long after the Christmas lights come down. To come to this light of the world is always, as William Temple put it, “an act of self-surrender.” On the far side of this self-surrender the light is about hope. Indeed, this hope is our experience and what we are privileged to witness to””for once this self-surrender is initiated it becomes the passion of the follower, the disciple, to bear witness to the light of Christ””his warmth and his illuminating presence which no cosmic darkness can absorb.

My prayers for a bright and radiant Christmastide,

–(The Rt. Rev.) Mark Lawrence is Bishop of South Carolina

President-elect Barack Obama may well be one of the 79 million members of the baby boom generation. But he’s a late-wave boomer, a child of the 1970s — as are half of the two dozen people he’s selected thus far to help him lead the country.

Many of those Obama is bringing to Washington — including his Education secretary, Homeland Security chief, Treasury secretary, United Nations ambassador and Energy czar — came of age in the era of Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.

And their shared experiences offer insights into how they may govern: They tend to be less ideological than early boomers, more respectful of contrary opinions, more pragmatic and a lot less likely to get bogged down by the shibboleths of the 1960s, according to historians, marketers and pollsters.

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A discussion on the sensitive topic has been tabled for the next meeting of the Church of England’s governing body amid fears that some clergy are ignoring their traditional missionary role.

Some members of the General Synod believe Christ ordered all Christians to recruit nonbelievers and followers of other faiths, and they want to see how many bishops and vicars agree with this view.

Among the speakers is likely to be the Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, who earlier this year warned that Church leaders had “gone too far” in their sensitivity towards Muslims and were not doing enough to spread the word of God.

At the end of the debate at next February’s Synod meeting in London, bishops, clergy and lay members will vote on whether bishops should report to the Synod on “their understanding of the uniqueness of Christ in multi-faith Britain”, and give examples of how the gospel should be shared.

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Watch it all. I see in this piece that there will be an extended interview with Rick Warren tonight on Dateline for those interested–KSH.

RAY SUAREZ: Does this choice represent all of American religious thought, Mr. Cromartie?

MICHAEL CROMARTIE, Ethics and Public Policy Center: Oh, no, of course it doesn’t. But what it does say is that — what we need to know about Rick Warren is that he has become sort of the next Billy Graham in our country, sort of America’s pastor.

In fact, I think if Billy Graham’s health was better now, he would probably be the person doing this. But Rick Warren has become that person.

RAY SUAREZ: But it didn’t sound like Harry Knox is too happy about the idea that this might be America’s pastor.

MICHAEL CROMARTIE: No, that’s right. And I would just remind Harry this is not a cabinet appointment. This is an invocation, a short prayer that will be a very nonsectarian prayer.

Rick Warren, by the way, has an amazingly great reputation with ministers of compassion around the world. He’s an incredibly magnanimous man. And I think that President-elect Obama picked him because he likes him personally.

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It is difficult to comprehend how our president-elect, who has been so spot on in nearly every political move and gesture, could fail to grasp the symbolism of inviting an anti-gay theologian to deliver his inaugural invocation. And the Obama campaign’s response to the anger about this decision? Hey, we’re also bringing a gay marching band. You know how the gays love a parade.

Yes, the Rev. Rick Warren, pastor of the humongous, evangelical Saddleback Church in Orange County, Calif., has a sound message on poverty. And certainly, in the world of politics, there is a view that Barack Obama owes Warren for bringing him before fellow evangelicals, despite fierce opposition during the heat of the presidential campaign.

But here’s the other thing about Warren, the author of the bestselling book “The Purpose Driven Life”: He was a general in the campaign to pass California’s Proposition 8, which dissolved the legal marriage rights of loving, committed same-sex couples.

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Faced with rising unemployment and a dismal stock market, consumers are spending less on holiday gifts this year. But the presents they’re buying may say even more about how Americans are coping with the economic slump.

“Christmas is already an introspective time, but it’s become even more so with the economy,” says Ken Nisch, chairman of the retail brand and design firm JGA. “People are re-evaluating Christmas, what’s in their heart and what’s under the tree.”

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Ryan Wampler had never made much money selling his own homes.

Starting in 1999, however, he began to do very well. Three times in eight years, Wampler ”” himself a home builder and developer ”” sold his home in the Phoenix area, always for a nice profit. With prices in Phoenix soaring, he made almost $700,000 on the three sales.

And thanks to a tax break proposed by President Bill Clinton and approved by Congress in 1997, he did not have to pay tax on most of that profit. It was a break that had not been available to generations of Americans before him. The benefits also did not apply to other investments, be they stocks, bonds or stakes in a small business. Those gains were all taxed at rates of up to 20 percent.

The different tax treatments gave people a new incentive to plow ever more money into real estate, and they did so.

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The document has been strongly criticised by the Bishop of Swindon, Dr Lee Rayfield, the Church of England’s spokesman on ethics, for its lack of theological rigour. While expressing understanding of Roman Catholic hesi­tancy over some things, he described it as “very poor” on Wednesday, and expressed concern for the pastoral consequences of any future disen­gagement of the Roman Catholic hierarchy with the issues.

Dr Rayfield said: “From my perspective ”” and I would imagine a large number of other Christians ”” this new communication will come as a disappointment, but not a surprise.

“This instruction fails to engage adequately with the issues raised by assisted reproduction and its associated techniques at a number of levels. It worries me that there are assertions in it, for example about IVF and intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection, which simply do not bear the weight of theological or ethical scrutiny, even from within the absolutist standpoint taken by the Roman Catholic Church.”

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The Sunday service at Durham’s King’s Park International Church features a blast of hymns, gospel and praise music performed live and loud by band members that are as multi-racial as the people in attendance.

The church, one of the Triangle’s most diverse, is a prime example of a trend.

A new study of U.S. religious congregations by a Duke University sociologist shows significant changes in the racial composition of churches within just nine years.

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The Archbishop of Canterbury has surprisingly reignited the row today over the separation of church and state by saying it is “not the end of the world” if the established church were to disappear.

Rowan Williams, the most senior figure in the Church of England, argues that there is a “certain integrity” to a church that was free from state sanctions.

His endorsement of disestablishment comes in an interview published today in this week’s New Statesman.

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One friend suggests his refusal to “speak out” is a reflection of Jesus’s own approach, especially when Christ refused to answer Pontius Pilate’s questions at His trial, as described in Mark’s Gospel. “I think that, again, one of the things the Gospel ought to do is make us question the way we put our questions,” Williams says. “So that, right throughout the ministry of Jesus as well as at His trial, a hostile person sitting there could say, ‘He never gives a straight answer to a straight question: “Do we pay tribute to Caesar?”‘ And Jesus pushes it back and says, ‘What are we really talking about?’ I think it’s always important to ask before we make the snap answer: what are we really talking about?”

Thirty years ago, Rowan Williams had a formative experience in Liverpool that would help define his approach as a churchman and an archbishop. “When I first went to train in a parish in the 1970s, I went to one of the worst council estates in Liverpool for a bit as part of my student experience, and the vicar said to me something I’ve never forgotten: ‘The people here have doors slammed in their face every day of the week. I want to make sure they don’t have another one slammed on the seventh.’ That’s a very central vision for me and that’s what I try to work with.”

It is a vision that helps guide him through the crises threatening his church.

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(Via Email):

New diocese planned for North Texas area

According to Internet announcements, plans are under way for a new Episcopal diocese to be formed in North Central Texas. The sources indicate that an organizing meeting or convention may be held as soon as Feb. 7, 2009. The new diocese is being organized by North Texas Episcopalians who wish to be affiliated with the General Convention of The Episcopal Church. A group known as Steering Committee North Texas Episcopalians is initiating the organizing effort.

The announcement has appeared on the Steering Committee’s Web site and on a site launched by a group leaving St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Arlington. It indicates that the probable conference site is All Saints’ Episcopal School in Fort Worth, and that the organizers hope TEC Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori will be present to preside.

Fr. Christopher Jambor, rector of All Saints’ parish in Fort Worth, is named as the head of the organizing committee. The business of the meeting is expected to be the adoption of a constitution and canons for the new diocese, as well as the election of founding officers.

It was not immediately clear how many conferees will participate in the event, how they will be selected, or what congregations or other groups they will represent.

Rio Vista has cut a third of its city workers and slashed its recreation budget to $29,000 from about $250,000. The city is looking into selling more than 100 acres of its land for revenue. Since July 2007, Rio Vista has cut $1 million from its $7 million budget but still faces an $800,000 shortfall. “The fact we are a small town makes it more difficult to handle this slide we are on,” says Rio Vista Mayor Jan Vick.

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The White House said on Thursday that an “orderly” bankruptcy was one option being considered to try to rescue General Motors and Chrysler, which are seeking billions of dollars to avoid a shutdown.

President Bush’s spokeswoman, Dana Perino, confirmed growing speculation within legal circles that the president and Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. were considering the step as part of an overall rescue package for the automobile industry.

The action would be unusual, and would require concessions by the United Automobile Workers union, suppliers, investment banks, the federal pension board, bondholders and other stakeholders in the two auto companies.

Ford Motor, which does not face an urgent need for capital, is not likely to be part of any rescue package.

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Once upon a time, the Anglican Church was a powerful presence in the U.S.A.­ known as the Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A. or more recently as The Episcopal Church.­ It claimed a large percentage of the population (16% in 1789) and an even larger representation among the leaders of our great nation.

The language of its liturgy shaped much of our culture and its cathedrals and churches were a witness to the community. Today however, it is wracked with internal conflict, shrinking numbers (less than three-tenths of one percent of Americans regularly worship in Episcopal Churches) and is known more for its rejection of biblical authority and its willingness to litigate against its own clergy and congregations than for its passion for Christ. But that isn’t the end of the story.

A growing number of Anglican Christians have realized that they cannot continue down this path. On December 3, as the Bishop of CANA (the Convocation of Anglicans in North America) I joined the bishops and representatives of 14 other Anglican dioceses and networks to introduce the provisional constitution of a new Anglican Church in North America.

We are making a new start. This new Church already represents more than 700 congregations across the nation with a diverse leadership that is committed to the centrality of Christ and the trustworthiness of the Bible as we seek to live out our faith in an authentic way.

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