A majority of Charleston County teachers surveyed say they don’t feel valued by the school district, evidence of a serious morale problem among those on the front lines of education.

The Charleston Teacher Alliance, a teacher advocacy group, asked its roughly 1,000 members to answer questions related to the start of this school year, and 845 responded. About 3,500 teachers work for the district.

The new survey revealed that 60 percent of teachers who responded don’t feel valued by the school district while 76 percent think the district views them as expendable. The alliance represents a large group of teachers, but district leaders don’t respond to their requests or seem to hear their feedback, said Kent Riddle, chairman of the alliance and a kindergarten teacher at Angel Oak Elementary.

“They need to start listening to teachers,” he said. “It feels like we’re being ignored.

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Clergy and lay representatives from seven dioceses in The Episcopal Church, as well as six bishops with Episcopal jurisdiction, met in Charleston, S.C. on November 3-4, 2009 to consider ways they might assist each other in more effectively reaching their communities and the world for Christ. More specifically, in keeping with General Convention resolution B030, which encouraged domestic Dioceses within The Episcopal Church to enter into missional relationship, this meeting encouraged the dioceses to consider what resources they can share with each other and work more closely to further the Gospel mission. Evangelizing and reaching the unchurched; catechizing and discipling the converted; assisting members in generational faithfulness; renewing, strengthening and growing existing parishes; and planting new congregations to reach their communities with the Gospel were the areas of greatest interest.

To this end, through the work of some of the Communion Partner bishops and rectors, along with others, these Dioceses in Missional Relationships will begin by hosting two initiatives for the purpose of encouraging and equipping missionally focused dioceses, congregations and individuals through:

1. Establishing a website for sharing resources and networking for ministry and mission. It is their intention to have this ministry-networking initiative functioning in an initial stage during Epiphany 2010; and,
2. Sponsoring a large venue three day event in Dallas, September 23””25, 2010. This event will be for the purpose of encouraging, empowering, emboldening and equipping missionally focused individuals, congregations and dioceses, as well as providing resources to assist each other to be more effective in reaching their communities for Christ and his Church.

Dioceses presently involved in this Gospel initiative are Albany, Central Florida, Dallas, North Dakota, South Carolina, Springfield, and Western Louisiana.

“Norman Borlaug probably saved more lives than any single person in the history of the world. He probably improved the way more people live than any one in the history of the world.”

—Michael Specter yesterday on NPR (In case you missed it, we covered Norman Borlaug earlier on the blog–KSH)

As two former Episcopal dioceses hold conventions this weekend, they are beginning to incorporate congregations from across the nation.

The Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh will vote on welcoming Harvest Anglican Church, Homer City, Pa.; Church of the Transfiguration, Cleveland, Ohio; HolyTrinityChurch, Raleigh, N.C.; and St. James Church, San Jose, Calif.

The Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth (Southern Cone) plans to receive St. Gabriel’s Anglican Church, Springdale, Ark., as a new mission station. It also will welcome two existing parishes: St. Matthias’ Anglican Church, Dallas; and Church of the Holy Spirit, Tulsa, Okla.

On Oct. 30, the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee went to court against St. Andrew’s Church, Nashville, which left the Episcopal Church in 2006 and has since announced its affiliation with the Diocese of Quincy (Ill.).

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MS. [Rachel] MADDOW: So to the extent that this is going to actually cut the deficit, to the extent that this is designed to bring health costs down, we’ve got to do something. And I think people who vote against it are going to regret it.

MR. [E.J.] DIONNE: And 98 percent of small businesses are exempt from the taxes in this bill. This is a millionaire’s tax, basically, the biggest tax in this bill. And that the other thing is there are a lot of benefits in this bill that kick in right away. There’s a fund for people who have pre-existing conditions to get coverage right away. There are a lot of other provisions; no more recisions, so you can’t discover that, “Gee, I’m not covered after all.” They were smart enough to put a lot of things that kick in as soon as the bill is passed.

MR. [David] BROOKS: Rachel’s right that doing nothing is not fiscally responsible. But doing something that adds onto our current system without fundamentally changing our current system is fiscally insane. The idea that this is paid for is a political mirage. That tax surcharge on millionaires, that’s dead, that’s going nowhere in the Senate. The idea that we’re going to cut $400 or $500 billion in waste, fraud and abuse from Medicare, that’s historically unsupportable. We will never make those cuts, we’re never going to pull the plug on granny, all this stuff. It–most healthcare experts think that this fundamentally does not change the problem with healthcare system, which is the fee-for-service system which has been driving up costs for decade after decade.

Caught this on the way home from morning worship–read or watch it all.

Ed Balls is facing legal challenges from faith groups and individuals over his announcement of mandatory sex education lessons for pupils before they reach the age of consent.

Religious groups reacted with anger to the move by the Schools Secretary, which will make it compulsory for all pupils aged 15 will learn about relationships, sex and drugs over the course of a year. The age of consent in the UK is 16. The Muslim Council of Britain vowed to mount a challenge to the new laws that it says contravene the right for children to be taught according to their parents’ tradition.

Shahid Akmal, chairman of the Muslim Council of Britain’s education committee, said parents would be forced to break the law because of their beliefs. “It will cause difficulty,” he said. “I cannot condone people breaking the law, but it will be an individual decision and some parents will feel that it’s the only option open to them.”

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From an unnamed letter writer to Andrew Sullivan:

Why are you still a Roman Catholic? Why have you not started attending an Episcopal church? Familiar liturgy, similar theology, radically different morality. The US Episcopal church has committed itself to being a community where all people are members, where all people can be married and blessed and become priests and bishops. We in the US are paying a high price for our commitment to equality–a schism in the worldwide Anglican communion–but we are standing firm. We’ve got Anglican African bishops and Pope Benedict himself trying to poach Episcopal parishes. We’re tiny, we’re beleaguered, and we are standing up to the entire world and the entire Christian community to do the right thing.

I know that an Englishman named Sullivan is genetically indisposed to ever imagine attending a branch of the Church of England, but, man, we could use your help. This is where you belong.

…Benedict’s outreach to Lefebvrites and dissident Anglicans forms part of a trend I’ve described as “evangelical Catholicism.” One cornerstone is to reassert markers of Catholic distinctiveness — such as Mass in Latin, and traditional moral teaching — as a means of ensuring that the church is not assimilated to secularism. At the policy-setting level of the church today, this defense of Catholic identity is job number one.

Historically, “evangelical Catholicism” is a creative impulse rather than something purely defensive, with roots in the papacy of Leo XIII in the late 19th century and his effort to bring a renewed Catholic tradition to bear on social and political life. Nevertheless, fear that secularism may erode the faith from within is also a powerful current propelling evangelical Catholicism forward.

To over-simplify a bit, Benedict XVI is opening the door to the Lefebvrites and to traditionalist Anglicans in part because whatever else they may be, they are among the Christians least prone to end up, in the memorable phrase of Jacques Maritain, “kneeling before the world,” meaning sold out to secularism.

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With a donor-advised fund from Schwab Charitable, for instance, people can use up to 10% of the money in their charitable accounts to guarantee microloans — loans of a few hundred dollars or more made to needy people usually to develop or expand a small business. The program runs in concert with Grameen Foundation, a global microfinance nonprofit that provides capital to microlenders in poor communities.

It works this way: If one of the microfinance organizations being guaranteed fails, it gets a portion of the donors’ funds so it can meet its obligations. If the lenders don’t default, the money stays in the charitable account.

Another option: A number of microlending Web sites such as Kiva.org allow people to make small loans to individuals (of $25 and up), such as a Peruvian entrepreneur starting a local basket-weaving business. They get their money back within six to 12 months. Then, they can funnel the money into another loan, donate it to Kiva or return it to their bank account.

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Abby Johnson, who had worked at the Planned Parenthood in Bryan, Texas, for the past eight years and had directed the Bryan business for the last two, resigned Oct. 6 after watching an ultrasound of an abortion procedure, reported the television station KBTX Nov. 1.

“I just thought, ”˜I can’t do this anymore,’ and it was just like a flash that hit me, and I thought, ”˜That’s it,’” said Johnson….

Johnson, an Episcopalian, has been meeting with the coalition’s executive director, Shawn Carney, and has prayed with volunteers outside Planned Parenthood. The world’s largest purveyor of abortion filed a temporary restraining order Oct. 30 against both Johnson and the Coalition for Life.

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The Strasbourg-based court, in a unanimous decision reached on Tuesday, said the presence of crucifixes “could be encouraging for [Christian] religious pupils, but also disturbing for pupils who practised other religions or were atheists, particularly if they belonged to religious minorities”. A chamber of seven judges (from Italy, Belgium, Portugal, Lithuania, Serbia, Hungary and Turkey) said: “The compulsory display of a symbol of a given confession in premises used by public authorities, especially in classrooms, thus restricted the rights of parents to educate their children in conformity with their convictions and the right of children to believe or not believe.”

Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi called the decision “wrong and myopic”. He said it was “grave to try to marginalise from the educational system a fundamental sign of the importance of religious values in our history and in Italian culture”. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican Secretary of State, said of the Stasbourg court ruling: “This Europe of the third millennium leaves us only with [Halloween] pumpkins and takes away our most precious symbols.” The CEI said the crucifix was not just a religious symbol but also a cultural sign, and part of the historic patrimony of the Italian people.

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One of the hardest things Ed Donaghy has ever done was leave his ministry as a Catholic priest. For months, he agonized over his conflicting desires to have a family and serve as a priest in the Sacramento Diocese.

In the end, Donaghy felt he had no choice. The priest, who served in Woodland, Calif., told his bishop that he had to leave.

That was four decades ago.

“It would have been wonderful to be married and be a priest,” said Donaghy, 73, now retired as an insurance agent. “I loved the work and would have continued.”

Donaghy is one of more than 75 men in the Sacramento area who have left active ministry in the priesthood to marry. Many of them, Donaghy said, “would have returned in a minute if the rules changed.” That is not likely to happen soon.

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For the most part, the new member churches were attracted to the diocese because of its more conservative theological views than the national Episcopal Church, said Bishop Robert Duncan.

“There has been a secular drift in the Episcopal Church in the U.S. and in the Anglican Church of Canada. It has caused the church to stray from core theology,” Duncan said yesterday at his diocese’s first convention since the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh split in two last year.

“There is a whole sense of freedom and joy here. We are not spending time debating differences,” said Peter Frank, a deacon at Grace Church in Mt. Washington.

For the Church of the Transfiguration of Cleveland, the realignment is an attempt to keep the church alive. The parish initially became interested in the Pittsburgh-based diocese when the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio said it planned to close the urban church.

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[On the Apostolic Constitution welcoming Anglicans who want to join Rome]

I think should be judged quite simply as what it is ”“ a generous response by the Holy Father to these groups of Anglicans who’ve been knocking at the door, particularly of the Holy Office, over these past years. Someone said to me “this is poaching”! That’s certainly not the intention at all. If these priests and lay people really want to become Catholics, then let’s have them, particularly if they’ve got a lot of lay people with them. Something like this is obviously going to be easier than receiving them one by one.

They’re attracted by being in communion with the Pope. Because they are anti the ordination of women to bishoprics, all right, that’s possible. But, deep down, it’s not just that. It’s the question: where is the authority that holds together the Church of Christ?

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Due to at least a temporary loss of endowment, the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh has slashed its budget, but still plans to launch 70 new churches over five years.

It received five mission congregations at its convention yesterday in Sewickley. It also received four parishes from outside its original boundaries. All nine were already counted among its 58 churches.

The Anglican diocese is appealing a Common Pleas Court decision awarding its endowment to the 28-parish Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh. The two split last year when a majority at the diocesan convention voted to secede from the Episcopal Church, which they believed had failed to uphold biblical doctrine on matters from salvation to sexuality. The Anglican diocese billed this as its 144th convention, and there were references to the Episcopalians as “the rogue diocese.”

But others can’t be blamed for any past failure of missionary initiative, said the Rev. Mary Hays, canon to the ordinary, as she urged the diocese to start 70 new churches.

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More than 1,000 Toyota and Lexus owners have reported since 2001 that their vehicles suddenly accelerated on their own, in many cases slamming into trees, parked cars and brick walls, among other obstacles, a Times review of federal records has found.

The crashes resulted in at least 19 deaths and scores of injuries over the last decade, records show. Federal regulators say that is far more than any other automaker has experienced.

Owner complaints helped trigger at least eight investigations into sudden acceleration in Toyota and Lexus vehicles by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the last seven years. Toyota Motor Corp. recalled fewer than 85,000 vehicles in response to two of those probes, and the federal agency closed six other cases without finding a defect.

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This is a must watch.

The House of Representatives passed a sweeping health care bill Saturday night with a tight vote of 220-215, making it the biggest expansion of health care coverage since Medicare was created more than 40 years ago.

The Affordable Health Care for America Act, or H.R. 3962, restricts insurance companies from denying coverage to anyone with a pre-existing condition or charging higher premiums based on gender or medical history. It also provides federal subsidies to those who cannot afford it and guarantees coverage for 96 percent of Americans, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

However, turning the bill into law remains uncertain.

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Back in October, I was struck by the presence of Don Green of Christian Associates of Southwestern Pennsylvania (the local ecumenical association) at the TEC diocesan convention and yet today here he was again, with the timely reminder that the past year had not been an easy journey for us or “our sisters and brothers” in the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh. He commended the fact that the Archbishop continued to attend ecumenical gatherings and contribute to the work of finding ways to give public witness to a common faith. He noted the pending admission of the Church in God in Christ and the Mennonites to Christian Associates next year and the work of the Allegheny Jail Ministry, which had cut recidivism rates from 65% to 16%.

Three resolutions now stood before convention and in the first I took direct personal interest. Entitled “The Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh ”“ Who We are in Christ,” it affirmed the Jerusalem Declaration as a summary of the essentials of our faith and pledged submission to the leadership of the GAFCON membership “as we look to our future as an orthodox and missionary movement in world Anglicanism.” On seeing the text, I was struck by the omission of any reference to the Anglican Covenant and so drafted an amendment that read as follows:

And be it further resolved that, in harmony with the resolution of the ACNA Provincial Council of June 22, 2009, we express our continued willingness to subscribe to the un-amended Ridley Cambridge Draft of the Anglican Covenant.

In retrospect, it may be that I overestimated the potential for opposition (especially as the sponsor Geoff Chapman afterwards told me that he would have accepted it as a friendly amendment), but so much of what I have read of late has been phrased as if the Jamaica debacle ended any meaningful possibility of change, so I pitched my advocacy in terms of catholic responsibility and the possibility that the Archbishop who is ultimately responsible for implementing the Covenant may not be the present incumbent. Archbishop Duncan then stated that he had been responsible for the provincial council resolution and that ”“ since the amendment referred to the original Ridley Cambridge Draft (with its disciplinary language) – he would “enthusiastically” support it. In response to a request from the floor for the context of the draft, he gave a very polished account of how events since 2003 had led to the Covenant, noting further that it had originally been conceived among the proposals in “To Mend the Net.” The resolution passed unanimously.

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The leadership of the Catholic Church doesn’t seem to be afraid to stand up for important moral issues. A secular Press often ridicules these beliefs, but the Catholics have the courage not to back down.

In this rising and damaging age of secularism, this country needs a strong moral compass to be a guide through some very troubled waters. The politicians are not the answer as we have seen with their morally bankrupt attitude to expenses.

I, for one, see a need for the Church to again be prophetic to the nation and not be afraid to stand up for what it believes. Heartbreakingly, I am no longer sure the Church of England can do this.

Like so many other Anglicans, I am at that place where I feel I must desert a sinking ship. The iceberg of secularism has struck and even the dance band is now singing the Magnificat.

Read it all.

Update: More there.

He comes out solidly against the dumb transaction tax idea. Well worth the time. Watch it all (about 6 1/3 minutes)–KSH.

The United States and Britain voiced disagreement Saturday over a proposal that would impose a new tax on financial transactions to support future bank rescues.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain, leading a meeting here of finance ministers from the Group of 20 rich and developing countries, said such a tax on banks should be considered as a way to take the burden off taxpayers during periods of financial crisis. His comments pre-empted the International Monetary Fund, which is set to present a range of options next spring to ensure financial stability.

But the proposal was met with little enthusiasm by the United States Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, who told Sky News in an interview that he would not support a tax on everyday financial transactions.

What a disappointment Gorden Brown is turning out to be. This is a very bad idea that he has come out behind, and his timing could not be worse. Fortunately, even the Russian finance minister spoke against it. In any event, read it all–KSH.

Finally, after much prayer and consultation, I have decided that the time has come for Southern Ohio to adjust its policy regarding the blessing of same-sex unions. As you all know, in the forums that preceded my election as your diocesan bishop, I was very clear that I thought the church should bless the godly, faithful and life-long union of two persons of the same sex. Moreover, my views on this matter have been expressed in two published books. So my own views will not be a surprise to anyone. At the same time, as I also stated in the forums, I do not wish to act in isolation from the Episcopal Church. So since I became a bishop I have upheld the policy I inherited, which did not permit the blessing of same-sex unions under any circumstances. It is my view that the recent General Convention resolutions D025 and C056 have altered the terrain, by reasserting the possibility of godly unions between persons of the same sex, and by inviting bishops who have jurisdiction in states that have offered some form of civil union to gay and lesbian couples to exercise “pastoral generosity” in offering the church’s public ministrations to such couples. In so doing, the Episcopal Church has effectively acknowledged that the godly union of two persons of the same sex ”“ by which I mean the union of two persons who have vowed lifelong fidelity to one another, and accept accountability to the faith community as a faithful household ”“ can be blessed by the church. I am convinced that in fairness to our fellow Episcopalians who have entered into such unions or who desire to do so, we must move deliberately toward the implementation of a policy that will permit and govern the blessings of such unions in Southern Ohio. On this basis, I am lifting the prohibition on the blessing of same-sex unions in this diocese, effective Easter 2010.

I am aware that there are some in this diocese who will be unhappy with this change in policy, and that there are clergy who cannot in good conscience officiate at such blessings. It is important to underscore that no priest within the Diocese will be under any obligation ”“ now or at any time ”“ to perform such blessings, and the position of those who wish not to perform any such blessings will be respected and honored. I wish to do whatever I can to allay any fears on this score.

Although it will take some time to work out all the details of this policy, here are a few parameters which I will be imposing from the outset. No blessing of a same-sex union shall occur without my written permission. I will consider each request individually and will require 60 days notice in each case. I expect that at least one of the two persons seeking a blessing within this church will be a confirmed or received Episcopalian in good standing, and that adequate counseling with the officiating priest (or an agreed-upon substitute) will be required prior to the blessing. I acknowledge that these requirements may seem discriminatory to some. They are however necessary at the present time, in order that I may exercise pastoral oversight as we venture into this new territory for the diocese. Similarly, I will be expecting parish priests who wish to perform such blessings to engage in significant conversation with the congregation or congregations they serve before they move in this direction. In asking for this, I do not intend in any way to suggest that the appropriate exercise of the priesthood is subject to any other oversight than that of the bishop’s, but to ensure this policy be a matter of open conversation, and that all local voices be heard.

Read it all (pdf).

Check them out (pages 16-18).

Since this past April, the threat of a lawsuit has been hanging over us, seeking to distract us from our mission and make us anxious about the future. As you know, the small minority who separated from us in order to remain in the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America has not been content with our willingness to give them their buildings and property ”“ they want ours as well! It has been and will continue to be a huge distraction and a great drain on time, energy and resources. I have tried to keep all of you informed, while at the same time not being preoccupied with the litigation, as it has developed. Our focus must be on the mission of the Church, not the lawsuit. Sad to say, there is no end in sight. Once there is a decision by the court, whichever side loses will surely file an appeal, with the likelihood of another appeal after that. So we are talking years, not months, before this whole matter is resolved. I can assure you that we are being very well represented by our attorneys, and I ask that you continue to pray for them as they go about their work, especially our lead attorney, Shelby Sharpe. I am certain that he would want me to remind you, however, that our hope and trust is in God alone, not our legal team. We are engaged in spiritual warfare, as well as a legal battle. I would also remind you that no diocesan funds or parish assessments are going toward our legal expenses. Thanks to the generosity of an anonymous benefactor, all of our legal fees are being paid by special gifts. For this, we are sincerely and deeply grateful, and we say a word of heartfelt thanks at this time.

As the lawsuit makes its way through the courts, we must continue to focus on the mission of the church, to go make disciples of all nations and to minister in the name of Christ to all who are in need. We are called to be a missionary and evangelistic church, as well as a ministering and serving church. But the work of the church is always hampered and weakened by divisions among us. So now more than ever, we must work and pray for the unity of the Church of God. Christ wills for his disciples to be one, and we must do all we can to heal the brokenness in the Body of Christ. It is not enough to simply maintain the historic biblical faith for ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren. We must also share it with others, in order to bring the whole world to Christ. And this work must be done in concert with others, never alone. So let us work and pray for a deeper unity in Christ for all believers, for the sake of mission, that the world may believe.

Read it carefully and read it all.

Worth rereading if you have already seen it, and important for those who have not

Survey respondents were asked to “imagine the year as 2019, and [that] the Episcopal Church is even more vital and thriving than it is today” and then rank a list of 11 goals in order of their importance in reaching that vision.

The five areas called “very important” by a clear majority of respondents were, in descending order: reaching youth and young adults; evangelism/proclaiming the good news of Christ; worship, music and liturgy; leadership; and strengthening congregations.

The six least important areas, in descending order were: multicultural inclusion; advocacy and social justice; stewardship; clarity of denominational mission; planting new churches and communities of faith; and church administration, coordination and structure.

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A September survey of executives from large firms by the Business Roundtable found 13% expected to increase employment in the next six months, an improvement from 6% a quarter earlier. But 40% planned to cut payrolls.

Some companies are moving from mass layoffs to a mix of hiring and firing. Boeing Co., the Chicago-based aircraft maker, is carrying out 10,000 planned layoffs. But it announced last week it also is building a new factory in North Charleston, S.C., where it could employ as many as 3,800 workers assembling 787 Dreamliner airplanes. But the plant won’t open before July 2011.

Airlines too eport glimmers of evidence the plunge in passenger demand is over. But executives have said they see few signs travelers are coming back or are willing to pay more for tickets. So the airlines are continuing to trim jobs and drop money-losing routes, which means fewer jobs.

The months ahead could lead to a turbulent reshuffling of the work force from sectors that are still contracting, such as airlines and manufacturing, into growth sectors such as technology.

Read the whole article.

The monthly BLS report provides data on workers unemployed for 27 or more weeks, and here is a graph …

Unemployed Over 26 Weeks–The blue line is the number of workers unemployed for 27 weeks or more. The red line is the same data as a percent of the civilian workforce.

According to the BLS, there are a record 5.6 million workers who have been unemployed for more than 26 weeks (and still want a job). This is a record 3.6% of the civilian workforce. (note: records started in 1948)

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