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That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.

These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land – a nagging fear that America’s decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America – they will be met.

We’ll see.

They don’t know what they’re doing, do they? With every step taken by the Government as it tries frantically to prop up the British banking system, this central truth becomes ever more obvious.

Yesterday marked a new low for all involved, even by the standards of this crisis. Britons woke to news of the enormity of the fresh horrors in store. Despite all the sophistry and outdated boom-era terminology from experts, I think a far greater number of people than is imagined grasp at root what is happening here.

The country stands on the precipice. We are at risk of utter humiliation, of London becoming a Reykjavik on Thames and Britain going under. Thanks to the arrogance, hubristic strutting and serial incompetence of the Government and a group of bankers, the possibility of national bankruptcy is not unrealistic.

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I mention this because as we prepare for the upcoming 218th Convention of the Diocese of South Carolina the stormy seas have not abated in the almost six years since General Convention 2003. If anything, the swath from the northeaster has broadened and intensified, engulfing more and more provinces of the Anglican Communion. While nothing is certain at this point, it seems clear to me that there is no immediate solution to our present crisis. In the midst of a storm, most of us can only react to changing circumstances as they develop. My commitment is to keep in line with the Scriptures, the historic faith of the Church, and the larger Anglican Communion. So long as we can remain Episcopalian and keep with these three instruments of trustworthy navigation, there is no reason at this point to man the lifeboats. Though many would like to see this crisis ended, or hear prophetic predictions of calmer seas, such are not likely to be forthcoming. The next foreseeable sounding of significance is the Primates’ Meeting in February 2009 and the Anglican Consultative Council in May. At both meetings, issues regarding the Anglican Covenant and, I suspect, the proposed new province in North America will be in the forefront. Then comes TEC’s General Convention in July. It’s questionable that any of these will be ports of decisive destiny; still, vigilance is a virtue.

While there are many dimensions of our present situation we cannot control, (what else is new?), that does not free us from discerning God’s vision for the Diocese of South Carolina as we near the end of this first decade of the 21st Century and prepare to enter the next. Rather, it makes it even more imperative. This raises for me the question””“What is a diocese supposed to do?” Theologians often reflect on what a diocese is””such as those who say, the Diocese is the basic or fundamental unit of the Church. But that is a statement of being, not of doing. I have spent more than a little time lately reflecting on this question. And from there, the more specific question””“What is the Diocese of South Carolina supposed to do?” Or put another way, “What is God calling the Diocese of South Carolina to do?” This is demanding but essential work if we are to maintain both a macro and micro-perspective in God’s kingdom. In fact, it is all the more essential if we are to be proactive about our future rather than merely reactive to the tossing of every gusty wind and swelling wave. Therefore, I will seek to articulate what I believe this is at our upcoming convention.

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It was Obama’s religious outreach director, Joshua Dubois, who first mentioned Warren as a choice for the inaugural invocation. Warren and Obama spoke and prayed together about it. When Warren had invited Obama to speak at a California conference two years ago for World AIDS Day, he was harshly criticized by evangelical Christians because of Obama’s position on abortion rights. During last year’s campaign, when Warren conducted his compassion forum at Saddleback, he was criticized by the right for giving Obama that platform. Although both have taken heat from their constituencies for this decision, Obama felt closer to him than to any other minister. After the firestorm erupted, Obama reportedly called Warren and told him that he loved him and that Warren had his full support. David Axelrod, a senior adviser to Obama, also gave the choice his blessing.

And Obama’s move is already yielding results: Warren has taken down the anti-gay material from his Web site and has essentially come out in favor of civil unions. Obama has pledged to rescind the unpopular “don’t ask, don’t tell” rule imposed on gays in the military. Bishop Robinson, who told me that Warren’s view of “people like me and my relationships is pretty horrific,” nonetheless was invited to give the invocation at Sunday’s concert at the Lincoln Memorial and has asked to meet with Warren. He acknowledged that Obama had included “all voices” in the inauguration and added, “No one had a bigger tent than Jesus.”

In the end, it seems that Obama’s choice was brilliant — good for gays, good for the country and good for him. Who knows? Perhaps in a few years, Pastor Rick Warren will have another epiphany . . . and may eventually be officiating at same-sex wedding ceremonies.

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Even for those who voted against him, that outcome presents indisputable evidence of how thoroughly the American people have rejected bigotry since Dr. King issued that defining challenge a mere 24 days after the second birthday of our first black president.

Additional public judgments of Mr. Obama will be made after he moves beyond today’s pomp, circumstance and jubilation and into the nitty gritty of pressing issues, both domestic and foreign.

But as a nation, we’re clearly much less inclined than we once were to judge each other by the color of our skin. And despite the momentous significance of his election, Mr. Obama should not simply be viewed as a black president ”” or as a Democratic president. He should be viewed as all Americans’ president.

And while all Americans should wish him success in the daunting job he begins today, we also can share in the joy of knowing how remarkably far we’ve come in his lifetime.

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The global challenges are just as daunting, beginning with U.S. forces deployed in two wars and extending to fighting in Gaza; nuclear proliferation in Iran and North Korea; tension between India and Pakistan; suffering in Darfur, Burma, Congo and Zimbabwe. If anything, the war in Iraq, the issue that helped propel Mr. Obama to his nomination, is among the easier items on his international to-do list.

But Mr. Obama sets out with some powerful advantages, and not only of temperament and ability. He has assembled, already, a team rich in experience and pragmatic competence. He is graced with a country that is eager, almost desperate, for him to succeed. In part thanks to the somber and unflappable tone he has sounded since the election, Americans are both hugely optimistic about the Obama presidency, polls show, and realistic about the time he will need to produce results. His popularity abroad creates new opportunities for U.S. leadership.

More than a few grains of salt are called for here. Mr. Obama is a man of great promise but relatively little experience. The hopefulness of recent inauguration days soon gave way to cynicism and disappointment. Each new administration promises to reject the slash-and-burn politics of the previous crowd, only to get caught up in more of the same, or worse. Too often, the way presidents pledged to govern as candidates bears little resemblance to the way they operate once in office. And history plays its own tricks: The challenges a president ends up wrestling with are rarely foreseen on Inauguration Day.

Yet, like most Americans, we can’t help feeling something particularly special about this Inauguration Day. Like most Americans, we will be rooting for Mr. Obama to succeed.

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As the city of Springfield addresses a $200 million shortfall in the Police and Fire Pension Fund, officials might look to similar situations across the country for inspiration.

From Pennsylvania to California and at points in between, municipalities facing shortages in their own pension plans have found various solutions.

In Joplin and St. Louis, city leaders have handled their own fund shortages through benefit changes and new sales taxes, respectively. The financial situation in Vallejo, Calif., meanwhile, led that city to file for bankruptcy last year; the city’s pension was listed as the largest creditor on its bankruptcy filing, accounting for $219 million in liabilities.

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Obama’s challenge will be to translate the social repair that has occurred over the past decade into political and governing repair. Part of that will be done with his inaugural address today. Look for him to emphasize the themes of responsibility, cohesion and unity. Look for him to reject the culture, which lingered in the financial world, of anything goes.

Part of that will be done with his governing style. Obama aims to realize the end-of-ideology politics that Daniel Bell and others glimpsed in the early 1960s. He sees himself as a pragmatist, an empiricist. Politics is not personal with him. He does not turn political disagreements into a status contest between one kind of person and another. He is convinced that most Americans practice their politics between the 40-yard lines.

Part will be accomplished with his aggressive outreach efforts. Already he has cooperated with Republicans. He has rejected the counsel of the old liberal warriors who want retribution and insularity.

But the real test will come in the realm of policy. The next few months will be occupied with the stimulus package. And anybody who is not terrified by the prospect of spending $800 billion hastily has not spent enough time studying the difference between economic textbooks and the way government actually operates.

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She deserves so much credit, especially for the encouragement she gave him day by day in Hawaii to work hard in school and get an education–KSH

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I learned a lot reading through these yesterday. I would caution readers that I do not know about their accuracy but what I do know is that Cardinal Cushing’s 1961 prayer is NOT accurate because it is missing the initial invocation of the Trinity and I happened to catch him doing that yesterday on CSPAN. Read them all and tell us your observations–KSH.

For any incoming president, an inaugural address is a real challenge. For Barack Obama, it may be a stiffer challenge than for most of his predecessors.

Obama is already known to be capable of giving a great speech. The nation discovered that when it discovered him, as he delivered his memorable address to the 2004 Democratic National Convention. He has set the bar high. Great expectations only add to his burden. Anything less than a stirring speech Tuesday will be a disappointment.

Obama’s speech is expected to run about 15-20 minutes, which is on the short side compared to most inaugural addresses. The dominant theme will be “responsibility.”

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Of course over here in America at present in terms of the news it is all-inauguration-all-the-time right now. Of all the things I have heard and seen nothing has touched me more than the reaction of 100 year old Sylvester Williams of New Orleans to what today means to him. Maybe it is because he once picked cotton, maybe it is because he has lived a whole century, but whatever it is exactly, he speaks from the heart. To see and hear him for yourself, watch this NBC piece–KSH.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of “interposition” and “nullification” — one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; “and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.”

—Martin Luther King Jr., August 28, 1963

It is that fundamental belief — it is that fundamental belief — I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sisters’ keeper — that makes this country work.

It’s what allows us to pursue our individual dreams, yet still come together as a single American family: “E pluribus unum,” out of many, one.

Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters and negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes.

Well, I say to them tonight, there’s not a liberal America and a conservative America; there’s the United States of America.

There’s not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there’s the United States of America.

—Barack Obama in the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic Convnetion

We do not know how the proposal for a new province will be received nor are we entirely clear what its proponents are proposing; that is probably unavoidable given the hardships all around. We understand that many see the situation as demanding this option. For our part, we accept the promise of those associated with this movement that they will honor our own commitments. Communion Partners will pray for the Common Cause proponents and will assume that promise of cooperation entails a charitable acceptance that another way forward is to be honored and that we can move forward on parallel tracks and not ”˜recruit’ from each others’ daily purpose, honoring the jurisdictional integrities of respective bishops. God will be in charge of the next season, as He has always been.

When the Primates meet in February we anticipate that our separate ways of moving forward will be acknowledged and honored. We pledge our prayers for all involved and ask God’s blessing on all of us in a very difficult time. With gratitude for his grace and mercy, again this 2009 Epiphany we remain, yours in Christ, on behalf of Communion Partners,

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So the scramble is on. The big splash water park ”” complete with a gym and “quality meeting space” ”” might sound like a waste of $22 million, but it would provide a nice stimulus for the people of Gastonia, N.C. The travel industry wants a $10 million loan to promote the U.S. as a destination, a tougher job these days. To the American Apparel & Footwear Association, this crisis only highlights the need to eliminate import tariffs on shoes. “Building self-esteem is critical,” explains Matt Rubel, CEO of the parent company of Payless, “and not having a new pair of shoes ”” you know, having a pair that’s tattered and doesn’t fit ”” that does not create good self-esteem.”

Let’s face it: fiscal stimulus is a frustratingly inexact science. Nobody knows precisely what it will do in the short term, and in the long term, it isn’t that different from any other government spending, except that the point of the spending can be the spending itself. As always, there will be winners and losers; it’s impossible to stimulate everyone equally. In two years, if the recession is over, skeptics will claim it would have ended regardless of the stimulus. If it lingers, proponents will credit the stimulus for preventing a drearier outcome. As with the first round of the financial bailout, its most important short-term effect will probably be psychological, calming markets by sending a message of government engagement.

It will be an expensive message, and we’ll be paying for it for a long time. Obama can’t control how markets or employers react, but he can use the opportunity to start keeping promises and start moving the country away from dirty energy, crumbling infrastructure and economic inequality. If he trades those goals for size and speed, he’ll blow a unique chance to chart a new direction. He doesn’t need to beg Congress to spend; that’s like begging Cookie Monster to eat. He needs to take a stand: No money without reform. That won’t just rebuild consumer confidence; it will rebuild citizen confidence too. As the shoe guy said, at a time like this, self-esteem is critical.

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This blend of pragmatism and realism reminds me in the American context of Eisenhower more than any other recent president. Obama has the unerring instincts of a conciliator and a moderate Tory. But he has the rhetorical skills of a Kennedy or a Churchill. That’s a potent combination.

It may be, of course, that the relief at the end of the Bush era is colouring our hopes. It may also be that events conspire to derail the man, or that the habits of the past two decades in Washington will return with a vengeance and do to Obama what was done to Clinton, another centrist Democrat who came to office on a tide of goodwill. But I don’t think that, given the immense crises we all face, it is unreasonable to hope for more.

There is something about Obama’s willingness to give others credit, to approach so many issues with such dispassionate pragmatism, and to shift by symbols and speeches the mood and tenor of an entire country that gives one a modest form of optimism. Even now, as the outlook seems so dark, and as the inheritance seems so insuperable, three words linger in the mind.

Yes, he can.

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BBC presenter Jeremy Vine believes that Christ is who he says he is, but doesn’t think he could say so on his show.

The Radio 2 host, who also fronts TV shows Panorama and Points of View, says society is becoming increasingly intolerant of Christian views.

He told Reform Magazine that it has become “almost socially unacceptable to say you believe in God”.

“You can’t express views that were common currency 30 or 40 years ago,” he said.

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I won’t pretend that meeting any one of these challenges will be easy. It will take more than a month or a year, and it will likely take many. Along the way there will be setbacks and false starts and days that test our fundamental resolve as a nation. But despite all of this – despite the enormity of the task that lies ahead – I stand here today as hopeful as ever that the United States of America will endure – that the dream of our founders will live on in our time.

What gives me that hope is what I see when I look out across this mall. For in these monuments are chiseled those unlikely stories that affirm our unyielding faith – a faith that anything is possible in America. Rising before us stands a memorial to a man who led a small band of farmers and shopkeepers in revolution against the army of an Empire, all for the sake of an idea. On the ground below is a tribute to a generation that withstood war and depression – men and women like my grandparents who toiled on bomber assembly lines and marched across Europe to free the world from tyranny’s grasp. Directly in front of us is a pool that still reflects the dream of a King, and the glory of a people who marched and bled so that their children might be judged by their character’s content. And behind me, watching over the union he saved, sits the man who in so many ways made this day possible.

And yet, as I stand here tonight, what gives me the greatest hope of all is not the stone and marble that surrounds us today, but what fills the spaces in between. It is you – Americans of every race and region and station who came here because you believe in what this country can be and because you want to help us get there. It is the same thing that gave me hope from the day we began this campaign for the presidency nearly two years ago; a belief that if we could just recognize ourselves in one another and bring everyone together – Democrats, Republicans, and Independents; Latino, Asian, and Native American; black and white, gay and straight, disabled and not – then not only would we restore hope and opportunity in places that yearned for both, but maybe, just maybe, we might perfect our union in the process.This is what I believed, but you made this belief real. You proved once more that people who love this country can change it. And as I prepare to assume the presidency, yours are the voices I will take with me every day I walk into that Oval Office – the voices of men and women who have different stories but hold common hopes; who ask only for what was promised us as Americans – that we might make of our lives what we will and see our children climb higher than we did.

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Cardinal Cushing was Roman Catholic Archbishop of Boston; I happened to catch this today on C-Span–KSH.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen.

In this year of our Lord 1961, we ask Thee, oh Almighty God, to enlighten us:

That we may know, as men, our personal responsibilities;

That we may know, as Americans, our political, social and humanitarian responsibilities;

That we may know, as citizens of the world, our global responsibilities to ourselves and our fellow men;

That we may know, as children of God, our responsibilities to the Father of Mankind;

Enlighten us, oh Lord, that we may know how to combine all of these responsibilities into a continuing principle of responsibility;

Enlighten us that we may know how to put this principle of responsibility into daily practice, both in ideal and action–in these troubled but hopeful times.
In this year of our Lord 1961, we beseech Thee, oh Almighty God, to strengthen our resolve;

To enlarge our vision of the common good;

To implement with personal sacrifice the objectives of our national purpose;

To revere in every man that divine spark which makes him our brother –that human spark which can make him our friend — and that personal spark which makes him himself;

To learn to ask ourselves sincerely in every community effort, not what we can get out of it, but what we can put into it.

To defend my right to be myself; to defend my neighbor’s right to be himself, and to defend America’s duty to respect the rights of all men.

Strengthen our resolve, oh Lord, to transform this recognition of others into a principle of cooperation.

Inspire us to practice this principle of cooperation both in ideal and action in these most dangerous, but soul-stretching times.

On this twentieth day of January — 1,961 years after the birth of Christ — on occasion of the inauguration of John Fitzgerald Kennedy as President of the United States of America — do Thou, oh Almighty God, give him, his Cabinet, the Congress and courts of the United States — and all of us — the grace:

To perform with full personal responsibility our duties as free men;

To perform in full cooperation our duties as American citizens;

To perform with complete vigilance our duty to prevent the spread of totalitarian terror everywhere.

To perform with religious fervor our duty to teach, implement and create true freedom as a way of life at home and abroad — for true freedom underlies human dignity and is a holy state of life.

Give us the grace then, O Lord, to realize that we are made to be holy according to Thy image and likeness; for to be good is to be God-like;

Give us the vision, O Loving Creator of men, to realize that in Thy plan we have a self-sacrificing part to play in completing an unfinished universe; for to sacrifice is to conquer;

Give us the strength to further Thy creation by our responsible and dedicated work — for to labor is to pray;

Give us the charity to further Thy creation by our brotherly cooperation — for to care is to love.

Finally, O Lord of Men and Nations, through confidence in Thee let men take hope in what is being done in this capital of our nation, in this hour, in the month of January, in the year of 1961; let hearts everywhere be lifted and let anxieties be dispelled as new hands, in the vigor of youth, grasp the wheel of the ship of state.

Put Thy hands on his hands, put Thy spirit in his heart, put Thy justice and peace, the work of justice, in all his programs and let this land — and all lands — move forward under thy guidance and through his leadership to new frontiers in peace, progress and prosperity. Amen.

The crux of the problem seems to be that some have believed the continual pronouncements from TEC that parishes and dioceses cannot leave TEC, only people can. From this premise follows all the conflict in the EDFW. It is important to check the premise of any argument in order to arrive at a correct result. If the premise is wrong, the result will be wrong. Each time TEC is challenged to defend their position concerning who can leave TEC, they are silent. Their only response is that the Constitutions and Canons of TEC do not allow a diocese to leave TEC. In fact, there is nothing in the Constitutions and Canons of TEC that even address a diocese leaving TEC, let alone prohibiting such action. The rule of law is that any act that is not prohibited in the governing document is, therefore, allowed.

If the founders of PECUSA had intended to prohibit dioceses from leaving PECUSA, they could have placed such a prohibition in the Constitution and Canons of PECUSA, but they did not. In the intervening 200 years, if the Bishops and clergy and lay delegates to General Convention had desired to place such a prohibition in the Constitution and Canons of PECUSA, ECUSA, or TEC, they could have amended those documents. The have not. It not as if this has never been an issue. During the Civil War, the dioceses of the Confederate States left PECUS, and after the war, they returned to PECUSA. No question was raised about whether they could leave PECUSA. The president has clearly been established that a diocese can leave TEC. There is no issue now, except in the mind of the Presiding Bishop of her supporters, about diocese leaving TEC. So far, no court has been asked to settle this question, so that remains to be resolved, but the law appears to be on the side of the diocese in this conflict.

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My purpose in this essay is to briefly sketch the policies and practices of diocese of Colorado since the advent of bishop O’Neill, culminating in this policy change that came into effect on January 10, 2009, with the ordination of an individual living in a non-chaste same-sex partnership.

In 2003, the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado elected Robert O’Neill as its bishop. During his campaign, he was very clear about his commitments to the gay cause. In Massachusetts, besides spearheading the new diocesan camp, he led his parish into accepting his associate rector’s new lesbian “partnership.” Since there is no provision in the Episcopal Church for these things, her ceremony happened in another denomination.

A lot has happened between his election and now. O’Neill convened a task force in 2004 to examine the issues. “How will we choose to live together given our differences? What is our common ground? What are the limits? What is the highest degree of communion possible?” The end result was a recommendation from the Task Force for restraint, which has been followed till this new turn of events.

In Colorado, there already were partnered homosexuals and lesbians in orders. Also, provision had been made for some sort of thanksgiving in a liturgical context, but it wasn’t supposed to look like a wedding: no vows, no rings, no invitations, etc”¦ According to O’Neill, great license had been taken with his predecessor’s pastoral permissiveness. The modest thanksgivings looked like weddings.

So, upon his election, O’Neill suspended the pastoral provisions for liturgical recognition of homosexual relationships. He also suspended the ordination process of at least one partnered lesbian. He did not let partnered clergy into the diocese, even though certain parishes wanted it. There were three basic reasons: 1) O’Neill hoped to find some way to keep the diocese together. 2) The Anglican Communion’s value to us was of utmost importance. 3) The Episcopal Church had not yet authorized same sex blessings through its General Convention, being the proper, ordered place, where such changes happened. We in Colorado were called, on the left and the right, to restraint for the sake of unity.

That was then, this is now. What changed?

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