In one sense, the polyamorous defy easy categorization. The movement includes couples who openly and with full knowledge of each other engage in sexual relationships with others. Some are involved in group sex and others experiment with bisexuality. The Newsweek article introduces readers to a new vocabulary. The most revealing word is “polyfidelitous” — which means that the multiple partners keep sexual activity within their own self-identified cluster.

Interestingly, Bennett observes that the movement “has a decidedly feminist bent.” If men can have multiple wives or female partners, then, the logic goes, women must have the same in order to achieve “gender equality.” Bennett quotes Allena Gabosch, director of an organization known as the “Center for Sex Positive Culture,” suggesting that polyamory sounds scary to people because “it shakes up their worldview.” But, she insists, polyamory might well be “more natural than we think.”

Perhaps the best way to understand this new movement is to understand it as a natural consequence of subverting marriage. We have largely normalized adultery, serialized marriage, separated marriage from reproduction and childbearing, and accepted divorce as a mechanism for liberation. Once this happens, boundary after boundary falls as sexual regulation virtually disappears among those defined as “consenting adults.”

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Doug Carson, the teen’s high school principal at Beaver County Christian, said Mr. Heidengren’s parents had been visiting on Saturday with him and his older brother, Jonathan, who is to be a senior this fall at Wheaton.

The parents were on their way home when camp officials notified them that their son was missing.

Mr. Carson said the family, as well as the high school community, all have reacted as they believe Alex would have. At an impromptu prayer service Sunday at the high school, about 70 students, staff and friends prayed with the Heidengren family.

“More than one student testified that God is sovereign and in control, and that things that are unclear or inexplicable are in God’s hands. That was Alex’s hope. His hope was in Jesus Christ. There’s no question about that,” Mr. Carson said today.

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[Alex] Heidengren’s body was found in Long Lake, just off of camp grounds late last Saturday night.

Honey Rock Program Director John Vandervelde says the 18-year-old was participating in the summer leadership program, and was a model counselor. According to Vandervelde, “Alex had a ton of friends, he realy loved young people and kids loved him. He was an incredible counselor and just a great member of our community.”

According to Vandervelde all of the campers left Honey Rock last Friday, but the counselors and staff will be at camp until the end of August.
He says once the dive team recovered Heidengren’s body, psychological counselors were immediately called in to help everyone grieve.
“We are moving forward as best we can. We know that the best thing for us as a community and the best way to honor Alex is to just keep moving forward,” says Vandervelde.

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[Bishop Albert Francois] LeGatt is the fourth Bishop of Saskatoon to take up archbishop’s duties in Winnipeg. Bishop Gerald Murray served as administrator of the Archdiocese of Winnipeg from 1944 to 1951, succeeded by Bishop Philip Pocock from 1952 to 1961.

With a large diocese of nearly 80 parishes stretching from St. Boniface to the Ontario border and including communities along the Red River as well as in southwestern Manitoba, LeGatt expects his travel in the diocese will meet or exceed the 30,000 kilometres he drove each year visiting parishes throughout the Diocese of Saskatoon, which covers the central part of the province.

He expects his work as archbishop will complement the work he did in parishes, attempting to build communities of faith in accordance with his personal motto of unity.

“That’s how I saw my work as a parish priest, to gather the people in one community, by calling forward their gifts and participation, their sense of support for each other, and to celebrate that community of faith and love within the liturgy,” says LeGatt, who has a master’s degree in liturgical studies from Indiana’s Notre Dame University.

Read it all.

Here is one:

My husband of 43 years and I are cradle Episcopalians. We have stayed in the church, not because we believe in the decisions being made at the national level for the past several years, but because we love the worship service and our local church in Wilmington, North Carolina.

The decisions made at the General Convention are causing many Episcopalians to leave the church and seek solace in fundamental churches who uphold the teachings of the Bible. On recent occasions, we actually have been embarrassed to tell people we are Episcopalians. Allowing Episcopal clergy to bless same-sex unions is an abomination to the Bible and the sacrament of marriage.

What is happening to our church leaders? If they continue on the current path, I feel the Episcopal Church in the USA is doomed. Both of our married children, who were raised Episcopal, have left the church and are raising their children in more fundamental denominations.

Please tell me where we can voice our discontent and work to bring the Episcopal Church back in line with our Anglican teachings.

Marjorie Brush
Carolina Beach, North Carolina

Read them all.

As we see it, much of the American evangelical landscape has its head in the ground with regards to the (obvious) fallen-ness of believing, devout Christians. So we gravitate toward Luther’s description of the Christian as simultaneously sanctified and sinful, rather than, say, the idea that the Christian life is characterized by some kind of growth process. It just rings true.

So part of Mockingbird is a response to the tendency described above of Christians “splitting” their lives into their “Christian life” and their everyday one, implicit being the fact that you cannot be a Christian and a human being at the same time. Coming to understand the proper distinction between the Law and the Gospel has been a freeing and inspiring experience for us in this regard, and we believe it could be for others too. Naturally we get painted with the “antinomian” brush occasionally, but that doesn’t bother me ”“ who doesn’t that’s preaching the Gospel?!

The word “connection” is an important one for us. Mockingbird is looking mainly to connect, rather than, say, convert or convince. We want to demonstrate, to observe, to comment ”“ that sort of thing ”“ and let the Holy Spirit take it from there. If people are converted or convinced, that’s awesome, but it’s not our primary motivation. So there’s no hidden agenda and hopefully no patronizing attitude, which I think folks find refreshing, regardless of their background.

As far as “how” we’re doing this, we’re using as many mediums as possible: thus far it’s been primarily via blogs, books and conferences, and we’re planning to expand on that….

Read it all.

The ELCA assembly comes on the heels of the Episcopal Church’s decision last month to lift its de facto ban on gay bishops and develop rites for same-sex unions.

“We’ve been paying pretty close attention to the Episcopal Church it should really be a warning to the ELCA of going down the path of approving in any way of same-sex relationships,” said the Rev. Mark Chavez, director of Lutheran CORE, a conservative group. “They are on the verge of triggering what may be a schism within the whole Anglican Communion.”

Chavez said Lutheran CORE is fighting the ELCA proposals “because it completely disregards the clear words in Scripture giving boundaries for sexual relationships as a lifelong relationship of one man and one woman.”

Scripture remains a paramount concern in the debate, and no wonder: Lutherans trace their roots to Martin Luther, who believed in “sola scriptura,” ”” that the Bible contains everything necessary for salvation.

“One thing ‘sola scriptura’ is not is a way of expressing that the Bible is to be taken literally, exactly as written,” said Phil Soucy, spokesperson for Lutherans Concerned, a pro-gay advocacy group. “…We do pray for gay rights, and full inclusion is very much within the message of the Gospel and the message of Christ.”

Read it all.

On Sunday, July 19th, I preached a sermon called: The Great Recall Virus. In light of events at the General Convention of the Episcopal Church, I made the diagnosis that our church all over the country is suff ering from this deadly disease. The recall virus defi ned is an IN-ABILITY TO RECALL WHO WE BELONG TO AND WHY”¦ A virus so severe that it leads to not only to what you read in the paragraph below, but one that has the potential to lead each one of us astray.

I will never forget the moment I knew The Great Recall Virus had hit the National Episcopal Church. It came as I sat in att endance at the convention of the Diocese of Washington in the National Cathedral. The convention preacher stood up and said these words:

“We live in a pluralistic world. A world of peoples with many belief systems and values. Our Christian, especially evangelical mission no longer can be as simple ”“ as if it ever was ”“ as telling people about Jesus, so that thy may be as we are and believe as we do. Perhaps our mission, by necessity, must continue to focus on more common human, not especially Christian concerns ”“ alleviating poverty, civil rights, the ill, economic exploitation, environmental devastation”¦”

As I sat in stunned silence, I was shocked to see the preacher receive a standing ovation!

Is there a remedy? Enter a new season of our Beta Course. As you know by now, we have divided our courses here at St. Michael’s into three:

Alpha: Cultural Christian to Believer
Beta: Believer to Disciple
Gamma: Disciple to Mission Apologist

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A national survey of the number of homosexual clergy in the Church of England will take place this year, according to gay rights campaigners.

Inclusive Church, a network of individuals and organisations working for better recognition of minorities, says the survey will be the first of its kind and will prove that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) clergy play a crucial role in the everyday life of the church.

The online survey will ask participants whether they are single, in a relationship, and have had a blessing or thanksgiving service to celebrate their partnership. They will also be asked what position they hold and which part of the country they work in.

Read it all.

Shanghai and Beijing are becoming new lands of opportunity for recent American college graduates who face unemployment nearing double digits at home.

Even those with limited or no knowledge of Chinese are heeding the call. They are lured by China’s surging economy, the lower cost of living and a chance to bypass some of the dues-paying that is common to first jobs in the United States.

“I’ve seen a surge of young people coming to work in China over the last few years,” said Jack Perkowski, founder of Asimco Technologies, one of the largest automotive parts companies in China.

“When I came over to China in 1994, that was the first wave of Americans coming to China,” he said. “These young people are part of this big second wave.”

Read it all.

(3) In sharp contrast, the HOD, with over eight hundred and forty members, meets once every three years for ten days. Half of each diocese’s HOD deputation is lay; priests or deacons comprise the other half. The HOD has a more fluid membership than does the HOB, as dioceses elect deputies for a single three-year term, although many deputies do serve multiple terms. Alternates may also substitute for a deputy during part or all of a Convention. Deputies have no staff to prepare briefings on the vast array of subject matter and a sizable number, based on my observations, seem largely ignorant of HOD parliamentary procedures. These problems were glaringly apparent when eight hundred plus deputies allotted themselves only ten minutes to consider most resolutions, then spent much of that time on parliamentary questions. To their great credit, most Deputies work long hours, strive to do their best for Christ’s Church, and seek to understand an incredibly broad gamut of issues that encompass liturgical, pastoral, theological, and ethical subjects far beyond the competence of any one person. The problem is not with the Deputies as individuals but with the Church’s structure, which imposes this impossible task on these good people. It is no wonder that well before Convention’s end most deputies (and many bishops!) look overwhelmed and fatigued.
(4) General Convention’s structure inherently entails some self-selection on the part of lay deputies. Ten days of sessions with travel can easily mean twelve days away from home. Even with their Diocese paying expenses, few working poor or lower middle class people, who generally receive little if any vacation time, can attend. Single parents may have difficulty arranging twenty-four hour childcare during their absence. I suspect that few high-powered professionals, corporate executives, or small business owners attend, reluctant to be away from their work that long. In other words, those present must have sufficiently flexible schedules to give the Church an uninterrupted block of ten or twelve days, valuing the Church above their other commitments. Anecdotally, rather than based on formal research, lay deputies appear to be mostly upper middle-class and closer in age to retirement than to high school. The deputies were laudably diverse in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, etc. Except for their degree of commitment to the Church, I wonder how well the socio-economic status of HOD lay deputies mirrors that of the Episcopal Church.

In sum, General Convention structure is dysfunctional. In particular, the HOD because of its size, lack of resources, and infrequent meetings cannot give the majority of legislation adequate time or informed consideration. Arguably, the Episcopal Church should revise its governance process.

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(ENS) After the war, Coburn began a distinguished career in the Episcopal Church, first as rector of Grace Church in Amherst, Massachusetts, a position in which he also served as chaplain at Amherst College (he also established and coached Amherst’s first lacrosse team). He served as dean of the Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Newark, New Jersey, from 1953-57. He earned a doctorate in divinity from Princeton University in 1955. In 1956 he co-founded the Chapel of Saint James the Fisherman in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, along with James Pike. In 1958 he was elected dean of the Episcopal Theological School, where he served for more than a decade guiding the school through expansion and the inclusion of female students. Coburn became rector of St. James’ Church on Madison Avenue in New York City after a year of teaching English in Harlem.

From 1967-1976 he served as president of the House of Deputies, guiding the church through controversial issues of race and social justice, women’s ordination and the adoption of a new Book of Common Prayer.

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The Episcopal Church’s split with the Anglican Communion widened this week as two dioceses announced slates of candidates for the episcopate that include three gay and lesbian clergy.

The news comes less than a week after the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams held that gay clergy were out of bounds for Anglican Churches. It was improper for any member of the clergy to be “living in a sexual relationship outside the marriage bond,” Dr Williams said, adding that the homosexual or unchaste heterosexual “chosen lifestyle is not one that the Church’s teaching sanctions, and thus it is hard to see how they can act in the necessarily representative role that the ordained ministry, especially the episcopate, requires.”

On Aug 1 the Diocese of Minnesota released its list of approved candidates standing for election on Oct 30: the Rev Bonnie Perry, rector of All Saints’ Church, Chicago; the Rev Mariann Edgar Budde, rector of St John’s Church, Minneapolis, and the Rev Brian Prior, rector of the Church of the Resurrection, Spokane Valley, Washington.

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After what it must have deemed a decent interval since triggering a furore over its attack on traders and bankers as “robbers and assassins” last year, the Church of England is shamelessly seeking more yield.

Just to refresh your memory, Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury and head of the Anglican Church, last September said it was right to ban short selling, while John Sentamu, archbishop of York, called traders who cashed in on falling prices “bank robbers and asset strippers”.

But the Church Commissioners had a tough year in 2008, as the Church’s total assets dropped from £5.7bn to £4.4bn, a 23 per cent fall over the period. Clearly, faith alone was not enough.

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JH [Josie Huang]: “Just to be clear, the Episcopal Church defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.”

BL [Bishop Stephen Lane]: “That’s correct.”

JH: “Can you address the contradiction of blessing same-sex marriages when that definition stands? Do you think the church is going to change its definition of what marriage is at some point?”

BL: “I think the church is having a broad conversation about marriage and about the church’s role in relation to marriage. Marriage is one of the few parts of our life where the clergy act as agents of the state and stand in on behalf of the state and sign the marriage licenses. But the church’s interest is in the quality of the relationship and the quality of the commitment between the partners and in asking for God’s blessing. So one of the questions that’s being raised by this whole matter is, is it the church’s role to marry, or is it in fact the church’s role to bless a marriage? I’m not willing predict and I’m not sure whether the church will change its definition, but we may change our understanding of how the church relates to marriage.”

Yes, this is about marriage among other things, and that is why it is such a big deal. Read it all.

A local Episcopal parish that is defending its property against a claim from the Episcopal Church is filing a brief in a similar California case.

The Church of the Good Shepherd in Rosemont filed an amicus brief in a case against St. James Anglican Church Newport Beach, where the local Episcopal diocese is claiming St. James’ property because the church withdrew from communion with the Episcopal Church. The amicus, or friend of the court filing, outlines Good Shepherd’s side of the Montgomery County dispute for the court’s benefit. St. James has appealed a previous ruling of the California Supreme Court to the Supreme Court of the U.S.

“We see our amicus brief for St. James, Newport Beach as an act of witness to our parish motto ”“ non ministrari, sed ministrare ”“ not to be ministered unto, but to minister,” said Bishop David Moyer, the rector at Good Shepherd. Bishop Moyer added that the brief was filed out of “thanksgiving for the many blessings we have received from near and far in our struggles for the Gospel and the Catholic religion.”

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[Alex] Heidengren is the son of the Rev. John and Blanche Heidengren. John Heidengren is rector of Prince of Peace Church in Hopewell Township.

Alexander Heidengren, according to his Facebook page, was a 2008 graduate of Beaver County Christian School in Beaver Falls. Monday, many condolence messages were posted by friends, one reading, “It’s good to know you’re in heaven, Alex, but we’ll miss you and the great person you were.”

A.J. Young of North Sewickley Township, who graduated from Beaver County Christian School a year after Heidengren, recalled the upper hallway of the school filled with the sound of Heidengren playing piano.

“He was always practicing for something,” Young said. “He was extremely skilled at music,” adding that Heidengren never used sheet music.

“His whole lifestyle was to worship God,” Young added. “I can’t honestly think of anyone who would have a negative thing to say about him.”

Read it all.

Update: There is a little more here also.

From here:

The Wheaton College community is saddened by the death of sophomore Alex Heidengren. Alex, 18, had participated as a counselor in the Summer Leadership School at HoneyRock in Three Lakes, Wisconsin. Local authorities began a daylong search for him on Saturday morning, August 8, when camp officials became aware that he was missing. His body was discovered late Saturday evening, in Long Lake by underwater cameras operated by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. An investigation into the cause of death is ongoing.

Other departments participating in the search and recovery operations included the Three Lakes Police and Fire Departments, the Oneida County Sheriff’s Department, the Wisconsin State Patrol Air Unit, Oneida County Emergency Management, and canine units from Three Lakes Police Department and the Vilas County Sheriff’s Department. Volunteers also searched the area.

HoneyRock is the Northwoods Camp and Campus of Wheaton College (IL), located in Three Lakes, Wisconsin.

From here:

The Prince of Peace Church family mourns the loss of one of our own: Alexander James Heidengren, son of The Rev. and Mrs. John Heidengren We appreciate the overwhelming response of prayers, love and support that goes out to the Heidengren family and our website will be updated as information becomes available.

When Margie and Stephen Zumbrun were battling the urge to have premarital sex, a pastor counseled them to control themselves. The couple signed a purity covenant.

Then, when the two got engaged and Margie went wedding dress shopping, a salesperson called her “the bride who looks like she’s 12.” Nonchurch friends said that, at 22, she was rushing things.

The agonizing message to a young Christian couple in love: Sex can wait, but so can marriage.

“It’s unreasonable to say, ‘Don’t do anything … and wait until you have degrees and you’re in your 30s to get married,'” said Margie Zumbrun, who did wait for sex, and married Stephen fresh out of Purdue University. “I think that’s just inviting people to have sex and feel like they’re bad people for doing it.

Read it all.

There is a good way to resolve a large part of the debate over legalizing physician-assisted suicide.

Two powerful establishments — religions that seek to spread dogma by force and some elements of the medical industry — have ferociously opposed any suggestion that individuals should be able to decide for themselves whether they want to spend their final days in agony.

There is no reconciliation possible for the religion-based opposition. If we allow terminally ill people to decide for themselves how and when to die, it follows that people should be allowed to think for themselves in general , which would be an anathema to tyrannical clerics.

Read it all.

States are aggressively expanding legalized gambling, eager to shore up battered revenue sources during the economic crisis and concerned that residents will cross state lines to gamble elsewhere if they don’t.

Gambling will expand in about a dozen states this year in an effort to generate an extra $2 billion in gambling taxes by 2010, a record-breaking increase if state projections are accurate.

“Politicians are pushed toward gambling when times get tough,” says William Thompson, a public administration professor at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. “If it’s gambling or a tax increase, the political choice is clear, and the public acquiesces.”

Very sad–since the poorest are most often the most hurt. Read it all.

Ӣ You will not be asked to make a decision or vote on any resolution at this meeting. This is not a legislative gathering, nor even primarily a meeting to vet resolutions.

”¢ I envision our time together as an opportunity for me to lay out before the active clergy of the diocese the gravity, but by no means the totality, of the challenges that lie before us; and in that context sketch out in broad strokes, (as clearly as I am able to see, define, and articulate it) the direction I believe we are called to go in the weeks and months ahead. Flannery O’Connor once wrote in defense of the bizarre nature of her stories””that “To the hard of hearing you shout, to the almost-blind you draw large and startling figures.” I trust that you are neither.

Ӣ It is my hope, even expectation, that this will be a meeting that will initiate a more robust and expansive conversation within this diocese and, even more importantly, set out the principles that will enable us to begin a broader and more active engagement with the challenges we face.

Read it all.

The Honor Flight program in South Carolina ”” which flies World War II veterans to Washington, D.C., for free to see their national memorial ”” is taking off.

Four chapters have been formed statewide. They have scheduled five flights for the fall that will take 500 veterans to see the National World War II Memorial and other monuments in the nation’s capital.

The Honor Flight chapters have spread from Simpsonville to Columbia to Charleston ”” called Honor Flight Upstate, Honor Flight South Carolina and Honor Flight Lowcountry, respectively.

Makes the heart glad.

Have economic times gotten so bad that some of the dead are going unburied? Several large counties across the country are experiencing unprecedented increases in the number of unclaimed deceased ”” not only the dead people who could not be identified, were indigent or were estranged from their family, but also apparently the growing number whose loved ones simply cannot afford to bury or cremate them. The phenomenon has increased costs for local governments, which have to dispose of the bodies.

“People were picking the bodies up last year,” says Albert Samuels, chief investigator at the medical examiner’s office in Wayne County, Mich., which includes Detroit. “Across the board, I’m finding the numbers are on the rise of either families who are not coming forward to claim bodies or they’re signing releases saying they can’t afford to bury someone, which taxes the county resources because then the county is responsible for burying these people.”

The Los Angeles County coroner’s office has seen a surge in the number of bodies not claimed by families for cremation or burial because of economic hardship, according to the Los Angeles Times. At the county coroner’s office ”” which handles homicides and other suspicious deaths ”” 36% more cremations were done at taxpayers’ expense in the past fiscal year compared with the previous year, 712 vs. 525, the paper reported.

Read it all.

I wish my memory worked differently. I’d like to be able to conjure up an accurate image of my consciousness from, say, 25 years ago. You know what 25 years means: No cellphones, no e-mail, no Internet, no social networking (except with an actual drink in hand), and only the most primitive of personal computers. What I want to answer is a single question: Was I as addicted to the future then as I seem to be now?

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About 10 years ago, Ricardo Reznichek headed south on a mission for his Hermosa Beach church: The goal was to find a village in Latin America that needed financial help.

A priest driving a beat-up old car picked him up at a hotel in Belize, and the two men drove for miles toward the rural fields of the impoverished country. The Rev. Irineo Martir Vasquez, known as Father Martir, introduced his American companion to a group of farmers who gathered for Sunday services outside in the fields.

They had no money for a church building but, with Vasquez’s help, they had a church.

“He would drive out all this way to minister to these people,” Reznichek said. “I saw in him then just an extraordinary person who had that ability to help people and make things happen. He is a person who really wants to make progress in the world.”

Read it all.

But, if there is a threat against LGBT clergy here, the English can be expected to react strongly.

First though, there’s a specific reason why a dispute about same-sex blessings in the US or Canada is a very poor argument for having a schism in the Church of England now.

Few know this, but the Church of England has, as a matter of plain fact, remained in communion with the Lutheran Church of Sweden, and also with some Old Catholic dioceses in continental Europe, throughout the past decade, in full knowledge that each of these bodies had given official approval for same-sex blessings at various times during the 1990s. So breaking communion with North Americans on this issue now makes no logical sense.

The Church of Sweden recently made its position on same-sex blessings very clear in a letter to its ecumenical partners. This letter was mainly concerned with a new proposal under consideration, to develop a gender-neutral marriage rite, because Swedish civil marriage law has been revisised to eliminate civil partnerships, and treat all couples identically.

Read it all.

From here:

The leadership of the Episcopal church recently voted to resume ordaining gay clergy and to begin blessing same-gender unions. Join host Welton Gaddy for a very special look inside the controversy surrounding homosexuality, equal rights and this historic denomination.

Welton speaks with two pioneers in the Episcopal Church. Bishop Gene Robinson was the first openly gay man to be named bishop. He has served as the ninth bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire since 2004. Bishop Jane Holmes Dixon was the second woman to become a bishop. She served as Bishop of Washington pro tempore from 2001 to June 2002 in the Episcopal Diocese of Washington.

Tune in for a passionate conversation about changes in the Episcopal Church and what these changes say about American society as a whole.

Listen to it all (around 54 minutes total).

Sitting in my inbox this morning, the terrible news that a seminary friend and his wife lost their young son:

With deep sadness I must share with you that we received word this morning of Alex Heidengren’s death. Alex, the 2nd oldest of John and Blanche’s children, was working as a counselor at a Christian Camp. He was a young man of great faith and a passion for Christ, a gift for worshipping God through music, who loved his family and friends well. He will be greatly missed.

Please keep John and Blanche and children Jonathan, Katie, Nate and Nick in your prayers before our Father God.

A picture of Alex is here.

John Heidengren, Alex’s father, serves in this parish in the Pittsburgh area.

I would be very grateful if you could lift up this family in prayer today–KSH.