[Liam] Collins is a native of Ireland. He was ordained as priest June 12, 1971, at St. Patrick’s College in County Tipperary. He earned both bachelor of philosophy and master of divinity degrees from St. Patrick’s College, and a master of family studies degree from Mercer University in Macon.

He has served churches in metropolitan and rural locations in South Georgia for 38 years. Most recently, his notable work has included initiating an outreach ministry to students and faculty at the Savannah College of Art and Design.

“The primary focus of my ministry has always been seeking to awaken all to the bonds of love and respect that unite us, as God’s people,” Collins said. “The church, in structure and service, is called to act when the most vulnerable and needy among us reach out for hope and healing. We are God’s very heart, hands and feet in this wounded, broken world.”

Collins has been married to his wife, Mary, for 15 years.

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See how many you can guess before you look.

Jan Hilton starts most days sitting in a living room chair, facing an iconic image of Jesus created 1,400 years ago in a Middle Eastern monastery.

Before she prays and meditates there for 20 minutes, she looks into the eyes of the picture.

“It creates the right frame of mind,” she said. “It’s just remembering that in awareness of the quiet is the divine.”

A spiritual director at an Episcopal church in Corpus Christi, Hilton said that same feeling of connection to God is one that has been enriched by her interest in mysticism. She has enrolled in a class about modern mystics that will begin next month in San Antonio.

Called “Christian Mysticism: History, Wisdom and Insights,” the course will include scholars talking about mystics from various Christian faith traditions, organizers said. In addition to talks about mystics, time is set aside in class for participants to practice prayer and meditation.

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After the 2006 vote, Archbishop Makgoba — then the Bishop of Grahamstown — urged all sides to continue talking. “We agree that we have to dialogue, and listen to the experiences of all people around this issue, so that when the conclusion is arrived at, all of us understand and appreciate the challenges that all people feel,” he said.

The then Archbishop of Cape Town Njogonkulu Ndungane welcomed the expansion of civil rights for gay couples, but stated the “Anglican Church’s position is clear. We have repeatedly affirmed that we do not regard partnership between two persons of the same sex as a marriage in the eyes of God.”

However, Dean [Rowan] Smith said after the vote in Parliament that he hoped the new law would prompt the Anglican Church to allow congregations a local option whether or not to bless same-sex couples. The Province presently allows gay clergy to serve in the ministry but requires that they be celibate, and requires all clergy to abstain from sexual relations outside of marriage.

After the vote, Archbishop Makgoba said the resolution was “an important first step to saying: ‘Lord, how do we do ministry in this context?’” of changing sexual mores.

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St. John’s, founded in 1843, is a church bristling with new life. Earlier this year, the 150-member parish in Rosebank installed a new rector, the Rev. Roy Cole, after many years of working with a long-term supply priest and a dedicated vestry and wardens. The congregation is proud of its determination, its prayerful willingness to grow, and its diversity.

The parish has the vibrancy of a mosaic, with parishioners who trace their roots to Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, Asia and Central America. It is a place where bright pieces of culture, language, dress, customs and history wash up against each other and meld into one distinctive whole.

Father Cole made a point of honoring that diversity at his institution in February. He insisted that the event should not be catered but that parishioners should bring dishes that represented their ethnic background.

“I wanted the people to be authentically included with offerings of their culture and one of the best ways to do that is through food,” Father Cole said.

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The Episcopal Church of the Epiphany, located AT 542 Potters Avenue, began as a mission parish in 1868. The mission church had once claimed 700 parishioners but has seen its membership decline in recent decades.

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“Providing a reality check, Radical Women spokeswoman Alison Thorne told the Melbourne rally that marriage was an oppressive institution designed to condemn women to lives of slavery, but same-sex couples should nevertheless be equally entitled to it. She then led the crowd in a chant: ”˜Kevin Rudd, ALP, we demand equality’.”

Wow, what a great quote. I am sure many fellow homosexuals wished she had simply shut up. And many may be kicking themselves for allowing the MSM to pick up on this juicy quote. Of course it says nothing new. Those of us who are not reliant on a censorious MSM know full well that many, if not most, homosexuals are not even interested in marriage.

Indeed, there has been a longstanding debate amongst homosexuals over the question of homosexual marriage. Some are in favour, some are opposed, and there are many options in between. As one example, one Victorian leader put it this way: “Obviously while there is a lack of unanimity about gay marriage, our human rights must be the same as everyone else’s. If someone wants to get married or doesn’t want to get married, it’s their choice.”

One Australian homosexual lobby group has actually split over this issue. Two committee members have resigned from the New South Wales Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby, claiming it has not pushed hard enough for marriage rights. But the Lobby said that marriage reform was “not a priority”.

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At one extreme of Corporate America is a cadre of companies and banks, mostly big, united by an enviable access to credit. At the other end are firms, chiefly small, with slumping sales that can’t borrow or are facing stiff terms to do so.

On Main Street, there are consumers with rock-solid jobs — but also legions of debt-strapped individuals struggling to keep their noses above water.

This split helps explain the patchiness of the recovery that appears to be taking hold after the worst recession in a half-century.

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“The dominant public policy imperative motivating reform is to address the moral hazard risk created by what we did, what we had to do in the crisis to save the economy,” Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said in an interview.

The worry for consumers is that the bailouts skewed the financial industry in favor of the big and powerful. Fresh data from the FDIC show that big banks have the ability to borrow more cheaply than their peers because creditors assume these large companies are not at risk of failing. That imbalance could eventually squeeze out smaller competitors. Already, consumers are seeing fewer choices and higher prices for financial services, some senior government officials warn.

Those mergers were largely the government’s making. Regulators pushed failing mortgage lenders and Wall Street firms into the arms of even bigger banks and handed out billions of dollars to ensure that the deals would go through. They say they reluctantly arranged the marriages. Their aim was to dull the shock caused by collapses and prevent confidence in the U.S. financial system from crumbling.

Officials waived long-standing regulations to make the deals work. J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo were each allowed to hold more than 10 percent of the nation’s deposits despite a rule barring such a practice. In several metropolitan regions, these banks were permitted to take market share beyond what the Department of Justice’s antitrust guidelines typically allow, Federal Reserve documents show.

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Meanwhile, back in Anaheim, the power of personal story ”“ its ability to transform abstract concepts like gender identity and expression into concrete human reality ”“ seemed to win over hearts and minds.

“What blew me away,” said the Reverend Cameron Partridge, a transgender priest and TransEpiscopal leader, “was how many people came out of the woodwork. More people are connected to the transgender community than one might imagine.”

As Partridge, originally from the Bay Area, now serving as vicar of a Boston parish, explained further, “When we brought up the [resolutions] people stepped forward to say, ‘My neighbor is trans, or my son or daughter is.’ In other cases, and random places, people came forward and told me, ‘I am so glad that you testified at that committee hearing. I would never have thought about [transgender concerns] before.'”

In sum, Cameron, another among the party of eight, added, “People were amazing.”

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