It helps to laugh at ourselves–take a look.

Protocols

1. These celebrations are understood to be a pastoral response to same-sex couples in our communities. The rite is to be part of a Celebration of Holy Eucharist.
2. The clergy involved must seek the Bishop’s support and written permission a minimum of sixty (60) days before the proposed celebration.
3. Matters pertaining to the use of facilities, ceremonial planning and local arrangements will be made with the approval of the Rector of the parish in which the celebration is to take place.
4. It is required that at least one member of the couple be a baptized member of a congregation in the Diocese of Huron.
5. Appropriate pastoral support and instruction must be given at the local level in order to prepare the couple for the celebration and their ongoing Christian life in relationship.
6. As with all liturgical celebrations of the church, these events will be entered into the Parish Register (Vestry Book).
7. Clergy from beyond the Diocese of Huron shall obtain permission from the Bishop of Huron and their own Bishop.
8. Any member of the clergy may decline to preside at these celebrations.

Read it all and follow all the links too.

It wasn’t that long ago that “there was no such thing as putting a pastor on hold” when the leader of a D.C. church called city hall, said the Rev. Patrick J. Walker of the New Macedonia Baptist Church in Southeast.

But when Walker, whose church has 2,000 members, asked to sit down with D.C. Council members this summer to discuss same-sex marriage, some of them wouldn’t meet with him, he said.

“This city certainly is no longer church-friendly,” Walker said.

The clout of the local faith community, particularly the black church, in D.C. politics has been declining for decades. But with the council heading for a vote next week on a bill to legalize same-sex marriage, the near-certain passage of the legislation has come to symbolize both political and spiritual changes in the District.

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From here:

One of the things many people overlook in the discussion of a tax on trading is how different the market is today than it was before the Internet and all its associated technologies were developed. Trading has been greatly democratized over the years — now just about anyone can be a trader and earn a living in the market if they have a little capital and are willing to work hard.

Fifteen years ago you had to be live and work in one of the major financial centers if you wanted to be a “real” trader. There was no way someone like me sitting on the beach in Florida or the hills of North Carolina could participate in the market. Now we can all become self-sufficient if we have the desire and inclination to do so.

The Internet made trading an even playing field, and as a result a major industry developed around it to assist the man on the street who wanted to participate in the markets. I know many individuals who now consider trading to be their primary job. They run small businesses that support them and their families, employ people and pay substantial taxes on their profits. Instead of using stock brokers, people now do research on their own using the many sites and tools available on the Internet, which has created productive businesses like TheStreet.com and RealMoney.

When I hear the discussions about a tax on trading, it is clear that the politicians are after the big investment banks like Goldman Sachs or the irresponsible banks that helped to create the subprime crisis. I never hear any talk about how different the world of trading is now and how so many ordinary people look to the market as a way to produce income.

A tax on trading will not only hurt the way the market operates, it will hurt many innocent individuals who never had any responsibility for the excesses of Wall Street in the first play and probably helped the market recover much faster than it would have otherwise.

I hope that those who back a tax on trading figure out that they aren’t just going to extract some fees form powerful institutions. They are going to hurt the lives of thousands of people on Main Street.

Perhaps you heard on the Marketplace Morning report this proposal to tax Wall Street transactions. The revenues would go toward deficit reduction and job creation on Main Street. I understand the motivation behind this, but there’s a pretty good case against it.

Read it all and the comments are interesting as well.

The vicar of an Anglo-Catholic church has received a threatening phone call warning him of violence if his parish goes over to Rome ”“ and his noticeboard has been defaced with the words “C of E No Pope” daubed across it in white paint.

Fr David Waller of St Saviour’s, Walthamstow, discovered the vandalism on Sunday morning as he prepared for Mass. Then he found the a message waiting for him on his answering machine threatening him with physical violence. But, when I spoke to him a few minutes ago, he didn’t sound remotely intimidated. “The message was distorted ”“ it sounded drunken and I don’t want to make too much of it,” he said.

St Saviour’s is a Forward in Faith parish and, although no decision has been made, Fr Waller is very encouraged by the Pope’s offer of a Personal Ordinariate. “The key players in the parish, including the churchwardens, are completely disillusioned with the Church of England and see the Ordinariate as the solution. I can’t speak for all the silent folk in the pews, but a significant number of them are Eastern European Roman Catholics, so I don’t think it would be a problem for them.”

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But state property laws vary, so sometimes local churches prevail. A September opinion from the South Carolina Supreme Court overturned a lower-court ruling and declared a breakaway congregation to be the rightful owner of its 60-acre property in a prestigious resort area.

Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intercede in a property dispute between the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles and St. James Anglican Church in Newport Beach, Calif., a more conservative congregation that parted ways with the diocese. The case has returned to Orange County Superior Court.

The stakes are highest in cases in which entire dioceses split from the Episcopal Church. In the Fort Worth, Texas, area, conservatives, who aligned with the Anglican Church in North America, won the allegiance of about 15,000 of the 19,000 members of the original Episcopal diocese. The conservatives have control of nearly all church buildings and financial accounts. Neither side will estimate the value of the buildings and endowments at stake, beyond saying it is in the “many millions.”

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In declaring Tuesday that he would “finish the job” in Afghanistan, President Obama used a phrase clearly meant to imply that even as he deploys an additional 30,000 or so troops, he has finally figured out how to bring the eight-year-long conflict to an end.

But offering that reassuring if somewhat contradictory signal ”” that by adding troops he can speed the United States toward an exit ”” is just the first of a set of tricky messages Mr. Obama will have to deliver as he rolls out his strategy publicly.

Over the next week, he will deliver multiple messages to multiple audiences: voters at home, allies, the leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the extremists who are the enemy. And as Mr. Obama’s own aides concede, the messages directed at some may undercut the messages sent to others.

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Mr Ainsworth took the unprecedented step of publicly criticising the US President and his delays in sending more troops to bolster the mission against the Taliban.

A “period of hiatus” in Washington – and a lack of clear direction – had made it harder for ministers to persuade the British public to go on backing the Afghan mission in the face of a rising death toll, he said.

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…the general view among independent health care economists is that these changes will not fundamentally bend the cost curve. The system after reform will look as it does today, only bigger and more expensive.

As Jeffrey S. Flier, dean of the Harvard Medical School, wrote in The Wall Street Journal last week, “In discussions with dozens of health-care leaders and economists, I find near unanimity of opinion that, whatever its shape, the final legislation that will emerge from Congress will markedly accelerate national health-care spending rather than restrain it.”

…the current estimates almost certainly understate the share of the nation’s wealth that will have to be shifted. In these bills, the present Congress pledges that future Congresses will impose painful measures to cut Medicare payments and impose efficiencies. Future Congresses rarely live up to these pledges.

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This is not how business has been done on the World Wide Web.

Microsoft has been in early discussions with the News Corporation, the media conglomerate controlled by Rupert Murdoch, about a pact to pay the News Corporation to remove links to its news content from Google’s search engine and display them exclusively on Bing, from Microsoft, according to a person briefed on the matter who spoke anonymously because of the confidential negotiations.

If such an arrangement came to pass, it would be a watershed moment in the history of the Internet, and set off a fierce debate over the future of content online.

The Web’s explosive growth has been driven, in part, by the open playing field it represents for consumers and businesses. These discussions could encourage major technology and media companies to start picking sides ”” essentially applying the cable TV model to the Web.

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The first test of whether Gov. Mark Sanford will survive an attempt to impeach him will be decided by Dec. 9.

A special panel made up of seven House members began deliberations Tuesday on the question of whether Sanford’s alleged wrongdoings rise to the level of serious misconduct or serious crimes.

Only 16 governors in the history of the United States have been impeached, and just eight were forced out of their positions. No governor in South Carolina has been impeached, although the House attempted to remove a governor in the 1870s.

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[William] Oppenheim founded Omprakash Foundation, an online database of volunteer opportunities that, unlike many others, is completely free and education-driven. He is not selling volunteer trips, he is connecting volunteers and donors with opportunities.

“There are all these companies where you will pay them $5,000 and they will sell you this trip,” he said. “This passion has just grown from my interest in education around the world.”

So far, there are more than 100 educational partners in 26 counties. For instance, his foundation connected a journalism club at a private school in California with a journalism program at a girls’ school in Kenya.

He sounds like quite a guy–congratulations to him. Read it all and there is much more there.

The sign sits propped on a wooden chair, inviting all comers: “Ask an Atheist.”

Whenever a student gets within a few feet, Anastasia Bodnar waves and smiles, trying to make a good first impression before eyes drift down to a word many Americans rank down there with “socialist.”

Bodnar is the happy face of atheism at Iowa State University. Once a week at this booth at a campus community center, the PhD student who spends most of her time researching the nutritional traits of corn takes questions and occasional abuse while trying to raise the profile of religious skepticism.

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Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS were given a secret £61.6 billion in bridging loans last year on top of the £500 billion of support that the banking sector received from the taxpayer, the Governor of the Bank of England disclosed yesterday.

MPs expressed astonishment when Mervyn King told them about the emergency funding, which indicated that the two banks were in far greater peril than first thought. The Government has since indicated that the whole sector was within hours of collapse.

Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman, accused the Government of treating taxpayers like children in keeping the bailout secret for more than a year. “What is particularly concerning is that the Government was pumping billions into HBOS at the exact same time it was convincing Lloyds to take it over,” he said. “The Chancellor knew he was selling Lloyds a lemon, but he did it anyway to save his own skin.”

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Ali had Frazier. Coke has Pepsi. The Yankees have the Red Sox. Now Wal-Mart, the mightiest retail giant in history, may have met its own worthy adversary: Amazon.com.

In what is emerging as one of the main story lines of the 2009 post-recession shopping season, the two heavyweight retailers are waging an online price war that is spreading through product areas like books, movies, toys and electronics.

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1 A Song of Ascents. I lift up my eyes to the hills. From whence does my help come? 2 My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. 3 He will not let your foot be moved, he who keeps you will not slumber. 4 Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade on your right hand. 6 The sun shall not smite you by day, nor the moon by night. 7 The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. 8 The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and for evermore.

–Psalm 121, somehow oh so appropriate in this week as Thanksgiving and Advent approach

Sentamu is an intriguing, unclassifiable figure. I congratulate him on having been named Yorkshireman of the Year in 2008, but ask him again whether anyone outside the church is really listening. “We had the Yorkshire day in April and I was leading the procession,” he says, “and I’m told they had the biggest turnout they’ve ever had. The message about what makes a good community has to be heard, whether people are in church or not.”

The credit crunch has, he believes, changed everything. “Mammon was given a pasting. We may go back up to where we were, in the belief that now the markets are becoming more stable, but I’m not sure people really trust that any more. We’ve lived in this libertarian time where choice was seen as important and the free market was important, and as long as you did it within the law you could do whatever you wanted to. It’s now beginning to dawn on people that choice isn’t all there is about life. My neighbour matters.”

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In stating that the Vatican’s initiative represents a new and unexpected level in bilateral dialogue, we mean that it is not directly related to the process that has been ongoing for the past 40 years, as related above, but rather a unilateral initiative that will certainly require deeper analysis. Below are just two elements that merit close attention:

1. The most recent official documents of the Roman Catholic Church have successively reaffirmed not only its identity as a universal church but its singularity as the true and original sign of the presence of Christ among peoples. This implies a self-understanding of ecclesiological and organizational exclusivity that hinders the advancement of dialogue between both our churches.
2. The theological underpinnings for the Vatican’s initiative are based on the understanding that the unity of the Church is grounded in the claim of Petrine ministry. This postulate must be seen through the lens of its theological dimension and the historical reality of the See of Rome and to this day has not been satisfactorily resolved in Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogue.
Clearly, these issues must be faced with honesty and open dialogue, to which we have always been committed in a respectful manner.
We express our concern over the initiative unleashed by Rome, considering the way in which it took place and its content.

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However, unless we are to succumb to cultural relativism, the proposed legislation cannot simply be ignored given its apparent support from a leading government minister, its incompatibility with Anglican teaching, its undermining of Anglican ministry and mission, and the danger it represents to many Anglicans and others in Uganda who are likely to face prosecution should it become law. We need therefore to:
*
Pray for David Bahati (the Bill’s sponsor) and the Minister for Ethics and Integrity (who is so supportive of it), for all those who will be involved in any Parliamentary discussion of it (due now in January 2010) and able to amend or defeat it, for all those who now feel even further threatened simply by its publication, and for all those in the Ugandan Church seeking to be faithful witnesses and salt and light in their country.

* Seek to understand more about what is happening and the wider context in Uganda eg most of us in this country would not know the answer to many, if any, of the following questions: (1) how likely is this to become law in its present form, what sort of amendments are realistically possibly, and what will happen if it does enter the statute book?, (2) how does it compare in terms of stringency and penalties to existing legislation in relation to other (hetero)sexual conduct viewed as wrong?, (3) what are the real social and criminal problems which it is a misguided attempt to address and how can they be better addressed? eg has there been a rise in sexual abuse of minors?, (4) is there any reason other than homophobic prejudice and scapegoating as to why the bill and signficant political leaders are particularly targeting homosexual people?, (5) how widespread are the attitudes the bill represents within Ugandan church and society and how can the Christians there and elsewhere in the Communion best reform that culture and its laws?, (6) how is the Church of Uganda ministering to GLBT people?, (7) what are the real threats to marriage and family life in Uganda that this bill claims to be responding to?

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The State Ethics Commission has charged Gov. Mark Sanford with breaking state ethics laws 37 times, including using state planes for family trips, spending campaign funds on a hunting trip and flying first class, instead of coach, while on state travel.

The commission, which last week wrapped up its preliminary, three-month-long investigation into allegations against the embattled governor, released the charges to the public Monday.

The commission’s findings have been eagerly awaited by legislators, who are deciding whether to oust Sanford from office before his term ends in January 2011.

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I am aware of several large hedge funds that would move their operations overseas if this measure passed. If I am aware of some, I am sure there are hundreds more.

Think of the implications on traders thinking about stepping into a plunging market to buy. With this transaction tax who would want to step in? It sure won’t be the LTBH clowns because they would already be in.

Right now shorts and short-term traders are the only ones who might step into plunging markets. The former to cover shorts, the latter to take a chance. Both provide much needed liquidity. The traders could count on a stop loss nearby where they can exit if wrong.

If this bill were to pass, there will be no one willing to step into plunging markets. Liquidity would immediately dry up.

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A House bill still being drafted aims to raise $150 billion each year to pay for new jobs.

Under a bill being drafted by Democratic Reps. Peter DeFazio (Ore.) and Ed Perlmutter (Colo.), the sale and purchase of financial instruments such as stocks, options, derivatives and futures would face a 0.25 percent tax.

The bill, a copy of which was obtained by The Hill, is titled the “Let Wall Street Pay for the Restoration of Main Street Act of 2009.”

Read it all. My response to this horrible idea was posted in earlier comments below:

[The reason this is such a bad idea] has to do with behavioral economics. This kind of a tax changes the playing field as a result of which all sorts of people and participants will change their behavior. ALL of these behavioral changes have to be taken into consideration in order to show the overall tax revenue implications of such a proposal.

If you understand the way markets work, and especially what has happened with the technological and information revolutions since the 1980’s, and that an entire culture and its related multiple additional subcultures have arisen all around the markets as individuals have participated in many ways as never before, then you can see that the collateral damage will be MASSIVE. This MASSIVE change will have significant tax implications which almost all advocates do not even think of, much less mention. The question is the OVERALL tax revenue implications of the proposal given all of the subsequent changes it will cause.

The result will be much less corporate revenue, less individual revenue, job loss, small business loss, website and pay site implications, computer, phone and internet implications, and the list gets very long very quickly. All of those additional changes will result in more revenue loss for the government.

This has nothing to do with supply side economics, John, nor with taxes in general or people paying their fair share. What it does have to do with is the obliteration of the democratization of the markets which has come in new ways in the last few decades.

Pope Benedict XVI and the Archbishop of Canterbury have said relationships between the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion will not be obstructed by a recent Vatican offer to allow disaffected Anglicans to maintain some of their traditions if they convert.

An official communiqué issued after a Nov. 21 meeting at the Vatican between the two Christian leaders said that they reiterated, “the shared will to continue and to consolidate the ecumenical relationship between Catholics and Anglicans.”

A commission preparing a third phase of international theological dialogue between the Anglican Communion and the Catholic Church is due to meet in the coming days, the statement said.

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The Rt Rev Jonathan Gledhill, the Bishop of Lichfield, told worshippers to wear crosses or fish symbols to demonstrate that Christmas is a religious holiday.

He also criticised “politically-correct” companies and local councils who sought to make the period a secular celebration.

Bishop Gledhill said: “Companies’ sacking those who want to wear a cross or fish lapel badge and councils rebranding Christmas out of fear of offending ethnic minorities are decisions made out of sheer ignorance.

“I think it wouldn’t be a bad thing if in December all Christians wore a fish badge or cross necklace and sent out a loud message that Christians aren’t going to disappear quietly from the Christmas market place.”

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President Obama has conducted a final meeting on his military review for Afghanistan, administration officials said, and he is planning to explain his decision in an address to the nation next Tuesday.

“After completing a rigorous final meeting, President Obama has the information he wants and needs to make his decision and he will announce that decision within days,” Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, said Tuesday morning.

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Leading up to the vote, Gregg reportedly said Republicans will attempt to filibuster the bill if it resembles what passed the House. After the vote he criticized it for creating a “new multitrillion dollar entitlement program that massively grows the size and role of the federal government, significantly increases taxes, especially on small businesses, and cuts Medicare by over a trillion dollars.”

Nine faiths were represented by the 15 religious leaders, which included rabbis, priests and pastors, including, from Dover, Rabbi Larry Karol of Dover Temple Israel; the Rev. Susan Garrity of St. Thomas Episcopal Church; the Rev. Mark Monson Alley of St. John’s Methodist Church; Dr. Julian Olivier, chaplain at Wentworth Douglass Hospital; and the Rev. Kendra Ford of First Unitarian Universalist Society of Exeter.

“As religious leaders, we affirm that all human life is sacred. We affirm our moral obligation to provide for the basic needs of all people, including food, clothing, shelter, legal protection and medical care,” they wrote in the letter. “We affirm the equal, just and impartial treatment of all people. … As religious leaders, we recognize that we are all morally bound to work for equal access to health care.”

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Finally, I mustered up the strength to walk into my local Episcopal church on a Sunday. Before I made my trip, I researched the liturgy online so I wouldn’t look like a fool.

It was love at first sight ”“ the beauty of the church, and sounds, too, since I loved the sermon, the prayers and the hymns. Most of all, I loved the people in this small parish. I felt very welcome and sensed that they were very accepting. The stereotypes I had of “church people” were shattered. I used to believe people who went to church were judgmental, humorless, rigid and had nothing in common with me. How wrong I had been.

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The Episcopal Diocese of Long Island wants law firms to repay the $205,000 in legal fees that “dissident” parishioners allegedly paid out of church coffers after trying unsuccessfully to take over a church. The squabble erupted after the consecration of the church’s first openly gay bishop, in 2003.

The Diocese says the dissidents voted to disaffiliate St. James Church of Elmhurst in 2005, then used church money to pay their legal fees as they sought control of the parish’s 304-year-old property.

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The man in charge of the inquiry examining events surrounding the Iraq war has said his committee will not produce a report that is a “whitewash”.

Sir John Chilcot, a retired career civil servant, has promised to produce a “full and insightful” account.

Evidence from senior government figures will start on Tuesday and politicians, including former Prime Minister Tony Blair will be called early in 2010.

The report will not be released until after the General Election.

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