…a new analysis of Census data being released Monday by the Commerce Department…found that the percentage of households that connect to the Internet using broadband grew to 63.5 percent in 2009 from 9.2 percent in 2001, reflecting increases across nearly all demographics.

The report ”” prepared by the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the Economics and Statistics Administration ”” is based on a Census survey of about 54,000 households conducted in October 2009….

Among the major findings:
Ӣ 94.1 percent of households with income exceeding $100,000 subscribed to broadband in 2009, compared with 35.8 percent of households with income of less than $25,000.
Ӣ 84.5 percent of households with at least one college degree subscribed to broadband last year, compared with 28.8 percent of households without a high school degree.

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Washington and Delhi’s relationship will be one of the century’s defining partnerships, President Barack Obama and Indian PM Manmohan Singh have said.

On a visit to Delhi, Mr Obama said India was a world power, and both countries would work together to promote stability and prosperity.

In a speech to parliament later, he said he would address Delhi’s bid for a permanent UN Security Council seat.

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As news of his retirement made headlines around the globe, Bishop V. Gene Robinson paid a quiet visit to a small parish in Wolfeboro, N.H., yesterday, leading services for a vacationing rector and meeting with the church board, but only briefly mentioning that he was stepping down as leader of the state’s Episcopal Diocese.

Friends and parishioners say it was typical Robinson, who remained the approachable, empathetic, and motivated spiritual leader that many in the state know simply as Gene, even as he became an international figure at the center of a rift in the Anglican Communion and a target for death threats which, he acknowledged in a speech Saturday, have exacted a price.

“The fact is, the last seven years have taken their toll on me, my family, and you,’’ Robinson, 63, told the annual convention of his diocese, disclosing that he will step down in January 2013 after nearly a decade as bishop, nearly seven years shy of the mandatory 72-year-old retirement age. “Death threats, and the now-worldwide controversy surrounding your election of me as bishop, have been a constant strain, not just on me, but on my beloved husband, Mark, who has faithfully stood with me every minute of the last seven years.’’

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Unlike some Episcopal meetings, the Toledo gathering should slip under the media radar with no controversial issues on the agenda.

A group of about 30 clergy and lay delegates from northwest Ohio, bearing 93-page handbooks filled with pie charts and proposals, met last week in the basement cafeteria of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in West Toledo to discuss plans for the convention on Friday and Saturday.

“We’re beginning the process to get ready for convention. I’m not going to pretend to get you ready in an hour,” said the Rev. Bradford Purdom III, the Cleveland-based canon for congregations.

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[Brian] Wilson has created some controversy with the cross-armed salute he offers up at the rear of the mound after every save. The gesture has been taken by some opposing players as a sign of disrespect, and Casey Blake of the Los Angeles Dodgers even went so far as to mimic it on the bench last year after hitting a home run off him.

Wilson said the gesture is a salute to his religious faith ”” he became a devout Christian four years ago ”” and to his father, Mike, who made his career in the Air Force and who died when Wilson was 17 and attending high school in Londonderry, N.H.

“He taught me that you don’t get anything for free,” Wilson said of his father. “You have to work for it. Nothing ever comes easy. That’s the way I’ve been, and that’s the way this team has been. We had to fly back to Philly” for the clinching game of the N.L.C.S. “We had to win in Atlanta in Game 4. It had to come down to the last day of the season. That’s our baseball team. That’s me.”

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The head of the Anglican Church has made an outspoken intervention in the debate on welfare reform, criticising plans to force the long-term unemployed into four-week work placements.

Rowan Williams, archbishop of Canterbury, said on Sunday that ministers, by putting such pressure on those out of work, could accentuate “a sort of downward spiral of uncertainty, even despair”.

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Enlarge our hearts, O God, that we may love thee more and more; kindle our souls that we may praise thee aright; and so order our thoughts, words, and deeds that we may serve thee and glorify thee for evermore; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Turn again, O God of hosts! Look down from heaven, and see; have regard for this vine, the stock which thy right hand planted.

–Psalm 80:14-15

The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams said today that the provision of mental health services in the countryside must not be cut under the current Government Comprehensive Spending Review. He said this was his greatest concern when looking at the possible shrinkage of services in the rural communities.

He described mental health problems in rural areas as “a huge problem”, where the isolation and hidden depravation are significant problems. Describing the burden placed on voluntary support services as already extreme, he said this provision must remain.

Dr Williams also spoke of the ‘opportunity and challenge’ for the Church to get across to those driving the Big Society what is already happening in the countryside through the rural church and community groups.

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The mid-term elections on November 2nd saw the biggest swing to the Republicans for 72 years…With a few results still to come, they have picked up over 60 seats in the House of Representatives, for a solid majority of at least 50. In the Senate they gained at least six seats, though they will fall short of control there.

For Mr Obama, the lesson is simple enough: sharpen up, and prepare for a tough two years. Yes, this was hardly an enthusiastic vote for his opponents, more a howl of rage against incumbents from citizens struggling after the worst slowdown since the 1930s. And he has a string of legislative achievements to his name. But plenty of centrists plainly fear that he has drifted too far to the left, that he dislikes business and that he does not understand middle America. He looks a far less competent figure than he did two years ago. With a hostile House and a gridlocked Senate, the chances of passing any big new laws are remote; and Republican victories in crucial swing states such as Florida, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania will make the president’s re-election battle in 2012 a lot harder. If Mr Obama is to win again, he needs to move back to the pragmatic centre of what is still a pretty conservative country.

But so do the Republicans….

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BOB ABERNETHY, host: And now we look at the election results and what they mean with David Gibson, religion writer for PoliticsDaily.com, and with Kim Lawton, our managing editor. Kim, you’ve looked at the patterns. What did you see?

KIM LAWTON, managing editor: Well, not surprisingly Republicans made gains among all religious groups, but there were some pretty significant gains. White Protestants voted Republican overwhelmingly. They’ve done that, they usually do that in elections, but even more so this time. The interesting thing for me was around Catholics. In the last two congressional elections, overall Catholics have favored the Democratic candidates. But this time around they went Republican and by significant margins. Catholics have really become in some ways a swing voting bloc. Obviously there are some who always vote Republican, some who always vote Democratic, but there’s this group who keeps swinging, and this time around they really swung Republican.

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U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner refrained from pushing for current-account targets while China softened its stance on the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing days before a summit of the Group of 20.

The Fed’s move to buy $600 billion of Treasuries could contribute “tremendously” to global growth, Vice Finance Minister Wang Jun said after Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum finance chiefs met in Kyoto, Japan, Nov. 6. At the same gathering, Geithner said current-account deficits or surpluses aren’t “something that is amenable to limits or targets.”

Policy makers from Asia to South America have warned that the Fed’s decision to pump liquidity into the U.S. will depress the dollar and spark flows of capital to emerging markets that threaten asset-price bubbles. China’s Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai said Nov. 5 the U.S. step may hurt global confidence, while rejecting state-planning style targets for trade deficits.

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As the sun rose over the mountains circling Los Reyes, a town in the Mexican state of Michoacán, one morning in March 2009, a caravan of more than 300 heavily armed law enforcement agents set out on a raid.

All but the lead vehicle turned off their headlights to evade lookouts, called “falcons,” who work for La Familia Michoacana, the brutal Mexican cartel that controls the drug trade. This time, the police weren’t hunting for a secret stash of drugs, guns or money. Instead, they looked to crack down on La Familia’s growing counterfeit software ring.

The police reached the house undetected, barreled in and found rooms crammed with about 50 machines used to copy CDs and make counterfeit versions of software like Microsoft Office and Xbox video games. They arrested three men on the spot, who were later released while the authorities investigate the case. “The entire operation was very complicated and risky,” says a person close to the investigation, who demanded anonymity out of fear for his life.

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While China’s students have long filled American graduate schools, its undergraduates now represent the fastest-growing group of international students. In 2008-9, more than 26,000 were studying in the United States, up from about 8,000 eight years earlier, according to the Institute of International Education.

Students are ending up not just at nationally known universities, but also at regional colleges, state schools and even community colleges that recruit overseas. Most of these students pay full freight (international students are not eligible for government financial aid) ”” a benefit for campuses where the economic downturn has gutted endowments or state financing.

The boom parallels China’s emergence as the world’s largest economy after the United States. China is home to a growing number of middle-class parents who have saved for years to get their only child into a top school, hoping for an advantage in a competitive job market made more so by a surge in college graduates. Since the 1990s, China has doubled its number of higher education institutions. More than 60 percent of high school graduates now attend a university, up from 20 percent in the 1980s. But this surge has left millions of diploma-wielding young people unable to find white-collar work in a country still heavily reliant on low-paying manufacturing.

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A grand victory for Republicans in the 2010 midterm election? Yes, of course. But also no. In all three of the most recent earthshaking midterm elections ”” 1994, 2006 and now 2010 ”” the same candidate won: divided government.

That is not a coincidence. In the last two decades, a strong and persistent pattern has emerged, one that will dominate our politics for some time to come, because it is rooted in two important political realities. First, the public strongly prefers divided government. Second, it has every reason to.

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Pope Benedict XVI has consecrated Antoni Gaudi’s unfinished church, the Sagrada Familia, as a basilica in the Spanish city of Barcelona.

The Pope sprinkled holy water on the altar before a congregation of more than 6,500 people.

Gaudi’s greatest work has been under construction for more than a century, and will not be finished before 2026.

The current chief architect said he hoped the Pope’s visit would provide the boost needed to finish the work.

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The first openly gay Episcopal bishop, whose consecration instigated a global religious controversy, announced today that he would take early retirement, citing stress from the experience.

Bishop V. Gene Robinson will be 65 when he steps down in January 2013, seven years below the mandatory retirement age for Episcopal bishops.

Robinson announced his plans at the annual convention of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire in Concord. He said he gave the two-year transition to give the diocese enough time to find and elect a new bishop who will then be subject to approval from the national church.

“Since the very beginning, I have attempted to discern God’s will for me and for you, and this decision comes after much prayer and discernment about what God wants for us at this time,” Robinson said in his prepared remarks.

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Update: A New York Times article is there.

I will take comments on this submitted by email only to at KSHarmon[at]mindspring[dot]com.

The exodus of black Catholics is happening as the church advances an agenda that puts life in the womb above life in the ‘hood; above children who are already born and in need of health care, safe neighborhoods, good schools, spiritual guidance and parents who earn enough to make a way for their families.

Certainly protecting life in the womb is important. Black Catholics get that. (I have contributed to Texas Right to Life, but not to Planned Parenthood.) But the church’s fixation on abortion is crowding out nearly all other issues. Feed the poor? That can wait. Fix disparities in education and health care? Take a back seat. Deal with racism? Not our problem. The message to Catholic voters has been that it’s better to cast ballots for xenophobes or race-baiters who oppose abortion than back tolerant folks who support it. But this election cycle, the church took it up a notch with a campaign against gay marriage.

So a week before the Nov. 2 election, Catholic Action for Faith and Family sent out a news release with a directive from U.S. Cardinal-designate Raymond Burke that told American Catholics that we were duty-bound to vote, but we “never can vote for someone who favors absolutely the right to choice of a woman to destroy a human life in her womb or the right to a procured abortion.”

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Amid the pageantry and rousing hymns of a centuries-old liturgy to consecrate a new bishop, hundreds of Utah Episcopalians learned something Saturday about their new, slightly built shepherd:

Bishop Scott Hayashi’s avatar ”” the figure he chooses to represent him ”” is a sumo wrestler.

“That tells you all kinds of things about your new bishop,” mused the Rev. Jeffrey D. Lee, the bishop of Chicago whom Hayashi served as a canon the past five years.

Lee preached the sermon to the 700 Episcopalians, 25 visiting bishops and leaders of other Salt Lake City faiths who gathered at The Grand America Hotel. But he also primed those in Hayashi’s flock for what to expect of the church’s 11th bishop.

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The Episcopal Church’s Executive Council has authorized its finance office to seek a $60 million line of credit to support the church’s operations. The loan will be secured by a mortgage on the church’s headquarters at 815 Second Avenue in New York, and by offering as collateral its unrestricted endowment funds.

The Oct 23-25 meeting in Salt Lake City of the church’s governing council between meetings of its General Convention also voted to cut its budget by 5 per cent next year in response to a $2.1 million shortfall in income.

A memorandum from the church’s Finance Office to the 38 council members stated that diocesan contributions to the national church were expected to be $700,000 below budget, while cuts in spending at the national church offices were expected to depress income also.

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We pray, O Lord, for thy blessing upon all who strive to excel in building up of thy Church in every land. Take from them all pride and self-conceit, all thought of worldly advancement. May their wills be wholly surrendered unto thee; fill them with thy Spirit, that they may go forth inspired with zeal for thy glory, in the power of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So with yourselves; since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.

–1 Corinthians 14:12

New Hampshire Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson, whose openness about his homosexuality has divided the worldwide Anglican Church, announced today he is retiring. Robinson cited, among other things, the burden of that international schism.

“The fact is, the last seven years have taken their toll on me, my family and you,” Robinson, 63, said this afternoon at the close of the diocese’s annual convention. “Death threats, and now-worldwide controversy surrounding your election of me as Bishop, have taken a constant strain, not just on me, but on my beloved husband Mark”¦and in some ways you.”

Robinson, of Weare, won’t step down until January 2013, when he is 66, but to retire by then, Robinson had to begin the process today by announcing his intentions. He said evangelizing to the “unchurched” and “de-churched” will be his priority during his remaining time in the diocese and after his retirement. Robinson has been vocal about gay equality on state, national and international stages and said that will continue.

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Church Publishing Inc. (CPI) plans to reduce its workforce by 40 percent and close its Denver, Colorado, office, beginning Dec. 31.

CPI is an affiliate company of the Church Pension Group (CPG), which manages the Episcopal Church Pension Fund for lay and clergy employees, among other operations. The Nov. 3 announcement was made in a letter to all CPG employees, said Dennis Sullivan, CPG president, in a Nov. 5 telephone interview with ENS.

In the letter, Sullivan said that the changes to CPI are in response to the economics of the publishing industry and do not reflect the financial strength of CPG, nor the fund, “both of which remain in solid financial condition.”

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12 Cities | 12 Conversations – Cape Town 2010 from ConversationGatherings on Vimeo.

It is a good question they are asking: What can the American church learn from leaders in other regions of the world?

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Update: Skye Jethani identifies those in the video discussion here.

Like most other undergraduates, Anish Patel likes to sleep in. Even though his Principles of Microeconomics class at 9:35 a.m. is just a five-minute stroll from his dorm, he would rather flip open his laptop in his room to watch the lecture, streamed live over the campus network.

On a recent morning, as Mr. Patel’s two roommates slept with covers pulled tightly over their heads, he sat at his desk taking notes on Prof. Mark Rush’s explanation of the term “perfect competition.” A camera zoomed in for a close-up of the blackboard, where Dr. Rush scribbled in chalk, “lots of firms and lots of buyers.”

The curtains were drawn in the dorm room. The floor was awash in the flotsam of three freshmen ”” clothes, backpacks, homework, packages of Chips Ahoy and Cap’n Crunch’s Crunch Berries.

The University of Florida broadcasts and archives Dr. Rush’s lectures less for the convenience of sleepy students like Mr. Patel than for a simple principle of economics: 1,500 undergraduates are enrolled and no lecture hall could possibly hold them.

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he Very Rev. Martin Scott Field was elected Nov. 6 as 8th bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of West Missouri, pending required consents from a majority of bishops with jurisdiction and standing committees of the Episcopal Church.

Field, 54, rector of St. Paul’s Church in Flint, in the Episcopal Diocese of Eastern Michigan, was elected on the third ballot out of a field of two nominees. A third candidate withdrew after the second ballot.

Field received 89 of 143 votes cast in the lay order and 53 of 103 clergy votes at the election, held during the 121st annual convention meeting of the diocese at Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral in Kansas City. A total of 52 votes was needed to elect in the clergy order and 72 in the lay order.

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By entering into full communion, the parish will enjoy sacramental unity with the Roman Catholic Church but will retain its Anglican identity and liturgy.

The congregation of 28 parishioners is a member of the Anglican Church in America, which is part of the Traditional Anglican Communion and not recognized by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

It is also not part of the Episcopal Church, the American branch ofthe Anglican Communion.

The Anglican Church in America has about 100 parishes across the country but only one in Arkansas. Individual parishes can make the decision to ally themselves with the Roman Catholic Church if they wish, Hall said.

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The dollar fell the most in four weeks against the currencies of six major trading partners after the Federal Reserve said it will pump more money into the U.S. financial system to spur inflation and employment.

The greenback slid versus 15 of its 16 major counterparts after the Fed said it will buy $600 billion of U.S. Treasuries through June. It pared losses after data yesterday showed payrolls grew more than forecast. The Australian and Canadian currencies reached parity with the dollar as investor appetite for higher-yielding assets rose before leaders of the Group of 20 nations discuss currency policy in Seoul next week.

“The global market dynamic is still supporting dollar weakness,” said Sacha Tihanyi, a currency strategist at Bank of Nova Scotia in Toronto, Canada’s third-largest lender. “The Federal Reserve’s statement may be favorable for the U.S. economy, but it’s unfavorable for the U.S. dollar.”

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