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American families were squeezed last year as their inflation-adjusted weekly wages fell 1.6 percent — the sharpest drop since 1990 — well below the 2.7 percent consumer inflation rate.

Consumers’ spending power sank in the face of falling wages, job losses and higher prices for energy, medical care and education. Slack pay and scarce job creation are slowing consumer spending, hindering the economy’s ability to mount a strong recovery.

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Mary Daly, a retired professor at Boston College who was probably the most outré of all the dissident theologians who came to the fore of Catholic intellectual life in the years right after the Second Vatican Council, died on Jan. 3 at age 81. Back in the 1960s and 1970s, which might be called the golden age of Catholic dissidence, theologians who took positions challenging traditional church teachings””ranging from the authority of the pope to bans on birth control, premarital sex, and women’s ordination””dominated Catholic intellectual life in America and Europe. They seemed to represent a tide that would overwhelm the old restrictions and their hidebound adherents.

Now, 45 years after Vatican II concluded in 1965, most of those bright lights of dissident Catholicism””from the theologian Hans Küng of the University of Tübingen to Charles Curran, the priest dismissed from the Catholic University of America’s theology faculty in 1987 for his advocacy of contraception and acceptance of homosexual relationships””seem dimmed with advanced age, if not extinguished. They have left no coherent second generation of dissident Catholic intellectuals to follow them.

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There’s a certain irony in the fact that Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak traveled to Saudi Arabia, of all places, within 24 hours of his administration’s threat to use draconian measures to quell religious violence. His absence during a crisis is a mistake, as is his government’s approach to it so far.

The “Allah” scandal is the most serious domestic challenge the Najib government has yet faced in its nine months in office. Since a High Court ruling two weeks ago allowed Christians to use the word “Allah” in their Malay-language publications, radical Islamists have capitalized on the fraught climate to intimidate Malaysians and push their agenda. Yesterday saw the 11th in a spate of incidents, with Molotov cocktails, bricks and stones hurled against churches, a convent school, and even a Sikh temple. Lawyers representing Christian plaintiffs have found their offices ransacked. No perpetrators have yet been caught.

So far, the ruling United Malays National Organization is trying to tramp down the violence in any way it can””except the right way, which is to abandon the hardline Islamism that has traditionally appealed to its political base….

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A national survey of 1,002 Protestant pastors in November by Nashville-based LifeWay Research found:

Ӣ28% reported raising less money than in 2008.

Ӣ57% said the poor economy was hurting their church.

Ӣ70% reported increased requests from people outside their congregation for assistance.

Ӣ43% budgeted more money to help more needy people.

Ӣ3% were considering closing down their churches.

“Churches have not yet entered the recovery,” says LifeWay director Ed Stetzer. “Historically, they tend to recover financially when unemployment decreases, usually after the economy as a whole” recovers.

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As the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision nears, anti-abortion activists prepare for the annual March for Life and their counterparts plan religious services to pray for the safety of abortion providers.

But, 37 years after the contentious Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, is there any hope for common ground?

Experts say it will be difficult — especially in light of recent health care battles — but not impossible.

Laurie Zoloth, professor of bioethics and religion at Northwestern University, said there are some projects — such as giving incentives to teen girls to avoid a second pregnancy — that can bring feuding factions together.

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THE draft legislation on women bishops will not be coming before the General Synod for debate next month as scheduled. Instead, the revision committee is expected still to be working on it after Easter. It will not now be debated till July.

In February last year, the Synod asked the revision committee to consider the arrangements, embodied in a statutory code of practice, for those opposed in conscience to women bishops.

At its October 2009 meeting, however, it appeared to move away from the code of practice, and voted for “the vesting by statute of certain functions in bishops with a special responsibility for those with con­scientious difficulties”. The options of an alternative diocese or a regis­tered society for objectors were ruled out, but it appears there was no vote on the adoption of the simplest form of legislation without a statutory code of practice.

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American Catholics will receive an insert in their church bulletins at this weekend’s Masses asking them to lobby Congress on abortion restrictions in the pending health care bill.

Sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, inserts in English and Spanish have been mailed out to nearly 19,000 churches reaching the nation’s 67 million Catholics.

They ask adherents to e-mail, phone or fax their members of Congress asking them not to make taxpayers pay for abortions directly or indirectly, to include conscience protections for health care workers, and to keep health care “accessible and affordable.”

Along with the inserts, priests are being asked to read aloud two statements — one this weekend and the other on the Jan. 23-24 weekend — giving instructions on how to access a USCCB Web site that would allow them to send automated messages to their members of Congress as well as House and Senate majority leaders.

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The draconian penalties in Uganda’s proposed ”˜Anti-Homosexuality Bill’ have come under sharp criticism from the Christian Churches of Uganda.

In its December 17 Christmas message, the Uganda Joint Christian Council, a coalition of the country’s Anglican, Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches, said that while its individual member churches had not yet issued formal statements on the proposed bill, all were opposed to the harsh penalties proposed for the suppression of vice.

On 14 Oct MP David Bahati of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) tabled a private-members bill before parliament entitled the ”˜Anti-Homosexuality Bill’ that would stiffen Uganda’s sodomy laws. The proposed law has come in part in response to concerns over growing child-sex tourism in East Africa and the highly publicized arrests of two NGO workers, as well as with the perception that Uganda’s culture is under siege by the West.

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The monthly meditation had a playful air about it.

“A crone is an old woman. A crone is a witch. A crone is a wise woman. Which one will you be, my friend? Which one I?”

Wrapped around a rite for “croning”, the meditation embraced a history of mystical women and offered prayers to “Mothering God” and “Eternal Wisdom.” But the article was not in a new age publication or Wiccan blog: it was on the pages of the September newsletter of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington.

Entitled “Crone Power”, the meditation innocuously sat opposite a story about choosing a children’s Bible and next to a column on St. Jerome. The newsletter quickly drew the attention of Anglican bloggers, many of whom found the placement of what appeared to be a Wiccan ritual to be jarring in an official church publication. But intentionally or not, the publication and placement of the rite were reflective of a new reality: one in which practices drawn from or inspired by pagan belief, including witchcraft, are increasingly finding acceptance within the ranks of the Episcopal Church.

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Fr. Sexton cited an idea from Diana Butler Bass that worshipers are less interested in a church with answers than in one that accepts them as they ask questions.

“I think there is much truth to her statements, and my biggest fear for our church is and has been that we will allow it to remain in its complacency and continue to be distracted (sex) and insulated (who’s in, who’s out),” he wrote. “I believe we do need to become passionate, imaginative, open, justice seeking, inclusive, and loving communities of faith that actually live as if we believed our baptismal promises were important. ”¦ We need to once again be motivated by the fire of the Holy Spirit.”

Ms. Watson expressed delight that the diocese placed such an emphasis on the question of evangelism.

“I know that the only reason that my family and I enjoy the abundance of life we do today is because of the transformative power of Christ’s love as we have experienced it through the Episcopal Church,” she wrote.

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“People two, three or four years apart are having completely different experiences with technology,” said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project. “College students scratch their heads at what their high school siblings are doing, and they scratch their heads at their younger siblings. It has sped up generational differences.”

One obvious result is that younger generations are going to have some very peculiar and unique expectations about the world. My friend’s 3-year-old, for example, has become so accustomed to her father’s multitouch iPhone screen that she approaches laptops by swiping her fingers across the screen, expecting a reaction.

And after my 4-year-old niece received the very hot Zhou-Zhou pet hamster for Christmas, I pointed out that the toy was essentially a robot, with some basic obstacle avoidance skills. She replied matter-of-factly: “It’s not a robot. It’s a pet.”

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The Bishop of Southwark, the Rt Revd Tom Butler, vice chair of the Archbishops’ Council’s Mission and Public Affairs Council, said: “I welcome the Dying Matters initiative as an important contribution to the debate about dying and death. The advances in palliative and end of life care have been helpful in improving the quality of life of those who are dying and their families, and I hope that this new coalition will bring help and information to many people.”

Hilary Fisher, Director of the Dying Matters Coalition, said: “We are delighted that the Church of England has joined the Dying Matters coalition. For too long, issues of death and bereavement have been perceived as too big or scary to talk about; the ensuing silence has resulted in isolation and confusion among dying people and their families. Openness, conversation and communication are vital in addressing this.

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Thou dost show me the path of life;
in thy presence there is fulness of joy,
in thy right hand are pleasures for evermore.

–Psalm 16:11

Geithner defended the fee against criticism from some bank officials, who say it is about politics and not economics. Those critics note that some institutions that paid back Troubled Asset Relief Program money ”” or never took any ”” will be taxed along with other banks.

“We’re doing what is fair, and what is just, and what is economically sensible and what we have a legal obligation to do, which is to make sure that we hold the American people harmless from the cost of the financial crisis and that we collect back from the financial industry that benefited from the financial rescue the ultimate costs of what it took to solve this crisis,” Geithner says. “That’s the sensible, fair thing to do.”

Geithner says the program was designed to apply to the largest financial institutions that benefited the most from the rescue.

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The Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, the former Bishop of Rochester, said the country must never again repeat the multicultural experiment of recent decades.

He also called for an end to the segregation of Muslims in British cities, which he warned provides a breeding ground for extremists.

The bishop made his strongly-worded comments after Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, backed a campaign by the cross-party Balanced Immigration Group to stop Britain’s population reaching 70 million.

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Dear Friends,

Please pray for our brothers and sisters in Haiti.

– Haiti is the largest and fastest-growing diocese in The Episcopal Church.

– There are over 83,000 Episcopalians in Haiti

– There are over 110 Episcopal Churches in Haiti, and over 200 Episcopal schools

The Episcopal Church in Haiti has lost a cathedral, convent, Holy Trinity Complex, College St. Pierre, and a Jubilee Center. The Bishop has no place to live. Thankfully, the four missionaries are all accounted for – Mallory Holding, Jude Harmon, Oge Beauvoir and his wife Serette.

How can you help?
Check the Haiti page on Episcopal Relief & Development website http://www.er-d.org/

Donate and encourage others to donate to Episcopal Relief & Development by calling 800-334-7626 ext 5129. https://www.er-d.org/donate-select.php

Episcopal Relief & Development has a four star rating on Charity Navigator and meets all 20 standards of the Better Business Bureau.

Episcopal Relief & Development has a long partnership with The Episcopal Church in Haiti. http://www.er-d.org/HaitiEarthquakeResponse

We have already been listed in a number of news outlets, including CNN, ABC, MSNBC. We can still use your support. Call your local media contacts and sources and request that Episcopal Relief & Development be included in their list of relief organizations for Haiti.

Place a link to Episcopal Relief & Development on your congregation or diocesan home page. http://www.er-d.org/

Share this information on Sunday and in your bulletin inserts. Bulletin inserts from Episcopal Relief & Development are available in both Spanish and English. http://www.er-d.org/BulletinInsertsCT/

Please do not encourage anyone to travel to Haiti.

Priority must be given to first responders and a few relief agencies so as not to over-burden the already compromised infrastructure.

Thank you for all that you do for our Church.

Peace,

Malaika Kamunanwire

Senior Director, Marketing and Communications

Episcopal Relief & Development

That way, just like the other sacraments, whether a marriage was legitimate or not would rest entirely in the hands of the church. But alas, for the church this was deemed impossible to enforce. It rightly recognized that people would continue to marry without the blessing of a priest, much like they had, well, for thousands of years before the church ever came along. This would have entailed the church deeming void from the outset far too many working marriages for any reasonable person to take its pronouncements on the institution seriously.

The upshot of all this is that the celebration of marriage is still the only sacrament that is enacted by the couple and only presided over ”“ merely witnessed ”“ by a priest. I like reminding myself this when I’m doing weddings: I’m just an accessory. The power is in their hands. And it was nice to remember as I was getting married, too. All this may sound slightly odd coming from a Christian priest who represents the institutional church and routinely performs marriages. But that only made such small consolations that much more important. A public apology tacked onto the liturgy may still be worthwhile for some, but, thankfully, I found something of the same thing ”“ written right into its history.

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The White House has reached a tentative agreement with labor leaders to tax high-cost health insurance policies, sources said Thursday. The agreement clears one of the last major obstacles on the path to final passage of comprehensive health care legislation.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said health care negotiators are “very, very close” to an overall deal and hope to have resolved most of their differences by day’s end. But White House officials privately cautioned that their optimism does not mean that a final health care deal will be formally announced Thursday.

Four labor negotiators briefed lawmakers on the parameters of the deal at a luncheon at the Capitol. Lawmakers said the agreement would raise the cost of unusually generous health policies and ignore secondary coverage, such as vision and dental plans. Health plans negotiated as part of collective-bargaining agreements would be exempt for two years after the 2013 effective date, giving labor leaders time to negotiate new contracts.

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Since the 1980 Pastoral Provision just over 100 U.S. Anglican clergy have gone through the process to become Catholic priests, including the most recent – Father John Lipscomb, former Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of Southwest Florida, who was ordained a Catholic priest in the Diocese of St. Petersburg on December 3, 2009. According to Monsignor D. Hamilton, pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Lindenhurst, NY, of the total who have taken advantage of the Pastoral Provision since 1980, approximately 15 have died, and another 15 have retired.

“The expectation is that our General Synod will accept the Holy Father’s offer,” said Christian Campbell, Senior Warden of the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Orlando and a member of the Standing Committee of the Anglican Church in America’s Diocese of the Eastern United States. “It is not so much a question of whether or not we desire to avail ourselves of the offer ”“ inasmuch as it is a direct and generous response to our appeal to the Holy See. The question now is how the Apostolic Constitution is to be implemented. We have practical concerns and we are presently working with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to resolve any outstanding questions.”

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For the first time in South Carolina history, the House of Representatives has censured a governor.

The House voted 102-11 on Wednesday to formally rebuke Gov. Mark Sanford for dereliction of duties, official misconduct and abuse of power when he traveled in June 2008 and June 2009 to see his mistress in Argentina.

Sanford also was condemned by the House for a handful of trips he took on state aircraft for alleged personal and political reasons.

Sanford brought “ridicule, dishonor, shame and disgrace to himself, the state of South Carolina and to its citizens,” according to the censure resolution. The censure serves no practical purpose other than to formally rebuke Sanford.

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