In a two-and-a-half hour in-depth debate the Church of England Synod has decided to recognise the Anglican Church in North America. The original motion wanted the Synod to “express a desire that the Church of England be in communion” with the break-away group. However, following a long deliberation of several amendments (held up by a series of technical glitches with the electronic voting system that saw the tradition division doors used), the motion finally passed reduced this to an awareness of the distress caused by the divisions, but also recognised (and affirmed) the desire of the ACNA to be “part of the Anglican family”.

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The Church of England’s general synod has voted to back a motion expressing “deep concern” at what it believes is a cut in religious TV programming.

But the synod drew back from singling out the BBC, instead backing a motion aimed at all mainstream broadcasters.

It called for more programming that “imaginatively marks major festivals”.

The BBC said it had increased its coverage in recent years, while Channel 4 said religious programmes were “at the heart of its schedule”.

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The Anglican Church in Canada ”“ once as powerful in the nation’s secular life as it was in its soul ”“ may be only a generation away from extinction, says a just-published assessment of the church’s future.

The report, prepared for the Anglican Diocese of British Columbia, calls Canada a post-Christian society in which Anglicanism is declining faster than any other denomination. It says the church has been “moved to the far margins of public life.”

According to the report, the diocese ”“ “like most across Canada” ”“ is in crisis. The report repeats, without qualification or question, the results of a controversial study presented to Anglican bishops five years ago that said that at the present rate of decline ”“ a loss of 13,000 members per year ”“ only one Anglican would be left in Canada by 2061.

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As the eurozone’s dominant economy, Germany would be expected to take the lead in marshalling financial support for a Greek bail-out. There are fears the crisis could spread to other eurozone states with big deficits such as Spain and Portugal.

“We’ve had to face up to the fact that what is now a Greek problem could turn into a European one,” the official said.

”We’re thinking about what we should do if the crisis spills from Greece into other euro countries. So it’s more about finding firewalls, containing the problem, than principally about helping the Greeks.” He added there were ”no concrete plans” as yet.

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If ever Carol Gaetjens becomes unconscious with no hope of awakening, even if she could live for years in that state, she says she wants her loved ones to discontinue all forms of artificial life support.

But now there’s a catch for this churchgoing Catholic woman. U.S. bishops have decided that it is not permissible to remove a feeding tube from someone who is unconscious but not dying, except in a few circumstances.

People in a persistent vegetative state, the bishops say, must be given food and water indefinitely by natural or artificial means as long as they are otherwise healthy. The new directive, which is more definitive than previous church teachings, also appears to apply broadly to any patient with a chronic illness who has lost the ability to eat or drink, including victims of strokes and people with advanced dementia.

Catholic medical institutions — including 46 hospitals and 49 nursing homes in Illinois — are bound to honor the bishops’ directive, issued late last year, as they do church teachings on abortion and birth control. Officials are weighing how to interpret the guideline in various circumstances.

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Bishop-elect Ian T. Douglas’ heart is drawn to two different places these days. One brought him to where he is now; the other will form his future.

Douglas, a former missionary to Haiti, was elected Oct. 24 as the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut and, while he won’t be consecrated until April 17, he’s finished teaching at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass., and is settling in at Diocesan House on Asylum Avenue, waiting for his office to be painted.

Douglas, 51, has spent his ministry primarily involved in world mission, looking outside the Episcopal Church’s boundaries to the church’s role in the worldwide Anglican Communion. But he decided to run for bishop of Connecticut because of what’s within the state’s boundaries.

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The weight of this recession has fallen most heavily upon men, who’ve suffered roughly three-quarters of the 8 million job losses since the beginning of 2008. Male-dominated industries (construction, finance, manufacturing) have been particularly hard-hit, while sectors that disproportionately employ women (education, health care) have held up relatively well. In November, 19.4 percent of all men in their prime working years, 25 to 54, did not have jobs, the highest figure since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking the statistic in 1948. At the time of this writing, it looks possible that within the next few months, for the first time in U.S. history, women will hold a majority of the country’s jobs.

In this respect, the recession has merely intensified a long-standing trend. Broadly speaking, the service sector, which employs relatively more women, is growing, while manufacturing, which employs relatively more men, is shrinking. The net result is that men have been contributing a smaller and smaller share of family income.

“Traditional” marriages, in which men engage in paid work and women in homemaking, have long been in eclipse. Particularly in blue-collar families, where many husbands and wives work staggered shifts, men routinely handle a lot of the child care today. Still, the ease with which gender bends in modern marriages should not be overestimated. When men stop doing paid work””and even when they work less than their wives””marital conflict usually follows.

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You may find the live audio link here.

It is working fine for me at present. Elaine Storkey is speaking on the BBC motion right now.

In launching its needle-exchange program last week, the Catholic Diocese of Albany, N.Y., said the decision came down to choosing the lesser evil. Illegal drug use is bad, but the spread of deadly diseases is worse.

The medical evidence is clear, the diocese argued on Feb. 1, when it began “Project Safe Point” in two Upstate New York locations through its local branch of Catholic Charities. Public health studies document that exchanging used syringes for new ones can effectively stanch the spread of blood-borne diseases such as AIDS, and even lead drug abusers to treatment and recovery.

“To guide us, the church provides us with the principles of licit cooperation in evil and the counseling of the lesser evil,” the Albany diocese said in a statement.

“The sponsorship of Catholic Charities in Safe Point, then, is based upon the church’s standard moral principles.”

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One of the most controversial motions to reach the General Synod for several years will be debated today when members discuss a proposal that the Church of England should be in communion with the breakaway US conservative Church, the Anglican Church in North America.

Lorna Ashworth, a lay member from the Diocese of Chichester, will call for the General Synod to express a wish for communion with the new group, which has 742 parishes and more than 800 clergy in the US and Canada and opposes the consecration of openly gay bishops and the blessing of gay partnerships.

Mrs Ashworth, a Canadian-born mother of three who works as a volunteer at All Saints’ Church in Eastbourne, said: “Most lay members like myself have little understanding of the technical ins and outs of canon law but what is clear, however, is the shocking and unjust treatment of historical, biblical Anglicans as they seek to continue to live out their faith in this province.”

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The Archbishop of Canterbury issued a “profound apology” to the lesbian and gay Christian community today.

In a powerful address to the General Synod, Dr Rowan Williams warned that any schism within the Church would represent a betrayal of God’s mission.

But he made clear that he regretted recent rhetoric in which he has sought to mollify the fears of the traditionalist wing of the church.

The Archbishop is from the Church’s liberal wing and a man who once espoused equal rights for gays within the Church. More recently he has adopted a conservative line for the sake of Church unity.

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Just weeks before final guidelines are published by the Crown Prosecution Service, Dr Rowan Williams said that granting the right to die would be a “moral mistake” that damaged the rights of the most vulnerable in society.

In a strongly-worded presidential address to the Church of England’s governing body, the General Synod, he also criticised the Government’s attempts to limit religious freedom under the Equality Bill.

The archbishop added that he was “profoundly sorry” if he appeared to ignore the value of homosexuals in the Anglican Communion, and admitted the 70-million strong church was in “chaos” with “local schisms” over sexuality. He also urged conservatives and liberals in England’s debate over women bishops to see it “in three dimensions”.

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The Church of Uganda associates itself with the concerns expressed in the Anti Homosexuality Bill 2009. However, instead of a completely new Bill, the Church recommends a Bill that amends the Penal Code Act (Cap.120) addressing loopholes, in particular:

Ӣ protecting the vulnerabilities of the boy child 1
Ӣ proportionality in sentencing
Ӣ and, ensuring that sexual orientation is excluded as a protected human right.

Further, we recommend involvement of all stakeholders in the preparation of such a Bill in order to uphold Uganda’s values as they relate to human sexuality

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Two dangers arise from this loss of Western self-confidence. One is of trying to placate China. The delay in Mr Obama’s meeting with the Dalai Lama in order to smooth his visit to China in November gave too much ground, as well as turning an issue of principle into a bargaining chip. America needs to stand firmer. Beefing up the deterrent capacity of Taiwan, which China continues to threaten with hundreds of missiles, is in the interests of peace. Mr Obama should therefore proceed with the arms sales and European governments should back him. If American companies, such as Boeing, lose Chinese custom for political reasons, European firms should not be allowed to supplant them.

On the other hand the West should not be panicked into unnecessary confrontation. Rather than ganging up on China in an effort to “contain” it, the West would do better to get China to take up its share of the burden of global governance. Too often China wants the power due a global giant while shrugging off the responsibilities, saying that it is still a poor country. It must be encouraged to play its part””for instance, on climate change, on Iran and by allowing its currency to appreciate. As the world’s largest exporter, China’s own self-interest lies in a harmonious world order and robust trading system.

It is in the economic field that perhaps the biggest danger lies. Already the Obama administration has shown itself too ready to resort to trade sanctions against China. If China now does the same using a political pretext, while the cheapness of its currency keeps its trade surplus large, it is easy to imagine a clamour in Congress for retaliation met by a further Chinese nationalist backlash. That is why the administration and China’s government need to work together to pre-empt trouble.

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Senior Chinese military officers have proposed that their country boost defense spending, adjust PLA deployments, and possibly sell some U.S. bonds to punish Washington for its latest round of arms sales to Taiwan.

The calls for broad retaliation over the planned U.S. weapons sales to the disputed island came from officers at China’s National Defence University and Academy of Military Sciences, interviewed by Outlook Weekly, a Chinese-language magazine published by the official Xinhua news agency.

The interviews with Major Generals Zhu Chenghu and Luo Yuan and Senior Colonel Ke Chunqiao appeared in the issue published on Monday.

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Another ladies’ night, not by choice.

After midnight on a rainy night last week in Chapel Hill, N.C., a large group of sorority women at the University of North Carolina squeezed into the corner booth of a gritty basement bar. Bathed in a neon glow, they splashed beer from pitchers, traded jokes and belted out lyrics to a Taylor Swift heartache anthem thundering overhead. As a night out, it had everything ”” except guys.

“This is so typical, like all nights, 10 out of 10,” said Kate Andrew, a senior from Albemarle, N.C. The experience has grown tiresome: they slip on tight-fitting tops, hair sculpted, makeup just so, all for the benefit of one another, Ms. Andrew said, “because there are no guys.”

North Carolina, with a student body that is nearly 60 percent female, is just one of many large universities that at times feel eerily like women’s colleges. Women have represented about 57 percent of enrollments at American colleges since at least 2000, according to a recent report by the American Council on Education. Researchers there cite several reasons: women tend to have higher grades; men tend to drop out in disproportionate numbers; and female enrollment skews higher among older students, low-income students, and black and Hispanic students.

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In the State Dining Room at the White House, first lady Michelle Obama rolled out her national initiative to combat childhood obesity Tuesday afternoon with a show of force that included medical, business and government officials, grass-roots activists, celebrity public service announcements, cartoon nutrition experts as well as those most directly affected — the kids themselves.

Dubbed “Let’s Move,” the project kicked off in the morning in the Oval Office, where President Obama signed a formal memorandum that established, for the first time, a national task force — one that draws from the departments of the Interior, Health and Human Services, Agriculture and Education — and is charged with turning the first lady’s ambitious list of proposals into action.

At its core, the first lady’s initiative centers on clearer nutrition information, increased physical activity, better access to healthy foods and, ultimately, personal responsibility. It has bipartisan support, as demonstrated by the presence of two mayors, one a Republican from Hernando, Miss., (population 10,000) and the other a Democrat from Somerville, Mass. (population 77,478). And it purposefully and adamantly steered clear of defining itself as a campaign in favor of foodie proselytizing and against french fries, burgers and cookies.

“This isn’t about trying to turn the clock back to when we were kids, or preparing five-course meals from scratch every night. No one has time for that,” the first lady said in her remarks. “And it’s not about being 100 percent perfect, 100 percent of the time. Lord knows I’m not. There’s a place for cookies and ice cream, burgers and fries — that’s part of the fun of childhood.”

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European nations are discussing various ways to help troubled Greece cope with its mountain of government debt, officials indicated Tuesday, as conflicting reports sent markets on a roller coaster ride, bolstering the faltering euro and contributing to a stock market rally that later pulled back from its heights.

The specifics of any bailout remained unclear and officials played down reports that Germany and France had already agreed on a rescue plan for Greece.

“This will be further discussed in the coming days,” Olli Rehn, who is about to take over as European economic affairs commissioner, said in an interview in Strasbourg. “We are talking about support in the broad sense of the word. I cannot specify it now. Solidarity goes both ways.”

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In the Persian calendar, 22 Bahman has a revered place as the anniversary of the overthrow of the Western-backed monarchy by the world’s first Islamic revolution. Tomorrow marks 31 years since that event and in Tehran the preparations are underway. Bunting and flags are strung across the streets, and loudspeakers have been fixed to lamp posts to relay speeches which, according to tradition, should be met by mass roars of “Death to America” from crowds gathered beneath the city’s Azadi monument.

This year, however, as Iran’s nuclear standoff with the West escalates to crisis levels, the opposition is planning to hijack the annual “celebrations” for its biggest show of strength in months. Pro-government forces will also be out in force ”“ as they were yesterday, protesting outside European embassies ”“ and the pieces are in place for a volatile confrontation. No one doubts that the security forces have been readying their weapons and the prisons, clearing space for “rioters”, and the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has threatened they will be given a “punch in the mouth” if they dare to protest.

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And in the Communion? There is an undoubted good in the independence of local provinces, and there is an undoubted good in the fact that some provinces are increasingly patient, compassionate and thankful in respect of the experience and ministry of gay and lesbian people ”“ entirely in accord with what the Lambeth Conferences and Primates’ statements have said. But when the affirmation of that good takes the form of pre-empting the discernment of the wider Anglican (and a lot of the non-Anglican) fellowship, and of acting in ways that negate the general understanding of the limits set by Bible and tradition, there is a conflict with another undoubted good, which is the capacity of the Anglican family to affirm and support one another in diverse contexts. The freedom claimed, for example, by the Episcopal Church to ordain a partnered homosexual bishop is, simply as a matter of fact, something that has a devastating impact on the freedom of, say, the Malaysian Christian to proclaim the faith without being cast as an enemy of public morality and risking both credibility and personal safety. It hardly needs to be added that the freedom that might be claimed by an African Anglican to support anti-gay legislation likewise has a serious impact on the credibility of the gospel in our setting.

And in the Communion we have no supreme executive to make the decisions that might settle how the balance of freedom might be worked out. The Anglican Covenant has been attacked in some quarters for trying to create an executive power and for seeking to create means of exclusion. This is wholly mistaken. There is no supreme court envisaged, and the constitutional liberties of each province are explicitly safeguarded. But the difficult issue that we cannot simply ignore is this. Certain decisions made by some provinces impact so heavily on the conscience and mission of others that fellowship is strained or shattered and trust destroyed. The present effect of this is chaos ”“ local schisms, outside interventions, all the unedifying stuff you will be hearing about (from both sides) in the debate on Lorna Ashworth’s motion. So what are the vehicles for sharing perspectives, communicating protest, yes, even, negotiating distance or separation, that might spare us a worsening of the situation and the further reduction of Christian relationship to vicious polemic and stony-faced litigation? As I have said before, it may be that the Covenant creates a situation in which there are different levels of relationship between those claiming the name of Anglican. I don’t at all want or relish this, but suspect that, without a major change of heart all round, it may be an unavoidable aspect of limiting the damage we are already doing to ourselves. I make no apology, though, for pleading that we try, through the Covenant, to discover an ecclesial fellowship in which we trust each other to act for our good ”“ an essential feature of anything that might be called a theology of the Body of Christ.

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5. The statement “In fact, it is contrary to the policy of The Episcopal Church to seek remedies from laypersons, and it has never done so” is manifestly false and misleading.

The American Anglican Council has documented at least 48 cases where the Episcopal Church and the diocese have sued individual vestry members (see pp. 27-28 of our brief). This too is a matter of public record and we are prepared to substantiate the facts with copies of the pleadings if necessary””copies that will show from past cases that it is indeed the policy of the Episcopal Church to sue individual vestry members and that such cases are current within the courts. In Virginia alone, approximately 200 individual vestry members were sued by The Episcopal Church and the diocese. In some cases, the Episcopal Church and the Diocese have sued for punitive damages””which requires a showing of malicious behavior on the part of the vestryperson being sued. In other words, The Episcopal Church is alleging that the act of leaving amounts to the kind of malicious conduct that would be on a par with a fraud or a tort. Such damages are often triple the amount of the property and/or the accounting alleged. The Episcopal Church sued individual vestry members for punitive damages in the California cases (St. David’s North Hollywood, St. James Newport Beach, All Saints Long Beach). Even where punitive damages were not alleged, there are cases where The Episcopal Church has sued individual vestry members for an accounting of all funds expended by the church after they have departed. In any case, when the Episcopal Church and/or Diocese sues an individual vestry member, the financial costs of hiring an attorney as well as the emotional distress and intimidation is costly. In all such cases, as we have noted, the mere existence of a lawsuit has financial implications for the vestry member sued. Those consequences include the inability to obtain a mortgage for a home or other necessities, or a security clearance for a new job.

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