But ignoring what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.”

–Mark 5:36

O Eternal God, who through thy Son our Lord hast promised a blessing upon those who hear thy Word and faithfully keep it: Open our ears, we humbly beseech thee, to hear what thou sayest, and enlighten our minds, that what we hear we may understand, and understanding may carry into good effect by thy bounteous prompting; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.

A US Catholic group on Friday accused Roman Catholic bishops of meddling in health care reforms by making backroom deals to ensure the bill does not allow funding for abortion.

“Religious and ethical concerns can legitimately inform public policy, but the bishops have overstepped the mark,” said Jon O’Brien, president of Catholics for Choice.

“Interference by the US Catholic bishops in health care reform does not help women. The bishops should not be allowed to use health care reform to restrict women’s access to safe and legal reproductive healthcare services,” he said.

Read it all.

Read it carefully and read it all.

Chastity is another central tenet of the Jesuit lifestyle, and Martin explains its benefits in his book.

“Chastity is not for everyone and most people tend to define it negatively,” he says. “I.e., chastity means not having sex. But I define it positively, and I say that chastity means loving many people very deeply and very freely. And people feel free with a person who’s chaste, really. Because they know that you’re not being friends with them or being close to them for sex.”

But celibacy has taken a hit in recent years, as reports of priests sexually assaulting children came out. Martin says he doesn’t see a connection between the two.

“I would say that that’s more related to people who are psychologically unhealthy and also, bishops who have moved priests around ”” that’s not directly related to chastity,” Martin says. “I don’t think ”” celibacy and chastity do not cause pedophilia. No more than ”” most sexual abuse goes on in families, no more than marriage causes sexual abuse.”

Caught this one by podcast in the morning run. Listen to it all (about 6 1/4 minutes)–KSH.

A new congressional report released Friday says the United States’ long-term fiscal woes are even worse than predicted by President Barack Obama’s grim budget submission last month.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicts that Obama’s budget plans would generate deficits over the upcoming decade that would total $9.8 trillion. That’s $1.2 trillion more than predicted by the administration.

The agency says its future-year predictions of tax revenues are more pessimistic than the administration’s. That’s because CBO projects slightly slower economic growth than the White House.

The deficit picture has turned alarmingly worse since the recession that started at the end of 2007, never dipping below 4 percent of the size of the economy over the next decade. Economists say that deficits of that size are unsustainable and could put upward pressure on interest rates, crowd out private investment in the economy and ultimately erode the nation’s standard of living.

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100 years after his death, the Diocese of Lincoln will be honoured by an extended visit from the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Revd Dr Rowan Williams, who strongly believes that it is necessary to honour Edward King.

“Edward King reinvented two things in the 19th century,” said the Archbishop.

“He reinvented pastoral theology − the whole science of training a clergy which was competent pastorally and humanly; clergy who had a sort of professionalism in care.

“And he reinvented what a diocesan bishop could be and do, I think, in terms of accessibility, concern for the poorest − not something that other 19th century bishops had ignored, but certainly something that he brought to the fore in a quite fresh way.

“I think that in both of the those ways he contributed enormously to what we now absolutely take for granted about the role of a priest and a bishop.”

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Rioters armed with machetes slaughtered more than 200 people overnight Sunday as religious violence flared anew between Christians and Muslims in central Nigeria, witnesses said. Hundreds of people fled their homes, fearing reprisal attacks.

The bodies of the dead – including many women and children – lined dusty streets in three mostly Christian villages south of the regional capital of Jos, local journalists and a civil rights group said. They said at least 200 bodies had been counted by Sunday afternoon.

Torched homes smoldered after the 3 a.m. attacks that a region-wide curfew enforced by the country’s police and military should have stopped.

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It was the first time the three biggest black Methodist denominations convened in 45 years, and they gathered with a transcendent purpose in mind: to address the plight of the black male, who is disproportionately unemployed and incarcerated in the United States.

The “Great Gathering,” a three-day convention held in Columbia last week (despite a continuing NAACP boycott of South Carolina), drew at least 2,000 members of the African Episcopal Methodist Church, African Episcopal Methodist Zion Church and Christian Methodist Episcopal Church.

Organized by the Rev. Staccato Powell, pastor of Grace Church in Raleigh, the event featured speeches by Children’s Defense Fund founder and President Marian Wright Edelman and social critic Cornel West.

Edelman said the cradle-to-prison pipeline in which so many black men get caught is sufficient reason to start a new civil rights movement.

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Imagine you are one half of a young couple expecting your first child in a fast-growing, poor country. You are part of the new middle class; your income is rising; you want a small family. But traditional mores hold sway around you, most important in the preference for sons over daughters. Perhaps hard physical labour is still needed for the family to make its living. Perhaps only sons may inherit land. Perhaps a daughter is deemed to join another family on marriage and you want someone to care for you when you are old. Perhaps she needs a dowry.

Now imagine that you have had an ultrasound scan; it costs $12, but you can afford that. The scan says the unborn child is a girl. You yourself would prefer a boy; the rest of your family clamours for one. You would never dream of killing a baby daughter, as they do out in the villages. But an abortion seems different. What do you do?

For millions of couples, the answer is: abort the daughter, try for a son. In China and northern India more than 120 boys are being born for every 100 girls. Nature dictates that slightly more males are born than females to offset boys’ greater susceptibility to infant disease. But nothing on this scale.

For those who oppose abortion, this is mass murder. For those such as this newspaper, who think abortion should be “safe, legal and rare” (to use Bill Clinton’s phrase), a lot depends on the circumstances, but the cumulative consequence for societies of such individual actions is catastrophic….

Read it all.

The first thing you notice about Julie Etchingham is the hair, a perfect bob that frames her face like a bonnet. It is several hours before she will present ITV’s News at Ten live to three million people but she looks ready to go now, immaculately groomed and dressed. Everything from her posture to her voice screams “efficiency”, and it’s little wonder she is known to her co-host Mark Austin as “head girl”….

She is also one of a handful of broadcasters who, as a Roman Catholic, is unembarrassed to discuss her faith. “Religion is an important part of my home life,” she says, “If you have a faith, you are bound to be influenced by it. Would that ever show itself on air? I don’t think so. The key place where my faith influences me is in how I hope to handle people.” Although she believes religion “is not a work thing”, she laments that ours is a “very secular” media, and that “Christians can be discriminated against”, before carefully steering the conversation on to the joys of our multi-cultural age.

Read it all.

From the Diocese of Dallas website:

Download the full, final text of both resolutions as adopted by Special Convention delegates.

The bishops of the Anglican Church in America have voted to accept Pope Benedict XVI’s invitation to bring their 3,000 members into the Catholic Church.

The unanimous vote of eight members of the House of Bishops, who met in Orlando, Fla., brings 120 parishes in four dioceses across the country into the Church.

Also present at the March 3 vote and in support of it were representatives of “Anglican use” parishes admitted on a one-by-one basis to the Catholic Church in accordance with the Pastoral Provision of Pope John Paul II in 1980.

The move is seen as significant for both the “AngloCatholics” in the Anglican Church in America and the worldwide Traditional Anglican Communion ”” and the Catholic Church.

“We are returning to the Roman Catholic Church as community with a common past and a common future,” commented Christian Campbell, a Florida lay member of the Anglican Church in America and coordinator of a blog called theanglocatholic.com.

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A Louisville congregation has quietly become the first in the Episcopal Diocese of Kentucky to begin blessing same-sex relationships.

St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church conducted its first such blessing late last year, for two male members of the congregation, after voting last April to approve such ceremonies.

The move, while not reflecting diocesan policy, is a milestone in one of the state’s denominations that generally has been the most accepting of gay members and ministers. But it also has complicated efforts to maintain unity, given that some churches and members oppose homosexuality.

The Rev. Lucinda Laird of St. Matthew’s stressed that the ceremony was not presented as a civil or sacramental wedding ”” since neither Kentucky nor the Episcopal Church recognizes same-sex marriages.

Nor, she said, was it presented as any other type of official rite of the national church. The church adapted a same-sex liturgy used by an Anglican diocese in western Canada.

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It was one of the most complex military logistical and medical operations ever undertaken ”“ and it saved the life of a young British soldier critically injured in Afghanistan.

It involved hundreds of doctors, air and ground crews of several nations, travelling many thousands of miles, revolutionary and experimental medical equipment, several planes and helicopters and communications between three continents and cost millions of pounds.

For months, details of the massive operation to save one man’s life have been shrouded in secrecy. The injured soldier was not shot by the Taliban but was almost certainly wounded accidentally at his camp near Sangin in Helmand province in late July last year.

What a fantastic, inspiring story–read it all.

[JUDY] VALENTE: Sexual mores have been changing. But how well are seminaries preparing future pastors and rabbis to address these changes? The Religious Institute on Sexual Morality is a nonprofit group that helps promote sexual health in faith communities. The Institute recently studied 36 seminaries across denominational lines. The study found an “overwhelming need” to better educate and prepare future religious leaders in the area of human sexuality.

Dr. KATE OTT (Associate Director, Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice and Healing): We see these issues every day and the harm that can be done around sexuality issues ”” either a kid who’s questioning their orientation, a couple whose marriage is failing. I think when those folks are coming to us in faith communities for real information and for real help, we need to make sure we have the training to be able to address that.

{JUDY] VALENTE: Many pastors say issues such as teen sexual activity and marital infidelity are among the most common topics about which congregation members seek guidance. Yet few seminaries offer courses in sexuality, and fewer still require these courses.

Dr. ALICE HUNT (President, Chicago Theological Seminary): It’s a challenge. It’s controversial. It makes people feel uncomfortable. It makes people feel insecure. So it’s just taking time for schools to come on board with addressing these issues.

Read or watch it all.

China offered its first real sign of flexibility in years over the exchange rate of its currency, a growing source of friction with the U.S., but gave little hope that it would accommodate Washington on Iran and other thorny foreign-policy issues.

Central bank Gov. Zhou Xiaochuan said China will eventually move away from its current exchange-rate policies, which he described as a temporary response to the global financial crisis, but played down the idea that a move could come in the near future.

Mr. Zhou’s comments Saturday at a press conference during the annual session of China’s legislature, the National People’s Congress, could fuel optimism in the U.S. and other countries upset over China’s currency policy that Beijing may start letting the yuan appreciate, although not as quickly as many foreign governments desire. Critics complain that the yuan’s suppressed value makes China’s exports unfairly inexpensive, disadvantaging other countries.

China’s foreign minister sounded a defiant note on other sensitive issues with the U.S. in a separate briefing Sunday. Yang Jiechi told reporters it is up to the U.S. to mend frayed relations, which he said had been hurt by American arms sales to Taiwan and by President Barack Obama’s meeting with exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.

Read it all.

Iraq’s second parliamentary election since the 2003 invasion has been hit by multiple attacks, with at least 24 people being killed.

Two buildings were destroyed in the capital and dozens of mortars were fired across Baghdad and elsewhere.

The border with Iran was closed, thousands of troops were deployed, and vehicles were banned from roads.

Read it all.

You will say that these are very small sins; and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness. But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy. It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one””the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.

–C.S. Lewis, Screwtape Letters, Letter XII

What if Jesus were living in today’s society, observing the teachings of churches?

The Rev. David Dingwall leaned back in his chair and thought for a moment.

“I wonder if Jesus would recognize much of what is being said and done in his name,” he said. “Some of it, he would say, ‘Yes. You get it.’ But certainly not everything.”

Soft-spoken, with a depth of thought, an easy laugh and prone to toying with his moustache when formulating an idea, the pastor of St. Paul’s by-the-Sea Episcopal Church in downtown Ocean City said he believes Jesus was militant, a radical, intensely political, but not violent. Jesus issued an invitation — experience a new way of life.

It can be summarized by reading The Sermon on the Mount, recorded in the fifth chapter of the Biblical book of Matthew, one of the gospels.

Read it all.

Whilst I understand fully where Bishop Jones is coming from, I want to suggest that his analysis and comparison of issues around human sexuality and just war is incorrect for a number of reasons, some theological and some sociological and biological.

First, issues around human sexuality cut deep to the core of anthropology in a way that the pacifism/militarism debate does not. The traditional human moral is not just about how human beings should behave sexually but on a much deeper level about core issues of identity. As Bishop Jones himself recognises in his speech, human sexuality is an ontological identification in a way that an ethical position on war or peace can never be. Sexual orientation and identity lies at the heart of a person’s sense of being, and often this is misunderstood by those in this debate, especially on the conservative side of the argument. To often we try to make clean and clinical divisions between sin and the sinner, but when one’s attractions are integral to our sense of person-hood such a dichotomy is difficult to maintain. We are created sexual beings and sexual activity is vital and essential to the procreation of the human race ”“ it is something that we simply cannot do without. The argument over war and peace is a discussion about how to resolve issues on a corporate level ”“ the argument over sexual activity and identity is a discussion about the very depth of our created beings. People never define themselves as “born pacifist” or claim to have “pacifist genes”, but when it comes to sexual orientation these fundamental propositions are constantly presented and appealed to. The discussion is not just about how we should act, it is about who we were created to be.

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A leading evangelical bishop will today call for Anglicans to “accept a diversity of ethical convictions” gay sex in order to prevent schism.

The Bishop of Liverpool, the Right Rev James Jones, will use his presidential address to his diocesan synod today to argue that for an end to the battles over sexuality in the Anglican Communion so the Church can focus on mission.

In his address, seen by The Times, he compares the debate over homosexuality to that over going to war, in spite of the commandment “Thou Shalt not Kill.”

Just as the Just War doctrine evolved to allow Christians to reconcile their faith with their civic duty to fight for their country, so those on the conservative side of the gay sex debate should accept those on the liberal side for the sake of Anglican peace.

He also, controversially, takes issue with the conservative line that sexuality is a matter of choice. Instead, he argues that like ethnicity, it is a “given”.

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we cannot let it go unremarked that Bishop Harries is eager to claim Cardinal Newman as one of his own. Newman’s essay on the Development of Doctrine is a seminal, nuanced and powerful piece of theological writing. The essay’s essential point is that the Christian faith can develop in understanding, but not in a way that contradicts the core teaching of the Apostles. Instead of any intellectual argument, Bishop Harries grabs the title of Newman’s essay, and uses it, and Newman’s reputation as a propaganda piece to bolster innovations in the Church of England which would have astounded and scandalized Newman. Is it possible that a person of Bishop Harries learning and experience is blind to the fact that Newman’s whole spiritual journey was a repudiation of the kind of Oxford, hoity toity faux Catholicism that Bishop Harries represents?

Can Bishop Harries really have missed the entire point of Cardinal Newman’s pilgrimage to Rome? Does he not see that the great man stepped down from the heights of his career in Oxford and in the Church of England to take the very step into the Catholic Church that Bishop Harries sneers at?

Lord Pentregarth is honest in choosing not to become a Catholic, but if he does not want to be a Catholic why does he keep masquerading as one? Most of all he should resist the temptation to kidnap a figure as great and good as Cardinal Newman and hold him to ransom for his own progressivist agenda.

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That which I have stated explicitly in this address I believe we are already living out implicitly, namely that we do already as a Diocese accept a diversity of ethical convictions about human sexuality in the same way that the church has always allowed a diversity of ethical opinion on taking human life. Within our own fellowship we are brothers and sisters in Christ holding a variety of views on a number of major theological and moral issues and we are members of a church that characteristically allows a large space for a variety of nuances, interpretations, applications and disagreement. I know that sometimes it stretches us, but never to breaking point, for it seems to me that there is a generosity of grace that holds us all together.

If on this subject of sexuality the traditionalists are ultimately right and those who advocate the acceptance of stable and faithful gay relationships are wrong what will their sin be? That in a world of such little love two people sought to express a love that no other relationship could offer them? And if those advocating the acceptance of gay relationship are right and the traditionalists are wrong what will their sin be? That in a church that has forever wrestled with interpreting and applying Scripture they missed the principle in the application of the literal text?
Do these two thoughts not of themselves enlarge the arena in which to do our ethical exploration?

This address has been about how we handle disagreements about ethical principles within the Body of Christ. It is also about how we promote a Christian humanism whereby we discover before God both how to flourish as human beings in Christ and how to treat each other humanely in the process of that discovery. It is my plea that the Church of England and the Anglican Communion must allow a variety of ethical views on the subject as in this Diocese we do and that to do so finds a parallel in the space it offers for a diversity of moral positions on the taking of life. Although it will doubtless remain a disputed question for some time in the wider church I hope this approach will continue to allow for the development of a humane pastoral theology here in the Diocese of Liverpool.

I have not addressed today the implications of this position for the ordering and governance of the church but I wish you to know that in due course we will discuss these in parishes, deaneries and in the Diocesan Synod as we continue to do together our pastoral theology on this subject recognising that decisions belong ultimately to the General Synod and to the House of Bishops.

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According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s figures, Arkansas has grown in population from 2,673,400 in 2000 to 2,889,450 in 2009. This represents a population growth of approximately 8.08%.

According to Episcopal Church statistics, the Diocese of Arkansas went from Average Sunday Attendance (or ASA) of 5,349 in 1998 to 4,684 in 2008. This represents an ASA decline of about 12% over this ten year period.

In order to generate a pictorial chart of some Arkansas diocesan statistics, please go [url=http://www.episcopalchurch.org/growth_60791_ENG_HTM.htm?menupage=50929]here[/url] and enter “Arkansas” in the second line down under “Diocese” and then click on “View Diocese Chart” under the third line to the left.

The Diocese of Arkansas’ website may be found here.

Thousands of growing churches are preparing to celebrate Cherishing Churchyards Week this June as part of the UN’s International Year of Biodiversity.

The nationwide project is being run by conservation charity Caring for God’s Acre (CfGA) and is supported by the CofE’s national environmental campaign Shrinking the Footprint. There are an estimated 12,000 CofE churchyards. Around half of them already run biodiversity projects, in rural and urban areas, while remaining respectful to their users, particularly family and friends of those buried there.

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The Church of England has warned that basic human rights cannot be made contingent on the exercise of responsibilities. In a response to the Ministry of Justice Green Paper on Rights and Responsibilities, the Mission and Public Affairs Council argues that connecting rights too closely with responsibilities risks undermining the inalienable nature of fundamental human rights.

Some less fundamental rights – perhaps better understood as entitlements – may follow from the exercise of social responsibility, the response argues, but the Green Paper does not give enough emphasis to the ways in which responsibilities are owed primarily to other persons, groups and communities and not always to the state.

Read it all and also peruse the full response (11 page pdf) there.

The cuts are also being felt in economically depressed areas like Richmond, near San Francisco, where unemployment is 17.6 percent and violent crime and poverty are common.

“Kids come to school hungry; some are homeless,” said Mary Flanagan, 55, a third-grade teacher from Richmond. “How can we deal with problems like that with as many as 38, 40 kids in a class?”

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The people of Arizona kept their upper lips stiff when officials mortgaged off the state’s executive office tower and a “Daily Show” crew rolled into town to chronicle the transaction in mocking tones. They remained calm as lawmakers pondered privatizing death row.

But then the state took away their toilets, and residents began to revolt.

“Why don’t they charge a quarter or something?’” said Connie Lucas, who lives in Pine, Ariz., about a two-and-a-half-hour drive from here. “There was one rest stop between here and Phoenix, and we really needed it.”

Arizona has the largest budget gap in the country when measured as a percentage of its overall budget, and the state Department of Transportation was $100 million in the red last fall when it decided to close 13 of the state’s 18 highway rest stops.

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Caught this on the morning run–really heartwarming. Watch it all.