The Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast has launched a webpage of job openings, emergency tips and prayers in response to the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The site includes phone numbers for residents to call if they see oil along shorelines, or wildlife affected by oil.
The Rev. Canon Beverly Findley Gibson, subdean of Christ Church Cathedral in Mobile, Ala., composed a prayer addressing the specific crises of this oil spill….
As a believer in free markets, I think it is both useless and harmful to constrict computerized trading. But on days like today, it really puts that belief to the test.
The purpose of a stock market is to provide an orderly and efficient market for the free exchange of equity securities. At the core of the market, there must be a belief that the market is trustworthy, that it can match buyers and sellers, bids and asks.
Today’s market was neither orderly nor efficient nor trustworthy. It was just a bunch of computers making ugly, messy love with each other . And your money hung in the balance.
A Christian street preacher in Britain will stand trial for telling a passerby — in earshot of a policewoman — that God views homosexuality as a sin.
Police arrested Dale McAlpine, a 42-year-old Baptist, under Britain’s Public Order Act 1986, which forbids “using threatening, abusive or insulting words … tending to and causing harassment, alarm or distress.”
McAlpine told The Daily Telegraph newspaper that he was arrested after a part-time police officer said she heard him reciting a list of “sins” against God, including blasphemy, drunkenness and same-sex relationships.
The preacher denied mentioning homosexuality, but he did concede he had told a passing shopper that it was a sin in the eyes of God.
New signs will go up on the Episcopal Church on Highway 17 in Pawleys Island this summer: Christ the King, Waccamaw.
The church was formerly All Saints Waccamaw, but a settlement in a long-running lawsuit earlier this year led the Episcopal parish to give up the name.
“All Saints is such a dear name to many, a great name with meaning to a lot of people,” said Rick Bruce, senior warden of the Episcopal church vestry. “We wanted a name that would be meaningful in a different way.”
A gay Atlanta pastor and his partner who have been at the center of a battle over the treatment of gay clergy by the nation’s largest Lutheran denomination are being reinstated to the denomination’s clergy roster, church officials announced Tuesday.
The Rev. Bradley Schmeling and his partner, the Rev. Darin Easler, have been approved for reinstatement, the Chicago-based Evangelical Lutheran Church in America said in a news release. The approval came roughly eight months after the denomination voted to allow gays and lesbians in committed relationships to serve as clergy, and just weeks after the ELCA’s church council officially revised the church’s policy on gay ministers.
Schmeling, who serves as pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Atlanta, was removed from the church’s clergy roster in 2007 for being in a same-sex relationship with Easler. A disciplinary committee ruled that Schmeling was violating an ELCA policy regarding the sexual conduct of pastors.
“I’m grateful that this journey has come full circle and that the church has changed its policy,” Schmeling said Tuesday.
The Roman Catholic Church is weathering another sex scandal, but it is impossible to tell here, where the faint image of a bearded man on a yellowing linen sheet provides the moment, if brief, for pilgrims to declare and reaffirm their faith. For some, it does not matter if the Shroud of Turin is authentic. It is the shared spiritual experience that counts most.
“You can counteract with gestures what’s happening in the church,” said Davide Donato, 23, an architecture student who took an overnight train from Reggio Calabria in southern Italy to see the shroud on Thursday. That night he was taking an overnight train back. “These gestures affirm what you believe in, what that basis of faith is.”
Ten years after the shroud last went on display, nearly two million people have made reservations for a timed glimpse of the religious object (five minutes on weekdays, three on weekends, depending on the bookings, though the labyrinthine line can take well over an hour).
With more than 500 general election results in out of 650, the BBC is predicting a hung Parliament with the Tories as the largest party.
Labour cannot now win a majority, but it is not clear which party will be in a position to form a government.
Tory leader David Cameron said it was “clear that the Labour government has lost its mandate to govern”.
Gordon Brown may start coalition talks with the Lib Dems, who, Nick Clegg admitted, had a “disappointing night” .
“Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
–Matthew 7:7-11
O Almighty God, who by thy holy apostle hast taught us to set our affection on things above: Grant us so to labour in this life as ever to be mindful of our citizenship in those heavenly places whither our Saviour Christ is gone before; to whom with thee, O Father, and thee, O Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, world without end.
While no one really knows if all dogs go to heaven, Calvary Episcopal Church is giving area pooches and their owners improved odds with a new monthly worship service.
The first Perfect Paws Pet Ministry takes place on Sunday, May 16, from 5 to 5:30 p.m., in the church’s Parish Hall.
After that, the church plans to hold the pet service on the third Sunday of every month, complete with communion for the humans who wish to partake and special blessings bestowed on pets and people alike. Dogs will get treats as part of the service.
Nigeria buried its president on Thursday and swore in his successor, Goodluck Jonathan, amid fears of a debilitating power struggle in the ruling party.
Politicians hailed the smooth power transfer, but the death of President Umaru Yar’Adua on Wednesday night after a five-month illness could lead to infighting between northerners and southerners in the ruling People’s Democratic Party should Jonathan, a southerner, decide to run for the presidency in elections due next year.
Jonathan’s candidacy would shatter an unwritten deal in the PDP that rotates the presidency for eight years to a leader from the mainly Christian south and eight years to someone from the mainly Muslim north. The rotation is seen as vital to Nigeria’s political stability.
The arrangement, known as the “zoning” policy, was recently affirmed by the party and means an Islamic candidate should run as the PDP candidate because Yar’Adua, a Muslim, served less than four years.
BBC America World News led with this story yesterday morning–read it all.
A fixture since President Truman signed a bill proclaiming a National Day of Prayer 58 years ago, 2010 could be the last time the event is observed if the White House fails in an appeal against a court ruling that it violates the ban on government-backed religion.
U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb ruled April 15 in favor of the Madison, Wis.-based Freedom From Religion Foundation in a suit brought against President Obama. She ruled that the federal law that designates a National Day of Prayer and requires an annual presidential proclamation violates the establishment clause of the 1st Amendment.
Despite the ruling, several observances took place around the capital Thursday, including the Pentagon, the Cannon House Office Building and the steps of the Capitol. In her decision, Crabb said ceremonies could still take place pending appeals.
An all-but-overlooked provision of the health reform law is threatening to swamp U.S. businesses with a flood of new tax paperwork.
Section 9006 of the health care bill — just a few lines buried in the 2,409-page document — mandates that beginning in 2012 all companies will have to issue 1099 tax forms not just to contract workers but to any individual or corporation from which they buy more than $600 in goods or services in a tax year.
The stealth change radically alters the nature of 1099s and means businesses will have to issue millions of new tax documents each year.
David Cameron will fall 19 seats short of a Commons majority, according to a joint BBC/Sky/ITV exit poll.
The Conservatives would have 307 MPs, up 97 on 2005, Labour would have 255, down 94, and the Lib Dems 59, down 3. Nationalists and others would have 29.
That means Labour and the Lib Dems together could not have a majority.
Update: Cspan3 has live UK election coverage for those interested.
Clashes in Athens broke out at the end of a main protest that drew tens of thousands of people as police pushed back a few thousand demonstrators outside parliament.
The violence was quickly contained with riot police firing tear gas at the protesters, who had earlier pelted them with stone, oranges and bottles. Several small fires burned in surrounding streets. No injuries or arrests were reported.
Demonstrators banging drums and shouting anti-government slogans through bullhorns, unfurled a giant black banner outside parliament earlier Thursday. More than 30,000 demonstrators filled downtown streets, chanting “They declared war. Now fight back.”
Prime Minister George Papandreou expelled three Socialist deputies who dissented in the vote, reducing the party’s number of seats to 157 in the 300-member parliament.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average posted its biggest intraday loss since the market crash of 1987, the euro slid to a 14-month low and yields on Greek, Spanish and Italian bonds surged on concern European leaders aren’t doing enough to stem the region’s debt crisis. U.S. Treasuries surged.
The New York Stock Exchange told CNBC that there were no system errors during the Dow’s plunge as speculation of bad trades swirled through the market. The Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. said it is working with other markets to review the plunge.
“It’s panic selling,” said Burt White, chief investment officer at LPL Financial in Boston, which oversees $379 billion. “There’s concern that the European situation might cool down global growth and freeze the credit markets.”
It is the online version of the bathroom wall in school, the place to scrawl raw, anonymous gossip.
Formspring.me, a relatively new social networking site, has become a magnet for comments, many of them nasty and sexual, among the Facebook generation.
While Formspring is still under the radar of many parents and guidance counselors, over the last two months it has become an obsession for thousands of teenagers nationwide, a place to trade comments and questions like: Are you still friends with julia? Why wasn’t sam invited to lauren’s party? You’re not as hot as u think u are. Do you wear a d cup? You talk too much. You look stupid when you laugh.
By setting up a free Formspring account and linking it to their Tumblr or Twitter or Facebook accounts, young people invite their hundreds of online friends to ask questions or post comments, without having to identify themselves.
In part, Formspring is just the latest place to hang out and exchange gossip, as teenagers have always done. But because of the anonymity, the banter is unvarnished.
“It far exceeded my expectations,” said Bishop Ordinary to the Canadian Forces Peter Coffin, when asked his thoughts about a recent tour of a nearby Canadian Forces Base by members of the Anglican regional clericus.
The tour was sponsored by the 17 Wing’s flight line chaplain, Captain (The Rev.) Gordon Mintz. On the tour, Anglican clergy had the opportunity to receive a ”˜behind the fence line’ insight into how military chaplains deal with the challenges of ministering to such a diverse and dynamic entity.
“The local (Anglican) clergy was very appreciative of learning first-hand the stresses on military families that they see in their congregations and learning more of the role of chaplains in supporting our military families,” said Padre Mintz.
Some people naively suggest that at Christmas or Easter we should just read the Lukan birth narrative or the story of the empty tomb in Mark and faith will abound. If we had just those stories without the conversations, sermons, and prayers and hymns that interpret them, they would be entirely bizarre and incomprehensible. Scripture is a great gift because it points to Christ. Scripture is an accessible gift because we are invited to talk about it, interpret it, claim it.
“We’ve still barely hit the tip of the iceberg for people who could play [the] games but don’t think they can,” says David Roberts, the CEO of PopCap, the company that created Bejeweled.
“With Bejeweled, 70 percent of our customers are women, and that astounds almost everybody,” he says….
Roberts says people were wrong in assuming that games on Facebook would appeal to a more traditional audience of younger males.
“What you find is a lot of women who are both working and raising children just have no time for relationships,” says Misiek Piskorski, who teaches about online social networking at the Harvard Business School. “But it’s not like they wouldn’t want to spend more time having these relationships. It’s just really, really hard. And this allows them to basically sustain these relationships.”
This story, in short, is not over.
For the eurozone, two lessons are clear: first, it has a choice ”“ either it allows sovereign defaults, however messy, or it creates a true fiscal union, with strong discipline and funds sufficient to cushion adjustment in crushed economies ”“ Mr Buiter recommends a European Monetary Fund of €2,000bn; and, second, adjustment in the eurozone is not going to work without offsetting adjustments in core countries. If the eurozone is willing to live with close to stagnant overall demand, it will become an arena for beggar-my-neighbour competitive disinflation, with growing reliance on world markets as a vent for surplus. Few are going to like this outcome.
The crises now unfolding confirm the wisdom of those who saw the euro as a highly risky venture. These shocks are not that surprising. On the contrary, they could have been expected. The fear that yoking together such diverse countries would increase tension, rather than reduce it, also appears vindicated: look at the surge of anti-European sentiment inside Germany. Yet, now that the eurozone has been created, it must work. The attempted rescue of Greece is just the beginning of the story. Much more still needs to be done, in responding to the immediate crisis and in reforming the eurozone itself, in the not too distant future.
The General Synod will also debate issues including urging the government to place a ban on alcohol advertising. The proposed Anglican Covenant addressing the issue of the ordination of bishops in same sex relationships will also be a discussion for the General Synod but no final decision is expected until the next Synod in 2012.
An Episcopal priest and theologian who popularized the rave-like “Techno Cosmic Mass” and advocated goddess worship recently led a seminar on mysticism and Earth spirituality to coincide with Earth Day.
Warning that environmental degradation caused by raging against “Gaia” had to cease, the Rev. Matthew Fox made frequent references to “the Goddess” and the divine feminine during his environmentally-themed lecture and workshop, “Earth Spirituality and the Mystical Tradition.” The event was held in April at the Unitarian Universalist Church in the Washington suburb of Rockville, Maryland, and sponsored by the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation.
Many in the Church hierarchy seem to think that the most brief acknowledgment of wrongdoing and an indistinct promise of reform will generate sufficient goodwill.
Keep in mind that the pope is the CEO of a global monarchy with a very troubling track record when it comes to the safety of kids.
Benedict has the power, with a stroke of a pen, to really make a difference and protect the vulnerable, heal the wounded and restore trust in the hierarchy. He just refuses to use that power in any way that brings true reform to the Church by putting an end to decades of secrecy and recklessness.
Instead, he only uses words. Words can be powerful weapons, especially when the pope is taking on worldwide crises over which he has no control, like poverty, war, racism and AIDS. But over this scandal, Benedict has virtually limitless power. And his words, however eloquent, protect no one (except perhaps the Church’s criminals and enablers).
Sadly, this pattern of talking a lot but doing little to tackle predatory priests, nuns, brothers, bishops and seminarians “trickles down.” When the media and the parishioners are moved by gestures and impressed with words, few in the Church hierarchy feel compelled to take tangible steps to oust child-molesting clerics, or have them criminally prosecuted, and help their still-suffering victims.
Did the Vatican cover up evidence of Kiesle’s predatory behavior? No. The civil courts of California destroyed that evidence after the priest completed a sentence of probation — before the case reached Rome.
So this was not a question of cover-up or poor Vatican oversight or failure to discipline a priest. Kiesle merely asked to be released from his vows, and the Vatican wanted to consider the request carefully.
When a priest is laicized, he returns to a lay state and is no longer under the control of the Church. Who is responsible for his actions after laicization? Ratzinger only requested more time to consider the request for laicization. In two years, he was laicized. But it took the civil authorities nine years to investigate, prosecute and finally convict the priest. Who is truly at fault? There is no evidence of any cover-up in this case or any other adjudicated by Pope Benedict XVI.
I urge members of the media to get their facts right in the frenzied discourse on child sexual abuse, which has become a hydra-headed monster in our society. As was recently seen in Malta, Pope Benedict is deeply moved by the stories told by victims and has expressed his shame and sorrow, assuring them that the Church will continue to do all in its power to investigate allegations, to bring to justice those responsible for abuse and to implement effective measures designed to safeguard young people in the future. No one else has done as much as Pope Benedict XVI, and by extension, the Catholic Church, to provide a safer environment for our children. Today, the Catholic Church — its schools, hospitals and organizations are the safest environments for children in today’s world bedeviled by sexual predators. The records are there for everyone to see.
Britain is heading for a hung parliament according to the final opinion polls released as the campaigns ended.
The surveys gave the Tories a lead of up to nine points but none of them handed outright victory to David Cameron.
The Populus survery for The Times put the Tories up one point on 37% with Labour on 28% (down one) and the Lib Dems also down a point on 27%.
The ICM poll for the Guardian put the Tories on 36%, Labour on 28% and the Lib Dems on 26%.
The ComRes poll for ITV News and The Independent had the Tories nine points ahead on 37%, with Labour and the Lib Dems tied on 28 points.
In a move that will stoke a battle over the future of the Internet, the federal government plans to propose regulating broadband lines under decades-old rules designed for traditional phone networks.
The decision, by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski, is likely to trigger a vigorous lobbying battle, arraying big phone and cable companies and their allies on Capitol Hill against Silicon Valley giants and consumer advocates.
Breaking a deadlock within his agency, Mr. Genachowski is expected Thursday to outline his plan for regulating broadband lines. He wants to adopt “net neutrality” rules that require Internet providers like Comcast Corp. and AT&T Inc. to treat all traffic equally, and not to slow or block access to websites.
A section of a bell tower has collapsed at a long-abandoned landmark church on the West Side.
The incident occurred on the same day that Buffalo’s inspections chief said he doubts the 117-year-old structure can be saved from the wrecking ball.
James Comerford told city lawmakers earlier today that it was against his “better judgment” to take steps to save the steeple of the former St. Mary’s on-the-Hill Episcopal Church, because he didn’t believe the structure is sufficiently stable.
This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be made worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering–since indeed God deems it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant rest with us to you who are afflicted, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance upon those who do not know God and upon those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They shall suffer the punishment of eternal destruction and exclusion from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at in all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.
–2 Thessalonians 1:5-10