Captain Steven Gerrard has vowed that England will adopt a “do-or-die” mentality as they bid to avoid crashing out of the World Cup on Wednesday.
Fabio Capello’s stuttering team must beat Slovenia to guarantee a place in the last-16 knockout stage.
“It is a do-or-die situation,” conceded Liverpool midfielder Gerrard, 30.
One more game, one last chance to make their reputation. When the Americans play Algeria at the World Cup on Wednesday they’ll either live up to all the hype and earn a spot among the final 16 teams ”” or fall painfully short of their long-stated goal and lose a watershed opportunity.
“We have a great chance tomorrow night to get a win and advance on to the second round,” captain Carlos Bocanegra said Tuesday. “It’s important for us because we had that disappointment in ’06. It’s not really extra motivation, but it’s just in the back of our minds. You work so hard and you train for so long for the World Cup, and it can be over so quickly if you don’t advance.”
A victory or possibly a tie would move the United States into the knockout rounds on a high that will set off midday celebrations back home. Replicate the loss to Ghana that knocked the U.S. out in 2006, and it will start a new round of soul-searching for that could cost coach Bob Bradley his job ”” not to mention dampening the burgeoning enthusiasm for soccer in America.
…the Chief Pastor of the Church is a workman–working for God, working with God, working under His eye, and for the welfare of the immortal souls committed to his charge.
The Bishop then is a workman. This accords with what St. Paul wrote in his 1st Epistle to Timothy, when he said “If a man desireth the office of a Bishop, he desireth a good work,” His life and duty may be summed up in one word–work.
This implies that his life is not a rest, or a state of ease. That he is not to be a cloistered theologian, or dwell in ecclesiastical quietism. That he is not to be a mere dignified functionary of grace and power to be dispensed only in a perfunctory manner. That he is not to be the mere figure-head of a Diocese, placed there as a simple presiding officer, and machine-like to impart the grace of confirmation and orders, in the laying on of hands.
So far from this, the Bishop is to be instinct with life and work. He is to be the Shepherd and leader of the flock–the wise ruler–the diligent teacher–the faithful counsellor–the prompter and supporter of all Churchly activities; ever holding himself ready for labor, or for sacrifice. In the New Testament the office of a Bishop, to which we shall confine ourselves at this time, is represented under various similitudes, but it is to be noted that each one of them involves the idea of work. Is he called a Fisher of Men? He must work, in casting his net, and drawing it to land; and even when, at times, he ceases to throw the net, in order that he may mend it, or wash it, even then, he is working in private that he may perfect his implements of labor, and more ffectively launch out into the deep, and let down his net for a draught.
Is he called a Builder? He must work, not only in building up himself in the most holy faith, but also seek to excel to the edifying of the Church, building it up of lively stones, on Christ the living corner-stone, so that as a wise master builder, the structure which he erects, may become the Temple of the Holy Ghost.
Is he called a Steward? He must work in administering the trust, that deposit of truth and faith, committed to him, so that he shall rightly divide the word of truth, give to each of his Lord’s household his portion in due season, and bring forth, out of his treasured mysteries, things new and old.
Is he called a Herald; a Preacher? He must work in preparing and proclaiming the good tidings which he is commissioned to make known. The command of Jesus is, “Go preach the Gospel;” the injunction of the Apostle is, “Preach the Word;” “be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all Long-suffering and diligence;” but to do this, demands work of the [7/8] severest and most wearing kind, so that he may not, after having preached to others, be himself a castaway.
Is he called a Shepherd? He must work in tending the flock; now gathering them into folds, now leading them to green pastures, now seeking out the straying, now taking up the lame, now guarding from wolves, and now resting with them at noon beside the still waters. In the words of good Bishop Hall, “he must discern in his sheep between the sound and the unsound; in the unsound between the weak and the tainted; in the tainted between the nature, qualities, and degrees, of infection; and to all these, he must know how to administer a word in season.”
Read it all but before you do, please try to guess the diocese and the date–KSH.
The Quebec government plans to appeal a court ruling that found its imposition of a province-wide ethics and religion course on a private Catholic school “totalitarian” and unconstitutional.
The scathing decision issued on Friday by Quebec Superior Court Justice Gérard Dugré was a victory for Montreal’s Loyola High School, a Jesuit boys’ school that has objected to the controversial course since its 2008 introduction.
Loyola had maintained that its curriculum, including instruction on world religions, already covered the government-mandated course material, albeit from a Catholic perspective. When the school applied for an exemption from teaching the new course, it was denied because its proposed course was not sufficiently neutral.
Shahzad said he sought and received five days’ training in explosives before returning to the United States in February to pursue a one-man scheme to bring death and destruction to New York with funding from the militant group. The indictment said he received $5,000 in cash on Feb. 25 from an unnamed coconspirator in Pakistan and $7,000 more on April 10, sent at the coconspirator’s direction.
He explained that he loaded his vehicle with three bomb components, hoping to set off a fertilizer-fueled bomb packed in a gun cabinet, a set of propane tanks and gas canisters rigged with fireworks to explode into a fireball. He also revealed he was carrying a folding assault rifle in a laptop computer case for “self-defense.”
Shahzad said he expected the bomb to begin going off after he lighted a fuse and waited between 2 1/2 and five minutes for it to erupt.
“I was waiting to hear a sound, but I couldn’t hear any sound. … So I just walked to Grand Central (Terminal), and I went home,” he said.
Many commented that Mount Pleasant deserved it because of the town’s “great sense of community.”
“We’ve lived all over the world, and it’s so easy to get a sense of community here,” said Ruby Qurashi, who moved to Mount Pleasant from London two years ago.
She noted the community spirit was remarkable considering how many of the residents are transplants like herself and her husband, who commutes to work in Baltimore.
Congratulations to them–read it all; KSH.
Opposition to no-fault divorce in New York has united two groups that don’t usually see eye-to-eye: religious advocates opposed to a change that would make divorces easier to obtain, and women’s groups that believe no-fault would enable moneyed husbands — including adulterers and batterers — to dump their spouses unilaterally. A news conference Monday at the Capitol brought the two flanks together.
The Rev. Jason McGuire of New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms said the no-fault measure, which narrowly passed the Senate last week and is now before the Assembly, should be called “the midlife marriage crisis bill” because it would smooth the path for men who want to trade in an aging wife for a “younger, sleeker model.”
Those tending to the women’s-rights side of the argument had harsh words for the principal Senate backers of the bill, including Democrats Ruth Hassell-Thompson, Liz Krueger and Diane Savino. The activists argued that the legislators were either deluded about the “myths” surrounding no-fault or had been bought off for campaign cash from lawyers.
“They took a position quickly and then they were locked into a position politically,” said Monica Getz of the Coalition for Family Justice. “… I could see very well, without ill intention, where Sen. Savino and Sen. Hassell-Thompson would be seduced by the bar associations.”
No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.
–Romans 4:20-21
Into thy hands, O Lord, we commit ourselves this day. Give to each one of us a watchful, humble, and diligent spirit, that we may seek in all things to know thy will; and when we know it may gladly perform it, to the honour and glory of thy name.
The Obama administration’s flagship effort to help people in danger of losing their homes is falling flat.
More than a third of the 1.24 million borrowers who have enrolled in the $75 billion mortgage modification program have dropped out. That exceeds the number of people who have managed to have their loan payments reduced to help them keep their homes.
Last month alone,155,000 borrowers left the program — bringing the total to 436,000 who have dropped out since it began in March 2009.
France exited in disgrace from the World Cup on Tuesday with no victories and little sympathy for a team that infamously used an intentional handball to get into the tournament and self-destructed on the way out.
France’s petulant image did not gain much redemption in its final match, a 2-1 defeat to host South Africa in Bloemfontein, south of here. Les Bleus, as the team is known, played the final 65-plus minutes a man short after midfielder Yoann Gourcuff was ejected for elbowing an opponent in the head.
Afterward, the eccentric and departing French coach, Raymond Domenech, declined to shake hands with his South African counterpart, Carlos Alberto Parreira. Apparently, Parreira said, the snub was related to his criticism of the way France had qualified for the World Cup: the illegal handling of the ball by forward Thierry Henry, which was unseen by the referee and led to the decisive goal in a cumulative playoff victory against Ireland in November.
Chancellor George Osborne delivered a hike in VAT and slashed welfare spending as he moved “decisively” to tackle Britain’s record debts.
Presenting his first Budget, he promised “tough but fair” action to wipe out the structural deficit within five years.
(Anglican Journal) A prominent Canadian senator and retired general has challenged world religious leaders to offer a vision of what the world can be, saying political leaders are simply reacting and “swimming in the complexity and ambiguity of our time.”
The world hasn’t seen statesmanship in this era of “new world disorder,” said Lt. Gen. Romeo Dallaire, widely known as the commander of the United Nations peacekeeping force in 1993 that tried to stop the genocide in Rwanda. “What world leaders are doing is leadership by crisis management”¦We are not shaping the future but reacting to it.”
Forward in Faith has welcomed the amendments which the two Archbishops are proposing. I am less sanguine than FiF about this attempt to get round the Revision Committee’s proposals concerning women in the Episcopate in England.
The notion the Archbishops are pressing is “co-ordinate jurisdiction” ”“ by which they mean that the ”˜nominated bishop’, a sort of downgraded PEV, will exercise those functions which the Diocesan Bishop decides to hand over in his or her diocese.
Now I have had to deal with diocesan bishops. Some of them see no problem in letting Flying Bishops operate. Others have allowed only minimal functions to be undertaken; for instance, not allowing them to ordain candidates within their diocese, even when the candidate has requested it from the start of training. There has been a Code of Practice agreed by the House of Bishops, and this Code has been undermined and ignored in far too many instances. Each diocesan has decided for himself how much of the Code to implement, and how much to ignore. The Archbishops’ proposals make this situation potentially much worse.
Congratulations to Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico and South Korea for being able to move on to the knock-out stage.
How did Yakubu Ayegbeni miss for Nigeria 2 feet in front of the South Korean net? My oh my.
In her recent address to the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Presiding Bishop used the same list that she used in Southwark, but began her address to another “Episcopal Church” by defending the use of the name “The” Episcopal Church: “we’ve struggled with what to call ourselves because ECUSA is not accurate.” In fact, the official name of TEC as designated in its constitution is“The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, otherwise known as The Episcopal Church (which name is hereby recognized as also designating the Church).” She also stated that the Churches in Europe were “rapidly becoming indigenized.” The data show that they have declined 13% since 2003 from an ASA of 1500 to 1302.
TEC is not, of course, the only “international” church in the Anglican Communion. Others include the West Indies, Central America, Southern Cone, Ireland, West Africa, Central Africa, Southern Africa, Indian Ocean, Jerusalem and the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Melanesia and Aotearoa New Zealand and Polynesia.
But the most international of all Anglican churches remains the Church of England. In addition to churches extra-provincial to Canterbury in Spain, Portugal, Bermuda, Ceylon and the Falkland Islands, the Church of England’s Diocese in Europe includes parishes or missions in forty-three countries with a weekly attendance of 12,600.
The General Synod of the Church of England will consider a report on its ecumenical relationship with the Church of Scotland (the CoE is established (entangled with the government) and observes an episcopal polity (government with bishops) whereas the CoS is a national church (largely disentangled from government) and observes presbyterian polity (government with councils of elders)). That is all to the good; the relationship of these two ecclesial bodies has long been vexed, and rapprochement would count as a very good thing.
On the other hand, the report in question minimises ”” almost ignores ”” the relation of these two dominant groups to the middle term, the Scottish Episcopal Church (and I suppose it ignores English Presbyterians, too).
“The Episcopal Church is vibrantly engaged in missions in most places that I go. It is not growing numerically in most parts of the United States, but it is growing in most of our overseas dioceses,” Schori told WRAL’s David Crabtree.
Castlight Health, financed by the Cleveland Clinic and other investors, is one of a number of companies that have started publishing health care prices charged by doctors and hospitals. Others include Aetna life insurance company and the state of New Hampshire.
Employers who have shifted workers toward high-deductible insurance policies that require them to pay larger out-of-pocket costs are one spur for better health care cost information. Patients with more information about prices often spend less. The state of Indiana found that in 2009, patients with high-deducible plans spent 25 percent less than patients with a more traditional plan, the Times reported.
In another example of the variability of health care prices, Castlight found that colonoscopy prices in the San Francisco area ranged from $500 to $3,000.
While there are many medical emergencies for which patients have no time for comparison shopping, health care consumers should be encouraged to shop around for many routine medical procedures, examinations and tests, and to be aware of the costs of overusing emergency medical services.
The idea of a tax on financial transactions championed by France and Germany is unlikely to gain much traction at the next meeting of leaders of the world’s 20 largest countries because it faces opposition both within the European Union as well as from countries such as the U.S. and Canada.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy Thursday said the EU will propose a tax on financial transactions to the G-20 when it gathers at the end of next week in Toronto, stressing that France and Germany would work together to make this a “major issue” and are even ready to implement it without the support of others.
Sarkozy didn’t specify, however, what the proceeds of such a tax would be used for, but France has said in the past it favors using it to fund efforts to control climate change, foster innovation or fight poverty. Germany, on the other hand, sees such a tax as a way to curb speculation….
A person close to the IMF said the report to be submitted to G-20 leaders next week will mention the idea of a financial transaction tax, while making clear it isn’t the best way to make the banking sector cover the cost of future crises or to limit systemic vulnerabilities. The report will also point out the concern that the cost of such a tax would be passed on to clients, and that it doesn’t necessarily target the riskiest types of trades.
The Archbishops of Canterbury and York are planning to force the General Synod to offer safeguards to traditionalists unhappy with women bishops. And I do mean force, since the Synod had already decided not to offer those safeguards.
Whatever. Although it’s none of my business, and if I was a supporter of women bishops I’d be outraged, I sort of hope that Dr Williams and Dr Sentamu get their way. As Fr Ed Tomlinson SSC notes on his blog, the Primates’ plan would separate worshippers who are serious about belonging to a Catholic Church as it was understood by the founders of Anglo-Catholicism ”“ none of whom would countenance any degree of communion, however remote, with women bishops ”“ from those prepared to turn a blind eye to the DIY ecclesiology of “alternative oversight”.
Fr Tomlinson, a supporter of the Ordinariate, makes a neat (if mischievous) distinction between those who want to be part of the “Catholic faith” and those who want to be part of “Catholic tradition”.
5.The amendments we intend to propose involve neither delegation nor depriving a diocesan of any part of his or her jurisdiction. Instead we seek to give effect to the idea of a ‘co-ordinate’ jurisdiction.
6. What this would mean is that:
the jurisdiction of the diocesan bishop ”“ whether male or female ”“ remains intact; he or she would remain the bishop of the whole area of the diocese and would be legally entitled to exercise any episcopal function in any parish of the diocese;
*
*
* where a parish had requested arrangements, by issuing a Letter of Request, the diocesan would in practice refrain from exercising certain of his or her functions in such a parishand would leave the nominated bishop to exercise those functions in the parish in question;
*
* the legal authority of the nominated bishop to minister in this way would derive from the Measure itself ”“ and would not, therefore, be conferred by way of delegation; but the identity of such a bishop and the scope of his functions would be defined by the scheme made by the diocesan for his or her diocese, in the light of the provisions contained in the national statutory Code of Practice drawn up by the House of Bishops and agreed by General Synod;
*
* thus both the diocesan and the nominated bishop would possess ‘ordinary jurisdiction’; the diocesan would retain the complete jurisdiction of a diocesan in law, and the nominated bishop would have jurisdiction by virtue of the Measure to the extent provided for in the diocesan scheme ”“ in effect holding jurisdiction by the decision of the Church as a whole, as expressed in the Measure;
*
* in respect of the aspects of episcopal ministry for which the diocesan scheme made provision, the diocesan and the nominated bishop would be ‘co-ordinaries’, and to that extent, their jurisdiction could be described as co-ordinate ”“ that is to say, each would have an ordinary jurisdiction in relation to those matters; and
*
* the Code of Practice would contain guidelines for effective co-ordination of episcopal functions so as to avoid duplication or conflict in the exercise of episcopal ministry.
CHARLIE ROSE: And soccer’s popularity or football as they say everywhere else, grows like crazy?
TOMMY SMYTH: Yes, it’s continuing to grow, there is no question about it. I mean, you travel the streets of any major city in the United States now and you will find kids wearing the jerseys of Barcelona–
CHARLIE ROSE: And every bar’s got it turned on along with baseball.
TOMMY SMYTH: Yeah, everybody’s watching it now, and the ratings on ESPN have been tremendous, through the roof.
CHARLIE ROSE: Yeah, and high-definition television, unbelievable.
TOMMY SMYTH: It’s almost like you were on the field, Charlie. You have to look out or somebody will kick you.
Read or watch it all (click on the picture to start the video).
Apple Inc. is now collecting the “precise,” “real-time geographic location” of its users’ iPhones, iPads and computers.
In an updated version of its privacy policy, the company added a paragraph noting that once users agree, Apple and unspecified “partners and licensees” may collect and store user location data.
When users attempt to download apps or media from the iTunes store, they are prompted to agree to the new terms and conditions. Until they agree, they cannot download anything through the store.
The company says the data is anonymous and does not personally identify users. Analysts have shown, however, that large, specific data sets can be used to identify people based on behavior patterns.
In his address, Archbishop Marchetto noted that “in the cultural realm a mentality is beginning to unfold that is increasingly ‘transnational’ — we can describe it as ‘intercultural’ because, thanks also to the continuous technological innovations, we are able to ‘live’ at the same time in different social environments.”
He stated that “the urgency of today and the secret of the future lies in the dialogue between persons, communities, authorities and civil organizations, peoples, cultures and religions, to counteract the blockage and intolerance that at the bottom is born from the idolatry of oneself, of one’s group and of one’s socio-cultural tradition.”
He added that “a dialoguing acceptance is expressed in an authentic meeting, which serves the difficult and never exhausted art of combining the personal and group aspect, of articulating identity, complementarity, co-responsibility and creativity, moving from multi-culturality to inter-culturality, offering dynamic areas to reciprocity and fruitfulness.”
This does not mean having one man “‘over,’ ‘against’ or ‘without’ the other man, but all together, for a new society, beginning from Europe, so that it will be in line with its original humanism,” the prelate said.
“Tolerance is no longer sufficient,” he noted. It is necessary to move to the “coexistence of differences.”
Supposedly, young adults don’t have much of an attention span ”” except when it comes to love.
That’s when it seems this generation of young people is giving new meaning to the words “long-term relationship.” Many are “a couple” for years, and some approach a decade of dating. They’re just shy of the altar for so long that parents and grandparents are a bit bewildered.
“It’s good to get to know your partner before marrying, but one wonders how long you need?” says sociologist Andrew Cherlin, 61, of Johns Hopkins University.
Teaching stroke patients to sing “rewires” their brains, helping them recover their speech, say scientists.
By singing, patients use a different area of the brain from the area involved in speech.
If a person’s “speech centre” is damaged by a stroke, they can learn to use their “singing centre” instead.
Researchers presented these findings at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in San Diego.
As followers of Christ, our lives have the same cruciform pattern. We embrace the cross, confident of the new life that comes to us through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. We know that God’s love of us is shown forth most clearly in those situations where we are most needy; those situations where we are revealed to have no power of our own and are most reliant on God. So when we are weak, we are actually strong (2 Cor. 12:10), because we rely on God who gives the strength. In our poverty, we actually become rich (2 Cor. 5:9), because it is God who gives abundance. It’s paradoxical but also true.
What’s true in our lives is also true in the life of the Church. When things go well in the life of the community we begin to think that perhaps we are the source of the blessing; can begin to think that it’s our own cleverness or faithfulness or strength that has brought about the increase. So it’s precisely in times of deprivation that the power of God is shown forth; precisely in times of death that the triumph song of resurrection sounds forth: Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.
This final service at St. Bernard’s vividly illustrates the Church in deprivation, our weakness and our need. The life of the Church, however, runs far beyond the life of any single congregation. Because Jesus is the source of our life, the Church is stretched out in time and space, rooted in the past and growing into the future, in every place where the Gospel is preached. There is new life for God’s People, always and everywhere (as we say at the Eucharist). God’s praises are sung, not just in one place, but in all places and at all times. Our song of praise, the ceaseless “alleluia” that ever goes up, is never extinguished or obscured.
Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia media officer Lloyd Ashton said she was a controversial visitor. “Nobody makes any bones about the fact that she does represent tension. From the outset, her visit has always been intended as low key, informal and unofficial.
“There is not going to be an endorsement of where the…[Episcopal] Church is going. We have got our own process, we are working through that and it will be at least two years before that is complete.
“We are not hiding it, but neither are we exacerbating any tensions by making a statement … It is an acknowledgement that there are sensitivities both ways.”