William Temple, the former Archbishop of Canterbury said: “The church exists mainly for those who are not its members.” All parishes should concentrate on attracting people who are not Christians or churchgoers. Whether or not they are living out of wedlock up with someone ”” of the opposite or same sex ”” is immaterial. The hope, though, would be that their perspective and lives gradually change as they become followers of Christ in his Church.

I would much rather attend a church with a high percentage of un-churched gays who are honestly seeking to live according to the Gospel than one with a high percentage of straight cradle-Anglicans who are not. And I don’t think that this would necessarily be unappealing to a gay or straight non-Christian. To say, “we believe in trying to live according to Biblical principles, even though we all may fail to varying degrees” has, I suspect, a more honest ring than the note of desperation in, “come to our church and do or believe what you want”.

St. Hilda’s has always attracted more than its fair share of single mothers, misfits, waifs, strays and assorted eccentrics ”” especially artists; the more the merrier. Many have passed through gaining sustenance along the way and some have made it their home. Sometimes it is chaotic: the pious have likened it to a circus. But unwelcoming? Never.

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Fabulous goal in stoppage time.

Just three years ago, Apple wasn’t in the mobile-phone business at all. Since then, its game-changing iPhone has become the most influential smartphone in the world. Now, on June 24, the company will roll out the fourth generation of the device, called the iPhone 4.

While attractive, capable new smartphones emerge regularly from competitors, a new iPhone deserves special attention for two reasons. First, the device lies at the center of a huge ecosystem of 225,000 apps, plus popular related gadgets like Apple’s iPod Touch connected media player and iPad tablet, which collectively are approaching 100 million units sold. Second, the iPhone’s multitouch, gesture-based interface; elegant Web browser; sophisticated music and video playback; and other features have been emulated on many competing devices, so what Apple does affects the whole industry.

I’ve been testing the iPhone 4 for more than a week. In both hardware and software, it is a major leap over its already-excellent predecessor, the iPhone 3GS.

Read it all.

Dear Friends,

Some of you may have heard that on a recent visit to England, +Katharine Jefferts-Schori was asked to verify her orders of ordination and asked not to wear her miter. As you know, I am here on a partnership visit in the Diocese of Gloucester. Attached is a greeting and explanation from Bishop Michael regarding our own correspondence with Lambeth Palace, hopefully clarifying a policy that has been in place but not enforced. The incident with +Katharine was of course exacerbated by +Rowan’s Pentecost letter and +Katharine’s response. I must say that I have not met anyone here that is happy with +Rowan’s letter and the actions that it announced; but…rather many are embarrassed and upset.

As you will see from an update that Celeste Ventura and Channing Smith will send shortly, we are having a wonderful time in Gloucester being treated very well and shown great hospitality. There are no major issues regarding the wearing of my miter or being a woman bishop, although of course there are those who do not approve of women’s ordination. It is a very live issue here and there are lots of feelings and emotions as the Church of England approaches another vote, hopefully towards women in the episcopate, in just a few weeks.

Read it all and read the letter from the Bishop of Gloucester also.

A rift in the Anglican Church, whose long history in New Brunswick reaches back to the Loyalists, is fuelling the expansion of a new Anglican movement in the province.

The Anglican Network in Canada, a breakaway group from the Anglican Church of Canada, has established a church in Moncton and is setting up satellite congregations in Sussex, Miramichi and Saint John.

Rev. Don Hamilton, minister at the newly-established Christ the Redeemer Anglican Church, said in an interview Tuesday the network provides a safe haven for worshippers who are uncomfortable with the more worldly direction of modern religion.

“We can no longer follow the Anglican Church of Canada because of their increasingly unbiblical theology which we are witnessing in many ways – the moving away from the authority of scripture,” Hamilton said.

Read it all.

Republican voters in South Carolina made political history on Tuesday with two nominations that broke with longstanding racial, cultural and gender trends.

Tim Scott was chosen overwhelmingly as the party’s candidate in the 1st District congressional race, and Nikki Haley became the party’s first female nominee for governor. Each is considered the favorite for November’s general election.

If Mr. Scott wins, he would be the first black Republican in the House of Representatives since Oklahoma’s J.C. Watts retired in 2003. The last black Republican representative from South Carolina was Robert Smalls of Beaufort, who left office in the 1880s.

Mrs. Haley would be the state’s first female governor and the country’s second Indian-American governor. A staunch conservative, state Rep. Haley beat Gresham Barrett handily. But on the road to winning, her gender and her ethnicity were issues.

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Nikki Haley trounced Gresham Barrett on Tuesday to win the GOP’s nomination for governor, breaking gender and ethnic boundaries, and sending a message to the Republican establishment: Conservatives are tired of entrenched politicians and they’re sick of the status quo.

Haley, a 38-year-old married mother of two who overcame unsubstantiated accusations of adultery, is the daughter of immigrant parents from India and the first woman in South Carolina’s history to win the nomination for governor from one of the two major parties.

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Membership in two of the largest Christian “health-sharing” ministries has grown since President Obama signed the massive health care reform bill into law earlier this spring.

Christian Healthcare Ministries and Samaritan Ministries, with a combined membership of more than 70,000 people, have both grown in enrollment, officials said.

“The health care reform bill removes the option of having (no insurance),” said the Rev. Howard Russell, executive director of Christian Healthcare. “The second thing is that the pricing to be part of out ministry is much lower than traditional insurance,” Russell said.

Read the whole article.

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.

Read it all.

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.

Read it all.

…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.

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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.

Read it all.

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.”

Read the whole article.

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.

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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.

Read the whole article.

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.

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(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.”

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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.

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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.

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