John Rotonti, Felix’s owner, would not let the bar go dry. He bought oysters from Florida and Texas to supplement the meager harvest from Louisiana.

Still, a shucker can only do so much in the face of an environmental disaster of mammoth proportions.

Close to closing time, Mr. [Keith] Chancley, who on a good day last year might have made $200 in tips, took a measly $4 out of the tip bucket after the total was split with the rookie shucker (three years on the job) and the novice shucker (a dishwasher in training).

“We’ve got to take the good with the bad,” said Mr. Chancley, a 35-year veteran. “I tell the other shuckers around town ”” we’re a close group ”” just weather the storm. Take it as a time to heal your cramped hands and your soul.”

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The Church of England was in fresh turmoil after two of its most senior clerics failed in their bid to avert a split over women bishops when a vote at the General Synod went against their compromise proposals.

New safeguards for objectors put forward by the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams and the Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu received the backing of a majority of the houses of bishops and laity of the General Synod.

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Update: You may find good details of the debate, including the vote margins in the three houses, here.

In 1857, explaining his decision to send the army to put down a “rebellion” in Utah, President James Buchanan complained that Brigham Young’s fanatical followers “obey his commands as if these were direct revelations from heaven.” One hundred and fifty years later, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints again stands accused of fanaticism, in this instance by a documentary that seeks to indict the church for its recent foray into the politics of marriage.

“8: The Mormon Proposition” chronicles the role the church played in enshrining a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage in California by supporting the 2008 passage of Proposition 8. As a spotlight on the suffering of same-sex couples and individuals who are rejected by family and church leaders, the film succeeds. Its critique of the church’s recent political activism, however, is as ham-fisted as many of the mid-19th century allegations against the church.

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Leaders of the Presbyterian Church (USA) voted Thursday to remove the barrier keeping non-celibate gays out of the ministry but stopped short of redefining marriage to include same-sex couples.

Currently the denomination requires clergy and other ordained leaders to either be married or remain celibate. That rule remains in effect until the denomination’s 173 regional presbyteries ratify the assembly’s decision.

At least one local critic of the clergy decision says that’s unlikely to happen.

“It has gone to the presbyteries three other times,” said the Rev. Harry Hassall, a retired minister from Brentwood. “Every time it has been defeated.”

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Yes, I am still on vacation, I have been up in New York State visiting my Dad and IT HAS BEEN MUCH HOTTER HERE THAN IN SOUTH CAROLINA (go figure)–KSH.

Dr John Sentamu warned “enough is enough” in view of the “general disregard for truth” regarding Dr Williams, a Christian leader he described as “remarkable” and “gifted”.

“It deeply saddens me that there is not only a general disregard for the truth, but a rapacious appetite for ‘carelessness’ compounded by spin, propaganda and the resort to misleading opinions paraded as fact, regarding a remarkable, gifted and much-maligned Christian leader I call a dear friend and trusted colleague ”“ one Rowan Williams,” he told the Synod.

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The state’s Court of Appeals issued a ruling Thursday in favor of the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia and the national church in their two-and-a-half year property dispute with a breakaway congregation.

A three-judge panel upheld Chatham County Superior Court Judge Michael Karpf’s 2009 decision naming the Episcopal Church the rightful owners of Christ Church in Savannah.

Church members and leaders have continued occupying the historic Johnson Square house of worship since voting to leave the denomination in September 2007, when they accused the national church of straying from the Bible.

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