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Pope Benedict XVI moved his beloved predecessor one step closer to sainthood on Friday, confirming a miracle by John Paul II and setting May 1, the first Sunday after Easter, as the date of his beatification.

The designation means he is considered “blessed” and can be publicly venerated. Sainthood would follow after the confirmation of one more miracle.

Thousands are expected to attend the beatification ceremony. Benedict is expected to celebrate the Mass himself, a much-needed bright spot in his papacy, which in recent months has been weathering a sexual abuse scandal in Europe and violence against Christians in the Middle East.

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Voting has ended in Sudan in the south’s historic independence referendum, with a large turnout for the week-long poll.

The vote is widely expected to see the south choose overwhelmingly for separation from the north.

The referendum was a condition of a 2005 peace deal which ended a 21-year civil war.

Official results of the vote – which was largely peaceful – are not expected until early next month.

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The Primates’ Meeting must be that place where the integrity of the Instrument is worked through. If one does not attend the Dublin gathering, it remains the case that the Primates as individual leaders and as a body must propose and resolve how they will gather and do their work. Physical attendance may not be necessary at the month’s end and it is not going to happen anyway. But it remains the case that the composition and good working of the Primates as a Meeting, as a council, must be addressed by the Primates. How will they do this?

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The plaintiffs in the suit are TEC and local Episcopal parties who were in the minority when the Diocese voted to separate from TEC in 2008. Their representatives argued that once a parish joins TEC, “you are subject irrevocably to The Episcopal Church” and that the General Convention’s canons are “silent” on the subject of a diocese separating from the larger body because “it is inconceivable.” Ownership of property, one attorney argued, “is an ecclesiastical question.”

Representatives for the Diocese, Corporation, and the intervening parishes warned the judge that “other states have some crazy statutes,” but that Texas law does not permit a trust to be imposed on another person’s property without written consent, that no trust is irrevocable unless that is expressly stated, and that non-profit corporations, such as the one that holds the property of the Diocese, are entitled to select their own officers without having them removed at the whim of others. To rule in favor of the plaintiffs, therefore, would be to “declare Texas trust law unconstitutional” and throw into question the legal status of virtually every church property in the state.

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The Supreme Court of Georgia has determined that it will rule on the lawsuit brought against Christ Church in Savannah by The Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Georgia, which seek to seize the historic congregation’s downtown property even though Christ Church has always maintained clear title to its property. Having lost in the lower courts, Christ Church appealed to the Georgia Supreme Court this past August.

“We are gratified that the Supreme Court will hear our appeal,” said David Reeves, governing board chairman of Christ Church. “Since this case will have ramifications for all Georgia churches, regardless of denomination, we think it is appropriate for the highest court in our state to rule on these issues,” he continued.

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The Georgia Supreme Court agreed on Thursday to hear arguments in the ongoing property dispute pitting the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia against the breakaway Christ Church in Savannah.

The hearing will most likely take place April 4, 5 or 18, one of the only three days that month the court will hear oral arguments, according to Jane Hansen, court spokeswoman.

In August 2010, Christ Church in Savannah appealed to the state’s highest court after losing its argument in Chatham County Superior Court and the State Court of Appeals.

The Supreme Court will examine whether the Court of Appeals was wrong in its application of “neutral principles of law” and interpretation of state codes when it ruled in favor of the Diocese of Georgia.

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Co-op and condo owners will pay sharply higher property taxes next year, under a preliminary assessment roll released Friday by the Bloomberg administration. The city attributed the rises, due to take effect in July, to higher market values placed on apartment buildings by tax assessors.

Taxes collections are expected to rise by 7.5% for co-op owners, and 9.6% for condo owners across the city, according to a summary report released by the Department of Finance….

Stuart M. Saft, a real-estate lawyer and chairman of the Council of New York Cooperatives and Condominiums, said he “absolutely” attributed the significant increases to city budget pressures, and said city finance officials were looking for ways to maximize city revenues.

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Amy arrived at Virginia Theological Seminary in 2007, the same year as Brian.

“We took a lot of the same classes,” he said, and before long, “friendship turned into asking her to marry me.”

They finished seminary in May and married two months later. Brian’s passion is working with college students; Amy’s ministerial focus is middle school and high school students.

They wound up in Fredericksburg when Kent Rahm, rector at Trinity, was looking for a replacement for his assistant, who was ready to move on.

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Lam was strengthened by his Christian faith. He was a devout Baptist who attended Oakridge Baptist Church in Vancouver. Even when he was 80, he was energetically touring with a 60-person choir he’d put together called The David C. Lam Hymn Society.

Singing hymns, Lam said, was a way “to communicate with each other through the heart.” In addition to old Christian hymns, he loved listening to classical music and, when he was in the mood, Whitney Houston. He gave generously to evangelical Regent College on the UBC campus.

Lam was also shaped by the Confucian philosophy of his homeland, which taught a strong work ethic and moderation.

“Confucianism tells me when enough is enough: The sky is not the limit,” Lam said. “Confucianism has a lot to do with not disrupting the social order. This is opposed today. People seek instant achievement. They maybe even break the law a little bit, or in a big way.”

One of the remarkable Canadian saints of this generation, from the long line of should-have-already-been-posted material. Read it all–KSH.

Almighty God, who has given to us gifts differing according to the measure of thy grace: Enable us each one, we beseech thee, to exercise the ministry which we have received of thee in the body of Christ with simplicity, diligence, and cheerfulness; that being bound together in brotherly affection, and showing honour one to another, we may faithfully serve thy Church and glorify thy name; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen.

–Ephesians 3:20-21

Herewith the blurb from Vatican Radio:

This Saturday sees the ordination into the Catholic priesthood of three former Anglican bishops who will become the first priests of the Personal Ordinariate which is being established under the provision of Pope Benedict’s Apostolic Constitution issued in 2009. The Ordinariate is a special structure for groups of former Anglicans and their clergy who seek full communion in the Catholic Church whilst retaining some elements of their Anglican liturgical, spiritual and pastoral traditions. But what exactly is an Ordinariate? How will it be funded and how big is it likely to become? To find out more, Susy Hodges spoke to Father Marcos Stock, General Secretary of the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales. He describes the setting up of the Ordinariate as an event “of singular significance in the life of the Catholic Church” and goes on to explain that the move is “essentially a way of allowing a group of faithful from the Anglican Communion to retain some of their own patrimony” …. within the life of the Catholic Church… and is intended “to be a mutual exchange of gifts” between the two.

Asked how many Anglican faithful are waiting to join the Ordinariate, Father Stock says they are expecting about 50 clergy to be received into full communion and approx 35 (lay) groups, many of which are attached to those clergy and who have “indicated a firm desire to enter into the Ordinariate.”

Father Stock also says he doesn’t believe the Ordinariate “is perceived as an anti-ecumenical move… and adds “it’s quite the contrary in some ways….. “

Listen to it all (just under 11 minutes).

An American staff member with the CMJ UK, the Church’s Ministry among Jewish people, has been murdered while on vacation in Israel.

Kristine Luken (44) an administrator with the CMJ in Nottingham was hiking in a forest southwest of Jerusalem on Dec 18 with fellow CJM staffer, Kay Wilson, a British-born Israeli, when they were approached by two Arab men asking for water. The men attacked the two women, stabbing each repeatedly. Ms. Wilson feigned death and survived the attack, but Ms. Luken bled to death.

“They came to kill,” Ms. Wilson said, telling the Israeli media that one of the attackers ripped a Star of David from around her neck and stabbed her where in the place where the star had lain.

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The diocese of Oxford hopes to tackle the shortage of men who attend church. The diocese has joined Men and the Church (MATCH) to host a one-day conference on 5 February, “offering resources and ideas for churches wanting to reach unchurched men with the gospel, exploring why so many men leave the Church, and [encouraging] new strategies for evangelism to men”, a statement from MATCH said.

The Church of England’s head of research and statistics, the Revd Lynda Barley, said that about two-thirds of regular worshippers were women. The Revd Paul Eddy, founder of MATCH, said that, in many churches, the ratio was one man to every four women.

Clergy across the diocese, both male and female, were “very con­cerned” about the shortage of men in their congregations, he said, and had asked for “resources and support” to help attract them.

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