Actor Joe Mantegna, co-host of the annual event Memorial Day concert at the U.S. Capitol, shares his feelings about this very special holiday as a time of remembrance to honor those who’ve died serving our country — as well as to show appreciation for our nation’s military and its Veterans.

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”¢ NCA currently maintains nearly 3.1 million gravesites at 131 national cemeteries in 39 states and Puerto Rico, as well as in 33 soldiers’ lots and monument sites.

Ӣ Approximately 340,000 full-casket gravesites, 93,000 in-ground gravesites for cremated remains, and 111,000 columbarium niches are available in already developed acreage in our 131 national cemeteries.

”¢ There are approximately 19,968 acres within established installations in NCA. Nearly 60 percent are undeveloped and ”“ along with available gravesites in developed acreage ”“ have the potential to provide approximately 6.0 million gravesites.

Ӣ Of the 131 national cemeteries, 71 are open to all interments; 19 can accommodate cremated remains and the remains of family members for interment in the same gravesite as a previously deceased family member; and 41 will perform only interments of family members in the same gravesite as a previously deceased family member.

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In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

”“Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)

In thanksgiving for all those who gave their lives for this country in years past, and for those who continue to serve”“KSH.

P.S. The circumstances which led to the poem are well worth remembering:

It is a lasting legacy of the terrible battle in the Ypres salient in the spring of 1915 and to the war in general. McCrea had spent seventeen days treating injured men — Canadians, British, French, and Germans in the Ypres salient. McCrae later wrote: “I wish I could embody on paper some of the varied sensations of that seventeen days… Seventeen days of Hades! At the end of the first day if anyone had told us we had to spend seventeen days there, we would have folded our hands and said it could not have been done.” The next day McCrae witnessed the burial of a good friend, Lieut. Alexis Helmer. Later that day, sitting on the back of an ambulance parked near the field dressing station, McCrea composed the poem. A young NCO, delivering mail, watched him write it. When McCrae finished writing, he took his mail from the soldier and, without saying a word, handed his pad to the Sergeant-major. Cyril Allinson was moved by what he read: “The poem was exactly an exact description of the scene in front of us both. He used the word blow in that line because the poppies actually were being blown that morning by a gentle east wind. It never occurred to me at that time that it would ever be published. It seemed to me just an exact description of the scene.” Colonel McCrae was dissatisfied with the poem, and tossed it away. A fellow officer retrieved it and sent it to newspapers in England. The Spectator, in London, rejected it, but Punch published it on 8 December 1915. For his contributions as a surgeon, the main street in Wimereaux is named “Rue McCrae”.

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, in whose hands are the living and the dead: We give thee thanks for all thy servants who have laid down their lives in the service of our country. Grant to them thy mercy and the light of thy presence; and give us such a lively sense of thy righteous will, that the work which thou hast begun in them may be perfected; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord. Amen.

The Right Reverend Edward L. Salmon, Jr., Chairman of the Board of Trustees, and the Very Reverend Robert S. Munday, Dean and President of Nashotah House Theological Seminary, announce that Dean Munday has resigned as the Dean and President of Nashotah House, effective June 30, 2011.

As of July 1, 2011, Dean Munday will become the Research Professor of Theology and Mission at Nashotah House. Dean Munday will be relocating his family and residence from the Nashotah Deanery to Hobart House, a residence owned by the seminary on Upper Nashotah Lake.

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Research shows that around 2.6 million children in the UK are living with parents who are drinking hazardously and 705,000 are living with dependent drinkers. (1)

The Children’s Commissioner for England and The Children’s Society have today published the first booklet of its kind for use by children affected by a parent or carer drinking too much alcohol. It will help them to have frank discussions with teachers, professionals or an adult who they trust when they are worried about a parent or carer and the problems caused by their alcohol consumption.

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DR. JAMES OLESKE (University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey):…I went into pediatrics because I loved children, and I thought I would help children, and I wasn’t prepared to go to funerals, so many at least, in the beginning of my career. My teeth were cut on all the AIDS kids I took care of, and kids would come in, you know, with all their baby teeth were blackened down to the gum line. They’d have abscesses, and their thrush was so bad it would make it impossible for them to swallow or eat. So then you have an infant”¦.In the beginning of the epidemic, when people were initially afraid, people who had AIDS and who were dying””they were left alone. Everyone shuns you, even your doctor. In that era I would reach my hand through the bars, because kids are always in these cages, and just hold their hand or leg and just, I guess, in my own way pray and hope and wish and lay hands on.

One of the reasons I’ve gotten into the Circle of Life and palliative and pain management is that I saw what a bad job I did in AIDS””very painful disease, and I wasn’t aggressive in the beginning.

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Leading Chinese author Xiaolu Guo has revealed that China still views America as its biggest enemy and competitor.

Speaking on a panel simply entitled, ”˜China’, at the Hay Festival, the author of ”˜A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary’, said: “For the last 20 years China thinks America as a model but is also the enemy.”

Talking about her experience of education in Beijing, Chinese-born Guo who now lives in London, revealed that anti-Americanism was still very strong and people were told to intensively study American work and texts, such as J.D Salinger’s Catcher in Rye, in order to know everything about the “enemy”.

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The Toronto Star reports that, following their home waterbirth, Witterick, 38, and her husband, David Stocker, 39, sent a simple email to everyone in their social network, explaining that they planned to keep their child’s biological sex a secret. Only six people — apart from Storm — know the child’s biological sex: the parents, his or her two brothers Jazz, 5, and Kio, 2, and the two midwives present at the baby’s birth.

“We’ve decided not to share Storm’s sex for now — a tribute to freedom and choice in place of limitation, a stand up to what the world could become in Storm’s lifetime (a more progressive place? …),” the Toronto-based couple wrote.

At only 4 months old, Storm has already lived up to his or her name, birthing a tempest of controversy. The story has made international headlines, was featured on “Today” and “The View” … [recently] and has spurred ethical debates throughout the parenting blogosphere.

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…Li Yinhe, a researcher at the Institute of Sociology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), says that education alone will not be the answer to a problem so deeply ingrained in Chinese culture. “This is a social custom, and it’s well known that social customs are the hardest to change,” Li says. “In traditional society, people believed that the more wives a man had the more successful he was. Now this tradition has found room to grow again.”

Throughout China’s dynastic history, keeping mistresses was not only tolerated, but actually had the official seal of approval from the men at the top. The country’s emperors maintained legendary harems of concubines, as did noblemen, wealthy merchants and anyone seeking to enhance their social status. Indeed, the country’s most famous classic novel, Dream of the Red Chamber, relates the story of an imperial concubine in the Qing dynasty who supports her entire family, including its own numerous concubines, thanks to the emperor’s patronage.

That historical context has perpetuated the notion that having a mistress equates to having status and power. Now, in today’s status-hungry China, keeping a mistress is once again the fashionable thing to do.

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The editor-in-chief of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Arabic-language online portal, Ikhwan Online, announced today that he submitted his resignation to the Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Abdel Galil Alsharnouby, who has been the editor of the group’s homepage for years, objected in his resignation on his Facebook page to what he considers the MB’s use of him as a scapegoat.

The MB site came under fire for their coverage of the “Second Day of Rage” demonstrations that took place last Friday. Criticism came because the group, which strongly opposed the demonstrations, provided what critics described as extremely biased, similar to the coverage of the state-owned media of the Egyptian revolution before the overthrow of Mubarak.

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St. Mark’s, a historically black church within the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina, has reached the end of a 146-year first phase that began Easter Sunday in 1865, the year the Civil War ended and black churchgoers chose — and sometimes were forced — to strike out on their own.

At the cusp of its uncertain next phase, parish leaders said they are confronting a convergence of challenges and tensions that at once hold promise for a vital future and threaten to tear the congregation asunder.

Its survival, they said, depends on a careful strategy that balances respect for its heritage, pride in its racially integrated character and an acknowledgement of contemporary reality.

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So what does this new translation offer us? First of all, there is a fuller expression of the content of the original texts. Then, there is a closer connection with the Sacred Scriptures which inspire so much of our liturgy. Also, there is a recovery of a vocabulary that enriches our understanding of the mystery we celebrate. All of this requires a unique style of language and expression, one that takes us out of ourselves and draws us into the sacred, the transcendent and the divine.

The publication of the new translation of the Missal is a special moment of grace in the English-speaking world. It offers an opportunity to deepen our knowledge and understanding of the mystery we celebrate each week. This itself will help us to move towards that fuller and more conscious and active participation in the liturgy to which the Church invites us. It will help us also to examine the dignity with which we celebrate the ”˜source and summit’ of the Church’s life.

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“On e-mail, people aren’t quite themselves,” they wrote. “They are angrier, less sympathetic, less aware, more easily wounded, even more gossipy and duplicitous.”

Oh, how times have changed. The idea that e-mail is chiefly a conduit for anger and lies seems almost quaint. After too may careers ruined and personal lives upended by online indiscretions, it should now be crystal clear that there are some things one must never, ever commit to e-mail.

And that’s why some bankers developed “LDL.” “LDL” ”” which means “let’s discuss live” ”” is an acronym that surfaced during the S.E.C.’s investigation of Goldman, Sachs for its role in the nation’s financial shame spiral. How do the pros use it? Goldman’s Jonathan Egol is the first known master. When a trader named Fabrice Tourre described a mortgage investment in e-mail as “a way to distribute junk that nobody was dumb enough to take first time around,” Egol shot back: “LDL.”

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Randall Balmer, a professor of American religious history at Columbia University and Barnard College, says troubles at Crystal Cathedral point to the larger challenges megachurches, which soared in popularity from the 1970s to the 1990s, now face.

“On one hand, it’s a leadership issue. You can’t simply pass along charismatic authority from one generation to the next. It never works,” Balmer said. “And there’s a moving away from big megachurches, a moving away from the big Billy Graham stadium crusades of mass appeal to more targeted approaches. You have all this niche marketing within Christian evangelism. I mean, you have Christian evangelical tattoos.”

To be sure, there are still dozens of popular and growing megachurches in the U.S, such as Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church, also in Southern California, and Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. Lakewood, with 40,000 members, is the biggest church in the country.

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Doctors are among the most richly rewarded professionals in the country. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that of the 15 highest-paid professions in the United States, all but two are in medicine or dentistry.

Why, then, are we proposing to make medical school free?

Huge medical school debts ”” doctors now graduate owing more than $155,000 on average, and 86 percent have some debt ”” are why so many doctors shun primary care in favor of highly paid specialties, where there are incentives to give expensive treatments and order expensive tests, an important driver of rising health care costs.

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Military grave markers only allow a few words ”” most begin with the word “Beloved.” This one reads: “Husband, son and brother.” But the father realized he had more to say.

Back home, the walls of Griffin’s office are lined with books. But the one he is holding in his hands is his most cherished. He flips through the pages.

They are underlined, highlighted with bright colors and bookmarked with post-it notes. On the cover it lists two authors: Darrell Griffin Sr. and Darrell Griffin Jr.

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Twenty-eight religious leaders will converge on Canberra on 2 June to pressure the federal government to act on climate change.

Representatives from many different faiths, acting under the banner of the Australian Religious Response to Climate Change (ARRCC), will meet with Julia Gillard, Greg Hunt, Andrew Wilkie and around twenty other Members of Parliament.

Bishop George Browning, a member of the delegation, said the time to act is now.

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The priest of the 19th century St George’s Church is grateful that the church has return to its former glory thanks to the RM1.8 million restoration project under the National Heritage Department’s Ninth Malaysia Plan.

Venerable Charles Samuel said church members were very grateful to the government’s contribution in the refurbishment of the oldest Anglican church in Southeast Asia. The restoration project was completed in November last year.

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O Lord Jesus Christ, who hast gone to the Father to prepare a place for us: Grant us so to live in communion with thee here on earth, that hereafter we may enjoy the fullness of thy presence; who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end.

–Church of South India

Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of our religion: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.

–1 Timothy 3:16

As Memorial Day approaches, we must remember. The Indy 500 will come and go. People will gather for reunions and barbeques. Many of us will enjoy the liberties attained by years of “blood, sweat and tears” to quote Winston Churchill.

In far off lands and in this country, our service men and women sacrifice time, family and safety to do far more than insure that we can enjoy fun weekends. They serve for a variety of reasons, and their families live with the unknown as they hope and pray for the safe return of sons, daughters, husbands, wives and parents, but a common thread binds us all with these people and with those who suffered physical and psychological maiming or death. That common thread is the desire for freedom, liberty and justice for all, not just in this nation, but in every land.

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“We’re Man United, we do what we want,” sing their fans.

It is possible that Barcelona have their own anthem of a similar message. And if they do not, then they should get one. The Catalan magicians have confirmed their greatness by despatching Manchester United in untouchable style. Just as they did two years ago, England’s finest team were pulled apart, and an even harsher footballing lesson was received. They can offer no excuses, and did not offer them. To be beaten by a team of this quality will register as no disgrace once the pain has healed.

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The Anglican – Roman Catholic International Commission has completed the first meeting of its new phase (ARCIC III) at the Monastery of Bose in northern Italy (May 17-27, 2011). The Commission, chaired by the Most Reverend David Moxon (Anglican Archbishop of the New Zealand Dioceses) and the Most Reverend Bernard Longley (Roman Catholic Archbishop of Birmingham) comprises eighteen theologians from a wide range of backgrounds across the world[1]. In response to the Programme set forth by Pope Benedict and Archbishop Rowan Williams in their 2006 Common Declaration, discussions have focussed on the interrelated issues: the Church as Communion, local and universal, and how in communion the local and universal Church come to discern right ethical teaching. The Programme also required the Commission to re-examine how the “commitment to the common goal of the restoration of complete communion in faith and sacramental life”[2] is to be understood and pursued today, and to present the work of ARCIC II in its entirety with appropriate commentaries to assist its reception.

In addressing these issues, the Commission has devoted time to introducing its new members to the history and achievements of ARCIC, and has benefited from the shared experience of those who were members of previous phases. Members have worked both in plenary sessions and in small groups, developing plans to address the tasks that derive from its mandate.

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From here:

Catholic and Anglican members of a 10 day dialogue meeting are winding up their work with a call to revitalise the ecumenical journey. Key to the success of that mission is learning to listen carefully to the ways in which those of different denominations understand and live out their faith. 10 Catholic and 10 Anglican scholars have been taking part in the first meeting of ARCIC III, the third phase of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission. Their meeting, which began on May 17th at the monastery of Bose in northern Italy, concludes on Friday 27th with a final communiqué outlining progress achieved and plans for the coming months. The two main themes of the encounter have been the relationship between the local and universal church and way the two communities tackle the crucial ethical questions of our day. To find out more about the achievements of this meeting, Philippa Hitchen spoke with acclaimed New Testament scholar and lay member of the Church of England General Synod, Professor Paula Gooder and with one of the Catholic members of the team, Professor Janet Smith who teaches moral theology at Sacred Heart major seminary in Detroit

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The governing body of the Anglican Church for Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island has approved a motion that allows for blessings of same-sex relationships in cases where the couple is legally married.

A motion that approves blessings of same-sex relationships of legally married couples was approved at the 143rd Synod of the Diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, which concludes today at Dalhousie University.

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His face adorns the yellow motorized rickshaws zipping down the streets. Billboards bear his simple motto, “Love All, Serve All.” His portrait hangs in almost every shop: a tiny man with a gravity-defying crown of curly hair regarded by millions of worldwide devotees as a god.

Sri Sathya Sai Baba, who declared himself a “living god” as a teenager and spent decades assembling a spiritual empire, permeates every corner of this small Indian city. He transformed it from a village of mud huts into a faith center with a private airport, a university, two major hospitals, rising condominium towers and a stadium ”” a legacy now forcing a question upon his followers: What happens when a god dies?

India can sometimes seem overrun with gurus, spiritualists and competing godmen (as they are sometimes called). But when Sai Baba died last month at the age of 84, the nation paused in respect and reverence, if blended with skepticism, too….

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Our speaker was Clark Hoyt of the class of 1960, fomer public editor of the New York Times, who now works at Bloomberg News.

Contrary to what some headlines might have suggested, [President Obama’s speech to Parliament]’s central theme was not division and weakness, but strength ”“ the strength of what has traditionally been seen as the Western way, but is really something much broader. As such, it offered an upbeat prelude to the G8 summit which concludes in Deauville today, a prelude as fitting as it was unfashionable.

Unfashionable, because the prevailing transatlantic mood is pessimism. The philosophical consensus has been that the West, as embodied by the US, is in terminal decline and the future belongs to the emerging economies, chief among them China, with India snapping at its heels. Viewed from this perspective, the only realistic task for the “old” countries is to slow their decline and use the last years of their ascendancy to fix international rules to guard their way of life….

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In almost every part of the world, long-festering problems can be solved through closer cooperation among neighboring countries. The European Union provides the best model for how neighbors that have long fought each other can come together for mutual benefit. Ironically, today’s decline in American global power may lead to more effective regional cooperation.

This may seem an odd time to praise the EU, given the economic crises in Greece, Spain, Portugal, and Ireland. Europe has not solved the problem of balancing the interests of strong economies in the North and those of weaker economies in the South. Still, the EU’s accomplishments vastly outweigh its current difficulties….

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