Anglicans around the world are being offered a slice of history in the form of a new CD of around 450 photos and films recording the independence weekend in South Sudan.

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Anglicanism has begun a global and North American reformation, according to Archbishop Robert Duncan of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), who recently delivered his annual state of the church address, describing the growth and challenges faced by orthodox Anglicans. Duncan serves as both head of the ACNA and bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh.

The worldwide Anglican Church has 39 provinces, and historically the Anglican province in the United States has been the Episcopal Church. But because of the theological and numerical decline of the Episcopal Church, American Anglicans hope the ACNA soon will be recognized as an alternative province.

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The Bishop of Kubwa Diocese (Anglican Communion), Rt. Reverend Duke Akamisoko, has said that the proposed Islamic Banking is making some people to be apprehensive, saying that the development is overheating the polity.

The cleric, who spoke to journalists at the Pre- Synod press conference in Abuja yesterday, added that World Bank statistics had revealed that 60-70 per cent of citizens of countries like Pakistan, Kuwait, Sudan that had practiced Islamic banking for over 40 years lived below poverty level.

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The government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is privately telling American officials that it wants their army to stay here after this year.

The Americans are privately telling their Iraqi counterparts that they want to stay.

But under what conditions, and at what price to the Americans who stay behind?

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Through conversations I discovered that the average age at the 9am Sunday service is 31, and the average age at the 11am service is 28. As I looked around the 11am service that we attended, I saw a few folks my age. But the vast majority of the congregation (about 800+ on that July 4th weekend) were in their 20’s and 30’s. Attendance has almost doubled since 2007, with adult average Sunday attendance (ASA) currently at 2,000+ and children at about 200+. Giving has increased by 9% annually over the same period, and the budget for 2009-2010 was $4m.

I believe that fully-functioning, New Testament communities that we call “the local church” are God’s “plan A” for reaching secular people and turning them into fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. I believe Acts 2:42-47 is not a one-time accident of Pentecost, but rather the model for what we should be doing as Anglicans planting new churches and re-developing existing ones. If we have the same priorities and commitments that the church had in Acts 2:42-47, I believe “The Lord will add to our number daily those who are being saved.” (Acts 2:47) He will add a new generation, like the one I saw at Park. I’m eager to see our churches attract a new generation – how about you?

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The Rt Rev Brian Castle, Bishop of Tonbridge, said many people are no longer willing to submit to the “mystery” of death and instead try to control it through assisted suicide.

He said this actually rids them of the opportunity to choose to die when they are “completely ready” with the support of religion or loved ones.

The bishop called on the church to “speak more naturally about death and dying”, by including the topic in sermons and encouraging congregations to write their own funeral services.

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The Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut
June 30, 2011

Dear Colleagues in Ministry:

We are writing to remind you as sisters and brothers in ordained ministry that the new Title IV disciplinary canons go into effect this coming Friday, July 1. For the past year we as a diocese have been preparing for the new Title IV. At our diocesan convention last year we voted in members of the new committees needed to support the Title IV process. Robin Hammeal-Urban has been leading educational offerings throughout the Diocese and in Province One, helping all of us to understand the new process and intent of the canon.

Further information on the new Title IV can be found on the Diocese of Connecticut website at:
http://www.ctepiscopal.org/Content/Clergy_Disciplinary_Process_Title_IV_.asp

The goal of the new Title IV is to embrace a form of clergy discipline based on restorative justice rather than retributive justice. We have moved away from a model of discipline based on the code of military justice (on which the outgoing Title IV was based) hoping to embrace more a process of collegiality and accountability amongst peers.

The new Title IV both broadens the guidelines of what needs to be “reported” with respect to actions that contravene the doctrine and discipline of The Episcopal Church and also includes more participants in disciplinary process. It thus requires that offenses to the doctrine and discipline of The Episcopal Church be reported by clergy to the Diocesan Intake Officer when they arise. Lay people may also report offenses, but since they are not “in orders” they are not required to do so. Robin Hammeal-Urban will be serving as our Intake Officer as an extension of her role as the Diocesan Pastoral Response Coordinator for the next year as we live into this new model.

One topic which has come up at almost all of the trainings and educational offerings that Robin has lead is the question of Open Communion. Canon 1.17.7. restricts eligibility to receive Holy Communion to persons who are baptized. The new Title IV presents us with the circumstance to consider what we believe about “open communion” in light of what the doctrine and discipline of The Episcopal Church is at this time. Some deaneries and delegates in the Diocese of Connecticut are thus looking at offering a resolution to our Diocesan Convention that will ask us to engage in a diocesan-wide conversation around “Open Communion”. In the meantime, your bishops are called to uphold the canons of the church as outlined in the Constitution and Canons voted at General Convention 2009.

The implementation of the new Title IV might cause some anxiety as we learn to live with the new canons. Still, if we can stay centered, open, and as well informed as possible, we trust that in time the new Title IV will serve all of us well as we seek always to be faithful to our ordination vows.

Faithfully,
The Rt. Rev. Ian T. Douglas
The Rt. Rev. James E. Curry
The Rt. Rev. Laura J. Ahrens

Before July 1, 2011, clergy disciplinary matters were brought to the bishop or the Standing Committee. After July 1, 2011 (under the revised Title IV canons) all matters will be reported to an Intake Officer (contact info below) who will create a written report. Following that, the matter could be resolved by pastoral care, mediation, an agreement with the bishop, an investigation, or any combination of these.

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Catholic Charities won the right to keep serving nearly 2,000 foster children in Illinois for at least another month, as a judge refused Tuesday to let the state cut ties with the agency that has balked at placing children with gay and unwed couples.

The temporary decree struck at the heart of one of the most contentious debates since Illinois made civil unions legal.

Despite the state’s arguments that no contracts exist because state officials already declined to renew them, Judge John Schmidt ruled in Sangamon County Circuit Court that contracts between the state and Catholic Charities of Joliet, Peoria and Springfield through June 30 would remain intact.

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North Dakota is amending its constitution because of a long-standing technical omission that some claim makes its statehood invalid. So does that mean it’s really just a US territory and not a state at all?

Every American child is taught there are 50 states in the US.

But an 82-year-old care home resident in Grand Forks, North Dakota, is throwing the truth of that universally held statement into some doubt.

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The U.S., rated Aaa since 1917, was put on review for the first time since 1995 on concern the debt limit will not be raised in time to prevent a missed payment of interest or principal on outstanding bonds and notes even though the risk remains low, Moody’s said. The rating would likely be reduced to the Aa range and there is no assurance that Moody’s would return its top rating even if a default is quickly cured.

“It certainly underscores the importance of passing the debt ceiling and not putting us in default status, and making sure there’s a longer term fiscal plan to contain spending and the deficit we’ve been running up over the last few years,” said Anthony Cronin, a Treasury bond trader at Societe General SA in New York, one of the 20 primary dealers that trade with the Federal Reserve. “Maybe it’s the impetus to say we’ll need more of a concession.”

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A government-funded watchdog panel said British judges have erred in supporting employers who try to fire Christian workers for wearing crosses or refusing to offer sex counseling to gay couples.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said Monday (July 11) that employers should ease up, saying current interpretations of the law are “insufficient to protect freedom of religion or belief.”

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Alas! England, alas! that this heavy plague of God should fall upon thee. Alas! my dear beloved country, what thing is it now that may do thee good? I Undoubtedly thy plague is so great, that it is utterly uncurable, but by the bottomless mercy and infinite power of Almighty God. Alas! my dear country, what hast thou done, that thus thou hast provoked the wrath of God, to pour out his vengeance upon thee for thine own deserts? Canst thou be content to hear thy faults told thee. Alas ! thou hast heard oft, and wouldest never amend. England, thy faults of all degrees and sorts of men, of the magistrates, of the ministers, and of the common people, were never more plainly told, since thou bearest that name, than thou didst hear them of late, even before the magistrates, in King Edward’s days, but thou heardest them only, and didst amend never a whit….

—Nicholas Ridley(c.1500-1555) [page 58]

Lift up our hearts, we beseech thee, O Christ, above the false show of things, above fear, above laziness, above selfishness and covetousness, above custom and fashion, up to the everlasting truth and order that thou art; that so we may live joyfully and freely, in faithful trust that thou art our Saviour, our example, and our friend, both now and for evermore.

–Charles Kingsley (1819-1875)

Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyre’ne, Man’a-en a member of the court of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

–Acts 13:1-3

(The above title is from the print version–KSH).

My 8-year-old son has used Facebook just once. “Call me, Uncle Marc,” he wrote to my brother from my husband’s account. When he didn’t get an instantaneous response–Uncle Marc was at an Allman Brothers concert–he was not terribly impressed by the site that has nearly 700 million people under its spell.

So I am not among the many parents who freaked out when Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced his desire to upend the Children’s Online Privacy and Protection Act, which requires websites that collect user information to get parental permission via credit-card verification, for example, for anyone under the age of 13. “That will be a fight we take on at some point. My philosophy is that for education, you need to start at a really, really young age,” said the baby-faced Facebook founder.

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Yuck. Read it all and there is now a lot more there.

[Katharine] Jefferts Schori has made no public response to the lawsuit, and her office has referred reporters to the Diocese of Nevada. Perspectives, a weblog published by the Episcopal Church, has reprinted the statements by Edwards.

These responses are “sadly predictable, woefully inadequate and painfully self serving,” said David Clohessy, executive director for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

“They’re focusing on protecting their reputations, not on protecting our children,” Clohessy told The Living Church July 11. “It’s terribly sad to see Nevada’s bishop defending his boss and her public image instead of helping the police charge a child molesting cleric.”

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