St Paul’s Cathedral has closed to visitors for the first time since World War II because of protesters camping on its doorstep, its dean has said.
The decision was taken with a “heavy heart” for health and safety reasons, said the Right Reverend Graeme Knowles.
Anti-capitalist demonstrators from Occupy London Stock Exchange have been in St Paul’s Churchyard since Saturday.
The rising number of prisoners serving costly life terms across the country is complicating state officials’ efforts to make dramatic cuts to large prison budgets, lawmakers and criminal justice officials said.
From 1984 to 2008, the number of offenders serving life terms quadrupled, from 34,000 to roughly 140,000, according to the most recent count by The Sentencing Project, which advocates alternatives to incarceration.
One of the fastest-growing subgroups are inmates serving life without the possibility of parole. Those numbers have jumped from 12,453 in 1992 to 41,095 in 2008 and represent the most costly inmates to house as the aging inmates require increased medical care.
Dr Aspinall has asked the diocese’s professional standards commission to review the policies, and to see whether Australia should adopt the policy currently in force in the Church of England, which takes the victim’s views into account.
The Australian reported that under the current protocol, three clergy have been defrocked. In 2005, 29 cases were reported to the Church. Only one complaint was filed last year and none have been submitted this year ”“ there were no active investigations, the diocese reported.
The House of Bishops’ policy and its accompanying guidance ”˜Protecting all God’s Children’ and government guidelines found in ”˜Working together to Safeguard Children 2006’ forms the basis of diocesan policies in Britain.
We hypothesize that white Catholics and mainline Protestants are fine with Mormons because they are not bothered by the same theological issues as are evangelicals, who are theologically conservative and question whether Mormons are really Christians. Nor are these politically moderate groups troubled by the same political issues as staunchly secular Americans and racial minorities, who are politically liberal and disagree with Mormons’ conservative political views.
It’s clear, then, that whereas evangelicals present a problem for Mr. Romney as he competes in heavily evangelical primary states like Iowa and South Carolina, his Mormonism would be unlikely to hurt him if he survives and wins the Republican nomination. Neither secular nor minority voters are prone to vote for Republicans anyway, and evangelicals are equally unlikely to cast a ballot for a Democrat. Of course, evangelicals may hurt a Romney candidacy by staying home on Election Day 2012, but their strong opposition to President Obama and their past high levels of turnout suggest that they will take to the polls to try to oust the incumbent. Meanwhile, other churchgoing Americans””especially white Catholics and mainline Protestants””appear unconcerned with Mr. Romney’s religion.
In light of this sequence of events and the manifest importance of this matter for the church as a whole, we believe greater transparency is required than has thus far been displayed. In particular, we suggest the following questions are of sufficient importance to require prompt answers:
When was “the Bishop Lawrence information” first brought to the Title IV Review Committee and who initiated this process? When first submitted to that Committee was the information contained in the document entitled “Addendum” that was subsequently provided to Bishop Lawrence? Or was it initially submitted in another form or by other parties?
Why was the Lucka letter of May 25 to the Presiding Bishop, Bonnie Anderson and Executive Council, which prompted the Executive Council’s June action, not provided to the diocese at the time or ever made public? What is the relation between its “Addendum” and the (in part identical) “Addendum” now under review by the Disciplinary Board?
Why was the June “decision” by the Executive Council handled as it was? Why was the diocese not informed for over two months? How has the Executive Council continued “to monitor the actions” of the South Carolina convention?…
Links to South Carolina posts – latest first in each section: (Last Updated January 25th 2012 at 10:00 p.m. Eastern)
IMPORTANT NOTE – SEE LATEST NEWS and BISHOP’S LETTER and PRAYER
FURTHER IMPORTANT NOTE – SEE here and here and here
Videos from MERE ANGLICANISM 2012 are here [NEW]
Materials From the Diocese of SC:
South Carolina Standing Committee Responds to Letter of Province IV Bishops December 12, 2011 at 11:33 am
Bishop Lawrence Writes to the Diocese About Disciplinary Board Decision
November 29, 2011 at 3:28 pm
South Carolina Releases Correspondence Relating to Josephine Hicks, Church Attorney
October 13, 2011
S.C. Bishop and Clergy of the Diocese Meet on “Serious Charges” Made Against Bishop Lawrence
October 12, 2011
A look back to a 2006 Mark Lawrence Address ”“ “Who are these birds that can sing in the dark?”
October 8, 2011
****Urgent Message from the Diocese of South Carolina Bishop and Standing Committee****
Originally posted October 5, 2011 – reposted Oct. 10, 2011
South Carolina Bishop and Standing Committee Respond to Actions of Executive Council
October 3, 2011
Analysis and Commentary
Province IV Bishops Release Statement Concerning Meeting with Bishop Lawrence
December 15, 2011 at 11:15 am
A S.C. Layman who worked as a College President Writes Bishop Daniel and the Province IV Bishops
December 13, 2011 at 11:35 am
Shay Gaillard””Purple Shirts Proof-texting in Public
December 8, 2011 at 9:01 am
Province IV Bishops Seek a Meeting with South Carolina Bp. Lawrence
December 5, 2011 at 4:25 pm
Kendall Harmon Answers Media Questions on the Disciplinary Committee””S.C. Bishop Matter
December 5, 2011 at 7:00 am
Anglican Communion Institute””South Carolina: The Disciplinary Board Decides
December 1, 2011 at 11:16 am
Lent and Beyond offers Thanksgiving for the Report from South Carolina
December 1, 2011 at 7:49 am
A Living Church Editorial on the Mark Lawrence News from the Bishops Disciplinary Board
November 29, 2011 at 11:30 am
(Liv. Ch.) Disciplinary Board of Bishops is Unable to Certify Abandonment Against Mark Lawrence
November 28, 2011 at 5:05 pm
GetReligion Critiques the recent Charleston, S. C., Newspaper piece on the Episcopal Fracas
November 25, 2011
(Living Church) Mark Lawrence: ”˜The Bishop Brings the Crozier’
November 23, 2011 at 3:50 pm
An AP Article on Bishop Mark Lawrence and the Diocese of South Carolina
November 23, 2011 at 11:40 am
Local paper Article: “S.C. Episcopal Diocese releases property claim”
November 21, 2011 at 12:25 pm
(Church Times) Harriet Baber””The Episcopal Church is alienating its own members
November 20, 2011 at 7:15 am
What was announced at the South Carolina Clergy Conference this past Tuesday Evening
November 19, 2011 at 9:00 am
A Serious Prayer request for the South Carolina Clergy Conference This week
November 14, 2011 at 4:55 am
Bishop C. FitzSimons Allison””Shrinking Jesus and Betraying the Faith
November 11, 2011 at 8:19 am
Leander Harding on the Mark Lawrence Investigation””Choose Inclusive Justice
October 27, 2011 at 6:19 am
Gavin Dunbar on the Mark Lawrence Investigation””Southern Discomfort
October 27, 2011 at 6:00 am
Diocese of Upper South Carolina Convention Passes Resolution on the Mark Lawrence Investigation
October 25, 2011
A.S. Haley””Conflicts Galore on the Disciplinary Board for Bishops with regard to the S.C. Matter
October 22, 2011 at 2:00 pm
The Bishop of Tasmania Writes in Support of Bishop Mark Lawrence
October 21, 2011 at 6:00 am
(Anglican Communion Institute) South Carolina: The Church Needs Transparency
October 20, 2011 at 6:07 pm
(The State) The Bishop of Upper South Carolina on the Mark Lawrence Investigation
October 19, 2011 at 5:22 pm
(Mark McCall)””South Carolina: Upholding The Church’s Discipline By Upholding The Constitution
October 18, 2011 at 7:38 am
A.S. Haley on the Further Revelations in the South Carolina Episcopal Investigation
October 17, 2011 at 9:04 pm
(Living Church) Attorney J.B. Burtch Returns to Bishop Mark Lawrence Case
October 17, 2011
Anglican Unscripted Episode 14
October 17, 2011
A.S. Haley Responds to An Embarrassingly Inaccurate Piece by Andrew Gerns on the S.C. Matter
October 17, 2011
CEN””Evangelical bishop under assault in America
October 14, 2011 at 5:36 pm
(Living Church) Episcopal Church Attorney in South Carolina Matter Recuses Herself
October 14, 2011 at 3:35 pm
A.S. Haley on the Disciplinary Board, Their Chosen Lawyer, and the South Carolina Process
October 14, 2011 at 8:21 am
Charles Alley””The Injustice of it All!
October 14, 2011 at 1:31 pm
Living Church””Bishop: Attorney Never on Disciplinary Board
October 13, 2011
Robert Clawson Chimes in on the Disciplinary Proceedings involving Mark Lawrence
October 13, 2011
A.S. Haley on Bishop Henderson’s Statement regarding procedure in the Bishop Mark Lawrence Matter
October 12, 2011
Anglican Communion Institute on the Continuing S.C. Story””Title IV: Abandonment Without Offense?
October 12, 2011
(Living Church) Bishop Henderson Explains His Understanding of the Disciplinary Board’s Duty
October 12, 2011
Anglican Unscripted Episode 13
October 10, 2011
Dale Matson””Rowan Williams And The Deposition Of Bishop Lawrence
October 7, 2011
ACI says Presiding Bishop Had to be Involved in the S.C. Actions if the Canons Were Followed
October 7, 2011
A.S. Haley””Clearing up Misconceptions about the Diocese of South Carolina ‘Charges’
October 6, 2011
A.S. Haley on South Carolina””Episcopal Church Foments Strife and Civil War
October 6, 2011
Living Church””Board Hears Case against Bishop Lawrence
October 5, 2011
(ACI) A Response to the reported Title IV Disciplinary process begun against Bishop Mark Lawrence
October 5, 2011
A.S. Haley””What if the TEC Foundations Were not Designed for the Current Structure?
October 3, 2011
The Dangers of Church Centralization: Some Remarks on the Proposed Changes in the TEC Constitution
October 3, 2011
A.S. Haley””TEC Executive Council Fires on the Diocese of South Carolina
Sept. 30, 2011
Other Resources
South Carolina: Praying for the Diocesan Leadership
October 6, 2011
Prayer Resources for those praying for Bishop Mark Lawrence and South Carolina
Seeing Jesus with Bishop Mark Lawrence
October 16, 2011
Press and Other Reports
(ENS) Province IV bishops call meeting with colleague ”˜honest, forthright’
December 15, 2011 at 4:02 pm
(Christian Post) Episcopal Church Clears South Carolina Bishop of Violating Principles
December 2, 2011 at 6:15 am
Reuters Article on Disciplinary Board Decisions vis a vis Bishop Mark Lawrence
November 30, 2011 at 6:00 pm
Local Paper Article on Disciplinary Board Decisions vis a vis Bishop Mark Lawrence
30, 2011 at 3:02 pm
The ENS story on the Disciplinary Board dismissing abandonment complaint against Mark Lawrence
November 29, 2011 at 6:15 am
Nicholas Beasley (Upper South Carolina) Chimes In
October 19, 2011 at 4:45 pm
Another (longish) AP article on The Episcopal Church’s South Carolina Investigation
October 16, 2011
(Times and Democrat) Orangeburg, S.C., Area Episcopal clergy: Probe ”˜not a healthy situation’
October 14, 2011 at 7:45 am
Another AP Story on the South Carolina Clergy Meeting Tuesday
(AP) Diocese of SC clergy discuss allegations against bishop
October 12, 2011
Local Paper””Episcopal Church investigates Bishop Mark Lawrence
October 6, 2011
An ENS Story””S.C. bishop investigated on charges he has abandoned the Episcopal Church
October 5, 2011
An AP Story””S.C. Bishop said to have abandoned Episcopal church
October 5, 2011
…earlier this year I encountered a short book which reveals the qualitative, inner nature of one of our churches, St John’s Asquith, and shows the impact of the gospel in transforming people and creating churches. The book consists of 90 testimonies from members of the church, bearing witness to the work of God in their lives, frequently relating how they came to Christ. Through this lens we can see God using the gospel to bring people together, to bond people together and to bless the community….
Usually, coming to know Christ was both a process and a commitment, and a number of agents were involved. Being born in a Christian family is obviously a huge blessing; many had that experience. For some, the wonder of the natural world was a key factor. Others report spiritual experiences which frightened or awakened them. Still others went through a personal loss or crisis and it was in those depths that they sought after the Lord. The local church mattered ”“ sometimes faith was born through preaching; occasionally the liturgy; sometimes through the warmth of a community and the love which they found there. One person even mentions the messages she saw on church noticeboards as she was seeking the Lord! A number of these testimonies are profound narratives of how people have found the Lord to be their all sufficient one in time of need. He answers prayer and preserves his saints.
The Dean and Chapter of St Paul’s Cathedral appealed this week for cathedral life to “be allowed to operate as normally as possible”, after hundreds of activists, protesting against corporate greed and ecoÂnomic inequality, set up camp in St Paul’s Churchyard.
On Saturday, about 1000 protesters gathered outside the Cathedral, intending to occupy adjacent Paternoster Square, the site of the London Stock Exchange. The event was organised by the Occupy London movement, inspired by the Occupy Wall Street protests that have been taking place in New York over the past month.
After the protesters were prevented by police from entering Paternoster Square, they reconvened outside St Paul’s, where they were addressed from the cathedral steps by the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange.
After hearing from each side and noting that the 14-page proposed order submitted to him today “is a lot thicker than the one was back in May,” the judge returned to the original three-page document presented on May 19, 2011, which he said had been “sitting in my drawer since then.” He announced that he already had struck out a paragraph requesting “additional security” for the TEC parties and had entered a figure of $5 million as a benchmark of “fair market rental value” of a select dozen churches in the Diocese ”“ a value presented in May by the TEC attorneys. Lead diocesan attorney Shelby Sharpe explained that no rent ever is paid by churches for use of property owned by the Corporation. Nevertheless, said the judge, the property “does have some value.”
Judge Chupp then set the bond at two percent of $5 million, or $100,000, to be paid by Nov. 20, 2011. In addition to the cash amount, the order requires each of the 48 parishes and missions involved in the judgment to present a “monthly summary of the sources, amounts and payees of any and all expenditures …”
Think life is not as good as it used to be, at least in terms of your wallet? You’d be right about that. The standard of living for Americans has fallen longer and more steeply over the past three years than at any time since the US government began recording it five decades ago.
Bottom line: The average individual now has $1,315 less in disposable income than he or she did three years ago at the onset of the Great Recession ”“ even though the recession ended, technically speaking, in mid-2009. That means less money to spend at the spa or the movies, less for vacations, new carpeting for the house, or dinner at a restaurant.
In short, it means a less vibrant economy, with more Americans spending primarily on necessities. The diminished standard of living, moreover, is squeezing the middle class, whose restlessness and discontent are evident in grass-roots movements such as the tea party and “Occupy Wall Street” and who may take out their frustrations on incumbent politicians in next year’s election.
Almighty God, only giver of all mercies, whose Son, Jesus Christ, has taught us how to pray aright: Save us, we beseech thee, from all presumption in our prayer, and grant unto us the grace of humility and contrition; that we may, sharing the vision of thine apostle Saint Paul, know that it is by the grace of God alone that we are what we are, and that we can do nothing but through the strengthening of thy Son, Christ our Lord; who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end.
Be watchful, stand firm in your faith, be courageous, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.
–1 Corinthians 16:13-14
Four education administrators from across the Communion will start a fellowship scheme in London next year following the success of the Anglican Alliance bid for Commonwealth funding.
The four the Caribbean, Nigeria, Ghana and the Solomon Islands will be the first fellows in the scheme set up by the Anglican Alliance and funded by the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission.
They will spend eight weeks visiting UK education services and specialist education institutions to see what lessons they can learn for delivering education services at home.
The Anglican Church is selling seven church properties on southern Vancouver Island to pay down its deficit.
“It’s been an extremely hard decision,” Chris Pease, asset manager for the Diocese of British Columbia, said Monday. “It’s a sad time. People have been part of a community and some of their families actually constructed these churches.
Some feel anger. Some feel sadness because it’s part of their community that’s dying.”
Ald. Edward Burke, chairman of the City Council Finance Committee, said he wanted to exempt religious institutions and their schools from paying their water bills….
“We may have a political issue” with charging religious organizations for water, Burke told [Mayor Rahm] Emanuel’s finance team. “You might think about continuing waivers for some small Catholic parish or Lutheran parish or synagogue that is hard-pressed and see what the dollar-effect might be.”
Parochial schools and other religious institutions would pay about $7 million a year under Emanuel’s proposed changes, while public schools would continue to get free water, Budget Director Alexandra Holt said.
British philosopher A C Grayling has withdrawn from attending an interreligious event to promote world peace hosted by the Vatican.
Although the professor of philosophy had originally planned to attend the third “Prayer for Peace” in Assisi, Italy, he later changed his mind on discovering that it was an event for pilgrims.
Professor Grayling told The Catholic Herald: “I thought it was originally to have a discussion with the Pope about the place of religion in society but then it turned out it was a minor event and what they wanted was these guests to accompany the Pope on a pilgrimage. So I decided to withdraw.”
“Everywhere I turn, I see couples upending existing norms and power structures,” she says, citing a friend who fell in love with her dog walker, a man 12 years younger, with whom she stayed for three years “and are best friends today.”
Well, everywhere I turn in Kate’s essay I see women doing the best they can to celebrate the best they feel they can get, and it’s unbearably sad.
The truth is celebrating singleness””i.e., celebrating “not doing something”””makes no sense. Loving is better than not loving. Choosing to love and commit to a husband or a child is a much higher ideal than choosing not to; that’s why it needs to be celebrated and idealized.
In 2001, when I was 28, I broke up with my boyfriend. Allan and I had been together for three years, and there was no good reason to end things. He was (and remains) an exceptional person, intelligent, good-looking, loyal, kind. My friends, many of whom were married or in marriage-track relationships, were bewildered. I was bewildered. To account for my behavior, all I had were two intangible yet undeniable convictions: something was missing; I wasn’t ready to settle down….
Ten years later, I occasionally ask myself the same question. Today I am 39, with too many ex-boyfriends to count and, I am told, two grim-seeming options to face down: either stay single or settle for a “good enough” mate. At this point, certainly, falling in love and getting married may be less a matter of choice than a stroke of wild great luck. A decade ago, luck didn’t even cross my mind. I’d been in love before, and I’d be in love again. This wasn’t hubris so much as naïveté; I’d had serious, long-term boyfriends since my freshman year of high school, and simply couldn’t envision my life any differently.
Well, there was a lot I didn’t know 10 years ago. The decision to end a stable relationship for abstract rather than concrete reasons (“something was missing”), I see now, is in keeping with a post-Boomer ideology that values emotional fulfillment above all else.
Read it all (from the cover story of this month’s Atlantic).
Just as former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney tries to overcome unease about his Mormon faith in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, a new ad campaign promoting the religion is drawing attention.
“I’m a Mormon” billboards and television commercials aimed at improving the religious group’s public image have surfaced over the past week in states almost certain to be battlegrounds for next year’s presidential contest.
But don’t expect to see Romney in a commercial proclaiming “I’m a Mormon.” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose members are commonly called Mormons, says its ad campaign has nothing to do with the candidate. (Federal law prevents nonprofit organizations such as the LDS church from participating in political campaigns.)
How rich is too rich for food stamps? The answer depends on where you live.
In Michigan, if you have $5,000 in liquid assets or a car or truck worth more than $15,000, you’re probably out of luck under new rules launched this month.
Earlier this month, the state of Michigan began asking residents about their assets ”” homes, cars, stocks, bonds, even lottery winnings ”” in addition to income when they receive benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the formal name for food stamps.
The BBC’s Caroline Hawley in Tripoli: “We’ve heard quite a lot of celebratory gunfire” (Still photo shows NTC troops celebrating the capture of Sirte)
Commanders for Libya’s transitional authorities say they have captured ousted leader Col Muammar Gaddafi.
The reports came after transitional forces claimed control of Sirte, Col Gaddafi’s birthplace, following weeks of fierce fighting.
Update–Qaddafi died after capture, the Misrata Military Council says.
The current crisis over the euro has deep roots in the imbalances between north and south, rich and poor, export-led and service-driven economies, tied together by a currency but few rules, and those rarely enforced.
A fix will require fundamental changes in the functioning of the bloc, with more interference in the workings of sovereign states. There would need to be a fiscal union, with a treasury and a finance minister capable of intervening in national budgets, and more unified tax and pension policies. But it is far from clear that the European Union can gather itself to take these fateful steps away from nationalist identities to a truly European model.
“We are today confronted by the greatest challenge our union has known in its entire history,” said José Manuel Barroso, the head of the European Commission. “It is a financial, economic and social crisis. But also a crisis of confidence ”” in our leadership, in Europe itself, in our capacity to find solutions.”
Tennessee overhauled its teacher evaluation system last year to win a grant from the federal Race to the Top program. Now many teachers say they are struggling to shine, and that’s torpedoing morale.
For Janna Beth Hunt, who teaches first grade at Norman Binkley Elementary in Nashville, it’s been a disappointing process. Tennessee’s new observations grade teachers on a scale of 1 to 5. Many are scoring what feels like a C, which under the system isn’t enough to get the job security of tenure.
“I definitely feel like I’m better than an average teacher. I’m not happy with a 3, but I told my principal that, and he knows that I’m a perfectionist and that I want a 5. It’s just extremely difficult to get a 5,” Hunt says.
U.S. Army Cadet Command officials say a complaint by an advocacy group on behalf of a Ravenwood High School student has sparked a review of regulations spelling out what kinds of religious wear students may wear in the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps Program.
The review comes in the wake of a bias claim by the Council of American-Islamic Relations that a local JROTC program was discriminatory when it didn’t allow a high school freshman to wear her headscarf to march in a homecoming parade.
Saying it must reverse a trend of annual deficits and restructure to meet the changing needs of theological education, the Church Divinity School of the Pacific’s board of trustees agreed Oct. 14 to increase and broaden enrollment, increase annual giving and reduce its 11-member faculty.
The seminary has run annual operating deficits for several years. The current fiscal year the deficit is $1.4 million on a $4 million budget. The budget includes the cost of being a member of the Graduate Theological Union, of which CDSP is a founding member.
O Spirit of the living God, who dost sanctify the lives of thy people, and dost build them up into a holy temple for thy habitation: Grant us so to know thy indwelling presence that we may be set free from lesser desires, and by thy grace may be conformed to the likeness of Jesus Christ our Lord.