Zimbabwe’s Anglicans have won back control of a mission school previously taken over by a renegade bishop in a rare court victory, just days after the Archbishop of Canterbury visited to try to resolve the rift in his church.
A High Court judge sitting in Harare ruled that 14 members of staff, including the headmaster, house masters, a nurse and teachers, who were evicted last month should be allowed to return to their posts at Daramombe Mission School immediately.
Read it all (make sure to see all three documents and their dates).
At a moment in the cultural history of the West when utilitarianism is the default moral position in public life, Evangelical Catholicism insists that “Will it work?” is not the only question. “Is it right?” is the prior question, and the answer to that question, Pontius Pilate and the Guardian notwithstanding, can be known by the arts of reason, properly deployed.
Evangelical Catholicism, in the line of development that runs from Leo XIII through Benedict XVI, thus takes a rather different stance toward public life than the Catholicism of Christendom (whose conception of Church and State – or, more broadly, Church and Society – long outlasted the 16th-century fracturing of Christendom).
Evangelical Catholicism declines the embrace of state power as incompatible with the proclamation of the Gospel: the Gospel is its own warrant, and the power of that warrant is blunted when coercive state power is put behind it, however mildly.
“Dear brothers and sisters,” he said, “in our prayer we should look more often at how, in the events of our own lives, the Lord has protected, guided and helped us, and we should praise him for all he has done and does for us. We should be more attentive to the good things the Lord gives to us.”
The Pontiff noted how “we are always attentive to problems and to difficulties,” but there is almost an unwillingness “to perceive that there are beautiful things that come from the Lord.”
Attention to the good, “which becomes gratitude,” he said, “is very important for us; it creates in us a memory for the good and it helps us also in times of darkness.”
In the Scottish Episcopal Church, we’re thinking about our response to the Scottish Government’s consultation on same-sex marriage and other related issues. The definition of marriage set out in our Canons is that, “marriage is a physical, spiritual and mystical union of one man and one woman”. That is the position of our church. It’s a difficult issue for us ”“ as it is for all churches and faith groups. We have among our membership people who feel passionately that change is needed ”“ and those who feel equally strongly that we should resist any attempt to broaden society’s understanding of marriage. The consultation period is very short. Among the things we shall say will be that if ”“ and it’s a big “if” ”“ we were to consider changing our canonical definition of marriage, that would require a two-year process in our General Synod, the outcome of which could not be predicted with any certainty.
We haven’t got involved in public debate about this. We’ve been asked for our view and we shall give it in a considered manner ”“ believing that the time for public debate comes later. However, it seems to me that some of the points being made ”“ particularly comments from our ecumenical partners in the Catholic Church ”“ raise significant issues about how we understand the relationship between church and state. They also raise important questions about the nature of the church itself.
Why do young Christians leave the church?
New research by the Barna Group finds they view churches as judgmental, overprotective, exclusive and unfriendly towards doubters. They also consider congregations antagonistic to science and say their Christian experience has been shallow.
The findings, the result of a five-year study, are featured in You Lost Me: Why Young Christians are Leaving Church and Rethinking Faith, a new book by Barna president David Kinnaman. The project included a study of 1,296 young adults who were current or former churchgoers.
A conservative Church of England bishop has attended a meeting of Church of Ireland clergy increasingly unhappy at their church’s response to a minister’s same-sex partnership.
There are few details about where Monday night’s meeting, which was first revealed by this newspaper last Thursday, was held, or how many were present.
However, the News Letter understands that the meeting included an address by Bishop Wallace Benn, a leading figure on the right of the Church of England.
The conservative Diocese of South Carolina said Wednesday its bishop, Mark Lawrence, is being accused of abandoning the Episcopal Church in a process that doesn’t allow him to know his accusers.
From here:
Contrary to its rhetoric, the national Episcopal Church is not attacking Bishop Mark Lawrence because he abandoned “the doctrine, discipline and worship of the Episcopal Church” (“S.C. bishop accused of abandoning church,” Thursday). The bishop of the Diocese of South Carolina is being attacked because he refuses to abandon the faith of the Anglican Communion and embrace the heresy that the national Episcopal Church seems determined to embrace.
South Carolina is a small state; those of us in the Columbia-based Diocese of Upper South Carolina have family and friends in the Charleston-based Diocese of South Carolina, and vice versa. An attack on one is an attack on both.Robert C. Clawson
Immediate Past President
Diocesan Executive Council
Episcopal Diocese of Upper
South Carolina
A wedding ring, college degree and a well-paying job: the American dream or a recipe for bankruptcy?
Some of the factors often associated with financial success are increasingly becoming correlated with personal bankruptcy filings, a study released Tuesday by the Institute for Financial Literacy found.
The study found that from 2006 to 2010, bankruptcy filings increased among college graduates and those earning $60,000 a year or more. What’s more, last year, 64% of bankruptcy filers surveyed were married””a number that also increased from five years ago.
It is helpful to set reflection on Catholic pastoral strategy in a larger context. The situation in Australia, as indeed more generally in the West, is not specific to the Australian Catholic Church. It is shared with other mainstream churches. It also characterises other voluntary groups in society, such as political parties and service groups.
Most churches are ageing and diminishing in numbers. They struggle to communicate an understanding of church beliefs to their children or to win them to church allegiance. As a result those with a strong understanding of faith are elderly. Ministers within churches are also fewer and ageing.
The diminishing number of clergy and of well-grounded church members puts pressure on outreach to needy groups and on the churches’voice in society. The call on resources means that there are fewer ministers available for full time grass roots involvement in hospitals, prisons, schools and so on.
O Jesus, Master Carpenter of Nazareth, who on the cross through wood and nails didst work man’s whole salvation: Wield well thy tools in this thy workshop; that we who come to thee rough hewn may by thy hand be fashioned to a truer beauty and a greater usefulness; for the honour of thy holy name.
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s foes will be those of his own household. He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and he who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it. “He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me. He who receives a prophet because he is a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward, and he who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. And whoever gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he shall not lose his reward.”
–Matthew 10:34-42
The Anglican Archbishop of Sydney has come out in strong support of the proposed poker machine reforms, warning that the penetration of gambling culture into sport and media ”bodes ill for the future of sport in this country”.
The Reverend Peter Jensen used his opening presidential address at the 49th Synod of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney to commend the federal government for its ”moral leadership” on problem gambling as it seeks to introduce mandatory precommitment technology on poker machines.
In his first public statement on the issue, Dr Jensen took aim at sporting associations that create cultural capital ”funded by the real capital of addicts”.
The sad truth is that while some of us are naturally curious about what we don’t know, an increasing number of readers and viewers want only reinforcement of what they already know. While it’s not the job of media to force-feed news to an uninterested audience, the system worked better when some news and information just happened to rub off.
Personally, I’ve always relied upon great editors and great broadcasters to tell me what they think is important each day. I’m determined to form my own opinions, but I’m not so audacious as to think I know what’s important without professional help.
One of my favorite news slogans is one used for decades by the Scripps newspaper chain: “Give light and the people will find their own way.” Yet in modern communications we seem to give off more heat than light, leaving too many information-loaded consumers stumbling around in the dark.