I do not say that these three early developments [Canon, Creed and Episcopate] necessarily settle the issues currently facing the Church of England, but we do need constantly to look back to these three early developments, which is one reason why, before being ordained or appointed to any office within the Church, each person must make the Declaration of Assent.

I recognise that the Church of England tolerates a pretty broad range of understanding and that we need to distinguish between those things which are fundamental to the Faith and those about which agreement is less clear, but if the Church is to stand for anything there must surely be limits to what interpretations are acceptable, and that is one of the duties of a bishop and one reason why we may feel that there is a need for the Anglican Communion Covenant.

St Paul tells us, in the first letter to the Corinthians, that there must always be charity as a dominant motive and also that we must look for what builds up and not what confuses and destroys. I hope we would also take those words to heart today and in the months to come as we continue to discern the Lord’s will on the two subjects we are currently looking at, and that we will honour and respect one another and not let suspicion and mistrust sour our relationships, remembering always the General Synod’s endorsement in 2006 of the Lambeth Conference Resolution in 1998 that those who dissent from, as well as those who assent to the ordination of women to the priesthood and episcopate are loyal Anglicans.

Read it all.

The 2010 office and working costs of bishops in the Church of England… [were] published… [this week]. Figures for individual bishops were first published, for the year 2000, in December 2001. Bishops’ office and working costs were previously published as a total figure.

Bishops’ office and working costs for the year ended 31 December 2010 are published on the Church of England website .

Read it all.

The archbishops’ silence ”“ and that of the wider church ”“ on the crisis at the cathedral is extraordinary, then, given their past remarks. But the truth is they gain nothing from commenting on it.

Siding with protesters would undermine the bishop of London and the dean of St Paul’s, who are already under fire for their actions, and represent an extrajudicial intervention not often seen in the Church of England. To ally themselves with their beleaguered colleagues would make them hypocrites. Those who have aired their views are retired ”“ like Lord Carey ”“ or relatively unknown outside Anglican circles.

However infuriating their reticence, the clerics who bashed the bankers during the global financial meltdown are unlikely to put themselves forward to debate the merits or otherwise of Occupy London, a subject made toxic by the prospect of eviction, but it is inconceivable that they do not have opinions on the events at St Paul’s.

Read it all.

Watch it all.

In January 2009, a mathematician at Cambridge University named Tim Gowers decided to use his blog to run an unusual social experiment. He picked out a difficult mathematical problem and tried to solve it completely in the open, using his blog to post ideas and partial progress. He issued an open invitation for others to contribute their own ideas, hoping that many minds would be more powerful than one. He dubbed the experiment the Polymath Project.

Several hours after Mr. Gowers opened up his blog for discussion, a Canadian-Hungarian mathematician posted a comment. Fifteen minutes later, an Arizona high-school math teacher chimed in. Three minutes after that, the UCLA mathematician Terence Tao commented. The discussion ignited, and in just six weeks, the mathematical problem had been solved.

Read it all.

Bishop Philip Weeks places his hands on the arms of the chair and leans down to face his wife, June.

“Do you love me?”

She continues singing the soft, garbled song that only she can understand.

“Fifty-six years tomorrow is our anniversary. How about that?”

Read it all.

[Dan] Messier knows that as a mainline denomination pastor he faces a dwindling audience.

A report last week said the number of Episcopalians in the United States dropped below 2 million for the first time in decades ”” down 16 percent in the past 10 years. There were 3.5 million members in the mid-1960s.

Some within the church blame the declines on disagreements over the authority of Scripture and the person of Jesus Christ, and the church’s stance on hot-button social issues.

“I think the challenge is changing with the times,” Messier said. “It appears to me that a lot of the churches that are benefitting are places that are non-structural and more open.”

Read it all.

“The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn’t being said.”

–Peter Drucker (1909-2005)

The Vision of the Church of the Good Shepherd is to exist for those who are not yet members and to be known for”¦

*World-changing Children
*Strong Families
*Confident Leaders
*Biblical Preaching
*Spirit-filled Worship

Our Core Values are the principles we are unwilling to sacrifice in the achievement of the Vision.

* Centered on the Cross of Jesus Christ,
* Centered on Community
* Centered on Mission and Ministry to Others

Read it all.

For much of the last century, America’s evangelicals have been the whipping boy of progressives and intellectuals of all sorts. Ostensibly, they use government to impose their interpretation of Scripture on the body politic and – paradoxical to this heavy use of the state – champion neo-liberal economics and Tea Party style small government.

This was never quite the story, and is even less so since 2005, when America’s religio-political landscape has been undergoing what evangelical theologian Scot McKnight called “the biggest change in the evangelical movement at the end of the twentieth century, a new kind of Christian social conscience.”

“New evangelicals” (as Richard Cizik, President of The New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good, calls them) have shifted away from the religious right – moving towards an anti-militarist, anti-consumerist focus on poverty relief, environmental protection, immigration reform, and racial/religious reconciliation.

Read it all.

Write deeply upon our minds, O Lord our God, the lessons of thy holy Word, that only the pure in heart can see thee. Leave us not in the bondage of any sinful inclination. May we neither deceive ourselves with the thought that we have no sin, nor idly acquiesce in aught of which our conscience accuses us. Strengthen us by thy Holy Spirit to fight the good fight of faith, and grant that no day may pass without its victory; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

–C. J. Vaughan

And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat, nor about your body, what you shall put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And which of you by being anxious can add a cubit to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass which is alive in the field today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O men of little faith! And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be of anxious mind. For all the nations of the world seek these things; and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things shall be yours as well.

–Luke 12:22-31

The small gathering of students huddled underneath the tent at Columbia International University early Friday afternoon and listened as a classmate read from the book of 2nd Timothy.

The campus was nearing the final hours of a four-day journey through the story of creation, the fall of mankind, redemption and restoration as told through the words of the Bible.

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that all God’s people may be thoroughly equipped for every good work,” the reader recited to the students seated before her.

Read it all.

Here are some different ways that might help you envision the enormousness of 7 billion:

— Seven billion seconds ago, the year was 1789. That was the year George Washington was inaugurated as the first U.S. president and Congress met for the very first time.
— If you took 7 billion steps along the Earth’s equator — at 2 feet per step — you could walk around the world at least 106 times.
— Suppose an average thimble holds 2 milliliters of water. Seven billion of those thimbles would fill at least five Olympic-sized swimming pools….

Read it all.