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….seasoned Washington hands say that once this rather gloomy back and forth has played out – and it might take another week or more – the work towards reaching a solution that both sides can sell to their parties and their lawmakers will begin in earnest.

A deal by Christmas, a week before the fiscal cliff deadline, remains uncertain but not out of the question. The so-called fiscal cliff is a combination of U.S. government spending cuts and tax increases due to be implemented under existing law in early 2013 that may cut the federal budget deficit but also tip the economy back into recession.

The pattern of little happening until very close to a holiday is well-established on Capitol Hill. The past three pre-Christmas seasons brought important eleventh-hour developments on health care in 2009, tax cut extensions in 2010 and the payroll tax holiday in 2011.

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Kendall’s Introduction to Acts can be found here – the final video will be available on Sunday January 6th
See below for important information and tips about blog registration and finding older entries that have scrolled off the main page. After the Christmas – New Year’s break we elves will be working with the blog tech folks to solve some of the recent technical issues.

T19 has been having some technical issues of late, including problems with spambots overwhelming our member registration database, and also problems with blog instability due to extreme server load caused by the blog at times. Our technical folks are looking into these things and we’re trying to resolve them. Apologies that it’s been a slow process.

In order to reduce the server strain, the blog settings were recently changed to limit the entries on the front page of the blog to the 25 most recent entries. To view older entries, it is best to use either the monthly archives links on the right hand side of the blog, or use the T19 mobile interface.

We wish all our readers a Happy New Year, and appreciate your patience as we try to continue to resolve these issues. — the elves.

The Episcopal Church has been making headlines lately, but unfortunately, not in a positive way. In case you’re caught up in all the headlines, the Reverend Father David Thurlow of St. Matthias Episcopal Church wants to set the record straight.

“What we want people to know about the Episcopal Church in South Carolina, the Diocese of S.C., is that it’s still faithful to the faith once delivered to the saints,” Thurlow said. “In recent years, of course, there’s been this trend in the culture and society to walk apart from that faith or to distance one’s self from that faith, and as that’s been true in the culture, it’s been true in many of the Episcopal Diocese throughout the country, here in the Untied States.”

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I’m applying to law school. I’m sure there are many schools that could provide me with a decent education; I’m less confident that a degree from some institutions will get me a job. In fact, some schools, while charging outrageously high tuition, place fewer than half of their recent graduates in long-term, full-time legal positions. Is it moral for schools like these to keep enrolling students and collecting tuition dollars knowing that their product is a risky (or outright bad) investment?

Read it all from “The Ethicist”.

….President Obama’s call for a return to Clinton-era tax rates is misleading: If the Bush upper-income tax cuts go away, tax rates will exceed those in place at the end of the 1990s.

The top effective federal marginal tax rate on work income would rise to roughly 44.6% from 37.9% in 2012.

That’s higher than under President Clinton because of a 0.9-percentage-point Medicare payroll tax hike for upper-income households, which passed with Obama-Care and takes effect in January.

Tax rates on long-term capital gains also will be higher than when Clinton left office if Bush tax cuts expire as ObamaCare’s new 3.8% Medicare tax on investment gains takes effect. Up to now, only wage and salary income has been subject to Medicare taxes.

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At first blush, it seems to make policy sense, too. The rich fabric of America’s civic life, from Boy Scouts to community orchestras to soup kitchens, is the envy of the world. Its diversity reflects in part how much it depends on private givers with diverse interests and motives, and not just on the government. Their giving is encouraged by the charitable deduction, enacted in 1917, just four years after the income tax itself. The deduction lets people feel they are beating the system even as they practice virtue.

But there’s a question of fairness that complicates the issue. Overwhelmingly, the deduction benefits the wealthy ”” and the rest of the country has to make up the gap.

Read it all.

What excites you most about ministry these days? What’s been the hardest thing?

It’s hard to face the reality that what used to work doesn’t work anymore. First Church shares the classic mainline story: it was a large congregation in the 1950s and ’60s, and it lost members from the ’70s onward. Now it is a far smaller congregation trying to figure out how to do ministry in this day and age.

Over the last year, several members of our congregation worked to get our archives digitized. Looking at all the old church bulletins from the 1950s, you realize that there were hundreds of people taking part in Sunday school””hundreds. When you have only a handful of folks in Sunday school these days, it can be really easy to think you’re a failure.

I have to keep reminding myself that the past is the past, and we have to learn how to be church now.

Read it all.

One of the abiding fissures in American life exposed by presidential election was religion. Exit polls indicated that about 60 percent of Americans who regularly attend church voted for Mitt Romney, and about 60 percent of Americans who rarely or never attend religious services voted for President Obama. This religious divide would have been even sharper were it not for the fact that many churchgoing blacks and Latinos pulled the lever for Obama.

Differences over family-related matters, from same-sex marriage to abortion, drove religious divide in voting. Secular progressives were attracted to Obama’s strong support for same-sex marriage and abortion rights, just as religious conservatives were repelled by his positions on these issues.

Given the importance of family-related issues in the presidential race, it is no surprise that the cultural divides so evident in the political arena also extend to the family arena, according to an important new report from the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia. The Culture of American Families project, by sociologist Carl Desportes Bowman, reveals that American parents are divided into four cultural camps….

Read it all.

[Emmanuel] Davidenkoff says the Socialist government doesn’t seem to understand the concerns of the working and middle class and in the name of equality, got it all wrong.

“Mostly, wealthy people don’t want homework because when the kids are at home, they make sports or dance or music. They go to the museums, to the theater. So they have this access to culture, which is very important,” he says. “In poor families, they don’t have that, so the only link they have with culture and school is homework.”

Elisabeth Zeboulon sits in her office over the playground. Today, she’s the principal at a private, bilingual school in Paris, but she spent most of her career in French public schools. Zeboulon says the centralized French education system doesn’t leave much room for trying different teaching methods….

Read or listen to it all (audio highly recommended).

Check out all the links noting especially this one.

As clergy we are caught in the gap between our vow to abide by the Doctrine, Discipline and Worship of the Episcopal Church and our commitment to care for our people and to discern the workings of the Holy Spirit in our time. I am among those of our Church who believe that the Spirit is leading us to embrace full marriage equality for all people, recognizing that the Constitution of our Church has yet to reach that conclusion. The actions of General Convention clearly permit us to act on our convictions, with full provision, as is always the case with marriage, for those who choose not to preside at ceremonies for same-sex couples.

The diocesan guidelines for same-sex marriage strive for parity where parity is possible. In other words, for those congregations that feel called to offer their sanctuaries and pastoral services for same-sex couples, I ask that your marriage policies match those for heterosexual couples. And while it is within your authority as priests to make decisions regarding worship, I do ask that you engage the lay leaders of the congregation, to hear their views and concerns.

Read it all.

Knowing you need to read the Bible and actually doing it are often two very different things. We are, as Catholics, a biblical people, after all. The Bible is the Word of God. Mass is grounded in scripture. Many of our prayers have biblical roots.

So what’s the problem? Why do Catholics seem to have a reputation for not spending any time with the Bible, for not knowing it, and maybe for not even caring?

Read it all.

The parliamentary reaction to this week’s synod vote tells a powerful tale. Wearing his Garrick Club tie, the Second Church Estates Commissioner answered questions from MP’s, all of whom expressed amazement and moral repugnance about the official and institutionalised sexism of the Established Church. (note to overseas readers ”” The Garrick Club is an exclusive Gentleman’s club in the West End).

The Garrick Club Tie Gaffe (if such it was) underlined an important aspect of the problem: the Church claims to be far more than a private organisation like a golf club, masonic lodge, or Gentleman’s London hang-out. It claims to be good news for everyone, and the fury of our legislators when they see it acting as though it were a private club, disconnected from society, was unmistakable….

Read it all.

Although blind, [Albano] Berberi has played a musical instrument longer than he can remember. When his family still lived in Albania, 6-month-old Berberi began playing the keyboard. It wasn’t Mozart, but his father told him he played the notes sequentially. At 18 months, he reproduced the music demonstration tape that came with the keyboard.

When he was a year old, the family moved to Greece, where he continued playing keyboard until his kindergarten teacher decided to introduced him to another instrument. They first tried the recorder during a trip to a music conservatory. But he found it “rather boring,” and the two continued their tour of the facility in search of an instrument to pique his interest. A musician taking a break from rehearsals handed the young boy his violin. The instrument, built for an adult not a 5-year-old, hardly nestled under his chin. But it proved a perfect fit.

“It can be the sweetest thing or angry,” Berberi said. “It’s just a very expressive instrument.”

Read it all.

Loving God, who didst call Francis Xavier to lead many in India and Japan to know Jesus Christ as their Redeemer: Bring us to the new life of glory promised to all who follow in the Way; through the same Jesus Christ, who with thee and the Holy Spirit livest and reignest, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

O Lord Jesus Christ, who at thy first coming didst warn us to prepare for the day when thou shalt come to be our judge: Mercifully grant that being awake from the sleep of sin, we may always be watching and intent upon the work thou hast given us to do; who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end.

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

–Psalm 1

Despite many questions about how our decisions about doctrine and mutual responsibility are made in the Communion, and some challenges to the various ”˜Instruments of Communion’, the truth is that our Communion has never been the sort of Church that looks for one central authority. This doesn’t mean that we are not concerned with truth or holiness or consistency. It simply acknowledges that all forms of human power and discipline can become corrupted, and that in the Church we have to have several points of reference for the organising of our common life so that none of them can go without challenge or critique from the others. Our hope is that in this exchange we discover a more credible and lasting convergence than we should have if someone or some group alone imposed decisions ”“ and that the fellowship that emerges is more clearly marked by Christlikeness, by that reverence for one another that the Spirit creates in believers.

Another way of saying this is that (to use the language of a great Anglican theologian of the early twentieth century, J.N. Figgis) we are a ”˜community of communities’.

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‘This week Kevin and George talk about the Artificial Ecclesiastical Diocese of South Carolina (AEDOS) and some of the miscommunication between it’s leadership. They also talk about International stories from Canada and Egypt. And what episode won’t be complete without a story about Legal Violence in Zimbabwe?’

Read it all and remember the text of resolution A049.

Pope Benedict XVI presided over Vespers in Saint Peter’s Basilica this evening, marking the vigil to the first day of Advent. During this evening’s celebrations the Pope met with students from Roman and Pontifical universities. Speaking to the students, the Holy Father encouraged them to witness the closeness of God in their university halls. A god who manifests himself in the search for truth, he said, is key to all intellectual endeavour. Fr Bernard Bitekerezo of Uganda and student of the Pontifical University of Santa Croce here in Rome spoke with Vatican Radio’s Alberto Goroni about meeting with the Holy Father.

Read and listen to it all.

Dick Bott started his first Christian radio station in the basement of the former Blue Ridge Mall, sandwiched between a barber shop and a child care center.

Fifty years later, the Bott Radio Network consists of 91 stations reaching into 15 states, with a combined audience of more than 50 million people.

Programs also can be heard worldwide by satellite, on the Internet and through mobile digital technology.

Read it all.

The Primate of All Nigeria Anglican Communion, Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh, on Saturday dismissed calls in some quarters for Churches in the country to be mandated to pay tax to government.

Okoh said this in Abuja at the 2012 Carnival for Christ, organised by the Abuja Diocese of the Anglican Communion.

The Carnival for Christ is an annual gathering of the various archdeaconries in the diocese to praise and worship God.

Read it all.

The Anglican Church of the Province of Central Africa (CPCA) yesterday said it had taken over most of the properties from defrocked Bishop, Nolbert Kunonga, following a recent Supreme Court ruling.

The court, a fortnight ago ruled that Bishop Chad Gandiya’s faction was the rightful owner of the properties which Kunonga had grabbed.

Gandiya’s press officer, Precious Shumba, said although the CPCA had faced resistance in some of the parishes, most of the buildings had been taken by midday yesterday.

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Though the Church of England is now the only church within these islands and within the 80 million strong worldwide Anglican Communion which is still by law established, and though this has often been questioned as an archaic privilege in an increasingly plural age, there has hitherto been little political enthusiasm to pursue disestablishment. Once the dust has settled on the Church’s embarrassment at being temporarily thwarted by a hard-line minority over women bishops, it remains to be seen whether anything different will happen this time.

The Church itself has remained fiercely protective of what it sees as its solidifying, pastoral role in society. It argues that it can act as a reminder that there is a higher authority than politicking to which public life needs to be held to account, that an Established church can usefully reflect the concerns of religion and morality more widely in a mixed-belief society, and that its significant voluntary contribution to civic society and an expanding role in education under governments of all stripes merit continuing recognition within the country’s unwritten constitutional settlement. This remains the case, establishment’s supporters argue, in spite of the falling numbers and financial challenges that have afflicted the Church in recent years, which means that around a million people (out of a population of 50 million) consistently attend its weekly services.

Scepticism is growing, however, and has reached a new peak this past week.

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Members of the Church of England’s ”˜parliament’ are attempting to oust one of its most senior figures following the defeat of legislation to allow women bishops.

In a dramatic move, members of the General Synod’s House of Laity have secretly called an emergency meeting so they can hold a vote of no confidence in their Chair, Dr Philip Giddings, who spoke forcefully against the reform.

They believe that, if Dr Giddings is forced out, the move could help Church leaders get around the rules and bring back the legislation before a new Synod is elected in three years’ time.

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Cardinal Martini shook up a heady intellectual cocktail for the Catholic Church before he passed away. His recently published last testament has stunned the Vatican and set the faithful arguing about the direction of Catholicism in the 21st century. At nearly the same time, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the retiring leader of 100 million worldwide Anglicans, has been stirring up his flock with valedictory messages.

The lives of Cardinal Martini and Archbishop Williams share common themes. Both have held the highest academic positions and been recognized as great scholars, having produced over 50 works of theology between them. Both are remarkable linguists””Martini spoke 11 languages and Williams speaks six. Their prelatical concoctions pack a punch, and both will certainly enliven the debates about the future of the world’s two largest churches.

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Devon’s new bishop has been officially consecrated in a ceremony conducted by the outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Right Reverend Nick McKinnel – the former rector of the Minster Church of St Andrew in Plymouth – was ordained as the Anglican Bishop of Crediton at Southwark Cathedral.

The appointment was announced by the Diocese of Exeter in October.

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[Crystal] Thompson made $18 an hour as a senior account executive at Daniel Island giftware manufacturer Davis & Small until March, and the 36-year-old single mother hasn’t been able to find suitable replacement work since.

She said she would simply work two jobs if she didn’t have children, but since she has to support her girls, she figures she needs to be paid at least $14 an hour.

“There’s so many people who are unemployed that they’re all going for the same jobs,” she said.

Thompson already moved in with her mother to save money, even though “it’s not emotionally healthy for me and my children.” And if no one hires her this month, it’s about to get rougher.
Thompson is one of 29,000 South Carolinians who will lose their federal unemployment benefits at the end of the year.

After several extensions of the federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation program to help out-of-work Americans ride out the recession the past few years, it’s over. Congress passed the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 in February, which cut off the benefits by Jan. 3, 2013.

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