“We are FOR this definition of marriage,” the Bishops wrote, “because we believe it is a vocation in which God calls couples to faithfully and permanently embrace a fruitful union that is open to the gift of children.”

To the claim that the Amendment will codify discrimination against homosexual persons, the Bishops noted, “As Catholics, we believe in the immeasurable dignity and equal worth of all persons. And so we reject hatred or the unjust treatment of any person. We believe that our human dignity comes from God,” adding it “flows not from the expression of our sexual orientation nor from any of our actions.”

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“We oppose Amendment One because the love of God and the way of love that has been revealed in Jesus of Nazareth compels us to do so. We oppose Amendment One because every time we baptize someone in The Episcopal Church, the entire congregation vows to ”˜strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being.’* We oppose Amendment One because it is unjust and it does not respect the dignity of every human being in the State of North Carolina. If passed, it will harm not only law-abiding gay and lesbian citizens but other men, women and innocent children in our state,” reads one excerpt from the letter.

Read the whole document.

Voters approved the amendment by a 61%-39% margin with all counties reporting, according to unofficial returns from the State Board of Elections.

The state House and Senate voted in 2011 to put the amendment before state voters. Both chambers are Republican-controlled for the first time in 140 years.

President Barack Obama said he was “disappointed” by the vote, describing it as discriminatory against gays and lesbians, a spokesman said….

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While some newspaper publishers are putting their faith in “digital first”, worshippers are being urged to pray for the future of the press.

Amid an industry ravaged by circulation decline, cost-cutting and redundancies, Sunday 20 May has been designated a day of prayer for the media by the Church and Media Network.

A specially commissioned prayer thanks journalists for their “persistence in seeking after truth” and asks for them to “reach for the highest professional standards, especially when budgets are stretched, time is tight, and competition increasing”.

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“We don’t wish to express any opinion on the result, but there is a satisfaction when our values are evoked by the future president of the country,” said Muriel Menanteau, a spokesperson for the Protestant Federation of France, which represents more than 800,000 of the 1.2 million Protestants in the country.

The federation had held a meeting with Hollande during the campaign because of his support of secularism and had given him a document calling for a return to facts and accuracy by “leaders in the political, economic and social spheres.” It also implicitly criticized the targeting of immigrants and Muslims that had taken place in the run-up to the two rounds of the elections.

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The Lord Bishop of Chichester: My Lords, I strongly support the noble and learned Baroness in everything that she has just said. She has very starkly set out the figures and the likely impact of not sending this back to the Commons. She has quite rightly said that people could die as a result.

It is hard to engage in this discussion without having a rerun of the long debate that we have just had about the non-pursued Pannick amendment. It seems to me that we are in considerable confusion-and I have to say, with all due respect, that I do not think that the Minister helped us at all in this-about whether what is really at stake is the focus, orientation and purpose of the Bill, or whether it is a genuinely financial provision.We are really-I nearly used the expression “having the wool pulled over our eyes”. I feel profoundly unsatisfied and unpersuaded by what we heard earlier this afternoon.

This boils down to the question of what kind of society we want to live in…

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Workshop topics will include God’s Creation and poetry, Celtic spirituality, ecology and the eucharist, ethical investments, ecology and the economy, climate change, how to become an eco”“congregation and helping children and young people nurture respect for the earth….

ECI chairperson, Sr Catherine Brennan, looks forward to welcoming a broad section of people to the conference from both north and south of the border. “The stark sign of our time is a planet in peril at our hands and it is poor people who suffer most from environmental impoverishment,” she says. “Commitment to the poor and commitment to the well”“being of life on this planet must go together as two inter”“related dimensions of the one Christian vocation….

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Almighty God, who hast revealed to thy Church thine eternal Being of glorious majesty and perfect love as one God in Trinity of Persons: Give us grace that, like thy bishop Gregory of Nazianzus, we may continue steadfast in the confession of this faith, and constant in our worship of thee, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who livest and reignest for ever and ever.

O Lord, who though thou wast rich yet for our sakes didst become poor, and hast promised in thy holy gospel that whatsoever is done to the least of thy brethren thou wilt receive as done to thee: Give us grace, we humbly beseech thee, to be ever willing and ready to minister, as thou enablest us, to the needs of others, and to extend the blessings of thy kingdom over all the world; to thy praise and glory, who art God over all, blessed for ever.

–Saint Augustine (354-430)

“When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field to its very border, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the LORD your God. “You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another. And you shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the LORD. “You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired servant shall not remain with you all night until the morning. You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God: I am the LORD. “You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. You shall not go up and down as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand forth against the life of your neighbor: I am the LORD. “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason with your neighbor, lest you bear sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear any grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.

–Leviticus 19:9-18

“In order to permit same sex couples to marry the Government merely needs to repeal s11(c) Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 which says ”˜11 Grounds on which a marriage is void; c)that the parties are not respectively male and female’.”

“However if it does repeal that sub section then those organisations and individuals which are authorised to register Marriage (which of course includes Church of England Priests by virtue of their office) would at that point be obliged to perform Same Sex marriages unless there is a specific statutory exemption,” he said.

The current state of the law, Mr. [Neil] Addison wrote on his blog was that there was no difference between “Civil” as opposed to “Religious” marriage [as] both are in law the same thing and merely take place in different premises.”

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If you thought that the International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin, Ireland, this June was just for Catholics, you would be wrong. “There is a genuine sense of excitement and expectation right across the Christian traditions in Ireland”, says Rev. Michael Jackson, the Anglican Archbishop of Dublin….

It may be the 50th global gathering of the Catholic Church on the Eucharist, but from the outset the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. Diarmuid Martin, decided this Congress should also become an opportunity to further the ecumenical journey in Ireland, which for historical reasons has often been an uphill climb. On the opening day of the Congress, Monday June 11th, pilgrims will explore the theme, Communion in One Baptism with key-note addresses from Br. Alois Löser (Prior of the Taizé Community, France), Dr Maria Voce (President of Focolare) and Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev (Metropolitan Archbishop of Volokolamsk -Russian Orthodox).

Listen to it all.

Greece’s political turmoil showed no signs of abating Tuesday as hopes faded that leading political parties can form a coalition government after Sunday’s splintered election result, increasing the possibility that Greeks will be called back to the polls as early as next month.

The inconclusive vote and ensuing coalition talks, combined with concerns about the emergence of a Socialist president in France who opposes German-led austerity measures for the euro zone, has revived speculation that Greece would leave the euro, stoking new worries about the fragility of Europe’s monetary union.

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Some readers might perhaps not be aware that Princess Badiya hails from the Jordanian Royal Hashemite Family and that she supports practical work to promote inter-faith and cross-cultural understanding. Moreover, her father – HRH Prince Hassan Bin Talal of Jordan – is one of the towering figures in interreligious dialogue and perhaps also one of the foremost thinkers across the world.

The talk was both encouraging and vivifying. Speaking ”˜simply’ as a Muslim woman, and bringing into it her own vignettes and stories as well as her sense of discernment, humour and infectious laughter, Princess Badiya’s paper was – perhaps not unexpectedly – strongly supportive of Christian-Muslim dialogue as she enumerated a host of reasons why the followers of those two great monotheistic traditions should talk to each other rather than at each other. But she was also disarmingly candid about the negative stereotypes of Islam in the West: some of them fomented by the rapacious attitudes of extremist Muslims whose deeds or words colour negatively a global religion that is neither monolithic nor homogeneous.

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On 4 May 2012 the California-based bishop held a conference call with Archbishop Duncan, Bishop Chuck Murphy of the AMiA, and Bishop Terrell Glenn of PEAR-USA/ACNA to discuss his future plans.

Bishop Hunter stated that he had a “warm and collegial conversations” with the three bishops and “articulated for each of them my vision of C4SO becoming a servant to all the various Anglican entities within North America. C4SO will happily plant churches in partnership with PEARUSA, TheAm and the ACNA.”

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From here:

They’re lured abroad by visions of prosperity, by hopes for a better future for their kids and families back home. Sometimes, they’re trying to escape war or conflict. They are the some 12 million people around the world today who are believed to have become slaves for those dreams of a better, safer life.
But their number could be even double that ”“ as many as 27 million men, women and children to live in a state of modern slavery. People like Tara from Ethiopia, promised a good job as a maid in the Middle East, who finds her passport confiscated, and 20 hour days of humiliation and hard work. Or Umma from Somalia who spends her last pennies for a boat ride to Italy only to find herself an unwilling victim of the sex trade. Or Noben, a fisherman from Bangladesh beaten by his boss when he fails to meet his quota of catch for the day.
Among the growing number of lay and religious organizations combating these forms of human trafficking, is the Catholic International Union of Superiors General (UISG) which in 2009 instituted the Talitha Kum network to train consecrated religious and lay in methods of prevention and to provide assistance for victims of trafficking.
Salesian Sr. Estrella Castalone of Talitha Kum says the network takes its name from a center for trafficked girls she helps run in her native Philippines.
Through their many hospitals, schools and social centers around the world, Catholic sisters can play an important role in combating and preventing trafficking of persons and offering material, spiritual and psychological help to victims. And in the some 68 countries where it’s located, Talitha Kum is training more and more religious for the job. It’s a job, Sr. Estrella says, “that puts us in touch with all forms of poverty: the material, the spiritual and the moral”¦”

Listen to Tracey McClure’s whole interview with Sr. Estrella.

Just in time for Mother’s Day, an annual ranking of the best and worst countries in which to be a mom puts the USA in 25th place, up from 31st last year.

The 13th annual State of the World’s Mothers report by the Save the Children foundation, out today, examines the well-being of mothers and their children in 165 countries, based on a range of measures, including mothers’ education, infant mortality and breastfeeding rates.

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In the age of helicopter parents, dads spend hours with their children practicing sports, hoping their child will be the next Tiger Woods (In light of recent revelations, I hope less fathers dream about their children playing professional sports), and moms work themselves into a frenzy trying to get their toddlers into the best preschools. How often do parents pick up the religious education textbook and review it with their children?

A further systemic problem is the lack of content in Catholic education, a reaction to the style of education before the Second Vatican Council. Upon reviewing the old catechism and talking with many older Catholics, I discerned that the previous system was based on rote memorization of key church teachings. Older Catholics know basic doctrines, but they lack the knowledge as to why they should believe them.

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Wow. It was really super. Watch it all.

For 10 years we have tried to combat poverty, corruption and state failure by birthing a strong Afghan government. Not an easy task in a country hard to govern from the centre, and where our favoured regime is an unloved kleptocracy.

As Canberra looks to extricate Australia from this long hard slog, it declares victory of sorts, presenting its phased withdrawal as a successful handover to indigenous security forces.

But Afghanistan is not the centre of this war. This is primarily a war over – and against – Pakistan.

Read it all.

If we are people who value that Anglican sense of ordered freedom, then we need to learn to live in the creative tension between complete order and complete freedom, both of which are ultimately deadly ”“ order because it’s not open to change, and complete freedom because it has a hard time with enduring relationship. Abundant life and creativity come in the dance between what is finished and utter chaos. That lively tension applies to all parts of our lives, including how we make decisions.

Our churchwide governance work is largely based on parliamentary democratic methods. We have evolved a system that gives great attention to the details of process and structure in how decisions are made. We have a representation system that has at least something to do with interest group politics. We have made legislative decisions over the last few decades that have done great good in opening us up to the movement of the spirit. We have also done damage in voting, by creating winners and losers about several hundred issues at every General Convention.

There are other democratic ways of decision-making that are more deliberative, that depend on conversation and consensus more than on up-down, yes-no voting.

Read it all.

First, as we know, the essential task of authentic education at every level is not simply that of passing on knowledge, essential as this is, but also of shaping hearts. There is a constant need to balance intellectual rigor in communicating effectively, attractively and integrally, the richness of the Church’s faith with forming the young in the love of God, the praxis of the Christian moral and sacramental life and, not least, the cultivation of personal and liturgical prayer.

It follows that the question of Catholic identity, not least at the university level, entails much more than the teaching of religion or the mere presence of a chaplaincy on campus. All too often, it seems, Catholic schools and colleges have failed to challenge students to reappropriate their faith as part of the exciting intellectual discoveries which mark the experience of higher education. The fact that so many new students find themselves dissociated from the family, school and community support systems that previously facilitated the transmission of the faith should continually spur Catholic institutions of learning to create new and effective networks of support. In every aspect of their education, students need to be encouraged to articulate a vision of the harmony of faith and reason capable of guiding a life-long pursuit of knowledge and virtue. As ever, an essential role in this process is played by teachers who inspire others by their evident love of Christ, their witness of sound devotion and their commitment to that sapientia Christiana which integrates faith and life, intellectual passion and reverence for the splendor of truth both human and divine.

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The US bishops of Region XIII are in Rome this week for their ad limina visits. Region XIII comprises areas in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming.Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan of Santa Fe, New Mexico spoke with Vatican Radio about some of the issues of most concern to him, including the need to teach the moral precepts of the faith with clarity and charity. “Marriage and the family life are under attack in our secular socisty,” he said, adding that it is not only the high-profile controversy over preserving traditional marriage that is threatening this basic social institution. “For us in the United States,” he said, “I think that people simply living together without any commitment whatsoever,” is a serious threat. Archbishop Sheehan explained that he has recently addressed the issue in a pastoral letter. “As a result of my letter, hundreds of couples have approached their priest, in order to have their situation regularized.” Archbishop Sheehan went on to discuss in broad terms the need to reach out to those who have fallen away from the faith, or perhaps never learned it, saying that the message to them needs to be: “We love you, and we want you back.”

Listen to it all.

One finalist title, Nearing Home by Billy Graham (Thomas Nelson), received the top honor by being named the 2012 Christian Book of the Year for its profound impact and high judging scores for excellence.

“Growing old has been the greatest surprise of my life,” says Billy Graham,now in his nineties and known by many as God’s Ambassador. “I would have never guessed what God had in store for me, and I know that as I am nearing home, He will not forsake me the last mile of the way.” In Nearing Home, Graham explores the challenges of aging while gleaning foundational truths from Scripture. “When granted many years of life, growing old in age is natural, but growing old with grace is a choice,” says Graham.

Read it all.

The structures and processes of the United Methodist Church are self-preserving. The size and frequency of our meetings encourage passivity; our current Book of Discipline and its structures favor institutional stagnation; and, as some discovered in Tampa, our Constitution prohibits most forms of restructuring. The systems that we have created for ministry protect the status quo against revision, and our denomination cannot effectively make disciples of Jesus Christ without the ability to adapt.

This procedural and systemic self-preservation is natural, but it does not differentiate between gratuitous and essential change. Our connection’s ability to protect itself from unnecessary change is valuable, but sometimes adaptation is necessary. In the past five years, the membership in the United States has declined by 4.5 percent; worship attendance has declined by 7.9 percent; and the number of young people being confirmed in the UMC in the United States has declined by 18.44 percent. The need for adaptation is well-established, yet General Conference yielded little change.

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The Ontario government wants to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in payments to its doctors through fee cuts, fee clawbacks and the elimination of funding for some health-care services, medical groups said Sunday amid an escalating conflict over physician compensation in the province….

“They’re basically trying to trash the medical profession, for reasons that don’t make a lot of sense,” said Ray Foley, executive director of the Ontario Association of Radiologists. “We think it’s going to be devastating. It’s not going to cause an erosion of patient care, it’s going to create a chasm in patient care.”

Read it all.

Lord God, who in thy compassion didst grant to the Lady Julian many revelations of thy nurturing and sustaining love: Move our hearts, like hers, to seek thee above all things, for in giving us thyself thou givest us all; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Grant unto us, O merciful God, knowledge and true understanding of thy Word, that we may know what thy will is, and also may show forth in our lives those things that we do know: that we be not only knowers of thy Word, but also doers of the same; by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer; from the end of the earth I call to thee, when my heart is faint. Lead thou me to the rock that is higher than I; for thou art my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy. Let me dwell in thy tent for ever! Oh to be safe under the shelter of thy wings!

–Psalm 61:1-4