Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption; but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we do not lose heart.
–Galatians 6:7-9
A heart stopping thriller of a game. Danny Welbeck’s goal was just beautiful. Read it all and see the picture there.
How much money does the U.S. government forgo by not taxing religious institutions? According to a University of Tampa professor, perhaps as much as $71 billion a year.
Ryan Cragun, an assistant professor of sociology, and two students examined U.S. tax laws to estimate the total cost of tax exemptions for religious institutions ”” on property, donations, business enterprises, capital gains and “parsonage allowances,” which permit clergy to deduct housing costs….
Here is what these award-winning companies do differently to create great workplaces:
They hold managers and individuals accountable for making engagement a part of everyday work, rather than just conducting a survey once a year.
Their leaders set a positive example for the rest of the organization by helping their teams thrive.
The have unique coaching and training opportunities for both top- and bottom-performing managers. They address the needs of both groups and offer steps to help each group improve.
This is the so-called Mormon Moment: a strange convergence of developments offering Mormons hope that the Christian nation that persecuted, banished or killed them in the 19th century will finally love them as fellow Christians.
I want to be on record about this. I’m about as genuine a Mormon as you’ll find ”” a templegoer with a Utah pedigree and an administrative position in a congregation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am also emphatically not a Christian.
For the curious, the dispute can be reduced to Jesus….
A former Crosslink’s missionary and British Army chaplain has been elected Suffragan Bishop of the Arctic. The Rev. Darren McCartney, rector of Knocknamuckley in the Church of Ireland’s Diocese of Down and Dromore will be consecrated…at the “igloo cathedral” in Iqualit on Baffin Island.
The British Medical Journal this week contains three articles aimed at neutralising medical opposition to euthanasia.
The BMJ, which remains editorially independent from the British Medical Association, but is sent to all members, has a long track record of backing liberal causes, amongst them the legalisation of assisted suicide and euthanasia….
If she knows anything, Canadian author Jane Urquhart knows the influence of history and the power of place.
Her celebrated novels are shot through with it. She even lives now with her artist husband, Tony, in the 200-year-old house her parents once owned in this Lake Ontario town, between Cobourg and Belleville.
It’s little wonder then that Urquhart became a leading voice of a local group fighting against the controversial deconsecration of Colborne’s historic Trinity Anglican Church….
Confusion reigns in Egypt after stunning court rulings threw the country’s awkward transition toward democratic rule into turmoil.
The decision sparked cries that Egypt’s military leaders have engineered a “soft coup” to thwart their longtime foes — Islamists who just weeks ago captured a majority of seats in the Egyptian parliament in the first election in Egypt in generations. The court’s decision dissolves parliament, and the military was quick to say it now controls legislative affairs in Egypt, actions that raised the prospect of renewed mass street protests.
The dizzying developments sent shock waves across Egypt just 16 months after a popular uprising toppled former President Hosni Mubarak and two days before Egyptians go to the polls to elect a new president.
There are growing signs that a procedural motion will be tabled to delay the women-bishops legislation when it goes to the General Synod for final approval next month.
Under Section 94 of the Standing Orders, a motion can be moved from the floor of the Synod to send the draft Measure back to the House of Bishops for further consideraÂtion. Supporters of women bishops have expressed their reluctance to vote for the Measure since the Bishops added two amendments
The NSW Teachers Federation and public school advocates such as Trevor Cobbold argue that there is little, if any, evidence to support the benefits of increased school autonomy.
If true, their claims undermine the argument that choice and diversity in education, represented by autonomous government and non-government schools, is a good thing and suggest that moves around Australia to empower schools at the local level are misdirected.
But there is increasing international evidence that freeing schools from centralised and bureaucratic control is beneficial.
The church has taken a step which it hopes will lead it out of the impasse over questions about the ordination and blessing of folk who are in same gender relationships.
A commission of eminent people, led by former Governor General Sir Anand Satyanand, met for the first time on Saturday to begin the task of clarifying the choices the church faces over these issues ”“ and identifying the implications of those choices.
The commission’s task is to summarise the Biblical and theological work done by the church over 30 years on these matters ”“ and to present a final report to the 2014 General Synod which outlines the various options, and suggests the implications of each of those options.
Archbishop David Moxon, Archbishop Brown Turei and Archbishop Winston Halapua, on behalf of the General Synod Standing Committee, welcome the appointment of Ms Mele Tuilotolava, Professor Paul Trebilco, Justice Judith Potter and Sir Tamati Reedy, under the chairmanship of Sir Anand Satyanand to the ”˜Ma Whea? Mei Fe Ki Fe? Where To?’ Commission established to address issues related to the ordination and blessing of people in same gender relationships.
We welcome the work of the Commission: in drawing together the biblical and theological work in this area; in looking at the canons of our Church; what shape the Church might have to enable us to continue together respecting our differences; and to take into account our relationships within the wider Anglican Communion….
The Government’s consultation document on same-sex marriage does not mention the word “children”, “husband” or “wife”.
The words “father” and “mother” and “families” receive only a passing technical reference in the 25-page document published by the Coalition in March.
The Roman Catholic Church said the absence of any reference to children illustrated how the “meaning” of marriage would be altered by the proposals.
On June 3, the Rev. Patric F. D’Arcy’s first Sunday officiating at his new parish as a newly ordained Roman Catholic priest in the Bronx, he offered Mass in crystal-clear Spanish in a packed sanctuary. Later, at a lunch celebration, his new parishioners welcomed him with trays of rice, beans and roasted chicken, and a white cake adorned with golden icing.
It was a festive event ”” a thanksgiving for the blessing of a new priest ”” that would normally take place in early June in at least several of the 370 parishes in the Archdiocese of New York. But this year the New York Archdiocese has ordained only one new priest, Father D’Arcy. It is the first year that has happened since the archdiocese opened its seminary more than 110 years ago.
Being the archdiocese’s sole member of the Class of 2012 is a slightly uncomfortable distinction for Father D’Arcy, 33, a soft-spoken man who prefers to stay out of the spotlight. He is not a native New Yorker, nor even an American citizen. Father D’Arcy comes from a small suburb of Toronto, about 80 miles northwest of Niagara Falls, and transferred to the seminary here three years ago, he said, because he had a special interest in working with Latin American immigrants, and had heard that New York needed such priests.
O God, Origin, Sustainer, and End of all creatures: Grant that thy Church, taught by thy servant Evelyn Underhill, guarded evermore by thy power, and guided by thy Spirit into the light of truth, may continually offer to thee all glory and thanksgiving, and attain with thy saints to the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast promised us by our Savior Jesus Christ; who with thee and the same Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, now and for ever.
Almightie and merciful God, of thy bountiful goodnes, kepe us from all thynges that maye hurte us; that we, beyng ready bothe in body and soule, maye with free heartes accomplishe those thynges that thou wouldest have doen; Through Jesus Christ our Lorde.
–Book of Common Prayer, 1549
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what shall a man give in return for his life? For the Son of man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay every man for what he has done.
–Matthew 16:24-27
….in the rush to (rightly) condemn [his arguments], conservative responses have often overlooked the fact that Savage was on to something….
Savage’s original point….was not “the Bible is wrong;” his incendiary remarks were meant to build up the over-arching concern of Christian non-response to the gay community. He recounts a hypothetical Christian who claims, “I’m sorry, we can’t do anything about bullying, because it says right there in Leviticus, in Timothy, in Romans that being gay is wrong.” Christians have appealed far too quickly to their traditional moral views to avoid offering support to gay people. Here, if nowhere else, Dan Savage has a point.
In my own Roman Catholic Church, the teaching is clear that homosexual acts are immoral, but the presence of homosexual inclinations is not. Most (though not all) Christians of other traditions would agree. But if we make the distinction in theory, its practical application is far too rare. The all-encompassing rhetorical tool of the “lifestyle” is used to reduce the entire identity of gay people to sexual activity, and thus our response to all concerns of gay people becomes an automatic “no.”
The hundreds of billions of dollars that banks, insurance companies and other international investors poured into this country after the advent of the euro financed roads and houses, raised wages and helped Constantine Choutlas sustain a 1,000-person construction firm with projects such as building the athletes’ village for the 2004 Olympics.
What it did not do was build a competitive economy, and when the rest of the world woke up to that fact and the money rushed away, so did Choutlas’s business.
“You could see it wouldn’t last. The country was just borrowing money,” Choutlas, whose Proodeftiki Technical has been scaled back to a handful of employees, said as he jabbed a finger in the air for emphasis. “Nobody, nobody, nobody, said lets take a look at where we are going.”
Sitting in the choir section of Grace and St. Stephens Episcopal Church, Marianna McJimsey can’t help but get excited when she talks about the history of the place.
The former Colorado College professor and head of the church’s archival project can spout off facts for hours if given the prompt. She’s not the only one who finds the church significant.
The church was recently placed on the National Register of Historic Places….
For one thing, such a bailout is illegal under the Maastricht Treaty, which governs the euro zone. Because the treaty is law in each member state, a bailout would be rejected by Germany’s Constitutional Court.
Moreover, a bailout doesn’t make economic sense, and would likely make the situation worse. Such schemes violate the liability principle, one of the constituting principles of a market economy, which holds that it is the creditors’ responsibility to choose their debtors. If debtors cannot repay, creditors should bear the losses.
If we give up the liability principle, the European market economy will lose its most important allocative virtue: the careful selection of investment opportunities by creditors. We would then waste part of the capital generated by the arduous savings of earlier generations. I am surprised that the president of the world’s most successful capitalist nation would overlook this.
You can check here and there. This is what stood out to me:
1841–The first Canadian parliament opened in Kingston.
1919–The US Congress passed the 19th amendment granting suffrage to American women.
1936–G.K. Chesterton (b.1874), English poet-essayist, died at his home in Beaconsfield, England.
1940–German troops occupied Paris and Marshal Philippe Petain became the head of the French government and sued for peace.
What stood out to you–KSH?
Most of the renovated library will look the same as it does today. Its special collections and manuscripts will remain in place, and readers will be able to consult them in the same quiet setting of oak panels and baronial tables. The great entrance hall, grand staircases, and marble corridors will continue to convey the atmosphere of a Beaux-Arts palace of the people. But the new branch library on the lower floors overlooking Bryant Park will have a completely different feel. Designed by the British architect Norman Foster, who will coordinate the renovation, it will suit the needs of a variety of patrons, who will enter the building from a separate ground-level entrance and may remain only long enough to consult magazines or check out current books, videos, and works in other formats. But it will also be used by scholars and writers who want to take home selected books that formerly could only be read in the building.
Will the mixture of readers who take home books and researchers who work inside the library, of premodern and postmodern architecture, of old and new functions, desecrate a building that embodies the finest strain in New York’s civic spirit? Some of the library’s friends fear the worst. A letter of protest against the plan has been signed by several hundred distinguished academics and authors, including Mario Vargas Llosa, the Nobel Prize”“winning novelist, and Lorin Stein, the editor of The Paris Review. A petition of less-well-known but equally committed lovers of the library warns that the remodeling “will be ruining a functional element of its architecture””and its soul.” Blogs and Op-Ed pages have been sizzling with indignation.
The shrill tone of the rhetoric””“a glorified Starbucks,” “a vast Internet café,” “cultural vandalism”””suggests an emotional response that goes beyond disagreement over policy.
St. Gregory the Great Episcopal Church now has the ability to harness the sun.
In recent days, the church, located in Southeastern Athens-Clarke County, installed a 7.5-kilowatt solar array that will be used to generate energy that will help to significantly lower the church’s energy costs.
A main purpose of the solar array, though, is to make the church a better steward of the environment. And it also will allow more of the church’s resources to go toward helping those in need instead of toward power bills, said Andrew Lane ”” also known as “Captain Planet” ”” chairman of the Green Guild/Creation Keepers at St. Gregory the Great.
France said Wednesday that Syria has descended into civil war and that all means, including force, should be used under international supervision to help restore peace.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said he would propose that the United Nations Security Council vote on a resolution giving U.N. members a mandate to intervene in Syria, possibly as part of a military operation.
“The situation is now even more serious and abominable,” Mr. Fabius told reporters. He accused the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of having used children as human shields, echoing allegations in a report issued Tuesday by the U.N. He also said massacres have multiplied over the past few days in the Middle East country.
The Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral received approval Friday to demolish two historic buildings in the 3700 block of Chestnut Street, clearing the way for construction of a 25-story apartment tower.
At a lengthy hearing of the city Historical Commission, the cathedral and its private development partner agreed to conditions imposed by the commission that seek to insure that a portion of development profits flow into repair and renovation of the historic cathedral’s bell tower.
“We are committed to preserving the church itself,” the Rev. Judith Sullivan, cathedral dean, told the commission. “We are all about preservation.”
A group of more than 30 religious organizations from 20 countries is calling on Sri Lanka to ensure religious freedom for Christian groups.
In a so-called “Colombo statement,” named after the Sri Lankan capital city, the group called the Religious Liberty Partnership (RLP) asked the worldwide church to pray “against the continued violent attacks on clergy and places of Christian worship,” and for the enjoyment of “constitutional guarantees on religious freedom” by all religious groups.
Members of the RLP include Release International, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Open Doors, and the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA).
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales has responded to the Government consultation on same-sex marriage.
In his accompanying letter to the Home Secretary, the Vice-President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, Archbishop Peter Smith says:
“In the interest of upholding the uniqueness of marriage as a civil institution for the common good of society, we strongly urge the Government not to proceed with legislative proposals which will ‘enable all couples, regardless of their gender to have a civil marriage ceremony'”.
Check out the other material which is linked if you are interested.