So now to the crux of the matter. Should we still support this legislation? This diocese has 14 members of General Synod. From traditional Anglo-Catholic to conservative evangelical (and pretty much everything in between), we represent the spectrum of views on this and many other issues. When electing us, the diocese did a good job of making sure every voice was heard. This isn’t the same in other dioceses. It gives us strength.

I believe these amendments will give succour to those who were beginning to feel more and more marginalised. I hope that some who were thinking of voting against the measure will now vote in favour, or at least decide to abstain. At the same time the second amendment I have spoken about has hurt and confused a large number of people, and especially many women priests. I want them to know that I understand their anxiety. Nevertheless, I also want all of you to know that despite my own misgivings I will still be voting for the legislation. I will not be asking for it to be returned to the dioceses and looked at again….

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How did James Milner not score? The overall result is fair to this point it seems to me.

Update–That ended up being the final game score.

A growing number of cities across the United States are making it harder for the homeless.

Philadelphia recently banned outdoor feeding of people in city parks. Denver has begun enforcing a ban on eating and sleeping on property without permission. And this month, lawmakers in Ashland, Ore., will consider strengthening the town’s ban on camping and making noise in public.

And the list goes on: Atlanta, Los Angeles, Miami, Oklahoma City, Phoenix, San Diego and more than 50 other cities have previously adopted some kind of anti-camping or anti-food-sharing laws, according to the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty.

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The president of the 50th International Eucharistic Congress Archbishop Diarmuid Martin paid warm tribute to other Church leaders in Ireland today for the support they had shown him in his role as Archbishop of Dublin….

“Relations between the churches are extremely good here in Ireland,” Dr Martin said, “and the amount of personal support I have received from Archbishop John Neill (retired Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin), Archbishop Jackson (the current Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin) and the other church leaders has been astounding.”

He said: “We are doing things together. We are, literally, walking together.”

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Presbyterian churches around Charlotte now face the same philosophical debates over Biblical authority and homosexuality that have cleaved other religions.

To date, nine area congregations have either left the Presbyterian Church (USA) or have announced wishes to do so over what they believe to be the liberal drift of the church.

The latest: Huntersville Presbyterian, which voted Sunday to dissolve its affiliation with the Presbytery of Charlotte.

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1. The Synod condoled with all the families of the persons that lost their lives in the DANA Airways plane crash which happened on Sunday 3rd June 2012. The Synod prayed that God will grant all the families the fortitude to bear the loss. The Synod also urged the Government thoroughly to investigate the cause of the disaster and do all that is required to make the Nigerian airspace safe.
2. In line with the Synod theme, “Passing on the Baton to the Youth” (2 Timothy 2:2), emphasis was laid upon the importance of the home and the role of parents, as well as upon the role of church leaders and members.
3. Synod emphasized that the gospel must be passed on in a never-ending chain from generation to generation.

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Wow.

Are we serious about recognising dissenters as loyal Anglicans and, in the words of the 2008 Synod resolution, making “special arrangements… within the existing structures of the Church of England, for those who as a matter of theological conviction will not be able to receive the ministry of women as bishops or priests”? If so, then saying in the Measure that provision should be consistent with those theological convictions should not be so significant as to justify abandoning the first principle – women bishops, equal with men, as soon as possible – by opposing the legislation.

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This is from yesterday from yours truly if you have an interest. It was preached at Saint Andrew’s, Mount Pleasant, S.C. and is based on Articles 12-14 of the 39 articles and readings from Ephesians 2:1-10 and Matthew 25:31-46. The link included downloadable options as well as sermon notes and questions.

Thousands of state workers could find themselves facing a life-changing decision later this month ”” whether to retire or not ”” and with less than a week to make it.

Lawmakers are poised to make major changes in the state’s Retirement Systems that would affect the more than 214,000 state and local government employees covered by that pension system.

State senators want some of the changes to take effect July 1.

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Europe may have sidestepped its latest catastrophe, at least for the moment, by hammering out a €100 billion bailout plan for Spain’s failing banks over the weekend.

But the intervention will do little to address the problem that continues to plague the Continent’s increasingly vulnerable financial institutions. Namely: a longstanding addiction to the borrowed money that provides the day-to-day financing that they need to survive.

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When Father Christopher H. Smith was a child, he’d peek through the eucalyptus trees in his grandparents’ yard on Sunday mornings at the drive-in theater next door to watch a man give a sermon on the top of a tar-papered snack bar, the same place where he’d grab his popcorn on movie evenings. The man atop the snack bar was the Rev. Robert H. Schuller, preaching from humble beginnings at the Orange Drive-In Theater.”We thought that was very cool,” Smith said.

Now, decades later, Smith has found himself linked to Schuller once again. On Saturday, he was officially named to the top post of Episcopal vicar at the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange’s new central church in Orange County – the Crystal Cathedral.

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Grant, O God, that we may follow the example of thy faithful servant Barnabas, who, seeking not his own renown but the well-being of thy Church, gave generously of his life and substance for the relief of the poor and the spread of the Gospel; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Almighty and everlasting God, in whom we live and move and have our being: Grant unto us such purity of heart and strength of purpose that no selfish passion may hinder us from knowing thy will, and no weakness from doing it; but in thy light may we see light, and in thy service find perfect freedom; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

–A Prayer from the Uppingham School

When I am afraid, I put my trust in thee. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust without a fear. What can flesh do to me?

–Psalm 56:3-4

A sharp increase in the number of women having abortions in their early thirties is partly being driven by the financial crisis of recent years, experts say.

The figure for women between the ages of 30 and 34 rose by 10% between 2009 and 2011, according to figures from the Department of Health. By contrast, the number of girls under 18 who had terminations over the same period dropped by more than 18%.

Over the past decade, the abortion rate for women aged 30 to 34 has increased faster than for any other age bracket ”” from 14.2 women per thousand in 2001 to 17.2 in 2011.

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This retirement oasis in the desert has long beckoned those who want to spin out their golden years playing golf and sitting by the pool in the arid sunshine.

But for Clare Keany, who turned 62 last fall and cannot find work, it feels more like a prison. Just a few miles from the gated estates of corporate chieftains and Hollywood stars, Ms. Keany lives in a tiny mobile home, barely getting by on little more than $1,082 a month from Social Security.

“I would rather be functioning and having a job somewhere,” said Ms. Keany, whose pixie haircut, trim build and crinkling smile suggest someone much younger than her years. “I really don’t enjoy living like this. I’ve got too much to do still.”

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Spain’s banking crisis did not come out of the blue.

In the 1990s, the Spanish suffered a bout of collective madness. Interest rates fell from 14 per cent (with the peseta) to 4 per cent (with the euro) in a matter of weeks.

In 1998, the centre-right government passed a law that increased the amount of land for development. Developers got rich, selling the idea that property would always go up in value. You could buy a flat on the Mediterranean for $156,000 and sell it the next day for $234,000; by the end of the month it would be worth $390,000…..

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Dorothy Sayers, the British intellectual and theologian and ”“ not incidentally ”“ writer of mystery novels, once remarked that for the average churchgoer of her day, the mystery of the Trinity meant “The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, the whole thing incomprehensible; something put in by theologians to make it more difficult ”“ nothing to do with daily life or ethics.”

Well, in fact the mystery of the Trinity has everything to do with daily life and ethics, though it is also, it must be said, “incomprehensible.” Which is why in the Church we are accustomed, as we have been this morning, to talking about this revelation as a “mystery.”

But, in this theological sense, when we talk about a mystery, we’re not talking about a sort of intellectual puzzle….No, in the Church, when we talk about a mystery, and especially when we talk about this Mystery of Mysteries, the ultimate mystery which is the Most Holy Trinity, we are using the word in almost the opposite way. Instead of a logical puzzle, a question, we are talking about a truth, a revealed truth, which we may know to be true even though it is impossible to wrap our little heads all the way round it.

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In just the two years since the release of Apple’s iPad, the U.S. tablet market has reached a “critical mass,” with nearly one in four smartphone owners also using a tablet in the three-month period ending in April, according to data released by market researcher ComScore.

Tablet use among smartphone owners has more than doubled in the past year, going from 9.7 percent last year to 23.6 percent this year, ComScore found. By comparison, only 10.4 percent of feature phone owners also use a tablet, “suggesting that smartphone ownership is highly predictive of tablet adoption in the current market,” comScore said.

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Is your doctor a technophobe? Increasingly, the answer may be no. There’s a stereotype that says doctors shun technology that might threaten patients’ privacy and their own pocketbooks. But a new breed of physicians is texting health messages to patients, tracking disease trends on Twitter, identifying medical problems on Facebook pages and communicating with patients through email.

So far, those numbers are small. Many doctors still cling to pen and paper, and are most comfortable using e-technology to communicate with each other ”” not with patients. But from the nation’s top public health agency, to medical clinics in the heartland, some physicians realize patients want more than a 15-minute office visit and callback at the end of the day.

Far from Silicon Valley and East Coast high-tech hubs, Kansas City pediatrician Natasha Burgert offers child-rearing tips on her blog, Facebook and Twitter pages, and answers patients’ questions by email and text messages.

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After a two-year-long investigation, the Vatican strongly condemned a 2006 book on sexuality written by a prominent American nun. The Vatican’s doctrine office said Just Love by Sister Margaret Farley reflects a “defective understanding” of church teaching on issues including masturbation, homosexuality, marriage and divorce. Sister Farley taught Christian ethics at Yale Divinity School for more than 30 years. She said her book was not intended to be an expression of official Catholic teaching, but rather an “exploration of contemporary interpretations.” With this week’s news, the book has shot up the bestsellers charts. Many lay Catholics around the country have been rallying in support of US nuns. Last week, the umbrella group representing the majority of American Catholic sisters pushed back against a Vatican rebuke of them. In April, the Vatican accused the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) of having “serious doctrinal problems” and ordered the group to place itself under the authority of Seattle’s archbishop. Conference leaders will go to Rome Tuesday (June 12) for a meeting with church officials to discuss the situation.

Meanwhile at the Vatican, the investigation continues in the so-called “VatiLeaks” scandal in which private papal documents have been leaked to journalists. The pope’s butler, Paolo Gabriele, was formally questioned this week. Under Vatican law, he faces up to six years in prison on charges of aggravated theft of the documents. But after Gabriele’s arrest, more documents were leaked, along with an anonymous note threatening still more unless certain church officials resign, including Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state. Bertone, who has been targeted in many of the leaks, accompanied Pope Benedict XVI to Milan last weekend for a huge event””the World Meeting of Families. An estimated one million people attended a special Mass there. Benedict announced the next World Meeting of Families will be in Philadelphia, in 2015. He said he looks forward to taking part “God willing.” He’ll then be 88 years old.

Amid all of this, the US Catholic bishops will be holding their semi-annual meeting this coming week in Atlanta.

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