Hear the word of the LORD, O people of Israel; for the LORD has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or kindness, and no knowledge of God in the land; there is swearing, lying, killing, stealing, and committing adultery; they break all bounds and murder follows murder. Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it languish, and also the beasts of the field, and the birds of the air; and even the fish of the sea are taken away. Yet let no one contend, and let none accuse, for with you is my contention, O priest. You shall stumble by day, the prophet also shall stumble with you by night; and I will destroy your mother. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. The more they increased, the more they sinned against me; I will change their glory into shame. They feed on the sin of my people; they are greedy for their iniquity. And it shall be like people, like priest; I will punish them for their ways, and requite them for their deeds. They shall eat, but not be satisfied; they shall play the harlot, but not multiply; because they have forsaken the LORD to cherish harlotry.

–Hosea 4:1-10

Before we start discussing your five books, can you tell me why this particular time in history, from 200 BC to AD 400, interests you?

This is the period when we see the shift from a pre-Christian pagan world to a Christian world out of which the roots of our Christianity arose ”“ first out of the Jewish religion, and then as a force increasingly in its own right. The consequent changes in world view are still essential to our outlook on the world. Whatever personal faith (or lack of it) you may have, only by studying this period can you get behind Christian values or the values of our other major religions, and look at them from a historical point of view and realise that they were historically formed, that they are not the only values and are not obligatory.

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Following the explosive attack at Anglican Church of Kenya St. Polycarp Parish on Juja Road in Nairobi yesterday, Archbishop Dr. Eliud Wabukala joined other religious leaders in condemning the explosive attack.

Earlier in the day, Archbishop Wabukala, and Bishop Joel Waweru of Nairobi Diocese visited and prayed with four of the six children still admitted at Kenyatta National Hospital, Children’s Ward.

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To speculate endlessly over twitter; social-media navel gazing.

–Adam Feuerstein

If there is substance to the tweet signalling “strong opposition” to Sentamu, it suggests the Archbishop of York is not amongst the “also rans.” It probably means a section of the commission or perhaps just one member made anti-Sentamu views known in a forceful manner. Sentamu’s stance on sexuality could be one possible reason; lack of popularity among some commission members may be another.

There are suggestions that the six Canterbury representatives voting in solidarity could block a particular candidate or even stall the entire process. Chartres is rumoured to have told friends he is out of the reckoning. While he recently signalled willingness to ordain women as priests and take part in consecrating women as bishops, his earlier stance could still be held against him, particularly by Canterbury representatives. They include Clare Edwards, canon pastor at Canterbury Cathedral, who is influential in the campaign for women in the episcopate.

Further, in a close vote the role of Barry Morgan (the Archbishop of Wales, representing the primates of the Communion) would be crucial, either in supporting or blocking a candidate.

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Rabbis and pastors are citizens, too. Why should they alone be muzzled from expressing their opinion, even from the pulpit?

Regardless, my colleagues should stop flaunting their political muscles. Doing so gets us and our churches into hazardous territory.

Sure, definitions of marriage, life and death in the public sphere have moral and religious nuances. But diving into politics also brings bargaining, trade-offs and compromises, which are a part of politics. What we gain politically, we will lose morally.

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I will take comments on this submitted by email only to at KSHarmon[at]mindspring[dot]com.

At least 32 people have been killed in Iraq as car bomb attacks targeted security forces and Shia pilgrims around the country, police say.

In Taji, a mainly Sunni town north of the capital, Baghdad, four car bombs went off within minutes of each other, killing at least eight people.

In the southern town of Madain, a bomb exploded near a Shia shrine and Iranian pilgrims were among the injured.

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I’ve spoken at length this afternoon with Arun Arora (the Church of England Director of Communications) and it’s clear that what he was trying to communicate through various parties yesterday was not a confirmation that the CNC hadn’t decided a name but rather was simply a “no comment”. If we’ve given the impression that Arun was trying to pass on a clear message that CNC hadn’t decided on a candidate then we apologise.

We’re still left with the mysterious line in the press statement of “the work of the Commission continues”.

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Support for Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan for billions of dollars in tax hikes on the November ballot is slipping amid public anxiety about how politicians spend money, but voters still favor the proposal, according to a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll.

The findings suggest that voters are leery of sending more cash to Sacramento in the wake of a financial scandal at the parks department, spiraling costs for a multibillion-dollar high-speed rail project to connect Northern and Southern California and ill-timed legislative pay raises.

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More than one in 10 borrowers defaulted on their federal student loans, intensifying concern about a generation hobbled by $1 trillion in debt and the role of colleges in jacking up costs.

The default rate, for the first three years that students are required to make payments, was 13.4 percent, with for-profit colleges reporting the worst results, the U.S. Education Department said… [late last week]

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Erasing some of their worst Ryder Cup memories, the Europeans wore the image of Seve Ballesteros on their sleeves and played their hearts out Sunday at Medinah to match the greatest comeback in history and head home with that precious gold trophy.

Europe got its payback for Brookline, when the Americans roared back from the same 10-6 deficit. This rally was even more remarkable, carried out before a raucous American crowd that began their chants of “USA!” some three hours before the first match got under way.

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The white smoke may not yet have gone up, but the 16 members of the Crown Nominations Commission are trying to decide who should succeed Rowan Williams as Archbishop of Canterbury.

It is difficult to imagine such a large committee coming to a very sensible decision, particularly when those assembled under the chairmanship of Lord Luce will have been chosen with an almost painful inclusiveness: High Church bishop matching Low Church bishop, a woman priest matching an evangelical layman and so forth.

Nevertheless, they must come to a decision, knowing that whoever they choose must make decisions that risk pulling the whole Church apart. Rowan Williams is handing on to his successor something like a vase with an irreparable crack. One false move over the question of gay marriage, gay priests or women bishops and the handsome old antique will fall apart in his successor’s hands.

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The secretive panel choosing the next Archbishop of Canterbury is rumoured to have turned down the original frontrunner, the Archbishop of York John Sentamu, amid signs that it is deadlocked.

Speculation was rife last night that the 16-strong Crown Nominations Commission was not convinced the high-profile Dr Sentamu was the best candidate, and was torn between two other candidates, the Bishop of Norwich Graham James and the Bishop of Durham Justin Welby.

Sources said Ugandan-born Dr Sentamu, who had been tipped as the Church’s first black Archbishop of Canterbury, was a popular and charismatic leader, but may lack the diplomatic skills for Lambeth Palace.

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[London Bishop Richard] Chartres, a friend of the Prince of Wales, had been seen as a leading candidate. But it is understood that representatives from the Canterbury diocese objected to his refusal to ordain women, demanding that Williams’s successor be supportive of female clergy.

“I’ve been told that the Bishop of Dover is exercising a lot of influence over the whole process and that the Canterbury six [representatives from the diocese] are making life very difficult,” a senior cleric said. “They have too much say, with six out of the 16 votes, and can block anyone.”

With Chartres out of contention, the commission is thought to have reduced the shortlist to Graham James, the Bishop of Norwich, Justin Welby, the Bishop of Durham, and Sentamu.

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O God, who by the teaching of thy faithful servant and bishop Remigius didst turn the nation of the Franks from vain idolatry to the worship of thee, the true and living God, in the fullness of the catholic faith; Grant that we who glory in the name of Christian may show forth our faith in worthy deeds; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

O God, the glory of thy saints, who being above all, and through all, and in all, dost yet accept the prayer of the contrite: Grant that we, being hallowed in mind, fervent in spirit, and chaste in body, may offer to thee the pure sacrifice of hearts uplifted in thy praise, and lives devoted to thy service; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. And there I will give her her vineyards, and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt. “And in that day, says the LORD, you will call me, ‘My husband,’ and no longer will you call me, ‘My Ba’al.’ For I will remove the names of the Ba’als from her mouth, and they shall be mentioned by name no more. And I will make for you a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the creeping things of the ground; and I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land; and I will make you lie down in safety. And I will betroth you to me for ever; I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness; and you shall know the LORD. “And in that day, says the LORD, I will answer the heavens and they shall answer the earth; and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil, and they shall answer Jezreel; and I will sow him for myself in the land. And I will have pity on Not pitied, and I will say to Not my people, ‘You are my people’; and he shall say ‘Thou art my God.'”

–Hosea 2:14-23

The Spanish government Saturday said the effort to clean up an ailing banking system will have a big impact on its finances, widening its budget gap and increasing its debt load.

Budget Minister Cristobal Montoro said the government forecasts its budget deficit will stand at 7.4% of gross domestic product this year. Excluding the impact of measures to help banks to digest a massive pile of toxic real-estate assets, he said Spain will comply with the deficit target of 6.3% of GDP for 2012 it has committed to with the European Union.

The new budget projections come at a time of uncertainty about the country’s solvency amid soaring borrowing costs. Many analysts expect the government’s effort to lower a budget gap to below the 3%-of-GDP limit for EU countries by 2014 to go off track also because of a deep recession that is pushing the unemployment rate to a record high of almost 25%.

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According to the Sunday Times, the panel has a three name shortlist:

* Bishop of Norwich Graham James, 61, a keen amateur actor and cricketer who said last week he would “hope and pray” someone else gets the job.

* Archbishop of York John Sentamu, 63, a Ugandan-born traditionalist who holds the second most senior post in the Church of England and writes a column for the Sun newspaper.

* Bishop of Durham Justin Welby, 56, a former oil industry executive who has been a bishop for less than a year.

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The choice of a successor to Dr Rowan Williams as Archbishop of Canterbury may not take place for several months, the Church of England has said.

It comes after speculation that the latest meeting of the panel given the task of nominating a new Church leader had not chosen a candidate.

Officials reiterated that the work of choosing a successor could go on throughout the autumn.

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I’m Anabaptist, but even more than that, I’m a follower of the resurrected Jesus. If these two identifiers ever get out of order, something in my faith journey has gone seriously awry.

I didn’t even embrace Anabaptist theology until seminary. Actually, it was a long journey that started with two strands of complementary thought: the emerging church and an Anglican Bishop, namely N.T. Wright.

Neither Wright nor the emerging church is specifically Anabaptist, but much of what these voices were saying (when I was in college / seminary) gave me the courage to move into the Anabaptist way of faith. These voices questioned “traditional” modes of understanding the Scriptures and politics, pointing me to a much richer faith experience than I could have hoped for.

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