As we’ve all heard by now, there is a big storm brewing on the East Coast. Looking at the latest weather models, that may be a bit of an understatement.
The National Weather Service has labelled the hybrid gyre that may result from the merging of Hurricane Sandy and a Midwest snowstorm a “Frankenstorm.” When it hits, the storm could have truly scary implications befitting the Halloween holiday it will coincide with….
Europe’s economic woes are washing over U.S. multinational companies, contributing to a season of weak corporate earnings.
Domestic sales are growing, as the U.S. housing market and consumer confidence recover. But China’s economy has slowed, robbing U.S. companies of their most reliable growth engine of recent years.
Almost uniformly, however, U.S. companies reporting third-quarter results identify Europe as the weakest link in the global economic chain.
For the first time since the Great Recession hit, American households are taking on more debt than they are shedding, an epochal shift that might augur a more resilient recovery.
For two of the last three quarters, American households’ total outstanding borrowing on things like credit cards, mortgages and auto loans has increased after falling for 14 consecutive quarters before then. Some economists even see an end to the long, hard process of deleveraging ”” as they refer to the cutting of debt relative to income or the nation’s economic output. That process, they say, has been a central reason for the extraordinary sluggishness of the recovery.
“We’re at an inflection point,” said Kevin Logan, the chief United States economist for HSBC. “Debt is less of a burden” for households, he said.
Actor Nicolas Cage will reportedly star in what producers hope will be a new, improved movie version of the best-selling, end-times thriller Left Behind.
The project is being developed by Cloud Ten Pictures, which released the first film adaptation of the book in 2000, following it with two other installments from the successful series of novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins””which have sold more than 64 million copies since the first title came out in 1995.
Cloud Ten founder and CEO Paul Lalonde, who was one of the producers of the original, independently made movie that starred Kirk Cameron, is producing the action thriller that will be “in the mold of a classic disaster film” with Michael Walker, The Hollywood Reporter reported. Jay David Williams of Family Screen Partners is executive producing.
After a rousing Maori welcome to TelstraClear Pacific Events Centre in Manukau, New Zealand, Archbishop Rowan Williams’ responded by celebrating thanking his hosts and celebrating the place of the Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia in the Communion’s past and present.
He asked the assembled gathering to pray “for a Pentecostal experience [for the ACC], that divided tongues of fire will touch us all in the days ahead, that we shall learn to listen to one another’s languages and experiences and insights with all the enthusiasm and eagerness with which we would listen to God’s own word.”
He went on to promise that ACC-15 would in turn pray that the “experiments” of the country of Aotearoa New Zealand and the Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia “will be marks and signs of work of the Holy Spirit in the world today and be signs of hope for a world in which by God’s purpose and by God’s promise one of these days all the islands will rise and sing.”
“It is your Church, your home, ask for the best of your best of your pastors and teachers” with those words the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams concluded an extraordinary morning of welcome at the TelstraClear Pacific events Centre in Manukau, New Zealand. The response was to a question posed by a young person who was participating in a youth forum where questions were addressed to the Archbishop, Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori the presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church and Archbishop Thabo Makgoba the Primate of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa.
Dr Williams along with the Anglican Consultative Council delegation who are meeting in Auckland, New Zealand, had arrived at the centre for a powhiri – a Maori welcoming ceremony. A significant part of the morning event was a youth forum where questions ranged from Dr Williams’ favorite biblical passage to church attitudes towards women, same sex marriage, what shoes God would wear, and whether it was fun to be Archbishop.
The first thing the Archbishop of Canterbury will face at …[today’s] Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) opening ceremony will be a guttural challenge from the young people of this country.
On entering the Telstra Events Centre in Manukau, Dr Rowan Williams and ACC members will be greeted with a wero (challenge) from a young Maori Anglican brandishing a taiaha (spear).
Welcome to Aotearoa, Archbishop; we do things differently here.
Get ready for a once in a lifetime event.
That’s what Auckland Anglicans were hearing in the leadup to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s visit, and the meeting in the Parnell Cathedral of the Anglican Consultative Council.
This, they were being told, was the first and last chance for Kiwis to see and hear Dr Williams, and the only chance most would ever get to sample the ACC.
Check it out. Note carefully that there is another name ahead of Bishop Justin Welby at the present time (on one of the lists the first two names are tied in terms of odds)–KSH.
The clergy and laity in the Church of England who are responsible for choosing the next Archbishop of Canterbury are under pressure to make a decision before the General Synod meets to vote on women bishops next month.
The choice of the successor to Dr Rowan Williams will be crucial in helping to push through the vote on women bishops when it goes to the synod for final approval on November 20.
The Bishop of Durham, Justin Welby, an evangelical, is understood to be the favourite still, but the Crown Nominations Commission is divided over the second choice. If the liberals on the commission vote against Bishop Welby at the final decision, it could go to the second choice….
Read it all (requires subscription).
In this paper, Savi Hensman gives a detailed overview of some of the most significant affirmative theological work on same-sex love and the Christian tradition. She demonstrates the unhelpful and simplistic positing of a straightforward ‘conservative versus liberal’ divide on these issues, and draws on Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodist, Reformed, Quaker and Anabaptist/Mennonite thinkers.
Read it all (note that the site includes a summary as well as a pdf of the whole paper).
Heavenly Father, I pray that thy Holy Spirit may rest upon me now, as I approach the study of thy holy Word, and that he may make that Word a living message to my soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
He was praying in a certain place, and when he ceased, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” And he said to them, “When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread; and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive every one who is indebted to us; and lead us not into temptation.” And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything’? I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him whatever he needs. And I tell you, Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
–Luke 11:1-13
Watch it all. Not a dry eye in the house here after this one–KSH.
At school No. 20 in Russia’s troubled region of Chechnya, boys sit on one side of the classroom and girls in headscarves on the other. All are silent as the new teacher rises to speak.
“Do you say your morning prayers?” Islam Dzhabrailov, 21, asks, wearing a green prayer cap and a plain tunic, religious dress that is increasingly popular in the mountainous province in southern Russia’s mostly Muslim Caucasus region.
“It’s just as important as doing your homework,” he tells the students aged 14-15.
U.S. meteorologists expect a natural horror show of high wind, heavy rain, extreme tides and maybe snow to the west beginning early Sunday, peaking with the arrival of Hurricane Sandy on Tuesday and lingering past Halloween on Wednesday.
Experts predict at least $1 billion in damage in the United States.
“It’s looking like a very serious storm that could be historic,” said Jeff Masters, meteorology director of the forecasting service Weather Underground. “Mother Nature is not saying, ‘Trick or treat.’ It’s just going to give tricks.”
Deficit-reduction principles backed by more than 80 U.S. chief executive officers are so broad that anti-tax advocate Grover Norquist and an ally of President Barack Obama both claim their plans could satisfy the standards.
The Campaign to Fix the Debt, with more than $30 million in backing, announced an expanded list of supporters yesterday, including the leaders of Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ), Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) On the most vexing issue — whether tax increases should be part of a deal — the principles refer to lower tax rates and higher revenue, not higher taxes.
Read it all. You can also find the CEO Debt Concerns Press Release here.