Ottawa’s homeless community has a brand new “living room” in the revamped basement of St. Alban’s Anglican Church at 454 King Edward Ave.

Centre 454, which provides a safe space for people in Ottawa who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless, started its life in that basement in 1976, but moved to 216 Murray St. in 2000.

Now, after 12 years and more than a million dollars in renovations, the centre ”” and all its services ”” will again be located in St. Alban’s Anglican Church, Ottawa’s oldest surviving church, which was built in 1867 and attended by Sir John A. Macdonald.

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Women currently account for one third of the Anglican clergy and around half of those in training as priests, but the question of female bishops stirs passionate debate among Anglicans, almost one fourth of them in Africa, along with other issues such as the church’s attitude to same-sex marriage and homosexuality.

The vote is also a test of the authority of both the outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and his successor, Justin Welby, the Bishop of Durham. Dr. Williams is set to retire at the end of this year. Both he and Bishop Welby have said they will vote in favor of the compromise….

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When [Rowan] Williams began his term in office in 2003, the Anglican communion was reeling from a bitter if recently resolved war over female priests. Williams had supported that step and cautiously supported the next””the ordination of female bishops. But he insisted on concessions to the “conscience” of congregations that disagreed. The latest version of that legislation, on which the church’s General Synod is scheduled to vote on Nov. 20, promises that requests for alternative male bishops will be treated with “respect.” Williams campaigned for the new language, warning of “intensified internal conflict” if it failed.

Williams’s centrist approach doesn’t suit all of his parishioners. Critics to his left have called his desire for unity his “Obama syndrome”””a fanciful belief that the conservative side will come around if given enough time.

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The outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, is a world-class theologian, who is good on a one to one interview basis, as I found out at Lambeth Palace.

Unfortunately, his public statements are so carefully layered that the great mass of people have little idea what he is talking about. The Archbishop-elect has major problems to face. The deep schism in the worldwide Anglican Communion over same-sex relationships will not be easily healed.

However he has the advantage already of telling people where exactly he stands on this controversial topic, but he has also emphasised his strong desire to lead an inclusive church.

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To those who are expecting +Justin to fail or are waiting to find an excuse to be disenchanted, it is worth remembering that the Church of England has a legal and constitutional commitment to nationwide pastoral ministry. To some, it might appear paternalistic, dogmatic and narrow in its worldview. To others, it is weak, illegitimate and compromised. It claims to be Catholic and Reformed, but to each wing it is actually neither sufficiently Roman nor robustly Protestant. It was once remarked that the Church of England is ”˜crucified between two thieves’ ”“ the fanaticism and superstition of ”˜the Puritans and the Papists’ respectively. This may satisfy nobody completely, and yet it is the via media which has sustained its existence over five centuries, perhaps because it expresses something of the English disposition.

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Almighty God, by whose grace thy servant Elizabeth of Hungary recognized and honored Jesus in the poor of this world: Grant that we, following her example, may with love and gladness serve those in any need or trouble, in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

O Lord Jesus Christ, who still today dost tread the busy thoroughfares of life in readiness to heal and save: Open our eyes that we may recognize thy presence; open our hearts that we may trust thy love for us; open our lips that we may joyfully confess thee before men; we ask it for thy dear name’s sake.

–L. E. H. Stephens-Hodge

What profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it, a metal image, a teacher of lies? For the workman trusts in his own creation when he makes dumb idols!

Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake; to a dumb stone, Arise! Can this give revelation? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in it.

But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.

–Habakkuk 2:18-20

The Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC) synod has elected the Rt Rev Charles Masters as Co-adjutor Diocesan Bishop to succeed our Diocesan Bishop and Moderator the Rt Rev Donald Harvey when he retires in 2014.

The election took place at St Peter and St Paul Anglican Church in Ottawa on November 14 with the Primate of the Anglican Church in North America, the Most Rev Robert Duncan, presiding.

The House of Bishops of the Anglican Church in North America, of which ANiC is a diocese, must approve the election.

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The threat of the euro’s collapse has abated for the moment, but putting the single currency right will involve years of pain. The pressure for reform and budget cuts is fiercest in Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy, which all saw mass strikes and clashes with police this week…. But ahead looms a bigger problem that could dwarf any of these: France.

The country has always been at the heart of the euro, as of the European Union. President François Mitterrand argued for the single currency because he hoped to bolster French influence in an EU that would otherwise fall under the sway of a unified Germany. France has gained from the euro: it is borrowing at record low rates and has avoided the troubles of the Mediterranean. Yet even before May, when François Hollande became the country’s first Socialist president since Mitterrand, France had ceded leadership in the euro crisis to Germany. And now its economy looks increasingly vulnerable as well.

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Another day of loud booms and deadly weaponry plummeting from the sky wracked Israel and Gaza on Sunday, with fresh casualties reported on both sides of a conflict that international leaders scrambled to end.

Rescuers pulled the bloodied bodies of children from the wreckage of a Gaza home Sunday after an Israeli airstrike, which Israel said targeted a top Hamas militant. The Israelis initially said the operative was killed, but they later said he may have survived.

And about 120 rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel on Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces reported. At least 38 were intercepted by Israel’s “Iron Dome” missile-defense system, the IDF said — but one struck a car in the Israeli town of Ofakim, injuring an unspecified number of people, while another hit a woman’s carport while she was inside her house in Ashkelon. Fresh sirens sounded Sunday in Tel Aviv, but the IDF said it had intercepted at least two rockets headed for the city.

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The newly ordained Episcopal bishop of the Diocese of Rhode Island is helping to bring the church into the 21st century with the use of social media, church officials say.

The Very Rev. W. Nicholas Knisely Jr. is one of only six Episcopal bishops in the country who use Twitter, said Arizona Bishop Kirk Smith. Knisely was ordained Saturday at Dorrance Field House at St. George’s School in Middletown.

Read it all and there is more there.

This is crucial. We, as a Church, need to get leaner (though not necessarily meaner). The days of top heavy corporate-style hierarchies are over. We must be focused on mission, not governance. We must be outward focused at every level of the Church, having enough governance for the marshaling of resources, enough committees for organizing ministry, enough hierarchy for holy decision making . . . but no more!

The Church must be ”” from congregations to General Convention ”” committed to God’s Mission, not our favorite political agenda. God’s Vision for the world; not business as usual.

God has blessed his Episcopal Church with abundant resources, and through the years the Church has tried to be faithful. The time is now upon us to renew faithfulness and be a leaner, more mission-focused Church.

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There are 4–read them all.

A vigil in Westminster Abbey tomorrow morning will mark the start of three days that could change the Anglican church for ever. As the General Synod ”“ the ruling body of the Church of England ”“ meets in London tomorrow ahead of a crucial vote on Tuesday to decide whether women can be consecrated as bishops, the well-wishers in Westminster Abbey will be clasping their hands together in the hope of a smooth and harmonious vote.

But, with Synod insiders already predicting trouble, the prayers are likely to be in vain. Since the announcement of Justin Welby as the future Archbishop of Canterbury ”“ and his use of his maiden speech in the job to throw his support behind women reaching the most senior positions in the church ”“ many are cautiously optimistic that the measure will finally be voted through. But, if it is, it is unlikely to be without a fight. Online and email campaigns have been building grassroots support for a “yes” vote at a rapid rate. A website called Yes2womenbishops, which was set up only two weeks ago, has already had more than 11,000 visitors, and nearly 2,000 parishioners have used it to email their Synod representative.

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The new pope of Egypt’s Coptic Christian church has been formally enthroned in Cairo.

Pope Tawadros II was confirmed as the new leader of Egypt’s Christian minority at a ceremony at St Mark’s cathedral in the Egyptian capital.

The 60-year-old succeeds Pope Shenouda III, who died in March after four decades on the patriarchal throne.

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You can be sold in seconds.

No, wait: make that milliseconds.

The odds are that access to you ”” or at least the online you ”” is being bought and sold in less than the blink of an eye. On the Web, powerful algorithms are sizing you up, based on myriad data points: what you Google, the sites you visit, the ads you click. Then, in real time, the chance to show you an ad is auctioned to the highest bidder.

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The Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Revd Dr Michael Jackson, is in Cairo on Sunday 18 November 2012 attending the enthronement of the of the new Coptic Pope. He will be representing the Archbishop of Canterbury as well as the Church of Ireland. While there he will have an audience with the new Coptic Pope and deliver the following greeting from the Church of Ireland:

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The Lambeth Mission & St Mary’s building in Lambeth Road was full on Sunday morning for a service marking the 40th anniversary of Lambeth’s Anglican-Methodist ecumenical partnership.

Roderick Wells, the last priest to be attached to the ancient St Mary-at-Lambeth church next to Lambeth Palace, was the preacher. He had first arrived as curate in 1966 but when the rector, Oliver Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes, left in 1968 to be dean of Lincoln it was decided to make Roderick priest-in-charge.

Read it all and enjoy the pictures.

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During my career that included being president of two church-related liberal arts colleges, an insightful faculty member at one of the colleges called the relativist philosophy sweeping across campuses as a “diverse like me” mind-set. Diversity is great as long as it includes all those who agree with a certain postmodern worldview….

Where is diversity with fellowship and communion? Where is affirming the image of God in persons who disagree? Where is welcoming with abundant and radical hospitality? Where is the church broad enough to embrace within its communion every living soul? Where is the tiny space we worked so hard to find so that we could remain in TEC?

That tiny space to stand on principle and belief has become a razor’s edge of hypocrisy, severing a tie that should have remained. That tiny space has been eliminated by a “diverse like me” mind-set in a dysfunctional polity. And the Episcopal Church, the original and legitimate Diocese of South Carolina, the Anglican Communion and God’s kingdom on Earth will be the worse for it.

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An unhappy convergence of theology, morality and church policy has led to a collision with the leadership of the Episcopal Church, [Mark Lawrence]…said.

“We move on. Those who are not with us, you may go in peace, your properties intact. Those who have yet to decide, we give you what time you need. Persuasion is almost always the preferable policy, not coercion.”

Delegates at the convention voted overwhelmingly to pass three resolutions, the first affirming that ties with the Episcopal Church are severed, the second and third amending the constitution and canons to reflect local autonomy.

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O God, who art nigh to all them that call upon thee in truth; who art thyself the Truth, whom to know is life eternal: Instruct us with thy divine wisdom, and teach us thy law; that we may know the truth and walk in it; through him in whom the truth was made manifest, even Jesus Christ, thy Son, our Lord.

–from the thought of Saint Augustine

Bless our God, O peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard, who has kept us among the living, and has not let our feet slip.

–Psalm 66: 8-9

Sharing an obligation to spread the good news of salvation in Christ, all Christian communities are challenged by the fact that many people today do not think they need God, Pope Benedict XVI said.

“The spiritual poverty of many of our contemporaries, who no longer perceive the absence of God in their lives as a privation, represents a challenge for all Christians,” the pope said Nov. 15 in a meeting with members of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

Pope Benedict said authentic ecumenical prayer, dialogue and cooperation cannot ignore “the crisis of faith that vast regions of the planet are experiencing,” nor can Christians ignore signs that many modern people still feel a need for some kind of spirituality.

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If you’re a church leader who doesn’t excel in personal evangelism, can your congregation still enjoy conversion growth? Or if you have been particularly gifted by God to lead others to Christ, do you know how to teach others to follow your example?

Three pastors who have welcomed many new believers into the kingdom of God talk together in this 10-minute video about how churches can grow in evangelism. They discuss, for example, why new Christians are so zealous in sharing the good news of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. Darrin Patrick shares colorful stories about how he preached the gospel to his friends in the middle of wild parties. But he also explains what happened when he made the mistake to assume everyone else is extroverted like him.

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Q: What moved you to write this book?

Os Guinness: I’m a European, but I’m a great admirer of this country. I think when you come to things that are key for the world, such as freedom, America has what historians used to call the most nearly perfect system. But in the last fifty years, particularly since the 1960s, this country is in danger of undermining and throwing away its heritage. If ever America was to practice her first principles and be relevant to the whole world, it’s today. But at the very moment she could be more relevant than ever, she isn’t, because Americans are squandering their heritage. So I’m partly outraged at the follies I see in this country, and partly extremely sad.

Q: Why is the topic of freedom so important to consider during an election year?

Os: Well here we are in the full cycle of the horse race, and many of the issues being discussed are relatively trivial, compared with the deep underlying issues of the republic. And unless they’re put right, America will be in trouble. This issue of sustainable freedom is the very deepest one.

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Today, Saturday, November 17, 2012, the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of South Carolina met in Special Convention at the “mother church of the Diocese,” historic St. Philip’s Church in Charleston. There, an overwhelming majority passed three resolutions. (View the Resolutions.)

DISASSOCIATION
The first, by voice vote, affirmed the act of disassociation taken by the Bishop and Standing Committee of the Diocese, in response to actions of The Episcopal Church (TEC).

AMENDMENTS TO THE DIOCESAN CONSTITUTION
The second resolution, also by voice vote, passed on first reading. It approved amendments to the Diocesan Constitution removing all references to TEC.

AMENDMENTS TO THE DIOCESAN CANONS
The final vote, which was by orders, was for approval of amendments to the diocesan canons, likewise removing all such reference to TEC. It passed with an overwhelming vote of 96% (71 clergy) in the clergy order, with 3 abstaining. In the lay order, the vote passed with 90% in favor (47 yes with 5 abstentions).

Read it all (and make sure to follow the link to all the resolutions).

Read it all.