“Pope Francis stands as the figure of unity for all Catholics wherever they reside. The bishops of the United States and the people of our 195 dioceses offer prayers for our new leader and promise allegiance to him,” Cardinal Dolan said. “Intense prayer from all around the world surrounded the election of Pope Francis. The bishops of the United States thank God for the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the inspired choice of the College of Cardinals.”

Read it all.

O God of love, we yield thee hearty thanks for whatsoever thou hast given us richly to enjoy; for health of mind and body, for the love and care of home, for the joys of friendship, and for every good gift of happiness and strength. We praise thee for thy servants who by their example and encouragement have helped us on our way, and for every vision of thyself which thou hast given us in sacrament or prayer; and we humbly beseech thee that all these thy benefits we may use in thy service, and to the glory of thy holy name; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord.

So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh– for if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

–Romans 8:12-17

Many are asking me what Jorge Bergoglio is really like. He is much more of a Christian, Christ centered and Spirit filled, than a mere churchman. He believes the Bible as it is written.

I have been with him on many occasions and he always makes me sit next to him and invariably makes me take part and often do what he as Cardinal should have done. He is consistently humble and wise, outstandingly gifted yet a common man. He is no fool and speaks out very quietly yet clearly when necessary.

He called me to have breakfast with him one morning and told me very clearly that the Ordinariate [creating by the Catholic Church to accommodate alienated Anglicans] was quite unnecessary and that the church needs us as Anglicans.

I consider this to be an inspired appointment not because he is a close and personal friend but because of who he is In Christ. Pray for him.

From Christianity Today here from a Facebook Comment

Read it all and there is also a Prayer for the New Pope

Translation from Vatican Radio:

Brothers and sisters good evening.

You all know that the duty of the Conclave was to give a bishop to Rome. It seems that my brother Cardinals have gone almost to the ends of the earth to get him”¦ but here we are. I thank you for the welcome that has come from the diocesan community of Rome..

Read it all

Vatican press briefing by Federico Lombardi s.j. March 14th

Coverage:
Thursday, March 14th
+ Reuters – New pope slips out of Vatican for morning prayer visit
+ Anglican Ink – Francis a friend to Argentine Anglicans
+ Anglican Ink – Anglican accolades for Francis
+ Independent – Falkland Islanders greet election of Argentine as Pope Francis I with surprise
+ Guardian – Pope Francis: the reaction back home
+ BBC – Profile: Pope Francis
+ Telegraph – Pope Francis: interactive panorama shows thousands thronging St Peter’s Square
Wednesday, March 13th
+ Catholic Herald – Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio: a profile
+ CNS: Argentina’s Cardinal Bergoglio elected pope, chooses Francis
+ Vatican Radio – Who is Pope Francis?
+ Reuters – Live updates with world reaction
+ BBC Live reaction

New Pope is Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, Argentina who takes the name of Pope Francis

Vatican Video of event now available here [Announcement of name 1 hr in; Appearance 1 hr 15 mins in]
It’s official: white smoke pouring out of the Sistine Chapel chimney signals that we have a new Pope! The billowing white smoke began spilling out of the chimney at approximately 7:06 p.m. local time, indicating the Cardinals had reached consensus on a candidate in the second round of balloting Wednesday afternoon. This means that at least two thirds, or 77 of the 115 cardinals gathered in conclave since Tuesday afternoon are united in their support for the candidate who has now become the 265th successor of St Peter.

As the cheering crowds wait eagerly in St Peter’s Square, the new pontiff is changing into the traditional white vestments in what is called the Room of Tears. After that, he returns to the Sistine Chapel where each of the Cardinal electors kneels to offer a sign of homage and obedience to their new Holy Father.
Following that ritual, the new Pope will move to the Pauline Chapel to pray in front of the Blessed Sacrament. Shortly after that, the senior cardinal deacon, French Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran will appear between the red curtains of the central balcony on St Peter’s Basilica to proclaim the famous Latin words ”˜Habemus Papam’, revealing the identity of the new pontiff and the name that he has chosen.

A moment later, the Pope will come out onto that balcony to greet the crowds and to give his first ‘Urbi et Orbi’ blessing to the city of Rome and to the world.

Read it all

Lambeth Palace has a new incumbent, who will be formally enthroned on March 21st as head of the Church of England, and hence of the global Anglican Communion. Anglicanism has replaced a scholar and theologian with a more practical, hands-on type, as the Roman Catholic church would be well advised to do. But on the face of things, Justin Welby’s first foray into politics seemed to mark him out as yet another cleric of the centre-left…

Read it all

Many of the men in seminary chose to become priests after the eruption of the sexual abuse crisis, at a time when the choice to become a priest is increasingly mystifying to many. Some of their friends and families were wary; others were encouraging.

“It’s pretty obvious, even for us, the situation is not really all sunshine. It is a tough time that we’re entering,” said Jun Hee Lee, a 25-year-old seminarian from Brooklyn. “Patience, perseverance in prayer and courage ”” having that faith and hope in our Lord that the trueness of the Gospel will prevail, the truth will overcome.”

–From a good article in yesterday’s New York Times.

Nearly 400 people attended the 222nd Convention of the Diocese of South Carolina at the Francis Marion Performing Arts Center in Florence, South Carolina, March 8-9, 2013.

“Wasn’t the worship incredible last night?” said Patricia Smith, remarking on the Convention’s Friday evening service of Holy Eucharist. Smith is a member of St. Paul’s, Summerville, and attended with her husband who is a delegate. “I felt like I was coming in to the gates of heaven. It had that triumphant sound. I guess, now that we’ve made a stand there was a unity, a lack of confusion. We were uniting in worship. It felt like God’s favor was there.”

For the second time the Convention voted unanimously to remove all references to The Episcopal Church from the Diocese’s constitution–the final step in severing their ties to the denomination they helped to found in 1789, five years after the South Carolina Convention first met in 1785.

Read it all.

O God, who willest not the death of a sinner: We beseech thee to aid and protect us who are exposed to grievous temptations; and grant that in obeying thy commandments we may be strengthened and supported by thy grace; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, indeed it cannot; and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

But you are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Any one who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although your bodies are dead because of sin, your spirits are alive because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit which dwells in you.

–Romans 8:1-11

h/t +Steve Wood

What a Bishop we have today!

+A scholar
+A pastor to his clergy and la
ity
+Supported by most of his Diocese
+Not supported by members of the National leadership
+Biblically and Theologically orthodox but in uninformed opinions of some canonically disobedient
+Maligned by a small group
+Censure by fellow bishops
+Caring and loving and yet tenacious
+Believes that Anglicanism is a continuation of the Church founded by Christ Himself, that made its way to the British Isles long before St. Augustine was sent from Rome
+More concerned with pleasing God than pleasing man

That is the Bishop we remember today, the Rt. Revd Edward King, Bishop of Lincoln, born on the Feast of St. Thomas a Becket 1829 and dying on March 8, 1910, 102 years ago today. What a remarkable servant of God he was, and if his contemporaries, whose names are long forgotten, had any idea that he would be remembered in the Church Calendar, they would have been astounded. After all he was found guilty by the cclesiastical Court of the Church of England for simply believing that the Church must be true to Her roots.

Read it all.

Cardinals gathered in Rome to elect the new Pope will begin voting later, with no clear frontrunner to take over as head of the Roman Catholic Church.

The 115 cardinal-electors are attending a special Mass in St Peter’s Basilica before processing into the Sistine Chapel to begin their secret deliberations this afternoon.

They will vote four times daily until two-thirds can agree on a candidate.

Read it all

More coverage:
+ The Vatican site including live video coverage when available [select English language from bottom of video]
+ Vatican Radio

Day 1
+ New York Times – Black Smoke From Conclave Signals No Pope on First Day
+ Telegraph – Live updates
+ CBS News – Catholic Cardinals hear plea for “unity” as they prepare to elect a new pope
+ Reuters – Cardinals head to conclave to elect pope for troubled Church
+ Christianity Today – Picking a pontiff: What should we pray?

Almighty and merciful God, who didst raise up Gregory of Rome to be a servant of the servants of God, and didst inspire him to send missionaries to preach the Gospel to the English people: Preserve in thy Church the catholic and apostolic faith they taught, that thy people, being fruitful in every good work, may receive the crown of glory that fadeth not away; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Almighty God, long-suffering and of great goodness, we confess to thee with our whole heart our neglect and forgetfulness of thy commandments, our wrong doing, speaking and thinking, the harm we have done to others, and the good we have left undone. O God, forgive thy people who have sinned against thee, and raise us to newness of life; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Lord reigns; let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad! Clouds and thick darkness are round about him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. Fire goes before him, and burns up his adversaries round about. His lightnings lighten the world; the earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax before the LORD, before the Lord of all the earth. The heavens proclaim his righteousness; and all the peoples behold his glory.

–Psalm 97:1-6

“This week your dynamic duo talk about George’s surgery and the election of the new Primate of Tanzania. Kevin and Allan talk about South Carolina, San Joaquin, and the Witness Intimidation Accord. Peter Ould brings news of border crossing in England”

For Terry Tee

Listen here

[Words and music for Lent featuring cantatas from Buxtehude’s ‘Membra Jesu Nostri’ – meditations around the suffering limbs of our Lord Jesus Christ]

At our convention last March I stressed two dimensions of our diocesan calling: Our vocation to make Biblical Anglicans for a Global Age working in relationship with Anglican Provinces and dioceses around the world; and secondly our calling to make disciples by planting new congregations as well as growing and strengthening our existing parishes and missions in an era of sweeping institutional decline among almost all of the mainline denominations. These remain two constants for us today even while so much around us is in flux. You will be relieved to hear that it is not my intention in this address to retrace the road we have traveled in these intervening months since our Special Convention on November 17th. Suffice it to say that since these two dimensions of our common life and vocation remained unshaken when the tectonic plates of the diocese shifted, I remain convinced that they were God’s mandate for us then and they are God’s mandate for us now. The reason for this is two-fold: What is at stake in this theological and moral crisis that has swallowed up the Anglican Communion since the latter years of the 20th Century is first and foremost, “What is the Gospel of Jesus Christ as this Church has received it?” We did not create it and we cannot change what we have received. So what is the Gospel of Jesus Christ as Anglicans have received it? There is nothing in Anglicanism that cannot be found elsewhere among the churches of Christendom. What is unique is how we have blended certain aspects of what other churches hold together. But we have received a Gospel. What is it?

The second thing is “What will Anglicanism in the 21st Century look like?” While the former is the more important, the latter is the more complex. Put another way, proclaiming the Good News, “the whole counsel of God” as St. Paul declared in his parting address to the presbyters of Ephesus in Acts 20:27, that should be our first concern. Proclaiming the good news ”“ the whole counsel of God. But the charge to “care for the Church of God, which he obtained with his blood” (Acts 20:28) or as our text last evening put it, “which he obtained with the blood of his son.” was also part of St. Paul’s charge to the bishop-presbyters. If we apply this second charge to take care of the church of God, which he obtained, with the blood of his son, if we apply this charge to ourselves ”“ those of us whose leadership is in this vineyard where the Lord has placed us ”“ I believe this means caring for emerging Anglicanism in the 21st Century. Frankly, this caring for Anglicanism in the 21st century gets wearisome at times, painful almost daily, exhausting, but it is a charge we cannot relinquish without abandoning our vocation. What does this mean specifically for us here in this Diocese of South Carolina? Let me take up three aspects of this charge as it I believe it applies to us.

Read it all and a pdf version is available top right of the page.

Dear Archbishop Justin,

It is an immense privilege to write to you about the future of our Church. As an evangelist and a pastor, you will know that we need to connect with the deepest longings of our people for significance and meaning in the course of a hard life, for love that proves elusive and for justice, often denied.

The good news of Jesus Christ has to be shown to meet their deepest needs….

Read it all and you can listen to the sequence on the Sunday Program here starting 10 minutes 40 seconds in for about 3 minutes

Read it all – the parish of the Falkland Islands is an extra-provincial church in the Anglican Communion, in this case to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Christ Church Cathedral is the southernmost Anglican cathedral in the world.

from here h/t Cathedral Church of St Luke and St Paul

Also there are some photos from day 2 of the Convention here

As we work, we sit more than we do anything else. We’re averaging 9.3 hours a day, compared to 7.7 hours of sleeping. Sitting is so prevalent and so pervasive that we don’t even question how much we’re doing it. And, everyone else is doing it also, so it doesn’t even occur to us that it’s not okay. In that way, I’ve come to see that sitting is the smoking of our generation.
……..
So four years ago, I made a simple change…

Read it all

Both for perplexity and for dulled conscience the remedy is the same; sincere and spiritual worship. For worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of the mind with His truth; the purifying of the imagination of His beauty; the opening of the heart to His love, the surrender of the will to his purpose””and all of this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable and therefore the chief remedy for that self-centeredness which is our original sin and the source of all actual sin. Yes ”“ worship in spirit and truth is the way to the solution of perplexity and to the liberation from sin.

–William Temple Readings in St. John’s Gospel (Wilton, Connecticut: Morehouse Barlow, 1985 reprint of the 1939 and 1940 original), p. 67, quoted by yours truly in yesterday’s sermon

O Lord Jesus Christ, who didst take upon thee the form of a servant, humbling thyself and accepting death for us, even the death of the cross: Grant that this mind may be also in us; so that we may gladly take upon ourselves the life of humility and service, and taking up our cross daily may follow thee in thy suffering and death, that with thee we may attain unto the power of thy endless life. Grant this, O Christ, our Saviour and our King.

–Harold Anson

After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiber’i-as. And a multitude followed him, because they saw the signs which he did on those who were diseased. Jesus went up on the mountain, and there sat down with his disciples. Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a multitude was coming to him, Jesus said to Philip, “How are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” This he said to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what are they among so many?” Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place; so the men sat down, in number about five thousand. Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten. When the people saw the sign which he had done, they said, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world!” Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

–John 6:1-15