Almighty God, who hast revealed to thy Church thine eternal Being of glorious majesty and perfect love as one God in Trinity of Persons: Give us grace that, like thy bishop Gregory of Nyssa, we may continue steadfast in the confession of this faith, and constant in our worship of thee, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who livest and reignest now and for ever.

We praise thee, O God, that thou hast made us members of the Church of Jesus Christ which he purchased with his own blood, and hast called us into a worldwide fellowship of love and service; and now, meeting in his name, we pray that thou wilt preside over this gathering in the power of thy Holy Spirit. So direct our thoughts and our words that all our decisions may be pleasing to thee; enable us to elect to the various offices in our church men and women endowed with the gifts that their service requires; keep us from all misunderstanding, from all dissension, and from every breach of the law of love; and prosper every effort to make Christ known throughout this parish. Thus, O Lord, may thy name be glorified and thy kingdom extended, through Jesus Christ our Saviour.

–Frank Houghton

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. Do not yield your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but yield yourselves to God as men who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you yield yourselves to any one as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

–Romans 6:12-18

FLORENCE, S.C. ”“ In an atmosphere of excitement and anticipation, clergy and delegates of the Diocese of South Carolina gathered Friday evening for an opening Eucharist to their 222nd annual convention.

With a theme that focused primarily on moving forward after their split with the national Episcopal Church, spirits were high among the crowd despite the most recent developments in a legal battle over rights to the Diocese’s name, seal and property.

All Saints Church member Libby Phillips said she feels that the Diocese will now be meeting the needs of a group of people that would not be met otherwise.

“We are just so enthusiastic and excited about what’s happening,” Phillips said. “We’re looking to the future and growth and spirituality.”

Participants and clergy present seemed eager to accept Bishop Mark Lawrence’s call to focus on the future and let the courts decide the more complicated matters of the once-Episcopal affiliated group.

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Statement by Communication Service of Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations on recent changes in family laws in France and Great Britain
Same-sex unions have continued to be legalized in Europe. Recently, respective bills have been approved by the lower chambers of the French and British parliaments. It was done not only in defiance of the opinion of a part of deputies but also against the background of mass protest manifestations of citizens.
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The Russian Orthodox Church preserves and defends the primary Christian understanding of marriage and family, sanctifies marital relations in the church Sacrament and asserts the importance of marriage for the wellbeing and development of society as a whole.

Our Church expresses her solidarity with Christians, adherents to other religions and those proponents of non-religious worldviews who have preserved the traditional understanding of marriage as union of man and woman and come out against the attempts to use a radical legal reform to impose on the whole society a different understanding of marriage unprecedented in human history.

Aware of the danger of these processes, we believe it important to develop dialogue with all the public forces, both religious and non-religious, who support the traditional ideas of family values. This criterion is one of the most important ones in the Russian Orthodox Church’s choice of partners in inter-Christian and interreligious dialogues.

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