Daily Archives: April 7, 2013

Ephraim Radner writes Texas Supreme Court Justices

Read it all and you can find A.S. Haley’s comments on this there.

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, * Christian Life / Church Life, * Culture-Watch, Episcopal Church (TEC), Ethics / Moral Theology, Law & Legal Issues, Ministry of the Ordained, Parish Ministry, Presiding Bishop, TEC Bishops, TEC Polity & Canons, Theology

Reminder of an Event of interest–The Gospel Coalition Missions Conference

You may find basic information about the conference here which includes this summary:

The Gospel Coalition’s 2013 national conference will be a five-day event running April 6 to 10, including a weekend world missions conference and three-day main conference focused on the mission of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. Both events will be held at Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando, Florida, and we encourage you to attend them together, but you may also register separately. Overall the event features 80 speakers from around the world aiming to stir your affections for Jesus Christ, equip you to live faithfully in this world, and spread the gospel to the ends of the earth.

You may be also be interested in a schedule which can be found here.

Posted in * Christian Life / Church Life, * Religion News & Commentary, Evangelicals, Missions, Other Churches, Theology, Theology: Scripture

(NPR) Loan Education Becomes A Prerequisite As Student Debt Balloons

For students now sprinting toward the end of their college days, the finish line may not be much of a relief. More than ever, their gait is slowed by the weight of impending debt.

Thirty-seven million Americans share about $1 trillion in student loans, . It’s the besides mortgages, eclipsing both auto loans and credit cards. And on it grows, an appetite undiminished by the recession.

There are signs that students are catching on to the dangers, however. Dawit Lemma learned his own lessons about loans and is now passing them on to others. He’s the associate director of operations at the University of Maryland’s Office of Student Financial Aid.

Read it all.

Posted in * Culture-Watch, * Economics, Politics, Economy, Education, Ethics / Moral Theology, Personal Finance, Theology, Young Adults

(First Things On the Square) David DeWolf–Washington State Contemplates Mandatory Abortion Coverage

On April 1, the Health Care Committee of the Washington State Senate held a two-hour hearing on what its proponents euphemistically call the “Reproductive Parity Act,” and its opponents describe as the “abortion insurance mandate.” If passed, EHB 1044 would require that if any health insurance plan provided coverage for maternity care, it “must also provide a covered person with substantially equivalent coverage to permit the voluntary termination of a pregnancy.”

The bill has already passed the Washington House of Representatives, 53-43, but in the Senate it may be a different matter. At the hearing one of the bill’s proponents claimed to have a written commitment from twenty-five senators (a bare majority) to vote for the bill, but from the comments of at least one committee member it appeared that the bill might have trouble making it out of committee. (There is a procedure for a bill to be brought to the floor even if it has died in committee, but such cases are rare.)

In his inaugural address (“The World Will Not Wait”), Jay Inslee, the state’s newly elected Democratic governor, surprised many by featuring the bill as one of his priorities.

Read it all.

Posted in * Culture-Watch, * Economics, Politics, Children, Ethics / Moral Theology, Law & Legal Issues, Life Ethics, Marriage & Family, Politics in General, Science & Technology, State Government, Theology

(WSJ) Mary Lewis–El Greco's "The Burial of the Count of Orgaz"

At the center of Spain and of ancient Castile, and less than an hour from Madrid, Toledo has always existed in another world. Countless settlers have been drawn to the city’s impregnable perch on a mountaintop, and they have shaped its cultural history: Romans, Visigoths, Moorish caliphates and, in the medieval period, Muslim, Christian and Jewish communities all left their mark on monuments that fill the small city. Domenikos Theotokopoulos””the 16th-century painter from Crete known as El Greco””left his adopted home some of its greatest treasures, including his magisterial painting of “The Burial of the Count of Orgaz.” On a monumental scale (almost 16 feet by 10 feet) and in astonishingly original form, the canvas reflects not only centuries of Toledo’s history as a cultural melting pot, but the profound faith and tolerance that sustained it.

Read it all.

Posted in * Culture-Watch, * International News & Commentary, Art, Europe, History, Religion & Culture, Spain

Nigerian Anglican Youth Fellowship says Amnesty for Boko Haram is legalization of terrorism

The President of AYF, Wuse Archdeaconry Council, Barrister Isaac Harrison stated this during a workshop organised for youth, with the theme; “Empowered To Impact The World”, in Abuja.

According to him, “We cannot grant amnesty to people we do not know, we cannot also grant amnesty to people who had already made up their minds that whether there is dialogue or not, they will go on with whatever they are doing, If Boko Haram actually need peace, they will not be killing those that are moving towards that peace.

Read it all.

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, * Culture-Watch, * Economics, Politics, Anglican Provinces, Church of Nigeria, Religion & Culture, Teens / Youth, Terrorism, Violence

(CBC) In Eastern Canada, St. Phillip's church debacle drawn out again

An appeal board has overturned an order by the town of Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s to the local Anglican parish to repair the slowly deteriorating church.

The town declared the old building a heritage structure to prevent the parish from demolishing the building in order to build a new one.

However, the parish, which still has ownership of the building, refuses to make repairs and it has been rotting for three years.

Read it all.

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, Anglican Church of Canada, Anglican Provinces

(The Press) The Bishop of Christchurch charms and polarises

Is this the monster? If you were to believe the worst of everything you ever heard and read about Victoria Matthews, Anglican Bishop of Christchurch, you would expect to meet a terse and autocratic figure, dismissive of contrary opinions and impatient with the public.

In person, Matthews is none of those things. Instead, she is charm itself. She is funny, unpretentious and refreshingly direct. Perhaps it is her tendency to be direct and certain that has got her into trouble. Her easy sense of humour may not always come across either.

Not every reputation squares with reality, of course. But how did this relationship go so wrong?

Read it all.

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, Anglican Provinces

(LA Times) Christian leaders offer support for Pastor Rick Warren

Christian leaders called for prayers Saturday in an outpouring of support for Rick Warren and his family after the suicide of the Orange County evangelical pastor’s youngest son.

Among those offering condolences was Harvest Christian Fellowship leader Greg Laurie, who tweeted followers to join him in a prayer for Warren and his wife, Kay.

Laurie, whose adult son Christopher was killed in a 2008 car crash, noted on his blog that he had experienced similar pain. “At times like these, there really are no words, but there is the Word,” he wrote.

Read it all.

Posted in Uncategorized

The full statement sent by Rick Warren to the Saddleback Community Church staff about their son

To my dear staff,

Over the past 33 years we’ve been together through every kind of crisis. Kay and I’ve been privileged to hold your hands as you faced a crisis or loss, stand with you at gravesides, and prayed for you when ill. Today, we need your prayer for us.

No words can express the anguished grief we feel right now. Our youngest son, Matthew, age 27, and a lifelong member of Saddleback, died today.

You who watched Matthew grow up knew he was an incredibly kind, gentle, and compassionate man. He had a brilliant intellect and a gift for sensing who was most in pain or most uncomfortable in a room. He’d then make a bee-line to that person to engage and encourage them.

But only those closest knew that he struggled from birth with mental illness, dark holes of depression, and even suicidal thoughts. In spite of America’s best doctors, meds, counselors, and prayers for healing, the torture of mental illness never subsided. Today, after a fun evening together with Kay and me, in a momentary wave of despair at his home, he took his life.

Kay and I often marveled at his courage to keep moving in spite of relentless pain. I’ll never forget how, many years ago, after another approach had failed to give relief, Matthew said “ Dad, I know I’m going to heaven. Why can’t I just die and end this pain?” but he kept going for another decade.

Thank you for your love and prayers. We love you back.

Pastor Rick

Posted in * Christian Life / Church Life, * Culture-Watch, * Religion News & Commentary, Children, Death / Burial / Funerals, Evangelicals, Marriage & Family, Other Churches, Parish Ministry, Psychology, Religion & Culture, Suicide, Young Adults

A Prayer to Begin the Day

O Lord God, who hast revealed in holy Scripture what conquests faith has made both in doing, and in suffering: Grant us no smaller faith than that which overcometh the whole world, that Jesus thy Son is God, very God from the beginning, the First and the Last, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, world without end.

Posted in * Christian Life / Church Life, Church Year / Liturgical Seasons, Easter, Spirituality/Prayer

From the Morning Bible Readings

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.Once you were no people but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy.

–1 Peter 2:9-10

Posted in Theology, Theology: Scripture

Michigan and Louisville win to gain NCAA basketball Final

Posted in Uncategorized

Rick Warren's son Michael dies by Suicide

Popular evangelical Pastor Rick Warren asked members of his Southern California church for prayers as he and his family coped with the apparent suicide of his 27-year-old son.

The church said on Saturday that Matthew Warren took his own life at his Mission Viejo home.

Matthew Warren struggled with mental illness, deep depression and suicidal thoughts throughout his life, Saddleback Valley Community Church said in a statement, after his body was found Friday night.

Read it all.

Posted in * Christian Life / Church Life, * Culture-Watch, * Religion News & Commentary, Death / Burial / Funerals, Evangelicals, Other Churches, Parish Ministry, Psychology, Religion & Culture, Suicide