I know you understand. Posts will be catch as catch can. I am considering open thread topics on an edifying subject so if you have suggestions for such threads please post in the comments below. Also, please pray for Elizabeth and me. I do not in any way exaggerate when I say there is no time when we have more needed prayer than now. Among many other things there have been: two graduations, a knee operation for Kendall, Elizabeth preparing to start a new job teaching at MUSC (starting July 1), and Kendall’s father having a shunt put in his brain. We need refreshment and rest. Many thanks–KSH.

The 2013 Ratzinger Prize for Theology will be given to an Anglican minister and to the lay German theology professor who is helping publish the complete works of Joseph Ratzinger-Pope Benedict XVI.

The Rev Richard Burridge, an Anglican professor of New Testament studies at King’s College, London, is the first non-Catholic to receive the prize. The other winner, Christian Schaller, is vice director of the Benedict XVI Institute in Regensburg, Germany, which is publishing critical editions of the pope’s writings.

Cardinal Camillo Ruini, president of the scientific committee of a foundation established to promote the study of the retired pope’s theological work, announced the prize winners during a Vatican press conference. The event also included the announcement on plans for a three-day conference in Rome in October to focus on the retired pope’s Jesus of Nazareth books.

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“The recovery has basically been a recovery for a tiny fraction of the population,” said Geoffrey Godbey, professor emeritus at Pennsylvania State University and co-author of “Time For Life: The Surprising Ways Americans Use Their Time.” “What you’re seeing is people who might want more work but aren’t getting it,” he said.

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U2 frontman Bono exchanged Bible references and bantered about music, theology and evangelicals’ role in AIDS activism in a recent radio interview with Focus on the Family president Jim Daly….

“First of all, David’s a musician so I’m gonna like him,” Bono said. “What’s so powerful about the Psalms are, as well as they’re being gospel and songs of praise, they are also the Blues. It’s very important for Christians to be honest with God, which often, you know, God is much more interested in who you are than who you want to be.”

As Bono praised David’s “honest language with God,” Daly noted that “sometimes it gets you into hot water with the more orthodox folks, because they see you as edgy, maybe too edgy at times.”

It’s a criticism that Bono’s used to hearing.

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Anglican Board of Mission reports that Bishop Clyde Igara from Dogura Diocese was elected as the new Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea on Friday 14th June, 2013.

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Guides have dropped “God” from their Girl Guides’ Promise. In a multicultural and individualist age, the thinking goes, the movement should pledge “to be true to myself and develop my beliefs”. None of that guff about God and country. It’s now all about “Me” and the anything goes spirituality. Hindu, Druid, New Ager, Muslim, Christian: everything’s the same these days.

We’ve seen it elsewhere. Druids and Christians are accorded equal rights in the workplace: when a Druid employee, say, wants time off to go to Stonehenge for the Solstice, the boss must treat her the same as a Christian wanting time off to attend Mass at Easter. Crystal-gazing is regarded as the same as prayer ”” except that when a district nurse offers to pray for a patient, she is suspended from work, whereas a crystal-carrying sister can go about as she pleases.

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