Celebrity Christian author Philip Yancey was talking earlier today about the way that we shouldn’t want to be celebrities because the celebrities he knows (other than himself) have become who they are because of a desperate need for affirmation from other people on account of a void that they feel on the inside. I’m not sure that completely describes me; I’ve begged God over and over to crucify that part of me. And what I keep seeming to discern is that I have a legitimate tenacious hunger to speak a truth that I’ve been given to share with a wide audience. It seems that I have a genuine prophetic vocation. So I feel like I’m supposed to try to network with the big dogs, the orange wristband people who are actually legit, as part of how I pursue my vocation. And it ain’t working so well.

It’s hard to untangle my personal junk enough to ask the right analytical questions about what’s going on here. But what would a national progressive Christian gathering look like that was intentionally anti-celebrity? What if we got our books signed by the yellow wristband strangers sitting next us whom we actually got to know instead of the celebrity authors for whom we try to come up with some intelligent comment in that ten-second window when they ask who they should write it out to? What if the “conversations” that we’re supposedly having at these gatherings weren’t panel discussions between orange wristband people but actual conversations in which yellow wristband people interacted in small groups? What if marginalized people themselves really were in the vanguard at these types of gatherings instead of just the “experts” who study them? I almost want to take back everything I wrote in my last post defending the emergentsia for its whiteness.

Read it all.

Last week, when a Tennessee judge forcibly changed an infant’s name from Messiah to Martin, it was hard to decide which was more noteworthy, the parents’ grandiosity in naming their child for the one they consider their Savior or the judge’s religious zealotry in prohibiting the name.

“The word ”˜Messiah’ is a title, and it’s a title that has only been earned by one person and that one person is Jesus Christ,” said Magistrate Lu Ann Ballew.

The American Civil Liberties Union has offered to appeal the ruling for the child’s mother, Jaleesa Martin, of Newport, Tenn., who did not return a phone call. The ruling came in a hearing after Ms. Martin and the baby’s father could not agree on a last name for the boy, but the judge took issue with his first name.

Read it all.

Saints, whether formally recognized by Catholicism or informally regarded as such by other denominations, are bracing reminders that the transformation of spirit promised by religion””so elusive for most of us””is possible in this life. Christians of any kind can appreciate the remarkable lives of the two men the Catholic Church will canonize later this year.

Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, born a peasant in Lombard, became in 1958 the wise and generous “Good Pope” John XXIII, opening up the Catholic Church to the modern world. Karol Wojtyla, a young playwright living under the harsh rule of communist Poland, eventually played a pivotal part as Pope John Paul II in the collapse of that degrading system.

Saints like these suggest that there is more to life, and to faith, than most of us dare to know. A century-old aphorism attributed to the French essayist Charles Péguy perhaps says it best: “Life holds only one tragedy, ultimately: not to have become a saint.”

Read it all.

“You wouldn’t have a civil war unless there were people who were really willing to fight the army with arms,” [ Elliott] Abrams said. “It’s not, I think, going to look like Syria.”

Phyllis Bennis, a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, added that because the military controls 35 to 40 percent of the economy, it was unlikely the military would splinter like it did in other countries.

“In Egypt, you don’t have a huge armed population, and the chance of the military splitting the way it happened first in Libya and later in Syria is less likely because the role of the military in Egyptian society has been very separate from the population, and very privileged.”

Read it all.

Read it all.

Steubenville. The Naval Academy. Vanderbilt University. The stories of young men sexually assaulting young women seem never to stop, despite all the education we’ve had and all the progress we’ve supposedly made. There are times when I find myself darkly wondering if there’s some ineradicable predatory streak in the male subset of our species.

Wrong, Chris Kilmartin told me. It’s not DNA we’re up against; it’s movies, manners and a set of mores, magnified in the worlds of the military and sports, that assign different roles and different worth to men and women. Fix that culture and we can keep women a whole lot safer.

I contacted Kilmartin, a psychology professor and the author of the textbook The Masculine Self, after learning that the military is repeatedly reaching out to him. Right now he’s in Colorado, at the Air Force Academy, which imported him for a year to teach in the behavioural sciences department and advise the school on preventing sexual violence.

Read it all.

Lord Williams said religious believers should be wary of complaining about their treatment in the Western world, with those claiming they are “persecuted” making him “very uneasy”.

He added the level of “not being taken very seriously” or “being made fun of” in Britain and the United States is not comparable to the “murderous hostility” faced by others in different parts of the world.

Speaking at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, he urged those who complain of ill-treatment for their beliefs in Britain to “grow up”.

Read it all.

The nature of the debate on women bishops at the General Synod meeting last November has “finally shocked most bishops into the realisation that conservative demands can never be met”, a report of “a series of confidential conversations” with bishops by the gay-rights group Changing Attitude (CA) suggests.

The group has already met nine bishops that are “affirming” of their stance, and will meet another eight shortly.

“The absolute confidentiality we guarantee means that bishops have been very open and trusting,” the director of CA, the Revd Colin Coward, said, in an interim report of the conversations, A Vision of the Future, that was distributed to supporters this week. “We have learnt much from the conversations. With each new encounter the narrative has evolved.”

Read it all.

Al-Qaeda-linked rebels in Syria have killed an Italian Jesuit priest who disappeared in the east of the country late last month, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Paolo Dall’Oglio, a vocal supporter of the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and some Islamist rebel groups, disappeared in the rebel-held city of Raqqa on July 29.

Read it all.

Where there is competent and willing local law enforcement, the U.S. is not launching drones. Where such law enforcement is impossible, what then?

Religious critics of drones rarely offer specific alternatives. Instead, they morally fault drones for imprecision, susceptible to harming innocents, and impersonally guided by desk-bound pilots who, with their bureaucratic overlords, may be cavalier because they are themselves not at risk. The anti-drone letter from Mainline Protestants cited “remote, technical warfare,” which has the “potential to encourage overuse and extension of the policy to more countries and more perceived threats.” But almost all forms of modern warfare are “remote” and “technical.” Combatants no longer typically battle each other with swords and lances.

Absent the option of effective law enforcement against terrorists, the range of options include conventional aerial bombing or cruise missiles, both of which are pretty “remote,” or a military personnel excursion similar to the U.S. Navy SEAL mission that dispatched Osama bin Laden.

Read it all.

Per the Prayer Book and personally, I accept the Holy Scriptures as the “inerrant Word of God” which “contains all things necessary for salvation,” and I also accept (as does The Episcopal Church USA, or ECUSA) the historic Creeds (Apostle’s, Nicene and Athanasian) as “a sufficient statement of the faith.” All that in turn means I and ECUSA believe in the Virgin Birth, that Christ was the only Son of God and so on, period.

For a non-Episcopalian to state that I believe otherwise is the result of ignorance, arrogance or something worse.

Read it all.

Teach us, O God, to walk trustfully today in thy presence, that thy voice may encourage us, thine arm defend us, and thy love surround us; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Hear my prayer, O LORD; let my cry come to thee! Do not hide thy face from me in the day of my distress! Incline thy ear to me; answer me speedily in the day when I call!

–Psalm 102:1-2

“The state of emergency in Egypt following the carnage and increasing death toll of recent days is a matter of grave concern for those within and outside the region. The heavy loss of life is deeply disturbing and points to the urgent need for resolution and restraint from Government forces.

Of equal concern are the reports that several Churches across Egypt were attacked, including St Saviours Anglican Church in Suez. These unprovoked attacks are part of an all too familiar pattern that we see repeated across the region where Christian and other minority communities find themselves as collateral casualties in a wider struggle between two increasingly illiberal and repressive forces….

Read it all.

Representatives from throughout the Anglican Diocese of Waikato and Taranaki will meet from tomorrow, Friday August 16th to elect the 7th Bishop of Waikato.

Ten names have been proposed to the Electoral College, five men and five women. The majority of the candidates are from within the Diocese. The gathering is a significant step in the life of the church as it is 20 years since the last Bishop of Waikato was appointed.

Known as an Electoral College, the gathering of approximately 200 laity and clergy meets until a decision is made. The successful nominee must achieve a majority of the votes of both laity and clergy. The gathering at Southwell School is only the first part of a three stage process, during which time the name of the nominee remains confidential.

Read it all.

Dartmouth College’s new president on Wednesday rescinded a job offer to an African bishop who was to have been dean of the institution’s Tucker Foundation, which promotes ethical leadership, spiritual development and social justice at the college. The appointment of James Tengatenga, a bishop of the Anglican church in Malawi, as dean set off a debate on campus and beyond because of his past anti-gay statements.

Philip J. Hanlon, the president, met with Tengatenga and announced that the college was taking back the job offer. In a statement, Hanlon said that there was much to praise in Tengatenga’s “inspiring life of service.”

Hanlon added: “However, following much reflection and consultation with senior leaders at Dartmouth, it has become clear to me that Dr. Tengatenga’s past comments about homosexuality and the uncertainty and controversy they created have compromised his ability to serve effectively as dean of Tucker. The foundation and Dartmouth’s commitment to inclusion are too important to be mired in discord over this appointment. Consequently, we have decided not to move forward with the appointment of Dr. Tengatenga as dean of the Tucker Foundation.”

Read it all.

After countless earthquakes and a two year rebuild, a new symbol of Canterbury has finally opened this evening.

It is the only cathedral in the world made substantially of cardboard.

Read it all.

A friend of mine was recently preparing to leave the army, and began a training course for a debt recovery agency. He was horrified that the trainees were taught not to waste too much time on people who could stick up for themselves, but to concentrate on the vulnerable who could easily be intimidated, such as the elderly or single mums, from whom far more money could easily be found. He left the course, disgusted.

But the gap which the payday lenders exploit isn’t just a gap in the market. It’s a gap in our collective self discipline. We’re still a society hopelessly hooked on a spendthrift lifestyle. We see something glitzy, we want it, and we want it now, really not paying close enough attention to how on earth we’re going to pay the borrowed money back. The financial crisis that is crushing us at the moment wasn’t simply caused by the banks being feckless lenders: we were all too happy to be feckless borrowers. The banks are now being more careful ”“ perhaps overly so with business ventures ”“ but payday lending still lets people get stuff they can’t afford. Even if one has paid back a loan, there remains the constant text pestering for another: “There is £££ ready for you, just call 0800 XXX XXX and it will be in your account in 15 minutes.” As another friend told me, if you’re struggling, it can be just too hard to resist.

So, Justin Welby, the recently appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, has decided to do something about it….

Read it all.

In recent years, doctors in America have received relatively high levels of remuneration, running about 60 per cent higher than the industrialised world average, according to data from the Paris-based OECD. But the absolute pay level is not the key issue at stake. What really needs to be debated is the system of incentives.

Most notably, in recent years about two-thirds of US doctors have been paid according to a “fee-for-service” system, meaning that they receive remuneration every time they see a patient or provide a treatment.

This differs from the pattern in much of Europe or places such as Singapore, where doctors tend to receive a base salary (which may then be topped up with private practice). It also differs from a third approach, called capitation, which pays doctors according to the health of the total population.

Read it all (or if necessary another link may be found there).

To the stewards who volunteer at Durham Cathedral, it is more than just a storm in a teacup.

First they were denied the scones they got as a perk in return for unpaid work. Now they have been told that if they want a free cup of tea or coffee, they must take it into another room ”” described by one of them as “smelly” ”” away from the cathedral’s restaurant.

Read it all (subscription required).

In an area of much killing where I was supporting reconciliation some years ago, I spent time with a group of Anglican priests. Several thousand people had been killed in heavy fighting during the previous week. It was the second outburst of fighting in less than ten years. The priests were bitter, mourning families, friends and church members. One gave up preaching and used the time for the sermon explaining how to strip, clean and reassemble an automatic rifle. Over a few months we worked together, thinking and praying about the situation, about the very real threats they faced, about the history of battle, and about the teaching of scripture, especially in Jonah. Slowly they learned afresh that they were loved, and learned to love and began to reach out to their enemies. The reconciliation remains fragile, but continues to this day.

We change our conflicted communities when we rediscover reconciliation in Christ for ourselves. Paul reminds the divided Ephesians that God breaks down all barriers. They are reconciled through the cross to God and are to be reconciled to others. It is costly. Reconciliation is cross-shaped. Justice is cross shaped. Churches that seek justice will find a cross, and will need to bear it. So many of you have done that. So many not only here in Guatemala, but elsewhere in the Province, know the pain of conflict. And yet we have the answer ”“ and that answer is us, says Paul. It is extraordinary, because again he was speaking to a small church in a very pagan society, and yet he was right, and history proved it over the centuries.

Read it all.

Britain has summoned the Egyptian ambassador for a meeting as the death toll from Wednesday’s attack on pro-Morsi supporters rose to 525.

a href=”http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/egypt/10244413/Egypt-death-toll-rises-to-525-as-Britain-summons-Egyptian-ambassador.html”>Read it all.

…what had changed? Why did the town turn on itself? It started happening after foreign jihadis arrived, said Ilyas. ”˜Syrian Muslims are not extremists. It’s outsiders who made this conflict sectarian.’ Ilyas was told to demonstrate his loyalty by carrying a weapon to fight the regime. Still clinging to the idea of a peaceful revolution, he refused, and was threatened by the foreign fighters. His friends in the rebel army couldn’t help him. ”˜The FSA couldn’t mount any military operation without the extremists: they had the training, the weapons, the money.’

As the town’s native Sunnis suffered more losses, so their attitude towards the Christians started to harden. One local man formed an Islamist brigade (its ranks filled with foreign fighters) and last summer, he commandeered the mosque’s loudspeaker to announce that all Christians should leave. He was one of those who finally forced Ilyas from his home, last December. ”˜I had known him ten years,’ Ilyas said sadly. ”˜We used to walk arm-in-arm at the protests.’

Ilyas lasted longer than other Christians in Qusayr because he supported the uprising, but in Lebanon, I also met Samah, a mother of three who was one of the first to flee. At first, she said, their Sunni neighbours tried to protect them. ”˜But after a while, the Christians were left with a choice: fight alongside the rebels, or leave Qusayr. Masked gunmen came to our house and shouted for our men to come out. We could see our relatives, already captured, sitting in cars.’Read it all.

The Anglican Diocese of Blackburn has released a pamphlet warning their Lancaster flock of the potential dangers of hydraulic fracturing, more commonly known as fracking.

“The time we spend thinking, praying and acting now to protect our drinking water and the rest of God’s glorious Creation cannot compare with the time succeeding generations could potentially spend trying to make good what will likely happen if we in the church remain uninformed and silent,” reads the pamphlet.

Read it all.

Andrea Vicini, S.J., of the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry discusses the ethics of the National Insitute of Health’s BRAIN Initiative. The initiative promises the possibility for medical breakthroughs in the field of neuroscience, but who will benefit from these technologies? And could they be put to questionable purposes?

Listen to it all (a little over 18 minutes).

The Rt. Rev. Lawrence C. Provenzano, Bishop of Long Island, ordained melton, who has served the parish as a Deacon since May 1.

“It is a profound blessing to me to serve at Christ Church. Here, I have discovered a faithful community of people who love and care for each other and their neighbors, and who deeply love God,” said Melton.

Parishioners shared his enthusiasm and hope for the future. “We are all so excited about our new Priest-in-Charge, Fr. Melton, who is full of energy and new ideas. Since coming here in May, we have grown in many ways. We are looking forward to growth and renewal in the coming years under his leadership.” said Co-Churchwarden Marilyn Adamo.

Read it all and the parish website is there.

Janet Engel knelt at the Communion rail at Bethlehem Lutheran Church on Sunday, tears welling in her eyes.

At 85, she’d built a lifetime of memories in this sacred space. She was confirmed here. She attended its grade school. Every Christmas, every Easter was celebrated in these pews.

And on Sunday, for the last time, Engel knelt to receive the Holy Eucharist here.

“It’s heartbreaking,” said Engel, who gathered with hundreds of current and former members for final services at Bethlehem, which closed its doors Sunday after 125 years.

Read it all.

An Anglican priest and his family narrowly escaped harm…[yesterday] morning after a mob armed with rocks and petrol bombs were kept out his church building by steel window bars.

The Revd Ehab Ayoub, his family, a lay minister and a guard were trapped in St Saviour’s Church, Suez, for hours while pro-Mursi supporters were attacking the building.

Speaking from the Diocese of Egypt head office, Bishop’s Chaplain the Revd Drew Schmotzer told ACNS, “They [the attackers] tried to get through the windows, but our steel bars prevented it (thanks be to God).

Read it all.

O God, who hast taken to thyself the blessed Virgin Mary, mother of thine incarnate Son: Grant that we, who have been redeemed by his blood, may share with her the glory of thine eternal kingdom; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

Grant us, O Lord, not to mind earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away, to cleave to those that shall abide; through Jesus Christ our Lord.