The purpose of [the book of Job] is to explore God’s policies with regard to suffering in the world, especially by the righteous or the innocent. In the process it seeks to revolutionize our thinking about God and the way that he runs the world.

Most importantly, the book shifts our attention from the idea that God’s justice … is foundational to the operation of the world to the alternative that God’s wisdom is the more appropriate foundation. It does not offer a reason for suffering and does not try to defend God’s justice.

It does not answer the “why” question that we are so prone to ask when things go wrong. Instead, we are to trust God’s wisdom and, in the process, to conclude by faith that he is also just.

In truth, we will never be in a position to evaluate God’s justice….

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Good morning. Among the many hours of broadcasting about Syria in the past few days, one interview has stayed in my mind. It wasn’t with a politician, a pundit or even a proponent of just war theory. Last Saturday on PM I heard a telephone conversation between the presenter Jennifer Tracey and an unnamed man living in a Damascus suburb. He’d decided to stay on in Syria. He was well-educated, married and in his late twenties. Though no friend of the Assad regime, he was very realistic about what might replace it. Listening to him seemed at first to confirm that Syria’s problems were intractable. Then he mentioned something surprising almost in passing. His wife was expecting a baby….

Listen to it all (an MP3 of about 3 minutes).

The choice of “Art and Risk” as the theme of a weeklong seminar for Christian writers and artists this June proved sadly ironic when the host, Image journal, lost $65,000 through its online registration process.

Organizers of the Christian literary journal’s 2013 Glen Workshop hired Acteva, a company specializing in events for small nonprofit organizations, to handle its online registrations. The San Francisco-based company boasted a solid 12-year track record, and even gave Image a discount.

“We were looking to try to make it smooth and efficient,” said Gregory Wolfe, publisher and editor of Image. “We felt that it was a reasonable option for us because they were clearly keeping our needs in mind.”

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The chief executive of Lenovo Group Ltd., which recently overtook Hewlett-Packard Co. to become the world’s largest producer of personal computers, is sharing his annual bonus with his staff.

Angela Lee, a spokeswoman in Hong Kong for Lenovo, best known in the U.S. for acquiring IBM Corp.’s ThinkPad laptop brand and the rest of its PC business in 2005, confirmed that Yang Yuanqing, who is also Lenovo’s chairman, will share $3.25 million from his bonus with some 10,000 staff in China and 19 other countries.

Lenovo maintains dual headquarters in Beijing and in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park, the base of IBM’s old PC operations, and Yang splits his time between the two. The company has some 30,000 staff worldwide, according to its website.

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The British trait of being too polite to speak one’s mind has led to a table translating numerous hollow English phrases becoming an internet hit.
…
The table sheds light on just how difficult it can be for a foreigner to understand what the British really mean when they’re speaking ”“ especially for those take every word at face value.

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Christ Episcopal Church closed December of 2012 and the question has remained for the better part of this year what would become of the church property.

Now The Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut has announced the decision to partner with the newly formed Farmington Valley American Muslim Center (FVAMC) organization to turn the Harris Road church into an interfaith hub. The partnership will bring interfaith educational programming to the facility, which the Diocese plans to lease to the FVAMC. The move aligns with the Diocese’s renewed effort in “recommitting itself to interfaith initiatives in new ways,” the Diocese said in the press release.

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,,,,church leaders are taking a more aggressive approach starting Sunday at Masses held throughout the country.

Unlike a “Justice for Immigrants” program conducted in 2006-2007, this time church leaders are urging Catholics to call, write and e-mail their congressional representatives, even providing prewritten letters and electronic postcards. Congress returns from its summer break Monday, and although an immigration bill passed the Senate, it faces tough opposition, mainly from Republican lawmakers, in the House.

Kevin Appleby, director of immigration policy at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the latest immigration overhaul campaign is larger, bolder and a more unified national effort than in years past.

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Auckland Anglicans have said no to gay marriage – despite church heads being in favour of it.

A motion to press the issue has failed at this weekend’s conference, despite both Auckland bishops and a majority of clergy being in favour.

72 members of the synod voted to push for gay marriage, 65 were against and eight abstained.

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Enrich our lives, O Lord, with the fruit of the Spirit; that being filled with love and joy and peace, we may live together in patience and kindness, in goodness, faithfulness and gentleness, ever exercising the grace of self-control; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Because thy steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise thee. So I will bless thee as long as I live; I will lift up my hands and call on thy name. My soul is feasted as with marrow and fat, and my mouth praises thee with joyful lips, when I think of thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the watches of the night; for thou hast been my help, and in the shadow of thy wings I sing for joy.

–Psalm 63:3-7

The Dean of the Anglican Church of Nigeria [River State], Archbishop Ignatius Kattey, was abducted at about 10.30pm on Friday, as he journeyed in the company of his wife, Beatrice, from Eleme to Port Harcourt.

It was gathered that the abductors later freed the cleric’s wife, following a chase by the police.

The Bishop was taken to an unknown destination….

Read it all and you can see the diocesan information there and you can see the basic location in Nigeria on the map here.

Leading a crowd in prayer for peace in Syria, Pope Francis said that war is ultimately caused by selfishness, which can be overcome only though expressions of fraternity and never with violence.

“Leave behind the self-interest that hardens your heart, overcome the indifference that makes your heart insensitive towards others, conquer your deadly reasoning, and open yourself to dialogue and reconciliation,” the pope said Sept. 7 before an estimated 100,000 people in St. Peter’s Square.

The pope had called the prayer vigil less than a week earlier, as the central event of a worldwide day of fasting and prayer for peace in Syria, the Middle East and the world.

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If you were watching, the third game of the fifth set was something to behold.

his past month, clergy and laity from the Anglican Church in North America and Jubilee, a network of 12 African American Pentecostal churches centered in South Los Angeles, California, gathered to worship together at Penuel Missionary Baptist Church in LA. The Venerable Canon Dr. Jack Lumanog, Canon to the Archbishop, was the Keynote Speaker for these gatherings which were marked by exuberant praise and worship and the sharing of Holy Communion.

“It is a remarkable thing to see these dear brothers and sisters in Jubilee drawn to the Anglican Church in North America,” said Canon Lumanog. “Our life together as Anglican Christians must be dependent on the power of the Holy Spirit in order to reach North America with the transforming love of Jesus Christ. What a joy it was to share in the joyful celebration with Jubilee! God is certainly on the move in our Province.”

Describing the time together, one attendee stated, “We were nourished by Word and sacrament and overwhelmed by God’s presence in our worship together,” while another said, “[M]y hope is renewed. I can begin to see the manifestation of a prayer being answered.”

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A Youtube video of a mom doing the “happy dance” after putting her children on the bus for the first day of school went viral this week. The school bus pulls up, the kids hop on, N’SYNC’s “Bye, Bye, Bye” is cued up, and the Framingham mother starts dancing wildly on the curb.

I think it resonates because it captures the swirl of emotions this time of year….

The reality is that we both fear and crave routine.

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Prayer and action can come together in common cause. It is an invitation to release our imagination for creative peaceful solutions in refusing the seemingly obvious action of moral retaliation.

Let us look for ways that reconcile, build the common good and nourish relationships ”” not increase our alienation and cause others only to hunker down while they wait for their own opportunity for revenge. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote “we must learn to live in co-existence, or else face the prospect of co-annihilation.” Jesus said, “the one who lives by the sword, dies by the sword.”

There is a better way. Our imaginations are better than this. We have not yet exhausted all of the options of a shared global life.

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