The 2012 office and working costs of bishops in the Church of England are published today. Figures for individual bishops were first published, for the year 2000, in December 2001.
The costs of their offices and the work of the bishops for 2012 was £20.0 million compared to a cost of £19.5 million in 2011, an annual increase of 2.5%.
Mary MacGregor, who heads the diocese’s Iona School, said programs like theirs and the Bishop Kemper School are what the church needs. She noted that in the Diocese of Wyoming, one of the Iona partners, 90 percent of their priests are bivocational. And the need for local education programs will only grow, she said.
“This is the movement that is going on in the church. There will be more internal schools in the Episcopal Church,” she said. And while quality content is essential, it isn’t the only requirement, she said. “We have to have a mix of quality, accessibility and do-ability.”
The Archbishops says he will now carefully consider his position….if you take the first part of the resolution – it says the diocese ‘recognises diversity within the diocese of Perth, both in our sexual identities and our theologies of human sexuality’.
“What I said last time is that I thought that this was theologically flawed. I am speaking to you as a human person made in the image of God. I don’t see you or engage with you on the basis of your sexual identity.
“The other big issue for me, with the royal commission [into child abuse] clearly attentive to how we use language and words, what this resolution says is that I must formally accept people with an open ended recognition of diverse theologies on sexual identity.
“I think we have to be very careful there….”
there are 15 slides in all–check them out (and note there is an autoplay slideshow option).
It is the first time that a royal christening has been marked with coins.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s son will be christened on 23 October, just over three months after his birth.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend Justin Welby, will perform the christening at the Chapel Royal at St James’s Palace.
It has been almost six months since the Boston Marathon bombings that killed three people and left many others horribly injured. the phrase, “Boston strong” with are heard a lot in the days after the tragedy. and recently we saw just how strong are some of them who took the next big steps in their lives….
The death [of the] Archbishop (Emeritus) brings into focus the role of the church in community empowerment and mobilization. In the history of the Bible whenever God anointed a king, he also anointed a prophet; King Saul had Prophet Samuel while King David had Prophet Nathan. These two institutions worked hand in hand also ensuring that the leadership was held to account. Even today, God continues to call leaders into both offices. The late Archbishop Gitari was the Nathan and the Samuel of our time. He was called at a time when the government of the day needed to be put into check.
He did not hesitate to boldly criticize the government from the pulpit along with fellow clergymen such as Reverend Dr. Timothy Njoya, late Bishop Henry Okullu and late Bishop Alexander Muge. He carried the hearts of many Kenyans and was never afraid to speak his mind when the government went wrong. As such he was a true defender of democracy and a man who stood his ground on what he saw as oppressive and dictatorial leadership.
The formula never changed: demand discipline, emphasize recruiting and increase resources. It was simple, but it also worked.
At Southern Illinois, Kill & Company saved a program on the verge of being dropped. They beat Indiana on the road. Kill drove into the rural communities near Southern Illinois and persuaded fans to return, one handshake at a time. When Mike Reis, the Salukis’ veteran play-by-play announcer, spent weeks in the hospital for colon surgery, Kill visited daily. When the university offered him a raise, he spread the money among his assistants.
At Northern Illinois, Kill and his crew replaced Joe Novak and began another turnaround. In his interview, Kill told Novak and Jim Phillips, now the athletic director at Northwestern, about the seizures and said he had a handle on them. Phillips said Kill’s health did not factor “an iota” into his decision.
Even then, a Big Ten job seemed far away. What school would take that kind of chance?
Read it all (Hat tip: Elizabeth Harmon).
The key question, however, is: Does this correction fundamentally alter the point of the story — that shortly after his election, Francis experienced some sort of brush with the divine that gave him a sense of peace?
The answer would appear to be no, and we have confirmation from at least two other sources.
First, I published a column Friday in which I quoted a cardinal on background (not an American) who recently had a private session with Francis. This cardinal said he’s been struck by the more freewheeling and spontaneous style Francis has demonstrated as pope in comparison to the fairly restrained and shy manner he exhibited in public in Argentina, and he told me he had said to the pope point-blank, “You’re not the same guy.”
According to the cardinal, the pope’s reply was more or less the following: “When I was elected, a great sense of inner peace and freedom came over me, and it’s never left me.”
The Church of England has launched a fierce attack on the government, describing limited resources devoted to training religious education teachers as a scandal that is affecting “an essential part” of every child’s studies.
In an outburst that reflects the church’s deepening unease at the government’s perceived lack of support for the teaching of RE, it singled out the education secretary, Michael Gove, for implicit criticism, calling on him to work with religious leaders to improve the level of teaching in what is a core subject in the national curriculum.
The criticism comes as a damning Ofsted report, published… [recently], finds that more than half of all schools have been failing pupils in their religious education, a subject that the watchdog claims is increasingly important “in an ever more globalised and multicultural 21st century” because of the way it promotes respect and empathy.
The small, quiet town in Fairfield County is a world away from the streets of Dorchester, but the two communities are, in a sense, linked: Both mourn the innocent children they have lost to gun violence.
Bishop M. Thomas Shaw, leader of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, saw that connection when he and his staff were putting together a day of workshops aimed at helping church members ”” including many small-town dwellers and suburbanites ”” find ways to help end violence, part of the B-PEACE for Jorge campaign.
“When Newtown happened, it was three months after Jorge’s death, and it was so clear to all of us that this was not something that just happens in the city,” Shaw said in an interview in his office last month. “This happens everywhere.”
Grant, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that this day we may be dedicated to thy service, and may be used for thy glory and the good of thy Holy Name, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we should not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are chastened so that we may not be condemned along with the world.
–1 Corinthians 11:26-32
The Church of England today welcomed the decision by the Scout movement to keep a “Duty to God” in its core promise introduce and to introduce an additional alternative promise for those without a religious faith.
Interested in church leadership? In changing not only conversation in our culture, but the way we converse? Ever wonder why changing leaders or programs often does not change results?
Episcopal Church executive Dr. Kay Collier McLaughlin has the answers and she’s sharing them in her new book, Becoming the Transformative Church.
“In all human relationships, from family to friendships to organizations, there is one thing that matters,” said McLaughlin, “and that how one person’s behavior impacts another. When all of the foundational theories and all of the advice books are culled down to the most basic issue, it all has to do with how we treat each other. Not how we think we treat each other. Not how we mean to treat each other. But how the other party or parties experience our behavior.”
– See more at: http://pressreleases.religionnews.com/2013/10/08/bluegrass-church-executive-launches-new-book-leadership/#sthash.4lLqjVqO.dpuf
For most of us Ember Days go unnoÂticed. With the excepÂtion of semÂiÂnarÂiÂans writÂing letÂters to bishÂops telling them of their progress, Ember Days have all but disÂapÂpeared in the life of the Church. Even in farmÂing comÂmuÂniÂties livÂing closer to the earth and to the cycles of seed-time, vinÂtage and harÂvest there is preÂcious litÂtle attenÂtion given to Ember days. Such is our loss; for knowlÂedge of the seaÂsons has much to teach us and not just for lessons about the soil. Last week on SepÂtemÂber 18th, 20th, and 21st the Church’s calÂenÂdar rubrics noted what used to be the “vinÂtage” Ember days””that is the seaÂson of the grape harÂvest. As a native CalÂiÂfornÂian I rememÂber it well””the grape harÂvest that is not the Ember days.
What brought this to mind was our latÂest dioceÂsan Clergy Day. Not that we in the DioÂcese of South CarÂolina are in what I would call a “vinÂtage season”””though cerÂtainly some may feel this past year they have been like grapes in the wine press trodÂdened and squeezed. No, as I looked out on the assemÂbled brothÂers and sisÂters, rather than seeÂing brethren in the vinÂtage month, what came to mind was that more than a few had passed through or perÂhaps were still in a falÂlow season.