New York City is moving to close school for two Muslim holidays and the Lunar New Year ”” but Mayor de Blasio isn’t so sure about the Hindu festival Diwali.

Appearing on WNYC’s “Brian Lehrer Show” on Monday, the mayor said he hadn’t taken a position on whether Diwali, the festival of lights celebrated in India and other South Asian countries, should be a day off from school.

But he said he’d move forward with closing schools for Lunar New Year and for Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, Muslim holy days.

“It is complicated in terms of logistics and school calendar and budget. But it’s something I want to get done in a reasonable time frame,” he said.

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Deirdre Lyons, Pearse’s wife and director of Alltech’s corporate image, is spearheading plans to renovate the building, which is surrounded by 300,000 graves, including that of Pearse Lyons’ grandfather, John Hubert Lyons.

“I’m working with a historic preservation architect and a team to restore it to its former glory,” Deirdre Lyons said. The building hasn’t been a church in decades and most recently was a lighting store, so it is in pretty sad shape, she said. Half the steeple and the stained glass windows are gone.

Alltech paid about $900,000 for the building, plus about $45,000 to the Church of Ireland to release the site from covenants that would have prevented the sale or use of alcohol.

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The Anglican Bishops of Portsmouth and Peterborough are becoming the latest members of the House of Lords this week.

The Right Reverend Christopher Foster has asked for prayers as he becomes one of 26 Church of England bishops in the House of Lords.

The bishop has said he will use his position in Parliament to speak up for issues affecting south-east Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

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Reconciliation is long and hard work. The first place we find reconciliation is in Jesus Christ. Only Jesus has the resources to give us so we can be reconciled. Paul says, be reconciled to God through Jesus. Even a loving person runs out of resources to forgive – like a bottle of water which becomes empty.

But the reconciliation of Jesus is like the Nile in flood. If you want reconciliation in South Sudan, renew your reconciliation with God in Jesus. In the revival of 1938, this region spoke of the joy of Christ. As Nehemiah says, the joy of the Lord is our strength. When I see you dance and I hear your sing, my strength is renewed.

It all starts with Jesus. So pray, pray and pray more. In England it’s a lesson we need to learn.

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Preaching at All Saints Cathedral in Juba, South Sudan, last week during a six-day visit to Africa, the Archbishop of Canterbury offered encouragement to South Sudanese Christians in their role supporting reconciliation in the conflict-torn country

Archbishop Justin has reassured Christians in South Sudan they are not forgotten by Christians elsewhere and urged them to see themselves as “God’s people of reconciliation”.

In a sermon preached at All Saints Cathedral in the South Sudanese capital Juba on Thursday last week, the Archbishop said Christians in England pray daily for Sudan and South Sudan and its Christian people. “Your courage and faith gives us courage and faith,” he said.

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A Christian family in Algeria has been refused permission to bury their son in the local public cemetery because he was not a Muslim.

“The leaders of the mosque demanded that I would have to follow Islamic burial rites if I was to bury my son in the cemetery,” said the father of 24-year-old Lahlou Naraoui, a University student.

Naraoui’s family, who live in Chemini in the Kabylie region of northern Algeria, said they could not follow the Muslim leaders’ demands and instead chose to bury their son on private land.

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The budget office analysis found that the law, in effect, nudges workers to work less. The insurance expansion reduces the need for a person to take a full-time job just to get coverage. The premium subsidies effectively bolster household income. Higher taxes for richer households also reduce the incentive to work.

But it will also have an effect on businesses, the report said, including by encouraging them to reduce employee hours to avoid the “employer mandate.” The overall demand for labor would not change, in other words, but businesses might arrange their workers’ schedules differently to avoid having to provide them with health care.

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“I think that historically, the institutional church teaches a broad principle politically. But its primary vocation is, of course, to proclaim the gospel, to evangelize and to disciple,” he said.

Churches support, encourage and guide believers, but Christians have a responsibility to form their own political ideologies, he asserted.

“The more specific vocations for the details of politics are primarily left up to the Christian lay people,” Tooley said. “Sometimes, we confuse those vocations, but I think it is an important distinction.”

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Almighty and eternal God, who art able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think: Give us grace to believe that the things which are impossible with and women men are possible with thee; save us from all doubt of thy goodness and questioning of thy love; and help us to trust in thy wisdom and mercy, that we may be calm and unafraid; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

–James Todd

Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things. Blessed be his glorious name for ever; may his glory fill the whole earth! Amen and Amen!

–Psalm 72: 18,19

Bishop Mouneer writes “The Holy Spirit works in an amazing way in our Anglican Church in Tunis. Young people see Jesus in visions and dreams. With open hearts they come to Him being ready to pay the cost. They long to know Christ and go to the depth of His knowledge. They enjoy praise and worship.

Bishop Bill and his wife Hilary lead the team of ministers by setting a good example and with rich grace. They encourage young people to lead and teach. The wonderful thing is that the congregation give generously and with joy. They always think of the next generation. That is why the ministry expanded to a new place. O Lord bless your church, protect her from every evil, and send workers to help.”

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The priest of an Egyptian church attacked last week says his church was targeted as part of a wider pattern of retribution from Muslim Brotherhood supporters against churches and security forces following the overthrow of Mohamed Morsi last summer.

Around 70 churches were attacked last summer in retaliation against the dispersal of protest camps set up in the wake of Morsi’s deposal. Many Muslim Brotherhood members hold Christians at least partly responsible for the overthrow, especially following comments made in support of the army by Coptic Church leader Pope Tawadros II.

In the latest attack on a church, a policeman was killed and two others injured when the Church of the Virgin Mary in the 6th of October Diocese came under fire on Jan. 28.

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h/t ACL Sydney for this article from several years ago
Can you explain a little more about the process of catechesis?

First, there are other ways of doing catechesis than by question and answer, which is what we are used to when we think of catechizing children. Catechesis is the teaching of the truths that Christians live by, and linked with that it’s the teaching of how to live by those truths. It’s a practical, pastoral discipline of instruction.

In the second and third centuries, the inquirers didn’t have any Christian background””they didn’t have any kind of theistic background even. They were polytheists who came out of various pagan cults. And so the catechists had to begin at the beginning and take them through the whole body of Christian doctrine.

We know from surviving catechetical materials that they taught not by separating truths from each other in order to focus on them in isolation. Rather, they taught the whole Christian view of Christianity””God’s great economy of grace for the salvation of sinners””and the syllabus was essentially the themes of the Apostle’s Creed.

And you feel that the practice of catechesis would be beneficial in modern churches, as well?

Yes. If we could recover catechesis as a regular element of church life, well, we’d be anticipating a lot of these problems with heresy and other troubles. We’d be constantly sustaining orthodoxy and reminding people of what the Christian faith is when you put it all together as a single ball of wax.

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The letter the Archbishops sent last week to Primates in the Anglican Communion as well as the Presidents of Nigeria and Uganda quoted the Dromantine Communiqué of 2005 ruling out any victimisation or diminishment of people on the grounds of their sexual orientation.

“We assure homosexual people that they are children of God, loved and valued by Him and deserving the best we can give – pastoral care and friendship,” the letter reiterated. Last week in London, Church of England bishops agreed to hold a mediated dialogue throughout the 80-million member Communion to reflect on Biblical passages about gays in a way that could make Anglican churches more welcoming to them. Wabukala reiterated that debating that which God has already clearly revealed in Scripture would be a waste of time adding that such dialogue only spreads confusion and opens the door to a false gospel.

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Church of Uganda Archbishop, Stanley Ntagali, on Tuesday launched a fundraising drive for the construction of the Anglican Martyrs shrine at Namugongo.

Ntagali announced the fundraising drive during at a news conference at the Church of Uganda headquarters in Kampala.

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Harvard professor Laura Nasrallah’s edX online course “Early Christianity: The Letters of Paul,” has been called the largest and most concentrated scholarly discussion of Biblical studies in history, according to edX.

Nasrallah told The Huffington Post via email, “The day the course launched was astonishing””like drinking from a fire hose. The edX discussion threads couldn’t handle the amount of people who were commenting, and crashed and slowed down. More people participated on Poetry Genius that day than ever before””the apostle Paul beat out Beyonce!”

edX is a massive online open course (MOOC) platform founded by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2012. It’s a non-profit that delivers university-level course material to a global audience for free.

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All sexual acts outside marriage (including all homosexual acts) are viewed very seriously indeed in Scripture but false teaching which leads people into sexual sin is viewed even more seriously (Luke 17:1-2) and warnings about the affirmation and endorsement of sexual immorality (2 Peter 2 and Jude are poignant examples) are particularly strong.

Those who lead ”˜little ones’ astray (Matthew 18:6), like those they mislead, are in great danger. This is why it is so important for us to exercise godly discipline with them (Matthew 18:15-20; Luke 17:3-4; Galatians 6:1; James 5:19, 20) for their own sakes, as well as for those who they might mislead or have already misled.

The Apostle Paul urged his co-workers to ”˜command certain men not to teach false doctrines’ (1 Timothy 1:3) and to ”˜gently instruct in the hope that God will grant repentance’ (2 Timothy 2:25). He added that false teachers ”˜must be silenced’ (Titus 1:11).

These biblical standards of leadership apply to all of us who exercise leadership within the Christian Church.

The real test of Justin Welby’s leadership of the Church of England will be whether or not he allows the current situation – whereby senior leaders in his church both in these islands and across the Atlantic are teaching that homosexual acts are sometimes acceptable – to smoulder and fester.

If he fails to grasp this nettle in the interests of ”˜unity’ he may find himself presiding over a greatly reduced Anglican communion. I believe he will also find himself on the wrong side of history. But to deal with it firmly and graciously will require not only the wisdom of Solomon, but also the courage of Daniel.

He needs our prayers. But he also needs other Christians within his own denomination to help him be faithful, in both word and deed, to the teaching of Jesus Christ and the Apostle Paul on this matter.

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As time passed, she underwent numerous surgeries. She wore diapers until she was 13. And she endured great pain – pain caused by her body and the pain of feeling different, abnormal, somehow wrong.

A word darkened over her life, forming a seemingly permanent label: disabled.

For so long, too long, she heard people’s comments. And she believed them.

However, she also grew up in the small town of Boone, N.C., with good friends and a loving family, including a fraternal twin sister. Together, they instilled a strong Christian faith in her.

Read it all from the local paper..

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The 26 bishops come from the following Member Churches: Australia; Canada; Central Africa; South India; England; Ireland; Kenya; Korea; Lusitanian Church; Melanesia; Myanmar; Aotearoa, New Zealand & Polynesia; Nigeria; Scotland; Southern Cone/South America; Sudan; West Africa;and the West Indies.

Several of bishops spoke of the course as having a profound impact on them and their ministry. Bishop of Korea’s Busan Diocese Onesimus Park said that, while he knew intellectually that Korea was part of the worldwide Anglican community, the visit had made this knowledge real.

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Arriving in Goma, the Archbishop said: “I am delighted to be visiting Goma with my wife Caroline to show the love and solidarity of the wider Church amidst all you have been through. We pray for stability and a lasting peace for DRC.

“The Anglican Church in the Congo has shown remarkable initiative and resourcefulness in helping communities address the challenges affecting their life. I look forward to seeing some of those initiatives in action, both in the building of a sustainable peace, and the protection of women from gender-based violence and providing of much needed care.

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Genetic testing of embryos has been around for more than a decade, but its use has soared in recent years as methods have improved and more disease-causing genes have been discovered. The in vitro fertilization and testing are expensive ”” typically about $20,000 ”” but they make it possible for couples to ensure that their children will not inherit a faulty gene and to avoid the difficult choice of whether to abort a pregnancy if testing of a fetus detects a genetic problem.

But the procedure also raises unsettling ethical questions that trouble advocates for the disabled and have left some doctors struggling with what they should tell their patients. When are prospective parents justified in discarding embryos? Is it acceptable, for example, for diseases like GSS, that develop in adulthood? What if a gene only increases the risk of a disease? And should people be able to use it to pick whether they have a boy or girl? A recent international survey found that 2 percent of more than 27,000 uses of preimplantation diagnosis were made to choose a child’s sex.

In the United States, there are no regulations that limit the method’s use. The Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology, whose members provide preimplantation diagnosis, says it is “ethically justified” to prevent serious adult diseases for which “no safe, effective interventions are available.” The method is “ethically allowed” for conditions “of lesser severity” or for which the gene increases risk but does not guarantee a disease.

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Read it all and there is much more there and here which on the bishop’s blog begins this way:

It was announced at 10am this morning by 10 Downing Street that I have been nominated to become the first (Anglican) Bishop of Leeds for the new diocese of West Yorkshire & the Dales. The Archbishop of York is to present me in Leeds before we then go on a tour of the cathedrals in Wakefield, Bradford and Ripon. Tomorrow I will visit the three diocesan offices before then, finally, starting my sabbatical proper by going away for a few days.

Among the topics covered are the Noodle Wars and Bishops of the Jersey Shore. Watch it all.

While heroin use is still low compared to marijuana, law enforcement officials and drug treatment experts say heroin has made a comeback after a decade-long outbreak of narcotic painkiller abuse. The prescription pain pills, such as OxyContin, are opioids that produce a potent high similar to heroin if abused.

“We’re seeing a resurgence of heroin,” says Gil Kerlikowske, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. “It cuts across all demographic groups. We used to think of a heroin as an inner city problem, but it’s now a problem we’re seeing across the nation among all populations and all ages.”

As authorities crack down on clinics that prescribe pain pills by the thousands and pharmaceutical companies change their formulas so the pills are more difficult to abuse, opiate addicts are turning to cheaper and more-plentiful heroin. An 80 mg OxyContin pill can sell for up to $100, while a five-dose-a-day heroin habit costs less than $60, according to federal law enforcement officials.

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From cowboys in the pew to a convoy of cranes accompanying the coffin, funerals are no longer necessarily the black-clad sombre affairs of the past.

People are becoming more creative with their final plans, according to the National Association of Funeral Directors, which reports a growing number of bizarre requests. Unusual planned ceremonies include Morris dancers, a Wild West themed funeral and a company director wanting to be buried next to his beloved golf course.

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Almighty and everlasting God, who didst send thy servant Anskar as an apostle to the people of Scandinavia, and dist enable him to lay a firm foundation for their conversion, though he did not see the results of his labors: Keep thy Church from discouragement in the day of small things, knowing that when thou hast begun a good work thou wilt bring it to a faithful conclusion; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

O God of love, who dost give to each of us our appointed work: Help us steadfastly, and as in thy sight, to fulfill the duties of our calling; so that when our Lord shall take account of us, we may be found his good and faithful servants and enter into his eternal joy; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.

–Westminster Prayers