Meriam Yeya Ibrahim Ishag, the 26-year-old Christian woman whose death sentence for apostasy was revoked, has been released and was taken from Khartoum airport to a safe place while she waits for her travel documents to be sent through. This is according to Antonella Napoli, president of Italian s for Darfur, who posted a message on the association’s Facebook page.

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Archbishop-elect Foley Beach of the Diocese of the South, whom fellow bishops selected earlier this week, saluted founding Archbishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh, whom he will succeed upon completion of the latter’s five-year term at the end of the assembly Saturday.

“Archbishop Duncan’s shoes are very big, and my feet are not that big,” Bishop Beach said. “I’m counting on Jesus to fill the gap.”

He said the denomination, with new congregations and many participants who joined without ever participating in the Episcopal Church, is seeking to move forward beyond the years of conflicts that preceded the ACNA’s founding.

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Many will tell you that we can save the planet by switching from gas-guzzling automobiles to electric cars. But Zack Rosen says there’s a better way. He’ll tell you the impact would be greater if we just switched from virtual machines to Linux containers.

Virtual machines are those things that let anyone run software on the massive cloud computing services offered up by the likes of Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. Rather than setting up its own computer servers, a startup like Netflix or Pinterest can build almost its entire operation atop virtual servers running in the cloud”“pieces of software that work much like a real machine. But Rosen believes we can seriously reduce the world’s energy consumption if we swap these virtual machines for containers, a suddenly red-hot cloud computing technology that fits neatly into the open source Linux operating system, the OS of choice on the modern web. Among other things, containers can run large software applications in significantly more efficient ways.

Citing multiple studies on power used by cars and data centers, Rosen estimates that, with so much of our software running on cloud services and other operations that use virtual machines, we have a better chance of saving the planet if we just embrace containers. “They’re an order of magnitude more efficient,” says Rosen, whose company, Pantheon, has long used containers to run its online service, a kind of website publishing platform. “I think you can say”“with an absolute straight face”“that the containerization of software applications in the age of the cloud will save more CO2 emissions than electric cars.”

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….what Father Kenneth Walker preached about, in a sermon captured on video that has gone viral on the Internet in the days after he was gunned down, at 28 years of age, by a burglar at Mother of Mercy Mission parish near downtown Phoenix. He talked about forgiveness and the need for people living in a sinful, broken and violent world to realize that they may not have much time remaining to get right with God.

“God is all merciful, but he is also perfectly just,” he said. “He will not prevent something from happening, if we bring it about by our own choosing. Nevertheless, God gives time and opportunity to repent before he lets the consequences fall upon us.”

The Bible and church history are full of cases in which God warns people to flee wickedness, he said. In some cases, saints and martyrs suffered and died while God gave a wayward land more time to repent.

“We are in a similar situation today, since we are now living in a world that is increasingly rejecting Christ and casting him out of the public forum,” said Walker. “We have grown far too attached to our own knowledge, our technology and our worldly pleasures ”” such that we have forgotten God and what he has done for us.”

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Even we Christians seem to have sidelined joy in entertainment to explore the bleaker side of reality. We find ourselves praising sad standups for what they can teach us about our faith. We binge-watch shows like Breaking Bad, House of Cards, and Mad Men for the way their broken characters and their brutal worlds will reveal the dark side of human nature. Yes, we’ve seen how recent heavy dramas can show us the real weight of sin and the moral consequences of our decisions, but these kinds of programs can’t become our only tv obsessions.

Just as we proclaim a God of grace and justice, of love and law, Christians need balance in our pop culture engagement. So do our neighbors. We need the light of the funny, silly, and joyful to glow in the dark. Shiny-happy shows don’t tell the full truth, but neither do shows that punch us in the face. We’ve spent enough time embracing suffering and being skeptical of joy and happiness. All the more so if, as C.S. Lewis said, “Joy is the serious business of heaven.”

Fallon’s spirit is no shtick. His joy has been there all along. As a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1998 to 2004, he notoriously broke character, holding back laughter in the background of a sketch or cracking a smile in the middle of a punch line. His critics cite these incidents as weaknesses. I think they prove how much he likes his job.

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Andrea Williams, chief executive of Christian Concern, said: “This is good news for the many vulnerable people who would have been at risk if the attempt to weaken the law on euthanasia and assisted suicide had been allowed by the Supreme Court. The murder law is there to set the highest priority on the importance and value of life and to protect it.

“While we have immense compassion for the Nicklinsons, Paul Lamb and ‘Martin’, their individual requests to end their lives by medical intervention would have been disproportionate to the safety of many. We have to remember that these cases, together with the many others that have been brought in the past decade, are used as part of a campaign to soften public opinion and apply pressure on parliament to legalise euthanasia. We must remember that hard cases make bad law.

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Revd Dr Brendan McCarthy, National Adviser: Medical Ethics and Health and Social Care Policy for the Archbishops’ Council, said….”We remain convinced that the current law and the DPP guidelines for its application provide a compassionate framework within which difficult cases can be assessed while continuing to ensure that many vulnerable individuals are given much needed protection from coercion or abuse….”

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Campaigners have lost their appeal at the UK Supreme Court over the right to die – but the judges said Parliament should now act.

Justices ruled against Paul Lamb and Jane Nicklinson by seven to two.

A third man, Martin, lost his attempt to have the current prosecution guidance on assisted suicide clarified.

But five justices concluded they had the power to declare the current law breaches the right to a private life.

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The 2014 ACNA assembly meets at the St Vincent College complex in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Wooded hills and green meadows surround the town; the weather is hot and humid with frequent afternoon showers. The atmosphere is one of real hope and optimism: ACNA has grown to nearly 500 congregations in 5 years. The theme of the Conference is “Thy Kingdom Come: Conversion, Compassion, Courage”. Preaching at the opening Eucharist, outgoing Archbishop Robert Duncan spoke on this from the Gospel reading of Matthew 10 on God’s agenda to supplant the Kingdoms of the world with his own rule which Jesus has inaugurated. This Kingdom, a visible alternative to a broken world, comes about as people turn from sin through repentance and faith in Christ, devote their lives to compassionate service, and have courage to confront evil.

The service itself was impressive but of course much more liturgical than would be found in most evangelical Anglican churches in England…

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There have been a number of what I am going to rather rudely describe as – am I? I always get into trouble when I do this – challenges, I am not going to be so rude, challenges in the regulatory system and across the process. I want to pick up on three or four particularly. First of all, leverage and capital adequacy. Leverage is the very quick and dirty calculation of the amount of equity there is to the amount of debt there is in a bank. At one point in one of the major banks, RBS in early 2008, it had 2% of capital to 98% of debt. That means you make a very small mistake and you are bust; if you make a big mistake, you are very, very, very bust.

Lehman was geared at 1% to 99% when it failed. The Banking Standards Commission recommended 4%. The banking industry pushed very hard and the Government settled on 3%.

Many of us on the Banking Standards Commission felt that was too low and continue to feel it is too low. Pressure from the banking industry in the European system within the Eurozone has overturned the recommendations in the Liikanen Report and again there has been a push back on the level of leverage. Banks in the UK at the moment are running at around 3.5%-4%. In the States they are talking about aiming for 5%-6%. The economic impact of that is obviously to restrict the banks’ appetite for lending. They have to have more capital. They can either do it by raising more capital, which is quite difficult, or by reducing their loan book. Those are the only two ways in which you do it. Reducing your loan book, if you have a fixed amount of capital that you have to have, you may as well make the most you can from it so necessarily you lend to the high-risk/high-return clients and particularly mortgages get squeezed. It is a conundrum.

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This would be the first time in history that we would have made it to the knock out stage in two consecutive World Cups.

I confess to being worried about the Portugal Ghana game, because Portugal has not had a good World Cup and they know they cannot go through unless they win big. So if the Ghana Portgual game to the second half scoreless the conerns is that Portugal loses their incentive and Ghana can then do even better.

All this is beside the point if USA ties or beats Germany–but that is a tall order!! –KSH.

The District of Columbia Council on Tuesday approved a “yoga tax” on gymnasiums and yoga classes that has angered fitness buffs in the U.S. capital.

The Democratic-controlled council voted 12-1 to give final approval to a $10.6 billion budget for 2015 that included a sales tax on gyms, yoga studios and other athletic businesses, a spokeswoman for Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said.

The budget also includes a substantial income tax cut that would be offset by expanding the existing 5.75 percent sales tax to such services as tanning salons, health clubs, car washes and bowling alleys. The move is expected to raise $5 million a year.

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For Niebuhr, Christians have a stake in democratic societies because, given the realism that the Christian understanding of sin requires, Christians know “that a healthy society must seek to achieve the greatest possible equilibrium of power, the greatest possible centers of power, the greatest possible social checks of the administration of power, and the greatest possible inner moral check on human ambition, as well as the most effective use of forms of power in which consent and coercion are compounded.” Democracies at their best are, therefore, able to achieve unity of purpose within the conditions of freedom and to maintain freedom within the framework of order.

It is particularly important to note that for Niebuhr democracy is a system of government that does not require the governed to be virtuous. Rather, it is a form of social organization that limits self-interested men from pursuing their interests in a manner that does not destroy community. Of course, a too-consistent pessimism concerning our ability to transcend our interests can lead to absolutist political theories. So Niebuhr is not suggesting that democracies can survive without some sense of justice. Rather he is reminding us that, as he puts it in what is probably his most famous epigram, “man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible; but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.”

The task of social Christianity, for Niebuhr, is not to advocate particular solutions for economic or social ills, but to produce people of modesty about what can be accomplished given our sinful condition. It is equally important that same modesty be applied to the church, which is no less under the power of sin. In fact, from Niebuhr’s point of view, the sins of the church may even be more destructive given the temptation to identify religious politics with the politics of God.

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When asked if the church’s discipline on homosexuality needs to change, he tells the author: “Let me just say that I think the present situation doesn’t look very sustainable.”

However, on gay marriage he says: “I have no problem with legal parity for same-sex couples. But I’m not sure it’s an appropriate use of the state’s power to change a social institution.

“It felt as though we were being bundled into redefining a word without sufficient time to reflect.”

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Lord, who hast taught us that whatever we do unto the least of thy brethren we do unto thee: Give us grace to see thee in all who are poor and needy, and always to be ready to serve our fellows for thy sake; who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit, world without end.

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God. More than that, we[d] rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.

While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Why, one will hardly die for a righteous man””though perhaps for a good man one will dare even to die. But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we are now justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. Not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received our reconciliation.

–Romans 5:1-11

Archbishop Justin has placed a particular emphasis in the first couple of years of his Archiepiscopate upon his responsibilities in relation to the wider Anglican Communion. He is travelling widely, as well as meeting numerous people; and Archbishop Bob has been among these people on several occasions in several places, and I know he will look forward to developing his relationship with Archbishop Foley.

It is apparent that there are no easy fixes as far as the current fissures in the Anglican Communion go. In these circumstances we need to keep all available channels of communication open, and to listen patiently and above all prayerfully to each other. When there is division in the church it is only by digging deeper into the life of God, which He graciously shares with us, that we will understand anew, the true bonds of unity in our one Lord, one faith and one baptism.

Archbishop Justin sends his warmest fraternal greetings to your Assembly. He is holding the Assembly in his prayers this week along with the wider worshipping community at Lambeth Palace.

Introduction: Without further ado, it is my pleasure to invite Archbishop Bob to come up to introduce Bishop (Peter) Forster who is representing the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Archbishop Duncan:…It’s my great joy to introduce to you all a dear friend Peter Forster, the Bishop of Chester. He’s actually number 40. I’m only number 7 in these parts. He was ordained bishop in the same year that I was.

We met in the Bible study at the Lambeth Conference ’98. We were there together. Nara of course met Bishop Peter in a pub crawl that same year. Back in December, when Archbishop Justin Welby and I were talking about how it was that he might bring greetings to us, I suggested that maybe the Bishop of Chester would come. And so the Bishop of Chester is here. Peter we welcome you.
Bishop Peter Forster: I am sorry if I can’t do the Southern accent but I will do the best I can with what I’ve got.

It’s a real pleasure to be here with you in your Assembly and to bring greetings from Archbishop Justin. Thank you for the very generous and kind welcome which you have shown to me this week. It is some years since I was in America last, but I’ve instantly felt at home. You truly have the gift for hospitality.

Now as Archbishop Bob was saying, he and I have been firm friends since the 1998 Lambeth Conference when we were in the same small Bible study group. And to be with the same person studying the Bible for an hour and a half every morning for three weeks you really do get to know somebody, and our firm friendship was sealed both by that and also in the pub crawl, because I should add that he came with Nara and I on that pub crawl [laughter].

Since those days I’ve enjoyed my ministry in a peaceful, stable and indeed rather tranquil part of the Church of England, the Diocese of Chester. I guess some of you will have visited Chester on the grand tour of the British Isles, but if you are not quite sure where it is, you may have heard of Manchester United or Liverpool Football Clubs and they’re not far away.

But this period since I first got to know Archbishop Bob has been difficult for the North American Anglican Church with the separation between TEC and the Anglican Church in North America here assembled. I have followed these events in a regular and supportive dialogue with Archbishop Bob with much sadness, and yet also in the hope and trust that through your struggles, Christian truth and a stronger church will emerge anew. And all my experience here in this Assembly so far has entirely supported that judgment.

Archbishop Justin has placed a particular emphasis in the first couple of years of his Archiepiscopate upon his responsibilities in relation to the wider Anglican Communion. He is travelling widely, as well as meeting numerous people; and Archbishop Bob has been among these people on several occasions in several places, and I know he will look forward to developing his relationship with Archbishop Foley.

It is apparent that there are no easy fixes as far as the current fissures in the Anglican Communion go. In these circumstances we need to keep all available channels of communication open, and to listen patiently and above all prayerfully to each other. When there is division in the church it is only by digging deeper into the life of God, which He graciously shares with us, that we will understand anew, the true bonds of unity in our one Lord, one faith and one baptism.

Archbishop Justin sends his warmest fraternal greetings to your Assembly. He is holding the Assembly in his prayers this week along with the wider worshipping community at Lambeth Palace.

But thank you again for inviting me to participate in your deliberations, and to bring these greetings. I regard this week as a time of great blessing for me in my own journey with the Lord.

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Diane Stanton is a woman of substance.

As the wife of a bishop, Diane could have easily taken a more comfortably low-profile role. But when her husband, James Stanton, was consecrated as the 6th Bishop in the Diocese of Dallas 21-years ago, she began her own journey that would profoundly advance Christian mission, both at home and abroad.

Her list of accomplishments include more than 20 mission trips to Uganda, serving as executive director of Uganda Christian University and helping to prevent the extinction of the Batwa tribe in Africa.

Closer to home, Diane became the beloved founder of the Clergy Family Commission, founder of the World Mission Commission and is currently a sought-after speaker on a variety of religious topics including angels.

“Diane is a leader by nature,” said Deacon Diane Luck. “Her desire to serve covers many people in many different ways, which is a beautiful gift that she has brought and we are better for it.

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Leadership, intellect and strategy – that’s the hallmark of much-loved Bishop James Monte Stanton who is retiring from the Diocese of Dallas after 21 years.

Despite facing doctrinal disagreement and changing demographics, his robust legacy leaves behind a healthy, vibrant diocese for the next generation of leaders.

“It’s important to have new vision and energy for the future. It’s a great diocese with the potential to become greater,” Bishop Stanton said. “It’s time for new eyes and new ideas.”

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Thanks to Kevin Kallsen at Anglican TV

Thanks to Kevin Kallsen at Anglican TV
We have elected a new Archbishop. Many of those critical of our movement said this could never happen, that the Anglican Church in North America would not endure ”“ would not hold together ”“ beyond its first Archbishop. The College of Bishops held a conclave in these last days. It was hard and honest work. Please believe me when I testify to you that we come out of our conclave more united than ever before and unanimously united behind the one who on Saturday will become my successor, the Right Reverend Dr. Foley Beach, Bishop of the Diocese of the South. Pray for him. Lead with him. Be for and with him as you were for me. Pray for his Diocese.

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GAFCON – The story so far (Long Version) from GAFCON GFCA on Vimeo.

”˜They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ”˜Peace, peace,’when there is no peace.’
Jeremiah 8:11

taking the Lambeth Conference of 1998 as my starting point, the aim of these three lectures will be to survey the contours of two very different Anglican ecclesiologies as they have emerged out of this recent history. One is what I think we can most accurately describe as conversational ecclesiology; the other is the recovery of a confessional ecclesiology.

Read it all, and all three lectures may be found here

Over the past thirty years or so, the homosexual agenda has been the point of leverage for a profound change in Western culture that in my view has been the final tipping point from a Christian to a post-­”Christian culture and these changes have powerfully shaped the Anglican Churches of the West which have, in their different ways, been accustomed to articulating a mainstream morality. The Lambeth Conference of 1998 marks the point at which those secularising pressures were decisively manifested and this is where my analysis of contemporary Anglicanism begins.

The story of the Anglican Communion since then can only be understood if we recognise it as the relentless effort of revisionists to undermine the collegial mind of the Communion, expressed by the overwhelming majority of its bishops at the Lambeth Conference of 1998.

They reaffirmed the biblical understanding of sexuality positively and negatively, affirming that the Conference ”˜upholds faithfulness in marriage between a man and a woman in lifelong union, and believes that abstinence is right for those who are not called to marriage’ and also ”˜rejecting homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture’.

At stake here was not just an aspect of sexual ethics, but also primary questions of the authority of Scripture and human identity. But rather than settling the issue, Lambeth 1998 simply became the trigger for sustained conflict.
……..
So taking the Lambeth Conference of 1998 as my starting point, the aim of these three lectures will be to survey the contours of two very different Anglican ecclesiologies as they have emerged out of this recent history. One is what I think we can most accurately describe as conversational ecclesiology; the other is the recovery of a confessional ecclesiology.

Read it all, and all three lectures may be found here

Archbishop Duncan stated that each member of the College of Bishops spoke during the conclave. At times there was “intense fellowship,” even “vigorous fellowship” surrounding the discussions. But “at the end, we were clear that Foley Beach was the one to lead us.”

Sources tell Anglican Ink the issue that generated the most vigorous fellowship was the question of women’s orders, with the bishops unable to rally round a common view. The theological issues surrounding women clergy were coupled with fears that behaviors exhibited in the Episcopal Church in its debates were being repeated within the ACNA. A hypothetical example of such a tactic, it was explained, was the aggrieved minority veto. The desire to accommodate pastorally a minority viewpoint without holding it accountable to theological scrutiny was the slippery slope that led the Episcopal Church to its present state, it was suggested.

Yet the frankness of the debate appears to have strengthened the bishops’ desire for unity, and may have led to the election of Bishop Beach ”“ a moderate conservative on the issue of women’s orders, but also a bishop noted for his pastoral gifts. A “good bishop to his priest” and a “good priest to his people” one participant in the conclave explained.

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As Redeemer has transitioned from being a church plant to being an established church, how has your role and work as co-founder changed?

At first, Tim preached, and I was the staff. I typed and made sure the bulletin was printed, bought the hospitality groceries, kept the nursery, hired the musicians, and more. As we grew and added staff, though, I gratefully let go of piece after piece, until there were no pieces left. I then had to ask, What do I want to do? What do I feel called to do? The typical (if there is such a thing) pastor’s wife role did not apply, as most people had no idea who I was. (This was a plus, especially for our kids.) Words are my best thing, so I chose to oversee Redeemer’s communications and media. When that became more digitized, though, I found myself out of my depth. So I hired a director to take my position and became the assistant director of communications and media. Unofficially, I am the Keeper of the Memory and the Quality Control Officer.

In your work as an editor, how do you feel about what you do?

Words matter. Especially in the Christian world, where people unconsciously use Christian sub-cultural language that non-believers find confusing, I think it is crucial always to write or speak with the awareness of being overheard by those who do not yet believe.

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