O God, who in thy fatherly love hast called us that we should inherit a blessing: Give to us also, we pray thee, the blessing of wholesome speech and loving deed; that following always that which is good, we may do and suffer all that thou willest; in the name and strength of Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord.
–L. E. H. Stephens-Hodge
Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord from the heavens,
praise him in the heights!
Praise him, all his angels,
praise him, all his host!
Praise him, sun and moon,
praise him, all you shining stars!
Praise him, you highest heavens,
and you waters above the heavens!
Let them praise the name of the Lord!
For he commanded and they were created.
And he established them for ever and ever;
he fixed their bounds which cannot be passed.
–Psalm 148:1-3
David Beckham is thrilled to see Lionel Messi feature in the World Cup final and is backing the Argentina star to lead his team to victory.
Messi has often faced criticism that he has not reproduced his Barcelona form on the international stage, but has played a key role as the Albiceleste progressed to Sunday’s final against Germany.
“He’s amazing,” Beckham said in an interview on Adidas football’s YouTube channel.
…what I find most astounding about Carey’s article is the almost complete lack of any theological framework for his argument. There is a vague reference to Christian principles of ”˜open-hearted benevolence’ and ”˜compassion’ and one mention…of Jesus.
But there is no discernible Christian world view underpinning what he says. Nothing of the fact that God made us and owns us; nothing of biblical morality or the sixth commandment; no doctrine of the Fall; little insight into the depths of human depravity and the need for strong laws to deter exploitation and abuse of vulnerable people; nothing of the cross or the resurrection; no hope beyond death; nothing of courage and perseverance in the face of suffering; no recognition of the need to make one’s peace with God and others before death; no real drive to make things better for dying patients and no real empathy with the feelings of vulnerable disabled and elderly people who fear a law like Falconer’s and will be campaigning in force outside parliament next Friday.
Carey has instead produced a piece that is high on emotion but weak on argument that capitulates to the spirit of the age; that enthrones personal autonomy above public safety; that sees no meaning or purpose in suffering; that appears profoundly naïve about the abuse of elderly and disabled people; that looks forward to no future beyond the grave and that could have been written by a member of the national secular society, British humanist association or voluntary euthanasia society.
Carey’s case for legalising assisted suicide is a counsel of despair devoid of Christian faith and hope. I still cannot believe he wrote it. He will disappoint many people, but will also awaken deep concern for him personally in many others.
Tonight we’re about to take you to the place where hundreds of thousands come every year for a tempting bargain. But is it really worth it?
You’re about to meet a woman who flew 6,000 milines to get what she really wants, but is it worth it? If plastic surgery had a Mecca, it would be the ritzy district of South Korea. Everywhere you look there are women seemingly trying to look like the plastic doll-like plastic people here.
Thousands travel to Korea from all over the globe to go under the knife. I think the results would be here in Korea because they know the asian face better. Reporter: The plastic surgeons in Korea are regarded as among the best in the world that attracts clients like this lady.
Read or watch it all (note the transcript link at the bottom of the page).
When did doctrine become emptied of compassion? Doctrine is simply doctrine. But, there is a principle here: law (which is what this is about) cannot be made on the basis of subjective judgements based on emotion; law requires a dispassionate clarity about the ”˜doctrine’ upon which the legislation ”“ and ensuing praxis ”“ can be founded. There is actually no way of deciding on such legislation without having some ”˜doctrine’ ”“ assumed or articulated ”“ that legitimises or demands such a judgement. In my language, it is the fundamental anthropology that shapes this: what is a human being, why does a human being matter, and why does it matter that these questions are admitted and addressed before moving to emotion/compassion? History is littered with examples of law being established without a clear articulation of the anthropology that underlies it….We clearly need a deeper debate and one that doesn’t assume that if you use judgement, you are, by definition, devoid of compassion.
To commit to speaking of the common good is not enough; we must also commit to live it, not only in the actions and the parishes, but in the whole way we live out our common life as the church. In many places we are living it out – the Bishop of Knaresborough spoke of that. But the common good is not something, as Jim has shown us, that is merely talked about; it is something that is practised.
And yet we live in a society where the concept of the general interest seems to have the greatest force. In economic terms, that basically says that the only people who are worth paying attention to are the ones who are economically active; and you calculate, you measure, so that a gain of £100 by a person with £10 million is exactly the same, economically, as a loss of £100 by a person with £120 when they started. That is the general interest.
The common good is different, because it is more than what happens when you add my good and your good together.
During his tenure as president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Cardinal Walter Kasper commented in 2006 that such a move would “call into question what was recognized by the Second Vatican Council (Unitatis Redintegratio, 13), that the Anglican Communion occupied ”˜a special place’ among churches and ecclesial communities of the West.” Cardinal Kasper warned that “restoration of full church communion ”¦ would realistically no longer exist following the introduction of the ordination of women to episcopal office.”
Speaking to the Register, Father Tony Currer, secretary to the Anglican and Methodist dialogues at the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, said that while the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) has made great strides in addressing theological differences, two issues have emerged “which make progress towards full visible unity extremely difficult.”
“The first concerns the ordination of women; the second is that of human sexuality and ethical teaching,” he commented. “It has to be admitted that it is extremely difficult to see a way forward on these issues at the moment.”
Father Currer added that the Church’s dialogue is with the whole Anglican Communion, not only the Church of England. Many elements of that communion are acting similarly to the Church of England on these issues, he said, “which constitutes a very significant obstacle to the full visible unity that we continue to seek.”
Watch it all from Digg.
1 Chronicles 4:42-43 (NIV)
And five hundred of these Simeonites, led by Pelatiah, Neariah, Rephaiah and Uzziel, the sons of Ishi, invaded the hill country of Seir. They killed the remaining Amalekites who had escaped, and they have lived there to this day.
Simeon”“God has heard
Pelatiah”“let the Lord deliver, deliverance of the Lord in Israel
Neariah”“child of God
Rephaiah”“Jehovah has healed
Uzziel”“God is my strength
Ishi”“salvation
Seir”“rough or shaggy
Amalekites”“a people thought to be descended from Esau. The name is often interpreted as “dweller in the valley”, and occasionally as “war-like,” “people of prey”, “cave-men.”
Dear Heavenly Father,
My heart breaks when I witness within my church years and years of litigation. Oh, how we have sinned. Have mercy.
You are a God who hears His children. You are our Deliverer, our Healer, our strength and our salvation. Have mercy.
If there are predator spirits involved in the South Carolina trial and the other trials, particularly Amalek, defeat them, we pray. Have mercy.
With You, nothing is impossible. Have mercy.
Amen.
Please pray it all if you wish and there are more prayers from Lent and Beyond for South Carolina here. We are grateful to Lent and Beyond for these wonderful prayers.
Power unites people both in circuits comprised of equals and in circuits comprised of unequals, as it unites the Persons of the Trinity who are equal in nature and being, but ordered in relationality. As exercised within human relationships, power can of course be corrupted: among equals by overreaching itself in tyranny or under-respecting itself in servility; among unequals by impatiently arising into rebelliousness or foolishly dissolving into remissness. Meanwhile, good power remains where it is, a mixture or interpenetration of both liberalism and conservatism, of equality and hierarchy. The electrical current needs both positive and negative nodes. The magnetic field binds both north and south poles.
Lewis was fond of the Latin tag, abusus non tollit usum (‘abuse does not abolish use’). Power can be abused, but the fact that a thing can be abused does not mean it cannot be used at all, or even used well; strictly speaking, in fact it implies just the opposite. Therefore I propose that we stop using power as a dirty word and reclaim it as a positive term. Power is a good thing, indeed, it is a divine attribute: ‘for Thine is the kingdom and the power . . .’ Although it is natural for man ‘to try to attain power without recovering grace,’ as Maclean puts it, that error tells us nothing about the intrinsic nature of power itself, but only about the gracelessness of human beings.
Lewis considered George Bernard Shaw to be a somewhat graceless author; he satirises him as Pshaw through the mouth of his diabolical character, Screwtape.9 Nevertheless, we leave the last word to this same Shaw who, in a fine epigram with which Lewis would surely have concurred, once opined, ‘Power does not corrupt men; fools, however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power.’
The Archbishop of Canterbury has warned that proposals to change the law on assisted dying are “mistaken and dangerous”, in an intervention drawing on painful personal experiences.
His intervention came on Friday night, just a few hours after the Daily Mail published a piece by the former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey, setting out why he planned to support a change in the law, despite his previous fierce opposition.
Dorothy’s words ”” ”˜It is quality of life that counts, not number of days’ ”” ring in my ears.
The current law fails to address the fundamental question of why we should force terminally ill patients to go on in unbearable pain and with little quality of life.
It is the magnitude of their suffering that has been preying on my mind as the discussion over the right to die has intensified.
The fact is that I have changed my mind. The old philosophical certainties have collapsed in the face of the reality of needless suffering.
It was the case of Tony Nicklinson that exerted the deepest influence on me. Here was a dignified man making a simple appeal for mercy, begging that the law allow him to die in peace, supported by his family.
Read it all from the Daily Mail.
The compassion argument, as presented by proponents of the bill, runs something like this:
1 It is always right to act in a compassionate way;
2 Some terminally ill people face unbearable suffering and wish to have help in ending this suffering by bringing their lives to an end;
3 It is compassionate to provide
this help;
4 The law ought to be changed to allow this to happen.
Even if we leave to one side major difficulties in determining what legally constitutes “unbearable suffering” and “terminal illness”, the above argument is deeply flawed. Were it to be presented by a candidate in a GSCE religious education exam, I should expect an examiner to take a dim view of it.
The matter is, however, of more than academic interest; it is, in truth, a matter of life and death.
During Trinity Church, Myrtle Beach’s testimony, the defendant’s attorney David Booth Beers asked the witness Frank Sloan repeatedly why they removed references to the national Church from their corporate documents.
After Plaintiffs objected Judge Goodstein said, agreeing with the objection, that the questions asked “goes to justification of why the entities did what they did. My concern is more the structure of the government-are we pre 1900 or after, when was the incorporation, what were the By-Laws? There’s been too much focus on the justification for why they did what they did. As it stands were not a hierarchical, state, we are for neutrality. The justification is interesting but not what I think should be the focus of this court.”
Suzanne Schwank, testifying for the Parish Church of St. Helena’s, Beaufort, brought a 1728 Prayer Book in which references to the royal family had been crossed out, a parish registry with an entry dating back to 1706 and parish vestry minutes dating to 1724. The Vestry minutes requested and empowered one Mr. John Kean to “procure a clergyman of the Episcopalian Church for the town of Beaufort SC” in 1784 prior to the formation of either the Diocese of South Carolina or The Episcopal Church.
Eternal Light, shine into our hearts;
Eternal Goodness, deliver us from evil;
Eternal Power, be our support;
Eternal Wisdom, scatter the darkness of our ignorance;
Eternal Pity, have mercy upon us;
that with all our heart and mind and soul and strength we may seek thy face and be brought by thine infinite mercy to thy holy presence; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
–Saint Alcuin (c. 735–804)
The Lord answer you in the day of trouble!
The name of the God of Jacob protect you!
May he send you help from the sanctuary,
and give you support from Zion!
May he remember all your offerings,
and regard with favor your burnt sacrifices! Selah
May he grant you your heart’s desire,
and fulfil all your plans!
May we shout for joy over your victory,
and in the name of our God set up our banners!
May the Lord fulfil all your petitions!
Now I know that the Lord will help his anointed;
he will answer him from his holy heaven
with mighty victories by his right hand.
Some boast of chariots, and some of horses;
but we boast of the name of the Lord our God.
They will collapse and fall;
but we shall rise and stand upright.
Give victory to the king, O Lord;
answer us when we call.
–Psalm 20
I now proceed to the task immediately at hand: to correct certain deplorable misrepresentations of fact and law that are passing for substantive analysis on the side of the rump group supported by ECUSA. Though I have done this on earlier occasions, no one among them has taken my analysis to heart, or still less, refuted it. Instead, they keep on promulgating the same fictions, dressed up in new language. This, I submit, is a gross disservice to those who would read and rely upon them.
The blog post which I fisk below comes from an otherwise admirable blog which seeks to compile a history of the current Episcopal divide in South Carolina — a subject to which I have devoted posts here, and here. With regard to the regrettable division that occurred (regardless of who spurred it), the blogger, a retired history professor named Ronald Caldwell, has compiled a useful chronology, and indicates that he is writing a book tracing its origin and evolution.
Thus it seems more necessary than ever that an attempt should be made to set Prof. Caldwell straight, before he commits himself to print. I am taking as my text his post of July 9, 2014, entitled “Reflections on the First Day of Trial” [note: Prof. Caldwell has since modified the title to remove the first two words]. After a brief introduction, he writes:
1-the trial is “to protect” the assets of the independent diocese. Lawrence knows full well that under Episcopal Church law, that he swore to uphold in 2008, all local properties are held in trust for the Episcopal Church and her diocese. The diocese recognized this for years, until 2011. In fact, the trial is to convince the judge to hand over the Episcopal Church property to the independent diocese. There is a difference between protection and seizure.
Notice how this paragraph ignores the All Saints Waccamaw decision, as well as leaves out the trial court’s obligation to follow it.
CofE: Sympathy for the Devil
Legal Hobby with AS Haley
In recent years, especially since 9/11, the world of Islam has become a strange and fearful place. Muslim extremists avow their faith even as they violate the sacredness of Ramadan, perverting a month meant for prayers and contemplation with warfare and wanton killing. Those who do not speak out against this unholy violation are also turning away from God’s gift.
Violence is not a monopoly of any one people or culture. But many Muslims have given it a new meaning by making their violence inseparable from their belief. This then is a measure of how great the distance is now between many of those who wear the mantle of Islam and the message Muhammad delivered. The Prophet likely foresaw the time ahead when some followers would make a mockery of Islam and warned, “Islam began as a stranger and will become once more a stranger.”
Yet within Islam itself lies the cure for the malady that grips those Muslims and their leaders who think that through violent jihad, or holy war, they will reconstruct their imagined glorious past.
If the Church of England General Synod votes to approve women bishops it will end one of its longest-running rows. Why has it proved so difficult?…
Bad stats. When will we learn? Is anybody willing to own it?
Thankfully, at least one person is.
Tyler Charles. Charles is author of the original piece in RELEVANT magazine.
On Monday of this week, Tyler Charles wrote a helpful mea culpa over at High Calling. In it, he admitted what he called his own “amateur” journalism and confessed to being guilty of “hyping bad stats.”
In the recent article, Charles confessed, “the statistics upon which my entire article hinged were, how should I say this, um…iffy. At best”¦ the data had been extrapolated from a study designed to determine something completely different.”
Charles explains, “after closer examination, the sample size was too small to legitimately make the claims I had clearly and consistently made.” Charles stepped forward because “I couldn’t justify the conclusions my article suggested.”
Read it all from Christianity Today.
ST. GEORGE, SC, JULY 10, 2014 ”“ Testimony continued today for the third day of the trial between the Diocese of South Carolina vs The Episcopal Church (TEC) and The Episcopal Church in South Carolina (TECSC).
Witnesses for the Plaintiff were called from The Cathedral Church of St. Luke and St. Paul in Charleston, St. Luke’s on Hilton Head Island, Holy Comforter in Sumter, Resurrection in Surfside, Church of the Redeemer, Orangeburg and St. John’s in Florence.
The litigation between the Diocese of South Carolina and the The Episcopal Church in South Carolina will run July 7-18. These antiphonal love songs represent the love between the church and Christ”“
Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer. From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the foe. I long to dwell in your tent forever and take refuge in the shelter of your wings. Psalm 61:1-4
The beloved shepherd to the Shulamite girl: Your neck is like the tower of David, built with elegance; on it hang a thousand shields, all of them shields of warriors. Song of Solomon 4:4
I love you, O LORD, my strength. The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call to the LORD, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies. Psalm 18:1-3
The beloved shepherd to the Shulamite girl: Your neck is like the tower of David, built with elegance; on it hang a thousand shields, all of them shields of warriors. Song of Solomon 4:4
Praise be to the LORD my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle. He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me. . . . Part your heavens, O LORD, and come down. Psalm 144:1-5a
Part your heavens, O Lord, and come down to the courtroom in South Carolina. Amen.
Please pray it all if you wish and there are more prayers from Lent and Beyond for South Carolina here. We are grateful to Lent and Beyond for these wonderful prayers.
So what kind of final can we expect Sunday at Estádio do Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro? If recent history is any indication, something strange and compelling will occur. Something wholly unexpected, and perhaps wretched, for the biggest stars in a moment of unrelieved pressure.
There was Roberto Baggio of Italy, ballooning his penalty kick in the 1994 final and dropping his head like the blade of a guillotine. And Ronaldo of Brazil having some sort of panic attack or seizure before the 1998 final. And Zinedine Zidane head-butting Marco Materazzi in the 2006 final, diminishing France’s chances against Italy and his own lofty reputation.
Perhaps Sunday’s hero will be a quiet player who brings loud celebration, as Andrés Iniesta did with his extra-time goal to give the World Cup to Spain in 2010. Or a lesser-known player like Sergio Romero, the Argentine goalkeeper, who struggled for playing time at Monaco in the French league but saved two penalties against the Netherlands, kissing his gloves and pounding his chest.
MONDAY
THE FINAL VOTE ON WOMEN BISHOPS PASSED.
Update: Audio of the Women Bishops Debate and vote is now available:
Starts in Morning Session here from 1hr:43mins:00secs in.
Continues in the Afternoon Session here
The first vote on the Measure passed with a 2/3 majority in all 3 houses
Bishops: In favour 37; Against 2; Abstained 1
Clergy: In favour 162; Against 25; Abstained 4
Laity: In favour 152; Against 45; Abstained 5
The second vote on the Amending Canon passed with a 2/3 majority in all 3 houses
Bishops: In favour 37; Against 2; Abstained 1
Clergy: In favour 164; Against 24; Abstained 3
Laity: In favour 153; Against 40; Abstained 8
Consequential motions including Rescinding the Act of Synod of 1993 [which provided legal alternative provision for parishes] have passed on a show of hands
There is a Media Release: Church of England to have women bishops
SYNOD IS NOW OVER
Click on the link below for all of the links to each day’s updates and resources.
________________________________________
Synod debates when in session may be listened to below.
Friday: The Debate on Woman Bishops has had its first day of consideration with debate to ‘Take Note’ of the Report of the Business Committee on the returns from the dioceses. This Item 501 has passed, and Synod will proceed to consider the documentation in detail – if you can call it that – the so-called ‘Revision Stage’ although conducted at break neck speed.
Item 502: The Report of Standing Committee on amendments to the Canon has been considered, and again it is a take note debate. It has been passed. the House of Bishops will consider the matter on Saturday. It is an arcane and complicated process.
Synod has considered Safeguarding, Items 519/520
Answers to Questions [which have been given below] were broadcast
This post will be updated from time to time
—————————————–
Press release about Agenda
Daily Agenda and Timetable and Brief Agenda and Papers
Live Video Feed when in session or listen here [In accordance with the system established for the first time last year, it looks as if audio recordings of debates will not be available to listen to again, only those selected speeches the CofE Media office approve of and decide to upload – UPDATE: the Media Office is now uploading media files shortly after debates]
Twitter: #synod and it may be worth following: @CofEgensyn, @C_of_E if interested
Tuesday July 15th
Tuesday Morning
Report of Tuesday Morning Business – Synod and Convocation elections and representation, Ecclesiastical Property, Retirements of Bishops of Blackburn and Oxford, Proroguing of Synod
Audio [Awaited]
Monday July 14th
Monday Evening
Report of Monday Evening Business – Retired clergy, Audit Committee
Audio
PR: New arrangements for housing retired clergy announced
Monday Afternoon
Report of Monday Afternoon Business – Women bishops debate and vote, Magna Carta
Audio – starts with continuation of Women Bishops Debate and Final Vote, then debate on Magna Carta
Press Release on Women Bishops Result
Monday Morning
Audio – Starts with Armed Forces: Women Bishops final debate starts at 1hr:43mins:00secs in
Report of Earlier Monday Morning Business – Armed Forces
Report GS 1960
Sunday July 13th
Sunday Afternoon
Report of Sunday Afternoon Business – Churches Conservation Trust, Archbishops’ Council Report, Novel Texts for Baptism, Clergy Clothing, Credit Unions
Audio
Sunday Evening
Report of Sunday Evening Business – Financial, Archbishops Council’s Budget and Church Commissioners’ Report
Audio
Saturday July 12
Saturday Morning
Report of Saturday Morning Business – Archbishop of York’s Presidential Address, Standing Orders, Domestic Legislation
Audio
– Women Bishops: The House of Bishops having consider the draft legislation Synod apparently reviewed in the review stage on Friday where some numbering was changed; and the Convocations of the two Provinces of York and Canterbury declining to meet to consider the legislation. the legislation was sent back to be debated and voted on on Monday in this form:
Draft Measure
Draft Amending Canon
Saturday Afternoon
The Uncommon Good – Jim Wallis Talk etc
Audio
Report of Saturday Afternoon Business – The Common Good
Audio
Saturday Evening
Report of Saturday Evening Business – Vestments
Audio
Friday July 11
Transcript of Women Bishops Legislation debate
Audio Women Bishops from 1hr:19mins:40secs in until 1hr:53mins:27secs in
Report of Friday Afternoon and Evening Business
– Worship and Introductions
– Progress of Measures and Statutory Instruments
– Business Committee Report [GS 1949]
– Appointments to the Archbishops Council GS1950]
LEGISLATIVE BUSINESS
501 Draft Bishops and Priests (Consecration and Ordination of Women) Measure (GS 1925B) and Draft Amending Canon No. 33 (GS 1926B)
”“ Report by the Business Committee on the Article 8 Reference (GS 1951)
-502 Draft Bishops and Priests (Consecration and Ordination of Women) Measure (GS 1925B) and Draft Amending Canon No. 33 (GS 1926B)
”“ Draft Measure and Draft Amending Canon for Final Drafting (GS 1925-6Z)
519-20 Draft Safeguarding and Clergy Discipline Measure (GS 1952) and Draft Amending Canon No. 34 (GS 1953)
”“ Draft Measure and Draft Amending Canon for First Consideration
Evening Worship
8:30 pm to 10 pm Questions
Update: Questions are here A recording of the answers is awaited.
Tova, a self-identified witch who uses her first name only and created the website The Way Of The Witch, spoke with joined HuffPost Live’s Ricky Camilleri for a discussion about witch hunts in the 21st century. During the conversation, she shared what life is like for herself and her children in Utah.
“I live in a pretty small community outside Salt Lake City, and we have some pretty tight-held belief systems here. Although [witches] are not really just out there trying to be different, certainly people know that we live in a different way, they know that we practice things they don’t understand, and I think it promotes fear,” Tova said.
During her kids’ earlier years, the family faced social challenges because of Tova’s beliefs, she said.