April 29, 2015
It has been a week since the 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit Nepal. Today the churches in Nepal meet to worship but it will never be the same again. Many have lost their loved ones, friends, colleagues, classmates, and fellow acquaintances. Today also marks the last day of search-and-rescue efforts. All those still buried under rubble will be presumed dead.

Today is a very sad day for the Anglican Church in Nepal and for our Diocese as we mourn the death of 78 Anglican members in the district of Dhading (this number will rise, as many are still buried under rubble). The report we have just received also stated that in the fourteen villages of the Dhading district, thirteen Anglican church buildings have been destroyed, 30,000 villagers have been displaced, with more than 5,000 families affected. They are without shelter, food and aid. Many are having to brave the cold wet nights of the monsoon season. Some villagers have woken up to find their young children dead from exposure to the extreme cold.

The people in the mountains are cut off from aid and supplies due to severe damage to roads and mountain tracks. We thank God for brave souls like young Pastor Beg who, despite the dangers, have been trekking the mountains the last 4 days to check on the well-being of his Tamang people

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it is clear that many Christians died in their churches.

“I am getting reports of entire Christian families being wiped out in Kathmandu and outside,” Simon Pandey, chairman of the National Christian Fellowship of Nepal, told CT in an interview from his concrete house in a Lalitpur suburb.

If the quake had occurred half an hour earlier, he noted, the casualties in churches would have been much higher. (Many Hindus died during worship services also.)

Of Nepal’s Christians””which comprise just over one percent of the country’s 30-million population””Protestants were disproportionately affected by the disaster, a Catholic leader told CT.

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“Not enough conservatives; theology too liberal”, says lesbian participant in Shared Conversations
One of the initial reflections to come out of the first regional Shared Conversations is an excellent piece from the musician and blogger Rose Grigg
…
Rose appreciated the opportunity for people on opposites sides of the theological and ethical divides to really get to know each other and hear each other. However she has serious concerns about the process as well. Firstly, the Conversations appear light on theology:

“There wasn’t enough time to get into the nitty gritty of the Biblical texts, or to dig into the ”˜issues behind the issues’: our approaches to scripture, what is sin, what is truth, what is salvation.”

Secondly, there was an assumption that ”˜good disagreement’ was the right outcome: “We hadn’t answered the question of exactly what we were disagreeing on; or whether that disagreement was something we could live with, or something which was so definitive that a split had to happen.”

Thirdly, there was theological bias: “the process was geared towards those of a more liberal standpoint ”“ those who were more likely to agree that the church could coexist with different theologies.”

Lastly, “there weren’t enough conservatives”. Rose herself was assumed to be conservative as she identifies as evangelical. “It’s not his [the Bishop’s] fault I happen to be”¦a flag-waving, rainbow-wearing lesbian.”

Here is a report from someone who could embody more and more the future of the C of E as envisioned by its current leaders: young, talented and committed to Christ, but coming to radically different conclusions about Christ’s teachings and his demands in ways that align more with the grain of contemporary culture and one’s own self understanding and identity. If even she finds the process of the Shared Conversations too skewed away from a historic, conservative understanding of faith, this is yet more evidence of what Dr Martin Davie has called “a deeply flawed process supported by deeply flawed resources. They are in fact an object lesson of how a church should not go about handling a serious theological issue.”

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In October this year (2014), I drove to Desaru on the east coast of Peninsula Malaysia for such a time. The haze over the western sector of Singapore and the second link was particularly bad. There was a dull grayness and fogginess that enveloped everything. But as I drove eastwards, the sky began to clear up and soon the sun came shining through in all its brightness. The experience was not without significance for me.

It seems to me that there is a growing fog over the moral landscape of the world. On the one hand, many nations (& the Church sadly following suit in some instances) are entertaining revisionist views on moral issues. On the other hand, another type of fogginess is caused by the thick cloud of dust and ashes as bombs and gunfire explode between warring groups in several parts of the world. Yet, God in His mercy will break through the present engulfing darkness. His shining brightness will usher in a panel of light where man is restored in his true humanness as he learns to love & fear the living God. How will the Lord’s brightness come shining upon the world’s moral & spiritual landscape? Primarily in and through His people (Mic 4:1-3; Is 60: 1-3).

Notwithstanding the present tide of dark, destructive and depressing forces, I believe we are headed towards the day of Christ’s unsurpassable brightness (Acts 26:13)…

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O Lord, who through spiritual discipline didst strengthen thy servant Monnica to persevere in offering her love and prayers and tears for the conversion of her husband and of Augustine their son: Deepen our devotion, we beseech thee, and use us in accordance with thy will to bring others, even our own kindred, to acknowledge Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, for ever and ever.

O Lord, who hast brought us through the darkness of night to the light of the morning, and who by thy Holy Spirit dost illumine the darkness of ignorance and sin: We beseech thee, of thy loving-kindness, to pour thy holy light into our souls; that we may ever be devoted to thee, by whose wisdom we were created, by whose mercy we were redeemed, and by whose providence we are governed; to the honour and glory of thy great name.

When I am afraid, I put my trust in thee. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust without a fear. What can flesh do to me?

–Psalm 56:3-4

wouldn’t have understood the full scope of what this young woman is saying in her essay without the interview, which is short. In the segment, Narin says that men and women in her generation don’t have actual romantic relationships anymore. It’s all casual, non-committal sex. “Nobody knows whether their own feelings are real,” she says.

Our generation doesn’t have relationships anymore. Nobody to call their own. Just casual. Nobody knows whether their own feelings are real.

She tells the interviewer that there’s lots of making out and sex, but nobody wants to be emotionally vulnerable to anybody else. The interviewer says that none of this is new, that men and women forever have had a hard time being emotionally confident as they’re trying to work their way through romance. Now, however, it’s possible to “live in your fear,” he says. What has changed?

“Technology,” she said. She explained that you can avoid direct, sustained talking to real people by using technology.

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Small, winner of two national book awards for his recent novels, will discuss “East Meets West: What the Great World Religions Can Learn from Each Other.” He will attempt to weave the key themes of his suspense novels into a serious discussion of how interfaith dialogue can enlighten people’s lives.

In today’s world, Small explained, “when the headlines are too often about the animosity between the religions, I hope to help us build bridges across these conflicts.” He attempts to do this through talks, blog posts and his fiction writing, where he feels he can reach a different audience in a nonconventional way.

Specifically, the suspense/thriller author of “visionary fiction” will attempt to answer “Why do we have so many religions? What can we learn from this knowledge? Why do we need interfaith dialogue? What are the key teachings from Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism?”

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The women said several were killed in the stoning, but they did not know how many.

The survivors said that when they were initially captured, the militants had killed men and older boys in front of their families before taking women and children into the forest.

Some were forced into marriage.

They said the Islamists never let them out of their sight – not even when they went to the toilet.

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Until his recent conversion to Anglicanism, the broadcaster and author Michael Coren was one of Canada’s best known Catholics. He has a Catholic wife and four Catholic children and is the author of books that include “Why Catholics Are Right.” So when he was formally welcomed into an Anglican congregation in Toronto the other day, after worshipping with them privately for a year, the news caused a stir in the Catholic world. False rumours were circulated about his motives. Old scandals from a career in punditry were dredged up. The uproar cost him several speeches to conservative American Catholic groups, and his regular column in the Catholic Register was pulled. As he tells the National Post”˜s Joseph Brean, he was driven to Protestantism by a growing sense of hypocrisy….

Q: You say Anglicanism is similar to Catholicism, with many shared beliefs, but the split between the Vatican and the Church of England is longstanding, deep and wide. How did you come to cross it?

A: Yes, of course, otherwise, logically, why would I have bothered? ”¦ My father was Jewish, I was raised in a very secular home, sort of semi-culturally Jewish, but no religion. I became a Christian in 1984 and I’ve never wavered. I was received into the Catholic Church in 1985 when I was 26. I’d been interested in Christianity since I was a teenager, actually, and I think I just kept on crawling further and further. It was sort of two feet forward and one foot back the whole time. There was a certain inevitability about it. There was no bunker experience, there were no bullets flying over my head. I think I’d achieved quite a bit early. I’d always wanted to be in literary London, and have books published, and I had all that by about age 24. They were very bad books, but they were published. I was in literary London and there was a certain emptiness.

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That the Great Recession of 2007-09 made Americans have fewer kids is no surprise, but a new study shows how big the toll was.

Birth rates for U.S. women in their 20s dropped more than 15% between 2007 and 2012, just before and after the recession, the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan policy research group, said in a new analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention released Tuesday.

Among Hispanic 20-somethings, the birth rate dropped 26%. Non-Hispanic blacks? 14%. By contrast, non-Hispanic white 20-somethings saw an 11% decline.

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St. Bartholomew’s of Hartsville welcomed the Rev. William “Bill” Oldland as its 14th rector April 21 during a Celebration of New Ministry service.

The Rev. Mark J. Lawrence, 14th bishop of the Diocese of South Carolina, which includes 53 churches in the eastern part of the state, officiated at the service. The Rev. John Foster III, a deacon at St. Bartholomew’s, who is also an associate professor of English at Coker College, assisted. A number of clergy from across the diocese participated in the service.

“It was a beautiful service,” Oldland said. “The choir had worked on a song, ”˜In This Very Room,’ which had been performed at both my ordination to the diaconate and my ordination to the priesthood. It was very special. And Marcus Kaiser did a beautiful job with the sermon.”

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In the corridors of power, at the very highest reaches of government, a form of educational freemasonry holds sway.

It has nothing to do with Eton College, nor even the Bullingdon Club – both far more commonly-cited lightning rods for resentments about class, privilege and the fast track to power.

Instead, the surest ticket to the top – for Conservative, Labour and Lib Dem politicians alike – is surely a degree in politics, philosophy and economics (PPE) at the University of Oxford.

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Some mainly UK Links to talks, services, prayers and articles
SERMONS AND TALKS

1. Why Should We Vote? – Vaughan Roberts – St Ebbes Audio [Genesis 1:26-31 & 1 Peter 2:11-17]

2. The Uniqueness of Christ – Andrew Wingfield Digby – St Andrew’s Oxford Audio [Acts 4:5-12 & John 10:11-18]

3. The Place of Unity – Dr Peter Walker – TSM Audio

4. My Lord and My God – Archbishop Glenn Davies

Commentary

5. The Sunday Readings – Rev Stephen Trott

6. Preaching Ideas and Commentary – Rev Peter Carrell

7. The New Testament in a year with Rev Andrew Goddard

WORSHIP
8. The bells of York Minster – BBC Radio 4

9. Choral Evensong from Exeter Cathedral

10. Sunday Worship from Methodist Central Hall, Westminster – BBC Radio 4

11. Choir of Clare College, Cambridge in Concert in December at the Library of Congress

12. Sunday Hour – BBC Radio 2

13. Choral services from the chapels of
King’s College Cambridge
St John’s College, Cambridge
Trinity College, Cambridge
New College, Oxford

PRAYER
Please pray for the Church of England, Christians and all facing persecution and crime in Syria and Iraq; for the persecuted church and in particular in Nigeria, China; for peace in Ukraine, Israel and Gaza; and for the Diocese of South Carolina.

14. Topical Prayers – Church of England
Prayers for the Church of England from Lent and Beyond
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom 2015 Report
Nepal: Update from the Diocese of Singapore
Nigeria: Emir of Kano orders Church Rebuilding – CSW
China: More Crosses Removed from Zhejiang churches – CSW
South Carolina: Prayers from Lent and Beyond

CURRENT AFFAIRS
15. Sunday Programme – with Edward Stourton – BBC Radio 4

Food for thought
16. Towards the Day of His Shining Glory – Bishop Rennis Ponniah
50 People in the Bible Confirmed Archaeologically – Bible History Daily
Why God’s Will Isn’t Always Clear – Jon Bloom

FINALLY
17. Islam and Christianity: Is it the same God?

18. In Christ Alone – St Michael’s Singers

19. Antarctica – Kalle Ljung Vimeo

Britain’s nail-biting election, and the fragile coalition government it seems likely to produce, are confirming many of Washington’s worst fears about the country’s dwindling influence in the world.

Once the US’ most reliable ally, the UK is now seen as a distant player in the crisis over the Ukraine and the euro, has introduced swingeing cuts to its military and recently rebuffed Washington by joining a China-led bank.

On top of that, the Obama administration is waking up to the prospect that the next government in London could be even more inward-looking as it grapples with Britain’s membership of the European Union and strong support for Scottish independence.

US officials say they still value close intelligence and military ties with the UK, but at times sound almost dismissive about the current British government’s reluctance to play a bigger role in the world.

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Malaysian Anglicans have rallied to the support of a Pentecostal church in Petaling Jaya after a Muslim mob disrupted worship services…[recently] and forced the congregation to take down a cross mounted on the church’s facade.

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Edward James Deenihan, Sr., Age 96, passed away on Friday, May 1, 2015. He was the husband of the late Irene (Shaffer) Deenihan; son of the late John and Rose Corey Deenihan; father of John of Chatsworth of California, Edward J. (Kathleen) of Pleasanton, CA, Patrick (Janice) of Reno, NV, Rosemary (Orval) Choate of Nevada City, CA, Elizabeth (Kendall) Harmon of Summerville, SC, Margaret (Mark) Caruso of Sun City West, AZ, and Timothy (Jennifer Paige) of Bridgeport, CT; brother of Margaret Morrison of Ellenton, FL; also 14 grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
Long ago, while playing a game with friends, Ed Deenihan was asked what should be the title of his biography. Affecting the Irish brogue he knew from his parents, he replied, “He Do And He Don’t.” When asked what the title meant, he simply grinned and said, “You’ll have to read the book!” Family was Ed’s first priority, though his history of service to his community and nation speaks of his commitment to serve one and all. Always quick with a story, he used humor to diffuse the pain of struggles and to celebrate life and its riches. Born February 11, 1919, the first son of Irish immigrants John and Rose (Corey) Deenihan, he grew up through the Great Depression, but when asked about that time would happily explain the concept of dance cards at club socials and tell how a family struggling through a hard time would often wake to find a basket on their stoop with bread or milk or some other necessary staples. He was drafted to the Army during the Second World War. During the time of his service, he was initially attached to a unit charged with breaking an internal black market smuggling ring. After his cover was blown, and he “got the stuffing beat out of me” in the hangar of a Calcutta air base, he was reassigned to the First Air Commando Group in the Chin Hills of what was then known as Burma. Again, his stories remembered the camaraderie and laughter of ‘showering’ in the water runoff under the fuselage of a bomber during the monsoons, or of beating the problem of oppressive heat and tightly rationed refrigeration by securing a few crates of beer in the bomb bay of a B-17 and flying it to a frigid altitude before diving back down to the runway and a base full of thirsty servicemen. Following the war, he returned to Wilmerding and was invited on a blind date where he met Irene Elizabeth Shaffer of Mount Lebanon, PA. They were married July 17, 1948, and were together 63 years until her passing in 2011. In that time, he went to work as a salesman for Goodyear Tire & Rubber and the couple raised seven children on his commission-based salary, even as there were at one point two children in college, two in Catholic high school, two in Catholic grade school, and a newborn. “We ate a lot ground meat and potatoes,” he would remember simply, with a grin. For Ed, hardship was never something worth complaining about, but simply a challenge to be dealt with. He was devout in his Catholic faith, and lived its principles of service to the community. He was an active member of his Catholic parish, involved in the practicalities of worship as well as assisting in the upkeep of the parish. He spent many years volunteering with the St. Vincent de Paul Society, even within months of his death, ministering to individuals and families who had found themselves in hard times. He helped serve the Disabled American Veterans and was a Lifetime Member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH). In 2004 he was named Irishman of the Year by its Pittsburgh Chapter. He was twice elected as a Wilmerding councilman. Edward was visiting his son in Pleasanton, California, where he died peacefully this past Friday morning due to complications surrounding pulmonary fibrosis. His life was one of quiet leadership by example, and his passing will be deeply felt by all who knew him. Friends received at JAMES F. FILIA FUNERAL HOME & CREMATION SERVICES, 354 Marguerite Ave., Wilmerding on Mon. 6-8 p.m. and Tues. from 2-4 and 6-8 p.m. Mass of Christian Burial at St. Jude the Apostle Church on Wed. at 10 a.m.

This may be found there.

One of Morley’s most distinguished churches is set to close forever next month after serving the community for more than a century.

All Saints Parish Church in Churwell will celebrate its final service on May 10, bringing to an end 114 years worth of history.

The church is one of many being shut down by the Church of England across the country, as it grapples with the challenges of dwindling attendances to traditional Sunday services.

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O Lord, we most humbly beseech thee to give us grace not only to be hearers of the Word, but also doers of the same; not only to love, but also to live thy gospel; not only to profess, but also to practise thy blessed commandments, unto the honour of thy holy name.

The earth is the LORD’s and the fulness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein; for he has founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the rivers.

–Psalm 24:1

#OnThisDay 1611 ”“ The King James Bible is published for the first time in London, England, by printer Robert Barker. pic.twitter.com/csbe142X8t

— Oxford Classics (@OWC_Oxford) May 2, 2015

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have introduced their daughter to the world, as they left hospital to take her home to Kensington Palace.

The princess, whose name has yet to be announced, slept in her mother’s arms during her first public appearance outside St Mary’s Hospital, in London.

The princess – who is fourth in line to the throne – was delivered at 08:34 BST on Saturday after a short labour.

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Our progressive sensibilities have not, alas, resulted in a genuinely compassionate culture. We no longer have the kind cruel civic Christianity that The Scarlet Letter depicted, yet we still have the shaming scaffolds (they’re called social media now) and we still have ineffable moral codes that must not be trespassed. These codes may not be Levitical but they are indeed legalistic: laws about privilege, sexual autonomy, “trigger warnings,” and much, much more. Violation of these laws can and do result not only in public shame but legal prosecution.

It surely must befuddle those on the inside track of our transforming culture””just as we seem to be learning what true progress is, we rebuild the shaming scaffolds of our Puritan forefathers. Can we not have a culture that embraces the moral equivalence of all forms of sexual expression, the existential (read: non-transcendent) nature of love, and the casting off of ancient beliefs about God and the universe, while simultaneously widening the margins of civic life to include all kinds of beliefs, even those that discomfort us? Cannot we live out the promises of the Sexual Revolution while saving a place in our midst for those who opt out?

No, we cannot. The reason is simple: A broken American conscience cannot be trusted. Compassion is a class that secularism doesn’t offer. Exchanging the Puritanism of Arthur Dimmesdale for the Puritanism of Alfred Kinsey is not progress. Cultural elites may say we are becoming a better people because we break with human history on the meaning of marriage or the dignity of human life, but a glance outside suggests otherwise.

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Such a pattern of religious Dualism did not last into modern times, but it used to be very commonplace to find some such dichotomy. Allegedly, Judaism was the faith of the wrathful, legalistic God of the Old Testament; Christians followed Jesus, and his words of love and mercy. Only a hundred years ago, the great Bible scholar Adolf von Harnack wanted to eject the Old Testament from the Christian Bible, an act he saw as the logical conclusion of the Reformation. Von Harnack himself was not anti-Semitic, although plenty of his sympathizers in such matters were. But the stereotypical dismissal of the Old Testament is certainly anti-Judaic, in the sense of stigmatizing the Hebrew Bible that is the foundation of Jewish faith and identity.

It is hard to know what is most incorrect about this cliché of “the wrathful, Old Testament Jehovah,” or most offensive. A century of Bible scholarship has made it absolutely clear that virtually everything Jesus preached can be found in the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament, including many sayings and pronouncements that seem most radical and innovative. Any attempt to separate Jesus from his Jewish roots ”“ or the New Testament from the Old ”“ is utterly misguided, and doomed to fail. The whole vision of God as loving and forgiving derives from the Old Testament, as is clear to anyone who has ever opened its pages. If you think of the Old Testament God as merely “wrathful,” your knowledge of the text is very slight.

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Religion has been waning in influence for several centuries, especially in Europe and North America. There have been a few brief and local revivals, but in recent years the pace of decline has accelerated.

Today one of the largest categories of religious affiliation in the world””with more than a billion people””is no religion at all, the “Nones.” One out of six Americans is already a None; by 2050, the figure will be one out of four, according to a new Pew Research Center study. Churches are being closed by the hundreds, deconsecrated and rehabilitated as housing, offices, restaurants and the like, or just abandoned.

If this trend continues, religion largely will evaporate, at least in the West. Pockets of intense religious activity may continue, made up of people who will be more sharply differentiated from most of society in attitudes and customs, a likely source of growing tension and conflict.

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She wrote more than 60 novels in a career spanning 50 years, her best-known creation being Inspector Wexford, which was turned into a highly successful TV series.

Rendell, one of Britain’s best-selling contemporary authors, also wrote under the pen-name Barbara Vine.

Born in Essex, she is credited with bringing a social and psychological dimension to crime fiction.

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West Bromwich Albion dealt Manchester United’s hopes of automatic Champions League qualification a serious blow with a smash-and-grab 1-0 victory at Old Trafford on Saturday.

West Brom took a 64th-minute lead when Chris Brunt’s free-kick cannoned into the net off team-mate Jonas Olsson and goalkeeper Boaz Myhill preserved their advantage by saving a Robin van Persie penalty.

It meant that United fell to a third consecutive Premier League defeat for the first time since December 2001, following previous losses at Chelsea and Everton.

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