O God, who by the lowliness of thy Son hast raised a fallen world: Grant to thy faithful people perpetual gladness; and as thou hast delivered them from eternal death, so do thou make them partakers of everlasting joys; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.

“But take heed to yourselves; for they will deliver you up to councils; and you will be beaten in synagogues; and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake, to bear testimony before them. And the gospel must first be preached to all nations. And when they bring you to trial and deliver you up, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say; but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. And brother will deliver up brother to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death; and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.”

–Mark 13:9-13

Looking back on the controversy that preceded Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical, Humanae Vitae, I get the impression that there was an even deeper issue in play than the question of the morally appropriate means to regulate human fertility. Underneath that debate, another issue was being contested: How should Catholics do moral theology?

The forces pushing for a change in the Church’s longstanding rejection of artificial means of contraception were also pressing for the acceptance of a new moral-theological method, “proportionalism,” as the approved Catholic way of thinking through the tangled issues of the moral life. Those defending the Church’s traditional position were, by the same token, defending more classical ways of moral reasoning. The change people denied that there were “intrinsically evil acts,” because, they argued, moral choices should be judged by a “proportional” calculation of intention, act, and consequence. The defenders of the tradition held that some things were always and everywhere wrong, in and of themselves.
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A brilliant article by a German Catholic philosopher, Professor Thomas Stark, suggests that the same dynamic””an argument beneath the argument””may be afoot in the controversies that will be aired again at the Synod of Bishops in October.

In a painstaking analysis of the intellectual building-blocks of Cardinal Walter Kasper’s theological project, Professor Stark argues that, for Kasper, the notion of what we might call “sacred givens” in theology has been displaced by the idea that our perceptions of truth are always conditioned by the flux of history””thus there really are no “sacred givens” to which the Church is accountable…

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Every congregation is a congregation of sinners. As if that weren’t bad enough, they all have sinners for pastors.

— Eugene Peterson (@PetersonDaily) August 19, 2015

The Anglican parish formerly associated with what is now St. James the Great Episcopal Church in Newport Beach will move to a permanent location in Costa Mesa in the fall.
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The soon-to-be St. James Anglican Church building at 22995 Airway Ave. in Costa Mesa is being remodeled. The one-story space will include classrooms, a kitchen and pantry, a nursery, a multipurpose room, office spaces and a sanctuary. The congregation is expected to move into the building in October, according to a news release.

“St. James church is in a season of growth and new life that opens the doors for people of all generations to experience,” said the Rev. Richard Crocker, the senior pastor. “We are building upon our core strengths of strong ministries which continue to serve our parishioners, the local community and global needs as well.”

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Today the greatest Christian evangelism movement ever to occur in any country in the world is taking place in China. It’s one of the most exciting developments to be happening on the world stage right now and most American and western Christians do not seem to be aware of it. In part I think that the reason why we are not is because the media that surrounds us in our electronically saturated culture is focused so much on other things. Perhaps in part also the reason why we Christians in the west are not aware of it is because we are so busy slugging it out in the trenches, trying to save the moral and logistical remnants of our Christian past in a western culture that seems rapidly to be turning in a different direction. To be sure, slugging it out for the gospel in the west is a valuable mission. It’s a mission to which I am currently dedicating my life. But at the same time I do think that a case could be made for saying that we Christians in the west are needed every bit as much on the mission field in China. At the very least our financial resources are needed on that mission field. Consider the following points…

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Two well-loved, historic Far North churches have dubious futures as the The Anglican Diocese of Auckland discuss their sale.

St Catherine’s at Okaihau and St Stephen the Martyr’s in Kaikohe may get new owners if the decision goes ahead.

Anglican manager Kevin Third says the diocese is concerned about declining congregation numbers and the cost of keeping the churches open.

But member of Pakaraka Holy Trinity Anne Herbert is against selling them.

“All these churches are without debt, they are in good order because we’ve kept them so. We’re not quite sure what’s behind the thinking there.”

“I dont want the church hall and the church closed down. We have an op shop there that’ll be affected and the church also caters to the stockyard.

“So it means we’re not helping the community. Kaikohe is a community that needs help.”

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The Anglican Primate of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, Most Reverend Nicholas Okoh, has urged churches nationwide to give wide support to President Muhammadu Buhari’s ”˜Anti-corruption Agenda’.

The Archbishop described the behaviour of some public office holders as a huge disappointment to Nigeria, emphasising that Nigeria had garnered enough international support to enable her address squarely the rot in the system.

According to him, the church has always been in the vanguard of anti-corruption crusade.

“The Church has been preaching and teaching that people should live right.

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…Grainy security camera footage showed Khadiza and her two 15-year-old friends, Shamima Begum and Amira Abase, calmly passing through security at Gatwick Airport for Turkish Airlines Flight 1966 to Istanbul and later boarding a bus to the Syrian border.

“Only when I saw that video I understood,” Ms. Khanom said.

These images turned the three Bethnal Green girls, as they have become known, into the face of a new, troubling phenomenon: young women attracted to what experts like Sasha Havlicek, a co-founder and the chief executive of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, call a jihadi, girl-power subculture.
An estimated 4,000 Westerners have traveled to Syria and Iraq, more than 550 of them women and girls, to join the Islamic State, according to a recent report by the institute, which helps manage the largest database of female travelers to the region.

The men tend to become fighters much like previous generations of jihadists seeking out battlefields in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq. But less is known about the Western women of the Islamic State. Barred from combat, they support the group’s state-building efforts as wives, mothers, recruiters and sometimes online cheerleaders of violence.

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There was a miserable stint in the Army, mercifully shortened by a psychiatrist who thought I had no business being a soldier. There were a couple of romantic relationships with married women. Casting about for something to do, I eventually settled on studying journalism at San Francisco State University.

That’s where I found Islam. A friend introduced me to the Qur’an, and I was entranced by its words, which speak of a God who cares a great deal about the men and women he created. But it was also the people: the Palestinian and African American Muslims who first taught me what it meant to surrender. They welcomed me as no one else had before.

Some people look to faith for ideas of right and wrong, or some understanding of good and evil, or a set of principles with which to order the world. Not me. What I sought, what I ached for, was meaning and belonging. And Islam gave me both.

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Almighty and everlasting God, who resisteth the proud and givest grace to the humble: Grant, we beseech thee, that we may not exalt ourselves and provoke thy indignation, but bow down to receive the gifts of thy mercy; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Surely the righteous shall give thanks to thy name; the upright shall dwell in thy presence.

–Psalm 140:13

The Army created the Human Terrain System ”” at the height of the counterinsurgency craze that dominated American strategic thinking in Iraq and Afghanistan late in the last decade, with much fanfare ”” to solve this problem. Cultural training and deep, nuanced understanding of Afghan politics and history were in short supply in the Army; without them, good intelligence was hard to come by, and effective policy making was nearly impossible. Human Terrain Teams, as Human Terrain System units were known, were supposed to include people with social-science backgrounds, language skills and an understanding of Afghan or Iraqi culture, as well as veterans and reservists who would help bind the civilians to their assigned military units.

On that winter day in Zormat, however, just how far the Human Terrain System had fallen short of expectations was clear. Neither of the social scientists on the patrol that morning had spent time in Afghanistan before being deployed there. While one was reasonably qualified, the other was a pleasant 43-year-old woman who grew up in Indiana and Tennessee, and whose highest academic credential was an advanced degree in organizational management she received online. She had confided to me that she didn’t feel comfortable carrying a gun she was still learning how to use. Before arriving in Afghanistan, she had traveled outside the United States only once, to Jamaica ”” “and this ain’t Jamaica,” she told me.

She was out of her depth, but at least she tried to be professional.

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We read in the gospel that when the Lord was teaching his disciples and urged them to share in his passion by the mystery of eating his body, some said: This is a hard saying, and from that time they no longer followed him. When he asked the disciples whether they also wished to go away, they replied: Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

I assure you, my brothers, that even to this day it is clear to some that the words which Jesus speaks are spirit and life, and for this reason they follow him. To others these words seem hard, and so they look elsewhere for some pathetic consolation. Yet wisdom cries out in the streets, in the broad and spacious way that leads to death, to call back those who take this path.

–Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153)

O God, by whose grace thy servant Bernard of Clairvaux, enkindled with the fire of thy love, became a burning and a shining light in thy Church: Grant that we also may be aflame with the spirit of love and discipline, and may ever walk before thee as children of light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, liveth and reigneth, one God, now and for ever.

Bernard of Clairvaux died #OTD 1153 #feastday @BLMedieval Add 35313 f. 228v pic.twitter.com/NRpQXglPwM

— Melibeus (@melibeus1) August 20, 2015

O Almighty God, who hast revealed thyself in him who veiled his Godhead that he might unveil thy glory, and hast made him the eternal sacrifice and only priest of men: Grant that by the power of thy Holy Spirit the veil on our hearts may be taken away, and we may look on him who loved us and gave himself for us, and so be changed into the same image from glory to glory, until at last we shall see him with unveiled face, for evermore.

A Song of Ascents. Of David. O LORD, my heart is not lifted up, my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a child quieted at its mother’s breast; like a child that is quieted is my soul. O Israel, hope in the LORD from this time forth and for evermore.

–Psalm 131

No looking, networking, googling or anything else–guess first before you look.

The matinee crowd was anything but typical, as the New York Yankees paid a visit to The Prospector Theater to recognize one theater’s incredible off-screen mission.

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..the real clash of cultures is happening not among governments, but between churches; specifically between churches in the West””that is, in Europe and the U.S.””and churches in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Last year the Washington Post ran a story about the growing tension between Anglican and evangelical churches in the West and their daughter congregations abroad. While many churches in Europe and America have shriveled as they drift from biblical Christianity, their counterparts in the global south have thrived. These missionary plants haven’t gotten the memo about rewriting two thousand years of Christian orthodoxy. And they’re puzzled and more than a little worried when Westerners come bearing the sexual revolution instead of the Gospel.

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The Anglican church has issued an invitation to the country’s various leaders to attend a prayer session for the nation on August 25 at the Holy Trinity Cathedral as election nears.
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[The cathedral’s interim Rector, Rev Carl] Williams said the church will hold a series of prayer events leading up to election and beyond. He defined prayer as the “engine room of the church.”
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The entire nation is invited, Williams said… The general election takes place on September 7

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The Church of England, with the exception of a high profile, now retired, Archbishop (and friend) and without doubt some of our Church members and clergy, has been resolutely against a change in the law.

Of course, this leaves those of us who don’t want PAS open to the criticism that we don’t care about those in great distress in the hour of death. As a former hospice chaplain, I refute this. In fact the Christian Church has a long and noble history of seeking to assist people to die well without killing them.

Palliative care options may be inconsistent across the country, but a huge amount of know how has been, and is being learnt about effective pain control. The Church’s position is not that ”˜pain is a noble thing.’ We need more palliative care provision rather than handing out the right in law to take life.

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The building stands as a memorial with magnificent stain glass windows dedicated to former congregation members. Everywhere inside this 68 year old building are memorials to various members of the church dedicated because of their contributions to the congregation.

Many churches are suffering the same fate at present. Everyone is on a tight budget, economics are forcing members of the church to work on Sundays, the church congregation has aged and those members live on a fixed income, and a church cannot survive on fundraisers like bakes sales,” said Dyas.

The Church is doing everything it can to survive at this point. Letters have been sent out to members and former members for support. “We are trying to do the best with what we have,” said Dyas. “But, ultimately the decision will come from the Diocese.”

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On Sept. 11 the House of Commons will vote on a bill to allow people with terminal illnesses to take their own lives with the assistance of doctors. If the bill passes in this second reading stage of the Parliamentary process, little will stand in the way of its becoming law.

The bill would allow euthanasia for mentally competent adults who are deemed to have less than six months to live. They would need the consent of a high-court judge and two doctors.
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Church of England representatives have released statements opposing the bill. One of the clearest voices is Care Not Killing, comprising Roman Catholic, evangelical Protestant, and disability networks.

“The reality is that Britain’s law on assisted suicide is clear and right and is working well,” said Dr. Peter Saunders, campaign director of Care Not Killing.

The waters have been muddied somewhat by the Most Rev. George L. Carey, the 103rd Archbishop of Canterbury, supporting the bill.
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Supporting him are faith leaders including … the Rt. Rev. Alan Wilson, Bishop of Buckingham…

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Hall raised the cathedral’s profile with his outspoken and steady public comments on things like race, transgender rights and gun control, but he said the place needs more in order to pay its large regular bills. He is proposing eventually reopening the college that’s on the cathedral’s grounds as a kind of think tank for 21st Century progressive religion. And to find ways to make programming relevant.

Cathedral-watchers disagree about whether the type of programs Hall brought in helped give the place energy and relevance or went too far from tradition and instead watered down its brand.

Mainline Christianity has been shrinking in recent decades, but all of institutional religion is struggling to deal with the lack of commitment by young Americans ”“ including financially. Massive Episcopal and Catholic cathedrals are uniquely facing questions about how you fund buildings at a time when it’s trendy for religious communities to ditch buildings altogether, and when our most popular spiritual figure ”“Pope Francis ”“ gets accolades primarily for his talk about simplicity.

Read it all and see also an atheist’s perspective

O Lord our God, who hast committed to us the glorious gospel of our risen Saviour and Master: Grant that as we joyfully receive the good news for ourselves, so we may gratefully share it with others, and ever give glory to thee, by whose grace alone we are what we are: through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.

With my whole heart I cry; answer me, O Lord!
I will keep thy statutes.
I cry to thee; save me,
that I may observe thy testimonies.
I rise before dawn and cry for help;
I hope in thy words.
My eyes are awake before the watches of the night,
that I may meditate upon thy promise.
Hear my voice in thy steadfast love;
O Lord, in thy justice preserve my life.

–Psalm 119:145-149