The Diocese of Egypt and North Africa with the Horn of Africa celebrated today with the Installation of a new priest. Archbishop Mouneer Anis officiated the installment service on February 19th at All Saints’ Cathedral with words speaking to the true catholicity of the Church, the body of Christ.

Reverend Kerry Buttram was installed to the position of Priest-in-Charge of the English Speaking Congregation at All Saints’ Cathedral. Rev. Kerry hails from South Carolina where he and his wife Cynthia have served for many years.

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The Maker from Patrick Kehoe on Vimeo.
[h/t Anne Kennedy and Pat Dague]

Nearly 90 years ago, a missionary wrote a song meant to galvanize the Western church and draw hundreds of missionaries to China. This Sunday, more than 4,100 churches around the world will sing “Facing a Task Unfinished” with a modern twist.

In 1920, Frank Houghton traveled east with China Inland Mission. Nearly a decade later, the missions agency issued a call for 200 “men and women who know and love the Lord Jesus Christ” to minister to the country then torn apart by civil war.

Aided by Houghton’s song, the ministry got its 200 missionaries. And by 2015, the number of Christians in China grew to somewhere between 67 million and 106 million.

China Inland Mission became OMF International, which celebrated its 150th anniversary last year. As part of the commemoration, OMF asked Keith and Kristyn Getty to update the hymn.

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The people of Westworth United Church have already opened up their lives to Syrian Muslims, and now they’re inspired to open up their hearts.

“We thought because we are in the middle of a one-year sponsorship of Syrian refugees, this was the perfect opportunity to learn about Islam,” says Rev. Loraine MacKenzie Shepherd about a five-week study series on Islam and Christianity.

Last fall, the River Heights church, along with members of Muslim and Jewish communities, sponsored six adults and 18 children from Syria. The multi-faith sponsorship group, called REFUGE, has raised about $100,000 of the $120,000 needed to sponsor these three families for their first 12 months in Canada.

Running during the Christian season of Lent, the 40 days before Easter, the free series covers topics such as violence, reading difficult passages in the Qur’an and the Bible, and issues of hate, violence and racism in both faiths, says MacKenzie Shepherd.

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O Eternal God, who hast taught us by thy holy Word that our bodies are temples of thy Spirit: Keep us, we most humbly beseech thee, temperate and holy in thought, word and deed, that at the last we, with all the pure in heart, may see thee and be made like unto thee in thy heavenly kingdom; through Christ our Lord.

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

In all honesty, I find myself wanting to hit someone, if only to awaken him. This primary season is revealing an astounding blindness in the members of our ruling class, both Right and Left, as well as a remarkable lack of self-criticism. Donald Trump should be no surprise. He’s made in their image.

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I will take comments on this submitted by email only to KSHarmon[at]mindspring[dot]com.

Mr Sentamu said that the Church had no intention of moving away from traditional teaching on marriage and sexuality, however he confirmed it was trying to find a way to bridge the divide between conservatives and liberals.

Writing a letter to the Daily Telegraph, Most Revd Sentamu said: “The Archbishop of Canterbury and I have not ‘signalled’ that the Church of England is ‘poised to rethink its centuries-old doctrine of marriage to accommodate same-sex couples’, as you report.

“However it is true that discussions are taking place and will continue at next summer’s meeting of the General Synod, not to overhaul Church doctrine, but to ‘help forge better understanding between different groups over the issue of sexuality’.”

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