Barack Obama began work in earnest yesterday, twisting arms and stroking egos in Congress to garner support for a planned $775 billion (£525 billion) recovery plan for an economy he described as “very sick”.

On his first full day back in Washington since the election, the President-elect dispatched his daughters to their new school before heading to Capitol Hill to prepare for one of the most difficult inheritances ever faced by an incoming president.

At every turn yesterday, he underlined the gravity of the crisis and the need for national unity. After speaking with his economic team, he declared: “The situation is getting worse. We have to act and act now to break the momentum of this recession.”

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Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • US Presidential Election 2008

In sum, the California Supreme Court has abdicated its responsibility to decide cases with regard just to the legal principles established by prior cases. In combination with a number of other State courts who have done so, it takes Justice Blackmun's dictum about how a church could change its constitution and elevates that dictum into a rule of law that overrides even the Statute of Frauds.

The Court then compounds this major misstep, as courts are wont to do, with a dictum of its own: it brushes aside any further inquiry into the validity of the Dennis Canon, saying that "this is one of those questions regarding 'religious doctrine or polity' . . . on which we must defer to the greater church’s resolution" (op. at 29). To which I say: what "resolution"? When, or where, has General Convention ever "resolved" the issue of whether it properly passed the Dennis Canon? General Convention has said absolutely nothing about the Dennis Canon ever since 1979---and the Canon itself was not even referred to by the Church's own news service for over twenty years after that. This, unfortunately, is all too typical of the way judges dispose of matters that might, if looked into, disturb the major result on which they have decided.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • TEC Conflicts • TEC Conflicts: Los Angeles • * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues

Scripture’s task is to tell people, at the risk of their displeasure, the mystery of God and the secrets of their own hearts—to speak out and make a clean breast. There are many ways to say and write these truths: in oracles, in poems, in novels, in sermons, in satire, in journalism, in drama. Honestly written and courageously presented words reveal reality and expose our selfish attempts to violate beauty, manipulate goodness and dominate people, all the while defying God. Most of us most of the time, whether consciously or not, live this way. Honest writing shows us how badly we are living and how good life is. Enlightenment is not without pain. But the pain, accepted and endured is not a maiming but a purging. “Every significant utterance is a wound” but ‘faithful are the wounds of a friend.’”

--Eugene Peterson, Run With Horses (Downer's Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1983), p.128

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In a ruling written by Justice Ming W. Chin, the state high court said the property of St. James Episcopal Church in Newport Beach is owned by the national church, not the congregation. The congregation split away after the national church ordained a gay man, V. Gene Robinson, as bishop of New Hampshire, in 2003.

"When it disaffiliated from the general church, the local church did not have the right to take the church property with it," Chin wrote for the court.

The bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles applauded the ruling even as he held out an olive branch to St. James and other parishes sued by his office.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • TEC Conflicts • TEC Conflicts: Los Angeles • * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues

The 38 page pdf is here.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • TEC Conflicts • TEC Conflicts: Los Angeles • * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues

How weird a year was it?

Here's how weird:

• O.J. actually got convicted of something.

• Gasoline hit $4 a gallon -- and those were the good times.

• On several occasions, Saturday Night Live was funny.

• There were a few days there in October when you could not completely rule out the possibility that the next Treasury Secretary would be Joe the Plumber.

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Filed under: * General Interest

“We are identifying teen dating abuse and violence more than ever,” said Dr. Elizabeth Miller, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the School of Medicine at the University of California, Davis, who began doing research on abuse in teenage dating relationships nearly a decade ago.

Dr. Miller cited a survey last year of children ages 11 to 14 by Liz Claiborne Inc., a clothing retailer that finances teenage dating research, in which a quarter of the 1,000 respondents said they had been called names, harassed or ridiculed by their romantic partner by phone call or text message, often between midnight and 5 a.m., when their parents are sleeping.

Such behavior often falls under the radar of parents, teachers and counselors because adolescents are too embarrassed to admit they are being mistreated.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Sexuality • Teens / Youth • Violence

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Children

You may never have heard of E. A. Adeboye, but the pastor of The Redeemed Christian Church of God is one of the most successful preachers in the world. He boasts that his church has outposts in 110 countries. He has 14,000 branches—claiming 5 million members—in his home country of Nigeria alone. There are 360 RCCG churches in Britain, and about the same number in U.S. cities like Chicago, Dallas, and Tallahassee, Fla. Adeboye says he has sent missionaries to China and such Islamic countries as Pakistan and Malaysia. His aspirations are outsize. He wants to save souls, and he wants to do so by planting churches the way Starbucks used to build coffee shops: everywhere.

"In the developing world we say we want churches to be within five minutes' walk of every person," he tells NEWSWEEK. "In the developed world, we say five minutes of driving." Such a goal may seem outlandish, but Adeboye is a Pentecostal preacher: he believes in miracles. And Pentecostalism is the biggest, fastest-growing Christian movement since the Reformation.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Globalization • * International News & Commentary • Africa • Nigeria • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Pentecostal

After years of bitter wrangling over the issue, a report was published last week that advocated creating a new class of clergy to cater for traditionalists who refuse to accept women's ordination.

However, 41 per cent of respondents said they would not back such a solution, and a further eight per cent said they were undecided.

Figures on both sides of the debate argued that providing "complementary" or "flying" bishops for opponents of female bishops was unacceptable.

While traditionalists said that this did not represent a satisfactory safeguard, supporters of women bishops claimed it is too great a concession.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of England (CoE) • CoE Bishops

In the straw poll of members of the General Synod, the Church's parliament, an overwhelming majority of those questioned said that the bishops were right to speak out.

The survey also uncovered serious concerns over the state of British society and Labour's lack of support for the family.

This newspaper questioned 71 members of the 467-strong Synod, one in seven of the total. Of those questioned, 86 per cent said the bishops had been "right to criticise the Government at this particular time".

Nearly half, 48 per cent, said it was time for a change of government, while 45 per cent agreed with David Cameron's claim that Britain is a "broken" society.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of England (CoE) • CoE Bishops • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • England / UK

We need to open a second conversation concerning the role or usefulness of religion. We note from the press that shortly bill boards will appear from London to Washington saying ‘There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life’. Another humanist group in America are mounting a similar campaign which states: ‘Why believe in a god? Just be good, for goodness sake’. The inference is that all religions are bad for human flourishing; they are diseased and atrophied vestiges of human life. They make us miserable and do little good. For Dawkins, Roman Catholicism is a virulent virus that should be eradicated as doing great harm to young people, and even Anglicanism, from which he emerged, is but a milder form of the same disease. Hitchens, as we have seen, has a more aggressive approach to religion which ranges from the very crude to the most opinionated. I have to say that the polemical language of such people remind me of the Chinese saying: ‘Do not use a hatchet to remove a fly from your friend's forehead!’

So a reasonable and careful conversation is needed for us to overcome the infantile and trivial way matters of ethical behavior are being discussed these days. To those who believe that religion is regressive, the question has to be put: ‘then why is religion so active socially in the world and in society and why is it that its contribution to social capital is so highly regarded?’ Roy Hattersley, former Deputy Prime Minister wrote in a Guardian article a few years ago that his view is that ‘most believers are better human beings than atheists’. Reluctantly he acknowledges that unbelievers are less likely to care for the poor and spend time with outcasts of society. He writes: ‘Good works, John Wesley insisted, are no guarantee of a place in heaven. But they are most likely to be performed by people who believe that heaven exists’.

This candid admission is remarkable and should not detract from the fact that a large number of humanists, agnostics and atheists are also good people who seek to create a better world. My argument is not polemical – it is to say that those who wish to eradicate the world of faiths have to perceive them as they are, and to recognize the tremendous contribution they make to our world.

But does religion make a personal difference to people? Prof Keith Ward in his book ‘Is Religion Dangerous?’ emphatically says that it does. He cites a survey carried out in the States by the Pew Foundation that shows that ‘spiritually committed’ people are twice as likely to be ‘very happy’ than the ‘least religiously committed people.’

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of England (CoE) • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • England / UK

Rob has struggled with his ministry within The Episcopal Church for some years now. From my own perspective, in observing his struggle and the instigating factors of that struggle, the decisions -- and not merely the most obvious one -- of the General Conventions of 2003 and 2006 indicated a departure from the Christian view of the primacy of Holy Scripture and the person of Christ for the majority of the leadership at the highest national levels of The Episcopal Church. This was deeply troubling to Rob.

Beyond his struggle with his ministry in The Episcopal Church, there was his belief that the diocese of Upper South Carolina had not stood sufficiently or publicly against the new direction of the national leadership of The Episcopal Church. The lack of a diocese with a clear and strong identity to counter the stances of The Episcopal Church at the national level was also deeply troubling to Rob.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • TEC Conflicts • TEC Departing Parishes • Sexuality Debate (in Anglican Communion) • Same-sex blessings • * Theology

Here's a system Willie Sutton would have loved. Under the federal government's banking regime, those being regulated — the banks and savings and loans — get to pick who regulates them.

That's a sweet deal, made even sweeter by this: The two major regulatory agencies get almost all their income from assessments on the very institutions they oversee, so they have an incentive to keep the bankers happy. The largest banks and S&Ls — including some that engaged in the riskiest behavior — are big catches for the agency that can hook them.

That's not exactly a prescription for strict enforcement.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Credit Markets • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008

The Rev. Ed Dobson has spent most of his life following Jesus. But only now does he realize how hard it is to live like him.

The retired megachurch pastor and one-time architect of the religious right has spent the last year trying to eat, pray, talk and even vote as Jesus would. His revelation: Being Jesus is tough.

"I've concluded that I am a follower, but I'm not a very good one," Dobson said. "If you get serious about the Bible, it will really mess you up."

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Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Evangelicals • * Theology • Christology

Americans enter the New Year in a strange new role: financial lunatics. We've been viewed by the wider world with mistrust and suspicion on other matters, but on the subject of money even our harshest critics had been inclined to believe that we knew what we were doing. They watched our investment bankers and emulated them: For a long time now half the planet's college graduates seemed to want nothing more out of life than a job on Wall Street.

This is one reason the collapse of our financial system has inspired not merely a national but a global crisis of confidence.

Good God, the world seems to be saying, if they don't know what they are doing with money, who does?" Incredibly, intelligent people the world over remain willing to lend us money and even listen to our advice; they appear not to have realized the full extent of our madness. We have at least a brief chance to cure ourselves. But first we need to ask: of what?

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Globalization • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Stock Market • Bernard Madoff Scandal • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A.

In recent days, as European Union and UN officials have called urgently for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, the Bush administration has squarely blamed the rocket attacks of the Palestinian militant group Hamas for Israel's assault, maintaining to the end its eight-year record of stalwart support for Israel.

President George W. Bush said in his weekly radio address over the weekend that the United States did not want a "one-way cease-fire" that allowed Hamas to keep up its rocket fire, and Vice President Dick Cheney echoed the point, declaring that only a "sustainable, durable" peace would be acceptable.

Many Middle East experts say that Israel timed its move against Hamas, which began with airstrikes on Dec. 27, 24 days before Bush leaves office, with the expectation of such backing in Washington. Israeli officials cannot be certain that Barack Obama, despite past statements of sympathy for Israel's right of self-defense, will match the Bush administration's unconditional endorsement when he becomes president Jan. 20.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Violence • * Economics, Politics • Defense, National Security, Military • * International News & Commentary • Middle East • Israel

The African Children's Choir goes to the neediest places — those hardest hit by disease, war or poverty. The children are brought to a training academy for about four months, Victor says, and then they join the choir. The children tour for 12 to 15 months, and when they go home, they go to a Music for Life center to get an education. Victor himself was chosen from an orphanage to join the choir: Music for Life paid for his schooling up to the university level, and when he graduated, he came back to the choir to volunteer.

Listen to it all from NPR.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Children • Music • * International News & Commentary • Africa

President-elect Barack Obama and congressional Democrats are crafting a plan to offer about $300 billion in tax cuts to individuals and businesses, a move aimed at attracting Republican support for an economic-stimulus package and prodding companies to create jobs.

The size of the proposed tax cuts -- which would account for about 40% of a stimulus package that could reach $775 billion over two years -- is greater than many on both sides of the aisle in Congress had anticipated, and may make it easier to win over Republicans who have stressed that any initiative should rely relatively heavily on tax cuts rather than spending.

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Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • Politics in General • US Presidential Election 2008

But Father Rob Hartley who resigned Sunday as vicar of the church says the issue of homosexuality was not his main concern.

“I found it an error because it was contrary to scripture and I don't think it was any deeper than that,” Hartley said.

He says his issues with the Episcopal Church started long before 2003.

“Early 80's probably,” Hartley said.

That is when he said he started to see a shift in the theologies and teachings of the church.

“The Episcopal church really wants to make Christianity relevant they really want to make the truth of the gospel easier to ingest for the modern mind. I think the truth is the truth and changing it to make it digestible isn't exactly what the apostles learned from Jesus,” Hartley said.

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Update: The parish website is here.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • TEC Conflicts • TEC Departing Parishes • * Theology

The theme of Lambeth was “Equipping Bishops for Leadership in Mission and Strengthening Anglican Identity”. Each day began with a celebration of the Eucharist followed by a study of the “I Am” sayings in the Gospel according to John. Much of our time was spent in “Indaba”. Indaba is an African word meaning a meeting for purposeful conversations among equals. In those circles we discussed a wide range of topics including evangelism, the authority of scripture, sexuality, a covenant for the Anglican Communion, ecumenism, and social justice.

The matter of blessing same-sex unions was very much a part of discussions in the conference. In the Reflections report produced by the conference it was noted that a strong majority of bishops present agreed that moratoria on same-sex blessings and cross-provincial interventions were necessary. In a letter following the conference, the Archbishop of Canterbury acknowledged that while the majority of bishops had spoken that way, “they were aware of the conscientious difficulties this posed for some and that there needs to be greater clarity about the exact expectations and what can be realistically implemented. How far the intensified sense of belonging together will help mutual restraint remains to be seen”.

At the fall meeting of the Canadian House of Bishops we had a full discussion of the call for moratoria and issued a statement in which we said, “a large majority of the House can affirm the following:

“A continued commitment to the greatest extent possible to the three moratoria – on the blessing of same-sex unions, on the ordination to the episcopate of people in same-sex relationships and on cross-border interventions – until General Synod 2010. Members of this House, while recognizing the difficulty that this commitment represents for dioceses that in conscience have made decisions on these matters, commit themselves to continue walking together and to hold each other in prayer…

“We ask for your continuing prayers as we steadfastly seek to discern the mind and heart of Christ for the wholesome care of all members of his Body, the Church. We share a deep hope that though we may never come to consensus over this matter of the blessing of same-sex unions, we will live with differences in a manner that is marked by grace and generosity of spirit, one toward another.”

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Canada • Lambeth 2008 • Sexuality Debate (in Anglican Communion) • Same-sex blessings

"About 2,000 babies are born every day in sub-Saharan Africa to HIV-positive mothers," [Bill] Rankin said, "and we thought we could save a lot of the children by getting that medication out into the villages where the people are."

Rankin and Wilson started the alliance with donations from friends but have since secured a $1 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and a $360,000 grant from the Elizabeth Taylor Aids Foundation.

Contacts with African religious groups that Rankin made during his career as a priest came in handy.

"We knew that the best pathway to get to the villages and reach the people was to go through the religious organizations," Rankin said, "because in very poor countries the religious groups are the only stable infrastructure in place."

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • * Culture-Watch • Children • Health & Medicine • * International News & Commentary • Africa

Here is one:

SIR – The bishops who accused New Labour of being "beguiled by money" hit the nail on the head (report, December 28). However, it is not just Government policies that shame Labour as the gap between rich and poor widens. Individual greed has also been allowed to flourish.

Nearly 30 former Labour ministers have taken second jobs in the private sector. For example, two former health ministers are consultants to companies that sell services to the NHS.

There has been a marked drop in confidence in the integrity of politicians: the growing exodus by ministers into the private sector since Labour came to power further contributes to our concern.

Alice Mahon
Halifax, West Yorkshire

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of England (CoE) • CoE Bishops • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Politics in General

In a phone conversation Wednesday, [the Rev. Gregory] Malia, a Long Island native who attended Wyoming Area High School and graduated from King’s College, said both the newspaper and bishop are off the mark.

“I think the whole thing has been blown way of proportion and misconstrued.” He said the Daily News reporter had talked to him for only a few minutes, and that he had yet to talk to [Bethlehem Bishop Paul] Marshall.

“It’s so twisted,” Malia said.

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

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry

Comments are closed.

More than 30 consumers and health care professionals gathered last week to tackle a daunting question: What is the biggest problem with the nation's health care system?

Their answer was succinct: There is no system.

Fragmentation and inefficiency are endemic, the group said. One participant described a revolving door of medical clinics, hospitals and private physicians. And no one knows what the others are doing.

They also indicted the insurance industry for placing a barrier between consumers and providers that is based on making a profit.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Health & Medicine • * South Carolina

MS. [Andrea] MITCHELL: In fact, this "belief in Democracy," quote/unquote, is what led to supporting the election that led to Hamas having its victory. That has been a misplaced belief, many critics would say, in terms of Bush strategy; and in fact, that there hasn't been intensive enough day by day, on the ground diplomacy. That's what the Obama team was planning to bring to the table. It's clear that Israel did this now, the timing of it now. They've been planning for a year. The--Hamas has been defending against it and planning its counteraction for at least a year. They did it now because they wanted to clean the slate before the new administration came in. Despite Obama's, you know, statements about his support for Israel, he's still an unknown entity to them, and they knew that they had unrelenting support from the Bush administration. That said, with the ground action now, most people do not believe it's not going to be done by January 20th.

MR. [DAVID] GREGORY: Mm-hmm.

MS. MITCHELL: And it won't be a clean slate, and it does complicate what Obama and Hillary Clinton have to do.

MR. [HISHAM] MELHEM: The problem with deterrence is that it is easier to be used against states. States can be easily deterred, because the states are responsible for people, for institutions. It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to turn--to deter nonstate actors, as we've seen with Hezbollah and as we've seen with Hamas. If those groups survive politically, to them they succeeded. And they will always go underground and, and, and fight, fight, fight, fight for another day.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Violence • * Economics, Politics • Defense, National Security, Military • Foreign Relations • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A. • Middle East • Iran • Israel

The images from the fighting in Gaza are harrowing but ultimately deceptive. They portray a mighty invading army, one equipped with F-16 jets that have bombed a civilian population defended by a few thousand fighters armed with primitive rockets. But widen the lens and the true nature of this conflict emerges. Hamas, like Hezbollah in Lebanon, is a proxy for the real enemy Israel is confronting: Iran. And Israel's current operation against Hamas represents a unique chance to deal a strategic blow to Iranian expansionism.

Until now, the Iranian revolution has appeared unstoppable. The Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s ended with Iranian troops occupying Iraqi territory. Iranian influence then spread to Saudi Arabia's heavily Shiite and oil-rich Eastern province, and to Lebanon through Hezbollah. Since the fall of their long-standing enemy, Saddam Hussein, Iranians have deeply infiltrated Iraq. Syria has been drawn into Iran's sphere, and even the Sunni sheikdoms of the gulf now defer to Iran, dispatching foreign ministers to Tehran and defying international sanctions against it. Iran has co-opted Hamas, a Sunni organization closely linked to the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, transforming the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into a jihad against the Jewish state. But Iran's boldest achievement has been to thwart world pressure and approach the nuclear threshold. Once fortified with nuclear weapons, Iranian hegemony in the Middle East would be complete.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Violence • * Economics, Politics • Defense, National Security, Military • * International News & Commentary • Middle East • Iran • Israel

The Episcopal Church in 2003, for instance, appointed an openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson, to lead a New Hampshire [diocese]. Hodges - who says he is not prejudice[d] against gays themselves but against attacks aimed at traditional marriage and the priesthood - doesn't like the message the church is sending by that appointment.

"The Episcopal Church has taken a fork in the road to the left, while we continue on the one to the right," he said. "We (Anglicans) believe the Bible contains the inspired word of God, whereas Episcopalians believe the scriptures are secondary to the Holy Spirit." Because holy writ is treated secondary, he said, the church has taken positions on issues not in harmony with the Bible.

"Gays are welcome into our church. That's between them and their God. But when you start to change the leadership of the church, that's when a split is going to happen," he said, referring to the number of diocese that have already split from the 2.2-million-member U.S. Episcopal Church.

But the gay topic is only one issue. He said the Episcopal Church has also lessened the value of Jesus Christ, portraying him more like a fallible man than the infallible Son of God.

"I couldn't in good conscious be a member anymore," Hodges said.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • TEC Conflicts • Sexuality Debate (in Anglican Communion) • Same-sex blessings

The scale and ferocity of the onslaught on Gaza have been shocking, and the television images of civilian suffering wrench the heart. But however deplorable, Israel’s resort to military means to silence the rockets of Hamas should have been no surprise. This war has been a long time in the making.

Since Israel evacuated its soldiers and settlers from the Gaza Strip three years ago, Palestinian groups in Gaza have fired thousands of rudimentary rockets and mortar bombs across the border, killing very few people but disrupting normal life in a swathe of southern Israel. They fired almost 300 between December 19th, when Hamas ignored Egypt’s entreaties and decided not to renew a six-month truce, and December 27th, when Israel started its bombing campaign....To that extent, Israel is right to say it was provoked.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Violence • * International News & Commentary • Middle East • Israel

Here's what comprises the typical American dream: Getting married, having 2.5 kids, and buying the house with the white picket fence, two-car garage, and well-manicured lawn. Here's what it usually doesn't include: hauling groceries up a fourth-floor walkup; dodging taxis, harried pedestrians and street vendors during the morning commute; and paying a premium for an apartment considered a walk-in closet anywhere else.

For many New Yorkers, however, those inconveniences are a part of daily life–and are only amplified when they decide to start rearing little urbanites. Then their biggest issues run from minor logistics such as hauling a stroller up two flights of subway stairs, to major headaches like a preschool application process that rivals those of Ivy League schools. Despite these challenges, Christian parents in New York say that raising a family here provides as many opportunities as it does obstacles: They get to participate in the unique ways in which God works in an urban environment, a setting where community ministry plays a particularly important role.

"You do think, 'Why not move to Long Island?' It's one hour from the city. [But] having grown up in the suburbs, we made an intentional decision to stay here," says Maria Liu Wong, assistant director at City Seminary of New York, who lives in Manhattan's Lower East Side with her husband Tony and son Joshua, 3. Diversity and the desire to get involved with their community convicted them to stay in the area. "Being at City Seminary, I've thought a lot about choosing ways to invest in your neighborhood," Liu Wong says. "I want my child to have diverse friendships, and there's a greater opportunity for my kid to do that [in the city]."

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Children • Marriage & Family • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Evangelicals

Israeli tanks and infantry battalions swept up to the very edges of Gaza City today, battling die-hard Hamas fighters and sealing off the bomb-scarred capital city from the rest of the coastal territory.

With the civilian death toll rising by the hour and diplomatic efforts to halt the fighting making no headway, the head of the UN refugee agency called the situation a “catastrophe”.

But Israel made clear it was not about to heed calls for a swift ceasefire to “Operation Cast Lead”. It insisted that it had to smash Hamas and destroy its weapons stockpile in order to ensure a lasting peace not just for its citizens, who have endured years of Palestinian rocket fire, but for the people of Gaza themselves.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Violence • * International News & Commentary • Middle East •