tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-362364382024-03-14T00:16:10.934-04:00Admiral of MoralityEpiscopal and Anglican items
And other notes
from the realm of squinty-eyed jaundiceThe AoMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06749710612109952072noreply@blogger.comBlogger248125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36236438.post-90090894912446118782009-08-06T11:00:00.000-04:002009-08-06T11:56:28.664-04:00Fr. Jake returns<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnijcX1Md3lPlThCyfTcspduhIOC_FpU-_iyEFHBp-NuKVpa3NNbFYBvQjQmrBQpuEdf2gXKHsP6QgKy-3kTKF-T1KlnuQkBF5SxKF36NGg_X9f-ULsYgzUb6RSBBq3hD3gAs/s1600-h/FRJAKE017.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 111px; height: 132px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnijcX1Md3lPlThCyfTcspduhIOC_FpU-_iyEFHBp-NuKVpa3NNbFYBvQjQmrBQpuEdf2gXKHsP6QgKy-3kTKF-T1KlnuQkBF5SxKF36NGg_X9f-ULsYgzUb6RSBBq3hD3gAs/s200/FRJAKE017.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5366875421109288754" border="0" /></a>In the summer of 2008 <a href="http://frjakestopstheworld.blogspot.com/">Fr. Jake Stops the World blogspot </a>went offline as the author accepted an evangelism post at Church headquarters in New York. What was seen as a boon for the wider Church, was certainly seen as a loss to the blogging Church.<br /><br />In fact, the loss to the blogging Church was a loss to the wider Church, for there is power and grace in a <span style="font-style: italic;">nom de plume </span>that is not always capturable otherwise. Why? Alas, this may be a mystery.<br /><br />For several years as the Episcopal Church slept, Fr. Jake Stops the World gathered and detailed information about the activities designed to undermine it. In the process he attracted many regular readers and contributors who found a spiritual home.<br /><br />This naturally drew the attention of Church leaders—but truth be told, the thunderous clarity of the eccentric and sometimes heretical Fr. Jake seemed muted and constrained at 815.<br /><br />This observation should not be underestimated, and perhaps we might find in it somewhere a lesson. For even as we are reminded to recognize that our incarnational Church is built upon human experiences, there is true and enduring power in the written word and community.<br /><br />The roundabout point is that as of August 6 Fr. Jake has returned online.<br /><br />Hail!The AoMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06749710612109952072noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36236438.post-20008135687215932232009-08-04T12:00:00.005-04:002009-08-04T13:44:31.370-04:00The Lay of the Land<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLPY8RNqd6VdFMrvI8eTmmqHtS_eCVl4384lrzDqZahbs5Y_2VeN6jSwXaU6y15ZM8fdblamt5VVVlkaL9d8gbbdisWEwD5MQNAFsIjGHtiCPjgXtxTJX0Ye66W8tdr80Q99Q/s1600-h/in+sight.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 126px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLPY8RNqd6VdFMrvI8eTmmqHtS_eCVl4384lrzDqZahbs5Y_2VeN6jSwXaU6y15ZM8fdblamt5VVVlkaL9d8gbbdisWEwD5MQNAFsIjGHtiCPjgXtxTJX0Ye66W8tdr80Q99Q/s200/in+sight.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5366158344445995218" border="0" /></a>After the 2009 General Convention and the recent announcement of episcopal candidates for the dioceses of Los Angeles and Minnesota, it cannot be denied that The Episcopal Church is the gayest Church in all of Christendom.<span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">*</span><br /><br />It is now beyond question that the Church has assumed as its charism within the Apostolic churches, leadership in proclaiming the theological and ecclesial equality of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered persons.<br /><br />The implications of this fact for the Body of Christ, the Anglican Communion, and the Church itself, are not clear.<br /><br />Why not?<br /><br />Because as the Archbishop of Canterbury recently wrote, “very serious anxieties have already been expressed” about our Church’s decisions, and our recent decisions, will not ease these.<br /><br />These anxieties have erupted and continue to affect our relationships, because the Church’s charism is viewed as misguided or as apostasy by many others.<br /><br />Several other Apostolic churches have to some degree or another travelled on this path, by broaching and debating the issue. But none to the extent of our Church, which has brought the matter to the level of the episcopate, and therefore, to the forefront or background of nearly every Church- and Communion-wide meeting and discussion.<br /><br />For nearly six years, the merest fraction of Church time but a sustained period in human terms, the Church has been consumed with this issue, to the clear detriment of others. It seems that we have not been able to walk and chew gum at the same time.<br /><br />The 20/20 Initiative is but a memory. Church planting is pitiful. The state of our seminaries and our theological educational structures and principles is a C- at best.<br /><br />At this past General Convention, the national church leaders and bodies ceded—no, rejected—responsibility for evangelism and the Great Commission, insisting that it was better done by the diffuse, smaller and more limited confines of our localities. This rejection of stewardship of the Great Commission by our national Church offices may be nothing less than a national abdication of our mission and responsibility as a Church. It is hard to see church planting and successful evangelism taking place within such confines.<br /><br />It may be no surprise then, that into this vacuum of regular and renewed missional purpose has poured the round-robins of sexuality, affecting our relations with one another—within our parishes, our dioceses, our Church, our provinces, our Communion, and with our ecumenical partners. We often talk about and do nothing else, because this is all we are up to.<br /><br />For the vast majority of individual gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered persons in our Church, or who consider themselves faithful or otherwise interested in this matter, the implications of this consummate attention are very clear and essential—a recognition by the wider Church of the fruits of the Holy Spirit that they experience on a regular and sustained basis. It is in fact these very incarnate realities that have forced the matter despite all difficulties because these realities are inescapable and irreducible.<br /><br />Yet at the same time, these realities clearly conflict with the vast repository of Christian teaching, tradition, Scriptural interpretation, and the plain meanings of the Scriptures themselves. As the Archbishop pointed out, this has not changed since the earliest days of the Church. This reality is also inescapable and irreducible.<br /><br />Other churches, most notably the Roman Catholic Church, have introduced aspects of worship, tradition, interpretation, and theology, into their own understanding of Christianity that do not rely on Scripture and that are in fact, rejected by wide parts of the greater Body for not being supported by Scripture.<br /><br />The differences between these churches and our own have contributed to the problems in our churches: the lack of a central theological authority, our apostolic nature, and the very short time frame--in Church terms--of how we have addressed the sexuality issue.<br /><br />Analogies to the issue of women’s ordination and election to the episcopate are therefore distinct for at least this one reason—time.<br /><br />The Church and the Scriptures have clear images and realities of women serving in key roles, since the days of the Lord. We have scores of women saints we pray with and for and venerate. We have the example of the Holy Mother. We have thousands of years of women serving the Lord and our churches in various capacities to the extent that, for many of us, having them serve as deacons, priests, and bishops, was a natural progression.<br /><br />This took 2000 years. In the meantime, we have learned to live side by side with complementarians and female priests and bishops.<br /><br />Christendom’s first openly gay bishop, on the other hand, preceded any wider agreement or example of what it meant to have openly gay persons not only serving and worshipping by our sides, but any theological constructs carving out an exception to the general prohibition, outside of a generally Arminianist impulse that too often has been relied upon when objections arise.<br /><br />Another difference is the lack of clear theological authority attached to many General Convention resolutions and committees, panels, and bodies issuing findings on the sexuality matter within our Church.<br /><br />The conclusions of these bodies that have impact for the entire Church Catholic are regularly dismissed for not being based on theology. This may be not because they do not contain theology within them, but because they do not issue from a consistent and unified body responsible for preserving, interpreting, and transmitting our theology.<br /><br />What they do issue from is the General Convention and various standing and ad hoc bodies whose constitutions, bylaws, and approaches vary over time, even from meeting to meeting—and which in any event have no authority beyond our own borders.<br /><br />This per se is not detrimental but is indeed, the great gift of the Spirt to our Church.<br /><br />But, but—along with this diffusion has always been, the belief and practice that movement in some areas but especially in the area of human sexuality, would be slow, consultatory, and desirous of the widest possible consensus. Slow not in human terms, but in Church terms.<br /><br />This has not occurred. That it has not, may very well be a gift of the Spirit. It has been six years, or 30, depending on your point of view—a sustained period in human terms either way, but not much in Church terms, and less than a speck in God’s.<br /><br />All around, for six years, we have regularly failed to live up to our better natures, and have attacked and derided, in clear and certain terms; and approached with hostility and animosity, those who disagree and who have been inflamed by our actions.<br /><br />The speed of the conversation has magnified the best and worst impulses of our natures and forced our Church to drop and allow to wither on the vine, other important measures.<br /><br />At least for the Church of this province, we have witnessed a weakening of our national structures as they have turned away from the Great Commission, intellectual study and educational theology, in order to address this issue.<br /><br />If we examine our history, perhaps we might find that a slower pace had the virtue at least, of smoothing out the extremes of human behaviors and allowing us to disagree and plant churches at the same time.<br /><br />But, this is not where find ourselves, and perhaps this is not where we are supposed to be just yet.<br /><br />We are traveling through uncharted waters but we have placed our hope in Christ to get us through and all around us we signs of the Spirit.<br /><br />As we proceed our Church is going to need us properly discerning the Holy Spirit and living into our discernment and charism, without at the same time being unwilling or unable to do what we have also done up to this season.<br /><br />This applies to each of us individually but also to us corporately.<br /><br />Right now, especially if you take a look at the pages of Episcopal Life, we are not precisely up to the task.<br /><br />We are going to have to do double duty to fix this.<br /><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size:85%;">*<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">This is not meant to be glib or facetious, merely to recognize, that what is discussed and examined in our Church as an issue of the Gospel or inclusiveness or rights or fairness or the Spirit, is outside of the Church, reported nearly always, especially in the press, as the gay church issue.</span></span><br /></span>The AoMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06749710612109952072noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36236438.post-29031223564950621522008-06-20T09:30:00.000-04:002008-06-20T09:41:13.319-04:00Another pre-Lambeth storyThis one is from the <em>Economist</em>. It is a preview of sorts of the upcoming Lambeth, and also surveys the recent controversy from the London blessing. <br /><br />Here is a snippet:<br /><br />"The Anglican ethos rests on an unspoken consensus, a tacit understanding that all manner of crankiness and eccentricity can be tolerated as long as the family somehow stays intact. But as any marriage counsellor will admit, there is not much you can do in a situation in which people are truly determined to put asunder a partnership which they once regarded as joined together by the hand of God."<br /><br />Like the Catholic News Service piece noted below, the <em>Economist</em> piece positions Lambeth as a "high noon." <br /><br />If tradition is any indicator, Lambeth will be just the latest in a series of Christian "high noons" dating back to the Crucifixion. But that turned out alright, didn't it?<br /><br />Read: <a href="http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11585335">The Economist article is here.</a>The AoMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06749710612109952072noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36236438.post-19205133588099504612008-06-19T10:00:00.002-04:002008-06-19T10:10:21.760-04:00Obama VP Top 10 picksTwo women, two former Republicans, an independent, and a Hispanic make the top 10.<br /><br />The following list reflects who's hot and who's not in the search for Barack Obama's vice presidential running mate. It's compiled by CBSNews.com senior political editor Vaughn Ververs and the rest of the CBSNews.com political team and reflects media speculation, buzz, reporting and a lot of guesswork.<br /><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/06/17/politics/main4188186.shtml#clinton"></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIvnnnweqsnm90qiexo4L0tq651NCO905IP6gRgU9oJ6UUKjkhChsnmENv1HqXLjYVMNMjrdRXbGuz1QFLu5sHActpqnv4B-xN1E45hyphenhyphenNS-tfnbEnvdjlE-pxryOoFGqJ_km0/s1600-h/Clinton.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 47px; height: 47px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIvnnnweqsnm90qiexo4L0tq651NCO905IP6gRgU9oJ6UUKjkhChsnmENv1HqXLjYVMNMjrdRXbGuz1QFLu5sHActpqnv4B-xN1E45hyphenhyphenNS-tfnbEnvdjlE-pxryOoFGqJ_km0/s200/Clinton.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5213591216750170866" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">1 Hillary Clinton</span><br />She won 18 million votes in the Democratic primaries, walloped the presumptive nominee in key states and retains the loyalty of a sizable chunk of the party. Conventional wisdom says this pairing will never happen but until that becomes crystal clear, Clinton has to remain high on the list.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz3tQOIHCn3cDqoAiAT7zaZoL_JVcv-mJE6SAjlACDx2XgQ98vfng2vKBuCcMdBuY6jRAeHOJBzreNay0MRChCqKEU_jE2ilMVJvbT9-Ntp6HMSD_4GY7Nbe-BI65o_BzTVIY/s1600-h/Webb.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 47px; height: 47px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz3tQOIHCn3cDqoAiAT7zaZoL_JVcv-mJE6SAjlACDx2XgQ98vfng2vKBuCcMdBuY6jRAeHOJBzreNay0MRChCqKEU_jE2ilMVJvbT9-Ntp6HMSD_4GY7Nbe-BI65o_BzTVIY/s200/Webb.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5213591366535383826" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">2 Jim Webb</span><br />If being a Vietnam veteran, former Navy Secretary and the very face of the party's anti-war wing isn't enough, he's also from a key battleground state. Early media vetting has not been kind, however, and the Old Dominion isn't large enough to make the election all about Virginia, Virginia, Virginia.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbbBVYtBMtCILnpsY3X9wi9uXt4a0oAklTtbDiPdUW-O-wqKTcJyaauwQmnRncyWKwY6Nz7tJ6gR0uxdYVsuYCntNBGFd2fJVwcIt5K7E9M3pDSBEJwQHAIbATT1ag1Tro1MY/s1600-h/Richardson.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 44px; height: 44px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbbBVYtBMtCILnpsY3X9wi9uXt4a0oAklTtbDiPdUW-O-wqKTcJyaauwQmnRncyWKwY6Nz7tJ6gR0uxdYVsuYCntNBGFd2fJVwcIt5K7E9M3pDSBEJwQHAIbATT1ag1Tro1MY/s200/Richardson.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5213591512864968738" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">3 Bill Richardson</span><br />The best choice if winning New Mexico and courting the Latino vote are paramount concerns. He may also have the best overall resume of anyone Obama will look at -- but his chances might be better if he had not run himself and turned in a puzzling performance.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq_upC0H-ypAiKeJCR2gEMKo5sbK3-LyUO7_VkkYxY2EQG__AF03bqakntR0oIfBy-A1-amG3U5f8rB12oA3n5z4-vc5nWxvsa3SGMTvU-p2_fVNMurP5mWDH7HC9HSFkAQZo/s1600-h/Sebelius.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 42px; height: 42px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq_upC0H-ypAiKeJCR2gEMKo5sbK3-LyUO7_VkkYxY2EQG__AF03bqakntR0oIfBy-A1-amG3U5f8rB12oA3n5z4-vc5nWxvsa3SGMTvU-p2_fVNMurP5mWDH7HC9HSFkAQZo/s200/Sebelius.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5213591640507445490" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">4 Kathleen Sebelius</span><br />A rising star who suddenly has Republicans wondering what's wrong with Kansas. She's not an insider, has executive experience and bolsters the "change" theme of Obama's campaign. But could it be too much change?<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdwuh2p2o8x3M1m67wwPlxYEyIrPUsFVq7RWINj8g73WZXlCCn-1bOtftwwQNtwtdHCRRJQRYRigTLfyI_0YUXB9IpznpQFLMyblefE8xr21YLXctGqYy_y59Ot-wNSsTxul4/s1600-h/Daschle.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 46px; height: 46px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdwuh2p2o8x3M1m67wwPlxYEyIrPUsFVq7RWINj8g73WZXlCCn-1bOtftwwQNtwtdHCRRJQRYRigTLfyI_0YUXB9IpznpQFLMyblefE8xr21YLXctGqYy_y59Ot-wNSsTxul4/s200/Daschle.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5213591827896397970" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">5 Tom Daschle</span><br />An early and eager supporter for Obama, who appears to have forged a close relationship with the former Majority Leader. A consummate insider helps soothe concerns of inexperience but also brings a lot of insider baggage. And what happened to Obama in South Dakota?<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijGyXZp4WfQP33O9ZMmemqHXBazISIUggJ1AxJNrY-jgmcMfmVzsjXUfMmxpYxu7mzp9XH717ZtvQKGZr7jsiQlYFLdgJIry1k8ln-9Z0aLvhfw9Dpd8dr8-AJV3-UDaIZmGA/s1600-h/Nunn.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 43px; height: 43px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijGyXZp4WfQP33O9ZMmemqHXBazISIUggJ1AxJNrY-jgmcMfmVzsjXUfMmxpYxu7mzp9XH717ZtvQKGZr7jsiQlYFLdgJIry1k8ln-9Z0aLvhfw9Dpd8dr8-AJV3-UDaIZmGA/s200/Nunn.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5213591969653160770" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">6 Sam Nunn</span><br />A growing presence in the speculation because of his national security credentials, the former Georgia senator has veteran experience and moderate credentials. He's well-respected on both sides of the aisle, and is seen as a grown-up, but may be too much of a greybeard for the Obama generation.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnW4uPR5EzYT8Pxyh4m4i3JraHfbeIEpEys4gM1H0XexFrJ-04fhyphenhyphenG42C7E6eb4uts8xFtFW2e2ikxSv28Kgtf6bw0kp2qnxuFg2_F7zqe-VDsPa53PcwIKeFpEmebahXdPIo/s1600-h/Rendell.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 44px; height: 44px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnW4uPR5EzYT8Pxyh4m4i3JraHfbeIEpEys4gM1H0XexFrJ-04fhyphenhyphenG42C7E6eb4uts8xFtFW2e2ikxSv28Kgtf6bw0kp2qnxuFg2_F7zqe-VDsPa53PcwIKeFpEmebahXdPIo/s200/Rendell.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5213592127981357074" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">7 Ed Rendell</span><br />One of Clinton's staunchest supporters in the primary and a seasoned politician who isn't afraid to jump into a fight. Obama's loss in Pennsylvania has Republicans looking to steal a blue state and Rendell could bring stability. He was careful not to trash Obama in the primaries but there are plenty of things he did say that would be thrown back at him.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5rVXqhMoylt2XXVVK8gusNWeMhmPYDciOOQSKxN3M02zS4CBqrCTQsTtSLUphvTjrZYVoaOCwuoApBs6wwc8EZ3YRyc79slUKG5VCVloD4J808zfVBZPOQFOfyVpK2_EwSjE/s1600-h/Bayh.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 45px; height: 45px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5rVXqhMoylt2XXVVK8gusNWeMhmPYDciOOQSKxN3M02zS4CBqrCTQsTtSLUphvTjrZYVoaOCwuoApBs6wwc8EZ3YRyc79slUKG5VCVloD4J808zfVBZPOQFOfyVpK2_EwSjE/s200/Bayh.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5213592281582797714" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">8 Evan Bayh</span><br />The Midwestern moderate was supposed to be among the presidential field. Instead he backed Clinton from the get-go. It was a good way to get on her ticket, but just being one of the most popular politicians in Indiana might be enough to get on Obama's.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp7PdHK_4k9Eo43L10nrNYvVFzMhiU3jQRbCJbqvNOeDhZDHHUXl4Xfsvav20Xk7PzzsYk6zmNQGzwm2lmVQC9WnJe2iDo2-Ii1Rq3sWfA-2esp6I3c8yjxaJ3XOED85WF7WQ/s1600-h/Kaine.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 45px; height: 45px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp7PdHK_4k9Eo43L10nrNYvVFzMhiU3jQRbCJbqvNOeDhZDHHUXl4Xfsvav20Xk7PzzsYk6zmNQGzwm2lmVQC9WnJe2iDo2-Ii1Rq3sWfA-2esp6I3c8yjxaJ3XOED85WF7WQ/s200/Kaine.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5213592472341784786" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">9 Tim Kaine</span><br />Not as appealing a Virginian as Webb, he may be a safer one. The governor has executive experience and isn’t steeped in the ways of Washington and is Catholic to boot. With as many as three prospects from the same state though, the chances narrow.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYf_qVgJrAnG52jT_JWuA8dnAoVjjmEbNE41_FnyRbEBfoH1NK1np9dI2CggkYcS4iT2ZV534wW02hxv7Col_5JZfkcuenEUNucgK3-PZPrRtnT-Zb4ywMSLP7b7Au9BmiNDU/s1600-h/Bloomberg.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 46px; height: 46px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYf_qVgJrAnG52jT_JWuA8dnAoVjjmEbNE41_FnyRbEBfoH1NK1np9dI2CggkYcS4iT2ZV534wW02hxv7Col_5JZfkcuenEUNucgK3-PZPrRtnT-Zb4ywMSLP7b7Au9BmiNDU/s200/Bloomberg.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5213592639781173858" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">10 Michael Bloomberg</span><br />The only name to appear on the list for both presumptive nominees, the mayor appears to be a better fit for Obama. The two have publicly flirted throughout the campaign and this pick could help soothe uneasy Jewish voters unsure about Obama. But a New York City mayor might not be the kind of change voters can believe in.<br /><br />For full bios and more on the hotlist, go to the <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/06/17/politics/main4188186.shtml#clinton">VP bios pages at CBS.</a>The AoMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06749710612109952072noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36236438.post-17084494130580157732008-06-18T12:15:00.003-04:002008-06-18T12:23:08.853-04:00Blessings and anguish for pastors in California<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqDp7W_JYiTJUjZ8-YxctlW6A3M9_hHkzUK_WOTTRK1c1tQmdIS5azSiuHfacnPXBudXb9U8bpq0qtkJdLuRfSxN6kM5jtQttJWP9HdiePka0e62WhU6HV_Q6RWslT5Z8xZSM/s1600-h/the+line+at+city+hall.jpe"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 144px; height: 94px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqDp7W_JYiTJUjZ8-YxctlW6A3M9_hHkzUK_WOTTRK1c1tQmdIS5azSiuHfacnPXBudXb9U8bpq0qtkJdLuRfSxN6kM5jtQttJWP9HdiePka0e62WhU6HV_Q6RWslT5Z8xZSM/s200/the+line+at+city+hall.jpe" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5213256396080008642" border="0" /></a>Gay partnerships, unions, and marriages and Christian responses to them, continue to dominate the news.<br /><br />Some clergy members in California spent Tuesday officiating at same-sex weddings made legal by a State Supreme Court ruling that took effect on Monday night. Others spent the day speaking out against same-sex marriage.<br /><br />And there were those who spent the day in anguish, torn between the laws of their state and the laws of their church.<br /><br />The Rev. Kimberly A. Willis said she had not decided what to do because she wanted to be able to minister to all of her congregants at Christ Church United Methodist, in Santa Rosa, about 10 percent of whom are gay. But if she officiates at a same-sex wedding, she could be charged with violating the United Methodists’ Book of Discipline, put on trial and defrocked.<br /><br />“It was surreal to watch this and think, How can I not bless these people?” Ms. Willis said. “I can bless a car, and I have. I’ve been asked to bless animals, children, homes, bread, grape juice, but I can’t bless a gay and lesbian couple. That’s unreal to me.”<br /><br />The tension could also be seen in Bakersfield, where the Rev. Tim Vivian of Grace Episcopal Church and about a dozen of his parishioners sat on the edge of a courtyard outside the Kern County Clerk’s Office, where same-sex couples were marrying. Mr. Vivian said he was “in solidarity” with the couples but would not participate in the ceremonies because his diocese was in turmoil over the gay issue and his superiors had asked him to refrain.<br /><br />When asked whether he expected one day to marry same-sex couples in his church, Mr. Vivian said, “Very much so.”<br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/us/18clergy.html?ref=us"><br />Read the whole piece at The New York Times.</a><br /><br />There is often a rather remarkable disconnect between the teachings and preaching of a Church and reality. In the past, one has given way to the other, to be reformed for the better.<br /><br />When the subject has been Church teachings that have in some way dehumanized or limited real living persons, the solution has been to give powerful witness to our shared humanity.<br /><br />The source of this powerful witness has regularly been and continues to be, the gift of grace and Spirit freely given. There is no way to dam it up.<br /><br />Pray for our brothers and sisters in our Churches.The AoMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06749710612109952072noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36236438.post-88783237619490508852008-06-17T11:30:00.004-04:002008-06-17T11:51:47.145-04:00London priest: Why I blessed my friends' civil partnership<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1kMMXnhiBK5m_feCAQiTf0p38ofvDAAeAGAP-Uri-ImVUsZcCil_tZaZ0__FcsDagcrz5fMlxpxSWwtO_rHN7ArqzePbRMTchPwNkgZj744pB_W9B1QLwPwg3WTGnVA-7yAA/s1600-h/Rev.+Dudley.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 67px; height: 56px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1kMMXnhiBK5m_feCAQiTf0p38ofvDAAeAGAP-Uri-ImVUsZcCil_tZaZ0__FcsDagcrz5fMlxpxSWwtO_rHN7ArqzePbRMTchPwNkgZj744pB_W9B1QLwPwg3WTGnVA-7yAA/s200/Rev.+Dudley.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5212873336622124290" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >The rector of St Bartholomew the Great in the City of London, in the eye of storm over gay 'marriage,' explains why he decided he must bless a gay relationship</span><br /><br />Today, the <a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/">New Statesman</a><a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/"> </a>has posted a full comment by Rev. Martin Dudley, titled, "Why I blessed gay clergymen's relationship."<br /><br />On May 31 in a ceremony at his London parish <a href="http://www.greatstbarts.com/">St Bartholomew-the-Great</a>, Rev. Dudley blessed the civil partnership of two friends and fellow priests, Peter Cowell of England and David Lord of New Zealand.<br /><br />The church, is one of the oldest in Britain, dating back to 1123. The blessing followed the <a href="http://www.eskimo.com/%7Elhowell/bcp1662/occasion/marriage.html">1662 Prayer Book rite</a> for the solemnization of marriage, which with a few changes, is used in marriage ceremonies around the English-speaking world.<br /><br />In Great Britain, same sex couples may enter into civil partnerships, giving participants rights and responsibilities identical to civil marriage. But neither the Church of England nor the Diocese of London have officially adopted ceremonies blessing them.<br /><br />Needless to say the event has set off <a href="http://www.thinkinganglicans.org.uk/archives/003148.html#comments">quite a bit of discussion, debate, and repercussions.</a><br /><br />One of the civilly partnered men, the Rev. Dr. Lord of New Zealand, has apparently <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/jun/16/civilliberties.religion">resigned his license as an Anglican minister.</a><br /><br />The Bishop of London calls all involved <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/17/anglicanism.religion">"reckless and self-indulgent" and is instituting "an investigation." </a><br /><br />The Archbishops of Canterbury and York, earlier today issued a rather unusual<a href="http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/1857"> joint response</a> to the blessing: they listen to the reports of the recent service with "great concern"; they cannot say more due to the bishop of London's "investigation"; clerics are free to "disgaree with the Church's teaching" but cannot disregard it.<br /><br />In his defense, Rev. Dudley <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/jun/16/civilliberties.religion">tells the Guardian of London,</a> "I am surprised and disappointed by the fuss. It was a joyful, godly occasion. Why turn it into a controversy? It was not a rally or a demonstration.<br /><br />"Nor is it the first time there have been prayers, hymns or readings following a civil partnership. It may be that this ceremony had rather more knobs on. It may also be the only one we know about."<br /><br />Here is part of what Rev. Dudley says in the New Statesman today:<br /><br />"For today’s Church of England it is as if the 1970s never existed; the lessons have been forgotten. There has been a retreat from exploring the depths, pushing the boundaries to the point where words strain, crack and sometimes break as we struggle to express in a suffering world the foolishness of God and the all-embracing love found in Jesus Christ.<br /><br />There has been a return to uncritical fundamentalist use of biblical “proof texts”, ripping verses from their theological and literary contexts. There has been a flight to the safety of rigid law and inflexible dogma and a consequent desire to unchurch those who will not conform.<br /><br />So on a day late in 2007 when my friend and colleague Peter Cowell asked me to bless the civil partnership that he was to contract with David Lord in May this year I was ready to answer “yes”. I did so not to provoke the so-called traditionalists and to deliberately disregard the guidelines published by the English House of Bishops, not to defy the Bishop of London, whose sagacity I respect, or Archbishop Rowan, who I have known and admired for 25 years, but because to respond in any other way would have been a negation of everything I believe, of everything that makes me who I am, as a man and as a priest."<br /><br /><a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/religion/2008/06/gay-relationship-marriage-love">Read it all at The New Statesman.</a>The AoMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06749710612109952072noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36236438.post-23647813099941951362008-06-17T09:45:00.002-04:002008-06-17T09:55:31.468-04:00Why I love the Episcopal Church<em>A sermon recently preached by the Rev. Terence L. Elsberry, Rector, <a href="http://www.stmatthewsbedford.org/">St. Matthew's Church,</a> Bedford, NY:</em><br /><br />I’m preaching this sermon in response to a request. When I told someone a few days ago that at today’s ten o’clock service we were going to commission our vestry, the person said, “Terry, why don’t you preach a sermon on what the vestry does and where the word comes from in the first place?”<br /><br />My friend went on: “We have all these quirky words in The Episcopal Church—vestry, warden, glebe, verger—but how many of us know what they really mean? Why don’t you tell us?”<br /><br />So in response, I have for you this morning not a typical sermon but a teaching of sorts. And I also offer a confession: all the quirky words are part of the reason why I love The Episcopal Church.<br /><br /><a href="http://eny.dioceseny.org/ENY0304.pdf">Read it all here</a> (scroll to last page).The AoMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06749710612109952072noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36236438.post-18268353599035912112008-06-16T12:00:00.000-04:002008-06-16T12:00:02.988-04:00The power of witnessMany Episcopalians/Anglicans are so reserved and grim faced even in the midst of a wonderful liturgy, that a newcomer might think he'd just walked into a wake. <br /><br />The giveaway that the congregation isn't a funeral service is that there is no casket. Or there is a baby happily tumbling around in the the pews and being snatched up from the edge of the baptismal font by a flustered parent. <br /><br />Being the frozen chosen might be a badge of honor in some parts and is every Episcopalian's God-given right. It may even be an attractive characteristic for many seekers.<br /><br />True, being frozen is sometimes the result of five, six-verse funereal hymns. But it can also be an impediment to attracting and keeping newcomers, and to living a life of full discipleship.<br /><br />Too often, we're so reserved we don't even speak about our own faith in a way that is accessible, open, and honest. <br /><br />A life of discipleship should encourage and permit this. Because sometimes, the best testimony about our faith is not only a life lived, but a life shared.<br /><br />One good example of the power of witness is currently online at Newsweek. The author is named Jimmy Doyle and he was recently confirmed in The Episcopal Church, at St. Thomas the Apostle in Los Angeles.<br /><br />He writes that even as a boy he felt called to Christ, but that as a gay person, he did not live a life of discipleship until he encountered our Church.<br /><br />Here, he found "a Christianity that was alive and evolving, one that delighted in difference and saw God's creation in many things."<br /><br />Take some time out of the day to read Doyle's story. (<a href="http://www.newsweek.com/id/141505">Go here</a>.) It is simple, honest, and a strong witness to the Lord.<br /><br />The AoMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06749710612109952072noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36236438.post-4814690044459928392008-06-14T22:45:00.000-04:002008-06-14T22:54:05.454-04:00Catholic News Service on Lambeth: "Time of reckoning for ecumenical dialogue"The Catholic News Service (CNS), may be the oldest and biggest wire service specializing in religious matters. <a href="http://www.usccb.org/">The US Conference of Catholic Bishops,</a> which shapes policy and governance for the Roman church in America, created it in the 1920s. <br /><br />As Lambeth 2008 gets closer (<a href="http://www.lambethconference.org/">we are only 32 days out</a>), we are bound to see quite a few stories about the Conference, from quite a few different perspectives. <br /><br />CNS has run a piece with a headline baldly stating that this summer's Lambeth is "a time of reckoning" for Anglican-Roman dialogue. What are Episcopalians/Anglicans to make of this? <br /><br />On the one hand, the piece presents the Roman view in somewhat usual fashion. The piece quotes "the Vatican" anonymously; and otherwise, revisits many events that Roman Catholics as a body, do not agree is possible—-women's ordination, women's consecration, +Robinson.<br /><br />On the other, in a fine display of "schism" euphemisms, the piece makes clear that "splintering," "factions," and "new groups," do not improve dialogue. Hear, hear.<br /><br />CNS's review of Lambeth itself, is given short shrift. They do say that, "Over the last 140 years, even without legislative authority, the Lambeth Conference has been the Anglicans' most effective unifying instrument." Ecce signum!<br /><br />But there isn't much in the piece about the conference per se, other than that the Romans tend to view the idea of a strong Covenant as very good, and the notion of a strong, primal Archbishop of Canterbury, as even better. Tsk, tsk--do we really need bandwidth to understand that this is the Roman position? (No.)<br /><br />The CNS piece gives the sense that many Romans are still somewhat miffed that Anglicans have the following: decentralized authority, public disagreements, women priests and bishops, openly gay clergy, and a dynamic theology. <br /><br />Could be. <br /><br />Perhaps we Anglicans, will have to keep meeting with the Romans to dialogue about this?<br /><br /><a href="http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0803145.htm">The CNS story is here.</a>The AoMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06749710612109952072noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36236438.post-77780925409181999272008-04-21T16:00:00.000-04:002008-04-21T16:02:20.031-04:00Confessions of a "die hard cyber-girl," and other talesWhen at sea it is second nature to calibrate based on all manner of information gathered via long distances. We adjust for winds, tides, heights, temperatures, depths and so forth, and don't much think twice about adjusting based on a voice we've never seen or a readout of data compiled by computer.<br /><br />Even so, if we are over 18 or so, we might still wonder just how real and enduring cyber/virtual/online discussions and interactions can be, and how these might affect our physical interactions and discussions.<br /><br />No doubt the wondering ends, when a physical world discussion or interaction, is based on or highly informed by, a virtual one--say, when a package examined and purchased virtually, arrives at our doors the very next morning. In these instances, the cyber world becomes very real indeed.<br /><br />It's not so much that the virtual world affects us, but the extent to which it now does, that makes us wonder.<br /><br />Many people of college age and younger, do not wonder much about it at all.<br /><br />For them, cyber interaction is regular and typical, and in fact, often far superior to physical discussion and communication. Indeed, for most of them, the cyber interaction is essential to the physical interaction, and can be far more regular.<br /><br />Why is this so?<br /><br />There is a good deal of research and emerging study in this area. One thing we can be sure of is that one reason for this incredible fondness for and reliance on virtual communication, is because by the time a young person turns 18, cyberspace is already an old friend.<br /><br />Consider what Kathryn Seiferth, a freshman at <a href="http://www.tusculum.edu/">Tusculum College</a> in Tennessee and a self-described "cyber girl," writes in the latest issue of Trinity Magazine, the parish magazine of Trinity Church, Wall Street.<br /><br />She says, "I happily embrace my role as a child of an age in which nonverbal conversations are more common than not....This idea of being connected, despite distance, is a quality that defines my generation."<br /><br />Young Seiferth's essay examines how "empathy" plays out in cyberspace. As you can probably tell, she thinks there is oodles of it there; just not always.<br /><br />Hers is one of several essays in <a href="http://www.trinitywallstreet.org/welcome/?article&id=963">the current issue of Trinity Magazine</a>, examining empathy in various contexts. Others include prison, the confessional, and the parish kitchen. There is also an article on "A Theology of Empathy."<br /><br /><a href="http://www.trinitywallstreet.org/welcome/?article&id=957">Go here for the full "cyber girl" article.</a>The AoMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06749710612109952072noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36236438.post-21478028637786906982008-03-28T09:45:00.000-04:002008-03-28T09:45:45.978-04:00Regula, dear readers, and thank you<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrmzo0JZVLxjWfDjjYyRnJr9nGwPna0Baap0CVZn_3rbKoONKoUeR5-rDGCHc210KUdOUDZ2yS5KzKpTUA65M_pvEHnhlSfkNwC6oz1etHdkfC2qVBZNGRnLFpazyPiwWnLvY/s1600-h/st-benedict-the-eucharist-catholic-monk-benedictine-rule.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 102px; height: 113px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrmzo0JZVLxjWfDjjYyRnJr9nGwPna0Baap0CVZn_3rbKoONKoUeR5-rDGCHc210KUdOUDZ2yS5KzKpTUA65M_pvEHnhlSfkNwC6oz1etHdkfC2qVBZNGRnLFpazyPiwWnLvY/s200/st-benedict-the-eucharist-catholic-monk-benedictine-rule.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5182786922982619330" border="0" /></a>Since no entries were made to the website for a short period this past winter, several readers wrote to inquire as to my whereabouts, and as to the status of the site.<br /><br />In the Episcopal contemplative tradition modeled on <a href="http://www.osb.org/rb/">The Rule of St. Benedict</a>, there are regular periods of prayer, meditation and contemplation. Much of this tradition occurs within a monastic or other contemplative community, of which <a href="http://anglicansonline.org/resources/orders.html">The Episcopal Church has several.</a><br /><br />These communities generally follow the rule of life formulated so well by St. Benedict. This rule, or <span style="font-style: italic;">regula</span>, to use the Latin—which gives us the more expansive sense of the word's term, which is as a method or approach to spiritual formation—does not require holy orders, and many have written elsewhere, about the rules' usefulness and development in their lives.<br /><br />In my own life, there are regular periods of contemplation, study, and prayer, during which no posts may appear, and no correspondence may be answered.<br /><br />Alas, these periods might seem extended by the instantaneous standards of electrical impulses; by human standards, these times are surprisingly short.<br /><br />Notwithstanding,—thank you, dear readers, for your notes of interest and concern, and your continuing visits.<br /><br />Grace and peace in the name of the Lord.The AoMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06749710612109952072noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36236438.post-28528636386049008312008-03-25T09:30:00.002-04:002008-03-25T09:43:39.103-04:00For Bishop Gene, "moving on" means moving on to "the next round"<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYnbjxCNgVIh-VD9sg-3n01ZrVhVnzq7QFRCXHnnZ5vZq5rbHVDO9gmHOXSsv3qPLmYaK2d2ZGYWSLv0O_bpJqLlMZxVSHWp1Rc6O9S98R1TT2A6dFR_xm_Rw7o1gmUvrfzqc/s1600-h/+Gene.jpeg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 87px; height: 125px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYnbjxCNgVIh-VD9sg-3n01ZrVhVnzq7QFRCXHnnZ5vZq5rbHVDO9gmHOXSsv3qPLmYaK2d2ZGYWSLv0O_bpJqLlMZxVSHWp1Rc6O9S98R1TT2A6dFR_xm_Rw7o1gmUvrfzqc/s200/+Gene.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5181673865027991730" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">The Boston Globe</span> this morning has an interesting story on its front page about Bishop Gene.<br /><br />Reporting from <a href="http://www.nhepiscopal.org/">diocesan headquarters in Concord, N.H.,</a> the report reviews some of the events since +Gene's consecration five years ago "in a nearby hockey arena, wearing a bulletproof vest under his new golden vestments," and previews +Gene's upcoming schedule, including Lambeth and his civil union in June.<br /><br />A good section of the report is a bit of a rehash of the past several years, using many of the phrases that, to regular readers of Episcopal/Anglican news reports, have become very familiar.<br /><br />+Gene says in the interview that "he agrees with assertions by the presiding US bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, that he is not the only gay Anglican bishop, simply the only one willing to be open about his sexuality."<p>He also says that because of his visibility, his personal safety may be at risk, but that he's not afraid.<br /></p><p>"I'm not afraid, I'm just realistic. There are angry people, and there are crazy people out there. And as far as we know, not a single one of the disciples died of old age at home in bed. The kind of confidence that they felt after the resurrection just enabled them to go out and make their witness and then what happens happens, and that's the way I feel."</p><a href="http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/03/25/bishop_readies_for_next_round/?page=full">The article in full is here.</a>The AoMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06749710612109952072noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36236438.post-68660552542130066992008-03-24T20:30:00.002-04:002008-03-24T20:41:53.615-04:00Chaplains mark grim milestone with salute to each of the fallen<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtteI6byXDg0zlbJGrrQX-WHjb3x_X9BnHLrw-oRIT2F49cTHf_AyCq_FAFsVA30syG3zRIUJIMjxpkJ-N71MdcT5q2lHtA9flVvEAmkrz4dV2Pyjp2HlHl8QRBsrxPUJkBv0/s1600-h/Episcopal+chaplain.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 107px; height: 84px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtteI6byXDg0zlbJGrrQX-WHjb3x_X9BnHLrw-oRIT2F49cTHf_AyCq_FAFsVA30syG3zRIUJIMjxpkJ-N71MdcT5q2lHtA9flVvEAmkrz4dV2Pyjp2HlHl8QRBsrxPUJkBv0/s200/Episcopal+chaplain.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5181472589975599266" border="0" /></a>As the news spread around the nation over Easter night that the number of U.S. dead in Iraq had reached 4,000, newspapers and broadcasts over the world marked the milestone with reports on the lives of the soldiers and their families.<br /><br />Sharon Cohen of The Associated Press, covered the experiences of four chaplains:<br /><br />Rev. David Sivret, rector at St. Anne's Episcopal Church in Calais, Maine, and chaplain in the Maine National Guard;<br /><br />Captain Kevin Wainwright, U.S. Army, a Presbyterian minister and chaplain to the 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment;<br /><br />Jesus Perez, a Messianic Jew, chaplain to the First Calvary Division at Fort Hood;<br /><br />and Lt. Colonel Irvine Brye, Army Reserve, a Baptist minister and chaplain to the 3rd Medical Command at Camp Victory, Baghdad.<br /><br /><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080324/ap_on_re_us/4000_fallen">Read their stories here.</a>The AoMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06749710612109952072noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36236438.post-40632862586598600112008-03-19T22:00:00.003-04:002008-03-19T22:59:42.517-04:00Rowan Williams, apophaticistThe interested who might have a moment or two during Holy Week (a spell between Maundy Thursday and choral evensong on Easter Sunday, say) can feel free to thumb through a slender new volume of essays that help us to navigate and find discernible landmarks, "inside the mind of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, Britain's most impressive theological virtuoso." (This, according to the review of the new volume in the<span style="font-style: italic;"> Times Literary Supplement.</span>)<br /><br />The book,<span style="font-style: italic;"> Wrestling with Angels: Conversations in Modern Theology</span>, is reviewed favorably there.<br /><br />The new volume covers pieces Williams wrote only between 1978 and 1998, dates which are significant in the life of the Anglican Communion and in the career of Rowan Williams.<br /><br />Those years saw major Prayer Book revisions, the first female bishops (priests, in some nations) and the growing prominence of African Anglicans, notably Archbishop Tutu in South Africa.<br /><br />Williams writings and thought during this period, reflected these developments and indeed, laid intellectual and theological groundwork for them. Into 1998 and even through his elevation to the seat of Cantaur, Williams often wrote and spoke eloquently, about an expansive, generous orthodoxy rooted in the diverse voices and traditions, of Scripture itself. Doing this is how he made his reputation.<br /><br />Regularly working against this very history of himself, is how he has come to be identified since his elevation.<br /><br />The book itself mirrors this intellectual and pastoral 180 degree turn, cutting off anything post Lambeth 1998, a time—our time—when the very abstractions teased out and expounded upon from 1978 to 1998, have become concrete realities needing to be defended, given pastoral care, and recognized for always being at the foot of the Cross.<br /><br />Here is how the <span style="font-style: italic;">TLS</span> describes the significance of the essays in the new book, and the cutoff for dates:<br /><br /><blockquote> ....[P]ieces – all originally published between 1978 and 1998 – that deal directly with the thought of modern philosophers and theologians, and that therefore might be described as exercises in philosophical or systematic theology (as opposed, say, to historical theology, another field in which Williams has long distinguished himself). This sort of approach suits Williams well. He is not a theologian who has ever attempted to develop a “system” of his own, or to establish a particular school of theology within the greater theological world, or to enucleate a set of basic principles by which then to determine where and how other thinkers ought to be situated within his own thought. Rather, what he does extremely well is to “think along” with the author whose work he is considering, to measure the strengths of that author’s ideas, to seek out certain of the subtler currents within those ideas, and to identify what can and should be criticized therein.</blockquote><br />The period between 1978 and 1998, when Williams expounded and help nurture an expansive Gospel, is seen as an intellectual exercise.<br /><br />The period after this—our here and now—when the exercises can be put into practice and defended? Silence. The book snaps shut.<br /><br />The <span style="font-style: italic;">TLS</span> review is a fine one.<a href="http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article3584449.ece"> It can be read in its entirety here.</a>The AoMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06749710612109952072noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36236438.post-57219977507583364382008-03-17T08:00:00.005-04:002008-03-17T08:22:44.881-04:00++Katharine in Jerusalem for "historic moment"<span style="font-size:100%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI-O2li20OLhW4taWbYRN1X_AD4mfDmLjgoJcIXAxvNRyA6GAyXupC54mZwNT8pAMj0qIMBU0MN53Zuzf-MO8eRARsqKOAb6K7jkNUREt38upmyzQMExSdWx5iDq9w6sqv_zI/s1600-h/++Katharine+in+Jerusalem--ELO.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 136px; height: 81px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI-O2li20OLhW4taWbYRN1X_AD4mfDmLjgoJcIXAxvNRyA6GAyXupC54mZwNT8pAMj0qIMBU0MN53Zuzf-MO8eRARsqKOAb6K7jkNUREt38upmyzQMExSdWx5iDq9w6sqv_zI/s200/++Katharine+in+Jerusalem--ELO.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5178683177004743586" border="0" /></a></span><span style="font-size:100%;">Marking the annual Palm Sunday celebrations and the start of a week-long visit to the Holy Land, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori made Anglican history on March 16, becoming the first woman ever to preach at St. George's Cathedral in Jerusalem.<br /><br />The Presiding Bishop's visit to the Holy Land comes at the invitation of the Rt. Rev. Suheil Dawani, who was consecrated Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem in January 2006.<br /><br />++Katharine was met with smiles and jubilation as she joined ++Dawani in greeting each member of the congregation following the service.<br /><br />"We joined in a remarkable multicultural worship experience today -- Arabic and English speaking Christians celebrating Palm Sunday in the midst of East Jerusalem, with palm and olive branches, singing old standard Holy Week hymns in both languages," ++Katharine said.<br /><br />The morning Eucharist, celebrated in Arabic and English, was preceded by the blessing of palm branches and a procession from St. George’s College Square into the Cathedral, located on Nablus Road in East Jerusalem.<br /><br />The Rev. Canon Hosam Naoum, acting dean of St. George's, described the Presiding Bishop's visit as a historic moment. "With all the differences in the Anglican Communion today, I see her as a uniting figure who brings beliefs and understandings and cultures of other people around the world," he said.<br /><br />Audio of the sermon, and more on ++Katharine's visit, is at <a href="http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_95739_ENG_HTM.htm">Episcopal Life Online.</a></span>The AoMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06749710612109952072noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36236438.post-4714054504383838532008-03-16T06:00:00.000-04:002008-03-16T12:47:16.430-04:00From the Sunday readings<span style="font-weight:bold;">Matthew 21: 1, The Lord enters Jersualem</span><br /><blockquote>When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Beth'phage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, "Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, just say this, "The Lord needs them.' And he will send them immediately." </blockquote><blockquote>This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying,<br /></blockquote><blockquote>"Tell the daughter of Zion,<br />Look, your king is coming to you,<br />humble, and mounted on a donkey,<br />and on a colt, the foal of a donkey."</blockquote><blockquote><br />The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting,<br /></blockquote><blockquote>"Hosanna to the Son of David!<br />Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!<br />Hosanna in the highest heaven!"<br /></blockquote><blockquote>When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, "Who is this?" The crowds were saying, "This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee." </blockquote><br />The Lord enters Jerusalem as the city is preparing for Passover. Many are streaming into the city from all corners of Palestine, the Near East, Africa, Achea, and points beyond, to mark the Passover in the holy city, fittingly so, for many of these will then return to their corners of the world with the good news on their lips, of the Lord's triumphant resurrection and promise of life. The Lord constantly tells his disciples and apostles, that all is happening as it has been laid out in Scripture--down to the very detail of precisely when and how the Lord is to enter into the city. Prior to their arrival the Lord has performed several miracles and has notably, instructed that "the first will be last and the last will be first." He has also explicitly told them that the Son of Man will be given unto his enemies by one of his very own, flogged and crucified, and rise again on the third day. It is a miraculous sequence of events, venerated for millennia as Holy Week in all of Christendom.The AoMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06749710612109952072noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36236438.post-85859032316580653842008-03-14T11:00:00.004-04:002008-03-14T11:26:10.650-04:00"Shock and sorrow" at murder of Archbishop<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-_841yPB8uzzk0nobrXfiIEhilWJBgxERAaXRt6hBPGFtGYfKnAud6W6TMcNGDN6U9fKgSkBRtN5t6fZofUjINIyBULRwBbjbuEJkmJdo4YRs0mUjoHu4mhNS0cVhyphenhyphenrUbVAQ/s1600-h/Paulos+Faraj+Rahho.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 65px; height: 60px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-_841yPB8uzzk0nobrXfiIEhilWJBgxERAaXRt6hBPGFtGYfKnAud6W6TMcNGDN6U9fKgSkBRtN5t6fZofUjINIyBULRwBbjbuEJkmJdo4YRs0mUjoHu4mhNS0cVhyphenhyphenrUbVAQ/s200/Paulos+Faraj+Rahho.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5177614481767316354" border="0" /></a>Lambeth Palace reports via the <a href="http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns">Anglican News Service</a><a href="http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns"> </a>that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has expressed his deep shock and sorrow at the appalling murder of Paulos Faraj Rahho, the Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul.<br /><br />"Our prayers are daily with the people of Iraq, especially with the vulnerable Christian community, and particularly today with the Chaldeans and Archbishop Paulos' family," ++Rowan said.<br /><br />As of this Friday, Christians from across Iraq have been attending the murdered archbishop's funeral, the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7296353.stm">BBC</a> reports.<br /><br />Surrounded by armed guards, mourners wept and held flowers as the coffin was carried through the village of Kremlis, near Mosul in northern Iraq.<br /><br />Christians are a tiny fraction of Iraq's population, but their religious sites and leaders have been targets of increasing violence since the US-led invasion of Iraq.<br /><br />Chaldean is a form of Aramaic, spoken at the time of Jesus.<br /><br />The Chaldeans, an Eastern-rite Church that recognizes the authority of the Pope, converted to Christianity in the first century A.D., and the Chaldean branch of Christianity has been in Iraq since then.<br /><br />The Chaldean Church comprises the bulk of Iraq's remaining Christians, 2/3 of whom have fled or been displaced, since the U.S. invasion.<br /><br />The archbishop's body was found in a shallow grave on Thursday, two weeks after he was kidnapped.<br /><br />His abductors had telephoned the church authorities to say where he was.<br /><br />The killing has been condemned by Pope Benedict XVI, the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri Maliki, and Iraq's Sunni and Shia leaders.<br /><br />Archbishop Rahho was kidnapped after mass at the Church of the Holy Spirit in Mosul on 29 February. Three of his aides were killed in the abduction.<br /><br />His kidnapping and murder came only months after another Chaldean priest and three subdeacons, were murdered outside the very same church from where the Archbishop was kidnapped.<br /><br />Canon Andrew White, the only Anglican priest working in Baghdad, told the <a href="http://timesonline.typepad.com/faith/">Times of London</a> that the Archbishop's death was "inevitable." Other leaders in the Church there fear that to survive in Iraq, Christianity will be driven underground.<p> "The fact is that since the surge in Baghdad, Al Qaeda has moved north to Mosul," Canon White told the Times. "What is more, we know that they are very short of money, and that they hate Christians. A huge sum was asked for, but the church could not pay it. Sadly it was therefore inevitable that the Archbishop would be killed. </p> <p>"This killing shows the very real danger faced by Christians in Iraq. This awful event happened in the very heartland of Iraqi Christianity in Nineveh. We are in tears—we are devasted. We are not giving up our faith in Jesus and I am not leaving this beloved land of Iraq."</p><blockquote style="font-style: italic;">O God, whose mercies cannot be numbered: Accept our<br />prayers on behalf of your servant, and grant him an<br />entrance into the land of light and joy, in the fellowship of<br />your saints; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and<br />reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for<br />ever. Amen. </blockquote>The AoMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06749710612109952072noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36236438.post-78127742745926696352008-03-12T17:00:00.001-04:002008-03-12T17:10:41.417-04:00Aye<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5XOTxZnUIficMboyxuHBn3g3m9Zp-KvkYykFhmcu7XW-DQq1Zg38hWrczqrt9y3aAeTrXDWjqZLW-gPoRvsQTkPQmx-Isq3_3wug6oYGPAjpAPVl14eEJO2eyClPBGTOKAcQ/s1600-h/Schofield.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 68px; height: 98px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5XOTxZnUIficMboyxuHBn3g3m9Zp-KvkYykFhmcu7XW-DQq1Zg38hWrczqrt9y3aAeTrXDWjqZLW-gPoRvsQTkPQmx-Isq3_3wug6oYGPAjpAPVl14eEJO2eyClPBGTOKAcQ/s200/Schofield.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5176963802811906930" border="0" /></a>John Schofield, the former Bishop of San Joaquin, has officially been deposed, Episcopal Life online reports. ++Katharine requested his removal as bishop, and a "clear majority" of his brother and sister bishops in the House have agreed to her request.<div><br /><div>The move comes after Schofield guided his diocesan convention to "remove" the diocese from The Episcopal Church.</div><div> </div><div><br />Readers may recall that ++Katharine inhibited Schofield this past January.<br /><br />Now, following the required two month window that afforded Schofield time to recant his schism, during which he only became more bellicose and opaque concerning the Church, the full House of Bishops has deposed him, meaning any ecclesial authority he attempts to wield to bind the Church or any of its people or institutions, is null and void. He is no longer a cleric in this Church.</div><div><br /><div>For years, Schofield had assumed a belligerent, spirituality violent, and vulgar position towards much of the rest of the Church and its institutions.<br /><br />He typically warned that any one not agreeing with him, or his opinions on gays and lesbians and a host of other issues, or actions of his therefrom, was not only stupid and terribly misguided, but heretical.</div><div> </div><div><br />For some reason, when he was called to account for the abandonment of communion of his Church the first time in 2006, he was cleared.</div><div> </div><div><br />The only thing this accomplished, was give Schofield time to pursue even more spiritual violence and material damage to the Church and its people.</div><div> </div><div><br />By now the bishops of the Church have perhaps recognized that not acting to halt or forestall such violence in their own Church is not unChristian or wrong—but an abandonment of their own responsibilities to protect and guide this Church.<br /><br />++Katharine is to be commended for bringing this to their attention.<br /></div><div> </div><div><br />The resolution,<a href="http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_95611_ENG_HTM.htm"> from Episcopal Life:</a><br /><p></p><blockquote><p>RESOLVED, that pursuant to Canon IV.9.2 of the Episcopal Church, the House of Bishops hereby consents to the Deposition from the ordained ministry of the Rt. Rev. John-David Schofield, Bishop of the Diocese of San Joaquin.</p> <p>EXPLANATION: On January 9, 2008, the Title IV Review Committee certified to the Presiding Bishop, pursuant to Canon IV.9.1, that the Rt. Rev. John-David Schofield, Bishop of the Diocese of San Joaquin, has repudiated the Doctrine, Discipline, and Worship of the Episcopal Church and has abandoned the Communion of the Church by, inter alia, departing from the Episcopal Church and purporting to take his Diocese with him into affiliation with the Province of the Southern Cone. In the intervening two months since the Presiding Bishop gave notice to Bishop Schofield of the foregoing certification, Bishop Schofield has failed to submit to the Presiding Bishop sufficient retraction or denial of the actions found by the Title IV Review Committee. Accordingly, the Presiding Bishop has presented the matter to the House of Bishops and requested consent to Bishop Schofield's Deposition.</p></blockquote>Episcopal Life notes that more information from the House regarding the matter will be forthcoming this evening.<br /><br />Other places covering the announcement include <a href="http://www.episcopalcafe.com">The Episcopal Cafe</a> and <a href="http://www.thinkinganglicans.org">Thinking Anglicans.</a><br /></div><div> </div></div></div>The AoMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06749710612109952072noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36236438.post-69443912987405164922008-03-12T09:45:00.003-04:002008-03-12T09:52:20.674-04:00Canada asks, What's a middle of the road Anglican to do?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhPbu-7CRfzcq8vHNbQOYLgHIXpwRhXTcSSLqgB6v6jJ6KjQUcEhMTb5nzQsw__am2jNbBLLPsnoL_-ObLCxvdzRitrcmiHT4guWwzkegM_B73QSxede5ItfHcrgMlnOAuscA/s1600-h/Anglican+Church+of+Canada.jpeg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 48px; height: 48px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhPbu-7CRfzcq8vHNbQOYLgHIXpwRhXTcSSLqgB6v6jJ6KjQUcEhMTb5nzQsw__am2jNbBLLPsnoL_-ObLCxvdzRitrcmiHT4guWwzkegM_B73QSxede5ItfHcrgMlnOAuscA/s200/Anglican+Church+of+Canada.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5176850389905488738" border="0" /></a>The <a href="http://www.anglican.ca/">Anglican Church of Canada</a> is experiencing some of the troubles with separatist parishes and clergy, that the Episcopal Church in America, has been working through for some time. <a href="http://www.anglicanjournal.com/world/anglican-communion/017/article/williams-response-helpful-hiltz/">Go here for some background.</a><br /><br />This may all play like a broken record in some parts, but for our brothers and sisters in Christ who face these troubles head on in their parishes and dioceses, the experiences are very real and very unsettling. They threaten to uproot and even destroy a way of life and a reliance on faith and communion, that have proven inseparable.<br /><br />Connie Woodcock of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Toronto Sun</span>, who has been writing about Canada's Anglican ne'er do wells for some time, asks how things have come to this and wonders, "What's a middle of the road Anglican to do?"<br /><br />Her piece sparked quite a few letters, which can be read by <span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span><a href="http://www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Woodcock_Connie/2008/03/10/4958341-sun.php">following the link to the entire column </a>and clicking towards the letters.<br /><blockquote>"Anglicanism has always been a big tent that has made room for a broad range of belief. Those on the far right, who call themselves orthodox Anglicans, a small group despite the noise they make, believe the Bible literally, right down to Adam and Eve. Their sympathies lie with the Third World Anglicans although they don't seem to realize that beliefs there can seem outrageous to the rest of us -- those African leaders who despise homosexuality, for instance, but tolerate men with multiple wives. Some Canadian congregations have asked to be supervised by a South American bishop rather than their own.<br /><br />There are those on the far left who have gone so far as to leave the Christ story itself behind and yet still feel comfortable within the church because, after all, we are supposed to love our neighbour as ourselves, no matter what our neighbour believes.<br /><br />And then there are the rest of us in the middle, wondering why we can't just go back to the way we were -- worshipping in peace and tolerance."</blockquote>The AoMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06749710612109952072noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36236438.post-14311504861791925912008-03-12T09:15:00.000-04:002008-03-12T09:18:31.352-04:00One small fish, one giant lesson for mankind<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPatmj-LpOq3qFg73X0OZFsssPAQIQrCvg_bHEFE8rNL3BpckrPnLlFchT7bXO1g4AdWrecLqnNLFNhZOeVGRb1x3xF3Hb82MWGi4vcGE2qI2q-X51Io1cnbLzaw2LPro58-4/s1600-h/+Walkabout.jpeg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 65px; height: 90px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPatmj-LpOq3qFg73X0OZFsssPAQIQrCvg_bHEFE8rNL3BpckrPnLlFchT7bXO1g4AdWrecLqnNLFNhZOeVGRb1x3xF3Hb82MWGi4vcGE2qI2q-X51Io1cnbLzaw2LPro58-4/s200/+Walkabout.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5176843612447095634" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/one-small-fish-one-giant-lesson-for-mankind/2008/03/11/1205125911327.html">The Age</a> sits down for lunch with Bishop Walkabout of Melbourne, illustrating once more why he's popular around these parts:<br /><br />"That was some fluke yesterday. Just as Mr Diary set off for a long-arranged gluttony-free lunch with the Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne, Dr Philip Freier, a new batch of mortal sins were trumpeted from Rome. The original seven deadlies apparently were no longer enough and seven extra nasties, such as pollution, obscene riches, drugs and social injustice, were now on the charge sheet too.<br /><br />Fortunately, none covered our midday repast and, anyhow, Anglicans were not necessarily included. "We don't seem to have the codification of things as much as the Catholic Church does," Dr Freier said. "But I suppose the seven deadly sins have been worked over pretty hard down the years."<br /><br />Of course, Dr Freier was first to nail one new sin: he got stuck into obscene wealth last June, rating it the modern-day citizen's "greatest moral blindness".<br /><br />Said His Grace at the table yesterday: "You do encounter people who are less stuck on the grasping and the grabbing. It is possible to live with wealth and the responsibilities that come with it. But we've seen a different attitude since the 1980s and the West Australian mining boom, where people took to conspicuous wealth. People will spend $70 million on a yacht and they are probably so busy they don't have time to use it. Some of it doesn't make sense."<br /><br />We didn't like to tell Dr Freier that yachts have long since gone past that mark: Greg Norman's yacht Aussie Rules sold last year for $77 million.<br /><br />"Wealth is one of the things Jesus speaks most about," says His Grace.<br /><br />No coincidence that the addled antics of the ridiculously rich seem to occupy a disproportionate amount of this page.<br /><br />Frugality note: Dr Freier had a humble barramundi with nothing on the side."The AoMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06749710612109952072noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36236438.post-37337508824572277562008-03-11T09:00:00.003-04:002008-03-11T09:05:53.772-04:00The last good man<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjve1slvJ8-iWcyTZrP9xGP-VY8-NLBkpoQHxxfzzytyJUzOgliF8x-jZcJ5D_rhSFRKb2_jbTqERddbit7BvBfXa7Q7_m5pDkZzd4t0hviohL9v2ivTapHjPkVtuXb3n2MrA8/s1600-h/Elliott+Spitzer.jpeg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 58px; height: 81px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjve1slvJ8-iWcyTZrP9xGP-VY8-NLBkpoQHxxfzzytyJUzOgliF8x-jZcJ5D_rhSFRKb2_jbTqERddbit7BvBfXa7Q7_m5pDkZzd4t0hviohL9v2ivTapHjPkVtuXb3n2MrA8/s200/Elliott+Spitzer.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5176469198673066818" border="0" /></a>Eliot Spitzer campaigned for governor as the last good man in New York, the only one with enough integrity and chutzpah, to root out the corruption and waste that permeates all levels of New York’s byzantine government.<br /><br />No one could challenge Spitzer on his claims to integrity, only fear him and hope he wouldn’t cast his righteous indignation in their direction.<br /><br />He’d done an impeccable job as New York Attorney General. He reined in titans of Wall Street for corruption and malfeasance, when no one else, much less the federal government, could be bothered.<br /><br />He went after companies and businesses that nickled and dimed and cheated citizens on everything from photocopies and plumbing to insurance and electricity, in the process winning the affection and respect of millions who, rightly, viewed him as their honorable advocate.<br /><br />Informing his sense of mission and obligation were a deep rooted faith and sense of personal honor. They were twin strengths he’d hoped would flow from him into government, as honesty and transparency. In the glare of his public humiliation and personal failing, these, his greatest strengths and the sources of his ability to live and govern, seem dim shapes on a misty horizon.<br /><br />With him, for a season at least, go his hopes for a more representative and responsive government.<br /><br />With him, for a season at least, also goes the notion of the honorable man, for who was more honorable than Eliot Spitzer? His name was synonymous with integrity. As the knives sharpen in the days and weeks ahead, it may come to mean something else entirely.<br /><br />He is not alone in his personal failings and human weaknesses but to see it happen before our eyes with such rapidity and definitiveness, is saddening and terrible.The AoMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06749710612109952072noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36236438.post-70240625333978353092008-03-10T20:45:00.004-04:002008-03-11T08:03:54.173-04:00ENS: Lambeth Invitation "not possible" for +Robinson<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">But he encourages other bishops to attend and says he will visit Canterbury during Lambeth</span></span></span><br /><br />The Episcopal News Service, reporting from the House of Bishops meeting at Camp Allen, Texas, notes that the House was informed March 10 that it is "not possible" for the Archbishop of Canterbury to issue a full invitation to include Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire as a participant in this summer's Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops.<br /><br /><div>Bishop Robinson, addressing the House, urged the other bishops of the Episcopal Church to participate fully in the conference, and thanked all who are willing to "stay at the table."<br /><br />Bishop Robinson told the House that he respectfully declined an invitation to be present in the conference's "Marketplace" exhibit section.<br /><br />Robinson confirmed for ENS that he plans to be in Canterbury during the July 16-August 3 once-a-decade gathering, but not as an official conference participant or observer.<br /><br />Word about the invitation came in a report from three U.S. bishops, speaking in the House's late-afternoon session, who worked with Lambeth Palace staff to seek provision for Robinson's participation in the conference.<br /><br />The House of Bishops is in session through March 12 at Camp Allen in Navasota, Texas.<br /><br />+Robinson, an openly gay man ordained a bishop in 2003, was informed last year that an invitation to the Lambeth Conference would not be extended to him at that time.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Update: </span>Bishop Robinson's statement on the announcement (as a Word document) and further reports from the House's meeting, have been posted <a href="http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80263_93217_ENG_HTM.htm">at the ENS site for Camp Allen updates.</a> Bishop Robinson says:<br /><blockquote>Maybe this is what God has in mind. I had hoped to focus on the community of bishops at Lambeth, making my own contribution to its deliberations. But now, I think I will go to Lambeth thinking about gay and lesbian people around the world who will be watching what happens there. I will go to Lambeth remembering the 100 or so twenty-something's I met in Hong Kong this fall, who meet every Sunday afternoon to worship and sing God's praise in a secret catacomb of safety - because they can't be gay AND Christian in their own churches. I will be taking them to Lambeth with me. They told me that the Episcopal Church was their hope for a different, welcoming church. They told me they were counting on us. Yes, the things we do in the Episcopal Church have ramifications far, far away - and sometimes those ramifications are good.</blockquote><br /></div>The AoMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06749710612109952072noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36236438.post-47602342054497422652007-12-09T06:00:00.000-05:002007-12-09T08:59:33.838-05:00The Presiding Bishop must actIn light of the events in the dioceses of San Joaquin, Fort Worth, and Pittsburgh, the Presiding Bishop and the House of Bishops must not wait any longer to call the rogue bishops of these dioceses to full and speedy account.<br /><br />The time has clearly arrived when the Presiding Bishop must stop each of these bishops from doing anymore spiritual violence in their dioceses, to the national Church, and to the Communion. <br /><br />Each of these bishops, within the week, must be given notice of two months to recant and if not, called before the House of Bishops at the end of that period, and deposed, for abandoning the communion of their Church and violating their vows of ordination. <br /><br />If, when the House of Bishops meets, they conclude that they cannot act to protect the church against these rogues, until a "second reading' has occurred in each diocese, then the blame for the confusion, spiritual violence, and legal mess that ensues on those second readings, will certainly be theirs.<br /><br />The mere fact of calling a convention to vote on secession, is enough to warrant an abandonment of our Church. What else is it? We do not need a second example, to clearly identify the first.<br /><br />Permitting these bishops to accelerate their divisions and proceed in their hostilities, as bishops, only adds to calls that the Episcopal Church cannot adequately manage its own affairs and that doing so, must come from the outside.<br /><br />These spiritually violent and schismatic actions have been allowed to continue for far too long. <br /><br />The Presiding Bishop must act strongly, and swiftly, to stop each of these bishops from doing any more harm.The AoMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06749710612109952072noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36236438.post-40476037778938643842007-11-23T09:00:00.000-05:002007-11-23T11:39:57.830-05:00Eight heroes of nonviolence (you never heard of)Every community holds any number of extraordinary, everyday humanitarians. Leah Reddy of Trinity News, the magazine of Trinity Church, Wall Street, highlights eight hidden heroes of nonviolence from around the world.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">IDA B. WELLS-BARNETT</span><br />Investigative journalists are an important part of our newshungry society. But before there was a Woodward, a Bernstein or a Christiane Amanpour, there was Ida B. Wells-Barnett. She was a black woman born in Mississippi in 1862. She became a teacher at 14, but lost her position when she took up journalism and the cause of civil rights in her editorials. And then she turned her pen to the horrors of lynching. Much like a war correspondent, Wells-Barnett lived through the atrocities she investigated: three of her friends were lynched for running a grocery store that was competing with white-owned businesses. After her Memphis newspaper office was ransacked due to her civil rights advocacy, Wells-Barnett moved to New York and then Chicago, and continued writing pamphlets and articles exposing the truth about lynching.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">ALEX SANCHEZ</span><br />The brutal Salvadorian Civil War in the 1970s and 1980s drove thousands of families to seek refuge in the Pico Union section of Los Angeles. In L.A. these traumatized youth — hardened by poverty, grief, and their status as outsiders in American society — eventually formed violent street gangs. Gang activity often led to arrest and deportation back to El Salvador, where gang members reconnected and continued their turf wars. Alex Sanchez was one of those deported gang members. But when he learned that his girlfriend was pregnant he came back to the U.S. illegally, determined to shake his old life. He found help from Homies Unidos, a nonprofit gang violence prevention and intervention organization. With Sanchez’ help, Homies Unidos became the first transnational gang prevention initiative, addressing the root causes of gangs in the U.S. and El Salvador. Today, as program director for Homies Unidos, Sanchez helps L.A. youth find productive outlets for their energies and emotions.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">JA</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">VIER STAURING</span><br />Javier Stauring believes in restorative justice — and he has risked his career to build a better juvenile justice system. Stauring, a Catholic lay chaplain and co-director of the Office of Restorative Justice for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, has worked with inmates, victims, and their communities since 1996. In 2001, he began counseling juveniles held in an adult jail and found the youths living in intolerable conditions: confined to their cells for more than 23 hours a day and denied schooling and vocational programs. He spoke out against these conditions and subsequently lost clearance to visit the jail. His clearance was reinstated after a lawsuit, and the L.A. County Board of Supervisors ruled that the jail was unfit for juvenile inmates. Mr. Stauring continues to work toward transformation of the juvenile justice system.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">ABDUL GHAFFAR KHAN</span><br />Known as the “Frontier Gandhi,” Abdul Ghaffar Khan built an army dedicated to nonviolent resistance and self-improvement. A devout Muslim from the North-West Frontier Province of British India (now Pakistan), Khan was frustrated by years of oppression by the British and the violence endemic to his Pathan society. The lives of Pathans, he felt, could be improved only through a combination of self-improvement and nonviolent resistance to British rule. Beginning in the 1930s, Khan formed the Khudai Khidmatgar — the Servants of God — a 100,000-member nonviolent army. During their 17-year existence, this unusual army built schools, helped maintain order, and generally sought to improve the lives of Pathans. They were arrested, poisoned, attacked, and sometimes killed by British soldiers, but never turned to violence.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">ELLEN FRANCIS POISSON</span><br />“Citizen-to-citizen diplomacy,” the Rev. Dr. Ellen Francis Poisson, OSH, writes, “is based on the conviction that direct dialogue can challenge stereotypes and change the attitudes of people, on both sides.” As co-leader of interfaith peace and reconciliation delegations to Iran and Afghanistan, Poisson — who is an Episcopal priest, a member of the Order of St. Helena, and an iconographer — builds understanding and respect one relationship at a time. Poisson’s leadership gives ordinary citizens of the U.S. and Middle East the chance to say with conviction, “We’ve met people from there who want peace with us.”<br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">MICHAEL LAPSLEY</span><br />In 1990, the Rev. Michael Lapsley, an anti-apartheid activist and Anglican priest, lost both hands, one eye, and suffered shattered eardrums in a letter-bomb attack. The perpetrator was never caught. Despite his life-changing injuries, Lapsley returned to South Africa and worked at the Trauma Center for Victims of Violence and Torture, which assisted the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He later developed the Institute for the Healing of Memories, which offers worldwide workshops and resources for helping people forgive and heal from emotional and psychological trauma.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">VERÓNICA CRUZ SÁNCHEZ</span><br />Verónica Cruz Sánchez empowers the people of her community to resist and change a culture of violence against women. In Guanajuato, Mexico — her home — battered, abused, or raped women are routinely denied their legal rights. Three hundred women in Guanajuato have been killed by their husbands or family members in the last five years. Cruz Sánchez, executive director and a founding member of Centro Las Libres de Información en Salud Sexual, is determined to fight that violence. Las Libres (The Free Women) helps victims of domestic violence when the government will not, providing psychological counseling, legal help, and support.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">SULEIMAN JAMOUS</span><br />More than one million people live in crowded refugee camps inside the war zone of Darfur, Sudan. Suleiman Jamous, humanitarian coordinator for Darfur’s rebel groups and a widely respected “elder statesmen” is committed to caring for these displaced, endangered people. He co-authored The Black Book — a documented exposé of the ethnic favoritism and corruption of the Sudanese government — in 2000 and was detained by the Sudanese government for three years. He fled to Darfur, where he began communicating with rebel groups and aid organizations, helping to ensure that humanitarian aid reached those in need in rebel-held regions. Jamous has also been an essential consensus-building voice in the ongoing peace process. He was confined to a United Nations hospital for over a year with intestinal problems, but the Sudanese government recently allowed him to seek advanced medical care in Chad. Jamous hopes to recover and return to his work in Darfur.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg4w8Xyo_fVrSJHkOCYcvxHcCl7JM58NuB1OWlMM2lMqlmY3f7Q5blVyjNGczEBjFVCW34TnpDzcfDp8eu-OpeEakPj_peaMD07MLypamOewwrYzOaqlADXOwZyTNoiv5FCyU/s1600-h/Trinity+Conference+seal.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 55px; height: 38px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg4w8Xyo_fVrSJHkOCYcvxHcCl7JM58NuB1OWlMM2lMqlmY3f7Q5blVyjNGczEBjFVCW34TnpDzcfDp8eu-OpeEakPj_peaMD07MLypamOewwrYzOaqlADXOwZyTNoiv5FCyU/s200/Trinity+Conference+seal.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5136034348862789794" border="0" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">This article appears in the "Religion and Violence" issue of <a href="http://www.trinitywallstreet.org/education/?magazine">Trinity News.</a> The issue serves as a companion piece to <a href="http://www.trinitywallstreet.org/education/?institute-2008">Trinity Institute's</a> 38th national conference, an interfaith examination of religion and violence. </span>The AoMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06749710612109952072noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36236438.post-47415002773791485902007-11-22T10:30:00.000-05:002007-11-22T13:59:56.693-05:00Provincial and ACC replies to New Orleans bishops meeting begin to trickle inOver at the redesigned Anglican Communion homepage, the Anglican Communion Office has begun compiling the responses to the Episcopal bishops meeting from this past September.<br /><br />The responses are collated into two groups: provinces,which includes responses from the primates and provincial synods, if these were consulted as part of the response process; and responses from members of the Anglican Consultative Council.<br /><br />The Archbishop of Canterbury, as chair of the Joint Committee of Primates and ACC, requested the replies by October 31, and they are being sent to him. The Communion office notes that the Archbishop himself, will include reflections on the report and responses to it, in his annual Advent letter, which is expected sometime in the next few weeks.<div><br />As of November 6, Canterbury has received 26 responses from Primates, with no reply from 12 Provinces.<br /><br />Of these 26, 12 view the Episcopal responses favorably. Ten provinces, all of them from the "global south," view the response unfavorably. Two responses are described as mixed. Figure one (below) charts the numbers. Click on the figure, for a legible image.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0wEKjhZrxRXyXgW3qOyj8LLdpOg6ZnRyM6uRjhzQcS-uX40ljqXjMgOL-DM0VPj1VDcGdhVfJoK-P7jUzgts4RL7GQQ_iV6HUwXtNuK6Tm90u-CQ5zakV7VN1-2jdZ-v_8Kg/s1600-h/ABC_Primates_Responses.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 242px; height: 158px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0wEKjhZrxRXyXgW3qOyj8LLdpOg6ZnRyM6uRjhzQcS-uX40ljqXjMgOL-DM0VPj1VDcGdhVfJoK-P7jUzgts4RL7GQQ_iV6HUwXtNuK6Tm90u-CQ5zakV7VN1-2jdZ-v_8Kg/s200/ABC_Primates_Responses.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5135683952545880194" border="0" /></a><br />Twelve provinces have yet to reply. These are:<br /><br />• CAPA Provinces (3) – the Archbishop of Central Africa retired in September, and the primacy is vacant at present. The (retired) Archbishop of Central Africa was a signatory of the recent CAPA communiqué, as were the Provincial representatives from the two remaining CAPA Provinces where a reply has not yet been received (the Archbishop of Sudan is currently in hospital, and is due to retire at the end of this year).<br />• South and Central American Provinces (2)<br />• United Churches (3)<br />• Other Provinces (4) although the Primate of one of these is on the JSC.<br /><br />As for the Anglican Consultative Council, 27 of the 75 members have sent in their views. Only one so far, says the Episcopal Church reply is inadequate. Figure 2 (below) charts these numbers. Click on the figure, for a legible image.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7Nd0axDbdzDE59YufIEJplIpM8r6dS2wjCadQ_hHF_tpcSbTgEbArO6jiDDqzifLZcVyezlMXzFUbI9AN3VNVUKhyUqXba6XFiY6TaARqprb4rYN3tfHIPcPbne7ukq7BbxQ/s1600-h/ACC+responses.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 226px; height: 157px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7Nd0axDbdzDE59YufIEJplIpM8r6dS2wjCadQ_hHF_tpcSbTgEbArO6jiDDqzifLZcVyezlMXzFUbI9AN3VNVUKhyUqXba6XFiY6TaARqprb4rYN3tfHIPcPbne7ukq7BbxQ/s200/ACC+responses.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5135684433582217362" border="0" /></a>Overall, the replies tend to support the Episcopal Church. There is an "extended comment" section highlighting responses that have been sent in; many of these highlight that The Episcopal Church has undergone an historic and unprecedented intrusion into its internal affairs.<br /><br />There appears to be little support for having a special meeting of the primates on this matter, or indeed on any matter, as several replies evidence a growing uneasiness with the authority the primates have attempted to arrogate to themselves.<br /><br /></div><div>The link to this report, which no doubt will be updated as more replies arrive, <a href="http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/news.cfm/2007/11/22/ACNS4340">is here.</a> It is also formatted as a pdf <a href="http://www.aco.org/communion/primates/resources/downloads/ABC_Primates_Responses.pdf">here.</a></div>The AoMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06749710612109952072noreply@blogger.com0