Retreat

We'll be off line and on retreat for the next week.

Legal issues in Episcopal split going to S.C. Supreme Court

From South Carolina-

South Carolina's highest court this week hears arguments in the legal fight stemming from the acrimonious split in the Episcopal Church in eastern South Carolina.

The conservative Diocese of South Carolina, dating to 1785 and one of the original dioceses that joined to form the Episcopal Church, left the national church in 2012 amid differences over theological issues, including the authority of Scripture and the ordination of gays.

The diocese then sued to protect its identity, the symbols it uses such as the diocesan seal and $500 million in church property.

Parishes in the region that didn't leave the national church are in a diocese now known as The Episcopal Church in South Carolina.

Circuit Judge Diane Goodstein, who presided at a three-week trial in Dorchester County in 2014, ruled earlier this year in favor of the diocese that left in a decision that said the diocese owns its name, symbols and property.

More here-

http://thetandd.com/ap/state/legal-issues-in-episcopal-split-going-to-s-c-supreme/article_b68ddb82-3a34-596d-a300-ae990d6f16d4.html

My Father, the Priest

From The New York Times-

WHEN anyone asks what my father does, I say he’s a retired teacher. He did, after all, teach high school science and Latin, so I’m not lying. I’m just not telling the whole story: My father, married to my mother for 45 years, is a Catholic priest. Not a former priest, but a member of the clergy in good standing in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport, Conn. Especially on a date, that’s a conversation stopper.

More here-


http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/20/opinion/sunday/my-father-the-priest.html?_r=0

Public schools should teach religion

From The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette-

The day Jesus entered my fourth-grade classroom, my childhood forever changed.

It was 1974, and my family had just moved from western New York state to rural Ohio. I was the new kid, and all I wanted was to fit in. But one afternoon that first week, a woman hired by local churches walked into my public-school classroom and my regular teacher left. She stuck figures of Jesus Christ and his disciples on a flannel board, told us how Jesus could solve people’s problems and, a little while later, asked us all to sing the hymn, “Jesus Loves Me.”

Here’s the thing: I’m Jewish.

More here-

http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/Op-Ed/2015/09/20/Public-schools-should-teach-religion/stories/201509200028