Praying for a financial miracle

A syndicated column found in the Bellighham (WA) paper about how the church is responding to parishioners financial problems.

A Wayne, N.J., minister, meanwhile, recently shared with his parishioners anecdotes about financial struggles he experienced earlier in his life, and how he and his wife cut back to one car, bought secondhand clothes for their kids and did without new televisions, stereos, furniture and appliances.

The Rev. John Donnelly, of St. Michael's Episcopal Church, cautioned parishioners against believing in easy answers, such as a "prosperity gospel" that promises riches in return for unwavering faith. "There are times when trusting God is a hard choice, but if we claim to be Christians, it is the only choice," Donnelly said in a sermon. "And something wonderful happens when we make that choice. Our problems are not necessarily solved, but we discover that Jesus is worthy of our trust, and that with his help, we somehow will muddle through."

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/thriftyliving/story/701264.html

"Anglican Church in North America" announced

No surprises here. It's what's been expected for months now. Below are a number of links to different stories about the formation of what is being called a "New Province".

Pittsburgh Post Gazette-

Bishop Robert Duncan of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh (Anglican) has been named primate- and archbishop-designate of a proposed new body of 100,000 theologically conservative Anglicans in North America, which hopes to win recognition from the global Anglican Communion.

Archbishop-designate Duncan, whose diocese left the Episcopal Church in October, said he was "elated" that 30 representatives of eight groups with ties to the Anglican tradition in the U.S. and Canada had unanimously proposed a constitution for a body called the Anglican Church in North America. They met yesterday in Wheaton, Ill.

"I believe we're at the beginning of something that is very significant for the Christian church in North America and for the Anglican Communion worldwide," he said.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08339/932603-85.stm

Washington Times

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/dec/04/anglican-conservatives-propose-constitution/

LA Times-

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-na-episcopal4-2008dec04,0,526783.story

Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/03/AR2008120303065.html?hpid=moreheadlines

CNN

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/12/03/episcopal.split/

London Telegraph-

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/3547026/Anglican-row-spills-into-US-as-Episcopal-church-splits-over-homosexual-priests.html

Wall Street Journal

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122834564219177337.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

When a schism has a schism of its own

From the Londodn Guardian. "Reform" is the hard line conservatives in England. It looks like there is a conservative split going to take place there.

Reform parishes have for years been refusing to fund liberal bishops, or in some cases even allow them inside, preferring to divert their congregations' money into their own networks. This has made them rich, but not popular; now they believe that they have hit upon a way to be popular too, by adopting the Gafcon statement of principles as the touchstone of orthodoxy: anyone who does not sign up to it, they maintain, has left the Church of England. Whatever the law, the General Synod, and the overwhelming majority of church members may say, Reform regards itself as the only true Anglicans and everyone else, from the Archbishop of Canterbury downwards, as apostates. As the Chairman of Reform's council, the Rev Rod Thomas put it,

"What makes us part of the Church of England is our common commitment to the doctrine of the Church, not our institutional structure … when bishops accommodate themselves to heretical teaching they deny the faith and therefore abandon their sees."

This is a position so ludicrous in its Trotskyite purity that the rest of the Church of England – even the other evangelical parties – had difficulty taking reform seriously until almost too late. Now there is a serious split within the evangelical movement, ostensibly about whether the rest of the church should recognise conservative Americans as the true representatives of the Anglican Communion there, but really about whether the Church of England too is to be split up as the Americans have been.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/andrewbrown/2008/dec/02/religion-anglicanism-schism

Christians to be without Bethlehem altar wine at Christmas due to 'security risk'

Another candidate for the "You Can't Make This Stuff Up" Department. From the London Telegraph

The organic wine, made at the Cremisan winery in Beit Jala, a suburb of Bethlehem, by the Roman Catholic order the Salesians of Don Bosco, has been refused permission to pass the Hebron checkpoint into Israel, the UK importer said.

Della Shenton, of 5th Gospel Retreats, in Liskeard, Cornwall, said the move meant that the wine cannot reach the Israeli port of Haifa, from where it is shipped to Europe.

The wine is currently used by a number of Catholic and Anglican parishes as well as university chaplaincies and religious houses across the UK, according to Mrs Shenton.

These include Worth Abbey in West Sussex, where the BBC2 series The Monastery was filmed, Romsey Abbey in Hampshire, Ushaw College, Durham, Oscott College, Birmingham, and Thornleigh College, Bolton.

She said Sheffield University Chaplaincy and Wimbledon College, London are also affected alongside a number of parishes across the country.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/3542932/Altar-wine-a-security-risk-say-Israelis.html

Saint Vincent exhibition gives Christian art a chance to shine

St. Vincent's is just up the road from us. This is from today's Post-Gazette.

People who read headlines about record-breaking art auction sales may not realize that there is very fine and affordable art being created by accomplished contemporary artists.

That was one reason Brother Nathan Cochran, O.S.B., director of the Saint Vincent Gallery, initiated the Nationwide Juried Catholic Arts Exhibition in 2001. The first show was so successful that a second edition was organized and it is being exhibited at Saint Vincent College, Latrobe, through Sunday.

His foremost motivation, however, was to "foster the arts of the Western Christian tradition" (although other traditions of Christian subject matter are considered) by providing artists opportunity for exhibition and recognition.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08338/932210-437.stm?cmpid=newspanel0

First women priests ordained in Antsiranana diocese

From Episcopal Life.

The Diocese of Antsiranana made history November 30 when it ordained its first three women priests during a joyful ceremony at St. Joseph's Church in Nosy Be, Madagascar.

The Rev. Marie Jeanne Befeno, the Rev. Vitasolo Roline and the Rev. Nivondrazana were ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Roger Chung Jaomalaza of the Diocese of Antsiranana, part of the Anglican Province of the Indian Ocean. Three other priests and eight deacons -- including three women deacons -- were also ordained during the service.

The three new women priests were ordained as deacons in June 2007 at the inauguration of the new Cathedral of St Matthew in Diego Suarez.

Led by Church of England Bishop Graham Cray of Maidstone, a delegation of women priests and other dignitaries from the Diocese of Canterbury attended the November 30 service.

http://www.episcopal-life.org/81808_103275_ENG_HTM.htm

Anglican leaders pray for Mumbai victims

Anglican leaders in Britain have applauded the Indian government’s measured response to the terror attacks in Mumbai. The Archbishops of Canterbury, Armagh, Dublin and the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church last week added their voices to the chorus denouncing the killing of almost 200 people.

Church leaders in India and across the world have condemned the violence, while church schools and institutions in Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta and other urban areas have tightened security in fear of further violence.

India’s Christians have been caught between fanatical Islam --- which sees native Christians as agents of the “crusader” forces of the West, while Hindu militants --- who have driven tens of thousands of Christians from their homes in Eastern India’s Orissa state --- view Christianity as an “un-Indian” faith and have mounted a campaign to stop its spread and stamp out its influence in the country.
Anglican leaders in Britain have applauded the Indian government’s measured response to the terror attacks in Mumbai. The Archbishops of Canterbury, Armagh, Dublin and the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church last week added their voices to the chorus denouncing the killing of almost 200 people.

Church leaders in India and across the world have condemned the violence, while church schools and institutions in Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta and other urban areas have tightened security in fear of further violence.

India’s Christians have been caught between fanatical Islam --- which sees native Christians as agents of the “crusader” forces of the West, while Hindu militants --- who have driven tens of thousands of Christians from their homes in Eastern India’s Orissa state --- view Christianity as an “un-Indian” faith and have mounted a campaign to stop its spread and stamp out its influence in the country.

http://www.religiousintelligence.co.uk/news/?NewsID=3423

North American Anglicans to split

The BBC on the announcement of the "new province" in North America. They seem to be clear that this is not a unifying action.

The Communion's Secretary General, Canon Kenneth Kearon, has told the BBC that it is entering what he called uncharted waters, and he is calling on the leaders of the new Church to act in accordance with the Communion's existing regulations.

"The issue as I see it is whether in fact this body, or province as they're calling it, wishes to be recognised as a province of the Anglican Communion," he said. "And I think if they do, there are clear procedures by which that might be explored. And I do urge those involved to address the structures of the Communion."

But those supporting the new North American Church believe that Anglicanism's structures have been unable to safeguard the Church's unity, and they now look to leadership from a group of largely African leaders.

Neither the liberalising American Churches nor this much smaller new Church want to leave the Anglican Communion.

But how they can exist together in the same global communion is looking increasingly problematic.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7762110.stm

Good Stuff in TEC

This is a link to a nice bulletin insert that tells the story of St. Nicholas. The feast of St. Nicholas is December 6th. From The Episcopal Church Center.

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/95270_ENG_HTM.htm

Breakaway Anglicans Aim for Less Division with New Province

More double speak. Division brings unity? This is from Christian Post. The link doesn't seem to work.

"Division has been there since 2003 (when The Episcopal Church consecrated its first openly gay bishop). There is a division in the [Anglican] Communion," Minns said. "We're trying to find a way to overcome that and become less divided."

The Very Rev. Robert S. Munday, a priest within The Episcopal Church who has friends in breakaway groups, says the best way to preserve unity "is to allow the American church to divide (which is happening anyway, whether anyone likes it or not) and to recognize two North American provinces," according to his blog.

Otherwise, the Communion will be lost, he says. There are several different breakaway and conservative Anglican groups, representing 100,000 Anglicans, that are coming together to comprise the new province, which may be officially established in the middle of next year.

http://www.christianpost.com/article/20081202/breakaway-anglicans-aim-for-less-division-with-new-province.htm

Conservative bishops propose a competing North American Anglican church

From the Christian Science Monitor. More "Through the Looking Glass" Rhetoric. The new province will prevent schism? (Now that's a hat, or is it a mitre)

The attempt to create an overlapping jurisdiction on the continent is unprecedented. The Communion is a family of Anglican churches in 38 geographical "provinces" around the world. The churches have a longstanding practice of not interfering in each other's areas. Some see the step as a bid to eventually replace TEC as the recognized US church; others say it's a means to prevent a schism in the Communion.

"Better to have two Anglican jurisdictions rather than to have a shattered Communion," says Archbishop Peter Jensen of Sydney, Australia, a leader among the global conservatives. (snip) Paradoxically, it may seem as though this step is a division, but it is really to help us not to divide by giving us more flexibility," says Archbishop Jensen, secretary for GAFCON's leadership council. He spoke by phone as a "close observer," not officially for the council. Having two provinces, while not ideal, would enable people around the world to relate to one or the other, or both, he says. GAFCON will consider an application from CCP for recognition as a province, an action that would fall outside the Communion's ordinary mechanisms.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1203/p03s01-ussc.html

Religious leaders condemn anti-Israel carols in church

From the "You can't make this stuff up" department. The London Times reports on an anti-semitic Christmas service in London. An uprooted olive tree? We all know its a "partridge" in a pear tree.

Leading members of Britain’s Jewish and Christian communities have condemned a prominent Anglican church for holding a service where traditional carols were rewritten to attack Israel.

The Rector of St James’s Piccadilly, the Rev Charles Hedley, said that he would think twice before allowing the service to take place in his church again after he received dozens of complaints.

The offices of Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Lord Carey of Clifton, his predecessor, are among those who have criticised the service. The event was organised by anti-Israel campaigners, including one Jewish group, and featured carols that had been rewritten by an unnamed Jewish parody writer.

The Twelve Days of Christmas was sung as: “Twelve assassinations/ Eleven homes demolished/ Ten wells obstructed/ Nine sniper towers/ Eight gunships firing/ Seven checkpoints blocking/ Six tanks a-rolling/ Five settlement rings/ Four falling bombs/ Three trench guns/ Two trampled doves/ And an uprooted olive tree.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article5270185.ece

Can religion help us through the slump?

The Guardian on who really steps up to the faith to help others when times get tough. Its people of faith. Who would of thunk it?

The UK government's 2006 citizenship survey noted that the religiously observant were nearly 50% more likely to be volunteering than their secular or non observant counterparts. Meanwhile, in research that I completed earlier this year, I was astonished to discover that in every county and city in the UK the Anglican and Presbyterian churches alone had turned many of their buildings into community centres, running rural post offices, GP practices, public libraries, community work, and business start-up units for those of all backgrounds. I even discovered that Maeve Sherlock, a sometime Downing Street Advisor and chief executive of the Refugee Council, had decided to write a Phd in theology because she had been so convinced by how much of the best work wit asylum seekers was being undertaken by people of faith.

Now that Woolworths and MFI are down – along with hundreds of other firms whose names we do not know and whose factories, workshops and retail units we may never have entered – such findings take on a new significance.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/dec/02/religion-recession

Good Stuff in TEC: Kentucky

'The chicken man' changes lives

On Saturday afternoons, you'll usually find Curtis Taylor in the kitchen of the St. Francis in the Fields Episcopal Church. "When I do this, this makes me feel a lot better," says Taylor.

What he's cooking up is no once a year feast. Curtis and his team of volunteers will be back in the kitchen doing it all again next week, because the people he'll be serving are always in need. "I see that people are actually hungry," Curtis said. "When you give them a plate, it's gone. Nothing is wasted."

A few years back, Curtis says he was going through what he calls a crisis. He was depressed, sitting in his car, not sure what would happen next, when he saw something that changed his life. "For some reason, in the midst of praying and going through it in my mind, I happened to look out of the corner of my eye and I see a homeless guy getting half of a hamburger out of a garbage can. So at that moment, it seemed like all the problems that I had totally went away."

http://www.wave3.com/Global/story.asp?S=9433215&nav=menu31_2

You can see all of the Good Stuff posts by clicking on Good Stuff in the labels below.

Rick Warren takes on World AIDS Day -- again

From USA Today. Evangelical Rick Warren continues to take on social issues.

Rick Warren, possibly America's most omni-present pastor since Billy Graham's heydays, is back on the national platform addressing the epidemic.

This morning, he brings his Saddleback Civil Forum franchise -- his most recent event was his pre-election forum with John McCain and Barack Obama -- to Washington DC.

He's set to present President Bush with a medal to honor his HIV/AIDS initiative. Warren is expected to discuss worldwide health issues with the president and Laura Bush and hear from president-elect Barack Obama by video as well at the Saddleback Civil Forum on Global Health, being held at the Newseum.

Warren, prompted by his wife, Kay, has made AIDS a major focus of his international efforts. They are pouring the energy and profits born of his world-wide best selling Bible handbook, The Purpose-Driven Life, into health, social, economic and religious efforts carried out by local churches in African villages.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/religion/post/2008/12/59295588/1

Basebal Hall of Fame Ballot Announced

The Baseball Writers announced the ballot for the 2009 Hall of Fame election. Yes to stolen base champ, Henderson no to, home run hitter, Mcgwire (In my opinion). Election the first time around is pretty rare. The election is January 12. For you soccer fans out there McGwire has been implicated in the steroid scandle.

It has been 20 years since the Baseball Writers' Association of America has elected a left fielder into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. The 2009 ballot that was released Monday features some prominent left fielders who may very well end that drought.

For Rickey Henderson and Jim Rice, there is a case of the first and the last. Henderson is among 10 newcomers to the Hall of Fame ballot. Rice, one of the 13 holdovers from the 2008 ballot, is getting his final opportunity for election by the writers.

Players may remain on the ballot for up to 15 years provided they receive at least five percent of the vote each year. This is the 15th and final year for Rice, as well as pitcher Tommy John. Of the two, Rice clearly has the best chance. He missed out being elected last year by merely 16 votes. John, on the other hand, was 250 votes short of the 75 percent of ballots required for election.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20081130&content_id=3696036&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

After 150 years, prayer book makes its way home

All Chidsey knew was that this prayer book had to be a special gift from Mary Gibbs Barnwell or passed down from another family member to the fallen soldier.

Chidsey had all but given up on finding the rightful owner until his brother Stephen, who he describes as "more computer savvy," went to work on the Internet and tracked the Barnwell name to South Carolina and, more specifically, the St. Helena Episcopal parish church in Beaufort. Established in 1712 as the Church of England, it is one of the oldest congregations in the United States.

The Chidsey brothers learned that the soldier who carried the prayer book into the Battle of Antietam was Stephen Bull Barnwell, a member of the parish and a prominent family in South Carolina whose members played significant roles in the American Revolution and Civil War. The first Barnwell was buried on the church site in 1702.

The book had been handed down through the family to Stephen, who was immortalized with other Confederates on a wall tablet just outside the door of the old church. The fallen soldier was a member of the 8th Georgia Infantry in Savannah, was mortally wounded at Antietam on Sept. 17, 1862, and died in the hospital at Martinsburg, W.V., on Oct. 21. He was 19 years old and had blue eyes, brown hair, a fair complexion and stood 6 feet tall.

http://www.sltrib.com/homeandfamily/ci_11109445

The Ven. Richard Cluett named to new position to assist reorganizing dioceses

From Episcopal News Service-

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has named the Venerable Richard I. Cluett as pastoral assistant to reorganizing dioceses, serving under the supervision of Bishop Clay Matthews in the Office of Pastoral Development.

Cluett, who hails from the Diocese of Bethlehem, will provide pastoral guidance and assistance to dioceses of the Episcopal Church that are in the process of reorganizing and reconstituting.

“I am honored to be named by the Presiding Bishop to this new ministry,” Cluett said on his December 1 appointment. “I look forward to working with the clergy and laity of our dioceses through their transitions.”

Cluett’s main office will be located at the Episcopal Church Center in New York City.

Prior to his retirement in June 2004, Cluett was responsible for the coordination and oversight of ministry and administration for the Diocese of Bethlehem, which is comprised of 14 counties in northeastern Pennsylvania. For 20 years he worked with parishes in planning, problem solving, and ministry development; with clergy in vocational and professional development; with persons in the ordination process; and with the diocesan staff, committees and boards that have responsibility for diocesan life and ministry.

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_103243_ENG_HTM.htm

300th anniversary of St. Andrew's brings denomination's leader here for the first time

"Not many churches make it to 300, and this one is thriving and doing new things."

ENGLISH MISSIONARIES

The parish had its start when missionaries from England were sent to Staten Island just after the start of the 18th century.

The Rev. Aeneas MacKenzie, who would become the first rector, sent word back to England in 1704 that he needed money to hire teachers. Three teachers were hired; they taught white children in the daytime and the children of African slaves at night, Bishop Schori said.

"Aeneas MacKenzie and some of the leading citizens here wanted to start a church," she said. Queen Anne chartered the congregation in 1708 and sent a silver communion set that was used in yesterday's service. The first church building was consecrated in 1711.

http://www.silive.com/news/advance/index.ssf?/base/news/1228139114243350.xml&coll=1

Myanmar refugees save dying congregation

A wonderful story of hope about a congregation in Tennessee that split and how God sustained the faithful remnant.

Michael Williams, the volunteer manager of the farm, believes God used the farm and the refugees to save All Saints.

"It's a classic example of the Advent story," Williams said. "We could not find God, but God found us. In this case, he appeared to us in the form of 70 people who came from Myanmar."

Eight months ago, the future of All Saints looked grim.

All Saints had been limping along since a 2006 church split, when the rector and most of the congregation left to join the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, one of several conservative rivals to the Episcopal Church.

The remaining 20 or so church members left behind couldn't afford to pay the mortgage on their building.

After 18 months, All Saints Episcopal Church was on the verge of closing, selling the property and trying to start over elsewhere. It was a discouraging time, said the Rev. Michael Spurlock, All Saints' new rector.

"We were about to lose everything that we knew of the church here," Spurlock said. "It was like we were going down into the pit."

Then, some of the refugees who had once attended All Saints returned. Soon after, others from Thailand joined them.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20081201/NEWS06/812010343/1006/NEWS01

Episcopal Schism In Groton Leads To Property Dispute

From Hartford Connecticut- An Episcopal Congregation joins CANA and tries to take its property.

The question of who keeps the property once a congregation votes to leave the Episcopal Church — as Bishop Seabury did — is one that has consumed the denomination for the last couple of years.

And, as in the case of the Groton church, many bishops have opted to sue congregations in an effort to gain control of property.

That is what happened in Groton, after the congregation refused to obey Smith's order to vacate the property. The diocese sued the church last May, around the same time Gauss was suspended, and appointed a "priest-in-charge" for Bishop Seabury.

This is the second time the Connecticut diocese has brought a lawsuit against one of its churches for this reason. It sued Trinity Church in Bristol over the same issues in 2006, arguing that under canon law church property is held in trust for the diocese and the national church.

The lawsuit against Bishop Seabury also claims there is a historic, hierarchical relationship between the parish and the diocese that has been recognized in numerous ways, such as loans from the diocese to the parish for real estate ventures and the appointment of priests.

http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-postscript1201.artdec01,0,6342348.story

Awash in New Light, Angels Are Revealed

New York Times on the rededication of St. John The Divine-

The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, the mother church of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, and one of the city’s premier architectural monuments, was rededicated on Sunday, seven years after a smoky fire blackened its vast interior and decommissioned its 8,500-pipe organ.

Church leaders and public officials, including New York’s two senators, hailed the occasion with sermons and speeches during a three-hour service filled with pageantry, dance and the visceral, booming chords of the church’s restored great organ, heard publicly for the first time since the fire.

But among the several thousand people who packed the cathedral on the Upper West Side of Manhattan on Sunday, few could be more thankful than regular congregation members who endured the seven-year cleanup with a mix of patience and exasperation. Year after year, their worship services had been shoehorned behind partitions in different sections and corners of the church to accommodate the work in progress.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/01/nyregion/01cathedral.html?em

How to build better leaders ... An engineer's recipe

An excellent and thought provoking opinion piece on the essential qualities of a leader. From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette today. Those of you in The Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh may want to filter the current situation through this lens. Worth taking the time.

The world is starting to go through some of the harshest times of the past 75 years. The global economy is sinking, wars are ravaging countries and peoples, climate change is threatening the entire planet, optimism and hope are at very low levels. As the "leader of the free world," the United States is uniquely positioned to drive a multinational effort to overcome all these challenges. Will Barack Obama be capable of taking on this tough leadership role? Can we even say he is a leader at all? For that matter, how can we tell whether any given person is a leader?

Over the years I thought about this problem as I observed the many people I worked with. I came to the conclusion that most so-called leaders were undeserving of the title. I believe that true leadership is about much more than simply having authority or influence.

Now I am not a linguist, so I have difficulty expressing what leadership is in, as my big friend Alberto would say, 25 words or less. On the contrary -- I am a robotics engineer, and I need some kind of tool to "measure" how much of a leader one is.

Several years ago I engineered a "recipe" to forge a leader, consisting of five "ingredients."

Its all here-

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08335/931524-109.stm

Finger pointing in Nigeria

From Punch "The Most Widely Read Newspaper in Nigeria". Christians blame the Muslims, Muslims blame the Christians.

The Christian Association of Nigeria in Plateau State has condemned the recent violence in the state.

Addressing a press conference on Saturday, the state CAN Chairman, Dr. Ignatius Kaigama said, “We are greatly pained and saddened by the events that took place and we deeply sympathise with all those who have been affected directly or indirectly in the crisis.

“We were greatly taken aback by the turn of events in Jos. We thought it was a political issue, but from all indications, it is not so. We were surprised at the way some of our churches and property were attacked and some of our faithful and clergies killed.

“The attacks were carefully planned and executed. The questions that bog our minds are: why were churches and clergies attacked and killed?

http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art2008113055131

Nigeria violence eases after hundreds killed

From the Financial Times- London. Christians and Muslim go at it again in Nigeria.

Nigerian security forces strengthened their presence in the central city of Jos on Sunday after clashes between Christian and Muslim mobs left hundreds of people dead.

The killings, triggered by a disputed local election, marked the first big outbreak of religious and ethnic violence since Umaru Yar’Adua, the president, took power in May last year.

The clashes have raised fears of reprisals among communities elsewhere in Nigeria’s “Middle Belt”, where hundreds of ethnic groups mingle in a fertile strip separating the Muslim north from the predominantly Christian south.

Some 400 people were killed after the violence started in Jos early on Friday, according to a mosque and hospital in the city. The Red Cross said 7,000 people had fled their homes.

The last time Nigeria witnessed clashes on a comparable scale was in May 2004, when more than 600 people, most Muslim Fulanis, were killed in the town of Yelwa, many by Christian militiamen. Hundreds more people, mainly Christians, were killed later the same month in the northern city of Kano.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3ed57030-befd-11dd-ae63-0000779fd18c.html

All the world can still be John Wesley’s parish

From the London Times a story about the possible renewal of Methodism in England.

The latest biography of Donald Soper, the great preacher, pacifist socialist, and one of the best-known Methodists since John Wesley himself, has the eye-catching and thought-provoking title The Last Wesleyan.

Are we to infer from this provocative title that Methodism itself is in terminal decline? The answer depends slightly on the questioner’s standpoint. For example, in the 1880s Hugh Price Hughes, a leading Methodist and one of Soper’s predecessors at the West London Mission, asked the Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford, why there was no portrait of Wesley alongside other famous former students. Wesley, Hughes said, had founded a movement with 25 million members worldwide, surely an achievement worth noting. The Rector was surprised: “Surely you mean 25,000?”

The incident illustrates one of the challenges facing Methodists in Britain: many outside the Church know nothing about them. For nearly 250 years Methodism has been a significant religious movement in Britain. With its distinctive mix of evangelical preaching, powerful hymnody and emotionally engaging spirituality, it revolutionised English and Welsh Christianity in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the 19th century Methodist chapels gave a sense of community in many expanding city districts. In mining areas in Cornwall, Wales and Co Durham it did its job so well that it became for all practical purposes the people’s Church.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article5253443.ece

Good Stuff in TEC: Dallas

Jubilee Park residents await area's pending revival in East Dallas

And a budding effort to turn around a long-distressed area of mostly low-income residents, aging homes, vacant lots and small, independent businesses keeps gaining ground. While stirring up some conflict and concern.

A decade after St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church made Jubilee Park's revival a mission, the 62-block patch between Fair Park, Interstate 30 and East Grand is slowly shaking off years of crime, neglect and decline.

Demand for literacy and after-school classes at the cramped Jubilee Center on Bank Street is increasing. Jubilee leaders want to expand those classes, offer childhood development and senior citizens programs, light alleys and establish a public garden.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-jubilee_30met.ART0.Central.Edition1.4a72b01.html

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Clergy brace for downturn in giving

From the Boston Globe-

Many organizations are also already cutting. The Catholic Diocese of Worcester has imposed new restrictions on building projects. The Unitarian Universalist Association has put off planned maintenance work on its Beacon Hill headquarters. The Archdiocese of Boston has been steadily cutting staff. The Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts has cut staff and spending. And religious colleges are cutting too, including, most recently, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, an evangelical institution on the North Shore that announced Monday it was laying off employees and reducing spending.

Many clergy believe that religious philanthropy, especially at the local level, tends to be more resilient than other forms of charitable giving during a recession. But they note there is no exact precedent for the current economic crisis, making forecasting the impact this time speculative.

"Perception and fear are a greater concern now than the real economic problem, and the fear of things getting worse will probably dominate people's reaction," said Chuck Zech, a professor of economics who studies church finances at the Villanova School of Business.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/11/30/clergy_brace_for_downturn_in_giving/

Lemming Pledge #12

Looks Like at least one of them is hedging his bets !