Nigeria: Amaechi Condemns Ordination of Gay Bishop in Anglican Church

From All Africa-

Rivers State Governor, Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, says the recent ordination of a gay Bishop in the Anglican Church in the United States of America is the height of moral decadence in the Church in particular and the world in general.

Governor Amaechi said this when the new Primate of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), Most Reverend Nicholas Okoh, led a delegation to visit him in Government House, Port Harcourt.

Represented by his deputy, Engr. Tele Ikuru, Governor Amaechi condemned the act, regretting the continued trend of moral laxity of people of this generation in spite of the proliferation of churches in the world.

Commending the new Primate for his elevation, the state chief executive urged him to face the challenge of redeeming the battered image of the Church frontally, saying "Primate, you have a lot in your hands; the times are not good and challenges are daunting," urging him to restore the virtues that made the Church a sacred institution.

He said, "It takes the will and grace of God for anybody to be lifted," calling on the church to collaborate with government in building a virile society, describing the Church as "the soul of the people."

More here-

http://allafrica.com/stories/201006010582.html

Anglican Journal launches new website Commentary, videos and slideshows added to Synod news coverage

From Canada-

The Anglican Journal has launched a new website to better deliver up-to-the-minute news and views from General Synod 2010.

The triennial meeting of the Anglican Church of Canada takes place in Halifax from Jun. 3-11.

With new features such as commentary, blogs, slideshows, videos, the Journal has also assembled a team of reporters to deliver continuous coverage 24/7 with news stories, commentary and analysis, photographs and short video interviews throughout the day.

A print-out of each day’s website content will also be distributed to delegates each day at noon. Copies can also be picked up at the Anglican Journal booth, just outside Plenary Hall.

The website has a cleaner look and increased functionality will allow the Journal to better capture the mood and atmosphere of the proceedings. “A lot of what happens at synod is based on informal conversation, not just decisions being made on the plenary floor,” says Neale Adams, a veteran reporter and delegate to General Synod 2007. “That means talking to a lot of people.”

More here-

http://www.anglicanjournal.com/nc/news-items/article/anglican-journal-launches-new-website-9140.html

A translation project launched by a St. Paul church will end up serving Hmong worshippers the world over.

From Minnesota-

It's a story that loses a lot in translation: Holy Apostles Episcopal Church in St. Paul is working on a Hmong version of the Book of Common Prayer. This simple-sounding endeavor goes far beyond just replacing one word with another.

It's a story about a church that was in danger of dying joining forces with a culture that was worried about the same thing. It's a story about finding just the right words in a language that didn't even exist in written form until the 1950s. It's a story about a book from a St. Paul neighborhood that will spread around the world.

Five years in the making, the first Hmong translation of the most important book in the Episcopalian service might be completed by fall.

"That's our dream, anyway," said the Rev. William Bulson, the man overseeing the project. "It's really time-consuming work."

More here-

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/faith/95284954.html?elr=KArks7PYDiaK7DU2EPaL_V_9E7ODiUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUr

Rise of Episcopal Village

From Religion Dispatches-

While the media has greatly exaggerated the death of the Episcopal church, they also fail to report on the rise of Anglicans, Catholic and other mainline church leaders, who are rethinking how they “do church.” The reasons for this shift in thinking are myriad and have only intensified since 2008 when a number of studies indicated that for the first time in US history, less than 50 percent of Americans classified themselves as “Christian.”


Such shifts in church decline have been documented in the Church of England (UK) for decades. As reported by the Rev. Steve Hollinghurst, Researcher in Evangelism to Post-Christian Culture, the Sheffield Centre, Children’s Sunday school attendance, for instance, has drastically plunged over the past century, dropping from 80 percent at the start of the century to 12 percent.

In an article I penned for Yale Divinity School’s Reflections magazine, I observed that explorations of alternative worship/emerging church culture have been transpiring over in the UK for decades. In 2004, the Church of England responded to this spirit by launching “Fresh Expressions of Church” in 2004. This initiative—which now includes an unprecedented partnership with the Methodist Church—seeks to encourage and recognize new Christian communities that attract those who are not members of a traditional church. By 2008, the Church of England established a formal means of recognizing new forms of church that do not fit within the existing parish system.

More here-

http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/editorial/2623/rise_of_episcopal_village_/

Geneseo rector is ready for new test in Alaska

From New York (upstate)-

The Episcopal Diocese of Alaska covers roughly 600,000 square miles, but it's home to about as many churches as the Episcopal Diocese of Rochester.

Getting around to those churches is no easy task. More than half of Alaska's parishes aren't accessible by road, said Suzanne Krull, an administrator with the diocese.

"The only way to get to them is to fly," she said. "Before airplanes, it was dog teams."

Mark Lattime, Alaska's newly elected bishop, might have a way to address those problems.

A certified pilot, Lattime, the rector of St. Michael Episcopal Church in Geneseo the past 10 years, wants to fly himself to Alaska's many remote parishes. Doing so, he said, would help reduce costs and make him more effective.

"I know the diocese will need to talk about what it will mean for me to fly," said Lattime, a 1984 Fairport High School graduate. "I would have a lot more training and a lot more to do before I start taking off to some of the remote villages on my own."

More here-

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20100601/NEWS01/6010327

Thank you to all the men and women who sacrificed for our freedom

An Orthodox home for Anglican worshippers

From Cyprus-

ANGLICAN parishioners’ dreams of using a local church have finally come true after nearly a decade of worshipping at a converted shop in Ayia Napa.

In a remarkable gesture of good-will by the Orthadox Church, the Bishop of Constantia and Famagusta has granted the full use of a tiny chapel in Dherinya to the Anglican Church until they have the funds and backing to build their own premises.

A colourful ceremony to mark the occasion was attended by parishioners and representatives from the Orthodox Church last week.

The tiny whitewashed church of Ayios Helena and Constantine has a capacity of just 50 and will be used for Bible readings, services, weddings and other events.

“It is a beautiful little church and we are very thankful that we have been granted use of it. Considerable amounts of money have been spent by the Church authorities in renovation of the building and surrounding land to a very high standard,” said Reverend Michael Crawford.
After losing the use of a small chapel in Ayia Napa five years ago, the Anglicans have been borrowing the Scandinavian Church on Nissi Avenue for Sunday worship, but their ultimate goal remains a church of their own.

More here-

http://www.cyprus-mail.com/features/orthodox-home-anglican-worshippers/20100530

Abuses are possible in charismatic communities, author contends

From The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette-

As a young religion journalist 25 years ago in Houston, Julia Duin joined an Episcopal charismatic community that was repairing ruined buildings and ruined lives.

But, after following the Community of Celebration to Beaver County, where she attended Trinity School for Ministry, she became disenchanted. Her 1992 master's thesis documented abuse of authority within the community, and the role of its founder, the Rev. Graham Pulkingham, in spreading a highly authoritarian theology to other charismatic communities nationwide. Months later she amended it to include evidence of sexual misconduct by Father Pulkingham, who was under suspension from ministry when he died suddenly in 1993.

Now Ms. Duin has written a book, "Days of Fire and Glory" (Crossland Press $24.95) which weaves a tale both soaring and sordid of the community's rise and fall. She will speak Sunday at 9:30 a.m. in St. Thomas-in-the-Field Church (Anglican), in Richland.

"I'm not trashing [the idea of] community," said Ms. Duin, who covers religion for The Washington Times. "But I would like the book to be a template so that if people do try to live out the New Testament vision of community again, they don't repeat the same mistakes."

Father Pulkingham achieved national prominence after reviving a dying Houston parish in 1963. An early leader of the charismatic movement, which brought Pentecostal practices such as speaking in tongues into liturgical worship, he began taking in street people who became the nucleus of the Community of Celebration. At its height it had 400 resident members, who lived together and shared resources. They founded a medical clinic and other neighborhood programs. Its traveling music ministry, Fisherfolk, achieved international acclaim.

Read more:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10151/1062034-44.stm#ixzz0pVa9NLOv

Church helping parish in Panama

From Newark-

Christ Episcopal Church will host "Saving Santiago," a fundraising event with a Latino flair, at 6 p.m. on June 12.

Proceeds will benefit the parish of Santiago and other building projects in the country of Panama.

The evening is open to the public, but advance registration is required. The event will be catered by renowned Dover restaurant, Sabor Latino, and dance music will be provided by local disc jockey La Rockola.

Christ Church recently launched a companion relationship with the Diocese of Panama, with the goal of assisting the Central American diocese with the completion of several building projects and supporting their ministry to the poor. The parishioners of Christ Church in Newton have pledged to provide financial support to build a new church in Santiago, to repair a leaking roof on the church of San Jose, and to provide ongoing support for several other parishes in the poverty-stricken rural areas of Panama.

The church of Santiago floods regularly and has fallen into disrepair as a result, a statement from Christ Church said. So far, more than $38,000 has been raised by the parishioners of Christ Church towards the Saving Santiago project.

More here-

http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20100531/COMMUNITIES/100530025/1005/NEWS01/Church-helping-parish-in-Panama

Cutié To Be Once, Twice, Two Times a Padré

From Miami-

He's ba-aaack!
Roughly a year after scandalous photos of Miami's celebrity priest with his hand on the hot bottom of his divorced girlfriend ran in a Mexican tabloid, prompting an international scandal and causing him to leave the Roman Catholic Church, Alberto Cutié is back in the news.

And the news is that Cutié isn't really back in the news at all.

The 41-year-old former "Father Oprah" was made an Episcopal priest Saturday at Church of the Resurrection in Biscayne Park, where he's been serving as a layman since the revelation of his affair with parishioner Ruhama Canallis lost him the backing of the powerful Archdiocese of Miami, the advice column and the cable show carried in 22 countries.

More here-

http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local-beat/Cutie-a-Pries-95216839.html

The Anglican Communion falters, again

From The London Guardian-

Another crack has appeared in the Anglican Communion. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has proposed that dissident Anglicans be sidelined on an important doctrinal committee, and that they not be allowed to represent Anglican views to other churches.

Williams is responding to the consecration of the American bishop Mary Glasspool, who is openly lesbian. The act is in breach of moratoria that Williams supports. However, what is not clear is whether liberal Americans will be singled out for punishment. African bishops have also breached the moratoria, by consecrating bishops to administer to conservative congregations in the US. The defence the African bishops gave was that they were only responding to requests from the US to do so. And exactly the same defence could be offered with respect to Glasspool's consecration: she was elected to office by her parishioners.

William's letter says: "Particular provinces will be contacted about the outworking of this in the near future." If only liberal provinces are contacted, Williams will be accused of unfairness, something he has been accused of before.

His broader wish is that Anglicans be more generous towards those with whom they differ by sacrificing what they see as their duty or rights. It's a laudable aspiration if you are a Christian, but it has consequences. It leads to what Williams has previously called a "tragic" response to the world – the tragedy arising from the inevitable conflict over what people regard as the right thing to do.

More here-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/andrewbrown/2010/may/29/anglican-communion-williams-religion

Canterbury proposes resignation of ecumenical commission members

From ELO-

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams is proposing that representatives currently serving on some of the Anglican Communion's ecumenical dialogues should resign their membership if they are from a province that has not complied with moratoria on same-gender blessings, cross-border interventions and the ordination of gay and lesbian people to the episcopate.

Williams made his proposal in a May 28 Pentecost letter to the Anglican Communion, in which he specifically refers to the May 15 consecration of Los Angeles Bishop Suffragan Mary Douglas Glasspool and the ongoing activity across provincial boundaries. Glasspool is the Episcopal Church's second openly gay, partnered bishop.

Two Episcopal Church members serving on the Anglican-Orthodox Theological Dialogue and one on the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order are expected to be affected by the proposal.

When a province "declines to accept requests or advice from the consultative organs of the communion, it is very hard to see how members of that province can be placed in positions where they are required to represent the communion as a whole," Williams said. "This affects both our ecumenical dialogues ... and our faith-and-order related groups."

Williams said that affected provinces "will be contacted about the outworking of this in the near future."

Episcopal Church members currently serving on the Anglican-Orthodox Theological Dialogue are the Rev. Thomas Ferguson, the Episcopal Church's interim deputy for ecumenical and interreligious relations, and Assistant Bishop William Gregg of North Carolina.

More here-

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79425_122562_ENG_HTM.htm

Cutié is a priest again — and a dad-to-be

Update from Miami-

As he stood in front of dozens of reporters a year ago to say he was leaving the Roman Catholic Church and marrying, celebrity priest Alberto Cutié took a plunge, putting his life on a path that would look little like what he imagined when he slipped on that first clerical collar in his 20s and and vowed a life of celibacy.

These days, he's a suburban 41-year-old husband, sharing a three-bedroom house in Miami Shores with his wife and her son, often cooking Cuban meals before a game of Chinese checkers.

On Saturday, after dusting off the same white stole he wore when he knelt before Miami's Roman Catholic Archbishop 15 years ago to be ordained, he put it back over his shoulders. Padre Alberto is a priest again, this time in the Episcopal church.

It's not the only change in his life. In six months, the padre will be a dad. Ruhama Buni Cutié is pregnant.

``God's not all that interested in you falling down. God is interested in you getting up again,'' Cutié told Episcopal bishops and hundreds of parishioners gathered Saturday at Church of the Resurrection in Biscayne Park for the ceremony marking his return to the priesthood. He spent the past year at Resurrection, studying Episcopal traditions as a lay minister.

Read more:

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/05/29/1655231/cutie-is-a-priest-again-and-a.html#ixzz0pPSC08Nb

Phils' Halladay throws MLB's 20th perfecto

Unbelievable- two perfect games in one season. For you soccer fans out there a perfect game is when no player on the opposing team reaches base.

Baseball tradition says you don't talk to or even get near a pitcher when he's on the brink of a no-hitter, and especially not if a perfect game is on the line. But Roy Halladay is a different animal. So when asked at what point during his phenomenal Saturday night outing did he feel his teammates were giving him the cold shoulder, the intense right-hander quipped: "I'd say 2:30, 3 o'clock this afternoon."

About seven hours later, his quiet Phillies teammates morphed into an exuberant bunch in the midst of an on-field celebration, and a rare smile crept onto the stoic Halladay's face.

On this Saturday night at Sun Life Stadium, Halladay -- arguably the best pitcher in the game already -- was perfect.

Twenty-seven Marlins hitters came to bat, and 27 were promptly retired, as Halladay edged out ace Josh Johnson and delivered a 1-0 victory for his team while becoming the 20th pitcher in Major League history -- and second this season -- to fire a perfect game.

As if he needed any more affirmation.

"It's something you never think about," Halladay said. "It's hard to explain. There's days where things just kind of click and things happen, and it's something you obviously never go out and try and do. But it's a great feeling."

The 33-year-old Halladay joins Jim Bunning (1964) as the only Phillies pitchers to throw a perfect game. He is the 10th pitcher in Phillies history to throw a no-hitter -- the last one to do it was Kevin Millwood on April 27, 2003, against the Giants -- and the third in the Majors this season, joining Rockies ace Ubaldo Jimenez and the Athletics' Dallas Braden, who fired a perfect game on Mother's Day.

More here-

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100529&content_id=10587476&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

Archbishop calls for action against rebel Anglicans

From The BBC-

Anglicans who flout the wishes of the worldwide Church should be sidelined from official doctrinal committees, the Archbishop of Canterbury has said.

In his Pentecost letter to Anglicans worldwide, Rowan Williams says there is still "painful division" in the Church.

He cites the consecration of a lesbian bishop in the US, and Church leaders organising in each others' areas.

If his call is heeded it would be the first time such sanctions have been imposed on dissident Church members.

The archbishop added that dissident Anglican provinces should not take part in formal dialogues with other Churches.

Lesbian bishop
Some Anglicans will see the measures as the first step towards a "two-tier" Communion, with Churches who refuse to compromise on their beliefs being increasingly marginalised.

Earlier this month the Episcopal Church in the United States defied Rowan Williams, by ordaining an openly-lesbian bishop, Mary Glasspool.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk/10188825.stm

Archbishop of Canterbury imposes first sanctions on Anglican provinces over gay bishops dispute

From The London Telegraph-

Dr Rowan Williams announced that provinces which had ignored his “pleading” for restraint would be banned from attending official discussions with other Christian denominations and prevented from voting on a key body on doctrine.
He admitted the 80 million-strong Anglican Communion was in a time of “substantial transition” but held back from taking the most serious step of expelling national churches from it.

His action, taken after years of patiently asking both conservatives and liberals to abide by agreed rules, will affect both sides in the dispute over whether the Bible permits openly homosexual clergy.

It has been triggered by the progressive Episcopal Church of the USA, which ordained its first lesbian bishop, the Rt Rev Mary Glasspool, earlier this month. The Episcopal Church also elected the first openly homosexual bishop in the Communion, the Rt Rev Gene Robinson, in 2003.

But the move will also hit orthodox provinces in the developing world – known as the Global South – that reacted to the liberal innovations in America and Canada by taking conservative American clergy and congregations out of their national churches and giving them roles in Africa and South America. This has triggered bitter legal battles over the fate of church buildings.
The Anglican provinces found to have broken the “moratoria” - on ordaining homosexual clergy; blessing same-sex unions in church; and making “cross-border interventions” - will soon be sent letters telling them about the proposed punishment for straying from the Communion’s agreed positions.

More here-

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/7779040/Archbishop-of-Canterbury-imposes-first-sanctions-on-Anglican-provinces-over-gay-bishops-dispute.html

Archbishop of Canterbury slaps Episcopal Church for openly gay bishops

More from CNN-

Rifts within the Anglican Communion could widen after the archbishop of Canterbury, who has condemned the consecration of openly gay bishops, urged a diminished role Friday for the Episcopal Church.

Earlier this month, a Los Angeles, California, diocese ordained the Rev. Mary Glasspool, the first openly gay bishop ordained in the church since 2004, when Gene Robinson took his post in New Hampshire. The U.S. church has been criticized by conservative factions for openly gay ordinations.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the nominal head of Anglican Communion, shared his concern when Glasspool was consecrated, saying then that the move would further divide the 77 million-member worldwide denomination that includes the Episcopal Church in the United States.

On Friday, he made an even stronger statement in a letter to the communion.
"Our Anglican fellowship continues to experience painful division, and the events of recent months have not brought us nearer to full reconciliation," Williams wrote. "There are still things being done that the representative bodies of the Communion have repeatedly pleaded should not be done; and this leads to recrimination, confusion and bitterness all round.

"It is clear that the official bodies of The Episcopal Church have felt in conscience that they cannot go along with what has been asked of them by others, and the consecration of Canon Mary Glasspool on May 15 has been a clear sign of this."

The rest is here-

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/05/28/anglican.church.gays/

Courtesy of Twitter, God speaks

From the "You Can't Make This Stuff Up" Department- (CNN)

Apparently even God is getting in on the Twitter business.

A new website launched this week called almightytweets.com culls tweets in which God’s advice is shared. Take, for instance, this one from this afternoon: “Yesterday Eli said ‘God told me we had to go to dippin dots.’ So we did.”

Some others that have posted in the last 24 hours include:

My mom said God told her I was gettn married soon. I hope he didn’t mean this weekend in Vegas…lol

I WANNA SPAZZ OUT SO BADD BUT GOD TOLD ME CHILL OUT RELAX BRUDDHA KUZ U NO FOOL JUST DO U

God told me that I’d become self-righteous!

Hot on the site are references to a news story earlier this week in which a man in Lousiana was found walking the streets naked. When asked why, he reportedly said God told him to do it to save his soul.

It’s stories like these that inspire Marc Hartzman, a creative director in a New York ad agency who’s behind almightytweets.com. He wrote the recently published, “God Made Me Do It: True Stories of the Worst Advice the Lord Has Ever Given His Followers.”

“The stories range from the totally absurd to the horrific,” he said by phone.

More here-

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/05/26/courtesy-of-twitter-god-speaks/?hpt=Mid

Archbishop of Canterbury's Pentecost letter to the Anglican Communion

From Anglican Communion News Service (Must read)

In his Pentecost letter to the Anglican Communion, the Archbishop of Canterbury encourages Anglicans to pray for renewal in the Spirit and focus on the priority of mission, so that ‘we may indeed do what God asks of us and let all people know that new and forgiven life in Christ is possible’.

The Archbishop acknowledges that Anglicans are experiencing a period of transition in the world: ‘when the voice and witness in the Communion of Christians from the developing world is more articulate and creative than ever, and when the rapidity of social change in ‘developed’ nations leaves even some of the most faithful and traditional Christian communities uncertain where to draw the boundaries in controversial matters – not only sexuality but issues of bioethics, for example, or the complexities of morality in the financial world.’
In response to the current situation the Archbishop makes clear that when a province ‘declines to accept requests or advice from the consultative organs of the Communion, it is very hard to see how members of that province can be placed in position where they are required to represent the Communion as a whole. This affects both our ecumenical dialogues…and our faith-and-order related groups’

Dr Williams goes on to makes two specific proposals. Firstly, that members of provinces that are in breach of the three moratoria requested by the Instruments of the Communion should no longer participate in the formal ecumenical dialogues in which the Anglican Communion is engaged. Secondly, that members of these provinces currently serving on the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order (a body that examines issues of doctrine and authority) should, for the time being, no longer have full membership, but retain the status of consultants. 'This is simply to confirm what the Communion as a whole has come to regard as acceptable limits of diversity in its practice'.

Its all here-

http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/news.cfm/2010/5/28/ACNS4704

Medal recipient in Pearl Harbor attack 'a real hero'

Fitting for Memorial Day-

Medal of Honor recipient John Finn, one of the oldest and most celebrated survivors of the attack that targeted Pearl Harbor, died yesterday, the Navy said. He was 100.

Finn fired a machine gun at Japanese planes over the Kāne'ohe Marine base despite being wounded many times. He was the nation's oldest Medal of Honor recipient and the last living recipient from the Pearl Harbor attack.

Finn died at a nursing home in Chula Vista, Calif.

Last year, the Navy named one of its newest USS Arizona Memorial shuttle boats the John W. Finn.

Daniel Martinez, National Park Service historian at the Arizona Memorial, said he is often asked about the shuttle's name and responds with the story of a brave man who did his best to shoot down the enemy over American soil on Dec. 7, 1941.

"I felt like I was looking at a real hero. And that hero was John," Martinez said.

"I knew him well. He was very much a no-nonsense person. Not in a strict sense of the word, but in the sense that he never left the military. He was colorful and had a great sense of humor."

Finn retired from the Navy in 1956 as a lieutenant.

U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, himself a Medal of Honor recipient from World War II, said, "We have lost a great patriot today and I extend my condolences to Mr. Finn's family. Like all grateful Americans, I will remember him for his courage and his love of country. I hope that we all remember him with gratitude for the sacrifices he made in defense of our great nation."

More here-

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20100528/OBITS/5280340/Medal+recipient+in+Pearl+Harbor+attack++a+real+hero+

Nothing but the dames at York Synod

From the Church Times-

THEY were warned that the issue of women bishops would dominate their forthcoming meeting in York; but General Synod members might not have realised the extent to which they would be eating, sleep ing, and drinking the subject at the beginning of July.

The timetable of the York sessions was published this week. Between 3.45 p.m. on Friday 9 July and 1 p.m. on Tuesday 13 July (and not counting the separate meetings of the Houses of Clergy and of Laity), the Synod members could spend 17 hours in debate on the subject.
The heaviest days will be Saturday and Monday, on each of which the Synod will begin debating the issue at 9.30 a.m. and finish at 6.15 p.m. The last morning is also given over completely to the subject.

The reason for the amount of time given is that the issue has reached the revision stage. The draft Bishops and Priests (Consecration and Ordination of Women) Measure can be amended clause by clause by the whole Synod, and amendments are expected which would reintroduce all the permutations that have been considered (and rejected) in previous debates (News, 14 May).
For light relief, there is an address by the Archbishop of Estonia on Friday, and a report of the Standing Orders committee on Saturday.

Sunday (the day of the World Cup final) is traditionally a day for tackling non-contentious subjects. This time, these include legislative business that must be finished before the Synod is prorogued, including maternity leave, pension changes, and fees. There is also a report on relations with the Church of Scotland.

More here-

http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=95350v

Snapshot: Walter Russell Mead

From The Living Church-

In the divided camps of the blogosphere, Walter Russell Mead’s eponymous weblog attracts thoughtful responses from across the Anglican ideological and theological spectrum.

Mead, who is Henry A. Kissinger Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, launched his weblog several months ago through The American Interest Online. Mead grew up within the Episcopal Church — his father is the Rev. Loren Benjamin Mead, founding president of The Alban Institute — but he writes about it only occasionally as part of a Sunday feature called Faith Matters.

When Mead considers the Episcopal Church, however, the results can be surprising.

“I think Bishop Glasspool’s election and consecration were ill-advised, but that is by no means the same thing as denying the possibility that in due time and with due order and deliberation, such a step could be taken without harm to Christian faith and morals,” he wrote recently. “And yet. It’s also impossible to avoid the reflection that the Episcopal Church is unilaterally imposing its own vision of the church on a worldwide communion. Whatever one thinks of the matter on a personal basis, the New Testament as well as the Old specifically condemns homosexual behavior as contrary to the will of God.”

“Fortunately, because I’m neither a theologian nor holding office in the Episcopal Church, I feel no need to follow things through to their final theological point,” Mead told The Living Church. “I am comfortable with saying ‘I don’t know.’ That feels very Anglican to me.”

Mead has served as senior warden at St. Mark’s Church, Jackson Heights, Queens, N.Y. An alumnus of Groton School, which in a deadpan tone he called an “Episcopal Madrasah,” he has written regularly about the Church’s varying influence in North American culture.

“The church I grew up in seems to be falling apart and being replaced by nothing,” he said. “There’s been, I think, a dearth of leadership about the health of the institution.”

http://www.livingchurch.org/news/news-updates/2010/5/27/snapshot-walter-russell-mead

Rwanda: Will the Vatican Ever Accept That Genocide is Also a Crime?

From All Africa

This church's lack of courage and humility made it develop what philosopher Bertrand Russell, in his book "The Conquest of Happiness" termed "persecution mania" which he says is "a recognised form of insanity."

The fall of the former genocidal regime was not good news for some in the Rwandan church. Out of solidarity with and nostalgia for their defeated ideological allies, they were at a loss.

They were incapable of overcoming their shame and guilt and recognizing their responsibility for the suffering of the Tutsi, which they identified with the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), or to get used to the new reality of a non-racist Rwanda.

At the beginning of the war of liberation in October 1990, there was a virulent propaganda by missionary circles, particularly the White Fathers, against the RPF.

They resented the RPF and sought to portray it a communist organisation, "inevitably" aimed at "persecution of the Church."

More here-

http://allafrica.com/stories/201005270077.html

Zambia: Wrangles Are an Affront to the Church

From AllAfrica-

THE Council of Churches in Zambia (CCZ) has said wrangles that have characterised the African Methodist Episcopal Church and United Church of Zambia (UCZ) in the recent past are an affront to the body of Christ.

CCZ general secretary Suzanne Matale said in an interview in Lusaka on Monday that the Church represented peace, unity and reconciliation and should, therefore, not be a place for riots and confusion.

Reverend Matale said one of the pillars of resolving conflicts was dialogue, and the Church should show the way in handling differences.

She said the Church should not resort to personal confrontations to resolve issues.

Rev Matale said the Church should follow the set procedure in their congregations when dealing with issues, in line with the scriptures.

Wrangles recently erupted in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and UCZ Matero Congregation in Lusaka over allegations of misapplication of church funds and issues of immorality.

More here-

http://allafrica.com/stories/201005260843.html

WEST TEXAS: Christ Church rector resigns citing 'crisis of conscience'

More on Chuck Collins- From ELO-

The Rev. Charles Collins, rector of Christ Church in San Antonio in the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas, has announced his intention to retire Sept. 1, 2010.
Collins, who had served nine years as rector of the 2,700-member congregation, said in a May 19 letter to parishioners that he made the decision "to take early retirement … because of a crisis of conscience."

He cited disagreement with the direction of "the Episcopal Church [which] … has moved further and further away from the Gospel to which I committed my life and I have concluded that there is no future for me in this spiritual environment."

Collins said his ministry at Christ Church has been the most spiritually demanding and fulfilling years of his 29 years as an Episcopal priest. "This is the most difficult decision I have faced in [my] ministry."

He will begin a sabbatical June 1 and not return to the parish, he said during a May 26 telephone interview from his San Antonio office.

He said that the church has been in a two-and-a-half year process to "discern our future in the Episcopal Church" and has recognized that the congregation is divided among those who wish to remain in the Episcopal Church and those who intend to leave.

In an April 2010 note posted on the parish website, vestry members acknowledged that division and said they assume "those who stay in the Episcopal Church will continue as Christ Episcopal Church at the current property." It is uncertain where those who wish to leave will worship, the note concluded.

More here-

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_122501_ENG_HTM.htm

N.T. Wright: Marriage Isn’t Adiaphora

From The Living Church-

In his final address to his diocesan synod, the Bishop of Durham discussed the boundaries of adiaphora: what the Church has decided is non-essential to Christian faith.

The Rt. Rev. N.T. Wright, speaking to the Diocese of Durham’s synod May 21, also referred to a new pastoral letter being prepared by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Wright emphasized repeatedly that determining adiaphora is a task for the whole Church, rather than for one province, one diocese or one congregation. He also stressed that determining adiaphora is important work.

“The doctrine that some things are adipahora and some aren’t is not itself adiaphora,” he said. “The decision as to which things make a difference and which do not is itself a decision which makes a huge difference. Some of the early English Reformers claimed explicitly that they were dying precisely for the principle of adiaphora itself, for the right to disagree on certain points (not on everything). That for which you will give your life is hardly something which doesn’t make a difference.”

Wright cited two examples of what the Anglican Communion has decided are adiaphora: children receiving Communion and women being consecrated to the episcopate. He then referred to a forthcoming letter from the archbishop and added that the Church has never designated the definition of marriage as adiaphora.

More here-

http://www.livingchurch.org/news/news-updates/2010/5/26/nt-wright-marriage-isnt-adiaphora

Northern Ireland minister calls on Ulster Museum to promote creationism

From The London Guardian-

Northern Ireland's born-again Christian culture minister has called on the Ulster Museum to put on exhibits reflecting the view that the world was made by God only several thousand years ago.

Nelson McCausland, who believes that Ulster Protestants are one of the lost tribes of Israel, has written to the museum's board of trustees urging them to reflect creationist and intelligent design theories of the universe's origins.

The Democratic Unionist minister said the inclusion of anti-Darwinian theories in the museum was "a human rights issue".

McCausland defended a letter he wrote to the trustees calling for anti-evolution exhibitions at the museum. He claimed that around one third of Northern Ireland's population believed either in intelligent design or the creationist view that the universe was created about 6,000 years ago.

"I have had more letters from the public on this issue than any other issue," he said.

The minister said he wrote a "very balanced letter" to the museum because he wanted to "reflect the views of all the people in Northern Ireland in all its richness and diversity".

More here-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/may/26/northern-ireland-ulster-museum-creationism

Online record of 'religious dissenters' published for first time

From The London Telegraph-

The first tranche of the “Non Conformist Registers” has been put online detailing the hundreds of thousands of people who shook up the established order with alternative ideas over the past 225 years.

The database, which goes live on Wednesday, discloses those who refused to conform to the doctrine of the established Anglican Church including Methodists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Baptists and Quakers.

The Quakers were the first religious group to denounce slavery while Methodists were great advocates of women’s rights.

More than 224,000 names are included in the register, which dates from the late 17th century, which also detail baptisms, marriages and burial inscriptions.

The digitised papers originally come from the London Metropolitan Archives, which is run by the City of London authority and were compiled by Ancestry.co.uk, a family history website.
Some of those who feature in the archive include George Fox (1624-1691), founder of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Daniel Defoe (1659-1731), the author of Robinson Crusoe who was the son of Presbyterian nonconformists, William Blake (1757-1827), one of Britain's greatest artists, and John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), the British philosopher and politician.

More here-

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/7764708/Online-record-of-religious-dissenters-published-for-first-time.html

Ten Years and a New Anglican Congregationalism

From Ephraim Radner via David Virtue-

It is ten years since Anglicanism's current travails were formally inaugurated with the formation of an alternative "Communion" church in North America, the Anglican Mission in America. Not the cause, it was nonetheless the first major sign that "communion" was no longer a given in Anglicanism, but something to be variously asserted, antagonistically claimed, and built up or torn down as the case may be.

And after ten years, I think it necessary to say that most of the work thus far has been one of tearing down. Tearing down, but also of exposing new things and clearer lines of calling, so that what had been emerging as a communion might now be seen as demanding deeper commitment for its flourishing than anybody had imagined. The work that many of us have been doing out of a commitment to the traditional Christian faith as Anglicans (and others) had received it has been worth the effort, and continues to be demanded. But what we are seeing, especially as Christian communion is being assaulted not only from within the Church, but more importantly by a rapidly dissolving Christian culture in the West, is that there are deeper roots to put down and nourish than we had perhaps first thought.

The tearing down, in any case, is what is most obvious, perhaps, to outsiders or onlookers from within. One by one, for instance, the so-called "Instruments of Unity" for Anglicans around the world have been eroded in their perceived integrity, and certainly in their effectiveness.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, over the past decade (from Lord Carey through Rowan Williams), has issued pleas, statements, constructive ideas, hopes. But when, last month, a schedule conflict, not to mention in any case the ash of an Icelandic volcano, kept him from the South to South Encounter of non-Western churches in Singapore, the transient and quivering video image of his unfocused greeting was symbolically all that was left of his presence to an increasingly estranged majority of world Anglicans. For whatever reasons - the constraint imposed on Lambeth's voice by America's money monopoly on Communion bureaucracy, loyalties divided between Britain and Communion, mixed convictions within his own mind, an under-appreciation of the demanded influence of his own witness? - ten years of people all going their own way has rendered the moral authority of his voice almost inaudible.

More here-

http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=12638

Volunteers make dolls to help needy

From California-

When difficult times strike, sometimes all you want is something to hold.
In this case, it's been as comforting as simple knitted dolls, courtesy of a community of caring Inland Valley individuals.

It began with a request for Duduza dolls, Haitian comfort dolls, that could be sent to St. Andre's school in Trianon after a devastating earthquake shook the impoverished island country to its core leaving broken buildings and lives.

St. Mark's Episcopal Church and its preschool and school have been longtime partners with their Haitian counterpart so helping out came naturally. Past work has involved the building of a water system, four new classrooms, school tables and chairs, donations for teacher salaries and vegetable seed packets so the people can grow their own food. But now it has turned into a project touching people of all ages and faiths.

The dolls have been knitted by students, teachers and church members from St. Mark's as well as from Upland Presbyterian Church, Genesis Community Church, The Yarn Boutique in Big Bear City and customers from Needles and Niceties in Upland who learned about the project from owners Bob and Anna Vasaturo.

"It helps people in need," said Bob Vasaturo.

"And that's true wherever they are. We just put the pattern out for any of our customers that might be interested and now we're collecting the dolls that they've made from leftover yarn. We found out about this about a month ago.

More here-

http://www.dailybulletin.com/ci_15161686