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 !

God No !

National Public Radio's "On the Media" has an audio piece this morning on the rising atheism movement. Is it a religion? Well, it is becoming a political movement. No transcript yet but you can listen to it at the link.

Scroll down to the "God No" article.

http://www.onthemedia.org/

Good Stuff in TEC: Georgia

Outdoor church serves homeless on their home turf

Folding chairs make do for pews, and hymns from a boom box replace the choir.

There’s no sanctuary either, unless you count the tall office buildings that shelter the 30-person congregation gathered in a downtown park: Welcome to Atlanta’s outdoor church for the homeless.

The worship services at Woodruff Park are open to all, but geared toward bringing hope to the homeless on their home turf. And for two years, the Church of the Common Ground has brought faith to Atlanta’s homeless through songs, gospel readings and weekly communion.

The church is affiliated with the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta, which consecrated its pastor, Bob Book, as a priest in October in a ceremony in the park.

The outdoor ceremony was a first for the diocese, and a major step in a denomination where officials have been slow to recognize nontraditional street ministries as “real church.”

http://www.dothaneagle.com/dea/news/local/article/outdoor_church_serves_homeless_on_their_home_turf/48813/

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Good Stuff in TEC: Pennsylvnia

A growing need in tough times

For nearly a quarter-century, St. James Episcopal Church has opened it doors each weekday morning to the down-and-out.

And recently, there have been more of them.

Some days, the line stretches across the church's cafeteria, said Charles Green, who has coordinated the free morning meal since it started.

"It's up quite a bit," said Green, from about 100 last year to nearly 150 on some recent mornings.

And what Green is seeing are more younger people and families with young children.

"It's getting more and more and more. We're seeing more people," he said.

St. James is not alone.

Difficult economic times have forced a growing number of countinues to seek help this fall from organizations that provide free meals and shelter.

http://articles.lancasteronline.com/local/4/230751

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Good Stuff in TEC: Texas

Taize followers plug into God with song, quiet and meditation

If Cass Davies can’t attend her monthly Taizé service, life doesn’t feel quite right.
As soon as she steps into the church, lit with candles and filled with music, she feels tension slip away.

An increasingly popular worship tradition started by a theology student in Taizé, France, services are ecumenical, with meditation, silence, prayers, music and Bible readings.

“It’s a way to plug into God,” Davies said. “I walk out of there feeling so rested. It’s a deep meditation for me. There are no sermons, it’s just between you and God. If I don’t go, I truly miss it.”

Davies attends Taizé prayers at Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church, but services can also be found at Lutheran, Methodist and Catholic churches.

“It’s wonderful to find peace in the midst of stress,” said the Rev. John Price, who started Palmer’s tradition. “That is what Taizé does.”

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/religion/6137274.html

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Church's separatist stance ignores much bigger issues

The Rev. Tom Ehrich in the Indianapolis Stars opines about The Diocese of Quincy "leaving" the Episcopal Church.

I doubt that much sleep was lost, in heaven or on Earth, when the tiny Episcopal Diocese of Quincy, Ill., recently voted to secede from the national Episcopal Church for being too liberal.

With 1,800 members scattered over a large area bordering the Mississippi River, the diocese has long been a recalcitrant outpost of the fading Anglo-Catholic wing of the Episcopal Church. Its stern refusals -- no to women as priests, no to gays, no to theological diversity -- have played poorly in Peoria.

Its 24 congregations have an average membership of 75. Its 7 percent decline in membership since 2006 is the worst among Episcopal dioceses in its region.

But Quincy's debate over leaving the national denomination was illuminating.

With the nation caught up in its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, focusing a church convention on denominational politics showed an odd detachment from reality.

http://www.indystar.com/article/20081129/LIVING09/811290394/1111/LIVING09

Analysis: Recognition of Third Province Likely to Take Years

Recognition of Third Province Likely to Take Years (if ever).

It is technically possible for a vote on a third province to come before the primates’ meeting in February in Alexandria, Egypt, and then be forwarded to ACC-14. This is unlikely, however, because the necessary constitutional work in forming a CCP-based North American province probably will not be completed. This could take as much as two years because the diocesan conventions of the four breakaway Episcopal dioceses—San Joaquin, Pittsburgh, Quincy and Fort Worth—will have to endorse the constitution of the proposed province over two meetings of their conventions. CCP members also will need to ratify the constitution and amend their own governing documents so as to bring its terms into force.

It is more likely that the primates would address the creation of a third province at their meeting in 2011. If approved, the matter would be brought before ACC-15 in 2012.

While special meetings of the ACC and the primates can be called on the initiative of their standing committees, no such meeting has ever been called. In the current political climate within the Anglican Communion, expedited action is unlikely.

http://www.livingchurch.org/news/news-updates/2008/11/26/analysis-recognition-of-third-province-likely-to-take-years

Orombi criticises Alur over witchcraft

More on the problem of witchcraft in the African Church - this time in Uganda. The Alur people live an area of Uganda known as Nebbi where Henry was Bishop before he was archbishop.

THE Anglican archbishop, Henry Luke Orombi, has told the Alur to stop witchcraft to fight poverty. “People still share one grass-thatched hut with goats, children, chicken and ducks.

You Alur people should have trust in God and stop witchcraft. Stop giving yourselves names like Kumakech (I am unlucky), Ajaruva and Masedi (disturbance), among others associated with poverty,” he said. “An Alur will not want to see his fellow Alur prospering; they prefer seeing other tribes developing as they bewitch themselves.

An Alur will wake up at night and sprinkle blood on the doorway of his fellow Alur who is developing. We must stop this backward habit.” Orombi’s wife Phoebe advised the Alur in other areas to develop their home area. “As you work in Gulu, Kampala and other places, think of putting up some structure at home where you body will be laid when you are dead,” she said.

Orombi was meeting the Nebbi community living in Gulu and Amuru districts on Tuesday in Bardege division, Gulu. He urged the elders to teach the children and women the Alur culture. Orombi is on a one-week pastoral visit to the diocese of northern Uganda.

http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/16/661735

Last summer I posted a Christianity Today piece on the problem in Nigeria. Here it is again.


http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/august/8.16.html

Conservative Anglicans determined to stay within church

From Canada an article about conservative parishes and clergy who are "loosening" their ties to Common Cause and deciding to stay in the Anglican Church of Canada. Oh Canada!

About 50 conservative Anglican leaders, including eight young theological students, gathered in Toronto for a one-day consultation on Nov. 25 and emerged with a determination to remain within the Anglican Church of Canada. They came from 16 dioceses across the country.

(snip)

He said there are five key areas on which the federation will focus: giving voice to the issues at various meetings of dioceses and synods, continuing to network with other conservative organizations and denominations in Canada, international representation (Mr. Cane says he will attend the Common Cause Partnership meeting in December as an observer), encouraging conservative theologians to meet and work on the issues, and working with theological students and others under age 40 to “help the rest of the church affirm authentic Anglicanism.”

Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, sent a lengthy pastoral letter to the consultation in which he acknowledged differences in biblical interpretation and expressed appreciation for the fellowship’s determination to work within the Anglican Church of Canada. In his letter, the primate said that “the St. Michael Report itself acknowledges that ‘the interpretation of scripture is a central and complex matter’ and that, at times in the church’s history, ‘faithful readings have led to mutually contradictory understandings, requiring on-going dialogue and prayer toward discernment of the one voice of the gospel.’

http://www.anglicanjournal.com/100/article/conservative-anglicans-determined-to-stay-within-church/?cHash=4418952c5e

No, no, its back "to" Church Sunday !

Back to Church Sunday 2008 welcomes back 37,000

Back to Church Sunday is celebrating another rise in the numbers drawn back to church by the event this year as organisers gather in London for a special event at Lambeth Palace. Figures based on returns from dioceses suggest that more than 37,000 people took up the invitation to try church again on Sunday 28th September 2008 – with more than 31,000 of them ‘coming back’ to an Anglican church.

This achievement is being marked with a ‘thank you’ party for people across the country responsible for promoting Back to Church Sunday to local parish churches and encouraging them to extend the warmest welcome to visitors. The day will involve multimedia presentations, buzzgroups, and giveaway treats from the sponsors Traidcraft.

http://www.cofe.anglican.org/news/pr9408.html

More on Galileo

Galileo explains his discovery to the Pope

Vatican official says Galileo was a man of faith

From Catholic News Service. Who says the church can't admit its wrong and recant iteself? Sometimes it just takes 400 years.

Fourteen years after Pope John Paul II said the Catholic Church erred when it condemned the 17th-century astronomer Galileo Galilei, the Vatican secretary of state said the astronomer was "a man of faith" who recognized God as creator of the cosmos.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the secretary of state, spoke briefly Nov. 26 at the opening of a Rome conference titled, "Science 400 years after Galileo Galilei," designed to bring scientists, ethicists and other experts together to discuss the role of ethics in scientific research.

The cardinal said recent studies and the Vatican's own review of the Inquistion trial of Galileo "have shed light on the shortcomings of churchmen tied to the mentality of their age," but also gave people a more accurate understanding of Galileo's beliefs.

"Galileo, a man of science, also cultivated with love his faith and his deep religious convictions," Cardinal Bertone said, repeating Pope Benedict XVI's statement that "Galileo Galilei was a man of faith who saw nature as a book written by God."

http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0805992.htm

Province plan to be unveiled

Church Times (England) take on the proposed "New Province" in North America.

THE Common Cause Partnership (CCP), a coalition of conservative Anglican groups in the United States and Canada, which have broken away from their national Churches, is to announce plans next week for a separate province.

The group will meet in the Evangelical Free Church in Wheaton, Illinois, next Wednesday to “release to the public” its draft constitution. Its moderator, the Rt Revd Bob Duncan, the deposed Bishop of Pitts burgh, described it as “an important concrete step towards the goal of a biblical, missionary and united Anglican Church in North America”.

The CCP represents about 100,000 Anglicans, 3000 of them in Canada. It comprises diverse groups that have left the Episcopal Church in the United States and the Anglican Church of Canada: four US dioceses (San Joaquin, Pittsburgh, Quincy, and Fort Worth); associations such as the Nigerian-led Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA); and seceded congregations and denomina­tions, such as the Reformed Episcopal Church.

A spokesman for one of the con stituent bodies, the American An glican Council, said the new Anglican Church in North America “will have all the necessary features to be recognised as a province”.

The new self-styled province will be defined by theology, not by geo graphy. It will appeal to the other provinces for recognition, and is relying on the support of the Prim ates who attended the Global An­glican Future Conference (GAFCON) in Jerusalem in the summer. The GAFCON movement made it clear in its declaration from Jerusalem that approval from Canterbury was not a prerequisite for future organisations.

http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=66882

And from Philadelphia

"Those who are gathering next week to essentially declare a new province can only call it a 'province' in quotes," said Rev. Edward Rix, rector at All Saint's Parish in Wynnewood. "What will be controversial will be how they move forward on such issues that divide them."

Rev. Rix said there are many examples of overlapping jurisdiction that could provide a precedent, but those instances may be considered different than this one.

"It is the case that dioceses spring up from groups of parishes," said Rev. Rix.

He said some parishes incorporate as a diocese and than apply for membership as a diocese, essentially the same procedure that is being used for the new province.

Bishop David Moyer, rector of the Church of the Good Shepherd, knows many of the leaders of the movement. He said their intentions are good, but that their road will be difficult.

"I think these leaders are driven by Gospel imperatives," said Bishop Moyer.

But he also said he doesn't really expect Archbishop Williams to recognize the new province.
"I don't see him in any way giving them the credibility they request," he said. "Because that will discredit the Episcopal Church. And there are still many traditional, orthodox Anglican people there."

http://www.thebulletin.us/site/news.cfm?newsid=20207524&BRD=2737&PAG=461&dept_id=623508&rfi=6

Good Stuff in TEC: Viginia

Church program offers wood to needy

Piles of freshly split wood towered above enthusiastic volunteers on a recent Saturday morning as they filled truckloads of firewood to deliver to those in need around the area.

Scores of young people worked alongside more seasoned veterans as the Wood for Warmth program, sponsored by Trinity Episcopal Church of Rocky Mount and St. Peter's Episcopal Church of Callaway, carried out its weekly volunteer effort.

Volunteers of all ages pitched in to help.

"In addition to the benefits clients receive, it's also a wonderful equalizer with young and old working side by side," said John Gardner, Trinity's co-rector. "You have people who need the wood themselves interacting with real estate moguls or doctors. And it's a great way for new church members to get to know each other and blend into the community."

There are currently 23 members of the "Wood Crew," who are called upon when they are available. Several volunteers gather during the week to cut and split firewood in order to get a head start on weekly Saturday deliveries.

http://www.thefranklinnewspost.com/article.cfm?ID=12389

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World's largest cathedral plans rededication in NY

The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in Upper Manhattan will be open from end to end for the first time since its restoration following a devastating fire that damaged ancient tapestries and a 8,500-pipe organ.

A celebratory rededication is planned for Sunday at the Gothic Episcopal church, called the largest cathedral in the world.

The entire length of the 601-foot-long building will be open. A temporary wall had halved the cathedral, concealing the scaffolding set up for the restoration work. The fire originated in the gift shop on Dec. 18, 2001.

At Sunday's celebration, the restored 98-year-old Skinner organ will be played for the first time since the fire. All of its pipes were removed, cleaned and reinstalled.

Every inch of limestone, marble and granite surface also has been cleaned.

The ceremony will begin with a procession of bishops and fire department members who helped battle the blaze.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ixJ2JHHeuaNnfViqcA68oGPA72RgD94NH7I00

Newman's beatification may bring Anglicans and Catholics close

From the London Times. The John Henry Newman story continues to make news in England. Here's John in his Cardinal cowboy hat.


The beatification of Cardinal Newman, the most prominent Anglican convert to Catholicism, should offer "a great opportunity ecumenically" and not be presented as "Roman Catholic triumphalism", a leading expert on Newman has said.

Monsignor Roderick Strange, Rector of the Pontifical Beda College in Rome and author of the recently published John Henry Newman: A Mind Alive said that Newman "while never regretting his move remained positive about what was good in Anglicanism, and appreciative of what he had learnt from it." Monsignor Strange told The Times he believed that Anglican figures "would be delighted by Newman's beatification, because they have a sense of the way Newman took his Anglican heritage with him into Catholicism".

During an audience given at the residence of the British Ambassador to the Holy See, Monsignor Strange said that Anglicans "leaning in a more Protestant direction" were likely to be critical of the beatification if and when it occurred, which was why Rome should "not be triumphalistic about the proceedings." Monsignor Strange added: "I would see the beatification as a challenge for ecumenism, but also as an opportunity".

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article5244386.ece

Police raid Grace Church & St. Stephen's

From the Colorado Springs Gazette

Colorado Springs police detectives raided Grace Church & St. Stephen's on Wednesday morning to seize paper financial records and computers as part of a theft investigation launched more than a year ago. More than 20 officers cordoned off the blocklong church complex at 601 N. Tejon St., evicting its controversial pastor, the Rev. Donald Armstrong, who wandered the sidewalk in clerical garb, a copy of the warrant in his right hand.

The raid focused on records tied to allegations from the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado that Armstrong embezzled $400,000 from Grace Church & St. Stephen's Parish, the congregation he headed before he and his followers broke away in early 2007 to affiliate with the Convocation of Anglicans in North America. Colorado Springs police Lt. David Whitlock said officers were searching for evidence of theft and fraud. Police also searched Armstrong's Colorado Springs home Wednesday.

http://www.gazette.com/articles/police_44066___article.html/church_grace.html

William Bradford from "The Plymouth Plantation"

William Bradford was the Governor of the Plymouth Colony (and my 12th great-grandfather). He wrote a history of what happened and while he doesn't mention the first Thanksgiving he does talk about the bounty of that first harvest.

But first an excerpt about that first devastating winter-

But soon a most lamentable blow fell upon them. In two or three months time half of their company died, partly owning to the severity of the winter, especially during January and February, and the want of house and other comforts; partly to scurvy and other diseases, which their long voyage and incommodious quarters had brought upon them. Of all the hundred odd persons. scarcely fifty remained and sometimes two or three persons died in a day. In the worst distress there but six or seven sound persons who to their great commendation be it spoken, spared no pains night and day, but with great toil and at risk of their own health, fetched wood made fires, prepared food for the sick, made their beds, washed their infected clothes dressed and undressed them - in a word, did all the homely and necessary services for them which dainty and queasy stomachs cannot endure to hear mentioned; all this they did willingly and cheerfully, without the least grudging, showing their love to the friends and brethren...

But the next fall-

They now began to gather in the small harvest they had, and to prepare their houses for winter, being well recovered in health and strength, and plentifully provisioned; for while some had been thus employed in affairs away from home, others were occupied in fishing for cod, bass and other fish, of which they caught a good quantity, every family having their portion. All the summer there was no want. And now as winter approached, wild fowl began to arrive, of which there were plenty when they came here first, though afterward they became more scarce. As well as wild fowl, they got an abundance of wild turkeys, besides venison etc. Each person had about a peck of meal a week, or now, since harvest, Indian corn in that proportion; and afterwards many wrote at length about their plenty to their friends in England- not feigned but true reports.

Happy Thanksgiving

Lincoln's Thanksgiving Decree 1863

The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore if, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purpose, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this 3d day of October A.D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth

Washington's Thanksgiving Decree 1789

WHEREAS it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favour; and Whereas both Houfes of Congress have, by their joint committee, requefted me "to recommend their safety and happiness:"

NOW THEREFORE, I do recommend and affign THURSDAY, the TWENTY-SIXTH DAY of NOVEMBER next, to be devoted by the people of thefe States to the fervice of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our fincere and humble thanksfor His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the fignal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpofitions of His providence in the courfe and conclufion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have fince enjoyed;-- for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to eftablish Conftitutions of government for our fafety and happinefs, and particularly the national one now lately instituted;-- for the civil and religious liberty with which we are bleffed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffufing useful knowledge;-- and, in general, for all the great and various favours which He has been pleafed to confer upon us.

And also, that we may then unite in moft humbly offering our prayers and fupplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and befeech Him to pardon our national and other tranfgreffions;-- to enable us all, whether in publick or private ftations, to perform our feveral and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a bleffing to all the people by conftantly being a Government of wife, juft, and conftitutional laws, difcreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all fovereigns and nations (especially fuch as have shewn kindnefs unto us); and to blefs them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increafe of fcience among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind fuch a degree of temporal profperity as he alone knows to be beft.

GIVEN under my hand, at the city of New-York, the third day of October, in the year of our Lord, one thousand feven hundred and eighty-nine.

(signed) G. Washington