A God-sized and God-shaped Hole

from VirtueOnline

A God-sized and God-shaped Hole

By Bruce Atkinson PhD
Special to Virtueonline
www.virtueonline.org
November 29, 2012

The human soul is so complex that only God can understand it, so broken that only God can fix it, and so deep that only God can fill it

We were created to have a "God-shaped hole" and nothing else but God can adequately fill it. Augustine's famous prayer says it well: "You have made us for yourself, O God, and our hearts are restless until we find our rest in You." Since the primary purpose of all human existence is to be in relationship with God, we should not be surprised that without God we are insecure, lonely, and self-destructive. Our lack of inner peace is unavoidable because it reflects the reality of being out of touch with our true purpose. Although our distress is unavoidable, that does not stop us from seeking "cures" for it. Our solutions tend to take the form of dependency relationships with others and things outside of ourselves. But to our great dismay we discover that we cannot fully depend upon anyone or anything because people are not entirely trustworthy and material things are fleeting. Things wear out; things break. People hurt us. People die. There is no security, none at all - without God.

Read the full story at www.VirtueOnline.org

They didn't know?

Anglican Ink: Loyalist meeting learns Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori is behind them

from TitusOneNine by The_Elves

Questions over the presiding bishop’s actions have arisen in light of statements made by Mr. Tom Tisdale, a lawyer for Bishop Jefferts Schori given at a 15 Nov 2012 “clergy day” held at St Mark’s Episcopal Church in Charleston. An open letter to the bishops of the Episcopal Church detailing her alleged violations of the canons prepared by the Anglican Communion Institute has also prompted questions.

The presiding bishop’s office has not responded to queries concerning the ACI’s open letter, nor is it known if Bishop Jefferts Schori has complied with Canon Iv.4(f), which requires her to self-report to “the Intake Officer all matters which may constitute an Offense as defined” in the canons.

Mr. Tisdale told Anglican Ink he too was unable to comment. My “inability to answer your questions is that I have consistently held to a long standing practice and policy of not engaging in press interviews on matters in which I am representing a client. The only exception to this practice would be when I am specifically requested to do so by the client.”

In his address to the approximately 40 clergy and lay members of the diocese present, Mr. Tisdale stated that in light of the suspension of Bishop Lawrence on 15 Oct 2012 by the presiding bishop and the vote by the standing committee to withdraw from the General Convention of the Episcopal Church, there was no functioning ecclesiastical authority in South Carolina.

He stated he was legal counsel for the presiding bishop in South Carolina and a “few months ago” had been asked to organize a transition group by the national church in preparation for such an event.

Read it all

WISCASSETT, ME: Episcopal Priest accused of mailing drugs to inmates in court

from VirtueOnline

WISCASSETT, ME: Episcopal Priest accused of mailing drugs to inmates appears in court
Stephen Foote faces one felony charge of trafficking in prison contraband at Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset

By Michael Shepherd
MAINE TODAY
http://www.kjonline.com/news/
November 28, 2012

An Episcopal priest accused of mailing prescription drugs to inmates at a Wiscasset jail made his first court appearance in that town Thursday morning and did not enter a plea.

The Rev. Stephen Foote, 70, of Bremen, who has been placed on leave as a transition priest at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Augusta, faces one felony charge of trafficking in prison contraband at Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset. He didn't have to enter a plea in the pre-indictment hearing at Lincoln County Superior Court this morning, but a grand jury is expected to take up the case in January.

At Thursday morning's hearing bail conditions were slightly modified, including the striking of a condition that prohibited use and possession of alcohol.

Read the full story at www.VirtueOnline.org

Rick Warren, Saddleback Pastor: Obama Has 'Infringed' Upon Religious Liberties

from VirtueOnline

Rick Warren, Saddleback Pastor: Obama Has 'Infringed' Upon Religious Liberties

BY JAWEED KALEEM
THE HUFFINGTON POST
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
November 28, 2012

Saddleback Church founder and author Rick Warren, who once praised President Barack Obama's "courage" for inviting the conservative pastor to give the invocation at his inauguration and hailed his "commitment to model civility," has drastically changed his tone on the man who helped make him a familiar name to many Americans.

Obama is "absolutely" unfriendly to religion and his administration's policies have "intentionally infringed upon religious liberties," Warren said in an interview Wednesday. The evangelical pastor, whose 20,000-member church in suburban Los Angeles is one of the largest in the nation, was on tour in New York City to promote to the 10th anniversary edition of his popular book, "The Purpose Driven Life." He spoke in a wide-ranging conversation that touched upon his stance against same-sex marriage, his disappointment with the presidential campaigns, and the role of faith in an increasingly secular society.

Read the full story at www.VirtueOnline.org

How To Reach The Religiously Unaffiliated - Mike McManus

from VirtueOnline

How To Reach The Religiously Unaffiliated

By Mike McManus
November 29, 2012

Americans are growing religiously unaffiliated at a rapid pace, rising from 15% to nearly 20% in the last five years, according to a major study by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion and Public Life.

Curiously, two-thirds of the religiously unaffiliated assert they believe in God and three-fifths feel a deep connection with nature and the earth. Another third say they are "spiritual" but not "religious."

Yet nine out of ten are not looking for a church that would be right for them.

Read the full story at www.VirtueOnline.org

AP Removes "Homophobia" from Style Book

from VirtueOnline

AP Removes "Homophobia" from Style Book

Matthew Schmitz
FIRST THOUGHTS
http://www.firstthings.com/
November 29, 2012

The Associated Press has removed "homophobia," among other terms, from its style guide. Dylan Byers reports:

The online Style Book now says that "-phobia," "an irrational, uncontrollable fear, often a form of mental illness" should not be used "in political or social contexts," including "homophobia" and "Islamophobia."

AP Deputy Standards Editor Dave Minthorn explains the move:

Read the full story at www.VirtueOnline.org

Vaster?

An example of an American Liberal in a Promotional email for a new book by a parish minister

from TitusOneNine by Kendall Harmon

One occasionally receives emails promoting various books. Here is one from the inbox last night that caught my eye:

Is it possible to find values in all religions and in all people? 1 in 5 Americans - about 46 million people - are among the growing ranks of those who don't identify with any religion. From the pulpit to the many corners of the world, Richard Leonard shares his liberal approach to religion and to life in his new book Ports of Call. 

“This world is a vaster place than any of us can imagine, with tremendous variations of culture and human experience,” says Leonard. “Yet the human community is essentially one, physically, and tied into the interdependent but fragile web that sustains all life.”

News about the gay church

Same Sex Blessing Spreads throughout The Episcopal Church

from VirtueOnline

Same Sex Blessing fever spreads throughout The Episcopal Church
More than two thirds of the domestic dioceses give their blessing to partnered same gender relationships

By David Virtue with Mary Ann Mueller
www.virtueonline.org
November 28, 2012

Since The Episcopal General Convention passed A049 at last July's General Convention in Indianapolis, the trickle of Episcopal dioceses that have authorized Same Sex Blessings has now become a veritable flood. According to Virtueonline's exhaustive research, 69 domestic dioceses have decided to fully embrace and allow for the provisional Same Sex Blessing ceremony to be celebrated within their borders.

Virtueonline called each diocese or churches within the diocese to ascertain if SSB was permissible; checking diocesan and congregational websites for their posted information on SSB; and researching the Internet for published stories about Episcopal bishops who have announced their intensions - for or against - concerning a pastoral response for partnered same-gender relationships.

Read the full story at www.VirtueOnline.org

CofE: A church divided against itself cannot stand

from VirtueOnline

CofE: A church divided against itself cannot stand

By John Lloyd
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/27/lloyd-church-idUSL1E8MR5XO20121127
November 27, 2012

The Church of England voted not to ordain female bishops last week, a move widely seen as defying the modern world. Much justification was given for this view.

Both the retiring and the incoming archbishops of Canterbury deplored the vote. The former, the scholarly (and "greatly saddened") Rowan Williams, said, "It seems as if we are willfully blind to some of the trends and priorities of wider society." The incoming Justin Welby took a more upbeat view, one appropriate for a former senior oil executive. "There is a lot to be done," he said, "but I am absolutely confident that at some point I will consecrate a woman bishop." Still, Welby conceded that the vote was "a pretty grim day for the whole church."

British Prime Minister David Cameron, pausing in the midst of his battle to reduce European Union spending, snapped that the church needed to "get with the program" and that his task was, while respecting its autonomy, to give it a "sharp prod." A succession of clergy, men and women, lamented the decision, some crying demonstratively on the street outside the hall where the synod - the church's parliament - met.

Read the full story at www.VirtueOnline.org

CofE: Joint Press Statement From The Chairmen Of The Catholic Group And Reform

from TitusOneNine by The_Elves

Women Bishops - The Way Ahead

The Chairmen of the Catholic Group in General Synod and the conservative Evangelical group Reform, who called for talks to break the deadlock over legislation to enable the consecration of women as bishops, have received acknowledgement of their request from the Archbishops of Canterbury and York.

Canon Simon Killwick (Catholic Group) and Prebendary Rod Thomas (Reform) have today further pledged themselves to do everything they can to ensure the speedy and safe passage of fresh legislation through the General Synod.

They said, "If agreement can be reached at round-table talks on fresh legislation which provides clearly and fairly for all members of the Church of England, there is no reason why fresh legislation should not be fast-tracked through the Synod before the next elections in 2015."

The Synod's Standing Orders only prevent the reconsideration of the same legislation during this period.

"It has never been our intention to prevent the consecration of women as bishops; our concern has always been for legislation which also made clear and fair provision for the substantial minority," the Chairmen concluded.

The legislation which failed last week in the Synod would have had devastating consequences for the diversity and mission of the Church of England, had it been passed. We want the Church of England to continue to be a broad and comprehensive national Church.

Canon Simon Killwick

Prebendary Rod Thomas

(Chairman of the Catholic Group in General Synod)
(Chairman of Reform)

Read it all

Post-Retirement, Bishop Robinson Bound for D.C.

from VirtueOnline

Post-Retirement, Bishop Robinson Bound for D.C.

By Jeff Walton
INSTITUTE OF RELIGION & DEMOCRACY
http://juicyecumenism.com/2012/11/27/post-retirement-robinson-bound-for-d-c/
November 27, 2012

As the Anglican Communion's first openly homosexual partnered bishop enters retirement, he plans to serve as bishop-in-residence at a Dupont Circle parish.

Religion News Service has an informative new article this week about homosexual partnered Bishop Gene Robinson and his plans after his January 5 retirement. Unsurprisingly, the New Hampshire bishop plans to relocate to Washington, D.C., where he already serves as a senior fellow with the liberal Center for American Progress. Robinson's partner will remain in New Hampshire, where he is employed.

Mostly, the article focuses on Robinson's aspiring role within public policy "as a bridge builder for a nation strained by divisive issues." Part of this will be the founding of a "Center for Non-Violent Communication" at his new parish home, St. Thomas' Episcopal Church in Dupont Circle, where he plans to preach once a month as bishop-in-residence.

Read the full story at www.VirtueOnline.org

Sandra Fluke, Time’s ‘Person of the Year’ and tender stories

November 28, 2012 By mollie 4 Comments

Time magazine is doing its annual PR blitz for its “Person of the Year.” After I won the designation in 2006 [2006 Time Person of the Year: You, ed.], I stopped paying attention to it. Since then the honor has gone to Vladimir Putin, Barack Obama, Ben Bernanke, Mark Zuckerberg and “the protester.” And yes, if you’re wondering, the tradition of selecting a Man of the Year began in 1927 with Time editors contemplating newsworthy stories possible during a slow news week. We’ve all been there.

Among the nominees this year are Ai Weiwei, Bashar Assad, Felix Baumgartner, Joe Biden (fer real), Bo Xilai, Chris Christie, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Stephen Colbert, Gabrielle Douglas, Roger Goodell, the Higgs boson, E.L. James, Jay-Z, Kim Jong Un, the Mars Rover, Marissa Mayer, Mohamed Morsi, Psy, Pussy Riot, John Roberts, Aung San Suu Kyi and Thein Sein, Undocumented Immigrants, Malala Yousafzai.

The winners, no matter how unworthy, tend to be from the United States. But we have a fair number of nominees from other countries. I’m a bit surprised Chen Guangcheng wasn’t on there. I might also note that the religious dimensions of the list are somewhat slight. Readers of our recent post on the “moderate” Muslim Brotherhood may appreciate that the write-up for Morsi included this line, “The Muslim Brotherhood’s religiosity is moderate, or at least moderated by pragmatism; its politics are populist and likely the template for a number of other fledgling democracies in the region.”

The entry for Yousafzai was a nice tribute to her devout Muslim father who supports her and her educational goals. The last line is “It is among the tenderest of stories in the world of conservative Islam.”

But I bring all this up because of the write-up for another deserving nominee — Sandra Fluke. While I tend to think the prize is too American-focused, if it goes in that direction again this year, she should definitely win. I only wish she could win it in conjunction with the media that has been so supportive of her during her entire public relations journey. You could say their love for her is among the tenderest of stories in the world of mainstream media. (For more on that, you can see some of our posts on the coverage of Fluke here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. And if/when Fluke does win, I hope she can accept the award with Cecile Richards, Andrea Mitchell and the whole Church of Planned Parenthood. They all had an amazing year and they deserve credit.)

Anyway, here’s the write-up of our Person of the Year:

The daughter of a conservative Christian pastor, Sandra Fluke, 31, became a women’s-rights activist in college and continued her advocacy as a law student at Georgetown. After she complained about being denied a chance to testify at a Republican-run House hearing on insurance coverage for birth control, Rush Limbaugh called Fluke a “slut.” Democrats and many Republicans reacted with outrage, and the left made Limbaugh’s slur Exhibit A in what they called a GOP “war on women.” Fluke, meanwhile, weathered the attention with poise and maturity and emerged as a political celebrity. Democrats gave her a national-convention speaking slot as part of their push to make reproductive rights a central issue in the 2012 presidential campaign — one that helped Barack Obama trounce Mitt Romney among single women on Election Day.

Technically the hearing was on religious liberty, but the media have long decided that the issue is best framed otherwise.

But what I found interesting was that Time has described Fluke’s father as a “conservative Christian pastor.” We learned earlier that “The Rev. Richard Fluke, Sandra’s father, is a part-time licensed local pastor who shares the pulpit at Tatesville United Methodist Church in Everett, Pa., with two other pastors. Both he and his wife, Betty Kay, are proud of their daughter.”

I know enough Methodists to know that some are very conservative and some are very progressive. The leadership of the denomination tends to be liberal but Methodist polity and culture permits some significant variance. I would love to know more about his conservatism or how that descriptor was chosen. What does it mean in this context? Maybe when she wins the award, we’ll get some substantiation about Fluke’s conservative Christian upbringing.

‘Love Wins’ raised hell for Rob Bell at Mars Hill

from Stand Firm by Matt Kennedy 

This is precisely what a good congregation does when their beloved pastor turns from the truth…send him packing.

Fallout from Rob Bell’s bestselling “Love Wins” book pushed him to leave the West Michigan megachurch he founded, according to The New Yorker. And the television show Bell went to work on in California has stalled, Kelefa Sanneh writes in the magazine’s Nov. 26 issue.
In a profile of Bell called “The Hell-Raiser,” Sanneh chronicles the former Mars Hill Bible Church pastor’s personal “search for a more forgiving faith,” and concludes that he might fit better on the beaches of southern California than in a West Michigan pulpit.
The article states that Bell’s controversial book about the existence of hell “put pressure on the people around Bell, who found themselves having to defend statements they might never have heard, let alone approved…more

The Tyranny of 'Reproductive Justice'

from VirtueOnline

The Tyranny of 'Reproductive Justice'

By Regis Nicoll
http://www.breakpoint.org/features-columns/breakpoint-columns/entry/2/20772
November 12, 2012

Ever since Sandra Fluke made a splash at the congressional hearings on the Affordable Care Act, we've been hearing a lot about "reproductive justice." Not so surprising, perhaps, given that Fluke is a past president of the Georgetown chapter of Law Students for Reproductive Justice.

But what is "reproductive justice"?

It strikes me as a rather strange pairing of words, for what does justice have to do with a basic biological function? And if reproductive justice exists, why not respirative, digestive, or cardio-vascular justice? If you find yourself similarly puzzled, SisterSong, a self-described "women of color" advocacy group, explains, "Reproductive justice [is] the right to have children, not have children, and to parent the children we have in safe and healthy environments . . . based on the human right to make personal decisions about one's life."

Read the full story at www.VirtueOnline.org

ACI to Bishops: "Restore the Good Order of our Church!"

from Anglican Curmudgeon by A. S. Haley

Close on the heels of my last post about dysfunction permeating the leadership of the Episcopal Church (USA)comes this devastating indictment of the Presiding Bishop and her cohorts from the three clergy members of the Anglican Communion Institute. The facts recited deal only with the Diocese of South Carolina, and as such represent but a tiny portion of the lawlessness which the Presiding Bishop allows to guide her actions in the whole Church, as you may read about in the links just on this page.

This call should move any Bishop who truly cares about the "good order" of the Church, and who takes seriously a bishop's responsibilities to shepherd and maintain that good order. Copies of it should be sent to every diocesan office in the Church, to the reporters who are covering the story in South Carolina, and to any other newspaper outlets which will print a story about it. These three brave clergy are putting their own careers in the Church on the line in order to call their own Presiding Bishop to account! When has that ever been done before, since the unhappy end of Pope Urban VI?

We disagree with those among you who think the Presiding Bishop and her agents have done no wrong. As our Appendix demonstrates, the evidence is overwhelming that they have violated canons and engaged in discussions deceitfully. We disagree with those who accept the evidence, but think the matter inconsequential. If our leaders will not follow the canons and formal procedures of the church, not only in letter but in spirit, they forfeit any trust they may hold and undermine the mutual trust of the church as a whole. We disagree with those who think that such disregard of letter and spirit is merited by the misbehavior of Bishop Lawrence. Canonical violation and deceit will never produce peace in the church or render a just outcome. Further, the diocese of South Carolina has, for a long time, struggled to maintain its unity as a conservative Christian body and to remain within The Episcopal Church. Bp. Lawrence was given a tightrope to walk from the moment of his election and did so successfully and honestly. He did not jump from this difficult position but was intentionally pushed by the Presiding Bishop and the Disciplinary Board in ways that were neither necessary nor responsible. We disagree with those who believe that, in any case, all this is of little importance for the future of The Episcopal Church. The departure from The Episcopal Church, under moral duress, by one of our strongest and few growing dioceses, taking with it a range of energies and vital witness, threatens to subvert the hopes and good will of thousands of faithful members of our church and discourage the willingness of younger leaders to come forward in our midst. Indeed, all this constitutes a crisis for The Episcopal Church of the gravest kind. 

For those among you who, by contrast, have taken stock of the actions of the Presiding Bishop and her agents, we believe that you are obligated by solemn vow to respond forthrightly that they have violated canons and engaged in discussions deceitfully. We believe that you are called upon to pursue all canonical and spiritual means to bring these matters into the light before your college and the church at large. Your vows require you to rectify misdeeds that have been committed. You are called upon to rein in the misuse of authority and canons by those, like the Presiding Bishop and her legal staff, who have supervised the squandering of our human and material resources. We urge you as agents of reconciliation to do all in your power to rebuild the bridges of genuine Christian understanding and communion with both those who have left The Episcopal Church and those drifting in that direction. We urge you, in short, to be faithful to your calling and to be true and not false pastors of the people and the Gospel God has entrusted to your stewardship. The Lord does not ask that you succeed in your efforts, only that you stand as a sentinel before the people themselves.

Yours in Christ, 

The Rev. Prof. Christopher Seitz
The Rev. Dr. Philip Turner
The Rev. Dr. Ephraim Radner

The only thing missing from this indictment is an instruction manual on how to bring charges against the Presiding Bishop under the new Title IV. For a step-by-step guide to the new procedures (and charges may be filed by anyone, inside or outside the Church, clergy or lay), see this earlier post. 

Rusty Reno—The Debate About Same Sex Unions is really about sex and human identity

from TitusOneNine by Kendall Harmon

The debate about gay marriage is about sex and human identity, not homosexuality. Or, more accurately, it’s about homosexuality because it’s about sex and human identity. The progressive claim that we have a right to sexual expression is why they regard contraceptives and abortion as essential rights. It’s also one reason why our society is deeply committed to no-fault divorce.

Social conservatives like me don’t have a single view about how to respond to these contemporary realities. We don’t have a single view about how to grapple with the social reality of open and affirmed homosexuality in our society. But I think it’s fair to say that we all reject the progressive presumption that to have sexual desires creates a prima facie moral right to express them.

Read it all.

Episcopal Church same-sex blessing resource excerpts available online

from Episcopal Life Online

[Episcopal Church Office of Public Affairs] The Episcopal Church’s liturgical rite for blessing same-sex relationships, authorized by General Convention for use in the Episcopal Church beginning the first Sunday in Advent, December 2, is now available online free of charge.

The rite and a short theological summary, both excerpted from the report of the Church’s Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music (SCLM) titled “I Will Bless You and You Will Be a Blessing,” are posted here.
The rite, which must be approved by each diocesan bishop before it is used in individual dioceses, is authorized by General Convention for provisional use until 2015.

“We learn as we pray,” explained the Rev. Ruth Meyers, Ph.D, Dean of Academic Affairs and Hodges-Haynes Professor of Liturgics at Church Divinity School of the Pacific and SCLM Chair. “During the next three years, the rite will be reviewed by clergy who use it and the couples whose unions it blesses. The Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music will compile those reviews and make a report to General Convention 2015.”

Resource
The online excerpt includes the liturgy and a summary that includes themes for theological reflection and spiritual practice. “Our covenantal life with God is expressed in relationships of commitment and faithfulness, including those of same-sex couples,” the report reads. “It is the Church’s joy to celebrate these relationships as signs of God’s love, to pray for God’s grace to support couples in their life together, and to join with these couples in our shared witness to the gospel in the world.”

The full text of “I Will Bless You and You Will Be a Blessing,” available for purchase from Church Publishing, Inc., includes:

Introduction
Faith, Hope, and Love: Theological Resources for Blessing Same-Sex Relationships:
Preface
Overview: Theological Reflection on Same-Sex Relationships
1. The Church’s Call: A Focus on Mission
2. The Church’s Joy: A Theology of Blessing
3. The Church’s Life: Covenantal Relationship
4. The Church’s Challenge: Christian Unity and Biblical Interpretation
The Church’s Canon Law and Laws of the States
Hearing, Seeing, and Declaring New Things: Preparing Same-Sex Couples for a Liturgy of Blessing
The Witnessing and Blessing of a Lifelong Covenant: Liturgical Resources for Blessing Same-Sex Relationships
Discussion Guide to I Will Bless You, and You Will Be a Blessing
Appendices:
A Review of General Convention Legislation
Glossary

The print and eBook versions containing the full resources are available from Church Publishing here.
For more information contact sclm@episcopalchurch.org

December 26, 2012

TO THE BISHOPS, CLERGY, AND CHRISTIANS
OF THE ANGLICAN CHURCH IN NORTH AMERICA

Greetings in the wonderful name of The Lord Jesus Christ:

Some of you may know of the great challenges that are faced in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Horrible armed conflict has claimed more than five million lives there since 1998. Now, a surge in fighting in
the eastern part of the country has increased the casualties.

In the midst of extreme poverty and violence, the Anglican Church of Congo has maintained a faithful
witness. Our dear friend and GAFCON/FCA brother, Archbishop Henri Isingoma is being joined by other
Christian leaders in calling for a week of intense prayer from Monday, November 26th to Sunday, December 2nd. Archbishop Henri is an amazing inspiration, being able to keep his focus on the Gospel of Jesus Christ in circumstances that are unimaginably difficult.

It is our Christian duty in the Anglican Church in North America to join with our brothers and sisters in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo in this season of prayer with hope and expectation that the same God
who raised Jesus Christ from the dead would bring a breakthrough for genuine and lasting peace.

Faithfully in Christ,

+Robert Pittsburgh
Archbishop and Primate

For more information, visit:
http://www.congochurchassn.org.uk/prayerweek.pdf
http://www.cms-uk.org/

UK: Half of women bishops opponents in Synod were women

from VirtueOnline

UK: Half of women bishops opponents in Synod were women
Almost half of the lay members of the Church of England General Synod who voted down women bishops were themselves women, official voting returns show
A recent Church of England list showed that 33 of the 74 members of the House of Laity who rejected the plan to open the episcopate to women were female

By John Bingham, Religious Affairs
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/
November 26, 2012

According to a list provided by the Church of England, 33 of the 74 members of the House of Laity who rejected the plan to open the episcopate to women were female.

Women's campaigners rounded on them calling their stance "ridiculous" arguing that those who believe in the idea of "male headship" should have followed the male leaders of the Church and voted in favour.

They also claimed that there had been a deliberate "political" strategy by traditionalists to put up female candidates to the Synod likely to appeal to unsuspecting Church parishioners.

Read the full story at www.VirtueOnline.org

‘Two And A Half Men’ Star Becomes Christian, Says Don’t Watch ‘Two And A Half Men’

from Stand Firm by Greg Griffith

I don’t much about the Seventh-Day Adventist Church or Christopher Hudson - and we need to keep in mind thata lot of the conversions that make the news don’t always stick, but this is the kind of kamikaze rebellion that warms the cockles of my cold little black heart:

“Two and a Half Men” star Angus T. Jones is under fire for criticizing the show — even going so far as to call it “filth” — in an online video in which he professes his religious beliefs.

“Jake from ‘Two and a Half Men’ means nothing. He is a nonexistent character,” the 19-year-old actor says of his character on the hit CBS program. “If you watch ‘Two and a Half Men,’ please stop watching ‘Two and a Half Men.’ I’m on ‘Two and a Half Men’ and I don’t want to be on it.”
Jones appears in the video seated next to televangelist Christopher Hudson, whose sermons appear in YouTube videos called “The Forerunner Chronicles.”

(LiveScience) Evangelicals Becoming More Devout, Roman Catholics Less So

from TitusOneNine by Kendall Harmon

Evangelical Protestants have become more devoted to their religious beliefs over the last three decades, even as Catholics have become less attached to their faith, new research finds.

The denominational differences come even as religious affiliations have decreased overall in America, with the number of people who claim no religious affiliation at all doubling from 7 percent in 1990 to 14 percent in 2000, said study researcher Philip Schwadel, a sociologist at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

Nevertheless, Schwadel said, these unaffiliated individuals seem to be dropping out of religious institutions that they were previously ambivalent about. People who feel strongly about their faith are as numerous as ever.

Read it all.

Relying “on his faith to get him through,” Ole Miss walk-on steps up for his family & dying mother

from TitusOneNine by Kendall Harmon

After his East Mississippi Community College football team went undefeated and won the 2011 junior college championship, star lineman Derrick "DJ" Wilson was offered full athletic scholarships to four-year colleges in Alabama and Louisiana.

But as the football season came to an end, the 2010 Horn Lake High graduate had more important concerns. His mother, Jelks Wilson, was dying of cancer. Wilson was driving home from school every weekend — an eight-hour round-trip — to care for her and his two younger sisters.

Wilson would wake to the sounds of his mother's soft mumbling. Straining to hear, he realized she was praying.

Read it all.

BRITISH BULLDOG

from Midwest Conservative Journal by The Editor

I’m starting to seriously worry about the Picar of Vutney.  Giles Fraser is so incensed about the recent vote in the Church of England’s General Synod against women bishops that he can’t even think straight.  He starts out by talking about a bullied school chum of his who became a Christian:

For his beliefs became a sort of barrier against the cruelty of the world. So the more people said his views were stupid, the more he felt the need for the protection they afforded him. His six impossible things before breakfast were a Maginot line against a world of hurt. Which is why he could never give them up or subject them to any sort of critical scrutiny.

Except that he’s a figment of the Fraze’s imagination.

Actually, I have made this person up.

He’s as fictional as Fraser’s “theology,” in other words.

But I am trying to paint a picture of the mentality of conservative evangelicals, the people who have recently scuppered the female bishop legislation,

All six of them.

without invoking the standard caricature of these modern-day puritans as life-denying fun-sponges obsessed with being right and with other people not having sex. Not that this latter image is all that far from the truth.

It is as far from the truth as the east is from the west, Fraze.  But introducing Johnson’s Fourth Law of Anglican Thermodynamics.  At least 99% of Anglicans who use the word “puritan” have absolutely no idea what that word means.

The problem is that from Marlowe, Shakespeare and Johnson all they way through to Blackadder (and that brilliant episode where his rich puritan relatives come round to fulminate against fornication and inadvertently chomp on a penis-shaped turnip), this has become an overused trope that describes someone who seems to have stepped out of the Tardis from another century. The thing is, they are alive and well in the 21st century.

According to Fraser, six of these “puritans” have the ability to control the entire C of E.

And the more we laugh at puritans, the more it confirms their worldview. Indeed, they have a text from St John’s gospel that seems to cover precisely this: “If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world. That is why the world hates you.” In other words, the more hated you are, the more right you are. It’s one up from Millwall football club’s chant: “No one likes us, we don’t care.” Which is why the opprobrium that is currently being poured upon conservative evangelicals for voting against women bishops will make no difference whatsoever. It confirms them in feeling right.

So that whole “in the world but not of the world” thing is officially dead then?  Pity.  But that’s not what’s at work here, claims Fraser.  This measure was voted down out of pure conservative malice and for no other reason.

Moreover, the fact that they have put a spanner in the works for everyone else is something they experience as some sort of secret pleasure. For the essence of the puritan mindset is revenge – as Nietzsche accurately described it, the revenge of the bullied who are subconsciously getting back at those who once made their life a misery. As the comedy puritan Malvolio rages at the end of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night: “I’ll be reveng’d on the whole pack of you.”

What now?  There’s not much that can be accomplished when those dolts intentionally ignore our theological brilliance.

So what can be done? Argument is pretty useless. Conservative religious people are generally locked in a self-referencing worldview where truth is about strict internal coherence rather than any reaching out to reality. That’s why they treat the Bible like some vast jigsaw – its truth residing in a complex process of making the pieces fit together and not with the picture it creates.

Here’s an idea, Picar.  Make an actual theological case for women’s ordination (because at the end of the day, that’s what we’re talking about here).  There is one to be made for the PROTESTANT church that the Church of England obviously is.  Don’t know whether it’s a good case or not but it’s a whole lot better than the Fraze’s, “Well, it’s perfectly obvious, you blinkered, philistine, pig-ignorant misogynists.”

Shay Gaillard on the Diocese of South Carolina Misreporting—Who Is Welcome in the church?

from TitusOneNine by Kendall Harmon

With all of the recent news about the Diocese of South Carolina and the Episcopal Church in the newspaper, there has been a growing misunderstanding about the nature of the crisis. As our bishop has put it so eloquently on several occasions, our profound disagreement with the Episcopal Church is over theology, morality, and polity (how the church is organized and governed). Yet what continues to be printed in the newspaper is that this whole separation is over homosexuality and the narrow view of the Diocese in contrast to the welcoming and inclusive view of the national church. This is a gross mischaracterization of the truth and represents a lie that Satan would like to sow in the minds of faithful members of our church to cause them to abandon their biblical faith and their current affiliation....

Read it all.

the Rev. Harold Lewis, Rector of Calvary Episcopal in Pittsburgh retires

from anglicansunited.com by cherie

 [Ed. Note:  I have met and interviewed the Rev. Mr. Lewis three times in the last 6 years.  The longest was at Lambeth in 2008, where his hatred of bishop Bob Duncan and all who followed him, was impossible to miss or spin.  When Lewis claims that there was nothing personal in his actions against the Duncan group, listen with suspicion.  And yet, because of Lewis' early actions, Pittsburgh kept all of their properties, including the Cathedral after the diocese split.  Lewis also talked about his disappointment at being the "runner up" in the bishop race, Washington DC when John Bryson Chane was elected in 2002.  Veteran Religion reporter Ann Rogers writes a balanced article about this man and his place in the  Diocese of Pittsburgh.  Cheryl M. Wetzel]

Harold T. Lewis led through painful period for diocese

November 26, 2012 12:02 am

Bob Donaldson/Post-Gazette
The Rev. Harold T. Lewis: “The extent of the [diocesan] problems that were soon to befall us was something I don’t think any of us could have imagined.”

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/life/lifestyle/rector-of-calvary-episcopal-in-pittsburgh-retires-663640/

By Ann Rodgers / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Ann Rodgers: arodgers@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1416.

First Published November 26, 2012 12:00 am

When the Rev. Harold T. Lewis became rector of the mostly white and wealthy Calvary Episcopal Church in Shadyside in 1996, the city was reeling from racial turmoil, and Father Lewis, who is African-American, was expected to be a leader in addressing social injustice.

But circumstances have led him to retire as a renowned advocate for Episcopal canon law.

Five years before the 2008 schism in the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh, he filed a lawsuit to stop anyone from taking property out of the Episcopal Church.

“If you had asked me when I was ordained … if I would ever sue my bishop, I would have said you were crazy,” said Father Lewis, 65, who retired Sunday.

“It was painful for me to take that step, but it had to be taken for the sake of the church. There were people who said I was crazy, vindictive or jealous, out to lunch. But it turned out to be prophetic.”

Father Lewis is a high church Anglican by conviction and heritage. He was raised in such a thriving black Episcopal parish that he was on the road to priesthood before he realized he was a racial outsider in his denomination. He was intellectually and musically gifted: His piano teacher at a high school for the arts urged him to pursue music professionally. But he chose to serve God.

He married Claudette, his sweetheart from junior high school in New York City, before his ordination in 1971. He earned a doctorate in theology at the University of Birmingham in England, was a research fellow at Cambridge University and did missionary work in Africa before serving for 11 years as director of the Episcopal Office for Black Ministries in New York. He arrived in Pittsburgh with contacts throughout the global Anglican Communion.

The search committee thought he had the intellectual heft to challenge Calvary’s parishioners while his liturgical sensibilities were a fit for Calvary’s neo-gothic glory. His theology was flexible enough and his worldview liberal enough for one of the few gay-friendly congregations in Pittsburgh. Calvary, once a flagship, had become marginalized in an increasingly conservative diocese, said Phil Parr, an education consultant from Oakland who was on the search committee.

“We saw him as someone who could bring strong leadership skills to the position,” he said. “He has definitely strengthened the position of Calvary, not only in the diocese but in the national Episcopal Church and even in the Anglican Communion.”

Father Lewis arrived believing he could build bridges to the diocesan leadership.

“They told me that one thing they wanted in a new rector was to articulate their theological vision. … The extent of the [diocesan] problems that were soon to befall us was something I don’t think any of us could have imagined,” he said.

Even before his formal installation, he led the opposition at a diocesan convention that voted to allow parishes to withhold funds from national church programs.

“This opens a Pandora’s box,” he warned. “It cuts to the heart of what it means to be an Episcopalian and a catholic Christian.”

Then he turned his focus to the wider community.

Two days after his installation, he preached at an interfaith service mourning the acquittal of a white policeman in the asphyxiation death of black businessman Jonny Gammage during a traffic stop. He received a standing ovation and a national prize for preaching on social justice.

Father Lewis “has the insight to help people understand where God is [in hard times]. That represents the very finest in pastoral skills for both a public theologian and a parish priest,” said the Rev. Ronald Peters, then a professor at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and a close friend.

Father Lewis became a mentor to Sala Udin, then a member of the Pittsburgh City Council.

“He demands integrity on the part of those he is engaged with. No games, no lies, just deal with it as it is,” Mr. Udin said. “He really cares about being a voice for people who have no voice, giving power to people who have no power, people who are marginalized or invisible.”

Father Lewis used his personal contacts to bring retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, Martin Luther King III and then-Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey to Calvary’s pulpit.
In an era when many churches wanted pop music, Father Lewis championed the pipe organ and chant.

His reverence for tradition makes him bristle at being called liberal. “Theological liberalism in Pittsburgh means a belief that gay people can go to heaven,” he said.

He believes the Episcopal Church should have established a theological foundation for why it no longer believed that biblical condemnations of homosexuality were universal before it approved same-sex rites.

“The Episcopal Church may have done the right thing for the wrong reason or for little reason,” he said.
During his tenure, Calvary’s attendance rose slightly to more than 1,000 communicants, while the national church plummeted from 2.4 million to 1.9 million members. He drew those who felt alienated elsewhere, while losing a few legacy members who felt he considered their conservative politics morally suspect. In a July sermon that addressed immigration, he said that the religious right “has, in the name of religion, constructed and justified a thinly veiled theology of bigotry.”

He has argued that racism is at the root of the conservative split from the Episcopal Church.

Archbishop Robert Duncan of the Anglican Church in North America and the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh declined comment on Father Lewis. Some of Archbishop Duncan’s most ardent critics find the claim of racism a stretch.

“I don’t see that in Bob Duncan,’ said the Rev. George Werner, dean emeritus of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Downtown.

But if anyone thinks Father Lewis has a chip on his shoulder, it was gouged by undisputed racism, Father Werner said. He was a highly qualified priest when Americans didn’t believe a black man could be a professional football quarterback, let alone president.

“When he was ordained, he went to a lot of places where the door was closed,” Father Werner said. “He might not necessarily win Mr. Congeniality, but he has battled his way through and he has grown in grace.”
When Calvary’s search committee asked if he could adjust to a white parish, he told them they had the question backward.

“I have been adjusting to white people all of my life,” Father Lewis said.

When a white pastor was ousted from a similar church, “people said it didn’t work out because it wasn’t a good fit. If I had failed, people would have been quick to name race as a factor: ‘See what happens when we let them in,’ ” he said. “I don’t have the right to be incompetent.”

But “in a very short time, race became a non-issue” at Calvary, he said. “People want to be ministered to, to be spiritually fed and nurtured and guided. If the pastor does those things, he can be purple or polka-dot.”
He did all of that, Mr. Parr said. His unsung works include helping to found and fund Calvary’s after-school arts program for students at Lincoln Elementary, where he visits the children and encourages their dreams.

In 2001, he was a finalist for bishop of the Diocese of Washington, D.C. In 2002, Mayor Tom Murphy gave him a key position on a blue-ribbon commission assigned to address problems in the Pittsburgh Public Schools. Father Lewis’ work laid the foundation for reforms but was his last headline civic engagement before church politics consumed his image.

After the Episcopal Church confirmed a partnered gay bishop in New Hampshire in 2003, the diocese of Pittsburgh declared that parish buildings and assets belonged to the congregation, not to the denomination.
Father Lewis saw that as groundwork for schism and sued for an injunction based on civil property law.

Two years later — three years before the split — both sides signed an agreement. It would later be litigated but ultimately established that centrally held diocesan assets would remain with the Episcopal Church, while parish property would be negotiated.

“I am convinced that our actions served as a deterrent to other dioceses that would have gone a similar route,” Father Lewis said.

One reason the Episcopal diocese made a strong recovery from the schism is that some conservative clergy remained in it. Among them was the Rev. James Simons of St. Michael’s of the Valley in Ligonier. Father Lewis invited him to preach at Calvary even before the split.

“In spite of our theological differences, which I don’t think are as great as a lot of people think they are, we were able to work together very well,” Father Simons said. “… He has a real desire for unity in the church.”

The Lewises will remain in Point Breeze. Mrs. Lewis is deeply engaged in local philanthropy.

Father Lewis is optimistic about the future of the 85 million-member Anglican Communion, which has the same fault lines that split the diocese.

He noted that it took 100 years of effort by African bishops for the Anglican Communion to modify its ban on polygamy. In 1988, it allowed converts to keep the wives they already had so that women would not be abandoned.

“Things take time to change in the church,” he said. “Other issues that plague and separate us will also take a long time.”

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/life/lifestyle/rector-of-calvary-episcopal-in-pittsburgh-retires-663640/#ixzz2DLDSy7wA