There is talk this week of a deadline ignored and an Archbishop undermined. Yet when Dr Williams wrote to the Primates in July, he said no more than: “It would be a great help if these replies were received by 31 July 2007.” As we have said (Leader comment, 25 May), the US bishops have been invited in the full knowledge that their decision in September might well be to defy the Primates’ strictures. Nobody seriously believes that Dr Williams will withdraw their invitation, though that will not stop some from pressing him to do so.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Lambeth 2008

Two of Michael Vick's alleged cohorts in a grisly dogfighting case pleaded guilty today, and one said the Atlanta Falcons quarterback joined them in drowning and hanging dogs that underperformed.

With his NFL career in jeopardy and a superseding indictment in the works to add more charges, Vick and his lawyers have been talking with federal prosecutors about a possible plea agreement.

Now that all three co-defendants have entered plea bargains, Vick is on his own to cut a deal or face trial on federal charges.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Sports

In subtle patterns of brain cells, researchers are exploring empathy -- an essential intuition that helps us understand our fellow human beings.

These unusual brain circuits are mirrors in the mind that reflect the actions and intentions of others as if they were our own, new research has revealed. Scientists call them mirror neurons. They allow us to feel a loved one's pain, or suffer the pangs of appetite when we hear someone crunch into an apple. They are a reason we are moved by the images of art and can feel the appeal of characters in a book. They supply the voyeuristic thrill of pornography, a German brain-scanning team documented. They also are a hidden persuader in advertising, UCLA researchers said.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Science & Technology

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • US Presidential Election 2008 • * Religion News & Commentary • Church-State Issues

Commentator Joe Loconte, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., says that while religion is going to be a big issue in the upcoming presidential election, it's OK for candidates to opt out of talking about it — like Republican Rudolph Giuliani did.

Listen to it all from NPR.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • US Presidential Election 2008

Vacation Bible School was the brainchild of a Mrs. D.T. Miles, wife of a Methodist minister in Hopedale, Ill. Mrs. Miles, it is said, was concerned that the children of her husband's congregation weren't learning enough on Sundays and needed a monthlong course of study over the summer. The first session, in 1884, had 37 students. Like its modern-day counterparts, it included arts and crafts, singing, exercise, drama and Bible study.

Today, more than half of American churches offer VBS. Many provide a weeklong, half-day program during the summer, primarily for grade-schoolers. Increasingly, however, churches are switching to evening sessions, and offering classes for adults, as well, said the Rev. Mayra Castaneda, assistant director of education and leadership ministries for the National Council of Churches.

VBS is big business for the publishing houses of the major denominations, which develop an annual theme--ranging from ranching to hot-air ballooning--and sell workbooks, teacher manuals, decorations and computer games wrapped around it. More than 70% of the 35,000 United Methodist churches in the U.S. offer Vacation Bible School, and they learned next year's theme, "Beach Party: Surfin' Through the Scriptures," this July. The 2008 material will be available by December, allowing churches, if they choose, to conduct a summer-themed VBS over Christmas vacation.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry

The country’s largest Lutheran denomination officially bars openly gay people from the ministry. But in a move that advocates for gay men and lesbians are hailing as a step toward changing that policy, the denomination is urging its bishops to refrain from disciplining gay members of the clergy who are in committed same-sex relationships.

A resolution to that effect was passed last weekend in Chicago by delegates to the biennial meeting of the Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America.

Church officials said it did not signal a change in policy. But they said that a denomination task force was completing “a social statement,” or theological document, on human sexuality, to be discussed in 2009, and that the resolution allowed bishops to hold off, in the interim, on taking action against gay and lesbian ministers in their jurisdictions.

Robert Tuttle, counsel to the bishop of the synod of metropolitan Washington, D.C., said, “What it changes is that it gives bishops some cover who want to exercise discretion to not bring charges.”

Supporters of the ordination of openly gay men and lesbians hailed the vote.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Lutheran • Sexuality Debate (Other denominations and faiths)

The Federal Reserve, declaring that increased economic uncertainty poses risks for U.S. business growth, announced Friday that it has approved a half-percentage point cut in its discount rate on loans to banks.

The action was the most dramatic effort yet by the central bank to restore calm to global financial markets which have been roiled in the past week by a widening credit crisis.

The decision means that the discount rate, the interest rate that the Fed charges to make direct loans to banks will be lowered to 5.75 percent, down from 6.25 percent.

The Fed did not change its target for the more important federal funds rate, which has remained at 5.25 percent for more than a year.

However, it has been infusing billions of dollars in money into the banking system over the past week to keep that rate from rising above the target level.

Many economists believe if the financial market crisis worsens the Fed will soon move to cut the federal funds rate as well.

Read it all.

Update: There is more there also.

Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy

A Bishop has roundly accused newspapers and television of “machinations and mischief” over next year’s Lambeth Conference. The charge is levelled by the
Bishop of Wakefield, the Rt Rev Stephen Platten, in the latest issue of Awake, the newspaper of theWakefield diocese. Controversial issues — including gay bishops — threaten the unity of the Anglican Communion and make the Lambeth Conference pointless, sections of the media have claimed.

But the Lambeth Conference — the first took place in 1867 —sprang from “dispute, disagreement and division,” Bishop Platten suggests. He says: “John Colenso, vicar of the tiny Norfolk village of Forncett St Mary, was made Bishop of Natal, South Africa. Colenso was a clever man — but no diplomat.
“He had been well educated and understood something of the emerging critical study of theology. He proceeded to preach and teach about this, and great controversy followed. “So much fuss ensued that Bishop Robert Gray of Cape Town decided that he must go. Colenso dug his heels in, and loyalties divided.
It was this dispute, effectively, which led Charles Longley, Archbishop of Canterbury, to convene the first Lambeth Conference.”

Read more...

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of England (CoE) • CoE Bishops • Lambeth 2008

Anxious customers jammed the phone lines and website of Countrywide Bank and crowded its branch offices to pull out their savings because of concerns about the financial problems of the mortgage lender that owns the bank.

Countrywide Financial Corp., the biggest home-loan company in the nation, sought Thursday to assure depositors and the financial industry that both it and its bank were fiscally stable. And federal regulators said they weren't alarmed by the volume of withdrawals from the bank.

The mortgage lender said it would further tighten its loan standards and make fewer large mortgages. Those moves could make it harder to get a home loan and further depress the housing market in California and other states.

The rush to withdraw money -- by depositors that included a former Los Angeles Kings star hockey player and an executive of a rival home-loan company -- came a day after fears arose that Countrywide Financial could file for bankruptcy protection because of a worsening credit crunch stemming from the sub-prime mortgage meltdown.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • * Economics, Politics • Economy

The FBI says allegations against two Egyptian men accused of carrying pipe bombs in the trunk of a car may not be true.

The agency's Tampa, Fla., office issued a rare press release urging the public to withhold judgment of Youssef Megahed and Ahmed Mohamed until it completes its investigation.

"The FBI would like to remind everyone that this is an ongoing investigation and there is the possibility that the publicly reported allegations involving the students may be proven false," the release states.

Berkeley County sheriff's investigators charged Megahed, 21, and Mohamed, either 24 or 26, with possession of explosives on Aug. 6 after the investigators found what they said were pipe bombs in the trunk of Megahed's car after Megahed was stopped for speeding on the evening of Aug. 4.

The FBI's statement from late Wednesday was news to Berkeley County sheriff's Capt. Rick Ollic, who said Thursday that he hadn't heard about it until a reporter brought it up. He said the Sheriff's Office made the proper charges and referred any other questions to the FBI's Tampa office.

"As far as I know, nothing is going to change," he said. "We will continue our path toward the prosecution of these individuals."

Read it all from the front page of the local newspaper, another cautionary tale about being careful not to rush to judgment.

Filed under: * South Carolina

Two weeks ago The Church of England Newspaper titled my article "Why the Archbishop of York got it wrong."

My purpose in writing then was twofold: to point out that York had made a statement that went against the facts; and to provide the facts on why the Episcopal Church in the US was not theologically orthodox, especially in the top levels of leadership.

The response of York, or rather the staff member Arun Arora who wrote for York, was to ignore what was actually said in my article and to assume two things, both incorrect.

First, the assumption was made that I was attacking York, and this is patently not so. I was encouraging York to look and listen harder to what the American Church was saying.

Second, the assumption was made that anyone who is retired from a major position has lost influence and fallen out of importance in the shaping of the American Church mind.

In the USA, Episcopal bishops continue after retirement to have seat, voice and vote in the House of Bishops, and often are asked to assist in other dioceses or to teach in seminaries.

Read more...

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of England (CoE) • Episcopal Church (TEC) • TEC Conflicts

Bishops who have made a public commitment to support the Windsor Report have asked the Archbishop of Canterbury to be clear and articulate in explaining what the consequences will be if the House of Bishops fails to give the assurances sought by the primates.

Seventeen diocesan bishops and one bishop suffragan from The Episcopal Church received an extensive briefing on the primates’ communiqué from the Rev. Canon Gregory Cameron, and shared with him their hopes for the meeting in September between the Archbishop of Canterbury and the House of Bishops during a conference held Aug. 9-10 at Camp Allen near Houston.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams • Anglican Primates • Primates Mtg Dar es Salaam, Feb 2007 • Episcopal Church (TEC) • TEC Bishops • TEC Conflicts

Global South is a term frequently used these days by journalists and bloggers commenting on Anglican Communion issues. It seems at first glance to be a geographical term. But that’s not so. It is really a theological term used by conservative Anglicans, coming mainly from the developing world, to describe themselves. It is much more elegant and apt than the term ‘Third World’ which Anglican leaders from the developing world always disavowed as demeaning.

There now exists a Global South Network which is making its presence forcefully felt, especially through its leaders’ presence in Anglican Communion primates’ meetings.

Some ‘liberal’ commentators I have read from the US occasionally use the term ‘Akinola-ites’ when referring to Global South leaders. It implies they are all simply doing what the Primate of Nigeria, Archbishop Akinola, tells them to do. In itself, that term is a put-down and akin to racism, for it refuses to accept the theological acuity, Christian leadership and strategic skills of these leaders. For example, call any of those primates an ‘Akinola-ite’ and you are failing to recognise the scholarship, pastoral experience, leadership skills and biblical commitment of each one in his own right. No one, not even a brother primate, tells any of them what to do!

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Identity • Global South Churches & Primates

People using CIA and FBI computers have edited entries in the online encyclopedia Wikipedia on topics including the Iraq war and the Guantanamo prison, according to a new tracing program.

The changes may violate Wikipedia's conflict-of-interest guidelines, a spokeswoman for the site said on Thursday.

The program, WikiScanner, was developed by Virgil Griffith of the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico and posted this month on a Web site that was quickly overwhelmed with searches.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Blogging & the Internet