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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • TEC Conflicts • TEC Departing Parishes • TEC Parishes

Filed under: * General Interest • Humor / Trivia

Oil rose above $126 a barrel for the first time Friday, bringing its advance this week to nearly $10, as investors questioned whether a possible confrontation between the U.S. and Venezuela could cut exports from the OPEC member. Gas prices, meanwhile, rose above an average $3.67 a gallon at the pump, following oil's recent path higher.

On Friday, The Wall Street Journal published a report that suggested closer ties between Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and rebels attempting to overthrow Colombia's government. Chavez has been linked to Colombian rebels previously, but the paper reported it had reviewed computer files indicating concrete offers by Venezuela's leader to arm guerillas. That appears to heighten the chances that the U.S. could impose sanctions on one of its biggest oil suppliers.

"If we put on sanctions, I'm sure Chavez would threaten to cut off our oil supply," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. "Obviously that would have a major impact on oil prices."

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Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • Energy, Natural Resources

Here is one:

Sir, It is the statisticians who produced Religious Trends who should be on their knees (“Churchgoing on its knees as Christianity falls out of favour”, May 8). The methodology of the publication is so flawed that it is dangerously misleading to draw any predictions from it.


A few examples highlight the problems. Christian Research does not compare like with like. It takes the number of Muslims at the 2001 Census and assumes that half are active worshippers. Using the same assumption would give 20 million active Christians, yet it limits, for example, active Church of England membership to only average Sunday congregations. That ignores actual head counts showing the average million Sunday congregation is only part of the 1.7 million individual worshippers in any given month, recorded year on year since 2001.

It ignores the rapid growth in Back to Church Sunday initiatives that brought more than 20,000 people back to church last year. Being based purely on numbers in church buildings on Sundays, it ignores the thousands joining the Church through more than 5,000 fresh expressions initiatives meeting in other places, on other days.

The Right Rev Nick Baines
Bishop of Croydon

The Rev Lynda Barley
Head of Research and Statistics, Archbishops’ Council

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • England / UK

In his final address before retirement to the House of Bishops and Standing Committee of the Church of the Province of the West Indies, Archbishop Drexel Gomez urged the Church to reawaken to the power of God’s love.

The dry and distant Anglicanism of many parts of the West Indies, must make way for a “more caring and compassionate” church, he told the West Indian bishops and the congregation of St. Mary’s Anglican Church in Bridgetown, Barbados on April 17.

“We must face up to the challenge to see where we stand in love,” Archbishop Gomez said, and “must devise more strategies to assist members in their engagement with God and to foster a deeper commitment” that would transform the believer and society.

The rampant individualism and selfishness of Western culture was the greatest single threat to the faith. Believers must surrender their lives to God and be faithful to his will for their lives, rather than pursue their own moral, political or social agendas.

The Church faces “the challenge of discernment and commitment” as it entered the Twenty-first century, he said, urging the bishops to hold fast to the faith once delivered, and not succumb to the siren song of culture.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • West Indies

An underground nuclear submarine base on China's Hainan Island is drawing scrutiny from the United States and India.

According to satellite imagery on the Web sites of Jane's Intelligence Review and the Federation of American Scientists, the base has a sea entrance wide enough to allow submarines to enter the underground facilities. The photograph reveals what appears to be a ballistic missile submarine moored to one of the piers outside.

Rumors of a nuclear submarine base had been swirling for a few years. Kurt Campbell, with the Center for a New American Security, says the satellite photographs confirm those suspicions and stoke anxiety in the region about China's strategic capabilities — and its intentions.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Military / Armed Forces • * International News & Commentary • Asia • China

Warning: some blog readers may find this story of teenage misbehavior disturbing.

I am not going to spoil it you need to read it for yourself.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Drugs/Drug Addiction • Teens / Youth

When you dial 770-978-5717, you'll hear a recording that says "First Baptist Snellville is offering you the chance to win one of two $500 gas cards."

Pastor Dr. Rusty Newman says "we are beginning a revival, ah starting this Sunday. If you attend the service you are able to sign up for a drawing to place your name in at the end of the service stating you were there. Then on Wednesday evening at the conclusion of service we will be drawing for that ability to win the prize."

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Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Evangelism and Church Growth • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Energy, Natural Resources

Last weekend I had the opportunity to worship at Christ Church Cathedral as part of the Flower Festival weekend. As the celebration of the Holy Eucharist came to a close, the presider, the Rt. Rev. George Wayne Smith, Bishop of Missouri, turned to the Most Rev. Daniel Deng Bul Yak, Archbishop of Sudan, and invited him to impart the final blessing on the congregation. The words he used to extend this invitation were something like, “Archbishop, my brother, would you bless us in the language of your birth?”

It was, for me, a powerful moment. The Archbishop spoke in what I am told was Dinka, an African language utterly unfamiliar to me (and, I would guess, to nearly everyone else in the Cathedral). And yet, at the moment when he raised his hand high to begin making the sign of the cross over us, every person in that church knew that we were being blessed “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” and it made no difference to us in what language the words were spoken. This was Anglicanism at its best: generous and welcoming, respectful of both liturgical tradition and cultural difference, joyfully making room at the table for all who feel called to respond to Christ’s invitation to reconciliation, fellowship, and transformation.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Identity • Episcopal Church (TEC) • TEC Bishops

But one thing the document is not is a manifesto. A genuine manifesto is sharp, punchy and, ideally, short. A proper manifesto -- say, the absurdist Dada Manifesto of 1921, which begins "DADA EXCITES EVERYTHING. DADA knows everything. DADA spits everything out" -- is just a few hundred words long. If the thing's going to be extensive, like the Communist Manifesto, it should at least begin with a memorable statement ("A spectre is haunting Europe") and clearly specify its agenda. The true manifesto is bold, even extreme: It leaves us in no doubt about its commitments.

The Evangelical Manifesto, by contrast, is both long and insistently moderate. After the apparently self-undercutting statement that "no one speaks for all Evangelicals, least of all those who claim to," it launches into a lengthy catalog of theological statements that effectively duplicates Lausanne. To whom is this directed? Who wants or needs an overview of evangelical theology? The document never says.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Politics in General • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Evangelicals

IT IS becoming clear that the conservative case is going to be well represented at the forthcoming Lambeth Conference in Canterbury. At least two conservative bishops have confirmed that they will be attending, with the express purpose of promoting their cause.

One is the Presiding Bishop of the Southern Cone, the Most Revd Greg Venables. He told The Times that he would attend both the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) in June and the Lambeth Conference in July.

Bishop Venables has been censured in recent weeks for ministering to congregations in Canada and San Joaquin, in the US, without the permission of the Anglican leadership in those provinces, and in contravention of the Windsor process.

He told The Times: “It is clear the division is pretty final. Dialogue is the one thing that is lacking. I don’t think we are going to change people’s minds, but I think it would be wrong for us to get to a point where we acknowledge a division and try to organise it without being together and talking about it.”

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Lambeth 2008

Watch the whole thing.

Eat food.

Not too much.

Mostly plants.

Sounds simple--but it is very hard to do--KSH.

(The text story is here if you do not have video access).

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Dieting/Food/Nutrition

The recent tragic death of Stephanie Kuleba, an 18-year-old high school cheerleader who died as a result of complications during a breast augmentation surgery, brought our attention to the pursuit of a more "ideal" body amongst teenagers. In fact, search data confirms this phenomenon. One of the most popular sites visited from the search term "plastic surgery" is the official site of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (http://www.plasticsurgery.org). Over 25% of visitors to the site (the largest segment) fell within the 18- to 24-year-old demographic — that's up from 19.6% two years ago.

Plastic surgery has become an American obsession. Checking other markets that Hitwise has data on, such as the U.K. and Australia, the 18- to 24-year-old fascination with plastic surgery is a decidedly U.S. phenomenon.

Looking at other health related sites visited by 18- t 24-year-olds, reveals just how obsessed this age group is with appearance. Unlike their older counterparts who visit sites related to diseases and keeping healthy, younger Internet users flock to sites that dwell on personal appearance, such as those focused on bodybuilding, weight loss and skincare. And definitely plastic surgery.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Health & Medicine • Young Adults

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Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Spirituality/Prayer • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • England / UK

"Women are no longer marrying the boy they met in high school," Fisher says. "They're concerned with getting a career before they marry. This takes time."

But this is time on the biological clock that cannot be recaptured.

Most U.S. mothers, including Scruby Boggs, have paying jobs. She says that she and her husband, Michael, share the household chores.

The family could get by on her husband's income, Scruby Boggs says, and she doesn't want to spend too much time away from daughter. But, she says, "I like contributing to our income, and I like the intellectual challenge of going to work and my job."

Scruby Boggs admits she might feel differently if she weren't able to work part of the time from home and rely on relatives for baby-sitting. "I leave Ayda with either of her grandmothers when I'm at work," she says.

Fisher, of Rutgers, predicts that society will more fully accommodate women's needs and biological realities.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Children • Marriage & Family

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Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • Housing Market

Despite gains in reducing world poverty, 1 billion people continue to live on just a dollar a day -- the accepted measure of absolute poverty. It was not a famine that precipitated the new crisis, but the economics of the global marketplace.

The Economist reports that "the middle classes in poor countries are giving up health care and cutting out meat so they can eat three meals a day. The middling poor, those on $2 a day, are pulling children from school and cutting back on vegetables so they can still afford rice."

Starvation is an everyday prospect for those whose staple food is rice. The Economist warns that "the desperate -- those on 50 cents a day -- face disaster," and refers to the worldwide rise in the price of food as "the silent tsunami."

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Dieting/Food/Nutrition

There are two important recessions going on in the world today. One has gotten enormous attention. It’s the economic recession in America. But it will eventually pass, and the world will not be much worse for the wear. The other has gotten no attention. It’s called “the democratic recession,” and if it isn’t reversed, it will change the world for a long time.

The term “democratic recession” was coined by Larry Diamond, a Stanford University political scientist, in his new book “The Spirit of Democracy.” And the numbers tell the story. At the end of last year, Freedom House, which tracks democratic trends and elections around the globe, noted that 2007 was by far the worst year for freedom in the world since the end of the cold war. Almost four times as many states — 38 — declined in their freedom scores as improved — 10.

What explains this? A big part of this reversal is being driven by the rise of petro-authoritarianism. I’ve long argued that the price of oil and the pace of freedom operate in an inverse correlation — which I call: “The First Law of Petro-Politics.” As the price of oil goes up, the pace of freedom goes down. As the price of oil goes down, the pace of freedom goes up.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Globalization • * Economics, Politics • Politics in General