South Carolina Post Links
Posted by The_Elves

Links to South Carolina posts - latest first in each section: (Last Updated January 25th 2012 at 10:00 p.m. Eastern)
IMPORTANT NOTE - SEE LATEST NEWS and BISHOP'S LETTER and PRAYER
FURTHER IMPORTANT NOTE - SEE here and here and here

Videos from MERE ANGLICANISM 2012 are here [NEW]

Materials From the Diocese of SC:

South Carolina Standing Committee Responds to Letter of Province IV Bishops December 12, 2011 at 11:33 am

Bishop Lawrence Writes to the Diocese About Disciplinary Board Decision
November 29, 2011 at 3:28 pm

Read more...

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • - Anglican: Latest News • Episcopal Church (TEC) • TEC Conflicts • TEC Conflicts: South Carolina • TEC Polity & Canons • * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • * Resources & Links • Resources: ACI docs • Resources: blogs / websites • * South Carolina

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October 21, 2011 at 6:15 am - 0 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

The Episcopal Church Clergy Disciplinary Process (Title IV) from the Diocese of Atlanta website
Posted by Kendall Harmon

Check it out.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • General Convention • TEC Polity & Canons • * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Ministry of the Ordained • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

February 22, 2012 at 12:30 pm - 1 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

(New Yorker) Steve Coll on the Unfolding Events in the Arab World—Autocrats versus Despots
Posted by Kendall Harmon

It has become common in the West to express remorse or pessimism about the course of events in the Arab world since the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions a year ago. Tunisia, in fact, does not present a cause for general pessimism. Egypt’s xenophobic Islamism is alarming, but it is too early to judge that revolution’s outcome. In any event, the Arab revolutions never were conceived to conform to the West’s expectations, goals, or principles. In settings long influenced by nationalism and political Islam, the Tunisian, Egyptian, Libyan, and Syrian revolutions seek justice, the dispatch of autocrats, a reduction of corruption, the restoration of dignity and equality to ordinary citizens, and the development of new constitutional experiments involving rights and accountability.

These experiments must unfold in divided societies with weak economies and unresolved—perhaps never to be resolved—tensions between mosque and state. Arab democrats who struggle in these settings are not seeking to imitate Western liberalism; they are reinterpreting it, as Turkey has done successfully, and as India’s British-educated independence leaders once did. In sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Latin America, democratic change in low and middle-income countries has evolved as a synthesis of local and global ideas, lurching through disruptions, failures, and recoveries. The Arab awakening is no longer an adventure park for bored emirs or a televised spectacle that inspires Western viewers. But its transformational power has not yet ebbed, and the liberalism within it is far from expired.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • History • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • Africa • Libya • Tunisia • Middle East • Egypt • Qatar • Syria

February 22, 2012 at 11:45 am - 0 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

Notable and Quotable
Posted by Kendall Harmon

There is indeed a dark side to emerging adulthood on campuses, and it does seem to be more problematic for women than men. One professor here polled her students and found that they agreed with sociologist Christian Smith's concerns. But they thought there is even more peer pressure on young men than young women to be sexually active. The pressure on women students is to be good at everything and look good doing it. Young adults live in a culture in which one can ask questions like, "Who am I? What does it mean to be a responsible sexual being? How ought I to live?" and get no meaningful response, no wisdom, no counsel from the world around—just the ubiquitous reply, "Whatever." Since that is what emerging adults typically hear, it is often also what they say.
--Jennifer Koenig and Bruce Benson in the January 25, 2012, Christian Century, page 27 (emphasis mine)

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Education • Psychology • Religion & Culture • Sexuality • Young Adults • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology • Pastoral Theology

February 22, 2012 at 11:02 am - 0 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

(NY Times) In Latest Greek Bailout, Warning Signs for Europe
Posted by Kendall Harmon

European leaders have approved their latest aid package for Greece, raising hopes that the worst phase of the sovereign debt crisis is over and a persistent source of stress on global markets has been removed.

But Greece's 130 billion euro ($172 billion) bailout highlights the weaknesses in Europe's response to the crisis, some analysts say. The worry is that these problems could flare up and undermine recovery efforts in countries like Italy, Spain, Ireland and Portugal.

"I don't want to be a Cassandra, but the idea that it's over is an illusion," said Kenneth S. Rogoff, a professor of economics at Harvard University and co-author of "This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly." "I am amazed by the short-term psychology in the market."

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • History • Psychology • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Corporations/Corporate Life • Credit Markets • Currency Markets • Euro • European Central Bank • The Banking System/Sector • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • Foreign Relations • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • Europe • --European Sovereign Debt Crisis of 2010 • Greece

February 22, 2012 at 9:04 am - 0 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

(Economist Leader)—America is being suffocated by excessive and badly written regulation
Posted by Kendall Harmon

Americans love to laugh at ridiculous regulations. A Florida law requires vending-machine labels to urge the public to file a report if the label is not there. The Federal Railroad Administration insists that all trains must be painted with an “F” at the front, so you can tell which end is which. Bureaucratic busybodies in Bethesda, Maryland, have shut down children’s lemonade stands because the enterprising young moppets did not have trading licences. The list goes hilariously on.

But red tape in America is no laughing matter. The problem is not the rules that are self-evidently absurd. It is the ones that sound reasonable on their own but impose a huge burden collectively. America is meant to be the home of laissez-faire. Unlike Europeans, whose lives have long been circumscribed by meddling governments and diktats from Brussels, Americans are supposed to be free to choose, for better or for worse. Yet for some time America has been straying from this ideal.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Globalization • Law & Legal Issues • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Corporations/Corporate Life • The U.S. Government • Politics in General • City Government • State Government

February 22, 2012 at 8:01 am - 3 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

(LA Times) Presbyterians censure retired pastor for marrying same-sex couples
Posted by Kendall Harmon

A retired Presbyterian pastor who spent her career ministering to gay men and lesbians has been censured by her denomination for marrying same-sex couples during the brief time such unions were legal in California.

The Rev. Jane Adams Spahr lost her final appeal before the highest court in the Presbyterian Church (USA), which released its opinion Tuesday. The tribunal ruled that the 69-year-old lesbian had violated the church's constitution and her ordination vows when she officiated at the unions of 16 couples and called them marriages.

A lower court's rebuke of Spahr was upheld, along with the warning that pastors should not represent the marriage of gay or lesbian couples as Presbyterian marriages....

Read it all.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Liturgy, Music, Worship • Parish Ministry • Ministry of the Ordained • * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • Marriage & Family • Religion & Culture • Sexuality • --Civil Unions & Partnerships • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Presbyterian • Sexuality Debate (Other denominations and faiths) • * Theology • Anthropology • Ethics / Moral Theology • Pastoral Theology

February 22, 2012 at 7:44 am - 2 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

(WSJ) Obama administration Proposes Tax Revamp
Posted by Kendall Harmon

The Obama administration will propose lowering the top income-tax rate for corporations to 28% from 35% but would raise overall tax revenue by eliminating dozens of popular deductions in an effort to restructure the corporate tax code.

The proposal, which will be announced Wednesday, would lower the "effective" tax rate on manufacturers to "no more than 25%," according to a senior administration official, down from the current average rate of about 32%. It raises taxes on oil and gas companies that would lose many large deductions and subsidies.

The plan would require U.S. companies operating overseas to pay—for the first time—a minimum tax rate on their foreign earnings.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Corporations/Corporate Life • Taxes • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • The U.S. Government • Foreign Relations • Politics in General • Office of the President • President Barack Obama

February 22, 2012 at 7:30 am - 2 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

Recent Statistics for the Episcopal Diocese of Oklahoma
Posted by Kendall Harmon

According to the U.S.Census Bureau's figures, Oklahoma has grown in population from 3,450,654 in 2000 to 3,751,351 in 2010. This represents a population growth of approximately 8.7% in this time frame. (Of passing interest, please note that the population of the United States as a whole went from 281,421,906 in 2000 to 308,745,538 in 2010, an overall American growth for the decade of 9.7%).

According to Episcopal Church statistics, the Diocese of Oklahoma went from Average Sunday Attendance (or ASA) of 7,290 in 2000 to 5,585 in 2010. This represents a decline of -23.4% during this decade.

Please note that if you go to the link toward the end of this sentence and enter "Oklahoma" as the name of the diocese and then "View Diocese Chart" underneath on the left you can see in pictorial form some of the data from 2000-2010.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • TEC Bishops • TEC Data • TEC Parishes • * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • * Economics, Politics • Economy • The U.S. Government • Census/Census Data

February 22, 2012 at 7:00 am - 3 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

In Rhode Island, Providence’s Episcopal Cathedral of St. John to close, final services April 22
Posted by Kendall Harmon

The Episcopal Cathedral of St. John -- which began as King's Church in 1722 and is the Diocese of Rhode Island's fourth oldest church -- is shutting down, with a final service set for April 22.

Read it all and you may also find a video report to watch there.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • TEC Parishes • * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry

February 22, 2012 at 6:45 am - 7 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

(NY Times Op-Ed) Verlyn Klinkenborg—In a Lenten Season
Posted by Kendall Harmon

Some may think of Lent as a time to make up for the excesses of Mardi Gras. But Lent, which begins... [today], isn’t a time of recovery. To Christians, it’s a 40-day season of preparation for Easter, the holiest day in the liturgical year. But the idea of Lent can be embraced by all of us, religious or otherwise....

Americans are not a naturally ascetic people, and it shows. Fasting lies at the heart of Lent, and most of us are not fasters. We choose our Lenten sacrifices from a very short menu.

But what if this were really a season for renunciation, even for non-believers?

Read it all.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Church Year / Liturgical Seasons • Lent • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Faiths

February 22, 2012 at 6:30 am - 0 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

Bishop John Sperry RIP
Posted by Kendall Harmon

Each winter he would visit small hunting communities spread over 3,000 miles while driving a team of 13 dogs, covering some 50 miles a day; once, when the dogs were struck by illness, he had to take the lead harness of the 18ft sledge himself for 200 miles.

At the same time Sperry was preaching the Gospel and delivering packages and medical supplies. He was ready to meet any emergency: when the only dentist gave up, Sperry took on the task himself, despite having no training in extractions.

Since few members of his scattered flock spoke English, Sperry learned the Copper Inuit dialect, into which he translated the Gospels, the Acts of Apostles, the Book of Common Prayer and some 200 hymns.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Canada • * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Death / Burial / Funerals • Ministry of the Ordained

February 22, 2012 at 6:15 am - 2 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

(ABP) Jim Denison—Lent for Baptists
Posted by Kendall Harmon

Three reasons for observing some form of Lenten practice suggest themselves, in ascending importance.

One: we need to live in community with the larger body of Christ. Since the vast majority of Christians practice some form of Lenten observance, joining them in some way is a good step toward solidarity of faith and ministry. This is also an important witness to others, answering Jesus' prayer, "May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me" (John 17:23).

Two: we cannot fully appreciate Jesus' resurrection unless we have experienced something of his sufferings. A fast of some sort is an appropriate means of spiritual identification with our Lord's suffering for us.

Three: we need a period each year for intentional spiritual introspection and contemplation....

Read it all.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Church Year / Liturgical Seasons • Lent • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Baptists

February 22, 2012 at 6:00 am - 0 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

(RNS) On Ash Wednesday, Episcopalians take it to the streets
Posted by Kendall Harmon

This year, at least 49 Episcopal parishes across 12 states will offer ashes to passersby at train stations, bus stops and college campuses on Ash Wednesday (Feb. 22) as Danieley’s “Ashes to Go” concept spreads nationwide.

“We live in a time where we can’t just sit back and wait for people to come to us,” said Bishop Stacy F. Sauls, chief operating officer for the New York-based Episcopal Church. “We have to meet people where they actually are.”

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • TEC Parishes • * Christian Life / Church Life • Church Year / Liturgical Seasons • Lent • Parish Ministry • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A.

February 22, 2012 at 5:30 am - 2 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

Food for Thought from Saint Augustine for Ash Wednesday
Posted by Kendall Harmon

Our first parents fell into open disobedience because already they were secretly corrupted; for the evil act had never been done had not an evil will preceded it. And what is the origin of our evil will but pride? For "pride is the beginning of sin." And what is pride but the craving for undue exaltation? And this is undue exaltation, when the soul abandons Him to whom it ought to cleave as its end, and becomes a kind of end to itself. This happens when it becomes its own satisfaction....The devil, then, would not have ensnared man in the open and manifest sin of doing what God had forbidden, had man not already begun to live for himself....By craving to be more, man became less; and by aspiring to be self-sufficing, he fell away from him who truly suffices him.

--Augustine, The City of God 14.13

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Church History • * International News & Commentary • Africa • * Theology • Anthropology

February 22, 2012 at 5:00 am - 0 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

Another Prayer for Ash Wednesday
Posted by Kendall Harmon

O God, who by thy care and counsel for mankind hast moved thy Church to appoint this holy season wherein the hearts of those who seek thee may receive thy help and healing: We beseech thee so to purify us by thy discipline, that, abiding in thee and thou in us, we may grow in grace and in the faith and knowledge of thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Church Year / Liturgical Seasons • Lent • Spirituality/Prayer

February 22, 2012 at 4:40 am - 0 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

A Prayer for Ash Wednesday
Posted by Kendall Harmon

O Lord our God, long-suffering and full of compassion: Be present with us, we beseech thee, as we enter upon this season in which we make ready to recall our Saviour’s sufferings and to celebrate his triumph. Grant us the aid of thy Holy Spirit, that as we acknowledge our sins, and implore thy pardon, we may also be enabled to deny ourselves, and be upheld in the hour of temptation; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

--Prayers for the Christian Year

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Church Year / Liturgical Seasons • Lent • Pentecost • Spirituality/Prayer

February 22, 2012 at 4:19 am - 0 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

From the Morning Bible Readings
Posted by Kendall Harmon

Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation which addresses you as sons? --"My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor lose courage when you are punished by him. For the Lord disciplines him whom he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives." It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers to discipline us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time at their pleasure, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant; later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

--Hebrews 12:3-11

Filed under: * Theology • Theology: Scripture

February 22, 2012 at 4:00 am - 0 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

In Egypt, Citizens facing an ailing economy, a new tyranny
Posted by Kendall Harmon

A year after the revolution, many Egyptians -- already suffering under the weight of a wretched economy -- see an undemocratic society where the military and Islamic ideologues are hoarding power while changing nothing. Though some are pleased that a form of law shaped by the Quran is coming to Egypt, others wonder whether they have swapped one corrupt and suppressing dictatorship for another.

The hated laws enforced by Mubarak that permitted police to imprison people without trial remain in effect....

The military still controls major portions of the nation's industrial sector for the benefit of its own ranks and has given up almost none of the power it amassed under Mubarak. Jobs remain scarce. Protests continue, and tourists, the lifeline of millions of poor people, have stayed away because of the instability.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Psychology • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • Middle East • Egypt

February 21, 2012 at 8:02 pm - 1 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

(BP) Citizens in 5 states likely to vote on marriage
Posted by Kendall Harmon

Maryland likely will join voters in Washington and Maine in deciding in November whether to legalize gay "marriage." Meanwhile Minnesota voters (November) and North Carolinians (May) will vote this year on whether to define marriage as between a man and a woman in their respective state constitutions.

The Maryland House was considered to be the biggest hurdle for the bill. Last year Democratic leaders pulled it from the House floor because it lacked the necessary votes.

Democrats control both chambers, but the bill had a tough climb in the House because of opposition from African American members who were pressured by black church leaders.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • Marriage & Family • Sexuality • --Civil Unions & Partnerships • * Economics, Politics • Politics in General • State Government

February 21, 2012 at 4:00 pm - 0 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

(RNS) Grief without God is a challenge for nonbelievers
Posted by Kendall Harmon

When Rebecca Hensler’s infant son died in 2009, she received numerous condolences from friends, colleagues and even total strangers she met online.

She knew their intentions were good, but their words weren’t always helpful. And in the rawness of her grief, Hensler found some of them downright hurtful.

Hensler is an atheist, so when people described her three-month-old son Jude as being an angel, or part of God’s plan, or “in a better place” than in his mother’s arms, the pain sometimes overwhelmed her.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Death / Burial / Funerals • * Culture-Watch • Psychology • Religion & Culture • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Faiths • Atheism

February 21, 2012 at 3:00 pm - 6 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

(CNN Belief Blog) Facing death, a top pastor rethinks what it means to be Christian
Posted by Kendall Harmon

Ed Dobson is not afraid of dying. It’s the getting there that really scares him.

A former pastor, onetime Christian Right operative and an icon among religious leaders, Dobson has Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. When he was diagnosed, doctors gave him 3 to 5 years to live.

That was 11 years ago....

Read it all.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Death / Burial / Funerals • Ministry of the Ordained • * Culture-Watch • Aging / the Elderly • Health & Medicine • Religion & Culture • * Theology • Pastoral Theology

February 21, 2012 at 12:40 pm - 0 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

(New Yorker) Dorothy Wickenden—Barack Obama, Republicans, and the Campaign for the Middle Class
Posted by Kendall Harmon

One of the key questions of 2012 is which party can make the stronger case to voters who, in Obama’s words, “feel the American dream slipping away.” Democrats are heartened by more favorable reports on employment, rising approval ratings, and their apparent victory in Congress on extending the payroll tax cut and jobless benefits. But, as the Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg notes, the Party’s base now consists mainly of young people, African-Americans, Latinos, single women, and affluent suburbanites. In 2008, Obama struggled to connect with voters he referred to as “lunch-pail folks”—the ones clinging to their guns and their religion. He lost them by eighteen points. As the conservative political analyst Michael Barone points out, even though Obama won a higher percentage of the total vote than any Democratic President except Andrew Jackson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson, he did it with “a top-and-bottom coalition”—holders of graduate degrees and high-school dropouts.

With the Republicans preoccupied by their race to the right, Obama has the luxury of honing a message aimed at the middle. The slogan he tried out in the State of the Union, “an America built to last,” sounded like an ad for a mattress company, or a car company—a little like Clint Eastwood’s “halftime in America” Super Bowl commercial for Chrysler. The Republican onetime mayor of Carmel, California, huskily declared that “all that matters now is what’s ahead. How do we come from behind? How do we come together?”

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • History • Psychology • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Housing/Real Estate Market • Labor/Labor Unions/Labor Market • Personal Finance • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • Politics in General • Office of the President • President Barack Obama

February 21, 2012 at 12:01 pm - 1 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

(RNS) Nonprofit Groups Oppose Obama’s Proposed Change in Charitable Deductions
Posted by Kendall Harmon

For the fourth year in a row, President Obama is proposing lower tax deductions for the wealthy on donations to churches and other nonprofit organizations. And for the fourth year in a row, nonprofit groups say the change would lead to a dramatic drop in charitable giving.

The reduction, included in Obama's 2013 budget proposal, rankled the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.

"We were hoping this would not come up again this year. We asked that they not renew it, but unfortunately the request was not taken," said Nathan Diament, the group's Washington director. "It's a real concern."

Read it all.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Stewardship • * Culture-Watch • Charities/Non-Profit Organizations • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Taxes • The U.S. Government • Budget • Politics in General • Office of the President • President Barack Obama

February 21, 2012 at 11:04 am - 14 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

Kendall Harmon’s Sermon from this past Sunday
Posted by Kendall Harmon

Listen to it all should you so desire.

Filed under: * By Kendall • * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Ministry of the Ordained • Preaching / Homiletics • * Theology • Theology: Scripture

February 21, 2012 at 9:01 am - 1 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

Robert E. Lee pulpit attracts historians to St. Mary’s Episcopal Church since 1910
Posted by Kendall Harmon

Each year, Graham Historical Society members take fourth-grade students on a tour of Bluefield, Va., with stops at various places where history was made. The stops include the New Deal era Post Office building with its tempera mural painting, “Coal Mining” (1942) by Richard Kenah, as well as the Linkous House.

Through the years, one of the favorite stops along the way has been the sanctuary of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church on Logan Street. In recent years, Father Russell Hatfield, pastor of St. Mary’s, has had the honor of telling the story of the Robert E. Lee pulpit and explaining to the students how the town of Bluefield, Va., came to possess such an interesting artifact....

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • TEC Parishes • * Christian Life / Church Life • Church History • * Culture-Watch • History • * Economics, Politics • Defense, National Security, Military • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A.

February 21, 2012 at 8:00 am - 8 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

Church Leaders Bring Pakistan Peace Mission To Bishopthorpe
Posted by Kendall Harmon

Church leaders in Wakefield have secured Foreign Office funding to bring a Pakistan delegation of lawyers, police, imams and priests on a peace mission to Britain to share good practice and help heal rifts between Muslims and Christians.

Three imams, three priests, three police officers and three lawyers from Pakistan - close to the village where Christians were burned to death in 2009 - arrived in London on Sunday for a five day fact-finding tour there and in Yorkshire to learn more about how crimes are investigated, our judicial system, share good practice of interfaith work and how to build bridges between faiths.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of England (CoE) • Archbishop of York John Sentamu • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • Violence • * International News & Commentary • Asia • Pakistan • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Other Faiths • Islam • Muslim-Christian relations

February 21, 2012 at 7:31 am - 0 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

Bishop Humphrey Southern’s Sermon from this past Sunday Commissioning the Diocesan Vocations Team
Posted by Kendall Harmon

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of England (CoE) • CoE Bishops • * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Ministry of the Ordained • Preaching / Homiletics

February 21, 2012 at 7:00 am - 4 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

(Inside Higher Ed) The Other Birth Control Debate
Posted by Kendall Harmon

Not directly related to – but probably not completely independent from – the raging debate over birth control coverage in Roman Catholic college health plans, the availability of the emergency contraceptive Plan B One Step, or the morning-after pill, has been making news on a number of campuses across the country, and not all of them are religious.

Some colleges have been criticized for not making Plan B easily available; others, for expanding access or accommodating it in unusual ways. But, playing out against the backdrop of the latest culture war, each case reinforces the considerable impact colleges can have in this area of student health.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Education • Health & Medicine • Life Ethics • Science & Technology • Young Adults • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

February 21, 2012 at 6:41 am - 0 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

181 Roman Catholic Bishops (100% of Dioceses) Have Spoken Out Against the HHS Mandate
Posted by Kendall Harmon

Check it out.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Children • Health & Medicine • --The 2009 American Health Care Reform Debate • Law & Legal Issues • Life Ethics • Marriage & Family • Religion & Culture • Science & Technology • * Economics, Politics • Politics in General • Office of the President • President Barack Obama • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Roman Catholic

February 21, 2012 at 6:35 am - 3 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

(USA Today) Richard W. Garnett—HHS mandate still undermines religious freedom
Posted by Kendall Harmon

A crucial thing to remember, both about the mandate and the promised adjustments-to-come, is that it is deeply un-American in its hostility to diversity and pluralism in civil society. The mandate's religious-employer exemption is limited only to inward-looking entities that hire and engage only their own. It embodies the view that religious institutions may be distinctive only insofar as they stay in their place — in the pews, in the pulpit, at the altar. It reflects a troubling tendency to impose ideological sameness and conformity in the public sphere, to insist that all groups and associations act like the government, in the service of the government's goals.

The mandate prompted an impressively united reaction by those who cherish America's tradition of religious freedom and accommodation. On the left and on the right, among Republicans and Democrats, there was an appreciation for the fact that this was an overreach. It was, and still is.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Health & Medicine • --The 2009 American Health Care Reform Debate • Law & Legal Issues • Life Ethics • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Economy • The U.S. Government • Politics in General • House of Representatives • Office of the President • President Barack Obama • Senate • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Roman Catholic

February 21, 2012 at 6:20 am - 3 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

Beth Moore is Coming to Charleston, South Carolina this August
Posted by Kendall Harmon

It is great that a nationally known women's Bible study teacher is coming to Charleston, S.C. for the first time next August. My friend Nancy Borrett is the city coordinator for this event. If you want more information, or are interested in volunteering for the event contact her at dancesc54[at]hotmail.com. Consider coming and please tell your friends and contacts as you are abl--KSH.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Women • * South Carolina • * Theology • Theology: Scripture

February 21, 2012 at 6:00 am - 0 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

(Washington Post) Bob Reiss—How health-care costs are taxing the middle class
Posted by Kendall Harmon

At what point is a middle-class American — who has insurance — allowed to complain about the increasing taxes we pay to finance the national health-care system?

After all, what is a tax but an assessment imposed by authority on citizens for public purposes? And that seems a fair description of how our health-care system works. The federal government tells companies which services they must provide. In turn, the companies raise rates so they can meet these requirements and still make a profit. Basically, each time a federal official tells us that “insurance companies” will pay for, say, free condoms or expanded coverage, premiums paid by the middle class go up. Call it an unofficial tax, one collected by private industry instead of Washington.

Don’t get me wrong: I’d prefer to pay a federal health-care tax and get European-style care. But the current plan is the worst of both worlds: socialist enough, if you will, to provide free care for the poor; capitalist enough to make sure companies are guaranteed profit.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Health & Medicine • --The 2009 American Health Care Reform Debate • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Corporations/Corporate Life • Personal Finance • Politics in General • House of Representatives • Office of the President • President Barack Obama • Senate

February 21, 2012 at 5:34 am - 0 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

PBS’ Religion and Ethics Newsweekly—Church Worship Services in Public Schools
Posted by Kendall Harmon

KIM LAWTON, correspondent: At FDR Public School on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, Abounding Grace Ministries held what could be one of its last worship services in the building. The nondenominational church has been renting worship space here for the last three years. Pastor Rick Del Rio says the reasonable rent was critical to his predominantly low-income congregation.

REV. RICK DEL RIO (Pastor, Abounding Grace Ministries): It’s the only thing we could afford. Two, it becomes that place where families can unite, and we really cultivate those relationships so that it is an oasis.

LAWTON: Del Rio describes his church as a source of stability in the neighborhood and says the city’s policy is unfair to the people he serves.

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Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Liturgy, Music, Worship • Parish Ministry • * Culture-Watch • Education • Law & Legal Issues • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Politics in General • City Government

February 21, 2012 at 5:15 am - 3 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

George Weigel: John Henry Newman’s Faith
Posted by Kendall Harmon

I once had the honor of spending time in Newman’s rooms at the Birmingham Oratory, which are much as the aged cardinal left them at his death in 1890. Over the altar, which occupies one side of the room, are tacked-up notes by which Cardinal Newman reminded himself of those for whom he had promised to pray. In the sitting room, a tattered newspaper map, also tacked to a wall, bears silent testimony to Newman’s interest in Kitchener’s efforts to lift the siege of Khartoum and rescue General Gordon from the Mahdi, a 19th century jihadist (Gordon died with Newman’s poem, “The Dream of Gerontius,” in his pocket). Perhaps most touching are Newman’s Latin breviaries, which he began to use as an Anglican, causing much controversy about such popish practices.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of England (CoE) • * Christian Life / Church Life • Church History • * Theology

February 21, 2012 at 4:59 am - 0 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

A Prayer for the (Provisional) Feast Day of John Henry Newman
Posted by Kendall Harmon

God of all wisdom, we offer thanks for John Henry Newman, whose eloquence bore witness that thy Church is one, holy, catholic and apostolic, and who didst make of his own life a pilgrimage towards thy truth. Grant that, inspired by his words and example, we may ever follow thy kindly light till we rest in thy bosom, with your dear Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, where heart speaks to heart eternally; for thou livest and reignest, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Church History • Spirituality/Prayer

February 21, 2012 at 4:38 am - 4 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

A Prayer to Begin the Day
Posted by Kendall Harmon

Grant us, we beseech thee, Almighty God, a steadfast faith in Jesus Christ, a cheerful hope in thy mercy, and a sincere love to thee and to all our fellow men; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.

--The Lutheran Church

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Spirituality/Prayer

February 21, 2012 at 4:15 am - 0 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

(NC Register) Very Good Times for Catholic Colleges and Universities
Posted by Kendall Harmon

The economy might be experiencing one of its worst times, but Catholic colleges seem to be experiencing their best times, all things considered, because of their commitment to Catholic identity.

The Augustine Institute in Denver, which offers graduate degrees on campus and through distance education, saw record enrollment this past year. “One big draw for us is our program,” said Edward Sri, provost and professor of Scripture and theology. “Particularly, our distance-education program is booming.”

The distance program was launched in 2008, and by fall 2011, it had more than 200 students. Students like how the DVD format makes them feel part of a live class, plus the flexibility of the program means they can “maintain their work and revenue and responsibilities on the home front with their families and still work on their master’s degree,” Sri said.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Blogging & the Internet • Education • Religion & Culture • Science & Technology • Young Adults • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Roman Catholic

February 21, 2012 at 4:00 am - 0 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

From the Morning Scripture Readings
Posted by Kendall Harmon

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith; that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that if possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

--Philippians 3:7-11

Filed under: * Theology • Theology: Scripture

February 21, 2012 at 3:59 am - 0 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

(BBC) Syria crisis: Red Cross presses for humanitarian truce
Posted by Kendall Harmon

The International Committee of the Red Cross says it is in talks with "all those concerned" in Syria's conflict to negotiate a ceasefire.

The group says it wants to negotiate a brief truce in the most affected areas to allow it to deliver aid packages.

Correspondents say the fact that the ICRC has spoken publicly about the negotiations shows just how concerned it is by the situation in Syria.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Charities/Non-Profit Organizations • Health & Medicine • Violence • * Economics, Politics • Foreign Relations • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • Middle East • Syria

February 20, 2012 at 4:31 pm - 0 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

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