He gained his theology degree at Kings College, London, in 1971 and his post-graduate diploma four years later at Durham University.

Bishop-elect [Stanley] Palmer is married to Elizabeth and has two adult daughters.

The consecration will be performed by Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Peter Jensen.

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A moratorium on betting on some of our major sports, including football codes and cricket, should be considered for 2013 as one of the immediate responses to the Australian Crime Commission’s devastating report on Australian Sport, Bishop Philip Huggins said today.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Australia • * Culture-Watch • Gambling

[Justin] Welby immediately inherits a nationwide controversy over legitimizing gay marriage, which was approved by the British Parliament on Tuesday. The government has already agreed that, whether or not it passes the House of Lords, the Anglican Church will not be required to preside over the marriage of same-sex couples.

The new archbishop has repeatedly declared his support for the Church’s traditional prohibition of same-sex marriage.

Nevertheless, he will face lingering controversies within the church over ordaining women bishops and accepting clergy in active same-sex relationships.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby

It’s been announced that York Minster, the second-largest gothic church in Europe, may shortly be coated in a layer of fat derived from olive oil. It’s all part of a growing trend of looking to the past for remedies to contemporary problems.

The Minster was built between 1220 and 1470 using magnesian limestone. Apparently the stone masons used to rub linseed oil into the blocks. The effect was to bind the calcium found in the limestone.

Now Cardiff University in Wales has developed a substance to form the proposed 21st-century protective layer. Chemist Karen Wilson said: "We went to the traditional idea but used olive oil. It forms a layer one molecule thick which stops water getting in — but is porous enough to let moisture escape."

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of England (CoE) • * Christian Life / Church Life • Church History • Parish Ministry • * Culture-Watch • Art

During the first year of its work — while leaders wrestled with thickets of legal and liturgical questions — the North American ordinariate ordained or accepted 30 new priests, all former Anglicans, and took in 1,600 members from 36 parish communities. It is now expanding into Canada, preparing for a second wave of incoming clergy and making plans for its own chancery facilities in Houston.

The Vatican's goal has been to "build a safe haven for orthodox people who don't mind saying that they're loyal to the Holy Father and to the church," said Catania, who attended the Houston meetings.

"Our goal was to show that we're not just a bunch of Episcopalians who wanted to get out of that church. ... We always thought of ourselves as Catholics, but now our Catholic identity is clear to everyone. We made it all the way home."

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • * Religion News & Commentary • Ecumenical Relations • Other Churches • Roman Catholic • Pope Benedict XVI

Church burnings, attacks on worshippers and suicide bombings in Nigeria are a recent phenomenon that threatens the longstanding harmony between Muslims and Christians, warned Nigeria’s new cardinal.

“(This) is all new to us,” Cardinal John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan, archbishop of Abuja, told MPs and Senators of the Canada Holy See Friendship Group Feb. 4.

“We didn’t think it would ever happen.”

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • Violence • * Economics, Politics • Terrorism • * Religion News & Commentary • Inter-Faith Relations • Other Churches • Roman Catholic • Other Faiths • Islam

The local diocese of the Anglican Church has gone to Federal Court in a bid to reverse the federal health-care cuts to the refugee program.

In a hearing Wednesday in Federal Court in Winnipeg, the Rupert's Land Diocese made an application for judicial review, effectively asking the court to rule the Harper government cuts are a breach of contract with sponsoring organizations and order the government to keep them in place.

"All we want is a declaration of a breach (of contract)," lawyer David Matas told Federal Court Judge James O'Reilly during a two-hour hearing.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Canada • * Culture-Watch • Health & Medicine • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • Canada

Members of the congregation at All Saints Anglican Church are looking forward to being in their new home.

The Peachtree City church has held a Blessing and Dedication ceremony for their land, which is slated to become the site of a new church and campus. The event took place onsite at 149 Ebenezer Rd. near Highway 54 in Fayette County.

The ceremony was conducted by the Rev. Michael Fry, the Rev. Ray Greiner and Bishop David Anderson. Anderson “was instrumental in the church’s founding,” according to Rob Rothley, public relations committee chair at All Saints.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) • * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry

A push for the legalization of physician-assisted suicide is under way in at least three Northeastern states including Connecticut, where proponents say they see strong support for allowing doctors to prescribe mentally competent, dying individuals with the medications needed to take their own lives.

Lawmakers in New Jersey and Vermont are also considering legislation that would allow doctors to prescribe lethal medication to terminally ill patients in a trend that advocates say may be related to the country’s aging population.

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Senior U.S. officials are pressing to mark for the killing or capture of the self-proclaimed mastermind of last month's attack on an Algerian natural-gas facility that claimed the lives of 37 foreign hostages, including three Americans.

Adding the Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar to a U.S. targeted-killing list would represent a significant U.S. expansion into northwestern Africa, extending the reach of the U.S. program of drone strikes and other lethal counterterrorism operations, which have concentrated on Somalia, Yemen and Pakistan.

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Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Defense, National Security, Military • Foreign Relations • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • Africa • Algeria • America/U.S.A.

A behemoth storm packing hurricane-force wind gusts and blizzard conditions swept through the Northeast overnight, where more than 650,000 homes and businesses in the densely populated region lost power, roads were impassable and New Englanders awoke Saturday to more than 2 feet of snow.

More than 38 inches of snow fell in Milford in central Connecticut, and an 82-mph wind gust was recorded in nearby Westport. Areas of southeastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire notched at least 2 feet — with more falling. Airlines scratched more than 5,300 flights through Saturday, and the three major airports serving New York City as well as Boston’s Logan Airport closed.

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Filed under: * General Interest • Weather

On a Sunday afternoon several months ago, I was engaged in one of my favorite religious rituals, watching pro football on television. During a break in the game, I reflexively clicked the “mute” button on the remote control. But my eyes stayed fixed on a startling commercial.

The screen showed a balding man with tawny skin and a salt-and-pepper goatee, and seconds later it spelled out his name: Mujahid Abdul-Rashid. The advertisement went on to show him fishing, playing in a yard with two toddlers, and sitting down to a family meal.

One week later, again during an N.F.L. game, the same commercial appeared. This time I listened to the words. The advertisement was for Prudential’s financial products for retirees. Mr. Abdul-Rashid was talking about his own retirement after 19 years as a clothing salesman, and the family time he now intended to enjoy....

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • Religion & Culture • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Faiths • Islam

Almighty and eternal God, so draw our hearts to thee, so guide our minds, so fill our imaginations, so control our wills, that we may be wholly thine, utterly dedicated unto thee; and then use us, we pray thee, as thou wilt, but always to thy glory and the welfare of thy people; through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

--William Temple (1881-1944)

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

At the set time which I appoint I will judge with equity. When the earth totters, and all its inhabitants, it is I who keep steady its pillars....

For not from the east or from the west and not from the wilderness comes lifting up; but it is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another.

--Psalm 75: 2-3; 6-7

Filed under: * Theology • Theology: Scripture