Devotional: To love at all is to be vulnerable...

To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries, avoiding all entanglements; lock it up safe in the coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket; safe, dark, motionless, airless- it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.
...CS Lewis image

Canada: Anglicans to consider opening communion to unbaptized

Charles Lewis March 7, 2011

Canadian Anglicans will hold discussions this spring about whether baptism is necessary for taking part in communion — questioning a requirement of Christianity that has existed for 2,000 years.

“Official teaching is you have to be baptized first. But a number of clergy across the country feel strongly about this as an issue and many have approached their bishops about allowing for an ‘open table’ in which all could take communion,” said Archdeacon Paul Feheley, who is the principal secretary to Archbishop Fred Hiltz, head of the Anglican Church of Canada.

It will be discussed when the House of Bishops meet in April, but not as an official topic, he said.

The idea — already rejected as a dangerous step by more orthodox Anglicans — was raised in an article this week in the AnglicanJournal.com in which an Ontario church pastor argues that removing the requirement of baptism would help stop the decline in the number of Anglicans attending services. the rest

Number of Obamacare waivers climbs above 1,000

By Jason Millman
03/06/11

The number of temporary healthcare reform waivers granted by the Obama administration to organizations climbed to more than 1,000, according to new numbers disclosed by the Department of Health and Human Services.

HHS posted 126 new waivers on Friday, bringing the total to 1,040 organizations that have been granted a one-year exemption from a new coverage requirement included in the healthcare reform law enacted almost a year ago. Waivers have become a hot-button issue for Republicans, eager to expose any vulnerabilities in the reform law. the rest

ObamaCare's March Madness
Sports fans relish this time of year for the NCAA Championship Basketball Tournament, aka "March Madness." But this year the tournament has a serious contender for that title. March is also ObamaCare's anniversary month.
Last year, President Obama gave Congress an arbitrary deadline to pass his health-care takeover legislation before the Easter recess at the end of March. This forced lawmakers to hurry their votes on a deeply flawed bill that very few of them had read. Worse, many made false promises to secure final passage.

We're already seeing ObamaCare's madness in its first year of implementation, which is why the American people continue to call for defunding, repealing and replacing it with more sensible reforms. Here are a few examples of the mayhem...

Parents Under Siege in Global Battle Against State Control of Children

by Dave Bohon
Monday, 07 March 2011

Two recent cases, one in the U.S. and one in Europe, demonstrate the extent to which government is aggressively militating to control and regulate children and families.

In a case that goes all the way back to 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court will listen to arguments to decide whether an Oregon social worker and a deputy sheriff violated the rights of a nine-year-old girl (known in the case as “S.G.”) when they removed her from her elementary school classroom, without a court order or the consent of her mother, and spent the next two hours grilling her about allegations of sexual abuse on the part of her father.

While the girl originally denied that her father had sexually abused her, “she later testified that she was coerced into telling the investigators he had abused her because she thought it was the only way they would allow her to leave,” explained John Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute, a pro-family legal advocacy group that has taken an interest in the case. “The encounter reportedly so scared S.G. that she was physically sick that night and could not eat.”

The girl’s mother subsequently sued the sheriff and social worker, charging that the pair had violated her daughter’s 14th Amendment guarantee against unreasonable search and seizure. In 2009 the case made its way to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which ruled that the government tag-team had indeed violated the girl’s constitutional guarantees, and further, that their actions at the school had “constituted an unauthorized seizure of S.G., which is not exempt from the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement,” noted Whitehead. the rest

I am so tired of winter....

Video-March 7, 2011

Syracuse's seasonal snowfall now No. 4 on 60-year list
Syracuse, NY – The winter of 2010-11 now is the fourth-snowiest winter in the past 60 years.

The winter storm that cruised through the Syracuse area from Sunday afternoon through this morning dumped 13.4 inches of snow at Hancock International Airport, the National Weather Service's Binghamton office reported shortly after noon.

That vaulted the season’s total to 173.5 inches, hurling this winter into fourth place on the list of snowiest Syracuse winters since 1950, the year the weather service started measuring at the airport...

MA: Breakaway Anglican church buys former Catholic property

Despite pain of split, both Hamilton and Danvers parishes are moving on
March 7, 2011
By Ethan Forman
Mon Mar 07, 2011

DANVERS — In less than two years, founders of Christ the Redeemer Anglican Church have not only managed to fill the pews, they have raised enough money to buy the former St. Alphonsus Roman Catholic Church property outright.

Christ the Redeemer, which broke away from Christ Church in Hamilton over what they saw as "moral drift" in the Episcopal Church as a whole, had been leasing the former Catholic church since 2009.

On Feb. 16, the Anglican church paid $1.6 million for the property, after raising $800,000 for a down payment in just six months. The deed was placed on the altar. the rest

The Western Taliban

Local Ministries for the Promotion of Virtue and Suppression of Vice are hard at work. They have 2,000 years of rubbish to cleanse from society.
Constance Kong
Sunday, 6 March 2011

Make no bones about it: the West – Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand – is ruled by the Taliban. True: they are not the same Taliban that ruled Afghanistan and beat people for listening to music or dancing, or who stoned people to death for committing adultery. The West’s Taliban’s style is different – they stone you psychologically by marginalising you for your beliefs. But in substance they are the same as Afghanistan’s Taliban – their specialty is intolerance.

The West’s Taliban are the secularists who will persecute anyone with a religious perspective on philosophical or moral issues, or any matter of public discourse for that matter. And we all live in fear of them just as the men, women and children of Afghanistan fear their Taliban. We go quietly about our business to avoid their persecution. We keep our own counsel and do not talk about our religious faith or the value Judaeo-Christian principles have provided Western Civilisation for fear of being psychologically beaten and stoned.

Indeed, I am writing this article anonymously for fear of what it could do to my career or the persecution it might bring my children studying at schools and universities where the Secular Taliban rule. the rest

In one class debate a fellow student went so far as to say that a law was needed to ban anyone of any religious faith from holding public office. No one challenged this view. Not even the professor!

Mexican Church Takes a Closer Look at Donors

By DAMIEN CAVE
March 6, 2011

 PACHUCA, Mexico — The large orange chapel here, with its towering cross, would be just another Roman Catholic church if not for a bronze plaque announcing that it was “donated by Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano” — better known as “the executioner,” commander of the ruthless crime syndicate called the Zetas.

Mass at a Pachuca church whose major donor was a Zetas leader, Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano. Longtime government restrictions made the Catholic Church in Mexico reliant on the wealthy.

The nameplate goes on to quote Psalm 143: “Lord, hear my prayer, answer my plea.” But Mexican Catholics are the ones struggling with how to respond.

Ever since the chapel’s financing spawned a government investigation four months ago, the Roman Catholic Church in Mexico has been trying to confront its historic ties to drug traffickers. Long dependent on gifts, but often less than discriminating about where they come from, the church is grappling with its role as thousands die in turf wars among rich, and sometimes generous, criminals. the rest

Planned Parenthood Reports Record Abortion Rate

Up By More Than 8,000 in One Year
Monday, March 07, 2011
By Penny Starr

(CNSNews.com) – Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s Web site shows that it performed a record number of abortions in 2009, up 8,270 from 2008. According to a fact sheet posted under “History of Planned Parenthood,” Planned Parenthood clinics in 2009 performed 332,278 abortions – up from 324,008 in 2008, or a 2.5 percent increase.

Planned Parenthood also distributed more than 1.5 million emergency contraception kits, which contain hormones that can prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in a women’s uterus.

Planned Parenthood received $349.6 million in tax dollars in the fiscal year ending on June 30, 2008, according to its annual report. the rest

Pope Benedict XVI: Excerpts from Jesus of Nazareth

Mar 7, 2011
Pope Benedict XVI

The Scripture Must Be Fulfilled

Understandably, the prophecy of the betrayal produces agitation and curiosity among the disciples. “One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was lying close to the breast of Jesus: so Simon Peter beckoned to him and said, ‘Tell us who it is of whom he speaks.’ So lying thus, close to the breast of Jesus, he said to him: ‘Lord, who is it?’ Jesus answered: ‘It is he to whom I shall give this morsel when I have dipped it’” (13:23–26). . . .

Jesus’ answer, as given here, is quite unambiguous. Yet the evangelist says that the disciples still did not understand whom he meant. So we must assume that John retrospectively attributed a clarity to the Lord’s answer that it lacked at the time for those present. John 13:18 brings us onto the right track. Here Jesus says, “The Scripture must be fulfilled: ‘He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me’” (cf. Ps 41:9; Ps 55:13). This is Jesus’ classic way of speaking: he alludes to his destiny using words from Scripture, thereby locating it directly within God’s logic, within the logic of salvation history. . . .

John gives a new depth to the psalm verse with which Jesus spoke prophetically of what lay ahead, since instead of the expression given in the Greek Bible for “eating”, he chooses the verb trogein, the word used by Jesus in the great “bread of life” discourse for “eating” his flesh and blood, that is, receiving the sacrament of the Eucharist ( Jn. 6:54–58). So the psalm verse casts a prophetic shadow over the Church of the evangelist’s own day, in which the Eucharist was celebrated, and indeed over the Church of all times: Judas’ betrayal was not the last breach of fidelity that Jesus would suffer. “Even my bosom friend, in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me” (Ps 41:9). The breach of friendship extends into the sacramental community of the Church, where people continue to take “his bread” and to betray him.

Jesus’ agony, his struggle against death, continues until the end of the world, as Blaise Pascal said on the basis of similar considerations (cf. Pensées VII, 553). We could also put it the other way around: at this hour, Jesus took upon himself the betrayal of all ages, the pain caused by betrayal in every era, and he endured the anguish of history to the bitter end. More here

The LORD reigns, let the nations tremble...



 The LORD reigns, let the nations tremble;

he sits enthroned between the cherubim,

let the earth shake.

 Great is the LORD in Zion;

he is exalted over all the nations.

 Let them praise your great and awesome name—

he is holy.

 The King is mighty, he loves justice—

you have established equity;

in Jacob you have done what is just and right.

 Exalt the LORD our God

and worship at his footstool;

he is holy.

 Moses and Aaron were among his priests,

Samuel was among those who called on his name;

they called on the LORD and he answered them.

 He spoke to them from the pillar of cloud;

they kept his statutes and the decrees he gave them.

 LORD our God, you answered them;

you were to Israel a forgiving God,

though you punished their misdeeds.

 Exalt the LORD our God
and worship at his holy mountain,

for the LORD our God is holy.

-Psalm 99 image

R.I. Episcopal Bishop Geralyn Wolf to retire

Sunday, March 6, 2011
By Richard C. Dujardin
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE –– The Right Rev. Geralyn Wolf, a convert from Judaism who stepped into the history books 15 years ago by becoming only the second woman in U.S. Episcopal Church history to be ordained a diocesan bishop, is planning to retire as Rhode Island’s Episcopal bishop late in 2012.

Wolf, who turns 64 next month, broke the news to some of her staff Thursday, her first day back after undergoing knee replacement surgery on Jan. 31.

She made a more public disclosure on Saturday at the close of an evangelism convocation attended by priests and lay people at the Providence Marriott. the rest

Facebook blamed for 1 in 5 divorces in the US

By Emil Protalinski
March 1, 2011

Facebook is cited in 1 out of every 5 divorces in the United States, according to the Loyola University Health System. Furthermore, 81 percent of the country’s top divorce attorneys say they have seen an increase in the number of cases using social networking evidence during the past five years, according to a recent survey by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML). Last but not least, Facebook is the unrivaled leader for online divorce evidence with 66 percent citing it as the primary source, the AAML said.

It’s not that Facebook is solely to blame: already-strained marriages are bound to break with or without the service. Still, a couple doesn’t have to be experiencing marital difficulties for an online relationship to develop from mere online chatting into a full-fledged affair.

In the end, Facebook is a social tool. For single people, social networks can help them meet that special someone. Even for marriages, social networks can help further along a relationship. Just like with any other social medium, however, even the most innocent of intentions can turn ugly with improper use. the rest

Muslim Mob Attacks Coptic Village, Church in Egypt

CBNNews.com
Sunday, March 06, 2011

Christian homes in the southern Egyptian village of Soul were attacked Saturday evening by a mob of Muslims, according to unconfirmed reports.

Witnesses say the angry throng also set fire to the Saints Mina and George Coptic Church. A priest and two deacons were reported missing following the attack.

Saturday's violence was reportedly triggered by a taboo love affair between a 40-year-old Coptic Christian and a Muslim woman. the rest

Nearly 4000 Muslims Attack Christian Homes in Egypt, Torch Church

Muslim mob assaults Christian students in Ethiopia
Christian students recently suffered an attack by a Muslim mob in Ethiopia. The students were on a mission trip to a Muslim village when they were attacked. Jonathon Racho of International Christian Concern tells OneNewsNow they were handing out Bibles and witnessing to villagers.


"Then one of the villagers angrily argued with the Christians,” Racho explains, “and then he incited the Muslim mob to attack the Christians. Then the attackers shouted 'Allah Akbar,' which means 'God is great,' as they hurled stones at the Christians and beat them with rods."...

B.C. Anglican priest earns doctorate in spirituality of snowboarding

While living in England a dozen years ago, 'soulriding' captured his imagination
By Janet Steffenhagen
 Vancouver Sun
March 5, 2011

An Anglican priest in British Columbia has earned a PhD for his research into the spirituality of snowboarding.

Rev. Neil Elliot of St. Andrews Anglican Church in Trail began his studies 10 years ago in England, pulling together a love of snowboarding, an interest in spirituality and a desire to understand the relationship between spirituality and religion.

It was the word "soulriding" that first captured his attention more than a dozen years ago, while he was living in England and snowboarding in the Alps in Europe. The term made him wonder if there was a spiritual dimension to carving a path down a mountain.

"It's not a well-used term [and] it's kind of vague. I was interested in this term possibly as some kind of indicator of what was happening about spirituality. Was soulriding some kind of spirituality? Was it organized in some way? I had a whole bunch of questions about it," he said Friday in an interview.  the rest

New Bishops Elected for ACNA

Bishops-elect Include The Ven. Julian Dobbs and The Rev’d Canon Dr. Felix Orji

PITTSBURGH, Pa.

(March 5, 2011) – Archbishop Robert Duncan of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) had the pleasure today of announcing the election of the Ven. Julian Dobbs and the Rev’d Canon Dr. Felix Orji as suffragan bishops. These bishops-elect will serve the ACNA and its member jurisdiction the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), which was founded by the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion.

Earlier, Bishop Martyn Minns of CANA had called Archbishop Duncan from Nigeria to consult on the Church of Nigeria’s House of Bishops’ prayerful deliberations to elect these new leaders. Archbishop Duncan remarked, “I am glad to congratulate our good partners in CANA and the Church of Nigeria on their wise selection of new bishops for our common ministry here in the ACNA. Godly and faithful leadership is vital to who we are as Anglicans, and I have no doubt that Bishops-elect Julian Dobbs and Felix Orji will be great servant-leaders for the ACNA and the church at large.”

The episcopal elections on Friday, March 4, 2011, capped a week of missional work by the Church of Nigeria’s Standing Committee, led by Archbishop Nicholas Okoh. Archbishop Duncan commented, “The ACNA is truly indebted to Archbishop Okoh and to the Church of Nigeria. They’ve been strong leaders in GAFCON and the Global South, and they’ve stood by us here in the Anglican Church in North America. The bishops they’ve already given us have been invaluable to the ACNA. I know that Julian and Felix will help us to continue to go from strength to strength as a Province in North America.” the rest
 Image-Bishop-elect Dobbs

Dr. Robert Gagnon: The Bible really does condemn homosexuality

By Robert A. J. Gagnon
Special to CNN
March 3, 2011

In her recent CNN Belief Blog post “The Bible’s surprisingly mixed messages on sexuality,” Jennifer Wright Knust claims that Christians can’t appeal to the Bible to justify opposition to homosexual practice because the Bible provides no clear witness on the subject and is too flawed to serve as a moral guide.

As a scholar who has written books and articles on the Bible and homosexual practice, I can say that the reality is the opposite of her claim. It’s shocking that in her editorial and even her book, "Unprotected Texts," Knust ignores a mountain of evidence against her positions.

It raises a serious question: does the Left read significant works that disagree with pro-gay interpretations of Scripture and choose to simply ignore them?

Owing to space limitations I will focus on her two key arguments: the ideal of gender-neutral humanity and slavery arguments. the rest-Excellent!

‘Her passion was for pro-life’: daughter-in-law tells Jane Russell abortion story

by Kathleen Gilbert Wed Mar 02, 2011
SANTA MARIA, California

  (LifeSiteNews.com) - A “pillar of strength” - these were the words Etta Waterfield used to describe her mother-in-law, Jane Russell, who will be remembered by millions as a timeless beauty and talented actress of the silver screen.

But according to Waterfield, Jane’s true legacy lies in her deep devotion to the Bible as a born-again Christian, and her tenacity living out that faith as a pro-life advocate following a tragic botched abortion at the age of eighteen.

“Mom was to the world a movie star, but her passion was for the children. Her passion was for pro-life,” Waterfield told LifeSiteNews.com in a telephone interview Tuesday afternoon, two days after Russell passed away of respiratory failure in her Santa Maria home at the age of 89. the rest

Jane Russell, 1921-2011

"Devout Muslim" kills two U.S. airman in Frankfurt Germany

By DAVID McHUGH and JUERGEN BAETZ
Associated Press
 Wed Mar 2, 2011

FRANKFURT, Germany – Two U.S. airmen were killed and two others were wounded at Frankfurt airport Wednesday when a man opened fire on them at close range with a handgun, the first such attack on American forces in Germany in a quarter century. President Barack Obama called the shooting an "outrageous act."

The alleged assailant, identified as a 21-year-old Kosovo man, was taken immediately into custody and was being questioned by authorities, said Frankfurt police spokesman Manfred Fuellhardt.

Family members in Kosovo described the suspect as a devout Muslim, who was born and raised in Germany and worked at the airport. the rest

Archbishop Chaput: SUBJECT TO THE GOVERNOR OF THE UNIVERSE: THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE AND GLOBAL RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

+Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap. Archbishop of Denver
Berkley Center, Georgetown University
3.1.11

Excerpt:
Principles that Americans find self-evident — the dignity of the human person, the sanctity of conscience, the separation of political and sacred authority, the distinction between secular and religious law, the idea of a civil society pre-existing and distinct from the state — are not widely shared elsewhere. In fact, as Leszek Kolakowski once said, what seemed self-evident to the American Founders ―would appear either patently false or meaningless and superstitious to most of the great men that keep shaping our political imagination.‖iii We need to ask ourselves why this is the case.

We also need to ask ourselves why we Americans seem to be so complacent about our own freedoms. In fact, nothing guarantees that America‘s experiment in religious freedom, as we traditionally know it, will survive here in the United States, let alone serve as a model for other countries in the future. The Constitution is a great achievement in ordered liberty. But it‘s just another elegant scrap of paper unless people keep it alive with their convictions and lived witness.

Yet in government, media, academia, in the business community and in the wider culture, many of our leaders no longer seem to regard religious faith as a healthy or a positive social factor. We can sense this in the current administration‘s ambivalence toward the widespread violations of religious liberty across the globe. We can see it in the inadequacy or disinterest of many of our news media in reporting on religious freedom issues. And we can see it especially in the indifference of many ordinary American citizens.

In that light, I have four points that I‘d like to share with you today. They‘re more in the nature of personal thoughts than conclusive arguments. But they emerge from my years as a Commissioner with the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), and I believe they‘re true and need to be said. The first three deal with the American experience. The last one deals with whether and how the American experience can apply internationally. the rest

Pakistan's only Christian minister killed. Copts massacred...

... Afghan convert sentenced to death. When will Britain wake up to Islam's persecution of Christians?
By Damian Thompson
March 2nd, 2011

Shahbaz Bhatti was Pakistan’s Minister for Minorities and today he paid the price for belonging to the most despised Pakistani minority of all: Christians. He was shot dead in his car for the crime of campaigning to reform the country’s medieval blasphemy laws. Those laws are used to make life hell for Christians – but that doesn’t seem to bother Britain and the EU, which pour millions of pounds into Pakistan and don’t make a big deal out of anti-Christian persecution.

I don’t recall an enormous fuss being made, either, when Egypt last week acquitted the suspected murderers of six Coptic Christians mown down as they left Mass in Nag Hammadi in January. That was the “justice” handed out to Christians in Mubarak’s Egypt. If the Muslim Brotherhood seize power, this sort of case won’t even come to court.

Thank God, then, for our allies in Afghanistan. Following intense and secretive diplomatic pressure, they have magnanimously decided not to execute a man who converted to Christianity. So, you see, we did bring freedom to the Afghan people after all! the rest


Pain and sorrow of the Pakistani Church and the world over the murder of Shahbaz Bhatti

GetReligion: Dying on a cross in Pakistan

Obama's 'Where's Waldo?' presidency

By Ruth Marcus
Wednesday, March 2, 2011

For a man who won office talking about change we can believe in, Barack Obama can be a strangely passive president. There are a startling number of occasions in which the president has been missing in action - unwilling, reluctant or late to weigh in on the issue of the moment. He is, too often, more reactive than inspirational, more cautious than forceful.

Each of these instances can be explained on its own terms, as matters of legislative strategy, geopolitical calculation or political prudence.

He didn't want to get mired in legislative details during the health-care debate for fear of repeating the Clinton administration's prescriptive, take-ours-or-leave-it approach. He doesn't want to go first on proposing entitlement reform because history teaches that this is not the best route to a deal. He didn't want to say anything too tough about Libya for fear of endangering Americans trapped there. He didn't want to weigh in on the labor battle in Wisconsin because, well, it's a swing state.  the rest

Australia leading way with UK in Anglicans swimming Tiber

Wednesday, 02 March 2011
By Anthony Barich

INTEREST in the Pope’s offer to Anglicans to join the Catholic Church via a unique arrangement is gaining momentum with up to 60 Anglican clergy to be ordained as Catholic priests in Australia and the Torres Strait by Pentecost this year.

That number – including 30 from Australia and 30 from the Torres Strait - is also expected to rise.
Archbishop Barry Hickey and his Auxiliary Bishop Donald Sproxton showed their strong support for the Ordinariate by both attending the 26 February festival at Como Catholic Parish introducing the Anglican Ordinariate in Australia.

Archbishop Hickey said those participating in the Ordinariate and the festival are joining in the “important prayer” of Jesus Himself, who prayed to the Father that “all may be one, as You and I are one”.
Dossiers seeking ordination from Forward in Faith Australia chair Bishop David Robarts and TAC Bishop of WA Harry Entwistle, Bishop Tolowa Nona (Torres Strait) and retired TAC Bishop Raphael Kajiwarra (Japan) are being submitted for approval. A fifth is a former diocesan Bishop of the Anglican Church in Australia, who cannot yet be named. the rest

Vancouver Anglicans seek $100,000-plus in court costs

By Douglas Todd
1 Mar 2011

The Vancouver-area Anglican diocese is trying to recoup more than $100,000 in court costs from a bitter dispute with conservative dissidents over four church properties.

The diocese, led by Bishop Michael Ingham, recently applied to the B.C. Appeal Court to retrieve a portion of the soaring court costs in a case rooted in a battle over same-sex blessings and how to interpret the Bible.
The diocese has been saying for months the three-year-old legal dispute has bled away financial assets that could have been more usefully going to helping the poor, protecting the environment, supporting the Third World, strengthening parishes and other purposes.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Kelleher awarded court costs to the diocese on June 29, 2010, when he upheld the diocese's right to the four parish properties, including 1,000-member St. John's Shaughnessy (left), which has become home to evangelical Anglicans.

However, the dissident parishes argued in B.C. Appeal Court against having to pay the court costs to the more liberal diocese, even though the diocese ended up winning in both B.C. Supreme Court and in a unanimous decision of the B.C. Appeal Court. the rest

Metropolitan Jonah Placed on Leave of Absence by Synod

• Archbishop Nathaniel, as senior hierarch, named Temporary Administrator
• Fate of Fr. Garklavs, Chancellor, as yet unconfirmed
2.25.11

According to a report from Geneva on the Greek website Romofea.org late last evening, citing “exclusive information” from unamed sources, Metropolitan Jonah has been removed as the Primate, and Archbishop Nathaniel has been named Temporary Administrator by the OCA Synod of Bishops. Earlier in the day the retired Bishop of Los Angeles, Tikhon posted a short note on the web saying “Metropolitan Jonah.... has been given the “Bishop Nikolai’ treatment------mandatory leave of absence. Archbishop Nathaniel Popp has been named to temporarily fill the spot of First Hierarch.Bishop Melchizedek has been named as Chancellor, replacing the Archpriest, Alexander Garklavs.” Neither story has been confirmed or denied by OCA.org.

OCANews.org has, however, confirmed with mulitple sources that Metropolitan Jonah has indeed been placed on a leave of absence, and that indeed +Nathaniel has been named as a temporary replacement. However, the fate of Fr. Garklavs is as yet unclear. According to sources close to Syosset, Bishop Michael (Dahulich) was to travel to Syosset this morning to discuss the Synod’s decisions with Fr. Garklavs. (Fr. Garklavs returned from Santa Fe yesterday before the Synodal retreat was concluded.) Bishop Melchizedek, named by +Tikhon as Garklav’s replacement, was unavailable for comment as he is currently on a train travelling back to Pittsburgh from Santa Fe.

How Did This Happen?

The decision of the OCA Synod, composed of six diocesan bishops and two diocesan Administrators ( who participate, but do not yet vote), gathered for their annual pre-Lenten retreat, to ask the Primate to step aside, is a shock, but not a surprise. Since his enthronement some 26 months ago Metropolitan Jonah has experienced growing trouble in his own diocese, refused the advice and professional counsel of official Church committees, increasingly refused to cooperate with the governing bodies of the OCA (including the staff in Syosset and the Metropolitan Council), alienated several sister Orthodox Churches, and finally, challenged the Synod itself. Multiple attempts by his staff, the Metropolitan Council and its members, individual bishops, and finally the Synod itself, to intervene with the Metropolitan, personally and corporately over the past 18 months failed to convince him to alter his leadership style, decisions, practices or actions - actions that, in the eyes of many in positions of responsibility in the OCA were causing irreparable harm to the structures and status of the OCA. the rest

UK: Cancer sufferers refused life-extending drugs despite Government pledge

Dying cancer patients have been refused costly life-extending drugs on cost grounds despite a Government promise to end the "scandal" forever.
By Laura Donnelly, Health Correspondent
26 Feb 2011

Their requests have been rejected by regional health authorities who were accused of operating covert “blacklists” to restrict dozens of treatments to save money.

An investigation by The Sunday Telegraph has uncovered more than 80 cases in which desperately sick NHS patients have been refused the cancer drugs their doctor sought, in the four months since a £200 million fund was introduced to stop health authorities rationing treatments.

The fund was a key move by the Coalition so that those suffering from cancer would never again be refused drugs on grounds of cost.

Ministers were responding to years of anger over a system which meant patients were unable to secure life-extending drugs because central NHS rationers had decided the treatments were not “cost effective”. the rest

Bricks and Moratoriums: Zoning Out Churches

Economy impacts churches' battles to build.
Bobby Ross Jr.
2/28/2011

The city council of Burbank, Illinois, passed a new zoning law late last year banning churches from building in commercial areas. The action came after Rios de Agua Viva, a Hispanic congregation, signed a $900,000 contract to transform an old restaurant into its new sanctuary.

The congregation did what many have done before it: it filed a lawsuit alleging violations of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), a 2000 federal law designed to protect houses of worship from discrimination.

More than a decade after RLUIPA's passage, however, many religious institutions face lengthy, costly battles to exercise their freedom to worship, said Richard Baker, an attorney who is representing the Burbank church.

"Churches do not realize the fight they're in," Baker said. "If you go into a commercial district, they say you're wrecking their tax base. If you go into residential, they say you're disturbing their peace."

While the issue is not new, Baker said, "The objections to churches obtaining zoning do seem to be heating up under the [economy]."
 the rest image by Jeff Noble

A.S. Haley: Rushing to Judgment: a Spurious Defense of Title IV (Part III)

Monday, February 28, 2011

One of the most striking ways in which the proposed revisions to Title IV of the national Canons depart from previous precedent is in the broad new powers they give to the Presiding Bishop. In essence, they make the relationship between the Presiding Bishop and the other bishops in the House of Bishops analogous to the relationship between a diocesan bishop and the clergy in his or her diocese. When one bishop has such pastoral and disciplinary powers over other bishops, s/he is said to be "a metropolitan," or to have "metropolitical powers." Such metropolitan bishops are frequently (but not always) called "Archbishops."

Until the proposed changes to Title IV take effect next July 1, ECUSA will never have had a metropolitan bishop in its more than 221 years of existence since 1789. Archbishops are known to the Church of England -- the Archbishop of Canterbury has metropolitan authority over all the bishops and clergy in the Province of Canterbury, while the Archbishop of York exercises the same authority over all the bishops and clergy in the Province of York. But the strong feeling against bishops in this country after the Revolutionary War meant that there could be no thought of the creation of any such position for the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America.

Why, then, did the Title IV Task Force II revisers think that they could engineer such a drastic change in the polity of ECUSA? And not only bring about such a drastic change, but accomplish it in such a back-door manner?  the rest

Canada: Pedophilia a ‘sexual orientation’ experts tell Parliament

by Rebecca Millette
Mon Feb 28, 2011
OTTAWA, Ontario

(LifeSiteNews.com) – In a recent parliamentary session on a bill relating to sexual offenses against children, psychology experts claimed that pedophilia is a “sexual orientation” comparable to homosexuality or heterosexuality, a definition that was questioned by one Member of Parliament who was present.

Bill C-54, an Act to Amend the Criminal Code, seeks to increase or impose mandatory minimum penalties or punishment on sexual offenders of children for particular crimes.

Parliamentary discussion on February 14 centered on the mandatory minimum imprisonment and how offenders respond to treatment. Dr. Vernon Quinsey and Dr. Hubert Van Gijseghem, experts on the issue, were called to witness. the rest

One columnist in the Toronto Sun, Brian Lilley, expressed shock at Van Gijseghem’s testimony: “what really shocked me was the Universite de Montreal professor, Dr. Hubert Van Gijseghem, who showed up to tell MPs pedophilia was a sexual orientation just like heterosexuality or homosexuality.” He argued that “it’s time to take our country back by ignoring the ‘experts.’”

Pope Benedict XVI Warns of the 'Eclipse of the Meaning of Life'

By Deacon Keith Fournier
3/1/2011
Catholic Online

The human person is not an it - but an I - some-one who must never be treated as an object

In his words to the Pontifical Academy for Life the Pope acknowledged the threats arising out of what he referred to as the "Eclipse of the Meaning of Life." However, he did so in order to charge the members, and all of the faithful, to shine the light of truth on the horizon of human culture and build a new Culture of Life and Civilization of Love. the rest

The Holy Father continued, "Moral conscience has the duty to discern good from evil in the various situations of life so that, on the basis of this judgment, human beings can freely orient themselves towards what is good." He asked that the members explain "to people who would deny the existence of moral conscience in man, reducing its voice to the result of external conditioning or to a purely emotive phenomenon" that the "moral nature of human action is not an extrinsic or optional value, nor is a prerogative only of Christians and believers; rather, it unites all mankind".

Gay protesters swarm Chicago cathedral, police do nothing

by Kathleen Gilbert
Fri Feb 25, 2011
CHICAGO

(LifeSiteNews.com) - The city of Chicago ordered its police force not to enforce the law against a mob of homosexualist activists who disrupted Mass at the Holy Name Cathedral to protest “anti-gay bigots” who support the Church’s teaching on marriage.

The Gay Liberation Network staged the rally on the eve of Valentine’s Day, shouting and chanting loudly as churchgoers entered to celebrate Sunday Mass. The demonstration’s primary target was Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, who has spoken out in defense of traditional marriage between a man and a woman. Protesters had staged a similar disruption around the same time last year.

In response to the protest, George, who was not present at the cathedral, acknowledged that the issue is deeply emotional on both sides but, “No matter the issue, Catholics should be able to worship in peace, without fear of harassment.” the rest

While it was illegal for the protesters to disrupt a religious service, the Chicago City Council announced that police would not enforce the law in this instance - a move that NOM castigated.

“It’s outrageous that the city of Chicago stepped in and basically told police not to enforce a law for this one occasion,” said NOM president Brian Brown.

Colson: Obama and DOMA

Sun, Feb. 27 2011
By Chuck Colson

The ground shook this week when Attorney General Holder announced the decision of the Administration not to defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court. This was the law of the land, passed by both houses of Congress and signed by President Clinton. But The New York Times hailed this decision in a front-page story and in a lead editorial.

Justifying this extraordinary action, Holder says that in the congressional debate in the 90s there were “numerous expressions reflecting moral disapproval of gays and lesbians and their intimate family relationships.” He went on to describe this as “animus” (defined by Webster as "vehement enmity, hatred, ill will") and that that violates the Equal Protection Clause.

But wait a minute. Animus to defend a moral position based on 2,000 years of classical and Christian teaching rooted in scripture--or for Muslims to declare their opposition? the rest

UK: High Court suggests Christian disapproval of homosexuality is harmful to foster children

Couple lose foster care right over anti-gay stance
Feb 28, 2011

LONDON (AP) -- A British court has ruled that a Christian couple cannot care for foster children because they disapprove of homosexuality.

Judges at London's Royal Courts of Justice ruled that laws protecting gays from discrimination take precedence over the couple's religious beliefs.

Eunice and Owen Johns, aged 62 and 65-years old, had previously fostered children in the 1990s, but what one social worker described as their "strong views" on homosexuality raised red flags with authorities in the English city of Derby when they were interviewed in 2007. the rest

Foster parent ban: 'no place’ in the law for Christianity, High Court rules