It’s not really news that godparenting has evolved into “a revered but blurry mix of religious and secular duty,” but The Tennessean has devoted an extended feature to describing the history and current context of the tradition, which aligns closely with infant or child baptism and traces back to around the 8th century, when Catholic doctrine decreed that one’s spiritual birth is distinct from one’s physical birth.
Bishop Gene Robinson has publicly endorsed Barack Obama, according to published accounts of a telephone press conference today. On the one hand, Robinson is in the spotlight as a “civil rights leader,” but two cautions spring to mind, both issued by the Interfaith Alliance soon after the report of Robinson’s endorsement emerged.
Bishop Peter James Lee of the Diocese of Virginia has removed 21 clergy from the Episcopal priesthood. Twentytwo had been inhibited in January after the diocesan Standing
Committee determined that they had abandoned the Communion of The Episcopal Church. One inhibited clergy member has chosen to retract association with the group.
The opening prayer at the U.S. Senate usually doesn’t generate a lot of controversy. But on July 12, 2007, when chaplain Rajan Zed of Reno, Nev., became the first Hindu to deliver an opening prayer in the U.S. Senate, he was interrupted by Christian protesters….
Tobias Haller: It also strikes me that we are seeing, in the development of the Network, the final collapse of a geographical rootedness to the church. We are entering the world of the virtual church, the Church of the Five Faves, the church not of geographical and terrestrial space, but of affinity: Ecclesiastical MySpace
The Ojibwe clergy whom I knew growing up said that if they hadn’t been good hunters and skilled fishermen, their families would have suffered hunger. “The stipends were pitiful,” but they remained faithful. To this day, the heroes of the faith, and the churches they established serve the Indian community with heart, hope and energy.
At the heart of the Spiritual Exercises is learning how to discern the origin of our desiring. Each of us knows the pull and tug of various urges, some for our well-being and some for our downfall. These pulls, tugs, urges, and desires are movements that come from different sources. One of these sources is God and the other is not-God or, as Ignatius calls it, “the enemy of our human nature.”