Integrity News is reporting the California Diocesan Convention has approved same sex blessing rites by an overwhelming margin. Although the Convention passed the resolution, only the bishop has the power to authorize these rites.
When people say “America is being run by evangelical Christians,” they usually mean that it only feels that way. But evangelicals have rarely been as prominent as they are today, and a major new study by sociologist Michael Lindsay reveals, evangelical Christians now hold seats of influence in American government, business, culture, and higher education. What are the implications of evangelicals’ rise to power?
Writer A. J. Jacobs spent a year taking the Bible very, very seriously, and chronicling his experience in a new book, The Year of Living
It’s a romantic comedy. About death. And the romantic leads can’t actually touch one another, or else she dies. This cute–maybe too cute, whimsical–maybe too
Don Lawrence preaches three times a week to an appreciative congregation at Life Baptist church. His sermon tapes often sell out, and this year he is leading the people through a study of Matthew’s gospel. But Lawrence is not a real person. He is a virtual, on-screen pastor whose sermon topics, personality, even mannerisms are chosen collectively by his congregation. “We’ve never been happier,” says head elder Louie Francesca. “We finally got the pastor we all want.”
As a follow up to our story yesterday, the Diocese of Montreal has passed the motion requesting that clergy have the option to bless civil marriages, including marriages between same-sex couples, where at least one party is baptized. The bishop has responded, saying that he wants time to think about the discussions and that he wants to consult with other bishops at the Anglican Church of Canada’s House of Bishops meeting next week before changing any policy.
In February of 1920 – as Turks were massacring thousands of Armenian Christians in the city of Marash – my great-grandfather, another American, and two Arab Christians drove toward the city in a relief truck filled with supplies to help the victims and survivors. They were slain by Turks with orders to kill any Christians on the road.
A reading from Vida Dutton Scudder, the daughter of a Congregational missionary India who found in the Anglo-Catholicism of the Episcopal Church a vision of the world that offered hope. She wrote, “Social intercession may be the mightiest force in the world.”