The Primate and Metropolitans of the Anglican Church of Canada have released their promised pastoral statement on the recent incursions into their province by bishops
The Anglican Church of Ireland’s General Synod has published an alternative form of an Anglican Covenant. The Irish province accepts the need for a covenant, it does not find the present form helpful. The Covenant as they propose it calls on the Anglican provinces to recognize the moral authority of the “Instruments of Communion” while making clear they have no juridical authority over the provinces.
The Bishop and people of the Diocese of Minnesota commissioned a study group and asked them to look hard at the present state of the diocese and its immediate future. The answer they found is not a happy one. But they have developed a plan to respond to what they found.
Luke’s account of Jesus’ passion presents a Jesus in control of events: Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane is the agony of a heroic martyr not the anguish of Mark or Matthew; the arrest in Gethsemane includes Jesus’ healing of the ear of the High Priest’s servant; Jesus’ last words on the cross indicate confidence not abandonment: “Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit.”
Next to the calling of the disciples, I expect that Matthew’s story about their sending forth is one of the most confrontational stories in all the Bible. Can you imagine? There you are, perfectly content to be a follower, when Jesus comes home all worn out one day with his hair handing in his face and his clothes ringed with sweat and dirt.
Starting in 2006 a number of clergy and congregations began to push back against the increasing commercialization of Christmas by inviting their members to consider giving gifts to charity instead. In the first year hundreds of thousands of dollars were raised. This year, about 491 churches from 10 nations have joined the conspiracy, says Jeanne McKinley, who directs the program from Imago Dei Community with her husband Rick.