The Archive

Year: 2007

The Advent Letter we’ve all been awaiting

December 14, 2007 25 Comments

The view that has been expressed by all the Instruments of Communion in recent years is that interventions are not to be sanctioned. … [T]he risk is magnified of smaller and smaller groups taking to themselves the authority to decide on the adequacy of a neighbour’s ministerial life or spiritual authenticity. The gospels and the epistles of Paul alike warn us against a hasty final judgement on the spiritual state of our neighbours.

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The grace of communion, spelled with a small “c”

December 14, 2007 No Comments

We are I believe being challenged in the current circumstance not so much to focus too intently and singularly on the bad behaviour of the few, but rather to focus anew the very good behaviour of the many whose exemplary regard for the sacredness of all others whom God has created points us all toward that way in which God would probably say that grace is to be truly expressed.

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O Come, Emmanuel

December 14, 2007 No Comments

Advent. A time of waiting and watching and preparation. A time, if we are not careful, of rampant materialism and tension that looks forward only to a too-secularized and too-commercialized Christmas holiday. On the other hand, Advent can be a time like no other—a time in which we pause and ask Christ into our hearts, invite God into our world.

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Family of ‘Lost Boy’ priest attacked in Kenya

December 13, 2007 No Comments

The Rev. Zachariah Jok Char is no stranger to the strife in his home country, Sudan—in fact, he’s spoken eloquently about his ordeal. Now, however, he fears that his year-old son (whom he’s never met) may have to go through it as well. Char’s wife, Tanya, and their son are still in Kenya, caught up in bureaucratic red tape that prevents them from immigrating to the United States. And last week, she was attacked by nomadic gang members in a Kenyan refugee camp.

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Escaping the SBC Shadow

December 13, 2007 1 Comment

While we wrestle with schism, some 30 different Baptist denominations are talking about uniting, according to an Associated Press report: ATLANTA (AP) — A conference

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The wisdom of the Constitution

December 13, 2007 3 Comments

We now face something of a constitutional crisis, both in TEC and in the Anglican Communion, just as Bishop Robert Duncan promised his colleagues he intended to create at the 2002 fall meeting of the House of Bishops in Cleveland. Happily, the antidote is not complicated. It is simply to follow our own rules and be true to our own constitutional principles.

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Santa Lucia

December 13, 2007 1 Comment

The feast of St. Lucy (304) occurs during the Geminid meteor showers, sometimes called “St. Lucy’s Lights.” The northern sky filled with shooting stars prompts us to put on the “armor of light” in anticipation of the day of the Lord. Before the Gregorian calendar reform in 1582, the feast of Santa Lucia fell on the shortest day of the year.

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Rowan Williams on the message of Christmas

December 13, 2007 1 Comment

God thought humans were worth spending a lifetime with and all that spills over into how we see all kinds of human beings; the ones we don’t like or the ones we don’t reckon very much, the ones we don’t take very seriously.
– The Archbishop of Canterbury

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It’s not just good for you, it makes you good

December 12, 2007 No Comments

The most recent entry in this niche is Spiritual Water. The Virgin Mary bottle, for example, has the Hail Mary prayer printed on the back in English and Spanish. Spiritual Water helps people to “stay focused, believe in yourself and believe in God,” says Elicko Taieb, the Florida-based company’s founder who was formerly in the pest-control business.

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