We actually anticipate that we will be in a situation within 24 to 36 months in which . . . a separate ecclesiastical structure in North America within the Anglican Communion will exist as a united reality. – Bishop Duncan
Misdirected government policy plays a part here, too. In 2005, the United States Congress began to require widespread use of ethanol in motor fuels. This law combined with a subsidy for this use has created a flourishing corn market in the United States, but has also diverted agricultural resources from food to fuel. This makes it even harder for the hungry stomachs to compete.
Individual parishes are neither truly independent nor fully autonomous but emanate from the diocese. The bishop serves as the foundation’s head. Rectors and priests represent him or her at the parish level. We will not delve further, as in this instance church structure flows from denominational belief and thus falls under the purview of theologians.
Psychological studies suggest that the mere fact of division, even when there is no substantive content to it, can be corrosive: in a series of experiments in the 1950s and ’60s, groups of similar people arbitrarily divided into subgroups quickly exploded into conflicts of “Lord of the Flies”-like intensity. Other studies have shown that when relatively like-minded people are grouped together, they don’t settle around the average point of view of the individuals in the group but rather become more extreme in the direction toward which they’re already inclined.
I’d like to tell you some fancy things about the spirituality of walking. I enjoy thinking I’ve become an expert in humble walking. I cut several paragraphs where I tried to deliver the thousandth (and best) lecture on the cultural and religious importance of the Camino. You don’t need the lecture. Walking is simpler and humbler than any fancy spirituality.
Teilhard de Chardin outlines the dangers of a divided heart and mind if we do not love God and the world aright. He suggests that most Christians are in danger of becoming ‘distorted, disgusted, or divided’. We become distorted when we deny our taste for the tangible world and make ourselves purely religious objects.
“We have little freedom,” said Bishop Kondo, whose diocese is home to many southern Sudanese who fled to Khartoum during the civil war. The Mothers’ Union is active in his diocese and he has 150 clergy and assorted evangelists to minister to the worshippers in about 50 churches; the Episcopal Church claims about 1.5 million members throughout Sudan.
Our struggle to worship without harassment continues. The Supreme Court Order issued by the Hon. Chief Justice on 12th May was totally disregarded by the police, as previous orders have been. Needless to say where there is law and order such defiance would result in the arrest of those in contempt of court.- Sebastian Bakare, Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Harare CPCA
Archbishop Desmond Tutu will visit Gaza later this week to conduct a United Nations investigation into the killing of 19 Palestinians by Israeli shells in
Text by Mel Ahlborn; Painting by Delda Skinner