But, most worryingly, the Archbishop’s position gives ammunition to those regimes where institutionalised homophobia and misogyny have truly tragic consequences. Two of the bishops who’ve been vocal in their lambasting of the liberals hail from Uganda and Nigeria, states where punitive laws against homosexuals are still on the statute book…
While homosexuality has come under attack in many cultures at different points in history, the irony is that this particularly immoveable form of hate and intolerance, expressed by Orombi in the name of Christian love, was institutionalised by colonial law.
It’s a rather peculiar gesture that involves making the sign of the cross with the first two fingers of the right hand while simultaneously sucking the right thumb. While I’ve not seen it in Ritual Notes or any other liturgical guide, I have an extraordinarily good vantage for observing it; it’s the sign my newly-five-year old daughter makes as she leans her head on my shoulder while I hold her during the Eucharistic prayer.
Transfiguration is a central theme of Christianity, the transforming of sufferings and circumstances, of men and women with the vision of Christ before them and the Holy Spirit within them. The language both of vision and of transformation is found in the Pauline, Johannine, and Petrine writings in the New Testament, and the language tells of Christian experience which recurs through the centuries.
The world can expect to become about 0.2°C warmer per decade for the next two decades, according to several scenarios prepared by the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC). Even if the concentrations of all greenhouse gases and aerosols were kept constant at the levels they were in 2000, further warming of about 0.1°C per decade would still be expected.
When ERD realizes its original goal, to distribute 1 million nets to 15 countries by the end of September, it will set a new one: distribute 5 million nets over five years in a total of 18 countries, added Walsh, who next month will relocate operations to New York, rather than the United Kingdom.
… the United States and the European Union resisted calls to reduce the enormous subsidies that they hand out to agricultural producers. This is one of the main barriers to developing countries having a chance to trade their way out of poverty, for it funds cheaper agricultural produce against which farmers in poorer countries cannot compete.
The Common Word project, started last October by 138 Muslim scholars, says Christianity and Islam share two common core values — love of God and love of neighbor. The group says discussions on this among experts can help defuse tensions between the faiths.
The new manual provides safeguards for workers who request time off for religious observances, and protects workers whose faith requires they wear specific religious garments, such as a hijab, a head covering worn by some Muslim women.
As buildings cry out for major maintenance, and the financial responsibility gets passed from one generation to the next, we “boomers” are emerging as the new elders, whether we like it or not. Raised in the counter-cultural, anti-institutional world of the 1960’s and 70’s, we now have to ask ourselves. “Do we think there should be churches for the next generation?