Year: 2008

What the church gets right

Two things that the church gets right, says Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins over at Comment Is Free, are architecture and unofficial welfare. Describing the apparently magnificent restoration of St. Martin-in-the-Fields at Trafalgar Square, Jenkins provides a singular portrait of the architectural anomaly of steeple-upon-portico that became, in the 18th century, the template for many an Anglican church to come. But more than that, he adds, are the features that are at once just as permanent and, as individuals, totally transient.

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Rehm on the “Art of Listening”

Renowned radio host Diane Rehm found herself on the other side of the interviewing mike last week at the National Cathedral’s Sunday Forum. Rehm, an Episcopalian, related that her faith grew stronger and deeper while she was undergoing treatment for spasmodic dysphonia, the condition which makes it difficult for her to speak. In spite of her condition, Rehm has hosted a call-in radio show at Washington’s talk-oriented public radio station, WAMU, for more than a quarter century.

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Robinson “trying to walk a fine line”

Bishop Gene Robinson gets another spotlight this week from PBS’s Religion and Ethics Newsweekly, talking about his upcoming civil union and his ongoing safety concerns. Civil unions became legal in New Hampshire as of Jan. 1, and for Robinson, this allows him and his longtime partner Mark Andrews to enjoy “some 400 of the protections that out of 1,100 that are accorded to heterosexual couples,” as he says in the interview with R&EN’s Kim Lawton.

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Guiliani draws fire for taking communion

Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani apparently caused quite a ruckus last month by taking communion at a papal mass held at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Seems he and Cardinal Edward Egan had a “tacit understanding” that Giuliani wouldn’t take mass because of his support of abortion rights, according to an RNS story picked up at the Pew Forum. When it happened, Reuters ran the story that it was his divorced-and-remarried status that barred him from receiving communion, and tabloids ran rather amok with the report. But Egan seems to be taking the matter very seriously, citing Giuliani’s support of abortion rights.

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James the Less

The other apostle named James has been referred to as “the lesser,” “the less,” or “the younger” (Mark 15:40). We don’t know as much about this disciple as we do the others, because his name is mentioned in Scripture only a few times, and each time it is part of a list. All we know besides his name is that he was the son of Alpheus.

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Lighting to Unite

We don’t typically promote local events, but this one seems particularly cool. For three nights beginning on May 9 the south and west faces of

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People pedal along for the MDG’s

A group of Episcopalians and their friends have banded together to raise money for the Millennium Development Goals. A core of a dozen bikers riding across Iowa, joined by friends along the way, will be collecting money from their sponsors for each mile peddled.

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A statement from the Province of West Africa

Anglican Communion News has the text of a statement released by the Anglican “Church of the Province of West Africa on the state of the Anglican Communion”. The statement reiterates the Province’s objections to the actions being taken by other Anglican Provinces in ordaining partnered gays and lesbians and in allowing the blessing of the unions. But the statement is notable for what it does not say.

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