It is impossible adequately to record amongst the other marks of his devotion, his great compassion and tenderness towards the sick, and even to those afflicted with leprosy. He used to wash and dry their feet and kiss them affectionately, and having refreshed them with food and drink gave them alms on a lavish scale.
For Christians, action is always rooted in prayer. The heart of this prayer, of course, is corporate worship, above all the Eucharist, in which through the Church’s Spirit-graced act of giving thanks, the Lord Jesus gives himself to us anew and draws us ever more deeply into his dying and rising. It is here, above all, that we become rooted in the vine, so that the branches might bear fruit.
There are no plans for a new General Convention diocese. There already is an Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth and we’re it. You are not. We have to get reorganized with new leadership, but the diocese has gone nowhere. The “General Convention Church” happens to be the Episcopal Church, that “mythical church” Jack Iker frequently refers to.
On November 4, Proposition 8 passed in California, enshrining in the state constitution a ban on same sex marriage. Similar amendments also passed in Florida and Arizona. We have now lost campaigns like this in 29 states; we have won only once – in Arizona in 2006. On a human level, these defeats are a blow to people across the nation who care about civil rights and equality. On a strategic level, they are explicable; after all, we continue to rely on the same strategies despite mounting evidence that they do not work.
How is death defined in other religions? Usually, the same way it has traditionally been defined in all cultures: by a lack of vital signs. Most world religions lack a clear doctrinal statement that certifies when, exactly, the moment of death can be said to have occurred.
“Picasso et les maitres” at the Grand Palais
Charles Darwin is often identified both by atheists and some Christians alike as an enemy of the faith. Andrew Brown argues otherwise. He notes that scientific challenges to literalism were already overwhelming before Darwin wrote his texts, and that Darwin’s evolution may offer an answer to the problem of evil in the world.
For some years now in the United States, Jewish communities in any given area hold an annual Mitzvah Day, literally a “good deed day”. In Los Angeles, for example, tens of thousands of Jews mark the day by giving time, rather than money, to support not only their own community but their neighbours’ communities too.
Now we need to look at the shadow side of this parable [of the talents]: the third slave who was given only one talent and did not do anything with it. Here is a somber warning without doubt. There are two ways of being unfaithful.
Back in September, Garrison Keillor appeared at the Washington National Cathedral. He gets a spotlight in this week’s Religion and News Weekly over at PBS, with a brief excerpt from his performance, but we also have the link to the complete lecture at the Cathedral site.