Most Eastern Orthodox Christians in America know Isabel Hapgood by name, but possibly not much about her life and activities. And yet, she merits to be remembered with respect and gratitude, as she was a champion in the awesome task of translating Orthodox liturgical texts from Church Slavonic into English.
“I just really want everyone to know, there is no ‘us or them,’ no throwaway people. Nobody is beyond the grasp of God’s grace. And that we are simply there to love people.”
Sin is not just lifting oneself up too high (as in the case of Satan, the rebellious angels, or Adam and Eve), it is also failing to lift oneself up high enough. Many LGBT people have been taught to hide in the shadows and that God hates us. Is it any wonder, then, that so many LGBT people suffer from a toxic degree of self-hate and shame?
Breaking The Rev. Canon Dr. Jane Alison Shaw has been appointed as the next dean of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco.
Episcopal News Service reports that Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori will be visiting the Anglican churches in Australia and New Zealand over the next two weeks.
The Church Times says that the Archbishop’s proposal is a last minute attempt to keep traditionalists inside the Church of England should the Synod vote allow women to become Bishops.
There is little more bracing for a priest than to be publicly accused of heresy – even if it is only the casual remarks of the angry and anonymous on the internet these days. So I have been pondering the charge of heresy – and, specifically, Gnosticism – leveled at me for an online reflection on chastity that was posted recently at Daily Episcopalian.
O Lord, we come this morning
Knee-bowed and body-bent
Before Thy throne of grace.
O Lord—this morning—
Bow our hearts beneath our knees,
And our knees in some lonesome valley.
Belgian authorities have raided the headquarters of the Belgian Catholic Church during an investigation into child sex abuse claims. A prosecutors’ spokesman told AFP news agency that prosecutors had “been informed of accusations denouncing abuse of minors committed by a certain number of Church figures”.
The internet and search engines have changed the possibilities for spreading rumors at the same time they opens up the possibility of finding information relevant to clergy search committees. Should a clergy search committee have a no googling policy?