Here were two congregations going nowhere. In each case, there was no partnership between clergy and lay leaders. The congregations were stuck on alternate poles of this polarity, and both were experiencing more and more of the downside of their respective poles.
The U.S. Supreme Court today announced that it has denied a petition to hear an appeal from a breakaway congregation seeking claim to the property of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church of La Crescenta, California. The court posted its action, together with dozens of other petitions denied, on its web site.
As I survey the religious landscape (for more than a dozen years I served as counsel to some of America’s largest Protestant groups), I sense a growing energy — if not membership rolls — among these more liberal Protestant churches. Part of that energy could be because Protestants are developing an identity that jibes with what matters to young people.
“This is a bill that requires various members of community, family members, service providers and spiritual mentors to “spy” on one another,” a letter accompanying the petition reads.” The campaign is being led by Anglican priest Canon Gideon Byamugisha and he has been joined by HIV/Aids activists and civic organisations.
The Rev. Jonathan Hagger, better known as Mad Priest, has lost his job. Ruth Gledhill has the sketchy details. Jonathan spoke about his situation in his sermon yesterday.
In the end the logic of the Windsor process cannot deny itself. No matter how it is moderated, brought into line with the reality of life in the provinces, or the influence of history in forming a Christian tradition of provincial responsibility, it remains in the end a method that sets the framework to decide before any consideration of the substantive issue at stake.
The monastic community built in the Lord’s name a fine monastery in the place that the angel had previously shown them. When this was finished the holy father decreed such austerity in his zeal for the monastic ideal that every monk toiled at his daily work and spent his life in manual labor for the good of the community.
To walk in Lent with purpose is to occupy a demanding landscape. Media reports of disasters upon disasters only make more demand on us. On nights like these, the prayers we’ve internalized over these years come and pray themselves in us.
When it comes to something as vital as equal marriage, it’s only sensible for two seasoned lawyers to come together – even if it’s from opposite ends of the political spectrum.