On 1 JAN 2017, some of the apron strings between the Kingdom of Norway and the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Norway were cut. Approved by the Norwegian parliament back in 2012, but effective beginning this year, the Norwegian constitution has been amended from referring to the church as the “state’s public religion,” to, “Norway’s national church.”
Until last Tuesday (3 JAN), members of the US Army occasionally received religious accommodations on a case by case basis. On Tuesday the Secretary of the Army, Eric Fanning, propagated new regulations affecting all army personnel from the brigade level down.
Because so many of us are unfamiliar with both Islam and the Quran, we perhaps don’t know about the Quranic nativity story found in Maryam. It is a story of the birth of Jesus unfamiliar in many ways.
The Most Revd Paul Kwong is the chair of the Anglican Consultative Council, the Bishop of Dio Hong Kong and the Primate of the Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui, the Anglican Church in Hong Kong, a Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China. His reflections for 2017 have been published by The Anglican Communion News Service.
Jesus may have been God’s son, but he was also Mary’s, and when mama says to do something, it’s probably best to just do it, whether you like it or not.