In the case of prayer we do not pray in order to change God’s plan, but in order to obtain by our prayers those things which God planned to bring about by means of prayers, in order, as Gregory says, that our prayers should entitle us to receive what almighty God planned from all eternity to give us.
Language trips off the tongue before it is ever written down. Language is sound, and names are meant to be said, cried and whispered. In love, in friendship, in tears and laughter, in prayers. Names are to be spoken in the relationships which make up the fullness of human living. Names recall for us the essence of a person.
The Rev. Canon James M. Rosenthal and Deirdre Martin were each awarded the Cross of St. Augustine at a January 26 reception hosted by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams in honor of their combined 51 years of service to the Anglican Communion.
When it comes to culture, Obama doesn’t have a public agenda; he has a public anti-agenda. He wants to remove culture from the political debate. He seems to think there are large numbers of conservative white Protestants and Catholics who will look beyond culture when they enter the voting booth as long as he and other Democrats don’t ram cultural liberalism down their throats.
While we affirm the right of any person in our democratic society to oppose the establishment of this registry, we are dismayed that clergy and others would use the Bible as their weapon of assault. We are especially concerned that they would lift verses out of context much the same way that some Christians in a previous era selected verses to bolster their views in support of slavery, segregation, and the oppression of women.
An old-fashioned believer in hard work, he published more than 50 books in a career that started in the 1950s. Updike won virtually every literary prize, including two Pulitzers, for “Rabbit Is Rich” and “Rabbit at Rest,” and two National Book Awards.
She came out during her senior year of high school. Paige Williams acknowledged she was gay, and her devoutly religious parents were devastated. She later created a documentary called Mississippi Queen that tells her coming out story and her parents’ transformation. Her parents, in turn, sought solace through an organization called Exodus International.
The Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has asked the primates of five provinces, including the Anglican Church of Canada, to reflect on the impact that the current Anglican conflict over sexuality has had on the mission and priorities of their churches.
During this time of economic crisis, in which American families are plagued by rising unemployment and increasing health care costs, the Senate must now act quickly to reauthorize the program to increase both the number of children served by SCHIP, improve the quality of health coverage they receive, and provide long-term, dedicated funding to this critical program.
The Baptismal Instructions of John Chrysostom, among others, focus our attention on what a Christian initiation into the Church consisted of at one time. Let us briefly summarize the spiritual themes that recur most frequently.