The power of naming

Naming in myth and fairy story has always been associated with power and identity. Thus, Adam named the beasts; in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost; let his name not be remembered; thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; and so on.

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Good Riddance Day

Everybody knows about the ball dropping, but Good Riddance Day in Times Square is a newer tradition, only two years old. “SHRED YOUR BAD MEMORIES – EVERYTHING FROM WORTHLESS STOCK CERTIFICATES AND DEPRESSING BANK STATEMENTS TO PHOTOS OF OLD LOVERS AND DEAR JOHN LETTERS – IN THE HEART OF TIMES SQUARE,” read the invitation on Craigslist.

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Religion for those who are truly sorry and humbly repent

Religious people are self-controlled not simply because they fear God’s wrath, but because they’ve absorbed the ideals of their religion into their own system of values, and have thereby given their personal goals an aura of sacredness. Nonbelievers could try a secular version of that strategy.

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Time’s end

The days are growing noticeably shorter; the nights are longer, deeper, colder. Today the sun did not rise as high in the sky as it did yesterday. Tomorrow it will be still lower. At the winter solstice the sun will go below the horizon, below the dark.

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Time for a change

The Anglican Communion Office website has been very slow to update their directories of diocese to reflect actual leadership of the actual dioceses of Pittsburgh, Fort Worth and Quincy.

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CofE proposes compromise on women bishops

The Synod of the Church of England voted last July to move forward with the ordination of women to the episcopate using a so-called “Code of Practice” and turned aside parallel oversight schemes. The proposal released this week in advance of February’s synod includes a scheme of “complementary” male bishops and judicial review for unhappy parishes.

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