For many centuries, dating back to the ancient Jerusalem liturgy, the Church has singled out stories from John’s Gospel to be read at Mass during Lent. In our era, three of these stories—the most sacred narratives in the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ public ministry—appear on the third, fourth, and fifth Sundays of Lent.
The Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation has invested almost $70 million in community groups. Less than one percent of that went to Planned Parenthood. That’s one percent too much for the Bishop of Little Rock, Arkansas.
The poorest counties in the U.S. are among the hardest hit by the subprime mortgage crisis, according to a study released Wednesday by the Christian anti-hunger advocacy group Bread for the World. The Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, said the inequity reflects an ignorance of the biblical condemnation against usury.
An openly edgy Christian church in Tampa has launched a 30-Day Sex Challenge to help members improve their relationships and rediscover themselves. Single folks are to abstain from sex for 30 days, even if they are in a committed relationship. Married folks, on the other hand, are supposed to have sex every day for 30 days.
Father Jake has beaten us to the punch with an essay on Eliza Griswold’s cover story in this month’s Atlantic Monthly in which Archbishop Peter Akinola declines to distance himself from a retributive rampage in Yelwa, Nigeria, in which more than 650 Muslims were killed by Christians.
The Episcopal Church USA has set a June 9 trial date for Bishop Charles E. Bennison, the suspended head of its Diocese of Pennsylvania, on charges that he concealed his brother’s sexual abuse of a minor decades ago.
The recent announcement that Seabury-Western will cease its degree granting program caught many people by surprise. Once the news soaked in, it also brought many people to a quite place for pensive reflection on the state and future of seminary education in our church. In effect, in saying farewell to “Seabury” (at least in its traditional form) we are reminding ourselves that in today’s economic reality we can take nothing for granted.
The Rev. Dr. Paul Zahl, new rector of All Saints Church in Chevy Chase, Md., was once a partisan in the struggle for the control
Christ hear us, sovereign Lord,
lest I should suffer some oppression;
lamb-lion, alpha and omega,
god-man eternally true,
redeeming king you must dispense
true council to us against death. . . .
A Chaldean Catholic archbishop was kidnapped in Mosul earlier today. According to reports gunman killed three people in abduction of the archbishop, who was taken after celebrating a Mass at a local church.