…within that 51 percent, more than half of people said they go more often than they used to—in other words, about quarter of Americans have gotten more active in their religious communities in recent years, not less.
US government has agreed to support Anglican effort in Ghana to address child trafficking and slavery
Representatives of less than a dozen congregations are due to gather in Tunbridge Wells this week to discuss how they will uphold traditional teaching. They have no immediate plan to break away from the church but are forming “embryonic” structures in case the church continues to move in what they consider to be a liberal direction.
How much does our own personal righteousness determine our fortunes? Not much, it seems.
So, in some sense, the work of the members is the work of the church. In other words, getting disciples to share the Good News and to serve the world, etc., is the work of the church. But in another sense, it’s worth thinking about a nuanced difference between the church’s work and the work of its members.
Sometimes, when looking at the ceiling of the cathedral, I wonder if those slight marks are smudges left by our angel wings. I wonder what soars up there, like an upside-down water fall, as we pray together. I wonder if the tips of our wings brush the stone. I think they do.
This incident actually happened to Julio Diaz in 2008. Recently StoryCorp teamed with Upworthy and turned Julio’s story into an animated video. The moral of Julio’s story sounds very familiar.
We call the Church to pray for Standing Rock, for Good Minds to prevail and for peaceful settlement. We also call the Church to pray for water, that is taken for granted in many of our communities but good water is getting scarce in our communities. We call upon the Church to pray for our governments, both Indigenous and Settler, that they may work together to protect our fragile Mother Earth. Flowing waters are the arteries of our Creator, precious and life giving. Without water, there is no life here on Mother Earth. Pray that our Creator, God, will help us to live in balance and harmony with each other and with Earth, Fire, Air and Water.
The American Bible Society hired the Barna Group, a conservative research & polling organization, to examine “teens’ perceptions of the Bible, the role they believe it should play in American public life and their level of personal engagement with it.” The published research is the 2016 Teen State of the Bible.
Nigel Rowley, an Anglican, married his Danish betrothed, Mikel Lindbæk, in the Lutheran cathedral church of Copenhagen, the Church of Our Lady. The Bishop of Copenhagen, the Rt Revd Peter Skov-Jakobsen, solemnized the marriage. The Church of England does not allow same-sex marriages, so Nigel chose to marry in the Church of Denmark.