O God, you make us glad by the yearly festival of the birth of your only Son Jesus Christ: Grant that we, who joyfully receive him as our Redeemer, may with sure confidence behold him when he comes to be our Judge; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Ed Sheeran, Palestine, and a child in a manger
Judge Gergel confirms and expands September 19 injunction affirming The Episcopal Church in South Carolina as the historic Diocese of South Carolina, noting “The Defendants [the disassociated diocese] here clearly violated the terms of the Court’s Order and Injunction.”
When I was in college, I heard a lot about how life was a journey. People were always on a journey and they were typically looking for themselves. If they had the means or an adequate sense of adventure and were particularly ambitious, they went on literal journeys, wandering around Europe or South America, always in hopes of bumping into themselves and making their own acquaintance.
“We may find ourselves wondering from whence light will come in this troubled world, with its long nights and short and sometimes gray days. Lucy is a turning point, toward a time when the light will overcome the darkness in hours of daylight, but also when the Light will overcome darkness in giving new understanding of God.”
“Spiritual growth requires patience and self-compassion. Whether we are picking up an instrument or reading the Bible for the first time, trying something new is never easy. It won’t go the way we want it to. Progress will be slower than we hoped.”
A lot of time and energy is spent on talking about the language of the prayer book; maybe greater attention should be paid to the ordering
“She spoke out as a pacifist, as an advocate for those who suffered oppression, as a passionate interpreter of the Gospel of Jesus who cares deeply for the poor.”
In a nearly two and a half hour hearing Tuesday morning at the Orangeburg County Courthouse, South Carolina Circuit Court Judge Edgar Dickson heard arguments on both sides for a variety of motions currently before his court relating to the South Carolina Supreme Court majority decision in favor of The Episcopal Church in South Carolina
“I believe there are leaders in the church, in classrooms, in the halls of political power, and in our homes, who emulate Jesus (and Saint Edmund) and sacrifice on behalf of their people. They choose the path of peace instead of the path of violence, and in so doing reject and undermine the promise of empire that might makes right.”