Tough times call for creative solutions. A Texas congregation has responded to local needs by inviting people who need to do so, to help themselves to the offering plate as it passes by them.
Morgan’s Chapel, a pre-colonial war parish in West Virginia, was in the process of performing some needed renovations to the nave when something very unexpected appeared. The removal of the modern layers of paint uncovered a wealth of notes written on the wall.
In a difficult economy, churches suffer the same way that other small businesses do. Income is down in many places and that means that expenses need to be cut. Often that means cutting salary expenses. The problem is that many people who are laid off from church positions are discovering they lack the same safety net that other laid-off workers can count upon.
There are numerous stories popping up today about the President’s address to the graduating class of Notre Dame yesterday. The invitation was offensive to some in the Catholic Church because of the President’s pro-choice stand.
In times of natural disasters or emergencies, local authorities and folks from the community are likely to reach out to faith communities to help with recovery. But hardly any congregations have an existing plan in place to respond when disasters happen. And the requests aren’t always of a material nature.
From NPR: Many know John Danforth as a former three-term U.S. Senator from Missouri, and former Ambassador to the United Nations. But the Midwestern Republican’s interests stretch far beyond politics. Danforth is also an ordained Episcopal priest. The public servant talks openly about his faith and why he believes right-wing evangelicals have done more harm than good for the GOP.
Archbishop Ndungane has written an essay in response to voices claiming that financial aid to Africa needs to end before African nations can turn themselves around. He identifies how financial globalization combined with local issues are making the situation in Africa worse and influx of money used in ways not sensitive to the African contexts are combined to create the present situation.
The reports of the final day of the Anglican Consultative Council’s meeting are starting to appear online. The surprise news of the day was the election of Ian Douglas of the Episcopal Church to the Joint Standing Committee.
The Council of the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada was not able to come to agreement on the whether or not blessing “same-sex unions” is something proper for a Church to do. Because of this lack of agreement, there will be no request to change the Canadian marriage canons to include rites of blessing for same gender couples.
Colin Coward of Changing Attitudes relates an incident that took place this morning as the ACC was resuming its work. He saw a Nigerian bishop delegate meeting with some credentialed press members outside the meeting and took a picture. But the bishop’s reaction was one of fury according to Coward.