Belgian authorities have raided the headquarters of the Belgian Catholic Church during an investigation into child sex abuse claims. A prosecutors’ spokesman told AFP news agency that prosecutors had “been informed of accusations denouncing abuse of minors committed by a certain number of Church figures”.
The internet and search engines have changed the possibilities for spreading rumors at the same time they opens up the possibility of finding information relevant to clergy search committees. Should a clergy search committee have a no googling policy?
The biggest question is this: If the Anglican Communion is abandoning Anglicanism as we understand it and as it has been understood in the past, why do we want to be involved in the Communion at all? Do we really believe that being a part of the Anglican Communion is advancing Christ’s mission to the world as we understand it? How does that work, exactly?
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori was her usual steady self in an interview that touched on the ecological devastation of the Gulf of Mexico in the wake of the still-spreading BP oil spill, earthquake recovery efforts in Haiti, relationships in the Anglican Communion, and “mitregate”, which she said was not painful, but was “silly.”
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On one side is the obesity epidemic, fueled by reliance on industrialized, portable, chemical-laden food requiring minimal cooking time or skill—or none at all. On the other extreme are those who see food as something to be feared and tightly controlled, who believe that non-organic produce, white flour, and sugar are evils to be avoided at all costs.
Dearest God in Heaven,
with awe and wonder, I look down upon this tiny face tonight. . . .
Pure magic, pure joy, pure love,
A living testament of your divine existence.
Lauren Stanley, a priest in the Diocese of Virginia, told ENS that “because of the changing circumstances in Haiti, a request has been made for a different skill set in the position that I held. I am deeply saddened by this, but as I have said from the moment I arrived in Haiti, long before the earthquake, Bishop Duracin is in charge, and I truly believe that we need to let the Haitians be in charge of their own future.”
I refute completely that the Church of England has managed to operate a practical polity. The practical polity is in fact extremely dysfunctional, cripples the ministry of women, in some diocese more than others, and has done nothing to bring about greater communion, but instead fosters division and discrimination and continues to damage the Church.
“Yesterday we learned that the Archbishops seem OK with proposing a compromise on women bishops that downgrades the status of all the women in the Church. It beats me how you can put that together with their upbeat view of evangelism. They might feel fine about evangelising people into a Church that continues to give women second class status. I do not.” – Maggi Dawn