One day about six years ago, the Rev. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale was testifying before Congress on behalf of abortion rights, basking among politicians who were interested to hear her views and happy to shake her hand. The next day, the Episcopal priest was back for a meeting at St. David’s, her tiny Pepperell church, where a 2-year-old scaled her chair to perch on her head.
“That’s the basis of all history,” Doerr said. “You have to go back and ask people what happened and write it down. That’s where history begins.”
The latest statistical study of the Episcopal Church is now online.
It turns out that human beings have a natural inclination for religious belief, especially during hard times. Our brains effortlessly conjure up an imaginary world of spirits, gods and monsters, and the more insecure we feel, the harder it is to resist the pull of this supernatural world. It seems that our minds are finely tuned to believe in gods.
Has the Anglican Communion, made any inquiries into what Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria knew or did not know about the organized massacre that took the lives of at least 660 Muslims in the Nigerian town of Yelwa in 2004?
Colin Coward of Changing Attitude-England has looked into charges made by Chris Sugden of Anglican Mainstream, who reported that the Episcopal Church had withheld $100,000 in donations to the Church of Sudan after Sudanese Archbishop Daniel Deng called for the resignation of Bishop Gene Robinson.
If one were trying to make members of the Episcopal Church suspicious of the new “pastoral visitors” who have “named by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams to assist in healing and reconciliation given the current tensions in the Anglican Communion,” here is what one would do:
The downturn is giving us fresh excuses for moral flagellation, of ourselves and others. If yesterday’s White House proselytized shopping, today’s is shaming bankers for their greed.The message: We sinned with profligacy, and now we repent in parsimony. Thrift is the new abstinence.
Greg Garrett, Episcopal lay preacher and Baylor University professor, admits he has an addiction that threatens his walk with his God: Facebook. The ubiquitous social networking site “is the biggest distraction to my observance of a holy Lent,” he said. So as of 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, he’s reclaiming his low-tech spiritual life by going on an “e-fast” for the 40-day penitential season of Lent.
One hesitates to call attention to the work Episcopal congregations do in certain countries, for fear that those who oppose the church’s position on same-sex relationships will attempt to undermine it. But this particular cat has jumped out of the bag and into the pages of the Amity (CT) Observer. Let’s pray it lives a long life.