We welcome your comments. The Café is, well, a café. So we encourage kibbitzing, correction, debate, advice, engagement and other comment from our readers. (Sorry, the coffee is DIY.) Here’s a “how to” on making comments on the Café.
A truly delightful video interview with Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori on KOCO TV in Oklahoma: watch it here.
For St. Stephen’s Episcopal, Heathsville, their church’s reconstitution started with an alternate coffee hour at a local tire and auto shop. “We were shocked at how many people showed up,” said vestry member Dawn Mahaffey, who stood in the church and addressed the congregation after the December 17 vote to leave the Diocese, telling them, “If there’s anybody who would like to remain Episcopalian, come see me.”
DAY ONE of the meeting of the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa (CAPA). The council focused on the continent’s problems – poverty, disease and injustice. The topic of homosexuality was avoided.
A recent BBC News headline asked, “Why can’t Africa handle poverty”? The UN says that halfway to the deadline, sub-Saharan Africa is unlikely to meet any of the poverty-busting goals – nor the benchmarks on education, health, and women’s empowerment.
A roundup of statements and actions from diocesan bishops in Central Florida, Georgia, and Rio Grande, and from the presiding bishop.
The “traditional” interpretation of the story turns out to be a relatively modern one not shared by the ancient Hebrews. The “iniquity” of Sodom was long understood to represent the failure to offer hospitality to visitors, a matter of life and death in desert societies. In the words of the prophet Ezekiel (16:49), Sodom’s sins were “pride, fullness of bread, an abundance of idleness” and a failure to help the poor and needy.
We continue now with our morning theme, the 13th century. Today is the birthday of the Sufi poet known as Rumi. Turkey is to celebrate Rumi’s birthday with a giant whirling dervish sama performance and the celebration will be aired live in eight different countries using 48 cameras and 300 whirling dervishes.
Archbishop Phillip Aspinall, a member of the Primates’ Standing Committee, said the US church had “responded positively” to worldwide concerns it had been asked to address. “My initial reaction based both on my preliminary reading of the document and on my first-hand conversations with many of the bishops involved is that the house has responded positively.”
The formal response of the House of Bishops is now available, and it is the intention of the Joint Standing Committee to consult with one another in the preparation of a report to be submitted to the Archbishop of Canterbury by the end of the week offering an early response to the statement that the House of Bishops have developed.