Many people around the world are planning on observing an hour of “darkness” tomorrow night as a way of participating in a global earth hour. The event was created by the World Wildlife Fund in 2007.
“Members of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin are gathering in Stockton, California, March 28 to take two major steps in reorganizing the diocese. The first step will be a “service for healing and forgiveness” at the Episcopal Church of St. Anne in Stockton, the temporary home of the diocese.” Following that a special convention will be held at St. John the Baptist in Lodi for the purpose of re-organizing the diocese whose most recent convention voted to leave the Episcopal Church.
There have been a number of essays posted in the secular media over the past two weeks which have attempted to put the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright’s sermons about racism in the United States into some sort of broader context. But there have also been a few helpful essays written from within the religious community.
The blogger Aaron Orear has posted a lovely story of interfaith religious cooperation at his local cleaners. It’s a reminder that while there are certainly tensions between christians and muslims, there are still plenty of hopeful signs all around us that we can live and work in harmony with each other.
The credit shortage that has been the focus of many stories in the secular press is also effecting the “micro-finance” projects that commercial lenders were beginning. How can people of faith act to respond in a sputtering financial market?
“Good Friday in Jerusalem was a day filled with many blessings and a solemn reminder of Jesus’ painful journey to his crucifixion as Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and an Episcopal Church delegation joined pilgrims and Christians in the Holy Land to share in Christ’s Passion.”
Poverty and privilege have at least one thing in common — they are both about choice, or lack of the same. This first struck me most powerfully during my first trip to Ghana several years ago. I only had to be there a few days when I realized that my most valuable possession wasn’t my laptop or my camera … but my American passport. With it I had the choice whether to stay or to go. Whether to make a life there or leave and make a life elsewhere.
Matt Gunter, reflecting on the image of a Soviet sub’s nuclear powerplant gone critical, reflects on the parallels between the contamination caused by the leaking radiation and the way our sinful natures contaminate our relationships with the people who surround us in our lives. “We are contaminated. What’s even harder for us to admit is that many of our actions and thoughts contribute to the contamination.”
Why is it that there is such a difference in the way the secular world celebrates the two major Christian holidays of Easter and Christmas? Christmas is so universally observed among people that preachers frequently worry about the secular elements creeping into the celebration. The Triduum (and Easter in particular) have resisted this secular appropriation. Why?
For years a group of committed community activists in New Orleans have been working cooperatively with local residents to better their neighborhoods and city. But after Hurricane Katrina devastated large swaths of the city, the focus of the organization has changed to focus on the rebuilding effort and its unintended effects.