The Vatican has decided that there is more to be lost than to be gained by moving now to create a safe-haven within the Catholic Church for Anglo-Catholics who feel they can no longer remain part of the Anglican Communion but who wish to remain within distinctive forms of Anglican worship and theology.
I am profoundly disappointed by President-elect Barack Obama’s decision to invite Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church to offer the invocation at his inauguration. The president-elect has bestowed a great honor on a man whose recent comments suggest he is both homophobic, xenophobic, and willing to use the machinery of the state to enforce his prejudices—even going so far as to support the assassination of foreign leaders.
The Café has expressed its own doubts about Warren who has linked arms with the most outspoken homophobes in the Anglican Communion in their campaign against the Episcopal Church.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu visited the Bishop John Walker School for Boys in southeast Washington, D. C. last week. The Nobel-prize winner described himself as an “ambassador” for the school, which is operated by the Episcopal Diocese of Washington. Founded in September, the school offers a free education to boys in some of the poorest neighborhoods in the District.
As Christians, church leaders and bishops in the Episcopal Church, we urge the General Assembly to act to abolish the death penalty As Christians, we are guided by the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. Here he specifically rejects retribution by stating that even the teaching in the Old Testament of “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” is to be rejected in favor of the teaching that calls for reconciliation.
As Christmas draws near, please consider making a gift to support the Bokamoso Youth program in Winterveld, South Africa. The videos inside attest to the powerful effect the program is having in the lives of South Africa’s young people.
The women paid heavily for their actions — all the drivers, and their husbands, were barred from foreign travel for a year. Those women who had government jobs were fired. And from hundreds of mosque pulpits, they were denounced by name as immoral women out to destroy Saudi society.
“When you took a vote at the Welsh Synod, it didn’t have to be nodded through by parliament afterwards. There is a certain integrity to that.” But Williams added he believes any push for disestablishment would be on the basis of pushing religion out of the public sphere. “That’s the point where I think I’d be bloody-minded and say, ‘Well, not on that basis.'”
Here’s a bit of a surprise: Dr. Rick Warren of Saddleback Church will give the formal invocation at Barack Obama’s inauguration.
On Faith asks “Should conservative Episcopalians who disagree with U.S. church leaders about homosexuality, women’s ordination, biblical literalism and other issues leave and form a separate denomination?” Panel responses include Randall Balmer, Samuel T. Lloyd III, and John Shelby Spong.