The Pope’s letter on the economy didn’t create a big splash. Perhaps that’s because it didn’t say anything new. The Archbishop of Canterbury’s remarks on
Following in the footsteps of Michelle Obama, Queen Elizabeth plants a vegetable garden on the grounds of Buckingham Palace. The organic garden shows the royal family’s awareness of the state of the economy and the need to combat climate change by using locally grown foods.
In a column last week, Paul Krugman of The New York Times, decried the actions of Ronald Reagan as the precursor to our current national economic woes. I agree with his assessment and remember clearly the warnings that my Democratic Aunt and Uncle and Mother and Father doled at that time: “This is NOT good for America. This is NOT good for Americans.”
Tough times call for creative solutions. A Texas congregation has responded to local needs by inviting people who need to do so, to help themselves to the offering plate as it passes by them.
In a difficult economy, churches suffer the same way that other small businesses do. Income is down in many places and that means that expenses need to be cut. Often that means cutting salary expenses. The problem is that many people who are laid off from church positions are discovering they lack the same safety net that other laid-off workers can count upon.
A contracting national economy has led congregations across the religious spectrum to cut or downsize clergy positions, hire part-time lay people instead and delay filling vacancies. Veteran clergy members, watching their retirement accounts wither, are postponing retirement.
Tax day has come and gone. News video of tax protests is still being shown. There were images of President Obama wearing a Mao hat with the Chinese Communist red star. There were images of makeshift American flags with a hammer and sickle replacing the stars. One news photo showed a woman holding a sign that read, “My God, My Money, My Guns.”
It wasn’t so much that the members of the two churches did not get along, Hurd and Cartwright agreed. They just existed on different sides of an invisible wall that ran between one church on Swinton Avenue and the other on Southwest Third Street.
When the headlines trumpet the news of a church being foreclosed upon, it is something of a man-bites-dog story because it is so rare. But there is more to the story than meets the eye: it turns out that it makes a difference if a parish is connected to a denomination and teaches stewardship.
Terry Martin, Evangelism Officer for the Episcopal Church, follows up on the Bishops’ Pastoral Letter. He offers some “meat” for the thoughts contained in the