T19BackUp: September 14 posts copied from main site

We apologize for the server problems with Titusonenine and other CaNNet blogs. Here's a dump of all the posts from today up until 12:30 pm Eastern (apologize for lumping them all together, just easier and faster). We'll post any new entries separately above.

Thanks for your patience and understanding.

--the elves

BISHOP IKER COMMENTS ON THE NEW YORK SUMMIT

September 14th, 2006, posted by kendall at 12:30 pm

Another meeting has come and gone, with no clear results or final resolutions. Another “conversation” has taken place, where diverse views were exchanged, but no unified way forward could be discerned.

So where does that leave us? Well, it does not leave us in the same place as where we began! We have moved further along the path to the difficult decisions that ultimately must be faced, in every diocese and in every parish. Certain options have been discarded; others remain open.

I am grateful that the New York summit provided an opportunity to “clear the air” in face-to-face encounters among bishops who stand on opposite sides of the issues that so deeply divide us. It was helpful to say what was on my heart and mind and to hear directly from the other side as to how they see things. It was not always a pleasant exchange of views. At times the conversations were blunt and even confrontational. Nonetheless, what needed to be said was said and heard, in a spirit of honesty and love. That being said, it is my sense that the time for endless conversations is coming to a close and that the time for action is upon us. I am not interested in having more meetings to plan to have more meetings.

Our appeal for Alternative Primatial Oversight is still before the church, and provision must be made for the pastoral need we have expressed. The initial appeal from this diocese was made to the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Primates and the Panel of Reference. (We soon withdrew our request for consideration by the Panel of Reference due to its apparent inability to act on any of the petitions that have been placed before it over the past year or so.) When six other dioceses made very similar appeals, we consolidated them into one joint appeal and submitted it to the Archbishop of Canterbury in late July.

After prayerful consideration and consultation, the Archbishop called for the New York summit, which took place on September 11-13, 2006, in hopes of finding an American church solution to an American church problem, but to no avail. We could not come to a consensus as to how to recognize and respond to the needs expressed in the appeal. So back to Canterbury it goes, as the principal Instrument of Unity in the Anglican Communion, but this time with a renewed emphasis on appealing also to the Primates of the Communion as a whole and not to Canterbury alone. The Primates Meeting is a second, very important Instrument of Unity in the life of worldwide Anglicanism. We ask for their intervention and assistance when they meet in February.

Some have balked at the terminology of our appeal requesting Alternative Primatial Oversight, pointing out that the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church does not really have canonical oversight of any of our dioceses in the first place. While I can see their point, nonetheless the official job description for the PB is “Chief Pastor and Primate,” and it is this role that we seek to have exercised on our behalf by an orthodox Primate of the Communion, and not just someone other than the Presiding Bishop-elect of ECUSA. We require a Primate who upholds the historic faith and order of the catholic church and is fully compliant with the recommendations of the Windsor Report as the way forward for the Anglican Communion. Only in this way will we have an unclouded primatial relationship with the rest of the Communion.

Thank you all who prayed so fervently for us in our deliberations in New York City this past week. I am sincerely grateful for your encouragement and support. Your prayers were indeed answered - and are being answered still, in ways that are yet to be revealed.
Please note that a very important gathering of “Windsor Bishops” will be held at Camp Allen in Houston next week, from September 19-22, and that I will be present for those discussions. This is a much larger consultation that includes all Bishops who fully support the recommendations of the Windsor Report and believe that General Convention made an inadequate response to what the Report requested of ECUSA. The Archbishop of Canterbury is fully aware of the purpose of this meeting, and two Church of England Bishops will be present to share in our deliberations and then report back to the Archbishop on what took place. Please do pray daily for us as we consider next steps to be taken in pursuit of the unity and mission of the church.

The Rt. Rev. Jack Leo Iker, Bishop of Fort Worth, Holy Cross Day

Posted in ANGLICAN, ECUSA Conflicts, ECUSA Bishops, APO Requests & News Edit No Comments »

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Interior Official Assails Agency for Ethics Slide

September 14th, 2006, posted by kendall at 10:02 am

The Interior Department’s chief official responsible for investigating abuses and overseeing operations accused the top officials at the agency on Wednesday of tolerating widespread ethical failures, from cronyism to cover-ups of incompetence.
“Simply stated, short of a crime, anything goes at the highest levels of the Department of the Interior,” charged Earl E. Devaney, the Interior Department’s inspector general, at a hearing of the House Government Reform subcommittee on energy.
“I have observed one instance after another when the good work of my office has been disregarded by the department,” he continued. “Ethics failures on the part of senior department officials — taking the form of appearances of impropriety, favoritism and bias — have been routinely dismissed with a promise ‘not to do it again.’ ”
The blistering attack was part of Mr. Devaney’s report on what he called the Interior Department’s “bureaucratic bungling” of oil and gas leases signed in the late 1990’s, mistakes that are now expected to cost the government billions of dollars but were covered up for six years.

While these leases were the specific focus of the hearing, Mr. Devaney directed most of his criticism at what he called a broader organizational culture at the Interior Department of denial and “defending the indefensible.”

He expressed particular fury at the willingness to dismiss two dozen potential ethical lapses by J. Steven Griles, a former industry lobbyist who served as deputy secretary of the interior during President Bush’s first term.

Mr. Griles resigned after allegations surfaced that he pushed policy decisions that favored some of his former oil and gas industry clients and that he tried to steer a $2 million contract to a technology firm that had also been one of his clients.

Read it all, as disheartening as it is.

Posted in POLITICAL, Ethics/Moral Theology Edit 1 Comment »

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New Stem Cell Ethics Issue Emerges

September 14th, 2006, posted by kendall at 7:49 am

UC San Francisco researcher Renee Reijo Pera has a well-equipped laboratory, generous funding and an ample staff of scientists working to create new lines of embryonic stem cells.

She has everything she needs to do cutting-edge work except one thing: fresh human eggs.
While the world debates the morality of stem cell research, scientists are grappling with a more basic issue — a shortage of eggs that they say is crippling their work.
“Without eggs, there’s no research,” said Dr. Robert Lanza, medical director of the biotechnology company Advanced Cell Technology Inc.

Women routinely provide their eggs to fertility clinic patients, who pay $5,000 to $50,000.

But stem cell researchers are forbidden to pay for eggs by ethical guidelines from some of the most influential scientific organizations in the world, including the National Academies, which advises the U.S. government on scientific issues. California, Massachusetts, Canada, South Korea and the European Union all have passed laws barring payments.

Laurie Zoloth, a bioethicist at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, said payments to donors would create an exploitative trade, taking advantage of women who might be so desperate for money that it clouded their judgment about the medical risks of the harvesting procedure. Bone marrow and kidney donors are unpaid for that reason, she said.

But stem cell researchers argue that it is only fair to pay donors because of the time, discomfort and risks involved. They note that research subjects are compensated for their time.

Researchers have so far complied with the payment restrictions, but the shortage has become so acute that some scientists are beginning to contest the ethical underpinnings of the status quo.

“We need to make a decision: Do you want the research to proceed or not?” Lanza said.
Read it all.

Posted in life-ethics, technology, Science Edit No Comments »

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Pope Assails Secularism, Adding Note on Jihad

September 14th, 2006 posted by kendall at 7:46 am

Marco Politi, the Vatican expert for the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, said that “the text reveals his deep mistrust regarding the aggressive side of Islam.”

“Certainly he closes the door to an idea which was very dear to John Paul II — the idea that Christians, Jews and Muslims have the same God and have to pray together to the same God,” he said.

The speech was a central moment in Benedict’s six-day trip home to visit Bavaria, where he grew up, became a priest, a prominent theologian and, finally, a cardinal. Earlier in the day, at an outdoor Mass here attended by some 250,000 people, he expressed similar concerns as in the speech, urging believers to stand up against the “hatred and fanaticism” that he said were tarnishing the image of God.

Again, this critique seemed aimed as much at secular Western society as at any other threat.

“Today, when we have learned to recognize the pathologies and life-threatening diseases associated with religion and reason, and the ways that God’s image can be destroyed by hatred and fanaticism, it is important to state clearly the God in whom we believe,” the pope said.

“Only this can free us from being afraid of God — which is ultimately at the root of modern atheism,” he said. “Only this God saves us from being afraid of the world and from anxiety before the emptiness of life.”

The speech at the university was the only significant secular event in a schedule packed with Masses, evening prayers and other religious occasions aimed at Catholics in Germany, where regular Mass attendance has fallen to under 15 percent.

That low number is connected directly to many of Benedict’s long-expressed concerns about Islam. He often urges people not to forget the Christian roots of a Europe with fewer practicing Christians and more Muslim immigrants, over four million here in Germany alone.

Read it all and do not miss the picture.

Posted in Roman Catholic, Pope Benedict XVI, Europe Edit No Comments »

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Life Span Gap Just Keeps Growing

September 14th, 2006 posted by kendall at 7:45 am

The life spans of the healthiest Americans are more than 30 years longer than those of the least healthy, despite more than two decades of efforts to reduce the disparities, Harvard researchers reported Monday.

At one end of the scale are Asian American women living in Bergen County, N.J., who have an average life expectancy of 91 years, according to the report published Monday in the journal Public Library of Science Medicine.

At the other extreme are Native Americans in South Dakota, whose average life expectancy is 58 years. “That’s comparable to the life expectancy in Southeast Asia and in sub-Saharan Africa,” said Richard M. Suzman, associate director of the National Institute on Aging, which partially funded the study.

The difference is not directly related to income, insurance, infant mortality, AIDS or violence. Rather, the contributing factors, in order of importance, are tobacco, alcohol, obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diet and physical inactivity, said Dr. Christopher J. L. Murray of the Harvard School of Public Health, who led the study.

Read it all and there is more here.

Posted in CULTURE-WATCH, Medical Edit 1 Comment »

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Blog Roundup: Reaction to NY Meeting Links

September 13th, 2006 posted by admin at 10:43 pm

Time for this elf to call it a night. Here are all the blog entries we’ve seen so far on the end of the NY Meeting:

Bloggers (in alphabetical order by last name or blog name):

BabyBlue

Fr. Christopher Cantrell of Fort Worth
entry 1
entry 2

Captain Yips

Fr. Tony Clavier

Ruth Gledhill has a short update to her previous blog entry here:

Mark Harris

Fr. Greg Jones
entry 1
entry 2

Fr. Matt Kennedy

Susan Russell

Simon Sarmiento (Thinking Anglicans)

TexAnglican

——–Updates:
Fr. Dan Martins
Episcopal Majority
Brad Drell