October 31, 2006 -- (last 24 hours of posts)
MAKE SURE TO HIT REFRESH to see the most recent posts.
---
From the No Comment Department
October 31st, 2006 posted by kendall at 11:54 amBATESVILLE, Ark. (AP) — Police knew this Bill wasn’t authentic. A man has been arrested for trying to use a $100 bill with no president’s face and the name of former President Clinton.
The Bishop of Rhode Island’s Diocesan Convention Address
October 31st, 2006 posted by kendall at 11:53 amFinal Nominees for Bishop of Southwest Florida Announced
October 31st, 2006 posted by kendall at 11:50 amHillel Halkin: Israel’s New Reality
October 31st, 2006 posted by kendall at 11:45 amNational renewals cannot be engineered. “Ethics,” “truth,” “modesty,” “substance,” and “faith,” all on Ari Shavit’s shopping list, are not purchasable commodities. Countries often change for the better and for the worse simultaneously. Yet what many Israelis fail to see these days is that not a few of the domestic embarrassments currently afflicting them are actually signs of a change for the better. If the higher standards of conduct being applied to Israeli politicians today had reigned in the past, more than one previous Israeli war hero and high cabinet minister would have gone to jail for sexual misconduct, financial improprieties, archeological looting, or other crimes. The country was never so virtuous then that it should be considered so sinful today. In Lebanon in the summer of 2006, the army was accused of being first, unprepared, and then, too cautious and worrying overly about its soldiers’ lives. But it was similarly not ready and similarly cautious and moving slowly in 1973 when Ariel Sharon ignored orders and brilliantly stormed the Suez Canal with his troops, punching a hole between the Second and Third Egyptian Armies. Had his maneuver failed, he would have been pilloried for insubordination and recklessness.
Israel, after Lebanon, will certainly have to reconsider its priorities. But it already has the “speck of Sparta” that Shavit demands of it, and it is not clear how much more, if any, it needs. More money for the army, to “restore” Israel’s “power,” and more money for social-welfare programs, to demonstrate Israel’s “sense of responsibility,” also mean more taxes, and Israelis, particularly the middle class, are already overtaxed and overburdened with responsibilities. Economically, too, Israel belongs to the world, and has learned in recent years that governments that least get in the way of their citizens’ ability to make a living and get ahead end up presiding over the wealthiest populations. Ehud Olmert has been much mocked for his declaration before the war that he intended to make Israel a “fun place to live.” Yet this is not in itself a bad thing to be, and Israelis, like anyone else, will be more ready to die for a country they love than for one that they don’t and have the option, in an age of global mobility, of leaving. Make Israel a pleasanter place, and “ethics,” “truth,” and the rest have a better chance of following of their own accord.
Finally, the war against Hizballah has created a new opportunity for Israel to work in concert with major countries besides the United States. The first test of this collaboration will come in Lebanon itself, where it remains to be seen how much of its mandate the new UNIFIL will carry out. It will have to take its job seriously if Europe wishes to gain Israel’s confidence, which it has never enjoyed in the past, but if that confidence is gained, there could perhaps be a role some day for a European force in the West Bank, too. And Israel, for its part, will have to win Europe’s confidence in return. In the absence of meaningful political negotiations with the Palestinians, the worst mistake a right-wing government could make in the years ahead would be to permit Jewish settlements beyond the West Bank security fence to resume growing until Israel and the Palestinians are condemned to an irrevocable state of unhappy and violent cohabitation.
Post-post-Zionism, to give Shavit’s “new discourse” a name, could reverse post-Zionism’s disenchanted appraisal of Zionism and come to view the latter for what it was: a culminating moment in Jewish history and one to be supremely proud of, without which the Jewish future would have ceased to be of any interest. It could make the case that Jewish nationhood and all that is implied by it—a small people’s will to live, its determination to transmit its heritage, its upholding of the institutions of family and child-bearing that are necessary for such an enterprise—have significance not only for Jews. And it could, one hopes, stick by Zionism’s ambition of making the Jews at home in the world. When all is said and done, there is no reason for them to be more abnormal than anyone else.
One for the Ages: A Prescription That May Extend Life
October 31st, 2006 posted by kendall at 11:42 amHow depressing, how utterly unjust, to be the one in your social circle who is aging least gracefully.
In a laboratory at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center, Matthias is learning about time’s caprice the hard way. At 28, getting on for a rhesus monkey, Matthias is losing his hair, lugging a paunch and getting a face full of wrinkles.
Yet in the cage next to his, gleefully hooting at strangers, one of Matthias’s lab mates, Rudy, is the picture of monkey vitality, although he is slightly older. Thin and feisty, Rudy stops grooming his smooth coat just long enough to pirouette toward a proffered piece of fruit.
Tempted with the same treat, Matthias rises wearily and extends a frail hand. “You can really see the difference,” said Dr. Ricki Colman, an associate scientist at the center who cares for the animals.
What a visitor cannot see may be even more interesting. As a result of a simple lifestyle intervention, Rudy and primates like him seem poised to live very long, very vital lives.
This approach, called calorie restriction, involves eating about 30 percent fewer calories than normal while still getting adequate amounts of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients. Aside from direct genetic manipulation, calorie restriction is the only strategy known to extend life consistently in a variety of animal species.
How this drastic diet affects the body has been the subject of intense research. Recently, the effort has begun to bear fruit, producing a steady stream of studies indicating that the rate of aging is plastic, not fixed, and that it can be manipulated.
Taking On a Coal Mining Practice as a Matter of Faith
October 31st, 2006 posted by kendall at 11:34 amThe windswept ridge that Sharman Chapman-Crane hiked to on a recent fall afternoon is the kind of place, she said, that she normally would avoid. From there, she could see what she loved about Appalachia and what it had lost, and she wanted her visitors to see it, too.
The old rounded peaks of the mountains encircled the ridge, dense with trees smudged red and gold. But in the middle of the peaks, several stood stripped bare and chopped up, a result of an increasingly common and controversial coal mining practice called mountaintop removal.
“Doesn’t it say in Scripture, ‘Who can weigh a mountain, measure a basket of earth?’ ” Ms. Chapman-Crane said, recalling descriptions of God’s omnipotence in Isaiah 40:12. “Well, only God can. But now, the coal companies seem to be able to do it, too.”
Ms. Chapman-Crane, her colleagues at the Mennonite Central Committee Appalachia and other Appalachian Christians are trying to halt mountaintop removal, and at the heart of their work, they say, is their faith.
They are part of an awakening among religious people to environmental issues, said Paul Gorman, executive director of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment, an interreligious alliance. Increasingly, religious people across denominations are organizing around local issues, like preventing a landfill, preserving wetlands and changing mining.
“People of faith are thinking afresh about human place and purpose in the greater web of life,” Mr. Gorman said. “They are asking, What does it mean to be present in a crisis of God’s creation made by God’s children?”
Although Christian environmental activists speak out against mountaintop removal at different levels of government, many believe that showing the practice’s toll will persuade others to join them in seeking stricter regulation of it, if not an outright ban.
Virginia Catholics Called to Support Same-Sex Marriage Ban
October 31st, 2006 posted by kendall at 11:08 amVirginia’s Catholic leaders can take comfort from recent polls showing that a majority of state voters are in sync with them in supporting a constitutional amendment to ban civil unions. What worries them is their own flock.
A Washington Post poll conducted this month showed that a majority of Catholic voters oppose the proposed amendment, which would ban same-sex marriages. As a result, Virginia bishops are flexing their growing political muscle in an attempt to sway more Catholics on the issue and get them to voting booths.
“When Catholics are presented with our church’s perspective on the nature of marriage, its relationship to the common good of society and the importance of the proposed amendment for children and families . . . they will be much more likely to support the amendment,” said Jeff Caruso, executive director of the Virginia Catholic Conference.
The lobbying group spent about $25,000 this year on 100,000 glossy copies of a letter that Richmond Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo and Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde wrote to explain why Catholics should support the amendment.
The amendment campaign is one of DiLorenzo and Loverde’s largest political efforts. They founded the conference just last year, although many states — including Maryland — have had Catholic lobbying groups for decades.
There has also been a renewed effort since 2005 to register voters at Catholic parishes in Virginia, said Terry Wear, state coordinator of the marriage amendment effort for the Knights of Columbus. Wear said the marriage amendment is “one of the principal issues” behind the new registration effort, as well as concern about abortion and other social issues.
Of Virginia’s more than 7 million residents, 620,000 are Catholic, according to the conference.
A solid majority of the state’s Catholic voters — 60 percent — said gays should “be allowed to form legally recognized civil unions,” compared with 38 percent who said they shouldn’t, according to a Washington Post poll conducted this month. Slightly more than half of Catholic poll respondents — 51 percent — said they oppose the proposed constitutional amendment, compared with 46 percent who said they support it.
In contrast, the result for all poll respondents was 53 percent in support of the amendment and 43 percent against.
The split among voters who identify themselves as Catholic and church leaders mirrors a national rift on civil unions, as well as some other social issues. Asked whether gay couples should be allowed to form legally recognized unions that would give them the rights of married heterosexual couples, 53 percent of Catholics nationally said yes in a June 2006 ABC poll, compared with 40 percent who said no.
Some Catholics in Virginia said they weren’t surprised by the division.
Bishops push for a vote on marriage
October 31st, 2006 posted by kendall at 7:22 amSaying they are concerned that a walkout by legislators could scuttle a vote on a bill to ban same-sex marriage, the four Roman Catholic bishops of Massachusetts are exhorting the state’s 3 million Catholics to demand action.
The bishops, including Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston, are also urging Catholics to go to the State House Nov. 9, the date the vote is scheduled, to voice their support for restricting marriage to heterosexual couples. The letter asks Catholics to “pray for success on this critical vote.”
But religious supporters of same-sex marriage are fighting back. They have printed thousands of copies of a brochure titled, “Why We Don’t Vote on Civil Rights,” for distribution in churches and synagogues. They are also preparing to publish newspaper ads signed by a group of lay Catholics declaring that O’Malley doesn’t speak for them on the issue of marriage.
Legislative observers say they are not sure what to expect Nov. 9, when legislators meeting in Constitutional Convention consider placing the constitutional amendment banning gay marriage on the 2008 ballot.
Supporters of the amendment need votes from 25 percent of the Legislature in two successive sessions to put the question before voters; some gay-marriage backers have discussed walking out of the convention to derail the amendment.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Massachusetts since 2004, and an estimated 8,000 same-sex couples have married during that time.
A profile of Bishop Peter Selby in the Worcester News
October 31st, 2006 posted by kendall at 7:21 amTHE Rt Rev Dr Peter Selby has never been one to be afraid to speak out.
He has made the headlines of the Worcester News on several topics since joining the diocese in 1997. Hot topics that he has added his views to include the war in Iraq - which he vehemently opposed - same-sex weddings, which he welcomed, and most recently, the planned reduction of hospital chaplains, which he condemned.
He has also been particularly passionate about the prison system and the welfare of inmates - in 2001 he was appointed Bishop to Prisons.
One of greatest mementos of the day he began his ministry in Worcester - on September 7, 1997 - is from a prisoner. He began the day he was inducted and installed at Worcester Cathedral with a eucharist at HMP Long Lartin. One of the prisoners presented him with an illuminated scroll at the end of that service, which he still has today.
Bishop Peter was born on December 7, 1941. He was educated at St John’s College, Oxford - where he obtained a BA and MA in philosophy and psychology - and at King’s College, London, where he obtained his PhD.
His ordination training took place at Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, from 1964-6, which included clinical training at San Quentin State Prison, California. He was ordained as a deacon in 1966 and as a priest in 1967.
The bishop’s wife Jan is a professional counsellor and leads training courses in spirituality and spiritual direction. They have three grown-up children, Ben, Suzanne and Naomi.
A Los Angeles Bishop’s divided house
October 31st, 2006 posted by kendall at 7:17 amOn a recent Sunday morning, the Rt. Rev. Jon Bruno, bishop of the Los Angeles Diocese of the Episcopal Church, stood before a congregation in Ventura County with his hands clasped, the fingers tightly interlaced, as two boys summoned from the pews tried to pull them apart.
It was not an easy task. Bruno stands 6 feet 5 and weighs 285 pounds, and his hands are in proportion to the rest of him. They are hands, moreover, that have clasped dying young AIDS patients in compassionate embrace and held off charging defensive linemen on behalf of a championship college football team, hands that gripped the shotgun as a fatal blast was delivered in the service of law enforcement.
“Pull, come on,” Bruno exhorted the boys, who tugged and yanked to no avail as the congregation laughed.
“They could pull all day and all night, and they still won’t pull them apart,” Bruno declared. “We need to be in that kind of community. Even though we have disagreements, even though we’re in pain and sorrow, we need to be together.”
Disputes over the ordination of women and gays, and other recent modifications of church practice, have sent fissures spidering out through the denomination. Bruno, although an advocate of change, has tried to play reconciler in the drama, but not all traditionalists accept him as peacemaker.
Bruno has sued four of his parishes that have defected from the church. He has also helped initiate a church inquiry into whether the Rt. Rev. John-David Schofield, a conservative bishop in the Central Valley, should be removed from office for, Bruno and other critics of Schofield allege, preparing the defection of his entire diocese.
If disaffection within the church weren’t enough, the Internal Revenue Service is scrutinizing the tax-exempt status of his biggest parish, All Saints of Pasadena, because of a sermon criticizing President Bush preached there on the eve of the 2004 presidential election.
The IRS action “appalled” him, Bruno said, “especially when I see conservative denominations everywhere having preachers who are actual candidates for office.”
The struggle between the Episcopal factions has reverberated throughout the loosely knit worldwide Anglican Communion, conservative elements of which have reached out to dissenting American parishes. Between 100 and 150 American congregations have seceded from the Episcopal Church. The breakaway four in Bruno’s diocese have aligned themselves with the traditionalist Anglican province of Uganda in central Africa.
Seven American dioceses, including Schofield’s, are resisting the authority of the U.S. church’s liberal presiding bishop-elect, the Rt. Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, bishop of Nevada, who is to be consecrated Saturday as the first female primate in the history of Anglicanism.
Bruno’s admirers praise his dedication to social justice and to working with clergy of other faiths as well as his efforts to keep theological partisans of all stripes in the Episcopal family. They call him a “people person par excellence” and “a huge man with a heart of gold as big as he is.”
On the matter of the lawsuits and the Central Valley bishop, however, some of his opponents see the fingerprints less of the loving reconciler than of the former football player and police officer.
Presiding Bishop’s Chancellor Threatens Fort Worth, Quincy Dioceses
October 30th, 2006 posted by kendall at 7:11 pmSource: The Living Church
On the eve of Nevada Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori’s investiture as the 26th Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church, her chancellor, David Booth Beers, has written identical letters to the chancellors of two traditionalist dioceses demanding that they change language “that can be read as cutting against an ‘unqualified accession’ to the Constitution and Canons of the General Convention of The Episcopal Church.
“The timing of this letter is shocking,” Fort Worth Bishop Jack L. Iker told The Living Church. “Some of the changes he refers to go back as far as 1989. All this was done completely out in the open and news of it was distributed widely. We have kept the Presiding Bishop informed at every step.
“We are still contemplating our response, but I think we will refuse to take the ‘bait’ by responding in kind,” Bishop Iker said. “We will probably refer him to our website where our constitution and canons are published.”
In recent years, four dioceses – Fort Worth (Texas), Pittsburgh, Quincy (Ill.) and San Joaquin (Calif.) – have amended their constitutions to qualify the diocese’s accession to General Convention, reserving the right of the diocese to reject bylaws which in their view contradict scripture and/or historic church teachings. Spokespersons for Pittsburgh and San Joaquin reported being unaware of receiving a similar letter. Fort Worth, Quincy and San Joaquin are the only three dioceses in The Episcopal Church which do not ordain women.
Mr. Beers concludes his letter stating “should your diocese decline to take that step, the Presiding Bishop will have to consider what sort of action she must take in order to bring your diocese into compliance.”
Bishop Iker questioned whether this was possible given that in September, Bishop Jefferts Schori told him to his face at a special meeting in New York City called by the Archbishop of Canterbury that the Presiding Bishop has no jurisdiction or oversight of dioceses under Episcopal Church polity. Also during September, a disciplinary review board rejected holding San Joaquin Bishop John-David Schofield guilty of abandoning the communion of this church for similar changes made to its constitution by convention in that diocese.
Steve Waring
Roman Catholic Bishops Draft Rules on Ministering to Gays
October 30th, 2006 posted by kendall at 2:35 pmThe nation’s Roman Catholic bishops have drafted new guidelines for ministry to gay people that affirm church teaching against same-sex relationships, marriages and adoptions by gay couples, yet encourage parishes to reach out to gay Catholics who feel alienated by their church.
The bishops’ document, the result of a four-year effort, gives specific instructions on some of the conundrums now faced in many parishes.
The guidelines recommend baptizing the adopted children of same-sex couples, as long as the children will be raised as Catholics. It says that gay people may benefit from revealing their “tendencies” to friends, family and their priest, but should not make “general public announcements” about it in the parish.
The guidelines also say that gay men and lesbians have “no moral obligation to attempt” therapy, an apparent reference to therapy programs that claim to change gay people’s sexual orientation. It says that while “some have found therapy helpful,” there is “no scientific consensus” either on therapy or the causes of homosexuality.
The bishops will vote on the document — “Ministry to Persons with a Homosexual Inclination: Guidelines for Pastoral Care” — when the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops meets Nov. 13-16 in Baltimore. It could be amended, and needs a two-thirds majority to pass.
Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli of Paterson, N.J., the chairman of the bishops doctrine committee, which wrote the new guidelines, said that although it was difficult to predict whether it would pass, “It’s a very sound document, a very clear document. My sense is that the bishops will readily embrace it.”
Janet Parshall’s America radio program today will discuss Darfur
October 30th, 2006 posted by kendall at 1:52 pmSteve Wood: What would our parish look like if each of us committed ourselves to being apprenticed to Jesus Christ
October 30th, 2006 posted by kendall at 1:29 pmOn a Personal Note
October 30th, 2006 posted by kendall at 1:19 pmWe are at a clergy day today with Bishop elect Mark Lawrence at Saint Andrew’s, Mount Pleasant.
George Weigel: Where religious freedom rings
October 30th, 2006 posted by kendall at 1:18 pmNew York’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral might be the most famous Catholic church in America, but Baltimore’s old cathedral — the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, to use its proper name — is indisputably the most historic. Now, after a two-and-a-half-year, $32 million restoration, all Americans beginning on Saturday can discover this marvel of federal period architecture as its designers intended: an architectural expression of the American commitment to religious freedom, the first of human rights. And in that discovery, we find ourselves challenged by some of the most urgent questions of our time.
We can thank two 19th-century men of genius for the Baltimore Basilica’s classic proportions and luminous interior. One, Archbishop John Carroll, was the first Roman Catholic bishop of the newborn USA; the other, Benjamin Henry Latrobe, was the foremost American architect of the day, a friend of Thomas Jefferson, and the first architect of the U.S. Capitol.
John Carroll (a cousin of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Md., the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence) wanted the country’s first cathedral to speak in a distinctively American architectural idiom and to embody the Catholic commitment to the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious freedom.
So Carroll turned to Latrobe, the son of a Moravian pastor, and Latrobe (who likely consulted Jefferson)produced an American adaptation of classical design that deployed diffused light to express the freedom the human spirit must enjoy in its response to God. The result was a cathedral church whose stateliness and luminosity express a profound respect for what Pope John Paul II, who prayed in the Baltimore Basilica in October 1995, called “the sanctuary of conscience.”
The recently completed restoration of the building offers more than a reminder of the genius of the past, however; Carroll’s and Latrobe’s work has a special resonance for the present and the future. For to enter the restored Baltimore Basilica — a great American shrine to the centrality of religious freedom in any serious scheme of “human rights” — is to be confronted with two of the most crucial items on the world agenda today: The first — how do things stand with religious freedom? — is a question of particular, although not exclusive, interest to people of faith. The second — how does the human race engage its deepest differences (which are religious differences) with civility, tolerance and respect? — is a question for everyone.
Although few of us recognize it, the 20th century was the greatest century of persecution of Christians in history, with tens of millions murdered “in hatred of the faith” by totalitarian ideologies. With the collapse of fascism, and then communism, a new springtime of religious freedom seemed on the historical horizon. Yet the dramatic exodus of Christians from the Holy Land, the genocide in the south of Sudan, and the entire arc of conflict between Christianity and jihadist Islam that spans the globe from the west coast of Senegal to the east coast of Timor reminds us that the 21st century could well be a century of martyrdom, too. To visit the restored basilica and reflect on the centuries of struggle for religious freedom that it has witnessed is to be reminded that freedom is never free.
Northern California Resolution on Campus Ministry — No fiscal impact?
October 30th, 2006 posted by admin at 12:07 pmOn first reading there didn’t seem to be anything particularly unusual or noteworthy about Northern California’s two proposed resolutions for its Nov 10-11 Diocesan Convention.
Certainly we applaud a diocese that recognizes the strategic importance of campus ministry. But then the seeming incongruence of the beginning and the end of the resolution hit us:
The resolved clauses read as follows:
Resolved, That the 96th Annual Convention call upon the Diocesan Council and churches of the diocese to affirm that college and university ministries are of vital importance to the mission of this Diocese as colleges are strategically located communities of young adults and are unparalleled opportunities for mission and evangelism; and be it further
Resolved, That the 96th Annual Convention affirms the value of developing young leaders of the church by providing opportunities for college and university students to participate fully in the councils of the Diocese and churches of the diocese; and be it further
Resolved, That the churches of this diocese are urged to make a commitment to campus ministry in their congregations; and be it further
Resolved, That the Youth and Young Adult Ministries Department of the Office of the Bishop, the Campus Ministry Commission and Commission on Congregational Development be directed to assist churches of the diocese in ways that support this vision.
But then, after the explanation, there’s the “Fiscal Impact Statement”
FISCAL IMPACT OF RESOLUTION:
No Fiscal impact
Forgive us if we’re overlooking something obvious, but how does one “make a commitment to” campus ministry without there being some budget implications?
Twenty Four Resolutions for Iowa, yet NOTHING about the Windsor Report or Anglican Crisis
October 30th, 2006 posted by admin at 12:01 pmWe’ve updated the Diocesan Convention Roundup post with information for the Diocese of Iowa’s convention which will take place the weekend of November 10-11.
Convention info is here.
Resolutions are available here.
Some of the proposed resolutions we noted included:
– AFFIRMING SUPPORT FOR A PUBLIC POLICY ON TOBACCO
– EDUCATION ABOUT THE STIGMA OF HIV/AIDS
– EVOLUTION IS COMPATIBLE WITH AN AUTHENTIC AND LIVING CHRISTIAN FAITH
– NON-VIOLENCE TRAINING
– EPISCOPAL CHURCH’S COMPLICITY IN THE INSTITUTION OF SLAVERY
– GLOBAL WARMING and IOWA INTERFAITH POWER AND LIGHT
– ENVIRONMENTALLY SAFE AND SUSTAINABLE ENERGY SOURCES
We counted an astonishing total of 24 proposed resolutions, with only a few related to diocesan budget or administration. It is very interesting to note which resolutions are included as part of the “consent calendar” versus the “debate calendar.”
Furthermore, something that seems truly remarkable to this elf, 16 of the resolutions have been presented by one single woman who was a deputy to General Convention. And yet, not a single mention in 26 pages of text that we could find about the Windsor Report or the choices faced by the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. Stunning.
Compassion, Justice, Needed to Fight Poverty, Ethicists Say
October 30th, 2006 posted by kendall at 11:34 amWhile Christians can do much to fight global poverty through compassionate ministries of relief and development, ethicists agree the long-term solution is economic justice.
“Charity is feeding people when they are hungry, giving people clothes when they need clothes,” said Joe Haag of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Christian Life Commission. “Justice, I think, is more about the systemic causes of poverty.”
“The Bible is all about justice,” Haag said. “It’s all about teaching the people of God that if we’re going to follow Jesus faithfully, we have to work for justice in the world.”
A worldwide campaign called “Micah Challenge” aims to deepen Christian engagement with the poor and urge the international community to fulfill promises to reduce poverty by half by 2015 with a series of initiatives approved unanimously by the United Nations called the Millennium Development Goals.
The Baptist World Alliance has endorsed the Micah Challenge. The Baptist Center for Ethics devoted a special section to the campaign on EthicsDaily.com, including a Baptist pastoral letter supporting the Micah Challenge.
“As Christians, wouldn’t it be great if we were the leaders and not the followers in this fight?” Suzii Paynter, director of the Texas CLC, said in a segment about the Micah Challenge in “Always … Therefore: The Church’s Challenge of Global Poverty,” a DVD and study guide resource produced by the Baptist Center for Ethics.
“The Hebrew prophet Micah asks, ‘What does the Lord of us,’” said Robert Parham, executive director of the Baptist Center for Ethics. “The answer is that the Lord requires that we do justice.”
Over 20 new Dioceses to be Inaugurated in Nigeria in 2007
October 30th, 2006 posted by kendall at 11:31 am
posted by t19elves at 12:31 PM
0 comments
