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Jesus’ People: What the Church should do next is required reading for those who imagine (wrongly) that tradition consists simply of repeating what you’ve always done. On the other hand, they are foolish who refuse to learn from the great preachers of the past, as in Making the Words Acceptable: The shape of the sermon in Christian history. At least they filled churches. Helen Armstrong may have jumped over the wall, but what makes them ‘take the veil’ in the first place? Silvia Evangelisti explains in Nuns: A history of convent life. “Still a bloody failure,” comments John Cooper succinctly about Mary’s turbulent reign, in Fires of Faith: Catholic England under Mary Tudor. Ian Linden dubs post-conciliar Rome a “micro-managed muddle” in Global Catholicism: Diversity and change since Vatican II. Roger Scruton’s Beauty dips into aesthetics. Jesus and Philosophy. A strange juxtaposition? No, truth is the big issue, says Hugh Rayment-Pickard. The Glass Castle is of interest if only because it bucks the “isn’t life a bitch?” genre that thinks it can only grab our attention by making us miserable. They’re all in this week’s Book Reviews.
 

   

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This Sunday at the Cathedral – Bulletin & Insert
also Brandon St George's and St. Mary's.

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Friday, July 3

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Fellowship leaders take flak in run-up to London launch – Church Times
 

Westminster Central Hall

THE Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA) will be launched on Monday at Westminster Central Hall. The organisers of the event, “Be Faithful”, are the FCA’s chairman, the Revd Paul Perkin of Reform, and secretary, Canon Chris Sugden of Anglican Mainstream.

The Bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, who resigns on 1 September, is to issue a call to “repent of capitulating to cultures around them and focus on the faith of the Church down through the ages and on authentic mission to our nation”, a press statement said this week.

The FCA said that organisers had seen registrations “flooding in since the launch was announced just two months ago” — a claim repeated on conservative websites in the US. It is at odds with reports that, until two weeks ago, only half the places had been taken up, and the event had subsequently been opened up to a wider constituency. The Bishop of Sherborne, Dr Graham Kings, has accused the FCA in a pre-published newspaper article due to appear this week, of “ratcheted rhetoric” over claims of widespread support.

Glacial Gravity or Opportunist Autonomy? – Fulcrum

Should we all join the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans? – Fulcrum

Only God Can Save Us from Ourselves – +MIchael Nazir Ali

On Being Moderately Faithful: Why Fulcrum is wrong about the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans – Spirit & Truth

Telling it like it is? Standpoint, Michael Nazir Ali and Rowan Williams – Charles Raven

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US laity fear centralisation – Church Times LAY PEOPLE at the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the United States will have some hard questions for the Archbishop of Canterbury when he visits, says the president of the House of Deputies, Bonnie Anderson. The triennial convention meets next week in Anaheim, California. Eyes from all around the Anglican Communion will be on its business, notably whether it will vote to repeal Resolution BO33, which in 2006 urged a halt to ordaining any more gay bishops for the time being. The deputies are unhappy with moves towards greater centralisation of authority in bishops and in panels appointed by Lambeth Palace. “We work very well together [with the bishops], but to see that kind of potential disenfranchisement of laity is really adverse to our polity,” Mrs Anderson said on Monday.

“A lot to give and a lot to learn”: Bonnie Anderson, president of the House of Deputies of the Episcopal Church in the United States

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Time for action on climate change – Guardian

Our children will denounce us in years to come if bold and ambitious action isn't taken to protect the planet, writes +Richard Chartres, Bp of London (UK)

Two hundred children, a horde of farm animals and a bishop being followed by camera crews and journalists in an ark down the Thames might sound like a media circus. That, of course, is the point. In a loose recreation of the Noah story our ark will be a buzz with enthusiastic, young climate change activists fresh from delivering their own, homemade, ark to the prime minister. Accompanied by the music of a brass quintet, the temporary residents of the ark will join together in song as we sail down to Westminster to encourage the UK government to take a lead in the upcoming climate change conference in Copenhagen.

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There’ll be no tent for God at Camp Dawkins – The Times Britain’s most prominent non-believer is backing its first atheist summer camp for children. WHEN schoolchildren break up for their summer holidays at the end of next month, India Jago, aged 12, and her brother Peter, 11, will be taking a vacation with a twist. While their friends jet off to Spain or the Greek islands, the siblings will be hunting for imaginary unicorns in Somerset, while learning about moral philosophy. The Jagos, from Basingstoke, Hampshire, are among 24 children who will be taking part in Britain’s first summer camp for atheists.

Camp Quest, which was founded as an alternative to Christian camps, will teach children about evolution

The five-day retreat is being subsidised by Richard Dawkins, the evolutionary biologist and author of The God Delusion, and is intended to provide an alternative to faith-based summer camps normally run by the Scouts and Christian groups.

Crispian Jago, an IT consultant, is hoping the experience will enrich his two children.

“I’m very keen on not indoctrinating them with religion or creeds,” he said this weekend. “I would rather equip them with the tools to learn how to think, not what to think.”

(If he is right in depicting the Church as being more concerned about doctrine (i.e. what to believe)
than how to believe, that is a terrible indictment.)

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'All-new spirit' prevails as [San Joaquin] diocese ordains first woman priest – ECNS Tears, cheers, joy, applause and an "all-new spirit" filled the packed Church of the Saviour in Hanford, California, June 27 as the Rev. Suzanne Lynn Ward became the first woman ordained a priest in the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin. "This, my brothers and sisters, is a big deal day," said the Rt. Rev. Edna Bavi "Nedi" Rivera, bishop suffragan of the Seattle-based Diocese of Olympia, and provisional bishop for the Diocese of Eastern Oregon, who was guest preacher. "Suzy's ordination is … about the church, about the raising up and revealing of the Body of Christ, a coming out of the tomb, and being made new," said Rivera, who compared the celebration to Christmas, Easter, Pentecost and a family reunion all rolled into one.

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Finding God in the shower – Guardian

I was an atheist, or perhaps an agnostic, until an experience at once dramatic and banal changed my understanding of religion for good, says Janet Soskice.

I can remember being an atheist, or perhaps an agnostic, for in those days I did not think much about God one way or another. I knew at that time there were Christians – and I suppose adherents to other faiths whose adherence I judged "ethnic" and thus not applicable in my own instance. As for Christians, I assumed they came in two sorts - those who went along for a sense of belonging or from a sense of nostalgia, rather like attending a bridge club or square dancing; and evangelicals, who were clearly under-educated and over-excited. I can remember, from my lofty, 21-year-old height of wisdom, thinking that it must be soothing to be one of the latter, all of whose problems in life could be seen to be answered.

In my assumed clarity about religion I, in fact, knew nothing about it at all, and in my own case it was only dramatic conversion which turned me round and put my feet on a slower, steadier, more modest path into a truth whose depths are fathomless. Can I even say to those who, it seems to me, stand where I once stood (the cultured despisers of religion, as Schleiermacher might have said) what I now feel I know, and don't know, about God? It would be hard. Because it is not just that faith gives new answers to old questions – it gives new questions, a new world where even the most educated come as babes, born again.

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Gay row minister to be inducted The gay minister whose appointment sparked a furious debate in the Church of Scotland is set to be formally inducted in Aberdeen. The Reverend Scott Rennie will be introduced to his congregation at a service at Queen's Cross Church. Hundreds of ministers and thousands of Church of Scotland members signed an online petition opposing the move. After arriving in Aberdeen, Mr Rennie said he was looking forward to serving God in the city. The issue had gone to the General Assembly which narrowly voted in favour. But there has been a two-year ban on the ordination of gay ministers and a special commission is considering the issue.

The Reverend Scott Rennie said he was looking forward to the role

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Sharia law and me – Guardian

In my experience, sharia judgments can seem arbitrary, unfair, even cruel. Better to trust British law, writes Zeinab Huq, from experience

The headlines will tell you there are at least 85 sharia courts in Britain. There are definitely more and they have little to do with gavels and wigs and more to do with upholding the cultural and tribal status quo in communities.

Having been on the receiving end of sharia rulings – I must make it clear that sharia courts are often nothing of the sort and are more likely to be an imam at the end of a phone I can speak about the arbitrary and random nature of these bodies. Contrary to popular belief, there is no central network, no supreme sharia judge, no sharia bar, no sharia AGM, no sharia ombudsman, no sharia HQ and no torts.

Sharia law isn't even written down and most Muslims will dip in and out of it when it suits them. They might be very particular about getting a sharia compliant mortgage but ignore the advice on archery and wrestling. Sharia courts/tribunals/whatever rarely have offices (although they may have websites) and they're certainly not in the habit of swapping notes for best practice. It's a bad comparison but the fluid, almost nebulous nature of sharia courts is like al-Qaeda without the violence and their ubiquity like a Domino's Pizza franchise. Any topping as long as it's halal

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Father Tim Williams said the signs had made an impact.

For sale signs spark holy debate A priest has tried to start a debate on the future of two churches by erecting for sale signs outside the buildings - although they are not on the market. Father Tim Williams said the move had upset some of his congregation in the parish of Killay in Swansea. But he said he wanted people to realise if they did not use them and contribute time, effort and money to their running and up-keep, they would be lost. He said he wanted the whole community to become involved in the discussion. The signs erected outside St Hilary's Church in Killay and St Martin's in Dunvant have now be taken down.

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Thursday, July 2

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Private meeting with Williams at convention will address sexuality, ministry – ECNS

Eight members of the Episcopal Church's House of Deputies are scheduled meet privately with Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams at General Convention in a session that is intended in part to address lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues in the church.
General Convention meets July 8-17 in Anaheim, California, and Williams will be present July 7-9.

The session is not an official convention meeting and thus there has been no announcement of the plans. However, when contacted by Episcopal News Service, the Rev. Canon Michael Barlowe of the Diocese of California confirmed the details.

Barlowe said that he and the other deputies understood the meeting was to be brief and private, but that it was not a secret.

"It's not a summit or constituted in an official way," he said. "We don't expect to issue a communiqué or anything like that."

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Rights groups have long campaigned for a repeal of the law

Gay sex decriminalised in India A court in the Indian capital, Delhi, has ruled that homosexual intercourse between consenting adults is not a criminal act. The ruling overturns a 148-year-old colonial law which describes a same-sex relationship as an "unnatural offence". Homosexual acts were punishable by a 10-year prison sentence. Many people in India regard same-sex relationships as illegitimate. Rights groups have long argued that the law contravened human rights.

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Doctors reject faith right call Doctors have voted down a proposal calling for them to be given a right to pray for patients without facing disciplinary action. The British Medical Association conference in Liverpool debated a motion saying medics should be free to discuss spiritual issues. But delegates at the union's annual meeting refused to back the proposal. The government always opposed relaxing the rules, saying spiritual care was for the NHS Chaplaincy Service.

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The Formerly Secret Panel – Lisa Fox

It's mighty hard to keep a secret, and certainly in a church as small as ours. I'm rather surprised this one survived for almost a month.

I now have the names of the two co-facilitators of the panel put together by the House of Bishops Theology Committee, as well as the names of six of the eight panel members. One panel member and a chair had already been identified, as noted in the item by Louie Crew.

So here are eight of the ten theologians serving on the panel to study same-sex relationships.

Co-facilitators:

• The Rt. Rev. Joe G. Burnett, Bishop of Nebraska
• Ellen Charry, Princeton Theological Seminary

Members:

• Deirdre J. Good, General Theological Seminary
• Willis Jenkins, Yale Divinity School
• The Rev. Grant LeMarquand, Trinity School for Ministry
• Eugene Rogers, University of North Carolina, Greensboro
• The Rev. George Sumner, Wycliffe College, Toronto
• The Rev. Daniel A. Westberg of Nashotah House

Let's all keep them in our prayers.

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Wednesday, July 1

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Memo to All Diocesan Clergy – Bishop Jack Iker

“In recent days I understand that all of you have received two threatening letters from representatives of the rump diocese. The first . . .” (continues)

Bishop Gulick sends letters to clergy who left the Episcopal Church – Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth

Bishop Venables writes to diocesan clergy – Diocese of Southern Cone

A Who's Who: Bishop Gulick is the bishop of the continuing diocese of Forth Worth, the ‘rump diocese’, as Bishop Jack Iker calls it. Bp Iker left the Episcopal Church, with many of his clergy and congregations, to align themselves with Bishop Venables' diocese of the Southern Cone, which is still officially in communion with Canterbury. The issue is over who retains the property, as Bp Iker claims he now represents the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth.

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Cardinal attacks Trident renewal One of the UK's most senior Roman Catholics has criticised plans to renew Britain's nuclear deterrent, calling the retention of Trident "immoral". Cardinal Keith O'Brien, the leader of Scotland's Catholics, said retaining any nuclear weapons, with the threat to use them, even in defence, was wrong. The Iraq invasion had been undermined by the UK having its own WMDs, he said.

Cardinal Keith O'Brien says the moral case against nuclear weapons is simple

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Rwanda denies sterilisation plans

Rwanda has strongly denied reports that its parliament is considering a draft law which would forcibly sterilise people who are mentally disabled.

Damascene Ntawukuriryayo, deputy speaker of parliament, was responding to a call by US-based activists Human Rights Watch to scrap the proposed law.

He also told the BBC that plans for HIV testing before couples get married are strictly voluntary, not compulsory.

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About 28% of the college's students are from minority backgrounds

College bars visitor wearing veil Two pupils and their teacher were asked to remove Muslim face veils on a visit to a sixth form college in Lancashire. At an open day held in Catholic St Mary's College, Blackburn, the visitors were asked to remove their Niqab veils. "There is a long-standing policy that people entering the site do not have their faces covered," college principal Kevin McMahon said. The students removed their veils but the accompanying teacher declined to and left the premises, he added.

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Herschel yields new galaxy image The European Space Agency (Esa) has released a stunning image of the spiral galaxy M51, otherwise known as the Whirlpool Galaxy. It is a composite of images taken by Europe's Herschel space observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope. The picture combines views of the galaxy captured at visible and far-infrared wavelengths. It highlights the cool, dusty and gaseous regions of M51, where the process of star formation is underway.

The composite image shows the Whirlpool Galaxy, known as M51

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Dinosaur mummy yields its secrets
 

A metre-long section of the fossil shows the size of the hadrosaur's scales

A remarkably well-preserved fossil of a dinosaur has been analysed by scientists writing in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

They describe how the fossil's soft tissues were spared from decay by fine sediments that formed a mineral cast.

Tests have shown that the fossil still holds cell-like structures - but their constituent proteins have decayed.

The team says the cellular structure of the dinosaur's skin was similar to that of dinosaurs' modern-day descendants.

A member of the duck-billed hadrosaur family, the fossil was found in North Dakota in the US and has been nicknamed "Dakota".

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Tuesday, June 30

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New North American Anglican grouping won't last, says gay bishop – Anglican Journal

A new North American group claiming to embrace "traditional Anglican values" will not last long, the Episcopal Church's first openly gay bishop has predicted.

Bishop Gene Robinson, an openly homosexual man living openly with a partner, whose 2003 consecration as bishop of the diocese of New Hampshire created a backlash among traditional believers within the U.S., church, told Ecumenical News International he does not believe the new Anglican grouping has long-term viability.

"A church that does not ordain women or openly gay people - I don't see a future for that," Robinson told ENI after delivering a sermon on 28 June at the First Presbyterian Church in New York City during the city's annual gay pride festivities.

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Religious leaders call for end to 'legal euthanasia' - Daily Telegraph letter – Lamveth Palace

Sir

Three years ago a move to legalise physician assisted suicide, by way of a Private Members Bill, was defeated in the House of Lords. The debate on the Bill was heated and impassioned. It was also, by and large, respectful and serious.

Shortly before the Bill was debated in Parliament, the Royal College of Physicians asked its member doctors if they thought the law needed changing - and over 70% of those responding said the law against assisted suicide should stay the same. The Royal College of General Practitioners also urged that the law should stay the same.

Now, by way of an amendment to the Coroners and Justice Bill, the legality of assisting people to end their own lives is once again to be debated. The proposed amendment seeks to protect from prosecution those who help friends or relatives to go abroad to commit suicide in one of the few countries where the practice is legal.

It would surely put vulnerable people at serious risk, especially sick people who are anxious about the burden their illness may be placing on others. Moreover, our hospice movement, an almost unique gift of this country to wider humankind, is the profound and tangible sign of another and better way to cope with the challenges faced by those who are terminally ill, by their loved ones and by those who care for them.

This amendment would mark a shift in British law towards legalising euthanasia. We do not believe that such a fundamental change in the law should be sought by way of an amendment to an already complex Bill. It should be rejected.

• The Most Reverend and Rt Hon Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury
• The Most Reverend Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster
• Sir Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth

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Britain is no longer a Christian nation – Sunday Telegraph

If recent trends are any guide, many Church of England parishes will have been cheered by higher attendances at Easter services. The last published statistics for 2006/7 show rises of 7 and 5 per cent in church going at Christmas and Easter.

Bishop Paul Richardson, Assistant Bishop of Newcastle, write: “But these figures are just about the only signs of hope for the church and certainly not the first green shoots of a revival. Other statistics make for gloomy reading.

Annual decline in Sunday attendance is running at around 1 per cent. At this rate it is hard to see the church surviving for more than 30 years though few of its leaders are prepared to face that possibility.

To its credit, the church has been successful at getting members to give, but larger donations cannot offset the fall in numbers. At present the church is struggling to maintain 16,200 buildings, many of them old and listed with 4,200 listed Grade I.

If decline continues, Christian Research has estimated that in five years' time church closures will accelerate from their present rate of 30 a year to 200 a year as dwindling congregations find the cost of keeping them open too great.”

“Occasional church attendees are not hypocrites” - bishop – Diocese of Lichfield

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CANA Celebrates Launch of New Anglican Province – CANA

The Convocation of Anglicans in North American (CANA) joined with orthodox Anglican groups representing 700 congregations to formally launch the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). During a meeting held in Bedford, Texas, from June 22-25, ACNA ratified its constitution and installed Robert Duncan as its first archbishop. CANA Missionary Bishop Martyn Minns, a leader in founding the new province, attended the meeting along with a CANA delegation that included more than 20 lay and clergy members.

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Monday, June 29

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US pastor opens church to guns
 

A pastor in the US state of Kentucky told his flock to bring handguns to church in what he said was an effort to promote safe gun ownership.

Pastor Ken Pagano told parishioners to bring their unloaded guns to New Bethel Church in Louisville for a service celebrating the right to bear arms.

He said he acted after church members voiced fears the Obama administration could tighten gun control laws.

When the service began, some 200 people were present, AP news agency said.

"We are wanting to send a message that there are legal, civil, intelligent and law-abiding citizens who also own guns," Mr Pagano told the congregation.

"If it were not for a deep-seated belief in the right to bear arms, this country would not be here today," he said.

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Doctors want right to talk faith Doctors are demanding that NHS staff be given a right to discuss spiritual issues with patients as well as being allowed to offer to pray for them. Medics will tell the British Medical Association conference this week that staff should not be disciplined as long as they handle the issue sensitively. The doctors said recent cases where health workers had got into trouble were making people fearful. But atheists said it was wrong to mix religion and health care.

Doctors are worried that religion is being seen as unhelpful

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Cell Phones vs. Chadors in Tehran – Washington Post

The Uses and Abuses of Religion in Politics and Pop Culture, by Brad Hirschfield

From Capitol Hill to Main Street, it's amazing how many people think the fight in Iran is a battle between the forces of freedom and those of religious fundamentalism. And it's amazing how wrong they are to reduce a complex struggle to terms which miss the real issues that are in play and likely to affect us all. Not to mention that nobody really knows what will come out the other end of this ongoing struggle, whichever side emerges victorious.

I am no fan of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and it's pretty certain that when even the Mullahs who back him admit that there were significant "election irregularities", the election was anything but fair and the results are anything but reliable. However, none of that means that the people marching in the streets are necessarily the champions of the kind of democracy that most Americans hold dear.

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Mrs Clinton said Ms Pandith brought 'years of experience' to the role

US appoints envoy to Muslim world The US State Department has appointed its first Special Representative to Muslim Communities. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Farah Pandith would play a leading role in US efforts to "engage Muslims around the world". She said Ms Pandith, who was born in Indian-administered Kashmir, would bring years of experience to the role.

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Building work announced for Abbey Plans have been announced for the first major building work at Westminster Abbey for 250 years. The proposals would see a corona - an architectural feature in the shape of a large crown - sit on the roof of the historic structure. The plans form part of a major £23m development of the Abbey. It is hoped the work will be completed by 2013 - a year which will mark the 60th anniversary of the Queen's Coronation at the Abbey.

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Transitions at the Anglican Cathedral in Second Life – Episcopal Cafe (video)

After two and a half years heading up the Anglican Cathedral in Second Life, its founder has stepped down from active leadership and preaching at the virtual cathedral, though he remains involved. The Rev. Mark Brown remains very interested in virtual ministry and has created prayer groups on Twitter (@Prayer4u) and Facebook (Praying People) in recent weeks. He will continue to be involved with the Cathedral in an advisory capacity.

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Sunday, June 28

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Primate encourages Lutherans to imagine bold step together – ACC "What bold step can our churches take together?" Archbishop Fred Hiltz, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada (pictured right) asked delegates at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada's (ELCIC) National Convention to consider during an evening Bible study on June 25. The Bible study is the first of three Bible studies taking place throughout the convention, which is being held June 25 to 28 in Vancouver, B.C. The Primate led delegates through Luke 4:16-21, where Jesus reads parts of Isaiah aloud in a Nazareth synagogue. It begins, "the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor."

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Every parent knows about the God scam – Observer

An oversubscribed Jewish school in north London, JFS, once called the Jewish Free School, has been found to be breaking race laws. A 12-year-old boy, known as M, was not let in because, although his mother converted to Judaism, she did so at a progressive rather than an orthodox synagogue, which did not meet their criteria. Now the Court of Appeal has found this to be a "test of ethnicity that contravenes the Race Relations Act", comparing it with a practising Christian child not gaining entrance to a faith school because of their Jewish origins. Well, fair enough, but is this story just about one school's rigidity?

I got a brief taste of Jewish segregation when I used to live in Stamford Hill. Some members of the Hasidic community would drag their children away from me on the street or cover their eyes as I went past. In their eyes, I was "unclean" and dressed as a prostitute. In fairness, this was my rock chick heyday and I was definitely working my "Ironic Slut" look.

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Iran’s Second Sex – NY Times

From Day 1, Iran’s women stood in the vanguard. Their voices from rooftops were loudest, and their defiance in the streets boldest. “Stand, don’t run,” Nazanine told me as the baton-wielding police charged up handsome Vali Asr avenue on the day after the fraudulent election. She stood.

Images assail me: a slender woman clutching her stomach outside Tehran University after the blow; a tall woman gesticulating to the men behind her to advance on the shiny-shirted Basij militia; women shedding tears of distilled indignation; and that young woman who screamed, “We are all so angry. Will they kill us all?”

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Saturday, June 27

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Anglican Church in North America wraps up inaugural assembly – Anglican Journal

The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) elected its first archbishop and ratified a constitution and canons at its first Provincial Assembly in Dallas and Fort Worth, Tex. from June 22 to 25.

However, the church is still seeking recognition as a new province within the worldwide Anglican Communion.

The Anglican Church of Canada and The Episcopal Church in the U.S are presently the only ecclesial bodies in North America recognized by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

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Synthetics — the new moral playing-field – Church Times
 

Exciting new developments in science and technology are raising fresh ethical challenges. The latest is in an area now called synthetic biology. In its most dramatic form, synthetic biology offers the possibility of creating new forms of life not to be found anywhere in nature. A recent discussion paper for the Royal Society stated pungently: “In essence it is about redesigning life.”

Synthetic biology does not simply reorder some natural components (as genetic engineering does); it attempts also to synthesise artificial components with living components in order to produce, for example, more efficient bio-fuels or personalised forms of medicine. Machines in the future might even contain “living” components.

This novel area brings together the skills of computer-modelling and advanced engineering with DNA-mapping and synthesising. Developed over the past decade, particularly in Boston and the Bay Area of California, it has now come to Britain. A Centre of Synthetic Biology has recently been established at Imperial College, London, and there are similar developments at Cambridge and Edinburgh Universities.

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Michael Jackson – A reflection

“Born to stardom, he never knew what it was like to live or even behave normally.” (Bill Wyman)

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Credo: Without a shared moral code there can be no freedom in our society – The Times

When it comes to personal behaviour we have now come to believe that there is no right and wrong. Instead, there are choices, says Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks.

Sub-prime mortgages, financial collapse, MPs expenses: these and other recent scandals are more than mere passing events. They have left Parliament and the market, the twin foundations of the free society, in disarray.

What has been lost is trust — our trust in those we chose to look after our affairs — and trust is the basis of society. If we are to recover it, we must ask some deep questions.

Thus far we have had a festival of blame, and there have been some sacrificial victims. But our great faiths teach the principle of collective responsibility. In that spirit we should ask what has gone wrong in society as a whole?

I believe we have lost our traditional sense of morality. I do not mean that we are less moral than our grandparents. We care about things they hardly thought about: world poverty, inequality, global warming and the loss of biodiversity. We are more tolerant than they were.

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Face to faith – Guardian

The [Roman] Catholic church has always cared about social justice - we're commanded to, says Christine Allen

Contraception, abortion and death. Many people think the Catholic church is preoccupied with little else. Yet beyond that sometimes self-inflicted stereotype there is hidden treasure - a centuries-old tradition of radical, progressive action and insight on matters of social justice.

I meet few people of faith or no faith - never mind Catholics - who are aware of the existence and extraordinary breadth of Catholic social teaching, delivered via papal letters or encyclicals. Without doubt it is Catholicism's best-kept secret.

How about this from an encyclical from Pope Pius XI in 1931 in the wake of the 1929 financial crash? Addressing the "irresistible power" grabbed by trustees and directors of invested funds, he slammed their hold over credit, which enables them to "supply the life-blood to the entire economic body and grasping, as it were, in their hands the very soul of the economy, so that no one dare breathe against their will". In a plea for better regulation that could have been uttered in 2009, the Pope declared: "Free competition, and especially economic domination, must be kept within definite and proper bounds, and must be brought under effective control of the public authority."

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A gay rights rally in New York in 1969 Sizeable minority remains hostile to same-sex relationships – The Times

Church 'out of touch' as public supports equal rights for homosexuals – The Times A revolution in attitudes towards gay men and lesbians is indicated in a poll which shows that a majority of the public want homosexuals to share identical rights to everyone else. Just 40 years after homosexual acts were legalised, and only nine years since the age of consent was equalised, 61 per cent of the public want gay couples to be able to marry just like the rest of the population, not just have civil partnerships. Half (49%) believe that gay couples should have equal adoption rights, eight years after it became legal for them to adopt in a highly controversial move by Tony Blair.

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What can religion offer politics? – Guardian

Can religion provide answers to our social and political problems, or should we exclude it from the public sphere? asks Antony lerman

It wasn't so long ago that the decline of religion and the inevitable onward march of secularism were being taken for granted. To some people, the world might still seem like that as not even the worst global economic crisis since the Depression appears to have done very much to dampen the public appetite for consumerism, celebrity culture and other materialistic pursuits. These enticements may be on hold for the moment for most of us, but we can still enjoy them vicariously as we watch the rich doing the business on our behalf, manfully shouldering the burden of ensuring that the profits of designer shops are booming once again.

But the events in Iran are a stark reminder of the glowering presence of religion on the world stage, not just in the form of al-Qaida-style fanaticism. There, it is a governing force that demands legitimisation through the ballot box, and won't take no for an answer. The regime may be facing its toughest challenge since it took power, but it's clear that Islam is still an overarching form of ordering society preferred by millions of people. Elsewhere, various forms of Christianity are surging. Dr Eric Kaufman writes that "Middle class Chinese are flocking to Christianity". In Korea, adherents of Protestantism grew from little more than 2% of the population in 1950 to 20% today. "Throughout the developing world, in fact, the 'hotter,' more emotional forms of Christianity are enjoying a resurgence, with Pentecostalism in the lead", Dr Kaufman writes. "An eighth of Brazil and 20% of Guatemala is now theirs."

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Protestant outlaws in NIreland embrace disarmament – Salon

Northern Ireland achieved another important milestone in peacemaking Saturday as the territory's two major Protestant paramilitary groups announced their first acts of disarmament -- and pledged that their decades of slaughtering Catholic civilians were over for good.

One group, the Ulster Volunteer Force, said it had destroyed its entire stockpile of weaponry during a secret June 12 meeting with disarmament chiefs. The other, the Ulster Defense Association, said it had handed over its first, unspecified portion of its arsenal and would continue the process in coming months.

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That was the week that was. It’s over – let it go

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The Brandon diocesan website is a pro bono site. It neither captures nor stores any information about those browsing it. Not a lot happens in this diocese. The purpose of this main page is to provide a worldwide snapshot of matters judged to be of Christian concern, useful for sermon and intercession material and culled from responsible sources. The very contradictory nature of some of the articles should make it plain that it reflects neither diocesan nor any other policy.

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You are visitor No. since April 11, 2002.

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“God writes in two books. One is the Bible; the other is daily events.
In both, God’s hand is richly in evidence. In neither, normally, is God unequivocally clear.”

God’s world on St Thomas’s Day, 2009