The other Rowan Williams

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TEC, the  organisation that will tolerate anything except disagreement, is disciplining bishops for saying what they think, the Archbishop of Canterbury has declared that the Church of England is looking into the abyss, gay priests are out and transgendered priests are in, but the real Anglican news of the week is that there are two Rowan Williams (or should that be Rowan Williamses or Rowans Williams?).

The gender variant needs to work on those eyebrows if she expects anyone to take her seriously.

 

From here:

Meanwhile, Dr Williams has been revealed to have a female namesake. She is the Reverend Rowan Williams, who is chaplain at the University of York.

She was photographed chatting to General Synod members yesterday as they gathered in the grounds of the university.

 

Church of England priests banned from “inappropriate behaviour”

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The “unbecoming conduct” in question is membership in the BNP, not sodomy; CofE priests are heaving a collective sigh of relief.

From here:

The Church of England’s ruling synod is expected to ban clergy and church workers from belonging to organisations such as the British National Party.

Clergy would be prevented from expressing support for groups the Church considers racially prejudiced.

Supporters say the proposals could bring more racial diversity to a predominantly white Church clergy.

General Synod members meeting in York will be asked to vote on an amendment to the Church’s disciplinary measures.

This would make it “unbecoming” or “inappropriate” conduct for clergy to be members of a political party with policies and activities declared “incompatible” with Church teaching on race equality.

 

The Anglican Church of Canada wants to know what the Marks of Mission look like

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From here:

Calling all Anglican photographers! Pull out your cameras, your fancy lenses, or your smartphones for our new photo contest. Capture an image that depicts one or all of the Marks of Mission and send it in to the General Synod office by January 1, 2013.

Here is my submission:

The Marx of Mission

Desmond Tutu likens Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to the holocaust

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The only possibly explanation for someone seeing a similarity between having to pass through a security checkpoint and being gassed and incinerated in an oven is that the person is suffering from dementia – or is a rabid Anglican leftist. Tutu is probably both.

From here:

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu, who is engaged in a controversial campaign urging divestment from Israel, in London on July 4  was honored for supporting travel to the Palestinian town of Bethlehem, identified in the New Testament as the birthplace of Jesus.

Tutu, who is Anglican Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town, South Africa and became known for his fight against his nation’s apartheid system of racial discrimination, at a London meeting was awarded an honorary “Bethlehem Passport” by the charity Open Bethlehem, of which he is a patron.

The London-based charity’s founder, Leila Sansour, commented that Tutu remains “an inspiration to millions in your dedication to the principles of peace, reconciliation and freedom. We remember your certainty that ‘we will all be free’ as we struggle for a Palestinian state, but we also remember that this state is only worth the struggle if it remains open, democratic and teaches respect for human rights.”

Tutu said that he was “very sorry you have had to endure all this suffering. It almost seems endless but it will end. At home for so many years it looked like the apartheid system would never end. But it did. The Jews thought the Holocaust would never end but it did. They did eventually come into their own land once again.”

He added, however, that Jews “are inflicting the same suffering they experienced on others” in terms of creating armed checkpoints through which Palestinians must pass and security operations against Palestinian areas.

Why the 'God particle' matters – sort of

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Read why here:

In the world of science, the excitement doesn’t mount much higher than the frenzy Wednesday around the announcement that scientists at the world’s biggest atom smasher may have found the “God particle.”

The discovery is called a boson, a class of sub-atomic particle, but the description stopped just short of confirming that it’s the long-sought Higgs boson particle.

While there are still questions to ask and research to do to confirm it is indeed the Higgs boson, physicists see massive implications to the discovery.

“It’s helping us understand the big universal question, which is what are we made out of,” says Philippe Di Stefano, a physics professor at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont.

One reason the discovery of the Higgs boson particle doesn’t matter at all is that it has nothing whatsoever to do with God – other than the fact that he made it just like he made everything else. In fact, it derives the name “God particle” from “goddam particle”, an epithet it acquired because it was so difficult to find.

So its discovery will bring us no closer to God than we were before. In fact, a four year old Christian girl who is convinced that little boys derive their weighty solidity from being constructed of slugs and snails and puppy-dogs’ tails rather than Higgs boson particles, is a good deal closer to the heart of reality than Peter Higgs who is an atheist.

Satanists say theft of sign was a hate crime

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A couple from the Church of Satan has complained that someone stole a “Vote Satan” sign from their front porch.

Normally I would have sympathy for the victims of vandals curtailing the free expression of religious zealots but in this instance, I do believe that the outraged Satanists don’t have much of a case. The eighth commandment says: “Thou shalt not steal”. The Church of Satan says: “Satan represents all of the so-called sins, as they all lead to physical, mental, or emotional gratification!”

Fair enough: if Satan represents not just theft, but all the sins, the hapless sin-loving Satanists should encourage the vandals in their endeavours – making sure they are out of the way before the hoodlums move on to breaking commandment number six in their quest for further “emotional gratification”.

From here:

A Satanist couple in Mountain View, Calf., says they’re the victims of religious discrimination after someone stole their “VOTE SATAN” poster from their front porch.
Luigi and Angie Bellaviste belong to the Church of Satan, reports CBS News, and have their home decorated with satanic paraphernalia, including a black Christmas tree, skulls and the numbers 666.

But someone recently made off with their most prominent display, the election-style sign hanging from the front of their house. And they want it officially dubbed a hate crime.

“I feel like we’re being treated unfairly because it’s not a so-called mainstream religion,” Luigi said.

Lady bishops worried about being “second class citizens”

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From here:

Reforms to allow women to become bishops, which were expected to be approved by the Church of England this week after 12 years of bitter debate, are in disarray.

Some of the Church’s most senior female clergy have denounced the proposed legislation for giving their opponents concessions which they say would make them second-class citizens if they were made bishops.

A final vote on the historic measure, which would pave the way for women in mitres within two years, is the main item at the Church’s ‘Parliament’,  the General Synod, which starts a five-day meeting in York on Friday.

What strikes me about the career ambitions of Church of England lady priests is not so much whether female bishops are theologically sound or not but this:

Anglican women priests eager for upward career mobility claim that their cause is one of justice, equality and rights. Justice demands that women have access to the same opportunities as men; equality between the sexes in the 21st century is an unassailable aphorism; everyone expects women – men, too, but particularly women – to stand up for their rights.

What child of the third millennium could possibly disagree?

Surely these potential lady bishops are simply fighting for what is right, doing “social justice” as Jesus would want them to. Or are they?

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Phil 2:5-8

I think the real problem with these ambitious lady priests is that they appear to view their calling as a secular career rather than a Christian vocation: they should not even be priests let alone bishops.

Rowan Williams is frustrated that some Christians are disgusted by homosexuality

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From here:

He added: “Same with same sex marriage, where once more we’re used to being alongside people who are gay; many of our friends may be – indeed we may be – wrestling with that issue ourselves, and the Church is scratching its head and trying to work out where it is on all that, and what to think about it.

“What’s frustrating is that we still have Christian people whose feelings about it are so strong, and sometimes so embarrassed and ashamed and disgusted, that that just sends out a message of unwelcome, of lack of understanding, of lack of patience.

“So whatever we think about it, we need, as a Church, to be tackling what we feel about it.”

Rowan Williams, in his frustration, seems to miss a rather important distinction. We are all sinners and we all, from time to time do disgusting things; nevertheless, although somewhat tarnished, we are all still made in God’s image and should treat one another with the respect that God’s image deserves.

Just because an act evokes an emotional response of disgust doesn’t mean it isn’t intrinsically disgusting. Personally, I find the thought of homosexual sex simultaneously comical and disgusting; and not only do I feel not the least bit guilty about it, but I derive some satisfaction in knowing that my disgust has contributed in a small way to Rowan’s frustration.

Attendance at St. John’s Shaughnessy is dropping

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In spite of an influx of cash , a new rector and a “Bishop’s Missioner”, according to one observer, attendance has dropped:

In a building that will hold 1000, September 2011 attracted between 80 to 70 people to the 10:00 a.m. service; now around 30 people attend – presumably distant relatives of the rector and “Bishop’s Missioner”. At the 8:00 a.m. service there are 2 or 3 people.