French Woman Ordains Herself a Priest

ABC News

Who would possibly take this seriously?

LYON, France Jul 2, 2005 — A French woman defied a threat of excommunication by the Roman Catholic Church and held a ceremony proclaiming herself a priest on Saturday.

In a small ceremony on a boat, Genevieve Beney was joined by other women from around the world who have taken similar dramatic action to draw attention to the church’s policy against women priests.

“This is not a rupture with the Roman Catholic Church,” Beney said in a statement read aloud before she boarded the boat. “If there is a rupture on my part, it is with a situation that I consider to be obsolete and unjust to women.”

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

US Anglicans bless ‘sacred’ gay unions

2005.06.22 Times Online June 22, 2005 Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent

THE Anglican Church of the US gave the first justification yesterday of its decision to consecrate an openly homosexual man to the episcopate, arguing that same-sex unions can be open “to God’s blessing and holy purposes” in the same manner as marriage.

At a meeting in Nottingham of Anglican leaders from around the world, delegates from the US said the blessing of same-sex unions constitutes a “new reality, a sacred union”.

The consecration of Gene Robinson, a divorced father of two who has a male partner, as Bishop of New Hampshire, and the authorisation of same-sex blessings by the New Westminster diocese in Canada, has brought the 38 provinces of the Anglican Communion to the brink of schism.

The Church is split between liberals in Britain and North America and orthodox conservatives in the so-called Global South churches of Africa, Asia and the West Indies.
[Read more…]

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

American churches shown door as gay row deepens

2005.06.23 Times Online June 23, 2005 Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent

THE Anglican Church moved closer to schism yesterday when members of its central administrative council formally asked the Churches of Canada and the US to go.

Unconvinced by the justifications offered by both Churches on Tuesday for their actions in ordaining an openly homo- sexual bishop and authorising same-sex blessings, members of the Anglican Consultative Council meeting in Nottingham asked them to leave the council and its central finance and standing committees.

Although the motion invites the Churches to withdraw voluntarily, it amounts in effect to a punishing expulsion. The debate was held behind closed doors at Nottingham University yesterday, and the motion was passed 30 to 28 by secret ballot, with four abstentions.
[Read more…]

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

Q. Whose Bible is it? A. Whose isn’t it?

Jane Lampman Christian Science Monitor

Today, as in the long-ago past,the scriptures may divide but, in a wider sense, they conquer

The news is brimming with religion. People of faith are taking strong stands on both sides of political issues. Jewish settlers are proclaiming a divine right to hold onto land. Evangelicals travel to tsunami-devastated corners of the world offering their faith as the answer for life’s tribulations.
[Read more…]

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

Hypocrisy Most Holy

Wall Street Journal Online BY ALI AL-AHMED Friday, May 20, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT

Muslims should show some respect to others’ religions.

With the revelation that a copy of the Quran may have been desecrated by U.S. military personnel at Guantanamo Bay, Muslims and their governments–including that of Saudi Arabia–reacted angrily. This anger would have been understandable if the U.S. government’s adopted policy was to desecrate our Quran. But even before the Newsweek report was discredited, that was never part of the allegations.

As a Muslim, I am able to purchase copies of the Quran in any bookstore in any American city, and study its contents in countless American universities. American museums spend millions to exhibit and celebrate Muslim arts and heritage. On the other hand, my Christian and other non-Muslim brothers and sisters in Saudi Arabia–where I come from–are not even allowed to own a copy of their holy books. Indeed, the Saudi government desecrates and burns Bibles that its security forces confiscate at immigration points into the kingdom or during raids on Christian expatriates worshiping privately.

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

Body and Spirit: Why Attending Religious Services May Benefit Health

By KEVIN HELLIKER, Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

The number of Americans who attend religious services at least once a week jumped nearly three points to 27.5% during the two years ended in 2004, according to statistics to be released this week by the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center.

This leap could be good news for the nation’s health. A growing body of scientific evidence shows that Americans who attend religious services at least once a week enjoy better-than-average health and lower rates of illness, including depression. Perhaps most important, the studies show that weekly attendance confers a significant reduction in mortality risk over a given period of time.
[Read more…]

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

A Striking Contrast

May 3, 2005 Michael Medved

Contrasting comments by two prominent religious leaders show why some denominations grow while others decline and wither. Just before his election as pope, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger gave an inspiring speech about the need to pursue timeless truth and to resist “the dictatorship of relativisms.”

Meanwhile, Gene Robinson, the Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire, spoke to Planned Parenthood and compared the Passover story of the Book of Exodus to his coming out as a gay man. “I know what it’s like to leave Egypt, or leave the closet,” he declared, adding: “We need to teach people about nuance, about holding things in tension, that this can be true and that can be true…”

No wonder that his Episcopal church faces division, disinterest, and disastrously declining numbers, while the uncompromising Catholic message remains powerful and relevant. In the marketplace of religious ideas, most consumers seek guidance, rigor and continuity, not New Age nuance or anything-goes-trendiness.

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

Benedict XVI Looks Toward Unity With Orthodox

Zenit News

Continues a Tradition From the Window of Papal Apartment

VATICAN CITY, MAY 1, 2005 (ZENIT.org).- Benedict XVI extended Easter greetings to Orthodox Christians, who were celebrating the day, and indicated again he will pursue the goal of Catholic-Orthodox unity.

In his first Regina Caeli address from the window of his papal apartment, the Holy Father today said God is “asking us to travel decisively down the path toward full unity.”

Tens of thousands of people were gathered below in St. Peter’s Square to hear the Pontiff’s address, which continued a Sunday tradition of Pope John Paul II’s.
[Read more…]

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

Biblical Aspects of the Question of Faith and Politics

LewRockwell.com Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI)

[This is a homily that was delivered on 26 November 1981 in the course of a service for Catholic members of the Bundestag in the church of St. Wynfrith (Boniface) in Bonn. The readings provided for the day by the lectionary were 1 Peter 1:3-7 and John 14:1-6. At first sight they seemed to be out of keeping with the subject, but on closer inspection they showed themselves to be unexpectedly fruitful.]

The epistle and gospel that we have just listened to have their origin in a situation in which Christians were not citizens of a state who were able to shape their own lives but the persecuted victims of a cruel dictatorship. They could not share in responsibility for their state but simply had to endure it. It was not granted to them to shape it as a Christian state; instead their task was to live as Christians despite it. The names of two emperors in whose reigns tradition dates these two passages are enough to cast light on the situation: they were Nero and Domitian. Thus the first letter of Peter describes Christians as strangers within this state (1:1) and the state itself as Babylon (5:13). By doing so it indicates very impressively the political position that Christians were in; it corresponded more or less to that of the Jews living in exile in Babylon who were not responsible citizens of that state but subjects without any rights, and who thus had to learn how they might survive in it, not how they could build it up. Thus the political background of today’s readings is fundamentally different from ours. Nevertheless they contain three important statements which are significant for political activity among Christians.

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

Christians are leaving the town of Bethlehem

Los Angeles Times Ken Ellingwood

Palestinians among them grow tired of Israeli roadblocks, outbreaks of hostility.

BETHLEHEM, West Bank — From an office near the traditional birthplace of Christ, Mayor Hanna Nasser frets about the prospects for Christians in his slice of the Holy Land.

The outbreak of hostilities between Israel and the Palestinians more than four years ago has accelerated emigration by Palestinian Christians that began years earlier.
[Read more…]

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail