SECOND DIOCESE IN ANGLICAN CHURCH OF AOTEAROA, NEW ZEALAND AND POLYNESIA SAYS NO TO THE ANGLICAN COVENANT

From Bosco Peters at Liturgy blog:

Breaking news (thanks to Rev. Ngira Simmonds) on the Eve of Pentecost the second Episcopal Unit (cf. diocese) in the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia has rejected the Anglican Covenant:

Read the entire statement at Bosco's blog. I especially like the following words:

■In terms of our shared Mihingare and Anglican heritage, our call to communion, and our call to ministry and mission, the Covenant offers us nothing new or more compelling than the Spiritual Covenant that we already have with each other through faith in Jesus Christ;

Yes! Thank you, my dear fellow Anglicans in Te Hui Amorangi o Te Tairawhiti Episcopal Unit in New Zealand.

WHAT ARE LITTLE BOYS MADE OF?

You may or may not have seen the two episodes of "The "Sissy Boy" Experiment" on "Anderson Cooper 360", the nightly news show on CNN, about the young boy, Kirk Murphy, who was not quite five years old when he was taken to UCLA for early intervention treatment in an experimental program for young boys who showed evidence of excessive femininity. Yes, that is UCLA. The purpose of the treatment was to change the excessively effeminate behavior and prevent the young boys from possibly growing up gay.

The story is heartbreaking. If you'd like to watch the two episodes which have already aired, here are the links:

The "Sissy Boy" Experiment Part One

The "Sissy Boy" Experiment Part Two

Jim Burroway, who blogs at Box Turtle Bulletin, investigated the story, and he will be seen on another episode on CNN sometime next week. Jim published the results of his separate, in-depth investigation, which gives a much fuller and more detailed report on Kirk's story, at Box Turtle Bulletin under the title What Are Little Boys Made Of?. Jim's report is long, in seven parts, but I plead with you to take the time to read it. I read it in two intervals because the report is so very tragic and emotionally wrenching that I had to stop at Part 5 and resume the next day.

Kirk's main counselor seems to have been George Rekers, a young graduate student at the time. Yes, the anti-gay activist George Rekers, the co-founder of the Family Research Council, who was caught recently at the Miami Airport traveling with a young male escort.

Rekers, who is also a professor emeritus of neuropsychiatry at the University of South Carolina and a Baptist minister, recently testifed against gay adoption in Florida, where he resides.

No doubt Rekers testified as an expert against gay adoption. If you made up the story, no one would believe you, but, tragically, the story is all too true. Kirk's picture at the head of the post shows him at about the age that the therapy began.

As Jim Burroway says:

In this original BTB investigation, we speak with his family and friend who knew the real “Kraig” to uncover the truth behind Reker’s greatest success story. Their stories reveals the tragedy of a terrible experiment on a very young boy which would haunt him for the rest of his life. It is not only an indictment of a man who built his anti-gay career on Kirk’s suffering, but a rebuke to others — those in the mental health profession then and in the contemporary ex-gay movement today — who would place their careers and agendas ahead of the well-being of this young boy and countless others like him.

Kirk Murphy committed suicide in 2003 at the age of 38.

Thanks to Jim Burroway for his hard work in investigating and telling Kirk's story.

Photo from Box Turtle Bulletin.

PLEASE CONTINUE TO PRAY...

...for Ann's friend who is awaiting surgery/treatment for tumors:

seeing a specialist.

Thanks for your prayer connections all over the world. I do feel a certain united energy pulling for my return to health. Actually, in my mind, I feel quite healthy but the body begs to differ from time to time.

Almighty God our heavenly Father, graciously comfort your servants in their suffering, and bless the means made use of for their cures. Fill their hearts with confidence that, though at times they may be afraid, they yet may put their trust in you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Update from Ann:

Had a call from my friend. She saw the specialist in her type of tumors. He thinks he can treat it with a medication which is specific for these. Will shrink them and keep her in remission.

Keep praying. She says thanks and feels the power bearing her up and strengthening her.

Update 2 from Kirstin at Facebook:

Kirstin Paisley

Just home from first infusion of Yervoy. I go back in three weeks, if I tolerate it. Chemo nurse was wonderful. Also got some decent pain and nausea control, which I'm glad for, because my leg threw a fit (no I don't mean a seizure) on the way home. My hope isn't on fire, but it's curious.

FEAST OF STS COLUMBA AND EPHREM

The Abbey at Iona

In 563 Columba and 12 companions left Ireland, arriving first at what is today Southend, on the southern tip of Kintyre. This, though, was still within sight of Ireland, so they travelled further north, landing on Iona on 12 May 563. The island was granted to Columba for the establishment of a monastery by King Conall of a distant relative. (Undiscovered Scotland)

The feast day is past and gone, but no matter. Time in the Kingdom of God is not our time. MadPriest's service of Evening Prayer for the feast day at St Laika's is lovely. If only for the gorgeous version of “Kells Opening Theme” performed by Iona, it's worth a listen. But there's more, much more.

Ephrem...was a teacher, poet, orator, and defender of the Faith.... Edessa (now Urfa), a city in modern Turkey about 100 kilometers from Antioch (now Antakya), was a an early center for the spread of Christian teaching in the East. It is said that in 325 he accompanied his bishop, James of Nisibis, to the Council of Nicea. Certainly his writings are an eloquent defense of the Nicene faith in the Deity of Jesus Christ. He countered the Gnostics' practice of spreading their message through popular songs by composing Christian songs and hymns of his own, with great effect. He is known to the Syrian church as "the harp of the Holy Spirit." (James Kiefer at The Lectionary)

PRAYER OF ST EPHREM

O Lord and Master of my life, give me not the spirit of sloth, meddling, lust for power and idle talk. But grant to me, your servant, a spirit of integrity, humility, patience and love. Yes, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own faults and not to judge my brothers and sisters. For blessed are you unto the ages of ages. Amen.

CELTIC BLESSING

In work and worship,
God is with us.

Gathered and scattered,
God is with us.

Now and always,
God is with us.

Check out St Laika's. You won't be sorry.

SEXUAL ASSAULT PREVENTION TIPS

Click on the image for the larger view.

Thanks to Paul the BB on Facebook.

PLAY LIKE LES PAUL

Are you playing Les Paul's guitar on Google today? I am, and I'm having great fun with it.

Les Paul is 96 years old today. Happy Birthday, Les!

UPDATE: Right, Les passed on in 2009. Up there in heaven, Les, can you hear me?

JESUS AND MO - SEE?

Click on the cartoon for the larger view.

From Jesus and Mo.

STORY OF THE DAY - WAITING FOR SIGNS

I used to wait for a sign, she said, before
I did anything. Then one night I had a
dream & an angel in black tights came to
me & said, you can start any time now,
& then I asked is this a sign? & the angel
started laughing & I woke up. Now, I
think the whole world is filled with
signs, but if there's no laughter, I know
they're not for me.

From StoryPeople.

Thanks to Ann, but I had already decided to post the story.

PLEASE PRAY FOR GÖRAN

A Facebook friend alerted us that Göran is to have surgery tomorrow and asked us to pray for him.

Almighty God our heavenly Father, graciously comfort your servant Göran in his suffering, and bless the means made use of for his cure. Fill his heart with confidence that, though at times he may be afraid, he yet may put his trust in you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Update on Ann's friend with tumors: "continued prayers -- biopsy shows surgery likely."

EARLY BISHOPS OF ROME ELECTED BY CLERGY AND LAITY

From the National Catholic Reporter:

The sacking of William Morris as bishop of the Australian diocese of Toowoomba raises more than a few theological questions about the relationship between bishops and the Bishop of Rome.

Many Catholics believe, and so apparently does Benedict XVI, that the Bishop of Rome is free, by the will of Christ, not only to appoint all bishops in the Roman Catholic church, but to dismiss them as well.

This is an incorrect assumption, and the firing of Bishop Morris provides us with a teachable moment in ecclesiology.

From the very beginning of church history, bishops were elected by the laity and clergy of the various local churches, or dioceses. And this included the Bishop of Rome, known more popularly as the pope.

One of the most important bishop-saints of the third century, Cyprian of Carthage in North Africa, offered explicit testimony about the election of bishops in the early church.

"It comes from divine authority," Cyprian wrote, "that a bishop be chosen in the presence of the people before the eyes of all and that he be approved worthy and fit by public judgment and testimony."

Indeed, when Cornelius was elected pope in 251, Cyprian described the process in a letter to a contemporary: "Cornelius was made bishop by the judgment of God and His Christ, by the testimony of almost all the clergy, by the vote of the people who were then present, by the assembly of venerable bishops and good men."

As I said at Of Course, I Could Be Wrong, where MadPriest posted the story earlier, "The article is brilliantly timely, and, as you say, its significance applies far beyond the story of the persecution of Bishop William Morris by the Vatican.

The NCR was my mainstay for many years, as the newspaper gave me great comfort in knowing that I was not alone in my resistance to swallowing the Vatican line whole and entire."

The Catholic Encyclopedia admits as much:

As to the earliest ages, Ferraris (op. cit. infra) says that St. Peter himself constituted a senate for the Roman Church, consisting of twenty-four priests and deacons. These were the councillors of the Bishop of Rome and the electors of his successors. This statement is drawn from a canon in the "Corpus Juris Canonici" (can. "Si Petrus", caus. 8, Q. 1). Historians and canonists, however, generally hold that the Roman bishopric was filled on its vacancy in the same manner as other bishoprics, that is, the election of the new pope was made by the neighbouring bishops and the clergy and faithful of Rome. Nevertheless, some maintain that the naming of the successor of St. Peter was restricted to the Roman clergy, and that the people were admitted to a part in the elections only after the time of Sylvester I (fourth century). (My emphasis)

MadPriest adds a gentle commentary to the article in NCR:

So there you have it. Of the three main denominations of the Christian Church, Roman Catholicism, Byzantium Orthodoxy and Anglicanism, the most orthodox, when it comes to the election of bishops, is Anglicanism and the province within the Anglican communion that has got it the most correct is the USA. This fact emphasises just how devious and perverted the accusations of revisionism and apostasy, levelled at the US Church by its jealous detractors, actually are, especially as they come mostly from bishops who have assumed dictatorial powers for themselves and who have been elected in processes that reflect those practiced by the secular powers of the cultures they minister within.