TWO STORIES OF THE DAY

BEGINNING

he followed the sun & she followed the
stars & in dreams they listened closely
for the beginning of all things, for that
was where they knew they'd find each
other

BEST OF TIMES

I'd like to leave you with something
valuable, she said. You probably already
have, I said, but we take most of our
lives to remember that, even in the best
of times

From StoryPeople here and here.

TO THE PROVINCES OF THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION:

"Sign on to the Anglican Covenant, and toe the line, or else."

"Where is the line?"

"We can't answer your question. You will know you've crossed the line when you suffer 'relational consequences'."

Cartoon by MadPriest.

FURTHER ON THE ANGLICAN COVENANT...

...the Church of England Diocese of Sodor & Man voted 'No'.

The count in the Church of England is now 11 dioceses against the Anglican Covenant and 7 in favor of the covenant.

Tobias Haller says of the articles in favor of the covenant posted on the Fulcrum website:

Meanwhile the folks at Fulcrum continue to produce articles I can only describe as deeply disingenuous. The most recent continues the gob-smackingly wrong analogy with marriage. How many marriage liturgies do you know that contain explicit language on the procedure to dissolve the marriage? (My emphasis)

I'm thinking...

CONSULTANTS REINSTATED TO INTER-ANGLICAN STANDING COMMISSION ON UNITY FAITH AND ORDER

Anglican Communion News Service:

Two consultants of the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order (IASCUFO) have been reinstated as full members at the request of the Commission’s chairman.

The redesignation of Dr Katherine Grieb and Archbishop Tito Zavala as consultants took place as a result of the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams’ Pentecost letter to the Anglican Communion issued in May 2010.

This latest decision follows a request by IASCUFO chairman Archbishop Bernard Ntahoturi that Archbishop Williams reconsider the application of the letter to IASCUFO so that the consultants can be reinstated as full members for the sake of the work of the Commission.

Acknowledging that members of IASCUFO are present in virtue of skills relevant to the work of the Commission and are not present as representatives of their Provinces, Archbishop Williams has requested that the Secretary General of the Anglican Communion Canon Kenneth Kearon reinstate Archbishop Zavala and Dr Grieb.

Dr Grieb is a member of the Episcopal Church in the US, and Archbishop Zavala is primate of the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone.

Several days ago, I posted a link to the video produced by the members of the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity Faith and Order, which includes commentary by Dr Katherine Grieb and noted the irony that Dr Grieb's position on the commission had been reduced to that of a consultant. Well, perhaps someone or ones in the Anglican Communion Office, perhaps even Archbishop Rowan himself, saw the irony and recognized the petty foolishness of the original demotions, and Dr Grieb, along with Archbishop Tito Zavala, have now been restored to their original positions as a full members of the commission. Keep in mind that these demotions took place without the covenant in place. Who knows what will follow, if the covenant is adopted by a majority of the churches in the communion?

MY HEART BLEEDS FOR THEM

From Yahoo Finance:

Andrew Schiff was sitting in a traffic jam in California this month after giving a speech at an investment conference about gold. He turned off the satellite radio, got out of the car and screamed a profanity.
....

Schiff, 46, is facing another kind of jam this year: Paid a lower bonus, he said the $350,000 he earns, enough to put him in the country's top 1 percent by income, doesn't cover his family's private-school tuition, a Kent, Connecticut, summer rental and the upgrade they would like from their 1,200-square- foot Brooklyn duplex.
....

The smaller bonus checks that hit accounts across the financial-services industry this month are making it difficult to maintain the lifestyles that Wall Street workers expect, according to interviews with bankers and their accountants, therapists, advisers and headhunters.

"People who don't have money don't understand the stress," said Alan Dlugash, a partner at accounting firm Marks Paneth & Shron LLP in New York who specializes in financial planning for the wealthy. "Could you imagine what it's like to say I got three kids in private school, I have to think about pulling them out? How do you do that?" (My emphasis)

Heaven's no! Working folks who must manage without huge salaries and bonuses DO NOT understand the stress of people with incomes of $350,000 or more, when each month they may be challenged to pay for the necessities of life such as food, housing, and health care and perhaps some months be forced to do without one or the other of the necessities.

What the stressed-out high earners may have to give up:

$7,500 a year for a golf club membership
$30,000 a year for a peer-learning group for investors
$32,000-a-year for a daughter's prep school tuition

Mark Brunson, who blogs at Enough About Me, sent me the link and thought at first, as I did, that the article was satire, but indeed the article is serious.

HEY BLOGGER! HEY BLOGGER!

We now have the new comment format for our blogs, but the function to subscribe to a comment thread is missing. One would assume that 'new' would be an improvement. How is removing a function that is valued by many an improvement? Come on Blogger! Some of us want to have continuing conversations in blog comments and like receiving email notifications when someone responds to our comments. Now we must continually check back by clicking on the URL for the blog for responses.

HEY BLOGGER, PLEASE REINSTALL EMAIL NOTIFICATIONS FOR SUBSCRIBERS! PLEASE! GIVE US BACK OUR CONVERSATIONS!

UPDATE: Penny at One Cannot Have Too Large a Party informs me that the 'subscribe' function is available in Blogger's embedded comment format, so I switched. I hope a good many of my blog friends make the change. Still, the 'subscribe' function should be available in all comment formats.

FLAGPOLE

A team of engineers were required to measure the height of a flagpole. They only had a measuring tape, and were getting quite frustrated trying to keep the tape along the pole. It kept falling down, and they couldn't tell from the ground if the top of the tape was even with the top of the pole.

A mathematician comes along, finds out their problem, and proceeds to remove the pole from the stand, lay it on the ground, and measure it easily.

When he leaves, one engineer says to the other: "Just like a mathematician! We need to know the height, and he gives us the length!"


Cheers,

Paul (A.)

OBAMA - 'YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT VALUES?'

I keep on hearing these same folks talk about values all the time. You want to talk about values? Hard work has a value. Looking out for one another has a value. The idea that we're all in this together, and I am my brother's and my sister's keeper, that's a value.

President Obama's press secretary, Jay Carney, said Obama was not campaigning. All right, then.

ARCHBISHOP JANUS

Click on over to MadPriest's place, Of Course I Could Be Wrong, to read the latest incredible, yet true story about Archbishop Janus.

ROMAN CATHOLIC NUNS FILE BRIEF IN SUPPORT OF OBAMA HEALTHCARE EXPANSION

The Franciscan Sisters of Mary arrived in St. Louis in 1872 and later took on ministering to patients in hospitals. (NYT)

From Think Progress:

As further proof that conservative efforts to paint President Obama as the enemy of religion are a red herring, nearly two dozen leading Catholic nuns filed a brief in the Supreme Court last week supporting the president’s signature legislative accomplishment. The Catholic sisters who joined the brief include the leaders of many prominent religious orders providing health care and other services to the needy.

In the AMICI CURIAE brief, the sisters say:

We have witnessed firsthand the impact of our national healthcare crisis, particularly its impact on women, children and people who are poor. We see the toll on families who have delayed seeking care due to a lack of health insurance coverage or lack of funds with which to pay high deductibles and co-pays. We have counseled and prayed with men, women, and children who have been denied health care coverage by insurance companies. We have witnessed early and avoidable deaths because of delayed medical treatment. The health care bill . . . will expand coverage to over 30 million uninsured Americans. While it is an imperfect measure, it is a crucial next step in realizing health care for all. It will invest in preventative care. It will bar insurers from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions. It will make crucial investments in community health centers that largely serve poor women and children.

Brave, sisters! Preach it!

Having attended Roman Catholic schools with women religious as my teachers, I know 'Sister' is always right (at least, almost always). Thanks be to God for these courageous women, whom the RC hierarchy declare unfit to serve as priests...the church's loss, surely.

N/T to Katie on Facebook.