WHAT!!!

Oops! When I first glanced at the headline, I thought the cardinal was planning a same-sex marriage. Of course not!

The Telegraph reports:

Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland, says the proposals to allow same-sex unions are “madness” and a “grotesque subversion of a universally accepted human right”.

The cardinal’s intervention, in an article for The Sunday Telegraph, is the strongest criticism yet from any church figure of the plans, which are due to be unveiled this month by Lynne Featherstone, the equalities minister.

He accuses ministers of trying to “redefine reality” and change long-standing laws and traditions “at the behest of a small minority of activists”.

The Roman Catholic hierarchy never gives up in its attempts to interfere in the lives, not only of their own flock, but of everyone. I ask you: Where lies the “madness” and a “grotesque subversion of a universally accepted human right” to be left alone to live a peaceable life with the person you choose? A same-sex marriage causes no harm to anyone, except in the fevered imaginations of people who refuse to occupy their minds with serious problems in the world, such as poverty, umemployment, wars, famine, etc., etc., etc.

MORE CHURCH OF ENGLAND DIOCESES VOTE 'NO' TO THE ANGLICAN COVENANT - (ONE DIOCESE VOTES 'YES')

DIOCESE OF CHELMSFORD:

Bishops - 2 For, 1 Against, 1 Abstain

Clergy - 27 For, 29 Against, 7 Abstain

Laity - 31 For, 30 Against, 3 Abstain


DIOCESE OF HEREFORD:

Bishops - 2 For

Clergy - 15 For, 15 Against, 1 Abstain

Laity - 21 For, 23 Against, 1 Abstain

Defeated in both dioceses.

UPDATE: DIOCESE OF BRADFORD

Bishops - 1 For, 0 Against

Clergy - 15 For, 9 Against, 2 Abstain

Laity - 16 For, 15 Against, 3 Abstain

Passed in the diocese.

The total is now 13 dioceses in the Church of England voting against the covenant and 8 in favor.

MORE BIBLICAL FAR SIDE

 

 

 

Thanks to Suzanne.

BLACK COWS

A political scientist, an engineer, and a mathematician are on a train that has recently entered Denmark.

In Denmark, the first field they see has a herd of black cows. The political scientist says, "Look! The cows in Denmark are black."

The engineer chides him. "You're careless. You should say 'The cows in this particular field in Denmark are black'."

Then the mathematician says, "You're both careless. You should say 'The cows in this particular field in Denmark are black on one side'."

Thanks to BooCat's sister-in-law, who is a mathematician.

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.