Well today, Yahoo News is reporting that the program is on the chopping block! I guess my faith in people is being restored as they are not turning to this junk TV but turning away from it. I now need to turn my attention to another program but I will save that for another post.
Also present were the General Secretary and members of the SCOBA Study and Planning Commission representing the SCOBA member Churches.
The entire discussion was focused on the documents related to the “Organization of Episcopal Assemblies” in the regions of the world that are outside the borders of the Autocephalous Churches. These Episcopal Assemblies have been authorized by the Fourth Pre-Conciliar Pan-Orthodox Conference which met at the Orthodox Center of Ecumenical Patriarchate in Chambésy, Switzerland from 6 – 13, June 2009. It was decided unanimously by the Hierarchs that the first such Episcopal Assembly shall be convened during Post-Pentecost Week of 2010, which will fall in the last week of May. The likely days of the Assembly will be May 26-27, 2010. There was also discussion as to the location of the Assembly, with a specific venue to be decided after investigation of locales and resources.
The Hierarchs also outlined an initial staging process, combining Hierarchs of SCOBA with sub-committees, which will formulate the outline of the form and agenda of the Assembly.
h/t AOI Blog
Hardcover: 256 pagesA Cinderella story to be sure. From 7th grade Bible Teacher to World Champion that is the story of Long Snapper Brian Kinchen.
After years in the NFL and being cut by his last team Brian thought his career in the NFL was over. But one day, while teaching a Bible Class his cell phone rang and that call changed his life. He was on his way back in the NFL with the New England Patriots.
The story is not just a football story, although there are many behind the scenes football stories in the book, it is a story of faith. The faith of one man and his desire to do what God wanted him to do not for his own glory but for the glory of God.
Written by the Pulitzer Prize winner Jeffrey Marx this is a story for all to read even if you don’t like football you will be able to identify with the struggle of this man as he came from no where to the top of his profession. A very humble family man he did what he does best, serve his God.
I will share one quote from the book that I believe stands out from all the rest:
Forty-eight days earlier, Brian had been minding his own business with a collection of seventh graders in the comfortable seclusion of a small classroom in Louisiana. The next day, after his tryout with the Patriots, he had stood in the team cafeteria at Gillette Stadium and told Bill Belichich: “… who ever you choose will probably have the team’s entire season in his hands at some point.” Sure enough, that moment was about to come.
And come it did. I highly recommend this book as a story of faith and inspiration.
The study was conducted by Trinity Professors Barry Kosmin and Ariela Keysar, assisted by Professor Ryan Cragun of the University of Tampa and Juhem Navarro-Rivera of the University of Connecticut.
“The secularity of the American public is undoubtedly increasing but the pace varies considerably between how individuals belong, believe and behave,” said Kosmin. “The overall trend is being pushed by men and the young but slowed down by women’s greater religiosity.”
Today, there is not a single demographic group in the U.S. that does not include Nones. They exist among the married, widowed, divorced, and never married. Nones are Democrats, Republicans and independents. They are among the least educated and the most educated. They are among the rich and the poor. They can be white, black, Latino or Asian. Nones live in every region and state in the country. “In many ways, Nones are the invisible minority in the U.S. – invisible because their social characteristics are increasingly similar to the general population,” said Keysar.
The name Nones refers to a diverse group of people who do not identify with any of the options in the American religious marketplace. They are the irreligious, the unreligious, the anti-religious, and the anti-clerical. Some believe in God; some do not. Some may participate occasionally in religious rituals; others never will.
There is a variety of belief in God among the Nones, ranging from theism to atheism, although the largest proportion (59 percent) is agnostic or deist. A small minority are atheists. Nones are simply more likely to be skeptics. Nones are not particularly superstitious or partial to New Age beliefs and they are more accepting of human evolution than the general U.S. population. Most Nones are first generation as only 32 percent of current Nones report they had no religion at age 12. That is to say, two-thirds were raised with a religion.
Those are among the findings of a new in-depth look at a slice of the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), which questioned 54,461 adults in either English or Spanish between February and November 2008. ARIS 2008, which was released in March of this year, was the third in a series of large, nationally representative surveys of U.S. adults in the 48 contiguous states. ARIS 2008 employed the same research methodology that was used in the 1990 and 2001 surveys. With a sampling error of +/- 0.3 percent, ARIS 2008 provides the only complete portrait of how contemporary Americans’ religious patterns have evolved over the past generation.
The most important and statistically significant finding is the relatively large gender gap. American women remain more religious than men. Whereas 19 percent of American men are Nones, only 12 percent of women are Nones. This is one social factor that has not narrowed since the first ARIS survey in 1990. Even when they identify themselves as Nones, women are less likely to be atheists and to take hard skeptical positions. Thus, gender difference is a brake on the growth of the No Religion population in the U.S.
The 1990s was the decade of the “secular boom.” Regarding the percentage of adult Americans who claim no religious affiliation, the researchers found that it had grown from 8.2 percent in 1990 to 14.2 percent in 2001 and to 15 percent in 2008. The growth of the Nones is a national phenomenon. They are the only group that increased in every state and region of the country during the past 18 years.
In the future, the U.S. can expect to have more Nones given that 22 percent of adults under the age of 30 identify themselves as such, and that they will become tomorrow’s parents. Cragun suggests that, “If current trends continue, the likely outcome is that in two decades, the Nones could account for about one-quarter of the U.S. population.”
In analyzing the data, the researchers determined who these Nones are and what characteristics can be attributed to them. What they found was somewhat surprising.Nones are disproportionately likely to be politically independent (42 percent), one-third of Nones claim Irish ancestry, and 28 percent of the Nones now live in southern states.
“Politically, older Nones were often libertarian Republicans but the younger generation of Nones, born after 1973, has associated the Republican Party with the Religious Right and, as a result, split between the Democrats and the Independents,” said Navarro-Rivera.
For more information or to download a copy of American Nones: The Profile of the No Religion Population, please visit:http://www.americanreligionsurvey-aris.org/reports/NONES_08.pdf
From a literary point of view, St. Adamnan takes the very highest place as the biographer of St. Columba (Columcille), and as the author of a treatise “De Locis Sanctis”. Pinkerton describes his “Vita Columbae” as “the most complete piece of biography that all Europe can boast of, not only at so early a period but even through the whole Middle Ages”. It was printed by Colgan (from a copy supplied by Father Stephen White, S.J.), and by the Bollandists, but it was left for a nineteenth-century Irish scholar (Dr. Reeves, Protestant Bishop of Down, Connor and Dromore) to issue, in 1837, the most admirable of all existing editions. St. Bede highly praises the tract “De Locis Sanctis”, the autograph copy of which was presented by St. Adamnan to King Aldfrid of Northumbria, who had studied in Ireland. The “Four Masters” tells us that he was “tearful, penitent, fond of prayer, diligent and ascetic, and learned in the clear understanding of the Holy Scriptures of God.” His feast is celebrated 23 September.
This came to pass fifteen months before the birth of Christ, after the vision of the Angel that Zacharias, the father of the Forerunner, saw in the Temple while he executed the priest’s office in the order of his course during the feast of the Tabernacles, as tradition bears witness. In this vision, the Archangel Gabriel appeared to Zacharias and said to him, “Thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John” (Luke 1:13). Knowing that Elizabeth was barren, and that both he and she were elderly, Zacharias did not believe what the Angel told him, although he had before him the example of Abraham and Sarah, of Hannah, mother of the Prophet Samuel, and of other barren women in Israel who gave birth by the power of God. Hence, he was condemned by the Archangel to remain speechless until the fulfilment of these words in their season, which also came to pass (Luke 1:7-24).
Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone
Rejoice, O thou barren one who hadst not borne until now; for lo, in all truth thou hast conceived the lamp of the Sun, and he shall send forth his light over all the earth, which is afflicted with blindness. Dance, O Zacharias, and cry out with great boldness: The one to be born is the blest Prophet of God Most High.
Kontakion in the First Tone
Great Zacharias now doth rejoice with resplendence; Elizabeth his glorious yoke-mate exulteth; for she hath conceived divine John the Forerunner worthily, whom the great Archangel had announced with rejoicing, whom, as it is meet, we men revere as a sacred initiate of grace divine.
From www.goarch.org
A native of Tarsus in Cilicia, Theodore was born about AD 602. Having studied in Athens, he visited Rome and, whilst there, was appointed by Pope Vitalian to the See of Canterbury, which had been vacant for four years. Theodore arrived in England in AD 669 and was well received everywhere. He was the first Archbishop whose authority the whole English Church was willing to acknowledge…
The aims which Theodore set before himself were the organization of the Church and the encouragement of learning. He therefore consecrated Bishops to fill the vacant Sees and subdivided the existing Dioceses.
Wilfrid, who at this time ruled all the Church north of the Humber, resisted the attempt to deprive him of any part of his Diocese; but although on his appeal to Rome, the papal decision was given in his favour, Theodore proceeded with the subdivision of the Northumbrian episcopate. Shortly before his death, he was reconciled to Wilfrid, who was restored to his See.
The diocesan system which Theodore sought to establish was accepted by a Synod of the united English Church held at Hertford in AD 673. Another Synod, held at Hatfield in 680, affirmed the adhesion of the English Church to the Catholic Faith.
The enlightened zeal of Theodore allowed learning to flourish in England. Under his direction, and with the able help of Hadrian and Benedict Biscop, seminaries were founded at many of the Monasteries. Theodore died on 19th September AD 690.
I hope you return and tell your friends!
On September 11th pro-life advocate Jim Pouillon was murdered in Michigan. This did not get the same press coverage as the doctor who was killed last year but none the less he was murdered for his pro-life activities by a person who was upset with his message. How ironic it is that a pro-life advocate was killed for being pro-life…
California Catholic Daily has an article this week by Father Thomas Eutenerer, president of Human Life International about the killing and at the end of the article the newspaper printed some comments received by the local TV station regarding the killing. Most of the comments focused on the signs that some people hold at anti-abortion events.
Fr. Philip focused on one of the comments and I will do the same. “I’ve never seen this man before, but I’ve seen others like him. The signs are so offensive that the issue becomes about the sign instead of being about abortion. He hurts the pro-life cause and I’m glad that he’s gone.” Okay aside from the fact that the person ends the statement with “I’m glad that he’s gone” what do the signs say about the movement, whatever movement it may be?
I took exception to the signs linking Pres. Obama with Hitler and other Nazi signs that some of the Tea Party folks were holding and I guess I would take exception to some of the signs that anti-abortion folks hold as well. Sings depicting aborted babies and other graphic images hurt the pro-life movement as much as the Nazi signs hurt the Tea Party movement. I agree with one part of the above quoted statement, “The signs are so offensive that the issue becomes about the sign instead of being about abortion” The media focuses on the signs because that is what they see. The media focused on the Nazi signs because they are so incendiary that is what gets the attention. The same is true with anti-abortion signs.
I agree with Fr. Philip that these signs hurt the cause more than help it. I am, and I have said this in public ans here on the blog, pro-life in all that that term means. I attended my first March for Life in Washington, DC this past January and had a great, prayerful experience and plan to go again this year. Just as I will not associate with the Tea Party movement any longer because of the signs being held in DC I have my doubts about the pro-life movement as well. However I did not see many incendiary sings in DC but I have seen them in the past.
Here in Worcester there is a clinic the performs abortions and next door is a rescue office. In the office is a chapel where Catholic Mass and Orthodox services as well as protestant service are held. The rosary is said daily, and once a month an Orthodox service is said on a Saturday morning. I have participated twice in this service. This is what we should be doing. This is the kind of activity that we should be participating in. By hold signs that show aborted babies we are no better than the folks carrying the signs of Pres Obama and Speaker Pilosi as Hitler!
As I said in the post about the Tea Party, this is the minority of people but, as it did with the Tea Party, we all get associated with them and that is not good. There is not justification for murder on any level. We are all created in the image and likeness of God and have the Divine Spark and murder is wrong. But let’s tone things down a little and take a breath. March, yes! Pray, most defiantly, but keep the signs at home.