“The Government of Israel expresses its hope that this important speech in Cairo will indeed lead to a new period of reconciliation between the Arab and Moslem world and Israel.

We share President Obama’s hope that the American effort heralds the beginning of a new era that will bring about an end to the conflict and lead to Arab recognition of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people, living in peace and security in the Middle East.

Israel is committed to peace and will make every effort to expand the circle of peace while protecting its interests, especially its national security.”

Your Host notes: I am just now reading the speech and hope to post some thoughts latter on today.

For me it is simple. Pro-life is support for life at any time on the spectrum of life. This would include the obvious things like abortion and capital punishment but should also include things like torture, poverty, lack of affordable health care, nutrition, war, and other things that diminish the divine spark of the image and likeness of God.

Fr. Z has a discussion going on over on his blog about this very subject. Surf on over and join in the conversation.

“The Susan B. Anthony List condemns this anti-life act in the strongest of terms. The heart of the pro-life movement is one founded in love. Without this driving powerful center no justice can possibly be achieved. Authentic progress in women’s rights has always encompassed the protection of human rights of every person across the board. The rights of one human being can never be honored by diminishing or ignoring the rights of another. This week as we gather for our annual June Tea event, themed Love Lets Live, we will lift up George Tiller’s loved ones in prayer.”

George Tiller was shot and killed by an unidentified assailant shortly after 10 a.m. at Reformation Lutheran Church (ELCA) in Wichita, Kansas this morning. The 67-year-old was one of the few U.S. physicians who still performed late-term abortions. He had previously survived a 1993 shooting outside his clinic. Law enforcement officials are searching for an unidentified assailant who fled in a powder-blue Ford Taurus.

The Susan B. Anthony List is a nationwide network of Americans, over 158,000 residing in all 50 states, dedicated to mobilizing, advancing, and representing pro-life women in politics. Its connected Candidate Fund increases the percentage of pro-life women in the political process.

I have never made a secret of the fact that I am pro life. I believe in the sanctity of life from the very moment of conception until it’s natural end. To define that a bit more, conception, no problem there, but the natural end part tend to be troublesome for people. I do not believe in capitol punishment or euthanasia. Life is sacred and all of humanity has been created in the image and likeness of God I call this the divine spark.

The murder of this man, regardless of his profession, should be loudly condemned by the pro life movement. If the pro life movement does not call this what it is then they just need to shut up about being pro life. Yes this doctor was an abortion doctor and a late term abortion doctor to boot but that should not have cost him his life.

Please pray for his family and please pray for the one who pulled the trigger. People who do this in the name of God scare me. Judge not my bible tells me, that task belongs to someone else.

The Associated Press has a story out of the World Council of Churches about deliberations toward a common date for Pascha/Easter. The story was based, in part, on this release from the WCC. From the AP:

Under the plan the unified Easter usually falls as it would under the Gregorian calendar used by Catholics and Protestants, said Dagmar Heller, an ecumenical professor in Switzerland heading the council’s faith and order commission.

In the next 15 years, the only time Western churches would have to change Easter is in 2019 from April 21 to March 24. The bigger adjustment would be for the Orthodox Church, which has experienced several schisms in its history over the question of dates.

“There are of course some fundamentalist Orthodox who say ‘The Julian calendar is our tradition and it was used in Jesus’ lifetime so we cannot change,’” Heller said, adding that some Eastern theologians might fear more breaks in their church as a result of a date change.

“And, of course, it’s an issue because the astronomical data is closer to the Gregorian calendar, which was introduced by a pope,” she said, referring to Pope Gregory XIII’s reform of the calendar in 1582. It only slowly replaced the calendar named for Julius Caesar, who introduced it in 46 B.C.

Some Orthodox representatives at the meeting appeared to back the plan. French Orthodox theologian Antoine Arjakovsky acknowledged that the astronomy was closer to the Gregorian calendar, but noted that Catholic and Protestant churches were also compromising by “accepting that the date of Easter should be established on the basis of a cosmic calendar rather than by a fixed date.” More detailed information on these talks, free of WCC spin, is available from the Religious Information Service of Ukraine, which reported on “A Common Date of Easter – Possible: The 1997 Aleppo Consensus,” a conference held earlier this month at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv. Snip:

Expressing joy that such an important theme had been raised in the seminar, Metropolitan Andriy Horak mentioned that such a detailed answer from the Orthodox representation concerning the Aleppo proposals could be received only after a Pan-Orthodox consultation and, eventually, a council. It is worth mentioning that Fr. Milan Zust, S.J., representative for the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, said that the Roman Catholic Church is waiting for a response from the Orthodox churches and he thinks that if the Orthodox would accept the Aleppo recommendations, then there would be no problems with establishing one, common date of Easter. If some remarks would come from the Orthodox representation or if they were to propose another variant, then the question would definitely need to be reviewed.

Dr. Konstantine Sigov, chief director of the publishing firm Spirit and Letter, who spoke in the name of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), mentioned that it is of huge importance to spread information about the possibility of establishing a common date for Easter – especially within an academic environment as well as among the broader public.

See the Orthodox Wiki entry on Old Calendarists.