Diocese of Niagara: Michael Bird’s Charge to Synod
Contains this: On September 1st of this year we took one of those important steps on the long road that we have travelled in dealing with issues of human sexuality and I am grateful to all those who have seen that journey through to this important moment in the life of our Diocese. At the same time, I am grateful to those among us who are in disagreement over the issue of same-sex blessings but continue to honour our communion in the Lord Jesus Christ and remain within the diocesan household. Which would be somewhat more accurate if the last sen

J. I. Packer on blogging
From here: To web devotees: I’m amazed at the amount of time people spend on the internet. I’m not against technology, but all tools should be used to their best advantage. We should be spending our time on things that have staying power, instead of on the latest thought of the latest blogger—and then moving on quickly to the next blogger. That makes us more superficial, not more thoughtful. He said much the same thing to me when I spoke to

Rowan Williams pleads with the Vatican on women bishops
Rowan Williams, ever in search of the impossible dream, is in Rome: The archbishop of Canterbury today pleaded with Roman Catholics to set aside their differences with Anglicans over the issue of female bishops, insisting there was more uniting the denominations than dividing them. Rowan Williams was giving a lecture in Rome before Sunday’s meeting with the pope, their first encounter since the Vatican’s surprise announcement of a special institution for traditionalist Anglicans wanting to convert to Catholicism. In his

Philip Pullman re-writes the Crucifixion
From the Telegraph: Philip Pullman, the author of His Dark Materials, has written his own version of the New Testament in which the story of Jesus is given a “different ending”. The writer has penned an alternative Bible passage imagining a different fate for Christ, who was executed by the Romans. “He has written what would have happened if Jesus had had a fair trial,” a friend told The Daily Telegraph’s Mandrake column. “He knows it w

The World Council of Churches on Stem Cells
From here The issue at stake here for those in the poorest regions of the world is one of health justice. About 90 percent of the world health budget is being spent on 10 percent of the world population. The issue, put starkly, is this: why are so few resources poured into curing the most basic, preventable diseases, when so many resources are dedicated to stem cell research? This applies to all forms of stem cell research, from adult stem cell research through to embryonic stem cell research. This problem is compounded by fears that un