Uganda: Citizens Required to Inform on Gay Neighbors

A bill introduced last month in the Ugandan parliament would require citizens to turn in the names of suspected LGBT people so the government can put them to death. I kid you not.
Having Gay sex in Uganda is already a capital crime. I kid you not—the death penalty.
Ugandan LGBT activists have asked supporters in the [...]

Episcopal Church Announces Special Outreach to Roman Catholics

“All of the pageantry—none of the guilt!”
— Robin Williams
Dear Catholic Friends,
You may have heard recently that the Pope has announced a new “ordinariate” that allows Anglicans and Episcopalians to become Catholics while keeping their Prayer Books, hymns and married priests.
(Is there a special office at the Vatican that comes up with words like “ordinariate”? [...]

The Central Liturgy of Life

Dr. David Fankhauser, University of Cincinnati Clermont College.

The New York Times has a fantastic article today by Michael Pollan about the decline of cooking—fantastic in its wide range and the memories it conjures up. It’s called “Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch,” and discusses Julia Child, the current movie “Julia and Julie,” the rise [...]

Baptized in the River

Peter and I are now on the second and final leg of our “Best Of” tour, and I’m posting this from Cherokee, North Carolina. Last week we saw some of the best of Indiana, my home state, on our “U.S. 41 Cruise,” and now we’re in my all-time favorite place, the Great Smoky Mountains.
I believe [...]

Obama Defends Special Rights for Heteros

Cartoon: the Southern Voice
Episcopal Café notes that Barack Obama’s Justice Department is upholding the so-called Defense of Marriage Act:
President Obama’s administration filed a legal brief defending the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in a court case seeking to overturn it. In effect the administration has come out defending the constitutionality of measures that give a [...]

Triumph of the “Ritualists”

Rood screen and balcony at St. Etienne du Mont, France. The English Reformation destroyed all such ornaments, but now the tide has turned.
The Episcopal Church has changed so much in my lifetime it’s really hard to fathom. We all know about women priests and bishops, the gradual integration of LGBT people into parish life and [...]

Maine Catholics Lobby Against Gay Marriage

UPDATE: The legislature in Maine passed the Gay marriage bill May 6 and Gov. John Baldacci signed it. Whaddaya know, Democrats who act like Democrats. Hooray for Maine!

Richard Malone, Bishop of Portland, Maine.
I guess it’s no surprise, the Catholic Church hates Gay people, and calls us such charming phrases as “intrinsically disordered.”
In your being, [...]

My Church Wants $250,000

I love my parish. I got to attend the Great Vigil of Easter Saturday night and it was great. The dean celebrated, the rector preached, we had three baptisms and the service was everything one could want. Christ is risen!
However, we’re going through a money crunch, and now we’ve decided we need to raise a [...]

Late Lent Fish Fry

There are things we learn when we’re getting older than some people have known since they were in fourth grade. Twitter is one, I suppose. It seems like a fad to me, but I enjoy the similar feature on Facebook.
Me, Myself & I wishes everyone a Happy Easter.
You may now hit “Like” or [...]

Anglo, Not Catholic

Roman Catholicism would be just ducky if it didn’t include so many unbiblical concepts invented for logical consistency.
Purgatory? It’s not in there. It doesn’t exist.
And it’s profoundly un-graceful. God so loves us that s/he’s willing to forgive us again and again and again. Greater than our capacity to sin is God’s desire to forgive. [...]