Hugo Chavez launches his own Church

Venezuela: Anglican, Lutheran and Roman Catholic have consecrated three priests as bishops of a new church loyal to Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez.



Last Saturday the dissident churchman formed the Reformed Catholic Church of Venezuela in a ceremony in the western city of Ciudad Ojeda. Organized along Anglican principles, the “Bolivarian” church seeks to combine the socialist ideals of the president and nationalist heritage of Simon Bolivar --- the country’s founder --- with the tenets of liberation theology.

While the estimated 2,000 parishioners in five parishes in working-class districts loyal to the president pose no ecclesial threat to the Roman Catholic Church, or smaller Anglican and Lutheran churches --- they have been denounced by the country’s Roman Catholic hierarchy.

"The apparent political goal of this association distances it from the true expression of Christian faith," Cardinal Jorge Urosa Sabino said in a statement on Sunday. "Jesus Christ's true church is spreading the word and the gift of Christ to the whole world, separately from political issues and party affiliation."

However, the Rev Enrique Albornoz, a former Lutheran minister who helped create the independent church told the Associated Press, “We don't side with any political banner, but we cannot fail to recognize and support the socialist achievements of this government," and “back the social programmes of this revolutionary government."

The Bolivarian Church, which models itself on the nationalist catholic church formed in Nineteenth century Mexico that has since become the Anglican Church of Mexico, uses the Episcopal Church’s Book of Common Prayer and has adopted a liberal moral ethos, making clerical celibacy optional, permitting divorce and remarriage, and holding that homosexual conduct is not immoral.

Lord have mercy...!

Seraph

Psychoactive Incense....

Burning Incense Is Psychoactive: New Class Of Antidepressants Might Be Right Under Our Noses

ScienceDaily (May 20, 2008) — Religious leaders have contended for millennia that burning incense is good for the soul. Now, biologists have learned that it is good for our brains too. An international team of scientists, including researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, describe how burning frankincense (resin from the Boswellia plant) activates poorly understood ion channels in the brain to alleviate anxiety or depression. This suggests that an entirely new class of depression and anxiety drugs might be right under our noses...

To determine incense's psychoactive effects, the researchers administered incensole acetate to mice. They found that the compound significantly affected areas in brain areas known to be involved in emotions as well as in nerve circuits that are affected by current anxiety and depression drugs.

Well there you go...! Low chuch folks, the bells and smells crowd had the right idea all along!

Blessings

Seraph

+ Katharine at Lambeth

By RACHEL ZOLL 07.11.08, 7:03 AM ET
Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori was installed as head of the U.S. church less than two years ago, inheriting a mess not of her own making. The global Anglican Communion was in an uproar over the 2003 consecration of the first openly gay Episcopal bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. Long-simmering differences over Scripture and the global Anglican fellowship erupted into a threat of full-blown schism.

Jefferts Schori, a theological liberal who supported Robinson's election, has tried to ease the tensions in meetings with other Anglican leaders. Starting next Wednesday, she will be explaining the church's actions in her broadest venue yet: the Lambeth Conference, a once-a-decade meeting of Anglican bishops from around the world. Jefferts Schori said she's looking forward to the "face-to-face conversation" at the event.

While Robinson won't attend the Lambeth meeting, he will be just outside the event.He is preaching at a British church, despite a request from Williams that he refrain from doing so. A group of Episcopal bishops will host two receptions for Robinson outside the Lambeth Conference grounds so other Anglican bishops can meet and speak with him.

Jefferts Schori said she didn't ask Robinson to refrain from preaching and said his presence on the outskirts the conference "doesn't make my life more difficult." "I think it's an opportunity for others to meet him as a human being, as a member of this church, as an honored member of this church," she said.

Liberal Christians believe that committed same-sex relationships are permitted under the Bible's social justice teachings. Conservatives disagree - and they are a majority in the 77 million-member Anglican fellowship.

"Some people think that you can read the Bible without understanding the original context and simply take literally what you read. We will interpret - and it's an important part of faithful living," Jefferts Schori said. "To assume there is only one way of reading is hubris."

To prepare for the meeting, the presiding bishop said she has been speaking and praying with other Episcopal leaders. She is urging them to have realistic expectations for the event…."Conversations that are challenging can't be solved in one meeting," she said. "These issues aren't going to be finished by the end of the summer."

Sounds like it will be a hot summer at Lambeth!

Blessings

Seraph

I Love TEC

I love the Episcopal Church, and in spite of the desirability of modern ecumenism, perhaps I secretly hope that I may die in her arms. I love her not conditionally or with calculation, not with careful reservations, but freely, joyfully, wholeheartedly.

I love the stone-and-brick stateliness of her old city parishes, even when they get down at the heels because “the neighborhood has changed.” And her tatty little small-town churches, smelling faintly musty and damp, kept going somehow in the face of great challenges by devoted, self-giving souls. And her gleaming, spanking-fresh suburban churches too, whose modern architecture speaks of the unending creativity of the Spirit.

I love her high-church places with their clouds of smoke from the incense pot and their chants. And no less do I love her low-church parishes, all furniture polish and gleaming brass and memorial tablets, some still with the restrained but curiously exuberant dignity of choral Morning Prayer.

I love her Book of Common Prayer, her firm doctrine and emphasis on sound learning, her devotion to scripture and tradition, and the glorious cadences of her language. But I love too the freedom that she grants her children, her openness to the new, her breadth of humanity, her expansive love, learned at the feet of Christ.

I love the bright young families proudly ranged in their pews on Sunday morning, and the elegant elderly who have seen it all, and the sparse little congregations on weekdays whose hushed devotion to their Lord is an almost palpable radiance. And her old priests whose eyes show the compassion taught them in a lifetime, and her young priests who are so sure that the world can be won in five years at the outside.

I love the names of her heroes—Cranmer, Hooker, Julian, Pusey, Gore, Underhill, Lewis, Seabury, Breck, DeKoven. And a hundred others, including some private ones of my own.

I love the letters to The Living Church that begin, “Dear Sir: It is high time . . ..” And the solemn verbiage with which the Executive Council launches a new project, the billowing sleeves of the bishops’ rochets, and the whole mad range of possible headgear that clerics can wear. I even love the battered Prayer Books in the pew racks that are sometimes confused with Hymnals.

I love the eccentric ladies in city parishes who dress in liturgical colors. And the uproarious stories about departed dignitaries that are told whenever the clergy gather and have time for small talk.

I love the Holy Communion, and the beauty of holiness, and the hands of young and old reverently raised to receive the sacrament. I really can’t help it. I don’t know if everybody ought to be an Episcopalian; it may be that other people feel as strongly about their Churches as I do about mine. I do know that I love the Episcopal Church and that I am sworn to her, forsaking all others.

I’m glad of it. And it isn’t denominational loyalty or sectarian spirit or party fervor or naiveté about her imperfections. It’s love.

Written originally by the Rev. James Pearson, edited by the Rev. Don Henning, and further edited by The Rt. Rev. Henry N. Parsley Jr.

I found this so very nice. Being in my "first love" as a newcomer to the Episcopal Church, I hope to love my new home this very much.

blessings

Seraph

Living without Illegals....

What if we threw out all the illegal immigrants?
By Shirley Skeel

At least 12 million illegal immigrants live in the U.S. Most pick crops, wash dishes, build houses, cut lawns and do other jobs for between $6 and $15 an hour. They make up about 5% of the total U.S. work force. But … What if we threw them all out?

Lettuce and strawberries would rot in the fields. Dirty dishes would pile up in restaurants. Thousands of farmers and builders would go bust. Predator aircraft drones would prowl the Mexican border. And chunks of Los Angeles and Houston would look like ghost towns.

The biggest losers would be middle-class families with two working parents, living in high-immigrant states such as California, Texas, Florida or New York. Why? They would pay more for food, housing, entertainment and child care as a shortage of low-skilled workers drove up some wages, and therefore, some prices. Meantime, their own pay would remain the same. What's more, the ripple effect of thousands of businesses shrinking or closing for lack of staff might put one of the parents out of a job. Not to mention the garbage collection going to pot and no one to polish the missus' nails.....

People often fail to look at the practical consequences of their rethoric...would this not be a sight..! Seems like comprehensive inmigration reform allowing undocumented workers to regularize their status would be much more practical and humane.

blessings

Seraph

Episcopales Latinos!

Nuevo Amanecer represents 'A New Dawn' for Hispanic and Latino ministries

By Nan Ross, July 02, 2008

An Episcopal Church conference on Hispanic and Latino ministry underway this week near Atlanta has gathered more than 200 people from diverse Spanish-speaking communities in eight countries to share in the challenges and blessings of their ministries and chart a course for continued growth.

"A New Dawn -- Nuevo Amanecer -- Together We Grow and Are Strengthened," represents the first time in six years that Episcopalians engaged in Hispanic and Latino ministries have come together. The entire program is offered in Spanish, with English translation available throughout.

At the opening Eucharist June 30, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori encouraged participants to examine "Why are we here? What is our mission? What is our vocation as Christian brothers and sisters?" And she reminded them, "Jesus' ministry belongs to all people who are baptized, not just bishops and clergy."

In her sermon, preached in Spanish, Jefferts Schori used Old and New Testament lessons for the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul. Both readings use shepherds and sheep as metaphors to convey the vision of God, she said. And the vision of God "involves caring for all of the sheep, which means offering justice for all.

"It is our role, our work, to raise a strong voice in the wilderness," she said. "Only with a strong voice will we be able to challenge injustice."

Pastoral care is one of the more urgent topics being discussed. With tougher immigration laws being implemented in various parts of the country, a great deal of Hispanic and Latino ministry involves people who are feeling the pain of families torn apart by a legal system that's not as tolerant as it once was.

"Families are being divided because in the same family some are residents and some are not," said Soto.

"What is the church called to do?" Soto said. "The great Anglican theologian Richard Hooker told us to look to scripture, tradition and reason. The Hebrew scripture says the alien shall be as a citizen; the alien shall be given food and treated as if born here. We are too far from that concept. We are Episcopalians, and we have made the promise that we will treat every human being with dignity."

...

It was wonderful

Blessings

Seraph

Cuba Says No To Gay Pride

Cuban security agents detain gay activists, cancel parade

Posted on Thu, Jun. 26, 2008
By STEVE ROTHAUS

Gay dissidents in Cuba report that a planned gay-rights rally Wednesday was canceled after government security officers detained nine organizers. "The march was not able to take place because the government stopped our leaders," said Ron Brenesky, a Miami Cuban who heads the Unity Coalition, South Florida's largest Latin gay rights group.

"Our brothers and sisters in Cuba, they are not alone," said Brenesky, who spoke with gay activists in Cuba by cellphone Wednesday evening. Unity Coalition members gathered for the phone call at Club Azucar on Southwest 32nd Avenue in Little Havana.Dissident Ignacio Estrada Cepero told Brenesky and the others that he was detained early Wednesday before the planned rally in Havana. Security guards told him he didn't have permission to leave his home province of Santa Clara, Brenesky said.

Cuban Aliomar Janjaque was put on house arrest after being warned not to gather in a park with other gay dissidents, he told Unity Coalition members. The park was taken over by security forces, Janjaque said.

This bit of news from Cuba in the aftermath of the Supreme Courts legalization of gay marriages in California makes for interesting conversation. Understandibly many people of faith find it reprehensible that the courts should be defining marriage yet I wonder ...!

In some of the comments I have been hearing, it almost sounds as if some family upholding , Christ praising, God and neighbour loving folk fall on the same side of the Cuban government as it regards to gays...better to keep them out of sight!

When Christians seem to be on the same side as opressors, it is time to seriously pray and reflect on wether it is the spirit of Christ , or prejudice and distaste for the choices of others which motivates our actions and words.

Blessings

Seraph

Episcopal Diocese Welcomes New Flock

BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS A 150-member Hispanic congregation merges with St. Luke's Episcopal Church, becoming one.

By Jeff Brumley, The Times-Union

The Rev. Miguel Rosada read the gospel in both English and Spanish to about 350 worshipers during an unusual service Wednesday night at St. John's Cathedral in Jacksonville.

The bilingual reading from Luke, in which Jesus commands his disciples to cast their nets wide and deep, marked a new reality for Rosada, his congregation and the Episcopal Diocese of Florida. "You've cast your nets down and taken us up," Bishop John Howard said to Rosada in welcoming him and his Spanish-speaking flock into the diocese.

The new reality for Rosada is he and his 150-member congregation, Ministerio Hispano El Mesias, have formally merged with the 80-member St. Luke's Episcopal Church to become St. Luke's/Iglesia Episcopal San Lucas.

In leaving behind their previous denomination, the Charismatic Episcopal Church, Rosada's congregation also creates a new, unique tool for the Jacksonville-based diocese to more effectively reach out to North Florida's Hispanic community, Howard said Tuesday.

Howard said it is the first time an existing congregation has left another denomination to join his diocese. An Episcopal Church official said it may also be the first time a Hispanic parish has left another organization for the denomination.

Rosada is now the rector for the merged parish. St. Luke's, located on University Boulevard near Jacksonville University, has recently been without a full-time priest. The move gives his ongoing ministry to Latinos more resources and scope, Rosada said."This is a much wider community in which to share our faith," he told the Times-Union on Tuesday.

The Hispanic group began worshiping at St. Luke's as renters two years ago. But a worship and ministry relationship developed that made it clear the diocese was the right spiritual home for Rosada and his parishioners, he said.

The Charismatic Episcopal Church, with fewer than 100 congregations in the U.S., emphasizes both charismatic and liturgical worship. Rosada said his group's "livelier" worship style will be welcomed in Howard's diocese. "It's a very natural, very organic transition."

The merger comes at a time when the Episcopal Church is striving to reach out to minority groups. Last fall, the Most Rev. Katherine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, declared a special focus on reaching out to the nation's growing Hispanic and Asian populations, according to its Web site.

Currently, there are 250 Spanish-speaking or bilingual Episcopal congregations in the United States and another 380 in Latin America, said the Rev. Canon Anthony Guillen, the Los Angeles-based staff officer for the denomination's Latino/Hispanic Ministries. There are about 25 such congregations, missions or ministries in central and southwestern Florida, the denomination's Web site reported. None are listed in North Florida.

Gaining an already-formed Hispanic congregation -which will offer services in English and Spanish - will jump-start outreach efforts that have previously come and gone in the 25-county diocese, Howard said.

The development also comes as the diocese emerges from almost five years of turmoil surrounding the issue of homosexual ordination in the Episcopal Church. Approximately 200 Anglican congregations - including about 20 in North Florida and South Georgia - have been formed since 2003. Most were created by Episcopalians who left the denomination when an actively gay priest was elected bishop of New Hampshire.

Rosada said neither he nor his congregation are concerned about that issue because it pales compared with the social, spiritual and material needs of Hispanics in the region.

TEC, soon to Be...

FLORIDA: Priest and 150 parishioners join Episcopal Church
June 10, 2008

[Episcopal News Service] More than 150 new Episcopalians will be received and welcomed into the Episcopal Church in Jacksonville, Florida’s St. John’s Cathedral on June 18.

The Rev. Dr. Miguel Rosada and 150 Spanish-speaking parishioners, formerly members of the Charismatic Episcopal Church, will become members of the Diocese of Florida.

“We joyfully receive this flock into the Episcopal Church,” said Florida Bishop Samuel Johnson Howard. “We look forward to being colleagues and companions in ministry with the people of San Lucas and with Fr. Rosada. This event marks not only the addition of a substantial congregation to the Episcopal Diocese of Florida, but also a remarkable beginning for us in terms of Hispanic ministry.”

Two years ago, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church began renting worship space to the Hispanic congregation, which was then Minsterio Hispano El Mesias in the Charismatic Episcopal Church. The two groups, worshiping at different hours on the St. Luke’s campus near the gates of Jacksonville University, grew to share an increasing amount of fellowship and outreach ministry. Over time, through conversation with Howard and others in the diocese, the leadership and people of El Mesias realized a call to join the Episcopal Church.

“The newly combined congregations are enthusiastic about the new opportunities for enhanced ministries which are emerging from their new status as ‘St. Luke’s/San Lucas’ — St. Luke’s Episcopal Church/Iglesia Episcopal San Lucas — with Fr. Rosada as rector,” said a news release from the diocese.

Commenting on the merger of his Spanish-speaking congregation with the English-speaking congregation, Rosada said: “We are all foreigners. All of us came from somewhere else. We are all on a journey — travelers in this world headed to a new place. God is King of all nations.”

The Diocese of Florida was founded in 1838 as the entire state of Florida. Today’s diocese consists of 70 parishes in 25 counties in northern Florida, stretching from the Apalachicola River to the Atlantic Ocean, and from the Georgia border to the Palm Coast region.


So far...no regrets!

Blessings

Seraph