by Catherine Rampell for the NYTimes

A sizable minority of children in rich countries live with just one parent — a parent who is likely to be female, and also likely to be working.

Those are some of the takeaways from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s recent coverage this week of women in the world.

Across the industrialized world, about 15.9 percent of children live in single-parent households. The United States is at the higher end of the single-parent spectrum, with 25.8 percent of its children living with just a mother or a father.

Usually it is just a mother. In the United States, as in every other industrialized country, most single-parent households are single-mother households: 

Read more

by Terence McKeegan, J.D. for LifeSiteNews.com

The World Association of Girl Scouts and Girl Guides hosted a no-adults-welcome panel at the United Nations this week where Planned Parenthood was allowed to distribute a brochure entitled “Healthy, Happy and Hot.” The event was part of the annual United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) which concludes this week.

The brochure, aimed at young people living with HIV, contains explicit and graphic details on sex, as well as the promotion of casual sex in many forms.  The brochure claims, “Many people think sex is just about vaginal or anal intercourse… But, there are lots of different ways to have sex and lots of different types of sex. There is no right or wrong way to have sex. Just have fun, explore and be yourself!”

Read more

By CP Guest Contributor Anthony Biller for the Christian Post

A friend emailed … a Barna survey allegedly showing that ”born again” Christians suffer the highest rates of divorce and atheists/agnostics the lowest. At first I thought this must simply be agitprop. A few minutes on the internet, however, produced several websites corroborating the sources, surveys and statistics.  However, at least one purported Christian website (here) stated that evangelicals had a lower rate of divorce than the national average and lower than atheists and agnostics. Before this, I was unaware of the Barna distinction between “born again” Christians and evangelicals, and with exceedingly few exceptions, was unaware of people calling themselves “born again” outside evangelical circles. My curiosity piqued and smelling mischief in the gloating newspaper article, I did a little research. What I found demonstrated that biblical Christianity makes a difference in peoples’ lives and that newspapers generally cannot be trusted in matters regarding Christianity. In other words, nothing new.

No surprise that a newspaper would report as “fact” misleading statements about Christians and that several websites would engage in the same disparagement. The surveys clearly show that those who read the Bible seriously and without compromise put their faith as a much higher priority in their lives. As a result, they lead very different lives, to include some of the lowest divorce rates in the country, well below the atheists, agnostics and general public. Interestingly, those who profess faith in Jesus Christ but not in what the Bible teaches appear little different than the rest of the world.

Read more

Fourth Week  of Lent    

 

Sun
Mar 14

am: 66, 67
pm: 19, 46

Joshua 5:9-12

 

2 Cor 1:3-7

 

 15:1-3,11b-32

 

LITURGICAL THEME FOR THE DAY: On the Fourth Sunday of Lent   one of the traditions for Anglican received from the Church of England. Most Sundays in the year churchgoers in England worship at their nearest parish or 'daughter church'. In the medieval church people often made annual pilgrimage to return to their home or 'mother' church once a year. So each year in the middle of Lent, everyone would visit their 'mother' church – which typically in the church family was the main church or Cathedral of the area.

In the Latin Church this Sunday is often known as Laetare Sunday. Laetare means "Rejoice" in Latin, and the Introit (entrance antiphon) from the traditional liturgy is taken from Isaiah 66:10-11, which begins "Laetare, Jerusalem" ("Rejoice, O Jerusalem").

 In both cases the fourth Sunday of Lent is significant shift in the observations of the liturgical season; like the third Sunday of Advent ("Gaudete Sunday"). The Fourth Sunday of Lent is a break in an otherwise penitential season. The vestments for this day may be Rose colored as a symbolizing this shift.

MEDITATION OF THE DAY: The story of the Prodigal Son is one that often stirs many emotions for those of us on the journey. In reading the The Prodigal Son we meet a person who is given his total freedom while retaining the assurance of the Father’s unconditional love.  Despite the love of the father here, the humility of the prodigal before his half-blind and aged father is stunning when you consider he comes back to the Father bankrupt and hopeless. Perhaps the lesson for us is that this is the key to restoration. The Lenten journey calls us to this but at the same time we must come to terms with the fact that not everyone chooses to take this step.

Some have suggested that the real title for this Gospel account should be “The Parable of the Lost Sons,” for the elder son, in not understanding either his father’s character or his own privileged status as the obedient son, is in many ways more lost than the erring prodigal. The favor that comes to the prodigal comes as a result of his remembering what his father was like. The elder son could not see the point at all. Given our tendency to judge others, we need to be very thoughtful about how we receive this story in our own journey.

PRAYER OF THE DAY: O God, rich in mercy, you so loved the world that, when we were dead in our sins, you sent your only Son for our deliverance. Help us in this Lenten journey to embrace your truth and salvation. Call us to humility and gentleness so that we may we embrace the Easter proclamation. We ask this through Christ, who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, holy and mighty God, for ever and for ever. Amen. Amen.

ANCIENT WISDOM/PRESENT GRACE:  “The soul united to God and transformed in him draws from within God a divine breath, much like the most high God himself. And God, abiding in the soul, breathes forth the life of the soul as its exemplar.  -– St. John of the Cross

Lenten Discipline – On this Sunday perhaps two relational disciplines are worth considering

1)      Making a point of contact with those who have mothered/nurtured us on our spiritual journey and making acts of gratitude and appreciation

2)      Take some time looking at Rembrandt’s painting of the Prodigal Son and consider reading today the short book The Return of the Prodigal Son.  . A worthy link to observe this would be www.eprodigals.com/Henry-Nouwen-Prodigal/Henry-Nouwen-Return-Prodigal.html   

 

12 March 2010  Greg Griffiths/StandFirm

Very interesting stats from Gallup:

Two important changes are apparent. One is a significant drop in the percentage of seniors saying all abortions should be illegal. This fell from 32% in the earliest years of the trend to 16% in the first half of the 1990s, but has since rebounded somewhat to 21%. This long-term 11-point decline among seniors compares with a 9-point increase — from 14% to 23% — in support for the "illegal in all circumstances" position among 18- to 29-year-olds since the early 1990s.As a result, 18- to 29-year-olds are now roughly tied with seniors as the most likely of all age groups to hold this position on abortion — although all four groups are fairly close in their views. This is a sharp change from the late 1970s, when seniors were substantially more likely than younger age groups to want abortion to be illegal.

 

In June Wayne Grudem will be in the UK to encourage biblical thinking about why and how Christians should speak out on moral issues. The tour comes at a time when Christian beliefs are increasingly squeezed to the margins.

Wayne Grudem is the author of bestselling Systematic Theology and is prominent in the ESV Bible translation team. Sign up today to receive reminders about events on his UK tour.

• Sign up for reminders of dates and venues

Dates and venues

Thu 24 June

5.30pm – 7.00pm*

London (St Helen’s Bishopsgate)

Fri 25 June

7.30pm – 9.15pm

Liverpool (Bridge Chapel)

Sat 26 June

10.00am – 1.30pm

Sheffield (Christ Church Fulwood)

Mon 28 June

10.00am – 1.30pm

Cambridge (Eden Baptist Church)

Tue 29 June

7.30pm – 9.15pm

Peterborough (KingsGate)

Wed 30 June

7.45pm – 9.15pm

Chessington (The King’s Centre)  Read here

AUCKLAND, NZ: Bishop retires at testing time for faith

nzherald.co.nz
March 13, 2010

Bishop John Paterson and wife Marion are saluted with a haka by Dilworth School students. Photo / Sarah Ivey

For a secular land, it seems a busy time for faith.

There is the arrival of Richard Dawkins, the world's most famous atheist; Brian Tamaki's Destiny Church has been assailed for weeks - but so far his empire remains intact; and the Anglican Church in Auckland is busy too, preparing for a new man at the top.

Bishop John Paterson has led the church for 15 years. At 65 he is retiring. "The time is right," he says. Younger clergy needed someone closer to their age and understanding. Ross Bay, Paterson's successor, is 20 years younger.

For a man in an influential post, Paterson has a low profile. Especially for a churchman who has been at the centre of convulsions which have shaken the global Anglican community. He chaired the Anglican Consultative Committee - the church's world parliament - for six years.

Presiding Bishop Spins Lack of Growth in The Episcopal Church

News Analysis

By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
3/14/2010

The Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church recently gave the keynote address to the Diocese of New Jersey's diocesan convention and delivered herself of the following observations.

KJS: The Episcopal Church is growing - in a few places. In the last year, four United States dioceses grew both in average worship attendance and baptized membership: Navajoland, North Dakota, Wyoming, and Alabama. Most of our overseas dioceses are growing numerically. The rest are shrinking, either slightly or precipitously.

VOL: Mrs. Jefferts Schori should be embarrassed to announce that the Diocese of Navajoland has grown, bearing in mind that its last real bishop was accused of and admitted to having sexual relations with his nephew. Bishop Steven Plummer later died.

Hat-tip: VirtueOnline

…What does an orthodox Anglican Evangelical ministering in a small parish church do at the Archdeacon's annual Visitation at the Cathedral where there is a service of Holy Communion? The e-mail has gone round that it is a canonical requirement for clergy to be there with their churchwardens to be sworn in. Clergy from the big Evangelical flagships can do what they have always done – ignore the archdiaconal directive with no consequences. But the Evangelical first incumbent who ministers in a non-Evangelical church cannot get away with being so cavalier.

'I was speaking at a church growth conference in the States' doesn't sound very convincing.

The practising homosexual 'priest' from the neighbouring parish, whose boyfriend has just moved into the vicarage, is sitting there with partner in the pew in front. The cohabiting vicar is there, whose girlfriend moved into the vicarage after his marriage broke up. Read here

 

Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, had a little political advice last week for President Obama and the Democrats: Don’t pass the president’s health care legislation because you would risk losing in the midterm elections.

Mr. Obama laughed about it afterward. “I generally wouldn’t take advice about what’s good for Democrats” from Mr. McConnell, he told an audience in Pennsylvania. But he conceded that “that’s what members of Congress are hearing right now on the cable shows and in sort of the gossip columns in Washington.” He went on to argue that the issue should be what’s right, not the politics.

But this is Washington and politics are never far from the surface, especially at a decisive moment like this. If the schedule being mapped last week holds – and Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod, said on Sunday that it would — the fate of the president’s health care plan should be decided within the week. “I believe we will have” the votes, Mr. Axelrod said on ABC’s “This Week,” though Republicans and even some Democrats have questioned whether the votes are there now.

Read it all.

There is a chance to introduce a tax that will recognise both the massive expansion of the financial services industry in recent years and the fact that taxation has never kept up with this – but also a tax that will generate really substantial resources to deal with the urgent global needs that can't wait for some miraculous turnaround in the economy. If we are serious about wanting to tackle real poverty at home or abroad, would we prefer to see an increased burden on domestic taxpayers or an innovative approach that looks for help to the enormous revenues of the financial world? There certainly is a profound connection between poverty and the banking crisis – we all know the new pressures on jobs and the poor at home – and the World Bank has estimated that two million more children could die as a result of the downturn.

The plan is to tax certain transactions between financial institutions – not burdening the High Street banks or the private currency transactions of holidaymakers, but targeting the hundreds of billions that flow between the big players in the financial industry. A tax of an average of 0.05% on these transactions – 50p in every £1000 – could generate something like £250 billion per annum.

Read it all.

I'm guessing you'll be surprised -- from Inc Magazine, where there is more:
I usually wake up anytime between 4 and 6:30 a.m. My first meeting of the day is with God. I have my prayer time, my reading time. Sometimes I'll go in the other room if my husband is still sleeping. I like to start out my day with the Lord, basically. It really sets my day off in a good place, so I can be more patient with people and better handle whatever comes up.

My kids are usually up by 6:30, and that's when things get busy: There's breakfast, hairdos, and making lunch boxes. It's chaos. Chloe is in first grade, Lily in fifth, and Erik is in 10th. We try to all sit down to breakfast, but it's often impossible. Then I drive them to school -- sometimes I'm still in my jammies. When I get back home, I start working.

I try to work from home every other week, so I can spend more time with my family. Everybody on my team knows that my schedule is planned around my kids.

I always check in daily with Stephen Roseberry, our president and COO. We'll discuss things like what's going on with our retail partnerships or manufacturing issues that have cropped up. We have relationships with about 25 different manufacturers. For instance, Shaw, a company in Georgia, makes our rugs and flooring products, and then GoldToeMoretz manufactures our socks. Some of our manufacturers make products only for us, but others have partnerships with other companies as well. Our financial arrangement with each is different. Usually, we receive a royalty on every product that bears our brand.

My old job description was "Shut up and pose." So I have an allergic reaction when someone just wants me to put my name on a product. I have dealt with manufacturers who didn't want my input. As soon as I sense that, our relationship is over.

When I'm working at home, I usually like to focus on product design, which is my favorite part of my job. I have a table in my home office where I sketch and take notes based on stuff I collect when I'm out and about -- a shell, a piece of fabric, a snapshot of a flower. I bring my sketchpad and a camera with me everywhere, because I never know when something will strike me. I was in my daughter's music class last year and saw these drums, which became the inspiration for a leather ottoman I designed.

Sometimes I'll designate a day to go out and look for inspiration -- on the streets or at the mall. I might go to a museum or go on a hike. My best ideas come to me when I'm out in nature. I really do think God is the best designer. One morning while walking my dogs, I noticed that the grass was covered in dew and sparkled when the sunlight hit it. That inspired a broadloom carpet, which is bright green with silver threads throughout. One of my design philosophies is that I want to bring happiness into the home -- I like bright colors instead of dreary blah beige.

We need to demand an immediate release of the e-mails, phone records, and meeting notes from the NY Fed and key Lehman principals regarding the NY Fed’s review of Lehman’s solvency. If, as things appear now, Lehman was allowed by the Fed’s inaction to remain in business, when the Fed should have insisted on a wind-down (and the failed Barclay’s said this was not infeasible: even an orderly bankruptcy would have been preferrable, as Harvey Miller, who handled the Lehman BK filing has made clear; a good bank/bad bank structure, with a Fed backstop of the bad bank, would have been an option if the Fed’s justification for inaction was systemic risk), the NY Fed at a minimum helped perpetuate a fraud on investors and counterparties.

This pattern further suggests the Fed, which by its charter is tasked to promote the safety and soundness of the banking system, instead, via its collusion with Lehman management, operated to protect particular actors to the detriment of the public at large.

Read it all.

Conservative leader David Cameron pledges to ban extremist groups, increase the number of faith schools fight the rise in anti-Semitism, remarks made in an interview with political editor Martin Bright in today's Jewish Chronicle. And he says that under a Conservative government, the number of faith schools will increase. Read our news story here.

He says:

'Personally, because my daughter, Nancy, goes to an excellent Church of England school and we’re really lucky in that. Politically, because I think that faith schools are a really important part of our education system and they often have a culture and ethos which helps to drive up standards. If anything, I would like to see faith schools grow. Through our school reform plans, there will be a real growth in new good school places, and we’re anticipating that some of these will be in faith schools.'  Read Ruth Gledhill here

There is an official response from the Church of England to Lord Alli’s amendment on Civil Partnerships. Nothing that hasn’t been said before.

 Key points regarding Lord Alli’s amendment to the Equality Bill:

• the legislation has not yet completed its passage through Parliament so may not yet be in its final form
• even once Royal Assent is achieved Ministers have to decide when each of its provisions are brought into force
• and in this case there will also have to be fresh amending regulations before there is the possibility of places of worship becoming locations for civil partnerships               Read here

Eslewhere in the world, Europe is widely regarded as a continent whose economy is rigid and sclerotic, whose people are work-shy and welfare-dependent, and whose industrial base is antiquated and declining—the broken cogs and levers that condemn the old world to a gloomy future. As with most clichés, there is some truth in it. Yet as our special report in this week’s issue shows, the achievements of Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, tell a rather different story.

A decade ago Germany was the sick man of Europe, plagued by slow growth and high unemployment, with big manufacturers moving out in a desperate search for lower costs. Now, despite the recession, unemployment is lower than it was five years ago. Although Germany recently ceded its place as the world’s biggest exporter to China, its exporting prowess remains undimmed. As a share of GDP, its current-account surplus this year will be bigger than China’s.

Read it all.

DR. PHILIP HAWLEY (Grant Medical Center). We have people who are terminal on aggressive life support measures. Clearly they are not going to survive. We are spending all this time and money taking care of them. They are suffering, and it’s completely inappropriate.

DR. GORDON: What people need to do is talk about this with their family, with their physician, in advance. If they get a life-threatening illness, a lot of times they won’t be able to. Maybe they won’t be coherent, or they’ll be on a life-support machine. They can’t express their wishes, then they put their family in a bind, so they feel guilty, they don’t know for sure, and then what often happens is the sort of default is, well, let’s do everything, as much as possible.

ROLLIN: And sometimes families disagree about what to do. It’s hard for some to let go, which complicates things further.

DR. HAWLEY: If we could get families to deal with this we would not have this problem. We feel we as physicians should be able to step in and say we’ve got to stop the madness.

Read it all.

It seemed like a good idea at the time. Diabetics are at an unusually high risk of heart disease, heart attacks and strokes, so treating them intensively to sharply reduce blood pressure, cholesterol levels and sugar levels should be highly beneficial. But a decade of studies in thousands of patients show that is not the case.

Two new reports from a major nationwide trial called ACCORD released Sunday show that lowering either blood pressure or cholesterol levels below current guidelines do not provide additional benefit and, in fact, increase the risk of side effects. A third arm of the study, released two years ago, shows that lowering blood sugar levels excessively actually increases the risk of heart disease.

The results are very disappointing, researchers say, because they suggest that clinicians may have reached the limit for what they can do for diabetic patients without the development of totally new therapeutic approaches.

Read it all.

The poster board outside our church has a confronting message this month, looking at the subject of pornography.



We might feel awkward about it but pornography has a massive effect on large segments of our society - it's time we got serious about how big a deal and how damaging it is. outreachMEDIA, who provide our posters, have a great article on their website.
My name is Derek Higgo, I'm a psychotherapist in Sydney providing counselling for couples and individuals. The larger percentage of my work concerns men of different ages struggling with pornography. More and more people are struggling because pornography is not accountable, it's anonymous and it's so accessible. Sadly, by the time the men I speak to come to me, they've often developed a pattern of addictive behaviour, their marriages are damaged and they're under a burden of immense shame, guilt and depression. Some are even considering suicide. The Bible has plenty to say about pornography. Put simply, it is wrong and unfaithful to cultivate lustful thoughts. At the very least, the following verse teaches us that there will be consequences for those who watch pornography:
"Can a man walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched?" Proverbs 6:28
Treading the path of pornography is like climbing down a wet and slippery embankment. At first you think you're ok. "I'm in control of this". But all of a sudden you're dazed and bewildered, lying at the bottom of a muddy pit, uncertain how you got there so quickly. It is a choice that will take you further than you ever intended to go. Why, oh why, do we let the media and society set our expectations about sex and relationships? Magazines, the Internet, Billboards and TV are so obsessed with body image and sexuality. Men are portrayed as conquerors whose performance determines their manhood. And women must be flawless and 'on' all the time. But no real relationship is like this. The world of pornography is a fantasy place of no commitment and unrealistic expectations. Meanwhile, in the real world there is disappointment and disillusionment as the bond between couples is strained by feelings of inadequacy and resentment. Sexual wounding strikes at the very core of our identity. Yet sex is a wonderful gift from God. In the Bible the inventor of sex endorses his handiwork. Isn't that great news? In Genesis, Proverbs, Song of Songs and many other places, we see that sex is good and to be celebrated. Importantly, in 1Corinthians 7:2-5 we learn that sex is designed exclusively for marriage and is intended to be for fun and mutual pleasure, motivated by love and commitment. If you're despairing, remember, God offers hope and a way out. Jesus forgives! But you must speak to someone, it's too hard to solve this alone.
"If therefore the son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed" John 8:36
Prayer: Dear God, please help me to walk tall, without shame, free from thoughts and actions that don't honour you. Amen.
There are some great resources available to you to help you in this struggle. We particularly recommend

• Covenant Eyes


• XXX Church

The Archbishop of Canterbury has condemned evangelist "bulies" who attempt to convert people of other faiths to Christianity.

Dr Rowan Williams said it was right to be suspicious of proselytism that involves "bullying, insensitive approaches" to other faiths.

In a speech at Guildford cathedral, Dr Williams criticised those who believed they had all the answers amd treated non-Christians as if their traditions of reflection and imagination were of no interest to anyone. "God save us form that kind of approach," he said.

But he added: "God save us also from the nervousness about our own conviction that doesn’t allow us to say we speak about Jesus because we believe he matters, we believe he matters, because we believe that in him human beings find their peace, their destinies converge, and their dignities are fully honoured."

Read it all.