Associated Press reports:

The mother of a 14-year-old boy says a cellphone video depicting her son struggling to stand on two broken legs is proof that her son was harmed while attending a Kansas military school and supports claims in a federal lawsuit that the school encouraged a culture of abuse.

The 3:39-minute video clip obtained exclusively by The Associated Press depicts Jesse Mactagone of Auburn, Calif., at St. John's Military School wobbling and pleading for help as an instructor tries to make him stand. Both of the boy's legs were broken during the four days in August 2011 that he attended the school, and he was hospitalized before being flown home. He no longer attends the school.

Mactagone and the families of six other students filed a federal lawsuit in March seeking unspecified damages, claiming the school allowed and encouraged abuse. St. John's has settled nine previous abuse lawsuits filed since 2006. However, law enforcement authorities in Kansas have declined to file assault charges against anyone at the school, citing a lack of evidence.
....
The Episcopal boarding school, which charges families nearly $30,000 per year for students enrolled in grades 6-12, draws students from across the nation to its military-styled program. In a statement from its public relations firm, the school said it had not seen the video and cannot comment on it.

Many cities in the U.S. grew quickly, covering a lot of space in short time, which makes the experience of isolation and disconnection. This is an experience common to both large cities and spread out suburbs. Some churches in the Las Vegas have joined with local groups to build a sense of connection and to find community based solutions.

The Las Vegas Sun reports:

The Revs. Marta Poling-Goldenne and Dennis Hutson noticed something about Southern Nevada when they moved here to lead congregations: Las Vegans are not very interconnected.

That may be the legacy of a community growing up too quickly, said Poling-Goldenne, who with her husband, the Rev. David Poling-Goldenne, leads the congregation at New Song Church in the Anthem community of Henderson. Even members of the clergy were too busy tending to the growth of their own congregations to reach out to other religious leaders and the rest of the community, she said.

Hutson, who came here from Texas, and Poling-Goldenne, from Illinois, say there is little sense of community in the valley and communication is nonexistent — and now is the time to address it.

On Tuesday, religious leaders from a variety of faiths and denominations will come together at UNLV to launch the Las Vegas Valley Community Convention, a broad-based organization with the purpose of initiating dialogues and finding solutions for community issues, including those affecting children, the elderly, immigrants and those affected by the housing crisis. The membership includes 65 churches, synagogues, mosques, schools and nonprofit organizations.

Among the local religious leaders who have signed on are Bishop Dan Edwards, Episcopal Diocese of Nevada; Dr. Aslam Abdullah, Islamic Society of Nevada; Rabbi Malcolm Cohen, Temple Sinai; Pastor Camille Pentsil, Zion United Methodist Church; and the Rev. Robert Stoeckig, Catholic Diocese of Las Vegas.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Allentown wants to declare that three Episcopal priests, who were received from the Catholic Church, are lay people.

The Diocese of Allentown seeks to laicize the Rev. Canon Bill Lewellis, the Rev. Canon Michael Piovane, and the Rev. Donald Schaible. They were notified by letter in March that the Catholic diocese intends to use newer, simplified procedures that were designed in 2009 to remove sex offenders and child abusers from the clergy roles without an ecclesiastical trial.

Among other things, the move also seeks to undercut the validity of the ministry of ex-RCC priests in the Episcopal Church because in theory The Episcopal Church (which recognizes the validity of Catholic orders) can't receive what's been taken away. In the Episcopal view, these men did not stop being priests, they only changed the church (jurisdiction) in which they practice their ministry.

So instead of using this on Roman clergy who have sexually abused their parishioners, they use it clergy who committed the "grave scandal" of being married--even though the Roman Catholic church will re-ordain married former Episcopal clergy who join their church.

This action is taking (or has already taken) place--it's involuntary and essentially done in secret--many years after the three became Episcopalians and were received as priests. Piovane was received in 1993, Lewellis in 1999 and Schaible in 2007.

Before becoming an Episcopalian, Lewellis was a Monsignor and served in Allentown's chancery office as Director of Communications. Until his retirement he served as Communications Missioner for the Diocese of Bethlehem.

Piovane is Rector of St. Anne's Church in Trexlertown, PA,

Schiabble is Rector of Trinity Church, Carbondale, PA and Christ Church, Forest City, PA.

Responding to his former colleague in Allentown, Lewellis wrote:

Please know that I do not support the application Bishop Barres has sent or will send to Rome. I will, in fact, strongly oppose it if contacted by Rome.

Cardinal Hummes said about the involuntary laicization allowed by the decree that if the one who left is not interested in regularizing his situation, the good of the church and the good of the priest who left is that he be dispensed so that he would be in a correct situation, especially if he has children. If he has children, the cardinal went on, his children have a right to have a father who is in a correct situation in the eyes of God and with his own conscience, so helping these people is one of the reasons there are new procedures.

That strikes me as so self-serving. Think about it.

My life with my wife and children as well as my life and ministry within the Episcopal Church, before and after my reception here as a priest, suggest that I am "in a correct situation in the eyes of God." Among the sayings and teachings of Jesus that Matthew collected in what we have come to know as the Sermon on the Mount is: By their fruits you will know them. Didn't Jesus say that so much clearer than any Roman decree? My conscience is clear. My wife and children love me. We have had a good and holy life together. I need no paperwork from Rome to make that so. Actually, this would not be a matter of the church helping me in any way. In a way stranger than I can fathom, it is rather a matter of the bureaucracy of the church simply
reorganizing its files, balancing its own books, making things neater for itself.

A story is told locally about a priest of the Diocese of Allentown interviewing an Eastern Rite priest long ago to make the case for an annulment of a parishioner's marriage. Having been quite cooperative during the interview, the interviewee is said to have remarked at
the end: When are you guys going to stop playing cops and robbers, and start preaching the word?

All three clarified the letter sent to them from Catholic diocese about the status of Roman Catholic priests who are received into the Episcopal Church. Lewellis said:

Regarding my priestly ministry within the Episcopal Church there is an important clarification. The Episcopal Church recognizes ordination by the Roman Catholic Church and simply "receives" former Roman Catholic priests in a ceremony far removed from ordination. I was not "ordained" into the priesthood of the Episcopal Church.

In a letter posted on the Diocese of Bethlehem blog, Lewellis, Piovane and Schaible said:

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

Donald Schaible, Michael Piovane and Bill Lewellis, all priests in good standing in the Episcopal Church, received from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Allentown during late March letters similar to the attached regarding involuntary laicization.

Laicization, in the RC church, is literally the reduction of a cleric to the lay state. A priest who is laicized is technically still a priest, but may no longer act as one or put himself forward as one. Most frequently, over the past 50 years or so, priests who left the RC church applied to Rome to be laicized so they could get married and remain in good standing within the RC church. In order to receive this dispensation, however, the applicant had to make a reasonable case that, for one reason or another, he should not have been ordained to begin with.

Over the past 50 years, again, the dispensation was given relatively freely by one pope, but not by another.

Neither Donald nor Michael nor Bill applied for laicization, for our own reasons.

On occasion, the local bishop could take the initiative to have someone laicized because that person was causing "public scandal" of one kind or another. Often enough, what was named public scandal by the RC hierarchy was not so considered by the public. But even for the bishop, the process was not so straightforward, until 2009; and Rome gave the priest an opportunity to oppose involuntary laicization because the "involuntary" turned laicization into a penalty, i.e., defrocking.

In 2009, a Vatican decree made it possible for – in fact, seemed to encourage – local RC bishops to apply for involuntary laicization for former RC priests without having to jump through hoops. Reading between the lines of the piously worded decree, one recognizes that this gave local bishops a way to efficiently laicize priests accused of sexual abuse. That seems to have been its primary purpose. Beyond the letters we received from the Diocese of Allentown, we have been hard pressed to discover instances where such applications for involuntary laicization have been applied by other RC dioceses to priests who have not been accused of sexual abuse.

In a message to the Diocese, Bishop Paul V. Marshall wrote:

I want to note here that the ordination of these three men was recognized by this church some years ago and their orders were received here. They are priests under the jurisdiction and protection of the Episcopal Church. Please be assured that nothing that might occur in the Roman church effects their identity, status, or work among us. I value each of them highly, as I am sure you know.

The Diocese of Bethlehem posted PDF files of the letter from the Allentown diocese and the replies of each of the priests protesting the move.

Bonnie Anderson, President of the House of Deputies of the Episcopal Church, writes about the Violence Against Women Act which is now up for renewal in Congress.

The Episcopal Church has gone on record, along with many other religious groups and leaders, as being opposed to the changes to VAWA as proposed in the House bill.

The Senate-passed version leaves the law pretty much intact and even plugs some gaps in the current version. The House version, on the other hand, takes away protections for native American women, immigrant women (especially those who are undocumented) and others.

Anderson, focusing on Native Americans and domestic violence, makes the case to preserve the law in its most complete form.

The Detroit News:

This year, the Violence Against Women Act is up for reauthorization in Congress. In early May, the Senate reauthorized the act with new provisions that would permit tribal authorities to have jurisdiction over domestic violence, dating violence and violations of protection orders committed by nonindigenous perpetrators.

Unfortunately, earlier this week, the House passed a different version, which strips the protections that Native women need and also puts immigrant women and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people at risk.

Since the Violence Against Women Act was first enacted in 1994, it has helped communities across America mount a coordinated response against domestic and dating violence. By working together, courts, law enforcement authorities, prosecutors and those who serve victims have helped ensure higher rates of reporting, prosecution and victim support among women who have endured domestic violence.

But because tribal authorities do not have jurisdiction over so many domestic violence cases on their reservations, Native communities have not benefited from the Violence Against Women Act in the same way as the rest of the country.

For centuries, the church and the United States government have made a terrible mistake by stripping Native people of basic human rights. Reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act with full provisions for tribal jurisdiction of domestic and dating violence is an essential step in righting that wrong.

The letter from religious leaders to Speaker Boehner and Minority Leader Pelosi here focuses on other impacts of the House version, especially towards women who are not citizens.

On behalf of the undersigned faith leaders and faith-based organizations concerned about victims of domestic violence, human trafficking, sexual assault, and other forms of violence, we write to express our concerns about Title VIII of the House Judiciary Committee-approved version of H.R. 4970, legislation to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which we understand the House of Representatives plans to vote on this week.

Faith communities are on the front lines, identifying victims, providing refuge, referring victims and their families for services, and offering hope and healing. In times of crisis, victims often turn to faith leaders for support and moral guidance because they see places of worship as a sanctuary from the horrors they have experienced. Through our ministry with victims, we have learned that abusers often exploit a victim’s immigration status, leaving individuals extremely vulnerable and afraid to report the abuse to law enforcement, assist in the prosecution of crimes, and seek services.

Congress created VAWA in 1994, and it has voted twice since then to reauthorize the law, each time with broad bipartisan support. However, we are deeply troubled by Title VIII of H.R. 4970. Sections 801, 802, and 806 would actually roll back protections in current law for battered non-citizens, making them more vulnerable and, in some cases, endangering their lives. We urge you to strike these provisions from the bill before the measure is brought before the full House of Representatives for a vote.

VAWA is an effective tool in combatting the devastating crimes of domestic violence and providing lifesaving programs and services. We urge Congress to preserve and improve protections for vulnerable immigrant victims.

Reluctant Xian says that there are five things that Christians should never say. This is not like George Carlin's classic comedy routine, through, because these never get bleeped.

Sometimes I curse. I don’t pepper my language liberally with curse words like people might pepper a house salad, but sometimes I curse.

It surprises people to hear that pastors sometimes curse. But really, that’s all I can do sometimes. When you see terrible tragedy where you have absolutely no response other than sadness and despair, cursing happens…because you can do nothing else.

Likewise, sometimes when I see utter beauty a word will slip through my lips, brought from the very depths of my emotional being where words live only to be used in situations where no word seems appropriate. Usually that’s a curse, too.

Pastors sometimes curse. Christians sometimes curse.

And, really, I hear things slip from Christian mouths with reckless abandon that I believe are far worse than curse words. Here are just 5 (there are undoubtedly more):

Here are the Five Things:

5) “That’s not Christian…”

4) “I love the sinner but I hate the sin..”

3) “You need to surround yourself with some good Christian people…“

2) “You just have to do God’s will…”

1) “It’s all in God’s plan…”

I would add one I used to hear all the time in the hospital, especially after a death: "Well, God wanted her/him more than you/we did."

What phrases would you add to the list?

Some history to absorb before restructuring and budgeting at General Convention. Diana Butler Bass talks about her new book, Christianity After Religion, at All Saints Church, Pasadena, CA:

The Rt. Rev. Jeffrey D. Lee, Bishop of Chicago, on the NATO Summit:

Ascension Day 2012
Dear Friends:

The city of Chicago is awash with preparation for the NATO Summit, which begins on Sunday. Many of us are approaching this event with trepidation. We are unsure about everything from traffic and public safety to how we should speak and preach about the complex and troubling moral issues of national security, economic inequality, and care for the poor that the summit and its protesters raise.

The Bible has a lot to say about these issues of money, fear and violence. While we may be unsettled by the NATO Summit and the conflict it engenders, as Christians, we cannot turn our back on it. But we can pray.

As the summit begins, let us cover it-marinate it, as I sometimes say-in prayer. Please include this collect in your services on Sunday and encourage the people of your congregations and your communities to include the NATO Summit and the protesters in their prayers:

Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so move every human heart, and especially the hearts of the leaders who gather now in Chicago, that barriers which divide us may crumble, suspicions disappear, and hatreds cease; that our divisions being healed, we may live in justice and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Book of Common Prayer, 823)

Today we celebrate the risen Christ ascending into heaven and empowering us to continue his work on earth. As we answer his call together, know that you and your ministry are included, with gratitude, in my prayers.

Faithfully,

Jeffrey D. Lee

Bishop of Chicago

Noreen Malone reports on the new "occupiers" of the Trinity Wall Street space in the New York online:

Late last year, when Occupy Wall Street was kicked out of Zuccotti Park, protestors marched north and tried to occupy another public-private space, Duarte Square. They didn't last long in the space, thanks to aggressive policing and a less-than-hospitable landlord. A spokesman for Trinity Church, which owns the space (and had previously supported the movement), described the attempted occupation as "Wrong, unsafe, unhealthy and potentially injurious."

Duarte Square happens to be across the street from New York's offices, though we'd barely noticed it before the Occupy fracas. Normally, it's a barren, gravel-filled space filled with seldom-used green chairs. This morning, there were four artisanal food trucks parked inside the park. There will eventually be six parked there three times a week, Jordi Loaeza, the 20-year-old co-owner of Mexico Blvd., told Daily Intel, pending final official approval from Trinity, which he says is "absolutely" a done deal.

Loaeza says he reads the Occupy Wall Street blog, and agrees with "parts." "I did hear that they kicked them out of this lot, but we pay to be here, " he says. "This gets trucks off the street." And fits better into Trinity's image of the neighborhood: The church, which owns a large block of real estate, has worked hard to rebrand the corridor, which it dubbed "Hudson Square," into a tech and media hot spot...

There has been much conversation recently on the future of seminaries.

Katherine M Douglass and Jason Bruner, doctoral candidates at Princeton Theological Seminary, write in The Chronicle of Higher Education:

...there is a need for theological schools to rethink their role in theological training in order to remain financially self-sustaining and to train leaders for an increasingly global church. Their problem is not that they need to retain their place in the academy, but rather that they need to justify their existence to Christian churches, which are becoming more ethnically diverse.

The challenge for theological institutions is to be responsive, rather than reactive, to these trends—by giving greater attention to training in leadership, business practices (such as budgeting), and evangelism, as well as through interfaith dialogue and the inclusion of religious education for their students. Additionally, seminaries must make greater efforts to recruit local immigrant students. This regionally focused model has been a strength of African and Asian theological institutions that have pooled resources to provide local education, rather than send students abroad.

One potential approach is to emphasize a "best practices" solution. Sebastian notes that rather than send their prospective pastors to seminary for theological training, many successful churches have returned to an apprenticeship model that was popular in the 18th century. So instead of attempting only internal curricular changes, seminaries could cultivate apprenticeships, which offer more coaching and hands-on teaching than the internships already offer. This would provide students, and the congregations they would eventually serve, the benefits of both a traditional seminary education and a more deeply felt professional experience.

What are your thoughts? Would some model of apprenticeship help the church? How might the question of cost (to churches with the additional "staff" person and the very real question of debt facing clergy in training) be addressed?

It's befuddling - to me, at least - that The Christian Post, in having had the same amount of time to look over resolutions proposed for Indianapolis this summer as everyone else, has decided to highlight resolution C040, which promotes "open table" by eliminating Canon I.17.7, the requirement of baptism as necessary for reception of Holy Communion.

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Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori today issued a pastoral letter.

On May 7, Jefferts Schori joined other religious voices in repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery at the 11th session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII). The theme for the UNPFII meeting is “The Doctrine of Discovery: its enduring impact on indigenous peoples and the right to redress for past conquests (articles 28 and 37 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples).” In 2009, General Convention repudiated the Doctrine of Discovery.

The text of the letter follows.

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In the Dallas Morning News' blog on religion, theologians from all over Texas consider the question of marriage equality and of how and whether the church should shift when the culture does - or if it's the other way around - or both - or something else entirely.

Fort Worth's Katie Sherrod takes a reasoned swing at the question.

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The L.A. Times reports on Bike Week L.A.:

... dozens of cyclists rode to Good Samaritan Hospital for the ninth annual Blessing of the Bicycles. A rabbi talked about living green. A nun spoke of guardian angels. And the Rev. Jerry Anderson, an Episcopal priest and hospital chaplain, sprinkled holy water on bikers and their bikes.

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LifeWay Christian Resources - a product of the Southern Baptist Convention - recently polled 2,144 Americans using an online instrument. They were asked, "Do you believe homosexuality is a sin?"

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Sharing communion without first baptizing a person is a small but common practice in the Episcopal Church right now. There's been a great deal of discussion on the question here on the Episcopal Café over the past few years.

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The Church of Ireland met in General Synod last week. Last year, Dean Tom Gordon entered into a civil partnership with his long time partner and in so doing created a crisis in the Irish Anglican church. After attempts by the bishops to reiterate the traditional opposition to marriage equality in the church as part of a temporizing compromise, a push by the progressive voices to oppose that plan has highlighted the disagreement within the church.

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One of the reports submitted to General Convention this year analyzes the interest in the Episcopal Church in revising the 1982 Hymnal. The task of doing the research was passed to the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music, and they've posted their long report on the Church Pension Group website. (See update below for more information regarding the report itself.)

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Bishop Stacy Sauls, chief operating officer of the Episcopal Church, sent the following e-mail to the church's staff yesterday in the employee newsletter. In it he discusses the role of the Church Center staff:

Not Being Overcome by Fear

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I lack the theological and historical chops to assess Eric Berkowitz's claim that the Catholic Church celebrated same-sex unions between men in medieval times, or to distinguish his claims from those of the late historian John Boswell. But I would be delighted to hear from commenters who can give us a sense of whether Berkowitz is saying anything new or significant. He writes:

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From the Chicago Consultation:

In October, some 25 Anglican leaders from across Africa gathered with more than a dozen Episcopalians from the United States for a consultation on issues of justice and human sexuality.

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Gretta writes in Salon:

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Andrew Sullivan has an excellent round up of reaction focusing on the religious aspects of President Obama's historic endorsement of marriage equality.

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Odyssey Networks wraps up last week's religion news. Like many media outlets, they give the Catholic League more visibility that it deserves.

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Last year, the Rev. Greg Syler,rector of St. George's Episcopal Church in Valley Lee, Maryland, wrote a thoughtful piece about the historical origins of Mothers' Day, and we thought you might like to read it again. It does not conclude in a warm and fuzzy fashion, but that is its strength:

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The Rev. John Yates, rector of the schismatic Falls Church, is entitled to his own opinion about the events that led him and his followers to break with the Episcopal Church. He is entitled to having those opinions published in The Washington Post. He is not, however, entitled to his own facts.

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The Diocese of Chicago, which has a companion relationship with the Diocese of Renk, links to difficult news this morning about the deteriorating situation along the Sudan-South Sudan border.

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Work it Richmond discusses difficult customers and assesses the costs of sending them on their way. How do you think this might apply to church or not.

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Derek Olsen, frequent contributor to Daily Episcopalian, writes in the Washington Post.

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Walter Wink, one of the most influential Bible scholars and theologians died May 10 at age 76. Ekklesa writes:

At the time of his death, he was Professor Emeritus of Biblical Interpretation at Auburn Theological Seminary in New York. He was ordained as a Methodist minister in 1961. He developed nuanced biblical arguments in favour of pacifism, anti-capitalism and the acceptance of same-sex relationships.

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The National Cathedral in Washington DC dedicated a stone carving of Rosa Parks yesterday according to USAToday:

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Kate Blanchard, writing at Religion Dispatches, reflects on her spiritual journey and finds that none of the usual labels--religious, spiritual or atheist--fit. She proposes an alternative.

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David Gibson at Religion News Service notices that in America, the Golden Rule--treating others as you wish to be treated--is still at the heart of popular (and political) American religious thought.

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The New York Times ran a "Room for Debate" on whether churches should continue to enjoy tax exemption. Among the variety of views was the observation that tax-exemption allows for freedom of religious expression by small progressive groups mainly in cities where taxes are generally higher.

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The Rt. Rev. Eugene Sutton writes on forgiveness in The Washington Post. Following the murder of a priest and administrator at St. Peter's Episcopal Church of Maryland Sutton comments on a country that votes down programs for those who find themselves hungry and homeless and votes up easy access to guns:

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When President Obama endorsed same-sex marriage this week, he cited his faith, and this highlighted the fact that different Christians read the same Bible differently and see different implications. The Rev. Canon Susan Russel talked about this on NPR's Morning Edition today.

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The Diocese of Los Angeles has won another appeal in the ongoing dispute with two breakaway congregations.

The Los Angeles Times reports:

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Updated. US Catholic has what ought to be an April Fool's Day story, but isn't. Bryan Cones writes:

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(Via e-mail) Bishop Mariann Budde of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington released the following statement on President Barack Obama's endorsement of marriage equality:

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From Anglican Communion News Service

The Most Revd Dr Barry Morgan, Primate of The Church in Wales, has been elected to serve on the Crown Nominations Commission for Canterbury, the body that will nominate the next Archbishop of Canterbury.

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Susan Russell posts:

Just finished an interview with NPR's fabulous Barbara Bradley Haggerty. Look for her segment on Obama, Faith & Marriage Equality tomorrow on Morning Edition!

Affirming a trial court's judgment as sound, a Nashville-based appeals court found for the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee against a former parish's representatives, court documents testify.

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From the Huffington Post:

ELLICOTT CITY, Md. -- The Episcopal Diocese of Maryland is offering forgiveness and a funeral service for a homeless man who killed himself after fatally shooting a priest and church secretary last week.

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Reuters reports professional boxer and current WBO welterweight champ Manny Pacquiao has cleaned up his partying ways and gone biblical - or at least, started reading the Bible with regularity - with the result that he's a better, more focused fighter.

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In an interview with ABC News, Barack Obama today became the first sitting U. S. President to endorse marriage equality:

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The Rt. Rev. Michael B. Curry of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina offers the following on the day after the passage of Amendment One.

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Every so often, in and amongst the general chatter, something catches your attention. Crusty Old Dean (Bexley Hall's Rev. Dr. Tom Ferguson) made this blogger sit up straight this morning in an entry on blips and germs in an entry he calls a manifesto.

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In a move long anticipated, Reform Jews are phasing out "investiture" of cantors and are moving toward ordination, JTA reports.

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Maurice Sendak died today, but not before showing us how the wild rumpus starts.

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The "spiritual but not religious" people in society, while not growing as a percentage of society, do seem to be driving a marked increase in the number of people providing spiritual direction.

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I attended a clericus meeting in Arizona today. One of the topics that came up in our free ranging discussion was the changes that have happened to small to medium size churches that used to be able to employ a full time seminary trained priest. What used to be the most common model of parish ministry has become almost a rarity.

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