Italian town introduces fines for blasphemy

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Exodus 20:7 (also Deuteronomy 5:11)

As reported by Josephine McKenna of the London Daily Telegraph, July 26, 2019:

A northern Italian town has had enough of people taking the Lord’s name in vain and those who do will be fined up to €400 (£360) for blasphemy.

The city council of Saonara, a town with 10,000 inhabitants just outside Padua, has introduced a new law making it illegal “to blaspheme against any faith or religion” and utter foul language in public.

The mayor, Walter Stefan, said the move was designed to get rid of uncivilised behaviour and promote public decency.

“Blasphemy is offensive, it offends me,” Mr Stefan told The Telegraph on Friday.

“With this law you will not be able to cause offence to any religion, we have to respect the faithful.”

The mayor, a practicing Catholic, said it was not designed to protect only Christianity, but all faiths. “It is valid for Allah, Buddha or Mohammad,” he said.

The blasphemy ban is part of a far-reaching local law aimed at tackling uncivil behaviour. It includes 75 articles with hefty sanctions for those who mow the lawn outside designated hours, walk their dog without a leash or dump their rubbish in public places.

“We have taken a series of measures to contain all those uncivilised activities that make coexistence difficult,” Mr Stefan said.

“It will no longer be possible to cut the lawn at certain times, dogs must be kept on a leash and those who are blasphemous will pay the consequences.

“We want to send a message that incorrect behaviour will no longer be tolerated.”

Mr Stefan, a father of three, is not aligned with any major political party and has been mayor of the town since 2012. He was re-elected in 2017 with 52.2 percent of the vote.

He said flyers in four languages, including Chinese and Romanian, would be sent to residents in September to inform them about the new fines.

“There may be bigger problems around but we can’t consider civility banal," he said. "If we let this go, young people will become louts.

“We want to create a courteous community and behaviour that prevents conflict.”

Omero Badon, a local councillor from the Five Star Movement, said he supported the law but did not know if the fines would be enough to improve behaviour, especially that of young people, in the community.

Blasphemy was decriminalised in Italy in 1999 but certain sanctions remain for offences against the “deity”. In December last year a man was fined €100 for blasphemy in front of a school in Albisola Superiore near Savona.

U.K. Parliament votes in favour of forcing pervert "marriage" and abortion on Northern Ireland

The forces of ungodliness are as militant and intolerant now as they were in the days of Genesis 19; as reported by William James of Reuters, July 9, 2019:

LONDON - Britain’s parliament voted on Tuesday in favor of a plan that would compel the government to legalize same-sex marriage and extend abortion rights in Northern Ireland, if the province is unable to re-establish its own devolved government.

The changes passed with a large majority in parliament in London on Tuesday and turned a routine, technical piece of legislation into a vehicle that could enact major social reforms in Northern Ireland.

The province is the only part of the United Kingdom where same-sex marriage is not allowed, and laws there forbid abortion except where a mother’s life is at risk.

To the south, once staunchly conservative Ireland legalized same-sex marriage in 2015 and liberalized its abortion laws in a separate referendum last year.

The legislation has several stages to pass before it creates a legal duty on the British government to amend Northern Ireland’s laws. That duty only comes into effect if the Northern Irish assembly, which collapsed in 2017, has not been re-established by Oct. 21.

Earlier this year, thousands of people marched through Belfast to demand the recognition of same-sex marriage.

Previous attempts to legislate for same-sex marriage have been blocked by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), a key ally of British Prime Minister Theresa May, despite opinion polls in recent years showing most in the region are in favor.

Advocacy groups have called on the government to bypass the frozen local assembly and introduce legislation in the British parliament in Westminster.

Last year, Britain’s Supreme Court found Northern Ireland’s strict abortion law was incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights but said it did not have the powers to make a formal declaration that the law should be changed.

Northern Ireland has been without a devolved executive for 2-1/2 years since Irish nationalists Sinn Fein withdrew from the compulsory power-sharing government with the pro-British DUP.

On-off talks to restore the executive resumed in May after a hiatus of more than a year but have made no obvious progress. Ireland’s government said last week key differences remained.

Sinn Fein, which has consistently raised the DUP’s stance on same-sex marriage as a major stumbling block in the political talks, said the issue should be addressed by the local assembly but that it was inevitable that the British government’s failure to defend “basic rights available everywhere else on the islands would be confronted”, as it was by parliament on Tuesday.

Christianity declines in Britain while atheism and Islam rise

Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man! We shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out. Hugh Latimer, Church of England Bishop of Worcester, to fellow Protestant martyr Nicholas Ridley, as both were being burned at the stake outside Balliol College, Oxford in 1555, during the reign of Queen Mary I, a Roman Catholic; as cited by Foxe's Book of Martyrs.

More evidence that the candle has gone out; as reported by Gabriella Swerling of the London Daily Telegraph, July 11, 2019:

Christian belief has halved in Britain in 35 years with just one in three people now identifying as Christian - while atheism and Islam continue to rise.

Figures published by the British Social Attitudes Survey reveal the widest ever margin between staunch atheists and believers who are certain that God exists.

Of almost 4,000 people polled by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen), 38 per cent described themselves as Christian - a fall from 50 per cent in 2008 and 66 per cent in 1983.

Those identifying as Muslim increased from 1 per cent in 1983 to 3 per cent in 2008, and 6 per cent in 2018.

The survey shows that the biggest change is in the number of people who define themselves as "confident atheists", which rose from 10 per cent in 1998 to 18 per cent in 2008 and its record high of 26 per cent in 2018.

In contrast, researchers found that an overall 55 per cent of the population express some sort of belief in some kind of God.

Nancy Kelley, deputy chief executive at NatCen, said that the steady decline in religion and belief among the British public is "one of the most important trends in post-war history".

"As our society has become more secular, the role of religious institutions and religious identities in determining our moral and social norms has weakened. Other world views, such as scientific rationalism and liberal individual-ism, now play a more significant part in British society."

The report's authors said the survey suggests Britain is becoming more secular "not because adults are losing their religion" but because older people with an attachment to Christian denominations are "gradually being replaced in the population by unaffiliated younger people".

They added that religious decline in Britain is "generational" as people tend to be less religious than their parents.

Dave Male, the Church of England's director of evangelism and discipleship, said: "For many people ticking a box marked 'Church of England' or 'Anglican' is now an active choice and no longer an automatic response. In spite of this, the Church of England remains at the heart of communities."

Andrew Copson, the chief executive of the non-religion charity Humanists UK, said: "With these trends set to continue, policymakers in every field, from education to constitutional law, to health and social care, need to wake up to such dramatic social changes."

Church of England to recognize monks and nuns for the first time since the Reformation

Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man! We shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out. Hugh Latimer, Church of England Bishop of Worcester, to fellow Protestant martyr Nicholas Ridley, as both were being burned at the stake outside Balliol College, Oxford in 1555, during the reign of Queen Mary I, a Roman Catholic; as cited by Foxe's Book of Martyrs.

That candle has gone out; as reported by Laura FitzPatrick of the London Daily Telegraph, July 8, 2019 (link in original):

Monks and nuns will be formally recognised by the Church of England for the the first time since the Reformation following criticism over its response to a series of child abuse scandals.

For the first time since Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries, between 1536 and 1541, the C of E has voted to create a law, known as a canon, so that it can regulate religious groups.

It follows heightened concerns about safeguarding, after some religious communities faced allegations of sexual abuse in a damning report from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) in May.

The report criticised the Prince of Wales for his friendship with Peter Ball, a former Bishop of Gloucester who abused his position as a senior member of the clergy to “manipulate vulnerable teenagers and young men for his own sexual gratification”.

IISCA’s report concluded that the Church’s response to claims of child sexual abuse was “marked by secrecy, prevarication and avoidance of reporting alleged crimes”.

Addressing the General Synod, Dr David Walker, Bishop of Manchester said: "As Archbishop Justin has already said to Synod, the recently published IICSA report relating to the abuse perpetrated by Peter Ball under the cover of setting up religious communities is truly shocking.

“I live with a sense of shame and disgust as the proper human and Christian response to reading that report."

He cited the IICSA recommendation that asks the C of E to introduce appropriate guidance which deals with safeguarding within the context of a religious community affiliated to the Church”.

It continues: “It must ensure that these organisations meet adequate requirements for safeguarding and child protection. The needs of victims should be prioritised when designing safeguarding policies and practices.”

Following a unanimous vote at the General Synod in York on Monday morning, the House of Bishops has more oversight in how it can regulate monks and nuns.

The regulations specify conditions relating to safeguarding children and vulnerable adults, as well as financial affairs and the making of vows or promises.

Once finalised, the canon will also specify the minimum number of members required for a community to be eligible for regulation. Dr David Walker said that it will provide structure following the “growth in new religious communities”.

One nun, Sister Catherine Harvey of the Sisters of the Love of God in Oxford questioned the canon’s introduction whilst there is a decline in the numbers of those observing private religious life.

“It does seem ironic that after 150 years of religious life in England, the church has chosen a time when we are in terminal decline to regulate and recognise us by canon,” she said.

“The answer most often given is that of safeguarding. It is of course right that the shame of the church should have concrete expression in this form. The need has been highlighted by the death of our brother Peter Hall.”

United church in Toronto cancels pro-terrorist Palestinian youth event

This proposed event went too far for even such an apostate organization as the United Church of Canada; as reported by Adrian Humphreys of the National Post, July 8, 2019 (updated July 9, 2019):

TORONTO — A downtown Toronto church has cancelled a youth scholarship event hosted by a Palestinian group that was condemned as “the open glorification of terrorists and murderers.”

The Ghassan Kanafani Resistance Arts Scholarship launch party was cancelled after complaints from members of the Jewish community and a decision by the directors of Trinity-St. Paul’s United Church that the event was “inconsistent with church policy.”

Originally scheduled for July 13, the launch party was to feature spoken word, music and food “to celebrate the artistic and cultural contributions of Palestinians in the diaspora,” organizers said in promotional material, and showcase winners of an annual scholarship contest. Written works from the scholarship contest were published in an online anthology entitled We Feel a Country in Our Bones.

The event was organized by the Toronto chapter of the Palestinian Youth Movement, which describes itself as “a transnational, independent, grassroots movement of young Palestinians in Palestine and exiled worldwide as a result of the on-going Zionist colonization and occupation of our homeland.”

Its mission statement includes motivating young people to take an active role “in our national struggle for the liberation of our homeland and people.”

The scholarship program, open to Palestinians in the United States and Canada, is in the name of a polarizing figure.

Ghassan Kanafani, who the PYM calls a “heroic novelist,” was a noted Palestinian writer but is better known to the wider world for his involvement in the Lod airport massacre near Tel Aviv, Israel, in 1972, during which 26 civilians were killed, including a Canadian, and 80 people injured.

Kanafani was the spokesperson of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) at the time, which claimed responsibility for the attack. A photo, taken prior to the attack, showed Kanafani with one of the three men who opened fire with assault rifles and tossed grenades at passengers, visitors and airport staff.

Kanafani was later killed by a targeted car bomb, allegedly in retaliation.

Public Safety Canada lists the PFLP as a terrorist entity.

B’nai Brith Canada, a Jewish advocacy group, was unsettled by the event and launched a public petition on Friday asking Canadians to sign a letter of condemnation and urging the church to cancel its plans to host the event.

“We will not tolerate the open glorification of terrorists and murderers, particularly in a place of worship,” the letter said. “Churches should be places of peace, not places where violence and/or terror are glorified.”

On Monday, Colin Phillips, vice-chairman of the board of directors for Trinity-St. Paul’s United Church, confirmed to the National Post that the PYM’s booking of the church’s facilities has been cancelled.

“Hundreds of groups rent rooms at (the church) for one-time events over the course of a year. This request was handled as per our processes for such bookings,” said Phillips.

“I’m not sure why the Palestinian Youth Movement contacted us. The event was initially determined to be in line with the congregation’s foci of the arts and peacemaking in the Middle East. However, Trinity-St. Paul’s and the United Church of Canada condemn violence. The board cancelled the booking when it was clear that hosting it would be inconsistent with church policy.”

Michael Mostyn, chief executive officer of B’nai Brith Canada, was pleased with the church’s response.

“We are relieved that the church eventually came to the correct decision, to help prevent the shameful glorification of a terrorist,” he said in a written statement.

“That being said, this story is not over. We will continue to investigate how a youth scholarship named after a notorious terrorist is permitted to function in Canada and the United States, and take all possible steps to thwart it.”

A request for information and comment from the PYM was not responded to prior to deadline. The event was still advertised by the group’s Facebook page late Monday.

Pontifical Biblical Institute hosts conference of Catholic, Jewish, and other "scholars" to "reassess" the Pharisees

The "scholars" mentioned in the article below obviously don't believe the Gospels. The Lord Jesus Christ had nothing good to say to or about the Pharisees or their religion, which is basically what Rabbinic Judaism is today. Scriptural references to the Pharisees are too numerous to mention here, but I particularly recommend Matthew 23 and Luke 11:37-53.

As reported by Lisa Palmieri-Billig* of the Turin newspaper La Stampa, April 19, 2019:

The Pontifical Biblical Institute (familiarly known as “the Biblicum”) is celebrating its 110th anniversary via a remarkable tribute to Christianity’s common roots with Judaism. The scholarly, international, interreligious conference that promises to become another milestone in the evolving history of Christian-Jewish relations is called, “Jesus and the Pharisees: an Interdisciplinary Reappraisal”. It will take place in cooperation with the Cardinal Bea Center for Judaic Studies of the Pontifical Gregorian University at the latter’s Aula Magna May 7-9 and is co-sponsored by AJC (the American Jewish Committee), the CEI (the Italian Bishops Conference), the Gregorian University Foundation and Verbum. On May 9, Pope Francis will receive the Conference participants in audience.

Expectations run high for the innovative contributions of this event. Jewish, Protestant and Catholic scholars plus those from other backgrounds will travel to Rome from 10 different countries and four continents to participate in a 360 degree academic investigation regarding what is known about the Pharisees from various ancient sources such as the writings of Josephus, the Qumran, archaeological findings, the New Testament and Rabbinic Literature. Following a round table discussion of what can be deduced from the historical facts, the second half of the conference will focus on the impact of different interpretations in different languages on the nature of the Pharisees. Within the disciplines of academic inquiry, the specialized speakers will examine how the Pharisees and their relations with Jesus have been portrayed in Patristic Literature, Medieval Jewish interpretations, Passion Plays, Movies, Religion Text Books and Homiletics. “In the end”, it is stated in the program, “we will look at possible ways to represent the Pharisees less inadequately in the future.”

The term, “less inadequately” refers to the basic issue that inspired the scrupulous planning of this event over the past two years. The Pharisees have for centuries been depicted in a disparaging manner as a synonym for people who are “hypocritical”, “self-righteous”, “sanctimonious”, “legalistic”, “enemies of Jesus”, “venal” etc. These definitions, as recalled by the organizers at a recent press conference, are listed in many dictionaries and often still used by political and religious leaders to indicate an absence of spirituality, an example of moral depravation. Unfortunately, these stereotypes, abstracted from the original intrareligious context of internal criticism and even semantically detached from reference to contemporary Judaism, have also been used to justify the antisemitism behind pogroms and persecutions of Jews for nearly 2000 years.

A number of Jewish commentators even located Jesus among the Pharisees. So was Saint Paul of Tarsus, defining himself as such in Philippians 3:5 where he describes his having been “circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee”. Josephus, the Jewish historian of the first century, also cast the Pharisees in a positive light.

Jesus never reneged his Jewish faith, but on the contrary called his brethren to greater religious and moral purity, often with more rigor than Jewish law prescribed – such as his injunctions against impure thoughts, not just actions. Being critical of malpractices within the ruling class of his times, much as many of us today are dismayed by some of the practices of religious and political hierarchies, he argued for a return to the true values he had been taught and in which he believed.

Amy-Jill Levine, this year’s visiting Jewish professor at the Biblicum, who co-edited the “Jewish Annotated New Testament” (presented to Pope Francis on March 27) recalled that the followers of Jesus spoke badly of the religious authorities at the time in order to create more converts to the teachings of Jesus and the Gospels. They reflect the disputes of those years, which however have been lifted out of their historical context and used to foment anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism. “But Jesus doesn’t need the negative foil”, she noted. “He looks perfectly good and stands out very strongly on his own!”

At the press conference held at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in cooperation with the Cardinal Bea Centre for Jewish Studies of the Pontifical Gregorian University, the four key organizers explained at length the characteristics and purposes of the conference: Michael Kolarcik, s.J., Rector and Fr. Joseph Sievers. Professor at the Pontifical Biblical Institute; visiting Professor Amy-Jill Levine of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee and Prof. Etienne Vetö, ccn – Director of the Cardinal Bea Centre.

Professor Vetö, who pointed out the timeliness of the participation of the Cardinal Bea Centre (which Pope Francis recently said had been entrusted to become “the Catholic Church’s premier program in Jewish Studies”) since it is presently celebrating the 50th anniversary of the passing of its namesake Cardinal Augustin Bea, “the principal architect of the document Nostra Aetate that would change the course of religious history”. He reported that 300 people have already registered for the Conference, and since there are more demands but a limited capacity in the Aula Magna, streaming will be available. “This testifies to the new understanding the Catholic Church has on Judaism and to the extent to which Jews and Christians can study together their common history.” He added that "the incorrectly negative treatment of the Pharisees is part of a much larger problem – rooted in the false counterposing of Catholicism as a religion of love against Judaism as a legalistic religion – while actually we are both religions of love (and ethics)."

The Biblicum’s Rector, Prof. Kolarcik, recalled the Biblical Institute’s history of cooperation with Protestant and Jewish scholars which also “forged fruitful and ongoing relationships with other centres of Study: the Hebrew University of Jerusalem being one example. “The topic of the relationship between Jesus and the Pharisees is highly appropriate”, he said. “It is another way of describing the relationship between Christians and Jews over 2 millennia. What we say about this relationship, and how we say it, has significant consequences for our current relationship.”

Professor Amy-Jill Levine, said “For Jews, to know who the Pharisees were and what the Pharisees taught is to recover part of our history. For Christians, how the Pharisees are represented in the New Testament, positively and negatively, has impacted not only teaching and preaching, but also Christian-Jewish relations. This conference addresses major issues in history, from antiquity through the Middle Ages to the present. It also contributes to alleviating pressing issues of antisemitism, stereotyping and bearing false witness against the others.” She points to problems of preaching where priests are not aware of the extensive Guidelines issued in various Vatican documents, and have insufficient historical information about the Pharisees, or about Jews and Judaism and thus lack the tools necessary for preventing anti-Jewish preaching and teaching. This results, she feels, in children learning negative stereotypes in catechism.

Professor Joseph Sievers, one of the principal architects of the program, concluded that the aim of the conference is “to reassess the sources to provide a clearer picture of the ‘literary’ and ‘historical’ Pharisees of antiquity, but while this is a worthwhile goal, it is not sufficient. A second step will be to assess the factors behind the prejudices plaguing common perceptions of the Pharisees – and to suggest ways to overcome them…in homilectics, text books, and popular culture including books and movies about Jesus and passion plays.”

“Thus the conference is set to combine a multidisciplinary approach to all the ancient sources about the Pharisees, with careful attention to the effects of opinions voiced about this frequently stereotyped group. It will also attempt to show ways of how prejudices have been overcome and can be laid to rest.”

In response to questions raised by journalists at the press conference regarding the frequent New Testament quotes and comments by Pope Francis himself containing negative references to the Pharisees, which Francis uses as metaphors to illustrate the conflict in Catholic society today between the hypocrisy of empty clericalism and of giving mere lip service to the Gospels’ teaching versus the true faith displayed by others through actions and not mere words, Professor Sievers replied that Francis’ homilies must be seen in context of the unquestionable love Francis has shown for Judaism and Jews, including his long ongoing relationships with members of the Buenos Aires Jewish Community. “My grandfather”, said Sievers, “used to tell me that we all have blind spots, which disappear when we open both eyes”, concluding that “we don’t want to be polemical with anyone, we just want to offer a more nuanced vision that could bring about change.”

*The author is Rome Representative and Liaison to the Holy See of AJC (American Jewish Committee)

Statement from Anglican Church of Canada Primate-elect shows the church to be beyond the possibility of satire

Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law.
And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church. I Corinthians 14:34-35

Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.
But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.
For Adam was first formed, then Eve.
And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression...
...This is a true saying, if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.
A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife,... I Timothy 2:12, 3:1-2a

It came as no surprise to this blogger to hear, several weeks ago, that Mad, a magazine of satire, and a magazine I hugely enjoyed in my younger days, would be publishing its last issue of new content in the next few months. There are a number of reasons for this, but one reason is that the reality of today's society is so insane that it's virtually impossible to satirize anything anymore.

For example, submitted for your approval, the following statement from the Facebook page of Rt. Rev. Linda Nicholls, Primate-elect of the Anglican Church of Canada, July 13, 2019 (link in original):

Statement from Bishop Linda.

July 13, 2019

Dear friends in Christ,

I write to you with deeply conflicted emotions tonight. Today I was elected to succeed Archbishop Fred Hiltz as the next Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada. This is an honour and responsibility that is deeply humbling and somewhat terrifying! With this comes the knowledge that I must resign as the Bishop of Huron which is a deep regret.

I write to you also the day after the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada held the required second vote on the proposed change to the Marriage Canon to permit same-sex marriages. The vote did not receive the required 2/3’s majority in the house of bishops though did receive it in the clergy and laity. The change to the marriage canon therefore did not pass.

Marriage Canon

The debate was long and, for the most part, respectful of all who were in the room. When the result of the vote was shown on the screen there was only a long, deep silence broken by the intense keening of one of the LGBTQ2+ youth delegates for whom this result was simply too
painful to even contemplate. That sound will resound in the hearts of all those present as a moment not only of personal mourning but of the mourning of a church that was unable to find a way to live with differences despite the best efforts of many people including the
affirmations recorded in A Word to the Church, supported earlier in the day (see:

https://www.anglican.ca/…/a-word-to-the-church-considering-…
marriage-canon-xxi/30023889/)

This has been a challenging discussion for the Church over many years as there continue to be those who hold the traditional view that marriage can only be between a man and a woman while others believe the covenant of marriage can be extended to same-sex couples.
Sometimes there are people of both views in the same parish sharing the pew with one another, each seeking to be faithful to God and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Whichever opinion we each hold in this matter we are God’s people together. We come to the table of the Lord not because we agree with one another on all things but because we have been called, loved, forgiven and accepted in Jesus Christ.

The failure of the motion to change the marriage canon will be deeply painful for LGBTQ2+ members of our Church and for those beyond the Church who looked to this step as a sign of hope and inclusion. In the Diocese of Huron we will continue to offer the opportunity for a blessing of a civil same-sex marriage, recognizing the intention to live in fidelity, mutual love and comfort in a lifelong union. In light of my election as Primate, I pray that the diocese and the new bishop of Huron will discern what other steps to support same-sex couples and their families may be available. I am confident that the Diocese of Huron will find ways to live
graciously and with respect for one another.

Primate

Over the past three years and more you have welcomed me into the Diocese of Huron with warmth and patience – warmth in every parish visit as I have travelled the length and breadth of the diocese and been invited into parish life and events and patience as I have discovered
the history and particular quirks and joys of the culture of this wonderful part of God’s Church.

I am still learning and it does feel too soon to be leaving. Please know that Huron will continue to have a special place in my heart. I will listen for stories of your ministries and rejoice in your faithfulness in our Church.

The new Primate must resign from their present diocese within three months of election. It is my intention to discuss a formal resignation date with the Diocesan Executive but not before the end of September. One promise I made in recent months was that following General Synod my first task would be my full vacation for a much needed rest. I will be on vacation from July 19- August 18. After a further week of continuing education I will return to Huron and begin the process of handing over responsibilities.

Our diocesan canons designate the appointment of an Administrator by Diocesan Council in the absence of a bishop. This person will oversee the work of the bishop during an interim period in which a new bishop will be elected and consecrated. The Diocesan Office will keep the diocese informed of that appointment and of the proposed date for an election and consecration of a new bishop. My prayers will be with you in the coming months of this transition and although I know it will be unsettling I also know the resilience of the diocese and the reality that the primary work of the diocese is the day to day ministry being carried on in each and every parish. That will not change!

Now I ask for your prayers as we both enter into a time of transitions. Pray for me, as I relinquish my responsibilities in Huron and look to the life of the whole Anglican Church of Canada as Primate. Pray for the diocese during the transition and especially for the diocesan staff who will, I know, support all of you in the coming months. I will keep you all in my prayers.

Yours in Christ,

The Rt. Rev. Linda Nicholls

Bishop of Huron and Primate-elect

Pope Francis gives relics of St. Peter to Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople

The ecumenical movement of the last days proceeds apace, as reported by Cindy Wooden of Catholic News Service, July 2, 2019:

VATICAN CITY — In what Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople described as a “brave and bold” gesture, Pope Francis gave the patriarch a famous reliquary containing bone fragments believed to belong to St. Peter.

The only time the bronze reliquary has been displayed publicly was in November 2013, when Pope Francis had it present for public veneration as he celebrated the closing Mass for the Year of Faith, opened by Pope Benedict XVI.

The bronze case contains nine of the bone fragments discovered during excavations of the necropolis under St. Peter’s Basilica that began in the 1940s.

In the 1960s, archaeologist Margherita Guarducci published a paper asserting that she had found St. Peter’s bones near the site identified as his tomb.

While no pope has ever declared the bones to be authentic, St. Paul VI announced in 1968 that the “relics” of St. Peter had been “identified in a way which we can hold to be convincing.”

Pope Paul took nine of the bone fragments, commissioned the bronze reliquary, and kept the relics in his private chapel in the papal apartments.

Pope Francis removed them from the chapel June 29, the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul.

Patriarch Bartholomew had sent a delegation led by Archbishop Job of Telmessos to the Vatican for the feast day celebrations. After the solemn Mass, Pope Francis and Archbishop Job went down to St. Peter’s tomb under the high altar to pray.

Then, the archbishop recounted, Pope Francis asked him to wait for him because he had a gift for his “brother” Patriarch Bartholomew. The pope came back and led the archbishop to his little blue Ford Focus and they were driven to the Apostolic Palace.

They entered the chapel of the old papal apartment, where Pope Francis chose not to live, and “the pope took the reliquary that his predecessor Paul VI had placed in the little chapel and offered it to his guest,” according to Vatican News.

“For us, this was an extraordinary and unexpected event that we could not have hoped for,” Vatican News quoted the archbishop as saying.

He phoned Patriarch Bartholomew as soon as he could to tell him the news.

Arrangements quickly were made for Msgr. Andrea Palmieri, undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, to accompany the relics to the Phanar, the Orthodox patriarchate’s headquarters in Istanbul.

It was “another gigantic step toward concrete unity,” Archbishop Job said.

At a ceremony June 30 to receive the relics and venerate them, Patriarch Bartholomew said, “Pope Francis made this grand, fraternal and historic gesture” of giving the Orthodox fragments of the relics of St. Peter.

“I was deeply moved,” the patriarch said, according to the news published on the patriarchate’s Facebook page along with 15 photos. “It was a brave and bold initiative of Pope Francis.”

Roman Catholic priest in California suspended after being caught holding the bag--of collection money

...and be sure your sin will find you out. Numbers 32:23b

As reported by Maggie Angst of the San Jose Mercury News, July 22, 2019 (updated July 23, 2019):

A Bay Area priest has been suspended for allegedly stealing more than $95,000 from parishes he served over the past several years, the Diocese of Santa Rosa announced Monday.

Father Oscar Diaz, 56, was ordained by the Diocese in July 1994 and served as a priest at Saint Mary Parish in Lakeport, Our Lady Queen of Peace in Clearlake and most recently, Resurrection Parish in Santa Rosa.

On June 19, Diaz was involved in a car crash, suffering a fractured hip.

First responders discovered bags inside Diaz’s vehicle containing stolen Resurrection Parish collections totaling more than $18,000, which Diaz allegedly described as his salary, according to a statement from the Diocese.

Police officers were alerted to the situation later that evening by a hospital employee who was uncomfortable with the amount of cash Diaz brought with him into the emergency room.

Less than a week after the crash, Diaz allegedly called Resurrection Parish staff to report that he had more collection bags in his office.

Upon further investigation, staff discovered more than 10 collection bags full of cash in his office and home that showed “systematic theft at Resurrection Parish from September 2018 through June 2019,” Bishop Robert Vasa said in a statement.

“There is also documentary evidence that theft, over the course of many years, included an undeterminable number of checks made out to parishes and deposited to Father Oscar’s personal account,” Vasa said in the statement.

The diocese said officials uncovered evidence that Diaz stole an additional $77,000 in cash from other parishes where he previously served.

“I am deeply grieved that this has happened and am deeply saddened that the parishes he was sent to serve have been harmed,” Vasa said in the statement.

Diaz allegedly admitted to Vasa that he had taken the collection bags and had been doing so for an extended amount of time, according to the statement.

Efforts to reach Diaz were unsuccessful Monday.

Although Vasa asked the police to investigate the matter for “possible criminal prosecution”, they determined that “the protocols surrounding collection accounting would make it difficult to arrive at sufficient proof of theft to pursue criminal prosecution,” the statement said.

Police advised that the diocese to hire a certified fraud examiner to help put together a report for possible prosecution, but the diocese has opted not to do so.

“While I am willing to have Father Oscar face prosecution I do not know that I want to expend additional money for a prosecution which brings no additional benefit to either the Diocese or the parishes which are victims of his crimes,” Vasa said in the statement.

Diaz was suspended from his role as priest in Santa Rosa and his future for ministry in the church is “uncertain,” the statement said.

“Unfortunately, given the length of time over which theft occurred, the variety of methods and the total dollars involved, I cannot envision any possible future ministry,” Vasa wrote in the statement.

50 years ago: Organ transplant doctors redefine death

While the world--including this blogger--was thrilled by the Apollo 11 lunar landing in July 1969, an event of arguably greater significance--literally a matter of life and death--took place in Madrid. As reported by the British newspaper The Guardian, July 19, 1969:

Madrid, July 18--Organ transplant specialists from around the world have reached agreement here on a new definition of death.

Delegates to the first international transplant symposium in Madrid agreed to define death as the moment when the brain ceases to perform its vital functions and fails to react to medical stimuli.

The conclusion, announced today after last night's closing session, was far from unanimous, but it is expected to form the basis for new legislation in many countries.

The doctors rejected the proposal of defining death as the moment when the heart stops beating, because they felt a heart should be in good working order for a successful transplant.

The medical panel's recommendation that death be defined in neurological terms was approved in a heated debate in the final session. Other conditions imposed by the doctors were that the doctor signing the death certificate should not form a part of the team involved in a transplant operation and that the dead or moribund patient should not be capable of breathing without the help of medical devices.

The consensus of the symposium was that the failure of the brain to react and the cessation of vital brain activity should be irreparable, with the absence of any clinical reaction to customary medical tests.

The panel advised, however, that a final decision on death should be made only on the recommendation of qualified experts after they had conducted a series of internationally approved medical tests, including the electro-encephalograph.

They further warned that such tests should be carried out on a potential donor over a minimum of 24 hours.

The surgeons warned that the criteria should be applied only with considerable reservation in the case of children and that they were not applicable in cases involving drugs.

This conference took place less than 20 months after the first successful human heart transplant. Physicians had previously been hesitant to perform heart transplants, because under the definition of death which had long been in place--cessation of the heartbeat--performing a heart transplant necessarily meant involved removing the heart from a living person, thus killing the donor. In order for surgeons to perform heart transplants without killing people--and to have a heart that was in good working order--it was necessary to define death as being something other than cessation of the heartbeat, thus redefining the donor as dead.

It's worth noting that the adoption of the definition of death as cessation of brain function and reaction was "far from unanimous," and was "approved in a heated debate." This indicates that the definition of death as "brain death" was not obvious, and was more political than scientific, created to salve the consciences of doctors.

Some black churches in the United States use the issue of slavery to sow discord

These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:...
...A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren. Proverbs 6:16, 19

As reported by Julie Zauzmer of The Washington Post, May 11, 2019 (bold in original):

When the Rev. Jaymes Robert Moody takes his pulpit to preach, sometimes he pictures the graveyard.

That is where his congregation was born.

It was called Georgia Cemetery -- named, he has been told, for the place the enslaved were stolen from before being sent to work the fields in Huntsville, Ala.

The graveyard was where they buried their loved ones. It was there they could gather in private. It was there where they could worship a God who offered not only salvation, but the thing they sought most -- the promise of freedom.

That graveyard, and those who founded what is now St. Bartley Primitive Baptist Church in 1820, weighs heavy on the young minister who now leads the congregation. It is not lost on him that the Gospel he preaches, the Gospel so many black people embraced to sustain them through the horrors of beatings and rapes, separations and lynchings, separate and unequal, is the same Gospel used to enslave them.

"That's the history of the black church," said Moody, who at 29 leads a congregation of 2,000 members that will celebrate 200 years in existence next year.

He makes sure every new member goes through a church orientation to learn that history -- all of it. He preaches about the ways slaveholders claimed the Bible was on their side, citing passages that commanded servants to obey. He also talks about the ways black Christians have reclaimed the Bible and its message of liberation.

As America commemorates the 400th anniversary of the creation of representative government in what would become the United States, and the first documented recording of captive Africans being brought to its shores, it is also grappling with the ways the country justified slavery. Nowhere is that discussion more fraught than in its churches.

"Christianity was pro slavery," said the Rev. Yolanda Pierce, dean of the divinity school at Howard University. "So much of early American Christian identity is predicated on a pro slavery theology. From the naming of the slave ships, to who sponsored some of these journeys including some churches, to the fact that so much of early American religious rhetoric is deeply intertwined ... with slaveholding: It is pro slavery."

Some Christian institutions, notably Georgetown University in the District of Columbia, are engaged in a reckoning about what it means that their past was rooted in slaveholding. But others have not confronted the topic.

"In a certain sense, we've never completely come to terms with that in this nation," Pierce said.

The Africans who were brought to America from 1619 onward carried with them diverse religious traditions. About 20% to 30% were Muslim, Pierce said. Some had learned of Christianity before coming to America, but many practiced African spiritual traditions.

Early on, many slaveholders were not concerned with the spiritual well-being of Africans. But few had qualms about using Christianity to justify slavery.

Some theologians said it was providence that had brought Africans to America as slaves, since their enslavement would allow them to encounter the Christian message and thus their eternal souls would be saved, said Mark Noll, a historian of American Christianity.

Some preachers encouraged slave owners to allow their slaves to attend worship services -- though only in separate gatherings led by white pro slavery preachers. They had to be seated in the back or the balcony of a segregated church. Those men of God argued that the sermons on the injunction in Ephesians and Colossians, "slaves, obey your earthly master," would promote docility among enslaved workers.

The Museum of the Bible in Washington displays a "slave Bible," published in 1807, which removed portions of Scripture including the Exodus story that could inspire rebellious thinking.

Some ministers promoted the idea that Africans were the descendants of Ham, cursed in the book of Genesis, and thus their enslavement was fitting.

"That biblical interpretation is made up of whole cloth in the 15th century," Noll said. "There's just no historical record of any seriousness to back it up. It's made up, at a time when Europeans are beginning to colonize Africa."

Slaveholders frequently noted that the Israelites of the Old Testament owned slaves.

Abolitionists tried to make arguments against using the Bible to justify slavery, but they were in the minority.

"They were considered to be radical," Noll said. "Often they were considered to be infidels, because how could they say God was opposed to slavery if it was so obvious in the Bible that he was not?"

The foremost objectors, of course, were black people themselves. Large numbers adopted the faith, and they quickly began remaking it into their own.

"As soon as enslaved people learned to read English, they immediately began to read the Bible, and they immediately began to protest this idea of a biblical justification for slavery," Pierce said. "Literally as soon as black people took pen to paper, we are arguing for our own liberation."

Those books and broadsides challenging prevailing biblical interpretations were savvy.

"They very quickly learned that the only way we can be heard is to speak the language of our slaveholders, to speak to them about the text that they love, that they believe in," Pierce said.

In the generations since -- including during the civil rights movement of the 1960s, as well as a present-day movement spurring new interest in African religions -- some black people have rejected Christianity as the religion of the oppressor. Many have embraced Islam or have explored African traditions; young adults today include complaints about the church not doing enough to address racial injustice on their long list of reasons for leaving church.

But for vast numbers, both centuries ago and now, Christianity motivated and uplifted with the promise of heavenly rewards and the possibility that their reward might come on earth, too. Christianity brought enslaved Africans "this powerful and profound sense of hope," Pierce said. "That Jesus would return. That there is a life and world after this life. That what is going on with the human body, the mortal realm, is just temporary. That there is eternity. That you will be rewarded, you will experience joy and peace and comfort. ... That this God is a God of transformation.

"No wonder it was embraced."

That conversion did not come without questioning the faith that brought both oppression and liberation.

"More than anything, this challenged them the most: The challenge of believing in a God that at the time was used to intend to pacify, but still believing in the God that could provide freedom," Moody said.

The religion of black Christians and white Christians is constructed on the same tenets -- the belief in an almighty God, Jesus Christ as savior and the Holy Spirit as comforter. But the division that began with such wildly divergent interpretations of the Bible's message about slavery would only expand. As of 2014, 80% of American churchgoers attended churches where at least 80% of the congregation is of only one race, according to Pew Research Center.

"The church gave spiritual sanction [to racism], both overtly by the things that it taught and covertly by the critique that it did not raise," said Bishop Claude Alexander, who leads The Park Church in Charlotte, N.C.

Political priorities vary widely. White evangelicals tend to be more focused on issues such as abortion and sexuality, while many black Christians rate issues of economic and racial inequality and criminal justice higher, Alexander said.

"How does one account for that difference in priority when these groups basically believe the same thing?" he asked. "If I've never experienced oppression or marginalization outside of the womb, then it's easy for me to make what happens inside the womb a priority."

"There's no quote-unquote 'theology' that's not shaped by context," Alexander said, adding that racialized violence is the context that has always shaped America and the American church, Alexander said. "It was the amniotic fluid out of which our nation was born."

But Alexander is looking to change the context. He is working on putting together groups of leaders -- such as the presidents of predominantly white evangelical colleges and the presidents of historically black colleges; the ministers of influential white churches and influential black churches -- who will travel together on what Alexander terms "pilgrimages."

They will travel together to the sites of America's unhealed racial wounds. To the lynching memorial in Montgomery, Ala. To Charleston, N.C.'s, harbor, where so many enslaved people were transported that, to this day, 60% of black people can trace their history back to that bloody port. To Virginia, where the first enslaved Africans set foot on this soil in 1619.

Perhaps, he hopes, they will leave their pilgrimage ready to face the fifth century since then with a bit more grace.

In Canada, native peoples exploit white racial guilt feelings and ignorance, using the word "reconciliation" to manufacture a perpetual grievance machine and extortion racket. In the United States, some black church leaders are doing the same thing with the issue of slavery. The reader will notice that Bishop Alexander uses an analogy of racial violence to deflect concern about abortion and to focus on white guilt. There's a big difference between the issues of abortion and slavery, however: abortion is an abomination that's going on today, whereas slavery in the United States was outlawed by the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 1865.

Slavery hasn't been practiced against blacks in the United States for more than 150 years, isn't practiced against them today, it won't be coming back, and no white Christians are calling for its revival, so I infer that the issue is being used by people such as Bishop Alexander in order to sow discord and perhaps establish social justice and reparations extortion similar to that attempted 50 years ago by those mentioned in the post below.

October 3, 2019 update: The false gospel of racial grievances was on display at Cru19, the annual staff conference of Cru, formerly known as Campus Crusade for Christ. See my post Campus Crusade for Christ Cru19 staff conference promotes enneagram, contemplative spirituality, secular psychology, native spirituality, and social gospel (August 16, 2019)

50 years ago: A United Methodist Church in New York City pays extortion reparations to Negro extortionists economic development organization

On May 1, 1969, James Foreman, director of the National Black Economic Development Council, launched a campaign in New York demanding $500 million in reparations from American churches and synagogues for past injustices to Negroes with a manifesto calling religious institutions "another form of government in this country."

On July 6, 1969, Washington Square United Methodist Church in New York City became the first predominantly white religious organization to give money to the National Black Economic Development Conference when they handed Mr. Foreman a cheque for $15,000. The U.S. Episcopal Church followed on September 3, 1969, when two days of emotional debate, during which one Negro clergyman told the U.S. Episcopal Church’s House of Deputies, "You don’t trust black priests, and you don’t trust black people," ended with a vote granting James Foreman’s Black Economic Development Council $200,000, which Mr. Foreman's organization had demanded as "reparations."

50 years later such demands are referred to using such terms as "a process of reconciliation" instead of by the more accurate term "extortion."

Universalist Orthodox Church in Toledo certainly isn't biblically orthodox

The red flags that identify the church mentioned in the following article as being unbiblical are so glaring and numerous that I'll leave it to the reader to notice and count them. As reported by Nicki Gorny of the Toledo Blade, July 1, 2019:

With its chanted antiphons and sweet-smelling incense, a divine liturgy at Toledo’s Joy of All Who Sorrow Parish is in some ways like any other in Eastern Orthodoxy.

In other ways, it’s decidedly not.

A commitment to full social, structural and sacramental inclusion of all people – regardless of their gender and sexuality – positions the parish outside the mainstream church hierarchy. While they remain true to what their founding bishop sees as an authentic expression of Eastern Orthodoxy, they’re carving out their own space in the ancient faith tradition.

“What do you do when such an integral part of your identity is in direct conflict with your values?” the Rev. Mother Maeve Leroux asked in a recent interview. “I definitely think the only option for me was to make the space.”

Mother Maeve, who established Joy of All Who Sorrow Universalist Orthodox Church in 2016, celebrates the first anniversary of her consecration as a bishop on Sunday. She described a winding path to that moment, one that gives her great familiarity with the struggle of loving and identifying with a faith tradition that – in one way or another – is also a source of conflict.

She said she was never eager to pursue ordination in the way that she has, which runs against a restriction in her tradition that only men enter the priesthood. Mother Maeve is transgender; her ordination is not recognized by the mainstream church. She said she felt called to the role as a way to create the inclusive Orthodox space she and others did not find anywhere else.

“It became pressingly apparent to me that, unfortunately, if we wanted any kind of inclusive Orthodox space, I would kind of have to do it,” she said. “Which was not a comforting thought. I don’t particularly like talking publicly. I don’t particularly like being in the front of any room.”

“But that was kind of the only way forward,” she said.

Mother Maeve came to Eastern Orthodoxy as a child, recalling a wind-knocked-out-of-her moment during a liturgy at a local church when she first she first felt the presence of God. By the time she was 18, she was essentially set on becoming a priest or a monk, options that were open to her in the mainstream structure of the tradition because she had not yet come out as female.

Once she made it to the monastery, though, she described an increasing disillusionment, much of it related to the hypocrisy she saw in her church in regard to issues of inclusion. Some of it was related to sexuality, she said; Eastern Orthodoxy is theologically opposed to homosexual acts. She said she also struggled with the restriction on women serving in the altar.

Even with a thorough reading of church canon, it just didn’t make sense to her, she said. In her understanding of the tradition then and in the understanding that she brings to her ministry now, she looks to the inclusiveness that she sees in the early church, if not necessarily in some of its canons. Orthodoxy is not as unchanging as it’s perceived to be, she said, describing historical pushes for women in ministry, even an early rite believed to be for a same-sex marriage.

“Inclusion is not innovative within ancient Christianity,” she said. “Inclusion is usually more authentic.”

It wasn’t that she hadn’t thought about what would become these internal conflicts before she entered the monastery. But “it’s kind of like any relationship where you fall in love,” she explained. “You fall in love and you think, ‘There are some issues … but this is what I want. Maybe it’s not that big a deal. These people seem good. Maybe it’ll work out.’ And you kind of put it away from your mind for a while, because you’re enamored.”

When she finally reached the point where she couldn’t justify wearing the monastic robe anymore, she left the monastery. Adrift without the faith tradition that had been such a firm anchor for so long in her life, she said she spent some time looking for a spiritual fit in others, first in Christianity, then in other traditions altogether. None of them felt like hers.

Then came a turning point. At a local interfaith service, she came across the Rev. Beverly Bingle, a Roman Catholic Womanpriest who pastors Holy Spirit Catholic Community in Toledo.

Roman Catholicism, like Eastern Orthodoxy, does not allow for the ordination of women. The Rev. Bingle describes her ordination as “valid, but not legal,” meaning that she is ordained in a valid line of apostolic succession, but her ordination is not recognized by the Catholic Church.

For Mother Maeve, the encounter sparked an idea.

“It really kind of inspired me to think: Orthodoxy doesn’t have to be confined into the boxes that history has put it in over and over,” she said. “I had always assumed that I had to accept Orthodoxy on its own terms, and that’s it,” she continued. “So I started thinking about it. I started looking: If there’s a Roman Catholic Womanpriest movement in Catholicism, does Orthodoxy have something like this? Have people gotten fed up?”

“The answer is no,” she said with a laugh. “Not really.”

It would fall to her, then, she decided. She sought a bishop to ordain her in the Independent Sacramental Movement, a network of self-sustaining faith communities that operate outside the structures of mainstream churches, but that retain the same apostolic succession of these same mainstream churches. As with the Rev. Bingle, the mainstream church hierarchies generally do not recognize the ordinations of clergy in the Independent Sacramental Movement, even though the lineages of these clergy – who ordained whom ordained whom ordained whom – can be traced back to the same foundational ministers.

Mother Maeve admits she herself had initial qualms about tying herself to the Independent Sacramental Movement. But when individuals began reaching out after her ordination as a priest, sharing their own stories of excommunication or their denial of the priesthood – stories, like hers, of those who felt marginalized by their own faith tradition – she found herself leaning further into it.

She began to pursue ordination as a bishop, believing she would hold a greater capacity to address these types of situations in this role.

“You have people coming to you. You have people who want to learn the liturgy from you, learn the tradition from you, they just want to take communion again after a decade of not being able to take communion anywhere,” she said. “So you kind of say, Who cares what I think? Or who cares what other people think? If it’s needful, you should do it.”

A year into her consecration as a bishop and three into the establishment of her parish, she today ministers to a modest community at Joy of All Who Sorrow. She and her partner, Jess Bernal, who as an ordained priest is known as Presbyter Theophan, said they typically hold services for only a handful of parishioners on Sunday.

Some are local, some drive hours for a divine liturgy. Sometimes it’s just the two of them.

Presbyter Theophan typically leads the service, her voice blending with Mother Maeve’s in the litanies and antiphons. When it comes time to consecrate the Eucharist, it’s her at the altar, behind the icons that are a standard in any Orthodox worship space – even one that’s a temporary setup each Sunday. They meet in the chapel of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church.

Their reach and ministry stretches beyond Toledo, though, in several satellite parishes in other cities and in those with whom they connect through their website or social media. Their stories of feeling drawn to the faith tradition or desiring to remain in it despite the roadblocks they see in gender, sexuality and other issues keep coming.

“There are definitely out there,” Mother Maeve said. “And a lot of them experienced what I experienced, where you look and you look and you look [for an inclusive community] and there is nothing. Then suddenly, you look, and there is one thing that pops up. … So it’s been rewarding for people to kind of be for people what I had wanted in the first place.”

1,600-year-old mosaic discovered in northern Israel

As reported by Marcy Oster of Jewish Telegraphic Agency, July 3, 2019:

JERUSALEM — A 1,600-year-old mosaic depicting a scene from the book of Exodus was uncovered by researchers and students in northern Israel.

It was uncovered recently by a team of research specialists and students from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, overseen by Professor Jodi Magness, at the site of a fifth-century synagogue in the ancient village of Huqoq in the lower Galilee.

Magness is director of the Huqoq excavations and Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism in the Department of Religious Studies in Carolina’s College of Arts & Sciences. She works in conjunction with the Israel Antiquities Authority.

The mosaic depicts the story of Elim found in Exodus 15:27, where the Israelites camped after leaving Egypt and wandering in the desert without water.

Magness said that the Elim panel “is interesting as it is generally considered a fairly minor episode in the Israelites’ desert wanderings, which raises the question of why it was significant to this Jewish congregation in Lower Galilee.”

It is the ninth year that the university has been digging at the site, where several other mosaics have been uncovered.

“We are committed to completing the excavation of the synagogue before we turn the site over to the state of Israel, with the hope that they will develop and open it to the public in the future,” Magness said.

The mosaics have been removed from the site for conservation, and the excavated areas have been backfilled. Excavations are scheduled to continue in summer 2020. Sponsors of the project are UNC-Chapel Hill, Austin College, Baylor University, Brigham Young University and the University of Toronto.

Vatican defends confidentiality of the confessional against attempts by governments to compel clergy to report child abuse

I can sympathize, to a point, with the Roman Catholic Church's insistence on the confessional as part of its freedom to practice its faith. The Roman Catholic practice of confession, however, is not biblical, and non-Catholic clergy aren't granted the same legal privileges if one of their congregants confess to crimes. As reported by Philip Pulella of Reuters, July 1, 2019:

A document from the Vatican’s Apostolic Penitentiary, which deals with issues of the sacrament of confession, said no government or law could force clergy to violate the seal “because this duty comes directly from God.”

The document, which did not mention any countries or the sexual abuse crisis, complained of a “worrying negative prejudice against the Catholic Church”.

Most countries’ legal systems respect the religious right of a Catholic priest not to reveal what he has learned in confession, similar to attorney-client privilege.

But the sexual abuse crisis that has embroiled the Catholic Church around the world has seen this right challenged more frequently.

In Australia, an inquiry into child abuse recommended that the country introduce a law forcing religious leaders to report child abuse, including priests told of it during confession.

So far, two of Australia’s eight states have introduced laws making it a crime for priests to withhold information about abuse heard in confession. Others are still considering their response.

In May, the California state senate passed a bill to require the seal of confession to be broken if a priests learns of or suspects sexual abuse while hearing the confession of a fellow priest or a colleague such as a Church worker.

Church leaders in both the United States and Australia have opposed such laws and the document backed them up unequivocally.

“Any political action or legislative initiative aimed at breaking the inviolability of the sacramental seal would constitute an unacceptable offence against the (freedom of the Church),” the document said.

“(The Church) does not receive its legitimacy from individual States, but from God; it (breaking the seal) would also constitute a violation of religious freedom, legally fundamental to all other freedoms, including the freedom of conscience of individual citizens, both penitents and confessors,” it said.

Victims advocates said the lifting of the seal of confession, even partially, was drastic but necessary under the circumstances.

“As a Catholic, I too am shaken by incursions on the seal of confession. But it’s the leaders of the Catholic church, not civil society, that have gotten us to this point,” said Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of the U.S.-based abuse tracking group BishopAccountability.org.

“Secret church files made public in Australia and the United States reveal many instances of confession being used to absolve an abuser, allowing him to remain in ministry and re-offend,” she told Reuters in an email.

3,400-year-old palace discovered in Kurdistan region of Iraq

As reported by Hannah Jackson of Global News, June 29, 2019 (updated June 30, 2019):

A 3,400-year-old palace has been uncovered in a reservoir in the Kurdistan region of Iraq after a drought caused water levels to drop dramatically.

A Kurdish-German team of archeologists from the University of Tübingen and the Kurdistan Archaeology Organization made the discovery in the Mosul Dam reservoir, on the banks of the Tigris River.

According to a press release, the Kemune Palace can be dated to the time of the Mittani Empire, which dominated large parts of northern Mesopotamia and Syria from the 15th to the 14th century BC.

“The find is one of the most important archeological discoveries in the region in recent decades and illustrates the success of the Kurdish-German co-operation,” Kurdish archeologist Hasan Ahmed Qasim said in a press release.

The site was first discovered in 2010 when the water level in the reservoir was low, however this is the first time the team has been able to excavate.

The area was flooded after the Mosul Dam was constructed in the mid-1980s, but a lack of rain and water in southern Iraq caused the water level to drop during the summer and autumn of last year.

Ivana Puljiz from the Tübingen Institute for Ancient Near Eastern Studies (IANES) said the site shows a carefully designed building with massive interior mud-brick walls, some up to two metres thick.

Some of the walls are more than two metres high and some are made of plaster, Puljiz said.

“We have also found remains of wall paintings in bright shades of red and blue,” Puljiz said in a press release. “In the second millennium BCE, murals were probably a typical feature of palaces in the Ancient Near East, but we rarely find them preserved.”

“Discovering wall paintings in Kemune is an archeological sensation.”

A mural fragment. (Photo credit: University of Tübingen and Kurdistan Archaeology Organization)

Inside the palace, the team identified a number of rooms and were able to partially excavate eight of them.

The team also discovered 10 clay tablets, which are in the process of being translated.

In ancient times, the palace would have stood on an elevated terrace above the valley, only 20 metres from what was then the eastern bank of the Tigris River.

“In the Mittani period, a monumental terrace wall of mud bricks was built against the palace’s western front to stabilize the sloping terrain,” the press release reads. “Overlooking the Tigris Valley, the palace must have been an impressive sight.”

According to the researchers, the Mittani Empire is one of the least researched kingdoms of the Ancient Near East.

“Information on palaces of the Mittani Period is so far only available from Tell Brak in Syria and from cities of Nuzi and Alalakh, both located on the periphery of the empire,” Puljiz said. “Even the capital of the Mittani Empire has not been identified beyond doubt.”

Archeologists are hoping to obtain information about the politics, economy and history of the empire by studying the tablets discovered in the palace.

HT: W.H.M.