Spreading the Gospel and the Winds of Change

Some say that Jerusalem was not a missionary church and that it did not do its part in sending out evangelists to the surrounding areas. But the record says they worked until they could work no longer. The apostles even remained there until some good time after the persecution that followed the death of Stephen, and it says those members who were scattered “went everywhere preaching the word.”

Inclusion Run Amok: A Muslim/Episcopal Priest

Washington, — An Episcopal priest in Washington state recently announced that she is both a Christian and a Muslim. The Rev. Ann Holmes Redding of Seattle made her profession of faith in Islam in March 2006. Episcopal Church Center employees told the Seattle Times that a person of dual faiths can serve as Episcopal clergy at the diocesan bishop’s discretion. The Rt. Rev. Vincent Warner, bishop of the Diocese of Olympia, reportedly accepts Redding’s dual faiths; consequently, she remains a priest in good standing within the diocese. –excerpted from an article in the Christian Newswire, 6.20.07 and as submitted by Muriel McConnon

Church Discipline

The makeup of this church was also demonstrated in the incident just previous to the one discussed in the last essay, where Ananias came in and laid a bag of silver at the feet of Peter for distribution. Now if the disciples of that day had the same bearing as some and were as irreverent as people in assemblies called churches today, there would have been catcalls, hand clapping and shouts like, “You go Ananias, you’re the man” and such like. But that is not what happened.

Mass. Lawmakers Set to Vote on Gay Marriage

Boston (RNS) State legislators are scheduled to meet next Thursday (June 14) in a constitutional convention to vote on whether to place a referendum on the 2008 ballot that, if approved by voters, would ban future gay marriages. –from a news listing by Dan Ring for Religious News Service at the PBS Religion and Newsweekly website

The current judicial exercise in ensuring a hard separation between religion and the federal or state governments has a fairly short history. It really dates to the last century when Justice Hugo Black resurrected a comment that Thomas Jefferson had made in reply to a letter from the Danbury Baptist Association. The Connecticut group had written to congratulate him upon his election to the Presidency in 1804. His use of the phrase “a wall of separation” is its first occurrence in text in this land, and in its context it was used as part of his explanation as to why he had chosen not to call for a national day of fasting and thanksgiving as his two predecessors had done upon election. Justice Black’s appropriation of the remark was much more insidious.

Dealing with problems

As you probably know, as good as the unity was in Jerusalem it was not without problems. In time a number of Hellenist widows complained about being ignored in the very things we noted and praised the church about in the last two outings. By explanation, those who were known as Hellenists had acquiesced to and adopted Greek culture, though they were not Greek themselves.