New Deacons in the Diocese of Albany

Ordinations tomorrow in the Diocese of Albany:

Please pray for all the ordinands and their family members.

Six of us will be vocational deacons and two will be transitional.

God willing,
The Right Reverend William Howard Love,
Ninth Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Albany,
will ordain
Deborah Elizabeth Beach
Paul Martin Carney
Maureen Ann Demler
Scott Charles Evans
Lawrence William Hubert
Mary Veronica Hunter
Neal Patrick Longe
Scott Andrew Underhill
to the
Sacred Order of Deacons
in Christ’s One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church
On the Eve of Pentecost
Saturday, the thirtieth day of May
in the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Nine
at eleven o’clock in the morning
at
The Cathedral of All Saints
corner of South Swan and Elk Streets
Albany, New York
Your prayers and presence are requested
Clergy: white stoles

Note: Update: Dean Vang requests RED stoles for clergy, not white as previously announced.

California Supreme Court upholds gay marriage ban

From Yahoo:

SAN FRANCISCO – The California Supreme Court has upheld a voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage, but it also decided that the estimated 18,000 gay couples who tied the knot before the law took effect will stay wed.

The decision Tuesday rejected an argument by gay rights activists that the ban revised the California constitution's equal protection clause to such a dramatic degree that it first needed the Legislature's approval.

The announcement of the decision caused outcry among a sea of demonstrators who had gathered in front of the San Francisco courthouse awaiting the ruling.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The nation's most populous state stood poised to recapture the spotlight in the debate over gay marriage as California's highest court prepared to rule on the legality of a voter-approved ban on same-sex unions.

The California Supreme Court planned to hand down its decision Tuesday in a series of lawsuits seeking to overturn November's Proposition 8. Gay rights advocates maintain the ballot measure so dramatically revised the state constitution's equal protection clause that it needed the Legislature's approval before it could be put to voters.

If the seven-member court upholds the initiative as a constitutional expression of the electorate's will, it also will be deciding whether to sustain the marriages of an estimated 18,000 gay couples who wed before the measure passed with 52 percent of the vote.

The rest here.

Belated Mothers' Day greetings

Aren't Mums BRILLIANT?

Eight O'Clock Anglicans

A real gem from Hot Rod Anglican:

Eight O'Clock Anglicans
Here is a poem I just wrote. In case it is not clear from the poem (and it probably is not), I love Anglicans who worship at the early service!

Eight O'Clock Anglicans
©2009, Paul Erlandson

Eight o'clock Anglicans rise before dawn;
Early to eucharist their hearts are drawn.
At seven-fifty they cross the church lawn.
One hour later, they've worshipped and gone.

Weekly they ratify God's Ten Commands:
Stiff at attention, each worshipper stands.
Eight o'clock Anglicans don't raise their hands,
And haven't since when they were young Confirmands.

Eight o'clock Anglicans don't sing too much,
Chant the Venite, or any else such
(Preferring the plain spoken word, like the Dutch).
And then, at the Peace, there is hardly a touch.

When the Dismissal comes, there is no laughter
Rising from reverent kneeler to rafter.
No parish activity's scheduled for after,
So home goes each eight o'clock son and each daughter.

Eight o'clock Anglicans, sons of the morning,
Early the temple of God are adorning.

Diocese of Albany Convention

Save the dates.......

Girl aged 8 gets divorce from 50-year-old man

Seriously, what is WRONG with these men???? Ask yourself what kind of religion it is that claims the bride's age has nothing to do with anything????

"There was an age when these things could happen and none would ever find out. That age is almost over. But the battle for the futures of these little children has only just begun. We're a long way from stopping this abhorrent practice. Telling the world about it is just a beginning."

From Ruth Gledhill:

May 01, 2009

Girl aged 8 gets divorce from 50-year-old man

In Saudi Arabia, a girl of eight whose father gave her to a friend in settlement of a debt has been given a divorce at the third attempt.

As we report today, the case has reopened the debate in Saudi Arabia on whether a minimum age for marriage should be introduced. 'After the first two petitions failed, the Saudi newspaper columnist Amal al-Zahid wrote: “The trafficking of child brides — a most reactionary practice that takes us back to the days of concubines [and] slave girls” should be outlawed. She added that the country was incurring “behavioural abnormalities and problems of which only Allah knows”.'

This picture is not of the Saudi girl, who remains anonymous, but of a Yemeni girl, Nojoud Nasser, also married off at eight and now successfully divorced. Read on for her story.

After Nojoud got her divorce, the Yemeni government changed the law to ban child marriage. But now some Islamists in Yemen are trying to change it back, arguing that the ban is 'unIslamic'.

As Memri reports in its analysis of this issue last month, the Prophet Mohammed was himself married to a child bride, AIsha, when she was six. Memri quotes a Jeddah marriage official as saying that the Prophet's marriage was not itself consummated until the girl was nine.

This is what Nojoud told the Yemen Times:

'My father beat me and told me that I must marry this man, and if I did not, I would be raped and no law and no sheikh in this country would help me. I refused but I couldn’t stop the marriage. I asked and begged my mother, father, and aunt to help me to get divorced. They answered, ‘We can do nothing. If you want you can go to court by yourself.’

'So this is what I have done. He used to do bad things to me, and I had no idea as to what a marriage is. I would run from one room to another in order to escape, but in the end he would catch me and beat me and then continued to do what he wanted. I cried so much but no one listened to me. One day I ran away from him and came to the court and talked to them. Whenever I wanted to play in the yard he beat me and asked me to go to the bedroom with him. This lasted for two months. He was too tough with me, and whenever I asked him for mercy, he beat me and slapped me and then used me. I just want to have a respectful life and divorce him.'

Memri translated an opinion on Islam Today , a website supervised by a well-known Saudi Wahhabi sheikh, Salman Al-'Oda. 'The article stated that Islam attributes no importance to the age of the bride, and that intercourse is permitted as long as the girl is able to cope with the act and its implications. The article also criticized the opponents of child marriage and those who deny that the Prophet married Aisha when she was six.'

Just consider for a moment the sheer enormity of the courage of the tiny handful of women and children who speak out against and fight this practice.

There was an age when these things could happen and none would ever find out. That age is almost over. But the battle for the futures of these little children has only just begun. We're a long way from stopping this abhorrent practice. Telling the world about it is just a beginning.