Magic Statistics

Last weekend’s episcopal election in Halifax was overshadowed by Montreal Synod’s portentous vote in favour of same-sex blessings.  The Nova Scotia election was held to choose a replacement for The Most Rev Fred Hiltz who has moved to Toronto to take up his new post as primate of the Anglican Church of Canada.

Suffragan (assistant) bishop Susan Moxley was elected on the first ballot.

Bishop Susan Moxley, the suffragan, or assistant, bishop of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, was elected diocesan bishop on Oct. 20 in an episcopal election at All Saints Cathedral, Halifax.
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Known for a strong commitment to social justice issues, Bishop Moxley has served on the national eco-justice committee, indigenous justice working group and healing fund committee. At the most recent General Synod governing convention in June 2007, she was chair of the nominating committee, which oversees nominations to national committees.

She is also the Canadian church’s episcopal representative at the Anglican Consultative Council (there is also one clerical delegate and one lay delegate), the international body with representation from the worldwide Anglican Communion. It usually meets once every three years.

Bp Moxley is 61 years of age.  She is married to Bruce Moxley; they have two grown daughters Ruth and Tanya.

Tanya Moxley, a member of the ACC’s Communication and Information Resources Committee, has written a tribute to her mother entitled “Bishop Mom”.

Bp Moxley’s views on the issues that threaten to tear asunder the Anglican Communion—ordaining non-celibate homosexuals and blessing homosexual couples—are, as far as I have been able to discover, unknown.  However, an Anglican rector in Nova Scotia has told his flock that she professes to hold “a conservative view of Christian marriage”.

We shall see how that plays out when she must take a public stand on same-sex blessings.

c/p: Anglican Essentials Canada Blog

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• “No lack of scriptural argument” at Montreal Synod
• Primate sees no problem with Ottawa Synod resolution

UPDATE (23 Oct.): Commenter Anne Anglican at AEC Blog points to this item in Anglican Journal, in which Bp Moxley says she was so "disappointed" by General Synod's rejection of same-sex blessings that she "sat and cried".   So much for that "conservative" view of marriage.

Green Party leader Elizabeth May (at right), profiled in today’s Ottawa Citizen, is studying for the Anglican priesthood, but she finds Stephen Harper a thorn in her flesh.

Ms. May, the leader of Canada's Green party, is also studying to become an Anglican priest; so the injunction to "love thy neighbour" is one she takes to heart. Still, it's hard for her to warm up to a man who has spent his political life fighting against the social and environmental ideas she has fought just as passionately to promote.

"I work hard at loving Stephen Harper," says Ms. May . . .

Some might say the same about Ms May, but never mind that now.  Much more interesting is her reason for deciding to seek ordination in the Anglican Church of Canada.

Since 2003, she'd been thinking of a change in careers. After heading the Sierra Club for 14 years, she had no pension, no savings and needed "something that I loved doing and that was appropriate for an aging single woman," she said. She settled on the Anglican priesthood because of the importance of faith in her life, and because she valued the sense of fellowship and community that church life fosters.

Does that sound like a call from God to serve his people in the ordained ministry?

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• Judy Rebick pillories Elizabeth May over abortion

Gospel singer Helen Berhane (at right) was imprisoned in Eritrea for two years and tortured in an effort to force her to renounce Christianity.  The effort failed.  She fled to Sudan after her release in December 2006, and has finally been given asylum in a safe country.

This week she and her daughter Eva arrived in Copenhagen.

32-year-old Helen Berhane is one of the most high-profile former prisoners from Eritrea, and her case was widely publicized around the world. She was a member of the Rhema Pentecostal Church and was incarcerated in May 2004 after she released an album of gospel music popular among young Eritrean Christians.
. . .
In early 2006 Ms. Berhane was severely assaulted by a guard who beat her and left her for dead. She did not receive adequate treatment until a month before her release in November when she was admitted to hospital still showing signs of the physical mistreatment that disabled her.
. . .
Helen spent most of her time in detention in a metal shipping container, suffocating hot during the day and freezing cold at night. Despite promises of release if she abandoned her faith and religious singing, Helen persistently refused to do so.

Ms Berhane uses a wheelchair because of the injuries inflicted on her legs and feet.

An estimated 2000 Eritrean evangelical and charismatic Christians are detained in appalling conditions.

h/t: International Christian Concern

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British medical authorities and researchers are noticing huge hikes in the incidence of mental disorders among consumers of “skunk” cannabis.

In some parts of the country, the number of people suffering from mental and behavioural disorders caused by cannabis use has risen tenfold.

The number of adults admitted to hospital as a result of cannabis use is up by 73 per cent, from 430 a decade ago to 743 last year.
. . .
The increase is blamed on people smoking the highly potent "skunk" variety of the drug.

Over 24,000 people are currently in treatment for drug-related problems—the highest number ever.

These figures cast grave doubt on the wisdom of the Labour government’s decision to downgrade cannabis to a Class C substance in 2004.  Shadow Home Secretary David Davis has called for cannabis to be raised back to Class B.

The Daily Mail story does not report any comment from a Labour representative.

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An American market research firm has found that, on average, people who are willing to apologise earn more money than those who aren’t.

People earning over $100,000 a year are almost twice as likely to apologize after an argument or mistake as those earning $25,000 or less, the survey found.
. . .
"[A] person's willingness to apologize was an almost perfect predictor of their place on the income ladder," the study says.
. . .
Even when they believe themselves to be completely blameless, 22% of the highest earners say "I'm sorry," compared to just 13% of those in the lowest income group.

My headline is facetious, for this study has in all likelihood found a correlation, not a causal relationship.  I would think it very doubtful that humility per se is a useful tactic for rising up the pay scale.  More probable is that people who apologise—even when they’re not in the wrong—have the characteristics of high-income earners.  Perhaps readiness to apologise reflects self-confidence and an ability to get along well with people.

h/t: Kruse Kronicle

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams (at right) has issued a scathing critique of public attitudes toward abortion in the UK.  The politicians who spearheaded the legalisation of abortion in 1967 hoped and expected that the procedure would be viewed only as a last resort in desperate circumstances.  Things have turned out rather differently, however.

But the rapidly spiralling statistics - nearly 200,000 abortions a year in England and Wales - tell their own story. We are not now dealing with a relatively small number of extreme cases (and clinical advances have in fact reduced the number of strictly medical dilemmas envisaged in 1967 act's supporters). When we hear, as in a recent survey reported in the Lancet, that one-third of pregnancies in Europe end in abortion, we may well ask what has happened.
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Recent discussion on making it simpler for women to administer abortion-inducing drugs at home underlines the growing belief that abortion is essentially a matter of individual decision and not the kind of major moral choice that should involve a sharing of perspective and judgment.

On the same day that Abp Williams’s opinion column appears, it has emerged that scores of pre-born babies with very minor disabilities were aborted in south-west England between 2002 and 2005.

MORE than 50 babies with club feet were aborted in just one area of England in a three-year period, according to new statistics.

Thirty-seven babies with cleft lips or palates and 26 with extra or webbed fingers or toes were also aborted.

The data have raised concerns about abortions being carried out for minor disabilities that could be cured by surgery.

The Telegraph recalls the 2003 attempt by The Rev Joanna Jepson (at right) to force the prosecution of two doctors who aborted a 28-week-old foetus that had a cleft palate.  After a full review, the Crown concluded that a successful prosecution was unlikely.  Rev Jepson was born with a congenital jaw abnormality, later corrected by surgery.

Finally, Peter Hitchens launches his salvo in Britain’s abortion controversy in a column entitled “Safe, legal, and very common — the Abortion Epidemic”.

(Just to be clear, "safe" in my headline refers to the risk that elective abortion poses to mothers.  Obviously, abortion is a death warrant to unborn children.)

h/t: Verum Serum. Thanks, John.

Previous related posts:

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I haven’t heard music like this in about 40 years.  The 1960s girl group sound has returned, courtesy of the English trio The Pipettes.  Their joyous, exuberant, and infectious singing recalls (among others) the Ronettes, the Chiffons, Little Eva, the Angels, and Martha and the Vandellas.  We’re in pop heaven.

"Pull Shapes" is from their debut album We Are The Pipettes, which was released in North America earlier this month, a year after it came out in the UK.  This performance, recorded on British television last Christmas, employs a full orchestra just like Phil Spector did for his pop masterpieces.  The backup dancers are another throwback to the 60s, although they’re more manic than the old go-go dancers.

The girls’ necklaces show their stage names (left to right): Rosay, Gwenno, and RiotBecki.  Their CD is available from the usual outlets, including iTunes Music Store.

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