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Five more bishops call for Church of England to allow same-sex marriages
Five more bishops call for Church of England to allow same-sex marriages
More bishops have come out in support of gay marriage after the Bishop of Oxford became the most senior Church of England cleric to call for a break with tradition.
The Rt Rev Steven Croft said that he wanted to acknowledge the “acute pain and distress of LGBTQ+ people in the life of the Church”, and said that he was sorry his views on same-sex marriage were “slow to change” and had “caused genuine hurt, disagreement and pain”.
In his landmark declaration on Thursday night, which broke ranks with the Church’s current view on this issue, he said that as well as being able to conduct marriages for their congregation, clergy should also be allowed to marry a same-sex partner.
Currently, according to canon law, no Church of England minister can bless or marry gay couples.
However, a number of other senior clergy, including bishops, have joined Bishop Croft in publicly calling for the Church to change on the issue.
The Bishop of Worcester, the Rt Rev Dr John Inge – a diocesan bishop – and the Bishop of Dudley, the Rt Rev Martin Gorick – a more junior suffragan bishop – have now publicly backed his calls.
They published a joint letter on Twitter saying that “in the interest of transparency, we think it right for us to make our own beliefs and hopes plan”:
More bishops have come out in support of gay marriage after the Bishop of Oxford became the most senior Church of England cleric to call for a break with tradition.
The Rt Rev Steven Croft said that he wanted to acknowledge the “acute pain and distress of LGBTQ+ people in the life of the Church”, and said that he was sorry his views on same-sex marriage were “slow to change” and had “caused genuine hurt, disagreement and pain”.
In his landmark declaration on Thursday night, which broke ranks with the Church’s current view on this issue, he said that as well as being able to conduct marriages for their congregation, clergy should also be allowed to marry a same-sex partner.
Currently, according to canon law, no Church of England minister can bless or marry gay couples.
However, a number of other senior clergy, including bishops, have joined Bishop Croft in publicly calling for the Church to change on the issue.
The Bishop of Worcester, the Rt Rev Dr John Inge – a diocesan bishop – and the Bishop of Dudley, the Rt Rev Martin Gorick – a more junior suffragan bishop – have now publicly backed his calls.
They published a joint letter on Twitter saying that “in the interest of transparency, we think it right for us to make our own beliefs and hopes plan”:
The Bishop of Reading, the Rt Revd Olivia Graham, praised Bishop Croft’s “contemplative, compassionate and courageous views on human sexuality and the Church”, adding: “I agree.”
The Bishop of Buckingham, the Rt Rev Alan Wilson also tweeted his “thanks and warm congratulations” for articulating “an honest and godly view”, while the Bishop of Dorchester, the Rt Rev Gavin Collins, tweeted his support and endorsement for the Church to support same-sex marriage:
The Bishop of Oxford called for a change in canon law to allow same-sex marriages and said that gay Christians, including clergy, should have the “freedom to marry same-sex partners [and] freedom to be sexually active” within those marriages.
He became the first serving senior bishop in the Church of England – out of the two Archbishops and 35 serving diocesan bishops – to explicitly call for the Church to conduct same-sex marriages.
His comments came as Church of England bishops are currently considering whether to recommend any changes to the centuries-old doctrine that only opposite-sex couples should marry.
Next February, the bishops will present their long-awaited findings to the General Synod and their recommendations could pave the way for an historic vote following decades of division.
A spokesman for the Church of England Evangelical Council said that it “rejects the theological argument in Bishop Steven’s essay”.
In contrast, Jayne Ozanne, an LGBT campaigner and member of the General Synod, welcomed Bishop Croft’s comments as a “brave, prophetic step”.
Reference: The Telegraph: Gabriella Swerling -
‘Not good’: Elon Musk’s ‘Satanic’ outfit befuddles conservatives—who now worry they championed the anti-Christ
‘Not good’: Elon Musk’s ‘Satanic’ outfit befuddles conservatives—who now worry they championed the anti-Christ
onspiracy theorists and Cristian conservatives are expressing outrage at Elon Musk over the billionaire's "Satanic" Halloween costume.
The fervor began on Monday after Musk shared two photographs of the attire, a red Samurai-style suit of armor, to his nearly 113 million followers.
The costume, as noted by the Daily Mail, is listed online as the "Devil's Champion-Leather Armor" set and retails for $7,500. Musk wore the costume to model Heidi Klum's 21st annual Halloween party at New York City's Moxy Hotel.
Musk's chest plate, which features a goat's head and an inverted cross, quickly caught the attention of conspiracy theorists. Numerous social media users, who seem to believe that Musk's recent acquisition of Twitter is part of a global battle against evil, accused the billionaire of sending the wrong signal.
"Come on @elonmusk, we are fighting satanist and you choose to wear this?" they wrote.
Others appeared to suggest that Musk could be the anti-Christ, a figure in the New Testament that Christians believe will attempt to lead them astray prior to the end of the world.
The website where the costume is sold, Abracadabra NYC, was even inundated with fake reviews aimed at disparaging Musk's costume choice.
"Wore this to a satanic celebrity party in Draculas Castle, Romania," one review wrote alongside a picture of Musk. "Fit me really well. If I don‘t comply they will punish me. I am the Antichrist. They‘re among us."
Another review even included an antisemitic trope that accuses Jews of sacrificing non-Jewish babies.
"Elon and I purchased these together to honor our Dark Lord. Praise be!" the review began. "It is because of our Dark Lord that we have the money to purchase things like Twitter. We must honor him in tithe. As long as we do not deny him, the money will flow like honey....mixed with the blood of a white Christian goyim child on the altar of our Evil Lord."
Musk's attire also caught the attention of the far-right blog the Gateway Pundit, which ironically struggled to comprehend how a supposed free speech advocate could wear a costume it deemed offensive.
"Musk’s take on free speech should be celebrated but as of right now it’s quite fair to question why the world’s richest man, who is also a major U.S. Defense contractor (SpaceX) and is the owner of Neural Link a company attempting to hook the human brain up to computers is wearing the Baphomet coupled with inverted crosses as if its a badge of honor," the blog reads.
The obsession over Musk's costume highlights how quickly conspiracy theorists can turn anyone into a villain for harmless and mundane activities.
Sign up to receive the Daily Dot’s Internet Insider newsletter for urgent news from the frontline of online.
The post ‘Not good’: Elon Musk’s ‘Satanic’ outfit befuddles conservatives—who now worry they championed the anti-Christ appeared first on The Daily Dot.
Reference: Daily Dot: Mikael Thalen
It's Jewish New Year: but what is Rosh Hashanah?
It's Jewish New Year: but what is Rosh Hashanah?
his Sunday night is Rosh Hashanah, or the Jewish New Year. Here’s everything you need to know about how Judaism celebrates its new year.
Rosh Hashanah, literally means “start of the year” and always takes place on the first two days of Tishrei, the first month of the Hebrew calendar.
What year is it?
Judaism has its own calendar that, unlike the solar Gregorian calendar most countries use, the Hebrew calendar is a lunisolar calendar. That means months are based around the phases of the moon, but also an extra month is added every two or three years to keep it in line with the solar calendar.
The final month of the Hebrew calendar is 29 Elul which is from the evening of 24 September to 25 September. In the Hebrew calendar, days begin at sunset of the previous day.
So the 1 Tishrei and the Jewish New Year starts on nightfall of Sunday 25 September this year.
The Hebrew calendar also puts its year 0 way earlier than the Gregorian calendar.
While the Gregorian calendar places year 0 as the year Jesus Christ was supposedly born, the Hebrew calendar’s year 0 is when 12th century Jewish philosopher Maimonides calculated the creation of the world.
By Maimonides’ calculations then, the new Jewish year will be 5783.
Suddenly, 2022 doesn’t seem so old. Although the Jewish calendar doesn’t exactly accomodate to there being events before it.
Rosh Hashanah is also not just one day long for many Jews.
As the day starts on the first of a new moon, in Biblical times it was only certified to be the new year when a witness had testified to a court they had seen the new moon. If the witness didn’t come forward, the day would be established retroactively.
In keeping with this tradition, many Jews still celebrate the first two days of Tishrei as Rosh Hashanah.
Year Traditions - out with the out, in with the new
While for New Year’s Eve in New York, the famous ball drop happens in Times Square in Manhattan and fireworks go off in pretty much every major city, how do Jews celebrate Rosh Hashanah?
One of the most important traditions is blowing the shofar.
A shofar is a rams horn hollowed out to make a musical instrument. The blowing of the shofar symbolises a call to people to wake up and begin repentance. It’s also symbolic of the ram that was sacrificed in Isaac’s place in a famous biblical story.
On the subject of repentance, another tradition has Jews throwing their sins away, although not literally.
Tashlich is observed on the first day of Rosh Hashanah often by chucking small pieces of bread into a nearby body of water.
Both these traditions are part of the build up to another Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur that takes place just over a week later. On Yom Kippur, Jews atone for the sins of the past year to start the new year on a clean slate.
But what’s a new year celebration without a tasty treat?
For Rosh Hashanah, it’s tradition to celebrate a sweet new year with some sweet foods.
Apples are eaten with honey. And the bread traditionally eaten before a meal with a pinch of salt, is eaten with a dollop of honey as well. Lots of Jews also eat pomegranates over the festival.
In Ukraine, there’s also a longstanding tradition to make a pilgrimage to the city of Uman where Rebbe Nachman, who founded a movement within Judaism, is buried.
In 2020, president Volodymyr Zelenskyy made Rosh Hashanah a national holiday in Ukraine, the only country other than Israel to do so. Despite the war, 4,000 Hasidic Jews have still made the pilgrimage to Uman this year.
Another new year?
If you thought it was complicated enough that the Hebrew calendar has a different new year to the 1st of January, it’s not even the only new year the Jews observe.
There’s also the ecclesiastical new year.
The ecclesiastical new year is the date from which the months and Jewish festivals are counted. This year starts on the 1st of Nisan, which is next on 23 April 2023, starting the evening before.
Passover is the first festival of that year, starting on 15 Nisan, while Rosh Hashanah happens on the seventh month of the year.
Reference: Euronews:
Israel puts security forces on high alert ahead of upcoming Jewish holidays
Israel puts security forces on high alert ahead of upcoming Jewish holidays
Authorities in Israel have put security forces on high alert ahead of the upcoming Jewish holidays and after eight people were lightly injured Thursday in a stabbing attack in the town of Modin.
Israel Police Chief Kobi Shabtai said authorities have detected an increase in the number of alerts about plans to carry out attacks and stressed that "large deployments" of officers will be made in response to the threat.
Thus, he detailed that from Saturday until October 18, the Police will be on high alert, while during Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and the first and last days of Sukkot, Israel will close its border crossings to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, according to the newspaper 'The Times of Israel'.
On Thursday, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) warned of "repercussions" for Jewish worshippers visiting the Esplanade of the Mosques -- known to Jews as the Temple Mount -- during the holiday.
Mahmud al-Zahar, a senior official of the group, stressed that Hamas "will defend the rights and holy sites" through "all possible means." "These violations will not go unchallenged," he said.
In this regard, he called on Palestinians to mobilize and flock to Al Aqsa Mosque in the face of the Israeli authorities' "Judaization" plans and held Israel "fully responsible" for "the repercussions of its violations in Jerusalem and Al Aqsa Mosque."
Al-Zahar called for "escalating clashes" in the face of Israeli plans and said that Israel "is accelerating the forms of aggression and the pace of Judaization plans" in the city of Jerusalem, Palestinian news agency Maan reported.
In this line, he called on Jordan to "intervene urgently" to "protect Jerusalem" and called on Arab and Islamic countries to act to "deter the occupation and force it to stop its racist plans and bring Israel's crimes (...) before the International Criminal Court (ICC)".
LATEST ATTACKS During the day on Thursday, at least eight people were injured in an attack perpetrated in Modin by a man who got out of a vehicle at a traffic light and began attacking the occupants of several nearby vehicles with a knife.
The attacker, a 22-year-old Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem, was shot dead by an off-duty Border Police officer, after which authorities pointed to a terrorist attack. No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.
The incident took place hours after an Israeli soldier was lightly wounded after being run over near the northern West Bank city of Huwara, as confirmed by the Israel Defense Forces.
"Soldiers fired at the vehicle following standard procedure," the Israeli Army has noted on its Twitter social network account. "The circumstances of the event are being reviewed. The suspect has been detained and transferred by security forces for interrogation," it has noted.
Separately, shots were fired at the Har Bracha settlement near Nablus early Friday, with no injuries reported. The incident is the second such incident in two consecutive days in this settlement.
Responsibility for the attack has been claimed by a group calling itself 'Lion's Den', created in recent months by members of various Palestinian organizations, including individuals formerly linked to the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade - armed wing of Fatah - and Islamic Jihad.
This new group reportedly maintains ties to Ibrahim Nabulsi, a senior member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade killed last month in an operation by Israeli security forces in the West Bank city of Nablus.
Reference: News 360: Daniel Stewart -
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