The Episcopal Church continues to focus on its mission of reconciling the world, particularly as it cares for the least, the lost, and the left out.

While the Episcopal Church laments the recent votes by some persons in Virginia congregations to leave this Church, we are clear that individuals may depart, but congregations do not. Congregations are created and recognized by the diocese in which they exist, and can only be closed by action of the bishop and diocesan governing bodies. Even if a large percentage of a congregation departs, the remaining people will be assisted by the diocese and the larger Church to reconstitute their congregation and continue in mission and ministry in that place.

These recent departures have received a significant amount of publicity, but they represent a tiny percentage of the total number of Episcopalians in the Church. We regret and grieve their departure, and pray that they may continue their journey as Christians in another home.
In the hope that some may decide to return, we intend to keep the door open and the light on.

Those Episcopalians who remain will be offered every pastoral assistance we can provide, in the hope and expectation that mission and ministry continue in their communities. Our Anglican tradition is a broad and comprehensive one, with space for people of widely varying theological opinions. We will continue to model an expansive welcome for all people.

Our mission as a Church is the reconciliation of the world. We will continue to feed the hungry, house the homeless, educate children, heal the sick, minister to those in prison, and speak good news to those who have only heard the world's bad news. That is the work to which Jesus calls us, and that is the work we shall continue - with a priority of peace and justice work framed by the Millennium Development Goals. May God bless that which seeks to unite and build up and heal this broken world.

The Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori is Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church.

Each person has to deal with various facets of faith. In my book, Living Faith, I describe how all of us predicate our decisions and actions on faith. Early in life, we have faith in our parents, later in peers or school teachers, then in our religious beliefs and in our nation’s moral/political values. Cumulatively, we develop (or lack) self-confidence, or faith in ourselves.

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The dramatic resignation this past Sunday of the newly installed archbishop of Warsaw, Stanislaw Wielgus, who admitted to having agreed to collaborate with the Polish secret police after initially denying any such involvement, has brought into the full glare of international attention a debate that has roiled the Catholic Church in Poland for two years: how should the church respond to the secret police files that are now housed in Poland's Institute of National Memory (IPN, in the Polish acronym)?

Under Polish law, those files are available to both victims of communist-era persecution and legitimate historical researchers. Historians had previously learned, and written, that several prominent Polish priests had collaborated, in different ways, with Poland's communist authorities. The Wielgus affair, which exploded over a period of two brief weeks, is the first time allegations of collaboration have touched a man who subsequently became a member of the Polish hierarchy.

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Only a few years ago, I would have blithely answered this question "No." Care for the natural world was not a priority of our governmental affairs work. Nor was it a priority in my personal and family life. What changed? I changed.

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I have just returned from a remarkable meeting of the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church. It was remarkable for its importance, its intensity, and its civility. Yet, contrary to the expectations of many, our recommendations, “though not unanimously endorsed by the House, came at the conclusion of long and gracious conversation.”

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Muslims in America today seem to have lost the right to be individuals. We are treated as a collectivity – responsible as a group for any crime committed by another Muslim or done in the name of Islam.

Shortly after 9/11, I wrote an article stating that Muslims have the greatest obligation to reject terrorism and political violence committed in the name of Islam. I still believe this is the case. Islam does not have a centralized authority; there is no universally recognized council of scholars or clerics who speak on behalf of all Muslims.

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In the just-published paperback edition of American Theocracy, I replaced the old 9-page introduction with a new 40-page version. Part of the reason was to update the book in the light of the 2006 elections and the passage of another year relative to oil, debt and the Middle East. But a second motivation was to clarify how and why the book was written.

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I will celebrate "Earth Day" and encourage Christians of all denominations and traditions to do so. Why? We believe that God created the earth, entrusting its care to man, and that He will one day recreate it in "the new heaven and new earth." We are called to "witness" to our faith as believers.

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In the April 2 issue of Newsweek, Michael Lynton and his friends rated “The Top Fifty Rabbis in America” according to fame, media savvy, influence, and size of constituency. Though many of the “chosen” are superb rabbis, the list – not surprisingly, given those hyper-muscular criteria – contains 45 men and five women.

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It does take a village to raise a child, but what if the village is in crisis?

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“For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus [Galatians 3.27-28]."

Two millennia ago, when St. Paul wrote those words to the theologically-challenged Christian communities of what is now central Turkey, he was certainly proclaiming a social revolution: in a world characterized by ethnic and religious hatreds, chattel slavery, strict patriarchy, and male primogeniture, Paul taught the radical equality of all baptized believers in Christ. But did that make Jesus of Nazareth, whom Paul believed to have called him to his apostleship, a social revolutionary? No, at least not in the sense proposed by the various theologies of liberation that sprang up in Latin America in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s.

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The New York Times recently ran a story about the Riverside Church, the congregation that serves as a national cathedral for liberal Protestantism, and its search for a new minister.

Riverside’s past ministers have included renowned leaders such as Harry Emerson Fosdick and William Sloan Coffin, making the current task a daunting one. The Times referred to Riverside as “the capital of a theological movement that has been slowly deteriorating,” citing mainstream Protestantism’s “decades-long pattern of losing members, vitality, and influence” as a challenge to finding a new pastor. A photograph illustrated the story: two men looking down from the church’s balcony over forty parishioners huddled in the back pews of a mostly-empty building.

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Grateful for this unique opportunity, I share with pleasure my reflections as we Catholics of Bosnia-Herzegovina and other citizens commemorate the April 1997 visit of Pope John Paul II.

The Pontiff presented himself as a pilgrim of peace and he remains for all of us a strong moral leader who raised his voice supporting this multi-ethnic country and believing that a just peace is reachable and enjoyable to all of us.

We as members of three ethnic communities do differ in looking for concrete structures of our shared homeland, but in commemorating this anniversary we agree that this visit was an encouraging event for all of us.

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Pope Benedict XVI may have been flying to Brazil and speaking about Mexico City, but his in-flight words to reporters on May 9 have caused a stir here in the United States. Initial headlines raised the specter of papal excommunication for Mexico City politicians who voted to expand abortion rights. Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi quickly clarified the Pope's comments; such politicians were not excommunicated, but "legislation in favor of abortion is not compatible with participation in the Eucharist."

Even with excommunication headlines missing the mark, the story hits home here in the United States. It raises questions for pro-choice Catholic candidates in both the Republican and Democratic primaries. Reporters brought up the issue last week with Rudy Giuliani. His response, "I don't get into debates with the pope," is unlikely to be the last word we hear on the subject.

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By Ed Murray

The lights were always low; the music was some of the best. Those high school dances in the all boys’ denominational high school I attended in the late 50’s were “the greatest”. They were held in the combination gym/auditorium where numerous faculty members were visible at a distance - above and behind the sloping seats or along the fringe of the fray on the dance floor.

Even back then, there was more than a little cuddlin’, huggin’, and fallin’ in love mixed in with the funky-chicken on that dance floor every Friday night. But the faculty presence kept things, shall we say, within a “safe zone.”

But we’re discussing sexual predators on the Internet, so, “what’s the point?” you may well ask.

Over the past year or two, more and more stories have appeared in the news revealing the presence of known, even officially registered, sexual predators stalking children and young people on the Internet. Their principal activity seems to be staking out a piece of territory on social networks like MySpace, Facebook and others. Their presence there is no laughing matter. It is, in fact, occasionally and tragically, deadly.

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Maharishi Mahesh Yogi of India, whose death on Tuesday in the Netherlands was announced by his associates today, invented the multi-billion-dollar swami business with a simple mantra: "Transcendental Meditation." Madison Avenue would have done well to hire him as a brand consultant.

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I do not think the President of the United States should be a liar, and believe that the overwhelming majority of U.S. citizens agree with me. For security reasons, the whole truth cannot always be revealed, but it is quite obvious that lies are seldom made to protect our nation. Almost invariably, the political fortunes of the prevaricator are at stake.

During my campaign for the White House in 1976, veracity was a very important issue, because of the known falsehoods having been told during the Vietnam War and the revelations of the Frank Church senatorial investigation that our government had, through the CIA, committed murder and other crimes. I habitually told my small groups of supporters, "If I even make a misleading statement, don't support me."

Although stigmatized as naïve and often having to suffer the consequences, I maintained this commitment to truthfulness during my term in office, and it paid off in many ways. One example was the trust aroused in me by President Anwar Sadat and Prime Minister Menachim Begin, which was instrumental in orchestrating the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty. I've observed at other times that the exploding consequences of a small lie can result in political catastrophe, as was shown in President Nixon's effort to conceal the Watergate break-in.

There have been other examples since I left office.

The author was the 39th President of the United States.