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ICHABOD, THE GLORY HAS DEPARTED - explores the Age of Apostasy, predicted in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, to attack Objective Faithless Justification, Church Growth Clowns, and their ringmasters. The antidote to these poisons is trusting the efficacious Word in the Means of Grace. John 16:8. Isaiah 55:8ff. Romans 10. Most readers are WELS, LCMS, ELS, or ELCA. This blog also covers the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, and the Left-wing, National Council of Churches denominations.
Monday, March 4, 2013
Business as Usual at The CORE - Fox Valley WELS
And The CORE choir will sing:
"Do You See What I See?"
My Way News - Cardinals begin pre-conclave meetings amid scandal
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| Spotted - a pair of straight cardinals. |
My Way News - Cardinals begin pre-conclave meetings amid scandal:
Cardinals begin pre-conclave meetings amid scandal
Email this StoryMar 4, 7:35 AM (ET)
By NICOLE WINFIELD
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VATICAN CITY (AP) - Cardinals from around the world gathered Monday inside the Vatican for their first round of meetings before the conclave to elect the next pope, amid scandals inside and out of the Vatican and the continued reverberations of Benedict XVI's decision to retire.
The Vatican said 103 of the 115 electors had arrived, while the other dozen are en route. The dean of the College of Cardinals has said a date for the conclave won't be set until all cardinals have arrived.
Among the first orders of business was the oath of secrecy each cardinal made, pledging to maintain "rigorous secrecy with regard to all matters in any way related to the election of the Roman Pontiff."
The college of cardinals also agreed to send Benedict XVI a message on behalf of the group - the text was being worked on."
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The first day of discussion was again rocked by revelations of scandal, with Scottish Cardinal Keith O'Brien admitting that he had engaged in sexual misconduct not befitting a priest, archbishop or cardinal.
O'Brien last week resigned as archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh and said he wouldn't participate in the conclave after four men came forward with allegations that he had acted inappropriately with them - the first time a cardinal has stayed away from a conclave because of personal scandal.
Separately, the Vatican is still reeling from the fallout of the scandal over leaked papal documents, and the investigation by three cardinals into who was behind it.
Italian news reports have been rife with unsourced reports about the contents of the cardinals' dossier. Even if the reports are false, as the Vatican maintains, the leaks themselves confirmed a fairly high level of dysfunction within the Vatican bureaucracy, with intrigues, turf battles and allegations of corruption, nepotism and cronyism at the highest levels of the church hierarchy.
In one of his last audiences before resigning, Benedict met with the three cardinals who prepared the report and decided that their dossier would remain secret. But he gave them the go-ahead to answer cardinals' questions about its contents.
Another topic facing the cardinals is the reason they're here in the first place: Benedict's resignation and its implications. His decision to end 600 years of tradition and retire rather than stay on the job until death has completely altered the concept of the papacy, and cardinals haven't shied from weighing in about the implications for the next pope.
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Pastor Paul Rydecki - An Easter Introit | Faith Alone Justifies
An Easter Introit | Faith Alone Justifies:
This is the Introit our congregation will be using this year on Easter Sunday. We have no choir, so I get to do most of the chanting. The congregational Alleluia’s are adapted from Lasst Uns Erfreuen (“A Hymn of Glory Let Us Sing”), and the Gloria Patri is adapted fromThe Lutheran Hymnal.
(* text is from TLH, option #2 for Easter Day)
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More on the Student Loan Scandal at the Lutheran Seminaries.
Borrowing Against Your Future To Feather the Nests of the College and Seminary Professors
bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "LCMS Seminary Cost Scandal: Fabulous Costs To Supp...":
Due to the Sequester, the student loan origination fee will rise by a modest amount (or maybe I should say "has risen" since it appears nothing will be done to soften the sequester). However, what more worrying is that come July 2013, interest rates on all undergraduate student loans are set to double, so all student loans will be between 6% and 8% annual interest rates if nothing is done to avert that. It seems unlikely that, in this time of austerity, legislation would pass again that has halved the interest rate on student loans in recent years. Also, one wonders whether the federal govt will continue subsidizing undergraduates student loans so that interest does not accrue as long as undergraduates are in accredited schools. Already, interest accrues on loans that graduate students take out from the moment they sign the origination documents. Will that be the fate for undergraduates too?!:
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Student Loan interest rates:
http://www.direct.ed.gov/calc.html
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http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/D4/20130228/OPINION01/302280012/EDITORIAL-One-more-try-needed-avoid-sequester
While the Pell Grant will be protected through 2013, other programs are in immediate danger. Under sequestration, federal student loan origination fees would increase 7.6 percent, according to the Office of Management and Budget. Other discretionary programs, such as Federal Work Study, the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant and other programs would see an 8.2 percent cut, affecting millions of students, including local ones.
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The executive branch's OMB department that prepares the President's budget proposals says that under sequestration, student loan fees are to rise by 7.6%:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/assets/legislative_reports/stareport.pdf
Page 9: Savings from uniform percentage reduction: 38.021 5.534
From 7.6% increase in student loan fee.
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bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "LCMS Seminary Cost Scandal: Fabulous Costs To Supp...":
Citations continued from previous comment:
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http://pointpleasant.patch.com/articles/monmouth-university-sequester-cuts-will-adversely-affect-student-loans-grants-for-low-income-students
"Student loan origination fees will increase from 1% to 1.076%," Shaw said. "For a first year student taking their maximum loans ($5500), previously the origination fee would have been $55, and the new fee would be $59. For grad students the take the maximum $20,500 the loan fee was previously $205 and the new fee will be $221."
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http://www.mndaily.com/2013/02/05/federal-debt-could-affect-u-students
The Stafford loan could soon go through changes as well.
Qualified students can receive more than $50,000 in Stafford loans over four years but have to pay the money back with interest.
The interest rate on Stafford loans is 3.4 percent through June 30, but without congressional action, the rate will double beginning July 1.
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United States: The Year In Bankruptcy: 2012, 11 February 2013:
http://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/x/220670/Insolvency+Bankruptcy/The+Year+in+Bankruptcy+2012
A report released by the U.S. Education Department and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in July 2012 estimated that total outstanding student-loan debt in the U.S. for the first time exceeded $1 trillion (with an average loan balance of more than $23,000), surpassing the total U.S. credit-card balance ($693 billion) and the total U.S. auto-loan balance ($730 billion). Moreover, as the number of people taking out U.S. government-backed student loans has exploded, so has the number of those who have fallen at least 12 months behind in making payments—about 5.9 million people nationwide, up about a third in the last five years. In all, nearly one in every six borrowers with a student-loan balance is in default. Student-loan debt collection is a booming business. In FY 2011, the U.S. Department of Education alone paid more than $1.4 billion to collection agencies and other groups to hunt down defaulters. On July 6, 2012, President Obama signed legislation freezing federally subsidized student-loan rates for a year, averting a doubling of interest rates. The change helped more than 7 million students.
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Page Views Reach 3,333 at Noon. That Was Previously the High at 6 PM.
Fox Valley Drives Readers to Ichabod.
5,742 at 6 PM (closing time).
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| The monthly totals suggest an annual page-view total of 1 million. However, that assumes a new WELS/LCMS scandal every other month. |
Last Seven Days:
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quercuscontramalum (http://quercuscontramalum.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Page Views Reach 3,333 at Noon. That Was Previousl...":
Just thinking out loud here: any doubt the management at St. Pete's has fully informed the shareholders that their church insurance policy excludes sexual misconduct?
Ask the papists of their experience on defending the diocese from civil conspiracy. (It would appear, then, that WELS, Inc. is on the hook now too.)
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rlschultz has
left a new comment on your post "Page
Views Reach 3,333 at Noon. That Was Previousl...":
Repeat after me, nobody reads Ichabod, nobody reads Ichabod, .....
Repeat after me, nobody reads Ichabod, nobody reads Ichabod, .....
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GJ - 4,900 page views at 4 PM.
ELCA presiding bishop offers prayers for pope, Catholic Church members - News Releases - Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
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| "Too small." |
ELCA presiding bishop offers prayers for pope, Catholic Church members - News Releases - Evangelical Lutheran Church in America:
ELCA NEWS SERVICE
February 11, 2013
ELCA presiding bishop offers prayers for pope, Catholic Church members
13-9-MRC
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- On behalf of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the Rev. Mark S. Hanson extends prayers for Pope Benedict XVI and for the members of the Catholic Church following the announcement of the Holy Father’s intention to resign on Feb. 28.
While the resignation comes as a surprise, it is “one that calls Christians to lift up support and prayers in this momentous time of transition,” said Hanson, ELCA presiding bishop.
“Pope Benedict XVI has served the Catholic Church during a time of significant challenge. He is a highly respected, traditional and conservative theologian,” said Hanson. “As the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, his assistance with guiding the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification was a major contribution for Lutherans and Catholics.”
In his visits with Pope Benedict, Hanson said he was “always pleased with his knowledge of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and his words of encouragement for our ecumenical relationship with Catholics through The Lutheran World Federation and with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.”
“Pope Benedict’s positive contributions in emphasizing God’s redemptive love in Christ Jesus, on the centrality of prayer and his focus on charity are gifts that will continue to support God’s people and our common work for the unity of Christians,” said Hanson, adding that in this time of transition and prayer for the Catholic church “it is also important that we continue dialogue as a significant part of our relationship.”
In the United States, the ELCA and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have been in ongoing discussions for more than 30 years. Each round covers a specific topic important for the life and vitality of both communions.
ELCA leaders met with Pope Benedict and other Catholic Church leaders at the Vatican in 2012 to present “The Hope of Eternal Life” -- a common statement from the eleventh round of dialogue - to Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
The common statement offers insights into some issues that proved contentious in the debates of the 16th century, such as the communion of saints, prayers for or about the dead, the meaning of death, purgation, the promise of the resurrection and more.
Hanson said the new round dialogues, “Ministries of Teaching: Sources, Shapes and Essential Contents,” will address areas of morality, ethics and theology, “looking at the Bible as an authoritative source for teaching ministries, as well as the international dialogue through The Lutheran World Federation and the Vatican.”
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| "Too large and too ethnic." |
In anticipation of Pope Benedict’s successor, the Rev. Donald J. McCoid, assistant to the ELCA presiding bishop, executive for ecumenical and inter-religious relations, said, it is “our hope that Pope Benedict’s successor will focus on an emphasis on the redemptive love in Christ Jesus and the continued support for the unity of Christians through dialogue and prayer. As the world faces so many challenges, it is important for the new pope to be a leader for all Christians in addressing tensions with other religions and tensions in places where there is no peace.”
In 2009, Lutherans and Catholics celebrated the 10th anniversary of the signing of the Joint Declaration on Doctrine of Justification -- recognized as a significant achievement in the history of Christian ecumenical relations. Signed by representatives of The Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church in Augsburg, Germany, the agreement declares that The Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church have reached a common understanding on justification, agreeing that believers are saved by faith in Jesus Christ and not by works.
The Lutheran World Federation is a global communion of 143 member churches in 79 countries worldwide. The ELCA is the communion’s only member church from the United States.
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"Just right."
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