All levels of cyclists are welcome!  We’ll have you back to work by 1pm.  Bring a friend!!

All skill levels are welcome — and all are needed!

At 7pm, the gathering shifts slightly toward an informal process of reflecting on the past year and looking ahead to the year before us. Come ready to chat and to think about your commitment to the life we share at Holy Trinity. I look forward to seeing you all there!

On Sunday, June 8th (Cathedral Sunday) @ 10am at St. John’s Cathedral, the diocese will celebrate confirmations and receptions, including the confirmation of Holy Trinity member Tom Nick.  Tom was baptized at Holy Trinity on Pentecost and, after confirmation, looks forward to a renewal of marriage vows this summer with his lovely bride, Sally.  All members of Holy Trinity are encouraged to worship at the Cathedral on this Sunday.  And those who are interested are invited to gather at Bittersweet Bakery (across Grand Blvd. from the Cathedral) for breakfast beginning at 8:30am.

**no 10am service at Holy Trinity on Sunday, June 8th — there will be a Sundays @ 7pm service.

Get the most recent diocesan goodstuff here. If you’d like to receive the monthly diocesan goodstuff, please contact the Rev. Canon Kristi Philip at kristip@spokanediocese.org and she’ll add you to the list.

Williams appraised the current inter-religious and legal situation in Britain and assessed that if there was to be social cohesion there, the nation must adopt some elements of Islamlic sharia. What he evidently thought was a judicious proposal was very widely heard as injudicious. Just as Pope Benedict XVI roused furies when some seasons ago he quoted a figure from long-ago to the effect that the prophet Muhammad fostered conversion through violence, now Archbishop Williams fuels a different set of furies. Mention friendliness to minority Islam in majority secular Britain and you face a nation that is on edge, bewildered about how to live with its pluralism, and hostage to firebrands who use Williams-type comments and proposals to exploit the fears and befuddlement.

I decided to do my sighting this week in the British secular press, namely in the Economist, a London- and Washington-based weekly which naturally reflects British viewpoints. Editors of the February 16 issue were not as spooked out as many in Britain (and the U.S.) were about the prospects of sharia law having a say. Given the record of such law in many nations, there is reason to be spooked out. The Economist reflects secular Britain’s nervousness about accommodations already made in England to policies that erode lines between “church” and “state”, especially because privilege to the Church of England still exists. Why, the editors ask, show favor to one body? “Faced with this anomaly, the archbishop proposes to expand the privileges of all religions;” but, editors write, he should instead rethink the situation of his own faith. “Nor does it make sense in a largely secular country, to give special status to all faiths.”

The editors then look our way: “Even in determinedly secular states like…the United States, the political authorities often find that they are obliged, in various ways, to cope with the social reality of religious belief.” They cite exceptions to existing law made for the Amish or others in matters of family law, where quasi-courts of the faiths share rule. Next the editors notice Canada, which they cite as a place “where fear of Islam has made religious arbitration untenable.” Here’s an interesting closing note: The presence of Islam is changing habits, rules of the game, and perspective. “Defining the relationship between religion and the state was certainly easier when it could be assumed that religion’s hold over people’s lives and behavior was in long-term decline.” Now with Islam on the rise and Christians more defensive, things are more tense. “On that point at least, Archbishop Williams was quite correct.”

Martin E. Marty’s biography, current projects, upcoming events, publications, and contact information can be found at www.illuminos.com.

The report, titled “U.S. Religious Landscape Survey,” depicts a highly fluid and diverse national religious life. If shifts among Protestant denominations are included, then it appears that 44 percent of Americans have switched religious affiliations.

See the rest of the story here.

By Matthew Davies (Episcopal Life On-line)

[Episcopal News Service] Five Anglican Primates, four from Africa and one
from south America, have publicized their intentions to boycott the 2008
Lambeth Conference in a letter responding to a group of English bishops who
had urged them to attend the once-a-decade gathering.

Archbishops Peter Akinola of Nigeria, Emmanuel Kolini of Rwanda, Benjamin
Nzimbi of Kenya, Henry Orombi of Uganda, and Gregory Venables of the
Southern Cone — who make up five of the 38 Anglican Primates — told the 21
English bishops that they would not attend Lambeth in protest to the
invitations extended by the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Episcopal
Church’s bishops. Akinola, Kolini and Orombi had all previously announced
that they intended to boycott the conference.

Neva Rae Fox, the Episcopal Church’s public affairs officer, noted that
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori is saddened by the primates’
decision not to attend Lambeth.

“The gathering will be diminished by their absence, and I imagine that they
themselves will miss a gift they might have otherwise received,” the
Presiding Bishop said. “None of us is called to ‘feel at home’ except in the
full and immediate presence of God. It is our searching, especially with
those we find most ‘other,’ that is likely to lead us into the fuller
experience of the body of Christ. Fear of the other is an invitation to seek
the face of God, not a threat to be avoided.”

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_94975_ENG_HTM.htm