By Gloriscope staff

U.K. ANGLICANS – Archbishop Williams questions the Nativity story – Dr. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, was interviewed by BBC Radio 5 and expressed some controversial views about the Nativity story. His statements in the interview have been criticized Britain and Australia, particularly about the timing of his statements, just days before this year’s Christmas. In the U.S. and worldwide, there seems to be A confusion about what the Archbishop really meant with his statements and what his purpose was in airing them.

ATHEISM - Anglican Archbishop criticizes “atheistic fundamentalism” – The Anglican Archbishop of Wales, Dr. Barry Morgan, in his Christmas message sharply criticized “atheistic fundamentalism,” as he called it. He said that recent “virulent, almost irrational” attacks on all religion by outspoken atheists are “dangerous,” because they reject religion as nonsense and do not tolerate any disagreement with atheism. He said that atheistic fundamentalism is a new phenomenon, leading to the language of “extremism.”

CATHOLICS – Tony Blair converts to Catholicism – At a Mass last night, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair left the Church of England and converted from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism. His wife Cheerie Booth is a practicing Roman Catholic and their children receive Catholic education. Tony Blair, 60, who was a British prime Minister from 1997 to 2007, was known to be a Catholic-leaning Anglican, but he rarely discussed his faith in public. A few days before he stepped down as Prime Minister in June 2007, he informed Pope Benedict XVI that he wanted to became a Catholic. Yesterday, he formally converted during a Mass led by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the head of the Catholic Church in England during a Mass in a private chapel in London. There are about a million Roman Catholics in Great Britain.

CHINA CATHOLICS – China-Vatican relations improving – Joseph Li Jing, 40, was installed as a bishop of the government-supervised Chinese Catholic church yesterday, in the diocese of the predominantly Muslim province of Ningxia in northern China. His installation was with the approval of both the Vatican and the Chinese Catholic Bishops’ College. He is a third Chinese bishop to have enjoyed this dual privilege in a month. The official Catholic church in is reported to have about five million parishioners, but about ten million attend underground Roman Catholic churches, which are loyal to the Pope.

U.S. – Gay Episcopal bishop, Gene Robinson, plans to marry as a “blushing June bride” – The Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire, Gene Robinson, who is openly and actively gay, said he wants to marry his gay partner Mark Andrew in a civil ceremony next summer. He plan to do so just before the Lambeth Conference, a major meeting of Anglican bishops from all over the world. “I always wanted to be a blushing June bride,” said Bishop Robinson at a lecture on “Sex, Morality, and Law” in Florida.

INDONESIA – Protection for Christmas church services – In Indonesia, where 87 percent of the population are Moslems and only 9 percent are Christians, police is strengthening security around Christian churches to ensure public peace and security during Christmas church services December 24 and 25, according to Indonesian press.

CYPRUS ORTHODOX CHURCH – Archbishop Chrisostomos I dies – Archbishop Chrisostomos I died today at the age of 80. He was the head of the Cyprus Greek Orthodox Church from 1977, when he replaced Archbishop Makarios, to 2006, when he was incapacitated to carry out his office because of Alzheimer’s disease. In his youth, he was a monk at the famous Monastery of the Virgin of Kykkos and studied at the THE University of Athens and in Great Britain.

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TO GOD BE ALL THE GLORY!

Published in the U.S.A. Copyright © 4T4C News Corp. 2007. All rights reserved.