No prayers please, we're British:
Another attempt by organised irreligion to drive the faith from the public square - this time the National Secular Society's complaint against Devon County Council prayers. From the Daily Telegraph [here]

Lawrence Charges dropped
A little belatedly, the news that The Episcopal Church in the U.S.A. has dropped its charges against Bishop Mark Lawrence of South Carolina. An exhaustive series of links from Titusonenine here
I can't be the only only who finds the following comment from the president of TEC's disciplinary board deeply sinister and breathtakingly hypocritical in equal measure:

"Bishop Lawrence had “repeatedly stated” that he was not leaving the Episcopal Church, nor did he want South Carolina to quit the Church. He sought only a “safe place within the Church to live the Christian faith as that diocese perceives it.”In his view, Bishop Henderson stated that: “I presently take [Bishop Lawrence] at his word,” and added that he hoped the bishop would grant dissenters in his diocese the degree of latitude Bishop Lawrence hoped to receive from the national Church.'    [George Conger CEN]

Carols
And, on a more positive note, a celebration of the Anglican Patrimony of Christmas carols (but we don't sing them yet - please?) From Timotheos Prologizes [here]
The only addition I would make is that the revival of the Christmas carol was an almost entirely Tractarian / Anglo-Catholic development in the nineteenth century - part of the Catholic revival's re-enchantment of English religion, like so much of what we consider these days to be mainstream Anglican, or even just Catholic. Their uncompromising and popular restatement of orthodox faith in the Incarnation speaks for itself.

Swearing as pain relief
According to this report from the University of Keele, swearing can help relieve pain but not, apparently, if you have to resort to it on a daily basis - yet another reason these days to avoid 'official' ecclesiastical meetings.

Something for Advent: