Arkansan Dorothy Wagner is one of the newest and oldest missionaries in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Dissatisfied with her Presbyterian church, she drove one Sunday to the local Mormon meeting house and sat in on a service. She liked the people and the church enough that she ended up joining.

Today, she’s sharing her faith with the world — at age 104.

I saw Sister Wagner speak at an LDS church women’s gathering last year, and was pleased to get an update this week on her activities. Two days ago, on July 22, 2009, she made her first trip to the Memphis, Tennessee temple and received her temple endowments. (Pictures of Sister Wagner standing outside the temple are available here.)

Mrs. Wagner turns 105 on Sep. 2.

This is a weird one. A Florida city has fired one of its employees — and given him six months severance pay — because city officials found out that the employee’s new wife is a porn star.

Question 1: Is the city asking for a lawsuit?
Question 2: Will the city lose if the ex-employee sues?
Question 3: Regardless of the legal repercussions, did the city make a wise decision or an unwise one?

The story is available here.

At a Feb. 21 special convention, Episcopalians from the Diocese of Northern Michigan elected a nine-member Episcopal Ministry Support Team headed by bishop-elect and “ministry developer” the Rev. Kevin G. Thew Forrester.

But with Thew Forrester’s election effectively vetoed by standing committees, the Episcopal Ministry Support Team is searching for a plan B. And plan B will involve two Thew Forresters: Kevin and his wife, the Rev. Rise Thew Forrester.
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The Standing Committee of the Diocese of Southern Virginia decided to withhold consent to the election of the Rev. Kevin G. Thew Forrester as bishop of Northern Michigan.

The committee did not reveal its vote during the 120-voting period, which ended July 19, but is disclosing it now that the consent process has elapsed, a standing committee member explains.

Dioceses giving consent to Thew Forrester’s election: 35
Dioceses not giving consent to Thew Forrester’s election: 65
International Dioceses not reporting: 5
Dioceses declining to reveal their vote: 6
(Connecticut, Lexington, Michigan, Rochester, South Dakota, Western North Carolina)

The Diocese of Long Island did not give consent to the election of the Rev. Kevin G. Thew Forrester as bishop of Northern Michigan, a source in the diocese with knowledge of the vote informed me.

The deadline for standing committees to vote expired on July 19.

Updated tally:

DIOCESES GIVING CONSENT TO THE ELECTION: 35
DIOCESES NOT GIVING CONSENT TO THE ELECTION: 64*
UNKNOWN (International): 5
UNKNOWN (U.S.): 7
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The Standing Committee of the Diocese of New Hampshire voted to give consent to the election of the Rev. Kevin G. Thew Forrester as bishop-elect of Northern Michigan. The updated unofficial tally:

YES to the election of Thew Forrester: 35
NO to the election of Thew Forrester: 63
UNKNOWN (International dioceses): 5
UNKNOWN (U.S. dioceses): 8

The 120-day voting period for standing committees ended on July 19. Thew Forrester needs to receive 52 YES votes in order to become bishop. The following eight U.S. standing committees are the only ones that haven’t let the people in the pews know how they voted: Connecticut, Lexington, Long Island, Michigan, Rochester, South Dakota, Southern Virginia and Western North Carolina.

The 120-day-period for standing committees to consent to the election of the Rev. Kevin G. Thew Forrester as bishop-elect of Northern Michigan ended on July 19. Thus far, the official results of that vote have not been revealed by either Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori or the Diocese of Northern Michigan.

Now that the voting period has ended, I am able to disclose the results in Western Massachusetts. The standing committee there voted to withhold consent to the election.

Current Arkansas Democrat-Gazette tally:
YES to consent: 34
NO to consent: 63
UNKNOWN: 14
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In a historic shift, more people are now attending Assemblies of God churches on weekday nights than worship in Episcopal Churches on Sunday mornings.

Average mid-week evening attendance at Assemblies of God churches is now 756,263, according to the denomination’s official statistics.

Average Sunday attendance, among Episcopalians, is 727,822.

In the past 45 years, Episcopal Church membership has dropped from 3.4 million in 1964 to 2.1 million in 2007. At the same time, the inclusive membership in the Assemblies of God has skyrocketed, from 572,123 in 1964 to 2.9 million in 2008.

[There are a few quirks in the data, it should be noted. The Assemblies of God didn't include children and some adults in its inclusive membership totals in the mid-1960s. It includes them now. Likewise, the Episcopal Church has changed its reporting methods somewhat. But the overall trend is clear. Forty-five years ago, Episcopalians outnumbered Assemblies of God adherents by as many as six-to-one, according to the Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches. Today, Assemblies of God adherents outnumber Episcopalians.]

When it comes to membership, the Assemblies of God looks slightly bigger than the Episcopal Church (2.9 million versus 2.1 million). But the membership figures mask the true disparity between the two denominations, which shows up more clearly when average Sunday attendance is compared.

The Assemblies of God had average Sunday morning attendance of 1.8 million (and another 443,000 attending Sunday night services) in 2008. In the Episcopal Church, total average Sunday attendance dropped to 727,822 in 2007 (the latest year that figures are available).

Average Sunday attendance in the Episcopal Church has fallen roughly 10 percent, declining each year since the election of openly-gay bishop Gene Robinson in 2003.

Meanwhile, average Sunday attendance has climbed each year since 2003 in the Assemblies of God, the nation’s largest (according to pollsters) Pentecostal denomination.

At the Episcopal Church’s General Convention in Anaheim, July 8-17, deputies and bishops winnowed a list of about 30 different resolutions pertaining to homosexuality, eventually passing resolutions supporting the ordination of gays and lesbians and the blessing of same-sex unions.

Q. When the Assemblies of God meets for its General Council in Orlando August 3-7, how many resolutions will they debate focusing on homosexuality?
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Ruth Gledhill of the Times of London and the Times News Service writes the following:

“BISHOPS in the United States have dealt a death blow to hopes for unity in the worldwide Anglican Church by approving in principle services for same-sex partnerships.

The decision will finally split the Communion between Bible-based conservative evangelicals and liberal modernisers.”

To read Ms. Gledhill’s entire piece, click here.

Some folks might call it “bearing false witness.” The Oklahoma paper has branded it an “oversight” and an “error.”

To read all about it, click here.

An interesting column by the former President.

I met the world’s most trusted newsman at the Republican National Convention in New Orleans in 1988, at THE MOST INCREDIBLE PARTY I have ever attended. The sponsor: The New York Post. The coconut-covered shrimp were the size of chicken wings, the room was packed with power brokers, and the music was simply extraordinary.

I asked someone: “Whose the guy playing the bells?”

“Those are vibraphones,” I was told. “And the guy playing them is Lionel Hampton.”

It was a great day to be a 21-year-old college newspaper reporter in New Orleans. In a matter of minutes, I was able to interview Jeane Kirkpatrick, Robert Bork and Donald Trump and to shake hands with Walter Cronkite.

Trump didn’t want to talk, but Post owner Peter Kalikow came to my rescue. “Come on Donald. Do your duty,” I remember him saying. And The Donald obliged.
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The folks who keep track of the votes aren’t releasing the final tallies from Northern Michigan, where the 120-day-consent process for standing committees ended Sunday, July 19.

A diocesan official in Marquette said today that vote tallies may not be released this week. Meanwhile from Manhattan: “No word yet on Thew Forrester,” writes denominational spokeswoman Neva Rae Fox.

The Rev. Larry Benfield, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Arkansas, has written a letter to Natural State Episcopalians portraying gay ordination and same-sex blessings as a victory for God and a defeat for the devil and all his works.

The General Convention’s “moderate” votes in favor of ordaining and blessing homosexuality will allow the church to shift its attention from chromosomes to mission, Benfield predicts, writing: “I often say that Satan likes us to talk about sex; it takes our focus off of our mission. And if that supposition is true, we have given Satan one less tool for the next three years.”

[Episcopalians won't hold another General Convention until 2012.]

The text of the letter is below.
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