blackshama's commentary on Philippine issues

In 1992 the Church of England (CoE) voted in its Synod to ordain women priests. It followed the wake of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States (TEC) which decided to ordain women priests in 1979. The first Anglican church to ordain a woman is Hong Kong, whose bisjop ordained its first woman priest Florence Lim in 1944 as a response to a need to minister to women during the Japanese occupation of the territory. It became obvious that when the CoE decides to ordain women as priests then it must ordain them as bishops. TEC ordained its first woman suffragan bishop Barbara Harris in 1989. However the first Anglican church to ordain a woman bishop as a diocesan was New Zealand who ordained Penny Jamieson in 1989. TEC elected a woman primate (head of a national church), Dr Katherine Jeffert-Schori in 2006. On the picture here is a supposed ancient depiction of the Virgin Mary as a priest and bishop. She is supposed to wear the Pallium, which is a vestment used only by metropol...

Today is the movable feast of Philippine Independence. Back in the good old days, Queen Gloria decided in several executive orders to move national secular holidays to the nearest Monday. The idea was that with a longer weekend, people would have time and money to spend, thus adding gas [pun intended!] to the consumer driven economy. Her Majesty was able to convince Congress and this became law. But people still consider June 12 as the real Independence day. But that was when people had money to spend. Today we see " Pilipinas kong mahal" posters all over Manila , even in front of the NFA offices and warehouses where the poor line up for hours for cheap rice. So it is no wonder that today is Paghihirap holiday for a lot of people. The government has said that it can't do anything to stop the fuel price increases. People have very little to look forward to this Christmas. Gas can end up at 75 pesos or more per liter. BTW, The Most Reverend Katherine Jefferts-Schori , Presi...