Everyone is talking about the incident in the Sudan where schoolteacher Gillian Gibbons asked her 7-year-old students to pick their favorite name for a Teddy Bear. If you haven't heard about it, numerous news outlets are reporting on the situation; first one that crossed this editor's desk was the Washington Post reports here and here.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has released a statement:

Dr Rowan Williams said: “I can't see any justification for this at all.

“I think that this is an absurdly disproportionate response to what is at best a minor cultural faux pas and I think that it's done the Sudanese Government no credit whatever.”

From here.

Tony Blair, the former prime minister of Britain, will serve a one year fellowship appointment at Yale University where he will be helping lead a course of study on faith and globalization.

According to the Ecumenical News Service,

"Blair will serve as the Howland Distinguished Fellow during the 2008-09 academic year, the university announced on 7 March. Blair will work with the faculties of the Yale Divinity School and the Yale School of Management.

Yale President Richard C. Levin said: 'As the world continues to become increasingly inter-dependent, it is essential that we explore how religious values can be channelled toward reconciliation rather than polarisation. Mr Blair has demonstrated outstanding leadership in these areas.'

Concurrent with his Yale position, Blair - who was an Anglican but in 2007 converted to Roman Catholicism - is expected to launch later in 2008, the Tony Blair Faith Foundation. This 'will promote understanding between the major faiths and increase understanding of the role of faith in the modern world', the university, based at New Haven, Connecticut, said in its announcement.

The appointment was not lauded by all however. Ian Gibson, a former MP who served in the Commons during Blair's time as prime minster said of the news:

'It is a pity that Mr Blair did not think more deeply about issues of religious strife before he went and bombed Baghdad,' Gibson told the London-based Guardian newspaper in 2007. 'Now he wants to be vicar to the world? It is ridiculous.'"

Read the rest here.

The Chicago Tribune's photo essay on the Keiskamma Altarpiece is worth a visit.

Grace Cathedral offers a panel by panel view of this monumental artwork.

Patrick Hynes, writing at Ekklesia, reports on some of the ways that groups in Britain are attempting to respond to the turmoil in the international financial sector:

"The much publicised ‘credit crunch’ refers to the way loans and other forms of credit are becoming difficult or more expensive to obtain. This crisis may bring harder times for us all, individuals and businesses alike. But access to credit has always been a daily problem for people who are poor, as they are often denied fair finance due to a lack of collateral. The notion of collateral, where property is used to secure a loan, ensures the poor will always be poor.

With no collateral there is no chance of a loan, the means to self-employment and therefore to own something as basic as a shelter. Someone needs simply to break through this vicious cycle of poverty, and thus enable people to earn a dignified living for themselves and their families."

As a result of the conditions described above, over the past decades, an international movement called "micro-finance" has developed to make small loans to individuals in the developing world who might not otherwise have access to the credit they need to start small businesses. After giving examples of how micro-finance works, and describing the challenges facing the movement at the moment, he reports on an organization that is attempting to respond:

Oikocredit is a simple solution to a big problem, but turning faith into hope for others is a tough challenge. The scripture guidance is simple enough: “To do justice, and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God” . However a recent study found that people, even with deeply held convictions, find it hard to put their money where their values are.

“When it comes to choosing where to save most ethical consumers don’t live up to their principles”. The report’s author, Professor Alex Gardner said: “While they regularly recycle and are happy to pay more for ethical products, like Fairtrade coffee and organic food, they ignore their basic values when it comes to their banking choices.” Professor Gardener identified several main reasons: partly the complexity of money matters and apathy, but also that we are very attached to financial returns when we are privileged to have savings.

The question of how to make best use of resources is clearly challenging to us all. One possible danger is that we leave it to others, perhaps even to institutions to act collectively on our behalf.

Read the rest here and if you're interested, follow the links to find more information on these sorts of programs.