Global Schism: Is the Anglican Communion Rift the First Stage in a Wider Christian Split?

Some of the nation's leading journalists gathered in Key West, Fla., in May 2007 for the Pew Forum's biannual Faith Angle Conference on religion, politics and public life.

Philip Jenkins, a Penn State University professor and one of the first scholars to call attention to the rising demographic power of Christians in the southern hemisphere, analyzed the ongoing schism in the worldwide Anglican church. While the dispute concerns attitudes toward homosexuality, Jenkins argues the core of the conflict lies in how biblical authority is defined.

Will the current alliances between conservative Western and African leaders endure? Will African leaders begin to press an ultra-liberal economic agenda? Are other mainline denominations in the U.S. headed for similar splits? Jenkins answered these and others questions, while offering a fascinating glimpse into the life of African Christianity.

Read it all.

The Risen Christ

A beautiful new hymn from Keith Getty—a composer who, in my opinion, is a modern-day Charles Wesley:

The Risen Christ

O breath of God, come fill this place;
Revive our hearts to know Your grace;
And from our slumber make us rise
That we may know the Risen Christ.

O Word of God, so clear and true,
Renew our minds to trust in You;
And give to us the bread of life
That we may know the Risen Christ.

O love of God, so unrestrained,
Refresh our souls in Jesus' name.
Let us reflect Your sacrifice
That we may know the Risen Christ.

May God the Father, God the Son,
And God the Spirit make us one.
In holiness let us unite
That we may know the Risen Christ.

No Small Event

The blogosphere has been buzzing all week over the installation of Martyn Minns as Missionary Bishop in the Church of Nigeria for CANA—the Convocation of Anglicans in North America. Not surprisingly, conservative bloggers have been praising this action; liberal bloggers have been dissing it, as has PB, Katharine Jefferts Schori herself, who according to the New York Times, stated that “an invitation to episcopal ministry here without any notice or prior invitation” was not in keeping with “the ancient practice in most of the church...” So Katharine is finally concerned with adhering to the ancient practice of the Church. Let's hope this is the beginning of a trend.

But why all the fuss? It has been well over a year since the Synod of the province of Nigeria voted to set up CANA. Martyn Minns went to Nigeria to be consecrated a missionary Bishop on August 20, 2006. Surely these actions were more significant; and just as surely, last week's installation in Virginia was simply the next step along a predictable path.

Two observations, neither of which is original: (1) It happened over here. Nevermind that a priest from Virginia goes to Nigeria and is consecrated, just as long as nothing happens over here that might convince North Americans that they can be Anglicans apart from TEC. (2) The installation over here is starting to drive the point home that TEC's actions might actually result in consequences that matter.

Whatever the case, the reactions on both the right and left make it clear this is no small event.



Filmed at Hylton Chapel
Woodbridge, VA
Produced by Kevin Kallsen
by AnglicanTV

How To Save A Life

How To Save A Life (lyrics) by The Fray

♪Step one you say we need to talk
He walks you say sit down it's just a talk
He smiles politely back at you
You stare politely right on through
Some sort of window to your right
As he goes left and you stay right
Between the lines of fear and blame
And you begin to wonder why you came♪

♪Where did i go wrong, i lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And i would have stayed up with you all night
Had i known how to save a life♪

♪Let him know that you know best
Cause after all you do know best
Try to slip past his defense
Without granting innocence
Lay down a list of what is wrong
The things you've told him all along
And pray to God he hears you♪

♪Where did i go wrong, i lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And i would have stayed up with you all night
Had i known how to save a life♪

♪As he begins to raise his voice
You lower yours and grant him one last choice
Drive until you lose the road
Or break with the ones you've followed
He will do one of two things
He will admit to everything
Or he'll say he's just not the same
And you'll begin to wonder why you came♪

♪Where did i go wrong, i lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And i would have stayed up with you all night
Had i known how to save a life♪

Turning green? Make your own biodiesel fuel at home

Now here's something different: running a diesel car or truck on fuel made from recycled kitchen grease. Of course, if we all do this, there won't be enough restaurants to supply the used grease for recycling. But if this can achieve commercial viability, it's goodbye petroleum, hello biofuel!

Bishop will marry under N.H. civil unions law

I was in Chicago today on Nashotah House's annual Church Tour. As our group was leaving one of the churches, someone pointed to a newsstand containing the Chicago Free Press, a local gay newspaper. The cover article vividly illustrated what other media reported earlier this week:

The Rev. V. Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church, says he and his partner of 18 years will be among the couples taking advantage of New Hampshire's soon-to-be-signed civil unions law.

Now take a look at the last few posts on this blog:
1. The Presiding Bishop says, "it has become a vocation for the Episcopal Church to keep questions of human sexuality in conversation, and before not just the rest of our own church, but the rest of the world."
2. The ex-governor of New Jersey, who had to resign from office following admission of a homosexual relationship with an aide and who is divorcing his wife, has been accepted into an Episcopal seminary.
3. The bishop of New Hampshire, whose elevation to that office, coupled with the Episcopal Church's refusal to repent for that elevation, threatens to divide the Anglican Communion, now says he will marry his partner in a civil union ceremony, once the new law in New Hampshire goes into effect.

You have to admit it has been one helluva week--though exactly how you mean that statement will depend on whether you are for these developments or opposed to them. Whatever the case, it is becoming increasingly hard to deny that Gay Rights and the Millennium Development Goals have become the new Gospel of the Episcopal Church. It is also hard to deny that the leadership of TEC probably sees all of this week's events as good publicity.

McGreevey to Enter Episcopal Seminary

NEWARK, N.J. (May 3) - The nation's first openly gay governor has become an Episcopalian and been accepted into a seminary, according to a published report.

Former Gov. James E. McGreevey, who was raised as a Roman Catholic, was officially received into the Episcopal religion on Sunday at St. Bartholomew's Church in New York, said the Rev. Kevin Bean, vicar at the church.

McGreevey has entered the church's "discernment" phase, which usually precedes seminary work, Bean told The Star-Ledger of Newark in a report posted Wednesday on its Web site.

McGreevey, 49, shocked the nation in August 2004 by proclaiming himself "a gay American" who had an extramarital affair with a male aide, and said he would resign that November. The aide denies having an affair and claims he was sexually harassed by the former governor.

McGreevey has been accepted to study at the General Theological Seminary in New York, the oldest in the Episcopal Church, school spokesman Bruce Parker said Wednesday. "Mr. McGreevey has been admitted to the master of divinity program and he will be starting in the fall," Parker said.

Episcopal leader holds firm on gay rights

From the Boston Globe, April 25, 2007:

Episcopal leader holds firm on gay rights... Says N.H. bishop's election a blessing

In an interview during a visit to Boston, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori compared the gay rights struggle to battles over slavery and women's rights, and said she believes that it has become a vocation for the Episcopal Church [emphasis added] "to keep questions of human sexuality in conversation, and before not just the rest of our own church, but the rest of the world."

Read it all.

Sadly, the patient is not only quite ill, but in denial as well.

♪"Baby, baby why can't you sit still?
Who killed that bird out on your window sill?
Are you the reason that he broke his back?
Did I see you laugh about that?"♪

♪"I need a rem-e-dy
for what is a-ailin' me..."♪

Remedy, by The Black Crowes

A Visit From the Archbishop
Written by The Anglican Communion Institute
Wednesday, 25 April 2007

It is becoming obvious that the leadership of TEC means to move resolutely ahead with its mission of civil rights and inclusion, insisting that these are imperatives of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and a kind of brand name for American Episcopalianism. (We leave to the side whether inclusion or civil rights are being honored or thwarted by this idea.)

In the light of the failure to respond positively to the communiqué of the Primates Meeting, the course being charted is becoming increasingly clear. Apparently the Archbishop of Canterbury is prepared to hear out the leadership of TEC on an alternative plan that will deal with the problems it has created for life in Communion. But the disconnect that will result could be palpable, not least because TEC leadership does not acknowledge that it has created a problem that requires any remedy of the kind an Instrument of Unity has recently urged, with urgency. It views the problem as 'conservatives' out of step with the enlightened views it holds. The recent reports of Presiding Bishop Schori's comments make this very clear indeed.

... [SNIP] ...

Efforts to delay or to seek another form of 'peace' can only be seen as yet another example of American unilateralism. There is nothing wrong, uncanonical, imperial, or otherwise with the communique's requests. The requests address with clarity and charity a problem that unilateralists in the Communion have created. There is no evidence that the Primates are seeking fresh alternatives to the communiqué they crafted, and Archbishop Rowan is going the extra mile to take the pulse up close. Sadly, the patient is not only quite ill, but in denial as well.

Read it all.

Our vocation is to share in God’s happiness

Fr Timothy Radcliffe on "Hearing the Call"—

We often think that our existence is a bald fact. But it isn’t. To exist at all is to be called by God. A star would not exist if God had not called it into being. There is a lovely passage in the Book of Baruch where God sees the stars and they joyfully cry out: “Here we are! Here we are!” The stars say “yes” to God. And everything that exists – including our own apparently insignificant lives – is a “yes” to the God who calls.

What’s odd about human beings is that we don’t just say “yes” by existing; we also say “yes” with our words. God speaks a word to us and we reply with words. And that, in fact, is why we were created: to answer God’s word. This human vocation, which we all share regardless of our particular calling, is expressed in the beautiful Hebrew word hineni, which means, “here I am”. When God calls Moses from the burning bush, Moses replies: “Hineni.” When Isaiah hears a voice asking “Whom shall I send?” he replies: “Hineni. Send me.” So, the human vocation is to say “here I am” when God calls.

We live at a time when there is an awful loss of confidence in the meaning of human existence. We have no idea what the future of humanity holds, of what disasters and violence lie ahead, of whether we shall be blown up by bombs or drowned by the rising sea or fried by global warming. But when we say “here I am” to God, we recognise that we are called by Him and going to Him. ....

Read it all.

Nickelback - Savin' me [ music video ]

Show me, O LORD, my life's end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life (Psalm 39:4).

Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom (Psalm 90:12).

"Liberal Anglicans verge on heresy"

It took me awhile to quit laughing at this pathetic title of a piece in the London (Ontario) Free Press by Canadian journalist Rory Leishman. "Liberal Anglicans verge on heresy."   Verge?????

The problem is that the Canadians have never really mastered the British art of understatement. When they try it they just look wimpy.

But after I stopped laughing, I read the rest of the piece, and Leishman's last two paragraphs were worth the effort:

Over the centuries, heretical sects have broken with the injunctions of Scripture. These sects have disappeared. Like a number of other liberal denominations, the Anglican Church of Canada and the Episcopal Church of the United States are now poised also to lapse into heresy and wither away.

Regardless, Christians can be certain about the ultimate survival of the holy, catholic and apostolic church. In the words of a classic hymn: "Crowns and thrones may perish, kingdoms rise and wane, but the church of Jesus constant will remain. Gates of hell can never 'gainst that church prevail; we have Christ's own promise, and that cannot fail."

Read it all.

Colorado Episcopal Church Battles Diocese

DENVER (AP) - Colorado's largest Episcopal congregation was left in turmoil Tuesday after leaders voted to leave the denomination and the bishop responded by dismissing the parish's leadership.

The controversy at Colorado Springs' Grace Episcopal Church and St. Stephen's Parish is the latest in a tense dispute among Episcopalians and their fellow Anglicans worldwide over how they should interpret what the Bible says about sexuality and other issues.
...
[Read it all.]
...
The leaders of Grace and St. Stephen's voted to join the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, a missionary diocese of the Church of Nigeria led by Archbishop Peter J. Akinola.

Armstrong has led the 2,500-member congregation for 19 years. The diocese said in a statement Jan. 3 that he had been placed on 90-day leave the previous week, following a nine-month review of the church's finances. It did not release details of the allegations against him.

Parish leaders cited the handling of Armstrong's suspension, along with the denomination's rejection of the "historic faith," as reasons for the vote.

Senior warden Jon Wroblewski said the parish had fought for a return to orthodoxy within the denomination but has lost hope in reform.

"It's clear that The Episcopal Church no longer believes in the historic, orthodox Christian faith common to all believers. It's also clear that purported Episcopal values of 'inclusion' do not apply to orthodox believers," Wroblewski said in the statement.

Several Virginia Episcopal churches voted late last year to align with Akinola, including prominent congregations in Fairfax and Falls Church. Clergy in the breakaway churches were warned by Episcopal leaders that they could be removed from the ministry.

The Episcopal Church is the U.S. wing of the 77 million-member Anglican Communion, a fellowship of churches that traces its roots to the Church of England.

Anglicans have been debating for decades how they should interpret Scripture on salvation, truth and sexuality. Those divisions reached the breaking point in 2003 when Episcopalians consecrated the church's first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

Read it all.

---

On the Net:

• Grace and St. Stephen's Parish


• Episcopal Diocese of Colorado

Episcopal Bishops Reject Ultimatum

From the Associated Press:

NEW YORK (AP) - Episcopal bishops meeting privately in Texas have rejected demands from the world's Anglicans that they provide an alternate leader for conservatives who oppose ordaining gays - a move that brings the church to the brink of expulsion from the Anglican Communion.

In the strongest and most direct language yet defending their support for gay relationships, the bishops said that accepting a second leader for traditionalists would violate Episcopal church law and the founding principles of the church.

"We cannot accept what would be injurious to the church and could well lead to its permanent division," the bishops said in the resolution.

Last month, Anglican leaders emerged from a meeting in Tanzania with an ultimatum for the U.S. denomination. They gave Episcopalians until Sept. 30 to unequivocally pledge not to consecrate another partnered gay bishop or authorize official prayers for same-sex couples. Otherwise, they said, the church risked a much-reduced role in the 77 million-member Anglican Communion.

Read the rest here.

Islam Could Become Europe's Dominant Religion, Experts Say

By Kevin McCandless
CNSNews.com Correspondent
March 02, 2007

London (CNSNews.com) - As the Anglican Communion continues to fight over homosexuality and as church attendance plummets, experts say that Islam is well on its way to becoming the most dominant religion in Europe.

Meeting in London this week in their General Synod, the leaders of the Church of England continued to feverishly debate the role of gay and lesbian priests, an issue that increasingly threatens to cause a schism in the worldwide Anglican Communion.

This follows another meeting in Tanzania last week in which Anglican bishops issued an official warning over the matter to the Episcopal Church, the American wing of the Communion. Under threat of being relegated to a lesser role in the Communion, the Episcopal Church must promise by the end of September not to consecrate another homosexual bishop or introduce prayers for gay couples.

Currently, research studies show that church attendance in Britain is dropping precipitously, as well as across the whole of Western Europe.

According to Christian Research, a British think tank, only 6.3 percent of the British population in 2005 attended Christian services on a weekly basis.

The group also projects that around 4,000 churches will close over the next 15 years, being sold off or rehabilitated for other uses.

Reflecting a trend around Europe, British churches in the past decade have been transformed into restaurants, cafes, art galleries, mosques, and in one notable instance, a training school for circus acrobats in Bristol.

But while church attendance on the continent reportedly shows a similar decline, the level of Muslim religious participation and the Muslim population itself has exploded.

In recent years, experts say that young European Muslims are returning to the faith which their parents observed only sporadically, becoming much more devout.

Though Muslims only comprise around 3 percent of the British population, Christian Research says that in 35 years there will be twice as many Muslims in mosques on Friday as there are Christians in churches on Sunday.

In a 2004 ICM poll of 500 British Muslims, 51 percent said that they prayed every day.

In November, a study by the Spanish magazine Alba said that more mosques and prayer centers have been built in France than churches over the last century, with over 4,000 mosques currently serving the largest Muslim population in Europe.

Europe has seen a wave of Muslim immigration during the last century, in large part from the countries of North Africa, and some experts predict that they will become the dominant population by the end of this century.

In January, the Islam-Archive Central Institute, a government-sponsored think tank, projected that Muslims will be the majority population of Germany by 2046, based on their higher fertility rates.

Brent Nelson, an expert on European Islam at Furman University in South Carolina, told Cybercast News Service Thursday it was hard to guess what a Europe with a large Muslim minority would look like.

However, he said that unless Christians and Muslims as a whole learn to compromise and live together, there was a danger of a clash between the two cultures.

From introducing daily prayers into the workplace to building mosques and minarets in cities, there would be endless grounds for conflict in the future, he said.

"The danger is that Europe will not come to terms with what it means to absorb a large Muslim population," he said. "And in turn that Muslims won't come to terms with what it means to live in the West, the need to compromise with Western values. If that doesn't occur, you'll have a culture war which will dwarf anything we've seen in the United States."

David Masci, a senior research fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, said Thursday it was difficult for many Muslim immigrants to accept the secular nature of countries like Holland.

"Look," he said. "Holland is a society which is very, very liberal in terms of attitudes towards gender and towards sexuality. These people are clearly pushing against that."

However, he added that the Pentecostal and Evangelical strains of Christianity were showing a revival in Europe, spurred on by an influx of immigrants from Africa and Asia.

Though he didn't believe that Muslims would become the majority in Europe, he said he did see Muslims and Evangelical Christians eventually working together to achieve common goals, in areas such as curbing abortion laws and same-sex marriages.

Sara Silvestri, an expert on European Islam at Chatham House, a London-based think tank, that many Muslims also had a tendency to exaggerate their religious beliefs when asked.

In times of crisis, she told Cybercast News Service , events over the last five years and the media spotlight on Islamic issues pushed previously nominal Muslims to be more active in their faith.

"I know Muslims who don't wear a veil, who don't grow a beard, but who still identify themselves as a Muslim in the social sphere," she said.

On Wednesday, Nicole Bourque, a professor of religious studies at Glasgow University, said that she thought increasing numbers of Christians would convert to Islam in the coming years.

She said that she knew of around 200 converts in Glasgow alone, mostly lapsed Christians who had grown up without a strong religious background.

While many were women who had married Muslim men, she said many had been attracted to learn more about Islam by its increased profile since 2001.

Oh, and by the way...

One other thing the Primates asked of The Episcopal Church in their recent Communique from the Tanzania meeting was:

On property disputes
The Primates urge the representatives of The Episcopal Church and of those congregations in property disputes with it to suspend all actions in law arising in this situation. We also urge both parties to give assurances that no steps will be taken to alienate property from The Episcopal Church without its consent or to deny the use of that property to those congregations.

When I first read the Primates Communique, I would have bet some serious money that nothing in this Communique would stop the Episcopal Church's attorneys, who seem hell-bent on suing as many departing congregations and, in general, inflicting as much pain on orthodox Anglicans as they possibly can.

Well, I was right...

Lawyers for the Episcopal Church have told two attorneys representing some of the 11 Diocese of Virginia congregations involved in a legal dispute over possession of church property that "there is no basis at this time" to put that litigation on hold.

Washington, D.C. attorneys Mary A. McReynolds and Steffen N. Johnson asked by letter on February 22 that the litigation be put on hold after the communiqué issued at the end of the recent Primates' Meeting "urge[d] the representatives of The Episcopal Church and of those congregations in property disputes with it to suspend all actions in law arising in this situation."

The Primates' recommendation concerning litigation was one of a number of interrelated recommendations which they made concerning the way the Episcopal Church should deal with disagreements among its members.

In their February 26 reply, David Booth Beers, chancellor to Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, and his colleague Heather H. Anderson, first reminded the two attorneys that the Anglican Communion is a federation and not a "juridical or legislative body."

Thus, they wrote, it "has no legal authority over the affairs of its members."

I hope the Primates are paying attention.

Well, I tried...

Okay. Okay. Okay. I said I wasn't going to do it; but I am. I said I wasn't going to rant about the nonsense happening in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion right now. I said I was going to get this blog back on its original mission of focusing on the things that pertain to the Church's mission to take the Gospel "to all the world"--hence the name of the blog.

But sometimes things get in the way of the Church's mission. And right now LOTS of things are getting in the way of the Episcopal Church's mission. And, just like the Arian Controversy or the Pelagian Controversy, the Church isn't going to get back on its mission fully unless and until it deals with its heresy.

In case you aren't an Anglican, what you need to know is this: The Primates (leaders of the 38 regional and national provinces of the Anglican Communion) met in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, February 14-19, 2007. The Primates dealt with a number of issues; but, just as in the case of the two ancient controversies I mentioned above, this gathering of bishops dealt with a new controversy that is dividing the Episcopal Church and that threatens to divide the Anglican Communion: It is the issue created by the Episcopal Church's blessing of same-sex unions and ordaining persons living in same-sex relationships--an issue made most pointed by the Episcopal Church's consent to the election of a partnered gay bishop for the Diocese of New Hampshire, in 2003.

The Primates Communique outlined their concern:

At the heart of our tensions is the belief that The Episcopal Church has departed from the standard of teaching on human sexuality accepted by the Communion in the 1998 Lambeth Resolution 1.10 by consenting to the episcopal election of a candidate living in a committed same-sex relationship, and by permitting Rites of Blessing for same-sex unions. The episcopal ministry of a person living in a same-sex relationship is not acceptable to the majority of the Communion.

The Primates continued:

[W]e believe that there remains a lack of clarity about the stance of The Episcopal Church, especially its position on the authorisation of Rites of Blessing for persons living in same-sex unions. There appears to us to be an inconsistency between the position of General Convention and local pastoral provision. We recognise that the General Convention made no explicit resolution about such Rites and in fact declined to pursue resolutions which, if passed, could have led to the development and authorisation of them. However, we understand that local pastoral provision is made in some places for such blessings. It is the ambiguous stance of The Episcopal Church which causes concern among us.

The Primates then declared:

The standard of teaching stated in Resolution 1.10 of the Lambeth Conference 1998 asserted that the Conference "cannot advise the legitimising or blessing of same sex unions". The primates stated in their pastoral letter of May 2003,

"The Archbishop of Canterbury spoke for us all when he said that it is through liturgy that we express what we believe, and that there is no theological consensus about same sex unions. Therefore, we as a body cannot support the authorisation of such rites.".

The Primates went on to give the following admonition:

In particular, the Primates request, through the Presiding Bishop, that the House of Bishops of The Episcopal Church:
1. make an unequivocal common covenant that the bishops will not authorise any Rite of Blessing for same-sex unions in their dioceses or through General Convention (cf TWR, §143, 144)...

Well, it only took seven days for the Episcopal Church to show what it thought of the Primates injunction, as seen in this well publicized wedding at the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, Morristown, NJ. Read the whole story. You get the idea from the picture above. And, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

A New Beginning

I've seen this happen to lots of bloggers. It's sort of a disease--or at least a syndrome. It doesn't have a name, but it should. Something like "Blogger's Curmudgeonitis."

You know what I mean--the tendency for bloggers to go on a rant about some pet peave--or lots of pet peaves--to let the world know how utterly p___ed off they are at whatever happens to be irritating them at the moment. Well, a bad case of Blogger's Curmudgeonitis hit me sometime between February and June 2006. It has taken awhile to recover.

You see, I am an Episcopalian. And if you have read just about any newspaper or news website anytime in the past year, you may have noticed that it is a rough time for Episcopalians. If you don't know what I mean, I'd better not try to explain. Blogger's Curmudgeonitis is like Malaria; if you don't avoid certain things, it tends to come back.

Fortunately, Blogger has a feature that allows you to go back and delete posts that, after several months, strike you as being too grumpy. So I did.

Now for the new beginning: I gave this blog the name "To All the World" because the focus is supposed to be about the Church's mission to "go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation" (Mark 16:15, NIV). So, in the spirit of a New Year's resolution, this blog is going to get back "on message." Stay tuned.

Is Bottled Water really such a good idea?

Bottled water, a natural resource taxing the world's ecosystem
Feb 10 10:10 AM US/Eastern

Bottled water consumption, which has more than doubled globally in the last six years, is a natural resource that is heavily taxing the world's ecosystem, according to a new US study.

"Even in areas where tap water is safe to drink, demand for bottled water is increasing, producing unnecessary garbage and consuming vast quantities of energy," according to Emily Arnold, author of the study published by the Earth Policy Institute, a Washington-based environmental group.

Arnold said although in the industrial world bottled water is often no healthier than tap water, it can end up costing 10,000 times more.

"At as much as 2.50 dollars per liter (10 dollars per gallon), bottled water costs more than gasoline," the study says.

It added that the United States was the largest consumer of bottled water, with Americans drinking 26 billion liters in 2004, or about one eight-ounce (25 cl) glass per person every day.

Mexico was the second largest consumer at 18 billion liters followed by China and Brazil at 12 billion liters each.

In terms of consumption per person, Italians came first at nearly 184 liters, or more than two glasses a day, followed by Mexico and the United Arab Emirates with 169 and 164 liters per person respectively.

Belgium and France follow close behind and Spain ranks sixth.

The study said that demand for bottled water soared in developing countries between 1999 and 2004 with consumption tripling in India and more than doubling in China during that period.

That has translated into massive costs in packaging the water, usually in plastic bottles made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) which is derived from crude oil, and then transporting it by boat, train or on land.

"Making bottles to meet Americans' demand for bottled water requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel some 100,000 US cars for a year," according to the study. "Worldwide, some 2.7 million tons of plastic are used to bottle water each year."

Once the water is consumed, disposing the plastic bottles poses an environmental risk.

The study, citing the Container Recycling Institute, said that 86 percent of plastic water bottles in the United States end up as garbage and those buried can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade.

In addition, some 40 percent of the PET bottles deposited for recycling in the United States in 2004 ended up being shipped to China.

The study warned that the rapid growth in the industry has also ironically led to water shortages in some areas, including India where bottling of Dasani water and other drinks by the Coca-Cola company has caused shortages in more than 50 villages.

It said that while consumers tend to link bottled water with healthy living, tap water can be just as healthy and is subject to more stringent regulations than bottled water in many regions, including Europe and the United States.

"In fact, roughly 40 percent of bottled water begins as tap water," the study says. "Often the only difference is added minerals that have no marked health benefits.

Recording Industry vs The People

This past Christmas there is one kind of present that was absent from our family's shopping list: CD's. That's right, no shiny discs of recorded music were to be found under our Christmas tree. We haven't bought any CD's in our household in the past year, and we probably won't for the forseeable future. Why? The recording industry has declared war on its customers. Witness the following:

It was Easter Sunday, and Patricia Santangelo was in church with her kids when she says the music recording industry peeked into her computer and decided to take her to court.

Santangelo says she has never downloaded a single song on her computer, but the industry didn't see it that way. The woman from Wappingers Falls, about 80 miles north of New York City, is among the more than 16,000 people who have been sued for allegedly pirating music through file-sharing computer networks.

"I assumed that when I explained to them who I was and that I wasn't a computer downloader, it would just go away," she said in an interview. "I didn't really understand what it all meant. But they just kept insisting on a financial settlement."

The industry is demanding thousands of dollars to settle the case, but Santangelo, unlike the 3,700 defendants who have already settled, says she will stand on principle and fight the lawsuit.

"It's a moral issue," she said. "I can't sign something that says I agree to stop doing something I never did."

Read it all here.

People like Santangelo who never downloaded music illegally are being sued by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) simply because music files were in a shared files folder on their internet connected PC. Did Santangelo illegally download the files? The RIAA doesn't know. Did anyone actually illegally copy the files just because they were available in a shared files folder. The RIAA doesn't know. The RIAA is proceeding on the assumption that anyone who uses file sharing software and who has mp3 files on their computer is guilty of copyright infringement. To date 3,700 people have paid settlements of $3,000 or more rather than risk the much greater cost of fighting in court. Now it seems the RIAA has met its match in Patricia Santangelo who is willing to fight rather than pay.

You can read more about Santangelo's case and contribute to her defense here.

Sadly, the lawsuits continue. You can read more about the abuses by the recording industry against women, children, and grandparents here.