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Month: October 2010

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New Database Tracks Outsourcing, Safety Violations, Discrimination

From Working America: AFL-CIO Releases Database That Tracks Outsourcing, Safety Violations, Discrimination

The AFL-CIO and Working America released Oct. 7 a searchable database detailing outsourcing numbers, safety violations, and discrimination cases for more than 400,000 corporations and subsidiaries.

The groups’ Job Tracker searches for information by zip code, company name, and industry.

“Because of Job Tracker, corporations who have taken advantage of lax trade policies in America and abroad will no longer be able to hide behind the veils of bureaucracy,” said Karen Nussbaum, executive director of Working America. “Every night on our neighborhood canvasses, we hear from people who want to know which companies are profiting off the loss of their jobs. Corporations have created a global race to the bottom and working people won’t stand for it.”

The interactive database uses data from dozens of public sources to allow visitors to find out which companies have exported jobs overseas, violated health and safety codes or engaged in discriminatory or other illegal practices, Nussbaum said.
On a conference call to release the database, speakers noted that both experts and the general public now will be able to easily search through a huge compilation of data on corporate outsourcing.

Drawn From Several Sources

Detailed results are drawn from sources including the Labor Department’s Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) records, Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notices, Occupational Safety and Health Administration records, and other agencies.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka noted the impact of trade and tax policies that make it even easier for corporations to outsource jobs. Trumka pointed to the benefits of the tool for workers as they rebuild the economy.

“We must demand that our leaders show that they stand with working families—fighting to create jobs, rejecting unfair trade deals and putting us on a path to make things in America again,” Trumka said. “For the first time, working people have one place to see the real impact of the failed policies of the past that gave corporations the ability to ship American jobs overseas. With this new data as a benchmark, working people will have the ability to separate the economic patriots from the corporate traitors at the ballot box.”

Trumka said it has “been excruciating” to find information about what companies are outsourcing and to what extent. “This allows anyone to see who is a bad actor in their community,” he said.

Nussbaum said that six researchers spent three months developing the database…

Christian Witness, Events, PNCC, ,

Lectures on Christian Division and Reconciliation in Scranton

From Eirenikon: Ecumenical Symposium at the University of Scranton (also at First Things)

A symposium to be held at The University of Scranton on Friday, Oct. 15, will bring together scholars and clergymen involved in the work of ecumenism — the effort to bring into full, sacramental unity Christian bodies that have been long separated and sometimes hostile to one another.

At the beginning of the new millennium, a document issued by the Vatican sparked intense debate through ecumenical circles because of “its candid re-emphasis on singular and exclusive claims of the Catholic Church and its direct reference to what it called the ‘defects’ of other, non-Catholic Christian communities,” said Will Cohen, Ph.D., assistant professor of theology and religious studies at The University of Scranton.

Dr. Cohen explained, “Although the document’s main focus was on relations not between divided Christians, but between Christianity and other faiths, its comments on inter-Christian relations sparked intense controversy and debate, both within and outside the Catholic Church — debate about the nature of the Church, its purpose, the basis of its unity and the meaning of Christian division.”

The event begins with a panel discussion entitled “The Church of Christ and Ecumenism 10 Years after Dominus Iesus: a Symposium on Christian Division and Reconciliation” that will bring together theologians from Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Polish National Catholic and Anglican traditions to discuss Dominus Iesus ten years after its publication and to consider current prospects and challenges of ecumenical dialogue. The panel discussion, which will take place from 3 to 5 p.m. in room 406 of the DeNaples Center, is sponsored by the University’s Education for Justice Office and the Department of Theology and Religious Studies

In addition, a Catholic Studies Lecture will be presented by Monsignor Paul McPartlan, the Carl J. Peter Professor of Systematic Theology and Ecumenism at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. … Monsignor McPartlan will focus his presentation on the progress of these two dialogue commissions in a paper titled, “An Exchange of Gifts: Catholic-Orthodox and Catholic-Methodist Dialogue.” The lecture will take place at 7 p.m. in the Moskovitz Theater of the DeNaples Center. Monsignor McPartlan’s address will be followed by a question-and-answer period.

Afternoon speakers include the Right Reverend Anthony Mikovsky, Ph.D., pastor of St. Stanislaus Cathedral in Scranton, Pa., and Bishop Ordinary of the Central Diocese of the Polish National Catholic Church (PNCC), as well as a member of the PNCC-Roman Catholic Dialogue; Reverend Dr. Ephraim Radner, professor of historical theology in Wycliffe College at the University of Toronto and a member of the Covenant Design Group, established in 2007 by Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury with the aim of developing an Anglican Covenant that would affirm the cooperative principles binding the worldwide Anglican communion; and Reverend Dr. John Panteleimon Manoussakis, the Edward Bennet Williams Fellow and assistant professor of philosophy at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. and an ordained deacon in the Greek Orthodox Church.

Both the afternoon panel discussions and the Catholic Studies Lecture are free and open to the public. For additional information, please contact Dr. Cohen at The University of Scranton at 570-941-4545.

Homilies, PNCC

Solemnity of the Christian Family

Genesis 1:26-28,31
Psalm 128:1-5
Ephesians 6:1-9
Luke 2:42-52

Remember that you and they have a Master in heaven who plays no favorite

Hugging:

The National Hugging Day website provides these quotes:

Most of us have a little person inside who needs human contact in this stainless steel, computerized society where we are kept at arms length.  Such personal contact makes you feel good.  A good hug warms relationships between people.  Part of the problem huggers face is this guarded age where hugs are easily misinterpreted and subject to a leering look or a lawsuit.  A hug has a universal meaning of support, concern or just a way of saying, “I’m here.” — Chris Thompson, Saginaw News

“We need to know we’re cared about… students need that.  Most of them hug me back-it’s our usual greeting.” Rev. James Stein, Premontre H.S., Green Bay, WI

“We encourage hugging.  We have grandparents who hug the children who sit on their laps, and our staff people rub the children’s backs at nap time to relax them.  Every day should be hugging day.” Mary Van Heuvel, Director, Green Bay Nursery Program

“Hugs make everyone feel good.  It’s a way to know that someone cares.  The need to be hugged doesn’t change when you get older.” Barbara Kuehn Schumacher, Mgr., Ft. Howard [Senior] Apartments, Green Bay

“Touch is life-giving, is healing.  Touching really helps human beings.  Talking doesn’t do a lot for someone who feels rotten, but touch helps alleviate the pain and anguish.  We don’t lose the need for touch when we stop being babies.  We basically need to be touched, although some people do not like to be touched and we have to respect that.  A 1950’s study of institutionalized children showed that even though the children received good physical care, good nutrition, were fed and changed regularly, they became sickly and psychotic years afterward.  They didn’t make it.  They were never picked up and held.  They suffered from a condition that results from the lack of tender, loving care.” Rev. Langdon K. Owen, Director, American Foundation of Religion and Psychiatry in Green Bay

“For human beings, you need two hugs a day to survive, four hugs for maintenance, six hugs to grow.” Virginia Satir, a Wisconsin Marriage and Family Therapist.

St. Paul, in Romans 16 says:

Greet one another with a holy kiss.

Jesus hug:

Do you think Mary and Joseph hugged Jesus when they found in in the Temple? Perhaps they did, out of joy, perhaps relief. Luke gives us the only account of Jesus’ youth. In the narrative Jesus is twelve, still a child according to Jewish Law. This glimpse into Jesus early life may illustrate many things, but most of all it illustrates that the love that existed in Jesus’ earthly family was a real and living love. If Mary and Joseph saw Jesus as anything but the son they loved, no part of the story would have meaning. They wouldn’t have bothered to look, to care, to embrace Him when they found Him.

What do we see:

When we look at each other, first as family, what do we see? Do we see those we wish to greet with a holy kiss, with a hug? Do we see those we wish to affirm in the love of Christ? Do we rush to love as Mary and Joseph rushed to find Jesus?

This process begins in our families. It is the place we learn love, and why our Holy Church celebrates this day. The family that practices tenderness, compassion, and love for each other is the family that stands together in good and bad, that support and encourages each other. When we go home today and look at our children, our spouses, our parents, do we see that person who longs for that hug that connection to family? They are there, plain to us, and we must make every effort to see beyond what we know to what we should know.

That effort then extends beyond the family, the place we learn, to our wider Christian family, the members of our Holy Polish National Catholic Church, and then the members of other Christian Churches. What is practiced at home must be lived in the world. What we know and have, what we take from our homes, takes action in daily life and in the way Christians ought to relate to each other and the world.

Seeing clearly:

Our experiences at home prepare us to see differently in the world, and how we see is essential to whether we can love as family.

Seeing clearly takes work, effort, and starts with the message of God which lives in our hearts. Sometimes it is a quiet whisper, other times a raging storm, but it calls us to be the love of Christ for each other, to affirm and heal each other in love.

Seeing clearly requires us to set aside what we think we see and to see with eyes of love. Our family experiences tell us that what may be outward is not necessarily a reflection of what is inside. If we see only the face, the facade, we miss what is inside.

Try this, pick a picture of any group of people and reflect on it. Look at the faces and the body language and think about what is being portrayed. Do we see friends or enemies, openness or agendas? We can construct a lot of scenarios from that picture, and from how our minds perceive it. Then step back, and look again, but with eyes that see only the love that is in each person and in us. Look at another person and think in terms of their capacity for love, the fact that they do indeed love. The picture is suddenly changed.

Our Christian family needs exactly this kind of love, this kind of seeing. It doesn’t have to be grandiose, but in every small and seemingly insignificant way, we need to consciously show those hugs for the members of our family and to our wider community. The family movie night, hands held at prayer over meals, a note in your husband or wife’s lunch. The hug that says I am there and I recognize and value you. The look that says to our brothers and sisters in faith, I see only your love, not your agenda, nothing but love. The warm handshake or embrace at the sign of peace.

So it is:

So it is with us. We must see the members of our immediate family and our larger family as essential, as vital to our well being. We must see them as necessary to our ability to love, and their love as essential to us.

When Paul talks about obedience and submission today he is not speaking about subservience, but exactly the types of trust and respect we are to have within our families and within the Christian community. Our loving, our embrace of love is both a right and a responsibility. God created this connectedness in creating families, in commanding that we be fruitful and multiply, that we form the bonds of family within our homes, within our communities, within our Holy Church and among all the people God has called to be His own.

Our model:

This past week we concluded Holy Synod. Our Church family gathered together. Was it all peaceful and perfect, of course not. Was there strong debate, opinion, and difficulty, certainly. Are we one Church, yes. Because we are family we see beyond the moments of difficulty to the love that is in each person. We see the great care and concern each person brings, with their voice and their vote, to build the family of Christ. It is the model each of the clergy and delegates learned at home, to care, to be concerned, and to walk away as brothers and sisters, leaving after a holy embrace, a hug, and a word — until we see each other again.

God’s model:

God’s model goes to the heart of the interconnected nature of His people. That is why we celebrate this Solemnity. That is why the Christian Family is so essential to the life of the human family. In the Christian family we find the call to the love, to the perfection of love, to all that is necessary for our very survival, as family, as the Holy Church, as Christians, and as brothers and sisters. God has connected us and asks us to embrace each other – to see beyond the facade and the supposed agenda, to the love that is at the heart of each person. To embrace each person with the love that is within us. To recognize the love in them. Then greet each other with a holy kiss — or at least — a hug. Amen.

Events, PNCC, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , , , , , ,

Events

Polish-American Buffet at the Albany Polish Community Center, 225 Washington Ave Ext., Albany, NY on Friday, October 8th from 4-8pm. Call 518-456-3995 for more information.

Film Screening: The American Polish Central Committee of Lawrence County will show the movie “Nine Days That Changed the World — Pope John Paul II” at 5 p.m. Sunday, October 10th at Holy Trinity Polish National Catholic Church, 1708 S. Jefferson St., New Castle, PA as a part of the October celebration of Polish-American Heritage Month. The documentary is about Pope John Paul II’s historic nine-day pilgrimage to Poland in June 1979 just before the disintegration of Communism in Eastern Europe. The public is invited to the free showing, and refreshments will be served. More information about the American Polish Central Committee.

Ziti Dinner and Basket Raffle: Saturday, October 16th, 5-7 p.m at Resurrection of the Lord Polish National Catholic Church, 35 Zerby Ave., Edwardsville, PA. Adults pay $8; $4 for children 10 years old and younger. Salad, meatballs, ziti, bread, homemade deserts, and beverages served. Takeouts available. For more information call Margaret, 570-288-9350, Dorothy, 570-287-5843, the Rev. Pawel, 570-283-2686, or Rich Manta, 570-696-3668.

Harvest Festival/Dożynki at the Albany Polish Community Center, 225 Washington Ave Ext., Albany, NY on Sunday, October 17th from Noon until 8pm.

PNCC, , , ,

Coverage of the XXIII General Synod

At the Citizens Voice: Regional PNCC head elected church’s seventh prime bishop

Bishop Anthony Mikovsky, the leader of the Scranton-based Central Diocese of the Polish National Catholic Church, was elected on Tuesday to the denomination’s highest post.

The New Jersey-native, who has spent his 13-year priesthood serving in the city, was elected prime bishop during the 23rd General Synod in Niagara Falls, Ontario, by a two-thirds majority of the ordained and lay delegates, including the prime bishop-elect’s father.

Mikovsky has been bishop of the Central Diocese and pastor of St. Stanislaus Cathedral since 2006. Before becoming bishop, he served as the assistant pastor at St. Stanislaus, the mother church of the denomination, beginning in 1997.

In his new post he will move less than two blocks from the East Locust Street cathedral to the seat of the Polish National Catholic Church on Pittston Avenue.

“I’m overwhelmed,” he said by phone Tuesday, not long after the vote. “When people put trust in you to lead them in God’s field, and in going forward to build up the church, it’s a very humbling experience.”

The Rev. Jason Soltysiak, assistant pastor at St. Stanislaus, learned the news of the vote on Tuesday from “about 150 text messages” from church members, but he spread the word in the traditional way – by ringing the cathedral bells.

“That’s, I guess, our version of the white smoke,” he said, referring to the signal that indicates the selection of a new pope in the Roman Catholic church.

An elderly parishioner, hearing the bells, called Soltysiak and left a message.

“He said, ‘By those bells ringing I can only assume that our pastor is now the prime bishop,'” Soltysiak recalled Tuesday afternoon. “As he choked away tears he said, ‘I’m so happy I could cry.'”

Current Prime Bishop Robert M. Nemkovich must retire from the position because of age limits set by church law. He was elected in 2002.

Also at the Times Tribune and an earlier article here.

Current Events, Events, ,

Tax-Exempt Organizations May Loose Their Exempt Status

From the IRS: Reminder: Tax-Exempt Organizations Can Preserve Exempt Status by Filing Returns by October 15 Due Date

A crucial filing deadline of October 15 is looming for many tax-exempt organizations. Most tax-exempt organizations, other than churches, must file an annual return or electronic notice (Form 990-N) with the IRS. If an organization does not file as required for three consecutive years, the law provides that it automatically loses its tax-exempt status.

Small nonprofit organizations at risk of losing their tax-exempt status because they failed to file required returns for 2007, 2008, and 2009 can preserve their status by filing returns by October 15, 2010 under a one-time relief program. Two types of relief are available for small exempt organizations — a filing extension for the smallest organizations required to file Form 990-N, Electronic Notice (e-Postcard), and a voluntary compliance program (VCP) for small organizations eligible to file Form 990-EZ, Short Form Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax. Find complete information about eligibility and program requirements on IRS.gov.

The IRS has issued a Special Edition Tax Tip and a News Release to help nonprofit organizations take advantage of the one-time relief program and maintain their tax-exempt status. In addition, you can find information you can use to help organizations that may be at risk of losing their tax-exempt status at IRS.gov.

PNCC

Holy Synod Day 2

As noted yesterday, completely unofficial.

Call to Order

Report of the Agenda Committee.

Looks like an aggressive agenda for the day.

Report of the Mandate Committee, 217 delegates. Up two from yesterday. Reporting on Mandates by Diocese. Oath will be given delegates not here yesterday.

Morning prayer. Reading from 1 Kings 3:7-15.

Report of Nominations Commission.

Clarification from yesterday’s post, there were five nominees for bishop, two declined, one was approved prior to Synod. Two were interviewed last night. They were both approved by the Committee. There are three nominees for the Office of Bishop. Vote on the report – accepted. (Electronic voting – very cool).

Note on the vote for the new Prime Bishop, all current bishops are eligible excepting those who will reach mandatory retirement age prior to the end of the eight year term of office.

Correction after roll call, 218 delegates.

Test vote – all ok.

Bishops Bigaj (Canadian Diocese), Mack (Auxiliary of the Buffalo-Pittsburgh Diocese), and Mikovsky (Central Diocese) accept the nomination to the Office of Prime Bishop. Bishop Kopka (Western Diocese) declines.

Each Prime Bishop nominee addresses the delegates for 10 minutes.

The Prime Bishop reads from the section of the Constitution on the Election of the Prime Bishop. A two-thirds majority is required. As more than two candidates stand. If after 5 votes no Bishop is elected, the two top vote getters will remain standing. Bishop Peplowski offers a prayer to the Holy Spirit.

Bishop Bigaj graciously withdrew after the second ballot. No one elected after 15 ballots. The remaining candidates address the delegates for five minutes each.

After 25 ballots, no Bishop has been elected to the Office of Prime Bishop. The candidates readdress the Synod Body.

On the 42nd ballot Bishop Mikovsky has been elected to the Office of Prime Bishop.

The democratic Church in action. An emotional and wonderful moment.

Bishop Mikovsky, the Prime Bishop elect addresses the Synod. We are singing Sto Lat for him.

Break for lunch. Up next, election of candidates for Bishop. Three will stand for election, two to be selected

Reconvene.

Afternoon prayer, offered in petition for the continued action of the Holy Spirit in the Holy Polish National Catholic Church. Reading 1 Corinthians 12:3-7,12-13.

NOTE: The Prime Bishop elect assumes Office as of new business.

Election of candidates for bishop. Reading from the Constitution on the election of bishop candidates. Those elected must have a two-thirds majority. Each candidate will have 5 minutes to address the delegates, and two further minutes thereafter.

The vote begins.

Very Rev. Paul Sobiechowski elected candidate to the Office of Bishop on the first ballot.

After 50 votes, a motion to end the election. Serious discussion.

The vote for candidates has been ended. The Supreme Council to meet. On break.

Reconvened.

Getting locations for Diocesan caucuses.

Report of the Prime Bishop, Most Rev. Robert Nemkovich. Many thanks and positive things to report — the generosity and hard work of the people and clergy of the PNCC. Thanks to his wife and family for their support and perseverance.

Sto Lat for the Prime Bishop. Move to accept his report with gratitude.

Report of the Diocesan Bishops, Buffalo-Pittsburgh, Canadian, Central, Eastern, Western.

Buf-Pit, incorporating a new parish (this weekend), three more have opened discussions with the PNCC. Great evangelism efforts. ‘Our local R.C Bishop excommunicates, I communicate.’. Two more parishes in Italy are exploring the PNCC. A group in France and another in Bavaria as well. A new parish in Norway near the arctic circle. We are known. Give hope to others. Pray for your Church, and set about growing. A lot of joyful news.

A delegate from one of the new parishes, Our Lady in Brandt NY, approached and offered an emotional thank you to the Diocese and the Church. You have given us our home, hope, and the presence of Jesus in our community.

Adjourn for the day and for caucuses later.

This will end my report from Synod. I must return home. Please continue to pray for our Holy Church and the Synod.

PNCC

Live bloggong synod

This in completely unofficial!

Prime Bishop opens the Synod.

Opening prayers in Polish and English, Bishops Gnat and Bigaj

Welcome from Mr. Tony Jasinski, Chair of the Pre-Synodal Committee.

Welcome from Bishop Bigaj.

Banner over the Dias – And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13

Greeting from the Chairs of the various organizations: ANS, YMSofR, United Choirs, National Youth.

PNUA greetings.

Archbishop Emeritus Pierce – greetings from the Anglican Church of Canada. Talking about ++Runcie, “winter of ecumenism.”. The Romans and Russian Orthodox won’t talk to us. Winter is a trial time. We must proclaim the Gospel and pass through winter.

Bishop Kmiec of Buffao with RC greetings. He is co-chair of the PNCC-RC dialog. We are brothers and sisters as well as respectful/cordial friends. We must continue on this path and little divides us.

Business begins, appointment to Synodal Committees.

Rules & Regs Committee, Agenda Committee, Mandate Committee then Oath of Delegates. Initial appointments and reports will be voted upon after the oath.

5 minute break.

Roll call. 215 voting delegates.

Oath.

Votes on prior items and the minutes of the XXII General Synod.

Report of the Nominations Commission. Any nominees for the Office of Bishop from the floor will have credentials reviewed as well as interviews this evening.

Three nominees.

Business resumes tomorrow. Holy Mass at 7am.

Christian Witness, Events, PNCC, ,

Novena to the Holy Spirit – Day 9

Come, O Holy Comforter, and grant me a relish
for heavenly things. Produce in my soul the
fruits of virtue, so that, being filled with all
sweetness and joy in the pursuit of good, I may
attain unto eternal blessedness. As the Holy
Synod will gather tomorrow to begin its
historical deliberations and planning for the
next four years, allow Your gifts to be ever-
present in all that is said, done, prayed for,
believed in, and accomplished until
adjournment. Allow also that all that is decided
upon be for the praise of Your Holy Name and
for the benefit of all the members of the Polish
National Catholic Church.

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