Read a number of shorter, interesting pieces including one on Rowan Williams and meeting the Pope with Benedictine Camaldolese monks, and a short essay on Elvis Presley singing Gospels. Read also about Lewis Lapham, and even a book review on Christ's last words - all by Peter Menkin.

Using the art of the homily, Archbishop Rowan Williams spoke to the ecumenical relationship between the Anglican Communion (Episcopal Church in USA), and the Roman Catholic Church, citing history. For a thousand years the Camaldoli hermitage and its monks have been praying and living with the presence of the Lord.

Here is something I wonder: Though Elvis is not a spiritual or religious leader, but more a man who as a child learned guitar in the Pentecostal, Assembly of God Church from his pastor, his sincerity of offering his Gospel recordings to a large, large audience, has probably Evangelized many people, if not entertained with his Rock n' Roll manner of singing for thousands and thousands through the years. No doubt Elvis is more than sympathetic to the Gospel music he sings in this set, though some will find the limitation of his play and range as a singer one that hampers a full performance of some greater voices. Nonetheless, Elvis is a phenomenon of 20th Century music, and this popular rendition that he is identified with does seek the listener in an effective embrace. At the least, it is an entertainment and a lot of fun. And after all, it really rocks.

The renewed Episcopal Church book of Holy Women Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints has almost 800 pages.This book is used in worship. In my own Parish (Episcopal) in San Francisco's Bay Area we use the work, for it is authorized in Dioceses for the next three years by General Convention, 2012