In early July, Jonathan spent a week at a conference in Blaine, WA: Foundations of Molecular Modeling and Simulation 2006. He flew into Seattle on Sunday afternoon and stopped at a mall to have lunch and watch the end of the world cup finals: Italy vs. France. The weather in Blaine was rainy on several days but pretty nice on others. The conference was enjoyable, especially meeting old friends. The many events with open bars was good for fostering interactions between attendees but not so good for the waistline. I took a red-eye flight home Friday night/Saturday morning.

From an article titled "News - A cappella membership drops as churches fail to keep pace with population growth" by Bobby Ross Jr. in The Christian Chronicle:

The number of members and congregations of non-instrumental churches of Christ fell 1 percent in the last three years, according to the latest edition of Churches of Christ in the United States.

The 2006 directory, compiled by Carl H. Royster in consultation with Mac Lynn, reports 12,963 a cappella churches of Christ at the end of 2005.

Those congregations had 1,265,844 baptized members, according to the directory, published by 21st Century Christian in Nashville, Tenn. Both figures represent declines from 13,155 congregations and 1,276,621 baptized members when the last edition of the directory was published in 2003.

"As a general rule, it seems like the smaller congregations were getting smaller and the larger congregations were getting larger," Royster said. "But there were plenty of exceptions to that.

"To say I had something definite to attribute (the decline) to, I can't."

The number of adherents — which includes children of members — fell to 1,639,495, down from 1,656,717 three years ago.

Some of the decline could be attributed to a cappella churches that started using instruments since 2003 and fell off the list, Royster said. Since 1980, the overall U.S. population has risen about 25 percent, but the non-instrumental fellowship has increased only about 2 percent, said Flavil Yeakley, director of the Harding Center for Church Growth in Searcy, Ark.

By comparison, instrumental Christian Churches/Churches of Christ grew by 19.6 percent in the 1990s, the second-fastest rate among 15 religious groups in the U.S. that identify themselves as "Christian" and have 1 million or more adherents, Yeakley said.

"Only the Mormons grew faster," Yeakley said.

The five states with the most a cappella congregations and members in the 2006 edition are Texas, Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas and Oklahoma.

From an article of the same title by Mark Moring in Christianity Today:

When Mel Gibson made The Passion of the Christ, no Hollywood studio would touch it, so the director funded it himself. But when the movie earned $371 million, Tinseltown took note, and it was only a matter of time before it decided to jump on the Jesus bandwagon.

Now two major Jesus-themed films are in the works: On December 1, New Line Cinema, which hit it big with the Lord of the Rings trilogy, releases The Nativity Story. And next Easter, Sony Pictures, the studio behind The Da Vinci Code, releases The Resurrection.

The Nativity Story tells the tale of Joseph and Mary, the journey of the magi, the rule of King Herod, and the birth of Christ. The Resurrection picks up where The Passion left off, telling the story of the 40 days between the Resurrection and the Ascension.

Early in July, Lisa and the boys spent a few days at a vacation house in Oscoda on Lake Huron with some friends from church.

If you watch TV, you must have seen that goofy Head On commercial. Apparently, it's at least partly intentional. Get the story from Slate here.

We viewed 4th of July fireworks from the driving range again this year with the Wanous and Houk families. Eric provided the warm-up pyrotechnics before the real show began. Like usual, the kids had fun gathering up range balls.

From a NY Times article of the same title by Neela Banerjee:

The Episcopal Church elected Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori of Nevada as its presiding bishop on Sunday, making her the first woman to lead a church in the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Many Episcopalians gathered here for the church's triennial general convention cheered the largely unexpected choice of Bishop Jefferts Schori, 52, the lone woman and one of the youngest of the seven candidates for the job. Her election was a milestone for the Episcopal Church, which began ordaining women only in 1976.

She takes on her new responsibilities at a particularly fraught moment in the history of the Episcopal Church, the American branch of the Anglican Communion, the world's third-largest church body, with 77 million members. She was elected to succeed Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold, who will retire in November when his nine-year term ends.

At the last general convention, in 2003, the church consented to the election of an openly gay man, the Rev. V. Gene Robinson, as bishop of New Hampshire. The decision deeply offended some Episcopalians in the United States and many Anglican primates abroad, who saw it as blatant disregard of Scripture.

Since then, some United States congregations have left the Episcopal Church, and primates overseas have threatened schism. Bishop Jefferts Schori supported Bishop Robinson's election in 2003, and the Episcopal Diocese of Nevada permits the blessing of same-sex unions. Moreover, that Bishop Jefferts Schori is a woman could further strain relations with three dioceses in the United States and many Anglican provinces that refuse to ordain women as priests and bishops, critics of the vote said Sunday.

From an abcnews.com article of the same title:

What Not to Do

• Take flight. Don't run away from the dog, because it triggers the dog's prey drive. Once that happens, the dog will want to turn and chase you.
• If the dog catches you and starts attacking, don't hit it. The more you fight back, the more the struggle feeds into the dog's defensive drives and the more he wants to kill that prey and take it home.

What to Do

• If you are approached by a vicious dog, relax and be as still as possible.
• Drop your head so you don't make eye contact, but maintain an upright position.
• Cover you ears and press your elbows to your sides. This way, if the dog bites you, your ears, eyes, rib cage and vital organs are protected.
• If the dog grabs your arm or your leg, try to remain motionless. If the dog thinks you're dead, it should let go of you.

How to Rescue a Child

• Grab an object and start hitting the dog so you can redirect it.
  You can also grab the dog's "scruff" — the area on the sides of the dog's neck. This should control the dog's head and keep it from swinging around to bite you.
• You can go one step further and grab the dog's Adam's apple and choke him.
• Do not pull the dog off the child. That can rip the skin right off the child.

When bark comes to bite, I really wonder how many folks who know these guidelines would put them into practice. They make sense in response to a dog's instincts, but people have instincts too…and they're contrary to these guidelines.