Hurricane #Erin is a Category 5. Will pass near Puerto Rico and the Virg...

Atlantic Union Seeks to Ban Conrad Vine, Oversteps Authority

July 4, 2025 Fulcrum7 Staff



Back in November, the Atlantic Union executive committee voted to ban Conrad Vine from every pulpit in their union.

The Northern New England Conference believes that the AU acted outside their authority as outlined in the Church Manual. This ban would give higher entities in our organization the authority to circumvent local church business meetings and to impact the standing of members even outside of their Union. They chose to not be a party to this decision, as it undermines the sound, Bible-based practices and procedures outlined in the Church Manual and erodes proper church order.

The Reinvention of the Catholic Church

Scandals have taken a toll, and faith is flagging in Europe and the U.S. But Catholicism isn’t on the wane—it’s changing in influential ways.

By Paul Elie

Photo-illustration by Chantal Jahchan. Source: Vatican Pool / Getty.

DECEMBER 11, 2022, 7 AM ET


In may 2021, a time when public gatherings in England were strictly limited because of the coronavirus pandemic, the British tabloids were caught off guard by a stealth celebrity wedding in London. Westminster Cathedral—the “mother church” of Roman Catholics in England and Wales—was abruptly closed on a Saturday afternoon. Soon the groom and bride arrived: Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds, a Catholic and a former Conservative Party press officer with whom he had fathered a child the previous year. A priest duly presided over the marriage, despite the fact that the Catholic Church opposes divorce and sex outside marriage, and that Johnson had been married twice before and had taken up with Symonds before securing a divorce. It was an inadvertently vivid display of the Church’s efforts to accommodate its teachings to worldly circumstances.

That same month, Church-state relations in the United States took a fresh turn when the Supreme Court decided to hear a case from Mississippi that challenged the legal right to abortion recognized in Roe v. Wade. The Court’s decision reflected the power of its conservative majority, whose six members include five traditionalist Catholics. And it augured an eventual victory in a 50-year campaign against legal abortion, a movement anchored from the start in the Church teaching that life begins at conception—an absolute position on an issue that ordinary Catholics, like most other Americans, disagree about. The victory came this past June, when the Court struck down the constitutional right to abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.


Together, these episodes point up an incongruous recent development: the Catholic Church’s assertive presence in public life even as Catholic faith and practice recede in families, schools, and neighborhoods in America and across Europe. As John T. McGreevy observes in Catholicism: A Global History From the French Revolution to Pope Francis, signs that the Church has lost vitality are abundant. Europe has seen parish closures, shrinking numbers of priests, dwindling attendance at weekly Mass, and steady departures from the faith. In the U.S., more than a third of people raised Catholic “no longer identify as such.” The clerical sexual-abuse scandals have ravaged the Church’s credibility, cost it billions of dollars, and put some of its leaders under criminal investigation.

Catholicism: A Global History From the French Revolution to Pope Francis

Nord Stream Gas Leaks Look Like Sabotage: Germany and US Sa

An Atlantic Storm this early?

Season’s first tropical storm close to forming off Central Florida

Posted on Monday, 06.30.14

HURRICANES


BY JENNY STALETOVICH
JSTALETOVICH@MIAMIHERALD.COM

A slow-moving swirl of rain and thunderstorms ambling south along the coast of Central Florida is likely to become the first tropical depression of the 2014 hurricane season, National Hurricane Center forecasters said Monday.

The storm, which was moving at about 5 mph with a radius of about 222 miles, is expected to miss South Florida, but could dump rain on the area Monday and Tuesday before pivoting north Wednesday and then heading northeast on Thursday. The hurricane center sent a reconnaissance plane Monday afternoon that found that the storm is well-defined but it had not yet intensified into a tropical storm.

“If this thing does become a tropical cyclone — and it’s got a high chance — it will within 48 hours. Then a tropical storm watch could be required for Central and North Florida,” said hurricane center spokesman Dennis Feltgen. “It’s close, so only a slight increase in organization would result in this being a tropical depression.”

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecasters have predicted a slow season this year, controlled in part by an El Niño weather pattern warming Pacific waters. They expect just eight to 13 tropical storms. Three to six could become hurricanes, but no more than two are predicted to become major storms. No hurricanes have struck Florida in eight years.

Seeing a storm form along the U.S. coast this early in the season is not unusual, Feltgen said, since waters are warm. As the season progresses, storms tend to form in the east Atlantic.

“This time last year, we’d already had two named storms, Andrea and Barry,” Feltgen said. “And Andrea was the only storm to make landfall [in the U.S.] all of last year when it went into the Panhandle.”

Andrea formed in the Gulf of Mexico and took a direct path east, coming ashore in the Florida Panhandle before heading east and north along the coast. Barry, a tropical depression, formed off the coast of Nicaragua, then headed west to Central Mexico. In July, the east Atlantic churned up two more storms, Chantal and Dorian. But only Dorian threatened the U.S., making a beeline for Florida, which is hit more than any other state, before making a turn and falling apart off the coast of South Carolina.

Source

*Map (Courtesy) http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

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Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/06/30/4211181/seasons-first-tropical-storm-close.html#storylink=cpy

Internet Rumors Spark Fear of Mid-Atlantic Disaster

Reported by: Brandon Stover

Web Producer: Brandon Stover
Reported: Sep. 27, 2013 9:24 PM EDT
Updated: Sep. 27, 2013 10:45 PM EDT


Charleston , Kanawha County , West Virginia

Some people are preparing for a major disaster in the mid-Atlantic. doing after rumors started circulating that a big event was coming. But is there any truth to those fears?

One of the websites, knowthelies.com, that has caused some concern lately for West Virginians. It suggests that a major disaster of some sort may occur in FEMA Region 3, which includes West Virginia and other mid-Atlantic states. But is it true?

According to a retired state senator, Sheldon R. Songstad of South Dakota, who claims he followed the bread crumb trail of FEMA orders, it is.

However, FEMA issued the following statement, and said nothing was unusual:


FEMA is aware of the speculations surrounding procurement of materials throughout the United States, particularly in the mid-Atlantic region. There is no specific threat, catalyst or alert within FEMA to purchase additional supplies, throughout the year, FEMA routinely purchases material and stockpiles warehouses throughout the country in anticipation of disasters and to have supplies pre-positioned throughout the United States. No unusual or inordinate purchases are being made.

This certainly does not scream concern and, in a world of texting and the Internet, rumors can turn into monsters overnight.

Local residents offered their thoughts on the matter.

"A lot of things you hear on the internet are not true, but some things are," Ernest Chapman, of Montgomery said.

"You can't believe anything on the Internet anyway, so I would take that as a ‘no,’" Whitney Kidd, of Charleston, said.

Regardless of when the next disaster occurs, it's always better to be safe than sorry.


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Ernesto at sea in Caribbean; new storm forms in Atlantic

By Michael Connor

MIAMI | Sat Aug 4, 2012 3:58pm EDT

(Reuters) - Tropical Storm Ernesto kept on a westerly course in the Caribbean Sea on Saturday and will soon bulk up into a hurricane that may soak Jamaica as it passes by the island, U.S. forecasters said.

Officials in Jamaica issued a tropical storm warning as Ernesto moved in open waters at 18 miles per hour on a predicted track that should keep it at sea until a forecast landfall in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula on Wednesday.

With maximum sustained winds falling back to 50 mph (85 kmh), Ernesto on Saturday afternoon was 270 miles south of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic and was expected to stay clear of Jamaica and Hispaniola, the mountainous island Haiti shares with the Dominican Republic.

Tropical storm conditions would strike Jamaica on Sunday afternoon, while the southern coasts of Puerto Rico and Hispaniola will see squalls on Saturday, U.S. forecasters said.

Three to 6 inches were expected in Jamaica. Showers and thunderstorms - sometimes severe - were possible on the islands of Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire off Venezuela's northern coast.

"The center of Ernesto should pass south of Hispaniola tonight and south of Jamaica on Sunday evening," the U.S. forecasters in Miami said. "Ernesto is forecast to become a hurricane in the northwestern Caribbean in a day or two."

Ernesto, which did no reported damage on Friday as it passed over the tiny island of Saint Lucia, would be deemed a hurricane if its winds reach 74 mph.

Forecasters expect Ernesto to move into the southern Gulf of Mexico by Thursday but it was too early to know whether it could disrupt oil and gas operations in the gulf.

U.S. National Hurricane Center forecasters said another tropical storm, called Florence, formed on Saturday in the eastern Atlantic and was moving west in open waters. As of late morning, forecasters said, Florence was about 415 miles (665km) west of the southernmost Cape Verde Islands.

With maximum sustained winds of 45 mph (75 kmh), Florence was the sixth named storm of the Atlantic-Caribbean hurricane season, moving west at 16 mph, and was expected to track westerly before weakening next week.

August and September are usually the most active months of the Atlantic-Caribbean hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to November 30.

(Reporting By Michael Connor in Miami; Editing by Bill Trott)

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Hurricane Bill Getting Stronger in Atlantic

By JONATHAN M. KATZ,
AP

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Aug. 17) – The first hurricane of this year's Atlantic season gathered force far out to sea Monday, while two weaker storm systems drenched the northeastern Caribbean and the Florida Panhandle with rain.

Hurricane Bill was expected to become a major storm in the next couple of days, with winds topping 110 mph (177 kph) as it moved on a track expected to be near Bermuda by the end of the week.



Weather Underground / AP
Hurricane Bill, far right, was about 1,000 miles east of the Lesser Antilles on Monday.



The storm is very large, with tropical winds extending out 200 miles, so Bermuda faced a potential threat even if the Atlantic island avoided a direct hit, said Nick Camizzi, a forecaster with the British territory's weather service.

"We are keeping an eye on it for sure," Camizzi said.

It was too soon to tell if Bill would threaten the eastern coast of the United States, said John Cangialosi, a meteorologist at the U.S. National Hurricane Center. It was not expected to threaten Florida.

"The system is certainly large and eventually will be a powerful hurricane," Cangialosi said. But colder waters and wind shear could weaken it when it moves farther north.

What began as Tropical Storm Ana, the first named storm of the season, weakened into a tropical depression as it raced past the Leeward Islands, U.S. and British Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, apparently moving too quickly to cause more than minor flooding.

But even as the system dissipated it posed a potential threat to Hispaniola, the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, where impoverished riverside communities are extremely vulnerable to flooding.

Dominican authorities evacuated more than 100 people from areas at risk for flooding and mudslide, but the rains turned out lighter than expected as the broke apart.

Still, officials maintained flood alerts for 12 provinces in the east, warning that the storm could drop up to 150 millimeters (6 inches) of rain in some areas.

"As of now the rivers are rising above their normal levels, but nonetheless we do not have flooding, thank God," said Carlos Paulino, a deputy director of the Center for Emergency Operations in the Dominican capital, Santo Domingo.

Officials in neighboring Haiti, devastated last year by four successive storms that killed some 800 people and caused $1 billion in damage, said they were relieved that Ana had weakened. But residents were warned to continue exercising caution around rivers and coastal areas.

In Puerto Rico, rain from Ana flooded highways in the capital, San Juan, and three schools closed as a precaution in the northern coastal city of Arecibo. The U.S. territory was expecting 2 to 4 inches of rain.

Ana was moving at a relatively fast pace, said Dave Roberts, a Navy hurricane specialist at the U.S. hurricane center. Although tropical storm watches were canceled for the storm Monday afternoon, Roberts said it could still be a big rain event for Haiti and the Dominican Republic, especially in higher elevations.

Along the Florida Panhandle, Tropical Storm Claudette quickly weakened after it made landfall at Fort Walton Beach, and was downgraded to a tropical depression with winds of about 30 miles per hour.

The storm wasn't expected to cause significant flooding or wind damage as it moved northwest into Alabama and Mississippi.

A man in his mid-20s died after being pulled from surf as Claudette approached Sunday. In Bay County, authorities searched for another man whose boat ran aground Sunday night, though they believed he made it ashore. Neither man's identity was released.

After the storm passed east of Pensacola Beach on Monday morning, joggers and tourists seeking sea shells dotted the beach.

Far out in the Pacific, Hurricane Guillermo weakened to a tropical storm with maximum sustained winds near 60 mph. Guillermo was centered about 695 miles east of Hilo, Hawaii, and moving west-northwest near 18 mph.

Associated Press writers Melissa Nelson in Pensacola and Kelli Kennedy in Miami contributed to this report.

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Source: http://news.aol.com/article/hurricane-bill-in-atlantic/624904?icid=mainhtmlws-maindl1link4http%3A%2F%2Fnews.aol.com%2Farticle%2Fhurricane-bill-in-atlantic%2F624904

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New Tropical Storm Heads For Panhandle

Claudette Due Ashore Tonight; T.S. Bill May Become Major Hurricane

UPDATED: 5:20 pm EDT August 16, 2009

MORE ONLINE:
Maps/Tools Hurricane Info


JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- After a slow start to the Atlantic hurricane season, the season's first three tropical storms have formed in three days. One is due to come ashore in Florida's Panhandle Sunday night and forecasters say another heading toward the Caribbean has potential to grow into a major hurricane.

At 5 a.m. Sunday, the National Hurricane Service issued a tropical storm warning for areas from the mouth of the Suwannee River west to the Alabama state line due to a tropical depression. Hours later, when a reconnaissance flight found winds near 50 mph, the hurricane center named the system Tropical Story Claudette.

At 5 p.m., the system was centered about 40 miles west-southwest of Apalachicola and moving toward the northwest at near 14 mph. The center of Claudette should move ashore near Panama City Sunday evening, and the Hurricane Service said there is a change of additional strengthening before landfall.

Rainfall of 3 to 5 inches was forecast, with isolated showers of up to 10 inches in northwest Florida, forecasters said.

"We may see some heavy rains as a result, but we don't expect any high winds or coastal flooding," said John Dosh, manager of Emergency Management. "This event is a good example of how quickly a tropical storm can develop. We won't always have a lot of warning. This is why citizens need to be prepared throughout hurricane season."

The system in the gulf appeared as people on Florida's east coast were watching tropical storms Ana and Bill moving west over open waters in the Atlantic.

The Leeward Islands were keeping a close eye on Tropical Storm Ana, where the storm is expected to make landfall early Monday.

A tropical storm watch remained in effect for the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, Montserrat, Antigua, Barbuda, St. Kitts, Nevis, Anguilla, St. Maarten, Saba and St. Eustatius. Tropical storm conditions were possible within the next 36 hours.

With 35 mph sustained winds, Ana was moving west at near 23 mph. At 5 p.m., the storm was about 120 miles east of Dominica.

Anna was not expected to grow beyond tropical-storm strength and may dissipate into a low-pressure system before approaching the southern tip of Florida late Thursday.

Forecasters are more leery of Tropical Storm Bill, which formed Saturday and was about 1,440 miles east of the Lesser Antilles and moving west-northwest at near 16 mph.

Bill had winds of near 65 mph Sunday morning, but was expected to build momentum and become a hurricane as early as Monday.

"There is no doubt in my mind that Bill will be a very intense hurricane -- perhaps this season's strongest," Channel 4 chief meteorologist John Gaughan wrote on his blog, Gaughan Bloggin'. "The good news is that long-range models are indicating a sudden, hard turn to the north in seven days."

"We won't know of Bill's U.S. landfall, if any, until next weekend," said meteorologist emeritus George Winterling on his Hurricane Blog.

Meanwhile in the Pacific, Hurricane Guillermo was swirling as a Category 2 storm.

Guillermo had weakened slightly, with maximum sustained winds dropping to 100 mph. It was expected to lose more steam and dwindle to a tropical storm in the next day or two. Guillermo was moving west at 15 mph, about 1,150 miles east of Hilo, Hawaii.

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Source: http://www.news4jax.com/news/20409241/detail.html#

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