Notes and Essays -- John Brown

In a new report, a church commission looking at families and households called on society to “honor and celebrate singleness.” image from article The Most Rev. Stephen Cottrell, archbishop of York, left, and the Most Rev. Justin Welby, archbishop of Canterbury.  Credit... By Lauren McCarthy, The New York Times , April 27, 2023; jb:  article contains interesting readers comments;  see   also Single people should be valued as much as married couples and people in relationships, according to a  new report   released by the Church of England on Wednesday that laid out recommendations to support a diverse, evolving society.  In the report, “Love Matters,” the archbishops of Canterbury and York said that “single people must be valued at the heart of our society” and noted that Jesus was single.  “Jesus’ own singleness should ensure that the Church of England celebrates singleness,” the report noted, reaffirming a traditional understanding that Jesus nev...

Americans are now less likely to be married and more likely to live alone.  image (not from article) from USA Facts , Published on Tue, February 11, 2020 4:00PM PST | Updated Tue, March 28, 2023 3:03PM PDT; [jb: original article contains informative charts]   n   PDT These days, Americans are now less likely to be married and more likely to live alone, compared to the 1950s. When people do marry, they’re doing it later in life than in the past. While a higher percentage of Americans are divorced, a lower percentage are widows. And more than half a million same-sex couples are now married, which wasn’t an option for people in the 1950s. What is the state of marriage in America? In 1949, 78.8% of all households contained married couples. In 2022, 73 years later, 46.8% of households had married couples.  Both men and women are marrying later in life. Based on census data compiled since 1890, the median ages of first marriage were at their youngest in 1956 (22.5 for...

U.N. agency struggles to end Russia-Kyiv dispute over how to avert disaster at Zaporizhzhia By  Laurence Norman  in Berlin and  Drew Hinshaw  in Vienna,  The Wall Street Journal ,   April 29, 2023 11:08 am ET The United Nations atomic energy agency is racing to prevent Russia’s war in Ukraine from  endangering the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant , Europe’s largest, as fighting nearby intensifies. Artillery fire and explosions now ring out nearly every day at the six-reactor plant that  sprawls near an active front line  and is occupied by Russian security agents. Each side accuses the other of shelling across a two-mile-wide bend in the Dnipro River that separates the plant from a Ukrainian-held shore. Both deny doing so. A team of United Nations nuclear safety inspectors last week had to take shelter inside the facility. Twice this month, Russian land mines ringing the plant to prevent an amphibious assault have exploded. Russian troops in...