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Please note that we score Women in Leadership policy a bit differently than LGBTQ policy as we factor into account gender representation on leadership teams. Representation is essential. It is also the only score that a church obtains by proactively self-disclosing its policies through our Verified Clear survey, which is sent to all churches that have been scored in our database. If you're a pastor at a church, email us to receive the survey.

Take a look at our Scoring Definitions , to begin with, to understand the difference between Clear and Unclear websites. There are typically two reasons. The first is that the church has a statement affirming "sexual orientation" but not "gender identity. Please see our score definitions for more. If so, then the church will get a Clear: Egalitarian score. If the senior minister is a woman, then that counts too. If not, then the church will get an Unclear: Egalitarian score.

We factor representation into our scoring for Women in Leadership. See this. Additionally, if it's hard to locate the leadership team on the website, then we will also score the church as Unclear.

For additional questions email us. For more see our Scoring Definitions. With Matthew Geller we are providing a cantilevered structure with viewing platform next to a hiking trail and over a ravine to be installed in North Carolina. The project is called Greenway Blueway Byway Skyway. The primary components have been assembled by Iron Access in Houston, the same fabricator who assembled the parts for Tumbling House.

We'll be installing this at the site in mid-December. We are developing custom patterns and colors for the Market Kiosks currently under development for the Greater East End Navigation Blvd. The traditional technique of die-cutting stacks of colored paper with cultural icons is scaled up and rendered in powder-coated sheet metal. The shelters will provide dappled light to the public space below. The units are paired with a version of the pattern as a gradient perforation in the adjacent kiosk.

We have been retained by Greater East End to design a prototypical market kiosk for the Navigation Blvd. These will be installed along with our Discus system with LED pedestrian lightings and solar generators.

They are designed with a perforated sheet metal shell roof that provides dappled light shading while retaining transparency to reduce wind loads. The perforated pattern references the tradition of "papel picado" in the Hispanic culture of the surrounding neighborhood.

Check out the MAP as well. Acres Home Multi-Srvce Ctr. Montgomery Fire Station 31 W. It is a temporal and interactive space making product that adapts to and transforms public spaces in the Greater East End neighborhood of Houston. Through a series of movable and playful architectural elements, it creates functional scenarios appropriate for markets and other public gatherings. The iconic geometry of the octahedron is simple and unique to the urban environment and invites curiosity.

The module scales to become enclosure, seating and stacking blocks. A series of shade structures expand the form into the surrounding landscape. POP-UP exemplifies the ability of ephemeral architecture to transform a vibrant neighborhood in Houston by fostering new forms of urban interaction and informal commerce. In the event of widespread power outage as the city experienced after IKE, the SPACE's would be mobilized and micro-community centers providing power for cell phone recharging, information dissemination and staffing by disaster response personnel.

The units will be finished and installed soon. The Austin Training Pavilion canopy was installed in an hour by the landscape crew no steel erection subs necessary! A wide load left Houston at 9am and met the crane on site. Lifting lugs included in the pre-fabricated assembly were used to hoist the entire assembly into place on its four 9' columns. We help artists to make their visions into reality, relying on an acute control and awareness of cost, schedule, and an engineering acument that starts by proposing solutions to the myriad what-if's that come with artistic creation.

For public art projects we provide two different service packages, and most often work directly for an artist, though occasionally we work for a museum or commissioning agency. On the back end, we provide Project Management services with a high level of control over all subcontractors and suppliers under the artist, from beginning of construction through completion.

We also act as an artist's liaison to all other professional parties, such as architects, engineers, contractor, building owners, building code officials, etc. This allows our clients to stay focused on the artwork, and their next project. We take pride in protecting the artist's conceptual clarity and intention of the work, as well as their fee—which is set aside in the cost control document at the beginning and never touched. In From Absence to Presence located in St.

The surfaces are gradated in a pattern of staggered and alternating Ipe wood clapboard and mirror polished stainless steel, recalling the staggered pattern of erasure poetry. As a powerful sculptural object in the context of an open field, the slave quarter form reflects its surroundings and invite visitors to engage with it as introspective focal points, creating moments of pause and reflection for visitors that walk from the parking lot to the sports complex and back.

Imbued with the resonance of the past, the field, once slave planation field and now a campus sports field, becomes part of the overall expression the Commemoration through the reflective nature of the artwork. The Commemoration juxtaposes the current site of sports field with its slave past, holding them in dramatic tension.

This connects our lives with the lives of slaves and causing us to pause and reflect on how we as Americans are connected to this history. When viewers engage the work, they see themselves, the activity surrounding a sports event reflected, interlaced with poetic text, coalescing into a visually resonant sculptural experience.

At night, the words of poetry become dramatically illuminated, projecting the text upon the ground forming a starburst pattern recalling how the North Star played a key role in helping slaves as a beacon to true north and freedom. In this manner, the illuminated sculptural quarter appears as a beacon that becomes an eternal vigil to the memory and resilience of the enslaved people who once lived, loved, worked, and resisted on the grounds of St.

Nested Hive is a play sculpture in Eastway Regional Recreation Center, Mecklenburg County, NC that celebrates not only bees, but all the primary insect pollinators of nature. The sculptural pavilion is formed from an array of parametrically defined cross-sectional slats of Ipe that are connected and colored one side by panels of painted steel to provide accented counterpoints to the natural finish of the Ipe.

The colors are based on floral hues that are most attractive to pollinating insects. As the play sculpture tapers towards one end, the parametric slats create a pattern of concentric organic contours as viewers enter the structure, evoking the beautiful layering of colors in wasp and hornet nests that are made from various plant fibers.

This composition also suggests colorful concentric quilt patterns made from different fabrics — a metaphor that celebrates the diverse community of Mecklenburg County and the unity of different ethnic and cultural traditions.

Massive acrylic sculpture by Marta Chilindron. Regal Plastics, acrylc fabrication. Root Lab, assembly and installation. UH Public Art, commissioning agency. The title of the artwork, Sunburst, has multiple layers of meaning. The artwork changes continually with the movement of the sun and the viewer, poetically evoking that technologically-driven data is continually changing in real-time.

Like the sun, data visualization makes the invisible visible. At night, the sculpture is dramatically up lit, providing a very different experience of reflected and transparent color. Lyrical Journeys, located in Nashville International Airport BN and completed in , is inspired by the theme of bridges as a rich metaphor for the musical, geographic, and cultural identity of Nashville.

As the Cumberland River runs right through the center of Nashville, the city is connected by fifteen bridges, many of them iconic. In music composition, particularly popular and country music, a bridge is a contrasting section that prepares for the return of the verse and the chorus. In stringed musical instruments, the bridge is a piece of wood that supports the strings and transmits the vibrations of the string to the resonating body.

A dancing, meandering path held in tension by sculptural wood bridges invites viewers to become participants. As they walk beneath the sculpture the strings appear to be strumming above, evoking themes of journey, collaboration, and discovery. The Memorial completed in Tennessee Riverpark, Chattanooga, TN in is inspired by the transcendent form and symbolism of a wreath. The sculptural wreath is composed of interlacing, brass colored stainless steel arc bands waterjet cut with the powerful words of tribute from the community following the tragic and heroic acts on July 16, At the center of the plaza is a circular granite bench that provides seating and a contemplative place to look upwards through the wreath to the sky above.

The words and circular form of the wreath become a powerful symbol of unity for Chattanooga. The relationship of the pillars and wreath become a metaphor for how Chattanooga will forever be connected to the Fallen Five and how the Fallen Five will always lift up the community and stand as beacons of hope, honor, valor, and sacrifice.

RE:site is the Artist team led by Norman Lee and Shane Allbritton and Metalab is providing architecture and project management services. Vessels features water jet cut stainless steel forms that poetically evoke both leaves and canoes. The water jet cut patterns are organic leaf designs that have been parametrically generated to create a visual effect that allows sunlight to pass through to produce a gradient field of dappled light.

The forms are supported by long sculptural oars that reinforce the vessels metaphor and position the water jet cut forms above viewers, creating dynamic shadow patterns that change throughout the day. Inspired by the WWII-era ship building structures in the bay, he created an assembly of components that consisted of a roof, three columns and a massive community swing suspended from three beams.

Metalab provided design optimization and construction management for this whimsical structure with structural engineering provided by Strandberg Engineers in California.

The structure was fabricated in Houston by Blumenthal Sheet Metal, hot dip galvanized and shipped to SF as a series of large assemblies to be erected in a few days on site. The waffle-grid roof is parametrically designed to minimize weight and material. The swing glides on four rods with universal joints, with an sweeping view of the bay bridge in the distance. With Metalab providing design optimization services and the concept developed by Shane Allbritton and Norman Lee of RE:site, River Spire celebrates those men and women who have served our country, in this case those veterans who have found a community at the Minnesota Veterans Home in Minneapolis.

Building off a number of inspirations, including the natural beauty of the site's nearby river and symbols of the armed forces, River Spire features a sculptural spire of Corten steel plates twisting into the air with an infill of local river stones between plates.

Cypress Landing is a 10, sq. Some of the cypress knees feature push buttons that are manually activated by visitors that operate arc streaming water nozzles located on the tree and within some of the cypress knees. Other components included within the playground are concrete seating, playground equipment and a concession stand. Metalab carried the project from the design development stage through construction, providing design optimization, construction management, fabrication coordination, and assembly.

Located in the two-story lobby of Johnson Hall, the piece features dodecahedral forms composed of thin frameworks of aluminum integrated with facets of dichroic acrylic.

Central to the geometry, the corner node of each module was designed and constructed with 3D printed aluminum. The composition of the modules is characterized by a clustered configuration, along with a singular and smaller group suspended in proximity. The form suggests the process of synthesis on a molecular or cellular scale.

With the help of Metalab's architecture and project management services, artist Matthew Geller was able to realize "I ought to," which is sited on a public sidewalk in New York, NY. The installation is comprised of three circular stools arranged underneath a canopy of corten steel and colored glass. This concave canopy has a 24 inch oculus that allows water to drain on rainy days, becoming a passive water feature.

Between the discs of colored glass, small steel medallions and linear braids decorate the canopy. This makes clear the installation's resemblance to a manhole cover, though in this case a manhole cover that has been enlarged to create a space for respite, providing shade from the sun or shelter from the rain. This public art installation by Shane Allbritton and Norman Lee of RE:site for the Durham Police Department is comprised of two pieces, one sited in front of the building and the other in the lobby, so both are visible when a visitor is outside the building.

The exterior piece, Woven Shield, is an abstraction of the Durham Police shield formed from three intersecting elements. Colorful rods weave between these three elements, evoking the convergence of fibers being pulled through a loom.

This weaving is meant to serve as a metaphor for the community; as the rods weave together, producing unexpected colors in a woven shield, so too does the community grow and change as everyone comes together. The interior piece, Sewing Peace, takes an excerpt from the Oath of Office for the Police and transforms it into a colorful wall installation. Again making use of weaving techniques, each letter in the excerpt becomes a weaving heddle that separates strands of fiber before they converge to a point.

These heddles are oriented perpendicular to the wall so the excerpt is legible from below, but from afar the strands evoke a colorful patchwork quilt.

Metalab provided construction management services for this project, translating the concept into fabrication documents, coordinating fabrication, and overseeing installation onsite. As the centerpiece of the monument, the piece of steel is suspended between two monolithic limestone forms inscribed with the words "Never Forget" in several different languages.

To further reinforce the memory of the World Trade Center, the monument is oriented to New York City, and this line of orientation is articulated in the paving of the plaza around the monument. Metalab provided project management and design optimization services for this installation developed by Shane Allbritton and Norman Lee of RE:site.

Crystal Clouds is a suspended sculpture for Charles Schwab Austin, composed of tetrahedral clouds. This crystalline form was inspired by the state gemstone of Texas, topaz, which can be found in the Hill Country. The framework for the clouds is created from aluminum and 3D printed nodes produced by Texas Metal Printing. Equilateral triangles of dichroic acrylic are added into the aluminum framework to complete the clouds. Viewing the installation from multiple viewpoints allows visitors to see the effects of light and color on the clouds.

Drawing on concepts in math and engineering, the idea behind Infinistesimals is that an original image is broken down into smaller sections, similar to how a curve gets broken down in order to be analyzed in calculus.

On the other hand, Catholics should find it easy to vote for politicians who are not only pro life, but who live it out by having a large family. If, for instance there were a politician who had a baby with Downs Syndrome and did not have an abortion, that would be a good example of a pro life person. If their running mate adopted a baby from Mother Teresa's orphanage--a baby with a severe cleft palate--that also would be a good example of a pro life candidate.

I love it. I wish more priests would "not endorse" candidates in the same manner Fr. Longenecker has. The pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute reports that the overall U. And yet the Catholic left continues to promote the discredited and dishonest meme that abortion has increased under President Bush.

The key statistic in the latest report that Ed examines is that abortion rates are falling for blacks and Latinas but far less than for whites. The question is whether the rates have fallen at a slower rate for minorities due to higher levels of poverty or due to efforts on behalf of abortion advocates that have specifically targeted these groups. Ed thinks it's the latter, and I concur wholeheartedly.

Labels: God and Country , Guns , Obama. Friday night, I got to attend my first Cleveland Indians game at Jacobs Field note: I do not use that new name that they've given to the ballpark. I took my 4-year-old sports fanatic son, Aidan, along with me to see his first ever professional baseball game. The 9th inning victory over the rival Detroit Tigers was such a great game to see for our first time at the ballpark.

Watching Fausto Carmona pummel the headlocked Gary Sheffield was icing on the cake. Of course, I had to explain to Aidan that the bench-clearing brawl we had just witnessed was inappropriate behavior and bad sportsmanship, and that Daddy was wrong to yell "Hit him again! Hit him again! We were fortunate to have 2 of the best seats in the house - on the front row along the first base line. We were practically right on the field.

Sarah's grandmother had won the seats while attending a game the week before I'd have never been able to afford those seats otherwise. And what a terrific fireworks show after the game was over. But nothing in comparison to the "fireworks" we had just witnessed on the field. One of the best and most exciting MLB games I've ever witnessed in person.

Labels: Baseball. Straight out of the Gaillardetz playbook. At Creative Minority Report , Matthew Archbold ponders why a majority of Catholic voters are likely to vote Republican again this year. So, I write this review to be faithful, to a friendship I value, to the claim in the acknowledgment of this book and to the truth. Doug asks the wrong question. Any Catholic can exercise their right to vote in any manner in which they choose. The Church to which Doug and I both belong does not tell people how to vote, in the sense of which candidate to choose.

In short, what is our duty? Sadly, in his argumentation in this book, Doug confuses or conflates the two. It is on this that I completely disagree with Doug Kmiec and am compelled to make that disagreement widely known. He confuses position with application. He recognizes that the neighbor in the womb is a human person.

Yet, he is a Federalist and believes that the decision to outlaw the killing should be returned to the States, that is application. I favor a Constitutional Amendment protecting the inalienable Right to Life and recognizing the personhood of our first neighbor. I am an abortion abolitionist. However, as an officer of the Court like Doug, I know that the reversal of Roe opens up the field to securing protection of the children and will at least slow the shedding of innocent blood while we work on outlawing the act.

I think he does as well but has backed himself into a corner. His responses at the Saddleback forum on this issue were abysmal. Doug and I used to agree that Senator McCain was wrong on his support of stem cell research.

But now it appears that Senator McCain is beginning to recognize this and is moving closer to consistency. His candidate is not. Doug, what if a group insisted that children were not persons until they were able to walk?

What if they also claimed that their position was a deeply held religious belief? Would you make the same argument? Well, the argument you now defend, that the child in the womb can be killed, without any protection against this objective violation of the Natural Law, is effectively the same argument.

These two arguments are repeatedly presented in this little book as if repetition makes them more acceptable. It does not. I refuse to join those who personally attack Doug or question the sincerity of his Catholic faith.

I do however vehemently disagree with him. I just found out that he will soon speak all over the Country trying to persuade other Catholics and other Christians to his position. However, I really did not expect Doug Kmiec to join with them in incorrectly stating the position of our Church Kmiec's snotty and condescending response to Deacon Fournier in which he refers to Sen.

McCain as Pres. Kmiec Speaks Out Garnett Takes on Prof. Again Casey Jr. What do pro-abort infanticide-supporting liars do when they get caught lying? They lie some more and accuse others of being liars. This born-alive issue is toxic to Obama and he knows it which is the reason for this despicable ad.

His record coming to light completely wrecks his strategy for winning over so-called "values voters". It's damaging him big time. Keep hitting him with it. I hope Born Alive Truth responds with another ad. Just more proof that Obama the pro-abort liar is not worthy of the support that some Catholics want to give him. This has produced a hysterical reaction from Team O that pretty much has become a One-Note Charlie when responding to any criticism As documentation proved, Obama voted against it even with the neutrality clause added.

The Obama campaign finally acknowledged that Obama had lied about his position a month ago. Because it would have actually forced doctors to provide care for live infants from abortions — or in other words, it would have worked.

Obama attempts an end run around this by making the issue about abortions. Babies born alive from abortions got left in laundry rooms to die, a practice exposed by Jill Stanek, a nurse at Christ Hospital in the Chicago area.

That was the entire reason the issue came before the Illinois legislature, but Obama reacted by denying the problem existed Thomas More, martyr, and patron of lawyers, judges, civil servants, politicians, statesmen, and large families not to mention troubled marriages. View my complete profile. Our Parish: St. You have to be really secure in your manhood to wear a skirt kilt Canon reads: "It is necessary that those who teach theological disciplines in any institute of higher studies have a mandatum from the competent ecclesiastical authority.

Oswald Sobrino of Catholic Analysis. Jeff Miller of The Curt Jester. David Schrader of Catholics for Bush. Christopher Blosser of Against The Grain. Stephen Dillard of Southern Appeal.

Blog's Parish? Thomas More, counselor of law and patron of statesmen, merry martyr and most human of saints:. Pray that, for the glory of God and in the pursuit of His justice, I may be able in argument, accurate in analysis, keen in study, correct in conclusion, loyal to clients, honest with all, courteous to adversaries, trustworthy with confidences, courageous in court.

Sit with me at my desk and listen with me to my clients' tales.