3.  The Bush Administration prepares to depart.  The eight-year presidency of George W. Bush will end less than twenty days after the new year begins.  By any measure, the eight years since January 20, 2001 have been momentous in terms of both domestic and international issues.  Though first elected on a platform of domestic proposals, the Bush presidency was consumed with foreign policy concerns within months of assuming office.  The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 reset the agenda for the Bush administration and the nation.  Within months the United States was at war against Islamic extremism in Afghanistan, followed by a massive invasion of Iraq that toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein.  The invasion of Iraq led to a quick military victory, but the goal of creating a stable society in post-Saddam Iraq defied American plans.  A "surge" in military support led to considerable progress on the ground in Iraq and, as the Bush years came to a close, signs of a functioning civic culture provided hope for the nation's future, even as a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan added new concern. Growing tensions between India and Pakistan and between Israel and Hamas brought the year 2008 to a troubling close.  Domestically, President Bush will be remembered for his advocacy on behalf of human life, including a policy that limited federal funding of research using human embryos and his nomination of Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito to the United States Supreme Court.

4.  Controversy in the Episcopal Church leads to schism.  Pressures in the Episcopal Church USA reached a breaking point as more congregations and dioceses voted to leave the denomination over its actions and policy positions on homosexuality -- most centrally the election of an openly homosexual bishop in 2003.  Several churches had taken refuge under Anglican churches in Africa and the Southern Cone of South America, but as the year came to a close a new Anglican Church in North America had been declared.  Court battles over church property continued, but conservatives won a major decision in Virginia in late December.

5.  California voters approve Proposition 8.  The decision of the California Supreme Court to mandate the legalization of same-sex marriage in the state set the stage for a battle to amend the state's constitution to affirm marriage exclusively as the union of a man and a woman.  This measure affirmed what California voters had overwhelmingly affirmed just a few years earlier, but the battle to pass Proposition 8 was heated and close.  In the end, the measure passed by a 52-48 vote, but appeals put the question back before the California Supreme Court.  The vote sent a clear signal to the nation -- voters support marriage as a heterosexual union.  Votes in Arizona and Florida added weight to this signal.  By the end of 2008, a majority of the nation's citizens lived in states that had adopted similar measures.