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Daybook -- Today is Friday, January 19, 2007.
* Today in Scripture: Daily Office meditation: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm * Today in Prayer: Anglican Cycle of Prayer: http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
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Mariners receive record number of handmade Christmas gifts
[ENS] The Seamen's Church Institute (SCI) (http://www.seamenschurch.org/default.asp) of New York and New Jersey announced January 18 that Christmas 2006 gifts to mariners reached a record 16,210 hand-knit items, homemade cookies, and cards from children.
The organization said in a news release that it distributed 7,996 knitted gifts to deep-sea mariners and 4,264 knitted scarves to America's river mariners. Gulf Coast mariners received 3,950 gifts that included homemade cookies.
"These handmade gifts make a lonely, isolated and dangerous job working on the waters on Christmas Day a bit brighter. Mariners treasure these gifts that show they are not forgotten. They carry this witness of God's love with them on the high seas and on America's rivers," said the Rev. Jean R. Smith, an Episcopal priest and SCI's executive director.
The Institute received hand-made presents from almost 4,000 knitters representing every State as well as gift items from congregations in its River Friendly Churches project.
The Seamen's Church Institute distributes the Christmas gifts to seafarers coming into the Port of New York and New Jersey and to America's river mariners along 2,200 miles of America's inland waterways from Pittsburgh to New Orleans to Houston.
The tradition of hand-knit gifts for the Christmas-at-Sea program stretches back to 1898 during the Spanish American War. Today, the knitted items include hats, scarves, vests, and socks collected year-round at the Institute's international headquarters in Lower Manhattan.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_81292_ENG_HTM.htm
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Catalyst: "Praying: The Rituals of Faith" from Church Publishing, Inc., by Lucinda Mosher, 200 pages, paperback, $16
[Source: Church Publishing, Inc.] -- Praying is the second in a series of books that offer Christians a new way of understanding what it means to live and worship among America's many faiths, and introduces them to the religions that make up the American neighborhood. Praying will explore public, family, and individual worship in Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Baha'i, Zoroastrianism, American indigenous spiritualites, Chinese spiritualities (Confucianism, Taoism), Shinto, and Afro-Caribbean religions.
To order: Episcopal Books and Resources online at http://www.episcopalbookstore.org or call 800-903-5544.
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