Episcopal Life Online Newslink April 4, 2007
Episcopal Life Online is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife.
Today's ELO Newslink includes:
TOP STORY - Haitian immigrants find support in Southeast Florida diocese DIOCESAN DIGEST - WEST MISSOURI: Parish creates its own Stations of the Cross FEATURE - What are Gnostic Gospels? SPIRITUAL REFLECTION - April 6, 2007 - Good Friday - Year C [RCL]
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TOP STORIES
Haitian immigrants find support in Southeast Florida diocese
By Nan Cobbey and Mary Cox
[Episcopal News Service] Henri Petithomme, one of the Haitian immigrants who survived the three-week ordeal at sea to arrive in Florida last week, began a fast Wednesday at St. Paul and Les Martyrs d'Haiti Episcopal Church in Miami.
Petithomme's fast is in support of "Temporary Protected Status" for the 101 Haitians who survived 22 days aboard a dilapidated 40-foot boat on their journey to the United States. He will remain at St. Paul's for the duration of his fast, according to the Rev. Canon J. Fritz Bazin, rector.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_84703_ENG_HTM.htm
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DIOCESAN DIGEST
WEST MISSOURI: Parish creates its own Stations of the Cross http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_84685_ENG_HTM.htm
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FEATURES
What are Gnostic Gospels?
By Deirdre Good
[Episcopal Life] Along with thousands of other people, I recently examined the first page of the Coptic text of the Gospel of Thomas from Codex 2 of the Nag Hammadi Library on loan from the Coptic Museum in Cairo in an exhibit called In the Beginning: Bibles Before the Year 1000 at the Smithsonian's Sackler Gallery in Washington, D.C. In that exhibit, pages from the Gospel of Thomas and Codex Sinaiticus sit side by side with papyrus fragments of Paul's letters from the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin, just as they did in the ancient world. People in the first three centuries read Thomas alongside other gospels and Paul's letters. They didn't label them.
When anyone identifies the Gospels of Thomas, Mary and Philip as "Gnostic," they see behind such texts an assertion that creation of this world is an error brought about by an inferior divine being, not the transcendent true God. Those who know this truth (gnosis = knowledge, intuition) about human existence and who grasp its implications are "Gnostics." While there are many Gnostic texts in the Nag Hammadi Library, not all of them share this perspective. Judge for yourself whether it is shared by the Gospel of Thomas.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81834_84698_ENG_HTM.htm
More Features: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/78936_ENG_HTM.htm
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SPIRITUAL REFLECTION
April 6, 2007 - Good Friday - Year C [RCL]
Isaiah 52:13-53:12; Psalm 22; Hebrews 10:16-25 or Hebrews 4:14-16 or Hebrews 5:7-9; John 18-19
By Susanna Metz
[Episcopal Life] "Woman, here is your son." Then he said to his disciple, "Here is your mother."
Jesus hangs on the cross. Crowds of people stand around watching the spectacle -- some watching in horror, others with indifference, still others with a sense of triumph. "That annoying and dangerous prophet is in the last throes of death, thank God," they may be thinking. There had been cries of "Crucify!" and "Give us Barabbas!" There was the disgraceful set-up of a trial-lies, sarcasm, physical and emotional abuse, and a question, "What is truth?"
Full reflection: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/82457_84697_ENG_HTM.htm
More Spiritual Reflections: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/82457_ENG_HTM.htm
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