Episcopal Life Online Newslink April 5, 2007
Editor's note: Episcopal Life Online will observe Good Friday and Easter Monday, and resume its regular service on Tuesday, April 10. We wish you a blessed and joyful triduum and Eastertide.
Episcopal Life Online is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife.
Today's ELO Newslink includes:
* TOP STORY - Presiding Bishop calls for release of Haitian immigrants in letter to Bush * TOP STORY - Bulletin Insert: Episcopal Life This Week focuses on the environment * DIOCESAN DIGEST - PUERTO RICO: Easter will be especially joyful at new church in Ponce * WORLD REPORT - CANADA: Anglicans to gather in Winnipeg in June for historic General Synod * OPINION - Easter's resurrection; Orthodox holiday delivers drama, hope after years of suppression * SPIRITUAL REFLECTION - April 8, 2007 - Easter Day - Year C [RCL]
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TOP STORIES
Presiding Bishop calls for release of Haitian immigrants in letter to Bush
[Episcopal News Service] Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has written to President George W. Bush asking that the administration release the Haitian immigrants -- who survived a three-week ordeal at sea to arrive in Florida last week -- from detention and permit them to remain in the United States. "Their trauma should not be compounded by isolation and neglect," she said in an April 4 letter. "Returning them to Haiti at this time would be a cruel and unjust act."
The full text of the Presiding Bishop's letter is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_84710_ENG_HTM.htm
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Bulletin Insert: Episcopal Life This Week focuses on the environment
[ELO] With the approach of Earth Day on April 20, Episcopal Life This Week focuses on the environment, with an examination of water issues as well as a look at opportunities for environmental ministries.
Suggested for use April 15, the bulletin insert is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/78650_8852_ENG_HTM.htm
Reminder: Available for Easter Day, Episcopal Life This Week presents the Easter Message of Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori.
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DIOCESAN DIGEST
PUERTO RICO: Easter will be especially joyful at new church in Ponce http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_84711_ENG_HTM.htm
More Diocesan news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_ENG_HTM.htm
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WORLD REPORT
CANADA: Anglicans to gather in Winnipeg in June for historic General Synod http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_84706_ENG_HTM.htm
More World news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_ENG_HTM.htm
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OPINION
Easter's resurrection
Orthodox holiday delivers drama, hope after years of suppression
By Marisue Pickering
[Episcopal Life] Easter Sunday 1991 found me flying to Bulgaria on a professional fact-finding trip with four colleagues. While there, our group unexpectedly became spectators to Bulgaria's Orthodox Easter celebrations, observed a week after our Western Easter.
What we experienced was the "return" of Easter after decades of Communist suppression of religious activity. Although the country's massive 1989 governmental changes supported the right to worship, it would take until this year to mark Easter's true resurgence.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_84701_ENG_HTM.htm
More Opinion: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_ENG_HTM.htm
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SPIRITUAL REFLECTION
April 8, 2007 - Easter Day - Year C [RCL]
Acts 10:34-43; 1 Corinthians 15:19-26; John 20:1-18 or Luke 24:1-12
By Frank Hegedus
[Episcopal Life] Easter moves around a lot from year to year. Unlike Christmas, which always falls on December twenty-fifth, no matter the day of the week or the number of shopping days since Thanksgiving, Easter can fall on most any Sunday between March twenty-second and April twenty-fifth. There is, in fact, an entire section of the Book of Common Prayer devoted to finding the date of Easter Sunday in any given year. Read it some evening if you are having a difficult time falling asleep.
Before you drift off, you will learn about golden numbers and Sunday letters, astronomical and ecclesiastical equinoxes, and the phases of the moon -- all of which are critical in determining when exactly it is that we celebrate the feast of the Lord's Resurrection. In fact, the dating of Easter was one of the earliest controversies to face the early English Church and incipient Anglican community long before the time of Henry VIII. Sadly, it has not been the last. But that is another story.
Full reflection: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/82457_84700_ENG_HTM.htm
More Spiritual Reflections: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/82457_ENG_HTM.htm
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