Episcopal Life Online Newslink April 24, 2007
Episcopal Life Online is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife.
Today's ELO Newslink includes:
TOP STORY - Reform Farm Bill to reflect American values, Church leaders urge Congress TOP STORY - Malaria prevention, NetsforLife focus of April 29 bulletin insert DIOCESAN DIGEST - WASHINGTON, DC: Cathedral leads Nation in prayers for Virginia Tech victims OPINION - Never too late: A family history project brings unexpected dividends ARTS - After 9/11: a film to nurture inter-faith dialogue
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TOP STORIES
Reform Farm Bill to reflect American values, Church leaders urge Congress
[ENS] As Congress begins the work of reauthorizing the U.S. farm bill, more than a dozen Churches and faith-based organizations, including the Episcopal Church, have come together as the Religious Working Group on the Farm Bill to urge major changes in U.S. agricultural policy aimed at reducing hunger and poverty, and promoting the livelihood of farmers and rural communities in the U.S. and around the world.
The "Religious Working Group on the Farm Bill," which includes Christian denominations, major faith-based organizations and the National Council of Churches USA, has developed a statement of legislative principles for farm-bill reform (see below). Members of the group currently are in the process of visiting congressional offices and sharing those principles.
"Over the past decade, the U.S. government has made unprecedented, bipartisan commitments to address the deadly poverty that kills one person every three seconds in our world," said Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. "Reforming U.S. agricultural policy to help farmers in poor countries sell their crops is a way to follow through on that moral commitment while also improving the financial livelihoods of farmers in our own country."
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_85231_ENG_HTM.htm
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Malaria prevention, NetsforLife focus of April 29 bulletin insert
[Episcopal Life This Week] In keeping with Africa Malaria Day/Malaria Awareness Day on April 25, NetsforLife, a malaria-prevention program supported by Episcopal Relief and Development, is the focus of this week's bulletin insert, which includes a report from Zambia by Mary Frances Schjonberg.
Available for download at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/78650_8852_ENG_HTM.htm, this week's bulletin inserts are offered in full color and black and white formats on either a full 8.5" by 11" sheet or half of an 8.5" by 11" sheet double-sided.
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DIOCESAN DIGEST
WASHINGTON, DC: Cathedral leads Nation in prayers for Virginia Tech victims http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_85259_ENG_HTM.htm
More Diocesan news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_ENG_HTM.htm
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OPINION
Never too late
A family history project brings unexpected dividends
By Richard Bamforth
[Episcopal Life] It is never too late to do a number of things, like cleaning up your room or completing a project begun long ago or making up with your wife after a silly spat or even learning a foreign language. All such endeavors are worth a serious try or a new burst of energy and motivation. Too often we just let them lie unfinished, untried or on a low simmer, leaving ourselves and others frustrated and unsatisfied.
I have discovered, however, that getting unwittingly involved in someone else's project can end up solving our own problems or helping us to learn and grow in areas we never dreamed were possible. Growth in any dimension can have profound spiritual benefits when we perceive its broader implications.
A number of years ago, my older brother felt compelled to compile and transcribe the trunk load of handwritten diaries, letters and notes left by our deceased sea-captain father. The material included harrowing tales of disasters at sea, from murder and mayhem to sinking by enemy torpedoes. There also were accounts of childhood poverty, shoveling manure, meeting girlfriends, being mugged by bootleggers, coping with striking unions and the decline of American shipping. Such things were combined with the conflicts of marriage and parenting, illness and aging. Also included were mundane details of haircuts, family arguments, household chores and lots of nautical terms needing explanation for landlubbers.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_85234_ENG_HTM.htm
More Opinion: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_ENG_HTM.htm
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ARTS
After 9/11: a film to nurture inter-faith dialogue
By Joanna Corman
[Religion News Service] In the days following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, images of the smoldering World Trade Center towers and a bearded and turbaned Osama bin Laden flashed constantly across TV screens.
So did images of President George W. Bush, espousing national unity and speaking of the kindness that Americans of all backgrounds were showing each other in a time of grief.
The messages filling Valarie Kaur's e-mail inbox, however, spoke of something else.
The 20-year-old Stanford University student heard of fellow Sikhs who were harassed, beaten and even murdered. Initially, she felt numb, unsure how to respond. Then she remembered her grandfather and the core Sikh belief he taught her: Nam Dan Isnan.
"In order to realize yourself," Kaur remembers him saying, "in order to realize God, you must act here and now without fear."
So, armed with a video camera and the help of her 18-year-old cousin, Amandeep Singh Gill, Kaur drove across the country to capture the stories of Sikhs, Muslims, Arabs and others who were victims of a post-9/11 backlash.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81827_85236_ENG_HTM.htm
More Arts: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81827_ENG_HTM.htm
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