Episcopal Life Online Newslink May 15, 2007
Episcopal Life Online is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife.
Today's ELO Newslink includes:
* TOP STORY - Executive Council continues to invite response to draft Anglican Covenant * TOP STORY - An exciting time to be an Episcopalian, Presiding Bishop tells lay group * TOP STORY - May 20 bulletin insert: The Episcopal Church & Visual Arts * WORLD REPORT - ASIA: Christian leaders back Thai move on AIDS drugs * OPINION - When in Doubt, Love * ARTS - Dominican Sisters preach through art
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TOP STORIES
Executive Council continues to invite response to draft Anglican Covenant Bishops theology committee to offer Primates' communiqué study document
By Mary Frances Schjonberg
[Episcopal News Service] Episcopalians have begun responding to questions in a study guide aimed at helping the Episcopal Church consider the draft version of a proposed Anglican Covenant.
Congregations, diocesan deputations to General Convention and individuals can all submit comments between now and the June 4 deadline.
House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson said May 14 that some General Convention deputations have already met and formulated responses with the help of the study guide.
Responses can be e-mailed to gcsecretary@episcopalchurch.org, faxed to 212-972-9322 or mailed to Draft Anglican Covenant, The Office of the General Convention, The Episcopal Church Center, 815 Second Ave, New York, NY 10017.
The covenant study guide is not the only such tool that members of the Episcopal Church can expect to receive. At their March meeting in Texas, the House of Bishops asked its Theology Committee to develop a study document for consideration of the Primates' Communiqué. The bishops anticipate this guide will be available by early June for use by bishops and dioceses in preparation for the September meeting of the House of Bishops.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_86001_ENG_HTM.htm
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An exciting time to be an Episcopalian, Presiding Bishop tells lay group At annual Church Club dinner, Jefferts Schori notes Communion is alive and well
By Neva Rae Fox
[Episcopal News Service] This is one of the most exciting times in history to be an Episcopalian and an Anglican, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said during a May 9 presentation to the Church Club of New York, a 120-year-old layperson's group.
"The Communion is moving, in what some people see as seismic kinds of ways, but it's moving. It's not a dead and dormant thing," she said to applause.
While many tell her she has a "challenging job," Jefferts Schori answered: "I don't think that's a bad thing. I think we are meant to be challenged in the varieties of work and ministry in which we are engaged. If we're not challenged, we're likely bored, and that's not healthy for anyone."
The mission of the church remains a key topic for Jefferts Schori. "I see and I hear about people engaged in mission. The fact that the General Convention last summer adopted a set of mission priorities headed by justice and peace work, framed around the Millennium Development Goals, says that this church understands what it means to be Christian."
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_85987_ENG_HTM.htm
A multimedia presentation of the Presiding Bishop's speech is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81231_ENG_HTM.htm
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The Episcopal Church & Visual Arts focus of May 20 bulletin insert
The May 20 Episcopal Life This Week bulletin insert focuses on The Episcopal Church & Visual Arts (ECVA), a nationwide group of visual artists and arts supporters within the Episcopal community. Its mission is to encourage visual arts in the life of the Episcopal Church and to support artists within the Episcopal community and help bring visibility to their work.
Bulletin inserts are available at
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/78650_8852_ENG_HTM.htm
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WORLD REPORT
ASIA: Christian leaders back Thai move on AIDS drugs http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_85986_ENG_HTM.htm
More World news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_ENG_HTM.htm
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OPINION
When in Doubt, Love
By Dick Staub
[Religion News Service] I've been getting some complaints lately about a podcast interview I did with Sara Miles, author of an amazing new book, "Take This Bread."
Miles describes her story as an unexpected and terribly inconvenient Christian conversion. She describes herself as a blue-state, secular-intellectual, left-wing journalist with a habit of skepticism.
She describes her conversion this way: "Early one morning, for no earthly reason, I wandered into a church. I was certainly not interested in becoming a Christian, or, as I thought of it rather less politely, a religious nut. But I ate a piece of bread, took a sip of wine, and found myself radically transformed."
Her encounter with Jesus and concern for the poor morphed into a food distribution ministry where hungry neighbors gather around the Communion table to receive a week's worth of groceries. So what's not to like about this story?
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_85993_ENG_HTM.htm
More Opinion: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_ENG_HTM.htm
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ARTS
Dominican Sisters preach through art
By Charles Honey
[Religion News Service] She grew up at the foot of the Sandia Mountains of New Mexico, photographing friends and flowers with a Brownie camera.
"I was very close to the earth, and I loved nature," recalls Sister Orlanda Leyba, a photographer and Dominican nun. "I was always the one taking pictures of everybody." She hasn't stopped snapping since.
Her photos of purple coneflowers and water lilies have been displayed at the Dominican Center at Marywood, the historic motherhouse in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she took her first vows more than 40 years ago. She considers her art a way to proclaim the power and beauty of God.
"My photography is a sacred thing I do," says Leyba, 65, a teacher at Divine Child High School in Dearborn, Michigan. "I find such connection with God through the lens."
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81827_85991_ENG_HTM.htm
More Arts: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81827_ENG_HTM.htm
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