Episcopal Life Online Newslink June 26, 2007
Episcopal Life Online is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife.
Today's ELO Newslink includes:
* TOP STORY - Appeals court favors Episcopal Church, diocese in Los Angeles property cases * TOP STORY - Deacons told to explore new opportunities for ministry * DIOCESAN DIGEST - CONNECTICUT: Laura Ahrens to be ordained and consecrated as bishop suffragan * DIOCESAN DIGEST - EL CAMINO REAL: Episcopal congregation celebrates church groundbreaking * DIOCESAN DIGEST - PITTSBURGH: Crews cleaning grime from Pittsburgh Episcopal cathedral * WORLD REPORT - CANADA: Primate installed amid pageantry and ceremony * OPINION - Refusing Communion: Sometimes it takes walking away to feel the hunger that keeps us at the table
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TOP STORIES
Appeals court favors Episcopal Church, diocese in Los Angeles property cases California court overturns lower court's rulings
[Episcopal News Service] A California Court of Appeal has ruled in favor of the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Los Angeles in cases where the majority of members of three Episcopal congregations voted to leave the Episcopal Church for oversight by bishops in another Anglican province.
The decision, which overturns rulings by a lower court, comes in the first of the recent cases brought to recover Episcopal Church property retained by congregations now calling themselves St. James Anglican Church, Newport Beach; All Saints' Anglican Church, Long Beach; and St. David's Anglican Church, North Hollywood. The congregations voted in August 2004 to amend their articles of incorporation, and maintain that they are now part of the Anglican Province of Uganda.
The trial court had ruled in favor of the departing congregations in August 2005. But the Fourth District Court of Appeal, in an exhaustive 77-page review of U.S. Supreme Court and California appellate decisions as well as a pertinent California statute, held that where a hierarchical church -- such as the Episcopal Church -- has determined that the real and personal property of subordinate bodies must be used and maintained for the benefit of the larger church, the courts in California must respect and enforce that determination.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_87321_ENG_HTM.htm
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Deacons told to explore new opportunities for ministry Presiding Bishop offers keynote address at biennial conference of U.S. and Canadian deacons
By Kim Forman
[Episcopal News Service] Deacons are called "to be the nags of the church," Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori told the biennial Conference of the North American Association for the Diaconate (NAAD) on June 22 at their meeting in Seattle. Reflecting the Conference theme, "Being There, Mission for a New Millennium," she encouraged the assembled deacons to explore new opportunities for ministry.
The three-day Conference opened June 21 with an evening address by Bishop Vincent Warner of the host Diocese of Olympia, and included seven workshops on topics such as the deacon in the liturgy, prison ministry, health ministry, community organizing, the Millennium Development Goals, and the practice of wellness. There were also a number of opportunities for corporate worship, including a eucharist at St. Mark's Cathedral with Olympia Bishop Suffragan Nedi Rivera as celebrant.
Jefferts Schori's keynote address to the biennial conference drew a capacity crowd of local guests and some 220 deacons from across the United States and Canada to the campus of Seattle University.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_87313_ENG_HTM.htm
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DIOCESAN DIGEST
CONNECTICUT: Laura Ahrens to be ordained and consecrated as bishop suffragan http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_87285_ENG_HTM.htm
EL CAMINO REAL: Episcopal congregation celebrates church groundbreaking http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_87280_ENG_HTM.htm
PITTSBURGH: Crews cleaning grime from Pittsburgh Episcopal cathedral http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_87286_ENG_HTM.htm
More Diocesan news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_ENG_HTM.htm
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WORLD REPORT
CANADA: Primate installed amid pageantry and ceremony http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_87318_ENG_HTM.htm
More World news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_ENG_HTM.htm
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OPINION
Refusing Communion
Sometimes it takes walking away to feel the hunger that keeps us at the table
By Kara Wagner Sherer
[Episcopal Life] I can't say for sure, but I think I understand a little how the bishops who refused to take communion at the Primates' Meeting in Tanzania might be feeling. I think I know, because I did the exact same thing when I encountered my first gay priest.
A cradle Episcopalian, I grew up in the small congregation where I got to try everything. I was an acolyte. I sang, played the flute and danced in liturgies. I taught Sunday school, led the youth group, even preached!
My favorite time of the service was communion. Our family sat towards the front, and I would come back from communion and kneel. I loved watching everyone go forward, receive and come back. I always wondered what brought such a motley collection of people together.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_87288_ENG_HTM.htm
More Opinion: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_ENG_HTM.htm
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