Episcopal Life Online Newslink July 11, 2007
Episcopal Life Online is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife.
Today's ELO Newslink includes:
* TOP STORY - Brazil talks renew mutual mission * TOP STORY - Presiding Officers appoint covenant-response group * WORLD REPORT - ENGLAND: Synod relaxes rules on wedding venues * WORLD REPORT - NIGERIA: Akinola appeals to Niger Delta militants * SPIRITUAL REFLECTION - Seventh Sunday After Pentecost (Proper 10) - Year C [RCL]
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TOP STORIES
Brazil talks renew mutual mission
Church leaders host Presiding Bishop for five-day visit
By Bob Williams
[ENS, Rio de Janeiro] -- Health and strength for the whole body of Christ were a guiding focus throughout July 6-10 meetings in Brazil where Anglican leaders nationwide welcomed Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori of the U.S.-based Episcopal Church.
Two wooden chalices -- both carved to commemorate the visit and unveiled on its opening day -- continued a central metaphor as the visit concluded with an Evening Prayer liturgy in Rio de Janeiro's historic Christ Church.
"These vessels, like the communion between our two churches, bear and strengthen the whole body of Christ," Brazil's Primate Mauricio Andrade said, speaking in Portuguese and underscoring the Church's call to spiritual transformation.
Expressing her thanks for the Brazilian Church's vitality and hospitality, Jefferts Schori, speaking in Spanish, affirmed the shared mission of the Episcopal Church and the 100,000-member Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil. "Thank you for your work in Christ," she said.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_88065_ENG_HTM.htm
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Presiding Officers appoint covenant-response group Executive Council members will propose response, develop process for input
By Mary Frances Schjonberg
[Episcopal News Service] Nine members of the Episcopal Church's Executive Council have been appointed to draft the Church's response to the first version of an Anglican covenant.
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson made the appointments as called for in Executive Council Resolution INC021, passed at the council's June meeting in Parsippany, New Jersey.
The group is charged with writing a proposed response of the Executive Council to the draft Anglican covenant for the council, to be considered at its October 2007 meeting in Dearborn, Michigan.
Part of the material the members of the Covenant Response Drafting Group will consider as they work are the more than 400 comments the council received by way of a covenant study guide it published in mid-April. Although the deadline for comments based on the Council's covenant study guide has passed, the group's chair, Rosalie Simmonds Ballentine of the Diocese of the Virgin Islands, said responses are still coming into the General Convention office and will be considered. While the group is not actively soliciting more comment, she said "we would still be open to receiving [any additional comments]."
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_88063_ENG_HTM.htm
More Top Stories: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife
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WORLD REPORT
ENGLAND: Synod relaxes rules on wedding venues http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_88064_ENG_HTM.htm
NIGERIA: Akinola appeals to Niger Delta militants http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_88050_ENG_HTM.htm
More World news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_ENG_HTM.htm
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SPIRITUAL REFLECTION
Seventh Sunday After Pentecost (Proper 10) - Year C [RCL] Amos 7:7-17 or Deuteronomy 30:9-14; Psalm 82 or 25:1-10; Colossians 1:1-14; Luke 10:25-37
By Charles Hoffacker
[Episcopal Life] In the story of the Good Samaritan that we just heard, where do the different characters end up?
The robbers have done their foul deed and have walked off stage with whatever they stole from the traveler they attacked.
The priest and the Levite have each continued on the way to Jericho after overlooking the half-dead traveler lying beside the road.
Full reflection: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/82457_87460_ENG_HTM.htm
More Spiritual Reflections: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/82457_ENG_HTM.htm