Episcopal Life Online Newslink September 23, 2007
Episcopal Life Online is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife.
Today's ELO Newslink includes:
* TOP STORY - Bishops asked to join 'We the People' leadership * TOP STORY - Shawls will enfold bishops in Episcopal Church's prayers * TOP STORY - Episcopal Communicators help rebuild lives in Gulf Coast recovery efforts * TOP STORY - Rio Grande bishop announces intention to resign * DIOCESAN DIGEST - LOS ANGELES: Parish demands IRS apology after agency drops investigation * MULTIMEDIA - Presiding Bishop preaches at Christ Church Cathedral, New Orleans * MULTIMEDIA - Blessing of the Elysian Trumpet / Irvin Mayfield plays Amazing Grace * MULTIMEDIA - Image Gallery: Eucharist at Christ Church Cathedral in New Orleans
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TOP STORIES
Bishops asked to join 'We the People' leadership Truth and Reconciliation Commission proposed
By Pat McCaughan
[Episcopal News Service, New Orleans] "We the people" leadership, of churches, grassroots organizations and community activists, are making a difference and sparking recovery in New Orleans and can become a model for urban America, Dr Gus Newport told the Episcopal Church's House of Bishops September 23.
"I have never seen such devastation, and I've been in war zones," Newport told the joint gathering of bishops and spouses about his first few weeks in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. He is the program director for the Vanguard Public Foundation, a San Francisco-based foundation which seeks an end to racism, and promotes civil rights, economic justice, gender equality and community empowerment.
"Every evening, I would just cry, and wonder why there were no mental health experts here to help people get through this. When Columbine happened, that area was saturated with mental health professionals. How can a society like ours not think about mental health professionals, it's just plain racist," he said.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_90339_ENG_HTM.htm
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Shawls will enfold bishops in Episcopal Church's prayers
By Mary Frances Schjonberg
[Episcopal News Service] The Episcopal Church's House of Bishops, deliberating in New Orleans, has been wrapped in many people's prayers and soon they will have an outward and visible sign of those prayers.
The sign will come to them in the form of prayer shawls knit for each of them.
Shawl ministries are becoming more and more popular in Episcopal Church congregations. The shawls are made with prayers and blessings, along with yarn. Often they are blessed in a liturgy before going to recipients facing everything from the challenges of surgery and loss to the joys of childbirth and marriage.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_90325_ENG_HTM.htm
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Episcopal Communicators help rebuild lives in Gulf Coast recovery efforts
By Melodie Woerman
[Episcopal News Service] Episcopal Communicators from across the country traveled to New Orleans in mid-September to be part of the on-going efforts to rebuild the city.
The group, which timed its visit to coincide with the House of Bishops meeting, included 20 church journalists in dioceses and parishes from Hawaii to Miami to Vermont. The effort was hosted by Ann Ball, who spent 26 years as the communications professional for the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana before the hurricane destroyed enough of her work infrastructure that she gave up writing to become a case manager assisting people trying to return to their homes.
Plans for the trip were inspired by Ball's description -- during the annual Episcopal Communicators conference in April -- of the great need in her beloved New Orleans. When a request for volunteers was circulated, responses poured in.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_90316_ENG_HTM.htm
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Rio Grande bishop announces intention to resign Jeffrey Steenson will ask House of Bishops for required permission
By Mary Frances Schjonberg
[Episcopal News Service] In a September 21 letter to the clergy of the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande, Bishop Jeffrey Steenson said he intends to ask the House of Bishops meeting currently underway in New Orleans for permission to resign as the diocese's bishop.
Steenson was elected the eighth bishop of the diocese on October 24, 2004. He was consecrated as the 1000th bishop in the Episcopal Church on January 16, 2005, and installed on October 8, 2005 at the Cathedral Church of St. John in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Calling it a "very difficult letter to write as your bishop and colleague in the ordained ministry," Steenson wrote that "my conscience is deeply troubled about where the Episcopal Church is heading, and this has become a crisis for me because of my ordination vow to uphold its doctrine, discipline, and worship."
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_90305_ENG_HTM.htm
More Top Stories: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife
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DIOCESAN DIGEST
LOS ANGELES: Parish demands IRS apology after agency drops investigation http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_90320_ENG_HTM.htm
More Diocesan news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_ENG_HTM.htm
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MULTIMEDIA
Presiding Bishop preaches at Christ Church Cathedral, New Orleans
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori preached September 23 at Christ Church Cathedral in New Orleans, as part of the House of Bishops meeting.
A video stream of the Presiding Bishop's sermon is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/89878_27398_ENG_HTM.htm
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Blessing of the Elysian Trumpet / Irvin Mayfield plays Amazing Grace
The September 23 Eucharist at Christ Church Cathedral in New Orleans included the blessing of the Elysian Trumpet, hand-built by David Monette, a modern master of trumpet design, and dedicated to the memory of Irvin Mayfield Sr. and all of the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Jazz trumpeter Irvin Mayfield plays Amazing Grace on the Elysian Trumpet.
Video Streams are available at
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/89878_27398_ENG_HTM.htm
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Image Gallery: Eucharist at Christ Church Cathedral in New Orleans
An image gallery of the September 23 Eucharist at Christ Church Cathedral in New Orleans is available, along with other galleries from the House of Bishops meeting, at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/89878_27365_ENG_HTM.htm