Episcopal Life Online Daybook -- Today is Monday, October 15, 2007. The Church calendar remembers Teresa of Avila, Nun (1515-1582).
* Today in Scripture: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/82457_ENG_HTM.htm * Today in Prayer: Anglican Cycle of Prayer: http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm) * Today in History: On this day in 1881, William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, was born in Exeter, England.
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MISSION
Ohio parish pioneers affordable housing for thousands
By Heidi Bright Parales
[Episcopal News Service] Lisa Tippet found the stepping stone she needed to earn a bachelor's degree and for her family to purchase their first home. Tippet's family is one of more than 200 under-housed families who have gained the financial grounding they needed to purchase a home, all through a single church's pioneering initiative.
Foundational to their success is a $5 million affordable-housing endeavor begun 20 years ago when parishioners of St. Thomas Episcopal Church (http://www.stthomasepiscopal.org), in Terrace Park, Ohio, desired to express their faith as a "church of compassion." They created Thomaston Woods in Amelia, Ohio, which houses more than 100 families in affordable town homes, according to Carol Peterson, the junior warden for St. Thomas parish at the time.
The church's enterprise has proven so successful that Diocese of Southern Ohio (http://www.episcopal-dso.org) Bishop Tom Breidenthal blessed and dedicated the church's second major affordable-housing initiative on October 14. The new venture, Thomaston Meadows, St. Thomas' new, $1.5 million housing initiative adjacent to Thomaston Woods, offers 13 affordable apartments for seniors.
"Our parishioners harnessed their Christian commitment to their professional expertise and reached out in a dynamic way," said the Rev. Thomas Wray, rector of St. Thomas.
The effort, said Peterson, "gave so many talented people the opportunity to put their professional skills to work for the Lord. This, coupled with the movement of the Holy Spirit, gave the endeavor its success."
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_90944_ENG_HTM.htm
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Anglican Women's Empowerment evaluates mission, reviews priorities
[Episcopal News Service] Anglican Women's Empowerment (http://www.episcopalchurch.org/32862_58334_ENG_HTM.htm) (AWE) was busy during the summer evaluating its work and developing a planning process to establish its priorities for the next three years. In May 2007, AWE contracted with Fenton Communications, a New York City-based organization with a special practice focused on women and international issues, to review its mission and identity and recommend concrete steps to achieve greater consistency, focus, and impact, both internally and externally. The final report was discussed at AWE's September 19 meeting.
During the coming year, a transition team, headed by AWE founder Phoebe Griswold, will create a roadmap/time line to help move AWE to its next chapter. An interim administrator position has been created, reporting to the Episcopal Church's Office of Women's Ministries (http://www.episcopalchurch.org/women), to ensure the smooth operation of events at the 52nd United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (http://www.episcopalchurch.org/uncsw.htm) (UNCSW), set for February 25 to March 7, 2008. The theme is "Financing for gender equality and the empowerment of women."
A delegation of about 25 international women from around the Anglican Communion is expected to participate as well as a smaller group of Episcopal Church delegates, including 2 or 3 from Province 9. In addition, a larger gathering of women is being planned to overlap with UNCSW to address the Beijing Platform for Action using Beijing Circles (http://www.episcopalchurch.org/41685_73656_ENG_HTM.htm), the Episcopal Church's response to Millennium Development Goal #3 that focuses on promoting gender equality and empowering women.
AWE is an international grassroots movement founded in 2003 to promote gender equality and to use the power of women to pursue a humane agenda worldwide.
For more information, email Kim Robey at krobey@episcopalchurch.org
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Catalyst: "The Church of the Triune God: The Cyprus Agreed Statement of the International Commission for Anglican-Orthodox Theological Dialogue 2006" from The Anglican Communion Office, 120 pages, paperback, c. 2006, $16.95
[Source: The Anglican Communion Office] Anglican-Orthodox dialogue began in 1973, when the Anglican-Orthodox Joint Doctrinal Discussions (A/OJDD) held its first meeting in Oxford. The first phase of the dialogue was concluded by the publication of The Moscow Agreed Statement in 1976. The publication of The Dublin Agreed Statement in 1984 brought its second phase to a conclusion. Both statements recorded a measure of agreement on a range of specific topics, while acknowledging continuing divergence on others.
The third phase of the dialogue began in 1989, when the commission was re-constituted as The International Commission for Anglican - Orthodox Theological Dialogue (ICAOTD) under the chairmanship of Metropolitan John of Pergamon and Bishop Henry Hill (succeeded in 1990 by Bishop Mark Dyer) and drawing together senior clergy and theologians from across the Eastern Orthodox Churches and the Anglican Communion. Its task has been to consider the doctrine of the Church in the light of the doctrine of the Trinity, and to examine the doctrine of the ordained ministry of the Church. Particular attention has been given to the question of who may be ordained to the presbyterate and episcopate. This third phase of the dialogue has given further consideration to ecclesiological issues discussed in earlier phases, and to aspects of Trinitarian doctrine.
The Statement sets out significant material on the life of the Church which is timely and pertinent to many of the current debates within Anglicanism. It will be offered for consideration at the next Lambeth Conference in 2008.
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