Episcopal Life Daily January 2, 2008
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In addition to Episcopal Life Daily, occasional releases will be issued as breaking news occurs.
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Today's Episcopal Life Daily includes:
* TOP STORY - Pakistan crisis draws comment, prayers from Church leaders * TOP STORY - Jerusalem bishop objects to conservative Anglicans' planned Holy Land pilgrimage * TOP STORY - Canterbury highlights environmental concerns in New Year message * DIOCESAN DIGEST - Louisiana, Southern Ohio dioceses mix football, mission to support hurricane recovery efforts * WORLD REPORT - CANADA: Bishops meet with clergy to discuss network * WORLD REPORT - ENGLAND: Church responds to draft Anglican Covenant * WORLD REPORT - EUROPE: Taizé urges young people to promote unity between churches * WORLD REPORT - IRELAND: Church responds to draft Anglican Covenant * WORLD REPORT - UGANDA: Bishop calls for marriage across tribes; Orombi prays for calm in Kenya * PEOPLE - Harold George Hultgren, senior canon of Los Angeles diocese, dies at 87 * TEACHING - African American Episcopal Historical Collection obtains two Crite lithographs * OPINION - COMMENTARY: In a new year, where shall we place our hope? * SPIRITUAL REFLECTION - Feast of the Epiphany - Year A [RCL] * DAYBOOK - January 3: Today in Scripture, Prayer, History * CATALYST - Welcome to Sunday: An Introduction to Worship in the Episcopal Church
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TOP STORIES
Pakistan crisis draws comment, prayers from Church leaders
By Matthew Davies
[Episcopal News Service, London] The recent assassination of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and the resulting civil unrest has caused Church leaders to speak out against the instability that has roiled the South Asian Islamic Republic for years and raise concerns for the welfare of the country's Christian community.
Pakistan-born Bishop Michael Nazir Ali of Rochester, England described Bhutto's "murder by extremists" as "a body blow for freedom and democracy in Pakistan."
Bhutto had returned to Pakistan on October 18, 2007 after years of exile following Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf granting her amnesty and dropping all corruption charges against her.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_93265_ENG_HTM.htm
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Jerusalem bishop objects to conservative Anglicans' planned Holy Land pilgrimage
By Matthew Davies
[Episcopal News Service, London] A group of conservative Anglican leaders, including several Primates, who met in Nairobi in December, have announced that they will invite bishops, senior clergy and laity from every province of the Anglican Communion to attend a June 15-22 Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) in the Holy Land.
But the Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem, the Rt. Rev. Suheil Dawani, has objected (http://www.j-diocese.org/newsdetail.php?id=34), saying that he was not consulted about the planned conference that is set to be held in his diocese.
"I am deeply troubled that this meeting, of which we had no prior knowledge, will import inter-Anglican conflict into our diocese, which seeks to be a place of welcome for all Anglicans," Dawani said in a January 2 statement urging the organizers to "reconsider this conference urgently."
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_93270_ENG_HTM.htm
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Canterbury highlights environmental concerns in New Year message
[Episcopal News Service] In his New Year message filmed in Canterbury Cathedral and at a nearby recycling center, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams encourages a more eco-conscious society and warns against a "disposable" attitude to living.
The message first aired on the U.K.'s BBC 2 television channel on New Year's Eve and repeated on BBC 1 at midday on New Year's Day. It becomes the Archbishop of Canterbury's first New Year message to be subsequently available on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6qGu4vQJFA.
"Despite constant talk about recycling and thinking 'green' -- we're still a society that produces fantastic quantities of waste," he says. "From the big issues around toxic industrial and nuclear waste to the domestic questions of managing day-to-day waste and the build-up of stuff around us that can't be recycled, it's not something we can ignore."
Full story and message:
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_93263_ENG_HTM.htm
More Top Stories: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife
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DIOCESAN DIGEST
Louisiana, Southern Ohio dioceses mix football, mission to support hurricane recovery efforts http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_93258_ENG_HTM.htm
More Diocesan news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_ENG_HTM.htm
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WORLD REPORT
CANADA: Bishops meet with clergy to discuss network http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_93251_ENG_HTM.htm
ENGLAND: Church responds to draft Anglican Covenant http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_93266_ENG_HTM.htm
EUROPE: Taizé urges young people to promote unity between churches http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_93268_ENG_HTM.htm
IRELAND: Church responds to draft Anglican Covenant http://www.ireland.anglican.org/cmsfiles/pdf/Information/Submissions/ac_r esp 1107.pdf
UGANDA: Bishop calls for marriage across tribes; Orombi prays for calm in Kenya http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_93269_ENG_HTM.htm
More World news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_ENG_HTM.htm
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PEOPLE
Harold George Hultgren, senior canon of Los Angeles diocese, dies at 87 http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_93254_ENG_HTM.htm
More People: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_ENG_HTM.htm
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OPINION
COMMENTARY: In a new year, where shall we place our hope?
By Phyllis Zagano
[Religion News Service] Once the Christmas frenzy ends we quietly collect the year's memories, review what's happened, and hope for what's ahead.
Here's my news round-up for 2007:
In Zarinkhel, Afghanistan, U.S. Army medics treated children's infections, cuts and colds, and handed out gloves and winter jackets. Once the Americans left, the Taliban collected the clothing and made a bonfire.
In Para, Brazil, a 15-year-old girl arrested for petty larceny was jailed for nearly a month with 34 male inmates who repeatedly raped her. The judge who imprisoned her, Clarice Maria Andrade, reportedly ignored a police request to transfer the girl.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_93256_ENG_HTM.htm
More Opinion: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_ENG_HTM.htm
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TEACHING
African American Episcopal Historical Collection obtains two Crite lithographs
[Virginia Theological Seminary] Two hand-colored offset lithographs by Allan Rohan Crite, an African American Episcopalian and renowned artist, were donated to Virginia Theological Seminary's African American Episcopal Historical Collection (AAEHC). Housed at the Seminary's Bishop Payne Library, the AAEHC collects and preserves materials about African American Episcopalians and makes those resources available both for scholarly research and for the education of the wider community.
Purchased with funds from a grant from the Lippincott Fund of St. Thomas Episcopal Church, New York, the Crite lithographs, "In the Beginning" and "Glory to God on High," incorporate modern urban scenes, a characteristic common in Crite's works.
Allan Rohan Crite, known as "the granddaddy of the Boston art scene," served as the dean of African-American artists in New England and was renowned for his documenting of African Americans through scenes of everyday life in his "neighborhood paintings," his illustrations of Negro spirituals, and his images of religious themes. As Crite himself explained in the afterword for his The Revelation of Saint John the Divine: the King James Version, "I have tried to show through my drawings the sweep of the cosmic forces of Good and Evil in combat set against the background of the contemporary city. The worldly Babylon and the heavenly Jerusalem have particular relevance for today given our global turmoil and struggle...I wanted to help us share in the vision of Saint John the Evangelist as he speaks to us today, in terms of current times and circumstances."
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/78650_93253_ENG_HTM.htm
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DAYBOOK
On Thursday, January 3, 2008...
* 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 January 3, 1989, the House of Bishops consented to the election of Barbara C. Harris, the first woman bishop in the Anglican Communion.
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SPIRITUAL REFLECTION
Feast of the Epiphany - Year A [RCL]
Isaiah 60:1-6; Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14; Ephesians 3:1-12; Matthew 2:1-12
By Debbie Royals
[Sermons That Work] Celebrating the birth of Jesus is an incredible opportunity for all Christians to begin again ? be born again ? to a life of transformation, first of ourselves and then as instruments of transformation in the world. Our scripture readings today mark the feast of the Epiphany, a word that Webster defines as "to show forth, manifest" and "the revealing of Jesus as Christ to the Gentiles in the persons of the Magi" and also "a moment of sudden intuitive understanding; flash of insight." The definition of "epiphany" is apparent in our readings today. We are invited through the feast and its meaning to understand what it means to be a Christian and what God seeks to reveal to us and through us.
Since the early third century, the Eastern church celebrated the feast of the Epiphany honoring the baptism of Jesus. Together, the feasts of Epiphany, Easter, and Pentecost brought together water and light as imagery representing new life. But during the fourth century, the Western church disassociated the baptism from the feast of the Epiphany, emphasizing instead the manifestation of the Good News to the Gentiles through the figure of the Magi. But the symbolism of light and baptism come to life as we consider our readings today along side the season of the year.
Only weeks ago we experienced the shortest day of the year, winter solstice; and now more light, more day comes with each new dawn. Considering that it is much more difficult to see even the most obvious things in the dark, this season invites us to travel toward the light so that we might see what it reveals. But it also compels us to bring all our gifts, no matter how humble, to honor Jesus and all that Jesus stands for in our lives and the world.
Full reflection: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/82457_93272_ENG_HTM.htm
More Spiritual Reflections: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/82457_ENG_HTM.htm
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CATALYST
"Welcome to Sunday: An Introduction to Worship in the Episcopal Church" from Church Publishing, Inc., by Christopher L. Webber, 110 pages, paperback, c. 2003, $11.95
[Source: Church Publishing, Inc.] The perfect book for newcomers who are often confused by the worship service, Welcome to Sunday is also an excellent book for those who have been sitting in the pews without fully understanding what happens on Sunday morning. Episcopal priest Christopher Webber takes the reader from the sidewalk outside the church, guides them through the service, and sends them out again when the service has ended. Webber explains the postures, the Christian year, the colors we use during various seasons, and all the elements in the Service of the Eucharist. As in Webber's very popular Welcome to the Episcopal Church, the tone of the easy-to-read book is conversational, making it useful for parish study.
To order: Episcopal Books and Resources, online at http://www.episcopalbookstore.org, or call 800-903-5544 -- or visit your local Episcopal bookseller, http://www.episcopalbooksellers.org
More Catalyst: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/83842_ENG_HTM.htm