Episcopal Life Daily January 3, 2008
Editor's note: New Sunday bulletin-insert editions: Episcopal Life Weekly editions for January 6 feature the Feast of the Epiphany and a unique challenge mixing football and mission. January 13 editions will focus on the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, and January 20 editions on remembering Martin Luther King Jr. Episcopal Life regrets that technical difficulties have delayed the posting of the January 6 inserts. They will appear as soon as possible at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/78650_8852_ENG_HTM.htm
Also ahead: Further reports of news and mission in the Episcopal Church's San Joaquin diocese will be posted to Episcopal Life Online as they become available.
Episcopal Life Online is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife.
Today's Episcopal Life Daily includes:
* TOP STORY - Nevada consecration set for January 5 * TOP STORY - Churches Uniting in Christ to gather in plenary meeting * DIOCESAN DIGEST - NEW YORK: Historic parish, in midst of 300th anniversary, holds young artists contest * WORLD REPORT - KENYA: WCC head urges politicians to negotiate for peace * WORLD REPORT - PAKISTAN: Churches urge international support after Bhutto's death * PEOPLE - Harold Lewis to keynote Episcopal Divinity School's 21st Absalom Jones Lecture * FEATURE - 'A house with windows': North Carolina congregation builds a foundation and reaches out to its community * DAYBOOK - January 4: Today in Scripture, Prayer, History * CATALYST - Fighting with the Bible
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TOP STORIES
Nevada consecration set for January 5
Dan Thomas Edwards will become diocese's 10th Bishop
[Diocese of Nevada] The consecration of the Rev. Dan Thomas Edwards as 10th Bishop of the Diocese of Nevada is set for 2 p.m. on January 5 at the Henderson Convention Center near Las Vegas.
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, ninth Bishop of Nevada, will be the chief consecrator. Co-consecrators will be Arizona Bishop Kirk Smith, Atlanta Bishop Neil Alexander and retired Northern California Bishop Jerry Lamb, who has been interim Bishop in the diocese of Nevada.
Visiting bishops will include: Robert Anderson, Assisting in Los Angeles; Mark Handley Andrus of California; Harry B. Bainbridge of Idaho; Barry L. Beisner of Northern California; J. Michael Garrison of Western New York; Carolyn Tanner Irish of Utah; Bavi (Nedi) E. Rivera, Suffragan of Olympia; and James E Waggoner Jr. of Spokane.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_93317_ENG_HTM.htm
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Churches Uniting in Christ to gather in plenary meeting
[CUIC] Churches Uniting in Christ (http://www.cuicinfo.org) (CUIC), for the first time since its inauguration (http://www.episcopalchurch.org/6947_20620_ENG_HTM.htm) in January 2002, will gather delegates from its member communions January 11-14 in St. Louis, Missouri. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori will be the chief celebrant at a January 14 Eucharist service.
Each communion will bring a delegation that includes its head of communion, ecumenical officer, and representatives to the three CUIC task forces: local and regional, ministry, and racial justice.
The purpose of the plenary meeting is to rekindle and refocus the CUIC relationship and to identify how the member churches will go into the future, according to a CUIC news release. Each task force will make a presentation, and much time will be spent in small group dialogue.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_93316_ENG_HTM.htm
More Top Stories: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife
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DIOCESAN DIGEST
NEW YORK: Historic parish, in midst of 300th anniversary, holds young artists contest http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_93327_ENG_HTM.htm
More Diocesan news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_ENG_HTM.htm
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WORLD REPORT
KENYA: WCC head urges politicians to negotiate for peace http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_93319_ENG_HTM.htm
PAKISTAN: Churches urge international support after Bhutto's death http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_93321_ENG_HTM.htm
More World news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_ENG_HTM.htm
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PEOPLE
Harold Lewis to keynote Episcopal Divinity School's 21st Absalom Jones Lecture
[ENS] The Rev. Dr. Harold T. Lewis, rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, will serve as the keynote speaker on February 13 for Episcopal Divinity School's (EDS) 21st annual Absalom Jones Lecture. He will also serve as preacher at the Eucharist on February 14.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_93322_ENG_HTM.htm
More People: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_ENG_HTM.htm
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FEATURES
'A house with windows'
North Carolina congregation builds a foundation and reaches out to its community
By Augusta Anderson
[Episcopal Life] When Diocese of Western North Carolina Bishop Porter Taylor made his annual visit to St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Burnsville last spring, joyful chaos welcomed him.
Parishioners busied themselves to ready their barely year-old sanctuary for the morning's festivities. Family and friends of four confirmands gathered in the entryway. Parents and godparents of three children scheduled to be baptized stood quietly near the font as the priest gave them final instructions. Madrinas, padrinos and parents of the 12 children who were being presented for First Communion met with their teachers for prayer.
Salvador Balthazar sat near a bank of six-foot picture windows that stretch along the east side of the church. Reverently he said to his friend Eloise Kaeck, "Esta un pueblo con ventanas." (This is a house with windows.)
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81834_93312_ENG_HTM.htm
More Features: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/78936_ENG_HTM.htm
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DAYBOOK
On Friday, January 4, 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 this day in 1581, James Ussher, Irish theologian, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, was born in Dublin, Ireland. Ussher was a prolific scholar, who most famous for publishing a chronology that purported to time and date Creation to the night preceding October 23, 4004 BC.
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CATALYST
Catalyst: "Fighting with the Bible" from Church Publishing, Inc., by Donn Morgan, 126 pages, paperback, c. 2007, $17
[Source: Church Publishing, Inc.] In times of conflict, the Bible is often used as a club to beat those whose opinions differ from one's own. We recoil from such usage, yet the Bible actually represents many diverse and conflicting points of view. It is like a library, full of books that speak to all sides of every question.
Like Christians today, the communities and individuals who wrote the biblical texts often strongly disagree with each other. Ruth and Ezra, Isaiah and Ezekiel, Micah and Joel, Deuteronomy and Daniel, Mark and John. What would they say to each other? Do they have anything in common? Each of these voices is firmly committed to his or her specific view of "the truth," whether it reflects a particular place or community, a prophet, a style of worship, or an "understanding" of who is in and who is out. The author guides us in considering how we can do justice to this welter of disparate voices.
"Professor Morgan offers an image of living with difference--'the pulse of a community that embraces biblical diversity through dialogue.' That heartbeat, alternating between contraction and release, is a sign of both the irresolvable, intrinsic tension of scripture and the living presence of God in community. Here is an invitation to hear and live faithfully with the heartbeat of God." -- Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori
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