Episcopal Life Daily January 8, 2008
Episcopal Life Online is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife.
Today's Episcopal Life Daily includes:
* TOP STORY - Joint Working Group on Catholicity and Globalization issues communiqué * DIOCESAN DIGEST - MARYLAND: Diocese announces four nominees for 14th bishop * WORLD REPORT - BRITAIN: Muslim group angered at Rochester bishop's claim of 'no-go' areas * WORLD REPORT - KENYA: Churches join relief aid effort while pushing for talks * WORLD REPORT - SUDAN: Archbishop Marona bids farewell after eight years as Primate; election set for February * OPINION - PERSONALLY: 'A better church': Take steps to improve lives, decrease stigma of those with mental illness * DAYBOOK - Wednesday, January 9, 2008: Today in Scripture, Prayer, History * CATALYST - Give Us This Day: Lenten Reflections on Baking Bread and Discipleship
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TOP STORIES
Joint Working Group on Catholicity and Globalization issues communiqué Full communion partners stress shared Eucharist vision
By Mary Frances Schjonberg
[Episcopal News Service] A communiqué from a recent meeting of three Christian traditions who are in full communion with each other says that their shared Eucharistic vision is an ethical one through which "our churches may seek to transform the dehumanizing effects of economic, social, and cultural globalization."
The Good Shepherd Communiqué stems from a November 12-16 meeting of members of the Episcopal Church, the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (the Philippine Independent Church), and the Old Catholic Churches of the Union of Utrecht who met (http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_91998_ENG_HTM.htm). The full communion partners met at the Desmond Tutu Center at the General Theological Seminary (http://www.gts.edu/tutucenterintro.asp) (GTS) in New York to consider the theme "Catholicity and Globalization: Being Catholic Churches in the Context of a Globalized World."
Representatives of the Church of Sweden
(http://www.svenskakyrkan.se/SVK/ENGLANG.HTM) participated. Although not in a full-communion relationship with the Episcopal Church, the two communions have always had a relationship due to the many traits they share, including the historic episcopate and the three-fold order of ordained ministry.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_93408_ENG_HTM.htm
More Top Stories: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife
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DIOCESAN DIGEST
MARYLAND: Diocese announces four nominees for 14th bishop http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_93395_ENG_HTM.htm
More Diocesan news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_ENG_HTM.htm
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WORLD REPORT
BRITAIN: Muslim group angered at Rochester bishop's claim of 'no-go' areas http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_93392_ENG_HTM.htm
KENYA: Churches join relief aid effort while pushing for talks http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_93394_ENG_HTM.htm
SUDAN: Archbishop Marona bids farewell after eight years as Primate; election set for February 14 http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_93401_ENG_HTM.htm
More World news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_ENG_HTM.htm
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OPINION
PERSONALLY: 'A better church'
Take steps to improve lives, decrease stigma of those with mental illness
By Barbara Justus
[Episcopal Life] Every now and then, someone who has happened upon our website, www.eminnews.org (Episcopal Mental Illness Network), will send us an e-mail with a request for more information or a comment. We recently received one that particularly moved us because it described so eloquently what many families go through when mental illness strikes.
With her permission, we are sharing Jane's story. Jane and her husband have been active members of a church in the Midwest: greeters on Sunday mornings; involved in worship, music, mission work, the food bank, etc. Recently, Jane's husband became very ill and had to be hospitalized. It wasn't cancer or heart disease. Instead he is suffering with a serious mental illness. The response from their church family has been devastating.
Says Jane, "No one has called. No visits. One email from the parish nurse, only because I emailed her. She said not to tell anyone about my husband's illness. 'People can be mean,' she emailed back to me. She also emailed me a prayer.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_93396_ENG_HTM.htm
More Opinion: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_ENG_HTM.htm
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DAYBOOK
On Wednesday, January 9, 2008, the Church calendar remembers Julia Chester Emery, missionary (1852-1922).
* 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 9, 1868, Benjamin Bosworth Smith became the ninth Presiding Bishop.
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CATALYST
Catalyst: "Give Us This Day: Lenten Reflections on Baking Bread and Discipleship" from Church Publishing, Inc., by Christopher Levan, 123 pages, paperback, c. 2007, $12 [Source: Church Publishing, Inc.] This book is ideal for altar guilds and women who bake communion bread who want to make prayer and reflection part of their ministry. Bread speaks to us of our daily reliance upon a Maker, writes Christopher Levan. Perhaps more than any other food it brings us close to our roots as fellow creatures of God's creation. Bread is an apt metaphor for the spiritual journey.
Give Us This Day offers meditations for every day in Lent, inviting us to connect faith "our daily bread" and the world in which we live, along with recipes that range from Shrove Tuesday "No-Fret Pancakes" to Easter Challah bread. Each of the 40 meditations begins with a scripture verse and a prayer.
More Catalyst: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/83842_ENG_HTM.htm