Episcopal Life Daily January 11, 2008
Episcopal Life Online is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife.
Today's Episcopal Life Daily includes:
* TOP STORY - Presiding Bishop inhibits San Joaquin bishop * TOP STORY - San Joaquin's remaining Episcopalians to gather for reconciliation, inclusion, celebration * TOP STORY - Plans for Holy Land conference proceed despite Jerusalem bishop's concerns * DIOCESAN DIGEST - NEW YORK: St. Bart's announces campaign to save historic building * PEOPLE - Thomas Hui Liang Ni will be first priest from mainland China to serve L.A. diocese * PEOPLE - Carol Gallagher to teach during January term at Virginia Theological Seminary * MISSION - ATLANTA: New Vinings church to begin worship January 13 * OPINION - Seeking the light: A priest and the church provide signs of hope for abused women * ARTS - Henrietta Wells remembers well 'The Great Debaters' -- she was one of them * DAYBOOK - Monday, January 14, 2008: Today in Scripture, Prayer, History * CATALYST - 40 Days: The Daily Office for Lent
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TOP STORIES
Presiding Bishop inhibits San Joaquin bishop
Action comes after Review Committee says Schofield has abandoned the Episcopal Church
By Mary Frances Schjonberg
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori on January 11 inhibited Diocese of San Joaquin Bishop John-David Schofield.
In the text of the inhibition, Jefferts Schori wrote: "I hereby inhibit the said Bishop Schofield and order that from and after 5:00 p.m. PST, Friday, January 11, 2008, he cease from exercising the gifts of ordination in the ordained ministry of this Church; and pursuant to Canon IV.15, I order him from and after that time to cease all 'episcopal, ministerial, and canonical acts, except as relate to the administration of the temporal affairs of the Diocese of San Joaquin,' until this Inhibition is terminated pursuant to Canon IV.9(2) or superseded by decision of the House of Bishops."
Jefferts Schori acted after the Title IV Review Committee certified that Schofield had abandoned the communion of the Episcopal Church.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_93559_ENG_HTM.htm
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San Joaquin's remaining Episcopalians to gather for reconciliation, inclusion, celebration
By Pat McCaughan
[Episcopal News Service] A January 26 gathering of continuing Episcopalians in the Diocese of San Joaquin and national church leaders, "Moving Forward, Welcoming All," will focus on reconciliation, inclusion, and celebration, event organizers said.
"We are just so encouraged; we're looking forward to welcoming more people," said Cindy Smith, president of Remain Episcopal, a group which opposed the December vote to realign the Central California Valley diocese with the Argentina-based Province of the Southern Cone, which has about 22,000 members and encompasses the South American nations of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay.
Former Bishop John-David Schofield had urged the realignment, approved by 42 of the diocese's 47 congregations. Clergy approved the split 70-12 and laity voted 103-10 for realignment.
But in recent weeks, momentum and enthusiasm have spiked as additional people and some congregations "have thought about what has happened, what it means to not be part of the Episcopal Church anymore" and sought out continuing communities of faith, said Smith.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_93539_ENG_HTM.htm
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Plans for Holy Land conference proceed despite Jerusalem bishop's concerns Pittsburgh bishop sends invitations to Global Anglican Future Conference
By Matthew Davies
[Episcopal News Service] Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan, moderator of the Common Cause Partnership, which describes itself as "a federation of Anglican jurisdictions in North America," has invited conservative archbishops, bishops, clergy and laity from around the world to a June 14-22 conference in the Holy Land, ignoring a plea from Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem Suheil Dawani who says he is "deeply troubled" by the planned gathering and has asked its organizers to reconsider.
Dawani, who was not consulted about the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), is concerned that it "will import inter-Anglican conflict into our diocese, which seeks to be a place of welcome for all Anglicans," he said in a January 2 statement.
GAFCON is due to be held one month prior to the Lambeth Conference when more than 800 of the Anglican Communion's bishops will descend on the University of Kent in Canterbury, England, for more than two weeks of spiritual reflection, learning, sharing and discerning.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_93531_ENG_HTM.htm
More Top Stories: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife
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DIOCESAN DIGEST
NEW YORK: St. Bart's announces campaign to save historic building http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_93535_ENG_HTM.htm
More Diocesan news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_ENG_HTM.htm
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PEOPLE
Thomas Hui Liang Ni will be first priest from mainland China to serve L.A. diocese
[Episcopal News Service] The Rev. Thomas Hui Liang Ni, 45, will become the first person from mainland China to be ordained a priest in the Diocese of Los Angeles at a service at St. John's Pro-Cathedral on Saturday, January 12.
"On behalf of the Asian American Ministries in the Episcopal Church, I rejoice in the ordination of the Rev. Thomas Ni as the first priest to be ordained from mainland China in the Diocese of Los Angeles in contemporary times," said the Rev. Dr. Winfred B. Vergara, national missioner for Asiamerica Ministries and director of Ethnic Congregational Development for the Episcopal Church.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_93536_ENG_HTM.htm
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Carol Gallagher to teach during January term at Virginia Theological Seminary
[Episcopal News Service] The Rt. Rev. Carol Gallagher, formerly assistant bishop of the Diocese of Newark and bishop suffragan of the Diocese of Southern Virginia, is teaching a course in Congregational Development during the January term at Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria.
The class is based on Gallagher's new book, Reweaving the Sacred: Congregational Development for Unique Congregations, which is to be published this spring by Church Publishing. She draws on her experience as a Native woman and a church leader to help encourage and develop the gifts and skills of congregations that are challenged by location, finances and cultural isolation. Using traditional storytelling and narrative reasoning, the students in the class will learn to articulate the unique identity and gifts of a particular congregation, while developing their leadership skills in preparation for ordained ministry.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_93538_ENG_HTM.htm
More People: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_ENG_HTM.htm
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MISSION
ATLANTA: New Vinings church to begin worship January 13 Diocesan initiative aims to 'Plant a Parish a Year'
By Lisa B. Hamilton
[Episcopal News Service] At a time when attendance in America's mainline churches seems to be at an all time low, the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta is planting new parishes at the rate of nearly one a year.
On January 13, an estimated 200 people are expected to worship at St. Benedict's Episcopal Church in New Vinings, Georgia, the third such parish plant in five years, and one which plans to grow to a 1000-member church.
"Numbers may be declining in mainline churches, but there are thousands and thousands of people who are hungry for the gospel who need to be reached," says the Rev. Alicia Schuster Weltner, Canon for Congregational Development and Ministry in the Diocese of Atlanta.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_93518_ENG_HTM.htm
More Mission: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81799_ENG_HTM.htm
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OPINION
Seeking the light
A priest and the church provide signs of hope for abused women
By Tom Woodward
[Episcopal Life] Recently, I spoke at a conference dealing with the terrible abuse of women in and around Juarez, Mexico, just south of El Paso, Texas. A young mother had finished speaking about the disappearance of her young daughter and of then finding her dead, the victim of what too many men do there. I spoke briefly about the mission of men teaching men that violence against women never has any justification.
She broke into tears to thank me, a priest, for listening to her story as no priest she could find in Juarez would listen. I reminded her that her story was sacred and every priest should hear it. Then I told her that the Episcopal Church not only had women as priests and as bishops, but also that our equivalent of the pope is a woman -- and one who cares passionately about her story and about her daughter. The stunned silence and then applause from the women in that room were deafening. It was like the sign of hope and courage and truth they had been waiting for so long had been given to them.
There are people all over the world who would give everything they have for the knowledge of what the Episcopal Church has done -- and who we have dared to be. Though their experience has been placed upon them by the forces of darkness, their yearning for the Light has been placed in their souls by God. May we be very, very proud of what little we have done.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_93557_ENG_HTM.htm
More Opinion: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_ENG_HTM.htm
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ARTS
Henrietta Wells remembers well 'The Great Debaters' -- she was one of them
By Carol E. Barnwell
[Diocese of Texas] "I told Denzel Washington he should play the part," Henrietta Bell Wells told me recently at the Houston assisted living center where the 95-year-old now resides.
Wells, a longtime member of St. James' Episcopal Church in Houston, sat in her wheelchair, wrapped in a soft snow-white sweater that matched her perfectly coiffed hair. Her manicured hands, resting in her lap, periodically danced to punctuate a vivid memory of her mentor, Wiley College debate coach Melvin B. Tolson.
Wells was the sole female member of the college's debate team from Marshall, Texas, that Tolson coached to national acclaim.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81827_93522_ENG_HTM.htm
More Arts: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81827_ENG_HTM.htm
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DAYBOOK
On Monday, January 14, 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 14, 1985, Alice Elizabeth (Betsy) Rodenmayer died. Rodenmayer served the Episcopal Church in several women's ministry leadership positions for more than fifty years.
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CATALYST
Catalyst: "40 Days: The Daily Office for Lent" from Church Publishing, Inc., compiled and edited by Frank Tedeschi, 410 pages, paperback, c. 2006, $18
[Source: Church Publishing, Inc.] Many people want to "take on" a discipline for Lent rather than "give up" something. One of the disciplines that many Episcopalians--and other Christians--wistfully think about taking on is the regimen of structured daily prayer that includes the course-reading of Scripture. Forty Days: The Daily Office for Lent offers an accessible, doable, toe-in-the-water introduction to the private recitation of Morning and/or Evening Prayer.
CONTENTS
* Rite two morning and evening prayer the Book of Common Prayer * The collects, and all Bible readings for both lectionary years, from Ash Wednesday through Holy Saturday * The Psalter as prescribed and edited for each day in Lent * An office proper for St. Joseph [March 19] and the Annunciation [March 25]
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