Episcopal Life Daily January 18, 2008
[Editor's note: Episcopal Life Daily will observe the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday on January 21. Full service will resume on Tuesday, January 22. Episcopal Life Weekly bulletin inserts for January 27 will be posted at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/78650_8852_ENG_HTM.htm on January 22.]
Episcopal Life Online is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife.
Today's Episcopal Life Daily includes:
* TOP STORY - Week of Prayer for Christian Unity celebrates 100 years of ecumenical commitment * TOP STORY - Support Indian Health Care Improvement Act Amendments, EPPN urges * DIOCESAN DIGEST - CENTRAL FLORIDA: Diocese working to resolve disaffiliation issues * DIOCESAN DIGEST - VIRGINIA: Diocese, Episcopal Church, other faith groups oppose Attorney General's intervention * DIOCESAN DIGEST - WESTERN NEW YORK: Buffalo cathedral choir receives first grant of its kind from U.K. music charity * WORLD REPORT - CANADA: Church is full of challenges and possibilities, primate tells students * WORLD REPORT - IRELAND: Politicians, Church leaders to address immigration * PEOPLE - Diocese of Florida honors communicator Virginia Barrett Barker * TEACHING - Bishop Payne Scholarship Fund for Black Episcopalians announced at Virginia seminary * MULTIMEDIA - Sermon: The Rev. Mark Bozzuti-Jones * OPINION - COMMENTARY: Tony Blair's public/private Catholicism * ARTS - Former costume designer leads embroidery team at Delaware parish * DAYBOOK - January 21, 2008: Today in Scripture, Prayer, History * CATALYST - Martin Luther King, Jr. - A Life
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TOP STORIES
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity celebrates 100 years of ecumenical commitment
By Matthew Davies
[Episcopal News Service] Christians around the world are observing an important ecumenical milestone this week as the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity celebrates 100 years of inspiring international events that recognize the importance of prayer and promote unity between different Christian traditions.
The Week of Prayer is observed in most countries between the Feast of the Confession of St. Peter (January 18) and the Conversion of St. Paul (January 25). In 2008, the theme is "Pray without ceasing," a Biblical verse taken from St. Paul's First Letter to the Thessalonians (1 Thes. 5:17).
Information and resources pertaining to the Week of Prayer are available at http://www.weekofprayer2008.org.
Bishop Christopher Epting, the Presiding Bishop's deputy for ecumenical and interfaith relations, acknowledged the importance of Christians uniting in prayer and commended the numerous local expressions of the 2008 Week of Prayer in which Episcopalians are involved.
Full story and list of events:
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_94112_ENG_HTM.htm
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Support Indian Health Care Improvement Act Amendments, EPPN urges
[EPPN] The Episcopal Public Policy Network (EPPN) is calling on Episcopalians to contact their United States Senators and urge them to support the Indian Health Care Improvement Act Amendments of 2007 (Senate Bill 1200) when it comes to the floor.
"Indigenous people are suffering and we are your neighbors," Janine Tinsley-Roe, the Episcopal Church's national missioner for Native American Ministries, said in an EPPN alert, which is emailed to more than 21,000 Episcopalians and religious advocates. "We live and love every bit of this country but have been historically neglected by our 'caregivers' on the local, state and especially federal levels. We need our elected officials to advocate for us and to ensure Indigenous people the resources we need to thrive. The time for justice in our health-care crisis is now."
The EPPN alert noted that Native American infant mortality is 150% greater for Indians than for Caucasian infants. Indigenous people are 650% more likely to die from tuberculosis and 318% more likely to die from diabetes compared with other groups.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_94096_ENG_HTM.htm
More Top Stories: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife
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DIOCESAN DIGEST
CENTRAL FLORIDA: Diocese working to resolve disaffiliation issues http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_94118_ENG_HTM.htm
VIRGINIA: Diocese, Episcopal Church, other faith groups oppose Attorney General's intervention http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_94114_ENG_HTM.htm
WESTERN NEW YORK: Buffalo cathedral choir receives first grant of its kind from U.K. music charity http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_94109_ENG_HTM.htm
More Diocesan news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_ENG_HTM.htm
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WORLD REPORT
CANADA: Church is full of challenges and possibilities, primate tells students http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_94097_ENG_HTM.htm
IRELAND: Politicians, Church leaders to address immigration http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_94111_ENG_HTM.htm
More World news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_ENG_HTM.htm
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PEOPLE
Diocese of Florida honors communicator Virginia Barrett Barker
[Episcopal News Service] Bishop Samuel Johnson Howard of the Episcopal Diocese of Florida (http://www.diocesefl.org) has presented a "Letter of Institution" to communicator Virginia Barrett Barker in honor of her 25 years as editor of The Diocesan newspaper, naming her "Editor and Ecclesiastical Commentator Extraordinaire."
The document reads, in part, "Writer, editor, and observer of life in the Church, you have, for nearly a quarter of a century, been called to work together with three different bishops and more clergy and lay leaders than a mere mortal could ever remember as Editor of The Diocesan. You continue to be an important part of the life of the church because 30,000 of us would not know what is going on without you and your comprehensive understanding of our church and our diocese -- not to mention your fearless reportage! You have commanded the respect and honor of church reporters, editors and communicators around the globe.
"You have never missed a deadline or failed to report the big story. Most importantly, you have, by your words and in your life, shown us all that some of the finest sharing of the gospel comes not from the pulpit, but on the pages of a broadsheet newspaper."
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_94104_ENG_HTM.htm
More People: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_ENG_HTM.htm
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TEACHING
Bishop Payne Scholarship Fund for Black Episcopalians announced at Virginia seminary
[VTS] Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS) in Alexandria has announced the Bishop Payne Scholarship Fund, an award of full tuition for any full- or part-time black student who is an Episcopalian from a province within the Episcopal Church and who is entering the Master in Divinity, Master in Theological Studies, Master of Arts in Christian Education, Anglican Studies or full-time Special Student programs.
"I am very excited about this initiative," said the Very Rev. Ian Markham, VTS dean and president. "It will strengthen the community at VTS and the wider Church as a new generation of black Episcopal leadership emerges."
The Bishop Payne Scholarship is named for the Bishop Payne Divinity School, established in 1878 in Petersburg, Virginia, to prepare black men for ministry in the Episcopal Church. The school was named for the Rt. Rev. John Payne (1815-1874) who graduated from VTS in 1836 and was the first missionary bishop to Liberia. In 1953, VTS and the Bishop Payne Divinity School merged. The assets of the Bishop Payne Divinity School became the principal for the scholarship fund to be used for the benefit of black Episcopalians preparing for the ministry. Each student receiving this award will be named a Bishop Payne Scholar.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/78650_94098_ENG_HTM.htm
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MULTIMEDIA
Sermon: The Rev. Mark Bozzuti-Jones
[Episcopal Life] The Rev. Mark Bozzuti-Jones preached at St. Paul's Chapel at Ground Zero in Manhattan on January 13. A video stream of Bozzuti-Jones' sermon is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81231_ENG_HTM.htm
More Multimedia: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80056_ENG_HTM.htm
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OPINION
COMMENTARY: Tony Blair's public/private Catholicism
By Phyllis Zagano
[Religion News Service] Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose government supported embryonic stem cell research and resisted strengthening laws against abortion, joined the Roman Catholic Church just before Christmas at a private Mass celebrated by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor.
Blair has not publicly repudiated any of his positions. Nor need he. He is a private citizen now.
But Blair apparently holds, or at least held, positions well at odds with Catholic teaching. Blair met with Pope Benedict XVI shortly before stepping down last June, ostensibly in a farewell courtesy call. In the reportedly chilly meeting, Benedict frankly discussed the Blair government's support of same-gender marriage, gay adoption, abortion, and embryonic stem cell research. A few days later, Blair stepped down, and his presumed "personally opposed" positions became truly personal.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_94101_ENG_HTM.htm
More Opinion: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_ENG_HTM.htm
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ARTS
Former costume designer leads embroidery team at Delaware parish
By Catherine Hoffman Kaser
[Episcopal Life] Many visitors to St. Barnabas' Episcopal Church in Wilmington, Delaware, are immediately struck by the hangings that decorate the front of the church and the matching vestments worn by the clergy as they administer the sacraments.
What started as a one-time project in 2004 evolved into a three-year endeavor that has beautified the church and enhanced its worship. Guided and directed by Ceeanne Brosi, a core group of less than a dozen embroiderers created eight banners -- each depicting a different bare tree strikingly mounted on deep purple fabric -- to hang in the sanctuary during Lent. Crafters drew the trees and then enlarged and copied them onto canvas or other fabrics chosen to look like tree bark. The result was so successful at evoking the mood of the season that St. Barnabas' rector, the Rev. Robert Broesler, asked Brosi to make a second set for Easter.
Brosi's flair for design made her an ideal choice to lead this effort which over its lifetime has involved close to 35 volunteers. At one time she designed sets and costumes for a local theatre group and currently arranges the altar flowers for weekly worship and for weddings, funerals and other events.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81827_94099_ENG_HTM.htm
More Arts: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81827_ENG_HTM.htm
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DAYBOOK
On January 21, 2008, the Church calendar remembers Agnes, martyr at Rome, (291-304).
* 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 21, 1549, in the first of four Acts of Uniformity, the British Parliament required all Anglican public services to exclusively use of The Book of Common Prayer.
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CATALYST
"Martin Luther King, Jr. - A Life" from the Penguin Group, by Marshall Frady, 216 pages, paperback, c. 2002, $13
[The Penguin Group] A Searching, impassioned life of the most inspirational figure of 20th-Century America from a journalist who marched at his side.
As a young journalist in the South in the 1960s, Marshall Frady walked the hot sidewalks, sat in crowded churches and courtrooms, and interviewed prominent civil rights leaders. Now the critically acclaimed biographer profiles a man whose spiritual and political leadership gained him an indelible place in the 20th-century history. In his masterly and riveting Martin Luther King, Jr., Frady draws on his twenty-five years of award-winning commentary on American race relations to give an inspiring portrait of this amazing leader and the turbulent era in which he lived.
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