Episcopal Life Daily February 8, 2008
Episcopal Life Online is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife.
Today's Episcopal Life Daily includes:
* TOP STORY - Archives launches African American web exhibit * WORLD REPORT - EUROPE: Aged 60, World Council of Churches will meet to discuss 21st century challenges * WORLD REPORT - KENYA: Archbishop of York visits country to offer prayers, solidarity * WORLD REPORT - KENYA: Religious leaders say they must share blame for country's woes * WORLD REPORT - UNITED KINGDOM: Archbishop of Canterbury's Sharia comments stir furious response * OPINION - In defense of remaining Episcopalian, Jerry Bowyer answers critics * OPINION - Lady Liberty weeps: America should continue to offer a safe harbor for immigrants * ARTS - New CD offers songs of Christian spirituality with a gritty edge * DAYBOOK - February 11, 2008: Today in Scripture, Prayer, History * CATALYST - Fair Trade For All: How Trade Can Promote Development
_____________________
TOP STORIES
Archives launches African American web exhibit
[Episcopal News Service] The Archives of the Episcopal Church has launched an electronic publication and online exhibit titled "The Church Awakens: African Americans and the Struggle for Justice." The multimedia exhibit, available at http://episcopalarchives.org/Afro-Anglican_history/exhibit, covers the period of enslavement to the present, with emphasis on the Civil Rights era. As an educational resource for Church settings, the exhibit is designed to expand on the strength of reader input and future research.
This web-based project offers an examination of the compelling story of how African American Episcopalians struggled to claim their rightful place as full and equal members of the Church community. The exhibit brings together a narrative overview of that development with photographs, documents, videos, and previously unheard taped interviews with prominent American figures on matters of race. Figures such as Absalom Jones, George Bragg, Pauli Murray, Jonathan Daniels, and Charles Lawrence are featured along with Church organizations such as the American Church Institute, the Conference of Church Workers, and the Episcopal Society for Cultural and Racial Unity. Audio recordings include interviews with figures such as Langston Hughes and Jackie Robinson.
The exhibit arose from a 1993 commitment by the Board of the Archives of the Episcopal Church to focus the Archives' acquisitions and research services program on diversity, with an initial emphasis on the Afro-Anglican experience. The 1991 General Convention had called on the Church to conduct a wide-ranging examination of persistent institutional racism and patterns of forgetting that had overtaken the legacy of the post-Civil Rights period in Church and society. Working with a donor, the Rev. John Morris, who gave financial support to the exhibit, the Archives turned to emerging web technologies as a vehicle for making primary source materials permanently available to everyday Episcopalians and the public. The exhibit is a product of John Morris' desire to preserve a central lesson that the unified Christian community has within its grasp the capacity for extraordinary acts of justice and honor. Morris believed that such organized individual acts can renew the community and bring positive change to the larger society.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_94731_ENG_HTM.htm
More Top Stories: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife
_____________________
WORLD REPORT
EUROPE: Aged 60, World Council of Churches will meet to discuss 21st century challenges http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_94734_ENG_HTM.htm
KENYA: Archbishop of York visits country to offer prayers, solidarity http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_94739_ENG_HTM.htm
KENYA: Religious leaders say they must share blame for country's woes http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_94735_ENG_HTM.htm
UNITED KINGDOM: Archbishop of Canterbury's Sharia comments stir furious response http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_94733_ENG_HTM.htm
More World news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_ENG_HTM.htm
_____________________
OPINION
In defense of remaining Episcopalian, Jerry Bowyer answers critics
[Episcopal Life] When I wrote an article for my local newspaper (reprinted on Episcopal Life Online at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_92015_ENG_HTM.htm) taking issue with my bishop's attempt to have the Diocese of Pittsburgh secede from the Episcopal Church, I had no idea that it would spread so far around the world and provoke such strong responses. I did not want it to. The article was intended mainly for one purpose, to give encouragement to and cover for conservative priests who desired to stay, and who found themselves ostracized, criticized and under spiritual suspicion for their decision.
A large proportion of the responses I received were personally insulting. But I will not respond to those. I will, however, respond to the more substantive objections to my article and by extension criticisms of the case for remaining in the Episcopal Church.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_94736_ENG_HTM.htm
- - - - -
Lady Liberty weeps: America should continue to offer a safe harbor for immigrants
By MaryAnn Sontag
[Episcopal Life] As the winds come sweeping down the plains these days, the state of Oklahoma is sweeping out all illegal immigrants with a mighty broom. The Oklahoma Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act of 2007 that went into effect November 1 establishes criminal penalties for harboring, sheltering or transporting illegal immigrants.
It denies public benefits to such immigrants and requires businesses to use a citizenship verification system for new employees. The state lawmakers passed this law on the premise that illegal immigration was causing economic hardship and lawlessness in Oklahoma.
The journey to this new law was fueled by the events of 9/11, the momentum to have English designated as the official Oklahoma language and a growing illegal immigrant population (nearly 200 percent increase from 1990 to 2000, according to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service).
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81840_94737_ENG_HTM.htm
More Opinion: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_ENG_HTM.htm
_____________________
ARTS
New CD offers songs of Christian spirituality with a gritty edge
By Jerry Hames
[Episcopal Life] Nearly two years after performing at the Episcopal Church's General Convention where his debut album, "Rotation," became one of the Episcopal bookstore's best selling items, Isaac Everett is back with a second release.
"Transmission," a collaboration with lyricist j. Snodgrass, follows the ordo of a mass while telling a story that is rooted in Everett's and Snodgrass' experiences as young Christians in New York City.
"I wanted the songs to portray the urban, gritty feel of the city, the rush of people, the subways," says Everett, a 26-year-old musician in his final year at New York's Union Theological Seminary. "I wanted people to feel the reality of the city grind and experience the presence of Christian spirituality within that."
The album's official U.S. release comes on February 19 when Everett's band and singers will perform at Crash Mansion, an underground music venue in Manhattan's Bowery district.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81827_94725_ENG_HTM.htm
More Arts: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81827_ENG_HTM.htm
_____________________
DAYBOOK
On February 11, 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 February 11, 1978, Robert M. Anderson, former dean of Salt Lake City, was consecrated bishop coadjutor of the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota.
_____________________
CATALYST
"Fair Trade For All: How Trade Can Promote Development" from Oxford University Press, by Joseph E. Stiglitz & Andrew Charlton, 315 pages, hardcover, c. 2008, $30
[Source: Oxford University Press] Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics and author of the New York Times bestselling book Globalization and Its Discontents, Joseph E. Stiglitz here joins with fellow economist Andrew Charlton to offer a challenging and controversial argument about how globalization can actually help Third World countries to develop and prosper.
In Fair Trade For All, Stiglitz and Charlton address one of the key issues facing world leaders today -- how can the poorer countries of the world be helped to help themselves through freer, fairer trade? To answer this question, the authors put forward a radical and realistic new model for managing trading relationships between the richest and the poorest countries. Their approach is designed to open up markets in the interests of all nations and not just the most powerful economies, to ensure that trade promotes development, and to minimize the costs of adjustments. Beginning with a brief history of the World Trade Organization and its agreements, the authors explore the issues and events which led to the failure of 2003 Cancun summit and the obstacles that face the successful completion of the Doha Round of negotiations. Finally they spell out the reforms and principles upon which a successful agreement must be based.
Vividly written, highly topical, and packed with insightful analyses, Fair Trade For All offers a radical new solution to the problems of world trade. It is a must read for anyone interested in globalization and development in the Third World.
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