Episcopal Life Daily April 8, 2008
Episcopal Life Online is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife.
Today's Episcopal Life Daily includes:
* TOP STORY - Frank Harris Vest Jr., eighth bishop of Southern Virginia, dies at 72 * DIOCESAN DIGEST - PENNSYLVANIA: In Philadelphia, Desmond Tutu visits nation's first black Episcopal church * PEOPLE - NPR's Juan Williams named keynoter for UBE's 40th annual assembly * PEOPLE - William S. Wade bids farewell to St. Andrew's-Sewanee School * TEACHING - Diverse new learning opportunities offered at General Theological Seminary * OPINION - COMMENTARY: Oscar films probe problem of evil but offer no way out * DAYBOOK - April 9, 2008: Today in Scripture, Prayer, History * CATALYST - Religion in American Politics: A Short History
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TOP STORIES
Frank Harris Vest Jr., eighth bishop of Southern Virginia, dies at 72
[Episcopal News Service, Diocese of Southern Virginia] The Rt. Rev. Frank Harris Vest, Jr., eighth bishop of Southern Virginia, died on April 5 in Lynchburg, Virginia. He was 72.
Vest was bishop coadjutor of Southern Virginia from 1989 to 1991, and bishop diocesan until 1998. In retirement he served as interim rector of St. Barnabas and Trinity Episcopal churches, interim chaplain at Virginia Episcopal School, and interim rector at St. John' s Church, all in Lynchburg.
Vest was known for "his abiding commitment to social justice combined with his radical hospitality to those whose opinions differed from his own," according to the Rev. Michael Radford Sullivan, now rector of St. John's.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_96327_ENG_HTM.htm
More Top Stories: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife
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DIOCESAN DIGEST
PENNSYLVANIA: In Philadelphia, Desmond Tutu visits nation's first black Episcopal church http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_96331_ENG_HTM.htm
More Diocesan news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_ENG_HTM.htm
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PEOPLE
NPR's Juan Williams named keynoter for UBE's 40th annual assembly
By Daphne Mack
[Episcopal News Service] Juan Williams, an Emmy Award-winning American writer and radio and television correspondent, will deliver the keynote address at the 40th annual conference and meeting of the Union of Black Episcopalians (UBE).
Williams, an Episcopalian, is a senior correspondent at National Public Radio (NPR) who has written for The Washington Post and regularly appears on Fox News and PBS.
"We are ecstatic that Juan Williams has confirmed to give our keynote address this year at the 40th-anniversary conference," said the Rev. Martini Shaw, conference dean and rector of historic St. Thomas African Episcopal Church in Philadelphia.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_96334_ENG_HTM.htm
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William S. Wade bids farewell to St. Andrew's-Sewanee School
By Daphne Mack
[Episcopal News Service] After 27 years of leadership, the Rev. William S. Wade, one of the longest-tenured heads of an Episcopal school, will retire in June from St. Andrew's-Sewanee School (SAS) in Sewanee, Tennessee.
"I am retiring now because it's the right time for both me and the school," said Wade, who prior to joining SAS, served as chaplain of the National Cathedral School in Washington, D.C.
Wade took on leadership of the newly combined school of Sewanee Academy (formerly Sewanee Military Academy) and St. Andrew's School, in 1981.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_96338_ENG_HTM.htm
More People: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_ENG_HTM.htm
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TEACHING
Diverse new learning opportunities offered at General Theological Seminary
[General Theological Seminary] General Theological Seminary (GTS) in New York City will be offering the following three Lifelong Learning courses in April and May:
"The Islamic Jesus and His Blessed Mother" with Dr. Lucinda Mosher, on April 26
"Successful Planned Giving in Parishes," May 2-3 with Terry Parsons and Davida Isaacson
"Interpersonal Skills and Leadership in Spiritual Direction" with Dr. Anne Silver, May 5-6
Full details: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/78650_96337_ENG_HTM.htm
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OPINION
COMMENTARY: Oscar films probe problem of evil but offer no way out
By Dick Staub
[Religion News Service] If "art is the language of the soul," as Robert Redford said at the Sundance Film Festival this year, I look at the "souls" of most of the Academy Award nominees for best picture and see dead people.
Since the 1960s, film has increasingly been the place where we do our theological work as a society. In film we ask the big questions: Who is God? Who are we? What is our biggest problem? How do we resolve it?
In a nation where the dominant religion is Christianity, one would expect an adequate Christian response to the theological questions raised by today's films.
So what, then, are the theologies of the five nominees for the best picture award, and is there a compelling Christian response?
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_96340_ENG_HTM.htm
More Opinion: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_ENG_HTM.htm
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DAYBOOK
On April 9, 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 April 9, 1761, English divine William Law died.
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CATALYST
"Religion in American Politics: A Short History" from Princeton University Press, by Frank Lambert, 294 pages, hardcover, c. 2008, $24.95
[Source: Princeton University Press] The delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention blocked the establishment of Christianity as a national religion. But they could not keep religion out of American politics. From the election of 1800, when Federalist clergymen charged that deist Thomas Jefferson was unfit to lead a "Christian nation," to today, when some Democrats want to embrace the so-called Religious Left in order to compete with the Republicans and the Religious Right, religion has always been part of American politics. In Religion in American Politics, Frank Lambert tells the fascinating story of the uneasy relations between religion and politics from the founding to the 21st century.
Lambert examines how antebellum Protestant unity was challenged by sectionalism as both North and South invoked religious justification; how Andrew Carnegie's "Gospel of Wealth" competed with the anti-capitalist "Social Gospel" during postwar industrialization; how the civil rights movement was perhaps the most effective religious intervention in politics in American history; and how the alliance between the Republican Party and the Religious Right has, in many ways, realized the founders' fears of religious-political electoral coalitions. In these and other cases, Lambert shows that religion became sectarian and partisan whenever it entered the political fray, and that religious agendas have always mixed with nonreligious ones.
Religion in American Politics brings rare historical perspective and insight to a subject that was just as important -- and controversial -- in 1776 as it is today.
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