Episcopal Life Daily April 17, 2008
Episcopal Life Online is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife.
Today's Episcopal Life Daily includes:
* TOP STORY - North American Cathedral Deans Conference meets in New Orleans * TOP STORY - Book of prayers by Anglican women and girls to focus on MDGs * PEOPLE - Noted ecumenist Krister Stendahl dies at 86 * PEOPLE - Three to receive honorary doctorates at Virginia seminary * MULTIMEDIA - Audio: Southern Malawi Bishop James Tengatenga on the Church, colonialism and Anglican identities * FEATURE - New ministry serves soldiers, families * FEATURE - On The Road in Olympia with the Presiding Bishop * DAYBOOK - April 18, 2008: Today in Scripture, Prayer, History * CATALYST - The Violence of God & the War on Terror
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TOP STORIES
North American Cathedral Deans Conference meets in New Orleans
[Episcopal News Service] The 55th Annual North American Cathedral Deans Conference was held in New Orleans, Louisiana from April 2-7. The conference brought together Cathedral deans representing more than 100 Anglican Communion Cathedral Congregations from across the United States, Canada, the Caribbean and the European community.
The theme of this year's conference was "In the Mix -- the Music and Cuisine of New Orleans: Sustenance in Body and Soul." New Orleans Cultural Ambassador and Christ Church Cathedral artist-in-residence Irvin Mayfield was the conference keynoter.
In conjunction with the conference, Christ Church Cathedral's Cathedral Concerts series presented An Evening of Spirituals with Irvin Mayfield & Friends in a free concert performance on April 4, commemorating the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Mayfield delivered the address at the 10 a.m. Cathedral Eucharist.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_96513_ENG_HTM.htm
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Book of prayers by Anglican women and girls to focus on MDGs
Thousands are expected to contribute; Presiding Bishop to write foreword
[Episcopal News Service] While worldwide attention is focused on discord and divisions within the Anglican Communion, Anglican women and girls are uniting to make their voices heard on issues of poverty and women's empowerment, express the power and depth of their faith, and to reveal their connections across cultural and economic differences, by contributing to a new book of women's prayers, with a foreword to be written by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori.
Following on the popularity of Women's Uncommon Prayers: Our Lives Revealed, Nurtured, Celebrated, this all-new collection of prayers, with its multicultural global reach, will be organized according to themes of the Millennium Development Goals. Prayers will show the connections between the global concerns of women and girls and their personal lives.
The book will be published under the Morehouse imprint of Church Publishing, Incorporated.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_96528_ENG_HTM.htm
More Top Stories: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife
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PEOPLE
Noted ecumenist Krister Stendahl dies at 86
By Adelle M. Banks
[Religion News Service] Krister Stendahl, a visionary of inclusive Christianity and a proponent of stronger Christian-Jewish relations, died Tuesday, April 15, at the age of 86 in Boston, Harvard Divinity School announced.
Stendahl, who served as the school's dean from 1968 to 1979, had been in failing health. He was credited with expanding the diversity of the school, especially among women and African-Americans.
Stendahl was the first chaplain of Harvard Divinity School in the late 1980s and became a professor of Christian Studies at Brandeis University, a Jewish-sponsored school in Waltham, Massachusetts, in the 1990s.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_96515_ENG_HTM.htm
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Three to receive honorary doctorates at Virginia seminary
[Virginia Theological Seminary] At the 185th Commencement of the Virginia Theological Seminary on May 22, honorary doctorates will be conferred upon three distinguished recipients.
The Doctor in Divinity, honoris causa, degree will be awarded to the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop and primate of The Episcopal Church; the Rt. Rev. Daniel Deng Bul Yak, archbishop-elect of the Episcopal Church in the Sudan and Bishop of the Diocese of Renk; and Dr. Fredrica Harris Thompsett, the Mary Wolfe Professor of Historical Theology at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Katharine Jefferts Schori serves as the head of the 2.4 million Episcopal members in 16 countries and 110 dioceses, and meets and consults regularly with the bishops of the 38 member Provinces of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Elected Presiding Bishop in June of 2006 at General Convention in Columbus, Ohio, Jefferts Schori is the first woman ever to be elected to the position. She is a tireless advocate for the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals. She holds a B.S. degree in biology from Stanford University (1974), an M.S. (1977) and Ph.D. (1983) in oceanography from Oregon State University, an M.Div. from Church Divinity School of the Pacific (1994), and an honorary D.D. (2001), also from CDSP.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_96527_ENG_HTM.htm
More People: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_ENG_HTM.htm
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MULTIMEDIA
Audio: Southern Malawi Bishop James Tengatenga on the Church, colonialism and Anglican identities
[Episcopal News Service] The Rt. Rev. James Tengatenga has been bishop of the Diocese of Southern Malawi, part of the Anglican Church in Central Africa, for 10 years.
A former British colony, Malawi achieved independence in 1964. Today, population growth, agricultural issues and corruption are among the country's major problems.
Episcopal News Service's Matthew Davies spoke with Bishop Tengatenga about his diocese, the history of the Church in Central Africa, and the emerging Anglican identities that have been shaped by its colonial past.
An audio stream of Tengatenga's interview is available at: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/media/4-17_BpTengatenga.MP3
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_96510_ENG_HTM.htm
More Multimedia: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80056_ENG_HTM.htm
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FEATURES
New ministry serves soldiers, families
By Richelle Thompson
[Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio] Joseph Jeffcott put on his flak jacket and picked up his weapons from the armory. Then he headed to a pre-convoy briefing to hear which high-value assets -- such as tanks, Humvees and fire trucks -- that his naval reserve unit would protect that day as the equipment traveled from ports to posts inside Iraq.
Nearly 7,000 miles away in a suburb of Cincinnati, Julie Jeffcott woke up their four children -- triplet preschool boys and a teenage son. She dressed the children, packed lunches, sent in checks for school pictures. Then she headed to work as a kindergarten teacher.
While her husband was deployed for 14 months, Julie handled -- for the first time -- the family finances. The triplets, only four years old when Daddy left, didn't understand why their father was gone and when he would return, so Julie played a game with the alphabet. They studied one letter for two weeks. When they got to Z, Daddy would be home.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81834_96517_ENG_HTM.htm
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On The Road in Olympia with the Presiding Bishop
[Episcopal News Service] The focus is definitely on the future in the Diocese of Olympia.
Youth, the emergent church, environment, and visioning for churches were among the future-thinking topics explored during the diocesan visit of Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori on April 9-13.
The Diocese of Olympia, based in Seattle, encompasses 102 congregations with more than 17,000 people and 384 clergy in western Washington State, and is led by Bishop Gregory Rickel.
Meeting the under-35-year-olds
You had to be under than 35 to get in. If you were over 35, the entry requirement was to bring at least one person younger than 35.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81834_96531_ENG_HTM.htm
More Features: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/78936_ENG_HTM.htm
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DAYBOOK
On April 18, 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 18, 1161, Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, died. He repeatedly quarreled with his superiors about church appointments and other political questions, but the influential French abbot Bernard of Clairvaux supported him. Theobald helped strengthen the English church and build the career of Thomas Becket, whom he recommended as chancellor to England's newly crowned King Henry II.
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CATALYST
"The Violence of God & the War on Terror" from Church Publishing, Inc., by Jeremy Young, 217 pages, paperback, c. 2008, $24
[Source: Church Publishing, Inc.] Using the analogy of an abusive human relationship, Young traces the influence of the psychology of such behavior on the major monotheistic religions' concept of God and concludes that such imagery generates violence in the name of God in the contemporary world, including in "the war on terror." He explores these theological themes in terms of U.S. imperialistic policies, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, and Jihadist ideology.
Jeremy Young plunges into the most difficult questions for those who take biblical faith seriously. He has done his homework on the way in which the Bible (and the God of the Bible) are exemplars of violence. But he does not stop there; he extends his interpretation to exhibit the ways in which this trajectory of violence reaches into contemporary abusive practices and shamelessly violent policies. The connection he makes between the Bible and contemporary ideology is nearly unbearable. Young intends it to be unbearable, and his book is as demanding call for rethinking and acting afresh. This is a most timely statement, and as important as it is timely.
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