Episcopal Life Daily May 9, 2008
Episcopal Life Online is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife.
Today's Episcopal Life Daily includes:
* TOP STORY - Presiding Bishop urges Farm Bill defeat * DIOCESAN DIGEST - CENTRAL FLORIDA: Trinity Vero Beach, diocese reach agreement; new vestry, interim rector to begin July 1 * DIOCESAN DIGEST - OKLAHOMA: Trinity Episcopal Church to host art exhibit by Tulsa University students * DIOCESAN DIGEST - PENNSYLVANIA: Only one kind of fire will come to historic church on Pentecost * WORLD REPORT - SOUTHERN AFRICA: New partnership for grassroots prioritizations sealed and ready to deliver * OPINION - Un-common communion: Listening process doesn't mean rapid consensus * ARTS - Spreading the light: Liturgies with ancient roots extend the Easter celebration * DAYBOOK - May 12, 2008: Today in Scripture, Prayer, History * CATALYST - The Challenge of Jesus: Rediscovering Who Jesus Was and Is
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TOP STORIES
Presiding Bishop urges Farm Bill defeat
[Episcopal News Service] In response to House and Senate leaders' release of a final farm bill package May 8, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori released a statement urging congressional defeat, or presidential veto, of the legislation.
The Presiding Bishop's statement is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_97018_ENG_HTM.htm
More Top Stories: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife
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DIOCESAN DIGEST
CENTRAL FLORIDA: Trinity Vero Beach, diocese reach agreement; new vestry, interim rector to begin July 1 http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_97029_ENG_HTM.htm
OKLAHOMA: Trinity Episcopal Church to host art exhibit by Tulsa University students http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_97022_ENG_HTM.htm
PENNSYLVANIA: Only one kind of fire will come to historic church on Pentecost http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_97027_ENG_HTM.htm
More Diocesan news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_ENG_HTM.htm
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WORLD REPORT
SOUTHERN AFRICA: New partnership for grassroots prioritizations sealed and ready to deliver http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_97021_ENG_HTM.htm
More World news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_ENG_HTM.htm
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OPINION
Un-common communion
Listening process doesn't mean rapid consensus
By Christopher Webber
[Episcopal Life] They say that there's no sound if a tree falls in the forest and there's no one there to hear it. Likewise, if the tree falls in a thunderstorm, perhaps there's no noise because the air waves are already full.
In 1998, the bishops of the Anglican Communion said that we "commit ourselves to listen to the experience of homosexual persons." In recent months, the committee planning for the next meeting of Anglican bishops, set to open in July 2008, has been gathering reports on how the listening process has been going.
Amid the chaos and confusion, what can be heard? As one interested listener, what I hear first of all is the incredible diversity of the voices and the improbability that Anglicans will arrive at a common mind anytime soon.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_97023_ENG_HTM.htm
More Opinion: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_ENG_HTM.htm
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ARTS
Spreading the light
Liturgies with ancient roots extend the Easter celebration
By Jerry Hames
[Episcopal Life] While the 40 days of Lent seem to linger on interminably, Easter for many people seems to come and pass all too quickly.
In an effort to extend the celebration of the Resurrection, Episcopalians are beginning to reintroduce the ancient custom of observing Stations of the Light, or Stations of the Resurrection.
"These great archetypal moments in the Christian story have been known and cherished since the first century, but as far as we know were never gathered into a precise devotional practice until the present time," writes Mary Ford-Grabowsky, author of Stations of the Light: Renewing the Ancient Christian Practice of the Via Lucis as a Spiritual Tool for Today.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81827_97025_ENG_HTM.htm
More Arts: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81827_ENG_HTM.htm
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DAYBOOK
On May 12, 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 May 12, 1952, Dom Gregory Dix, liturgical scholar and author of The Shape of the Liturgy, died.
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CATALYST
"The Challenge of Jesus: Rediscovering Who Jesus Was and Is" from InterVarsity Press, by N. T. Wright, 204 pages, hardcover, c. 2000, $16
[InterVarsity Press] Today a renewed and vigorous scholarly quest for the historical Jesus is underway. In the midst of well publicized and controversial books on Jesus, N. T. Wright's lectures and writings have been widely recognized for providing a fresh, provocative and historically credible portrait.
Out of his own commitment to both historical scholarship and Christian ministry, Wright challenges us to roll up our sleeves and take seriously the study of the historical Jesus. He writes, "Many Christians have been, frankly, sloppy in their thinking and talking about Jesus, and hence, sadly, in their praying and in their practice of discipleship. We cannot assume that by saying the word Jesus, still less the word Christ, we are automatically in touch with the real Jesus who walked and talked in first-century Palestine...Only by hard, historical work can we move toward a fuller comprehension of what the Gospels themselves were trying to say."
The Challenge of Jesus poses a double-edged challenge: to grow in understanding of the historical Jesus within the Palestinian world of the first century, and to follow Jesus more faithfully into the postmodern world of the 21st century.
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