wfn.org | [ELD] Devastated by three storms, Hispaniola braces for more / Toward Anaheim: Deputies asked for co

["Matthew Davies" <mdavies@episcopalchurch.org>]

>Episcopal Life Daily
>September 5, 2008

Episcopal Life Online is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife.

>Today's Episcopal Life Daily includes:

* TOP STORY - Devastated by three storms, Hispaniola braces for more
* TOP STORY - Toward Anaheim: Deputies asked for committee preferences
* DIOCESAN DIGEST - LOUISIANA: Southwestern deanery's damage
translates into huge need
* PEOPLE - New staff members join EPPN/Office of Government Relations
* OPINION - Not so alien: 'Three-minute' hospitality provides welcome
for strangers
* ARTS - Twenty Centuries of Christian Spiritualities
* DAYBOOK - September 8, 2008: Today in Scripture, Prayer, History
* CATALYST - The Last Lecture

>_____________________

>TOP STORIES

Episcopal Church partners assessing damage, mobilizing aid

>By Mary Frances Schjonberg

[Episcopal News Service] Fay, Gustav, and Hanna, all tropical storms
or hurricanes, have ravaged the Caribbean island of Hispaniola and at
least two more storms -- Ike and Josephine -- could be headed into the
area.

"Know that you are in our prayers, and those of this whole Church,"
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori wrote September 5 in a
message emailed to Diocese of Haiti Bishop Zache Duracin. "God never
abandons us, even though the night seems long and dark."

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_100426_ENG_HTM.htm

>----------

Toward Anaheim: Deputies asked for committee preferences
New deputies will get special training

>By Mary Frances Schjonberg

[Episcopal News Service] In another step toward the Episcopal Church's
76th General Convention in Anaheim, California, the process of forming
legislative committees has begun.

Deputies have until September 30 to express three preferences for
appointment to one of 23 committees.

While a preliminary review of those completed forms will begin next
week, according to House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson, no
appointment decisions will be made until after the deadline. Anderson
will appoint deputies to the committees and Presiding Bishop Katharine
Jefferts Schori will appoint bishop members.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_100431_ENG_HTM.htm

More Top Stories: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife

>_____________________

>DIOCESAN DIGEST

LOUISIANA: Southwestern deanery's damage translates into huge need

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_100433_ENG_HTM.htm

More Diocesan news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_ENG_HTM.htm

>_____________________

>PEOPLE

New staff members join EPPN/Office of Government Relations

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_100428_ENG_HTM.htm

More People: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_ENG_HTM.htm

>_____________________

>OPINION

>Not so alien

'Three-minute' hospitality provides welcome for strangers

>By Jan Johnson

[Episcopal Life] I wanted to talk to a friend after the church
service, but I remembered the "three-minute guideline" presented at a
leadership meeting. For three minutes after the service, we were asked
to talk to folks we didn't know. So I looked for newcomers.

I spoke to a man I didn't recognize, but he seemed nervous and put
off. Since he hadn't been to church in a long time, I tried to make
him feel comfortable, joking about the crowded parking. He seemed more
at ease.

At first, I thought the three-minute guideline was superficial. I
enjoy deeper friendships - besides, how many folks can we really know
anyway? Why make ourselves so uncomfortable?

Full article: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81840_100413_ENG_HTM.htm

More Opinion: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_ENG_HTM.htm

>_____________________

>ARTS

>Twenty Centuries of Christian Spiritualities

>[Episcopal Life]

>GOD SEEKERS
>Twenty Centuries of Christian Spiritualities
>By Richard H. Schmidt
>Eerdmans, 388 pp., $22

Spirituality is found only in the day-to-day lives of ordinary people,
claims Richard Schmidt, an Episcopal priest, former editor of The
Episcopalian and now editor and director of Forward Movement
Publications.

In an earlier book, Glorious Companions, he called our attention to
the most influential and significant shapers of Anglican spirituality
from the 16th century to the present.

In God Seekers, Schmidt gives us 32 brief biographies of ordinary
people "experiencing and responding to the love of God." As they aged,
they grew and changed in their spirituality, some radically. But each
was "willing to ask difficult questions and not shy away from hard
answers" about God and his or her own spirituality, as each sought to
know God.

Full review: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81827_100415_ENG_HTM.htm

More Arts: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81827_ENG_HTM.htm

>_____________________

>DAYBOOK

>On September 8, 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 September 8, 1795, William White was
consecrated the fourth Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. On
September 8, 1845, Anglican priest John Henry Newman converted to
Roman Catholicism. Newman had been a leading member of the Oxford
Movement, which aimed to reform the Church of England.

>_____________________

>CATALYST

"The Last Lecture" from Hyperion, by Randy Pausch, with Jeffrey
Zaslow, 206 pages, hardcover, c. 2008, $21.95

[Hyperion] A lot of professors give talks titled "The Last Lecture."
Professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate on what
matters most to them. And while they speak, audiences can't help but
mull the same question: What wisdom would we impart to the world if we
knew it was our last chance? If we had to vanish tomorrow, what would
we want as our legacy?

When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon,
was asked to give such a lecture, he didn't have to imagine it as his
last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But
the lecture he gave -- "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" --
wasn't about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming
obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment
(because "time is all you have...and you may find one day that you
have less than you think"). It was a summation of everything Randy had
come to believe. It was about living.

In this book, Randy Pausch has combined the humor, inspiration and
intelligence that made his lecture such a phenomenon and given it an
indelible form. It is a book that will be shared for generations to
come.

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