wfn.org | [ELD] In Congressional testimony, church addresses Philippine abductions, political killings / Episc

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

>Episcopal Life Daily
>March 23, 2009

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

>Today's Episcopal Life Daily includes:

* TOP STORY - In Congressional testimony, church addresses Philippine
abductions, political killings
* TOP STORY - Episcopal Communicators urged to be discerning about
message, methods, media
* DIOCESAN DIGEST - NORTHERN MICHIGAN:  Diocesan leaders, retired
bishops defend bishop-elect, election process
* WORLD REPORT - CANADA: Anglicans and Lutherans plan joint gathering,
consider sharing office space
* WORLD REPORT - INDIA: Christians defiant in troubled Kandhamal  district
* DAYBOOK - March 24, 2009: Today in Scripture, Prayer, History
* CATALYST - The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach About
Jesus's Final Days in Jerusalem

>_____________________

>TOP STORIES

In Congressional testimony, church addresses Philippine abductions,
political killings

>By Matthew Davies

[Episcopal News Service] Human rights violations in the Philippines,
in particular the abduction of Episcopalian James M. Balao, have been
addressed in Episcopal Church testimony sent to the United States
House of Representatives' Committee on Appropriations and
Sub-Committee on State, Foreign Operations.

The Rev. Canon Brian Grieves, the Episcopal Church's senior director
for Mission Centers, and Alexander D. Baumgarten, international policy
analyst in the church's government relations office, submitted the
testimony, dated March 18, outlining the Episcopal Church's concern
for the continuing widespread human rights abuses in the Philippines,
where extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearances have been
commonplace under Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's presidency.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_106351_ENG_HTM.htm

>- - - - -

Episcopal Communicators urged to be discerning about message, methods,  media

Communicators award honors for 2008 during annual meeting

>By Mary Frances Schjonberg

[Episcopal News Service - Navasota, Texas] Acknowledging an
ever-expanding network of communications tools, members of Episcopal
Communicators who gathered here at Camp Allen Conference and Retreat
Center March 18-21 spent much of their time considering how to find
the most effective methods and media to help the church spread its
message.

"The heart of it is we need to be clear about what our message is,"
Julie Anne Lytle, assistant professor of pastoral theology and
educational technologies at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, said during the communicators' annual meeting. "What is
the gospel we're meant to proclaim? How are we choosing to make
disciples?"

Echoing media theorist Marshall McLuhan's observation that the medium
is the message, Lytle warned the communicators to be discerning so
that "what we're choosing as a way of [spreading the church's message]
fits what we say we believe."

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_106348_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>DIOCESAN DIGEST

NORTHERN MICHIGAN:  Diocesan leaders, retired bishops defend
bishop-elect, election process

>By Joe Bjordal

[Episcopal News Service]  Leaders of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern
Michigan released a statement on March 20 in defense of its
bishop-elect, the Rev. Kevin Thew Forrester, who was the only
candidate when he was chosen during a special convention on February
21.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_106354_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>WORLD REPORT

CANADA: Anglicans and Lutherans plan joint gathering, consider sharing
office space

>By Leigh Anne Williams

[Anglican Journal] The Anglican Church of Canada's management team met
with National Bishop Susan Johnson of the Evangelical Lutheran Church
in Canada and her senior staff on March 18 and 19 to discuss ways to
strengthen the relationship between the two churches, including plans
for a joint General Synod/National Convention to be held in Ottawa in
2013 and the possibility of sharing national office space in the
future.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_106325_ENG_HTM.htm

>- - - - -

INDIA: Christians defiant in troubled Kandhamal district

>By Anto Akkara

[Ecumenical News International, Tiangia, India] Christians in India's
troubled Kandhamal district of eastern Orissa say they remain firm in
their faith despite being battered by waves of violence in 2008 that
displaced 50,000 of them and left 75 dead.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_106342_ENG_HTM.htm

More World news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_ENG_HTM.htm

>_____________________

>DAYBOOK

On March 24, 2009, the church calendar remembers Oscar Romero
(1917-1980), archbishop of San Salvador, and the martyrs of El
Salvador.

* 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 March 24, 1208, Pope Innocent III placed
Britain under an interdict after England's King John opposed the
Pope's choice for Archbishop of Canterbury. Innocent canceled all
religious services until John surrendered. Soon after his surrender,
the king signed the Magna Carta, in which the first article affirms
"That the Church of England shall be free."

>_____________________

>CATALYST

"The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus's Final Days
in Jerusalem" from HarperCollins Publishers, by Marcus J. Borg & John
Dominic Crossan, 238 pages, paperback, c. 2006, $13.99

[HarperCollins Publishers] Top Jesus scholars Marcus J. Borg and John
Dominic Crossan join together to reveal a radical and little-known
Jesus. As both authors reacted to and responded to questions about Mel
Gibson's blockbuster The Passion of the Christ, they discovered that
many Christians are unclear on the details of events during the week
leading up to Jesus's crucifixion.

Using the gospel of Mark as their guide, Borg and Crossan present a
day-by-day account of Jesus' final week of life. They begin their
story on Palm Sunday with two triumphal entries into Jerusalem. The
first entry, that of Roman governor Pontius Pilate leading Roman
soldiers into the city, symbolized military strength. The second
heralded a new kind of moral hero who was praised by the people as he
rode in on a humble donkey. The Jesus introduced by Borg and Crossan
is this new moral hero, a more dangerous Jesus than the one enshrined
in the church's traditional teachings.

The Last Week depicts Jesus giving up his life to protest power
without justice and to condemn the rich who lack concern for the poor.
In this vein, at the end of the week Jesus marches up Calvary,
offering himself as a model for others to do the same when they are
confronted by similar issues. Informed, challenged, and inspired, we
not only meet the historical Jesus, but meet a new Jesus who engages
us and invites us to follow him.

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

>_____________________

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