wfn.org | [ELD] Episcopal Church leaders give webcast preview of General Convention

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

>Episcopal Life Daily
>May 13, 2009

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

>Today's Episcopal Life Daily includes:

* TOP STORY - Episcopal Church leaders give webcast preview of General
Convention
* DIOCESAN DIGEST - ALASKA: Floodwaters destroy remote village;
residents airlifted to safety
* PEOPLE - Martha Gardner to leave U.N. Observer's office
* DAYBOOK - May 14, 2009: Today in Scripture, Prayer, History
* CATALYST - Reasonable and Holy - Engaging Same-Sexuality

>_____________________

>TOP STORIES

Episcopal Church leaders give webcast preview of General Convention

>By Janet Kawamoto

[Episcopal News Service] Questions about the role of young people, the
fate of controversial resolutions and the effect of actions on the
"people in the pews" were some of the topics discussed during an
Internet broadcast, or webcast, May 13 with officers of General
Convention, the Episcopal Church's triennial governing meeting.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, House of Deputies
President Bonnie Anderson, General Convention executive the Rev.
Gregory Straub, and Bishop J. Jon Bruno of the host diocese of Los
Angeles were the presenters. The webcast originated from Anaheim,
California, where the convention will meet from July 8 to 17.

Jefferts Schori began the webcast by invoking the convention theme,
"ubuntu," a Zulu Xhosa word that is often translated as "I am because
we are."

"General Convention is a remarkable opportunity for Episcopalians and
those who will be peering over our shoulders to see this church in
action, in its way of having deep and vigorous conversation in
community," said Jefferts Schori. "We never all agree about anything
except that it is good to be together."

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_107550_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>DIOCESAN DIGEST

ALASKA: Floodwaters destroy remote village; residents airlifted to safety

Worst flood in decades crushes Episcopal church

>By Pat McCaughan

[Episcopal News Service] Some residents of remote Alaskan areas were
evacuated to safety May 12 after the state's worst flooding in decades
heaved ice blocks the size of houses onto land, completely destroying
one village, including an Episcopal Church..
On Tuesday, St. Matthew's Episcopal Church in Fairbanks served as a
staging area for about 50 evacuees from Tanana, a village of 250
located on the Yukon River, said parish administrator Hilary Freeman.

"They're just coming in now from the village and I'm told there are
three more planes coming in from Tanana," she said amid the sound of
children playing. "They brought elders, young mothers, and babies,
little ones."

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_107510_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>PEOPLE

Martha Gardner to leave U.N. Observer's office

>By Solange De Santis

[Episcopal News Service] Martha Gardner, who has served since June
2008 as special assistant to the Anglican Communion Observer at the
United Nations and director of programs, will leave on May 15, the
observer's office announced.

The position was suspended "due to financial reasons," wrote the
Anglican Communion Observer, Hellen Wangusa, in an e-mail noting that
Gardner's "skills, knowledge, and abilities have had an entirely
positive impact on this office and those who interact with it."

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_107553_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>DAYBOOK

>On May 13, 2009...

* 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 13, 1607, Robert Hunt held the first
Anglican service in the New World days after the Virginia Company
lands in Jamestown.

>_____________________

>CATALYST

"Reasonable and Holy - Engaging Same-Sexuality" from Church
Publishing, Inc., by Tobias Stanislas Haller, 180 pages, paperback, c.
2009, $18

[Church Publishing, Inc.] Reasonable and Holy addresses the conflict
over homosexuality within the Anglican tradition, demonstrating that
the church is able to provide for and support faithful and loving
relationships between persons of the same sex, not as a departure from
that tradition, but as a reasonable extension of it.

It offers a carefully argued, but accessible means of engagement with
Scripture, the Jewish and Christian traditions, and the use of reason
in dealing with the experience and lives of fellow-Christians. Unlike
most reflections on the topic of homosexuality, Reasonable and Holy
examines same-sex relationships through the lens of the traditional
teaching on the "ends" or "goods" of marriage: procreation, union, the
upbuilding of society, the symbolic representation of Christ and the
Church, and the now often unmentioned "remedy for fornication."
Throughout, it responds to objections based on reason, tradition and
Scripture.

Based on a series of popular blog posts, it includes a number of
independent, but related resources in the form of side-bars and
single-page expansions of particular themes, suitable for reproduction
as handouts.

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

>_____________________

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