wfn.org | [ELD] House of Deputies may convene unusual sessions on Resolution B033 / Convention to consider inc

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

>Episcopal Life Daily
>June 30, 2009

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

>Today's Episcopal Life Daily includes:

* TOP STORY - House of Deputies may convene unusual sessions on Resolution
B033
* TOP STORY - Convention to consider increased funding, name change
for missionaries
* DIOCESAN DIGEST - HONDURAS: Episcopal mission groups from Maryland,
Wyoming safe despite unrest
* MISSION - Draft report encourages Episcopalians to re-evaluate mission
* MISSION - Faith leaders use radio ad campaign to urge health care reform
* PEOPLE - World church council names Korean, Norwegian candidates for top
post
* DAYBOOK - July 1, 2009: Today in Scripture, Prayer, History
* CATALYST - Diakonia - Re-interpreting the Ancient Sources

>_____________________

>TOP STORIES

House of Deputies may convene unusual sessions on Resolution B033

>By Mary Frances Schjonberg

[Episcopal News Service] The House of Deputies will be asked to
consider meeting in two unusual sessions early in the 76th meeting of
the General Convention to discuss Resolution B033 passed by the last
convention.

"The purpose of this discussion will be to exchange information and
viewpoints among the deputies, and to inform Legislative Committee #8
World Mission, to which committee all the resolutions relative to B033
have been assigned," House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson wrote
in a June 29 letter to deputies and first alternate deputies.

Anderson wrote that she believes the House of Deputies "will benefit
by having an opportunity to discuss B033 apart from the context of
legislative procedure" and noted that "many deputies have indicated
their longing to discuss B033 together as a house."

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_111601_ENG_HTM.htm

>- - - - -

Convention to consider increased funding, name change for missionaries

>By Matthew Davies

[Episcopal Life] For centuries, sending forth missionaries has been
central to the Episcopal Church's engagement throughout the world, but
a fresh look at appropriate terminology and current levels of
financial support is in the cards.

General Convention will be asked to increase funding and to switch to
the term "mission partner" instead of "missionary" to help to
reinvigorate this work and define more accurately its emphasis on
relationship building and interdependence.

More than 70 Episcopal missionaries serve in congregations and
dioceses throughout Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East and South
America. They usually are placed for three years and play a variety of
roles, often in education, health care and local support for orphans
and immigrants.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_111594_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>DIOCESAN DIGEST

HONDURAS: Episcopal mission groups from Maryland, Wyoming safe despite
unrest

>Honduran bishop asks for prayers

>By Pat McCaughan

[Episcopal News Service] Episcopal mission groups visiting Honduras
from Maryland and Wyoming have assured their dioceses of their safety
after reports of clashes between police and protestors in the capital
city Tegucigalpa following the military ouster of President Manuel
Velaya.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_111638_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>MISSION

Draft report encourages Episcopalians to re-evaluate mission

>By Lynette Wilson

[Episcopal News Service] The Episcopal Church Center staff issued a
27-page draft report on world mission June 26 in response to two
questions posed by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori:

* What is the primary motivation for global mission?
* How do we practice global mission strategically in the 21st century?

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81799_111608_ENG_HTM.htm

>- - - - -

Faith leaders use radio ad campaign to urge health care reform

>By Matthew Davies

[Episcopal News Service] The Ven. Joyce Hardy, archdeacon of the
Episcopal Diocese of Arkansas and member of the Episcopal Church's
Executive Council, has joined other faith leaders in launching a local
radio ad campaign in support of the more than 50 million Americans who
cannot afford adequate health care.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81799_111619_ENG_HTM.htm

More Mission: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81799_ENG_HTM.htm

>_____________________

>PEOPLE

World church council names Korean, Norwegian candidates for top post

>By Peter Kenny

[Ecumenical News International, Geneva] The World Council of Churches
says it has identified two candidates -- one a Korean Presbyterian and
the other a Norwegian Lutheran -- for the post of general secretary,
which becomes vacant on January 1, 2010.

According to a June 26 statement from the WCC, the two candidates are:
the Rev. Seong-won Park, a professor of theology at Youngnam
Theological University and Seminary in Kyeongsan, South Korea; and the
Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the Church of Norway
Council on Ecumenical and International Relations.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_111525_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>DAYBOOK

>On July 1, 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 July 1, 1643, The Westminster Assembly convened
for the first time in London in the Henry VII Chapel of Westminster
Abbey. The assembly was appointed by the Long Parliament and sought to
restructure the Church of England.

>_____________________

>CATALYST

"Diakonia - Re-interpreting the Ancient Sources" from Oxford
University Press, by John N. Collins, 368 pages, paperback, c. 1990,
$35

[Oxford University Press] This is the first comprehensive study of the
Greek word "diakonia," from which the word "deacon" is derived.
Diakonia and its cognates appear frequently throughout the New
Testament, but its precise meaning has long been disputed. Today, it
is usually translated "service" or "ministry." As Collins shows, this
understanding of diakonia has been important to the development of a
modern consensus about the nature of Christian ministry. Based on the
understanding that diakonia is "service" and that the diakonos
(deacon) is a "servant," nearly all Christian bodies today agree that
the central idea of ministry is that of helping the needy, and that
the "servant" church should be humbly devoted to helping the world,
after the model of Jesus. Collins conducts an exhaustive study of
diakonia in Christian and non-Christian sources from about 200 BCE to
200 CE. He finds that in all such sources the word is used to mean
"messenger" or "emissary," and has no implications of humility or of
helping the needy. This discovery undermines much of the theological
discussion of ministry that has taken place over the past fifty years.

"A significant contribution to the field of New Testament studies that
is both solid and illuminating. It will clear the deck for new
examination of how the church needs to understand and order its
ministry if it wishes to take the New Testament seriously." --John
Koenig, General Theological Seminary

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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