wfn.org | [ELD] Fort Worth diocese ordains its first woman priest / Deputy for Ecumenical and Interreligious R

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>Episcopal Life Daily
>November 16, 2009

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

>Today's Episcopal Life Daily includes:

* TOP STORY - Fort Worth diocese ordains its first woman priest
* TOP STORY - Deputy for Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations
comments on Vatican's Apostolic Constitution
* TOP STORY - Episcopal Church joins holiday postcard campaign for
immigration reform
* DIOCESAN DIGEST - WASHINGTON: Bishop supports same-gender marriage
in District of Columbia
* DIOCESAN DIGEST - SAN DIEGO: Court ruling favors Episcopal Church,
diocese; disputed property must be returned
* WORLD REPORT - ENGLAND: Economics is 'housekeeping' for humanity,
Williams says
* WORLD REPORT - ENGLAND: Archbishop and faith leaders launch 'Inter  Faith Week'
* PEOPLE - Seabury dean and president heads to Michigan rectorship;
interim appointed
* EDUCATION - Sewanee School of Theology announces recipients of
Dubose Awards for Service
* OPINION - Tithing is based upon the wrong question
* OPINION - Raising up the joys of tithing
* DAYBOOK - November 17: Today in Scripture, Prayer, History
* CATALYST - Music and Vital Congregations - A Practical Guide for  Clergy
* CATALYST - All Shall Be Well: An Approach to Wellness

>_____________________

>TOP STORIES

Fort Worth diocese ordains its first woman priest

Convention elects next provisional bishop; unanimously pledges 21
percent to wider church

>By Pat McCaughan

[Episcopal News Service] Fort Worth Episcopalians spent a busy and
joyous November 13-15 weekend electing their next provisional bishop
at diocesan convention, and a day later celebrated the ordination of
the first woman priest in the 27-year history of the Texas diocese.

About 75 clergy and lay delegates who gathered at All Saints Episcopal
School in Fort Worth on Nov. 14 unanimously elected the Rt. Rev. C.
Wallis Ohl, retired bishop of Northwest Texas, as their next
provisional bishop, to succeed Bishop Edwin "Ted" Gulick Jr. of the
Diocese of Kentucky.

Gulick, who had served as Fort Worth's provisional bishop since a
February 7 special meeting of convention, immediately installed Ohl as
his replacement. Gulick was acting at the request of Presiding Bishop
Katharine Jefferts Schori, who also sent greetings thanking the
diocese for their "strong and faithful ministry. You give hope to
others," Jefferts Schori added.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_116897_ENG_HTM.htm

>- - - - -

Deputy for Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations comments on
Vatican's Apostolic Constitution

Bishop Christopher Epting, the Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop
Katharine Jefferts Schori's deputy for ecumenical and interreligious
relations, issued a statement Nov. 16 on the Vatican's Apostolic
Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus.

"It is clear that what is being touted by some as an 'ecumenical
gesture' may be understood as 'pastoral' but is not necessarily very
ecumenical," Epting says of the Vatican's offer to accept groups of
former Anglicans who wish to enter into full communion with the Roman
Catholic Church.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_116893_ENG_HTM.htm

>- - - - -

Episcopal Church joins holiday postcard campaign for immigration reform

>By ENS staff

[Episcopal News Service] The Episcopal Church is joining the
Interfaith Immigration Coalition postcard campaign, aimed at sending a
holiday message to members of the U.S. Congress.

The message: "Help keep immigrant families together by supporting
comprehensive immigration reform now."

An action alert from the Episcopal Public Policy Network
(http://www.episcopalchurch.org/eppn.htm) (EPPN) said its goal is to
collect 10,000 signed postcards "and send a strong message to Congress
that people of faith want to see action on comprehensive immigration
reform."

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_116875_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>DIOCESAN DIGEST

WASHINGTON: Bishop supports same-gender marriage in District of Columbia

>By Mary Frances Schjonberg

[Episcopal News Service] Episcopal Diocese of Washington
(http://www.edow.org) Bishop John Bryson Chane said Nov. 16 the he
supports legislation legalizing same-sex marriage in the District of
Columbia.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_116895_ENG_HTM.htm

>- - - - -

SAN DIEGO: Court ruling favors Episcopal Church, diocese; disputed
property must be returned

>By Pat McCaughan

[Episcopal News Service] A Superior Court judge ruled Nov. 10 that the
property and assets of two Diocese of San Diego congregations whose
leadership attempted to disaffiliate from the Episcopal Church are
held for the mission and ministry of the wider church.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_116871_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>WORLD REPORT

ENGLAND: Economics is 'housekeeping' for humanity, Williams says

[Episcopal News Service] Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has
said that economics should be kept in perspective as it is only one
aspect of human existence.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_116868_ENG_HTM.htm

>- - - - -

ENGLAND: Archbishop and faith leaders launch 'Inter Faith Week'

[Lambeth Palace] Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams on Nov. 16
invited faith leaders and trustees of the Inter Faith Network for the
U.K. to Lambeth Palace to launch "Inter Faith Week."

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_116872_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>PEOPLE

Seabury dean and president heads to Michigan rectorship; interim  appointed

>By ENS staff

[Episcopal News Service] The Very Rev. Gary Hall, currently dean and
president of Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, is leaving the
school to become rector of Christ Church Cranbrook in Bloomfield
Hills, Michigan.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_116890_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>EDUCATION

Sewanee School of Theology announces recipients of Dubose Awards for  Service

[Sewanee] The School of Theology of Sewanee: the University of the
South has announced the recipients of the 2009 DuBose Awards for
Service. The recipients of the award, which is given to School of
Theology alumni/ae who have served the church in an exemplary manner,
were recognized during the school's annual gathering of alumni and
alumnae. The DuBose Award recipients for 2009 are the Rev. Dr. Joseph
N. Green Jr. and the Rev. James McKeown.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/78650_116873_ENG_HTM.htm

More Education: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80263_93222_ENG_HTM.htm

>_____________________

>OPINION

>To tithe or not to tithe?

>Tithing is based upon the wrong question

>By Randall Horton

>[Episcopal Life] I do not believe in tithing.

Tithing is an Old Testament notion that came from the time when there
was no separation between church and state, and what social services
there were had to be provided by a combination of the generosity of
individuals and what was provided by the institutional structure of
the temple. And that wasn't much.

The biblical tithe also included nonmonetary wealth like grain and
wine and oil. We have all heard of the "first fruits."

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_116867_ENG_HTM.htm

>- - - - -

>Raising up the joys of tithing

>By Albert "Ted" Mollegen

[Episcopal Life] When I had my first really serious encounter with the
tithe, I nearly panicked.

Mentally I went through the classic resistance ideas, like: Is it
before-tax or after-tax; does it include the part of my income taxes
that goes to help the needy; does it include gifts to the United Way;
and so on.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_116870_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>DAYBOOK

On November 17, 2009, the church remembers Hugh, bishop of Lincoln.

* 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 November 17, 1558, Elizabeth I's accession to
the English throne led to the re-establishment of the Church of
England.

>_____________________

>CATALYST

"Music and Vital Congregations - A Practical Guide for Clergy" from
Church Publishing, Inc., by William Bradley Roberts, 133 pages,
softcover, c. 2009, $20

[Church Publishing, Inc.] Congregations that are alive and vibrant
have vital music programs. How did they get that way? There are
sensible and practical steps to develop such a program which begins
with a clear vision of the end product.

This new book addresses the many interrelated issues of defining and
embracing the leadership role in the church music program that is
required of clergy in parish ministry and essential for a healthy
congregation.

Clergy and musicians work toward the same goals; however, clergy are
trained differently from musicians. How does this fact impact their
relationship, and how can they learn to work together in an atmosphere
of mutual respect? The practical issues of employment can be addressed
more effectively in this atmosphere.

If one is looking for the right musician for the parish, what
qualities does one seek? How does one find such a rare and gifted
individual? A successful search complete, how does the clergyperson
work harmoniously with the music leader?

>This book provides a blueprint for:

* Developing a vision for music in your parish

* Locating a musician who is a partner in ministry

* How music comes and goes in the church's repertoire

* Moving from musician as performer to musician as pastor

>- - - - -

"All Shall Be Well: An Approach to Wellness" from Morehouse
Publishing, by William S. Craddock Jr., editor, 208 pages, c. 2009,
$20

Over the course of a dozen years, CREDO has taken the Episcopal Church
on a journey of exploring what is meant by wellness. Through its
distinctive eight-day conferences for clergy - and, recently,
including lay employees in the Church Pension Plan - and through an
array of ancillary projects to promote and foster wellness, the CREDO
Institute has become the agent for understanding that the health and
well-being of clergy and lay leaders, upon which rests the wellness of
the church, runs deeper than the mere absence of illness.

CREDO continues to break fresh ground in redefining wellness not as a
string of good fortune but as a rope braided and strengthened by the
strands of one's vocational, financial, physical, emotional and
spiritual well-being - the themes of conference content.

Now a book, All Shall Be Well: An Approach to Wellness, captures the
spirit of the CREDO experience and the expansive nature of wellness.
The volume borrows its title from the faithfulness and bearing of
Julian of Norwich, who knew her share of travail in a
14th-century England beset by financial calamity, social unrest and
theological rift. As such, the book is a timely spiritual manual for
navigating the present era of uncertainty across the Episcopal Church
and no small measure of change in the vocations that define it.

The book's authors, CREDO conference faculty members and researchers,
serve as a rich reservoir of wisdom that has formed and fashioned the
CREDO process of self efficacy and change. Through two dozen essays
and reflections that circle around the IDPT model of developmental
self awareness, the concepts of workplace balance and boundaries mix
prophetically with the challenge of overcoming the poverty of one's
prayer life.

For more than 5,000 people who have journeyed to a CREDO conference,
or for the many more who are stepping into significant vocational and
spiritual renewal, this book serves as both a refresher on the process
of change and a foretaste of what may come from exploring the cycle of
Identity, Discernment, Practice and Transformation.

No matter where one begins the walk, All Shall Be Well is the journal
of that journey, toward wellness.

Reviewed by Herb Gunn, editor of The Record of the Diocese of Michigan.

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