wfn.org | [ENS] Chile bishop says diocese is reaching out to isolated communities after quake / Glasspool cons

[<mdavies@episcopalchurch.org>]

>Episcopal News Service
>March 22, 2010

Episcopal News Service is available at  http://www.episcopalchurch.org/ens.

>Today's Episcopal News Service includes:

* TOP STORY - Chile bishop says diocese is reaching out to isolated  
communities after quake
* TOP STORY - Glasspool consent continues to draw criticism, praise
* TOP STORY - Episcopal Communicators gathers for 37th annual conference
* TOP STORY - House of Bishops expresses solidarity with the bishop,  people of 
El Salvador
* DIOCESAN DIGEST - PENNSYLVANIA: Hearing set for bishop's appeal of  church 
court decision
* DAYBOOK - March 23: Today in Scripture, Prayer, History
* EBAR PICK - "In the Parish of the Poor: Writings from Haiti"

>_____________________

>TOP STORIES

Chile bishop says diocese is reaching out to isolated communities after  quake

>By Matthew Davies

[Episcopal News Service] The Anglican Diocese of Chile is developing a  plan 
for short- and long-term relief to serve isolated communities most  affected by 
the magnitude-8.8 earthquake that shook the central part of  Chile on Feb. 27, 
leaving almost 400 people dead and damaging some 1.5  million homes.

"We are going where no media has gone and sending trucks full of water,  milk 
and food, because they have nothing," said Bishop Hector Zavala, in  a March 22 
telephone interview from his home in Santiago.

One of the most affected areas is the town of Concepción, whose  500,000 
residents are still without electricity and continue to be hit  by powerful 
aftershocks.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_121022_ENG_HTM.htm

>- - - - -

Glasspool consent continues to draw criticism, praise

>By Mary Frances Schjonberg

[Episcopal News Service] Twelve active and retired Episcopal Church  bishops, 
along with six rectors and deans, have said that they  "disassociate" 
themselves from the wider church's consent to the  ordination and consecration 
of its second openly gay and partnered  bishop.

The statement came in response to the March 17 news that Diocese of Los  
Angeles Bishop-elect Mary Douglas Glasspool had received the required  number 
of consents from standing committees and bishops with  jurisdiction to her 
ordination and consecration as bishop.

Meanwhile, Fulcrum, a group of evangelical Anglicans in the Church of  England, 
has called for Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori not  to be invited to 
the next meeting of the Anglican Communion's primates  or leaders. And another 
Britain-based group, the Lesbian and Gay  Christian Movement, welcomed news of 
the successful consent process.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_121023_ENG_HTM.htm

>- - - - -

Episcopal Communicators gathers for 37th annual conference

>By ENS staff

[Episcopal News Service] In the life of the church, communicators play  the 
role of Jesus' eyes in the world, inviting others, through story  telling, to 
do God's work, said Massachusetts Bishop M. Thomas Shaw  during the 2010 
Episcopal Communicators Conference's opening Eucharist  March 17 at Saint 
Peter's Episcopal Church in Salem, Massachusetts.

"You open up for the rest of us, the laborers, what we need to do for  the 
harvest," he said. "You invite the laborers out to do God's work."

Close to 90 Episcopal communicators gathered in Salem for their annual  
conference March 16-20. Participants -- including many longtime members  and 
some newcomers -- worshiped, networked and participated in skills  workshops 
and plenary sessions together; elected two new board members  and a new 
president; and gathered in support of one another's work for  the Polly Bond 
Awards. A list of the 2010 winners is here.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_121020_ENG_HTM.htm

>- - - - -

House of Bishops expresses solidarity with the bishop, people of El  Salvador

>By ENS staff

[Episcopal News Service] The Episcopal Church's House of Bishops,  meeting in 
retreat in Texas, adopted a letter March 20 to express  "solidarity" with the 
people of El Salvador and their "condemnation of  the attempted assassination" 
of Bishop Martín Barahona.

On March 17 in Santa Tecla, El Salvador, an unknown man approached  Barahona, 
who was accompanied by his driver Francis Martínez and a  church musician, and 
started shooting at them. Barahona was unharmed,  but Martinez was hit in the 
stomach and his arm was broken by one of the  gunshots.

The Anglican Episcopal Church of El Salvador issued a statement March 18  
denouncing the attack, and Barahona held a press conference March 19,  saying 
the attempt on his life is cause for serious concern in a country  that has 
been rife with gang violence and criminal activity since the  end of the civil 
war in the early 1990s.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_120995_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>DIOCESAN DIGEST

PENNSYLVANIA: Hearing set for bishop's appeal of church court decision

>By Mary Frances Schjonberg

[Episcopal News Service] An Episcopal Church court will meet May 4 to  hear 
oral arguments on Diocese of Pennsylvania Bishop Charles Bennison's  request 
that a 2008 ruling that he engaged in conduct unbecoming a  member of the 
clergy be overturned.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_121007_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>DAYBOOK

On March 23, 2010, the church remembers Gregory the Illuminator, bishop  and 
missionary of Armenia.

* 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 23, 1540, Waltham Abbey in Essex became the  last 
monastery in England to surrender its allegiance to the Roman  Catholic Church 
and support King Henry VIII and the emerging Church of  England.

>_____________________

>EBAR PICK

"In the Parish of the Poor: Writings from Haiti" by Jean-Bertrand  Aristide, 
150 pages, paperback, c. 1990, $20.

[Orbis Books] The former president of Haiti's writings and sermons on  the 
harsh reality and stubborn hope of the people of Haiti.

To order, please visit Episcopal Books and Resources online at  
http://www.episcopalbookstore.org, call 800-903-5544, or visit your  local 
Episcopal bookstore.