Worldwide Faith News is a database of full text official news releases and other documents, including policy statements, from the news offices of national and world faith groups. This collection indexes more than 45,000 documents.
[ENS] In California, thousands celebrate as Proposition 8 overturned
>Episcopal News Service >August 5, 2010 >Episcopal News Service is available at >http://www.episcopalchurch.org/ens. >Today's Episcopal News Service includes: * TOP STORY - In California, thousands celebrate as Proposition 8 overturned * DIOCESAN DIGEST - IOWA: State's first woman chaplain heads to Afghanistan * DIOCESAN DIGEST - PENNSYLVANIA: Court rules in favor of Charles Bennison * WORLD REPORT - Churches remember Hiroshima by urging ban on nuclear weapons * DAYBOOK - August 6: Today in Scripture, Prayer, History * EPISCOPAL BOOKS & RESOURCES PICK - "A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions That Are Transforming the Faith" >_____________________ >TOP STORIES In California, thousands celebrate as Proposition 8 overturned >By Pat McCaughan [Episcopal News Service] Episcopalians joined thousands of Californians at celebratory rallies and prayer vigils Aug. 4 after a federal judge overturned as unconstitutional Proposition 8, the state's voter-approved ban on gay marriage. U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn R. Walker in San Francisco ruled Aug. 4 that the measure "fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license. "Indeed, the evidence shows Proposition 8 does nothing more than enshrine in the California Constitution the notion that opposite-sex couples are superior to same-sex couples," said Walker. "Because California has no interest in discriminating against gay men and lesbians, and because Proposition 8 prevents California from fulfilling its constitutional obligation to provide marriages on an equal basis, the court concludes that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional." Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79425_123897_ENG_HTM.htm More Top Stories: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/ens >_____________________ >DIOCESAN DIGEST IOWA: State's first woman chaplain heads to Afghanistan >By Lydia Kelsey [Episcopal News Service] The Rev. Martha Kester, a chaplain and 1st lieutenant in the Iowa National Guard and rector at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Des Moines, Iowa, is scheduled to leave Aug. 9 for a 12 month deployment to Afghanistan. Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_123917_ENG_HTM.htm _ _ _ _ _ PENNSYLVANIA: Court rules in favor of Charles Bennison >By ENS staff [Episcopal News Service] An ecclesiastical review court Aug. 4 ruled in favor of Diocese of Pennsylvania Bishop Charles E. Bennison with respect to two alleged disciplinary charges stemming from his response to his priest brother's sexual misconduct some 35 years ago. Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_123938_ENG_HTM.htm More Diocesan news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_ENG_HTM.htm >_____________________ >WORLD REPORT Churches remember Hiroshima by urging ban on nuclear weapons >By Stephen Brown [Ecumenical News International, Geneva/Berlin] The World Council of Churches has reaffirmed the vision of a world without nuclear weapons, in marking the anniversary of the atomic bombing in 1945 of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_123923_ENG_HTM.htm More World news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_ENG_HTM.htm >_____________________ >DAYBOOK >On August 6, 2010... * 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 August 6, 1809, Alfred Lord Tennyson, English poet and Anglican, was born in Lincolnshire, England. >_____________________ >EPISCOPAL BOOKS & RESOURCES PICK "A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions That Are Transforming the Faith" by Brian D. McLaren, hardcover, 320 pages, Feb 2010, $24.99. [Harper Collins] We are in the midst of a paradigm shift in the church. Not since the Reformation five centuries ago have so many Christians come together to ask whether the church is in sync with their deepest beliefs and commitments. These believers range from evangelicals to mainline Protestants to Catholics, and the person who best represents them is author and pastor Brian McLaren. In this much anticipated book, McLaren examines ten questions facing today's church -- questions about how to articulate the faith itself, the nature of its authority, who God is, whether we have to understand Jesus through only an ancient Greco-Roman lens, what exactly the good news is that the gospel proclaims, how we understand the church and all its varieties, why we are so preoccupied with sex, how we should think of the future and people from other faiths, and the most intimidating question of all: what do we do next? Here you will find a provocative and enticing introduction to the Christian faith of tomorrow. To order, please visit Episcopal Books and Resources online at http://www.episcopalbookstore.org, call 800-903-5544, or visit your local Episcopal bookstore.