[ENS] Pennsylvania bishop returns to divided diocese / Bulletin inserts look at Gulf Coast struggles

[<mdavies@episcopalchurch.org>]

>Episcopal News Service
>August 16, 2010

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

>Today's Episcopal News Service includes:

* TOP STORY - Pennsylvania bishop returns to divided diocese
* TOP STORY - Bulletin inserts look at Gulf Coast struggles with
Katrina aftermath, threat from oil spill
* TOP STORY - Remembering Jonathan M. Daniels 45 years after Selma
* DIOCESAN DIGEST - WESTERN NEW YORK: Diocese announces 4 nominees 
for bishop
* WORLD REPORT - ENGLAND: Church bells to ring out in September for
species protection
* DAYBOOK - August 17: Today in Scripture, Prayer, History
* EPISCOPAL BOOKS & RESOURCES PICK - "Transforming Stewardship"

>_____________________

>TOP STORIES

Pennsylvania bishop returns to divided diocese

Standing Committee says Charles Bennison has lost the trust needed for
him to lead

>By Mary Frances Schjonberg

[Episcopal News Service] Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania
(http://diopa.org/) Bishop Charles Bennison returned to the diocesan
offices in downtown Philadelphia Aug. 16 amid continued calls for his
retirement or resignation.

"We do not believe that Bishop Bennison has the trust of the clergy
and lay leaders necessary for him to be an effective pastor and leader
of the Diocese of Pennsylvania, nor that he can regain or rebuild the
trust that he has lost or broken," the diocesan Standing Committee
said in a letter posted to the diocese's website in the late morning.
"We believe that it would be in the best interest of the diocese that
Bishop Bennison not resume his exercise of authority here."

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79425_124082_ENG_HTM.htm

>- - - - -

Bulletin inserts look at Gulf Coast struggles with Katrina aftermath,
threat from oil spill

[Episcopal News Service] For those who live on the Gulf Coast, it's
not a question of whether a natural disaster will strike, but rather
when the next one will come, says the Very Rev. James "Bo" Roberts,
rector of St. Mark's Church in Gulfport, Mississippi, one of six
churches in the Diocese of Mississippi that Hurricane Katrina
destroyed on August 29, 2005. ENS Weekly bulletin inserts for Aug. 29,
2010 look at the situation in the Gulf Coast area five years after
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the area and as the aftermath
of the massive BP oil spill continues to threaten recovery efforts.

Inserts may be downloaded here: 
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/95270_ENG_HTM.htm

>- - - - -

Remembering Jonathan M. Daniels 45 years after Selma

Hundreds gather for commemorations in Alabama, Wyoming

>By Pat McCaughan

[Episcopal News Service] The 45th anniversary of the death of Jonathan
Myrick Daniels, an Episcopal seminarian-activist killed in Alabama
during the civil rights movement, was commemorated in congregations
during the Aug. 14-15 weekend.

Bishop Todd Ousley of the Episcopal Diocese of Eastern Michigan was a
featured speaker at an Aug. 14 pilgrimage that drew hundreds to
Hayneville, a predominantly African American town of about 1,000
residents, where Daniels was killed in 1965.

A day later and 1,400 miles away, about 40 people recalled the spirit
of Daniels while attending an Aug. 15 conversational sermon with a
local Muslim leader and the Rev. Rick Viet, rector of St. Mark's
Episcopal Church in predominantly Anglo Cheyenne, Wyoming, with a
population of about 56,000.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79425_124064_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>DIOCESAN DIGEST

WESTERN NEW YORK: Diocese announces 4 nominees for bishop

>By ENS staff

[Episcopal News Service] The Standing Committee of the Episcopal
Diocese of Western New York announced Aug. 16 a slate of four nominees
for the diocese's 11th bishop.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_124074_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>WORLD REPORT

ENGLAND: Church bells to ring out in September for species protection

>By Martin Revis

[Ecumenical News International, London] Support for United Nations
talks on biodiversity will be marked in Britain by the biggest
nationwide peal of bells since celebrations to mark the eve of the
third millennium, organizers say.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_124075_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>DAYBOOK

>On August 17, 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 17, 1853, a convention, called by
missionary Bishop Jackson Kemper, formed the Episcopal Diocese of
Iowa.

>_____________________

>EPISCOPAL BOOKS & RESOURCES PICK

"Transforming Stewardship" by C. K. Robertson, paperback, 176 pages,
Feb 2009, $16.

[Church Publishing] At once a "travel guide" and a vision for the
future, this series is good news for the Episcopal Church at a time of
fast and furious demographic and social change. It analyzes the
present plight of the church and sketches a positive way forward,
sprouting from the seeds of change -- those transformative practices
already at work renewing the church. What church models can help point
us toward transformation? What are the essential tools? What will give
us strength, direction, and purpose to the journey?

For most Episcopalians, stewardship is synonymous with pledge drives,
budgets, and capital campaigns, but the Bible is clear that God wants
more than our tithes and offerings. Looking to its scriptural roots in
1 Chronicles, Luke-Acts, and the letters of Paul, as well as St.
Francis' "third way," Robertson offers a vision of holistic
stewardship for the whole church, holistic because it can't be
separated from evangelism, outreach, scripture study, and ministry to
the newcomer. It does not involve strong-arm tactics, only a
willingness to risk changing existing structures and ideas in order to
enrich the faith community and strengthen connections to the
neighboring world.

Transforming Stewardship delivers both good and bad news about
Episcopalians and stewardship. Robertson provides essential models and
spiritual practices in order to transform the church's outmoded
attitudes toward stewardship and wealth into a broader context of
faith.

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