[ENS] In Northern California and at Virginia Seminary, mission and ministry go on after devastating

[<mdavies@episcopalchurch.org>]

>Episcopal News Service
>October 25, 2010

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

Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/episcopal_news

>Today's Episcopal News Service includes:

* TOP STORY - In Northern California and at Virginia Seminary, mission
and ministry go on after devastating fires
* TOP STORY - Executive Council passes reduced 2011 budget
* TOP STORY - A message from Executive Council to the Episcopal Church
* TOP STORY - Executive Council backs plan for initial Haiti 
rebuilding appeal
* TOP STORY - Progress toward MDGs is outlined in Nov. 7 bulletin 
inserts
* DIOCESAN DIGEST - RIO GRANDE: Michael Vono becomes diocese's ninth 
bishop
* WORLD REPORT - PHILIPPINES: Church lay minister shot dead by
motorcycle-riding assassins
* MISSION - Maria Shriver's 'The Women's Conference' with presiding
bishop to be webcast live
* MISSION - United Thank Offering application process open for 2011 
grants
* DAYBOOK - October 26: Today in Scripture, Prayer, History
* EPISCOPAL BOOKS & RESOURCES PICK - "The Heartbeat of God - Finding
the Sacred in the Middle of Everything"

>_____________________

>TOP STORIES

In Northern California and at Virginia Seminary, mission and ministry
go on after devastating fires

>By Pat McCaughan

[Episcopal News Service] Virginia Theological Seminary and the Diocese
of Northern California, hit by devastating fires last week, on Oct. 25
grappled with the lengthy process of moving forward.

In Alexandria, the VTS faculty and students were off-campus as the
"seminary community began its corporate worship at Immanuel Episcopal
Church-on-the-Hill," three days after a fire devastated the school's
historic wooden chapel, according to a note posted on the school's
Facebook Tribute Page.

Although the VTS wooden chapel, built in 1881, was heavily damaged in
the Oct. 22 fire, "some stained glass windows appear to have
survived," according to an email circulated Oct. 25 to alumni and
friends by the Very Rev. Ian S. Markham, VTS dean.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79425_125411_ENG_HTM.htm

>- - - - -

>Executive Council passes reduced 2011 budget

Council members discuss church's governance structures

>By Mary Frances Schjonberg

[Episcopal News Service -- Salt Lake City, Utah] The Episcopal
Church's Executive Council Oct. 25 approved a reduced 2011 budget for
the church and continued a discussion of church governance begun the
day before.

The 2011 budget is five percent lower than the version adopted by
General Convention in 2009.

The budget decision came during the council's final sessions of its
Oct. 23-25 meeting here.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79425_125409_ENG_HTM.htm

>- - - - -

A message from Executive Council to the Episcopal Church

[Episcopal News Service] The Episcopal Church's Executive Council
issued the following message at the conclusion of its Oct. 23-25
meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah.

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79425_125407_ENG_HTM.htm

>- - - - -

Executive Council backs plan for initial Haiti rebuilding appeal

Council members pledge unanimous personal commitment to $10 million 
effort

>By Mary Frances Schjonberg

[Episcopal News Service] The Episcopal Church's Executive Council has
reaffirmed its February challenge to the church to raise $10 million
to help begin to rebuild the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti.

Council said, via Resolution FFM032 passed on Oct. 25 on the final day
of its three-day meeting here, that its reaffirmation comes "in
solidarity with and in support of our bothers and sisters in Christ."

Council members, who will pledge their financial support to the appeal
during the council's closing worship, called for "the grassroots
participation of all Episcopal communities of faith at every level of
the church, including provinces, dioceses, congregations and other
institutions and organizations." They also said that they would
support the appeal through prayer and the identification and
recruitment of volunteers and donors.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79425_125392_ENG_HTM.htm

>- - - - -

Progress toward MDGs is outlined in Nov. 7 bulletin inserts

[Episcopal News Service] In September, the United Nations held a
summit meeting on the Millennium Development Goals to assess the
progress of the 15-year plan, adopted in 2000.

"In a nutshell, the summit asked the world to move from talk to
action," write Devon Anderson and Bishop Ian Douglas in ENS Weekly
bulletin inserts for Nov. 7.

Anderson, executive director of Episcopalians for Global
Reconciliation and Douglas, bishop of Connecticut and vice-chair of
EGR's board, outline the progress made by the Episcopal Church in
helping to achieve the MDGs and what still needs to be done to meet
the eight goals by the target date of 2015.

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

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

>_____________________

>DIOCESAN DIGEST

RIO GRANDE: Michael Vono becomes diocese's ninth bishop

>By Pat McCaughan

[Episcopal News Service] The Oct. 24 seating of the Rt. Rev. Michael
Louis Vono as ninth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande
capped a series of festivities with a "great spirit of joy,
expectation and happiness," according to the Very Rev. Mark Goodman,
as the Albuquerque, New Mexico-based diocese enthusiastically embraced
its future.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_125383_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>WORLD REPORT

PHILIPPINES: Church lay minister shot dead by motorcycle-riding 
assassins

>By Matthew Davies

[Episcopal News Service] A lay minister in the Philippine Independent
Church was shot dead by assassins riding motorcycles while walking
home from church on Oct. 17 in Malabon City, according to a news
article on the USPG mission agency website.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_125368_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>MISSION

Maria Shriver's 'The Women's Conference' with presiding bishop to be
webcast live

[Episcopal News Service] Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori
will be a featured panelist on Oct. 26 at California First Lady Maria
Shriver's "The Women's Conference" in Long Beach, and the event will
be webcast live.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81799_125381_ENG_HTM.htm

>- - - - -

United Thank Offering application process open for 2011 grants

[Episcopal News Service] The application process for the 2011 United
Thank Offering grants is now open and for the first time it is
available online, according to a press release from the Episcopal
Church's Office of Public Affairs.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81799_125375_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>DAYBOOK

On October 26, 2010, the church remembers Alfred the Great, King of
the West Saxons.

* 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 October 26, 1990, Charles A. Perry was
inaugurated as dean of Church Divinity School of the Pacific in
Berkeley, California.

>_____________________

>EPISCOPAL BOOKS & RESOURCES PICK

"The Heartbeat of God - Finding the Sacred in the Middle of
Everything" by Katharine Jefferts Schori, Skylight Paths, c. 2010,
hardcover, 210 pp, $21.99

[Skylight Paths] Insights from one of the premier women in world
religion, on the intersections of the sacred and the secular.

"We are all connected," writes Katharine Jefferts Schori, "as human
beings with each other, as one nation with all other nations, and as
the human species with the whole of our environment. At a population
of 7 billion we can no longer, if we ever could, afford to ignore
those interconnections. The welfare of the least among us and around
us will eventually be our own."

In this book, Jefferts Schori explores those connections as she looks
at the intersections of faith with the major issues of our day --
poverty, climate change, the economy, health care. How does faith
speak to those issues, and what is the faith response? How can
believers from an astonishing variety of faith traditions find common
ground while honoring the divine, serving one another and creating a
deeper community? The Heartbeat of God will be an up-close look at the
"secular" issues of our day that have profoundly religious roots.

Adapted from Bishop Jefferts Schori's many speeches and sermons
delivered around the country and around the world, the chapters in The
Heartbeat of God will look at the many ways our faith and our lives
are intimately woven together. The author of course writes from the
perspective of her Christian tradition, but also reaches out with
sensitivity and grace to an interfaith audience.

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