[ENS] 'Entering Stillness': Advent time outs with retreats, quiet days / Ecumenical 'prayers for pea

[<mdavies@episcopalchurch.org>]

>Episcopal News Service
>December 3, 2010

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

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>Today's Episcopal News Service includes:

* TOP STORY - Ecumenical 'prayers for peace' in Sudan kicks off at UN
chapel
* TOP STORY - 'Entering Stillness': Advent time outs with retreats,
quiet days
* OPINION - Dining with John
* DAYBOOK - December 6: Today in Scripture, Prayer, History

>_____________________

>TOP STORIES

Ecumenical 'prayers for peace' in Sudan kicks off at UN chapel

>By Lynette Wilson

[Episcopal News Service] Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians,
Lutherans, Roman Catholics and Mennonites gathered at the Church 
Center
for the United Nations in New York Dec. 3 to kick off a weekly 
noontime
prayer vigil in solidarity with the people of Sudan in the lead up to
the Jan. 9 referendum, in which the south is expected to vote for
independence from the north.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79425_126021_ENG_HTM.htm
_ _ _ _ _

'Entering Stillness': Advent time outs with retreats, quiet days

>By Pat McCaughan

[Episcopal News Service] Seeing things differently is what the church
season of Advent is all about, according to retreat leaders like the
Rev. Ann Markle, rector of St. Raphael's Church, Crossville, in the
Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee.

Markle believes her Dec. 4 quiet day at another church -- focusing
reflections on the Black Madonna of Italy and elsewhere in Europe --
will help participants do just that.

"Not only is Advent a time to think about what's really important, 
it's
also an opportunity to make a Christian witness and be the counter
culture that the Christian church is really called to be," she said.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79425_126014_ENG_HTM.htm

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

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>OPINION

>Dining with John

>By Phyllis Strupp

[Episcopal News Service] The holiday season is upon us, a time of
get-togethers featuring delicious, irresistible food. Imagine yourself
attending a Christmas party this month where the host comes up to you
carrying a platter of beguiling hors d'oeuvres and says, "Would you 
care
for some stir-fried locusts or roasted grasshoppers?"

If you are like most people in the U.S., you would likely respond to
this gracious offer with a shocked or polite "NO!" However, a 
foreigner
visitor might just say, "Yes please!"

Many people in developing nations count on insects as an important
source of protein in their diet. In a recent article about American
chefs using insects in various dishes, a chef remarked how his
perceptions about eating insects changed when he visited Africa. One 
day
he observed children bursting out of school to eat a swarm of locusts 
as
if they were "flying popcorn." Other chefs commented that edible 
insects
can be a vehicle for personal and cultural transformation, and that 
"you
get to know the world when you get to know the food."

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_126015_ENG_HTM.htm

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

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>DAYBOOK

On December 6, 2010, the church remembers Nicholas, bishop of Myra.

* 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 December 6, 1858, Henry Ustic Onderdonk, bishop
and hymnist, died in Philadelphia.