[ENS] 'Blue' Christmas services comfort when the holidays aren't happy / Bethlehem/Washington prayer
From <mdavies@episcopalchurch.org>Date Fri, 10 Dec 2010 17:12:00 -0500
>Episcopal News Service >December 10, 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 - 'Blue' Christmas services comfort when the holidays aren't happy * CHURCHWIDE - Bethlehem/Washington prayer service to bring the Holy Land home * CHURCHWIDE - Episcopal Church's oldest camp celebrates 125 years * WORLD REPORT - CANADA: Calgary congregation votes to join Roman Catholic Church * DAYBOOK - December 13: Today in Scripture, Prayer, History >_____________________ >TOP STORIES 'Blue' Christmas services comfort when the holidays aren't happy >By Pat McCaughan [Episcopal News Service] For the first time in four years, Margaret Rogers of Mira Loma, California, felt she could face Christmas in a new way. "The holidays have been so awful, so lonely," since her 22-year-old son Derek Crawford was shot and killed in Los Angeles in July 2006, said Rogers after attending a Nov. 30 "Blue Christmas" service at St. Mark's Church in Upland in the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles. After years of "shock, of feeling like I couldn't even hold a thought in my head," lighting a candle in her son's memory, singing the familiar songs, and hearing the Christmas story gave her hope for healing, even a sense of peace, she said. Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79425_126152_ENG_HTM.htm More Top Stories: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/ens >_____________________ >CHURCHWIDE Bethlehem/Washington prayer service to bring the Holy Land home Joint simulcast will connect worshippers on 2 continents >By Lucy Chumbley [Episcopal News Service] Bethlehem will come to Washington, D.C., this Christmas, by way of a joint simulcast service in English and Arabic that will connect worshippers on two continents. Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80263_126135_ENG_HTM.htm >- - - - - Episcopal Church's oldest camp celebrates 125 years >By ENS staff [Episcopal News Service] An Episcopal Church-affiliated camp that began as a way to offer rural respite to poor immigrants on the lower east side of New York is celebrating its 125th anniversary. Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80263_126136_ENG_HTM.htm More Churchwide stories: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_ENG_HTM.htm >_____________________ >WORLD REPORT CANADA: Calgary congregation votes to join Roman Catholic Church >By Leigh Anne Williams [Anglican Journal] The congregation of St. John the Evangelist in Calgary voted in late November to enter into serious discussions with the Roman Catholic Church about becoming a part of its Anglican Ordinariate in Canada. It is the first parish of the Anglican Church of Canada to move toward becoming a part of the Roman Catholic Church since Pope Benedict XVI announced the creation of the ordinariate just over a year ago. Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_126156_ENG_HTM.htm More World news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_ENG_HTM.htm >_____________________ >DAYBOOK >On December 13, 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 December 13, 1835, Phillips Brooks, bishop of Massachusetts and author of "O Little Town of Bethlehem," was born in Boston.