[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.