Episcopal Life Online Newslink April 16, 2007
Episcopal Life Online is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife.
Today's ELO Newslink includes:
* TOP STORY - Archbishop of Canterbury announces he will meet with Episcopal Church * TOP STORY - Episcopal Campus ministry reaches out in response to shooting * TOP STORY - Executive Council committee offers draft covenant study guide * TOP STORY - Charges dropped against Connecticut bishop * WORLD REPORT - AFGHANISTAN: Canadian bishop gets close-up view of horrors of war * WORLD REPORT - JERUSALEM: Bishop Suheil Dawani enthroned in lively, colorful ceremony * FEATURE - A symbolic homecoming: 'Lost boy' returns to Sudan
_____________________
TOP STORIES
Archbishop of Canterbury announces he will meet with Episcopal Church
By Mary Frances Schjonberg and Solange de Santis
[Episcopal News Service] The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, announced April 16 that he intends to visit the United States this autumn in response to the invitation from the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church.
Speaking in a news conference in Toronto, Williams said he would make the visit together with members of the Standing Committee of the Primates, of which Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori is a member, and the Anglican Consultative Council.
"I look forward to some sharing of our experiences as pastors as well as discussion of the business of the Communion. These are complicated days for our church internationally and it's all the more important to keep up personal relationships and conversations," he said. "My aim is to try and keep people around the table as long as possible on this, to understand one another, and to encourage local churches on this side of the Atlantic and elsewhere to ask what they might need to do to keep in that conversation, to keep around the table."
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_84949_ENG_HTM.htm
- - - - -
Episcopal Campus ministry reaches out in response to campus shooting
By Mary Frances Schjonberg
[Episcopal News Service] Members of the Canterbury House Episcopal ministry on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University plan to gather on the evening of April 18 for a memorial and healing service, following an April 16 shooting spree at the school which is being called the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.
The Rev. Elizabeth Morgan, interim rector of Christ Episcopal Church, Blacksburg, Virginia, said she was able to check on the small number of students who live at the Canterbury House and all are accounted for.
A gunman opened fire in a dorm and classroom at Virginia Tech, killing 32 people and wounding another 24 before he was killed, according to the Washington Post.
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said that the people of the Episcopal Church are shocked and saddened by the shootings at Virginia Tech. "We hold in our prayers the students, faculty, and staff of that institution, their families, and all affected by today's events," she said "As we begin to confront this senseless loss, we will continue to pray for all who grieve and search for understanding."
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_84976_ENG_HTM.htm
- - - - -
Executive Council committee offers draft covenant study guide International Concerns subcommittee hopes to elicit comments for report
By Mary Frances Schjonberg
[Episcopal News Service] A study guide aimed at helping the Episcopal Church respond to the draft version of a proposed Anglican Covenant is now available.
Prepared by a subcommittee of the Executive Council's International Concerns Standing Committee (INC), the six-page guide in English, French and Spanish is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/gc. The page includes individual links to each translation, along with links to covenant-related website.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_84940_ENG_HTM.htm
- - - - -
Charges dropped against Connecticut bishop Title IV Review Committee clears Smith
By Karin Hamilton
[Episcopal News Service] The Episcopal Church's Title IV Review Committee has decided to drop all charges brought against Connecticut Bishop Andrew D. Smith by the rectors and vestries of six diocesan parishes.
"I am thankful to learn that the Title IV Review Committee found no cause to bring a presentment based on the charges filed against me by the complaining clergy and lay members of this diocese who found themselves at odds with my decisions and actions as Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut," Smith said in a diocesan statement released April 13. "My desire has always been to bring reconciliation with the clergy and laity who sought to dissociate themselves from the oversight of their bishop and the mission and life of the Diocese of Connecticut. I will never abandon that desire and hope."
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_84923_ENG_HTM.htm
_____________________
WORLD REPORT
AFGHANISTAN: Canadian bishop gets close-up view of horrors of war http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_84931_ENG_HTM.htm
JERUSALEM: Bishop Suheil Dawani enthroned in lively, colorful ceremony http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_84974_ENG_HTM.htm
More World news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_ENG_HTM.htm
_____________________
FEATURES
A symbolic homecoming
'Lost boy' returns to Sudan and shows visitors the great needs and amazing faith of his homeland
By Zoe Mullery
[Episcopal Life] Far below us through a haze of heat, the pilot of our tiny four-seater Cessna pointed out a barely discernible white line cutting through the sparse landscape. "See that road?" he shouted above the roar of the engines. "That's the border."
I looked at Michael's face, glued to the window. As we crossed from Kenya into southern Sudan, our small plane filled with his excitement as he re-entered the country from which he had been exiled for so many years. It was only a matter of hours before he would embrace his mother, an embrace he had not felt since he was 6.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81834_84962_ENG_HTM.htm
More features: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/78936_ENG_HTM.htm
- - - - - - - - -
To SUBSCRIBE to Episcopal Life Online, send a blank email message, from the address which you wish subscribed, to join-enslist@epicom.org and include "subscribe" in the subject line.
Send QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS to news@episcopalchurch.org
ELO provides information and resources which we consider to be of interest to our readers.
However, statements and opinions expressed in the articles and communications herein, are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of ELO or the Episcopal Church.