Episcopal Life Online Newslink May 23, 2007
Episcopal Life Online is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife.
Today's ELO Newslink includes:
* TOP STORY - Washington priest voices support for immigrant family reunification * TOP STORY - Episcopal Relief and Development hosts annual Network Meeting in New Orleans * DIOCESAN DIGEST - TEXAS: Bishop to throw out first pitch at Astros' annual 'Episcopal Night' * DIOCESAN DIGEST - WASHINGTON, D.C.: Oldest congregation to offer week of music * WORLD REPORT - HONG KONG: Primate notes church's growth on visit to New York * WORLD REPORT - WORLDWIDE: Tutu, church leaders call on G8 countries to keep promises on AIDS * SPIRITUAL REFLECTION - Day of Pentecost - Year C [RCL]
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TOP STORIES
Washington priest voices support for immigrant family reunification
By Molly Keane
[Episcopal News Service] Expressing support for immigrant family reunification at a May 23 Capitol Hill news conference, the Rev. Dr. Luis Leon, rector of St. John's Lafayette Square Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., spoke in favor of a proposed amendment authored by Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ) to the Border Security and Immigration Reform Act of 2007.
The Senators' amendment would remove barriers to reunification for the nuclear families of lawful permanent residents.
"The Episcopal Church's 2006 legislative body, General Convention, expressed strong support for comprehensive immigration legislation and regarded family unity as an imperative of any reformed system," stated Leon. "Sadly, the Senate compromise legislation includes provisions that devalue family sponsored immigration." The Clinton-Hagel-Menendez amendment would reclassify the spouses and minor children of lawful permanent immigrants as "immediate relatives," thereby exempting them from the visa caps.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_86271_ENG_HTM.htm
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Episcopal Relief and Development hosts annual Network Meeting in New Orleans
[Episcopal News Service] Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD) held its annual Network meeting May 17-20 in New Orleans, Louisiana. The theme of this year's meeting was "Partners in Hope, Partners in Life."
The ERD Network is a group of volunteers who support and promote ERD and its programs throughout Episcopal parishes, dioceses, and seminaries, according to an ERD release. A total of 138 attendees representing 67 Episcopal dioceses and six seminaries attended the meeting, which is held each year specifically for diocesan and seminarian coordinators. There are close to 3,000 network members including more than 2,800 parish representatives.
"The Network meeting generated fresh energy and vision for working together as partners to bring God's hope and life to the world," said the Rev. Lynn Sanders, ERD's director of Church Relations.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_86270_ENG_HTM.htm
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DIOCESAN DIGEST
TEXAS: Bishop to throw out first pitch at Astros' annual 'Episcopal Night' http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_86258_ENG_HTM.htm
WASHINGTON, D.C.: Oldest congregation to offer week of music http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_86263_ENG_HTM.htm
More Diocesan news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_ENG_HTM.htm
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WORLD REPORT
HONG KONG: Primate notes church's growth on visit to New York http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_86268_ENG_HTM.htm
WORLDWIDE: Tutu, church leaders call on G8 countries to keep promises on
AIDS
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_86273_ENG_HTM.htm
More World news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_ENG_HTM.htm
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SPIRITUAL REFLECTIONS
Day of Pentecost - Year C [RCL] Acts 14:8-18 or Joel 2:21-27; Psalm 67; Revelation 21:22-22:5 or Acts 14:8-18; John 14:23-29
By Angela V. Askew
[Episcopal Life] We are poised today on the threshold of the Ascension, with Pentecost rising on the horizon. The reading from John's Gospel today reflects that. It is part of the long love-letter that scholars call Jesus' "Farewell Discourse" in which Jesus promises his friends that although the time has come for him to depart, he will send them the Holy Spirit to be their advocate and guide. In the structure of the Gospel this long love-letter is like a prelude to Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection, so it pushes us back before Easter; but in the structure of the church year it is the prelude to Ascension and Pentecost, so it pushes us forward to a place we haven't yet been. In either case, whether we are looking backwards or forwards, what matters is that Jesus is about to go away. Everything that his friends and disciples know of him and do in his Name will shortly be done in the absence of their beloved Rabbi, and in the quite different presence of God the Holy Spirit.
The readings play out this dialogue between presence and absence for us. The passage we have from John of Patmos, towards the end of Revelation, points us forward. It shows the end-time vision of what the completion and fulfillment of God's design for the human community will look like. He sees "a new heaven and a new earth," [Rev. 21:1] and then gives us a quick tour of the holy city, the new Jerusalem [Rev.21:10 - 22:5 ff.] Because of the victory of Christ the Paschal Lamb, the whole creation is renewed and transformed by the glory of God. Conspicuously absent from his short but detailed picture of the New Jerusalem in chapters 21 and 22 is the great Temple. "I saw no temple in this city," he says. God the Father and Christ the Lamb are the Temple in this end-time vision. Equally conspicuous is the absence of sunlight and moonlight, because God is himself the light of the inhabitants. And there is also the notable detail that the gates of the city-which, historically, served to defend inhabitants from enemies and evil-doers-now stand forever open. In the victory of Christ on the cross over the powers of evil, sin, and death, the new Jerusalem has no enemies to defend against.
Full reflection: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/82457_86076_ENG_HTM.htm
More Spiritual Reflections: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/82457_ENG_HTM.htm
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