Episcopal Life Online Newslink June 5, 2007
Episcopal Life Online is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife.
Today's ELO Newslink includes:
* TOP STORY - World Environment Day celebrated by Episcopal Relief and Development * DIOCESAN DIGEST - NORTH DAKOTA: Exceeding expectations, diocese to ordain 18 deacons this summer * WORLD REPORT - SOUTHERN AFRICA: Archbishop Ndungane calls for reconciliation in the Holy Land * OPINION - Crossing Borders: Hartwell's DVD tells a story of hope and hardship at Ahli Arab Hospital * ARTS - Castle of dread: Door of No Return chronicles Atlantic slave trade from Ghana
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TOP STORIES
World Environment Day celebrated by Episcopal Relief and Development
[Episcopal News Service] Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD) celebrates World Environment Day, designated as June 5 to promote awareness of the environment and enhance political attention and public action.
ERD supports environmental sustainability and development through its food security and primary health programs worldwide, assisting communities through forestry projects such as planting trees, creating tree nurseries, and maintaining woodlots. Farmers are taught new agricultural training techniques that help to correct poor farming practices that cause degradation to vast amounts of land, leaving it barren.
In Haiti, only 2 percent of the country is forested and 6,000 hectares of once-arable land is destroyed annually due to soil erosion. ERD's partnership with the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti and the Haiti Fund has managed the Comprehensive Development Project (CODEP), a reforestation and agricultural training center. In response to deforestation in Haiti's mountain regions, the partnership has established more than 870,000 meters of hedgerows, 60,000 meters of contour canals, and planted more than 2 million forest trees and 105,000 fruit trees since 2000.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_86568_ENG_HTM.htm
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DIOCESAN DIGEST
NORTH DAKOTA: Exceeding expectations, diocese to ordain 18 deacons this summer http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_86586_ENG_HTM.htm
More Diocesan news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_ENG_HTM.htm
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WORLD REPORT
SOUTHERN AFRICA: Archbishop Ndungane calls for reconciliation in the Holy Land http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_86572_ENG_HTM.htm
More World news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_ENG_HTM.htm
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OPINION
Crossing Borders
Hartwell's DVD tells a story of hope and hardship at Ahli Arab Hospital
By Ed and Karen Hartwell
[Episcopal Life] Sometimes it's not possible to cross a border. This was our experience, Ed and Karen Hartwell, members of St. James' Episcopal Church in Austin, Texas, when we tried to enter Gaza in April 2004, to visit the Ahli Arab Hospital, our designated partner in the Diocese of Jerusalem. We were in Jerusalem for an international Sabeel conference and we hoped to take back to our church community photos and stories of our visit as a first step to launching a fund drive for the hospital; but the violence taking place in Gaza that week had led to Israel's closing off all entry points.
Disappointed but not ready to give up, Ed, a retired Episcopal priest celebrating his 50th anniversary of ordination that year, and his son Tom, a photojournalist in Cairo, came up with the idea of hiring a Palestinian cameraman living in Gaza to shoot film at the hospital. The three of us met with Bishop Riah Abu El-Assal, then bishop of the Diocese of Jerusalem, who endorsed the idea, and we filmed the bishop that day talking about the ministry and immense needs of the Ahli Arab Hospital.
Months later, a Palestinian cameraman with CNN sent Ed seven hours of film in the daily life of the busy hospital: patients of all ages arriving by bus from the nearby villages and refugee camps, the care provided by physicians and other health workers, the provision of food and drink for the families, the bustling Gaza City neighborhood where the hospital is located, and horrific footage of life, suffering, and death in an embattled part of Palestine. Ed watched all seven hours over and over again, identifying scenes best suited for the film. Most touching were the images of the children, some with normal childhood illnesses exacerbated by malnutrition, others wounded or in shock after a particularly destructive bombing. Throughout, the comforting voice of hospital director Suhaila Terazi conveyed a strong sense of Christian compassion and commitment to their patients, Muslim and Christian alike.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_86566_ENG_HTM.htm
More Opinion: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_ENG_HTM.htm
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ARTS
Castle of dread: Door of No Return chronicles Atlantic slave trade from Ghana
By Lois Sibley
[Episcopal Life]
IN REVIEW THE DOOR OF NO RETURN By William St Clair BlueBridge, 282 pp., $24.95
An unusual title, The Door of No Return. It sounds like the title of a mystery, but this story is true. The subtitle reveals it as "the history of Cape Coast Castle and the Atlantic Slave Trade."
The enormity of the slave trade will stun those who read that, from the mid-15th to the late-19th century, more than 11 million African men, women and children were carried across the ocean. Was there ever such a forced migration, before or since?
Author William St Clair used for reference a huge accumulation of papers, saved from both Cape Coast Castle -- one of three castles and many forts on the coast of present-day Ghana -- and Africa House, the London headquarters from which the castle was managed.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81827_86536_ENG_HTM.htm
More Arts: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81827_ENG_HTM.htm
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