Episcopal Life Online Newslink June 14, 2007
Episcopal Life Online is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife.
Today's ELO Newslink includes:
* TOP STORY - Executive Council puts disaffected dioceses on notice about constitutional changes * TOP STORY - Kenyan Primate to consecrate bishop for North America * TOP STORY - Executive Council declines to participate in Primates' 'pastoral scheme,' says only Convention makes policy * WORLD REPORT - CANADA: Anglicans prepare to gather in Winnipeg for crucial General Synod * WORLD REPORT - CANADA: Primate reviews past three years in his final webcast * WORLD REPORT - MIDDLE EAST: Jerusalem church leaders appeal for end to Palestinian fighting * WORLD REPORT - WORLDWIDE: Tutu hopes U.N. rights body can enhance its authority * FEATURE - Freedom walk: Alabama pilgrimage sparks insight into baptismal promises and the cost of following the cross
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TOP STORIES
Executive Council puts disaffected dioceses on notice about constitutional changes Members authorize Anglican Covenant monitoring group, honor two soon-to-be retired staffers
By Mary Frances Schjonberg
[Episcopal News Service] Episcopal Church dioceses that change their constitutions in an attempt to bypass the Church's Constitution and Canons were warned by the Executive Council June 14 that their actions are "null and void."
The Council passed Resolution NAC023, reminding dioceses that they are required to "accede" to the Constitution and Canons, and declaring that any diocesan action that removes that accession from its constitution is "null and void." That declaration, the resolution said, means that their constitutions "shall be as they were as if such amendments had not been passed."
The action came on the last day of its four-day meeting at the Sheraton hotel in Parsippany, New Jersey. The Council spent June 11, 13, and 14 in New Jersey, and on June 12 traveled to the Episcopal Church Center at 815 Second Ave. in New York City. Earlier in the day, the Council issued its reply to the communiqué issued by the Anglican Primates at the end of their February meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_86899_ENG_HTM.htm
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Kenyan Primate to consecrate bishop for North America
By Matthew Davies
[Episcopal News Service] Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi of the Anglican Church of Kenya has announced he will consecrate former U.S. Episcopalian Bill Atwood as suffragan bishop of All Saints Cathedral Diocese, Nairobi.
Nzimbi said the consecration, set for August 30, will "support the international interests of the Anglican Church of Kenya, including support of Kenyan clergy and congregations in North America."
A former Episcopalian from Carrollton, Texas, Atwood is general secretary of The Ekklesia Society, which describes itself as "an international society committed to making disciples of Jesus Christ."
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_86896_ENG_HTM.htm
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Executive Council declines to participate in Primates' 'pastoral scheme,' says only Convention makes policy Members 'respectfully ask' Presiding Bishop to decline as well
By Mary Frances Schjonberg
[Episcopal News Service] The Episcopal Church's Executive Council told the Anglican Communion June 14 that no governing body other than General Convention can interpret Convention resolutions or agree to deny "future decisions by dioceses or General Convention."
The Council declined to participate in a plan put forward by the Primates of the Anglican Communion in February for dealing with some disaffected Episcopal Church dioceses.
The statement, titled "The Episcopal Church's Commitment to Common Life in Anglican Communion," "strongly affirm[ed] this Church's desire to be in the fullest possible relationship with our Anglican sisters and brothers." The statement is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_86883_ENG_HTM.htm
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_86884_ENG_HTM.htm
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WORLD REPORT
CANADA: Anglicans prepare to gather in Winnipeg for crucial General Synod http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_86879_ENG_HTM.htm
CANADA: Primate reviews past three years in his final webcast http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_86877_ENG_HTM.htm
MIDDLE EAST: Jerusalem church leaders appeal for end to Palestinian fighting http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_86885_ENG_HTM.htm
WORLDWIDE: Tutu hopes U.N. rights body can enhance its authority http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_86882_ENG_HTM.htm
More World news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_ENG_HTM.htm
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FEATURES
Freedom walk
Alabama pilgrimage sparks insight into baptismal promises and the cost of following the cross
By John Price
[Episcopal Life] A few years ago, I visited a small, nonprofit in Washington, D.C., the Institute for Faith and Politics, that provides spiritual support for members of the U.S. Congress and staff on Capitol Hill. I was exploring sabbatical opportunities that would engage my long interest in racial justice and social transformation.
The staff of the institute invited me to join them as a clergy fellow in 2005 as they prepared to take members of the U.S. House and Senate, upper-level staff and constituents on a civil rights pilgrimage that would celebrate the 40th anniversary of the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. Raised in the civil rights cauldron of North Carolina in the late 1950s and early 1960s, I knew in my heart that this was to be a southern journey for me as well, a pilgrimage with personal memories and meanings.
By late February of 2005, the institute had 35 members of Congress and another 165 adults and teens preparing for a three-day pilgrimage through some of the most important civil rights sites in Alabama. Joining these pilgrims of hope would be a small, diverse group of South Africans who we also had invited. These women and men were significant leaders in their freedom movement. They would share generously from their long walk to freedom even as they learned more of ours.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81834_86888_ENG_HTM.htm
More Features: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/78936_ENG_HTM.htm
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