Episcopal Life Online Daybook -- Today is Monday, July 30, 2007. The Church calendar remembers William Wilberforce (1759-1833).
* 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 this day in 1726, priest and Anglican Divine William Jones was born in Lowick, Northamptonshire.
_____________________
Province IV Youth Event makes its mission in Katrina rebuilding
By Lauren Wilkes Auttonberry
[ENS, Bay St. Louis, Mississippi] Twenty-three months since the wind and waters of Katrina ravaged the Mississippi and Louisiana coastlines, little has changed on the beachfront of Bay St. Louis. Christ Episcopal Church is one of the few structures on the beach to show signs of life. From July 17-22, it swelled with energy as the Provincial Youth Event (PYE) from Province IV moved in and literally dug into their mission.
Each day, 15 work teams of about 10 youths and at least one adult endured 90-degree heat and 80-percent humidity as they traveled around Bay St. Louis to work on rebuilding projects coordinated by Mission on the Bay, the youth work camp on the grounds of Christ Church, sponsored by the Diocese of Mississippi, Lutheran Episcopal Services in Mississippi and Episcopal Relief and Development.
Carl Curry received work groups from PYE for several days at his home on Easterbrook Street. Just prior to the storm, Curry, who had retired from the San Francisco Police Department, had begun renovating the home where he was born in 1937. Katrina flooded the modest three-bedroom dwelling, forcing Curry to move his family to North Carolina.
Rusty and Malcolm Veazey, also residents of Bay St. Louis, are struggling to complete repairs to their home and property near the Jordan River.
"In five hours, eight of you do what would take Malcolm and I weeks to get done," said Rusty Veazey of the PYE work group that spent the day repairing and landscaping a retaining wall.
"Everybody [who comes] keeps saying, 'We're not doing much,' but you have no idea how much you're doing, because everything is still so bleak and ugly, and it's so hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel," said Rusty, barely able to keep her emotions under control. "You could be home swimming and having fun with your friends and enjoying your summer, and instead, you're here giving to us, and that is what let people know that God heard us. We prayed for so long after it was over, thinking that maybe that God doesn't care; and then you guys came."
In response to Veazey's expressions, James Taylor, a participant from Orlando, said, "I feel like I've helped someone get their life back ... similar to how it was before the storm."
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_88574_ENG_HTM.htm
_____________________
Catalyst: "Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery" from HarperCollins Publishers, by Eric Metaxas, 304 pages, hardcover, c. 2007, $21.95
[Source: HarperCollins Publishers] Amazing Grace tells the story of the remarkable life of the British abolitionist William Wilberforce (1759-1833). This accessible biography chronicles Wilberforce's extraordinary role as a human rights activist, cultural reformer, and member of Parliament.
At the center of this heroic life was a passionate 20-year fight to abolish the British slave trade, a battle Wilberforce won in 1807, as well as efforts to abolish slavery itself in the British colonies, a victory achieved just three days before his death in 1833.
Metaxas discovers in this unsung hero a man of whom it can truly be said: he changed the world. Before Wilberforce, few thought slavery was wrong. After Wilberforce, most societies in the world came to see it as a great moral wrong.
This account of Wilberforce's life will help many become acquainted with an exceptional man who was a hero to Abraham Lincoln and an inspiration to the anti-slavery movement in America.
To order: Episcopal Books and Resources, online at http://www.episcopalbookstore.org or call 800-903-5544 -- or visit your local Episcopal bookseller, http://www.episcopalbooksellers.org
- - - - - - - - -
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.