Episcopal Life Online Newslink August 13, 2007
Episcopal Life Online is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife.
Today's ELO Newslink includes:
* TOP STORY - Lutheran assembly calls for restraint in disciplining gay partnered clergy * TOP STORY - August 19 bulletin insert examines combating racism * DIOCESAN DIGEST - COLORADO: Police investigate former rector for embezzlement * DIOCESAN DIGEST - VIRGINIA: Court will use Church's Constitution and Canons in deciding property disputes * WORLD REPORT - WALES: Former Archbishop Alwyn Rice Jones dies at 73 * FEATURE - American martyr: Jonathan Daniels
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TOP STORIES
Lutheran assembly calls for restraint in disciplining gay partnered clergy Biennial assembly tackles other denominational, societal issues
By Mary Frances Schjonberg
[Episcopal News Service] The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's (ELCA) Churchwide Assembly, which ended its meeting August 12, has called for bishops to refrain from disciplining clergy members who are in same-gender relationships.
Current ELCA discipline requires gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered leaders (GLBT), both lay and ordained, to be celibate. The assembly made no changes to that standard for its professional leaders.
However, by a vote of 538 to 431, the assembly encouraged the ELCA's synods, bishops and presiding bishop to "refrain from or demonstrate restraint in disciplining" people and congregations who call qualified leaders on the professional rosters of the ELCA "who are in a mutual, chaste and faithful, committed, same-gender relationship."
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_89042_ENG_HTM.htm
More Top Stories: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife
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Episcopal Life This Week: Combating Racism
As the U.N. observes International Day for Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition, the August 19 Episcopal Life bulletin insert looks at the Episcopal Church's anti-racism program.
Bulletin inserts are available at
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/78650_8852_ENG_HTM.htm
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DIOCESAN DIGEST
COLORADO: Police investigate former rector for embezzlement http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_89025_ENG_HTM.htm
VIRGINIA: Court will use Church's Constitution and Canons in deciding property disputes http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_89007_ENG_HTM.htm
More Diocesan news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_ENG_HTM.htm
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WORLD REPORT
WALES: Former Archbishop Alwyn Rice Jones dies at 73 http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_89041_ENG_HTM.htm
More World news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_ENG_HTM.htm
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FEATURES
American martyr: Jonathan Daniels
By Nancy Davidge
Editor's note: This article first appeared in the August 12 Episcopal Life This Week bulletin insert, available for download at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/78650_8852_ENG_HTM.htm.
[Episcopal Life] Would you risk your life to save another?
Jonathan Daniels, a 26-year-old student at Episcopal Theological School (ETS) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, graduate of Virginia Military Institute, and volunteer civil rights worker, was shot and killed on August 20, 1965, by a deputy sheriff as he approached a "cash store" in Hayneville, Alabama. Jon's last act was to thrust Ruby Sales, a black teenager, out of the path of the bullet intended for her.
Upon learning of Jon's death, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said: "One of the most heroic Christian deeds of which I have heard in my entire ministry and career for civil rights was performed by Jonathan Daniels ... Certainly there are no incidents more beautiful in the annals of church history, and though we are grieved at this time, our grief should give way to a sense of Christian honor and nobility, for this church and the movement gave to the world a true follower of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ."
When Jon learned of Dr. King's call for northern volunteers to go to Selma, Alabama, his first impulse was to go. Then, he asked, "Could I spare the time: Did I want to spare the time? Did He want...?" Reluctantly he admitted, "the idea was impractical." That evening, Jon changed his mind.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81834_89053_ENG_HTM.htm
More Features: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/78936_ENG_HTM.htm