Episcopal Life Online Daybook -- Today is Tuesday, September 4, 2007. The Church calendar remembers Paul Jones (1880-1941). * 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 1835, Anglican priest and biblical scholar Edwin Hatch was born in Derby, England. He is best known as the author of the paper "Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages Upon the Christian Church." _____________________
TEACHING 'Upward Bound' seminar to prepare congregational leaders [ENS] Training the congregational leader to lead during change, decisions, and conflict is the goal of the next Upward Bound seminar set for November 12-15, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Upward Bound is sponsored by the Episcopal Church's Office of Congregational Development and is designed for the primary congregational leader who is facing challenging times of growth, change, and conflict. During the four-day training, which was created to be personal, intensive, and transforming, participants will: * Learn how to examine a conflicted situation and their place in it; * Explore their individual awareness of how they receive approval and support; * Understand the different levels of needs of their implications for congregational behavior; * Increase listening and feedback skills for clarity rather than inference or judgment; * Distinguish between problems that are their and others; * Develop skills to stop participating in destructive games and negative cycles; * Renegotiate relationships after conflict has erupted. Cost is $695 which includes tuition, four nights lodging, and nine (9) meals. To register visit: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/upward.htm or call 800-334-7626, ext. 6003. The next "Upward Bound" seminar will be held May 4-8, 2008 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. _____________________ Catalyst: "A Mystic Garden: Working with Soil, Attending to Soul" from Blue Bridge, by Gunilla Norris, 100 pages, hardcover, c. 2006, $18 [Source: Bluebridge] A Mystic Garden is a lyrical primer on the spirituality of gardening, affirming the garden as a soulful space where people can take root and experience the changing seasons and the enduring cycle of renewal. Gunilla Norris shares with us a year's time in her New England garden, and shows that all she observes there illuminates the sacredness of the everyday. The serene silence and darkness of winter, when the world is suspended in its cold white beauty, the trees empty and the flowerbeds stark. The return of spring and light, of birds' songs and snowdrops on a frosty fresh morning, the color of crocuses and daffodils and tulips and the smell of heavy wet earth. The glorious richness of summer, of digging, snipping, weeding, and watering. And the golden ripeness of autumn, with days getting shorter and the air cooler, the vegetable beds a bounty of reds and purples and yellows and greens. Harvesting and raking, cutting and cleaning up. The brown stems of the black-eyed Susans, the wilted leaves of the daylilies are the remains of a year in the garden. Filled with the joy of living, A Mystic Garden will speak to all those who yearn to find the holy in the place they call home. 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