Episcopal Life Online Newslink October 26, 2007
Episcopal Life Online is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife.
Today's ELO Newslink includes:
* TOP STORY - Executive Council receives draft response to proposed Anglican covenant * TOP STORY - Archbishop of Canterbury offers prayers for Southern California * TOP STORY - MDG Inspiration Fund launched to fight malaria, other preventable diseases * TOP STORY - In San Diego, St. Paul's Cathedral responds to fire-scorched community * DIOCESAN DIGEST - CALIFORNIA: Grace Cathedral to display AIDS Memorial Quilt, mark 20th anniversary of The NAMES Project * OPINION - Mirage in the desert: the myth of the 'Global South' * ARTS - Amid grief and joy, documentary looks at sexuality within families
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TOP STORIES
Executive Council receives draft response to proposed Anglican covenant Opening day of Dearborn meeting also features briefing on Church Center reorganization
By Mary Frances Schjonberg
[Episcopal News Service] Members of the Episcopal Church's Executive Council received copies of a proposed Council response to the draft Anglican covenant during private conversation the afternoon of October 26.
The Council, the church's governing body between meetings of General Convention, will discuss the draft response on October 27 in another private conversation during the second day of its three-day meeting at the Hyatt Regency in Dearborn, Michigan.
Also on October 26, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, during her opening remarks to the meeting, discussed her plan to reorganize the staff of the Episcopal Church Center in New York. The goal is to create an "organic and flexible structure that is mission-driven" that is dispersed in terms of decision-making and actual location, she said.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_91371_ENG_HTM.htm
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Archbishop of Canterbury offers prayers for Southern California Williams commends churches' response to wildfires in message to L.A., San Diego bishops
[Lambeth Palace] The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, has sent a message to the bishops of Los Angeles and San Diego expressing his sadness at the devastation brought by the raging wildfires in Southern California and offering his prayers and support.
"The news and scenes in the media of the devastating fires in your state has shocked us all," he said. "I am very proud of the immediate responses of the churches and I assure you all of my concern, my prayers and my own sadness [as] the scale of loss that people are facing at this time becomes clear. I join with your Presiding Bishop and with Christians from around the Communion in upholding the people of California with prayer and support in the days ahead. We all pray for your safety as the fires continue to rage."
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_91369_ENG_HTM.htm
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MDG Inspiration Fund launched to fight malaria, other preventable diseases Fund set to raise $3 million by the end of 2009
By Neva Rae Fox
[Episcopal News Service] The MDG Inspiration Fund will save lives and fight disease, Robert Radtke, president of Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD), told the Episcopal Church's Executive Council during its meeting in Dearborn, Michigan at the October 26 launching of the Fund. "If we reach our MDG Inspiration Fund goal we will be able to protect nearly 700,000 people from malaria," Radtke announced.
The MDG Inspiration Fund is a partnership forged among ERD, Jubilee Ministries of the Episcopal Church, and the Executive Council to raise $3 million by the end of 2009 to fight malaria and other preventable diseases.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_91366_ENG_HTM.htm
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In San Diego, St. Paul's Cathedral responds to fire-scorched community Service of hope and healing set for Sunday, October 28
By Matthew Davies
[Episcopal News Service] As the Santa Ana winds subside and firefighters begin to get a handle on the raging wildfires that have swept across Southern California for six days, St. Paul's Cathedral in San Diego is assessing the needs of the local community and reaching out as the scale of the devastation becomes clear.
Cathedral parishioners have opened their homes, resulting in more than 200 beds being made available to those in need. "We set up a donation drop off in the Great Hall [and] adopted a shelter to which we are sending our outreach," a Cathedral announcement said.
Volunteers are being organized by trade -- medical, bilingual, sign language, etc -- and being deployed as needed.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_91364_ENG_HTM.htm
More Top Stories: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife
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DIOCESAN DIGEST
CALIFORNIA: Grace Cathedral to display AIDS Memorial Quilt, mark 20th anniversary of The NAMES Project http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_91362_ENG_HTM.htm
More Diocesan news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_ENG_HTM.htm
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OPINION
Mirage in the desert: the myth of the 'Global South'
By Frederick Quinn
[Episcopal News Service] Several assumptions need clearing up if current fractious discussions within the Anglican Communion are to turn productive. These include asking questions like: What really is the "Global South?" How representative are the rigid positions advocated by archbishops Peter J. Akinola of Nigeria and Drexel Gomez of the West Indies? Could the current Anglican Communion food fight be symptomatic of wider tensions produced by religious globalization?
"Global South" implies a monolithic body when in reality the group's membership appears to be porous, driven by a small number of special interest advocates primarily in Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, and their American franchise holders. Membership and financial data about the group is as difficult to come by as that of a Cayman Islands registered corporation. The organization projects a billboard slogan North-South divide. Northern churches are cold, dwindling in numbers, and ignore the Bible. In contrast, the growing South is energetic, biblically correct, and the home of ready judges waiting to declare what is acceptable practice throughout the Anglican Communion.
This slick North-South divide is no more accurate than numerous other discredited religious clash-of-civilization comparisons that have appeared and disappeared during recent centuries. Amartya Sen, the Pakistani-born Nobel-Prize-winning author, has warned about the dangers of such distorted religious reductionism: "The hope of harmony in the contemporary world lies to a great extent in a clearer understanding of the pluralities of human identity, and in the appreciation that they cut across each other and work against a sharp separation along one single hardened line of impenetrable division."
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_91337_ENG_HTM.htm
More Opinion: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_ENG_HTM.htm
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ARTS
Amid grief and joy, documentary looks at sexuality within families
By Martha Baker
For The Bible Tells Me So A documentary Director: Daniel Karslake Running Time: 95 minutes Check local media for release date in your area.
[Episcopal News Service] The documentary, "For the Bible Tells Me So," stands at the nexus of the Bible, homosexuality, and the family.
Filmmaker Daniel Karslake looks at the ways that fundamentalism and an inerrant reading of the Bible have toxified American society as related to the full citizenship of homosexuals in church and state. A religion reporter for PBS' "In the Life," he presents the idea that it's possible to focus on the family without excluding its gay and lesbian members.
After vintage footage of singer and fundamentalist Anita Bryant's being "pied" at a news conference, Karslake shows an old Southern couple. They vie to tell loving stories about their precious son Gene, who, they say, loved church and Jesus from the time he was a baby. The next talking head is Gene himself, now Bishop V. Gene Robinson of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire and the first openly gay man to wear the vestments of his office. "We're pretty proud of him," the Robinsons say.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81827_91360_ENG_HTM.htm
More Arts: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81827_ENG_HTM.htm