Episcopal Life Online Newslink October 31, 2007
Episcopal Life Online is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife.
Today's ELO Newslink includes:
* TOP STORY - Presiding Bishop reaches out to bishops attempting to withdraw dioceses * TOP STORY - Pennsylvania bishop inhibited from ordained ministry * DIOCESAN DIGEST - PROVINCE VI: College Ministry Retreat engages participants on social justice issues, MDGs * WORLD REPORT - CANADA: House of Bishops issues Letter to the Church * WORLD REPORT - ENGLAND: 'Christian ethos' code could threaten church college jobs * WORLD REPORT - MELANESIA: New leadership elected for Melanesian Brotherhood * WORLD REPORT - MIDDLE EAST: Archbishop of Canterbury meets Chief Rabbis in Jerusalem * MULTIMEDIA - Presiding Bishop preaches in Dearborn, Michigan * SPIRITUAL REFLECTION - All Saints Day - Year C [RCL] * SPIRITUAL REFLECTION - Twenty-Third Sunday After Pentecost (Proper 26) - Year C [RCL]
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TOP STORIES
Presiding Bishop reaches out to bishops attempting to withdraw dioceses
By Jan Nunley
[Episcopal News Service] Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori is making public a letter of warning that is being sent to a bishop who is actively seeking to withdraw his diocese from the Episcopal Church, and has stated that letters to other bishops will follow.
"In this way the Presiding Bishop is reaching out with open arms once more to those bishops contemplating realignments for their dioceses, while also warning them of the consequences should they choose to follow through with their proposed actions," said the Rev. Dr. Charles Robertson, Canon to the Presiding Bishop.
The full text of the first of these letters, addressed to Bishop Robert Duncan of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, is included online at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_91480_ENG_HTM.htm.
In a private session of the Executive Council, meeting in Dearborn, Michigan, October 26-28, the Presiding Bishop's Chancellor, David Booth Beers, gave an extensive review of the state of property litigation and other legal issues and related disciplinary considerations confronting the Episcopal Church and articulated the policies of Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori regarding those issues.
"This is hard. The concepts are hard," said Beers. "It is costly. And it requires a lot of pastoral care of those involved."
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_91480_ENG_HTM.htm
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Pennsylvania bishop inhibited from ordained ministry Measure to take effect after November 3 convention
By Mary Frances Schjonberg
[Episcopal News Service] Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori on October 31 inhibited Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania Bishop Charles Bennison from all ordained ministry pending a judgment of the Court for the Trial of a Bishop.
The Title IV Review Committee issued a presentment for conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy against Bennison on October 28.
The two counts of the presentment center on accusations that Bennison, when he was rector of St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Upland, California, did not respond properly after learning sometime in 1973 that his brother, John, who worked as a lay youth minister in the parish, was having an affair with a 14-year-old member of the youth group. John Bennison was also married at the time, according to the presentment.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_91477_ENG_HTM.htm
More Top Stories: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife
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DIOCESAN DIGEST
PROVINCE VI: College Ministry Retreat engages participants on social justice, MDGs http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_91472_ENG_HTM.htm
More Diocesan news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_ENG_HTM.htm
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WORLD REPORT
CANADA: House of Bishops issues Letter to the Church http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_91465_ENG_HTM.htm
ENGLAND: 'Christian ethos' code could threaten church college jobs http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_91466_ENG_HTM.htm
MELANESIA: New leadership elected for Melanesian Brotherhood http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_91467_ENG_HTM.htm
MIDDLE EAST: Archbishop of Canterbury meets Chief Rabbis in Jerusalem http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_91469_ENG_HTM.htm
More World news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_ENG_HTM.htm
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MULTIMEDIA
Presiding Bishop preaches in Dearborn, Michigan
[Episcopal Life Online] Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori reminded the worshippers at Christ Episcopal Church in Dearborn, Michigan, October 28 that human beings are the image of God in earthen vessels. The service formed part of the Executive Council's fall meeting.
A video stream of the Presiding Bishop's sermon is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81231_ENG_HTM.htm
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SPIRITUAL REFLECTIONS
All Saints Day - Year C [RCL]
Daniel 7:1-3, 15-18 ; Psalm 149; Ephesians 1:11-23; Luke 6:20-31
By Frank Hegedus
[Sermons That Work] Most Episcopalians are familiar with the Church year: that great cycle of prayer and liturgy that takes us from Advent through Christmas and Epiphany, on through Lent and Easter, and into the long stretch of Sundays after Pentecost. Fewer among us may be familiar with the cycle of the saints' calendar. While most of the saints and great lights of the Church have a special feast day or celebration assigned to them, it is rare that they get a mention in Church on Sundays for the simple reason that the assigned Sunday liturgy nearly always takes precedence.
It is, in a sense, a pity, for there is always much we can learn from the lives of the saints. Some were great scholars; others illiterate. Some were ancient; others modern. But what is particularly striking about the calendar of the saints is that it is a hodge-podge - messy and unpredictable. In the calendar of the blessed, saints come and go in no particular order. Ninth-century saint follows twentieth; European, American; young, old; and so on.
Just this month, for instance, ancient Willibrord, whose feast is kept on the seventh of November, hobnobs with Reformation-era, Richard Hooker, of November third, and medieval Margaret of Scotland, of November sixteenth. It must make for some very interesting conversations in high places.
Full reflection: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/82457_91390_ENG_HTM.htm
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Twenty-Third Sunday After Pentecost (Proper 26) - Year C [RCL] Daniel 7:1-3, 15-18 ; Psalm 149; Ephesians 1:11-23; Luke 6:20-31
By Amy Richter
[Sermons That Work] "Just looking, thanks." When a salesperson in a store approaches us to see if they can be of assistance, we may say these words to keep them at a safe distance: just looking. We're interested, but not willing to commit; curious, but don't want someone pressuring us into making a purchase. Just looking, thanks.
Zacchaeus was curious that day when Jesus came to Jericho. The crowd was big and he was small, so shinnied up a sycamore tree - the perfect solution. He was high above the noisy crowd and he could get a glimpse of Jesus from a safe distance. Besides, let's admit it, he didn't have any friends in the crowd.
Zacchaeus was the chief tax collector for the Roman government in this prosperous town, and his position may have made him the most hated man in all of Jericho. He worked for the occupying forces and was therefore a traitor to his own people. What's more, he made money off his neighbors as part of a system primed for corruption. He was obliged to send in only what the Romans expected. Anything he took in above that, he was free to keep. "He was wealthy," reads our text, in his case an indictment rather than a description. Who would make room for him in a crowd? Who would want to be seen with him?
Full reflection: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/82457_91458_ENG_HTM.htm
More Spiritual Reflections: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/82457_ENG_HTM.htm