Episcopal Life Online Newslink November 30, 2007
Episcopal Life Online is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife.
Today's ELO Newslink includes:
* TOP STORY - For World AIDS Day, Anglican leaders call for continued efforts in fighting HIV pandemic * TOP STORY - Curb nuclear weapons funding, religious and advocacy organizations urge * WORLD REPORT - EUROPE: Church leaders urge Climate Treaty for environmental justice * WORLD REPORT - MIDDLE EAST: Iraqi Christians worse off now, Baghdad priest tells CBS' '60 Minutes' * WORLD REPORT - SINGAPORE: Archbishop of Canterbury to convene sixth Building Bridges Christian/Muslim Seminar * MULTIMEDIA - Video: Martha Gardner on environmental ministries * OPINION - Church must find its voice in opposing unjust war in Iraq * ARTS - WASHINGTON, D.C.: Online Advent Calendar offers meditations, art and song
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TOP STORIES
For World AIDS Day, Anglican leaders call for continued efforts in fighting HIV pandemic
By Matthew Davies
[Episcopal News Service] In observance of World AIDS Day on December 1, several Anglican leaders have issued statements calling for continued efforts in addressing the global HIV/AIDS pandemic despite recent UNAIDS and World Health Organization (WHO) statistics that indicate a significant decline in the number of people infected with the virus.
"This is not the time for complacency nor apathy," said Anglican Archbishop Emeritus of Southern African and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu in a November 30 statement released by the World Aids Campaign. "It is the time for compassionate leadership that recognizes that the voiceless are often those who suffer most."
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori sent a letter to the congregations of the Episcopal Church in a bulletin insert intended for distribution during December 2 Sunday services.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_92234_ENG_HTM.htm
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Curb nuclear weapons funding, religious and advocacy organizations urge
By Staff
[Episcopal News Service] The Episcopal Church was one of 30 religious, national arms control, and environmental organizations that joined together on November 29 to ask Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and Representative Pete Visclosky (D-IN-1) to block funding for a new generation of nuclear weapons. Dorgan and Visclosky are the chairmen of the committees that control nuclear weapons funding.
The signing organizations highlighted the dangerous international nonproliferation consequences of developing new nuclear weapons, particularly the ability of the United States to curb other countries' nuclear weapons programs.
"We urge you to delete all funding for the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) from the upcoming omnibus appropriations bill?We believe it is important to consider the adverse international nonproliferation consequences of proceeding with RRW," the national organizations wrote in a letter that was released November 29 by the Friends Committee on National Legislation, the Quaker lobby that coordinated the effort. "If the United States does not appear to be serious about nonproliferation and disarmament, its ability to limit other nations' development of nuclear weapons will erode."
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_92226_ENG_HTM.htm
More Top Stories: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife
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WORLD REPORT
EUROPE: Church leaders urge Climate Treaty for environmental justice http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_92224_ENG_HTM.htm
MIDDLE EAST: Iraqi Christians worse off now, Baghdad priest tells CBS' '60 Minutes' http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_92235_ENG_HTM.htm
SINGAPORE: Archbishop of Canterbury to convene sixth Building Bridges Christian/Muslim Seminar http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_92225_ENG_HTM.htm
More World news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_ENG_HTM.htm
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MULTIMEDIA
Martha Gardner on environmental ministries
[Episcopal News Service] Martha Gardner speaks about her work as consultant for environmental ministries in the Episcopal Church and how congregations can make a difference on issues of energy, stewardship and global warming.
The Office of Peace and Justice Ministries focuses on environmental stewardship through its active participation in the ecumenical Eco-Justice Working Group of the National Council of Churches and by providing liaison support to the Episcopal Ecological Network. The Eco-Justice Working Group sponsors a bi-annual conference, publishes an annual Earth Day resource, is involved in issues of energy, stewardship and global warming, and works with seminaries and youth to raise the issues of environmental stewardship.
A video stream of Gardner's interview is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81231_ENG_HTM.htm
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OPINION
Church must find its voice in opposing unjust war in Iraq
By Vicki Gray
[Episcopal Life] We are four years into the war in Iraq. It is a war that was as unjust as it was unwise in its inception, that has been carried out in a gratuitously violent fashion and whose burden is being borne almost solely by a handful of young men and women in uniform who are being physically, psychologically and spiritually brutalized.
Any way you cut it, it is an immoral enterprise that stains the reputation of America and Christianity on whose behalf it is ostensibly being waged. It begs us -- as Americans and Christians -- to speak out for a just and speedy end to the horror and futility.
But in our pews and pulpits, there is a deadening silence, an unwillingness to speak truth to power, an averting even of our eyes from the truth that no longer can be hidden. It is a truth that is no longer -- as if it ever was -- acceptable.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_92220_ENG_HTM.htm
More Opinion: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_ENG_HTM.htm
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ARTS
WASHINGTON, D.C.: Online Advent Calendar offers meditations, art and song
[Diocese of Washington] An online Advent calendar featuring figures from Washington National Cathedral's crèche exhibit, carols from the choir of Trinity Episcopal Church, Wall Street, and scriptural reflections by young preachers in the Episcopal dioceses of Georgia and Texas, will make its debut on December 1 on the Episcopal Diocese of Washington's website.
The calendar is available at http://www.edow.org/advent.
The calendar features a Nativity scene decorated with numbered windows that are opened by the click of a mouse. Behind each window visitors will find a photograph from the crèche exhibit and links to a meditation, a carol, an audio reflection on the daily readings and a giving opportunity.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81827_92202_ENG_HTM.htm
More Arts: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81827_ENG_HTM.htm