Episcopal Life Online Newslink December 5, 2007
Episcopal Life Online is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife.
Today's ELO Newslink includes:
* TOP STORY - San Joaquin bishop responds to warning from Presiding Bishop * TOP STORY - Elderly refugees have specific needs, Migration Ministries director tells Senate committee * WORLD REPORT - INDONESIA: Talk is not enough, say faith activists at U.N. climate conference * WORLD REPORT - IRELAND: Bells to sound the alarm on global warming * WORLD REPORT - KENYA: Christmas road carnage distresses church leaders * PEOPLE - St. Nicholas, aka James M. Rosenthal, brings Christmas cheer to New York * PEOPLE - Griswold installed as Canon for Interfaith and International Mission at New York's St. John the Divine * SPIRITUAL REFLECTION - Second Sunday of Advent - Year A [RCL]
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TOP STORIES
San Joaquin bishop responds to warning from Presiding Bishop
By Mary Frances Schjonberg
[Episcopal News Service] Responding to a letter from Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, Bishop John-David Schofield of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin said the House of Bishops has "ignored my views for nearly twenty years" and blamed the wider Episcopal Church for any decision by the diocese to sever its ties and attempt affiliation with another province of the Anglican Communion.
"The decision to be made by our Annual Convention [December 8] is the culmination of The Episcopal Church's failure to heed the repeated calls for repentance issued by the Primates of the Anglican Communion and for the cessation of false teaching and sacramental actions explicitly contrary to Scripture," Schofield wrote in a December 5 letter responding to a letter Jefferts Schori sent him earlier in the week.
In her December 3 letter, the Presiding Bishop urged Schofield to "reconsider and draw back from this trajectory."
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_92469_ENG_HTM.htm
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Elderly refugees have specific needs, Migration Ministries director tells Senate committee
By Mary Frances Schjonberg
[Episcopal News Service] Richard Parkins, director of Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM), told a U.S. Senate committee in written testimony December 5 that the federal government must pay special attention to the needs of elderly refugees.
Elderly refugees "are not only the most vulnerable of those whom we resettle but are also the custodians of the culture that gets transferred to the new environment in which refugees find themselves," Parkins told the committee.
In his role as chair of the Refugee Council USA, Parkins submitted his testimony to the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging's hearing titled "Forced to Flee: Caring for the Elderly Displaced by War, Poverty and Persecution Abroad."
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_92462_ENG_HTM.htm
More Top Stories: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife
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WORLD REPORT
INDONESIA: Talk is not enough, say faith activists at U.N. climate conference http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_92434_ENG_HTM.htm
IRELAND: Bells to sound the alarm on global warming http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_92435_ENG_HTM.htm
KENYA: Christmas road carnage distresses church leaders http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_92437_ENG_HTM.htm
More World news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_ENG_HTM.htm
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PEOPLE
St. Nicholas, aka James M. Rosenthal, brings Christmas cheer to New York http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_92457_ENG_HTM.htm
Griswold installed as Canon for Interfaith and International Mission at New York's St. John the Divine http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_92440_ENG_HTM.htm
More People: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_ENG_HTM.htm
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SPIRITUAL REFLECTIONS
Second Sunday of Advent - Year A [RCL]
Isaiah 11:1-10; Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19; Romans 15:4-13; Matthew 3:1-12
By Cole Gruberth
[Sermons That Work] "The lion shall eat straw like the ox." Isaiah's description of the peaceable kingdom offers us a hope-filled vision of a future world without conflict, but is it really good news for the lion? What sort of lion, shaped as a wild predator in sinew and tooth and claw, would resign itself to grazing meekly alongside the livestock?
The Messiah, the one whom Isaiah calls the "shoot...from the stump of Jesse," will "decide with equity for the meek of the earth." The meek creatures - lambs, kids, and fatlings - must surely welcome this new world in which they need not fear being devoured by fierce predators. As for the predators themselves, however, must the wolves and leopards lose all that they are in order to bring about this idyllic society?
Perhaps it would help to realize that the sheep, the cow, and the kids are changed as much in their own nature as are the lions and bears. For a deer to lose its timidity is just as radical a change as for a cougar to lose its ferocity. In fact, the entire equation of predator and prey is broken in this new and peaceful world. There are no longer victors and victims, but a new society in which all creatures thrive.
Full reflection: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/82457_92425_ENG_HTM.htm
More Spiritual Reflections: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/82457_ENG_HTM.htm