Episcopal Life Online Newslink December 17, 2007
Episcopal Life Online is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife.
Today's ELO Newslink includes:
* TOP STORY - December 23 bulletin insert: Presiding Bishop's Christmas message in English, Spanish * TOP STORY - Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Ecumenical Relations issues communiqué * DIOCESAN DIGEST - CENTRAL FLORIDA: Leadership outlines 'disaffiliation protocol' * DIOCESAN DIGEST - SAN JOAQUIN: Pastoral letter says diocese is no longer part of Episcopal Church * FEATURE - Brechin-Iowa-Swaziland: Walking together in companionship
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TOP STORIES
December 23 bulletin insert: Presiding Bishop's Christmas message in English, Spanish
[Episcopal News Service] In her 2007 Christmas message, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori asks the question "Where will you meet Jesus this Christmas?" and calls to mind the challenge of letting "our seasonal 'seeing' transform the way we meet our neighbors through the rest of the year, and through all the coming years."
The Presiding Bishop's Christmas Message, "Eyes to see: Finding Immanuel as immigrant, wanderer, child," is featured in the December 23 bulletin insert in English and Spanish.
Bulletin inserts are available at
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/78650_8852_ENG_HTM.htm
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Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Ecumenical Relations issues communiqué
[Episcopal News Service] The Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Ecumenical Relations (IASCER) met December 5-10 in Cairo, Egypt, to review current international ecumenical dialogues involving Anglicans, respond further to the proposals for an Anglican Covenant, and discuss the ecumenical dimensions of the 2008 Lambeth Conference.
"IASCER is an extremely important vehicle for the Anglican Communion," said Bishop C. Christopher Epting, the Episcopal Church's ecumenical officer and IASCER member. "Our annual meetings help us learn what other Provinces are up to ecumenically and assure that we are being as consistent as possible in what we are saying to our ecumenical partners around the world. We will meet once more after the Lambeth Conference, probably in Japan, and then a new commission will be formed to do the work before Lambeth 2018."
The full text of the IASCER communiqué is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_92916_ENG_HTM.htm.
More Top Stories: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife
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DIOCESAN DIGEST
CENTRAL FLORIDA: Leadership outlines 'disaffiliation protocol' http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_92918_ENG_HTM.htm
SAN JOAQUIN: Pastoral letter says diocese is no longer part of Episcopal Church http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_92929_ENG_HTM.htm
More Diocesan news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_ENG_HTM.htm
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FEATURES
Brechin-Iowa-Swaziland: Walking together in companionship
By Nancy Morton
[Episcopal Life] Every Sunday friends on three continents pray for each other. They have done so for nearly 20 years as partners in a three-way companion relationship that brings together the dioceses of Brechin in Scotland, Swaziland in Africa and Iowa in the United States. The places and people on the Joint Intercessory Prayer List become real as companions visit one another in Dundee, Mbabane, and Des Moines.
The Scots and Iowans were already partners when Walter Righter, then Bishop of Iowa, and Bishop Edward "Ted" Luscombe of Brechin met Bishop Bernard Mhkabela of Swaziland at the Lambeth Conference in 1988. A three-way partnership took shape with emphasis on person-to-person contact, laypeople as well as clergy. Arrangements were finalized the following year when the three bishops visited Des Moines for the consecration of C. Christopher Epting as Bishop of Iowa. The partnership was reaffirmed in 2004 when Bishop Alan Scarfe succeeded Epting with new bishops from Brechin and Swaziland participating.
Although their dioceses are disproportionate in size, the Scots and Americans have much in common. Both are concerned about small churches and urban life. In 2006, Brechin Bishop John Mantle came to Iowa to compare notes.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81799_92921_ENG_HTM.htm
More Features: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/78936_ENG_HTM.htm