Episcopal Life Daily February 1, 2008
Episcopal Life Online is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife.
Today's Episcopal Life Daily includes:
* TOP STORY - Editor sought for Episcopal Life monthly newspaper * TOP STORY - Religious leaders back President's Israeli-Palestinian peace pledge * DIOCESAN DIGEST - NORTH DAKOTA: Mothers' Union chapter established in Moorhead * DIOCESAN DIGEST - VIRGINIA: Council agrees to continue full-inclusion discernment process * WORLD REPORT - BURUNDI: Top U.N. official pledges support for churches' work * WORLD REPORT - ENGLAND: As Queen's chaplain, Hudson-Wilkin will not tone down her message * WORLD REPORT - SRI LANKA: Episcopal Relief and Development responds to civil unrest * PEOPLE - Mike Kinman receives 2008 John Hines Preaching Award from Virginia seminary * PEOPLE - Andrew Gerns named Bethlehem bishop's canon pastor * OPINION - GUEST COMMENTARY: How would Jesus vote? * ARTS - Embroidery beautifies churches, informs the faithful * DAYBOOK - February 4, 2008: Today in Scripture, Prayer, History * CATALYST - The God Strategy: How Religion Became a Political Weapon in America
_____________________
TOP STORIES
Editor sought for Episcopal Life monthly newspaper
[Episcopal News Service] Episcopal Life Media (ELM) is seeking an editor for the 240,000-circulation Episcopal Life monthly newspaper, an award-winning publication printed with 40 local diocesan and parish-based "wrap" editions church-wide.
March 14, 2008 is the deadline for applications to be filed with the Human Resources Management office at the Episcopal Church Center, 815 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10017.
A job posting is online at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/hr.htm
The editor's work is focused specifically upon editorial content -- from planning through production -- of each of the paper's 12 monthly print editions. Online and other operations -- including advertising, circulation and marketing -- are staffed by separate units within the ELM group. The editor's work is based at the Church Center's new Los Angeles Regional Office from which ELM's print production projects are coordinated.
An ELM overview of the editor's duties and qualifications states that the "successful candidate will have extensive knowledge of and experience in The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. The editor is a community builder, and a proven journalist committed to balanced, fair and accurate reporting that is at all times 'culturally competent' and affirming of the Church's multicultural contexts.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_94481_ENG_HTM.htm
- - - - -
Religious leaders back President's Israeli-Palestinian peace pledge
Presiding Bishop joins NILI leaders in writing to Bush
By Staff
[Episcopal News Service] Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has joined other Christian, Jewish and Muslim religious leaders, including heads of more than 20 national organizations, in writing to President George W. Bush supporting his pledge to provide active U.S. leadership for Israeli-Palestinian peace in 2008.
In their January 28 letter, the leaders, acting as the National Interreligious Leadership Initiative (NILI) for Peace in the Middle East, are advocating "urgent U.S. engagement to achieve an effective comprehensive ceasefire covering Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, and other simultaneous steps by Israel and the Palestinian Authority to improve conditions on the ground and restore people's hopes that a peace agreement is possible."
The Episcopal Church "continues to actively advocate for a just solution for Palestinians and Israelis," the Rev. Canon Brian Grieves, director of the Church's Advocacy Center, said on January 31. "The situation in Gaza underscores the need for the United States and other key players in the Middle East to continue to pursue an agreement that establishes a Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_94447_ENG_HTM.htm
More Top Stories: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife
_____________________
DIOCESAN DIGEST
NORTH DAKOTA: Mothers' Union chapter established in Moorhead http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_94476_ENG_HTM.htm
VIRGINIA: Council agrees to continue full-inclusion discernment process http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_94475_ENG_HTM.htm
More Diocesan news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_ENG_HTM.htm
_____________________
WORLD REPORT
BURUNDI: Top U.N. official pledges support for churches' work http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_94470_ENG_HTM.htm
ENGLAND: As Queen's chaplain, Hudson-Wilkin will not tone down her message http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_94471_ENG_HTM.htm
SRI LANKA: Episcopal Relief and Development responds to civil unrest http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_94456_ENG_HTM.htm
More World news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_ENG_HTM.htm
_____________________
PEOPLE
Mike Kinman receives 2008 John Hines Preaching Award from Virginia seminary
[Virginia Theological Seminary] The Rev. Mike Kinman, executive director of Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation, has been named the recipient of Virginia Theological Seminary's (VTS) John Hines Preaching Award for 2008. Kinman's insightful sermon, based on the parable of the Good Samaritan, was preached at Christ Church Cathedral, St. Louis, Missouri, and was selected out of 94 award submissions.
"Preaching is an important part of a student's formation at Virginia Seminary," said the Very Rev. Ian Markham, VTS dean and president. "The training we provide prepares students to follow the Gospel mandate to go out into the world to preach the good news."
Preaching on the 10th chapter of Luke's Gospel, Kinman focused his remarks on God's radical imperative for Christians to connect with and love one another, beginning with, according to Kinman, the simple act of eye contact. "Not making eye contact" said Kinman, "is the mantra of urban living...when we make eye contact with someone, we make a connection. We establish relationship. We invite them into our lives. When we do that, we become vulnerable...and vulnerability compromises safety."
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_94473_ENG_HTM.htm
- - - - -
Andrew Gerns named Bethlehem bishop's canon pastor
[Diocese of Bethlehem] The Rev. Andrew Gerns, rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Easton, Pennsylvania since 2002, has been named canon pastor to Diocese of Bethlehem Bishop Paul Marshall.
Marshall announced the appointment January 27 during the 25th anniversary celebration at Trinity Church of Gerns' ordination to priesthood.
Gerns succeeds the Rev. Canon Bryan Williams who served in this capacity from 1996 until his death in 2006. "His duties were to provide the pastoral care which any Christian would expect to receive, but which our church oddly neglects to provide for bishops, with particular attention to the maintenance of the spiritual health of the bishop through stated retreats and repeated checking in, even when such checking might be unwelcome," Marshall said during his announcement. "Alone among the clergy, the canon pastor to the bishop has the right and duty to nag the bishop."
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_94472_ENG_HTM.htm
More People: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_ENG_HTM.htm
_____________________
OPINION
GUEST COMMENTARY: How would Jesus vote?
By Richard T. Hughes
[Religion News Service] When Mitt Romney has to persuade evangelical voters that he is authentically Christian in order to become president of the United States, something is badly wrong with American politics.
What's wrong is the fact that many evangelical Christians -- some 30 percent of the GOP and 40 percent of Iowa caucus-goers, according to polls -- have little or no appreciation for the country's historic commitment to the separation of church and state.
Take, for example, the Rev. Jason Poling of New Hope Community Church in Pikesville, Maryladn, who told The Baltimore Sun that he rejects Romney because "Mormonism is not a Christian religion. It is not aligned with historic Christian beliefs."
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_94466_ENG_HTM.htm
More Opinion: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_ENG_HTM.htm
_____________________
ARTS
Embroidery beautifies churches, informs the faithful
By Sharon Sheridan
[Episcopal Life] Carol Homer's spiritual journey follows a trail of thread. Gold thread, silk, all the colors of the rainbow -- the New Jersey Episcopalian loves the stuff. She calls herself a "thread hog" and jokes that she's "never met a thread I couldn't buy 40 of."
What she does with thread ties her to generations of embroiderers before her, many of them anonymous, who designed, stitched and repaired the church's vestments and altar hangings. Today, she often teams with Mary Wagner, a Presbyterian stitcher with expertise in textile preservation and restoration, to teach the ancient art of ecclesiastical embroidery and how to keep vestments in good condition, to repair vestments and hangings -- to return to their owners or to be donated to others -- and to catalogue and maintain the vestments at St. John the Baptist Convent in Mendham, New Jersey. The Episcopal convent houses an impressive collection of vestments, some dating back more than 100 years.
"My journey with thread is very similar to what I see as my journey with religion," Homer says. For years, she knew what she could do with stitching -- "but I didn't know why."
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81827_94468_ENG_HTM.htm
More Arts: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81827_ENG_HTM.htm
_____________________
DAYBOOK
On February 4, 2008, the Church calendar remembers Cornelius the Centurion.
* Today in Scripture: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/82457_ENG_HTM.htm * Today in Prayer: Anglican Cycle of Prayer: http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm * Today in History: On February 4, 1555, John Rogers, the first Protestant martyr under Queen Mary I of England, was burned at the stake for heresy.
_____________________
CATALYST
"The God Strategy: How Religion Became a Political Weapon in America" from Oxford University Press, by David Domke and Kevin Coe, 231 pages, hardcover, c. 2008, $30
[Source: Oxford University Press] In The God Strategy , scholars David Domke and Kevin Coe offer a timely and dynamic study of the rise of religion in American politics, examining the public messages of political leaders over the past 75 years -- from the 1932 election of Franklin Roosevelt to the early stages of the 2008 presidential race. They conclude that U.S. politics today is defined by a calculated, deliberate, and partisan use of faith that is unprecedented in modern politics.
Sectarian influences and expressions of faith have always been part of American politics, the authors observe, but a profound change occurred beginning with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. What has developed since is a no-holds-barred religious politics that seeks to attract voters, identify and attack enemies, and solidify power. Domke and Coe identify a set of religious signals sent by both Republicans and Democrats in speeches, party platforms, proclamations, visits to audiences of faith, and even celebrations of Christmas. Sometimes these signals are intended for the eyes and ears of all Americans, and other times they are distinctly targeted to specific segments of the population. It's an approach that has been remarkably successful, utilized first and most extensively by the Republican Party to capture unprecedented power and then adopted by the Democratic Party, most notably by Bill Clinton in the 1990s and by a wide range of Democrats in the 2006 elections.
"For U.S. politicians today, having faith isn't enough; it must be displayed, carefully and publicly. This is a stark transformation in recent decades," write Domke and Coe. With innovative, accessible research and analytical verve, they document how this has occurred, who has done it and why, and what it means for the American experiment in democracy.
To order: Episcopal Books and Resources, online at http://www.episcopalbookstore.org, or call 800-903-5544 -- or visit your local Episcopal bookseller, http://www.episcopalbooksellers.org
More Catalyst: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/83842_ENG_HTM.htm