Episcopal Life Daily February 14, 2008
Episcopal Life Online is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife.
Today's Episcopal Life Daily includes:
* TOP STORY - Executive Council promises help to Episcopalians in San Joaquin, other dioceses * TOP STORY - Dancing With The Spirit, U2Charist, Martini Shaw featured in 'Episcopal Life Focus' multicast * TOP STORY - Sudan elects Daniel Deng Bul as Primate * TOP STORY - Executive Council, diocese celebrate mission at Ecuadorian cathedral * WORLD REPORT - ENGLAND: Synod calls for Guantanamo Bay's closure, debates detention without charge * WORLD REPORT - UGANDA: Church reasserts intention to boycott Lambeth Conference * PEOPLE - Edith Stricker dies at 87 * DAYBOOK - February 15, 2008: Today in Scripture, Prayer, History * CATALYST - Wake Up Our Souls
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TOP STORIES
Executive Council promises help to Episcopalians in San Joaquin, other dioceses Closing day of meeting also sees passage of revised 2008 budget
By Mary Frances Schjonberg
[Episcopal News Service, Quito, Ecuador] The Executive Council issued a letter to the Episcopal Church February 14 during the final day of its four-day meeting here praising the transformation of the Diocese of Ecuador Central and saying it gives the members hope in light of the attempt of the leadership of the Diocese of San Joaquin to transfer their diocese to another province in the Anglican Communion.
"We are deeply concerned for those who want to continue as members of The Episcopal Church but now find themselves in parishes or dioceses attempting to depart," the letter (LINK HERE). "To the members of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin, know we stand with you. Your struggles and needs inform our prayers, deliberations, and plans.
"This is a new and unfamiliar landscape for all of us. We stand with you and commit ourselves to provide pastoral care, to aid in re-organization, and to support legal actions necessary to retain the assets of the diocese for ministry. We will hold clergy leaders accountable to their vows to uphold the doctrine, discipline and worship of this Church, and lay leadership accountable to the fiduciary responsibilities of the offices they hold."
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_94951_ENG_HTM.htm
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Dancing With The Spirit, U2Charist, Martini Shaw featured in 'Episcopal Life Focus' multicast
[Episcopal News Service] The February edition of "Episcopal Life Focus" -- a half-hour video "multicast" featuring church mission, ministries and news -- is posted for online viewing here (http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81231_89777_ENG_HTM.htm).
This month's edition features a look at Dancing With The Spirit, a program that connects youth and elders in Alaskan villages and towns through music. Led by the Rev. Belle Michelson, the group provides instruments and teaches singing, music, and dancing through schools, churches, and other organizations. Their goal is to build strong communities and prevent alcoholism, drug abuse, and suicide in communities at risk.
Anchored by Episcopal Life Media executive editor Jan Nunley and produced by Michael Collins, the February Focus edition also includes a conversation with the Rev. Martini Shaw, rector of the historic African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
An additional segment includes an expanded look at U2Charist and how this exciting liturgical innovation is popping up in places throughout the Episcopal Church.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_94950_ENG_HTM.htm
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Sudan elects Daniel Deng Bul as Primate
By Matthew Davies
[Episcopal News Service] The Episcopal Church of Sudan (ECS) has elected Bishop Daniel Deng Bul of the Diocese of Renk to serve as its next Primate.
Deng will succeed Archbishop Joseph Marona, who retired on December 31, 2007 after serving eight years as Sudan's Primate.
Deng was elected February 14 on the first ballot out of a field of three nominees during an emergency General Synod at All Saints Cathedral in Juba, Sudan.
"It is a big day filled with excitement in Juba," said Emmanuel Sserwadda, the Episcopal Church's partnership officer for Africa who is attending the February 13-15 Synod.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_94919_ENG_HTM.htm
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Executive Council, diocese celebrate mission at Ecuadorian cathedral
Evening features prayer, hip hop, dance, dinner, market, singing bishops
By Mary Frances Schjonberg
[Episcopal News Service] Members of the Episcopal Church's Executive Council, Church Center staff and guests spent the evening February 13 at the Diocese of Ecuador Central's Catedral de El Senor worshipping and celebrating with members of the diocese.
The celebration began with a mostly Spanish Evening Prayer honoring the feast day of Absalom Jones. In the Gospel lesson appointed for the day (John 15:12-15), read by House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson, Jesus says people who lay down their lives for their friends become his friends.
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said in her homily the example of friendship in Jesus shown in the community Jones and others started brought many people to Christ. Jefferts Schori, preaching alternately in Spanish and English, said the diocese's "ministry of giving hope, of healing" epitomized that friendship rooted in Christ.
"May God continue to bless this work of friendship," she said.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_94917_ENG_HTM.htm
More Top Stories: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife
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WORLD REPORT
ENGLAND: Synod calls for Guantanamo Bay's closure, debates detention without charge http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_94937_ENG_HTM.htm
UGANDA: Church reasserts intention to boycott Lambeth Conference http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_94929_ENG_HTM.htm
More World news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_ENG_HTM.htm
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PEOPLE
Edith Stricker dies at 87
[ENS] Edith Stricker, retired director of the Bible and Common Prayer Book Society of the Episcopal Church, died on February 12 in New York City. She was 87.
She will be buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Los Angeles, California, joining family members who have pre-deceased her.
A memorial service is planned for the Chapel of Christ the Lord at the Episcopal Church Center in New York City. Specific details are not yet available.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_94952_ENG_HTM.htm
More People: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_ENG_HTM.htm
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DAYBOOK
On February 15, 2008, the Church remembers Thomas Bray, priest and missionary, (1656-1730).
* 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 15, 1631, John Donne, poet and dean of St. Paul's Cathedral, preached his last sermon titled "Death's Duel."
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CATALYST
"Wake Up Our Souls" from Harry N. Abrams, Inc., by Tonya Bolden, 128 pages, hardcover, c. 2004, $24.95
[Source: Harry N. Abrams, Inc.] Accompanying the much-publicized traveling exhibition, African American Masters, this book highlights influential and important African American 20th-century artists, from those of the early part of the century who were actively discouraged from pursuing their talents, to important participants in the Harlem Renaissance to modern and contemporary artists. The text also includes sidebars highlighting individual pictures and creators, completing a wonderful chapter in the history of American art and in African American life and achievement.
Published in conjunction with the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the nation's greatest repository of African American art, the book includes works by Romare Bearden, Roy DeCarava, Betye Saar, and Augusta Savage, among many others. From Faith Ringgold's fabric interpretation of the Harlem Renaissance, to Gordon Parks' celebrated 1996 photograph of Muhammad Ali, the paintings, sculptures, and photographs reproduced here reflect the rich and varied experience of African American artists in the 20th century.
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