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["Matthew Davies" <mdavies@episcopalchurch.org>]

>Episcopal Life Daily
>November 21, 2008

Episcopal Life Online is available at  http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife.

>Today's Episcopal Life Daily includes:

* TOP STORY - Washington National Cathedral announces major budget,  program
cuts
* DIOCESAN DIGEST - EAU CLAIRE: Options considered as diocese faces
uncertain future
* MISSION - A ringing appeal for action on climate change
* PEOPLE - Tutu awarded Fulbright Prize for lifelong work promoting
peace and reconciliation
* MULTIMEDIA - Video: Presiding Bishop preaches in Port-au-Prince, Haiti
* MULTIMEDIA - Video: Church of the Heavenly Rest helps Iraqi families
* EDUCATION - Virginia seminary addresses needs of Episcopal Church
with focused strategic plan
* EDUCATION - ECF Fellowship's Partners Program opens 2009 application
process
* FEATURE - My Word: Christ the King Sunday
* ARTS - A consecration with cross collaboration
* DAYBOOK - November 22, 2008: Today in Scripture, Prayer, History
* CATALYST - Old Testament Theology: An Introduction

>_____________________

>TOP STORIES

Washington National Cathedral announces major budget, program cuts

>By Mary Frances Schjonberg

[Episcopal News Service] Washington National Cathedral
(http://www.nationalcathedral.org) will eliminate 30 jobs, drastically
scale back the Cathedral College of Preachers and cut $8 million from
its current budget because of the global financial downturn.

In a November 19 news release

(http://www.nationalcathedral.org/press/PR-3UG3U-NO000T.shtml), the
Very Rev. Samuel T. Lloyd III, the cathedral's dean, said the cuts are
"financially prudent" and are "necessary to protect our important work
in the city and the nation.

"Like many other institutions around the world, Washington National
Cathedral has been affected by the current downturn in the financial
market," said Lloyd. "And this is having a serious impact on invested
funds that we have used to support our mission."

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_102854_ENG_HTM.htm

More Top Stories: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife

>_____________________

>DIOCESAN DIGEST

EAU CLAIRE: Options considered as diocese faces uncertain future

>By Joe Bjordal

[Episcopal News Service] The Episcopal Diocese of Eau Claire, without
a sitting bishop since April and unable to afford the expenses of
full-time episcopal oversight, has launched a process aimed at
charting a course for the future.

A resolution passed at the recent 80th annual convention of the
diocese, held November 7-8 at Christ Church, La Crosse, commits the
diocese to consider five options for Episcopal oversight ranging from
the election of a part-time, bi-vocational bishop to merging with
another diocese, to dissolving the Diocese of Eau Claire.

The Right Rev. Keith B. Whitmore, elected Bishop of Eau Claire in
1998, announced his resignation in March 2008 in order to become
assisting bishop in the Diocese of Atlanta.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_102845_ENG_HTM.htm

More Diocesan news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_ENG_HTM.htm

>_____________________

>MISSION

>A ringing appeal for action on climate change

>By Phina Borgeson

[Episcopal News Service] Church bells around New England will be
ringing this month to send the alarm about climate change and call
legislators regionally and nationally to action.

In a memo to clergy of the Diocese of Massachusetts, Suffragan Bishop
Bud Cedarholm urged Episcopal participation in a worldwide campaign to
address climate change called "350." By ringing their bells 350 times
during the eight days beginning with the Feast of Christ King,
November 23, and ending with the First Sunday in Advent, November 30,
churches will be calling attention to the excessive level of carbon
dioxide in our atmosphere.

The themes of Christ's lordship of creation,  thanksgiving for
creation's bounty, and alertness as we watch for the redemption of all
creation by Christ in his final coming, all give opportunities for
celebration and sermonizing about creation and human responsibility,
Cedarholm pointed out.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81799_102783_ENG_HTM.htm

More Mission: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81799_ENG_HTM.htm

>_____________________

>PEOPLE

Tutu awarded Fulbright Prize for lifelong work promoting peace and
reconciliation

[Episcopal News Service, Fulbright Association] Archbishop Emeritus of
Cape Town and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu was awarded the
J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding at a
November 21 ceremony at the U.S. Department of State in Washington,
D.C.

The Fulbright Prize recognizes Tutu's "tireless work for peace in
South Africa and elsewhere, his courage in speaking out against
injustice, his efforts to achieve a democratic and just society
without racial division, and his initiatives to alleviate suffering
caused by HIV/AIDS," said a news release from the Fulbright
Association, a private, non-profit organization that supports and
promotes the Fulbright Program.

"The Fulbright Prize commemorates many decades of work promoting
international understanding through Fulbright and other international
educational exchanges," said Suzanne E. Siskel, president of the
Fulbright Association. "It is a great honor to confer the 2008
Fulbright Prize on Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu whose life work
exemplifies the conviction that we must, as the Fulbright Program's
founder insisted, recognize human dignity as the essential common bond
for a peaceful world."

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_102823_ENG_HTM.htm

More People: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_ENG_HTM.htm

>_____________________

>EDUCATION

Virginia seminary addresses needs of Episcopal Church with focused
strategic plan

[Virginia Theological Seminary] The board of trustees of the Virginia
Theological Seminary (VTS) approved a new strategic plan last week
that sets the seminary on a four-year course of service to its
academic constituents, The Episcopal Church, and the Anglican
Communion.

The planning process, which began in February 2008, included
consultation with alumni, friends, faculty, staff and the board "in
order to answer the question of how the strongest seminary in the
Anglican Communion can best serve the church and the world over the
next four years," a VTS news release said.

"Our strategic plan strives to make a difference in a time when the
Episcopal Church faces considerable challenges," said the Very Rev.
Ian Markham, dean and president of VTS. "We have focused our goals
around the theme of leadership and the importance of a national and
international vision."

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/78650_102824_ENG_HTM.htm

>- - - - -

ECF Fellowship's Partners Program opens 2009 application process

[Episcopal Church Foundation] The 2009 application process for ECF's
Fellowship Partners Program has opened and the deadline is March 15,
2009.

The ECF Fellowship Partners Program awards academic and
transformational ministry fellowships, and enables fellows to share
their knowledge, experience, and best practices with the wider church
in practical ways. The emphasis is on partnerships that will have
important impact in their local communities and beyond, and enhance
lay and clergy leadership formation. Both lay and clergy applicants
are welcome.

"ECF seeks to bring about a growing number of healthy, vital, and
vibrant congregations in service to God's mission," said Donald V.
Romanik, president of ECF. "The Fellowship Partners Program helps us
advance our mission to strengthen the leadership capabilities of
Episcopal communities of faith."

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/78650_102852_ENG_HTM.htm

More Education: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80263_93222_ENG_HTM.htm

>_____________________

>MULTIMEDIA

Video: Presiding Bishop preaches in Port-au-Prince, Haiti

[Episcopal News Service] Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori
preaches on the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30) November 16
during Holy Eucharist held at Cathedralé Sainte Trinité (Holy  Trinity
Cathedral) in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, the seat of the Episcopal Church
of Haiti. The church in Haiti is the most populous diocese of the
Episcopal Church.

Video: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80056_ENG_HTM.htm

>- - - - -

Video: Church of the Heavenly Rest helps Iraqi families

[Episcopal News Service] The Rev. Thomas N. Synan, associate rector at
Church of the Heavenly Rest, New York, speaks about his parishioners'
ongoing volunteer efforts to assemble 500 first aid kits for Iraqi
families.

Video: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80056_ENG_HTM.htm

>_____________________

>FEATURES

>My Word: Christ the King Sunday

[Episcopal Life] The feast honoring Christ's messianic kingship and
sovereign rule over all creation is unofficially celebrated on the
last Sunday before Advent in some Episcopal parishes, but it is not
mentioned in the calendar of the Episcopal church year. Marion
Hatchett notes in his Commentary on the American Prayer Book that the
Book of Common Prayer collect for Proper 29, the last Sunday of the
church year, is a "somewhat free" translation of the collect of the
Feast of Christ the King in the Roman Missal. This collect prays that
God, "whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved Son,
the King of kings and Lord of lords," will "mercifully grant that the
peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and
brought together under his most gracious rule" (BCP, p. 236). The
feast was instituted by Pope Pius XI in 1925 and originally celebrated
on the last Sunday in October. It has been observed on the last Sunday
before Advent since 1970. The feast is also officially part of the
Lutheran Church liturgical year. In 2008, Christ the King Sunday falls
on November 23.

Adapted from An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church: A User-Friendly
Reference for Episcopalians, (c) 2000, by Don Armentrout and Robert
Boak Slocum, editors, and used by permission of Church Publishing Inc.

More Features: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/78936_ENG_HTM.htm

>_____________________

>ARTS

>A consecration with cross collaboration

>By Jerry Hames

[Episcopal Life] When C. Andrew Doyle is consecrated a bishop
coadjutor in Houston on November 22, he will receive all the trappings
of his office, including episcopal vestments, a Bible and a pectoral
cross.

For the newest bishop in the Diocese of Texas, his cross -- a gift
from the clergy and people of the diocese -- will be special one. It
is the result of weeks of close consultation and planning with Nancy
Denmark, a local jewelry artist, who has now created pectoral crosses
for a half-dozen men and women who have been consecrated bishops.
Doyle, who has a fine arts degree from the University of North Texas
and paints watercolors, took a keen interest in the cross's design as
it developed.

"As a member of the Fellowship of John the Evangelist, I've worn the
fellowship cross in my ministry," he said. "People frequently remark
on it and it gives me an opportunity to share about the fellowship.
But more importantly, it gives me a chance to teach about St. John's
gospel because the cross is created with images from John's gospel."

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81827_102820_ENG_HTM.htm

More Arts: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81827_ENG_HTM.htm

>_____________________

>DAYBOOK

>On November 24, 2008...

* 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 November 24, 1860, George Croly, Anglican
Divine and hymnist, died.

>_____________________

>CATALYST

"Old Testament Theology: An Introduction" from Abingdon Press, by
Walter Brueggemann, 433 pages, paperback, c. 2008, $32

[Abingdon Press] In this first volume in the Library of Biblical
Theology series, Walter Brueggemann portrays the key components in
Israel's encounter with God as recorded in the Hebrew Bible. Creation,
election, Torah, the divine hand in history; these and other
theological high points appear both in their original historical
context, and their ongoing relevance for contemporary Jewish and
Christian self-understanding.

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