wfn.org | [ELD] MARYLAND: Tutu calls Obama election 'a miracle'

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

>Episcopal Life Daily
>November 25, 2008

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

>Today's Episcopal Life Daily includes:

* DIOCESAN DIGEST - MARYLAND: Tutu calls Obama election 'a miracle'
* WORLD REPORT - CANADA: Seven positions terminated as part of national
office cuts
* WORLD REPORT - KENYA: Churches want post-poll violence report
implemented
* WORLD REPORT - SOUTHERN AFRICA: Twenty years of World AIDS Day is time
for faiths to 'take stock,' says Ndungane
* OPINION - Enhancing the feast: Go beyond prayers of thanks to prayers
for forgiveness
* DAYBOOK - November 26, 2008: Today in Scripture, Prayer, History
* CATALYST - The Oxford Guide to the Book of Common Prayer: A Worldwide
Study

>_____________________

>DIOCESAN DIGEST

MARYLAND: Tutu calls Obama election 'a miracle'

>By Val Hymes

{Episcopal News Service, Baltimore] Archbishop Desmond Tutu on November
22 said the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States
-- "a president of color" - gave hope to the world.

Tutu, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work against South Africa's
system of racial segregation called apartheid, said the choice of the
first African-American president was "a miracle." Racism, he added, "was
running rampant in so many places. A black man was dragged behind a
truck. And you elect a man of color! You are bearers of hope, not just
here, not just for people of color, but for hundreds of thousands around
the world. People are dancing in the streets."

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_103058_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>WORLD REPORT

CANADA: Seven positions terminated as part of national office cuts

>By Marites N. Sison

[Anglican Journal] Faced with declining revenue and recurring budget
deficits in recent years, the General Synod of the Anglican Church of
Canada announced on November 25 the termination of seven positions at
its national office in Toronto. The terminations were part of a plan to
cut the 2009 budget by CAN$1.3 million (US$1.06 million) and reduce the
deficit to CAN$800,000 (US$652.586).

"I want to emphasize that all these decisions were due to structural
changes we are forced to make as a result of financial constraints we
are facing. None were due to performance issues," said an internal memo
sent to staff by Archdeacon Michael Pollesel, the national church's
general secretary. "Each of these seven individuals contributed to the
ongoing life of church house and we thank them for their time with us."

Five staff from the financial management and development department and
the communications and information resources department were laid off;
the positions of two staff (yet unidentified pending negotiations) set
to retire next year will not be filled.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_103057_ENG_HTM.htm

>- - - - -

KENYA: Churches want post-poll violence report implemented

>By Fredrick Nzwili

[Ecumenical News International, Nairobi] Kenyan church leaders have
demanded the recommendations of an official report into post-election
violence, which nearly tore apart the East African country at the
beginning of 2008, be implemented and that instigators be brought to
book. 

"The time has come for people to accept their mistakes. We should not
continue to sweep our problems under the carpet," Roman Catholic
Cardinal John Njue told a congregation in Kakamega in western Kenya on
November 22.

Still, some politicians are vehemently opposed to the findings of what
is known as the Waki report.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_103033_ENG_HTM.htm

>- - - - -

SOUTHERN AFRICA: Twenty years of World AIDS Day is time for faiths to
'take stock,' says Ndungane

>By Peter Kenny

[Ecumenical News International, Geneva] Faith leaders "should shout from
the rooftops that AIDS is not a punishment from God but a medical
condition which is preventable," Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane, former
primate of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, has told the World
Aids Campaign. 

Ndungane was speaking in an interview for the Amsterdam- and Cape
Town-based World Aids Campaign, founded by UNAIDS, ahead of the 20th
anniversary of the marking of December 1 as World AIDS Day. The campaign
says World AIDS Day is a time of "global solidarity for a pandemic that
has led to over 25 million deaths, with an estimated 33 million people
currently living with HIV worldwide."

Ndungane, who now heads African Monitor, a continental development
agency, said that AIDS was "manageable and treatable although not
curable," as well as not being a punishment from God.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_103034_ENG_HTM.htm

More World news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_ENG_HTM.htm

>_____________________

>OPINION

>Enhancing the feast

Go beyond prayers of thanks to prayers for forgiveness

>By Frank Logue

[Episcopal News Service] The myth of Thanksgiving has everything to do
with the Pilgrims celebrating a joint feast with their neighbors, the
Wampanoag people, to offer thanks for a successful harvest. No
Thanksgiving passes by in schools without a plethora of Pilgrim costumes
and vaguely Western-looking Native American headdresses. Yet, in some
dim way, we know that Thanksgiving has not been continuously observed
since that fall of 1621.

Thanksgiving was born out of revolution and civil war. Its history is
perhaps more noble for its bloodstained roots than for its Pilgrim
ideal.

The first Thanksgiving was November 26, 1789, and it was created by
proclamation of George Washington in thanksgiving for the establishment
of the new government of the United States of America. That day was to
be devoted "to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the
beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be."

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_103031_ENG_HTM.htm

More Opinion: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_ENG_HTM.htm

>_____________________

>DAYBOOK

>On November 26, 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 26, 1731, William Cowper, hymnist, was
born at Berkhampstead, Hertfordshire, England. On November 26, 1941,
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, U.S. President and Episcopalian, signed a
bill establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day in
the United States.

>_____________________

>CATALYST

"The Oxford Guide to the Book of Common Prayer: A Worldwide Study" from
Oxford University Press, edited by Charles Hefling and Cynthia Shattuck,
640 pages, hardcover, c. 2007, $15.95

[Oxford University Press] The Book of Common Prayer runs like a golden
thread through the history of the Church of England and the worldwide
Anglican Communion. The Oxford Guide to the Book of Common Prayer is the
first comprehensive guide to the history and usage of the original Book
of Common Prayer and its numerous descendants throughout the world. It
shows how a seminal text for Christian worship and devotion has inspired
a varied family of religious resources that have had an influence far
beyond their use in the churches of a single tradition.

Much more than simply a history, this volume describes how Anglican
churches at all points of the compass have developed their own Prayer
Books and adapted the time-honored Anglican liturgies to their diverse
local cultures. In the dozens of editions now in use throughout the
world, the same texts -- Daily Prayers, the Eucharist, Marriage and
Funerals, and many others -- resemble each other, and yet differ from
each other in interesting ways. A brief look at "electronic Prayer
Books" offers a glimpse at how this story of development and adaptation
may continue in the Information Age.

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