wfn.org | [ELD] Presiding Bishop reflects on a momentous year / 'Reject practice of torture, ' religious leade

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

>Episcopal Life Daily
>January 12, 2009

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

>Today's Episcopal Life Daily includes:

* TOP STORY - Presiding Bishop reflects on a momentous year
* TOP STORY - 'Reject practice of torture,' religious leaders tell
President-elect Obama
* TOP STORY - New Hampshire bishop invited to offer prayers at
inaugural kickoff event
* DIOCESAN DIGEST - CENTRAL NEW YORK: Parishioners who left Episcopal
Church cannot keep Binghamton building
* DIOCESAN DIGEST - UPPER SOUTH CAROLINA: Bishop Dorsey Henderson to  retire
* PEOPLE - Colorado Bishop Rob O'Neill named as chair of ERD's board
of directors
* MULTIMEDIA - Video: Presiding Bishop reflects on a momentous year
* DAYBOOK - January 13, 2009: Today in Scripture, Prayer, History

>_____________________

>TOP STORIES

>Presiding Bishop reflects on a momentous year

>By Solange De Santis

[Episcopal News Service] The year 2008, it seemed, was crammed
more-than-usually with momentous events for the Episcopal Church and
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori.

Internationally, Anglican bishops gathered for the decennial Lambeth
Conference and the church continued to work for the United Nation's
Millennium Development Goals for social progress. Domestically, some
members left the church due to theological differences and the church
confronted its past with an apology for involvement in slavery.

As the year drew to a close, Jefferts Schori's thoughts turned toward
the Middle East, where Israeli and Palestinian forces were battling in
Gaza -- a place she had visited the previous spring.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_104183_ENG_HTM.htm

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'Reject practice of torture,' religious leaders tell President-elect  Obama

>By ENS staff

[Episcopal News Service] A broad coalition of religious leaders,
including Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori,
has written to President-elect Barack Obama asking him "to restore our
nation's moral standing in the world by rejecting the practice of
torture."

Backed by the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT), the
religious leaders represent a diversity of faith traditions. In their
January 9 letter, the 34 leaders noted that "torture is incompatible
with the tenets of our faiths and is contrary to international and
U.S. law" and underscored that "respect for the dignity of every
person must serve as the foundation for security, justice and peace."

On January 11, NRCAT began its "Countdown to End Torture: 10 Days of
Prayer" campaign, designed "to unite the religious community in a
final push" to ensure that President-elect Obama makes the signing of
an executive order ending torture one of his first official acts in
office.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_104182_ENG_HTM.htm

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New Hampshire bishop invited to offer prayers at inaugural kickoff event

Robinson calls participation in Lincoln Memorial concert 'humbling'

>By Mary Frances Schjonberg

[Episcopal News Service] Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire Bishop
Gene Robinson will give the invocation January 18 at the first event
in a week of celebrations marking President-elect Barack Obama's
inauguration.

Robinson told Episcopal News Service that his participation in the "We
Are One" concert at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. is "a
wonderful opportunity for the Episcopal Church and certainly the
Episcopal Church in the Diocese of New Hampshire to be represented at
this historic event and I am honored and not a little overwhelmed at
the responsibility."

>"I just hope I can live up to it," he added.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_104179_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>DIOCESAN DIGEST

UPPER SOUTH CAROLINA: Bishop Dorsey Henderson to retire

>By Lisa B. Hamilton

[Episcopal News Service] Bishop Dorsey F. Henderson Jr. of the Diocese
of Upper South Carolina, saying he feels he has done "what I know how
to do" and that it is time for someone "to take [the diocese] to the
next level of discipleship," has announced his retirement.

Henderson, who is 69, has served as the diocese's seventh bishop since  1995.
In a pastoral letter to the diocese, he said his resignation would
take effect on the date of the consecration of the next bishop, or on
December 31, 2009, whichever occurs first. "Upper South Carolina needs
a bishop who can cooperate with you, and provide appropriate episcopal
leadership in moving into the next level of Christian discipleship,"
he wrote.

Full story here: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_104185_ENG_HTM.htm

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CENTRAL NEW YORK: Parishioners who left Episcopal Church cannot keep
Binghamton building

>By Mary Frances Schjonberg

[Episcopal News Service] A New York state Supreme Court justice has
ruled that members of Church of the Good Shepherd
(http://goodshepherdbinghamton.anglicanconnection.net) in Binghamton
who left the Episcopal Church cannot keep the parish's building and
other property.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_104184_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>PEOPLE

Colorado Bishop Rob O'Neill named as chair of ERD's board of directors

[ERD] Bishop Robert J. O'Neill of the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado
has been appointed by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori to
serve as the new chair of Episcopal Relief and Development's board of
directors.

O'Neill, who has been an ERD board member since January 2007, succeeds
the Rt. Rev. Harry Brown Bainbridge III, who served as chair since
2003.

Jefferts Schori said that O'Neill's "strong leadership and abundant
gifts will be a blessing not only to the board of directors, but to
the many ministries of Episcopal Relief and Development and the
millions of people they touch."

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_104180_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>MULTIMEDIA

Video: Presiding Bishop reflects on a momentous year

[Episcopal News Service] In an interview with Episcopal Life Media
Editor Solange De Santis, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori
looks back on 2008, a year which seemed more-than-usually crammed with
momentous events for her and the Episcopal Church.

Video: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81231_ENG_HTM.htm

More Multimedia: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80056_ENG_HTM.htm

>_____________________

>DAYBOOK

On January 13, 2009, the church calendar remembers Hilary, bishop of
Poitiers (367).

* 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 January 13, 1731, John Darwall, composer, was
baptized at Haughton, Staffordshire, England. Darwall was appointed
curate and later vicar of St. Matthew's Parish in Walsall, and lived
the rest of his life there.

>_____________________

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