wfn.org | [ELD] Presiding Bishop accepts two bishops' voluntary renunciations of orders

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

>Episcopal Life Daily
>January 23, 2009

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

>Today's Episcopal Life Daily includes:

* TOP STORY - Presiding Bishop accepts two bishops' voluntary
renunciations of orders
* DIOCESAN DIGEST - NORTHERN MICHIGAN: Single candidate for bishop and
Episcopal ministry support team announced
* DIOCESAN DIGEST - VIRGINIA: Bishop Lee announces retirement
* WORLD REPORT - ENGLAND: Christian thinkers in 'financial capital'
urge return to basic banking
* WORLD REPORT - HONG KONG: Prayer and simple life urged for Chinese New
Year
* PEOPLE - Lay ministry is the main focus for program officer Demi Prentiss
* PEOPLE - Lisa Kimball will lead Virginia Seminary's Center for the
Ministry of Teaching
* DAYBOOK - January 26, 2009: Today in Scripture, Prayer, History
* CATALYST - Transforming Scripture

>_____________________

>TOP STORIES

Presiding Bishop accepts two bishops' voluntary renunciations of orders

>By Mary Frances Schjonberg

[Episcopal News Service] Episcopal Church bishops William Wantland and
Henry Scriven have renounced their orders and Presiding Bishop
Katharine Jefferts Schori has accepted their renunciations.

Jefferts Schori said that Wantland, the retired bishop of the Diocese
of Eau Claire, had written to her November 15 to say that he had
"canonically affiliated" with the Argentina-based Anglican Province of
the Southern Cone. She said that Wantland declared in his letter that
he was no longer a member of the Episcopal Church.

Jefferts Schori said that Wantland, who was serving as an assisting
bishop in the Diocese of Fort Worth, sent his letter "as a result of
the Diocese of Fort Worth's recent attempt to realign with the
province of the Southern Cone." That action took place at the
diocese's convention November 15.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_104347_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>DIOCESAN DIGEST

NORTHERN MICHIGAN: Single candidate for bishop and Episcopal ministry
support team announced

>By Joe Bjordal

[Episcopal News Service] The Diocese of Northern Michigan announced on
January 23 the results of a year-long discernment process:  its slate
for a new "Episcopal Ministry Support Team" and a single candidate for
bishop.

The Rev. Kevin Thew Forrester has been named candidate for
bishop/ministry developer. He currently serves as ministry developer
and rector at St. Paul's Church, Marquette and St. John's Church,
Negaunee, as well as ministry development coordinator for the diocese.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_104346_ENG_HTM.htm

>- - - - -

>VIRGINIA: Bishop Lee announces retirement

>By Lisa B. Hamilton, January 23, 2009

[Episcopal News Service] The Rt. Rev. Peter James Lee, 70, bishop of
the Diocese of Virginia, announced on January 23 that he will retire
as the diocese's 12th bishop on October 1.

The Rt. Rev. Shannon S. Johnston, currently the diocese's bishop
coadjutor, will succeed Lee. In January 2006, Lee called for the
election of his successor, and Johnston was elected and consecrated
the next year. Under the canons of the Episcopal Church, a bishop must
retire either by age 72 or no more than three years after the
consecration of a bishop coadjutor; both dates will occur in 2010.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_104348_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>WORLD REPORT

ENGLAND: Christian thinkers in 'financial capital' urge return to basic
banking

[Ecumenical News International, London] Calls for a return to basic
banking and an economy propelled by values other than greed have been
made in London, one of the world's financial capitals, at a conference
of Christian thinkers examining the current economic crisis.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_104341_ENG_HTM.htm

>- - - - -

HONG KONG: Prayer and simple life urged for Chinese New Year

[Ecumenical News International] Hong Kong Christian leaders are using
the closeness of the Chinese New Year and the Week of Prayer for
Christian Unity to remind believers to defend the poor and simplify
their lives to save the environment.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_104340_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>PEOPLE

Lay ministry is the main focus for program officer Demi Prentiss

>By Janet Kawamoto

[Episcopal News Service] Demi L. Prentiss is serving as program
officer for discipleship and leadership in the area of lay and
baptismal ministry, according to the Rev. Margaret Rose, director of
the Episcopal Church's Mission Leadership Center.

Prentiss is based at the Episcopal Church Center regional office in
Omaha, Nebraska, where she began her duties in November.

The program officer is responsible for working with dioceses to
support lay leadership. Prentiss has outlined several areas of
attention for this task: working with dioceses to reshape models of
lay leadership: encouraging ministry in daily life, working  with
congregations that are undergoing a change of clergy leadership; and
encouraging lay members of the Church to work as equal partners in
ministry with clergy.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_104344_ENG_HTM.htm

>- - - - -

Lisa Kimball will lead Virginia Seminary's Center for the Ministry of
Teaching

[Virginia Theological Seminary] Elisabeth M. (Lisa) Kimball will join
the faculty of Virginia Theological Seminary as director of the Center
for the Ministry of Teaching (CMT) and professor of Christian
formation and educational leadership, according to an announcement by
the Very Rev. Ian Markham, dean and president, on January 22.

Kimball, a research scientist for Search Institute's center for
spiritual development in childhood and adolescence, also currently
serves as a faculty member in the College of Education at the
University of Minnesota and has had 20 years of experience working as
a lay professional educator, youth minister and leadership trainer in
the Episcopal Church.

In her work at Search Institute, Kimball recently completed an
international study of young people's spirituality. According to the
Rev. Dr. Roger Ferlo, director of the Institute for Christian
Formation and Leadership, under which the CMT is housed, "Dr.
Kimball's long experience in Christian education, coupled with her
groundbreaking introduction of spiritual values in youth studies
curriculum, uniquely equip her to seize the initiative in responding
to the challenges of 21st century Christian formation and leadership
through the work of the CMT."

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_104342_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>DAYBOOK

On January 26, 2009, the church calendar celebrates the Conversion of
Saint Paul (transferred from January 25).

* 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 26, 1985, George Lazenby Reynolds was
elected as the ninth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee.

>_____________________

>CATALYST

"Transforming Scripture" from Church Publishing, Inc., by Frank Wade,
150 pages, paperback, c. 2008, $16

[Church Publishing, Inc.] How can we open ourselves to the
transforming energy of the Bible, and how can we become biblically
literate? How do we read the Bible as a "revealed text," the Word of
God, in a church and culture as diverse as ours, without pain and
division? These are some of the questions Wade asks about
Episcopalians and the Bible. The 21st century church has commitments
to diversity and evangelism, a responsibility to interpret the meaning
of life for people whose lives are longer than ever before, and a need
to speak to the emerging culture of the future generations. We must
allow ourselves to be transformed by Scripture as never before.

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

>_____________________

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