wfn.org | [ELD] New version of proposed Anglican covenant released

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

>Episcopal Life Daily
>April 8, 2009

[Editor's note: Episcopal Life Daily will resume full service on
Tuesday, April 14.]

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

>Today's Episcopal Life Daily includes:

* TOP STORY - Covenant design team sends 'best possible draft' to
Anglican Consultative Council
* DIOCESAN DIGEST - VIRGINIA: Diocese, Episcopal Church ask state
Supreme Court to review property rulings
* WORLD REPORT - KENYA: China will 'take over' in Africa, Anglican
warns Europeans
* PEOPLE - Eric Mason to head Pension Fund's new Asian investment office
* MULTIMEDIA - Video: Joy, hope and excitement surround formal
reorganization of Diocese of Quincy
* OPINION - We preach Christ crucified
* CALENDAR - Upcoming special events and services
* SPIRITUAL REFLECTION - April 9 - Maundy Thursday - Year B
* SPIRITUAL REFLECTION - April 10 - Good Friday - Year B
* SPIRITUAL REFLECTION - April 11 - The Great Vigil of Easter - Year B
* SPIRITUAL REFLECTION - April 12 - Easter Day - Year B
* DAYBOOK - April 9, 2009: Today in Scripture, Prayer, History
* CATALYST - Day by Day: Loving God More Dearly

>_____________________

>TOP STORIES

Covenant design team sends 'best possible draft' to Anglican
Consultative Council

>By Mary Frances Schjonberg

[Episcopal News Service] Calling it "the best possible draft," the
group assigned to create the text for a proposed Anglican covenant
released its third version April 8. The new draft is named "Ridley
Cambridge" for Ridley Hall in Cambridge, England, where the Covenant
Design Group met from March 30 to April 3.

The draft will be formally presented to the Anglican Consultative
Council (ACC) -- the Anglican Communion's main legislative body and
the only one of its Instruments of Communion with the authority to ask
Anglican provinces to sign onto the covenant -- for discussion at its
May 1-13 meeting in Kingston, Jamaica.

Should the ACC accept the draft during the Jamaica meeting, Episcopal
Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has said that she
would "strongly discourage" any effort to bring such a request to the
76th General Convention in July 2009. The Episcopal Church's Executive
Council agreed in January, saying that such a decision would need the
full three years between meetings of General Convention to
"prayerfully engage the faithful of all the dioceses of the Episcopal
Church as to their discernment in respect to the covenant" and listen
to other provinces "as they discuss and wrestle with the generalities
and particularities of an Anglican covenant."

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_106808_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>DIOCESAN DIGEST

VIRGINIA: Diocese, Episcopal Church ask state Supreme Court to review
property rulings

>By Mary Frances Schjonberg

[Episcopal News Service] The Episcopal Diocese of Virginia and the
Episcopal Church each asked the state Supreme Court April 7 to review
a Fairfax County Court judge's rulings in a series of church property
lawsuits.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_106787_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>WORLD REPORT

KENYA: China will 'take over' in Africa, Anglican warns Europeans

>By Fredrick Nzwili

[Ecumenical News International, Nairobi] Africa could find a
dependable partner in China, if Europe does not change the way it
relates to the continent, a Kenyan Anglican and World Council of
Churches leader has said.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_106788_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>PEOPLE

Eric Mason to head Pension Fund's new Asian investment office

[Church Pension Group] The Church Pension Fund has named Eric Mason,
senior vice president, to head its new Asian investment office,
according to an announcement on April 8. Mason, who will be based in
Hong Kong, is a veteran of the Asian financial industry, working with
private equity funds. He will oversee CPF investments in the region
across all asset classes.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_106789_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>MULTIMEDIA

Video: Joy, hope and excitement surround formal reorganization of
Diocese of Quincy

[Episcopal News Service] Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori
made her first official visit to the Diocese of Quincy on April 4 to
preside at a special synod that formally reorganized the diocese after
a majority of its members voted to leave the Episcopal Church last
November. Her visit took on even greater significance as the first
female presiding bishop visited a diocese that has yet to ordain women
priests, something the new leadership plans to change. The gathering
was filled with joy, excitement and hope as the Diocese of Quincy
plans now to focus on mission and fling wide its doors to welcome all
people.

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

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

>_____________________

>OPINION

>We preach Christ crucified

>By Patrick P. Augustine

[Episcopal News Service] There is no doubt that the preaching of the
cross of Jesus stands at the heart of Christian proclamation. Bishop
Stephen Neill used to say, "In the Christian theology of history, the
death of Christ is the central point of history; here all the roads of
the past converge; hence all the roads of the future diverge." As St.
Paul, the primary early missionary of the Christian faith, writes: For
Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ
crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but
to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of
God and the wisdom of God. (1 Corinthians 1: 22-24)

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_106772_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>CALENDAR

A round-up of upcoming special events, services, concerts and diocesan
conventions taking place throughout the Episcopal Church is available
at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/calendar.htm

>_____________________

>SPIRITUAL REFLECTIONS

>April 9 - Maundy Thursday - Year B

(RCL) Exodus 12:1-4, (5-10), 11-14; Psalm 116:1, 10-17; 1 Corinthians
11:23-26; John 13:1-17, 31b-35

>By the Rev. Frank Logue

[Sermons That Work] Peter got it wrong. We shouldn't be surprised in
the least. The gospels have taught us to expect Peter to be the eager
disciple who energetically jumps to the wrong answer and is ready to
act when listening and learning is called for.

Full reflection:

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/sermons_that_work_106612_ENG_HTM.htm

>- - - - -

>April 10 - Good Friday - Year B

(RCL) Isaiah 52:13-53; 12; Psalm 22; Hebrews 10:16-25 or Hebrews
4:14-16; 5:7-9; John 18:1-19, 42

>By Katerina Whitely

[Sermons That Work] The readings for this sad day and night should
stand alone, without the need of a sermon. So it is with trepidation
that one approaches this sacred time, aware that the sermon writer
cannot add to the tragic story, only make a feeble effort at an
interpretation that may sound more personal than universal.

Full reflection:

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/sermons_that_work_106613_ENG_HTM.htm

>- - - - -

>April 11 - The Great Vigil of Easter - Year B

>(RCL) The Liturgy of the Word
>Genesis 1:1-2:4a [The Story of Creation]
>Genesis 7:1-5, 11-18, 8:6-18, 9:8-13 [The Flood]
>Genesis 22:1-18 [Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac]
>Exodus 14:10-31; 15:20-21 [Israel's deliverance at the Red Sea]
>Isaiah 55:1-11 [Salvation offered freely to all]
>Baruch 3:9-15, 3:32-4:4 or Proverbs 8:1-8, 19-21; 9:4b-6 [Learn wisdom
>and live]
>Ezekiel 36:24-28 [A new heart and a new spirit]
>Ezekiel 37:1-14 [The valley of dry bones]
>Zephaniah 3:12-20 [The gathering of God's people]

At the Eucharist - Romans 6:3-11; Psalm 114; Mark 16:1-8

>By the Rev. Dr. Joseph S. Pagano

[Sermons That Work] Gerard Manley Hopkins has a wonderful poem, "The
Wreck of the Deutschland," where he uses the phrase "Let him Easter in
us." In this phrase, he uses the noun Easter as a verb. Hopkins
writes, "Let him Easter in us, be a dayspring to the dimness of us."

Full reflection:

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/sermons_that_work_106614_ENG_HTM.htm

>- - - - -

>April 12 - Easter Day - Year B

(RCL) Acts 10:34-43 or Isaiah 25:6-9; Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24; 1
Corinthians 15:1-11 or Acts 10:34-43; John 20:1-18 or Mark 16:1-8

>By the Very Rev. Anthony F.M. Clavier

[Sermons That Work] Those of you who have nearly lost someone near and
dear will find the gospel today within your experience. In wartime,
families hope to avoid and yet expect the knock on the door. There
stand uniformed and grim-looking people who have come to announce that
a young person is missing in action or dead.

Full reflection:

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/sermons_that_work_106615_ENG_HTM.htm

More Spiritual Reflections:  http://www.episcopalchurch.org/82457_ENG_HTM.htm

>_____________________

>DAYBOOK

On April 9, 2009, the church calendar remembers Maundy Thursday.

* 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 April 9, 1761, English divine William Law died.

>_____________________

>CATALYST

"Day by Day: Loving God More Dearly" from Church Publishing, Inc., by
Frederick Borsch, 101 pages, paperback, c. 2009, $15

[Church Publishing, Inc.] The popular song Day by Day from "Godspell"
was actually written in the Middle Ages by Richard of Chichester, a
saint remembered for his humility, his perseverance in times of
hardship, his care for the poor, and the strength and generosity of
his faith. After his death miracles of healing were said to have taken
place through his intercession, and a shrine grew up at his cathedral
in Chichester, a small city south of London. His had been a life of
close friendships and high position, but also exclusion, exile and
poverty.

The intonations of a brave and searching man on his knees can be heard
throughout this prayer. Borsch uses the life of Richard to illuminate
and guide us as we seek day by day to see more clearly, love more
dearly and follow God more nearly. These intellectually solid
meditations draw on Scripture and church history to aid us in our
devotional life.

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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