wfn.org | [ELD] ELCA Assembly approves ministries of gays and lesbians in committed relationships / Presiding

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

>Episcopal Life Daily
>August 21, 2009

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

>Today's Episcopal Life Daily includes:

* TOP STORY - ELCA Assembly approves ministries of gays and lesbians
in committed relationships
* TOP STORY - Presiding Bishop stands in solidarity with Pakistani
Christians, signs blasphemy law petition
* DIOCESAN DIGEST - WYOMING: August 23 service to commemorate slain
civil rights activist, Episcopal seminarian Jonathan Daniels
* DIOCESAN DIGEST - NEW YORK: Youth mission trip brings perspective,
understanding of community
* DIOCESAN DIGEST - UTAH: New Hampshire bishop upbeat about Anglican
Communion's future
* DAYBOOK - August 24: Today in Scripture, Prayer, History
* CATALYST - The Gospel of Father Joe - Revolutions and Revelations in
the Slums of Bangkok

>_____________________

>TOP STORIES

ELCA Assembly approves ministries of gays and lesbians in committed
relationships

>ENS Staff

[Episcopal News Service] The 2009 Churchwide Assembly of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in American (http://www.elca.org/ ) (ELCA)
on August 21 approved opening the ministry of the church to pastors
and other professional workers living in committed same-gender
relationships.

The resolution passed by a vote of 559 to 451 and overturns previous
church policy that prohibited participation of gays and lesbians in
church ministries unless they were celibate.

Discussions about human sexuality have dominated the August 17-23
assembly in Minneapolis, the chief legislative authority of the 4.6
million-member denomination. More than half, or about 1,045, of the
2,000 participants are voting members at the gathering, themed "God's
work. Our hands."

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_113671_ENG_HTM.htm

>- - - - -

Presiding Bishop stands in solidarity with Pakistani Christians, signs
blasphemy law petition

>By Matthew Davies

[Episcopal News Service] Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori
has written to the moderator and bishops of the Church of Pakistan
assuring them of the Episcopal Church's "ongoing prayers and attention
concerning the ever-changing situation" in the South Asian country.

She was referring to the increased persecution of Christian minorities
in Pakistan and a recent surge in terrorist activity in the Swat
valley and neighboring regions that has displaced more than three
million people.

On August 21, the Presiding Bishop also signed a petition -- sponsored
by the Anglican Communion's Network for Inter Faith Concerns (NIFCON)
-- that calls on the government of Pakistan to repeal a blasphemy law
that has been used by extremists to justify violent attacks on
Christians.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_113662_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>DIOCESAN DIGEST

WYOMING: August 23 service to commemorate slain civil rights activist,
Episcopal seminarian Jonathan Daniels

>By Pat McCaughan

[Episcopal News Service] The Rev. Judith Upham says she hopes to
convey a simple message when she preaches about fellow seminarian
Jonathan Myrick Daniels at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Cheyenne,
Wyoming on Sunday, August 23: "You can make a difference, so do it."

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_113669_ENG_HTM.htm

>- - - - -

NEW YORK: Youth mission trip brings perspective, understanding of community

[Episcopal News Service] The high school youth group from Christ
Church Bronxville in New York embarked on a weeklong mission trip on
August 9 to Atlanta and Covington, Georgia, where they got their hands
dirty helping to clear debris from and make repairs to low-income
homes.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_113650_ENG_HTM.htm

>- - - - -

UTAH: New Hampshire bishop upbeat about Anglican Communion's future

>By Frederick Quinn

[Episcopal News Service] "At the end of the day the Anglican Communion
is going to be fine," New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson told a
large audience at St. Mark's Cathedral, Salt Lake City, Utah, on
August 20 at an address and book signing. "These last few years have
been another chapter in God's people trying to find out how broad and
merciful is God and God's love. We can be proud of our response."

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_113663_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>DAYBOOK

On August 24, 2009, the church remembers Saint Bartholomew.

* 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 August 24, 1662, the deadline arrived for all
British ministers to publicly assent to the Book of Common Prayer
(BCP). The Act of Uniformity, passed on May 19, 1662, also required
the BCP to be used exclusively from this date forward. The act remains
on Britain's Statute Book, though it has been modified over the years.
On August 24, 1759, William Wilberforce, philanthropist and
abolitionist, was born in Yorkshire, England.

>_____________________

>CATALYST

"The Gospel of Father Joe - Revolutions and Revelations in the Slums
of Bangkok" from John Wiley & Sons, Inc., by Greg Barrett, foreword by
the Most Reverend Desmond M. Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus, 321 pages,
hardcover, c. 2008, $25.95

[John Wiley & Sons, Inc.] Three decades ago in a cordoned-off corner
of the developing world an angry Catholic priest armed only with
pencil, paper, and crayons, declared a revolution. From a shanty
school shared with Buddhists and Muslims in Bangkok's squatter slums,
Father Joe Maier began his advance on abject poverty. Today, his Human
Development Foundation and Mercy Centre charity is responsible for
thirty-two preschools that have taught more than twenty thousand
children how to read and write. Despite the crippling neglect found in
impoverishment, he is raising international scholars and injecting a
sense of purpose into shantytowns and squatter camps that used to have
neither.

While extremists and jihadists rant, rave, and wrestle over the first
rights to God, "Father Joe" quietly exudes God's universal, selfless
spirit. The Johnny Appleseed of Bangkok built his preschools in the
city's worst slums without permission or legal permits. He then kept
planting despite orders from the Thai government and Catholic Church
to stop. Whenever police were dispatched to shut construction down,
Father Joe would shrug and say go ahead. "But you'll have to explain
it to them," he'd growl, pointing to the children, "and to them,"
pointing to the grandmothers and mothers.

The people and the priest grew a slum oasis this way and, today, the
Mercy Centre counts forty-two hundred preschool seats in a three-year
program that graduates seven hundred students yearly. It also has
Thailand's largest free AIDS hospice, several orphanages, a school for
older street kids, youth sports leagues, and more.

In The Gospel of Father Joe, journalist Greg Barrett tells the
inspiring story of a remarkable and ecumenical holy man in a way that
will encourage readers to believe that they too can make a world of
difference.

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