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>Episcopal News Service
>June 2, 2010

Episcopal News Service is available at  http://www.episcopalchurch.org/ens.

>Today's Episcopal News Service includes:

* TOP STORY - Presiding bishop issues pastoral letter to the church
* TOP STORY - Presiding bishop expresses concern to Obama over
Israel's seizure of aid to Gaza, ongoing blockade
* TOP STORY - Indigenous gathering calls for full inclusion,
recognition of past wrongs
* MISSION - Episcopal Relief & Development partners to provide
assistance in Terrebonne Parish
* PEOPLE - William S. Stafford named to Quintard Chair
* CALENDAR - Upcoming special events and services
* SPIRITUAL REFLECTIONS - June 6, 2010 - Second Sunday After
Pentecost, Proper 5 - Year C
* DAYBOOK - June 3: Today in Scripture, Prayer, History
* EBAR PICK - "Uncommon Gratitude: Alleluia for All That Is"

>_____________________

>TOP STORIES

Presiding bishop issues pastoral letter to the church

Jefferts Schori cites Canterbury's Pentecost letter, hopes for
continued dialogue

[Episcopal News Service] Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori
has issued a pastoral letter to the Episcopal Church, in which she
refers to the Pentecost letter from Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan
Williams and urges continued dialogue with those who disagree with
recent actions "for we believe that the Spirit is always calling us to
greater understanding."

In his May 28 letter, Williams acknowledged the tensions caused in
some parts of the Anglican Communion by the consecration of Los
Angeles Bishop Suffragan Mary Douglas Glasspool and the ongoing
unauthorized incursions by Anglican leaders into other provinces.
Glasspool is the Episcopal Church's second openly gay, partnered
bishop.

Jefferts Schori acknowledged in her letter that "the Spirit does seem
to be saying to many within the Episcopal Church that gay and lesbian
persons are God's good creation, that an aspect of good creation is
the possibility of lifelong, faithful partnership, and that such
persons may indeed be good and healthy exemplars of gifted leadership
within the Church, as baptized leaders and ordained ones. The Spirit
also seems to be saying the same thing in other parts of the Anglican
Communion, and among some of our Christian partners, including
Lutheran churches in North America and Europe, the Old Catholic
churches of Europe, and a number of others.

The full text of Jefferts Schori's letter is available at
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79425_122615_ENG_HTM.htm

>- - - - -

Presiding bishop expresses concern to Obama over Israel's seizure of
aid to Gaza, ongoing blockade

>By ENS staff

[Episcopal News Service] Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori
June 2 sent a letter to President Barack Obama expressing deep concern
surrounding Israel's interception of an aid flotilla bound for Gaza.

Nine activists were killed May 31 when Israeli commandos boarded the
six-ship convoy carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza, which has been
under a heightened Israeli blockade since the militant group Hamas
seized control in June 2007. (Israel does allow some aid into Gaza.)

The full text of the letter is available at

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79425_122610_ENG_HTM.htm

>- - - - -

Indigenous gathering calls for full inclusion, recognition of past  wrongs

>By Mary Frances Schjonberg

[Episcopal News Service] The sacred fire burned on the campus of the
University of the South May 27-31 as indigenous clergy, laity, and
bishops whose ministry includes native peoples gathered for the
Oklahoma IV 2010 Consultation.

The consultation met to consider the present and future of indigenous
leadership in the Episcopal Church and was hosted by Sewanee's School
of Theology. Among the topics participants considered were the 76th
General Convention's repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery, ways to
encourage indigenous people to enter the ordination process and the
Anglican Church of Canada's model of an indigenous bishop whose
jurisdiction reaches beyond diocesan boundaries.

"There was a lot of pain and frustration in the room," wrote Diocese
of Nevada Bishop Dan Thomas on his blog. "The human lot involves a
share of that -- but these folks had more than their share and the
form it took for them was a specific brand of oppression called
conquest, colonialism, or 'the doctrine of discovery.'"

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79425_122608_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>MISSION

Episcopal Relief & Development partners to provide assistance in
Terrebonne Parish

[Episcopal Relief & Development] Episcopal Relief & Development is
working closely with Episcopal Community Services of Louisiana and
their partner Bayou Grace Community Services to reach affected coastal
communities in Louisiana's five-bayou Terrebonne Parish, southwest of
New Orleans.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81799_122616_ENG_HTM.htm

More Mission: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81799_ENG_HTM.htm

>_____________________

>PEOPLE

>William S. Stafford named to Quintard Chair

[University of the South School of Theology] The Very Rev. Dr. William
S. Stafford, dean of the University of the South's School of Theology,
has been named to the Charles T. Quintard Chair of Dogmatic Theology.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_122611_ENG_HTM.htm

More People: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_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

June 6, 2010 - Second Sunday After Pentecost, Proper 5 - Year C

>By the Rev. Angela V. Askew

(RCL) 1 Kings 17:8-16 (17-24) and Psalm 146 (Track 2: 1 Kings 17:17-24
and Psalm 30); Galatians 1:11-24; Luke 7:11-17

[Sermons That Work] One of the most remarkable features of the First
Book of Kings is the collection of stories featuring the prophet
Elijah. The first of these comes after the rather generalized
anecdotes about the royal house of kings following the death of
Solomon. Without exception these monarchs "did what was displeasing to
the Lord," and then suddenly the narration changes subject. In Chapter
16, which precedes our reading for today, King Ahab is introduced and
then suddenly Chapter 17 begins with Elijah the Tishbite, "inhabitant
of Gilead" confronting Ahab with the observation that the God of
Israel has said there is about to be a drought that no amount of royal
power can prevent or stop. Rain will come only when the God of Israel
says so.

Full reflection:

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/sermons_that_work_122418_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>DAYBOOK

On June 3, 2010, the church remembers The Martyrs of Uganda.

* 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 June 3, 1162, Thomas Becket was consecrated as
archbishop of Canterbury.

>_____________________

>EBAR PICK

"Uncommon Gratitude: Alleluia for All That Is" by Joan Chittister and
Rowan Williams, Hardcover, 208 pages, c. May 2010. $16.95.

[Liturgical Press] Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams often says
that, no matter what, the proper stance of the Christian in the world
is one of gratitude. In this book, Sister Joan Chittister, OSB, and
Archbishop Rowan Williams offer us a sweeping set of things and
circumstances to be grateful for-things for which we can sing
"alleluia," "praise and thanks be to God."

Some are things we naturally feel grateful for: God, peace, wealth,
life, faith, and unity. But when these are set alongside other things
we would never think to sing alleluia about -- death, divisions,
sufferings, and even sinners -- we begin to see, as Joan Chittister
says in her introduction, that "Life itself is an exercise in learning
to sing 'alleluia' here in order to recognize the face of God hidden
in the recesses of time. To deal with the meaning of 'alleluia' in
life means to deal with moments that do not feel like 'alleluia
moments' at all."

In this series of reflections it becomes clear that singing "alleluia"
is not a way to escape reality but receptivity to another kind of
reality beyond the immediate and the delusional, of helping us
understand what is now and what is to come.

To order, please visit Episcopal Books and Resources online at
http://www.episcopalbookstore.org, call 800-903-5544, or visit your
local Episcopal bookstore.