ACNS 27 November News Weekly Roundup

From Worldwide Faith News <[email protected]>
Date Sat, 27 Nov 2010 13:03:11 -0800

Posted On : November 27, 2010 10:43 AM | Posted By : Admin ACO
ACNS: ACNS4755
Related Categories: ACO

A weekly roundup of Anglican Communion news plus
opinion, reviews, photos, profiles and other
things of interest from across the Anglican/Episcopal world.


This edition includes...
This week's Anglican Communion news
Anglican Life - "You are vital to the life of the
church" women's conference in Jordan told.
Anglican Life - Singing more psalms thanks to the Church of Ireland.
Anglican Life - Men? In the Mother's Union? Yes! in Trinidad and 
Tobago.
Anglican Life - Appealing for the release of church-based health 
workers
Comment ? "A cold nation of friendly pet lovers"
A Ghanaian religious on England.
Publication of the Week ? Track your donations
with Australian charity's new website
Bookshelf ? Review from Uganda: Cardinal Newman's spiritual journey
The coming week's Anglican Cycle of Prayer.



________________


ANGLICAN NEWS

USA - The United Nations, the Bible, and the
Church on gender-based violence, gang rape and trafficking
Africa - Continuing Indaba gives bishops
"excitement and hope for the future of the Communion"
Sudan - Anglican and Catholic Archbishops
register for historic Sudan referendum
New Zealand - Prayer Request for Denominational
Networks after New Zealand mine tragedy
Pakistan - International Anglican Women's Network
Statement on mother arrested under blasphemy laws.
England - Latest updated edition of Church of
England's child protection policy published
England - Church of England General Synod supports Anglican Covenant 
process
South Africa - Anglican Communion Bible in Life
of the Church project moves into a new phase of its work
England - Church opposes News Corporation's purchase of BSkyB


________________



ANGLICAN LIFE



Women meet for conference in Jordan


From Bible Lands, the Magazine of the Jerusalem
and the Middle East Church Association.

Led by Shafeeqa Dawani, the wife of Bp Suheil, 75
ladies of the diocese gathered in Jordan. These
occasions area wonderful opportunity for the
women to support each other and to contribute to
life in the diocese. The event took place at the
Ahliyyah School for Girls in Amman where the
ladies spent the day together. The history of
Christianity in the Middle East was the morning
theme and stressed the need to live alongside
people of all faiths in such a troubled land.
Bishop Suleil showed how King Abdullah of Jordan
encourages his people to co-exist and respect each other's religious 
belief s.

Group discussions followed sharing ways that help
can be given to our young men and women to stay
in their home towns and to live and work in their
home countries after receiveing their education.
In the afternoon Rev. Ibrahim Nairouz, pastor of
the church in Nablus, gave a presentation on the
life of John the Baptist with special reference to his significance 
in Jord an.


Read more here



Church of Ireland release publications to
encourage more psalm singing in churches


By Paul Harron, Church of Ireland Communications Department

In time for the coming liturgical year beginning
on Advent Sunday (28 November 2010), a new
publication ? the last in a series of three ? has
been produced by the Church of Ireland designed
to encourage more psalm singing in churches. The
publication contains simple musical psalm
settings for all the psalms needed for the
liturgical year. Like volumes one and two,
Singing Psalms ? Year A contains fresh and
engaging simple chants for the psalms.

The publications have resulted from a feeling
that the practice of singing psalms has been
somewhat lost in parishes. In an attempt to
recapture the richness and variety of emotion
expressed within the psalms, the Liturgical
Advisory Committee (LAC) of the Church of Ireland
asked musicians Alison Cadden and Peter Thompson
to devise a way of setting the psalms to music that can be sung by 
anyone.


Read more here



Men join the Mothers' Union at Grace Church


By a Mothers' Union correspondent, The Anglican Outlook [link]

The Mothers' Union in the diocese celebrated an
historic day at Grace Church, New Grant,
[country] when it commissioned a new branch in
the parish and--for the first time in its history--admitted men to 
its fold.


In the early morning sunrise, with its cool
country air, the flowering palm trees with
eye-catching red and green fruit marked the way
uphill to Grace Church, New Grant. From the top,
the panoramic view was simply beautiful as the
birds greeted the day with their own songs of praise to God.


Inside the church and under the roof top, the
"Cuckoo Rachel" (housebird) joined in the
singalong; oblivious to the full congregation
below that were there to witness the
commissioning of the new Grace Church Mothers'
Union. Grace Church helped the diocesan MU to
turn to the new chapter that Sunday morning when
16 people, including the three men, enrolled as members at the 7am 
Eucharis t.


Read more here


Episcopalian leader renews appeal to free 43 detainees
By Maurice Malanes, Ecumenical News International, Manila

A Philippines church leader has renewed an appeal
for supporters to help persuade President Benigno
Aquino to free 43 detainees, most of them
church-based health workers detained for more
than nine months, and whom the military has accused of being 
communist rebe ls.

"Another day in prison for the 43 is another day
of justice denied," said the Rev. Rex Reyes,
general secretary of the National Council of
Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) and a priest
in the Episcopal Church of the Philippines, in a
Nov. 9 statement that repeated an earlier appeal.

Reyes appealed for support from local and global
church organizations, human rights advocates and civil libertarians.

He urged them to sign an online petition, and
told ENI news on Nov. 18 that the NCCP, which
represents Protestant and Anglican churches in
the Philippines, but does not include the
country's dominant Roman Catholic Church, would
later publish the signed petition as a paid
advertisement in national newspapers.


Read more here



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COMMENT


A Ghanaian member of the Anglican Order of the
Holy Paraclete made her first visit to the UK in
2009 to undertake her 'community experience'. In
the Advent edition of the OHP Newsletter, Sister
Helena shares a little of her impressions of living in England.


The Impact of Experience



(My First Year in the UK)


Behind each face, there is a unique world, which
no one else can see. This is the mystery of
individuality. I have had a lot of experience in
my life, but the one that has really shaped me,
is my time in the United Kingdom. Having spent a
year of my novitiate training in Ghana, it was
then time for my Community experience in our
Mother House at Whitby in the United
Kingdom.Well, I needed a visa to get there! After
a year's battle with the British High Commission,
I managed to get a visa for two years. I was so
excited and looking forward to it, but I had no
idea what the country was like.

I arrived at Teedside Airport on the 17th October
2009 and I was VERY cold. On my arrival at the
Priory I was given plenty of warm clothes and a
long heavy English winter habit and some warm
footwear to go with it. LIfe at the Priory was a
big culture shock to me because it was completely
different. There were many more sisters and the Office was sung to 
plainson g.

Although everything was new to me, I was never
left out of any activity. This increased my
confidence and I gradually picked things up. I
must say, the sisters were very helpful.After
nine months, I was due for First Profession,
which took place at the Priory on 17th July,
2010. It went very well with African music at the
end and, of course, a dance to go with it!

I have noticed a great deal about the country and
its people and most of them are very impressive.
People seem to have a healthy communication
amongst themselves. For instance, you will never
get away without a smile or hello when you meet
someone on the street. It sometimes goes on to
"How are you?", "Nice weather" or "Not a nice
day" as English people always talk about the weather.


Read more here


Click here to see pictures of Sr. Helena as a
postulant and novice http://www.ohpwhitby.org/PDFs/News&Events.pdf


_____________________



PUBLICATION OF THE WEEK


Anglican Board of Mission's PROJECT WASH website lets you follow the 
money

By Elizabeth Keevers, ABM Communications and Marketing department.

The Anglican Board of Mission (ABM) has just
launched PROJECT WASH, a webpage that tracks a
donation to a water project in the Philippines in
order to show donors how their donations are spent.

Every year, around 1.5 million children die from
diarrhea caused, in part, by unclean water. 88%
of cases of diarrhea are caused by unclean water.
ABM has been helping to build clean water systems
in the Philippines since 1994, saving the lives
of many children in the process.

Melany Markham, Communication and Fundraising
Manager of ABM said, ?The question we hear most
often from our donors is, ?How do you know the
money really gets there?? so we wanted to be more
transparent about what donated funds are spent on.?

WASH stands for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene ?
all the components need to ensure a clean water
supply. To ensure that the water supply is
sustained, entire communities need to be involved
in the building and maintainence of the water
system. The webpage explains this and all the
other components of a successful project.

?It might surprise people to learn that, from
every dollar donated to this project, 48 cents is
spent on materials. Some people might question
this, but the reality is, you have to make sure
that the system is sustainable. It has to be
right for the environment and someone has to be
trained to maintain it locally,? said Ms Markham.

When stuck by the need in developing countries,
the impulse is to do something quickly. However,
ill-considered solutions do not last. Donors are
often disappointed when they put energy and money
into a project only to return years later to find it neglected or 
dismantle d.

?Real, sustainable development takes time. If
solving poverty were easy, we would have done it
by now,? said Miss Markham. ?Our supporters take
a keen interest in how our work is done and want
to know more. Most of the time, people understand
that it?s not always easy to achieve things in
developing countries ? that it?s hard work and complicated.?

PROJECT WASH also invites people to take part in
building a water system in the Philippines by
joining a trip to the country in 2011. The public
can register their interest through the Project WASH webpage also.

See exactly what it costs, how donations are
spent and the direct benefits provided to
villages in the Philippines. Visit www.abmission.org/project_wash.


_______________



BOOKSHELF


The Spiritual Journey of Newman, Jean Honore, Archbishop of Tours

Review by Martyn Drakard in The Observer (Kampala, Uganda)

Alba House Publishers, Shs25,500. Available from St Paul's Bookshop.


Much is being said, and perhaps little
understood, of the Catholic Church's recent
openness to Anglicans who wish to convert. The
book, "The Spiritual Journey of Newman", by
Frenchman, Jean Honore, helps put this new
development into the context of the last two
hundred years of Catholicism and Anglicanism.


John Henry Newman (1801-1890) is the Church of
England's most famous convert. His father, a
banker turned brewer, his mother a strict
moralist, John Henry was the eldest of six. Grave
and artless, he took seriously his responsibility
of looking after his siblings.

From childhood he had been interested in the
true nature of things rather than their
appearance. Mystery for him was part of reality.
Childhood was God's supreme gift, he said. It is
then that one is innocent and untarnished by the
world and is able to discover reality in its true dimension.

At fifteen he had his first "conversion", and
afterwards realized the benefits of solitude. His
immensely brilliant and sensitive mind caused him
great suffering as his thoughts and what he
imagined others' thought about him turned him in on himself.

Yet this helped him prepare spiritually for his
later years when he would be misunderstood,
slandered and the victim of intrigues. In 1817 he
entered Trinity College, Oxford. Five years later
he was appointed tutor in Oriel College, known
for its sharp minds and independent thinkers.


Read more here



____________________


THE COMING WEEK?S ANGLICAN CYCLE OF PRAYER (click
the link for the full details of the ACP)


Friday 26-Nov-2010
Psalm: 55    Isa 62:1-5
North Kigezi - (Uganda) The Rt Revd Edward Muhima



Saturday 27-Nov-2010
Psalm: 119:65-80    Isa 63:7-14
Kilmore, Elphin & Ardagh - (Armagh, Ireland) The Rt Revd Kenneth 
Herbert Cl arke



Sunday 28-Nov-2010     Advent 1
Psalm: 68: 1-10    Rev. 2: 1-7
Kimberley & Kuruman - (South Africa) The Rt Revd Oswald Peter Patrick 
Swartz



Monday 29-Nov-2010
Psalm: 122    Rev. 3: 1-6
Kindu - (Congo) The Rt Revd Zacharie Masimango Katanda



Tuesday 30-Nov-2010     St Andrew's Day
Psalm: 72: 1-4,18,19    Rev. 4:
Kinkizi - (Uganda) The Rt Revd John Ntegyereize



Wednesday 01-Dec-2010     World AIDS Day
Psalm: 103: 8-13    Isa. 13: 1-12
PRAY For greater awareness of HIV and AIDS,
For greater dignity and rights of people living with HIV and AIDS,
For more compassion and care
For the rejection of discrimination and stigmatization,
For wider prevention activities that address root causes of 
vulnerability
For efficient mobilization of resources and treatments,
For increased access to treatments and care,
For support for those left behind to grieve the loss of their loved 
ones,
For trust and hope in our God. Amen


The Mothers? Union, Living Positively, ?Prayers and Reflections?
Kinshasa - (Congo) The Rt Revd


Thursday 02-Dec-2010
Psalm: 118: 19-27    Isa 14:12-17
Kirinyaga - (Kenya) The Rt Revd Daniel Munene Ngoru
Suffragan Bishop of Kirinyaga - (Kenya) Vacant