The Very Revd Titus Presler was recently installed as the sixth dean and president of the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest, USA, in an internationally flavoured service noted by commitment to World Mission.
"Rejoice: we are God's vehicles..."
Jesus' birth is God's declaration that embodiment is the way of divine dealing with our disordered and darkened world. Through this divine act of incarnation, Jesus became an actor in the particular time and place in which he was born. And, his personhood became a sign to us about the meaning of our own personhood in our own day and time.
An innovative program called VIA, which is beginning to be known in the Spanish-speaking world, suggests there is more to incorporating people into the church than simply regular attendance.
The Rt Revd Harold Jones, retired bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of South Dakota, died 12 November in Arizona at the age of 92. He was the first American Indian to be elevated to the office of bishop by any Christian denomination.
Diana Frade, Founder and President of Our Little Roses Ministries in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, recently received an honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters form Berkeley Divinity School at Yale for her work 'empowering the poorest of the poor.'
Episcopalians are being urged to contact their senators and representatives about passing a three-year reauthorization for Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program.
The Church World Service is moving forward plans for a new Africa Initiative, through which CWS and its partners will seek to bring increased attention and resources to the struggles faced by the majority of Africans.
When asked by church reporters about the situation of the work among Hispanic people in the United States, the Rt Revd Onell Soto, Acting Director of Communications for the Anglican Communion, said the following:
The Rt Revd Leo Frade, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida, has expressed his concern for the plight of the Haitian refugees who arrived on American soil this week.
News that a car bomb had exploded outside police headquarters in Bogota, Colombia, on October 22, killing two and wounding 36, saddened but did not surprise Richard Parkins, director of Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM). The killing has been going on for a long time in the countryside and the villages of Colombia. It's only now that cities such as Bogota and Medellin are feeling the pain.
Representatives of the Episcopal Church's Office of Government Relations were present October 21 when President George W. Bush signed into law a bill designed to pressure Sudan's Islamic government to end its military campaign against Christians, animists and moderate Muslims in the country's central and southern regions. The bill, called the Sudan Peace Act, threatens sanctions if the Sudanese government doesn't negotiate in good faith with the opposition.
The 143rd convention of the Diocese of Kansas narrowly defeated a resolution opposing Bishop William Smalley's policy of blessings for couples outside of marriage in a vote that was characterized by people on both sides of the issue as "prayerful" and "grace-filled."
The Executive Council of the Episcopal Church in the USA affirmed their solidarity with the Episcopal Church and the suffering people of Colombia through prayer and witness. The council met mid-October in Wyoming.
The Revd Paul Matthew Washington, rector of North Philadelphia's Church of the Advocate for 25 years, died Monday of heart failure in Philadelphia at the age of 81.
The Anglican Library Society has been established out of St Paul's Parish in Riverside, Illinois. The Society supports people in the Anglican Communion charged with running church libraries, websites, and archives. This is done primarily through the website located at www.bibliometrics.com/als
Historic Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in downtown Phoenix, Arizona, caught fire on 9 October and the sanctuary of the 82-year-old structure is a "total loss." Smoke damaged the rest of the building and the cathedral's 3,000-pipe organ, dedicated just last November, sustained "significant damage," according to the Fire Department.
Faced with a strong "mind of the house" resolution that would have chastised colleagues for "inappropriate behaviour" that threatens the unity of the church, the bishops of the Episcopal Church, meeting in Cleveland, asked the Committee on Pastoral Care to find a better way to deal with the issues.
"The AIDS pandemic is still in its infancy," warned Stephen Lewis, special envoy for the secretary general of the United Nations in Africa, in a speech at the Cleveland meeting of the House of Bishops on October 1. "And it could spread rapidly to other places on the globe."
An Editorial Statement
Thomas Merton, Trappist Monk and poet: "If we attempt to act and do things for others or for the world without deepening our own self-understanding, our own freedom, integrity and capacity to love, we will not have anything to give to others. We will communicate nothing but the contagion of our own obsessions, our aggressiveness, our own ego-centered ambitions."
An ACNS Special which brings together news and resources for the 1st anniversary of the 11th September terrorist attacks is available from the Anglican Communion web site.
Seeks support for hospitals, schools and churches in the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem
Jerusalem 2000 enters its final stage in September with a mailing of materials to all Episcopal Churches in the United States.
Deposed Episcopal priest, the Revd David L Moyer, celebrated mass at 12:05 on Friday 6 September at Trinity Cathedral in downtown Pittsburgh. The mass at Trinity Cathedral was scheduled to remind everyone of the heritage of religious toleration of the founder of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, William Penn, on whose lands Trinity Cathedral (Pittsburgh) is built.
The 18-month-long impasse between a vestry in Accokeek, Maryland, and the Diocese of Washington over the election of a rector was broken August 29 with the issuance of a joint statement between the vestry and Bishop John Chane, naming the Revd Stephen Arpee as the parish's new rector. Fr Arpee has served, in recent months, as priest-in-charge for the parish.
Conference from 20-23 September 2002
Episcopalians, Lutherans and Roman Catholics will discuss the role and power of bishops in the contemporary church at an international conference from September 20-23, 2002 in Waltham, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. Laity and clergy are welcome to this Anglican-Lutheran Society conference at the Espousal Retreat House and Conference Center.
The Parish of Trinity Church, New York, is offering its 9/11 services streamed live on the web and on the Episcopal Cathedral Teleconferencing Network next Wednesday.
Forward Movement Publications has a limited number of Day By Day "Meditations for a Time of Crisis" available for FREE.
St John's Episcopal Church, the "historic mother church" of the Episcopal Diocese of Quincy which celebrated its 150th birthday this year, was gutted by a five-alarm fire caused by lightning early August 23, sustaining major damage.
The Parish of Trinity Church in the City of New York is offering a series of worship services, presentations, concerts and opportunities for quiet reflection to mark the first anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
