[ELD] Presiding Bishop calls for Day of Prayer for Lambeth Conference / In Haiti, Episcopalians respond to food price crisis / Episcopal congregations join anti-torture effort / Merrill Lynch freezes disputed San Joaquin diocesan accounts

Wed Jun 4 16:06:02 CDT 2008

Episcopal Life Daily
June 4, 2008

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

Today's Episcopal Life Daily includes:

* TOP STORY - Presiding Bishop calls for Day of Prayer for Lambeth
Conference
* TOP STORY - In Haiti, Episcopalians respond to food price crisis
* TOP STORY - Episcopal congregations join anti-torture effort
* TOP STORY - Merrill Lynch freezes disputed San Joaquin diocesan accounts
pending court ruling
* PEOPLE - Julia M. Groom-Thompson named president of Episcopal Church
Building Fund
* PEOPLE - Thomas Logan, Paul Washington to be honored at UBE's 40th
gathering
* TEACHING - Two seminaries, Rochester diocese partner to create new
Anglican studies program
* WEEKS AHEAD - Upcoming special events and services
* SPIRITUAL REFLECTION - Fourth Sunday After Pentecost, Proper 5 - Year A
[RCL]
* DAYBOOK - June 5, 2008: Today in Scripture, Prayer, History
* CATALYST - Rotation

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TOP STORIES

Presiding Bishop calls for Day of Prayer for Lambeth Conference

[Episcopal News Service] Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has
called the Episcopal Church to a Day of Prayer on June 22 for this summer's
Lambeth Conference of Anglican Communion bishops.

The July 16-August 3 conference "represents one important way of building
connections and relationships between churches in vastly different contexts,
and reminding us of the varied nature of the Body of Christ," Jefferts
Schori said in a June 4 letter addressed to the people of the Episcopal
Church. "I would bid your prayers for openness of spirit, vulnerability of
heart, and eagerness of mind, that we might all learn to see the Spirit at
work in the other. I bid your prayers for a peaceful spirit, a lessening of
tension, and a real willingness to work together for the good of God's whole
creation."

More than 650 bishops are expected to attend the decennial gathering at the
University of Kent in Canterbury, England.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_97608_ENG_HTM.htm

- - - - -

In Haiti, Episcopalians respond to food price crisis

By Phina Borgeson

[Episcopal News Service] When rioting over food prices led to the dismissal
of Haiti's Prime Minister Jacques-Édouard Alexis in April, global media
attention turned to this country located on the Caribbean island of
Hispaniola. Episcopalians, through partnerships built over time with the
Diocese of Haiti, were poised to offer help. 

The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations lists
Haiti as one of five Latin American countries with "severe localized food
insecurity." Food prices in Haiti were inflating at a rate exceeding 20% in
April according to the World Bank Group. 

During the last two years, food prices around the globe have been rising
steadily. The real price of rice rose to a 19-year high in March 2008,
hitting hard those countries, like Haiti, which import most of their food.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_97611_ENG_HTM.htm

- - - - -

Episcopal congregations join anti-torture effort

By Mary Frances Schjonberg

[Episcopal News Service] More than 275 congregations of a wide variety of
faiths in all 50 United States and the District of Columbia will display an
anti-torture banner on the exterior of their buildings during June, which
religious and human-rights organizations have designated as Torture
Awareness Month. 

In an effort organized by the National Religious Campaign Against Torture
(NRCAT), most of the banners say "Torture is a Moral Issue" or "Torture is
Wrong."

The United Nations has designated June 26 as International Day in Support of
Torture Day. It commemorates the day, 11 years ago, when the Convention
against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment came into force, according to the U.N.'s website. June 26, 1945
was also the day when the United Nations charter was signed -- the first
international instrument to embody obligations for U.N. member states to
promote and encourage respect for human rights.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_97609_ENG_HTM.htm

- - - - -

Merrill Lynch freezes disputed San Joaquin diocesan accounts pending court
ruling

By Pat McCaughan

[Episcopal News Service] Merrill Lynch has frozen the financial accounts it
manages for the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin until the courts decide the
rightful owner of those accounts, an attorney for the financial institution
said June 3. 

"Merrill Lynch has placed an immediate freeze on those accounts held in the
name of the Diocese and related entities," according to Eric J. Glassman of
Mennemeier, Glassman & Stroud, in a letter to diocesan chancellor Mike
Glass, and to Russell VanRozeboom, who represents former bishop John-David
Schofield.

The San Joaquin diocese, along with The Episcopal Church (TEC), on June 2
amended an earlier lawsuit against Schofield, "on the basis of new
information gathered about recent transfers of real and personal property
and assets to entities formed by Mr. Schofield and his attorney sometime in
early April of 2008," Glass said.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_97607_ENG_HTM.htm

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

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PEOPLE

Julia M. Groom-Thompson named president of Episcopal Church Building Fund

[ECBF] Julia M. Groom-Thompson has been elected president of the Episcopal
Church Building Fund (ECBF) and will succeed the Rev. Charles N. Fulton,
III, upon his retirement later this month.

"Julia's strong leadership qualities and experience from 25 years of high
level executive service to one of the world's great humanitarian
organizations seemed to be an excellent fit for the Building Fund at this
point in its long history," said the Rev. Ralph R. (Hap) Warren, Jr., rector
of Bethesda-by-the Sea, Palm Beach, Florida and chair of the Search
Committee.

Groom-Thompson has had a 25-year career with the American Red Cross, most
recently serving as executive director of its Susquehanna Valley Chapter
headquartered in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. In this role, she was responsible
for the chapter's strategic direction and operation of its service area of
nearly 1 million constituents, utilizing a volunteer base of 1,500 persons.
Prior to that, she served as executive director in the Northern Utah and Mid
Coast Maine Chapters of the Red Cross.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_97614_ENG_HTM.htm

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Thomas Logan, Paul Washington to be honored at UBE's 40th gathering

By Daphne Mack

[Episcopal News Service] The Rev. Canon Thomas W. S. Logan, 96, and the late
Rev. Paul M. Washington will be honored at a July 2 banquet at the Crowne
Plaza Hotel in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

"Tribute to Legends Envisioning Tomorrow," a component of the 40th
Anniversary meeting and conference of the Union of Black Episcopalians (UBE)
will pay tribute to Logan and Washington through, dance, music and verse.

"The master of ceremony for the evening will be the Honorable Vincent J.
Hughes, Pennsylvania 7th Senatorial District," said Randall Jefferson,
banquet coordinator. "It will feature Fr. Paul and Fr. Logan's favorite
songs, a dance presentation by Philadanco/D2 Company, and poetry by UBE
youth."

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_97612_ENG_HTM.htm

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

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TEACHING

Two seminaries, Rochester diocese partner to create new Anglican studies
program

[Episcopal News Service] Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School (CRCDS),
the Episcopal Diocese of Rochester and the General Theological Seminary
(GTS) in New York City June 2 announced a collaborative educational
agreement between the two schools. 

"This unique program, specifically designed with the Episcopal Diocese of
Rochester, will offer a local educational option for Episcopal students to
earn a Master of Divinity degree from CRCDS while concurrently earning a
Certificate in Anglican Studies from GTS," according to a news release.

The program is effective immediately with students free to enroll for the
fall 2008 semester, the release said. Both GTS and CRCDS are accredited by
the Association of Theological Schools of the United States and Canada.
CRCDS, founded in 1817, is a Baptist seminary that has had a presence in
Rochester since 1850. 

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/78650_97582_ENG_HTM.htm

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WEEKS AHEAD

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/78650_1669_ENG_HTM.htm

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SPIRITUAL REFLECTIONS

Fourth Sunday After Pentecost, Proper 5 - Year A [RCL]

Genesis 12:1-9; Psalm 50:7-15; Romans 4:13-25; Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26

By Katerina Whitley

[Sermons That Work] The lectionary for today is filled with so many themes
that one is overwhelmed with riches. There is old Abraham, the ancestor of
the promise; the tax collector Matthew, Jairus and his dying daughter, and
the woman Jesus encounters, as if by accident, on the way to heal Jairus'
sick child. And in the Epistle, there is St. Paul, commenting on the meaning
of trust that fills and spills over in all these people.

The Greek word for faith, "pistis," is the same root contained in the word
for "trust," which really means to dwell in pistis/faith.

So let us look at the trust all these people put in their God and, later in
the Biblical story, in Jesus, the Incarnate God.

Full reflection: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/82478_97604_ENG_HTM.htm

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

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DAYBOOK

On June 5, 2008, the Church remembers Boniface, archbishop of Mainz,
missionary to Germany, and martyr (c.672-754).

* 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 5, 1991, Bishop Ronald Haines of Washington D.C.
ordained Elizabeth Carl, a lesbian, to the priesthood at the Church of the
Epiphany in downtown Washington.

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CATALYST

"Rotation" from Isaac Everett, by Isaac Everett, CD, c. 2006, $15

[Isaac Everett] Featuring music grown in the underground emergent church in
New York City, Isaac Everett's "Rotation" harnesses the raging diversity of
the Manhattan music scene, blending electronica, jazz, rock, middle-eastern,
and contemporary chamber music with ancient liturgical texts and melodies.
Rotation is a fresh and vibrant expression of urban spirituality.

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