wfn.org | [ELD] Episcopal Life Daily

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

>Episcopal Life Daily
>October 8, 2008

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

>Today's Episcopal Life Daily includes:

* DIOCESAN DIGEST - CHICAGO: Bishop issues pastoral letter, offers
resources for financial assistance
* WORLD REPORT - MIDDLE EAST: In Qatar, construction commences on
Anglican center
* WORLD REPORT - MIDDLE EAST: Arab conference empowers women, says
Anglican group
* MISSION - 'American Awakening' details journey from 9/11 to Katrina 
* PEOPLE - Anne K. Lynn named director of American Friends of the
Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem
* PEOPLE - Former Washington Cathedral dean Francis B. Sayre, Jr. dies
at 93
* PEOPLE - General Seminary to award four honorary degrees at fall
convocation
* WEEKS AHEAD - Upcoming special events and services
* SPIRITUAL REFLECTION - Twenty-Second Sunday After Pentecost, Proper 23
- Year A [RCL]
* DAYBOOK - October 9, 2008: Today in Scripture, Prayer, History
* CATALYST - An American Prayer Book

>_____________________

>DIOCESAN DIGEST

CHICAGO: Bishop issues pastoral letter, offers resources for financial
assistance
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_101456_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>WORLD REPORT

MIDDLE EAST: In Qatar, construction commences on Anglican center
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_101450_ENG_HTM.htm

MIDDLE EAST: Arab conference empowers women, says Anglican group
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_101447_ENG_HTM.htm

More World news: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_ENG_HTM.htm

>_____________________

>PEOPLE

Anne K. Lynn named director of American Friends of the Episcopal Diocese
of Jerusalem

[Episcopal News Service] Anne K. Lynn, a marketing professional with
wide experience in building non-profit institutions, has been named as
the first director of the American Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of
Jerusalem (AFEDJ).

Established in 1988, AFEDJ supports the mission and ministry of the
Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem and its 37 institutions, including
schools, hospitals and a wide range of programs throughout Israel,
Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

"Anne Lynn is a dynamic, highly qualified leader who will take AFEDJ
forward. She comes with great ideas for leading AFEDJ in to a whole new
level of commitment and possibilities," said Dennis Hensley, AFEDJ board
president. "With the arrival of the new AFEDJ director we expect
to...expand our capacity to communicate more effectively and
efficiently. This major step forward will greatly improve the positive
impact that the Episcopal Church and its partners have on the work of
the Diocese of Jerusalem."

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_101454_ENG_HTM.htm

>- - - - -

Former Washington Cathedral dean Francis B. Sayre, Jr. dies at 93

[Episcopal News Service] The Very Rev. Francis B. Sayre, Jr., former
dean of Washington National Cathedral (1951-1978) died on October 3 at
his home in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. He was 93.

Sayre was an outspoken voice of conscience during the Joseph McCarthy
era, the Civil Rights movement, and the Vietnam War.

The grandson of President Woodrow Wilson, Sayre was born in the White
House in 1915 to Francis B. Sayre and Jessie Wilson Sayre. He was raised
in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and in France and Thailand. After
graduating from Williams College, Sayre attended Union Theological
Seminary and Episcopal Divinity School.

During World War II, Sayre served as a chaplain aboard the U.S.S. San
Francisco during World War II, then as industrial chaplain for the
Diocese of Ohio and as rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in
Cleveland. As dean of the National Cathedral, Sayre oversaw the
continuing design, funding, and construction of the cathedral building,
which was begun in 1907 and completed in 2007. During Sayre's tenure as
dean, in 1956, the tomb of his grandfather, the only U.S. president to
be interred in the cathedral, was dedicated. Wilson died in 1924.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_101457_ENG_HTM.htm

>- - - - - 

General Seminary to award four honorary degrees at fall convocation

[General Theological Seminary] During a service of Evensong and
Convocation at 5:30 pm on Thursday, October 16, General Theological
Seminary, the oldest seminary of the Episcopal Church, will award its
Doctor of Divinity degree, honoris causa, to the Rt. Rev. Dan Thomas
Edwards, Ms. Dorothy Virginia Granada, the Very Rev. Douglas Travis, and
the Rev. Canon William L. Wipfler.

The degrees will be conferred by the Very Rev. Ward B. Ewing, GTS dean
and president. The preacher for the service will be the Rev. Dr. Daniel
Paul Matthews, rector emeritus of Trinity Church, Wall Street in New
York City.

Dan Thomas Edwards is the 10th Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of
Nevada, consecrated on January 5, 2008. Raised in Texas, Edwards
practiced as an attorney in Idaho and Colorado, served as regional
director of a migrant law program, and later became statewide director
of a Native American law program. He was previously rector of St.
Francis Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Atlanta. At St. Francis',
Bishop Edwards promoted servant leadership, the Millennium Development
Goals, and racial reconciliation. An advocate for ministry development,
he co-directed a diocesan program to train spiritual directors, taught
in St. Luke's (Atlanta) Pastoral Institute, and supervised aspirants in
field placements. A former college chaplain, he has led retreats for
church and college groups. Bishop Edwards, who holds the M.Div. and
S.T.M. degrees from General, also studied at Columbia Seminary and
Harvard Divinity School.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_101459_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>MISSION

'American Awakening' details journey from 9/11 to Katrina 

>By Molly Gordy

[Episcopal News Service] Courtney Cowart, director of advocacy and
community affairs at the Diocese of Louisiana, said on October 6 that
the title of her book, "An American Awakening," refers to her
transformation from elegant church historian to gritty relief organizer
after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina.

She spoke to an audience of about 70 at St. Paul's Chapel in lower
Manhattan, just a few blocks north of Wall Street, where the economic
crisis was producing almost-daily aftershocks and television camera
trucks were lined up near the church.

"How do I say a cosmic thank you for my life?" she said, reading from a
passage in her book. At the time of the attacks, which destroyed the
World Trade Center and killed more than 2,000 people, she was staying
near St. Paul's sister church, Trinity, just a few blocks from the
center. "I have no idea. But a kind of mantra is needling me. It runs in
my head, as it has since the attack, and it goes something like this:
Only people, only people. Only people matter." 

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81799_101452_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>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

>_____________________

>SPIRITUAL REFLECTIONS

Twenty-Second Sunday After Pentecost, Proper 23 - Year A [RCL]

Isaiah 25:1-9; Psalm 23; Philippians 4:1-9; Matthew 22:1-14

>By Frank Logue

[Sermons That Work] Our gospel reading is one of those stories from the
Bible that makes you want to call for a time out or an instant reply. In
fact, if the parable was a football game, at least one referee would
throw his yellow flag high in the air. He wouldn't be calling "failure
to wear proper equipment" on the man tossed out of the banquet. Any fair
referee would spread his arms wide to signal "unsportsmanlike conduct." 

The parable would come to a halt and the referees would confer, talking
about how the guest discovered out of uniform was bound hand and foot
and cast into darkness. The king is in clear violation of the rules of
sportsmanship. 

Yet kings have never been ruled on by referees. The king in this parable
does as he will, punishing a last-minute guest for not being properly
attired. There is no one to cry foul in the parable. We are left
scratching our heads, as this is Jesus' description of the Kingdom of
Heaven. Why does God's kingdom sound unjust?

Full reflection: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/82478_101139_ENG_HTM.htm

More Spiritual Reflections:

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/82457_ENG_HTM.htm

>_____________________

>DAYBOOK

On October 9, 2008, the Church calendar remembers Robert Grosseteste,
bishop of Lincoln (c. 1175-1253).

* 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 October 9, 1845, English churchman John Henry
Newman, leader of the Oxford Movement, made his celebrated conversion
from Anglicanism to the Roman Catholic Church.

>_____________________

>CATALYST

"An American Prayer Book" from Church Publishing, Inc., compiled and
edited by Christopher L. Webber, 186 pages, hardcover, c. 2008, $18

[Church Publishing, Inc.] This well-researched anthology looks at
American history through the prayers its people have offered over the
past two-and-a-half centuries. Prayers are drawn from a wide variety of
faiths, including Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.

>Sections include: 

Prayers for America: for an Election, for the Government, in Times of
War or Crisis, for Repentance and Renewal, for Peace, Thanksgivings and
Litanies 

Prayers for national occasions: Inauguration Day, Presidential
birthdays, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday, Memorial Day,
Independence Day, Labor Day, Election Day, Thanksgiving Day

Others Prayers from American history: Prayers said on historic occasions
such as Washington's funeral, the American Revolution, the death of
George Washington, the slave trade and abolition, the Civil War, the
death of Abraham Lincoln, the Industrial Revolution, the
Spanish-American War, the First World War, the Second World War, the
Clinton impeachment crisis, the 9/11 attack, and more.

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