wfn.org | [ELD] Program, Budget and Finance committee faces realities of current economic climate / Survey on

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

>Episcopal Life Daily
>July 6, 2009

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

Comprehensive coverage of the Episcopal Church's 76th General Convention  is
available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/107145_ENG_HTM.htm

>Today's Episcopal Life Daily includes:

* TOP STORY - Program, Budget and Finance committee faces realities of
current economic climate
* TOP STORY - Survey on bishop elections shows high regard for  processes,
areas to improve
* TOP STORY - Discussion of human sexuality will again occupy debate at
General Convention
* TOP STORY - Mission Funding receives gifts totaling more than $1  million
* TOP STORY - Eucharist commissions convention volunteers
* WORLD REPORT - ENGLAND: Outspoken Rochester bishop reportedly calls on
gays to change
* WORLD REPORT - ENGLAND: Anglican priest accused of sham marriages  appears
in court
* WORLD REPORT - KENYA: Anglican to deliver million-signature petition  to
Hague urging post-election violence investigations
* MISSION - Daughters of the King establishes fund for junior members;
reject bylaw changes
* MISSION - Seamen's Church Institute adds new operations in California
* DAYBOOK - July 7: Today in Scripture, Prayer, History
* CATALYST - Ubuntu - I in You and You in Me

>_____________________

>TOP STORIES

Program, Budget and Finance committee faces realities of current  economic
climate

>By Mary Frances Schjonberg

[Episcopal News Service - Anaheim, California] Many people are fearful  and
angry over the economic crisis and the world's troubles, said Pan
Adams-McCaslin, chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Program, Budget  and
Finance (PB&F), and she suggested July 6 that her committee help the
Episcopal Church rewrite the equation.

During the committee's first gathering here, Adams-McCaslin offered what  she
called a new fraction with hope on one side and grace and "our own
experience of the love of God" on the other.

"We get to talk about the hope of this church and to help craft a  document
that we take to the floor on (July 15) that says to the church: 'this is  an
outward and visible sign of the hope for this church and that we ask you  to
support that,'" she said.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_111900_ENG_HTM.htm

>- - - - -

Survey on bishop elections shows high regard for processes, areas to  improve

>By Nan Ross

[Episcopal News Service] A survey examining the processes by which new
bishops were elected and seated over a six-year period shows that people
involved had high regard in general for the experience and a number of
suggestions for improvement, according to a preliminary summary report
issued July 3.

The decadal survey, evaluating election and transition processes held
between 2002 and 2008, was conducted by the Episcopal Church's College  for
Bishops and the Office for Pastoral Development at the Church Center in  New
York. Overall the results of the survey are quite optimistic about the  state
of the current processes and offer a range of excellent suggestions for
improving them," said the Rev. Paula Nesbitt, visiting associate  professor
at the University of California, Berkeley, who directed the survey and
analyzed the results.

Eleven different groups, from candidates and spouses to search  committees
and diocesan staff, were contacted in November 2008 and asked to  complete
the survey. By mid-January 2009, 54 percent (a statistically significant
sample) had responded.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_111895_ENG_HTM.htm

>- - - - -

Discussion of human sexuality will again occupy debate at General  Convention

>By Mary Frances Schjonberg

[Episcopal News Service -- Anaheim, California] The Episcopal Church's
45-year debate over human sexuality and the appropriate response to the
desire of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people to participate
fully in the church's life will occupy General Convention's attention  once
again as it meets July 8-17 in Anaheim, California.

Deputies and bishops are being asked to reconsider the 2006 convention's
stand that the church "exercise restraint by not consenting to the
consecration of any candidate to the episcopate whose manner of life
presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further  strains on
communion."

The statement was widely acknowledged as applying to gay candidates and  was
titled Resolution B033.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_111867_ENG_HTM.htm

>- - - - -

>Eucharist commissions convention volunteers

>By ENS staff

[Episcopal News Service -- Anaheim, California] Using the well-known  musical
The Music Man as an example, the Rev. Gregory Straub, secretary of  General
Convention, told volunteers July 5 to "treat conventioneers like the  best of
General Conventions, and the best of General Conventions is what they  will
see in themselves."

The occasion was a special Eucharist to commission the volunteers,  members
of secretariats, office staff, volunteer coordinators and supervisors  for
the 76th General Convention, a triennial legislative gathering that runs
from July 8 to 17 in Anaheim, California.

The upbeat Service was punctuated with smiles, laughter and a feeling of
goodwill.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_111862_ENG_HTM.htm

>- - - - -

Mission Funding receives gifts totaling more than $1 million

[Episcopal News Service] The Mission Funding Initiative of the Episcopal
Church has received its first two gifts totaling more than $1.25  million, a
July 3 news release from the Office of Public Affairs announced.

"I am delighted to see this work beginning to bear fruit, from seeds  sown
over the last two years, and expect a much larger harvest to come," said
Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. "Mission
Funding is an invitation to the church to think in larger and longer  terms
than our usual budget process -- to cast a vision and plan for the  mission
of this church throughout this century and beyond."

The Mission Funding office was authorized by a resolution of the  Episcopal
Church's Executive Council in 2005. It came in response to a 2003  General
Convention resolution urging the Presiding Bishop and Executive Council  to
establish an office for the specific purpose of raising "major gifts."

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_111866_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>WORLD REPORT

ENGLAND: Outspoken Rochester bishop reportedly calls on gays to change

Conservatives launch controversial fellowship in London

>By Matthew Davies

[Episcopal News Service] The outspoken conservative bishop of the  Diocese of
Rochester in the Church of England has reportedly called on gay  Christians
to repent and change, according to an article in The Sunday Telegraph
newspaper.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_111897_ENG_HTM.htm

>- - - - -

ENGLAND: Anglican priest accused of sham marriages appears in court

>By Trevor Grundy

[Ecumenical News International, Canterbury, England] A 60-year old  Church of
England vicar, who is accused of carrying out invalid marriages, has
appeared in court charged with aiding people unlawfully to enter  Britain.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_111819_ENG_HTM.htm

>- - - - -

KENYA: Anglican to deliver million-signature petition to Hague urging
post-election violence investigations

>By Fredrick Nzwili

[Ecumenical News International, Nairobi] Protestant churches in Kenya  have
dispatched one of their leaders to the International Criminal Court at  The
Hague to deliver a one-million signature petition urging investigations  of
post-election violence.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_111820_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>MISSION

Daughters of the King establishes fund for junior members; reject bylaw
changes

>By Pat McCaughan

[Episcopal News Service] The Order of the Daughters of the King (DOK), a
group dedicated to prayer and service, established a new Alpha Fund for
Junior Daughters but rejected proposed bylaw changes and amendments  during
their July 1-5 triennial gathering.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81799_111899_ENG_HTM.htm

>- - - - -

Seamen's Church Institute adds new operations in California

[SCI] The Seamen's Church Institute (SCI) now has a base of operations  on
both sides of the American seaboard. As of July 1, SCI's Executive  Committee
assumes management of the International Maritime Center in the San  Francisco
Bay Area of California. Last year, the Bay Area Seafarers' Services  (BASS)
approached SCI about adding a West Coast resource to the services SCI
provides to the world's mariners.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81799_111821_ENG_HTM.htm

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

>_____________________

>DAYBOOK

>On July 7, 2009...

* 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 July 7, 1220, Thomas Becket's shrine was  dedicated in
Canterbury and became a popular pilgrim attraction. On July 7, 1984,  Bishop
Robert C. Rusack of Los Angeles ordained Dr. Duc Xuan Nguyen as the  first
Vietnamese priest in the Anglican Communion.

>_____________________

>CATALYST

"Ubuntu - I in You and You in Me" from Church Publishing, Inc., by  Michael
Battle, 166 pages, paperback, c. 2009, $18

[Church Publishing, Inc,] As defined by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a  person
with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does  not
feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a  proper
self assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a  greater
whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when
others are tortured or oppressed.

The African spiritual principle of Ubuntu offers believers a new and  radical
way of reading the Gospel and understanding the heart of the Christian
faith, and this new book explores the meaning and utility of Ubuntu as
applied to Western philosophies, faith, and lifestyles.

Ubuntu is an African way of seeing self-identity formed through  community.
This is a difficult worldview for many Western people, who understand  self
as over, against, or in competition with others. In the Western  viewpoint,
Ubuntu becomes something to avoid -- a kind of codependency. As a  Christian
leader who understands the need, intricacies, and delicate workings of
global interdependency, Battle offers here both a refreshing worldview  and a
new perspective of self-identity for people across cultures, and of all
faiths.

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

>_____________________

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