Desmond Tutu Backs Occupy Wall Street Push for Duarte Square

Form New York-

Occupy Wall Street protesters seeking long-term use of a Trinity Church-owned lot in Hudson Square gained a powerful backer Thursday night, when Archbishop Desmond Tutu urged the house of worship to allow protesters to use the space.

In a "message of solidarity" posted to OccupyWallStreet.org that addressed protesters as "Sisters and Brothers," the South African Nobel Peace Prize winner likened his country's and the protesters' struggles and asked Trinity to work with them.

"I appeal to [Trinity] to find a way to help you," he wrote. "I appeal to them to embrace the higher calling of Our Lord Jesus Christ — which they live so well in all other ways."

Tutu added on Friday that protesters seeking to occupy land at the northeast corner of Varick and Canal streets, where demonstrators and a DNAinfo photographer were arrested Nov. 15, should not use his statement to justify breaking the law.

"It is not necessary to forcibly break into property. Nor is it [necessary] to reinforce or build higher the barriers between people of faith who seek peace and justice," he said.

Read more:

http://www.dnainfo.com/20111216/greenwich-village-soho/desmond-tutu-backs-occupy-wall-street-push-for-duarte-square#ixzz1gnEc3hPf

Episcopal Church chief operating officer to leave in June

From ENS-

Former U.S. Ambassador Linda Watt has announced that she will leave her position as chief operating officer for the Episcopal Church in June 2011, according to a press release.

"It has been an immense honor to serve the church and a privilege to support the presiding bishop's ministry," said Watt, in the March 18 release from the Office of Public Affairs. "I have been particularly blessed to meet and work with so many Episcopalians who are carrying out God's mission in life-giving ways. At this time I feel a very strong call to go home to southern Utah, to take my own ministry from an organizational to an individual level, and to spend more time with my husband, family, and friends."

Following a U.S. State Department career in diplomacy that spanned several decades and continents, Watt was named chief operating officer in November 2006. Since that time, she has led the staff through a restructuring that enabled the creation of a collaborative culture, re-energizing mission and ministry, according to the release. Among the many accomplishments under her leadership, ministry offices were established outside of New York City, and strategic planning was initiated, the release said.

More here-

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80263_127602_ENG_HTM.htm

Gustav Terrorizes Gulf Coast on Hurricane Katrina Day

Gustav shows up on the same day we're supposed to remember Katrina. Now that's some bad mojo.

"Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori had also called on the denomination’s churches to observe Katrina Remembrance Day. "Katrina Remembrance Sunday is a way of remembering, of heralding the vast relief work that has gone on, and of reminding that there is still work to be done," explained Neva Rae Fox, the Episcopal Church's program officer for public affairs. Bishop Charles E. Jenkins of the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana noted that the church’s relief work has shifted from recovery to now including redevelopment and biblical justice."

“The needs continue [to be] great and the resources are dwindling,” he said.

http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080901/gustav-terrorizes-gulf-coast-on-hurricane-katrina-day.htm