SRI LANKA Anglican Church Calls For End To War As Rebels Bomb Capital

From Union of Catholic Asia News. A report on the Anglican Church and the continued violence in Sri Lanka. (Got to love those hats.)

Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo issued the statement on Oct. 29, following a meeting of 400 Sinhalese and Tamil laypeople and clergy, including the Church's diocesan councilors from around the country. They gathered at the Cathedral of Christ the Living Saviour in Colombo.

The annual meeting of the Diocesan Council of the Church of Ceylon, held Oct. 26-27, discussed the current problems of war and violence in the country, as well as parish work. At one session they discussed how their diocesan councilors could promote peace.

Bishop de Chickera, saying the harrowing experiences of victims of this war prompt God's people to take action, called in his statement for "wider ecumenical intervention."

The bishop released his message the day after Tamil rebels carried out an air attack on a government military base in Mannar, dropping three bombs. Three soldiers were injured and two buildings slightly damaged, according to state media reports. One rebel aircraft flew south to Colombo and dropped two bombs on the capital's main power station, in Kelanitissa. State media said that attack injured four workers and damaged two turbines.

http://www.ucanews.com/2008/11/04/anglican-church-calls-for-end-to-war-as-rebels-bomb-capital/

Notes from a leaf pile -- you gotta love November!

Former Pirate pitcher Steve Blass waxes eloquent on November with a closing flourish from Canonsburg's own Perry Como.

November gives us a chance to slow down and catch up with ourselves. The pressure is off -- from the summer, with all its many options (sometimes, too many) and October when I feel the pressure to see every beautiful leaf in the framework of 10 days or two weeks. Does anyone else feel like summer gets a little stale after July?

And the air ! It's cool and crisp and clean and the best it is all year. Thanks, November, for giving us reason to invent flannel. It doesn't get much better than putting on a plaid flannel shirt and going for a walk down a leaf-covered path when the late afternoon sun casts those beautiful long sideways shadows. The added bonus is that you know there's the guarantee of a cup of cocoa or a glass of wine in front of a fire just to top off your day.

In terms of beauty, the only thing that can compete with that image is a back yard that's been raked for the last time with big leaf piles scattered around it, highlighted by that same, November-only, angle of sunlight. When I've done that, I sit looking out the kitchen window and have a wonderful feeling I've given the yard a good final back-scratching. It's the closest thing I'll get to being a farmer at harvest.

Read it all -

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08310/925335-294.stm

Good Stuff in Canada

Unionville congregation builds bridges with Africa.

Anglican church's outreach to Tanzanian parish battles ideological split in communion.

The most precious gift Rev. Canon Philip Bristow ever received was three eggs and a handful of crushed nuts. The three other people he was with that day each got three eggs, as well, and one also got a hen.

"It was a widow's mite," Bristow says, thinking back to the day last August in Tanzania. "A dozen eggs and a hen was a fortune to that poor woman."

The gifts were thanks for the work done and the money raised by Bristow and his congregants at Unionville's St. Philip's On-the-Hill Anglican Church for the elderly woman's parish in the village of Lugala.

In three years, St. Philip's has raised $177,000, built a school, church halls, a hostel, a meeting centre, a rectory, dug three wells and bought bags of maize, AIDS medicines, mosquito nets and school uniforms.

More here -

http://www.thestar.com/living/article/530486

Anglican head to visit Hindu temple in England

LONDON (ICNS): In a gesture of peace and love the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has decided to visit a Hindu temple in central England.

Archbishop Williams, who is also the head of the Church of England is to visit the Shri Venkateswara (Balaji) temple Nov. 15. Archbishop Williams said he accepted invitation of the trustees of the temple, Europe's largest Hindu place of worship, as a sign of the "celebration of friendship and the facing of challenges with hope".

The “friendship move” assumes significance in Britain as it comes after a series of anti-Christian violence in Orissa.

The Archbishop had written to the Hindus in Britain in his Diwali greetings, urging them to work for "reconciliation where there has been division and hurt" and for "peace and the rejection of all resort to violence.”

Archbishop Williams will also plant an olive tree, a symbol of peace, - on the temple hill. The temple spreads over 22 acres in the suburbs of the city of Birmingham in west-central England. Its Authorities said the visit will reinforce the temple's multi-faith approach.

http://www.theindiancatholic.com/report.asp?nid=11677

PENNSYLVANIA: Hearing set on bishop's request for modified sentence

Episcopal News Service reports on the ongoing Philadelphia Story.

An ecclesiastical court will convene November 12 in Philadelphia to consider a request from inhibited Diocese of Pennsylvania Bishop Charles E. Bennison Jr. that it modify its call for Bennison to be deposed.

The Episcopal Church's nine-member Court for the Trial of a Bishop, which spent four days in June hearing the case against Bennison, determined later in the month that the bishop had engaged in conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy. The court ruled September 30 that deposition was appropriate "in recognition of the nature of the offense and because [Bennison] has failed to demonstrate that he comprehends and takes responsibility for the harm that he has caused."

Bennison had 30 days to ask for a modification of the court's sentence and the court was required to hold a hearing on his request, according to Canon IV.5.30(b).

According to an order from the court, Bennison will have two hours to make his case to the court and his attorneys may call witnesses during the presentation. The court refused Bennison's claim that the Episcopal Church should not be allowed to respond to his request for sentence modification.

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_102140_ENG_HTM.htm

FALLBROOK: Church battle leaves congregation in limbo

More on the effects of the California ruling that congregations may not leave the Episcopal Church with their property.

A small Fallbrook church is waiting to see what will come of a court battle with the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego after an unfavorable appeal court ruling, in a property rights dispute that will determine who gets to use the church building.

Several of the 100 to 125 people who attend what is now St. John's Anglican Church said last week that they intend to meet every Sunday at their Iowa Street sanctuary, as they always have, until someone says otherwise.

"We would be kind of foolish to not do some 'What if'-type of things," said Rick Crossley, who has attended the church for 10 years and served as a spokesman since the congregation voted to leave the Episcopal church in 2006. "We're not going out looking at leases, though."

While the lawsuit is an attempt to sort out who has the authority to run the church's board of directors, the underlying issue is property ownership.

http://www.northcountytimes.com/articles/2008/11/03/news/inland/fallbrook/z734c3354f1bfde0b882574ec0069cfd8.txt

I think John Newton Would like this.

The Amazing Grace Project

The idea behind the Amazing Grace Project is simple: all Canadian Anglican congregations are invited to sing the hymn “Amazing Grace” on Sunday November 23rd 2008. You can sing at a time that works for you, either within the regular service or at a separate event that day. This is a time to get creative! Why not host an Amazing Grace community party, or invite a harpist, a banjo player, or liturgical dancers to join in?

The best part about the Amazing Grace Project is that we’re doing it together. All parishes are encouraged to videotape their rendition of “Amazing Grace” and to send that video to the national office of the Anglican Church of Canada by December 1, 2008. The tapes will be edited together into one big, amazing “Amazing Grace” video and put up on the web for all to enjoy by Christmas.

http://www2.anglican.ca/amazinggrace/index.htm

Names of war dead to be illuminated

This is a nice idea in anticipation of Veteran's Day - Honoring WW I veterans.

As the sun sets on Grand Parade tonight, the names of the 68,000 Canadian soldiers who died during the First World War will burn brightly against the facade of St. Paul’s Anglican Church in downtown Halifax.

The illuminated names will appear from sundown to sunrise every night this week, a vigil intended to symbolically repatriate the bodies of those soldiers who, by law, had to be buried in Europe.

Canadian actor R.H. Thomson and lighting designer Martin Conboy came up with the fitting tribute, sponsored by Democracy 250, Canada’s National History Society and Veterans Affairs Canada.

Similar tributes will be held this week in Fredericton, Toronto, Regina, Edmonton and Ottawa.

"This vigil is not only an act of remembrance, but also a calling into life again of each of the young men who lost their lives during the horrendous battles of 1914 to 1918," Mr. Conboy said in a recent news release.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Metro/1088367.html

Cardinal Newman's remains are transferred to the Birmingham Oratory

The Newman saga continues. You can follow the previous stories by clicking on John Henry Newman in the labels below the link. (I got a hat like that once at Disney World.)

John Henry Newman, the Victorian Cardinal tipped to become England’s next saint, was heralded this week by distinguished academics and bishops as a “terrifying thinker,” a “towering figure of Christian life” and a theological writer whose words are “absolutely relevant today”.

“He was a terrifying thinker because of his great clarity of mind,” the Most Rev Vincent Nichols, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Birmingham told The Times. “Today we tend to go with the flow but Newman was not afraid to go against the tide. The inscription on his tomb, and his motto, reads ‘From shadows and images into the Truth’. Sometimes we do live in shadows and have to feel our way, and this is the example Newman leads by, that we must strive for integrity and truth."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article5080189.ece

Forward in Faith reacts to recent news from Sydney

Trouble in River City! Forward in Faith is an Anglo Catholic organization opposed to women's ordination. Sydney has voted to allow Deacons to celebrate the Eucharist and came close to allowing lay people to do the same. This does not bode well for the unity of GAFCon.

Forward in Faith regrets the recent decision of the Synod of the diocese of Sydney with regard to lay and diaconal presidency at the Eucharist, both of which are clearly contrary to the foundational documents of Anglicanism. It trusts that the Archbishop of Sydney will use those powers available to him to ensure that such innovations are not set forth, in order that further division is not thereby introduced into the life of the Communion.

http://www.forwardinfaith.com/artman/publish/article_467.shtml

All involved in Pittsburgh split are saints, Presiding Bishop tells Pittsburgh Episcopalians

Episcopal News Service on the Presiding Bishop's visit to Pittsburgh.

Preaching to a much-larger-than-usual congregation at Calvary Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh on All Saints Sunday, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said that people on all sides of the tension in the Episcopal Church are saints.

"There are saints among the folk who voted to leave The Episcopal Church," she said November 2. "There are saints among those who have clearly stayed. There are saints who haven't yet made up their minds. They are saints because they've been baptized into this fractious Body of Christ, and there are saints among them whose holiness of life is abundantly evident. We dishonor them and God when we refuse to see their blessedness."

Jefferts Schori's sermon was the first of a three-part visit to Calvary, a parish that has been a leader among those Episcopalians who opposed efforts to lead the Diocese of Pittsburgh out of the Episcopal Church. The Presiding Bishop also spent about an hour answering questions from an estimated 350 people who returned to Calvary's nave for the session after a reception that followed the Eucharist. About 645 people attended the Eucharist compared with the average 250 who attend a typical 11 a.m. Sunday service at the parish in the Shadyside section of Pittsburgh.

The rest is here-

http://www.episcopal-life.org/79901_102120_ENG_HTM.htm

Court Upholds Ruling for Megachurch To Surrender Millions in Real Estate

An interesting piece from the Washington Post. Its about a church that broke from the denomination but tried to keep the same name as well as its property. Looks like they are going to lose both. Interesting parallel to what the Pittsburgh Diocese of the Southern Cone is claiming. Read it all.

A Prince George's County congregation that split from its denomination about 10 years ago must turn over tens of millions of dollars in property to its original church, an appeals court ruled in a lawsuit that has been closely watched by other pastors and denominations concerned about the control of church assets in such cases.

The Maryland Court of Special Appeals affirmed a 2006 ruling by Prince George's Circuit Judge Sheila Tillerson-Adams ordering From the Heart Church Ministries, a megachurch founded by the Rev. John A. Cherry in 1999, to surrender almost $40 million in real estate, including three sanctuaries, houses and a large tract of property the ministry owns, to the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.

Its all here-

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/31/AR2008103103613.html

Bishop Jones to Make Visit to Pittsburgh

The Rt. Rev. David Colin Jones will visit St. Andrew’s Church, Highland Park, on Sunday, November 9 — his first Episcopal Visit to a parish since being named “Consulting” Bishop to the reorganized Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh.

Bishop Jones will preside and preach at St. Andrew’s 9 a.m. Holy Communion service and also preach at the 11 a.m. Choral Morning Prayer. He also will be the guest at a 10 a.m. "Coffee and Conversation" adult forum.

Members of the wider diocesan family are invited to meet Bishop Jones during a gathering at St. Andrew’s from 2 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. Sunday. He will be speaking about his role in our diocese during this transitional period, and those attending can share their thoughts and concerns.


http://www.episcopalpgh.org/jones-first-parish-visit/#more-681

Lemming Pledge #8

Good Stuff in TEC: Rhode Island

Volunteers reopen St. John soup kitchen

It didn’t take long at all for the word to get out.

Five months after closing its doors for want of a new leader, the soup kitchen at the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John has reopened, offering up the same kind of full-course meal that had long made it one of the city’s most popular meal sites among the destitute and the hungry.

The food program closed in May when Tom Veronneau, the executive consultant who was the volunteer director, moved on after 10 years of volunteering, and no one could be found at the time to replace him. But now a new cadre of volunteers and organizers has come forward to reopen the meal site. Veronneau, who said he would remain on board as executive director for another month or so, is helping them get started.

“A couple of students from Brown University called me a couple of months ago and said their research showed that there was a clear need for a soup kitchen on Tuesday nights and they wanted to see what they could do,” Veronneau said. “I had to agree that in these troubled times, people need this more than ever.”

The rest is here-

http://www.projo.com/religion/content/its_soup_11-04-08_FDC3EIL_v22.3ac5087.html

Canada's Anglican bishops delay action on gay issues

From USA Today

Bishops of the Anglican Church of Canada say they are unlikely to act on requests from several dioceses to approve blessings for same-sex unions or marriages, deferring the issue until the church's General Synod in 2010.

At least four dioceses — Ottawa, Montreal, Niagara and Huron — have asked for permission to bless same-sex relationships in Canada, where same-sex civil marriages were legalized in 2005. Those moves, along with similar action by the Episcopal Church, have angered more conservative members of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

On Friday (Oct. 31), the Canadian church's House of Bishops agreed to delay "with the greatest extent possible" any action on same-sex blessings until the entire church can weigh in at the 2010 convention.

Its all here-

http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2008-11-03-anglican-gay_N.htm

Vatican to launch Muslim-Christian dialogue

London Times- (lots of funny hats)

Cardinal Tauran has also called for "reciprocity", with Christians allowed to worship in churches in Muslim nations just as Muslims in the West have the right to worship in mosques.

The Anglican Communion has also actively promoted Christian-Muslim dialogue. Last month Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Ali Gomaa, the Grand Mufti of Egypt, agreed to strengthen links between Western and Muslim universities at a meeting at Lambeth Palace following an interfaith conference at Cambridge University.

At the weekend the Moroccan government banned an issue of the French magazine L'Express International, claiming it had insulted Islam in articles exploring the Muslim-Christian relationship and previewing the Vatican conference, under the headline The "Jesus-Mohammed Shock".

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article5073859.ece

CANADA: Bishops moved by refugee's story; PWRDF plans to sponsor 50 additional refugees

From Episcopal News Service-

Annie Kashamura-Zawadi arrived in Toronto with her five children, aged between 9 and 19, on October 6, 1999. She only had $20 in her pocket, but her heart was bursting with hope and possibilities.

Before arriving in Canada, Zawadi recalled that she "had nothing left but my faith." She had fled an abusive relationship and, in response, her husband had taken their children away from her and had made sure she was rendered jobless and homeless. This happened while war was raging in her home, the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Zawadi had been told by the office of the Canadian High Commissioner for Refugees that she and her children did not qualify as refugees, but she refused to give up. Her persistence paid off and she was told that they could emigrate to Canada if someone sponsored them.

"I knew only a miracle could save me," said Zawadi. Her prayers were answered, she said, "when the Anglican church signed that magic paper." That same week, they left for Canada.

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_102083_ENG_HTM.htm

Churches see drop in weekly donations, investment income

Pittsburgh Business Times on giving to Churches and investments.

Investment income is a concern at Calvary Episcopal Church in Shadyside, where the value of the church’s endowment has fallen $600,000 this year, said Harold Lewis, rector. Lewis declined to disclose the size of the endowment, but the church has an annual budget of around $1.6 million, and Lewis said one quarter of the church’s total budget is funded by investment income.

The church’s annual pledge appeal is underway, but Lewis didn’t see any big reductions.

“People by in large have continued to honor their commitment to the church,” he said. “We’re prudent people who know nothing lasts forever and plan accordingly.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27512513/

Churches assess impact of financial crisis

Christian Century on the Financial crisis and the mainline churches. It's not as bad in the Episcopal Church as is being reported in some places. The sky is not falling.


Both Episcopalians and Presbyterians are grappling with possible budget shortfalls at the national level because of reduced income from endowment funds.

The Episcopal Church's Executive Council, meeting October 20-23 in Helena, Montana, approved a 2009 budget that has a projected deficit of about $2.5 million. But treasurer Kurt Barnes told the council that in part because of $2.2 million in surpluses the last two years and other features of a triennial budget, the church "could suffer a deficit of $2.8 million" and still have a balanced budget, according to the Episcopal News Service.

Barnes also reported that the value of the church's endowment funds decreased by 30 percent this year. If the stock market goes into a long decline, the losses will climb.

http://www.christiancentury.org/article.lasso?id=5692

Presiding Episcopal bishop speaks of joy, diverse opinions

She does get around - from the St. Petersburg Times an interview with the Presiding Bishop.

The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, head of the Episcopal Church, visits the Diocese of Southwest Florida this week. Jefferts Schori, who leads more than 2.4-million Episcopalians worldwide and 34,000 in the bay area, is coming to Tampa for the biannual meeting of the National Association of Episcopal Schools. It's her first visit as presiding bishop. We talked with her Friday as she prepared for her trip.

Q. What's the state of the Episcopal Church?

A. Most every place I visit, congregations and dioceses are energetically engaged in serving their neighbors both nearby and far away. What gets reported in the media is a matter of a relatively few people who are exceedingly unhappy and very noisy.

Q. You've been in office for almost two years. Describe the landscape of the church.

In some sense, I think we're past the worst of the current controversies. I think most people are realizing that there are a variety of opinions in this church about the current hot-button issues as there have always been a variety of opinions about matters of great interest in the church. I'm fond of reminding people that in the late 1800s people were arguing vehemently about whether or not you could put candles on the altar.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/religion/article886908.ece

Back to doing God's work

A hopeful report from the Diocese of Florida about the return of health after division and lawsuits. (I didn't have the heart to show a dead fish so think of it as a sort of resurrection fish.)

Two years ago, the Rev. Kurt Dunkle's ministry involved waging legal battles with current and former Episcopalians intent on leaving the Episcopal Church.

Dunkle was Bishop Samuel Johnson Howard's right-hand man in a struggle over the future of the Jacksonville-based Episcopal Diocese of Florida.

Today, Dunkle's life couldn't be more different.

He's rector of Grace Episcopal in Orange Park, a parish that saw close to 100 percent of its members leave on Easter 2006. Tuesday found him leading a morning service for about 150 elementary day-school children. His homily utilized toy hands and feet to symbolize the body of Christ and ended with one child's prayer for "all pets including Luke's fish, who died."

The change in mood and job description struck Dunkle as he left the sanctuary.

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/110208/lif_350404394.shtml

Presiding Bishop Vists Pittsburgh

Two reports on the Presiding Bishop's visit to Pittsburgh. First from the Post Gazette-

Vested in a magenta and lavender miter, the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church made her first official visit to Pittsburgh, where she had been unwelcome until the majority of congregations in the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh voted to secede from the denomination and join the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone in South America.

Yesterday, Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori was more than welcome at Calvary Episcopal Church in Shadyside, the flagship of the remnant she has recognized as the true Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh. The crowd of at least 750 -- triple normal size -- applauded as the Rev. Harold Lewis gave her a voucher for her next flight to Pittsburgh

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08308/924886-85.stm

And the from the Tribune Review-

"It's a great joy for us to welcome Bishop Katharine," Lewis said "We knew we had the support of the Episcopal (Church), but to have her here in the flesh is to have an outward and visible sign of that support."

Jefferts Schori's visit occurred one month after a majority of clergy and lay deputies in the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh voted to break with the church she leads. Along with former Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan, 50 of the region's 74 churches have aligned themselves with the more theologically conservative Anglican Province of the Southern Cone, based in Buenos Aires.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_596547.html

Andy Burnham: 'Churches should be turned into gyms'

Or they might want to try evangelism !

Andy Burnham, the Culture Secretary, has suggested churches with low attendance could be turned into gyms, restaurants and multi-faith centres.

Mr Burnham said while it was important to preserve the architectural beauty of some of the churches, many of which have listed status, they may serve the community better by becoming secular.

His comments follow his suggestion earlier this month that libraries could benefit from being modernised with coffee bars and abolishing the silence rule.

Mr Burnham said if the UK could not preserve its churches: "We need to find new purposes with the support of the local community and we need to increase secular interest in our church heritage."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/labour/3291865/Andy-Burnham-Churches-should-be-turned-into-gyms.html

Estelle Reiner dies at 94

Estelle Reiner, 94, the comedy matriarch who uttered the famous line "I'll have what she's having" in the movie "When Harry Met Sally," died Oct. 25 at her home in Beverly Hills, Calif. No cause of death was reported.

Mrs. Reiner was the wife of actor-director Carl Reiner and the mother of actor-director Rob Reiner, who helmed "When Harry Met Sally" (1989).

In the film, Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal are sitting in a restaurant arguing over whether women can realistically fake orgasms when Ryan demonstrates that they can.

After Ryan's vocal display, Mrs. Reiner, seated at another table, quickly says, "I'll have what she's having."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/30/AR2008103004387.html

Many mission venues

The Presiding Bishop reflects on Mission and Slavery. Looks like she got a new hat.

I had just left the subway on my way back to the office in New York when a young man stopped me on the sidewalk. His name is Jesse Zink, and he turned out to be a YASC volunteer, soon to be on his way back to South Africa. YASC, Young Adult Service Corps, sent him to Mthatha (em-ta'-ta), where, he told me, learning to "be" rather than "do" is the hardest part. He actually lives and works at the Itipini medical clinic with HIV-infected children, particularly in the after-school programs offered there. Read more about his being (and doing) at http://mthathamission.blogspot.com.

YASC is an example of mission in this church. It sends adults under age 30 to work for a year in some part of the Anglican Communion beyond this church. It engages the passion many young people have for service to others, while at the same time inviting them into vocational discernment. Go to www.episcopalchurch.org/agr.htm and click on Young Adult Service Corps under Offering Our Gifts to learn more.

Mission takes many forms, from working with sick children to engaging the (Lutheran) Church of Sweden in conversation about the possibility of greater partnership and even full communion.

http://by102w.bay102.mail.live.com/mail/SendMessageLight.aspx?_ec=1&n='738315000'

Better late than never ?

News of Pittsburgh's convention decision finally reaches Canada. Oh Canada !

Both those who supported realignment and those who opposed it outlined plans before the convention was adjourned to deal with the implications of the vote.

“We understand that one member of the standing committee remains, and once he determines that he is indeed the sole remaining member, he will appoint others to join in the leadership of the diocese of Pittsburgh, in accordance with diocesan canons.”

Presiding (national) Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said, “As the ecclesiastical authority, the standing committee will set a schedule for the reconvening of the convention, electing members to fill offices, and eventually calling a bishop to serve in Pittsburgh.”

She said her office would “provide support and counsel to Pittsburgh, in service to the leadership of the ecclesiastical authority.”

That person, Rev. James Simons, rector of St. Michael’s of the Valley in Ligonier and chair of Across the Aisle, said after the votes that he would attempt to determine very soon the status of other standing committee members and then make the appointments Bishop Jefferts Schori described. He predicted a convention to elect an interim bishop would be held before the end of the year.

http://www.anglicanjournal.com/issues/2008/134/nov/09/article/diocese-of-pittsburgh-leaves-episcopal-church-realigns-with-southern-cone/

Good Stuff in TEC: Florida

We hear so much about the decline in the Episcopal Church but there are places where the church is growing. This from Florida.

About 400 Christ Episcopal Church parishioners gathered in their new Parish Hall Wednesday night in Ponte Vedra Beach to celebrate the realization of an eight-year dream.

They also welcomed a special guest from New York City who led them.

"Let the doors be opened," said The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, national presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, as the consecration service began.

The Rev. Samuel Howard, bishop of the Diocese of Florida, also joined the Christ Church clergy for the service, which included prayers, hymns, a dance performance by the church's liturgical dancers and a sermon by Schori.

"This is the culmination of what has been a long road," said Rector Richard Westbury, acknowledging former Rector Jim Cooper, who had proposed the new parish hall when membership outgrew the old center on the campus at 400 San Juan Drive.

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/110108/nes_350124105.shtml

Bishop Bakare wins Swedish human rights prize

Bishop Bakare from Zimbabwe was named winner of a Swedish human rights prize for "having given voice to the fight against oppression." Bishop Sebastian Bakare was also cited for his work to promote "freedom of speech and of opinion in a difficult political situation." He was due to accept the 2008 Per Anger prize at a ceremony in Stockholm on November 10, said Johan Perwe of the government agency Living History Forum.

Bishop Bakare, installed as bishop of Harare earlier this year, was also due to be keynote speaker at a human rights conference in Lulea, northern Sweden. The agency said Bishop Bakare was an "important voice" who has "received threats as a result of his open and clear criticism of the government, his condemnation of local police brutality and his defence of human rights" in Zimbabwe.

http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/news.cfm/2008/10/31/ACNS4538

Million-plus expected for Phillies parade

The celebration continues for the Phillie's fans. For you soccer fans out there, the Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series this week. Does anyone know what the mascot (Phillie Fanatic) is?

It's OK to say the word now.
Parade!

And, oh, how we've waited for this one.

The only other time the Phillies won a World Series, in 1980, fans threw boxloads of computer punch cards and shredded paper from office windows onto Broad Street.

Today, you're more likely to see water-soluble, eco-friendly confetti flying around.

Police expect more than a million people to converge on Center City to watch the Phillies take their noontime victory ride on flatbed trucks from 20th and Market Streets, around City Hall, and down Broad Street to Citizens Bank Park.

An hour-long rally at the ballpark, expected to begin at 1:45 p.m., will be telecast live to fans across the street at Lincoln Financial Field. Gates at both stadiums will open at 10 a.m., but only fans with tickets will be allowed in. The free tickets were snapped up within an hour of becoming available on the Phillies' Web site yesterday.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/home_top_left_story/20081031_Million-plus_expected_for_Phillies_parade.html