Why people are not happy in Nigeria – Bishop Madu

From Nigeria-

The Anglican Bishop of Oji-River Diocese, Most Rev. Amos Madu, has revealed the reason the citizens are not happy in Nigeria.

According to him, people were not happy in the country because they lacked exemplary leadership qualities among political elites.

Madu said this yesterday while delivering a homily at the service of songs held for late former Vice-President, Dr Alex Ekwueme, at the Cathedral Church of the Good Shepherd, Independence Layout in Enugu.

He, however, urged leaders in the country to lead with the fear of God by showing exemplary qualities at all times.

He said: “why people are not happy in the country is due to lack of exemplary leadership qualities among leaders.

“We will continue to pray for God’s intervention to give us leaders with impeccable character as well as men and women with forthrightness.”

More here-

http://dailypost.ng/2018/01/31/people-not-happy-nigeria-bishop-madu/

DC Episcopalians Push Open Borders And A Gender Neutral God

From The Daily Caller-

The governing body of the Episcopalian Diocese of Washington, D.C., approved measures to adopt gender neutral pronouns for God, embrace transgenderism, and a push for open borders.

The 123rd Diocesan Convention of the Episcopal Church in D.C. passed a trifecta of resolutions Saturday to replace all gendered pronouns referring to God with gender neutral pronouns, oppose laws against illegal immigration, and open traditionally gender restricted congregational roles and facilities, like bathrooms, to transgender individuals. The convention, held at the Washington National Cathedral, passed the resolutions within an hour, according to The Institute On Religion & Democracy.

The resolutions, entitled “On Becoming a Sanctuary Diocese: Offering Sacred Welcome to Immigrants,” “On the Gendered Language for God,” and “On Inclusion of Transgender People,” garnered support from Rev. Kimberly Lucas, who sponsored all three, and Rev. Alex Dyer, who proposed two of the resolutions. Lucas serves as rector of St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church in D.C. and Dyer serves as rector of St. Thomas’ Episcopal Parish in D.C., both of which have suffered a massive decline in member participation within the last decade, according to parochial reports.

More here-

http://dailycaller.com/2018/01/29/dc-episcopalians-push-open-borders-and-a-gender-neutral-god/

Bishop Sean Rowe: Welcoming Dreamers the obvious choice

From Allentown-

The current political morass in Washington has thrown light on a deep and ugly divide in our country and in our faith communities on the issue of immigration.

More than half of white evangelical Christians — a group that gave 81 percent of its votes to President Trump in the 2016 election — say that immigration is a threat to this country's "traditional customs and values."

In the same survey, conducted by Public Religion Research Institute in 2015, 70 percent of Hispanic Catholics say that immigration "strengthens American society." Other Christian groups fall in between, but only among white evangelicals does the majority report being threatened by immigration.

Proponents of these sharply contrasting views are on center stage as Congress prepares to negotiate what Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York called "a global agreement" that will include the fate of the young people who live in this country under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program initiated by President Obama in 2012 and ended by President Trump last September.

More here-

http://www.mcall.com/opinion/yourview/mc-daca-immigration-episcopal-rowe-0129-20180128-story.html

Hymnathons: Episcopal choirs perform marathon-style training events to raise funds

From Seattle-

Fiona Campbell prepared for last weekend’s test of endurance by eating a good breakfast, hydrating and keeping a big water bottle by her side.

The Jan. 27 event wasn’t a 26.2-mile race, a running marathon. It was a hymnathon — a test of singing stamina like no other.

“It’s going to be a looooooong time,” said Campbell, 20, the week before the fundraising event. Campbell’s been a chorister at St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle, Washington, since she was 10. To raise money for the Evensong Choir to sing at historical cathedrals in England this summer, choir members sang the first verses of 720 hymns for almost nine hours straight. They had a 15-minute morning break, a one-hour lunch break and a 15-minute afternoon break.

Working through the Hymnal 1982, they started with hymn No. 1 at 8 a.m. They also devoted two hours to singing all the verses of the special dedication hymns chosen by donors who gave an extra amount for the honor. To fit it all in, they had two timekeepers to help singers average about 30 seconds a hymn, with the goal to cross the finish line by 6 p.m.

More here-

https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/2018/01/29/hymnathons-episcopal-choirs-perform-marathon-style-training-events-to-raise-funds/

Christianity Cannot Survive the Decline in Worship

From On Faith-

Around the year 1510, a delegation of Christians from Sudan, which had been recently overrun by Muslim conquest, went to the Christian Ethiopian court and begged the emperor to send them bishops and priests. The Christians remaining in Sudan needed clergy to lead worship, administer the sacraments, and teach the people. But the emperor refused, sending them away empty-handed.

With no Christian worship, within 100 years Christianity in Sudan became extinct and forgotten until the twentieth century.

That historical moment is a useful example for Christians today.

The mainline Protestant churches have been declining for decades. This trend has now reached the evangelical churches, too. In a desperate attempt to stay alive, churches and their leaders are coming up with new solutions, new strategies and guesses.
New church plants are tailored for terribly busy people, giving them a brief moment of worship (with the stress on brief) “on the run.”


More here-

https://www.onfaith.co/onfaith/2015/01/23/christianity-cannot-survive-the-decline-in-worship/35932

Reports to the 79th General Convention

From The General Convention-

2018 Blue Book Reports

In the list below reports in red are live links.  Clicking the link will open a .pdf version of the report which may be read online or downloaded for free.  Reports in black are not yet ready.  All reports will be posted by May of 2018.

In May we will also have print versions available for purchase from Amazon.  Please note that due to the size of the reports, we will have multiple volumes in the print versions, which must be purchased separately.  

More here-

https://www.generalconvention.org/bluebook2018

Losing Our Religion and Our Humanity

From National Review-

Cain and Abel and the Tower of Babel: These are far from the most inspiring of biblical images. And so they are the ones that jump out at you upon reading Pope Francis’s recent message on “fake news” and our communications today. As I quickly checked Twitter before setting down to write this column, I saw someone express a wish that an ideological opponent would get hit by a bus, simply for having a different point of view. In such a climate, when we are losing our grasp on the reality of our common humanity, the pope’s message seemed like an urgent plea from a wise pastor. Pope Francis talked about why it can be difficult to unmask and eliminate fake news:


Many people interact in homogeneous digital environments impervious to differing perspectives and opinions. Disinformation thus thrives on the absence of healthy confrontation with other sources of information that could effectively challenge prejudices and generate constructive dialogue; instead, it risks turning people into unwilling accomplices in spreading biased and baseless ideas. The tragedy of disinformation is that it discredits others, presenting them as enemies, to the point of demonizing them and fomenting conflict. Fake news is a sign of intolerant and hypersensitive attitudes, and leads only to the spread of arrogance and hatred. That is the end result of untruth.

Read more at:

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/455853/pope-francis-asks-kinder-communication

How Quebec City Muslims and Anglicans found friendship through faith and grief

From Canada-

Members of Quebec City's Muslim community will stand alongside those of the Huron-Wendat, Jewish, Catholic, Anglican and many other communities Sunday, as they honour the victims of last year's deadly attack on a mosque.

The interfaith ceremony, which starts at 7 p.m. at the Pavillion de Jeunesse at Expo Cité, will not be the first time different religious communities in the city will have come together since the shooting.

Bruce Myers, bishop of the Anglican diocese of Quebec and Boufeldja Benabdallah, co-founder of the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec City, spoke with Ainslie MacLellan on CBC Radio's All in a Weekend, about how their communities have built a friendship.

More here-

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-city-muslims-anglicans-faith-grief-1.4507155

and here-

http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/interfaith-prayer-meeting

First woman ordained priest at Christ Church in Gardiner says experience ‘joyful’

From Maine-

The path to becoming an Episcopal priest is a deliberate and well-trod route that thousands have followed.

Kerry Mansir’s route started in a different spiritual location, followed a different map and took in different experiences.

None of that mattered on Saturday, Jan. 20, when the Rev. Kerry Mansir was ordained as a priest at Christ Church Episcopal in Gardiner — the first ordination in the church in about four decades and the first ordination of a woman that anyone can remember since Gardiner’s oldest church was the first parish to join the Diocese of Maine in 1820. It’s also where the first bishop of the Maine diocese is buried.

“I was teary-eyed. I have been a participant in many ordinations in my 35 years,” said the Rev. Stephen Muncie, the priest in charge at Christ Church. “This one felt sort of exceedingly joyful and deeply moving. We all had some tears, and it was due to Kerry.”

More here-

https://www.centralmaine.com/2018/01/28/first-woman-ordained-priest-at-christ-church-in-gardiner-says-experience-joyful/

The Holy Work of Grieving

From Communicating Across Boundries-

Two days ago, my friend’s dad died. In twenty first century vernacular – she “lost” her dad. “Lost” is such a silly thing to say – like she needs to just go searching for him and she will find him; like it’s a child’s game of hide ‘n seek.

“Lois – just look for him! I’m sure you’ll find him.”

My dark humor comes through as I think about this. We humans delight in deceiving ourselves about death and loss by using words that are ambiguous and sweetly horrid.

As I heard the news, I immediately revisited my dad’s death and the resulting losses. The first picture taken of Lois and me together was on the banks of the Dead Sea. Each of us is holding hands with our dads. Our dads are so young and so alive. Two adventurers – as at home in Pakistan and Jordan as they were in the United States. They lived between worlds – learning languages with sounds that seemed impossible, deciphering a script that was completely foreign, and traveling to places that topped the U.S State Department watch list. They learned about Middle Eastern hospitality; about what it was to send their children to boarding schools; and about friendship in a Middle Eastern context. Most of all, they learned what it is to follow a faith until the end and to never give up.

More here-

https://communicatingacrossboundariesblog.com/2018/01/25/the-holy-work-of-grieving/

Puerto Rico family State of the Union

From Orlando-

Bishop Gregory Brewer sits with the the Ortiz Torres family after giving them a blessing before their trip to Washington DC, at the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida, on Thursday, January 25, 2018. Left to Right, Emmanuel Ortiz Nazario; Bishop Gregory Brewer; mom Cristal Torrez Rodriguez; Delimar Isabelle Ortiz Torres, 4; and Aziel Amir Ortiz Torres, 10, -- The family displaced from Puerto Rico has relocated to Florida is joining Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Winter Park) at President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address. They will talk about needs of displaced families in Central Florida and those back on the island.

More here-

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-1517072619-m8bcogksxi-snap-image-photo.html

Much more here-

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-puerto-rico-family-state-of-union-florida-20180126-story.html

Christians recognize God’s grace at work in one another, pope says

From Catholic Sun-

When different Christian Churches recognize the validity of one another’s baptisms, they are recognizing that God’s grace is at work in them, Pope Francis said.

“Even when differences separate us, we recognize that we are part of the redeemed people, the same family of brothers and sisters loved by the one Father,” the pope said Jan. 25 at an ecumenical evening prayer service closing the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

The week ends on the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, and the papal vespers are celebrated at Rome’s Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, the church where, according to tradition, the apostle is buried.

At the beginning of the prayer service, Pope Francis stood before what is believed to be St. Paul’s tomb, accompanied by Orthodox Metropolitan Gennadios of Italy and Malta and Anglican Archbishop Bernard Ntahoturi, the archbishop of Canterbury’s personal representative to the Holy See.

More here-

http://www.catholicsun.org/2018/01/27/christians-recognize-gods-grace-at-work-in-one-another-pope-says/

Rod Dreher’s Race Problem

From New Republic-

Last week, Rod Dreher, one of the country’s leading conservative intellectuals, offered a defense of Donald Trump’s notorious “shithole” comments, in which the president bemoaned the fact that immigrants from “shithole” countries in Africa and elsewhere were coming to the United States. “The whole thing is more morally challenging than I initially thought,” Dreher wrote from his longtime perch at The American Conservative. What followed was a slip of the mask, a valuable insight into the uglier ideas that undergird Dreher’s great project of preserving Western civilization.

“Let’s think about Section 8 housing,” he wrote, referring to public housing for low-income Americans, many of them minorities. “If word got out that the government was planning to build a housing project for the poor in your neighborhood, how would you feel about it? Be honest with yourself. Nobody would consider this good news. You wouldn’t consider it good news because you don’t want the destructive culture of the poor imported into your neighborhood. Drive over to the poor part of town, and see what a shithole it is. Do you want the people who turned their neighborhood a shithole to bring the shithole to your street?”

More here-

https://newrepublic.com/article/146758/rod-drehers-race-problem

Why Some Catholics Defend the Kidnapping of a Jewish Boy

From Atlantic-

One summer evening in 1858, the police showed up at the home of a Jewish family in Bologna, Italy, and took their six-year-old child. Authorities had discovered that the child, Edgardo Mortara, had been secretly baptized when he was a baby. Edgardo had fallen gravely ill and his Catholic nanny baptized him for fear that he would die a Jew and be locked out of heaven. But Edgardo survived—and, in the eyes of the Church, he was now a Catholic. Papal law mandated that all Catholic children must receive a Catholic education, and so he was separated from his Jewish family, with Pope Pius IX personally overseeing his religious education.

The “Mortara case” spurred a wave of protests, with activists and intellectuals from Europe and the U.S. petitioning Pius IX to return the child to his parents. The pope refused. Edgardo eventually became a priest, and in 1940 he died in a Belgian monastery. The Vatican never apologized for his kidnapping specifically. But in 2000, John Paul II issued an apology for the persecution of Jews. Today, the dominant Catholic attitude toward the Mortara case is one of regret: “It’s not one of the episodes that the Church is very proud of,” Massimo Faggioli, a Church historian at Villanova University, told me.

More here-

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/01/some-catholics-are-defending-the-kidnapping-of-a-jewish-boy/551240/

Council proposes balanced draft budget with $133.7 million price tag for next three years

From ENS-

The Episcopal Church’s Executive Council on Jan. 24 approved a $133.7 million draft budget for the 2019-2021 triennium that is based on requiring Episcopal Church dioceses to contribute annually 15 percent of their operating income.

The budget, which is essentially balanced, with a small surplus of just $2,654, is far from final. It must eventually be approved by General Convention when it meets in Austin, Texas, July 5-13. It will no doubt undergo some changes between now and then.

The budget is based on an anticipated $133.7 million in revenue to pay for an equal amount in expenses. The triennial budget is up about $8.7 million from that approved by the 2015 meeting of General Convention for the current 2016-2018 triennium.

More here-

https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/2018/01/24/council-proposes-balanced-draft-budget-with-133-7-million-price-tag-for-next-three-years/

Aweil bishop applauds recent Anglican Archbishop elections

From South Sudan-

The Anglican Bishop of Aweil Diocese Abraham Yel Nhial said the recent election for the Anglican primate and Archbishop was peaceful and transparent although he lost to the Bishop of Maridi Diocese Justin Badi Arama.

Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Monday, Bishop Yel said he accepted the results of what he termed as a tight race in which he lost by one vote to preserve unity and strengthen harmony within the Anglican Church and the whole country.

“The election was conducted in a harmonious atmosphere although there were election fevers during campaign but at the end of the day Bishop Badi was declared the successful candidate. He won by 1 vote. He got 80 votes and I got 79 votes. Immediately after the announcement was made, I stood up and congratulated him. I did it so to preserve the unity of the church and to strengthen harmony of our believers and the faithful,” he said.

More here-

https://radiotamazuj.org/en/news/article/aweil-bishop-applauds-recent-anglican-archbishop-elections

Brazil takes “decisive steps towards gender equality” with election of its first female bishop

From ACNS-

The Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil – the Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil (IEAB) – has elected its first female bishop, some 34 years after the province first paved the way for women to serve in all three orders of ministry. The Revd Canon Marinez Santos Bassotto was elected on Saturday (20 January) as the next Bishop of the Amazon during a meeting at Belém, in the northern Brazillian state of Pará. She will succeed Bishop Saulo Mauricio de Barros, who retired last November. The province was one of the first in the Anglican Communion to official open the episcopate to women in 1983. Its first female deacons were ordained in 1984 and its first female priests in 1985.

Bishop-elect Marinez Bassotto is currently the priest in the Southern Diocese’s (Meridional) parish of São Paulo in the city of Cachoeirinha near Porto Alegre, in Rio Grande do Sol, southern Brazil. She has previously served as Dean of the National Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Porto Alegre. Originally from Rio Grande do Sul, the 46-year-old priest is married to Paulo Bassotto; and the couple have two daughters.

More here-

http://www.anglicannews.org/news/2018/01/brazil-takes-decisive-steps-towards-gender-equality-with-election-of-its-first-female-bishop.aspx

Episcopal Church challenged to repent for when it failed to protect victims of sexual exploitation, abuse

From ENS-

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and the Rev. Gay Clark Jennings, president of the House of Deputies, issued a call Jan. 22 for the Episcopal Church to spend Lent and beyond examining its history and its handling or mishandling of cases of sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse.

The two say in a letter to the church that recent “compelling testimony from women who have been sexually harassed and assaulted by powerful men has turned our minds to a particularly difficult passage of holy scripture.” The story of the rape of King David’s daughter Tamar by her half-brother Amnon (2 Samuel 13:1-22), they said, “is a passage in which a conspiracy of men plots the exploitation and rape of a young woman. She is stripped of the power to speak or act, her father ignores the crime, and the fate of the rapist, not the victim, is mourned.

“It is a Bible story devoid of justice.”

More here-

https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/2018/01/22/episcopal-church-challenged-to-repent-when-it-failed-to-protect-victims-of-sexual-exploitation-and-abuse/

Forgiving the Unforgivable?

From Plough-

“Should we pardon them?”

That was the question posed by the French philosopher Vladimir Jankélévitch in a 1971 essay of that title about Nazi war crimes.1 Jankélévitch passionately opposed a statute of limitations for these atrocities.2 He argued that crimes against humanity – those committed in Auschwitz, for example – are dehumanizing in the most basic sense: they attack the very essence of what it is to be human. Crimes like these, he wrote, cannot be covered by reconciliation:

It was the very being of humanity, esse, that racial genocide attempted to annihilate in the suffering flesh of these millions of martyrs. ... When an act denies the essence of a human being as a human being, the statutory limitations that urge absolution in the name of morality actually themselves contradict morality.3

Forgiveness, according to Jankélévitch, died in the concentration camps. (His essay had a powerful effect: as a result of it, in France there was no statute of limitations for Nazi collaborators under the Vichy regime.)

More here-

https://www.plough.com/en/topics/justice/reconciliation/forgiving-the-unforgivable

Oklahoma Bishop Edward J. Konieczny elected to Anglican Consultative Council

From ENS-

The Episcopal Church’s Executive Council Jan. 23 elected one of its members, Diocese of Oklahoma Bishop Edward J. Konieczny, as the church’s bishop member of the Anglican Consultative Council.

Konieczny, who has been bishop in Oklahoma since 2007,  succeeds Connecticut Bishop Ian Douglas whose three-meeting term ended after the last meeting of the ACC in Lusaka, Zambia, in April 2016.

He joins lay member Rosalie Ballentine, a deputy from the Diocese of the Virgin Islands, and House of Deputies President the Rev. Gay Clark Jennings, who is the Episcopal Church clergy member.

More Here-

https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/2018/01/23/oklahoma-bishop-edward-j-konieczny-elected-to-anglican-consultative-council/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Questions of God Challenge a Pentecostal Preacher to Change in ‘Come Sunday’

From MSN-

Chiwetel Ejiofor delivers a deeply moving portrayal of a Pentecostal preacher in the throes of a religious crisis in "Come Sunday," a glimpse into the soul of a real-life man challenged to change his beliefs.

Based on a reported segment on "This American Life," "Come Sunday" tells the story of Bishop Carlton Pearson, who for many years led a million-strong Pentecostal ministry based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, until 1998, when he found his faith challenged.

Pearson decided that he no longer believed in hell, no longer believed that only saved Christians would go to heaven and no longer believed that his form of faith was the only one that God could accept. In so doing, he broke with the orthodoxy of his mentor Oral Roberts and threw his ministry into confusion.

More here-

https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/questions-of-god-challenge-a-pentecostal-preacher-to-change-in-e2-80-98come-sunday-e2-80-99/ar-AAv2mHc

South Sudan Episcopal Church gets new Archbishop

From South Sudan-

The Episcopal Church of South Sudan (ECSS) elected the new primate and Archbishop over the weekend in Juba.
Bishop of Maridi diocese, Justin Badi Arama, was elected as the new primate and Archbishop, to succeed Bishop Dr. Daniel Deng Bul who announced his retirement in July last year.

The election for a new bishop could not happen until it was approved by the House of Bishops last Friday.

The newly elected Bishop Badi won against his challenger, Abraham Yel Nhial, the Bishop of Aweil by just one vote.

Out of 159 participants, he obtained eighty votes while his rival, Bishop Nhial got 79 counts.


More here-

http://www.africanews.com/2018/01/23/south-sudan-church-gets-new-archbishop/

Episcopalian bishop visits USVI

From The Virgin Islands-

George Sebastian crouched in the hallway with his wife while he witnessed Hurricane Irma rip the roof from their home in St. Thomas, the U.S. Virgin Islands on Sept. 6.

“I was watching. I was hoping. I was praying,” said Sebastian, a parishioner from All Saints Cathedral, as he pointed to his house on a distant hillside. “I was stressed. I lost everything in a few minutes.”

About four months later, Sebastian has a new roof, and he’s driving Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and his contingent around his island during pastoral visit earlier this month to the Diocese of the Virgin Islands. Curry listened to Episcopalians share their post-hurricane struggles and stress. He discussed how the church can bolster spirits and communities.

Since the horrendous 2017 Atlantic hurricane season, stories like Sebastian’s are many among the Diocese of the Virgin Islands. Curry strove to encourage parishioners.

More here-

http://www.disasternews.net/news/article.php?articleid=5840

Church of England bishops reject prayer service for transitioning people

From Episcopal Cafe-

In a meeting at Lambeth yesterday, the bishops of the Church of England decided not to authorize a separate service for trans people taking their true name.  The decision was made that the existing service for the affirmation of baptism would suffice.  This was decided despite strong urging from many, including the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu.  The Reverend Chris Newlands, who proposed the motion, said it was “a wonderful opportunity to create a liturgy which speaks powerfully to the particularities of trans people, and make a significant contribution to their well-being and support.”  Below is a press release from the Church of England on the matter.

Following the debate and vote at General Synod in July 2017 on Welcoming Transgender People, the House of Bishops has prayerfully considered whether a new nationally commended service might be prepared to mark a gender transition.

The Bishops are inviting clergy to use the existing rite Affirmation of Baptismal Faith. New guidance is also being prepared on the use of the service.

More here-

https://www.episcopalcafe.com/church-of-england-bishops-reject-prayer-service-for-transitioning-people/

Serving isolated parishes may mean ordaining married men, cardinal says

From American Magazine-

The idea of exceptionally ordaining older married men of proven virtue to celebrate the Eucharist in isolated Catholic communities is something that should be discussed, said Cardinal Beniamino Stella, prefect of the Congregation for Clergy.

"It is not about being in favor of or against something, but about attentively evaluating various possibilities without being closed or rigid," the cardinal said in a new book in Italian, "Tutti gli Uomini di Francesco" ("All Francis' Men") released Jan. 22 by Edizioni San Paolo.

The book, by Italian journalist Fabio Marchese Ragona, includes interviews with churchmen named to the College of Cardinals by Pope Francis.

More here-

https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2018/01/22/serving-isolated-parishes-may-mean-ordaining-married-men-cardinal-says

Standing With Tamar: A Letter from the Presiding Bishop and President Jennings

From The House of Deputies-

Dear People of God in the Episcopal Church:

In recent weeks, compelling testimony from women who have been sexually harassed and assaulted by powerful men has turned our minds to a particularly difficult passage of holy scripture:  the story of the rape of King David’s daughter Tamar by her half-brother Amnon (2 Samuel 13: 1-22). It is a passage in which a conspiracy of men plots the exploitation and rape of a young woman. She is stripped of the power to speak or act, her father ignores the crime, and the fate of the rapist, not the victim, is mourned. It is a Bible story devoid of justice.

For more than two decades, African women from marginalized communities have studied this passage of scripture using a method called contextual Bible study to explore and speak about the trauma of sexual assault in their own lives. Using a manual published by the Tamar Campaign they ask, “What can the Church do to break the silence against gender-based violence?”

It is, as the old-time preachers say, a convicting question. As our societies have been forced into fresh recognition that women in all walks of life have suffered unspoken trauma at the hands of male aggressors and harassers, we have become convinced that the Episcopal Church must work even harder to create a church that is not simply safe, but holy, humane and decent. We must commit to treating every person as a child of God, deserving of dignity and respect. We must also commit to ending the systemic sexism, misogyny and misuse of power that plague the church just as they corrupt our culture, institutions and governments.

More here-

http://houseofdeputies.org/2018/01/22/standing-tamar-letter-presiding-bishop-president-jennings/

What Happens if You Package the Bible as a Novel Instead of a Textbook?

From Slate-

I’ve owned eight or 10 Bibles over the course of my life, including a children’s illustrated New International Version, a handful of small gilt-edged New Testaments, a “life application” Bible packaged for 1990s teenagers, and a hefty tome emblazoned with my name. I’m not an unusually prodigious collector. Eighty-eight percent of American households own at least one Bible, and many own more. I happen to be writing this in a room at my in-laws’ house that holds five versions of the Bible, a small portion of their stash—which includes a pocket-sized New Testament, a hardcover “amplified” version, two leather-bound New King James translations, and a brightly covered Nuevo Testamento.

These Bibles vary in translation, publisher, language, intended audience, and aesthetics, but they have one thing in common: They are reference books. The text has been broken down into chapters and verses, and they contain explanatory footnotes and cross-references to related passages. In almost all of them, justified blocks of text run down each tissue-thin page in two columns, and in some of them, each sentence is its own paragraph. Some contain maps, long introductions to each book, sidebars, and copious endnotes. They are meant to be sampled or studied like a textbook, not read like a novel.

More here-

https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/01/why-it-could-be-revolutionary-to-package-the-bible-as-a-novel-instead-of-a-textbook.html

“We’re back” | St. Francis Episcopal Church holds first service on campus since Great Flood of 2016

From Louisiana-

Gene Knecht stood outside St. Francis Episcopal Church, greeting church goers with a handshake and a program as they entered the building.

Inside, Erik Pittman sat at his organ, where he sent a string of church hymns in the air as people chatted amongst themselves and found their seats.

The sanctuary started filling up around 9:30 a.m., about half an hour before the scheduled start of service. When 10 a.m. struck, chairs had to be added as more and more people kept walking through the two stained doors in front.

This wasn’t just another Sunday at St. Francis Episcopal Church.

No, this was the church’s first service on its main campus since the Great Flood of 2016, and, boy, did it feel good to be back.

More here-

https://www.livingstonparishnews.com/featured_stories/we-re-back-st-francis-episcopal-church-holds-first-service/article_7c4f3e74-ff0c-11e7-ace7-cfcfae03ca3f.html

African-American deaconess honored at Episcopal church she founded in countryside north of Brunswick

From Georgia (via Florida)-

Speaking in the modest country church Deaconess Anna Ellison Butler Alexander founded in 1894, the Most Rev. Michael Bruce Curry said she lived the same “Why not” life as Christ during a service Saturday to celebrate her life.

The deaconess is buried in front of the original unpainted two-story Good Shepherd Episcopal Church she founded in the countryside on Pennick Road . It’s also where she founded a parochial school in the building in 1902 and began teaching children to read. In 1907, she was ordained the first African-American deaconess in the Episcopal Church.

She is buried directly in front of the church and school were a monument provides all her history except for her birth, said Anna Iredale, a publicist for the Episcopal Church.

“We say 1865, the year of emancipation,” on Butler Plantation where her parents were newly freed, Iredale said.

More here-

http://jacksonville.com/news/georgia/2018-01-20/african-american-deaconess-honored-episcopal-church-she-founded-countryside

Utah's Episcopalian bishop cites LDS donations as example of differing faiths working together

From Utah-

Saying Americans “are hungry” for disagreeing people who continue to maintain positive relationships, the Episcopal Diocese of Utah is citing recent humanitarian donations from the LDS Church and the latter’s hosting of Episcopal Migration Ministries officials as evidences of successful efforts shared by differing faiths.

“I believe that it is very important to demonstrate that people can work together, value each other, and have friendships with each other, even though there are points of profound differences between us,” wrote the Rt. Reve. Scott B. Hayashi on the Episcopal Diocese of Utah’s Facebook page in a Thursday evening post. “I believe that the people of this nation are hungry to see people disagree and still be in positive relationship.”

More here-

https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900007984/utahs-episcopalian-bishop-cites-lds-donations-as-example-of-differing-faiths-working-together.html