Episcopal Church Notices

An announcement from Bonnie Anderson, President of the Episcopal Church House of Deputies

Lisa — Wed, 23 May 2012 13:52:58 +0000

The Episcopal Church
Office of Public Affairs

May 23, 2012 (All day)

Episcopal Church House of Deputies Bonnie Anderson has issued the following letter to Deputies and First Alternates.

The following is the text of the letter:

May 23, 2012

Dear Deputies and First Alternates,

I write to you for two reasons: to thank you for your support, friendship, prayers, challenges, brilliance and love that has inspired and humbled me during these 6 years and second, to let you know that I do not plan to stand for election as President of the House of Deputies for another term.

The reason I am not seeking re-election is a simple one: I want to spend more time with my family. My husband, Glen, is retired. I want to be with him more. Our amazing son, Justin, lives with us and reminds us every single day, by his very existence, that God is a generous miracle maker. I want to celebrate Justin’s life by being with him every day. I want to bake cakes with my grandchildren and go to all their band concerts, soccer games and school plays. I want to have leisurely phone conversations with my daughters. You get the picture.

By tomorrow, you will receive information on the process for electing a President and Vice President while we are in Indianapolis.

I have been honored beyond measure to lead this house, and gratified to observe the many ways in which Deputies and Alternates serve and lead God’s Church, both when General Convention is in session and when it is not. Your voices resonate not only within the great representative diversity of General Convention, but also in our communities and in commissions during the triennium, in vestries, and in the leadership roles you hold in our congregations, dioceses and provinces. In my 21 years in the House, and my two terms as your president, I have been reminded again and again of our forebears’ wisdom in creating a system of governance that honors the simple theological truth that the Holy Spirit blows where she will, and that to discern God’s purposes, we must listen to the voices of all of the baptized.

Please know that I will serve the House of Deputies as President at full capacity until the “gavel goes down” on July 12 in Indianapolis.

Peace and blessings,

Bonnie Anderson, D.D.

President, The House of Deputies

Almighty and everliving God, source of all wisdom and understanding, be present with those who take counsel in General Convention for the renewal and mission of your Church. Teach us in all things to seek first your honor and glory. Guide us to perceive what is right, and grant us both the courage to pursue it and the grace to accomplish it; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Book of Common Prayer

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Video now available of conversation about mission with Presiding Bishop, Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Lisa — Sat, 19 May 2012 18:38:30 +0000

The Episcopal Church
Office of Public Affairs

May 19, 2012 (All day)

The live webcast featuring an enlightening conversation about mission between Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and Archbishop Desmond Tutu is available here http://www.episcopalchurch.org/page/conversation-mission-21st-century

The on-demand video of the May 19 live webcast featuring an engaging conversation about mission between Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and Archbishop Desmond Tutu is now available at no fee on the website of the Episcopal Church at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/page/conversation-mission-21st-century

Hosted by Washington National Cathedral, the 35-minute event was moderated by David Crabtree, news anchor at WRAL-TV in North Carolina and an ordained deacon.

Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori and Archbishop Tutu focused on God’s mission in our lives and in the world, as related to the Anglican Five Marks of Mission.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu: http://www.tutu.org/bio-desmond-tutu.php

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/page/presiding-bishop

The Anglican Five Marks of Mission

The Five Marks of Mission were developed by the Anglican Consultative Council between 1984 and 1990 and have won wide acceptance among Anglicans, and have given parishes and dioceses around the world a practical and memorable "checklist" for mission activities.

The Five Marks of Mission are:
1. To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom
2. To teach, baptize and nurture new believers
3. To respond to human need by loving service
4. To seek to transform unjust structures of society
5. To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth

The Five Marks of Mission: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/page/five-marks-mission

Washington National Cathedral

Washington National Cathedral is called to be the spiritual home for the nation. It seeks to be a catalyst for spiritual harmony in our nation, renewal in the churches, reconciliation among faiths, and compassion in our world.

Washington National Cathedral: http://www.nationalcathedral.org/

For more information contact Neva Rae Fox, Office of Public Affairs, publicaffairs@episcopalchurch.org.

Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori issues pastoral letter on the Doctrine of Discovery and Indigenous Peoples

Lisa — Wed, 16 May 2012 19:00:57 +0000

The Episcopal Church
Office of Public Affairs

“Our Christian heritage has taught us that a healed community of peace is only possible in the presence of justice for all peoples.”

May 16, 2012 (All day)

“We seek to address the need for healing in all parts of society, and we stand in solidarity with indigenous peoples globally to acknowledge and address the legacy of colonial occupation and policies of domination,” Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori states in her Pastoral Letter on the Doctrine of Discovery and Indigenous Peoples.

She continues, “Our Christian heritage has taught us that a healed community of peace is only possible in the presence of justice for all peoples. We seek to build such a beloved community that can be a sacred household for all creation, a society of right relationships.”

On May 7, Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori joined other religious voices in repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery at the 11th session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII). The theme for the UNPFII meeting is “The Doctrine of Discovery: its enduring impact on indigenous peoples and the right to redress for past conquests (articles 28 and 37 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples).” In 2009, General Convention repudiated the Doctrine of Discovery.

The Presiding Bishop’s letter, issued on May 16, is presented here:

Pastoral Letter on the Doctrine of Discovery and Indigenous Peoples

Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”[1]

The first biblical creation story tells of the creation of earth, sky, waters, creatures, and gives human beings dominion over the rest. God pronounces what has been created good. At the end of the original week of creation, with the advent of human beings, God blesses all of it, and pronounces the work very good[2].

The second creation story tells of what goes wrong – the first two earth creatures eat what they have been forbidden to eat, and are then expelled from the garden[3]. They have misunderstood what it means to exercise dominion toward life in the garden. Through the millennia, many of their offspring have continued to misunderstand dominion, or to willfully twist the divine intent of dominion toward the conceit of domination. Through the ages, human beings have too often insisted that what exists has been made for their individual use, and that force may be used against anyone who seems to compete for a particular created resource[4]. The result has been enormous destruction, death, despair, and downright evil – what is more commonly called “sin.”

The blessings of creation are meant to be stewarded, in the way of husbanding and housekeeping, for the true meaning of dominion is tied to the constellation of meanings around house and household. There have been strands of the biblical tradition which have kept this sacred understanding alive, but the unholy quest for domination has sought to quench it, in favor of wanton accumulation and exclusive possession of the goods of creation for an individual or a small part of the blessed family of God.

After that eviction from the primordial garden, the biblical stories are mostly about how human communities strive to return to a homeland that will be a source of blessing for the community. Through the long centuries, the prophetic understanding of that community broadens to include all the nations of the earth. Even so, the seemingly eternal struggle between dominators and stewards has continued to the present day.

Most of the passages in the Bible that talk about land are yearning for a fertile place, where people are able to grow crops, tend flocks, and live in peace. The offspring of those first human beings gave rise to peoples who hungered for land, and many of them did a great deal of violence through the ages in order to occupy and possess it. They weren’t alone, for the empires of Alexander, Rome, and Genghis Khan were also the result of amassing conquered territory. The Christian empires of Europe were consumed with battles over land for centuries, and eventually sent military expeditions across the Mediterranean in a quest to re-establish a Christian claim on what they called the Holy Land.

The explorers who set out from Christian Europe in the 15^th century went with even broader motivations, in search of riches and abundantly fertile lands. They also went with religious warrants, papal bulls which permitted and even encouraged the subjugation and permanent enslavement of any non-Christian peoples they encountered, as well as the expropriation of any territories not governed by Christians.[5] Western Christian religious authorities settled competitions over these conquests by dividing up the geography that could be claimed among the various European nations.

These religious warrants led to the wholesale slaughter, rape, and enslavement of indigenous peoples in the Americas, as well as in Africa, Asia, and the islands of the Pacific, and the African slave trade was based on these same principles. Death, dispossession, and enslavement were followed by rapid depopulation as a result of introduced and epidemic disease. Yet death and dispossession of lands and resources were not a singular occurrence that can be laid up to the depredations of benighted medieval warriors. They are not akin to Viking raids in the British Isles, or ancient struggles between neighboring tribes in Europe or Africa. These acts of “Discovery” have had persistent effects on marginalized, transported, and disenfranchised peoples.

The ongoing dispossession of indigenous peoples is the result of legal systems throughout the “developed” world that continue to base land ownership on these religious warrants for colonial occupation from half a millennium ago. These legal bases collectively known as the Doctrine of Discovery underlie U.S. decisions about who owns these lands[6]. The dispossession of First Peoples continues to wreak havoc on basic human dignity. These principles give the lie to biblical understandings that all human beings reflect the image of God, for those who have been thrown out of their homeland, had their cultures largely erased, and sent into exile, are still grieving their loss of identity, lifeways, and territory. All humanity should be grieving, for our sisters and brothers are suffering the injustice of generations. The sins of our forebears are being visited on the children of indigenous peoples, even to the seventh generation.

There will be no peace or healing until we attend to that injustice. The prophets of ancient Israel cried out for justice when their ability to live in the land they saw as home was threatened. A day laborer named Amos challenged those around him with the word of God, “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream”[7]. Where there is no justice, there can be no peace for anyone.

In the North American context, the poorest of the poor live on Native reservations. The depth of poverty there is closely followed by the poverty among ghettoized descendants of the indigenous peoples of Africa who were transported to these shores as slaves. That kind of poverty is also frequent in other parts of the world where indigenous people have been dispossessed and displaced. Healing is not possible, it is not even imaginable, until the truth is told and current reality confronted. The basic dignity and human rights of first peoples have been repeatedly transgressed, and the outcome is grievous – poverty, cultural destruction, and multi-generational consequences. The legacy of grief that continues unresolved is visible in skyrocketing suicide rates, rampant hopelessness, and deep anger. In many contexts it amounts to pathological or impacted grief – for when hope is absent, healing is impossible.

The legacy of domination includes frightful evil – the intentional destruction of food sources and cultural centers like the herds of North American bison, the intentional introduction of disease and poisoning of water sources, wanton disregard of starvation and illness, the abuse and enslavement of women and children, the murder of those with the courage to protest inhumane treatment, the repeated dispossession of natural resources, land, and water, as well as chronically inadequate Federal management and defense of Native rights and resources.

There have been some glimmers of justice in decisions that have returned Native fishing and hunting rights, and some improvements in tribal rights to self-determination. There is a very small and slow return of bison to the prairie, and wolves have begun to return in places where they are not immediately hunted down. Yet many of these recoveries continue to be strenuously resisted by powerful non-Native commercial interests.

There are signs of hope in returning cultural treasures to their communities of origin, and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act[8] is returning remains for dignified burial. The legacy of cultural genocide is slowly being addressed as indigenous traditions, languages, and cultural skills are taught to new generations.

The Episcopal Church has been present and ministering with Native peoples in North America for several centuries. That history of accompaniment and solidarity has hardly been perfect, yet we continue to seek greater justice and deeper healing.

The Episcopal Church’s relationship with Native peoples in the Americas begins with the first English colonists. We remember the story of Manteo, a Croatan of what is now North Carolina. He traveled to England in 1584 and helped a colleague of Sir Walter Raleigh learn to speak Algonquin. He returned here the next year, became something of an ambassador between the two peoples, was baptized, and is counted a saint of this church[9].

Episcopal missionaries have served in a variety of indigenous communities and contexts. Henry Benjamin Whipple was Bishop of Minnesota in 1862, and his powerful petition to Abraham Lincoln saved the lives of some 265 of the Dakota men sentenced to hang the day after Christmas in Mankato[10]. The Dakota people called him “Straight Tongue.” Today many Dakota and Lakota people are part of this Episcopal tradition.

This Church has stood in solidarity with native peoples in Alaska, Hawai’i, and the American southwest, especially the Diné (Navajo), as well as in urban Indian communities. The Poarch Band of Creek Indians (in Alabama) achieved federal recognition in the 1980s with the aid of baptismal records maintained by this Church, which also assisted in returning a piece of land to the Poarch Band[11]. A large group of indigenous people in Ecuador is seeking recognition as worshiping communities in the Episcopal tradition, and we have other indigenous members and communities in Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras, and Micronesia. Our historical presence in the Philippines began with the indigenous Igorot peoples of the mountains and highlands.

Healing work continues across The Episcopal Church. In 1997 Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning apologized for the enormities that began with the colony in Jamestown[12]. Today our understanding of mission has changed. We believe that God’s mission is about healing brokenness in the world around us – broken relationships between human beings and the Creator, broken relationships between peoples, and damaged relationships between human beings and the rest of creation. We seek to partner in God’s mission through proclaiming a vision of a healed world; forming Christians as partners in that mission; responding to human suffering around us; reversing structural and systemic injustice; and caring for this earthly garden[13]. We partner with any and all who share a common vision for healing, whether Episcopalian or Christian or not.

Work with indigenous peoples in recent years has been intensely focused on issues of poverty and the generational consequences of cultural destruction, the reality of food deserts and diabetes rates on reservations, unemployment and inadequate educational resources, as well as the ongoing reality of racism and exclusion in the larger society[14]. Mission and development work in Native communities is locally directed, honoring the gifts and assets already present[15], and moves toward a vision of healed community. We partner with White Bison in community organizing that develops training programs for community healing[16]. This is a historic development, the first such partnership between a traditional Native American non-profit and The Episcopal Church.

This Church has worked to alleviate systemic and structural injustice in many ways, and our repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery in 2009 is a recent example[17]. Since at least 1976, our advocacy work has included support for First Nations land claims in Canada, advocacy with the U.S. government for improved health care, religious freedom, preservation of burial sites and repatriation of remains and cultural resources, increased Federal tribal recognition, and critical Federal Government self-examination around Native American rights. We have affirmed and reaffirmed our desire to strengthen relationships with Native peoples by remembering the past, recognizing the deficits and gifts in our historic and current relationships, and continued work toward healing[18]. We are currently advocating for the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, with provisions directly affecting Native women.

The Doctrine of Discovery work of this Church is focused on education, dismantling the structures and policies based on that ancient evil, support for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples[19], and challenging governments around the world to support self-determination for indigenous peoples.

We seek to address the need for healing in all parts of society, and we stand in solidarity with indigenous peoples globally to acknowledge and address the legacy of colonial occupation and policies of domination. Our Christian heritage has taught us that a healed community of peace is only possible in the presence of justice for all peoples. We seek to build such a beloved community that can be a sacred household for all creation, a society of right relationships.

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us… and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near… So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God[20]

We pray that God will give us the strength and courage to do this work together for the good of all our relations, in the belief that Christ Jesus ends hostility and brings together those who were once divided.

The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori

Presiding Bishop and Primate

The Episcopal Church

[1] Genesis 1:26

[2] Genesis 1:1-2:3

[3] Genesis 2:4-3:24

[4] Commodification or what Heidegger called Bestand, cf. The Question Concerning Technology or Being and Time

[5] Doctrine of Discovery resources: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/page/doctrine-discovery-resources

[6] cf. Johnson v M’Intosh: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnson_v._M'Intosh

[7] Amos 5:24

[8] http://www.nps.gov/history/nagpra/

[9] http://kingofpeace.blogspot.com/2009/05/manteo-virginia-dare.html

[10] http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/dakota/dakota.html

[11] http://www.poarchcreekindians.org/assets/pdf/newsletter_jun_2007.pdf

[12] http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1298&dat=19971101&id=LOwyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=UwgGAAAAIBAJ&pg=6997,143732

[13] a shorthand summary of the Five Anglican Marks of Mission

[14] http://archive.episcopalchurch.org/native/109407_123131_ENG_HTM.htm

[15] through Asset-Based Community Development

[16] http://www.coloradospringsindiancenter.com/2010/04/partnership-white-bison-episcopal-church-alleviate-poverty/

[17] http://www.nativevillage.org/Archives/2009%20Archives/Oct%202009%20I%20201%20NV%20News/Episcopal%20Church%20Repudiates%20Doctirine%20of%20Discovery.htm

[18] cf. Decade of Remembrance, Recognition, and Reconciliation: http://www.okiv2010.com/images/03_c008_res_rrr.pdf

[19] http://social.un.org/index/IndigenousPeoples/DeclarationontheRightsofIndigenousPeoples.aspx

[20] Ephesians 2:13ff

Live webcast features discussion about mission with Episcopal Presiding Bishop, Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Lisa — Tue, 15 May 2012 13:35:33 +0000

The Episcopal Church
Office of Public Affairs

May 19 from Washington National Cathedral

May 15, 2012 (All day)

A live webcast featuring an enlightening conversation about mission between Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and Archbishop Desmond Tutu will be available at no fee on Saturday, May 19 at 3:30 pm Eastern (2:30 pm Central, 1:30 pm Mountain, 12:30 pm Pacific, 11:30 am Alaska, 9:30 am Hawaii) on the website of the Episcopal Church www.episcopalchurch.org and will be available on demand afterwards.

Hosted by Washington National Cathedral, the event will be moderated by David Crabtree, news anchor at WRAL-TV in North Carolina and an ordained deacon.

Framing the conversation on the Anglican Five Marks of Mission, the questions to be explored are: “What does Mission mean to me”; and “What does mission look like in the world.”

The May 19 event is the first in a series of discussions about mission with the Presiding Bishop and other prominent religious leaders.

The event is ideal for congregation and group viewing, adult forums, discussion groups, etc.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu: http://www.tutu.org/bio-desmond-tutu.php

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/page/presiding-bishop

The Anglican Five Marks of Mission

The Five Marks of Mission are:

1. To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom

2. To teach, baptize and nurture new believers

3. To respond to human need by loving service

4. To seek to transform unjust structures of society

5. To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth

The Five Marks of Mission: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/page/five-marks-mission

Washington National Cathedral

Washington National Cathedral: http://www.nationalcathedral.org/

For more information contact Neva Rae Fox, Office of Public Affairs, publicaffairs@episcopalchurch.org.

The Episcopal Church: www.episcopalchurch.org

Facebook: www.facebook.com/episcopalian

Twitter: twitter.com/iamepiscopalian

Why Serve 2012: Episcopalian young adults explore lay and ordained ministry opportunities at June retreat

Lisa — Thu, 03 May 2012 13:42:26 +0000

The Episcopal Church
Office of Public Affairs

A Vocational Discernment Conference for Young Adults of Color

May 3, 2012 (All day)

Young adults of color are invited to examine their gifts and explore opportunities at a June weekend Episcopal Church retreat, Why Serve 2012: Discerning God’s Call.

Why Serve 2012 will be held Wednesday, June 6 to Sunday, June 10 hosted by Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, VA.

The conference is geared for young adults of color, ages 18-30, from throughout the Episcopal Church. It is sponsored by Virginia Theological Seminary, and the Episcopal Church Center offices of Asian American Ministries, Black Ministries, Latino/Hispanic Ministries, Native American Ministries, and Young Adult Ministries.

According to Jason Sierra, Episcopal Church Young Adult Ministries Officer, “Whether you are feeling called to be a priest, a vestry member, a nurse, a father, or a cook; whether you’re in school, working, or just in-between; whether you’re a regular church-goer, a used-to goer, or a seeker, we hope you’ll join us for this transformative experience.”

Among the topics to be explored are The New Community, Identity, and Advocacy.

Cost is $65 which includes meals, lodging, conference fees; fee does not include travel.

Registration deadline is May 15.

Why Serve Conference info and registration: https://www.formstack.com/forms/DFMS-why_serve

For more info contact: Angie Cabanban, acabanban@episcopalchurch.org, 212-716-6186.

The Episcopal Church welcomes all who worship Jesus Christ in 109 dioceses and three regional areas in 16 nations. The Episcopal Church is a member province of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Episcopal Church Asian American Ministries: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/asian

Episcopal Church Black Ministries: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/black

Episcopal Church Latino/Hispanic Ministries: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/hispanic

Episcopal Church Native American ministries: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/native_american

Young Adult Ministries: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/youngadults

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/episcopalian

Twitter: http://twitter.com/iamepiscopalian

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/TECtube