Morning at the Office

General Convention

Monday, December 29, 2008

Stop the fighing in Gaza In the Name of the Prince of Peace


The Episcopal Church Welcomes You

Presiding Bishop joins call for end to Gaza attacks

By Matthew Davies December 29, 2008 [Episcopal News Service] Following a recent upsurge in violence in the Palestinian Territory of Gaza, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and other religious leaders have called for an end to the repeated rocket attacks from Palestinian militants and the continuing Israeli air strikes that are contributing to a severe humanitarian crisis in the world's most densely populated region.

"I urge a comprehensive response to these attacks," said Jefferts Schori, who visited Gaza in March to meet with religious and community leaders and tour the Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, one of 37 institutions throughout the Middle East run by the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem. "Since that visit, the situation, which was already devastating, has only worsened, with supplies of food, fuel, power, and medical supplies either cut off or indefinitely delayed. Our hospital must now try to treat the wounded under the most impossible circumstances."

Israel, which has reportedly positioned military tanks along the Gaza border, has said the recent air strikes and the blockade -- enforced since January 17 -- have been necessary to put pressure on militant Palestinians to cease firing rockets into southern Israel. But the Israeli attacks and shortages of essential supplies have created a humanitarian disaster in the region, where the unemployment level stands at 80 percent. According to the Associated Press, the death toll in Gaza has exceeded 320 and at least 1,400 have been injured.

"Innocent lives are being lost throughout the land we all call Holy, and as Christians remember the coming of the Prince of Peace, we ache for the absence of peace in the land of his birth," Jefferts Schori said in her December 29 statement. "Immediate attention should focus on vital humanitarian assistance to the suffocating people of Gaza." Also on December 29, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon called on both sides to cease all acts of violence and urged Israel to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

The Al Ahli Arab Hospital, which treats Muslims, Christians and anyone in need, dispenses free medical treatment and services. But Jefferts Schori heard in March that it struggles without electricity for several hours a day and it relies on limited fuel supplies to operate its generator. The blockade has also caused difficulties in bringing medicines into Gaza.

Anne K. Lynn, director of the American Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, a non-profit organization that supports the mission of the Jerusalem diocese and its institutions, described the humanitarian crisis in Gaza as "overwhelming."

"The information we're receiving from the Al Ahli Arab Hospital is heartbreaking and requires immediate response," she said, noting that AFEDJ is in contact with the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem and the hospital to find out exactly how it can be most effective. Further information about AFEDJ is available here.

Suheila Tarazi, the hospital's director, has called the current situation a "catastrophe." She reported that in the first two hours of Israel's air strikes, the hospital received 45 injured patients, a third of whom were children, and 30 medical operations were performed.

In recent years, AFEDJ and Episcopal Relief and Development have provided critical financial assistance to the hospital as it struggles to serve the predominantly Muslim community in Gaza, where about 80 percent of the population live below the World Health Organization poverty line.

"Our hospital located in the heart of Gaza City is providing essential frontline medical and emergency humanitarian services to those coming or being brought directly to it -- and additionally is receiving patients transferred by UNRWA from the Government Hospital Al Shiffa to our Al Ahli Hospital for emergency, inpatient, and other surgical treatment of the wounded and injured," said Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem Suheil Dawani. "As a non-partisan well established hospital, we are receiving patients from all directions." Dawani said that all churches throughout the diocese will on Sunday, January 4 hold special services "for peace and reconciliation for those whose lives has been impacted by the Gaza conflict -- especially the wounded, injured and the families of those innocents who have died."

Maureen Shea, director of Government Relations for the Episcopal Church, traveled to the Middle East in early December with a delegation from Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP). The delegation was not allowed to visit Gaza but heard direct reports from the director of the Al Ahli Arab Hospital, Catholic Relief Services and the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs for the Palestinian territories (OCHA).

"News from the media, in light of reporters not being allowed into Gaza, has understandably concentrated on the lack of humanitarian supplies because of closures at the checkpoints," said Shea, chair of CMEP, noting that a representative of OCHA explained how Gaza had gone from being a poor nation to an internationally supported welfare state with almost 80% of residents living in poverty, and 900,000 of the 1.5 million population as refugees. "The crisis for Gaza is not only immediate but long term, thereby further reducing the hopes of those who live there. Tragically, the ferocious attack of the Israeli Defense Forces is most likely to lead to more violence in the future, not less."

In her statement, Jefferts Schori noted that a demonstration took place in front of the Israeli consulate in New York on December 28. "The demonstrators included orthodox Jews. All were calling for an immediate end to the attacks in Gaza," she said. "I join my voice to theirs and those of many others around the world, challenging the Israeli government to call a halt to this wholly disproportionate escalation of violence. I challenge the Palestinian forces to end their rocket attacks on Israelis."

Jefferts Schori also urged the United States government "to use its influence to get these parties back to the negotiating table and end this senseless killing" and said that President-elect Barack Obama "needs to be part of this initiative, which demands his attention now and is likely to do so through his early months in office."

Archbishop Thabo Makgoba of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa has added his voice to those calling for an immediate end to hostilities in Gaza. "Watching the news, I could not help but join in the tears of Jesus, who wept over the land of his birth, and prayed for peace to reign," Makgoba said.

"Christmas reminds us that God took human form in Jesus Christ, vividly demonstrating the sanctity of all human life. This is not negotiable, and must be respected by all sides through an immediate end to violence," he added. "My prayer is that the tragic events of recent days will spur everyone in the region, and in the international community, to intensify efforts towards establishing a just and lasting peace in the land of our Savior's birth."

Jefferts Schori concluded her statement by asking all people of faith "to join with the Episcopalians in Jerusalem who this Sunday dispensed with their usual worship services and spent their time in prayer for those who are the objects of this violence. I pray for leaders who will seek a just peace for all in the Middle East, knowing that its achievement will only come when they have the courage to act boldly. But they must do so now, before the violence escalates further. It is only through a just and lasting peace that the hope of the ages can be fulfilled, that hope which we mark in the birth of a babe in Bethlehem."

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Bah! Humbug!

I haven't been brave enough to brave the stores since about a week before Christmas, but I was in them enough just before to know that despite official store policies whether WalMart, KMART, Target, etc. there are enough people with the spirit of the season to wish you a Merry Christmas even before you say it to them.
There are many phrases, common sayings we hear around this time of year.

Merry Christmas (Xmas is alright too since that's what the early Christians who were Greek speakers and readers wrote)
Happy Holidays ( a great movie and song and it originally meant Have a blessed Holy Day or days)
For the same reason even Season's Greetings is not as bad as some on the fringe would have us believe.
Happy Kwanza (not a religious observance but it should engender a good feeling)
Jesus is the reason for the season unless it's said in a belligerant way should be understood as a happy, hopeful saying.
I've found a new saying this year that is bound to be a holiday classic. I'm sure many of you have run across it by now.

"Going into Wal-Mart with a gift card is like doing Christmas all over again."

God Bless Us, Every One.




Monday, December 15, 2008

Sister Joan Chitester at the Door of the Schlosskirche


As an Episcopalian I know something about a church that goes where the Spirit leads even though other Anglicans in the Anglican Communion cling to old understandings or misunderstandings of holy scripture.
It's only been in the last thirty years that the Episcopal Church USA and the Church of England (part of the reformers that Sister Joan talks about) began ordaining women to the priesthood and as bishops.
And there's been war ever since.
Hopefully for Roman Catholic WomenPriests the time till women in the Roman Catholic Church are accepted as full members of Christ's Body won't be any longer than 30 years more.

In-between is a dangerous place to be

By Joan Chittister
Created Dec 15 2008 - 09:46
From Where I Stand by Joan Chittister, OSB December 15, 2008
Bookmark and Share [1] Vol. 6, No. 13

Maryknoll priest Roy Bourgeois is under threat of excommunication for giving a homily at the unauthorized priestly ordination of a woman sponsored by the group Roman Catholic Womenpriests. The question, especially for those who know this priest to be a justice-loving, selfless prophet of peace, is how Fr. Roy's "case" will be handled by the Vatican. No doubt about it: The situation is an important one -- both for him and for the church who will judge him.

It is important for Fr. Bourgeois because it involves the possible fracturing of the commitment of a lifetime.

A man who has given his life for the Gospel, been one of the church's most public witnesses for human rights, stood for the best in the human condition and modeled the highest standards of the priesthood should certainly not end his life a victim of the conscience that has stirred the conscience of a nation.

But the way this situation is handled is at least as important to the church as it ever will be to Roy Bourgeois.

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Roy, after all, is doing what a Christian is supposed to do: He is speaking for the disenfranchised, pursuing justice, witnessing to the love of God. That has been the Bourgeois story for years. Here is a man who, as a missionary in Bolivia, witnessed the results of SOA training there, and alerted the United States to the torture-teaching practices of the Fort Benning-based School of the Americas. A U.S. military training center designed to terrorize Central-American peasants working for human rights and just wages, this U.S-funded war against humanity kept many a dictator in power.

Roy's public protests began with a handful of people and has grown to well over 15,000 demonstrators yearly. Thanks to Roy, the public pressure for a change of U.S. policies at the School of the Americas has become one of the country's -- one of the church's -- proudest moments of the last 20 years.

Clearly, Roy is a priest whose courage and credibility have been tested by the State to the maximum. He's not marginal to anything: measured by the best standards of both church and state, he is completely priest, completely American.

The whole truth, however, is that this particular story is embedded in a struggle that is much larger than Roy. It is the story of how the church itself will, this time, deal with the birth pangs of conscience and consciousness that mark any society in the midst of change. The church has been in this situation before and the responses, to our shame, have not always, in the chastening light of history, been good ones.

No wonder that in his opening address to Vatican Council II, Pope John XXIII said to the bishops assembled from around the world: The church has always opposed errors regarding the faith and, in the past, did so "with the greatest severity. Nowadays, however, the spouse of Christ prefers to make use of the medicine of mercy rather than of severity. She considers that she meets the needs of the present day by demonstrating the validity of her teaching rather than by condemnations."

It was neither a pietistic nor an idle statement.

Who at that Council, for instance, -- who in that Church -- did not know that punishment and exclusion had been the hallmark of the church for centuries before Vatican II?

Excommunicated saints dot the history of the church with far too much regularity: Mary Ward, whose sin was the founding a religious life for women that did not require cloister; Mary McKillop whose sin was opening Catholic centers without the permission of the bishop; the Beguines, a community of non-cloistered women in Belgium, whose sin was walking the streets and ministering in homes; Teilhard de Chardin whose sin was the acceptance of the theory of evolution; Fr. Tissa Balasuriya, OMI whose sin was to seek new ways to transmit the doctrine of original sin in an Asian culture. All were precursors of momentous social change whose concerns were not only ignored by the church but punished.

When the dust settled, however, nobody remembered who excommunicated the saints who were pioneering a new church but everybody remembers the saints. And everybody came to believe what the saints had attempted to teach.

Reformers who centuries ago called for discussion of the sale of relics, the use of the vernacular in the liturgy, the review of a theology that divided people according to 'higher' and 'lower' vocations were also excommunicated. Wars were fought and people died by the thousands on both sides in the attempt to impose Catholic orthodoxy. Nations were divided to maintain Catholicism. Women were burned at the stake in behalf of Catholic doctrine. And, in Germany, for instance, one woman was executed simply for owning a bible in German. And all those things were done in the name of God.

But with what success? The effects are painfully clear to this very day.

Nobody remembers the "sins" of the reformers. Everybody remembers the sin of a church that refused to listen to their concerns and is still 400 years late repenting it. And the things the reformers argued for are now, finally, part and parcel of Catholicism itself.

Were all the lives lost, all the excommunications worth it? Do we never learn?

In fact, who in our own time does not know of pre-Vatican II church laws that excommunicated Catholics for marrying Protestants, or of "sins" committed and confessed by families who attended those weddings? Or, for the sake of family, worshipped with them in those churches despite the bans? Or, prodded by even more demanding consciences, suffered through brutal marriages that finally ended in brutal divorces and then, for their trouble, were denied the sacraments? Who now will defend such things in the name of either fidelity or obedience?

The most painful question of all, however, is has anything really changed, however much Pope John XXIII might have hoped otherwise?

In our own time, church by fear and intimidation is clearly on the brink of becoming the norm again.

Whole groups are being excommunicated everywhere: Call to Action, Dignity, parishes that seek more participation in making parish decisions, and the Women's Ordination Conference. Even people who voted for Barack Obama have been told by some priests and bishops that they need to go to confession before they go to communion. And, of course, Roman Catholic Womenpriests is an excommunicated group, as well. Despite the fact that over two-thirds of the U.S. Catholic church approves of the ordination of women, the discussion goes on being repressed, rebuffed and disregarded. (Survey of US Catholics, NCR)

People respond in different ways to this kind of church, of course: Some say, "Love it or leave it." Some say, Someone had to do it and we agree with them so count us in on the excommunication. Some say, How is it that we excommunicate priests who stand for the expansion of women's roles in the church but we do not excommunicate pedophile priests who abuse children. And some say nothing -- in public. But they say a great deal in private -- to their friends, to their local priests and, most of all, to their children who, as a result, carry within them the vision of another world to come.

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Oh, intimidation does its job, of course. At least for awhile. Only 33 religious of the 3,000 people who signed an early petition to Rome in Roy Bourgeois' behalf, for instance, used the initials of their religious communities on the petition. But many other religious signed and did not. That's a sure sign of their concern that their communities would be punished if their identities were known. But they did sign. They do believe. They are talking. They are taking a stand.

So, who is winning? The enforcers or the believers? Well, it depends on what you mean by 'winning.' History is clear: It is one thing to enforce behavior, it is another thing entirely to attempt to chain the mind or enslave the heart forever.

From where I stand, it seems to me that now may well be a time when the church should proceed with great tenderness, an open mind, a listening heart -- and a clear sense that, just as in times past, God's future is on the way.




If the shoe fits...

As of this morning I've seen the shoe throwing episode 4 or 5 times. When I watched it on The 700 Club a thought occurred to me and listening to a local radio talk show host an hour later remark how "spry" President Bush was in avoiding the shoes thrown at him by an Iraqi reporter I thought it even more possible that the whole event was staged. Perhaps it was to add some drama to President Bush's farewell tour of Iraq.
President Bush didn't really seen surprised when the shoes first one and then the other came flying at him.
No one with him on the stage flinched.
President Bush's security guards didn't really do much and the Iraqi security mainly wanted to shut down the cameras.
President Bush in an interview not long after the event said he wasn't upset or insulted by the shoe throwing. Either President Bush doesn't know much about Middle Eastern culture or maybe he wasn't insulted because it was a put up job, not for real.
Perhaps after 8 years of this administration it's too easy to look for and expect to see chicanery behind every bush.
Or perhaps it's just reasonable.

Merry Christmas A Ceremony of Carols

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

The B I B L E , Yes that's... and George Bush

Bush Says He Doubts Bible Literally True

AP
posted: 3 HOURS 51 MINUTES AGO
comments: 232
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WASHINGTON (Dec. 9) -- President George W. Bush said his belief that God created the world is not incompatible with scientific proof of evolution.
In an interview with ABC's "Nightline" on Monday, the president also said he probably is not a literalist when reading the Bible although an individual can learn a great deal from it, including the New Testament teaching that God sent his only son.
Saul Loeb, AFP / Getty Images
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President George W. Bush, here at an appearance Monday in McLean, Va., said in an interview on ABC's 'Nightline' that the Bible is "probably not" literally true -- even though "I think you can learn a lot from it." He cited the New Testament as an example, saying "the important lesson is, 'God sent a son.'"




Asked about creation and evolution, Bush said: "I think you can have both. I think evolution can — you're getting me way out of my lane here. I'm just a simple president. But it's, I think that God created the earth, created the world; I think the creation of the world is so mysterious it requires something as large as an almighty and I don't think it's incompatible with the scientific proof that there is evolution."
He added, "I happen to believe that evolution doesn't fully explain the mystery of life."
Interviewer Cynthia McFadden asked Bush if the Bible was literally true.
What’s Your Take?
What do you think about George W. Bush’s views on religion? Do you think they’ve had a major impact on his policies as president?


"You know. Probably not. ... No, I'm not a literalist, but I think you can learn a lot from it, but I do think that the New Testament for example is ... has got ... You know, the important lesson is 'God sent a son,'" Bush said.
"It is hard for me to justify or prove the mystery of the Almighty in my life," he said. "All I can just tell you is that I got back into religion and I quit drinking shortly thereafter and I asked for help. ... I was a one-step program guy."
The president also said that he prays to the same God as those with different religious beliefs.
"I do believe there is an almighty that is broad and big enough and loving enough that can encompass a lot of people," Bush said.
When asked whether he thought he would have become president had it not been for his faith, Bush said: "I don't know; it's hard to tell. I do know that I would have been — I'm pretty confident I would have been a pretty selfish person."
Bush said he is often asked whether he thinks he was chosen by God to be president.
"I just, I can't go there," he said. "I'm not that confident in knowing, you know, the Almighty, to be able to say, Yeah, God wanted me of all the other people."
He also said the decision to go to war in Iraq was not connected to his religious beliefs.
"I did it based upon the need to protect the American people from harm," Bush said.
"You can't look at the decision to go into Iraq apart from, you know, what happened on Sept. 11. It was not a religious decision," he said. "I don't view this as a war of religion. I view this as a war of good, decent people of all faiths against people who murder innocent people to achieve a political objective."
He said he felt like God was with him as he made big decisions, but that the decisions were his.
"George W. Bush has to make these decisions."
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
2008-12-09 03:08:27

Thursday, December 04, 2008

Obama birth certifcate as American as apple pie and Chevrolet

Email: Barack Obama Isn't a Natural-Born Citizen

By David Emery, About.com

Summary: Email rumor claims that Barack Obama is ineligible to become president because according to the laws in effect at the time of his birth he is not a natural-born citizen of the United States.

Description: Email rumor
Circulating since: June 2008
Status: False


Email example contributed by Carol D., June 8, 2008:

CAN OBAMA BE PRESIDENT?

It seems that Barack Obama is not qualified to be president after all for the following reason:

Barack Obama is not legally a U.S. natural-born citizen according to the law on the books at the time of his birth, which falls between "December 24, 1952 to November 13, 1986?

Presidential office requires a natural-born citizen if the child was not born to two U.S. citizen parents, which of course is what exempts John McCain though he was born in the Panama Canal. US Law very clearly stipulates: ".If only one parent was a U.S. citizen at the time of your birth, that parent must have resided in the United States for at least ten years, at least five of which had to be after the age of 16." Barack Obama's father was not a U.S. citizen and Obama's mother was only 18 when Obama was born, which means though she had been a U.S. citizen for 10 years, (or citizen perhaps because of Hawai'i being a territory) the mother fails the test for being so for at least 5 years **prior to** Barack Obama's birth, but *after* age 16. It doesn't matter *after*.

In essence, she was not old enough to qualify her son for automatic U.S. citizenship. At most, there were only 2 years elapsed since his mother turned 16 at the time of Barack Obama's birth when she was 18 in Hawai'i. His mother would have needed to have been 16+5= 21 years old, at the time of Barack Obama's birth for him to have been a natural-born citizen. As aformentioned, she was a young college student at the time and was not. Barack Obama was already 3 years old at that time his mother would have needed to have waited to have him as the only U.S. Cizen parent. Obama instead should have been naturalized, but even then, that would still disqualify him from holding the office.

*** Naturalized citizens are ineligible to hold the office of President. ***

Though Barack Obama was sent back to Hawaii at age 10, all the other info does not matter because his mother is the one who needed to have been a U.S. citzen for 10 years prior to his birth on August 4, 1961, with 5 of those years being after age 16. Further, Obama may have had to have remained in the country for some time to protect any citizenship he would have had, rather than living in Indonesia.

Now you can see why Obama's aides stopped his speech about how we technically have more than 50 states, because it would have led to this discovery. This is very clear cut and a blaring violation of U.S. election law. I think the Gov. of California would be very insterested in knowing this if Obama were elected President without being a natural-born U.S. citizen, and it would set precedence. Stay tuned to your TV sets because I suspect some of this information will be leaking through over the next several days.



Comments: False. Barack Obama is, in fact, a natural-born citizen of the United States, for the simple reason that he was born on American soil (in Hawaii, two years after it acquired statehood). The age and citizenship status of Obama's parents at the time have no bearing on Obama's own citizenship.

Any confusion on this point is the result of misunderstanding the legal concepts of jus sanguinis (right of blood) and jus soli (right of birthplace). Here is how the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service explains the difference:

The 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees citizenship at birth to almost all individuals born in the United States or in U.S. jurisdictions, according to the principle of jus soli. Certain individuals born in the United States, such as children of foreign heads of state or children of foreign diplomats, do not obtain U.S. citizenship under jus soli.

Certain individuals born outside of the United States are born citizens because of their parents, according to the principle of jus sanguinis (which holds that the country of citizenship of a child is the same as that of his / her parents).

It is a fact that under the provisions of Article Two of the U.S. Constitution naturalized citizens are ineligible to hold the office of president, but this disqualification does not apply to Barack Obama, who has been a citizen since birth.

UPDATE: Is Barack Obama's birth certificate invalid?

Self-styled "experts" have questioned the validity of Obama's Hawaii birth certificate as posted online, but after examining the actual physical document, investigators at Factcheck.org (Annenberg Public Policy Center) concluded it is authentic. The state of Hawaii has also affirmed1 its validity. Read the details...2

UPDATE: Berg v. Obama lawsuit dismissed

A federal lawsuit filed in Pennsylvania by attorney Philip J. Berg charged that Obama was either born or naturalized in a foreign country and is therefore ineligible for the office of President. The case was thrown out of court on Friday, October 24, 2008 by U.S. District Judge R. Barclay Surrick, who concluded in his decision that Berg's arguments were, among other things, "frivolous and not worthy of discussion." Read the details...3


Email This Article4


Sources and further reading:

Hawaii Officials Declare Obama Birth Certificate Genuine5
Associated Press, 31 October 2008

Is Barack Obama a U.S. Citizen? Yes.6
The Swamp (Chicago Tribune, 12 June 2008

Born in the U.S.A. - The Truth About Obama's Birth Certificate7
FactCheck.org, 21 August 2008

Judge Rejects Montco Lawyer's Bid to Have Obama Removed from Ballot8
Philadelphia Daily News, 25 October 2008

Barack Obama's Birth Certificate9
BarackObama.com

Citizenship of Children10
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

Citizenship11
American Presidency (Grolier Online), 2006

Article Two of the U.S. Constitution12
About.com: U.S. Government Info

14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution13
Wikipedia


Last updated: 10/26/08


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Monday, December 01, 2008

letter for World Aids Day 2008

The Episcopal Church Welcomes You

Presiding Bishop issues letter for World AIDS Day 2008

December 01, 2008 [Episcopal News Service] In a letter for World AIDS Day 2008, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori encourages Episcopalians "to remember, pray, and work together to alleviate the suffering inflicted" by the HIV/AIDS pandemic and "to advocate for strong U.S. responses ... by signing up for the Episcopal Public Policy Network at www.episcopalchurch.org/eppn."

The full text of the Presiding Bishop's letter follows.


Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

The first day of December is marked as World AIDS Day, and has been observed since 1988. Episcopalians join billions of people around the world to remember the devastation caused by the AIDS pandemic over the past generation, and to recommit to ensuring a future without AIDS for generations still to come. As our church year begins, it is especially appropriate to remember, pray, and work together to alleviate the suffering inflicted by this disease and its consequences.

As Episcopalians, we understand that we are part of a body that has AIDS – both the Body of Christ and the larger body of the family of God. More than half of our worldwide Anglican Communion lives in countries destabilized by epidemic rates of HIV infection, including several dioceses of The Episcopal Church. Parish communities in the United States have been responding to HIV and AIDS for more than 25 years.

In the United States, this year's commemoration comes in a moment of transition for American democracy. A new President and new Congress will shape this nation's response to HIV/AIDS at home and around the world. Many significant challenges face America's leaders in the coming years.

We must find ways to build on successes in fighting HIV and AIDS in the developing world. American leadership since 2003 has brought life-saving treatment to more than 1.7 million people in sub-Saharan Africa (in contrast to 50,000 in 2002), while supporting more than 33 million counseling and testing sessions and providing prevention services for nearly 13 million pregnant women. Still, more than 6,000 people continue to die each day as a result of the pandemic, and infection rates in some of the hardest-hit places continue to grow. Earlier this year, Congress and the President pledged significantly increased funding, and renewed strategies, for the global fight against AIDS. It will be up to the new Congress and Administration to keep the promises that have been made by their predecessors.

The incoming Administration of President-elect Obama is soliciting suggestions from citizens for national priorities in the year ahead at www.change.gov. I urge all Episcopalians living in the United States to ask President-elect Obama and his Administration to make the fight against AIDS at home and around the world a priority, even in difficult economic times. The security and well-being of the world depends on health and healing for all. You can join your voice with those of other Episcopalians who will take action in the months and years ahead to advocate for strong U.S. responses to the HIV/AIDS pandemic by signing up for the Episcopal Public Policy Network at www.episcopalchurch.org/eppn.

I commend to Episcopalians the National Episcopal AIDS Coalition, www.neac.org, a grassroots group that has been working in Episcopal communities for more than two decades to support caregivers, give guidance on prevention, and advocate for a more compassionate AIDS policy. In particular, I draw your attention to the online quiz NEAC has developed for Episcopal communities to commemorate this World AIDS Day.

Christians around the world marked the First Sunday of Advent yesterday as a season of hope and expectation, remembering that the "Sun of Righteousness shall rise with healing in his wings" (Malachi 4:2). On this World AIDS Day, I pray that the God who tents with humanity will raise us up to work together to make the divine dream of healing and abundant life for all creation a reality – may your kingdom come, O Lord, and speedily.

Your servant in Christ,

The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori
Presiding Bishop
The Episcopal Church


Archbishop of Canterbury's World AIDS Day video
--
The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.
- Samuel Johnson

And that's the rest of the story!



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