The Latest eRISEN

You can view the latest issue of eRISEN, our biweekly email events calendar, at the link below:

eRISEN March 26th 2010 issue

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SUDANESE CHURCH LEADERS' FORUM: A Vision for a Peaceful Sudan

23-26 March 2010 Juba, Southern Sudan

Act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8)

More than 60 Sudanese Church leaders from 14 churches throughout Sudan gathered in Juba with their international partners from 23-26 March 2010 to review the current situation in Sudan and to prepare for the future. Church leaders from Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, Rwanda and South Africa and partners from the international community were present in solidarity with the Church and people of Sudan. Representatives of the Muslim community attended part of the meeting.

This is a historic period in the history of Sudan. After the referendum in 2011 Sudan will never be the same again, whether it remains united or becomes two countries. Time is short and urgent reflection and action are needed to ensure a peaceful future. This is Sudan’s Kairos Moment. There is no time to waste.

The Sudanese Church is concerned at increasing violence within the south and Darfur, at delays in implementing the CPA, and at the lack of an international political consensus on the next steps. The Church cares about the freedom, dignity and human rights of all the people of Sudan, whether in the north or the south, and encourages a spirit of good neighbourliness and cooperation.

The Sudanese Church:

• Is concerned that popular consultation does not meet the aspirations of the people of Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile. The issue must be put at the top of all stakeholders’ agendas as a matter of priority. Their special situation requires special status and a new way of looking at them. The Church fears that failure to address the aspirations of the people of these two states could derail any peaceful post-2011 transition.
• Calls upon all stakeholders to ensure that the forthcoming elections in April 2010 are peaceful, free and fair. This is an opportunity for the Sudanese to exercise their democratic rights within the framework of the CPA. Following the elections, all parties must accept the results. If there are grievances and disputes, these must be solved by legal means, not by violence.
• Calls for an end to violence between ethnic groups and political factions within southern Sudan, and other conflicts within Sudan. In particular the Church calls on political leaders to play a constructive role in healing and reconciliation.
• Calls for the full and peaceful implementation of the CPA, particularly the timely, free and fair referendums for the south and Abyei and popular consultations for Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan.
• Calls for immediate and ongoing discussions about the post-referendum transition, especially if secession is chosen by the south and Abyei. Good relations between north and south are essential. The position of the Church in northern Sudan is of particular concern. The Church calls for engagement with the concerns of local communities and civil society about both northerners in the south and southerners in the north.
• Calls on the international community to continue its commitment to rehabilitation and reconstruction.

The Sudanese Church:

• Has begun a new process of re-engagement with the burning issues of the day, building on its experience and credibility gained during the previous war. The Church Leaders' Forum is the first step in this ongoing process.
• In response to a request from the Sudanese Church, the All Africa Conference of Churches and the World Council of Churches have jointly appointed an Ecumenical Special Envoy to Sudan to accompany the process.
• Invites all Church-related bodies, such as evangelical alliances, to participate in and support this process.

The Sudanese Church undertakes:

• To roll out a new People to People Process of dialogue to counter internal conflicts in the south, the marginalised areas and other parts of Sudan.
• To set up a task force to analyse the situation in Sudan and advise the Church how to respond quickly to events.
• To engage with national, regional and international bodies, including the Governments of National Unity and Southern Sudan, neighbouring governments and churches, AU, IGAD, Arab League, EU, UN, and key governments such as USA, UK and Norway, for lobby and advocacy to explain the feelings of southerners and people from the marginalised areas and their likely reaction to events, and provide guidance on what to do.
• To inform and work with these international and regional partners on the position of the Church in northern Sudan, and to empower the Church in the north to sustain itself during the post-referendum transition period.
• To engage with all stakeholders within Sudan, including traditional authorities, parties, civil society, and other faiths.
• To increase its role in civic education, awareness raising and monitoring on elections, referendums and popular consultations.

The Sudanese Church commits itself to speak the truth fearlessly, and to continue its Gospel-led mission to give a voice to the voiceless, the poor and the marginalised, and addressing issues of national concern.

Signed by the Church Leaders from Sudan Council of Churches member Churches and non-member Churches.

26 March 2010

Roman Catholic Church
Episcopal Church of Sudan
Presbyterian Church of Sudan
Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church Sudan
Sudan Interior Church
Africa Inland Church
Orthodox Church
Greek Orthodox Church
Sudan Pentecostal Church
Lutheran Church of Sudan
Sudan Brethren Church
Baptist Church of Sudan

Rt Rev Bishop Ezekiel Kondo
Chair, SCC

Rev Ramadan Chan

Secretary General, SCC

RISEN Magazine Wins 5 Awards at National Conference

This past week RISEN Magazine won 5 Polly Bond Awards at the National Episcopal Communicators Conference. One of these awards was the coveted first prize for "General Excellence in a Magazine or Periodical" award, which arguably raises RISEN Magazine to the position of the top magazine in the Episcopal Church.

The Polly Bonds are awarded at the Episcopal Communicator's annual meeting for outstanding achievement in the previous year. Awards are given in the categories of excellence in web design, journalism, design and editorial work, video, and social media initiatives to name a few. Each category is judged by an acclaimed professional in the field, and this year's judges hailed from such notable media outlets as The New York Times, Fox News, and Spirituality and Health Magazine.

Rhode Island nearly made a clean sweep in the design and editorial categories of this year's contest, winning three first prize awards of excellence, an award of merit and an honorable mention.

Ruth Meteer, who became RISEN Magazine's Editor-in-Chief when she joined our diocesan staff a little over a year ago, won first prize for "Overall Use of Photography" in her first issue of the magazine, Summer 2009's "The Way of a Pilgrim" in addition to the General Excellence award for the Magazine.

Ruth also won two out of three prizes in the "Best two page spread" category. She received the First prize Award of Excellence for the design and layout of an article titled "5 Places to Pilgrimage to in New England" which was written by Sister Grace, SSM, and an honorable mention for the design and layout of an article on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela which was written by the Rev. Jennifer Pedrick. Both articles appeared in the summer 2009 "The Way of a Pilgrim" issue.

Ruth even took an award of merit for her cover art on fall 2009's, "A Conventional Issue".

Congratulations are due to all who contributed the stories, photos, and ideas which made RISEN Magazine's 2009 season so successful. You have made Rhode Island proud, keep up the wonderful work.

For Lent, East Providence Parishioners De-Clutter Their Lives

The above headline about The Church of the Epiphany in East Providence ran in the Providence Journal today, Monday March 15th 2010! The article is about 70+ Epiphany parishioners who have pledged with their rector, The Rev. Jennifer Pedrick,to give up "stuff" for Lent this year. These parishioners have agreed to refrain from buying anything but food, medicine and fuel during Lent, while also clearing out the clutter they have accumulated in their houses and spiritual lives in preperation for Easter.

The Wonderful article and accompanying photos took up an entire page in the paper. What great publicity for an outside-the-box Lenten program. Check it out:

http://www.projo.com/ri/eastprovidence/content/The_Simple_Challenge_03-15-10_1OHM930_v46.30f0717.html

Youth at the Diocesan 30 Hour Famine Fast to Feed the World.

“Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” Matthew 25:40.

40 youth from 9 parishes in the diocese gathered with their Youth Leaders at St. Martin’s Providence on January 30th 2010, for the second annual Diocesan 30 hour famine. The 30 Hour famine is a national fast program sponsored by World Vision to raise money and awareness among youth, of world hunger.

To participate, our youth had to find sponsors, stop eating by midnight on Friday, and then gather at noon on Saturday for fun activities, a Eucharist and a sleep over. Check out the online photo album of the event here.

It was an informative, lively and touching day for all involved. Between juice breaks and games intended to teach the youths what life is like for the underprivileged in various parts of the world, our youth leaders had a chance to share ideas and thoughts and the youth had a chance to meet Episcopalians from other parishes, make friends and hear about each other’s lives and faith.

Together, these 40 youths and 9 parishes raised a total of $3,937.00! Since $1 feeds 1 child for 1 day in many countries, this amount of money will make a big difference in many lives. Our youth collectively decided to send half of their hard-earned money to World Vision marked to benefit Haiti for Earthquake Relief and the other half to be used for needs in the South Sudan where our companion diocese, the Diocese of Ezo is situated. Many youths also took the opportunity during a bit of reflective downtime, to write letters, greetings, and prayers to our friends in the Diocese of Ezo.

Would you like your parish to be involved in next year’s famine and other Diocesan Youth Events? Email maryann@episcopalri.orgor contact the youth leaders of the parishes listed below for more information. These events can be a fantastic opportunity for some of our parishes with smaller youth groups, or just a few kids to find some fellowship!

Parishes Involved:

• St. Paul’s, Pawtucket
• St. Stephen’s, Providence
• St. James, Woonsocket
• Grace Church, Providence
• St. Martin’s, Providence
• St. John’s, Barrington
• St. Augustine’s, Kingstown
• St. Peter’s by the Sea, Narragansett
• St. Matthew’s, Barrington

The Latest eRISEN

You can view the latest issue of eRISEN, our biweekly email events calendar, at the link below:

eRISEN March 10th 2010 issue

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Taizé: Pilgrimage and Prayer All Around Rhode Island

The Taizé Community is an ecumenical monastic order in France made up of over 100 brothers from various countries and Christian backgrounds. The community has been around since the 1940’s, but these days it has become one of the most important sites of pilgrimage in modern Christianity, welcoming over 100,000 young pilgrims from around the world each year.

Rhode Island is no exception to this. Bishop Wolf has a long history with Taizé, and for quite some time now the Diocese of Rhode Island has sponsored a Taizé pilgrimage for 18-30 year olds at the end of each May. (Taizé caters their programs to this age group, but there is always room for a few “adults” to come along on the trip).

But what is all this Taizé fuss about? Well, to best serve the throngs of linguistically diverse pilgrims who find their way to the community, the brothers have developed a fantastic form of multilingual prayer and chant. Their website explains their simple chants as follows:

“Using just a few words they express a basic reality of faith, quickly grasped by the mind. As the words are sung over many times, this reality gradually penetrates the whole being. Meditative singing thus becomes a way of listening to God. It allows everyone to take part in a time of prayer together and to remain together in attentive waiting on God… To open the gates of trust in God, nothing can replace the beauty of human voices united in song.”

At the monastery, these sung prayers accompany a program of bible study, fellowship, and communal work. It is the repetition of the words within the songs and the repetition of the songs within the thrice-daily prayer services that keep the prayers repeating in the silence of your heart throughout the day’s activities. As you can probably imagine, the simple, kind, and contemplative Taizé prayer experience has been so wildly meaningful to so many pilgrims, that many have brought Taizé prayer home to be a part of their lives and parishes.

In Rhode Island we now have four parishes that hold prayer services at least loosely inspired by Taizé. The Diocese sponsors one at the Cathedral of St. John, at 4pm on the second Sunday of each month. Christ Church in Westerly and St Paul’s in Pawtucket both also offer regular evening services, and St. Ann’s on Block Island was recently featured in the Block Island Times for their service in the Taizé style. Check out the article, titled In Taize, Less is More. Keep an eye on your eRISEN newsletter to find out when and where the next Taizé service is happening. Don’t receive it? You can sign up here.

If you would like to learn more about bringing Taizé to your parish or would like to come along on this year’s pilgrimage, please email ty@episcopalri.org  or visit the RI Taizé Facebook page.

Lay Leadership Development Day

Register by Monday March 22nd at midnight using the form at the bottom of this post.

This year in addition to Convocation, the Diocese of Rhode Island is offering a Leadership Development Day on March 27th, for all lay leaders in our parishes. The program is free and will include presentations and workshops tailored to specifically support the ministries of Wardens, Vestries, Treasurers, and all other Lay Leadership. Are you a Lay Leader? ...register now to come fill your Lay leadership toolkit. Are you Clergy?... please let your Lay Leaders know about this opportunity!

Schedule
8:00-9:00 Check in
9:00 Opening Plenaries
10:00 Workshop Breakout Sessions
        -Warden Time with Bishop Wolf
        -The Treasurer’s Workshop (all afternoon, may go later than 1pm)
        -Christian Leadership in Times of Change, for Vestry Members and all other Lay Leaders
11:00 Plenary: Panel discussion “Times of Change, Stories from the Real World”
12:00 Lunch
12:45 Closings


For more information contact Ty Creason

The Latest eRISEN

You can view the latest issue of eRISEN, our biweekly email events calendar, at the link below:

eRISEN February 25th 2010 issue

Want to sign up to the eRISEN mailing list? Want to submit your event? Just visit our website

Convocation Resources on our Website

This year's Convocation took place on Saturday February 27th, 2010, and well over 200 people gathered to hear Reggie McNeal speak about the Missional future of the Church!  He offered some exciting ideas on how to look at our Church from a different angle, how to better partner with God in His mission. It was a day full of energy and excitement about possibility and the future.

Did you miss Convocation this year? Do you want some resources to bring the excitement home to your parish?

Check out the follow-up links we've posted on the convocation page of our website to find out what the day was all about, and use these resources to help bring some of the excitement home to your parish! You can also watch the video below in which Reggie does a quick 9 minute summary of the most important points from his talk at Convocation.