Interim On-Line

As you are no doubt aware, Bishop George Wayne Smith has initiated changes in the communications function of the Diocese that include replacing the current communications director. The new person has been hired and will be taking over the communications function in the next several days. The changes initiated by the Bishop include a change in the e-mailed communications. This will be the last issue of Interim On-Line. The announced plan is to combine it with the Weekly Bulletin under a new name. No timetable has been announced for the launching of the new on-line publication. Thursday’s Weekly Bulletin will also be the last edition of that publication in its current format. Thank you for your loyal readership and all the gracious comments on how much you appreciated receiving Interim On-Line and the Weekly Bulletin.

Episcopal News Service
NEW YORK (Dec. 11) – The text of Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori’s first Christmas message since her investiture. MORE

Episcopal News Service
SAN FRANCISCO (Dec. 8) – Bishop Marc Handley Andrus of the Episcopal Diocese of California was arrested Dec. 7 for blocking the front door of the San Francisco federal building to protest the deaths caused by the Iraq war. MORE

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Ecumenical News International: British church leaders denounce renewal of nuclear arms

Southwest Florida elects Dabney Smith as bishop coadjutor

Episcopal News Service

ST. PETERSBURG (Dec. 11) – The Rev. Dabney Smith was elected on the first ballot Dec. 9 as the bishop coadjutor of the Episcopal Diocese of Southwest Florida. Among the other candidates was the Rev. Dr. Jake Owensby, rector of Emmanuel in Webster Groves. MORE

Episcopal News Service: Diocese of Chicago begins accepting nominations for 12th bishop

San Diego parish empowers Latinas through Guadalupe art program

Episcopal News Service
SAN DIEGO (Dec. 12) – The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe is celebrated on Dec. 12 to commemorate the appearance of the Virgin Mary in the Americas. However, for the past four years, St. Paul’s Cathedral in the Diocese of San Diego has used that icon to spiritually empower Latinas in their Guadalupe Art Program. MORE

In Houston, diocesan center returns to downtown

Episcopal News Service
HOUSTON (Dec. 11) – There are big changes going on in downtown Houston, and Christ Church Cathedral and the Diocese of Texas are at the heart of them. The bishop's office and diocesan staff moved the Diocesan Center to new quarters in the block adjacent to Christ Church Cathedral during the first week of December after more than three years of planning and construction. MORE

Nanjing seminary leads way in China’s theological education

Episcopal News Service
NANJING (Dec. 5) – Nanjing Union Theological Seminary, the largest of 17 theological institutions in China, has played a central role in educating Christians throughout the country for more than 50 years and its accomplishments are set to thrive with the completion of its new campus in 2008. MORE

Tanzanian bishops declare ‘impaired communion’ with Episcopal Church

Episcopal News Service
Dar Es Salaam (Dec. 11) – The House of Bishops of the Anglican Church of Tanzania (ACT) issued a statement Dec. 7 saying that its "communion with the Episcopal Church (USA) is severely impaired" in light the 75th General Convention's response to the Windsor Report. The bishops also declared that ACT "shall not knowingly accept financial and material aid from dioceses, parishes, Bishops, priests, individuals and institutions in the Episcopal Church (USA) that condone homosexual practice or bless same-sex unions." MORE

Finding peace in war pieces

Honolulu Star-Bulletin
HICKAM AIR FORCE BASE, Hawai’i (Dec. 7) – There's a bell at St. George's Episcopal Church near Hickam Air Force Base, but it isn't the mellow call-to-vespers kind of bell. It doesn't have the joyful pealing tone that draws a Sunday crowd. The historic quarterdeck bell has such a strident voice that it is rarely struck. It's rolled to the side of the small A-frame church. It is treasured by church members, however, because it is from the USS Arizona. MORE

Missouri News Briefs
Diocese of Missouri
The Rev. Dr. J. Edwin Heathcock is retiring after 20 years as director of pastoral care at St. Luke's Episcopal-Presbyterian Hospital in Chesterfield. His last day on the job will be Dec. 15.

An overflow crowd witnessed the ordination to the priesthood of the Rev. Christina Cobb on Dec. 9 at St. Matthew's in Mexico. Cobb, who was raised up by the congregants at St. Matthew's to be their priest, celebrated her first Eucharist for them Dec. 10.

National and International News Briefs
From News Sources
Bishop John-David Schofield of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin was hospitalized Dec. 3 for mild pneumonia in one lung and what appears to be a gallbladder problem. Schofield remained in the hospital through Dec. 5 awaiting the results of tests.

South African Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu says it is distressing that Israel blocked a planned mission by him and British professor Christine Chinkin to investigate the killing of 19 Palestinian civilians by Israeli shells. The former Anglican archbishop of Cape Town was due on Dec. 10 to lead a team with law professor Chinkin on behalf of the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate the incident at Beit Hanoun in Gaza on Nov. 8.

Archbishop Jabez Bryce, the long-serving Suva-based bishop who shares the leadership of the Anglican Church in this province, has spoken out in the Fiji press of his support for Fiji's elected government--and his dismay at its overthrow by the military.

The Rev. Christine Benoit was the first Anglican woman to be ordained priest in the Diocese of Seychelles during a consecration service on November 26 at St. Paul's Cathedral in Victoria.