News Briefs
Episcopal News Service. February 26, 2001 [2001-48]
Advent and Lenten guide available
(ENS) The Higher Education Ministries Arena, an ecumenical partnership of seven denominations, recently announced the availability of an Advent and Lenten meditation guide for students. This year's guide was written by a team of three students and one chaplain and is now available via e-mail for free.
To receive emails go to join-lent2001@epicom.org and during the Lenten season, you can receive a plain-text message along with an Adobe pdf with a brief meditation, a prayer, a simple chant, and on Sundays, an art meditation.
The partnership includes the American Baptist Churches USA, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Episcopal Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Church of Christ, and the United Methodist Church.
Going to church can save your life
(HealthScout) Researchers at the Human Population Laboratory in California who looked at the statistics from a long-running study of Alameda County residents have concluded that if you go to church regularly you'll be healthier than your neighbor who doesn't.
The researchers have been tracking the health and social habits of about 7,000 people in the Northern California enclave since 1965. About 2,000 are still in the study.
"We've known for some time that people who attend church services live longer, but the question is why," said William Strawbridge, senior research scientist at the laboratory. "It turns out that regular attendees are in better health at the start, and those who don't have good health habits are apt to improve if they go to church."
The study found those who go to church at least once a week are almost twice as likely to stop smoking as those who don't go to church, and are 50 percent more likely to become physically active. And regular churchgoing apparently has an even greater positive effect on women.
"Women are more apt to improve and maintain health behaviors," Strawbridge says. "For instance, women are more than four times more likely to stop excess drinking than men."
The study, which was supported by the National Institute on Aging and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), appears in the current issue of the Annals of Behavioral Medicine.
Regular churchgoers also seem to form lasting relationships outside church more readily than those who never darken the vestibule doorway, the study concludes. This additional social contact could be another reason they are healthier.
For more information see http://www.healthscout.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/Af?ap=43&id=108229
Christians in the Congo live in fear
(Southern Cross Online) The assassination of Laurent Kabila, president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, has revived the country's three year-old tribal wars.
The Congo, one of the most resource-rich countries in Africa, has been crippled by 35 years of corrupt leadership under Presidents Kabila and Mobutu.
An Australian mission partner, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, has taken many people into her home since the outbreak of violence, including the head nurse and 14 nursing students from an Anglican hospital in Boga.
"There is much tension and people are very scared," she said. "This is genocide, the Walendu/Wangiti against the Wahema/Wagerere. It's a continuation of the tribal fighting that started to the north of here where maybe 30,000 have died. It's just horrific," the mission partner said.
When rioting began in Bunia, Anglican archbishop Patrice Njojo was seen fleeing and his whereabouts are still not known.
Archdeacon Ise-Somo, head of the Department of Evangelism for the country, called on Australians, in a letter, to pray for Congo:
"Pray for us all so much at Bunia…We are tired with the life of this world and our prayer is that our Lord will come and take this Church so that we can go and rest in peace. But we still have the thirst to continue to preach the good news of salvation for those who have not yet been born anew."
People
The General Theological Seminary in New York announced February 5 the election of the Rev. Robert Giannini as its new board chairman and the appointment of Dr. Delbert C. Glover, in January as its associate dean for planning and development.
Giannini has served for the past 11 years as dean and rector of Christ Church Cathedral in Indianapolis. He will succeed Bishop Mellick Belshaw who retired after nine years of service.
Glover is a retired executive of the Dupont Corporation of Wilmington, Delaware for where he worked 32 years.
The Colleges and Universities of the Anglican Communion (CUAC) welcomed the Rev. Don Thompson as its new general secretary on January 26.
Thompson has been president and provost for the past nine years of Thorneloe University in Sudbury, Ontario. He is a priest in the Anglican Church of Canada.
The following people recently joined the Episcopal Church Center staff:
* The Rev. Juan Marquez will join Anglican & Global Relations on March 5 as an international partnerships officer. Marquez most recently served as a prison chaplain for the New York State Department of Corrections.
* Lisette Sosa joined the Telecommunications Department on January 29 as a console attendant. Sosa replaced Winifred White, who recently retired.
* Janette O'Neill and Jim Hemphill joined the Episcopal Relief Development Department as a program advisor and consultant respectively on February 9.
O'Neill is responsible for programs in Africa and will coordinate the church-wide campaign for Jerusalem 2000.
Hemphill will provide general management consulting, exploration of appropriate management and governance structures and establish general project policies.