(CCCB - Ottawa) – His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI today appointed Father Bryan Bayda, C.Ss.R., as the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchial Bishop of Saskatoon.

The Holy Father also accepted the resignation of Most Reverend Michael Wiwchar, C.Ss.R., who held the position since 2001. Conforming to the mandatory age of retirement at 75, Bishop Wiwchar formally requested retirement following his 75th birthday in May 2007.

(CECC – Ottawa) Sa Sainteté le pape Benoît XVI a procédé aujourd'hui à la nomination du Père Bryan Bayda, C.Ss.R., comme évêque éparchial de Saskatoon.

Le Saint-Père a accepté en même temps la démission de Mgr Michael Wiwchar, C.Ss.R., qui occupait ce siège épiscopal depuis 2001. Conformément au code de droit canonique fixant l'âge de la retraite à 75 ans, Mgr Wiwchar avait présenté sa démission au Souverain Pontife lors de son 75e anniversaire, le 9 mai 2007.

[ACNS 4404] The Anglican-Old Catholic International Co-ordinating Council (AOCICC) met in Schloss Beuggen, Germany, from 14 to 18 April 2008. The Council welcomed the new Old Catholic Co-chair, the Rt Revd Joachim Vobbe (who also served as the Co-chair from 1998 to 2003), and the new Old Catholic member, the Revd Henriette Crüwell, both appointed by the Old Catholic International Bishops' Conference (IBC). The Council awaits the appointment of a representative of the Convocation of American Churches in Europe.

[ACNS 4405 • Chennai, India] The Third Anglican – Lutheran International Commission (ALIC) held its third meeting at Chennai, India, between 28 April and 5 May 2008, under the co-chairmanship of the Most Reverend Fred Hiltz, Primate of Canada, and of Reverend Dr. Cameron Harder, Lutheran Theological Seminary, Saskatoon, Canada, in the absence of Bishop Thomas Nyiwé, Cameroon, who was unable to attend.

May 21-24, 2008, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon

Each year, the Canadian Community Economic Development Network holds a national conference to bring together those who support community-based efforts to improve social conditions and create economic opportunities in Canada and beyond. The 2008 National Community Economic Development (CED) Conference is hosted by the Canadian CED Network in partnership with Quint Development Corporation.

As the premier CED event in Canada, the conference aims to:

• Strengthen CED practitioners and organizations
• Advance a pan-Canadian policy agenda for CED
• Contribute to skills development and capacity building
• Increase the profile of CED as a viable approach to the economic revitalization of Canadian communities.

Each year, the conference attracts over 400 CED practitioners, civil society representatives, civil servants, business and co-operative developers, and academics for dozens of learning and information sharing sessions, inspirational keynote speakers, networking opportunities, and local site visits. The annual conference provides an opportunity for participants to pause and reflect on our grassroots beginnings, while coming together to develop a vision for what we wish to achieve.

**Registration will be open mid-February 2008**

To download a PDF of the program, click here.

by the Rev. Dr. Jan Bigland-Pritchard,
Director, Prairie Centre for Ecumenism

I am writing with my Board's unanimous backing to ask your financial and personal support for the re-designed Station 20 West project. The project seeks to raise $1.675 million by December 31, 2008 in order to build in the spring of 2009.

Background
$8 million of provincial funding was withdrawn earlier this year from a project designed to bring food security, nutrition education and health services within the reach of residents of Saskatoon's core neighbourhoods, many of whom cannot travel to get food and services.

Decision to go ahead
Public support since the announcement of the funding cut has been overwhelming. Saskatoon City Council unanimously agreed to give Station 20 West an extension on the time it has to begin building. The Station 20 West Board decided to go ahead with what was always at the heart of the project – a community grocery store, including a small café, with a commercial kitchen next door managed by CHEP to provide nutrition education and help for people wishing to develop small catering businesses. There will also be office space in the complex available for health and community services.

[The Anglican Journal • Marites N. Sison] Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, said that "an emerging focus around mission" characterized a spring gathering of the third Anglican Lutheran International Commission (ALIC) in Chennai, India.

Meeting from April 28 to May 5, the group discussed "how Anglicans and Lutherans approach mission, how they understand it, how they carry it out," said Archbishop Hiltz, co-chair of ALIC, which oversees Anglican-Lutheran relationships worldwide. "Within that focus there was yet another focus around diakonia, which is the servant ministry of the church," he said.

In the three years that he has co-chaired the ALIC, Arcbishop Hiltz said that he has noted "movement and progress around a common understanding of what we call ecclesiology, that is, the nature of the church." There has also been progress around such issues as, "What do we mean by the visible unity of the church? What does that really mean, what might that look like?" He added that they have also "gone deep on the ecclesiological question of, 'what is the church in the world for, anyway?'"

The commission received reports from various regions where Anglicans and Lutherans are present and exercise ministry together.

"In some parts of the world, they've got agreements like we have in Canada, the Waterloo Declaration. (The 2001 accord brought the Canadian Anglican and Evangelical churches closer together in a relationship called full communion.) Different places have different agreements. Some places are not at a point where they actually have an agreement," said Archbishop Hiltz. "We are at different stages in our dialogue."

"Regional check-ins" are important because concerns and challenges are brought to light, he said. "As they do that, they may hear from other members of the commission from different regions who have already addressed a similar challenge."

Archbishop Hiltz underscored the value of holding the ALIC's meetings in different regions of the world, noting that the commission always creates space in its agenda to engage with the local church. "That engagement is everything from bringing in leaders from all over the church to tell us their story" to worshipping in local churches, he said.

In a communiqué released after its meeting, the ALIC welcomed the re-activation of the All Africa Anglican-Lutheran Commission. Archbishop Hiltz noted that when the commission first met in Moshe, Tanzania, the African members of the commission and the local bishops and clergy had reported that their regional grouping "was at a kind of low ebb, primarily because they were so absorbed in trying to cope with HIV-AIDS" in their areas. He added: "As they said, until the people and leadership of the church can see … Anglicans and Lutherans working together on the ground to address this immediate, in-your-face issue, dialogue doesn't make sense. Why would we have this conversation if you're not following through on action on the ground?" There was a recognition of "a bit of a need for some renewed leadership in the conversation," he said. "Lo, and behold, at this meeting, we heard that (its) work has been rekindled … they've got a plan laid out for the next couple of years whereby Lutheran and Anglican bishops will meet, theologians and clergy will meet."

The commission also discussed the proposed Anglican Covenant, which will be presented at the upcoming Lambeth Conference this July. "One of the big concerns at the joint commission (meeting) last year, as we heard from the other provinces, and certainly, from the Lutherans, was the concern around a growing authority for the primates' meetings," said Archbishop Hiltz. (At last year's meeting, the commission said it had "extensive discussions" on the first draft of the covenant, and "offered a response from the perspective of the document's potential impact on ecumenical relations between the two communions.")

Archbishop Hiltz said that the commission has noted that, "the role of the primates as some kind of magisterium (doctrinal authority) is downplayed considerably," in the second draft released early this year, known as the St. Andrew's Draft.

The establishment of a covenant was one of the key recommendations of the 2004 Windsor Report, a document published by the Lambeth Commission on Communion, which was created by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams to address a schism in the Anglican Communion over the issue of sexuality.

The Lutheran World Federation, in co-operation with the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in India, hosted the ALIC meeting.

[The Tablet • Christa Pongratz-Lippitt] Cardinal Walter Kasper this week admitted that Christian-Jewish relations were going through a difficult period following the publication of the revised Good Friday Prayer for the Tridentine Rite, writes Christa Pongratz-Lippitt. Cardinal Kasper, president of the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, was speaking in an interview with the Ulm-based daily Südwest-Presse on the eve of the Katholikentag in Osnabrück. Several prominent German Jews will not be attending that event on account of the prayer.

Admitting the current tensions in Catholic-Jewish relations in Germany, Cardinal Kasper said: "Germany is, of course, particularly sensitive for historical reasons. This is a difficult period but I think we will be able to get back to the level of dialogue we have had up to now - at least that is what we would like to achieve."

Asked why a German Pope "of all people" had been so "insensitive to German history" Cardinal Kasper said Pope Benedict "wanted to do something positive. He wanted to improve a prayer that the Jews found offensive and he succeeded. But that did not go quite as far as people wanted or expected. The Pope showed his good will as his unplanned visit to a synagogue in the US shows. This was seen as something most positive in America. In Germany things are different but we are doing all we can to overcome the difficulties."

Asked why Pope Paul VI's Good Friday Prayer for the Jews had not been adopted for the Tridentine Mass, Cardinal Kasper replied, "The present Pope wanted the language of the old prayer kept while improving the contents. He did not want to introduce a new liturgical form into the old, extraordinary form."

(CCCB – Ottawa) On 26 May 2008, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation of Most Reverend Blaise Morand as Bishop of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, and appointed Father Albert Thévenot, M. Afr., as his successor.

At the time of his nomination, Bishop-elect Thévenot was the Provincial Superior for North America of the Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers), which is based in Montreal. Bishop Morand is retiring as required by Canon Law, having reached the age of 75 years in September 2007.

(CECC – Ottawa) Le 26 mai 2008, le pape Benoît XVI a accepté la démission de Mgr Blaise Morand, évêque de Prince Albert, en Saskatchewan, et a nommé le Père Albert Thévenot, M. Afr., pour lui succéder.

Au moment de sa nomination, l'évêque-élu était Supérieur provincial de la Société des Missionnaires d'Afrique pour l'Amérique du Nord, dont les bureaux sont situés à Montréal. Quant à Mgr Morand, qui a été ordonné évêque en juin 1981, il prend sa retraite conformément au Code de droit canonique, ayant atteint l'âge de 75 ans en décembre 2007.

ELCA News Service • May 28, 2008
by Frank Imhoff

The Deaconess Community of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) elected Sister E. Anne Keffer to a second four-year term as its directing deaconess April 27 during its biennial assembly April 25-28 at the Carol Joy Holling Camp in Ashland, Neb. In the balloting for directing deaconess, Keffer received 29 votes, Sister Davia A. Baldauf, Mount Holly Springs, Pa., received 19 votes and Sister Carolyn R. Hellerich, Lincoln, Neb., received three votes. The community elected Baldauf, Sister Melinda A. Lando, New York, and Sister Amy M. Lindquist, St Paul, Minn., to its board of directors.

Keffer is a graduate of Waterloo Lutheran University (now Wilfrid Laurier University), Waterloo, Ontario, and the Baltimore Deaconess School, Baltimore. She earned bachelor of education and master of education degrees from the University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, and a doctor of ministry degree from the Graduate Theological Foundation, South Bend, Ind. Keffer served as a director of Christian education and youth ministry in urban and rural team ministry settings across Canada, and as a chaplain on two university campuses and a retirement home. She was director of the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, when elected directing deaconess of the ELCA Deaconess Community in 2004.

The Deaconess Community is a community of lay women consecrated by the church to a ministry of Word and service. Sisters in the community work in a variety of settings such as health care, Christian education and social services. Deaconesses are theologically trained and professionally prepared for their careers. They are called to ministry by congregations and synods of the ELCA and Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada.

A Summer Ecumenical Institute will be held in Montreal from June 4 to 6, 2008, with the theme "Is Christianity still relevant today? How to respond effectively to a postmodern culture." This bilingual programme has been planned and organized by the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism. There will be a variety of speakers, including Rev. Dr. Karen Hamilton; Fr. Tom Ryan, c.s.p.; Rev. Dr. James Christie; Rev. Dr. Glenn Smith; Rev. Dr. Stephen Bigham; Dr. Édouard Bédard, and Joy Bédard.

For further information, please contact the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism at 1819 René-Lévesque Ouest, Montréal, QC, H3H 2P5; phone 514-937-9176; fax 514-937-4986; email or their new website www.oikoumene.ca. The registration brochure is also available online.

Note: The Prairie Centre for Ecumenism will not be holding a Summer Ecumenical Institute in 2008 and encourages Prairie ecumenists to participate in this SEI in Montreal.