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• Keffer re-elected directing deaconess of ELCA Deaconess Community
• Christian-Jewish relations ‘difficult’
• Anglican-Lutheran meeting focused on mission and 'servant ministry'
• New Anglican bishop 'will play by the rules'
• Interim editor appointed for Anglican Journal




Printer-friendly versionKeffer re-elected directing deaconess of ELCA Deaconess Community

ELCA News Service • May 28, 2008
by Frank Imhoff

Sister E. Anne KefferThe 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.

 Printer-friendly version   Posted: May 28, 2008Transmis : 28 mai, 2008 • TagsMots clés :



Printer-friendly versionChristian-Jewish relations ‘difficult’

[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." Printer-friendly version   Posted: May 24, 2008Transmis : 24 mai, 2008 • TagsMots clés :



Printer-friendly versionAnglican-Lutheran meeting focused on mission and 'servant ministry'

[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. Printer-friendly version   Posted: May 23, 2008Transmis : 23 mai, 2008 • TagsMots clés :



Printer-friendly versionNew Anglican bishop 'will play by the rules'

[Don Retson, edmontonjournal.com] Edmonton's new Anglican bishop won't be bending the rules in the local diocese for gay couples wishing to exchange marital vows in church.

"Basically, I'm a play-by-the-rules girl," the Rt. Rev. Jane Alexander said.

"At the present time the national church has said we're going to talk about this and we will vote again and look at this in 2010. And so that's what we'll do."

At All Saints' Anglican Cathedral last Sunday, Alexander was consecrated and installed as the 10th bishop of the Diocese of Edmonton.

Alexander succeeds the Rt. Rev. Victoria Matthews, currently residing in Toronto, who is the designate-bishop of Christchurch, New Zealand. It is the first time in the history of the church that two women bishops have served back to back.

At certain points during the service, Alexander was moved to tears as elements of the past and present came together amid the pomp and ceremony. But the event was as spiritually uplifting for her as it was emotionally draining.

"There was just an incredible feeling of the Spirit in the cathedral," she said, adding she felt so supported by the 700 people who packed the cathedral and spilled into the hall.

The Alexander family moved here from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in 1980. Husband Tim is a radiologist at University Hospital. The couple have four children.

Alexander breaks the traditional mould of church leaders.

Her father was so anti-church that he forbade young Jane from attending religious classes at her school in England. It was while singing hymns and oratorios in choirs and school assemblies that Alexander said she heard "the first whisperings of God."

She was baptized at 25 along with her infant son Mark. At 37, while working as a professor of educational psychology at the University of Alberta, Alexander felt the call of ministry.

After theological studies, ordination in 2001 and serving several local parishes, Alexander in 2006 was inducted as rector at All Saints and installed as dean of the diocese.

On March 8, Alexander was elected on the third ballot as spiritual leader of the roughly 77,000 Anglicans in the Diocese of Edmonton.

She prides herself as a good listener and being very collegial, skills surely needed now more than ever considering the rift over the same-sex issue. More than a dozen parishes have voted in recent months to split from the church over the ongoing controversy.

Only 49, Alexander could potentially serve as bishop until mandatory retirement at 70. Printer-friendly version   Posted: May 16, 2008Transmis : 16 mai, 2008 • TagsMots clés :



Printer-friendly versionInterim editor appointed for Anglican Journal

[ACC News] Keith Knight, a former communications director for the Presbyterian Church in Canada has been appointed interim editor of the Anglican Journal, the Anglican Church of Canada's independent newspaper.

The appointment, announced to Journal staff by Communications and Information Resources director Vianney (Sam) Carriere, follows the resignation of Leanne Larmondin, who has been editor for five years.

Mr. Knight's appointment is for a six-month term ending in January, 2009. In the fall, a formal search process will be undertaken to hire a successor to Ms Larmondin.

Mr. Knight left the Presbyterian Church position last year. Since January, he has been working as Communications Coordinator for the Primate's World Relief and Development Fund, the Anglican church's development agency.

Mr. Knight has also worked as communications coordinator for the Christian Reformed Church in North America.

He has extensive journalism experience with the secular press, having worked as city editor of the Welland Evening Tribune, editor of the Lindsay Post, managing editor of the Bobcaygeon Independent and Fenelon Falls Gazette and managing editor of the Wallaceburg News.

He is the author of numerous articles on religious communications and of a book on churches and the Internet. Mr. Knight is the current president of the North American chapter of the World Association for Christian Communication.

The award-winning Anglican Journal is published 10 times a years and distributed to every recognizable giver to the Anglican Church of Canada. Though partly funded by the church, it has an independent editorial voice and is incorporated separately from General Synod. Printer-friendly version   Posted: May 15, 2008Transmis : 15 mai, 2008 • TagsMots clés :