Dear friends in Christ,

This has been a violent summer. While we were gathered at General Convention, newspaper headlines told the story of an epidemic of gun violence on the streets of Chicago. Next followed the horrific shootings at the movie in Aurora, Colorado. This past Sunday we felt the shock and sting of gun violence in our own community with the tragic shootings at the Sikh Temple in Oak Creek. These senseless acts, along with countless others less sensational but no less horiffic are evidence that we live in a violent world.

Our culture glorifies violence on screens large and small, in games, movies, and on television. It has the effect of numbing us and making such violence seem normal. Even if it were, our call in Christ is to be instruments of God's peace.

Peace is God's message at the beginning of creation, at the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ, and in our Lord's Easter greeting in the upper room. I invite each member of our diocese to pray and reflect on how God is calling us to be people of peace. Are there ways we participate in the culture of violence that God is calling us to set aside? Is there a mission of peace that God is calling us to join? The world won't change unless we change, or rather, are changed by God's grace more and more into the likeness of Christ.

Elsewhere in this e-newsletter are links to the work we share in with the Wisconsin Conference of Churches and the Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee, undertaken in response to the recent tragedy at the Sikh Temple. I hope that our congregations will participate this weekend in joining others in praying for the Sikh Community. More importantly, I ask you to continue to pray for those who mourn in the months ahead. You might want to use this prayer composed by David Simmons, our ecumenical and Interfaith officer, which draws on images of God we share with our Sikh neighbors.

Eternal God, every day you look after and behold all that you have created. Our world is engrossed in sin and evil. In the midst of the tragedy suffered by the Sikh community, we cry out to you for solace. Comfort the bereaved, heal the wounded, and move us to compassionate action to transform our communities so that they may reflect your eternal peace. Send your spirit throughout the world, that all peoples may be gathered as your children, sharing in your divine light which pervades us all. All this we pray in the name of your Son Jesus Christ, who is the Prince of Peace. Amen.

Yours in Christ,

The Rt. Rev. Steven A. Miller

Bishop of Milwaukee

 Anglican Covenant

The 77th General Convention, supported by the action of our deputation, reaffirmed the commitment of the Episcopal Church to the Anglican Communion, and the support and participation of the Episcopal Church in processes of communication and mission within Communion. Having affirmed that commitment, and in the spirit of not causing undue consternation to our mission partners throughout the Anglican Communion, the Convention declined to make a formal response to the document known as the Anglican Covenant. The deputation's position was consistent with much of the conversation at the Convention regarding the document. We believed, and many discussions at the Convention confirmed, that several sections of the Covenant proposal clearly reflect our understanding of the relationship of The Episcopal Church to and within the Anglican Communion, but not all sections were consistent with our understanding of the structure and polity of the church and the communion. Rather than formally decline the proposed Covenant document, the Convention chose not to make a formal response and instead committed itself to continue in conversation and mission with other members of the Communion.

All resolutions related to the Anglican covenant were taken up by the Legislative Committee on World Mission. In his report to The House of Bishops, Bishop Ian Douglas (Diocese of Connecticut), Episcopal chairman of the World Mission Committee, stated that, "...this church holds a wide variety of ecclesiological positions and opinions on the Anglican Covenant and its position in the Anglican Communion." Bishop Douglas went on to say, "As we continued to perfect....we began to believe that we would be unable to make a positive statement that would not somehow create a significant [number] of winners and losers."

  continued . . . 

The Rev. Eileen Shanley Roberts, schc

Rector of Christ Episcopal Church, Waukegan, IL since 2007

(B.A. and M.A. in Medieval Studies from Univ. of Notre Dame,

M.Div. Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, MA

2001 Fund for Theological Education Ministry Fellow

researching Celtic spirituality and pilgrimage.)

For RSVP and questions, contact the Rev. Eileen Shanley Roberts:

shanleyroberts@gmail.com  (847) 662-7081

Sponsored by the Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross

September 8, 2012

Christ Church Episcopal,

410 Grand Ave., Waukegan, IL 60085

10 a.m to 3 p.m.

Lunch will be served at a cost of $6.00