Religion News Briefs

Saint Mark's sets immigration talk

Saint Mark's Episcopal Church, 1000 N. Mississippi St., will host the panel discussion What the Church Needs to Know About Immigration at 9:15 a.m. Sunday.

Panel speakers will be Steven Copley, executive director of Interfaith Arkansas; University of Arkansas at Little Rock professor emeritus Roger Webb; and Maria Meneses and Mireya Reith of Arkansas United Community Coalition.

From noon to 2 p.m. Sunday, panelists will take part in a light lunch with attendees in the Parish Hall.

Child care and lunch will be provided. For more information, contact Jan Hart at (501) 590-0517 or (501) 225-4203.

-- Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Mormons offer nativity festival

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 13901 Quail Run Drive, will host "Celebrating the Birth of Christ," a free interdenominational nativity festival for families, from 5-8 p.m. Friday and Dec. 2.

The festival will include exhibits of nativity displays and an art gallery, with all items on loan from area residents. A "living" nativity with actors will also be featured. A children's room will have crafts and articles of clothing and accessories for dress-up. Music will be performed throughout the evening.

Parental supervision is required. For more information, call (501) 455-0342.

-- Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Slaymaker quits as Hope liaison

Lorrie Slaymaker of Benton, who has been serving as Little Rock's Community of Hope International liaison for the Episcopal Diocese of Arkansas, resigned from the organization's board of directors effective Oct. 3.

Slaymaker, 62, is now serving as part-time rector at St. Matthew's Episcopal Church in Benton and at Grace Episcopal Church in Pine Bluff. Aside from time commitments, she also cited the recent arrival of a grandchild as part of her decision to resign from the organization's board, of which she had been a member since 2003.

While Slaymaker will continue to volunteer helping to organize Community of Hope's annual retreats for lay chaplains, she said she will miss her work with the organization.

"It makes me a little bit sad to leave this all behind, but I also feel invigorated and rewarded by the work that I've done and that we've done together on the board," Slaymaker said. "... [The work] lives on through them, and it's certainly something I will be using in my life."

Community of Hope International was founded in 1994 to provide 14-week training courses taught in churches for those seeking to become lay chaplains. Since its establishment, more than 125 centers have been established worldwide. Arkansas' first training center was begun by Madge Brown of the Episcopal Diocese of Arkansas in 2001.

-- Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Anglicans issue gender directive

LONDON -- In new rules to counter bullying in its 4,700 schools, the Church of England said Nov. 13 that children should be able to "play with the many cloaks of identity" in the classroom, fueling a debate over the handling of gender among the very young.

In a directive called Valuing All God's Children, the church said elementary school students "should be at liberty to explore the possibilities of who they might be without judgment or derision."

"For example, a child may choose the tutu, princess's tiara and heels and/or the fireman's helmet, tool belt and superhero cloak without expectation or comment," it said. "Childhood has a sacred place for creative self-imagining."

The Most Rev. Justin Welby, archbishop of Canterbury, who leads the Church of England and is the spiritual leader of the world's 80 million Anglicans, endorsed the guidelines.

"We must avoid, at all costs, diminishing the dignity of any individual to a stereotype or a problem," he wrote. "Church of England schools offer a community where everyone is a person known and loved by God, supported to know their intrinsic value."

Some traditionalists took issue with the edict.

"These rules are unkind, unloving and lacking in compassion," said Andrea Minichiello Williams, chief executive of the evangelical group of Christian Concern. "We are all against bullying, but the church is using these guidelines to pursue an agenda that runs counter to the church's teaching."

-- The New York Times

Religion on 11/25/2017

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