Peshawar All Saints’ update; New theological school launched by 4 US Midwestern dioceses; Archbishop David Gitari, former Kenya Primate dies
Peshawar All Saints’ update
In a conversation from Peshawar yesterday, Bishop Humphrey Sarfaraz Peters of the Diocese of Peshawar said that the confirmed death toll from the bombing at All Saints’ Church on Sept.ISC CISSP dumps
22 in the old section of the city stands at 127, with 170 injured.
“It has been just devastating,” he said. “Quite a few children are paralyzed, and others are orphaned. This is a terrible time for the Christian community.” Financial assistance is urgently needed to support the families of the dead and injured, he said.
Government officials, including the Governor of Khyber Pakhtunkwa, the Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and federal ministers, have visited in order to express concern and condolence. The bishop has met with them either at All Saints’, where he has been based over the week, or at his home on the grounds of St. John’s Cathedral.
Yesterday’s car bomb in Qissa Khawani bazaar was detonated nearby while the All Saints’ congregation was again at worship on the first week’s anniversary of the Sept. 22 bomb. “People were in a panic, and there was such a rush,” Bp. Humphrey said, “but after about 25 minutes we were able to get them settled and resume the service.” The bomb killed 40 people and was reported to have exploded about 300 yards from All Saints’, near a mosque and a police station. On Friday, 19 people died when a bomb planted on a bus carrying government employees exploded in the outskirts of Peshawar.
Today’s confirmed count of 127 dead and 170 wounded from the Sept. 22 bomb is lower than the initial reports of 150 dead and 200 wounded, but it is considerably higher than the figure of 85 dead that is being circulated by global news media. Peshawar’s overall death toll from bomb blasts for the week is 176.
“The world reached out wonderfully when Malala Yousafzai was shot,” Bp. Humphrey said, referring to the 15-year-old Pakistani girl who was shot in the head last October by the Taliban for advocating for girls’ education. “There are many Malalas now after the bombing,” he said in appealing for assistance.
Episcopal Relief and Development sent a $15,000 grant, the bishop said. Other initiatives are being developed in the Episcopal Church and may be announced soon.
New theological school launched by 4 US Midwestern dioceses
Class is now in session for the Bishop Kemper School for Ministry, the newly created school that provides theological education to students from the dioceses of Kansas, West Missouri, Nebraska and Western Kansas. The school’s first group of students, 35 people from all four dioceses, met for the first time Aug. 10-11 in Topeka.
To celebrate the school’s creation, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori will be in Topeka on Oct. 5. She will speak at a public forum on the emerging shape of the church and the changing face of ministry. She then will officiate at a service to mark the school’s opening and dedicate school facilities, and she will greet people at a public reception.
The school is named for Bishop Jackson Kemper, the first missionary bishop of the Episcopal Church, who was the organizing bishop when each of the four dioceses was founded in the 19th century. He also was committed to the value of local theological education for the growth and health of the Episcopal Church.
The school was formed from existing diocesan programs to provide a high quality theological education for people preparing for ordination and for lay leaders in congregations, all without having to head off to a traditional seminary, where costs can run more than $30,000 a year.
And for the bishops of the partner dioceses, it provides something critical – the ability to provide pastoral and sacramental leadership for their congregations.
Nebraska Bishop J. Scott Barker said the school “is an answered prayer” for his diocese, in part because the curriculum addresses “the uniqueness of the church in the Midwest,” which includes lots of smaller congregations in cities and towns that are miles apart.
Kansas Bishop Dean Wolfe said the school’s goal is to develop “visionary leaders, faithful leaders, courageous leaders” for congregations, no matter the diocese in which they are located.
West Missouri Bishop Martin Field said the school will provide “well-prepared and able” clergy for congregations that aren’t able to afford the cost of a seminary-trained priest. It also will prompt those congregations to identify natural leaders in their midst to send to the school, he said.
Western Kansas Bishop Michael Milliken called his diocese a “rural/frontier area” made up of very small congregations. This school is “one of the few ways available for a great theological education” for leaders in those churches, he said.
Field added, “I am as excited about this project as I’ve ever been about any project to engage the church for its betterment.
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Archbishop David Gitari, former Kenya Primate dies
Former Primate of the Anglican Church of Kenya, Archbishop David Gitari, died t in Nairobi following a an illness. He was 72.
Within hours of his passing, media reports were describing him as a fearless priest who challenged injustice and fought for mutlipartism in the country.
Archbishop Emeritus Gitari was consecrated as a bishop in 1975 and became the Church’s third Primate between from 1997 to 2002.
He was also a member of the Anglican Consultative Council in the 1980s. Abp Gitari was heavily involved with theological education and ecumenism. He was also a published writer.