Everybody’s got their brackets done for the NCAA basketball tournament. Now it seems a faith group has found a way to help you give more during this basketball bonanza.

Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation, an Episcopal group working to eradicate poverty, aims to do good with its project focusing on the tournament.

The group is running a bracket for the tournament to raise money for charity, the Associated Press reported.

Money raised through the “March Gladness” pot will be donated to nonprofits that work toward the group’s Millennium Development Goals. I know from having talked to the Rt. Rev. Ed Konieczny, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Oklahoma, that meeting these goals is a high priority for the bishops and Anglicans across the globe.

The eight goals, drafted in 2000, are to: feed the hungry, educate all children, empower women, save children’s lives, keep motherhood safe, heal the sick, care for the environment and work together to heal the world.

Check out the March Gladness effort and see how it all works by going online to www.e4gr.org/marchgladness.html.

Carla Hinton

Religion Editor

The Rt. Rev. Edward Konieczny, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Oklahoma, will share information about the conference, which he attended in England along with other bishops in the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Dates,  times and locations of the briefings are as followed:

6:30 p.m. Tuesday at All Saints Episcopal Church in Duncan.

6:30 p.m. Wednesday at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in Ardmore.

6:30 p.m. Thursday at St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral in Oklahoma City.

6 p.m. Sept. 8 at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Enid.

7 p.m. Sept. 12 at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Tulsa.

6 p.m. Sept. 21 at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Grove.

PHOTO ABOVE RIGHT FROM EPISCOPALOKLAHOMA.ORG/The Rt. Rev. Edward Konieczny, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Oklahoma, poses for a picture with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, at the 2008 Lambeth Conference in England.  

PHOTO FROM EPISCOPALOKLAHOMA.ORG/The Rt. Rev. Edward Konieczny, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Oklahoma, poses for a picture with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, at the 2008 Lambeth Conference in England.  

As he prepared to travel to the much-anticipated Lambeth Conference, Bishop Edward Konieczny predicted that some difficult conversations were ahead for participants of the once-a-decade event in England.

Apparently those weighty matters have descended upon n bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Oklahoma, and others attending the conference set to wrap up on Sunday.

As promised, Konieczny has been posting missives about the conference on the Oklahoma diocese’s Web site. In his most recent posting Konieczny said hearings regarding the Windsor Report began yesterday.

The Windsor Report was  issued in 2003 by a group of leaders in the  worldwide Anglican Communion. It sharply criticized the Episcopal Church USA, the American arm of the Anglican Communion, for the 2003 consecration of the first openly gay Episcopal bishop (V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire – who, by the way, was excluded from Lambeth, but is meeting in an area near the prestigious gathering with some bishops and other leaders supporters).   

The homosexuality issue, which has been so divisive for the Anglican Communion, possibly will take center stage at Lambeth later as well. Konieczny said in the next few days, the bishops are to discuss, among other things, human sexuality.

He once again predicted there will be more difficult conversations, but seemed hopeful that some leaders have been able to at least share their opinions and beliefs face-to-face, which is what Lambeth is really all about.

“I am still hopeful that through those who are faithfully entering into personal conversations and dialogue, we as a Communion can find a way forward,” Konieczny wrote.

Carla Hinton

Religion Editor