Healing, understanding also inform new visitors' website, http://www.comeandgrow.org/

[ENS] - Monday, October 18, brings the Church's annual observance of the Feast of St. Luke, who was himself a physician, a patron of other healers, and an early missionary in the spread of Christianity through the Roman world. This year, October 18 also brings the release of the Windsor Report of the Lambeth Commission on Communion, an international panel charged last year by the Archbishop of Canterbury to explore the nature of ties that unite the world's 77 million Anglicans in 38 church provinces spanning 164 countries.

Details of the release in London of the much-anticipated report at 7 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (12 noon British Summer Time; 4 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time) are outlined in a media advisory posted at www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_51811_ENG_HTM.htm. Additional resources regarding the Lambeth Commission on Communion are also posted by ENS on-line. A helpful feature is the new Fast Facts posting found at www.episcopalchurch.org/fastfacts. Recorded coverage of the Windsor Report news conference will also be posted to ENS online resources later in the day on October 18.

Another new communications resource serving the Episcopal Church is its new on-line center to welcome visitors. This center follows the theme "The Episcopal Church Welcomes You: Come and Grow," and is accessed through the Web address http://www.comeandgrow.org/. Designed for newcomers unaffiliated with the Church, the new site guides visitors to ways in which they might consider exploring personal and spiritual growth in terms of widened understanding, gratitude, service and peace. The guiding scripture for the site is Ephesians 4:15, "...speaking truth in love, we will in all things grow" in maturity in Christ, a theme emphasized by Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold at September's meeting of the House of Bishops (see sermon text at www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_51477_ENG_HTM.htm).

Following from the book of Lesser Feasts and Fasts is the contemporary collect (prayer), readings, and biographical background suggested for Monday's remembrance of St. Luke. (Source: Lesser Feasts and Fasts, New York: Church Publishing Inc., 2003).

Collect: "Almighty God, who inspired your servant Luke the physician to set forth in the Gospel the love and healing power of your Son: Graciously continue in your Church this love and power to heal, to the praise and glory of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen."

Scriptures: Psalm 147; Ecclesiasticus 38:1-4, 6-10, 12-14; 2 Timothy 4:5-13; Luke 4:14-21

On St. Luke: "Luke was a Gentile, a physician, and one of Paul's fellow missionaries in the early spread of Christianity through the Roman world. He has been identified as the writer of both the Gospel which bears his name, and its sequel, the Acts of the Apostles. He had apparently not known Jesus, but was clearly much inspired by hearing about him from those who had known him.

"Luke wrote in Greek, so that Gentiles might learn about the Lord, whose life and deeds so impressed him. In the first chapter of his Gospel, he makes clear that he is offering authentic knowledge about Jesus' birth, ministry, death and resurrection. The Gospel is not a full biography -- none of the Gospels are -- but a history of salvation.

"Only Luke provides the very familiar stories of the annunciation to Mary, of her visit to Elizabeth, of the child in the manger, the angelic host appearing to the shepherds, and the meeting with the aged Simeon. Luke includes in his work six miracles and 18 parables not recorded in the other Gospels. In Acts he tells about the coming of the Holy Spirit, the struggles of the apostles and their triumphs over persecution, of their preaching of the Good News, and the conversion and baptism of other disciples, who would extend the Church in future years.

"Luke was with Paul apparently until the latter's martyrdom in Rome. What happened to Luke after Paul's death is unknown. Early tradition has it that he wrote his Gospel in Greece, and that he died at the age of 84 in Boeotia. Gregory of Nazianzus says that Luke was martyred, but his testimony is doubted by most scholars. In the fourth century, the Emperor Constantius ordered the supposed relics of Luke to be removed from Boeotia to Constantinople, where they could be venerated by pilgrims."