News Briefs
Episcopal News Service. January 23, 2001 [2001-12]
Christianity remains on top
(AP) According to the second edition of the "World Christian Encyclopedia" (Oxford University Press), Christianity remains the world's biggest religion while Islam and the non-religious population experienced increases in the 20th century.
The compilation of statistical estimates and descriptions for each religious group in every nation states that "Christianity has become the most extensive and universal religion in history."
Even so, no one in 1900 would have predicted the sweeping defections from Christianity that took place "in Western Europe due to secularism, in Russia and later Eastern Europe due to Communism, and in the Americas due to materialism," the book says.
Christianity began and ended the century as the world's biggest religion, the encyclopedia says, with 555 million believers in 1900 or 32.2% of the world population and 1.9 billion or 31% as of 2000.
Christians are divided among 33,820 denominations or similar distinct organizations. Some 386 million believers are in "independent" churches apart from the historic Anglican, Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant branches, the book reports.
Christians belonging to other groups have quadrupled since 1970, with huge increases noted among Pentecostal and Charismatic movements.
Missionaries head to Britain
(ENS) Missionaries from Africa, Asia, and the United States are heading to Britain to convert a nation that they believe has slipped into godless secularism.
A report states that currently there are believed to be nearly 1,500 missionaries from 50 countries and their full-time staff operating in churches in Britain. Sixty percent are from countries where Britons introduced Christianity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The role reversal follows vast growth of the Church in Africa, Asia, and South America and a steady decline in church-going in Western Europe.
The Anglican-based Church Mission Society, which has sent missionaries abroad for the last 200 years, has now brought 20 people from India, Uganda, Chile and Sierra Leone to reinvigorate dying parishes.
Andy Peck, assistant editor of Christianity and Renewal magazine, has written a guide for churches on how to make foreign missionaries feel welcome and help them acclimatize to the "island mentality."
Peck said, "The days when Briton led the world in exporting Christianity along with coal and cricket have long gone. Having led the way we are now on the receiving end of help."
Church of England to lift divorce bar
(ENS) The Church of England could permit divorcees to remarry in church as early as next year following a consultation with church representatives from eight dioceses. Seven of the dioceses expressed their support by a wide margin.
Brian Hanson, legal adviser to the General Synod, said, "It is possible a two-stage process could begin in November and be finalized in the summer of 2002."
However, opponents may attempt to delay it by requiring a change in canon law, which would mean a further consultation with the dioceses.
The results have surprised traditionalists, who fear the move could damage the moral standing of the church by ending the centuries-old prohibition. Bishop Edwin Barnes of Richborough said, "The church should be making it quite clear that marriage is a lifelong commitment and anything that undermines that understanding weakens both church and nation."
With more than four in 10 marriages now ending in divorce, many clergy believe the church's policy against second marriages prevents it from serving large numbers of its own followers. The consultation is expected to end in March, when the bishops will decide how to proceed.
Many believe that the majority of the synod members, including most bishops, support a change but that Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey is said to be sympathetic to the change.
Nature reserves verses the cemetery
(ENS) In the United Kingdom, people are now able to choose woodland or nature reserve burial sites rather than the cemetery or crematorium. With trees planted over bodies rather than headstones, these sites are developing as new forests thereby remaining consistent with the government's policy of combating the effects of pollution by increasing the forest.
There are no legal requirements for grave depths, although the organization Natural Death recommends that a grave should be at least two feet six inches deep from the top of the coffin to the ground. Also, planning permission is required if a burial site is for commercial purposes and not for a family plot on your own land.
Presently, there are more than 100 woodland sites in the UK run by local councils, and farmers who are diversifying into this business to supplement the dwindling income obtained from traditional agriculture.
For further information on woodland burials, call 020 8208 2853, or write to the Natural Death Centre 20 Herber Road, London NW2 6AA.
Russian intellectuals trying to revive atheism
(ENI) A group of scientists and human rights activists are trying to revive atheism in a post-communist climate where religion is growing in influence. The Moscow Society of Atheists plans to send an open letter to President Vladimir Putin to protest the mention of God in the new text for the Russian national anthem, claiming that the action was against the nation's constitution that proclaims Russia is a secular state.
In the new text, adopted unilaterally by presidential decree, praise for Lenin and the Communist Party is replaced with praise for Russia as the "holy country." Organizers of the society said that polls show that slightly less than half of all Russians regard themselves as atheists and their rights need protection against encroachment, especially by the Russian Orthodox Church.
They pointed to the introduction of religion courses in state educational institutions, the blessing by priests of government offices and the presence of Orthodox priests as chaplains in the army as evidence. A spokesman for Russian Orthodox Church's Moscow Patriarchate said that formation of the society was a "new wave of godlessness among a certain group of Russian intellectuals."
People
The Rev. Onell A. Soto, assistant bishop of Alabama, has began writing a column for Rápidas, the Spanish language paper sponsored by the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI) headquartered in Quito, Ecuador.
Soto founded Rápidas 29 years ago when he was executive secretary of the Ninth Province and lived in El Salvador.
Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD) recently announced the following staff changes:
· Malaika Kamunanwire has accepted the position of director of development and public relations. She has a BA from Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, and an MS in political science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
· Linda Gulla is the executive assistant to the Executive Director Sandra Swan. She has a degree in business management from Bowling Green University.
· Teresa Ebanks and Linda Lyons-Jenkins will be working as donor associates for donor records and recognition. Ebanks worked on the ERD Honduras project and Lyons-Jenkins worked in the controller's office.