News Briefs
Episcopal News Service. September 13, 2001 [2001-248]
Middle East consultations postponed
(ENS) In the wake of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, DC, two consultations on the crisis in the Middle East have been postponed.
In a memo to the 140 participants registered for the New York consultation, and over 100 for the Berkeley event, the Rev. Brian Grieves, director of Peace and Justice Ministries, said he had learned that Bishop Riah Abu el-Assal would not be able to get out of Jerusalem and all domestic flights have been cancelled, making it impossible to open the September 13-15 meeting in New York. After consulting with Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold, he said that it was necessary to postpone the consultation. "This is an agonizing decision," Grieves said in his message on September 11. "We also need time to mourn the loss of those who died today and to reflect on the wider implications of our role as peacemakers in the world."
In a follow-up message a few days later, he thanked those who had sent "many messages of support and understanding" and said that "we are in discussion about rescheduling the consultations." He added that "it will be imperative to consider the implications of the tragic events on September 11 as the context for the work we need to do now more than ever." He noted that staff members have been "dividing our time to be with volunteers and victims' families at trauma sites in the city. The compassion of so many people in New York has been remarkable," he said. "And the enormity of this act of inhumanity is still impossible to fully grasp."
Episcopal Relief and Development Launches Appeal in aftermath of September 11 Disaster
Episcopal Relief and Development is responding to the horrific acts on Tuesday, September 11, 2001 which killed and injured thousands in New York and Washington, DC.
"We are profoundly saddened by this tragedy which has devastated the American people," said Sandra Swan, Executive Director. "As we watch the horror unfold, our faith calls us respond to the needs of families and countless others who have been touched and permanently changed by this tragedy."
Episcopal Relief and Development is providing food and drink for 24 hour teams involved in the search and rescue operation. In the next several days and beyond, ERD will offer trauma and grief counseling for those affected.
ERD is currently assisting local dioceses in the affected areas and will continue to support the relief effort in the upcoming days and weeks as needs are identified.
Episcopal Relief and Development's programs are made possible by contributions from individuals and from churches and dioceses throughout the Episcopal Church. Its programs of emergency relief, rehabilitation, and long-term development are geared to strengthen local communities in the United States and around the world.
Contributions for this effort can be sent to Episcopal Relief and Development:
Episcopal Relief and Development
c/o September 11 Disaster
Box 12043, Newark, NJ 07101
For additional information, please visit www.er-d.org or contact us at (800) 334-7626 ext.5129.
Anglicans and Roman Catholics meet in Dublin
(ENS) The Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) met at the end of August in Dublin, under the co-chairmanship of Roman Catholic Archbishop Alexander Brunett of Seattle and Bishop Frank T. Griswold, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church USA.
According to a communique issued September 3, the commission continued its discussion on the place of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the life and doctrine of the church. "The members studied matters related to Mary in the Scriptures, Patristic thought, Reformation authors and the dogmatic definitions regarding the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption," the communique said. Members of the commission "agreed a schema for a statement based upon the dialogue to date and undertook some preliminary drafting."
The commission has been receiving responses to its most recent agreed statement, "The Gift of Authority," issued in May of 1999, including the official study now underway in Anglican provinces, as mandated by the Anglican Consultative Council.
"The commission felt very profoundly the absence of its longest standing member, Father Jean-Marie Tillard, OP, who had died since the last meeting of the plenary," the communique noted. "The members recalled, with deep appreciation and affection, by informal conversation and liturgical commemoration, the immense contribution of Father Tillard to the work and life of the commission."
The commission will meet next in Vienna next July.
Bishops warn against imposition of Islamic law in Nigeria
(ENS) According to press reports, Roman Catholic bishops from the English-speaking countries in West Africa have told the Nigerian government it must act now to resist the imposition of strict Islamic law (sharia) in the northern parts of the country before the situation deteriorates into a Muslim-Christian conflict and spill into other nations in the area.
In an August 30 communique at the end of a plenary of the Episcopal Conference of Anglophone West Africa, the bishops urged the Nigerian government to "heed the loud and just opposition of the Nigerian Christians and others to the imposition… of Sharia as state law." Since late in 1999, 10 states in the north have enforced the strict law. Participants in the assembly, including delegates from the Vatican and several foreign partner organizations, regard the introduction of sharia as "flagrant violation of the secular nature of the Nigerian nation." When sharia was introduced into Kaduna state, which has an equal number of Christians and Muslims, over a thousand people died in violent clashes. "Its introduction has given rise to the trampling of the rights of innocent and law-abiding citizens, leading to wanton destruction of life and property and the ugly phenomenon of refugees fleeing for their lives," the bishops said in the communique.
Lutheran presiding bishop-elect addresses the national staff
(ELCA) Bishop Mark S. Hanson, elected presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America at the August Churchwide Assembly, addressed some 400 members of the national staff at the church headquarters in Chicago, telling them that he comes to his new position "with deep gratitude to God because we have a God who is faithful to God's promise."
The ELCA is a church with "a sense of urgency for God's mission, not a sense of anxiety," Hanson said. He said that people in today's society are searching for meaning and hope. "We know something about the bread that satisfies that hunger. It is Jesus the Christ, the bread of life."
Hanson said that the membership of the ELCA must become more diverse, reflecting the culture in which it serves, or its importance may be greatly diminished. He also expressed a hope that the church's 5.1 million members can, with communication and clarification, bridge the gap with the national office.
"I am coming to a position where the church has articulated its priorities as evangelical witness, the ending of poverty and the raising up of leaderships," he added. "I hope to bring a sense of urgency for mission, but also a willingness to listen."
Hanson will be installed October 6 at Rockefeller Chapel on the campus of the University of Chicago and will assume his position November 1. Among invited guests are the leaders of the five churches with which the ELCA has a full communion relationship-the Episcopal Church, Moravian Church in America, Presbyterian Church (USA), Reformed Church in America and the United Church of Christ. He will be the first Lutheran bishop installed into the "historic episcopate," one of the major provisions of the Called to Common Mission agreement with the Episcopalians. Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold will participate in the installation.