News Briefs
Episcopal News Service. April 29, 2002 [2002-103]
ECUSA urges senators to pass non-discrimination law
(ENS) The Episcopal Church's Office of Government Relations in Washington has signed on to a letter urging US senators to support S. 1284, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) on April 24. The Senate's Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee is preparing to consider the bill.
"ENDA is a modest measure that would extend employment protections currently provided on the basis of race, gender, and disability to sexual orientation, thereby repairing the injustice that allows gay and lesbian Americans to suffer discrimination in the workplace," the letter said. "Under current federal law, it is entirely legal to fire, hire, demote, promote, and make all other employment decisions based on solely on sexual orientation, regardless of workplace performance.
"As people of faith who stand for the equality and dignity of all people, we find this reprehensible. We oppose discrimination against all individuals, including gays and lesbians, for the stamp of the Divine is present in each and every one of us."
According to current polling data, 83 percent of the American public supports ENDA and equal rights for gays and lesbians in the workplace. Over 50 percent of Fortune 500 companies have policies consistent with ENDA. The legislation has been endorsed by a wide variety of religious organizations, women's groups, labor unions, civil rights organizations and businesses, including the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, Central Conference of Rabbis, Women of Reform Judaism, Unitarian Universalist Association, Presbyterian Church (USA) Washington office, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the United Church of Christ's Justice and Witness Ministries, the Friends Committee on National Legislation (Quaker), and the United Methodist Church's General Board of Church and Society.
Tutu compares West Bank conflict to apartheid
(ENS) Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu compared the Israeli occupation of West Bank towns to South African apartheid in remarks to an audience of 200 gathered at Boston's Old South Church. Tutu spoke April 13 at a "Conference on Ending the Israeli Occupation," co-sponsored by Sabeel, a Palestinian ecumenical liberation center in Jerusalem, and the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts.
"In our struggle against apartheid, the great supporters were the Jews," Tutu said. "Jews almost instinctively had to be on the side of the disenfranchised, of the voiceless ones, fighting injustice, oppression and evil. I have continued to feel strongly with the Jews. I am a patron of the Holocaust Center in South Africa. I believe Israel has a right to secure borders," he assured the audience.
But that does not justify Israel's actions on the West Bank, Tutu continued. "I've been very deeply distressed in my visit to the Holy Land; it reminded me so much of what happened to us blacks in South Africa. I have seen the humiliation of the Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks. They suffer like us when young white police officers prevented us from moving about. They seemed to derive so much joy from our humiliation."
Tutu criticized Israeli authorities for excluding the news media from the West Bank and making it difficult to know what is really going on there. He spoke of the "desperation" of Palestinian Christians who have lost land and homes to Jewish settlers. "Have our Jewish sisters and brothers forgotten their humiliation?" he said. "Israel will never get true security and safety through oppressing another people…We condemn the violence of suicide bombers, and we condemn the corruption of young minds taught hatred, but we also condemn the violence of military incursions in the occupied lands and the inhumanity that won't let ambulances reach the injured.
"Israel has three options: Revert to the previous stalemate filled with hatred and vengeance; exterminate all Palestinians; or strive for peace based on justice--withdrawal from the territories and establishment of a viable Palestinian state with secure borders," Tutu said. "Peace is possible--we are free today in South Africa because of people like yourselves."
SCI addresses UN at Law of the Sea conference
(SCI) Douglas B. Stevenson, the director of the Center for Seafarers' Rights of the Seamen's Church Institute, spoke to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea conference recently about the duty of vessels to rescue those in distress at sea. He also urged United Nations delegates to show the same concern for those who fish as they do for dwindling marine species. He was the only non-government speaker on the agenda.
"One of the most cherished and protected maritime traditions is a mariners' obligation to go to the aid of all persons in distress at sea, without regard to their nationality, status or religion," Stevenson said. "The Seamen's Church Institute is very concerned that no action be taken by any state that might create a disincentive for vessels to respond to a distress at sea.
"We have dealt with cases where port states have placed unreasonable financial burdens on ships that have gone to the aid of persons in distress at sea, either by refusing entry or by imposing financial responsibility for feeding, housing and repatriating shipwrecked persons who were allowed entry. Such unreasonable financial burdens on rescuing vessels establishes a negative precedent for those masters and ship owners not to comply with their moral and legal obligation to rescue persons in distress at sea."
Stevenson opined that a "fragmented fishing industry coupled with a lack of political will by states" has resulted in few, if any, national or international fishing vessel safety regulations in one of the most dangerous occupations in the world. "Meanwhile, men and women who work on fishing vessels continue to be maimed and killed at alarming rates," he pointed out. "It is high time for the community of nations to say: enough is enough!
"I urge you to create at least the same political will to protect human beings on fishing vessels as, for example, was demonstrated in protecting dwindling fish stocks. We need to focus our attention on protecting the men and women whose workplace is the sea," he concluded.
Established in 1834, the Seamen's Church Institute is an ecumenical agency affiliated with the Episcopal Church whose mission is to advance the personal, professional, and spiritual well being of mariners worldwide. To learn more about SCI's ministry, go to www.seamenschurch.org.
CUIC announces its first director
(ENS) Churches Uniting in Christ (CUIC), a relationship among nine churches that have pledged to live more closely together in expressing their unity in Christ and to combat racism, has appointed the Rev. Bertrice Y. Wood of Cleveland as its first director. CUIC's nine "member communions" collectively represent more than 22 million Protestant and Anglican Christians in the United States.
"Bert's appointment brings new energy to our collective commitment to uniting around common essentials of faith and mission," said the Rev. Lydia Veliko, ecumenical officer for the United Church of Christ and chair of the search committee. According to Veliko, "she brings significant gifts in the areas of organizational skill, and sensitivity to the needs of individual member communions. She has won the respect of our many ecumenical communities."
Wood is a seasoned church executive and was the first woman pastor of the 137-year-old, historic and predominantly African-American Mt. Zion Congregational United Church of Christ in Cleveland. She is also currently vice president at large of the National Council of Churches.
"Bertrice Wood sounds wonderfully qualified and prepared to provide solid leadership for CUIC in this new stage of our relationship," commented Bishop Christopher Epting, deputy for Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations for the Episcopal Church. "I look forward to working with her in the years ahead."
"I am excited that the communions of CUIC have made bold commitments to work toward not only cooperative programs, but toward mutual recognition and reconciliation of their ministries, and to overcoming racism, which divides the churches and our communities," Wood said. "I pray that we will be faithful to each other and to the Gospel which calls us break down the barriers that divide the church and the human family."
The nine member communions include the African Methodist Episcopal Church, African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, Episcopal Church, International Council of Community Churches, Presbyterian Church (USA), United Church of Christ and United Methodist Church. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America also works with CUIC as a Partner in Mission and Dialogue.
Southern Moravians approve interim Eucharistic sharing with the Episcopal Church
(ENS) The Southern Province Synod of the Moravian Church in America, meeting at Black Mountain, NC, April 17-21, has voted to establish interim Eucharistic sharing with the Episcopal Church. The resolution for was drafted by the Moravian-Episcopal dialogue, appointed by the 1997 General Convention.
The resolution was modeled on the 1982 one which established Eucharistic sharing with several Lutheran churches. Interim Eucharistic sharing will be voted on by the Northern Province of the Moravian Church in June 2002, and a similar resolution will be submitted to the 2003 General Convention.
Interim Eucharistic sharing is seen as an important step in process toward eventual full communion. An approved liturgy of the host church is used, and ministers from both traditions stand at the altar during the communion prayer.
Bishop Michael Curry of the diocese of North Carolina preached the opening sermon at the Synod, and Bishop Gary Gloster, suffragan bishop of North Carolina and co-chair of the Moravian-Episcopal dialogue, brought official greetings.
The Moravian Church in America traces its life and ministry to the ancient Hussite Church of Bohemia, with a ministry of bishops, presbyters, and deacons stemming from the 15th century. Renewed in the 18th century, the Moravians were leaders in world missions and influential on John Wesley and the Methodist movement. The Northern and Southern Provinces combined have roughly 50,000 members and 200 churches, and are part of the worldwide Moravian Church with over 750,000 members in over 18 countries. In the United States the Moravian Church is concentrated in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and the upper Midwest. The Moravian Church in Great Britain and the Church of England have also conducted an official dialogue which produced the 1995 "Fetter Lane Common Statement."
Stories and prayers sought for stewardship resources
(ENS) The Episcopal Church's Standing Commission on Stewardship and Development is collecting personal stories of transformation about giving and prayers about stewardship for two publications, Faces of Faith and A Steward's Book of Prayers, that will be produced as part of the commission's report to the 2003 General Convention.
Stories submitted should reflect the writer's personal experience of learning to give to support God's work in the world. Examples might include a decision to tithe despite job or economic uncertainty, an offering of time and talent to a mission trip or house construction project, or being the beneficiary of grace through others' giving. Prayers can be original, or perhaps a hymn, a song, or a poem. They can be prayers of giving, of generosity, or thanksgiving. Stories and prayers should represent the many facets of Christian stewardship in learning to live as disciples of Christ.
The commission especially hopes to collect stories and prayers that reflect the diversity of the Episcopal Church in terms of age, ethnicity, gender, economic status, geography, and language. Prayers and stories in languages other than English are particularly welcome and should accompanied by an English translation. Additional copies of these publications will be available after General Convention for congregations and dioceses to use for small-group study and leadership formation.
Although not all submissions can be used, the commission will select those stories and prayers that are most compelling and that tell a story of transformation and love of God. The commission assumes that, by submission of a personal story or prayer or those of others, permission to publish has been granted by the author.
Submissions should be sent by August 1, 2002, to Tom Gossen, co-chair of the commission, via e-mail at tomgossen@tens.org, by fax at 316-686-9102, or by mail to the Episcopal Network for Stewardship, ATTN: Faces of Faith and Steward's Book of Prayers Projects, 3750 E. Douglas Avenue, Wichita, KS 67208.