News Briefs
Episcopal News Service. June 25, 2002 [2002-161-1]
Church leaders welcome American role in Mideast peace efforts
(ENS) American church leaders representing the nation's mainline Protestant churches, as well as Catholic groups, welcomed the renewed U.S. involvement in Mideast peace efforts as reflected in President George W. Bush's June 24 address.
While most of the media focused on the president's call for new Palestinian leadership, "in reality he made significant demands of Israel, too," said the Rev. Daryl Byler, director of the Mennonite Central Committee's Washington office. The president challenged Israel "to take concrete steps to support the emergence of a viable, credible Palestinian state," steps that "would lead to an end of Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory," he added. "I am pleased that the president recognizes that both parties must work hard to reestablish the peace process," he said in a release from Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP), a coalition of denominational offices and agencies responsible for monitoring peace efforts.
Byler and other church leaders praised the president for committing himself to a process that could end Israeli occupation and reach a negotiated settlement based on U.N. Resolutions 242 and 338.
"President Bush showed the American people an understanding of 'the deep anger and despair' felt not only by the Israeli people but also by the Palestinian people," said CMEP director Corinne Whitlatch. "In that context, and with the long history of this conflict, it makes sense that both Palestinians and Israelis could use more forward-looking leadership--persons who would show increased willingness to implement this far-ranging vision for peace."
The Rev. San DeBoe of the Catholic Conference of Major Superiors of Men's Institutes, chair of the CMEP board, said that he hopes the president enables Secretary of State Colin Powell to follow through with the peace process. "President Bush showed that he understands the need for international involvement to move the process forward and demonstrated his trust in Secretary Powell to do that on behalf of the United States."
"Palestinian reform cannot take place within the existing situation of curfews, closures, demolitions, assassinations, and military actions," DeBoe added. "Israel must guarantee freedom of movement within the West Bank and Gaza so that positive reform can happen and popular support for terrorist acts can end." Byler said that the president "was most eloquent in reminding us that the time has arrived for everyone in this conflict to choose peace, hope and life."
Jesse Jackson advocating non-violent solution to Mideast crisis
(ENI) Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, speaking to reporters after meeting with leaders at the Geneva headquarters of the World Council of Churches, said that neither Israelis or Palestinians have "the courage to overcome the deadlock" and find non-violent solutions to the Mideast crisis.
"We need a third force to reconcile the sides; we must build a bridge and heal a breach, reach out to civil society within Israel and among the Palestinians," said Jackson, who is planning to take an inter-faith delegation to the region to help promote a "third force" for non-violent reconciliation. In preparation for the trip, he visited the WCC to seek the organization's "moral authority and credibility to convene a body of world religious leaders" who might take part in the trip. The WCC has "a huge role to lay as the convener of the family" of churches, he said.
Warning that "time is running out," Jackson said that he feared the violence would spread and "redefine the world as we know it overnight," with suicide bombers attacking Europe or the U.S. "unless we are able to break the cycle of occupation and the cycle of bombing." He said that American policy was "muddled," split between strong support for Israel and an attempt to play a mediating role.
"Maybe the U.S. cannot be the substantial supporter of one side and then be the referee for both," Jackson said. "That's why the WCC, the European Union, the U.N. and perhaps Egypt must play a more decisive role as a third force." Recently he issued an open letter to Palestinian chairman Yasser Arafat, urging him "to call not simply for the end to terrorist bombings, but for a new commitment to non-violence as the means to achieve Palestinian statehood."
Canadian Anglicans elect Inuit bishop to serve Arctic region
(ENI) Canadian Anglicans have elected the first Inuk to serve as a diocesan bishop. In September the Rev. Andrew Atagotaaluk will become bishop of the Arctic, a vast territory of 3.9 million square kilometers, reaching from Labrador in the east to the Yukon border in western Canada, accounting for almost 40 percent of the nation. Yet the region has a population of only 53,000, including 18,000 Anglicans.
Isolation is a major cause of "burn-out" of clergy who serve the sparsely populated region. "They need someone to talk to who would understand the kind of pressures they experience," said Atagotaaluk. Transportation around the diocese is also a problem since few roads link settlements. Travel between parishes is almost exclusively by air, an expensive option for the diocese, one subject to the vagaries of the weather.
Another challenge facing the diocese is a severe shortage of clergy. "We need clergy badly," said Atagotaaluk, who served as suffragan bishop in Nunavik, the Inuit part of northern Quebec. "We rely heavily on trained catechists and lay leaders to keep our parishes going." Appeals to other parts of the church for clergy to come north have received little response.
He said that the region has experienced rapid change since the exploration for oil and minerals began in the 1960s. The social fabric was disrupted, unemployment and suicide rates are considerably higher than the rest of Canada. Many young people are addicted to drugs and alcohol and the Inuit are "in danger of losing their language and culture," he said.
The Canadian Bible Society has recently completed a translation of the bible into Inuktutut, an Inuit language, a project that took 24 years. The Inuit speak several dialogues at home and in their communities and the language is used in primary schools.
Moravian Church approves Interim Eucharistic Sharing with Episcopal Church
(ENS) The Episcopal Church's five-year dialogue with the Moravian Church in America has taken several significant steps forward in recent months, including approval of sharing the Eucharist.
At an April meeting in Sewanee, Tennessee, the churches discussed a draft resolution on Interim Eucharistic Sharing and the possibilities for a shared ministry of bishops, presbyters and deacons in the future. (The Moravians trace their history to the Czech Hussite reform movement that separated from the Roman Catholic Church in 1457 but they have preserved the three-fold order of ministry.)
The April meeting of the Southern Province of the Moravian Church in America passed a resolution that endorsed the plan to share the Eucharist with Episcopalians. The Northern Province meeting in mid-June also unanimously passed a resolution on the proposal. Dr. Thomas Ferguson, associate deputy for ecumenical relations and an Episcopal participant in the dialogue, said that is "a very important and exciting time in our Moravian dialogue. Building on previous Anglican-Moravian dialogues, we have found enough common agreement on matters of faith and practice to be able to stand together at the eucharistic table."
Ferguson said that future dialogues will deal with areas of common mission, "with the hope of further theological dialogue to allow for a possible full communion proposal in 2006 or 2009." The Episcopal Church and the Lutherans established a similar sharing of the Eucharist in 1982 as a major step in moving to "full communion" in 2000.
In his greetings, Ferguson noted that "historically the Moravian Church has been one of the Anglican Communion's oldest dialogue partners. Although small in number, you have had an influence on the Christian world out of proportion to your size. We your Episcopal brothers and sisters have been enriched by your contributions to Christian spirituality, world missions, hymnody, and passion for following Jesus Christ."
The Moravian Church in America is part of the worldwide Unity of the Brethren, consisting of 20 autonomous provinces with about 750,000 members. The U.S. and Canada are divided into two provinces that are in communion with each other but operate separately. They are both governed by synods that meet once every four years.
Fate of valuable paintings at British bishop's palace still uncertain
(ENI) The fate of valuable 17th century Spanish paintings that have been hanging in Auckland Castle in Durham, seat of the Church of England's diocesan bishop, is still uncertain. Plans to sell the historic paintings were blocked by a vigorous campaign by those who regard them as part of the region's cultural heritage.
The church's commissioners, responsible for investments, said that the paintings could not justify "keeping these non-income producing assets." The commission's responsibilities range from paying salaries for the bishops and some clergy pensions to supporting ministry in impoverished areas and settling the future of redundant churches. Since the church was caught in the financial troubles of the world's largest cell phone operator, Vodafone, it looked as though the paintings, valued at $15 million, might be rushed to market.
Vodafone has reported an annual loss of over $20 billion, the largest in British corporate history. The church's investment was only a small part of its $6 billion portfolio. A church spokesman, Arun Kataria, said that it was not necessary to sell the paintings" to "meet current expenditure." If the paintings were sold, he said that the proceeds "would become capital, and the income from this would be used to support poorer parishes."
Paul Judson, a spokesman for the diocese, said that the paintings "are earning money where they are because they are an attraction at Auckland Castle for tourists, conference participants and wedding groups."
President of Integrity USA visits counterparts in Uganda
(ENS) The Rev. Michael Hopkins, president of Integrity USA, spent two weeks in early June visiting his counterparts in Uganda. He reported on his return June 19 that Integrity Uganda has built a community center in a village near the capital city of Kampala. "The center serves not only as the headquarters of Integrity but also as a place of worship for all and a center for ministry to the surrounding community," he said in a June 21 statement.
Hopkins preached and concelebrated the Eucharist at the community with Bishop Christopher Senyonjo. "The congregation was a mix of lesbian, gay, bisexual and heterosexual Ugandans, young and old," said Hopkins. "Together they are deliberately creating a community that welcomes all, unlike the overwhelming majority of institutional churches in Uganda, including the Anglican Church of Uganda."
The church in Uganda has inhibited Senyonjo and threatened him with "ecclesiastical trial and defrocking," reported Hopkins. The bishop was severely criticized by his colleagues for his involvement in the creation of Integrity Uganda. Hopkins said that the Rev. Erich Kasirye, founder of Integrity Uganda, "has also been prohibited from the exercise of his ministry. I was honored to be a guest of these two courageous men, both of them heterosexual persons who are committed to the equality of their homosexual and bisexual fellow Christians."
"I was also pleased to meet my counterpart, Mr. Denis Iraguha, the new president of Integrity Uganda, and his partner, Mr. Henry Irankunda," Hopkins said in his statement. "Sharing our stories and our faith, in spite of the opposition of many Christians and the society at large, is an experience I will never forget. Both Henry and Denis have in the past been arrest for 'homosexual offenses' and imprisoned without right of visitors, subjected to repeating canings. These young men, both 22 years old, showed a profoundly tenacious faith."
Hopkins said that he was "saddened that this community must live cut off from the fellowship of the Church of Uganda." He said that the Diocese of Namirembe, where both Senyonjo and Kasirye were active clergy until their suspensions, passed a resolution in May 2001 that effectively lunched "a vigorous crusade against all forms of homosexuality."