News Briefs
Episcopal News Service. September 25, 2002 [2002-219-1]
Anglican Consultative Council affirms restraint in regard to Iraq
(ACNS) The Anglican Consultative Council, meeting September 15-26 in Hong Kong, passed two resolutions regarding proposals for war against Iraq. The first resolution expressed opposition to any unilateral action by the United States against Iraq. The second resolution affirmed ACC solidarity with the position taken by the Presidng Bishop Frank T. Griswold of the Episcopal Church USA in a statement issued last June.
A resolution proposed by Bishop Richard Harries of Oxford, representing the Church of England, declared that the ACC welcomes the proposed return of UN weapons inspectors to Iraq and calls on the government of Iraq to comply fully with UN resolution 687. The resolution also states that "on present evidence, military action against Iraq is not morally justified" and calls for sanctions to be lifted, subject to certain conditions.
The second resolution, proposed by Bishop David Silk of Ballarat, representing the Anglican Church of Australia, affirms the ACC's "solidarity" with the position taken by Americans in opposing unilateral military action against Iraq by the United States.
Each resolution was unanimously passed by the ACC members, composed of episcopal, clergy and lay representatives from each of the 38 provinces of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
Lutherans grant second exception to policy of ordination by bishops
(ELCA) A candidate for ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has been ordained by a pastor, rather than a bishop--the second time an exception has been granted to rules established by the church's full communion agreement with the Episcopal Church.
The Rev. Matthew Kuempel's ordination on September 14 came after Bishop Gerald Mansholt of the Central States Synod in Kansas City, Missouri, granted the request under a by-law amendment on ordination adopted at the ELCA's Churchwide Assembly that "in unusual circumstances" a synod bishop could authorize a pastor to preside at an ordination. The full communion agreement, Called to Common Mission (CCM), directs that "a bishop shall regularly preside and participate in the laying-on-of-hands at the ordination of all clergy." Prior to the CCM agreement, Lutheran bishops presided at most ordinations but it was not required in the ELCA.
Kuempel was ordained by the Rev. Tom Kesselring, but Bishop Mansholt was present and, at one point in the ordination rite, laid hands on Kuempel's head, raising questions among some observers whether the ordination was actually an exception.
Kuempel said that he asked for the exception in April and it was granted in August when he accepted a call to a two-point parish in Kansas. His wife Kristen was ordained by Mansholt September 8 under the terms of CCM and has also been called to a parish in Kansas.
"I think it is helpful for the peace of the church for exceptional ordinations to take place," said Kuempel, who entered Luther Seminary in St. Paul before CCM was adopted. "I hope there are more. My hope is that with each graduating class there will be more as part of the evangelical freedom that we have."
Mansholt said that he consulted widely before making his decision and, in a letter to the synod, recognized that the decision has ramifications for both churches. "Eventually I came to the decision there seems to be more to be gained by granting the exception, more to be lost by denying the request at this point in time." He added that Kuempel "sees the requirement for a bishop to preside at an ordination as adding something extra to the true unity of the church. I understand the provisions as a sign, a symbol that one is ordained into the one ministry of Word and Sacrament, not as something that guarantees the validity of the ordination."
The decision to grant the exception led to the resignation of the Rev. William Sappenfield, one of three ecumenical representatives in the Central States Synod, who objected to the exception.
Sappenfield served on the Lutheran Ecumenical Representatives Network (LERN) which has said that the exception represents "a unilateral change" in CCM and that the by-law is "deficient in its intended purpose to restore peace and unity in the ELCA." He said that he was not consulted by the bishop about his decision to grant the exception which, in his opinion, "lacks integrity, it's bad for relations with our existing ecumenical partners and it's bad for our ability to maintain policy within our own denomination."
Retiring Anglican archbishop censured by Kenyan president, visited by police
(ENI) Religious leaders have criticized the sudden sacking by President Daniel arap Moi of his vice president, George Saitoti, but in joining the voices of dissent, retiring Anglican Archbishop David Gitari evoked the public wrath of the nation's leader.
The churches in Kenya censured as undemocratic the action on August 31 by the 78-year-old president, who has ruled Kenya for 24 years, but who is expected to stand down after the national elections, scheduled to be held in either December or January. They accused Moi of seeking to impose his own chosen successor on the 30 million Kenyans. The churches joined opposition political parties in calling on the president to name a new vice-president in order to prevent a future vacuum in political leadership.
Gitari and the Rev. Patrick Rukenya, the secretary general of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa, issued statements that appeared to show they backed Saitoti, a former academic, as successor to Moi. Strong subsequent remarks attributed to Gitari provoked a robust reaction from Moi, who ordered senior detectives to question the Anglican cleric on what he said.
Gitari's alleged remarks were quoted in The Nation, but the newspaper retracted them on Wednesday and issued an apology to the bishop. The retraction read: "We reported that Dr. Gitari had criticized President Moi's rule during a farewell sermon at All Saints Cathedral, Nairobi, and quoted him as having said that Mr. Kenyatta [Moi's preferred successor], who is the local government minister, 'would not live to see the presidency'. The Nation has since established that his statement at the farewell sermon last Sunday was taken out of context and misrepresented."
The Nation reported that four detectives visited Gitari's home a few minutes after Moi criticized the Anglican leader. Moi had demanded to know whether Gitari or someone else was planning to kill Kenyatta.
Jungle trek leads missionaries to safety after Congo massacre
(ENI) More than 700 people who fled to the jungle after a massacre at their medical compound in the northeast corner of the Democratic Republic of Congo have reached safety, mission sources in London have learned.
The party of doctors, nurses and patients from Nyankunde made a dramatic trek of about 170 kilometers through savannah and dense forest to reach the town of Oicha, losing no member of the group on the journey. Among the group is a 75-year-old Canadian missionary, Marianne Baisley, who was reported to have refused evacuation on a light plane that took other expatriates out of Nyankunde on September 13 after the medical facilities were destroyed in tribal fighting.
Survivors reported that at least 1,000 people died in eight days of inter-tribal strife, triggered by the presence nearby of gold, diamonds and coltan, a valuable ore used in mobile phones. The turmoil was described in a refugee report from Oicha as "a long agony."
Nyankunde is a major Christian center where at least eight mission bodies work. The hospital, orthopedic center, pharmacy, schools, churches and the Pan-African Institute of Community Health constituting the medical compound were ransacked. The only water pipe supplying the compound was severed in the fighting, and cholera has now broken out in the region.
Although the medical party has reached safety, 2,000 people are understood to remain at Nyankunde where, according to one refugee, "nothing at all is left." There were conflicting reports about the fate of Salomon Isereve, principal chaplain at the Evangelical Medical Center (CME), who was reportedly tortured and burned alive. Another church worker, the Rev. Henri Basimake, HIV/Aids coordinator for the Anglican province of Congo, was shot dead after returning from a conference in Nairobi. Medical personnel, students and patients were not spared in the violence.
The Church Mission Society, an evangelical Anglican group, has a long historic association with the region. In 1870 it supplied the first Christian missionaries to reach Uganda, across Lake Albert from northeastern Congo. At Nyankunde the mission society supports community health projects while other mission groups help to improve clinical medical facilities.
A Church Mission Society spokesman told ENI, "The priorities are to restore water and food at Nyankunde, followed by a restoration of the valuable work there and a long-term solution to unrest in the region."
John Harper, preacher to eight presidents, dies at 78
(ENS) The Rev. John C. Harper, who as rector of St. John's Episcopal Church on Lafayette Square, across from the White House, preached to eight presidents, died in Washington, DC on September 13 at the age of 78.
Harper was credited with moving the congregation from what was perceived as a "society church," with pew rentals and a membership of the most socially prominent, to one that played a much more active role in the community, with organized programs to feed and house the homeless and offer counseling on drug and alcohol addiction.
The changes were gradually implemented since Harper arrived in 1963 until his retirement in 1993. He abolished pew rentals, which had been a major source of income for the church and a status symbol among the city's elite. He challenged his congregation to address the needs of the city's most vulnerable with what he described as a goal of drawing the church into the mainstream of city life.
Every president since James Madison has attended the church. After the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson went to St. John's for prayer. Abraham Lincoln also used the church for prayer during the Civil War. Kennedy himself had called it "the little yellow church across the square," underscoring its historic role in the life of the nation.
During the Vietnam War, when many businesses and churches in the city were closed, Harper opened the church to protesters as a place of refuge, observing from his office the rallies and tear-gassing of demonstrators, as well as encampments of poor and homeless in the park.
"Demonstrations in front of the White House on Lafayette Square, danger in the streets and in the square itself at night, vandalism and robbery are very real threats to St. John's. Yet in another sense, they are part and parcel of our religious or theological concern," Harper wrote in his 1974 book, "Sunday, a Minister's Story."
Episcopal church on Alaska's Yukon River lost in a fire
(Fairbanks Daily News-Miner) The village of Beaver on Alaska's Yukon River is mourning the loss of St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, lost in a September 3 fire despite heroic efforts to save the 15-year-old structure.
The fire was discovered by a villager walking by the church in the center of the village. She sent out the alarm and people grabbed hoses and fire extinguishers to battle the fire. "It's hunting season so a lot of the key people were out of the community," said Chief Charleen Fisher-Salmon. "We did the very best we could. Children were carrying buckets from the river and doing whatever they were told to do."
While the outside of the building is standing, rebuilding may be difficult. Insurance may provide basic costs of a new structure and the village is moving quickly to get logs this winter to start rebuilding in the spring. Everything inside was lost, from pews to hymnals to parish records--and the beautiful altar beadwork that will be impossible to replace. "We had a whole set of photos of the bishops and photos of the community members who had passed on that we were saving," Fisher-Salmon said. "Everybody was just devastated after the fire but, as we get organized, we'll start fundraising and try to carry on."
The Rev. Scott Fisher, rector of a parish in Fairbanks and former priest at St. Matthew's, flew into the village and held a special service. The congregation is concerned now about where to hold services during Christmas since there are few spaces large enough.