News Briefs
Episcopal News Service. December 2, 2002 [2002-271-1]
Violence breaks out between Muslims and Christians in northern Nigeria
(ENS) Dozens of Christians have been killed and hundreds injured by Muslim youth during a fresh outbreak of violence in the city of Kaduna in heavily Islamic northern Nigeria--and Muslims were killed when Christians retaliated.
The violence began November 20 as a reaction to a Nigerian newspaper article that said the Prophet Muhammad might have considered marrying one of the contestants in the Miss Word contest that was supposed to be held in Abuja. Muslim rioters burned down the offices of This Day, barricaded the streets with burning tires, and began to loot homes and businesses.
According to reports, the rioters then turned on the local Christians. "Our people had nothing whatsoever to do with either the article or this contest but we have been victimised by Muslim rioters for political ends," said Anglican Bishop Josiah Fearon of Kaduna. Over 20 churches were desecrated, looted, vandalised and burned and Christians have been stabbed and some beaten to death. Reports also said that Muslim youths operated roadblocks, checking the religious identity of motorists and attacking Christians.
As Christian youths began to fight back, Muslims were killed and some mosques were destroyed. Estimates say over 400 have died and more than 1,200 have been injured with about 12,000 driven from their homes.
"The violence has nothing to do with religion--it is entirely political," said Bishop Fearon in a release distributed by the Barnabas Fund, a British-based organization that monitors human rights in the Islamic world.
One of the underlying causes for the tension is the implementation of Islamic law (Shari'ah) in many of the northern states of Nigeria in the last three years, pressuring the Christian minorities in those states. In Kaduna, however, where Christians and Muslims are equal, the governor has resisted demands for full implementation, limiting it to Muslims.
"Religious leaders in the city, both Muslim and Christian, have appealed for calm," Bishop Josiah said. But he added that "the same Islamic religious leaders have been deeply implicated in instigating the violence in the first place."
Earlier this year religious leaders from both sides signed an agreement committing them to work for peace and reconciliation between Muslims and Christians.
FBI says anti-Muslim hate crimes are up in the U.S.
(ENI) Despite on-going calls for tolerance from church leaders, hate crimes against Muslims or those thought to be of Middle Eastern descent rose dramatically in the United States in 2001, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The report said that the number of cases rose from 28 in 2000 to 481 in 2001 but the report did not indicate how many incidents occurred after the September 11 terrorist attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Almost 10,000 allegations of hate crimes were reported with Muslims trailing behind African Americans, homosexuals and Jews in the number of cases reported. Hate crimes can range from verbal abuse to assault or murder.
The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a civil rights and advocacy group, welcomed the report but said that the figures did not present the whole picture since many Muslims did not report the crimes to authorities. "They swallow the incident and move on," said Ibrahim Hooper. "People have a natural reluctance to report these to the FBI," due largely to s feeling shared by Muslims that in the post-September 11 climate "Muslims are guilty until proven innocent."
CAIR said that Muslims in the country had reported more than 1,700 incidents to the council following the terrorist attacks. Referring to anti-Islam comments by evangelicals like Franklin Graham, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, Hooper said, "Unfortunately, the population that is hostile to Islam in the United States is increasing, parroting the line of Graham, Falwell and Robertson."
New archbishop of Canterbury says Anglicans too interested in status
(The Independent) During an interview on the British Broadcasting Corporation, the new archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams of Wales, took a swipe at the church's "anti-Christian" obsession with the trappings of power and status.
In the BBC documentary, "An Archbishop Like This," Williams was asked about the Anglican hierarchy and he responded that it had "bought very deeply" into a cult of status. "It's one of the most ambiguous things in the whole of that culture--the concern with titles, the concern with little differentiations, the different coloured buttons."
He added, "There's something profoundly--I'll say it--anti-Christian in all of that. It's about guarding position, about fencing yourself in. And that is not quite what the Gospel is."
Describing himself in the interview as a "gloomy Celt," Williams acknowledged the possibility of schism because of persistent disagreements over issues. He said that the Bible, for example, is very clear in condemning a heterosexual who indulged in homosexual acts for gratification but he added, "Does that automatically say that that is the only sort of homosexuality activity there could ever be? What about those people who 'with prayer and thought and seriousness and adulthood say I've never known anything different? What are we to say to them?"
While clearly not ready to endorse the concept of gay marriages, calling that language "not appropriate," Williams said, "I can see a case for acknowledging faithful same-sex relationships." He added, "It seems to me rather sad, and rather revealing, that when it comes to sex we suddenly become much less intelligent about our reading of the Bible."
Williams was officially confirmed at a December 1 ceremony in St. Paul's Cathedral in London, taking an oath of allegiance to the Queen and declaring his assent to the historic "formularies" of the Church of England. He asked for "God's guidance as I seek to meet this new challenge--a challenge I face with a sense of inadequacy but also with hope, with joy and enthusiasm." He will not assume his public duties until after his enthronement in February.
Affirming Catholicism sets day of prayer and thanksgiving for new archbishop of Canterbury
(ENS) Affirming Catholicism--a renewal and spirituality movement in the Church of England, the Church in Wales, the Church of Ireland and the Scottish Episcopal Church as well as the wider Anglican Communion--has called for a day of prayer and thanksgiving December 6 for Archbishop Rowan Williams, the new archbishop of Canterbury.
"We are increasingly aware of the vast ministry portfolio that the archbishop carries on behalf of Anglicans and Episcopalians around the world," said the Rev. Stephen Conway, chair of the organization. "If we take our faith and practice seriously we need to give thanks for those called to such an important office and to keep them in our prayers."
December 6 is the feast day for the third century bishop, St. Nicholas of Myra, "traditionally a time of gifts, which makes it an excellent day to celebrate what a gift from God Rowan is to the whole church," Conway said.
"Such a day of prayer and thanksgiving for one of its founding members is a most appropriate thing for the movement known as Affirming Catholicism to encourage," said Bishop Christopher Epting, deputy for ecumenical and interfaith relations. He noted that Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold is American Patron of the organization and he is a co-patron. "We strive to live disciplined lives of prayer, worship and study and this will be an opportunity to be bound together in that prayer."
Affirming Catholicism offers sample prayers on its web site at www.affirmingcatholicism.org.uk.
Anglican-Roman Catholic consultation continues discussion of authority
(ENS) At its mid-September meeting, the official theological consultation in the United States between Roman Catholics and Anglicans concluded an in-depth discussion of "The Gift of Authority," the third major agreed statement on authority in the church released by the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission. The statement suggests 11 points on which agreement has been deepened or extended, naming a number of specific issues related to authority facing the two churches and recommending ways for them to make more visible the communion they already share.
The Anglican-Roman Catholic Consultation in the United States (ARC-USA) began a paragraph by paragraph review of "The Gift of Authority" at its March meeting and members spent a day at their September meeting summarizing their views and making plans for a draft response by the Rev. Robert Imbelli and Dr. William Franklin to be discussed at its meeting next March.
ARC-USA is also conducting its own study and in 1999 released an "Agreed Report on the Local/Universal Church," taking a look at how authority is used in the independent provinces of the Anglican Communion and the role of episcopal conferences in the Roman Catholic Church.
Two members of the consultation, the Rev. Ruth Meyers and Professor Joanne Pierce, are drafting a study guide on the agreements on Eucharist and ministry that have already been received by the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church.
German bishops suggest Protestants form global alliance
(ENI) Two leading German Protestant bishops are proposing the creation of a global alliance that they believe would strengthen the voice of worldwide Protestantism.
Bishop Margot Kaessmann of Hanover and Bishop Wolfgang-Huber of Berlin made the call at a meeting of the synod of the Evangelical Church in Germany in November. At present the world's Protestant churches do not have their own umbrella body to represent their views, although many belong to the World Council of Churches (WCC) that has Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and independent member churches.
Kaessmann resigned from the WCC Central Committee in September to protest key proposals intended to help participation by Orthodox churches which have been highly critical of the organization and what they perceive as a political agenda. "I want the WCC to continue to be the locomotive of the ecumenical train rather than pulling on the brakes so that the wagons fall off the track," she said after the synod meeting.
She said that if the WCC ended up as "a forum for the various confessions to talk about their differences," then she is convinced that "a world alliance of Reformation churches would make more sense."
In response, WCC General Secretary Konrad Raiser said that "it is not a case of the WCC bowing to Orthodox pressure, nor has it accepted a compromise in order to smooth over the difficulties. "Never before have the WCC and its member churches faced up to the fundamental issues in their relations with the Orthodox so honestly and seriously."
The alliance Kaessmann envisions would allow Protestant churches in the Lutheran, Reformed and United churches that trace their roots back to the 16th century Reformation "to represent common positions in dialogues with the Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches as well as to be able to speak in common in a world that is becoming globalised."