News Briefs
Episcopal News Service. December 4, 2002 [2002-274-1]
Committee drafting agreement on move of church center to seminary campus reports it has encountered difficulties
(ENS) The committee appointed to examine a potential move of the Episcopal Church Center to a new facility on the campus of the General Theological Seminary (GTS) has reported to Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold that it has encountered difficulties and that it does not seem possible at this time to "successfully complete a binding agreement that will be acceptable to both parties."
The three members of the subcommittee asked to draft the binding agreement--Dall Forsythe, Russell Palmore and Andrew McMaster--said that after conversations with Griswold and senior staff members they concluded that "If relocating the church's headquarters to GTS may result in negative synergy--in problems instead of possibilities--and if the commitment of national church leaders to it is not complete, it is our recommendation that the project should be scrapped."
Among the reservations cited were differences in the mission of a seminary and the national church and "concern expressed about the loss of flexibility associated with a thirty year commitment and the difficulty in predicting the shape and size of the national church staff in years to come."
Griswold reported to council members that "the process will continue as we sort through the significant issues involved and you will be kept informed in preparation for our January meeting" in the Dominican Republic.
In other action, the Investment Committee "by unanimous vote strongly recommends against pledging a significant portion of the Unrestricted Assets of the DFMS Endowment for the purpose of obtaining financing" for the project with GTS.
In an amplifying letter to Executive Council members, Griswold said that his reservations "are rooted in my focus on the missional energies" that he sees "so wonderfully at work in our church and on how these energies might best be supported and expanded." He said that he had concluded that "relocating the church center and building a conference center do not respond to the missional energies of the church at this moment and the desire to focus these energies on reaching out to the world. I further believe that taking on this project would be an enormous distraction in our common life. Much of our financial and staff resources would be diverted to bricks and mortar rather than advancing our mission."
(Click here for texts of the memos from the committees and Griswold.)
Vancouver bishop agrees to delay rite for blessing same-sex relationships
(ENS) Bishop Michael Ingham of the Vancouver-based Diocese of New Westminster (Canada) has agreed to delay implementation of a rite for blessing same-sex relationships to honor a mediation process with eight parishes that are withholding funds in protest and asking for a "flying bishop" as an alternative to Ingham's oversight.
At an October meeting, the House of Bishops in the Anglican Church of Canada urged Ingham to seek reconciliation with the clergy who walked out of the June diocesan synod meeting where the rites were authorized and delay action until the church's General Synod meets next May.
Ingham told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) that he is not backing away from his decision while agreeing to meet with those in opposition. "Hopefully they can see there is nothing to fear in this as we move forward," he said. "I've invited them to meet with me and others in the diocese and I hope when we get there we can resolve this as well as we can."
In an interview with the CBC, Ingham compared the international controversy over the blessing issue with the one provoked over the ordination of women to the priesthood. He said that the "Anglican Communion worldwide is showing the same diversity of reaction that we're finding locally."
A special diocesan synod will convene on January 18 to deal with the financial situation. The eight dissenting parishes contribute about $330,000 a year or 19 percent of the diocesan budget. "Financial prudence speaks to the need of a review of diocesan finances," said treasurer Jim Stewart.
Canadian church activists ambivalent about oil company's withdrawal from Sudan
(ENI) Canadian church and human rights activists are claiming some credit for the decision of a leading energy company to pull out of Sudan in the face of persistent charges that they were fueling a 19-year civil war that has resulted in the deaths of almost two million people, many of them Christians living in the south.
Talisman Energy of Canada announced in late October that it was selling its oil interests in Sudan for $750 million (US) to a subsidiary of India's national oil company. Talisman issued a statement saying that a drop in the company's stock price and a drain on human resources led to the decision--and Talisman president James Buckee said that "shareholders have told me that they were tired of continually having to monitor and analyse events relating to Sudan."
After a four-year campaign of pressure on Talisman, human rights groups were ambivalent about the decision. "Our approach to the whole issue was to try and pressure Talisman to take social responsibility seriously," said Gary Kenny, a human rights policy advocate for KAIROS, a coalition of 12 Canadian church organizations.
Kenny noted that a different company halfway across the world had assumed Talisman's role--and little had changed for the Sudanese living in the region near the oil fields. "They are still vulnerable to the same kind of attacks," he said. He and others have argued over the years that Sudan's Islamic government has used oil revenues to buy arms to use in the country's civil war pitting Khartoum against the population in the south, mostly Christian and animist. Most of the deaths are attributed to famine triggered by the war.
A United Nations report issued in October pointed to "the continuation of grave human rights abuses linked to oil exploitation, aimed at depopulating oil-rich areas to ensure [government] control." Kenny said that KAIROS would continue to call for suspension of all oil development until a peace agreement is achieved.
Germany's Jewish community getting status equal to churches
(ENI) Jewish leaders have welcomed as a milestone a plan by the German government to grant them status equal to the main Protestant and Roman Catholic churches.
"This is a historic event," said Paul Spiegel, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, at a news conference attended by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. "That Jews live here once again in considerable numbers is a fact that those who returned after 1945 can hardly imagine."
Under the plan, the government will make a formal agreement with the Jewish council to increase funding of Jewish schools, legalize Jewish religious education in schools, and finance other Jewish institutions, such as hospitals and kindergartens. The plan creates a pact similar to one the government has with the churches.
The accord recognizes the rapid growth of the Jewish population in Germany from 30,000 in 1990 to over 100,000 today. Most Jewish immigrants come from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Before the Holocaust there were an estimated 600,000 Jews in Germany.
Swiss churches hail defeat of proposal to tighten asylum laws
(ENI) Switzerland's churches have expressed relief after voters rejected, by a tiny margin, a proposal that would have made the country's asylum laws the "most restrictive" in Europe, automatically turning back anyone seeking asylum from another country that was deemed safe. It was defeated in a referendum November 24 by just over 3,000 votes out of a total of 2.24 million.
"Despite the close result, our country must continue to be guided by solidarity in thought and deed with human beings who are fleeing situations of crisis," said that council of the Swiss Protestant Church Federation in a statement. The council said that although "the state has the duty to protect itself against abuses of the right to asylum," the existing policies were "by and large sufficient."
Switzerland's Conference of Roman Catholic Bishops also welcome defeat of the proposal, saying in a statement that "common sense has prevailed." Underscoring the close vote, the statement added, "Switzerland, which is one of the richest countries in the world, must continue to be one of the most generous. It is a question of conscience."
The proposal, launched by the right-wing populist Swiss People's Party, was opposed by all the main political parties, the government and parliament, as well as the churches. The Swiss parliament will vote soon on a revision of the country's asylum laws and, as a local newspaper pointed out, the "close result will not encourage the parliament to show an excess of compassion toward asylum-seekers."
The Swiss cantons where the population speaks French or Italian rejected the proposal while support was strongest in the German-speaking heartland.
War could seriously disrupt relations between Christians and Muslims in Iraq
(ENI) Christians in Iraq are expressing fears that a war would seriously alter what have been peaceful relations between them and the Muslims.
Muslim fanaticism increased in the years following the Gulf War in 1991, Christians said, but this did not have a major impact on Christian communities. "We have had no religious problems until now," said one man. "There has never been any harassment of us as Christians."
Although Christians downplay fears about their relations with Muslims, freedom of speech and movement in Iraq cannot be taken for granted and all evangelical work is forbidden. Yet most Christians said that, despite the threat of war, they didn't see problems in their immediate neighborhoods where everyone knows everyone else.
Yet some Christians said that they felt some vulnerability as a minority and reported that some of their children had been asked by Muslim students to convert to Islam. They also remember that, during the Gulf War, Christians were accused by Muslims of being allies of the United States.
In the southern part of the country, which lies in the "no fly" zone established by the United Nations, both Christians and Muslims are feeling pressure, much of it attributed to bombings by American and British aircraft. In a once-prosperous city like Basra, the city was still suffering from heavy destruction during the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-86 when it faced a new round of destruction during the Gulf War. Now jobs are virtually non-existent for most people. Mothers and children are often seen begging on the streets and drinking water is scarce, according to recent visitors.
"The churches already support some of these people, Christians and Muslims, with meager means at their disposal," said one Christian. "But if there is a war, these people will be the most vulnerable."