Episcopal Press and News
News Briefs
Episcopal News Service. April 16, 2002 [2002-095-1]
Church Leaders Embark on Mideast Visit
(NCCC/USA) A delegation of U.S. Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican church leaders will visit the Middle East April 16-27. Planned for several months, the trip is "all the more urgent" given the deepening crisis, said the delegation's leader, the Rev. Dr. Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches.
The NCC--whose 36 member denominations comprise 50 million adherents--organized the visit by invitation of the Middle East Council of Churches and Jerusalem church leaders. Co-leader with Edgar, a United Methodist, is Elenie Huszagh, a Greek Orthodox layperson from Nehalem, Ore.
Acknowledging security concerns, the delegation nevertheless intends to fulfill as much of its planned itinerary as possible. The group will meet with clergy in each country and expects to meet with high-level political officials, including Syrian President Bashar Al Assad and Lebanon's Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. The delegation also intends to meet with Israeli and Palestinian government officials and with the U.S. Consul General in Jerusalem, and hopes to visit Israeli and Palestinian wounded and bereaved.
Delegation members include the Rt. Rev. Arthur Edward Walmsley, retired Episcopal bishop of Connecticut; the Rev. Janet Arbesman, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.); Bishop Vicken Aykazian, Diocese of the Armenian Church; Mark Byron Brown, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; the Rev. Dr. James A. Forbes, Jr., Senior Minister, Riverside Church, New York City; Rev. Joseph Rice Hale, former general secretary of the World Methodist Council; the Rev. Robert S. Jones, National Baptist Convention U.S.A.; His Eminence Cyril Aphrem Karim, Archdiocese of the Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch for the Eastern United States; the Rev. William Shaw, president, National Baptist Convention U.S.A.; the Rev. James, Churches for Middle East Peace; and James Edward Winkler, general secretary, United Methodist Board of Church and Society.
ER-D approves more money for WTC victim assistance
(ENS) Episcopal Relief and Development's (ER-D) Board of Directors just approved a grant of $650,000 for Episcopal Charities of the Diocese of New York to continue to provide financial and case management assistance to low income families who lost their jobs at the World Trade Center due to the events of September 11, 2001.
The first part of this partnership responds to the emergency needs of victims by providing critical financial assistance. Many of those affected are unemployed low-wage earners, hotel workers, and support staff of the World Trade Complex, as well as the families of deceased victims of the tragedy. For up to three months, victims are given food through local pantries as well as emergency money to cover rent, food, and other basic necessities, in addition to help finding employment and access to additional sources of funding.
Through Episcopal Social Services, Episcopal Relief and Development is also helping families cope with trauma and grief. The program offers case management and counseling services for the distressed. Mental health specialists are recommended for people who need additional support.
Episcopal Relief and Development has already contributed $750,000 to support this program. In addition to giving financial assistance, ER-D supported relief workers at "Ground Zero" who were provided with places for refuge, rest, and prayer. So far, ER-D has dispersed over $1.4 million to those dealing with the aftermath of September 11.
ECVA calls to artists illuminating the Word
(ENS) The Episcopal Church and Visual Arts seeks works of calligraphy, manuscript illumination, and/or book arts by Episcopal artists for an online exhibition entitled "Illuminating the Word." The exhibit will open on the ECVA website June 1, 2002. Submissions should enrich or explicate a Biblical or liturgical text. Please send submissions or questions to illumination@earthlink.net or ECVA, c/o Mel Ahlborn, 76 Sullivan Drive, Moraga, CA 94556. Send work as an e-mail attachment in JPG (at least 150 dpi) or CD-ROM. Deadline is May 1, 2002. The announcement is also available in pdf format for placement in publications.
UK bishop supports easing law against cannabis
(ENI) A senior Church of England bishop, John Oliver, has added his voice to a growing movement in Britain to relax the law against using cannabis. Oliver said the law against the use of cannabis had become unenforceable and police energies would be better directed to the fight against hard drugs.
Oliver is the bishop of Hereford, an area of northwest England that attracted worldwide publicity in March with pictures of a dead 21-year-old heroin addict, Rachel Whitear. With the permission of her family, health authorities released the pictures, including one of the corpse holding a syringe, in a bid to deter others from taking hard drugs.
Oliver called for more education to persuade cannabis users not to switch to harder drugs. He told ENI: "It's not good to be on cannabis, which is not a harmless drug. It's pretty unpleasant." But, he added, cannabis "clearly isn't" always a gateway to hard drugs, since most cannabis users did not take other drugs. The 67-year-old bishop, who said he had never smoked cannabis, described himself as "reluctantly in agreement" with the campaign to relax the law.
The Hereford diocesan synod voted in favor of reclassifying cannabis as a first step towards decriminalization. It is understood to be the first time an English diocesan synod has favored such action. The Church of England's ruling general synod last debated drugs in July 1998 and then passed a resolution that neither supported nor condemned the decriminalization of cannabis use, according to a church spokesman.
The Church of England's Board for Social Responsibility told a parliamentary select committee that possession of cannabis should cease to be illegal. It said that criminalization led to disrespect for the law among young people, that the law was enforced in a random manner, and that there was no general link between cannabis and hard drugs. But the board's policy looks certain to attract opposition from evangelicals within the general synod. Britain's 1 million-member Evangelical Alliance, which draws support from across Christian denominations, is opposed to changing the law against taking drugs.
Countryman lectures EDS on 'Christian exclusivism'
(ENS) The Rev. Dr. L. William Countryman will give the Kellogg Lectures at Episcopal Divinity School May 2 and 3 on the topic of "Christian Exclusivism: Exegesis or Eisegesis."
Countryman, professor of Biblical Studies at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, is well known for his book Dirt, Greed, and Sex, a study of sexual ethics in the New Testament and their significance today. Other recent books by Countryman include Living on the Border of the Holy, on the meaning of priesthood, and The Poetic Imagination: An Anglican Spiritual Tradition.
The lectures on May 2 are 10:15 a.m. to noon ("Luke: Jews, Gentiles, Christians"); and 2 to 3:30 p.m. ("John: Are the Jews Us or Them?"). A book signing follows. On May 3 Countryman's topic is "The New Testament and Interfaith Realities." The event will be held in Washburn Hall and is free and open to the public.
