Episcopal Press and News
News Briefs
Episcopal News Service. November 14, 2002 [2002-263-1]
Harold Jones, first American Indian bishop, dies at 92
(AP) The Rt. Rev. Harold Jones, retired bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of South Dakota, died November 12 at a hospital in Chandler, Arizona. He was 92.
Jones was the first American Indian to be elevated to the office of bishop by any Christian denomination.
"He lived the Native American concept of generosity," said the Rev. Ron Hennies of Rapid City, an Episcopal priest and longtime friend of Jones. "He'd give you literally the shirt off his back, and he'd never check to see if he had a spare," Hennies said. "He brought many of the characteristics of the best of Native American culture with him to this Christian expression."
Jones was consecrated as a suffragan bishop of the Episcopal Church on January 11, 1972. His consecration marked the highlight of a career that began in 1938 with his ordination.
He served at the Pine Ridge Mission, the Cheyenne River Agency, Gettysburg, Dupree, Pine Ridge, and Wahpeton, North Dakota; Fort Defiance, Arizona; and Rapid City, South Dakota.
"Women of the Table" ECW video filming concluded
(ECW) Filming has just concluded for the ECW video project "Women of the Table" and the production has moved into the scripting and editing phase. Produced by Katie Sherrod, award winning independent television producer and Fort Worth Episcopalian, "Women of the Table" is a 20 minute video telling the stories of women doing ministry in and through the Episcopal Church using narration, interviews, footage and photos of the various featured ministries. The inspiration for the project was a vision of the ECW National Board to create a video that would offer an inspirational and educational tool for use by ECWs and other groups across the church to tell the good news of the work of the women of this great church being done on behalf of the gospel.
"Because Episcopal Church Women are rooted in tradition, the video opens with images of an altar guild setting the table, one of the most beloved of traditional women's ministries," said ECW board member Susan Russell. "But Episcopal Church Women also are moving into God's future in exciting and sometimes unexpected ways. From the altar we move to images and stories of women feeding people in many ways: women teaching Sunday School classes and creating literacy projects; women reaching out through prison and hospice ministry, doing peace and justice work and working for economic justice. What binds them all together is their love of God, their foundation in the faith and their commitment to be the Body of Christ in the world."
Location shooting took place during the month of September in the dioceses of Fort Worth, Lexington and Los Angeles, and the live interviews with women doing amazing and inspiring ministry will be woven with historical photos and archival footage. The production is scheduled for release at the Triennial Meeting in Minneapolis next summer.
Global stock markets force churches to cut back on social projects
(ENI) Sagging global stock markets have caught churches and church organizations in a double bind, forcing investment income down and making donors reluctant to give because of financial problems, and leading to cuts in social programs.
Dipping into reserves is commonplace for churches. Some have done this for years as routine, but financial advisers point out that selling investments during a slump means losses are crystallized and assets may be surrendered at less than their purchase price.
For the Church Commissioners, the Church of England's main funding body, the effect of the stock market slump has been lessened by their relatively large holdings in property - 28 per cent in 2001. Assets shrunk by 5.7 per cent in 2001 compared with a loss of 8.9 per cent recorded by a national "benchmark" of comparative returns. "In the past the commissioners were criticized for the size of their property holdings, but now it looks decidedly better," said Lou Henderson, a spokesperson for the commissioners. With investments and reserves worth 4 billion pounds sterling at the end of 2001, the commissioners are responsible for stipends of bishops and deans, some clergy pensions and support for parish ministry.
The same financial problems are seen internationally. The World Council of Churches is projecting a deficit for 2002 of CHF (Swiss francs) 7.5 million ($5.2 million) - CHF 1.8 million worse than expected, partly due to reductions in contributions, the WCC said. At the Geneva headquarters of the world's largest church grouping, which has about 180 employees, staff fear drastic cutbacks in jobs and programs following a task group review whose findings are being considered at an officers' meeting on November 14-15. The WCC also has contingency plans to take out a mortgage on its headquarters building, but officers have been instructed to try to avoid using this source of credit "by all means possible."
Nigerian leader praises efforts towards reconciliation by victims
(ENI) Church and political leaders at a memorial service held November 7 to mark the anniversary of the massacre of hundreds of Tiv civilians by soldiers in the central state of Benue praised efforts towards reconciliation and called for an end to ethnic conflicts in Nigeria.
The slaughter of members of the Tiv community came at the hands of government peace-keeping troops and took place in the midst of the ethnic violence that has rocked the region since Nigeria returned to democratic rule in 1999.
The interdenominational memorial service in the town of Gboko organized by leaders of the Tiv community was, however, marked by pleas for reconciliation. Nathaniel Inyom, the Anglican bishop of the Makurdi diocese, said that more than 500 people in his diocese had been killed in religious and ethnic conflicts.
Inyom said hopes that had risen with the arrival of democracy in 1999 had been dashed by religious and ethnic violence. But he applauded the decision of Tiv religious and community leaders to seek reconciliation with other ethnic groups. "Forgiveness is an act of God. It comes from within," the bishop said.
The Anglican bishop also appealed to the Nigerian government to act immediately to enact a law addressing the country's conflicts, saying that "there is no laid down policy or procedure for handling conflicts in Nigeria."
In October last year federal troops were sent to quell ethnic bloodshed in the central Nigerian states of Benue, Taraba, Nasarawa and Plateau which had already left dozens of people dead and thousands homeless. The conflict came to a head after 19 soldiers were slain by militiamen believed to be from the Tiv community. In an apparent act of revenge, soldiers attacked the Tiv settlement of Zaki-Biam, killing hundreds of people and destroying property worth millions of dollars.
About 2.7 million people claim Tiv ethnicity in Nigeria, a country with a population of 89 million, of whom about 50 per cent are Muslims and 40 per cent Christians.
Canadian priest resigns in protest over same sex blessings
(ENI) A Canadian Anglican priest who is opposed to his bishop's approval of same-sex blessings has resigned from his British Columbia parish and will leave to serve a Reformed congregation in Switzerland next year.
The Rev. Timothy Cooke of St Martin's Anglican Church in North Vancouver resigned effective January 2003 due to the impasse with diocesan Bishop Michael Ingham. Cooke's parish has voted at three successive meetings to reject the diocese's decision in June this year to "celebrate permanent, intimate, loving relationships between persons of the same sex."
The unresolved controversy over blessing homosexual unions has afflicted the Diocese of New Westminster, near Vancouver, and the Anglican Church of Canada since the middle of this year. The clash erupted after the western Canadian diocese voted 215 to 129 on 15 June to approve blessings for lesbian and gay couples. Leaders of eight congregations walked out of the diocesan synod meeting in protest against the decision. They pledged to withhold financial commitments to the diocese and to take church properties worth millions of dollars with them if they seceded. The eight protesting parishes--which represent 25 per cent of the membership--are among the wealthiest of the diocese's 81.
The New Westminster synod's decision was also condemned by 13 Canadian bishops and then archbishop of Canterbury Dr George Carey. The primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, Archbishop Michael Peers, also entered the fray with letters that pleaded for unity.
Cooke said he could not accept his diocese's provision of a "temporary conscience" clause which would allow dissenting priests and parishes to decline from using the blessing. He said it meant remaining under an authority, that of diocesan Bishop Michael Ingham, that he felt had removed itself from the consensus of the wider church.
"The parish has been very supportive and understanding," the departing priest said. " I don't think there will be a quick ending to this. My sense is that the hemorrhaging of members and financial support will continue."
Cooke is not the first priest to resign because of the situation in the Diocese of New Westminster. The Rev. Colin Goode, rector of Holy Trinity, Vancouver (not one of the dissenting parishes), left at the end of October for Olympia, Washington in the United States to serve a parish there.