News Briefs
Episcopal News Service. July 11, 2003 [2003-158-A]
Young Adult Festival Models Message of Welcome During General Convention
The first-ever Young Adult Festival occurring in conjunction with a General Convention of the Episcopal Church will gather 18-30 year olds from throughout the United States and abroad from July 29-August 8, 2003. The event, designed as a holistic experience of the 74th General Convention, will offer workshops and speakers, corporate worship, fellowship opportunities, and the ability to observe and participate in convention proceedings.
Festival participants will live in community during their time at convention, following the core tenets of "Hospitality, Formation, Witness, and Mission" that are part of the festival's "Statement of Purpose," a community covenant. "The Statement of Purpose is more than just a set of house rules," explained R.C. Laird, a member of the festival design team from Minneapolis. "The Statement represents our desire to live into the baptismal covenant in our everyday lives, in our individual callings and ministries, and we are excited to share this idea in a very visible way with our brothers and sisters at convention."
The program was designed with an eye toward encouraging young adults to develop a healthy, integrated approach to their whole lives, with particular focus on spiritual, physical, and financial issues. Participants will spend self-directed mornings connecting with convention as observers and visitors, attending committee hearings and legislative sessions, and networking with delegates and others. Afternoon programming will include speakers, as well as workshops in topics such as prayer and meditation, nutrition, stress relief, and personal financial management. Nutritional, spiritual, and financial advisors and massage therapists will be on hand for one-on-one guidance. In the evenings, the community will lead corporate prayer of various formats (from traditional to Taizé) to which the entire convention is invited.
Scheduled speakers include Dean George Werner, president of the House of Deputies, noted author and artist Amanda Millay Hughes, and others. Legislative briefings, led each evening by Joseph Smith, Public Policy Network coordinator of the Episcopal Church Office of Government Relations, will keep festival participants apprised of new developments in convention proceedings and add to the educational component of the event.
"The festival is different than other ‘young adult'-themed events that have happened in the past," clarified Uchenna Ukaegbu, a design team member from Ann Arbor, Michigan. "It's not a social gathering, or a vocations conference, or a retreat, although it has elements of all of those things. We want to equip ourselves to be fully involved in the life of the church. The workshops we've scheduled will help us learn more about how we function. The daily legislative briefings and resource library we have established for the festival will help us learn more about how the church functions. It's not just about young adults being ‘ministered to'--it's about how we take our places and fulfill our roles in the church."
The festival is being underwritten by the Young Adult and Higher Education Ministries Office of the Ministries with Young People Cluster of the Episcopal Church. The Rev. Douglas Fenton, staff officer for Young Adult and Higher Education Ministries, says of the role of young adults in the church, "Know this: there are passionately motivated and committed young adults in the Episcopal Church faithfully striving to exercise their baptismal ministries. They are seeking ways to both welcome and be welcomed into the Church as a wider fellowship, and it is a struggle and a joy for which they are prepared. They are choosing to be witnesses to Christ."
Most activities will be held at 425 Oak Grove Street ("425"), a property owned by St. Mark's Cathedral. Just four blocks from the convention center, 425 will be a nearby source of hospitality and respite from the rigors of Convention, a resource center for young adults and others involved in convention proceedings, and a hub for education for the entire community. It will also serve as a hostel for young adults who need a place to stay for part or all of convention. The festival will run two sessions, July 29-August 3, and August 3-8. The Young Adult Festival Web site is located at www.episcopalchurch.org/myp/youngadult.
Event for Latino teens focuses on "Breaking Down Barriers"
(ENS) Latino teens from dioceses across the country gathered June 25-29 in Berea, Kentucky, a small college town 50 miles from Lexington, for the National Episcopal Latino Youth Event, sponsored by the National Office of Hispanic Ministries and the Rev. Daniel Caballero, Hispanic missioner.
The 140 high school age Latino Episcopalians and their adult sponsors and design team spent their time together considering the many ways in which God and the church can help break down the barriers between persons and groups. Berea College was an appropriate venue for this event, because it was founded in the early 19th century by abolitionists to provide higher education for Afro-Americans and Appalachian youth, and has kept as its motto, "God has made of one blood all the peoples of the earth." Participants came from Florida, California, Oregon, Illinois, New Jersey, Texas, Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia, Georgia, Texas, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Arizona.
"God blessed us with pleasant weather, great food, wonderful fellowship, outstanding music, spiritually uplifting worship services, challenging and provoking plenary sessions and workshops, participatory small group discussions, fun field trips, great accommodations, and young people and adults who were just more than happy to be together," said the Rev. Ramon I. Aymerich, who led a group of 34 young people and adults--the largest diocesan delegation present--from the Diocese of Southeast Florida.
Episcopal Relief and Development announces new board chair
(ERD) Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD) announced that Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold has appointed Bishop Harry Brown Bainbridge III as the new chairman of its board of directors. Bainbridge, Bishop of Idaho, has served as an ERD board member since 2001. He succeeds the late Bishop Robert G. Tharp, who served as chairman of ERD's board until his death in May of this year.
Bainbridge is the twelfth Bishop of Idaho and has served congregations in the dioceses of Tennessee, Western Louisiana, and Easton. He also served as chaplain and taught religion at the Sewanee Academy.
"Bishop Bainbridge will bring his experience as a board member over these last years, clarity about the vision of what ERD can be, and, most important, a passionate commitment to ERD's work," said Griswold.
"We look forward to working with Bishop Bainbridge to move ERD's vision forward and continue our efforts helping people worldwide on behalf of the Episcopal Church," said Sandra Swan, president of ERD.
Religious freedom advocate criticizes Iraq effort
(RNS) A leading religious freedom advocate has warned that the Bush administration may throw away the possibility of creating a genuinely free Iraq because it is ceding authority to fundamentalist Shiite clergy in its effort to restore order to the chaotic country.
"It's a form of Shariah law, Islamic law, that's being imposed on a de facto basis," said Nina Shea of Freedom House's Center for Religious Freedom, a member of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. "Even more worrisome are Islamic courts that are being set up to settle disputes. They have been set up on an ad hoc basis, but with the acquiescence of the U.S. military, who's in charge. ... It's a dangerous trend."
Shea, who has been one of the most forceful proponents of making religious freedom a component of U.S. foreign policy, made her comments in an interview with Kim Lawton of the PBS television program "Religion and Ethics Newsweekly."
After its swift military victory in Iraq, the U.S. military has been plagued with a breakdown in law and order that has hindered the establishment of the religious liberty and democratic values the Bush administration said would result from the ouster of Saddam Hussein. Militant Shiite clerics, many of them fundamentalists and some of them trained in Iran, have begun entering the power vacuum, much to the concern of religious freedom advocates such as Shea. They believe the trend could result in establishment, with U.S. military backing, of local and other governments that mimic the theocratic Iranian regime--Shea called it "Taliban lite"--and the potential repression of the Christian minority and dissident Muslims. There have already been reports of Christian liquor store owners and distilleries attacked by conservative Muslims. Although Islam forbids alcohol, under Saddam's nominally secular state, Christians were allowed to make and sell alcohol. There have also been reports of women being forced to wear veils in public.
"The U.S. reconstruction team at times has turned over neighborhoods, hospitals, schools, even towns to the Shiite clergy to rule, to run," Shea said. "This is unacceptable." Shea acknowledged the need for law and order and the restoration of the supply of basic necessities such as electricity and water. "But meanwhile, there is a growing organization among extremist elements in the Islamic community there that threatens the very survival of a free democratic state," Shea told Lawton.
She said that among the U.S. occupiers--and the policy-makers in Washington--there is "a great deal of reluctance and uncertainty about how to deal with religion, uncertainty about whether (the United States) should even assert that there is a fundamental right to religious freedom." She said the United States must "identify those Shiites and Islamic leaders who do embrace individual freedoms and human rights--and they are out there--and we have to be straightforward in insisting on religious freedom for everyone."
Activists concerned about funding of AIDS, development goals
(RNS) As President Bush headed to Africa for his first official visit to the continent, organizations supporting his plan to fight AIDS and foster economic development there hoped they would become a financial reality.
DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa), an African advocacy organization founded by U2 lead singer Bono, and Bread for the World said they were concerned that Congress might not spend enough money to meet the president's goals.
"I believe the president is sincere in his convictions to put America out front in a way that hasn't been done before on these issues but we have to make sure that his intentions are not undone," Bono said in a conference call with reporters on July 7.
Activists say the president's request for $18.9 billion for foreign aid that includes AIDS funding and development assistance through the Millennium Challenge Account, may receive a lower House allocation of $17.1 billion. Neena Moorjani, a spokeswoman for Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-AZ), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, said of the lower figure: "Congress will appropriate more money than ever before in development assistance and HIV/AIDS programs."
The Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, is concerned that other causes might be hurt even as the president attempts to increase AIDS and other funding for African causes. "He's got to deliver the money and he shouldn't take the money for these initiatives ... from programs of education for girls and assistance to farmers in Africa," said Beckmann, whose anti-hunger group is based in Washington.
In a briefing prior to the president's trip, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said of the administration: "…We are actively, all of us, actively engaging with the Congress to try and get full funding."
DATA launched a "Keep the President's Promise To Africa" campaign on July 6, asking churches, community organizations and local volunteers to sign cards pledging to contact Bush and members of Congress and build awareness about Africa with family and friends. Bono congratulated church leaders for getting more involved. "Particularly evangelicals, whom had seemed very judgmental to me over the years, turned out to be incredibly generous in their time and their support of this effort," he said. "I really had my view of the church turned upside down."
Speak out against abuse, council president urges Zimbabwe church leaders
(ENI) The president of the Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC), Anglican Bishop Sebastian Bakare, has castigated his fellow clergy for "remaining quiet" in the face of what he described as gross human rights violations and a worsening economic crisis in Zimbabwe.
"People linked to the government have abused other people and we are witnesses to that," Bakare said in his opening address at the ZCC's 37th annual general meeting in Harare. "But I am surprised that at times you have remained quiet." He deplored the deteriorating human rights situation in the country and the use of force to crush dissent.
"Our nation has established a culture of violence that continues incessantly," the ZCC leader said. "Murder, gang-rape, various forms of torture, harassment, destruction of property--all these evil acts reflect a society where both the law and law enforcement agents have ceased to be a resource for its citizens. Some people have become the law unto themselves. The church has remained a witness."
Bakare, who also heads the Anglican church's Manicaland diocese, near Zimbabwe's eastern border with Mozambique, challenged his counterparts in the ecumenical organization: "What are you doing to ensure your followers feel safe in these hardships? People are being assaulted on a daily basis and the violence appears to be increasing but you continue to remain distant witnesses as if you live on another planet. Let's unite and condemn what is wrong in our society."
Several church leaders at the meeting supported Bakare's statement but said they feared being targeted for reprisals if they spoke out against human rights violations perpetrated by pro-government groups or government departments.
A pastor who spoke to the independent Daily News newspaper on condition of anonymity said that ZCC staff feared being labeled as enemies of the government, and that their reluctance to make a firm stand against social injustices had "severely affected the ZCC's response to critical human rights and humanitarian issues."
British Methodists favor stronger links with Church of England
(ENI) Methodists in Britain are hoping that their third attempt to forge closer links with the Church of England will succeed after their annual conference approved the move by 277 to 86.
Bids to unite the churches failed in 1969 and 1972 because of objections on the Anglican side. This time, the churches are planning a lower-key "covenant," which the Church of England's ruling general synod meeting later this month is also expected to approve. The covenant commits Anglicans and Methodists "as a priority, to work to overcome the remaining obstacles to the organic unity of our two churches."
During the Methodist conference debate, John Walker, co-chair of the covenant joint working group, said: "In one sense, this replicates what is already going on at a local level in some places. In another sense, we will be crossing a threshold into a new place."
With 24 per cent voting against the move, however, a substantial minority of Methodist opinion remains unreconciled to the pledge. Walker told ENI that "the breadth of views expressed at the conference will be responsibly represented in the ongoing process."
With about 1 million regular weekly worshipers, the Church of England is more than three times larger than the Britain's Methodist Church. Both have been affected by the slump in attendance that has hit most Christian denominations in the UK. Each shed about 40 per cent of regular Sunday attendees in the two decades leading up to 1998, according to the survey organization Christian Research.
Methodists have three to five years to overcome a "corporate death wish," according to Howard Mellor, principal of Cliff College, a Methodist training center. The church had to cope with an aging membership and needed a wholesale rethink on how it chooses, trains and supports ministers, he said.
Change or be left behind, warns Reformed leader
(ENI) Dr. Coan-Sen Song, president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC), has warned that the ecumenical movement is too "institutionalized," challenged world church leaders to revitalize it because many congregations are indifferent to initiatives taken by world church bodies. He urged the executive committee to WARC to envision a new "people's ecumenical movement" and find a new language to communicate with churches on important issues.
At the same time, ecumenical bodies have avoided the use of "essential" Christian terms such as "evangelical," meaning Gospel or good news, "giving the impression that they are not quite evangelical. This is of course a false perception."
"The alliance has to be unabashedly ‘evangelical,' not only implicitly but explicitly, not apologetically but joyfully," he said. "Why are we not able to convince ourselves, our member churches and Christians, even our critics, that the alliance is evangelical to the core?"
WARC has also sought to keep its identity distinct from other church bodies, Song said. "We should ask ourselves why we have been involved in pursuits of economic justice, gender equality or human rights. We have also to ask ourselves how our involvement in these things is different from the involvement of the United Nations, non-governmental organizations, and other ecumenical institutions."
He criticized the timidity of the ecumenical movement and its reliance on hierarchical structures. "An ecumenical movement that does not address itself to people's spiritual need and hunger at a deeper level -- as well as to their physical wellbeing -- will be limited in influence and impact," he said. "It will not be able to stem the tide of Christians who resort to charismatic churches."
He added, "The world has shifted. If we remain unchanged, we will be left behind. The World Council of Churches has been left behind. Once you are institutionalized, it's very hard to change."
WARC is a fellowship of 75 million Christians in 200 Congregational, Presbyterian, Reformed and United churches in more than 100 countries around the world.
South African church leader urges continuing fight against racism
(ENI) A South African church leader has urged the international community to continue to support the fight against the lingering effects of racism after the apartheid system of racial discrimination collapsed.
"Apartheid is gone but racial attitudes haven't changed," said the Rev. Sol Jacob, a Methodist pastor in Pietermaritzburg, and former staff member of the South African Council of Churches at an executive committee meeting of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC). "Reconciliation has to happen between people."
"It's important for the world community to know we are facing new challenges," Jacob said. "We are left with poverty. Black people are so poor. We are faced with the economic oppression and we still suffer."
He praised the international community for the pressure it applied against the apartheid system that ruled from 1948 to 1994 when South Africa elected a democratic government. "Economic sanctions and pressure brought the South African nation to its knees -- not the armed conflict of the liberation movement," he said at the meeting in a mountain village in Italy.
Jacob argued that some of the most difficult reconciliation work lay ahead. "It takes generations to change attitudes, especially if people are brought up separately -- separate work, separate education, separate buses. People mustn't think the thing is over. The real work begins now."
Churches in Liberia supporting peace and relief process
(ENI) Action by Churches Together (ACT), the global alliance of churches and relief agencies, has said that church leaders have played in a role in talks to persuade Liberian President Charles Taylor to step down. Following a request from Taylor to the church to help "save the country from further destruction," members of the Concerned Christian Community, one of ACT's partners in Liberia, met with the president for three hours recently.
Two rebel factions now control nearly two-thirds of Liberia after launching a war three years ago to oust Taylor. He has said publicly that he is accepting an offer of asylum from Nigeria although he said that his departure will depend on the arrival of international peace keepers.
Church World Service (CWS), the relief agency of the National Council of Churches in the U.S., reported that a delegation of church and civic leaders met with heads of state in the Ivory Coast, Guinea and Sierra Leone, urging their full support for the peace process. CWS has also appealed to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan urging the Security Council to participate in a peacekeeping mission and also appealed to Secretary of State Colin Powell urging the U.S. to join peace efforts and "assume a significant leadership role in concert with other international bodies.
"Such a stabilization force now seems the only viable way," said the Rev. John McCullough, executive director of CWS, "to accelerate positive closure and settlement of the peace talks in Ghana and finally bring decades of conflict to closure."
Canada's churches divided on rights regarding same-sex marriages
(RNS) Canadian church leaders are divided on whether the legalizing of same-sex marriages will force unwilling clergy to perform weddings for homosexual couples.
United and Anglican church officials who support same-sex blessings are confident the federal government's historic decision to allow gays and lesbians to marry will not lead to clergy having to do anything against their religious conscience. The general secretary of the Canadian Council of Churches, an umbrella organization representing mainline Protestants and Catholics, also said she would take Prime Minister Jean Chrétien on his word that clergy will be allowed to opt out of performing gay marriages.
However, an official with the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, which is "deeply disappointed" with the Liberal government's move to legalize homosexual weddings, says he'll watch closely to make sure clergy won't be pressed into sanctifying marriages they don't condone. "We are deeply concerned that the effect of the redefinition will be to begin a process of marginalization for many churches and their clergy who currently participate in the civil registration of marriage," said EFC official Bruce Clemenger.
The federal Liberal government announced in June it will not appeal recent court rulings in Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec that had declared banning gay and lesbian marriages unconstitutional. Instead, Ottawa promised to immediately introduce legislation permitting same-sex marriage, making Canada only the third country in the world to do so, along with Belgium and the Netherlands. In an attempt to reassure Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus and members of other religions, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien stressed, "We will be proposing legislation that will protect the right of churches and religious organizations to sanctify marriage as they define it."
In Canada, the Roman Catholic Church, evangelical denominations, Eastern Orthodox churches, Muslim organizations, Sikh temples and most arms of Anglicanism and Judaism oppose homosexual marriage. However, the United Church of Canada, liberal branches of Judaism, the Unitarian Church of Canada and the Anglican diocese for the Vancouver area have approved same-sex rites.
No matter what religion they belong to, most Canadian clergy combine two distinct roles when it comes to marriage ceremonies. On one hand, clergy perform purely religious marriage rituals that reflect their various faith traditions. At the same time, most clergy also agree to act as agents of the government and issue marriage licenses.
Vancouver School of Theology professor Richard Leggett was grateful for how the Liberal government's decision to change the definition of marriage to include gays and lesbians will put pressure on reluctant Christians to follow suit. "It will require a change in the church, because it will show that Anglicans in Vancouver who support same-sex blessings are not off the wall," said Leggett, an Anglican who has supported his diocese's controversial decision to approve same-sex blessings. "We've been represented in this diocese as renegades who are out of step. And this move by the federal government shows we're not out of step in the context in which we serve. That might not be relevant to some evangelicals, but it should be relevant to Anglicans."
Ossuary owner says artifact is no fraud
(RNS) When the so-called "James Ossuary," was first unveiled last October, a number of prominent archaeologists, geologists and paleographers had already authenticated the artifact's remarkable inscription of "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus," to the first century A.D.
Scholars said the ossuary-- a ritual burial box in which the bones of deceased first century Jews were typically stored-- was likely the first physical link to the figure of Jesus, who Christians believe was the Messiah.
But two weeks ago, sensation turned to scandal when a seven-member panel of experts appointed by the Israel Antiquities Authority ruled the inscription on the ossuary a probable forgery. The panel concluded that the patina, or crust of chalk, covering most of the inscription was a recent addition, not a natural result of aging over time. Handwriting experts also contended that most of the inscription is probably a new addition, not from the first century period.
But the previously anonymous owner, Oded Golan, has vigorously contested the Antiquities Authority's findings. In an interview with Religion News Service, Golan argued the scientific and archaeological conclusions reached by the panel of Israeli geologists and paleographers were not as conclusive as the final report seemed to indicate. He said that he was now in touch with a number of prominent international experts who would proceed to re-examine the panel's findings, in order to assess their validity.
"I have almost no doubt that we are talking about an authentic inscription," Golan said. "But I am not the expert, this is something that requires scientific review. In the aftermath of the Antiquities Authority's announcement, I have received a number of inquiries from geologists and other experts who dispute the conclusions drawn by the panel, or see different interpretations to their scientific findings. These experts will have to review the findings, perhaps even conduct a second round of (geological) tests, and then publish their conclusions. This will require a number of weeks or even months."
But the scientists may not have the final word in the still-unfolding drama. The Israeli police have been conducting a lengthy inquiry into the saga, and there are indications that they may soon wrap up their investigation. "If someone took a genuinely ancient ossuary, and applied to it a new inscription, then this is a matter of forgery and tampering with antiquities," said Uzi Dahari, deputy director general of the Antiquities Authority. "But the police are dealing with this question, not us."
Did meteorite prompt Constantine's conversion?
(RNS) Could the impact of a meteorite hitting the Italian Apennines have been the sign in the sky-- believed to be in the shape of a cross-- that encouraged the Emperor Constantine to invoke the Christian God in his decisive battle in 312 when he defeated his fellow Emperor Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge?
The victory paved the way for the recognition of Christianity by the Roman Empire and the union of church and state that lasted for nearly 1,500 years.
The possibility is raised by a report in the current issue of New Scientist of the discovery of a meteorite impact crater dating from the fourth or fifth century A.D. in the Apennines. The crater is a seasonal lake, roughly circular with a diameter of between 115 and 140 meters, which has a pronounced raised rim and no inlet or outlet and is fed solely by rainfall. There are a dozen much smaller craters nearby, such as would be created when a meteorite with a diameter of some 10 meters shattered during entry into the atmosphere. A team led by the Swedish geologist Jens Ormo believes the crater was caused by a meteorite landing with a one-kiloton impact-- equivalent to a very small nuclear blast-- and producing shock waves, earthquakes and a mushroom cloud.
Samples from the crater's rim have been dated to the year 312 plus or minus 40 years, but small amounts of contamination with recent material could account for a date significantly later than 312. However, from the written historical record it is uncertain whether Constantine's vision of the cross was a dream just before the decisive battle or, as Eusebius stated in his life of the emperor, a sign he saw in the heavens.