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April 18, 1997
Episcopal News Service
Jim Solheim, Director
212-922-5385
ens@ecunet.org

97-1744
NewsBriefs

Concerned Episcopalians group charges presiding bishop with canon
violation
       (ENS) A group of Pennsylvania Episcopalians has charged that
Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning violated the Episcopal Church's
constitution and canons when he chose not to summon a board of inquiry
to investigate the ordination of a non-celibate homosexual by Bishop
Allen L. Bartlett of Pennsylvania. The group of clergy and lay people
calling itself Concerned Episcopalians has requested that the House of
Bishop convene a committee to review the charges against Browning.
"Sadly, we were given no option but to pursue this course of action,"
said Hartley S. Connett, one of the signers of the complaint. The group
claims that it was Browning's canonical duty to summon a board of
inquiry when the group first complained about Bartlett's 1994 ordination
of a non-celibate homosexual as deacon. Following a ruling by an
ecclesiastical court that dismissed similar charges against Bishop Walter
Righter, Browning told Concerned Episcopalians that "these rulings have
. . . definitely established for the church at this time that the ordination
by a bishop of a non-celibate homosexual person is not a disciplinary
`offense' for which a charge may be brought." As a result, he said, "it
would be an unwarranted use of the church's procedures--and resources--
for me to convene a panel of bishops to consider this matter further."
Because the charge involves the presiding bishop, it falls to the vice-
president of the House of Bishops, Bishop Arthur Williams of Ohio, to
respond to the group. Williams said that he has asked John Cannon,
former chancellor of the Diocese of Michigan and parliamentarian of the
House of Deputies to serve as his legal advisor in the matter.

Carey says church shouldn't sanction or bless same-sex relationship
       (ENS) In a documentary on British television, Archbishop of
Canterbury George Carey has ruled out the possibility that the Church of
England would sanction or bless same-sex relationships. He said that the
church is clear that "practicing homosexuality is not to be condoned in
the priesthood." While they may be ordained, clergy "should live a
celibate lifestyle . . . . Homosexuals are people loved by God, have gifts
to offer, but the discipline of the church has not changed," he said. "The
discipline of the church is that we recognize two lifestyles. One is
marriage and the other is celibacy, and there can't be anything in
between and we don't recognize same-sex marriages."

General Convention Office says Episcopal Church has 113 dioceses
       (ENS) Statistics can be elusive, even in the church, according to
the Rev. Donald Nickerson, secretary of General Convention. For
example, how many dioceses does the Episcopal Church have--and how
is that determined. "we are saying that the church officially has 113
dioceses, after the Mexican dioceses formed their own province of the
Anglican Communion and the church created a new diocese in eastern
Michigan," he said. That number includes Navajoland, which is actually
an "area mission," and the Convocation of American Churches in
Europe. "It might be more accurate to call them jurisdictions," he said,
"but we include them because they have seat and vote at General
Convention and take part in the consent process for the election of
bishops."

Diocese of Milwaukee faces racketeering charge
       (ENS) The Episcopal Diocese of Milwaukee has been charged
with racketeering in an $11.7 million class-action lawsuit brought by
bondholders of a senior citizens' housing project developed by a diocesan
housing corporation. The suit, filed on behalf of 1,700 persons who
invested more than $10 million, claims that diocesan leaders failed to
disclose failings of the Lake Oaks project and lied to consultants,
underwriters and investors. When the diocese defaulted on the property,
a 1995 foreclosure sale compensated investors only 32 cents on the
dollar. According to an article in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, only
25 of the project's 85 units were ever occupied. "The charges are
absurd," said Carl Eschweiler, diocesan executive secretary, in an
interview with the Journal Sentinel. "The racketeering charges were
designed for organized crime, not organized religion." Bishop Roger
White of Milwaukee asserted that "the church would not and did not
misrepresent anything. It would never condone such behavior. Quite the
opposite: The diocese spent large amounts of its fiscal and human
resources to prevent the project from failing by acquiring the best
professional advice available."--Based on a report in The Living Church
magazine

Bishop raises possibility of "free province" for traditionalists
       (ENS) A Church of England bishop has suggested that a world-
wide "free province" for Anglican traditionalists might be necessary if
more accommodation is not provided for conservative viewpoints. Bishop
Edwin Barnes of Richborough, one of the Church of England's "flying
bishops" who serve parishes that do not accept the ordination of women,
stressed that he does not endorse the idea. But, he said, "We are thinking
about the situation and praying about it. We might be driven to this
step." Pressure on traditionalists in the United States, in particular, he
said, is "worse than I expected." Barnes said that the free province would
retain an association with Anglicanism, subscribing to "whatever bits we
can," but suggested that the province would be in fellowship chiefly with
"another part of the world-wide church, for instance Orthodoxy." In
England, he said, the main hurdles to the church's efforts to live with
diversity were the ordination of women as bishops, the blessing of same-
sex unions, and what he called the dismantling of the independence of the
parish system.

Eau Claire has companion relationship with Old Catholics
       (ENS) The Diocese of Eau Claire recently established an
agreement for prayer and fellowship with the Old Catholic Diocese of
Germany. Signed by Bishop William Wantland of Eau Claire and by
Bishop Joachim Vobbe of the Old Catholic Church, it is the first
agreement of its kind between Episcopal and Old Catholic dioceses. It
calls for members of the dioceses to pray for one another, to develop
visitation programs, to construct "working relationships" between
congregations, and to educate each other about the two churches.

NCC, North and South Korean churches assess progress toward peace
       (ENS) Representatives from the National Council of Churches of
Christ, U.S.A., the Korean Christians Federation (North Korea) and the
National Council of Churches of (South) Korea recently met to outline
new efforts toward peace between their countries and the reunification of
Korea. In their final communique, the church leaders said that "we are
convinced that our prayers, petitions, recommendations and solidarity
actions have made a difference in what seemed to be an intractable
international situation." Citing the churches' peace advocacy as a crucial
factor, the communique declared that "the international community has
begun to grapple with the threat to world peace of a divided Korea, and
with Korea's devastating history of conflict and division. . . . The
churches are well placed to undergird and strengthen these positive
developments."

Fund donates $150,000 to anti-racism effort
       (ENS) The Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief recently
awarded $150,000 to be paid over the next three years to the South
Carolina Christian Action Council (SCCAC), an interfaith group that has
undertaken anti-racism work in response to the series of church burnings
last year. Julia Sibley, coordinator of SCCAC's anti-racism efforts, said
the money would go toward rebuilding burned churches, compiling a
statewide network of racial reconciliation workers and fielding a team of
trained mediators to help defuse racial flare-ups. Bishop Edward Salmon
and Suffragan Bishop William Skilton, both of South Carolina, presented
a check for the first installment of $50,000 to the Rev. Dr. L. Wayne
Bryan, executive minister of SCCAC. "We are in a time in which people
are especially sensitive to issues of racism and separation," Bryan said.

99 percent of Brazilians believe in God, but most don't attend church
       (ENI)  A survey taken in the week leading up to Easter indicates
that 99 percent of Brazilians believe in God. The Vox Populi Institute
interviewed 1,998 people throughout
Brazil for the survey, the results of which were recently published in the
magazine Veda. The survey found that many of those who said they
believed in God do not regularly attend church services or other forms of
worship. When asked if they had been to a church or religious building
during the previous weekend, 57 percent said they had not. According to
the survey,  69 percent of Brazilians believe in heaven, but only 32
percent expect to get there. This contrasts with a survey carried out in
the United States and published by Time, which indicated that of 1,108
people surveyed, 81 percent believed in heaven, while 61 percent
expected to get there. On the issue of hell, there were also significant
differences between the Brazilian and U.S. surveys--only 44 percent of
Brazilians, in contrast to 63 percent of U.S. residents--believe in eternal
punishment for sinners. A sociologist from the University of Sao Paulo,
Reginaldo Prandi, pointed out that unlike Judeo-Christian culture, Afro-
Brazilian religions placed little importance on the notion of guilt.

Patriarch Bartholomeos raises issue of Catholic membership of WCC
       (ENI) The spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians,
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomeos I of Constantinople, recently called
on the Roman Catholic Church to join the World Council of Churches
(WCC) in time for the WCC's 50th anniversary next year. The WCC has
332 member churches around the world, among them the world's main
Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox churches. However, the Roman
Catholic Church, whose 850 to 900 million members make it the world's
biggest church, is not a WCC member, although there is cooperation
between the WCC and the Vatican on a number of issues. Patriarch 
Bartholomeos, who occupies the position of first among equals among
Orthodox leaders, said in his remarks to journalists visiting Istanbul
earlier this year and reported in The Tablet magazine in London, that he
hoped the Roman Catholic Church would reconsider joining the WCC.
However, in an implicit reaction to the Papal Encyclical Ut Unum Sint
("That they may be one") he also said he believed that papal primacy--the
Catholic Church's claim that the Pope is the rightful leader of the whole
Christian church--remained the "greatest problem" for ecumenical
relations.

Russian Orthodox to stay in WCC for now
       (CC) The Russian Orthodox Church's Council of bishops recently
decided that the church should continue to remain a member of the
World Council of Churches (WCC) despite heavy pressure from an
isolationist faction that wanted the church to shift to observer status in
the Geneva-based ecumenical organization. At its February 18-23
meeting in Moscow, the council agreed that a final decision on
membership in the WCC and other international church organizations
should await the outcome of discussions with other Orthodox churches on
contacts with non-Orthodox bodies. "The word `ecumenism' has become
today a sort of swear word in our Christian community," said
Metropolitan Filaret of Minsk and Slutsk, chairman of the church's
Theological Commission, who nevertheless presented a lengthy defense
of the church's ecumenical contacts in his report to the bishops' council.
Referring to the discussion on whether to leave the WCC, he said, "We
cannot take such revolutionary decisions which differ from the position of
other Orthodox churches with whom we are in communion and bound by
obligations."

US church decides not to make clergy affirm Christ as sole salvation
       (ENI) Regional units of the Reformed Church in America (RCA)
have turned down a proposal for the church to require an annual
affirmation from clergy that salvation is through "Christ alone." A vote
on the proposal was ordered by the denomination's General Synod last
year after a controversy about a minister in the church who taught that
non-Christians could receive salvation through other channels. Approval
by two thirds of the classes, the church's regional units, is required for a
constitutional change. The denomination announced on April 1 that 21
classes had disapproved, 19 approved and 6 were yet to report. Richard
A. Rhem, the Michigan pastor at the center of the controversy, has since
resigned his RCA credentials. He said that he did not interpret all the
votes against the proposal as support for his position, but he called the
result "healthy." He said "It was fortunate for the more moderate voices
in the church that it was defeated. This will continue to allow for a wider
spectrum  of opinion."  The proposal was "intended to narrow down" the
spectrum of opinion in the church, and some people voted against it
because they saw "a spirit of witch hunting," he said. Rhem and his
congregation, Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, left
the RCA to become independent.

Study by UK churches finds rising wealth, growing poverty 
       (ENI) A church working group on unemployment and poverty in
Britain has discovered a gulf between rich and poor that is more usually
associated with Third World countries than with a wealthy industrialized
nation. The group's report, Unemployment and the Future of Work, calls
for radical economic policies, including higher taxes to finance job
creation. The report was published in the middle of Britain's general
election campaign and the Sunday Times newspaper headlined its account
of the report: "Churches set to raise storm by backing Labour policies."
The Anglican Bishop of Liverpool, David Sheppard, who chaired the
report's sponsoring group, denied that the report amounted to partisan
support for Britain's opposition Labour Party in the election which takes
place on May 1. But he admitted the report had been published during
the election campaign for maximum
impact. Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey rejected the accusations
of political partisanship. "The followers of Jesus Christ have always
sought to model his loving concern for the outcasts and marginalized
people of his time," he said. The report's sponsoring body was set up by
the Council of Churches for Britain and Ireland.

Anti-gay campaign prompts church to withdraw from WCC assembly
       (ENI) An anti-homosexual campaign by Zimbabwe's president,
Robert Mugabe, recently prompted a Dutch church to announce that it
will not take part in the next assembly of the World Council of Churches
(WCC), to be held in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, in September
next year. "The main reason [for the decision not to attend] is that in
Zimbabwe there is a violation of human rights, according to our vision,"
said Rene van den Berg, an official and former secretary of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of the Netherlands (ELK).
He said that the church's decision, taken by its synodal commission,
followed correspondence and discussion with the WCC, of which ELK is
a member. In a press release, ELK said it had chosen not to attend "on
account of the very unfavorable climate for homosexuals in Zimbabwe . .
. . The synodal commission intends with its decision to send a clear
signal of protest against the situation in Zimbabwe." There has been
widespread international publicity about the Mugabe's views, who has
said publicly on several occasions that homosexuals are not welcome in
Zimbabwe, that their behavior is comparable to that of animals and that
homosexuality is a Western import. The WCC has negotiated a
"Memorandum of Understanding" with the Zimbabwean government
which guarantees that the WCC can conduct the gathering without
interference. "For us it was obvious that Mr. Mugabe will allow the
WCC to gather, but only under strict conditions," van den Berg said.
"Would the WCC have met in South Africa [under apartheid]?" he asked.
"I don't think so."

As crime rate rises, South Africa's police turn to prayer
       (ENI) The South African Police Service (SAPS), hard-pressed to
contain the country's rampant crime, recently held a public Day of
Prayer against Crime. South Africa is regarded as one of the most violent
countries in the world. A newspaper report last year said the country had
the highest homicide rate of the 55 countries which supply homicide
statistics to the World Health Organization. The aim of the recent Day of
Prayer against Crime was to pray to God for protection and blessing in
the fight against crime and to call on churches to unite against crime,
according to Senior Superintendent Johan Smal, a SAPS spokesperson.
"Just as the business community has come together to fight crime, so too
can South Africans of all denominations and different religions join hands
to rid our country of the evil of crime and criminals," he said. About
2,000 people attended the day of prayer, song and testimonies held in the
Loftus Versfeld rugby stadium in Pretoria. Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace
Prize laureate and Cape Town's former Anglican archbishop, said in the
opening prayer at the event that South Africans were glad that under the
government of President Nelson Mandela the police were now regarded
as friends, no longer as the enemy of the people.

Pope prays for Christian unity
       (VIS) The Chapter of England's Canterbury Cathedral (CCC)
recently visited Pope John Paul II in Rome. Recalling that he had prayed
at the Church of St. Gregory on the Caelian Hill with Archbishop of
Canterbury George Carey and his predecessor, Robert Runcie, the Pope
said, "Our prayer was above all one of thanksgiving for the brotherhood
in Christ which has been rediscovered through the ecumenical journey of
recent years. It was a prayer for conversion." John Paul II stated that it
was his fervent prayer "that the forthcoming celebrations in England will
be an encouragement for Anglicans and Catholics to cooperate even more
closely in preparing the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, which should
find us `if not completely united, at least much closer to overcoming the
divisions of the second millennium.'" The CCC delegation was visiting
Rome in connection with the 14th centenary of the mission given to St.
Augustine and his companions by Pope Gregory the Great.

Catholic bishops call for millennium present to the poor
       (ENI) The Roman Catholic bishops of England and Wales
recently called for the reduction or cancellation of Third World debt to
Western countries. Total debt by developing countries is estimated at
more than US $1 trillion. In their public statement, the bishops said, "We
believe that the start of the new millennium should be a time to give
hope to impoverished people, and to put behind us the past mistakes of
lenders and borrowers. Indeed, it is hard to envisage a better symbol of
what the millennium is truly celebrating." The bishops were launching a
campaign by the Catholic relief agency, Catholic Fund for Overseas
Development (CAFOD), for the cancellation of debts which Third World
countries are unable to pay. According to CAFOD, $250 billion of
unpayable debt is owed to the World Bank and International Monetary
Fund (IMF), with billions more outstanding in country-to-country loans.
CAFOD says that for every $1 the rich world gives in aid, it takes back
$3 on debt repayments on earlier loans. CAFOD's director, Julian
Filochowski said that there had been more progress on "forgiveness" of
bilateral (country-to-country) debt than of multilateral debt (owed to the
IMF and the World Bank), although he added: "There are positive signs,
but results have not been very substantial so far."

People

Bishop Claro Huerta-Ramos, primate of the Anglican Church of Mexico,
suffered two broken ribs and severe head wound when his car was hit
head-on by a tractor trailer truck on April 8, 1997. Huerta, whose car
was completely destroyed in the accident, was hospitalized and is
recuperating. Doctors attribute his survival to his seat belt.