wfn.org | Episcopal News Service briefs

[Daphne Mack <dmack@dfms.org>]

99-029
NCC welcomes arrest; continues to rebuild burned churches 
(NCC) Joan B. Campbell, general secretary of the National 
Council of Churches (NCC), commended the National Church Arson 
Task Force for its role in the arrest of an Indiana man who 
admitted to setting 30 to 50 church fires in Indiana and other 
states over the past five years.
Jay Scott Ballinger, of Yorktown, Indiana, was charged with 
arson attacks on seven churches in Indiana. He was arrested after 
people became suspicious when he asked for treatment for burns at 
an Indiana hospital.
Also charged was Angela Wood, of Georgia and Donald Puckett, 
of Indiana. Wood and Puckett allegedly assisted Ballinger with one 
of the Indiana fires.
"These arrests mark the latest achievement of The National 
Church Arson Task Force, established in mid-1996 as a direct 
result of the National Council of Churches' work," said Campbell. 
"The task force, a joint program of the U.S. Justice and Treasury 
departments, is working with state governments, especially where 
there are clusters of arsons, and has put the issue squarely in 
front of state fire marshals."
In 1996 the NCC called national attention to an epidemic of 
arson attacks on churches (at the time mostly African-American 
congregations across the South) and has led the way in rebuilding 
churches burned for reasons of racial and/or religious hatred, 
promoting arson prevention measures and winning tougher penalties 
for persons convicted of burning houses of worship.
To date, more than 300 burned churches in 33 states have 
been contacted and their circumstances and needs carefully 
assessed. Of the 149 funded congregations, 70 have been completely 
rebuilt church buildings. Eight congregations bought new church 
homes with NCC grants and 11 refinanced their church debt. 
There are now 39 under construction, 18 in the planning 
phase and 42 still being assessed. Of the other churches, two 
declined assistance and the remaining 76 either did not need the 
NCC's assistance or did not qualify for it.
Grants awarded went directly to churches and their 
congregations. Additional contributions were made in the form of 
volunteer labor and project management services and donations 
including lumber, construction modules, pews, altar furnishings, 
Bibles, hymnals and choir robes.

Former recipients of United Thank Offering grants sought
(ENS) The United Thank Offering (UTO) is looking for women 
who received scholarship grants for education between 1970 and 
1979.
Those who received monies are asked to contact Willeen Smith 
at 1-800-334-7626 or wsmith@dfms.org or fax 212-983-6377. When 
responding please include your address, 
e-mail and telephone number and also indicate when you received 
the grant and whether you received it under a different name.
UTO hopes to find out how these grants helped in the process 
of education and ministry.

NCC church educators conference
(ENS) "Faith Odyssey," an ecumenical church educators 
conference held in Chicago February 2-6, drew 2,000 participants 
and offered a dizzying choice of experiences. According to its 
planners, the event ended up mirroring the culture that it sought 
both to critique and to accommodate.
"Our technological context influences our theology," said 
the Rev. Joe Leonard, director of Ministries in Christian 
Education for the National Council of Churches, a conference co-
sponsor along with five church educators' organizations and 12 
Protestant denominations.
Throughout the conference, two themes kept surfacing: the 
profound influence of new technologies on the task of church 
education and the profound importance of stories. Many speakers 
and workshop leaders explored the tensions and possible 
intersections between the two.
"The challenge in this `post-modern world' is both the 
recovery of our memory and to create our memory," said Dr. 
Elizabeth Caldwell, a professor at Chicago's McCormick Theological 
Seminary, a plenary leader. "Our task as educators is to keep 
telling tales, to keep weaving our stories into the fabric of `The 
Great Story'."
The need to tell personal, collective and Bible stories in 
creative, "multisensory" ways was echoed again and again. 
"Mainline churches do not touch the sensual capacity" of people 
the way popular music and other media do," explained the Rev. Tex 
Sample, a United Methodist minister who teaches at the Saint Paul 
School of Theology in Kansas City. He encouraged church educators 
to learn from the electronic culture and to employ a wider range 
of ways to reach young people.
If there is one thing the conference made clear, however, 
it's that technology cannot replace the power and value of 
stories. "If the story isn't powerful, it doesn't matter what 
method you use to tell it," Leonard said. "Fortunately, our faith 
traditions have the stories. We just need to pour some of our old 
wine into new vessels."

Japan ordains women priests
(ENS) A number of women in the Nippon Sei Ko Kai, the 
Anglican Church of Japan, have recently been ordained as priests, 
marking a breakthrough in the long history of the male-dominated 
Anglican denomination that has long stipulated that priests must 
be men at least 24 years old.
The movement for the ordination of women started in the 
United States and Europe during the 1970s. Protesting that there 
were no grounds in religious teachings for the exclusion of women 
(from the priesthood), female priests were ordained one after 
another in a number of countries.
About 10 years ago, calls came from within the Japanese 
branch of the church for women to be ordained as priests. Support 
for the ordination of women in Japan grew gradually, with 
associations being formed to pursue this goal.
At a general synod of the church in May 1998, a majority 
approved a motion to allow women priests.
Following the ordination of the first female priest in 
Nagoya in December, ceremonies were held in Tokyo to ordain two 
more women in early January. Although women pastors have already 
been ordained in the Protestant Church the Catholic Church has 
long resisted allowing women to become priests, who perform 
baptisms and communion services.
Nevertheless, female priests may not be ordained in all 
regions of the country. Isamu Okiishi, general manager of the 
Tokyo office of the church said, "As different branches of the 
church interpret our (religious) teachings differently, we have 
decided to respect the opinions of those opposed (to the 
ordination of women)."

Two Episcopal churches share $1 million bequest
(ENS) An unexpected legacy from Mary Brigham, a Georgia 
investor, has resulted in two Alabama Episcopal churches sharing a 
$1 million bequest.
On March 7, St. Mark's Church for the Deaf, in Mobile and 
St. John's Church for the Deaf, in Birmingham, celebrated 
Brigham's gift of $525,000 each with a sign language service with 
"voice over" of scriptures and hymns. The Rev. Camille Desmarais, 
rector of St. Mark's was the preacher and the Rev. Jay L. Croft, 
rector of St. John's, was celebrant.
Brigham was a life-long friend of the Rev. Dr. Robert C. 
Fletcher and his wife Estelle. Fletcher, who began his ministry 
among deaf people in the 1930's, established both congregations as 
well as others in the Southeast.
Her interest in this specialized ministry arose from her and 
her mother's friendship with the Fletcher family since 1945. In 
the early years the Brighams lived frugally in a boarding house 
with Estelle, before she married Fletcher. The Brighams were not 
deaf, but Estelle was. Over the years, the two families kept in 
contact. Mary Brigham eventually lost her eyesight. She died in 
the summer of 1998 and named the two churches in her will.
Both congregations will invest the bulk of this legacy, as 
an endowment.

Archbishop Carey urges `righteous' anger on international poverty
(ACC) Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey has urged all 
people to step up the momentum for international debt relief by 
summoning a sense of "righteous anger" on behalf of the world's 
poorest citizens.
In a major address on poverty and international development, 
Carey said that more than a billion people are currently living on 
the equivalent of less than $1 a day. "This is totally 
unacceptable given the resources at mankind's collective 
disposal."
Carey called on the world's richest countries, including 
Britain, to take a substantial leap forward at the G7 summit 
meeting of the world's most developed nations in Germany in June. 
He urged leaders at their meeting in Cologne to "show the moral 
courage to at least make a start" on waiving the unpayable debt 
of poor nations.

Catholic Church bans millennium celebrations
(ESA) Millions of people are being urged to resist 
celebrating the millennium. The Roman Catholic Church wants its 
members to distance themselves from what it calls a "secular and 
hedonistic jamboree."
Instead the faithful are being urged to turn their attention 
to the "Great Jubilee of the 2000th anniversary of Christ's 
birth" on December 25. They have been told by Cardinal Basil 
Hume, leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, that New 
Year's Eve is "of no religious significance." Congregations 
should begin their run-up to the big day on March 25, exactly nine 
months in advance, with prayer.
The church's misgivings about the national celebrations are 
expressed in a pamphlet for priests circulating in Hume's 
Westminster diocese. But it also warns, "It would be unbearably 
cruel to hold out hope of a reconciliation which we cannot deliver 
or, by insensitive blundering, to tear open wounds that time has 
healed."
The Catholic Church has lost thousands of members in recent 
years, often due to its stand on divorce and re-marriage, and one 
of its key aims for Jubilee year is to welcome back those who have 
left.

Signs of some progress in Afghanistan
(NCC) As peace negotiators in Turkmenistan announced a 
possible breakthrough, two National Council of Churches (NCC) 
staff members recently back from a week-long trip to Afghanistan 
reported that conditions are worse than they expected but that 
they also witnessed glimpses of hope.
The visit by the Rev. Larry Tankersley, head of the NCC's 
Southern Asia office and the Rev. Rodney Page, director of the 
NCC's Church World Service and Witness Unit, took place February 
20 through 26.
"Even though I knew Afghanistan has been a war zone for 20 
years, I was still surprised to see the number of hospitals and 
houses which looked blown apart and to see rusty tanks left over 
from the War (with the Soviet Union,)" said Tankersley. "I didn't 
see any evidence that things are getting better in Afghanistan. 
Although peace talks continue and we are hopeful about this latest 
report, we were told that this is typical. During the winter they 
talk, but during the spring and summer they start to fight 
again."
Page said, "I've been in other places with oppressive 
governments, but I have never been to a country where seemingly 
everyone is carrying guns, including ordinary people and children. 
It was disconcerting to say the least."
Yet at the same time Tankersley and Page witnessed much of 
Afghanistan in ruins and felt a pervasive tension, they also 
observed glimpses of life going on normally.
"We went through areas with olive trees and vegetable 
gardens where people were working the fields and life seemed to be 
carrying on normally," said Tankersley. "This was surprising to 
me, since I only had an image of rocky, barren hillsides."
They also witnessed the dedication of medical staff. 
"Health workers do not wait for people to come to the clinic, but 
go to them and talk about the health of their family." Tankersley 
continued, "This is based on a model program CWS supports in 
Pakistan near the Afghanistan border where there are eight units 
treating Afghan refugees."
Tankersley summarized Afghanistan as a place in the "midst 
of horror" but significant things are being done to enhance the 
quality of peoples' lives.

People
The Rev. Daniel Caballero has been named interim officer for 
Hispanic Ministries. He joined the Hispanic Ministries staff on 
March 1, after serving as priest-in-charge of the Episcopal City 
Mission of Madison, Wisconsin, and Mission San Miguel, also in 
Madison in the Diocese of Milwaukee.

Ward B. Stevenson, senior vice president and general counsel 
to the Church Pension Group, died peacefully in his sleep on 
March 3.
Stevenson's career spanned more than 30 years. He spent the 
greater part of that career with the law firm of Rogers and Wells, 
where he was a partner in the New York office and a managing 
partner in the London offices.
Stevenson had said he came to the Church Pension Group "for 
a fresh challenge and an opportunity to give back on a more human 
level some of what I have been fortunate enough to receive."
Contributions in his memory may be made to the Fund for 
Animals, Suite 705, 200 W. 57th Street, New York, New York, 10019.

Lynne Grifo joined the Church Center staff on March 15 as 
associate coordinator for the Office of Ministry Development.
Grifo was interim rector of All Hallows, Wyncote, Pennsylvania, 
and associate rector of St. Asaph's, Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. 
She also served on the Bishop's Mission Strategy Commission in 
Pennsylvania and on the Diocesan Screening Committee on 
Ministerial Vocations in Connecticut.