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2000-097

Tutu to speak at ELCA youth gathering

     (ELCA) Archbishop Desmond Tutu will address a crowd of 
45,000 at the Youth Gathering of the Evangelical Lutheran 
Church in America (ELCA) this summer. Tutu, who is the 
Robert W. Woodruff Visiting Professor at Emory University 
in Atlanta, will be among several speakers at the 
gathering' s two back-to-back events: June 28-July 2, and 
July 5-9 at the America' s Center in St. Louis, Missouri.

     "We know from our denominational partners that young 
people make an immediate connection with the Archbishop," 
said Heidi Hagstrom, ELCA associate director for the 
gathering.

     Tutu's address will focus on forgiveness and 
reconciliation.

     "The impressive and courageous work that Archbishop 
Tutu accomplished on the South African Truth and 
Reconciliation Commission and his leadership as chairperson 
of the Human Rights Violations Committee makes him the most 
significant and admired speaker on topics of forgiveness 
and reconciliation. Our young people need to hear his words 
of wisdom and encouragement as they seek to live out the 
gospel of Jesus Christ as Tutu has," Hagstrom said.

     Along with presentations and Bible studies, the 
gathering will feature more than 20 musicians and bands.

Debt cancellation is a question of ' justice', Kenya's 
archbishop tells Japan

     (ENI) Archbishop David Gitari of Kenya has criticized 
Japan for what he called an inadequate response to the 
Jubilee 2000 message of canceling the unpaid debts of the 
world's poorest countries.

     Jubilee 2000 is an international movement in over 40 
countries calling for a cancellation of the unpaid debts of 
the world's poorest countries under a fair and transparent 
process.

     According to a report, Gitari and two colleagues from 
Tanzania and Uganda made the appeal to the Japanese 
government but only had "mixed success."

     "We were listened to very carefully, and then in most 
cases they were just giving us the official line," Gitari 
said.

     The Japanese, according Gitari, argued that they had 
already written off about half of the bilateral loans to 
HIPC (heavily indebted poor countries). They proposed to 
reschedule the remaining debt over 40 years with a 16-year 
grace period for making payments which they would then 
match with further aid.

     He added, "We were arguing for a question of justice, 
to consider the effect on the poor. We are telling them to 
think again."

Bishop calls for churches to promote peace

     (ENI) Anglican Bishop Kenneth Fernando of Colombo has 
called for all Sri Lanka' s mainstream Protestant churches 
to revive long-standing plans to unite, in a bid to promote 
harmony in this ethnically divided island.

     Fernando, who is also one of the four presidents of 
the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA), based in Hong Kong, 
said that the unity of churches was of "paramount 
significance" in Sri Lanka where ethnic division had led to 
civil war. "Unless we are united, we cannot speak of unity 
and reconciliation to the nation," he said referring to the 
long-standing conflict between Sri Lanka' s minority Tamils 
who want independence from the Sinhala-speaking Buddhist 
majority.

     Sri Lanka's mainstream Protestant churches have about 
125,000 members, including 80,000 Anglicans.

     Fernando said that "it is not enough" for Protestant 
churches to "cooperate with one another" via the National 
Council of Churches (NCC). "We have to be a united church," 
he said. "We need to bring all non-Catholic churches 
together under the umbrella of a united church." 

     The bishop said that attempts to forge a united 
Protestant church in Sri Lanka were more than 60 years old. 
In 1975 the churches came close to achieving their goal, 
but the move to merge the churches was challenged 
successfully in court by some of the "affected" church 
members. Their plea that the "fundamental rights" of 
individual church members would be affected by the "merger" 
was upheld by the court.

     Better unity among churches, Fernando said, would 
enable them "to play the role of peace-makers more 
effectively" in a nation in which Christians remain the 
community "least affected" by the ethnic divide.

Sweden' s Lutherans delete anti-Semitic remarks from their

     prayers

     (ENI) The (Lutheran) Church of Sweden is changing some 
of the words in its official prayers and omitting verses 
from its hymnbooks in an effort to remove all traces of 
anti-Semitism.

     According to an article, the changes result from a new 
report on Christian-Jewish relations, titled, "The Ways of 
God: An Inter-Faith Document of Dialogue" published 
recently by a church commission which has studied the 
problem since 1995. The report is strongly critical of 
anti-Jewish utterances by Martin Luther, one of the leading 
figures of the Reformation.

     The report will be discussed in the church over the 
next 12 months, after which a decision will be made as to 
whether it should be accepted as an official church 
statement.

     According to the report, "anti-Semitism has occurred 
both in words and in deeds on several occasions in the 
history of the church. This contradicts the teaching of the 
holy scriptures that all humankind is equal in the face of 
God."

     Maria Klasson Sundin, a member of the study commission 
said discussion of the report has already led to changes in 
prayers and hymns. She pointed to a special Easter hymn in 
which the Jewish people are blamed for the crucifixion of 
Jesus, a reference that has now been removed. Another hymn 
states that "Jerusalem ... you hold the love of God in 
contempt and laugh at the sufferings of Jesus," but that 
verse has also now been omitted.

     Sundin said that the commission had been set up partly 
in response to a feeling that the church had failed the 
Jewish people in recent times, notably during the Second 
World War and the Holocaust.

     "The church certainly did not speak up enough at that 
time…The church should have protested publicly and taken 
the full consequences of having a completely different 
attitude towards humankind than the Nazis," she said.

     The new report distances itself from Luther's "anti-
Jewish" writings, stating that although Lutherans "have 
taken our name and much of our understanding of the 
Christian faith from Martin Luther ... we cannot accept or 
sign up to the furious attacks made by the reformer against 
the Jews."

     The vast majority of reactions to the report had been 
positive, Sundin said, although there had been some 
negative remarks from the conservative wing of the church, 
some of whose members fear that Jesus'  life and death will 
lose their unique character if it is accepted that there is 
a special bond between the two religions.

     The Jewish community in Sweden has welcomed the 
report--and the continuing discussion--as a major step 
forward.

Publishing house produces Christian women's magazine

     (ELCA) At its April 14 meeting, the executive 
committee of the Augsburg Fortress Publishers, the 
publishing house of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in 
America (ELCA), authorized an additional budget of $500,000 
to launch its new Christian women's magazine, Sunday/Monday 
WOMAN.

     According to a report, Sunday/Monday WOMAN is intended 
for an ecumenical market. Its articles will focus on 
current topics of interest to women, devotions, tips for 
living, book, video and music reviews, and motivational 
articles.

     Start-up costs for the magazine were not included in 
the regular Augsburg Fortress budget for 2000 because 
original estimates were deemed too high, said George W. 
Poehlman, Augsburg Fortress vice president for finance and 
treasurer. Original estimates placed first year costs as 
high as $1 million, he explained.

     "Plans for Sunday/Monday WOMAN were revised and first-
year costs were cut in half by reducing the number of 
issues scheduled for 2000," Poehlman said.

     The company' s management believes it may be able to 
secure as much as $400,000 in grants or subsidies for the 
new magazine, resulting in a net cost of as little as 
$100,000 this year to Augsburg Fortress, he said. The 
$500,000 in start-up costs are "simply the entry fee for 
trying to get a new magazine started," said Poehlman.

     "This is clearly an example of a market-driven 
product," Poehlman said. "This well fits the mission of the 
publishing house."

     After the idea for the magazine was first discussed by 
the Augsburg Fortress board last fall, Women of the ELCA, 
which produces "Lutheran Woman Today" (LWT), expressed 
numerous concerns. LWT has a circulation of about 180,000 
and is also published by Augsburg Fortress. The new 
publication has the potential to divert attention from 
research, growth and development of LWT and impact customer 
service, said Catherine I.H. Braasch, executive director, 
Women of the ELCA. The women's organization had "repeatedly 
expressed" its concerns about the new publication since 
1998, she added.

     Women of the ELCA and LWT want a strategic partnership 
with the ELCA's publishing house, Braasch said.

     Last fall, the executive board of Women of the ELCA 
asked presidents of the 64 synodical women's organizations 
of the church, including the executive director and 
president of Women of the ELCA, to write letters of protest 
to Augsburg Fortress about the new magazine.

     Augsburg Fortress received few letters expressing 
concerns about the new publication, said the Rev. Marvin L. 
Roloff, president and chief executive officer.

Canada's ecumenical council elects its first Catholic 
president

     (ENI) For the first time in its 56-year history, the 
Canadian Council of Churches (CCC) has chosen a Roman 
Catholic as its president.

     The CCC, which has 19 member churches, elected Andre 
Vallee, Bishop of Hearst in northern Ontario, as its new 
leader at a May 3-5 meeting.

     Vallee is a member of the Societe des Missions 
Etrangeres, a Quebec-based missionary order of priests.  He 
has served in a parish and taught at the Minor Seminary in 
Davao, Philippines.  In 1973 he was elected general 
superior of the society, and in 1979 he became general 
secretary of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops 
(CCCB).  In 1988 he was consecrated as bishop for the 
Military Vicariate of Canada.  He became Bishop of Hearst 
in 1996 and a member of the CCC's governing board when the 
Catholics joined in 1997.

     Vallee said, "The big challenge [for the CCC]--and it 
is one of my preoccupations--is for us to get to know each 
other better in order to dialogue. The ultimate goal is to 
achieve unity. I don't think we will achieve unity 
tomorrow, but at least we should move slowly towards 
unity."

     

Diocese of Panama finally elects a bishop

     The Rev. Julio Murray was elected bishop of Panama at 
a special convention on May 20. He will succeed Bishop 
Clarence Hayes. Murray will lead the Episcopal Church of 
Panama in a "New Beginning" as the diocese lives into its 
recent status as a member of the autonomous Province of the 
Iglesia Anglicana de la Region Central de America (The 
Anglican Church of Central America), comprised of dioceses 
in Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Nicaragua. In his 
message to delegates at the convention Murray said that he 
would place emphasis on four areas: a church rooted at the 
juncture of national and international concerns; a church 
that is growing; a church that is autonomous but also 
interdependent; and a church that is mature and does not 
retreat in times of crisis but faces them with creativity 
and hope.

     

Diocese of Maine reaches amicable settlement with dissident 
parish

     Bishop Chilton Knudsen of Maine and the Rev. Lester 
York, rector of Old St. Paul's Church in Portland, 
announced an amicable settlement of their differences on 
April 27.

     A lawsuit filed by the bishop against the parish will 
be dismissed and the church's property will continue to be 
owned by St. Paul's, which has agreed to pay an undisclosed 
sum to the diocese for release of claims against the 
property by the diocese.

     "I am most pleased that we have been able to witness 
the spirit of reconciliation and fellowship which underlies 
both St. Paul's Parish and the Episcopal Church," said 
Knudsen. "This agreement was reached only with the 
determined efforts of all to respect the goodwill and 
integrity of the church bodies involved."

     York said that he and the bishop "are well aware that 
following our separate paths, although sad, is indicative 
of the fact that the body of Christ has many members. We 
have pledged to work side by side, although as different 
denominations, to follow the commandment that God has given 
us all in the great Divine Commission."

     The settlement resolves a struggle between the parish 
and the diocese over a period of 24 years, largely over the 
ordination of women and the use of the 1979 Prayer Book.

     

Jan Nunley appointed deputy director of the Office of News 
and Information

     The Rev. Jan Nunley of Rhode Island has been appointed 
deputy director of the Episcopal Church's Office of News 
and Information. "She brings a wonderfully diverse 
background in journalism--including extensive work in radio 
and television on the local and national level," said Jim 
Solheim, director of the office. "And we have worked 
together on many projects, including the last three General 
Conventions. She is also on the news team for this summer's 
convention in Denver," he said.

     In Rhode Island, Nunley was director of diocesan 
communications and editor of the newspaper, Risen. She is 
also rector of a small parish in Providence, St. Peter's 
and St. Andrew's. She is a graduate of Trinity University 
in San Antonio, Texas, and Episcopal Divinity School in 
Cambridge, Massachusetts.

     Nunley succeeds Kathryn McCormick who has been 
accepted for the Master of Divinity program at Union 
Theological Seminary in New York.

Presiding Bishop to appear on N.P.R.

     On Wednesday, June 14, 2000 the Presiding Bishop will 
be a guest on The Diane Rehm Show. Diane Rehm has 
interviewed such figures as Vice President Al Gore, author 
Maya Angelou and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.  This is a 
nationally syndicated program and winner of numerous 
awards.  The show is broadcast live from Washington, D.C., 
at 10 a.m. Eastern Time and distributed by National Public 
Radio.  For a listing of affiliates that carry The Diane 
Rehm Show, go to http://www.wamu.org/dr/affils.html.