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2001-69

News Briefs

Lutheran board asks church to affirm its welcome to gays and lesbians

     (ELCA News Service) The Division for Outreach of the Evangelical Lutheran 
Church in America is asking the Church Council to develop a message that would 
affirm the church's commitment to hospitality for gays and lesbians, building on 
an earlier message from the Conference of Bishops.

     "We repudiate all words and acts of hatred toward gay and lesbian persons in 
our congregations and in our communities, and extend a caring welcome for gay and 
lesbian persons and their families," said the bishops in their 1996 letter to the 
church. "We ask all our members to join us in repentance for hurtful actions 
toward others, and in forgiving when we have been the objects of anger or hate."

     The Division for Outreach said, at its February meeting, that it "would hope 
that the message of that letter would go farther." It also began a process to 
seek recognition for Lutherans Concerned/North America as it seeks to encourage 
gays, lesbians and bisexual people who feel alienated from Christian churches to 
return to worship in caring communities. Recognition would invite the 
organization to "continue in a more significant way" the conversation about 
hospitality.

     The church's board for the Division for Ministry is submitting a "Report on 
conversations about homosexuality and the church" to the Church Council and to 
the 2001 Churchwide Assembly this summer. It is a report on the actions, meetings 
and commitments the church has made, listing four types of study materials the 
church has produced, and a range of conversations and events sponsored by the 
church. "It's a very clear indication that there is a serious conversation going 
on across the church, that we are committed to honoring the place of homosexual 
people in the full life of this church," said the Rev. Joseph Wagner, executive 
director of the division.

     The church's Division for Church in Society has asked for materials to aid 
the discussion of "justice issues for gay and lesbian persons in church and 
society."

Episcopalians join religious leaders urging campaign finance reform

     (ENS) A broad coalition of religious leaders have signed a March 16 letter 
urging Congress to support campaign finance legislation that would ban so-called 
"soft money" contributions to political parties. A total of 286 Protestant, Roman 
Catholic and Jewish leaders--including Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold of the 
Episcopal Church--responded to the initiative sponsored by Religious Leaders for 
Campaign Finance Reform, convened by the National Council of Churches.

     The leaders urged Congress "to support the bill in its current form in order 
to restore credibility to the democratic process and ensure that persons and 
groups with extraordinary wealth do not continue to have undue influence in our 
elections," the letter said. "While further reform, including voluntary major 
public financing of election campaigns, will undoubtedly be necessary, the 
McCain-Feingold bill is a significant first step in building fairness and public 
confidence in our system of government." 

     The bill not only has bipartisan support, "it also has widespread 
theological support," said the Rev. Robert Edgar, general secretary of the NCC. 
"It's a faith issue because we need Congress to act not at the behest of the 
special interests that can fund their campaigns but on the national interest, 
especially the needs of people in poverty and of children," said Edgar, a former 
member of Congress.

     

Church of England will examine possibility of women bishops

     (AP) The Church of England has appointed a bishop to head a working group to 
examine the contentious issue of allowing women to serve as bishops. The church 
has been ordaining women to the priesthood since 1994 but has not followed the 
example of Episcopal/Anglican churches in other parts of the world in opening the 
way to women in the episcopate. Women now serve as bishops in the United States, 
Canada and News Zealand.

     "Some people have said that, because the Church of England now ordains women 
to the priesthood, it is only natural that they should also be appointed 
bishops," said Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali of Rochester who will chair the working 
group. "My view is that we are now at the start of a process, rather than 
reaching the end of one."

     Half of the 10 members on the panel are women. The panel will make an 
interim report to the church's governing General Synod in 2002.

  

   

Canadian Anglicans unveil plan to heal rift with Indigenous peoples

     (Anglican News Service) The Anglican Church of Canada has unveiled a multi-
faceted plan intended to help the church as it moves towards healing with 
Indigenous peoples. Among the goals are support for Indigenous peoples to self-
determination, increasing advocacy for justice, expanding the church's Healing 
Fund grants to help shape healing programs on the local level, addressing the 
consequences of colonialism and assimilation policies and working to build a new 
partnership with a goal of reconciliation.

     The plan was adopted by the Anglican Council of Indigenous Peoples and now 
goes to the church's Executive Council for ratification.

     The effort at healing has taken on an urgency in the wake of lawsuits by 
former students at residential schools alleging abusive treatment. The Anglican 
Church operated some of the schools for the government. The church at the 
national and diocesan level faces possible bankruptcy because the Canadian 
Department of Justice has drawn the churches into the lawsuits.

     The healing plan underscores the church's commitment to a new relationship 
with Indigenous Peoples, "based on a partnership which focuses on the cultural, 
spiritual, social and economic independence of Indigenous communities."

     

Vatican accused of air pollution

     (ENI) Italian authorities have accused the Vatican of polluting the air with 
electromagnetic waves.

     For half a century, Vatican Radio has been beaming the pope's words around 
the world, from a forest of antennas in Santa Maria di Galeria, on the northern 
outskirts of Rome.

     However in recent years, people living near the complex have complained that 
the transmissions interfere with their home appliances, telephones, and 
television reception. Furthermore, environmental groups allege the 
electromagnetic waves cause cancer.

     On March 12, the Rev. Pasquale Borgomeo, Cardinal Roberto Tucci and 
Costantino Pacifici, all Vatican Radio officials, were scheduled to go on trial 
for allegedly breaking Italy's standards on the emission of electromagnetic 
fields by radio stations and telephone transmitters. However, a judge ruled that 
the three had never been served with legal papers notifying them of the trial.

     The Vatican argued that it is shielded from Italian law and has refused to 
accept the legal summonses, delivered through diplomatic channels.

     If convicted, the three could face up to a year in prison.

     

Episcopal priest in Maryland sentenced to nine months for drug trafficking

     (Washington Post) On March 19 an Episcopal priest was ordered to serve nine 
months in prison after pleading guilty to dealing methamphetamine, or "speed," 
from his Laytonsville, Maryland, church in what his attorney called part of a 
personal $300-a-day drug habit.

     The Rev. Travis Koerner, rector of the 200-member St. Bartholomew's 
Episcopal Church, is believed to be the first Episcopal priest in the country 
convicted of dealing drugs. The case has caused church officials to ask more 
pointed questions about drug use during priests' periodic background checks, said 
the Rev. Ted Karpf, a spokesman for the Diocese of Washington.

     "This has been a kind of wake-up call for the whole church," Karpf said 
after the sentencing. "We've been through something that was unimaginable five 
months ago."

     Koerner, a priest for 23 years, was arrested last October when prosecutors 
said police found as much as $14,000 worth of methamphetamine during a raid of 
the church's rectory. Police reported it as the largest drug seizure in the 
county in five years.

     Koerner has been held at inpatient drug treatment facilities since his 
arrest as a condition of his bond. He told the judge that he was grateful for his 
arrest because it forced him to get treatment that he otherwise would not have 
sought.

     "I've counseled people in trouble, I've married people, I've baptized their 
babies," Koerner said. "This is an affront to my entire congregation."

     Koerner has been temporarily barred from ministering. He will not begin serving 
his sentence in Montgomery until similar charges against him in Arlington, Virginia, 
are resolved. Karpf said church officials found that Koerner did not use parish 
funds in his drug business.