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2001-74

News Briefs

British delegation urges church to advocate for Palestinians

     (Church Times) A high-level British-Irish delegation returned from a visit 
to the Middle East, urging the churches to become advocates to alleviate 
"indescribable suffering" among Palestinians.

     The 12-member delegation from Churches Together in Britain and Ireland met 
government and diplomatic representatives, church leaders, representatives of 
organizations and individual citizens. It also divided into groups to visit 
Palestinian refugee camps, as well as Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Jordan.

     The delegation concluded that the Palestinians are suffering under a form of 
apartheid and that churches throughout the area feel "invisible to and neglected 
by their fellow Christians in the West." They need help to reverse the 
"catastrophic" drop in tourist-based pilgrimages.

     Bishop Michael Langrish of Exeter said that he was deeply shocked by the 
increased suffering of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where 42 percent of 
the land has been expropriated for 3,000 Israeli settlers, guarded by 6,000 
troops. The future of the Middle East, he reported, is a strong and secure Israel 
and an independent Palestine. He is convinced that the same broad coalition that 
produced the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa could contribute to peace in 
the Middle East.

     The delegation urged Christians to resume pilgrimages in order to support 
the indigenous Christian community. Langrish said that "the average pilgrimage is 
not going to be at risk" since they would not be sent into dangerous areas.

     

Berkeley Divinity School at Yale receives $1 million for chapel

     (ENS) Berkeley Divinity School at Yale has a received a $1 million 
commitment from an anonymous donor to aid construction of a new chapel. The gift 
was made in honor of the Rev. Anne B. Kimball, a former associate dean of the 
school.

     "This gift represents an extraordinary opportunity for the training of 
leaders for the Episcopal Church," said Dean R. William Franklin. "The new St. 
Luke's Chapel, located directly across the Sterling Divinity Quadrangle from the 
Yale Institute of Music, has the potential to make Yale/Berkeley the foremost 
center for the training of liturgists and musicians in the Anglican tradition in 
America."

     The new chapel is part of a $41.8 million renovation of the quadrangle. 
Berkeley's worship, administrative and program facilities will move from their 
current location a block from the quadrangle. 

     Kimball served as associate dean from 1994 until her retirement in 1999, in 
a role that oversaw worship at the chapel among other responsibilities.

     Berkeley is one of 11 seminaries of the Episcopal Church. It shares faculty, 
student body and facilities with Yale Divinity School. Episcopal students receive 
their degrees from the university and a diploma in Anglican studies from 
Berkeley.

     

World's Christians sharing Easter this year

     (ENI) By a coincidence of church calendars, all the world's Christians are 
celebrating Easter on the same Sunday this year--April 15. Noting the fact that, 
in most years, there are two dates for Easter, Dr. Tom Best of the World Council 
of Churches said that this was "a terrible counter-witness to the unity we share 
in Christ. This is the core festival of the Christian faith." The executive 
secretary of the WCC's Faith and Order Commission, Best said that "an important 
way to show our unity would be for all Christians to celebrate it together every 
year."

     The WCC and the Middle East Council of Churches launched an initiative in 
1997 that would make a joint Easter celebration possible. Although it was 
welcomed by many churches around the world, it has proven unrealistic, for a 
variety of reasons.

     Differences over Easter date back to the earliest days of the church. At the 
present time Western churches calculate the date of Easter by using the Gregorian 
calendar, introduced in 1582 and now the standard calendar worldwide. Most 
Orthodox churches use the older Julian calendar to calculate the date.

     A meeting in Syria in 1997 produced what was described as "an ingenious 
proposal to set a common date for Easter" by continuing to use the formula 
established at the Council of Nicaea in 325, basing calculations on the best 
astronomical data available and taking the meridian of Jerusalem as the reference 
point. According to this formula, Easter falls on the Sunday following the first 
full moon of spring.

     A number of international Christian bodies have expressed interest, 
including the Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops, the Vatican's Pontifical 
Council for Promoting Christian Unity, the Conference of European Churches and 
the Lutheran World Federation. The major Orthodox churches are studying the 
proposal, although several have suggested that the Western churches reform their 
calendars and calculate the date using the Julian system, arguing that it would 
be difficult for them to change.

     

Dutch churches divided over same-gender weddings

     (ENI) Responses of the churches of the Netherlands on the country's first 
civil weddings for same-gender couples are mixed. Three male couples and one 
female couple were legally married just after midnight on April 1 in Amsterdam's 
town hall, making it the world's first official gay marriage ceremony, although 
several other countries offer various degrees of legal recognition of same-gender 
couples.

     Some smaller churches reacted positively to the event but others, including 
the Roman Catholic Church, have rejected the move.

     The new law was approved in September by the Dutch Parliament's Second 
Chamber while the First Chamber, the Senate, approved the law late last year. It 
allows the country's "registered partnerships" for same-gender couples to be 
upgraded to marriages, giving gay and lesbian couples nearly the same rights as 
heterosexual couples. Married same-sex couples may also adopt children under the 
new law.

     There has been considerable disagreement about the issue in the country's 
largest Protestant church body, United Protestant Churches in the Netherlands, 
although in 1997 a synod defined marriage as "a union of love and fidelity before 
God and thus an image of the relationship between Christ and his congregation 
[which] is fitting to be kept holy." The synod concluded that there was no 
agreement among the three members of the denomination about whether same-gender 
partnerships satisfied the definition.

     The Roman Catholic Church has ordered priests not to bless same-gender 
relationships, although a recent survey found that 83 percent of Catholic priests 
has no problem doing so.

     Amsterdam Mayor Jeb Cohen, who performed the marriages and campaigned for 
the new law, called them "emancipatory" and predicted that the change would lead 
to "more tolerance."

     

Donovan chosen as executive director of the Compass Rose Society

     (ACNS) Bishop Herbert Donovan, who is completing his service as interim 
Anglican Observer at the United Nations, will become executive director of the 
Compass Rose Society in October.

     The society, established in 1998 to provide resources for the work of the 
Anglican Communion, is "one of the most exciting developments in recent years and 
makes it possible for us to tell the story of our communion and also respond to 
some of the urgent needs of our member churches," according to Archbishop of 
Canterbury George L. Carey.

     The society's board of directors, meeting recently at Kanuga Conference 
Center in North Carolina, adopted a budget of $1.19 million for this year. More 
than two-thirds of the budget will support mission initiatives it has adopted 
around the world, including the Anglican-run hospital in the Gaza Strip, health 
clinics in Nigeria, rebuilding church offices in Cuba, and completing the 
construction of an Anglican Centre in Spain. 

     Since he resigns as the bishop of Arkansas, Donovan has served as vicar at 
Trinity Church in New York, provisional bishop in the Diocese of Chicago, and 
assisting bishop in New Jersey.

 
    

National Workshop on Unity convenes in San Diego April 30

     (ENS) The 38th annual National Workshop on Christian Unity will convene 
April 30 in San Diego, drawing about 400 participants from a variety of churches.

     In addition to a dozen seminars on topics such as ecumenism, conflict 
resolution, inter-church marriage, immigration, Pentecostalism, and authority in 
the church, the meeting will also include presentations by theologians and 
ecumenical leaders.

     Bishop George McKinney, founding pastor of St. Stephen's Church of God in 
Christ in San Diego, will preach at the opening worship service. Prof. John H. 
Erickson, professor of canon law and church history at St. Vladimir Orthodox 
Seminary in New York, will be the keynote speaker at the plenary on May1. Dr. 
Robert Welsh, ecumenical officer for the Disciples of Christ, will be the closing 
luncheon speaker on May 3.

     Denominational ecumenical groups will meet in conjunction with the workshop 
and there will be a special worship service in celebration of the full communion 
agreement between the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in 
America at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul.

     For more information, call the Ecumenical Council of San Diego at 619-238-
0649 or visit the web site at www.sandiegoinsider.com/community/groups/NWCU.

    
 

Lutheran-Episcopal resource will help churches grow closer together

     (Cowley) As members of the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran 
Church in America live into their new relationship of full communion, resources 
are emerging to help them understand each other better.

     Cowley Publications has produced a resource that offers a short guide to the 
theology, history, worship and polity of both churches. Originally designed by 
Lutheran pastor Scott Cady and Episcopal priest Christopher Webber as a joint 
Lenten course for neighboring parishes in Connecticut, "Lutherans and 
Episcopalians Together" helps members of both churches get acquainted on a very 
practical level. 

     Cowley and LeaderResources offer the book, lesson plans for children, youth 
and adults, a pilgrimage, study days for clergy, and ways congregations can build 
partnerships. "This resource packet is everything Episcopal and Lutheran 
congregations need to start the conversation," said the Rev. Linda Grenz, 
executive director of LeaderResources.

     Contact Cowley at 1-800-225-1534 or the web site at http://www.cowley.org.

     

Bishop Rowthorn composes hymn for Yale's 300th anniversary

     (ENS) Bishop Jeffery Rowthorn of the Convocation of American Churches in 
Europe has composed the text for Yale University's 300th anniversary hymn. 
Rowthorn taught at Berkeley Divinity School at Yale and the Institute of Sacred 
Music before his election as suffragan bishop of the Diocese of Connecticut. The 
hymn's inauguration was designed for the April Alumni Leadership Reunion Weekend.

     Rowthorn's hymn writing goes back to the days when he was a liturgy 
professor and chapel minister responsible for daily services at Yale Divinity 
School's Marquand Chapel. He wrote his first hymn in 1974 when teaching a course 
on contemporary worship. Two of his early hymns were written at the request of students 
for baccalaureate services. Later he was general editor of A New Hymnal for Colleges 
and Schools, published by Yale University Press.

     The latest of his 16 hymns is "Sing Today of Those Who Founded," for the 
anniversary celebration. "Taking into account and gladly celebrating the diverse 
community which is Yale University in the year 2000, I have written words which 
virtually everyone will be able to sing in good conscience--Christians, Jews, Muslims, 
Hindus, agnostics, non-believers," he said. "However they may differ in matters of faith 
or non-belief, those who will sing this hymn will have reason to be grateful for Yale's past, 
present and future."