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2001-188

News Briefs

Helping hands on their way to Belize

     (Episcopal Life) Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD) has launched a 
$500,000 project in Belize to provide housing for the victims of Hurricane Keith, 
which struck the Central American nation in October 2000.

     ERD is working in partnership with the Diocese of Belize, part of the Church 
in the West Indies, and the government to build 30 houses in Caye Caulker, an 
island along the northern coastline. The project includes infrastructure for 
water and sewage, job training and economic development.

     Abagail Nelson, ERD's coordinator for Latin American projects, said the 
agency is designing a microcredit program "that will help people on the island 
invest in their own cottage industries: fishing and services." Hurricane Keith 
destroyed many fishing pots, devastating the industry.

     "The training around the microcredit program will enable local people to 
restock their pots, and develop their businesses around their own initiatives," 
Nelson wrote by email from El Salvador. "This is a participatory process that 
will continue for many years, way after the construction is done."

     Nelson said the government's involvement makes this project different from 
others under way in Honduras and El Salvador.

     "We are in a position to really benefit from the diocesan relationship with 
the government," she wrote. For example, the government is contributing land, 
slashing transport costs for getting materials to the island, and they are 
involved in the selection of families. "This is an example of the close-knit 
relationship between the church and the government, which helps smooth the 
process," Nelson said.

     After the hurricane, a $50,000 emergency grant to the diocese helped install 
water-purification units in five villages in the Belize River Valley. The units 
helped prevent water-borne diseases from the hurricane's floods.

     Hurricane Keith devastated the economy of part of Belize, including the 
tourism, sugarcane, cattle and vegetable industries. Nelson said ERD had been in 
discussions with all the dioceses in Central America about development projects 
when Keith hit. "Belize in many senses picked us, not the other way around," she 
wrote.

     Volunteer groups, who usually come for a week, are welcome to help in 
Belize. They may contact volunteer coordinator Kathryn Webb at 800-334-7626, ext. 
6105.

     Donations may be for general use or designated for particular areas; 100 
percent of designated funds are sent to the field. Send contributions to 
Episcopal Relief and Development, c/o Bankers Trust, Box 12043, Newark, N.J. 
07101. Donations also may be made from the Web site, www.er-d.org, or by phone, 
800-334-7626, ext. 5129.

     

Tutu celebrates 25th anniversary as an Anglican bishop

     (ACNS) The Most Rev. Desmond Mpilo Tutu, archbishop emeritus of Cape Town, 
celebrated his 25th anniversary as an Anglican bishop at a service at the 
Cathedral of Saint Mary the Virgin in Johannesburg, South Africa, on July 16.

     According to a report by Siphiwe Sithole, "With the simplicity of a boy and 
a gentleness that has characterized his life, Archbishop Tutu kept his audience 
gleefully happy, with story after story, and breaking the solemnity of the three-
hour serve with his infectious humor." He called the scene "just spectacular" 
with many of Tutu's friends joining to thank God for the 1984 Nobel Peace 
laureate "who contributed so immensely to the dismantling of apartheid in South 
Africa."

     In his homily, the Rev. Timothy Stanton reminded the congregation that 
Tutu's life had its share of difficulties. As a youth of 13 he contracted 
tuberculosis which almost killed him. In thanks for Tutu's role as general 
secretary of the South African Council of Churches, Stanton said that the 
bishop's theology greatly shaped the events that would put an end to the 
oppressive system in the country.

     Representing the Anglican Communion, Secretary General John Peterson said, 
"We thank you for truly being a friend, a friend who laughs, a friend who cries, 
a friend willing to carry our burdens."

     

Zimbabwe's First Lady says church holds answer to AIDS pandemic

     (ENI) Grace Mugabe, First Lady of Zimbabwe, told a meeting of the country's 
Council of Churches that "the church holds the biggest answer to the challenges 
that confront us," particularly the AIDS pandemic. "Running through all the anti-
AIDS messages is the call for behavioral change. I am sure you will agree that, 
to a large extent, this is something achievable only through preaching the 
Gospel. Our message of mutually faithful, lifelong relationships can only succeed 
when society as a whole [promotes] God-fearing living."

     The latest reports from the United Nations reveal that about 70 percent of 
adults and 80 percent of children living with HIV are in Africa, mostly in 
southern Africa. Zimbabwe has one of the fastest infection rates in sub-Saharan 
Africa. More than 1.5 million are infected, according to the nation's ministry of 
health and child welfare. The public health system has not been able to cope and 
the shortage of foreign currency and the subsequent scarcity of essential drugs 
has made the crisis even worse.

     Mugabe said that the health, social and economic implications of the disease 
were staggering and could not be mitigated by any single organization or the 
government alone. As resources are re-directed to fight the disease, gains in the 
fight against poverty are erased, she pointed out. "Yet the sad news is that 
poverty is associated with an increased rate of HIV infection and a poor 
prognosis among infected individuals," she said.

     

Dutch Protestants move closer to blessing same-gender partnerships

     (ENI) The largest Protestant church in the Netherlands has moved a step 
closer to blessing same-gender relationships after a lengthy consultation process 
in which local congregations and regional assemblies considered a draft of a 
proposed change in church law.

     A working group of the Uniting Protestant Churches in the Netherlands that 
prepared the draft recommends that final decision-making authority on whether 
life unions, including those of the same gender, may be blessed within a given 
congregation rest with the individual, local churches. Couples seeking a blessing 
would be required to show that they are in a relationship based on "love and 
fidelity" that has been registered with civil authorities. Dutch civil law has 
recognized such partnerships since January of 1998.

     While most church members favor blessing alternative relationships, also 
referred to as life unions, strong opposition continues within the two Reformed 
churches that joined with a smaller Lutheran church to form the Uniting 
Protestant Churches. Synods of the three jurisdictions will vote on a revised 
proposal at joint meetings this November and in May 2002.

     

Global South ready to take Gospel back to Northern Hemisphere

     (ENI) Because Christianity has been able to adapt to local conditions and 
has thrived in the Global South, churches in the region are ready to take the 
Gospel back to the industrialized world that sent missionaries to Africa during 
the colonial era, according to a conference in South Africa.

     The five day meeting in early July brought together 120 theologians, 
historians and sociologists from around the world to look at the effect of 
globalization on Christians and the extent to which their religion is now rooted 
in the Southern Hemisphere.

     Prof. Jehu Hanciles of Sierra Leone, an Anglican now teaching at Fuller 
Seminary in California, said, "The processes of globalization have contributed to 
an explosion in the number of non-governmental organizations…. And in Africa they 
often wield more power and influence than emasculated and impoverished 
governments." He added that critics were right to compare the impact of NGOs to 
that of western missionaries in the 19th century, "not least because reliance on 
external resources allows them to promote western-defined solutions which cause 
social disruption on the ground."

     While definitions of globalization may vary, he said that it was already 
clear that the developing world's contribution to the process would be to re-
export Christianity to the Northern Hemisphere. "The less well-noticed fact," he 
added, "is that the much-celebrated shifts in global Christianity have had little 
impact on the privileged position of the Western tradition within the theological 
curriculum."

     He argued that Christianity was spreading more successfully in the 
developing world today than it had in the days of European missionaries. 
"Christianity thrived in Africa because it lends itself to translation and takes 
on the garb of different cultures much more easily than, for instance, Islam, 
which comes with its own language, Arabic."

     One of the ways Christianity would be re-exported would be through immigrant 
communities, he added. "Christianity is a migratory religion and, throughout the 
centuries, migration movements have been a functional element in Christian 
expansion," he said. 

     

Middle East church leaders express gratitude for international support

     (WCC) A delegation from the World Council of Churches returned from a four-
day visit to the Middle East to report that Christian church leaders in the area 
are grateful for those around the world who have visited, spoken out against 
human rights violations, and have been working for justice and peace in the 
region. It is time for partners in the ecumenical movement to go beyond 
statements and resolutions, the church leaders urged. And they pleaded for an 
action-oriented solidarity for the Palestinian struggle--including proposals to 
develop and support and accompany the church of Jerusalem and the wider 
Palestinian and Israeli civil society in a non-violent struggle against 
injustice.

     The mandate of the delegation was to explore ways to assist in developing an 
international ecumenical response to the conflict. In particular the delegation discussed 
the feasibility of an ecumenical witness for peace program, as well as an international 
ecumenical presence for protection, monitoring and reporting.

     The delegation's visit was part of a preparatory process for an international 
ecumenical consultation to be convened by the WCC August 6-7 in Geneva.