wfn.org | Episcopalians: News Briefs

[dmack@episcopalchurch.org]

March 6, 2002

2002-056

Episcopalians: News Briefs

NCC Earth Day Sunday 2002 theme is 'Making the World Safe for 
Children'

(NCC) "Caring for God's Creation: Making the World Safe for 
Children" is the theme of resources offered by the National 
Council of Churches for congregational observances of Earth Day 
Sunday (April 21, 2002). The resources are available at 
www.webofcreation.org/ncc/earthday/2002/index.html.

"Each year, Earth Day Sunday provides an opportunity to direct 
our attention to God's creation, our relationship to it and the 
responsibility God has given to us to tend and to keep it, " 
said the Rev. Richard L. Killmer, NCC Environmental Justice 
Director. "This year, worship and study resources focus on 
children.

"Children are among God's most precious- and most vulnerable, 
gifts. They are the hope of the future, but theirs is a future 
threatened by environmental pollution. People of faith are 
called to work together to help safeguard children's health and 
their future. We can work together to help make Zechariah's 
dream a reality, where children play safely in their homes and 
schools, on their playgrounds, and even in our city streets."

The NCC's 2002 Earth Day Resource Packet was prepared by members 
of the NCC Eco-Justice Working Group. Through the Working Group, 
representatives from 23 Protestant and Orthodox denominations 
carry out an extensive program helping people of faith engage in 
environmental issues. Formed in 1983, the Eco-Justice Group 
seeks to support and assist denominational and ecumenical work 
to protect God's Creation. It publishes resource materials for 
congregations, including the annual Earth Day resource, sponsors 
biennial conferences for environmental justice leaders, sponsors 
a Web site (www.webofcreation.org/ncc/Workgrp.html) and has 
created several programs for the historic black denominations.

The NCC has spearheaded many programs to encourage energy 
savings, including an "Energy Stewardship Congregation Program," 
which urges congregations to covenant to make their church 
buildings and grounds more energy efficient. NCC resources also 
help church members to write letters, call and make visits 
encouraging their local, state and national elected officials to 
endorse a "Clean Energy Agenda."

High Plains hosts 2002 Episcopal Youth Event 

(ENS) This summer, the Episcopal Youth Event (EYE) takes place 
8,000 feet above sea level on the campus of the University of 
Wyoming, in Laramie, WY, July 23-28, 2002. EYE is an event 
sponsored by the Episcopal Church every three years for youth in 
grades 9-12. 

Following the tragedies of September 11th, the EYE design team 
committed to make this year's conference focus on issues 
affecting youth today and offer a faith-based, hopeful response 
to the world in which teenagers find themselves. The team chose 
Bring It to the High Plains! Tell the People Who I Am! as the 
guiding theme, inspired by I Timothy 4:11-16. Traditions for 
this event include dynamic worship, a cultural fair with items 
to exchange with other dioceses, lots of games and a chance to 
experience the high plains of the western part of the United 
States. The people of Laramie are excited to be our hosts, and 
I hope we will respond with excitement to their offerings, said 
Linda Ray, a member of the team.

Registration for EYE is already underway within individual 
dioceses, and each diocese creates its own process for selecting 
representatives to the gathering. For more information, contact 
local Diocesan Youth Coordinators or the diocesan office. The 
cost for EYE is $275, including room and board, worship, program 
and recreational activities. Deadline for provincial 
registration is May 1st.  

Churches condemn restrictions on public gatherings in 
Zimbabwe  

(ENI)A meeting of  representatives of 15 churches in 
Bulawayo--Zimbabwe's second city--has condemned a new law which, 
among other things, restricts freedom of assembly for churches 
and civic organizations.

The meeting also called on Zimbabwe's two main political 
parties to desist from violence in the run-up to presidential 
elections in March, in which President Robert Mugabe is facing 
the stiffest challenge in his 22-year rule.  

A statement issued after the meeting on February 20 condemned 
the new Public Order and Security Act. The act bans 
non-authorized public gatherings, including religious gatherings 
except worship services.  

"The state has no right to proscribe our prayers and to prevent 
us from holding peaceful gatherings," the churches said in their 
statement.

"On behalf of our congregations, we abhor the fact that we 
now have to seek permission from the state to hold prayer 
meetings in public," they said. "We are prepared to accept the 
consequences while the world watches," they added in comments 
suggesting that they were prepared to defy the law.  

The police have been accused of bias in applying the new law. On 
February 24, the main opposition party, the Movement for 
Democratic Change (MDC), said the police had invoked sections of 
the new law to ban at least 64 campaign rallies the MDC intended 
to hold.

However, President Mugabe's party, the Zimbabwe African 
National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) has been able to hold 
its rallies apparently without any restrictions.  

The denominations represented at the Bulawayo meeting included 
the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Apostolic Faith, Lutheran and 
Presbyterian churches.  

Calling on political parties to desist from violence in the 
run-up to the country's presidential election, they said that 
political violence had claimed at least 100 lives and displaced 
at least 60,000 families in the country in the past two years.  

"Violence is unacceptable and un-Christian and must stop 
immediately," they said. "We deplore, in the strongest terms, 
the idea that it is acceptable to assault, rape, torture, harass 
and intimidate peaceful people going about their legitimate 
daily business."  

They criticized the state-controlled media's portrayal of some 
church leaders as puppets of foreign governments and 
institutions "as if as Zimbabweans we are incapable of thinking 
for ourselves."  

This was an apparent reference to a series of articles in the 
Chronicle newspaper attacking Roman Catholic Archbishop Pius 
Ncube of Bulawayo.  

The archbishop has been blamed publicly by President Mugabe for 
being behind the defeat of Zanu-PF in the Matabeleland province 
in the June 2000 parliamentary elections.  

Earlier this month, 11 church leaders holding a peace march in 
Bulawayo were arrested and held for three days on charges of 
breaching sections of the Public Order and Security Act. They 
were released on bail on February 18 by a magistrate's court in 
the city.

Noel Scott, an Anglican priest and one of the organisers of 
the "Pray and Walk" march, was ordered to surrender his 
passport.  

If convicted, the clergymen face up to six months' imprisonment 
or a Z$10,000 fine or both. 

Minnesota Episcopalian honored by President Bush for his 
volunteer activities

(ENS) Will Gove, an Episcopalian from Minneapolis, was the first 
volunteer in the nation to be honored by President George W. 
Bush in his efforts to boost volunteer activism in the nation 
following the September 11 tragedy at the World Trade Center in 
New York and the Pentagon in Virginia.

According to the White House, Bush plans to recognize local 
volunteers during his travels as one way to expand participation 
in community and national service programs. In his State of the 
Union address he asked every adult in the country to devote two 
years to volunteer activities.

Gove has built soccer fields for children, read the newspaper 
to the blind over the radio, helped as a Junior Achievement 
mentor, built a national volunteer program for retired Honeywell 
employees and is currently working with a foundation to build a 
facility for underprivileged youth in Minneapolis that will be 
named for Secretary of State Colin Powell, a fellow 
Episcopalian.

Presbyterians defeat an amendment on ordination of 
homosexuals

(ENS) An amendment to church law that would have permitted the 
ordination of openly gay and lesbian clergy in the Presbyterian 
Church (USA) was defeated by a vote of presbyteries at the local 
level.

This says we still honor the Scripture and our tradition, 
despite the message coming from the world pressuring a change, 
said Tom Sweets, organizer of a coalition to defeat the 
amendment. This is not about excluding homosexuals from the 
church, he added. But the point is, who do we lift up as 
officers in the church? Church law requires church leaders to 
live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between 
a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness.

The churchs General Assembly voted last year to amend a 
church law that prevents non-celibate homosexuals serving as 
clergy or elders but the decision required approval by a 
majority of the churchs 173 presbyteries. The deciding vote in 
opposition was cast February 19 by the 87th presbytery. 
Supporters of the amendment promise a continued fight for the 
change.

We have been aware that no matter how the votes go at the 
national level, its what happens in the local church that makes 
a difference, said Mitzi Henderson, co-moderator of More Light 
Presbyterians, an organization that promotes full participation 
by gays and lesbians in church life.

Last year 58 percent of presbyteries voted to allow 
congregations to bless same-gender relationships as long as they 
are not called marriages.

Methodists hope book will help people pray at the end of 
relationships

(ENI) British Methodists are including prayers to mark the end 
of relationships in a new book, launched in time for National 
Marriage Week. The book also includes prayers for difficult 
moments in the life of a familysuch as a son or daughter coming 
out as gay, the loss of a loved one to Alzheimers disease, or 
retirement.

The book concedes that, for a person left behind at the end 
of a relationship, it may be somewhat of a test to pray that God 
will bless a former partners new relationship. However, the 
prayer, When Love Dies, asks God, In the days to come, raise us 
up to new life in fresh relationships.

David Gamble, the churchs secretary for pastoral care and 
personal relationships and convenor of the project, said that 
sometimes it may be possible for both partners to come together 
not in animosity but in sadness. He hopes that the Vows and 
Partings prayers would meet the needs of real people in the 
real world.

Here is a response to the need in all churches for liturgy 
and prayers at various critical times in peoples lives, said 
Ann Leck, a vice president of the church. Harder and often 
ignored are the times of loss and despair, times that can feel 
like failure.

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