wfn.org | Episcopal News Service Briefs

[Daphne Mack <dmack@episcopalchurch.org>]

2002-208

News Briefs

     Episcopalians attend Old Catholic Congress in Prague

     (ENS) Representatives of the Episcopal Church attended the 28th 
International Old Catholic Congress in Prague, Czech Republic, in
mid-August, 
nurturing a very special ecumenical relationship. The Episcopal Church has
been 
in full communion with the Old Catholic Churches of the Union of Utrecht
since 
1934. The Union includes about 100,000 members of the Old Catholic Churches
in 
the Netherlands, Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, and Germany,
and 
the Polish National Catholic Church, which also has 100,000 members in the
United 
States. The Old Catholics split from the Roman Catholic Church in 1871 over 
issues of papal authority. 

     The Congress brought together over 400 participants, including
significant 
representation by Anglicans from the Church of England, the Church of
Ireland, 
and the Episcopal Church. Attending for the Episcopal Church were Bishop
Keith 
Whitmore and Susanne Whitmore of Eau Claire; Bishop David Joslin of New
Jersey; 
Prof. J. Robert Wright of the General Theological Seminary in New York; and
Dr. 
Thomas Ferguson, associate deputy for Ecumenical Relations. 

     The Congress is usually held in Germany or the Netherlands. "It was 
important to hold the Congress in Prague," said Ferguson, because "the Old 
Catholic Church in the Czech Republic has suffered tremendously in the last 
century. First, they were suspected of being German collaborators. Then,
when 
Czechoslovakia expelled thousands of Germans after World War II, many were
Old 
Catholics. Then in 1948 the Communists took control and the church suffered
more 
persecution," he said. 

     Ferguson reported that there are new signs of life. The Czech church
now has 
its own bishop for the first time in 30 years. "The Congress was also an 
important show of solidarity for the Czech people," he added. "With the 
devastation of the recent floods, the Congress was one of the few events
that was 
not cancelled." 

     The Congress meets every four years and has no legislative authority
but is 
an important forum for addressing common issues. The Society of St.
Willibrord, 
which promotes relations between Anglicans and Old Catholics, met during the

Congress to discuss ways of practical cooperation in Europe.

Deacons meet in Berkeley to discuss their role in the church

     (ENS) Deacons from around the country gathered at the School for
Deacons, 
headquartered at Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley,
California, 
in late August to learn how to help each other, and their congregations, to
live 
out their baptismal ministry. 

     Workshops centered on proclaiming the Good News, seeking and serving
Christ 
in all persons, and striving for justice and peace among all people. "The
premise 
is that ministry does not cascade from above, in a hierarchy, but flows out
of 
the baptismal font," said Rod Dugliss, dean of the school. 

     Deacon Susanne Watson Epting, past president of the North American 
Association for the Diaconate and one of the workshop leaders, noted that
"it's 
important to recognize the ministry that already takes place in the lives of

God's people." She explained that deacons have a "hunger for real skill
building" 
in being "effective companions with others as they discover their gifts and 
skills to be offered for the good of others, ways to articulate how we're
all 
called to diaconal ministry as God's people." 

     Deacon Phina Borgeson, another past NAAD president and workshop leader,

agreed. She said she sensed a "real hunger" for more such continuing
education 
opportunities for deacons, and the chance to network with each other.
Deacons can 
feel isolated in their parishes, and that there is "precious little to help 
deacons become more effective at being deacons" in their work of calling
people 
"into the baptismal work of proclaiming the Good News in action in the wider

community, serving Christ among the poor and those who have pushed to the 
margins, and working for peace and justice." 

     Dugliss said the School for Deacons would plan more such events. The 
conference, which he described as this year's only continuing education 
opportunity specifically for deacons in the Episcopal Church, drew
participants 
from every geographic region of the country. Most were from smaller 
congregations, he noted. It was sponsored by the school, the Diocese of
Eastern 
Oregon, the Roanridge Trust, and the Center for Anglican Learning and Life
at the 
Church Divinity School of the Pacific. 

Interfaith Education Initiative launches Website

     (ENS) In the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the Episcopal 
Church has strengthened its commitment to building positive interfaith
relations 
that promote understanding and harmony among all faiths. The Interfaith
Education 
Initiative, a joint project of Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD) and
the 
Office of Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations, has launched a new
interactive 
Website, www.interfaitheducationinitiative.org, to help Episcopalians
understand 
the world's religious diversity, complexity, and interconnectedness. 

     The site offers educational materials, resources, and connections for 
interfaith activities. The site contains print-ready materials for churches
and 
individuals that can be downloaded for use. It also includes interactive
features 
that will allow Episcopalians across the country to share ideas and report
on 
local interfaith activities and programs. A resource bank explores religious

diversity in America and provides suggestions for further study. 

     To help church members develop interfaith activities at the local
level, the 
site offers contact information on an expanding network of available
experts. 
Announcements of seminars and current interfaith issues in the news are also

featured on the site. 

     "Dialogue and understanding are the preconditions for global peace and 
development," said Mary Becchi, deputy director of ERD, in underscoring the 
importance of addressing the root causes of suffering around the world. "The

Interfaith Education Initiative will help the church engage these vital
issues." 

Central Americans install Barahona as new primate

     (ENS) Bishops, clergy, and laity of the five dioceses of the Anglican
Church 
of the Region of Central America (IARCA) gathered in El Salvador August 24
to 
install Bishop Martin Barahona as the second primate of the young province
of the 
Anglican Communion. He was elected last spring to succeed Bishop Cornelius
Wilson 
of Costa Rica. 

     "Bishop Barahona will be the bishop of hope," said Bishop Medardo Gomez
of 
the Lutheran Church of El Salvador in his sermon. Bishop Julio Murray of
Panama 
celebrated the Eucharist and Bishop Sturdie Downs of Nicaragua invested and 
installed Barahona. Among the other bishops participating in the festive
service 
were Julio Hoguin of the Dominican Republic, Elloy Allen of Honduras, Thomas
Ely 
of Vermont, James Ottley of Southeast Florida, and William Skilton of South 
Carolina. 

     The new primate was presented with a Book of Common Prayer in the
different 
languages of the region, a Bible, the Constitution and Canons of the
province, 
water as a symbol of baptism, and bread and wine for the Eucharist. 

     Barahona is the first Salvadoran to serve as bishop of El Salvador. 
Originally ordained in the Roman Catholic Church, he has served for more
than 25 
years in the Anglican Communion. 

Lutheran bishop resigns from WCC Central Committee in protest over changes

     (ENI) Lutheran Bishop Margot Kaessmann of Germany, one of the most
prominent 
women in the World Council of Churches (WCC), has resigned from the Central 
Committee in protest over recent changes intended to address objections by 
Orthodox members of the ecumenical organization. The proposals will change
the 
policies for decision-making and for worship. 

     Kaessmann said that "it is a question of my own credibility with
regards to 
how my church understands ministry and the church, including the ordination
of 
women." Under the new proposals adopted by the Central Committee at its
recent 
meeting in Geneva, "it would no longer be possible to celebrate ecumenical 
worship" at WCC meetings and events, she pointed out. She said that she
wants to 
see "a strong WCC" but that its effectiveness was being affected by tensions

between Protestant and Orthodox member churches. If it is not possible to
bridge 
these differences, she said that it might make sense to have separate world 
organizations. 

     In dropping the term "ecumenical worship" entirely, the WCC will now 
distinguish between "confessional common prayer," according to the rites of
a 
particular tradition, and "interconfessional common prayer" that would avoid

"giving the impression of being the worship of a church." 

     "For me personally over the last 20 years ecumenical worship services
have 
been at the heart of the WCC," Kaessmann said in her statement. "If it is
not 
even possible to celebrate a common worship service without the Eucharist,
when 
even the mutual recognition of baptism is being called into question, I do
not 
see how we can cope with the controversial issues that divide us," she
added. She 
leads the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover, with three million members
one 
of the largest Lutheran churches in the world. She is the first female
bishop to 
sit on the Central Committee and has also been a member of the WCC Executive

Committee. 

Indian church activists hail UN stand against caste discrimination 

     (ENI) Church activists in India have welcomed the decision of a key
United 
Nations committee to recognize, for the first time, that the caste system is
a 
form of racial discrimination, confirming a position held by Christians and
other 
activists. 

     The Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination declared
that 
discrimination based on descent includes discrimination against members of 
communities based on forms of "social stratification such as caste and
analogous 
systems of inherited status, which nullify or impair their equal enjoyment
of 
human rights." Y. Moses, executive secretary of the National Council of
Churches in India's unit on Dalit concerns," said that the resolution
"vindicates our stand. Finally, our efforts have borne fruit." He said that
the action would open the way for "greater debate on the topic." 
     Dalit, which means "trampled upon" in Sanskrit, refers to 180 million
people treated as "untouchables" in Indian society. Dalits perform such
supposedly divinely ordained duties as scavenging and other menial jobs,
living in total isolation from the upper castes. 
     "This resolution will now open the flood gates for international
pressure on India" to address caste-based discrimination, said Paul Divakar,
coordinator of the National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights. That pressure
will have "great impact" on the social stigma facing Dalits on the Indian
sub-continent, he added.