wfn.org | Episcopalians: News Briefs

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September 25, 2002

2002-219

Episcopalians: News Briefs

Anglican Consultative Council affirms restraint in regard to 
Iraq

(ACNS) The Anglican Consultative Council, meeting September 
15-26 in Hong Kong, passed two resolutions regarding proposals 
for war against Iraq. The first resolution expressed opposition 
to any unilateral action by the United States against Iraq. The 
second resolution affirmed ACC solidarity with the position 
taken by the Presidng Bishop Frank T. Griswold of the Episcopal 
Church USA in a statement issued last June.

A resolution proposed by Bishop Richard Harries of Oxford, 
representing the Church of England, declared that the ACC 
welcomes the proposed return of UN weapons inspectors to Iraq 
and calls on the government of Iraq to comply fully with UN 
resolution 687. The resolution also states that "on present 
evidence, military action against Iraq is not morally justified" 
and calls for sanctions to be lifted, subject to certain 
conditions.

The second resolution, proposed by Bishop David Silk of 
Ballarat, representing the Anglican Church of Australia, affirms 
the ACC's "solidarity" with the position taken by Americans in 
opposing unilateral military action against Iraq by the United 
States. 

Each resolution was unanimously passed by the ACC members, 
composed of episcopal, clergy and lay representatives from each 
of the 38 provinces of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Lutherans grant second exception to policy of ordination by 
bishops

(ELCA) A candidate for ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran 
Church in America (ELCA) has been ordained by a pastor, rather 
than a bishop--the second time an exception has been granted to 
rules established by the church's full communion agreement with 
the Episcopal Church.

The Rev. Matthew Kuempel's ordination on September 14 came 
after Bishop Gerald Mansholt of the Central States Synod in 
Kansas City, Missouri, granted the request under a by-law 
amendment on ordination adopted at the ELCA's Churchwide 
Assembly that "in unusual circumstances" a synod bishop could 
authorize a pastor to preside at an ordination. The full 
communion agreement, Called to Common Mission (CCM), directs 
that "a bishop shall regularly preside and participate in the 
laying-on-of-hands at the ordination of all clergy." Prior to 
the CCM agreement, Lutheran bishops presided at most ordinations 
but it was not required in the ELCA.

Kuempel was ordained by the Rev. Tom Kesselring, but Bishop 
Mansholt was present and, at one point in the ordination rite, 
laid hands on Kuempel's head, raising questions among some 
observers whether the ordination was actually an exception.

Kuempel said that he asked for the exception in April and it 
was granted in August when he accepted a call to a two-point 
parish in Kansas. His wife Kristen was ordained by Mansholt 
September 8 under the terms of CCM and has also been called to a 
parish in Kansas.

"I think it is helpful for the peace of the church for 
exceptional ordinations to take place," said Kuempel, who 
entered Luther Seminary in St. Paul before CCM was adopted. "I 
hope there are more. My hope is that with each graduating class 
there will be more as part of the evangelical freedom that we 
have."

Mansholt said that he consulted widely before making his 
decision and, in a letter to the synod, recognized that the 
decision has ramifications for both churches. "Eventually I came 
to the decision there seems to be more to be gained by granting 
the exception, more to be lost by denying the request at this 
point in time." He added that Kuempel "sees the requirement for 
a bishop to preside at an ordination as adding something extra 
to the true unity of the church. I understand the provisions as 
a sign, a symbol that one is ordained into the one ministry of 
Word and Sacrament, not as something that guarantees the 
validity of the ordination."

The decision to grant the exception led to the resignation of 
the Rev. William Sappenfield, one of three ecumenical 
representatives in the Central States Synod, who objected to the 
exception.

Sappenfield served on the Lutheran Ecumenical Representatives 
Network (LERN) which has said that the exception represents "a 
unilateral change" in CCM and that the by-law is "deficient in 
its intended purpose to restore peace and unity in the ELCA." He 
said that he was not consulted by the bishop about his decision 
to grant the exception which, in his opinion, "lacks integrity, 
it's bad for relations with our existing ecumenical partners and 
it's bad for our ability to maintain policy within our own 
denomination."

Retiring Anglican archbishop censured by Kenyan president, 
visited by police

(ENI) Religious leaders have criticized the sudden sacking by 
President Daniel arap Moi of his vice president, George Saitoti, 
but in joining the voices of dissent, retiring Anglican 
Archbishop David Gitari evoked the public wrath of the nation's 
leader. 

The churches in Kenya censured as undemocratic the action on 
August 31 by the 78-year-old president, who has ruled Kenya for 
24 years, but who is expected to stand down after the national 
elections, scheduled to be held in either December or January. 
They accused Moi of seeking to impose his own chosen successor 
on the 30 million Kenyans. The churches joined opposition 
political parties in calling on the president to name a new 
vice-president in order to prevent a future vacuum in political 
leadership.

Gitari and the Rev. Patrick Rukenya, the secretary general of 
the Presbyterian Church of East Africa, issued statements that 
appeared to show they backed Saitoti, a former academic, as 
successor to Moi. Strong subsequent remarks attributed to Gitari 
provoked a robust reaction from Moi, who ordered senior 
detectives to question the Anglican cleric on what he said. 

Gitari's alleged remarks were quoted in The Nation, but the 
newspaper retracted them on Wednesday and issued an apology to 
the bishop. The retraction read: "We reported that Dr. Gitari 
had criticized President Moi's rule during a farewell sermon at 
All Saints Cathedral, Nairobi, and quoted him as having said 
that Mr. Kenyatta [Moi's preferred successor], who is the local 
government minister, 'would not live to see the presidency'. 
The Nation has since established that his statement at 
the farewell sermon last Sunday was taken out of context and 
misrepresented." 

The Nation reported that four detectives visited Gitari's 
home a few minutes after Moi criticized the Anglican leader. Moi 
had demanded to know whether Gitari or someone else was planning 
to kill Kenyatta.

Jungle trek leads missionaries to safety after Congo 
massacre

(ENI) More than 700 people who fled to the jungle after a 
massacre at their medical compound in the northeast corner of 
the Democratic Republic of Congo have reached safety, mission 
sources in London have learned. 

The party of doctors, nurses and patients from Nyankunde made 
a dramatic trek of about 170 kilometers through savannah and 
dense forest to reach the town of Oicha, losing no member of the 
group on the journey. Among the group is a 75-year-old Canadian 
missionary, Marianne Baisley, who was reported to have refused 
evacuation on a light plane that took other expatriates out of 
Nyankunde on September 13 after the medical facilities were 
destroyed in tribal fighting. 

Survivors reported that at least 1,000 people died in eight 
days of inter-tribal strife, triggered by the presence nearby of 
gold, diamonds and coltan, a valuable ore used in mobile phones. 
The turmoil was described in a refugee report from Oicha as "a 
long agony." 

Nyankunde is a major Christian center where at least eight 
mission bodies work. The hospital, orthopedic center, pharmacy, 
schools, churches and the Pan-African Institute of Community 
Health constituting the medical compound were ransacked. The 
only water pipe supplying the compound was severed in the 
fighting, and cholera has now broken out in the region. 

Although the medical party has reached safety, 2,000 people 
are understood to remain at Nyankunde where, according to one 
refugee, "nothing at all is left." There were conflicting 
reports about the fate of Salomon Isereve, principal chaplain at 
the Evangelical Medical Center (CME), who was reportedly 
tortured and burned alive. Another church worker, the Rev. Henri 
Basimake, HIV/Aids coordinator for the Anglican province of 
Congo, was shot dead after returning from a conference in 
Nairobi. Medical personnel, students and patients were not 
spared in the violence. 

The Church Mission Society, an evangelical Anglican group, 
has a long historic association with the region. In 1870 it 
supplied the first Christian missionaries to reach Uganda, 
across Lake Albert from northeastern Congo. At Nyankunde the 
mission society supports community health projects while other 
mission groups help to improve clinical medical facilities. 

A Church Mission Society spokesman told ENI, "The priorities 
are to restore water and food at Nyankunde, followed by a 
restoration of the valuable work there and a long-term solution 
to unrest in the region." 

John Harper, preacher to eight presidents, dies at 78

(ENS) The Rev. John C. Harper, who as rector of St. John's 
Episcopal Church on Lafayette Square, across from the White 
House, preached to eight presidents, died in Washington, DC on 
September 13 at the age of 78.

Harper was credited with moving the congregation from what 
was perceived as a "society church," with pew rentals and a 
membership of the most socially prominent, to one that played a 
much more active role in the community, with organized programs 
to feed and house the homeless and offer counseling on drug and 
alcohol addiction. 

The changes were gradually implemented since Harper arrived 
in 1963 until his retirement in 1993. He abolished pew rentals, 
which had been a major source of income for the church and a 
status symbol among the city's elite. He challenged his 
congregation to address the needs of the city's most vulnerable 
with what he described as a goal of drawing the church into the 
mainstream of city life.

Every president since James Madison has attended the church. 
After the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson went 
to St. John's for prayer. Abraham Lincoln also used the church 
for prayer during the Civil War. Kennedy himself had called it 
"the little yellow church across the square," underscoring its 
historic role in the life of the nation.

During the Vietnam War, when many businesses and churches in 
the city were closed, Harper opened the church to protesters as 
a place of refuge, observing from his office the rallies and 
tear-gassing of demonstrators, as well as encampments of poor 
and homeless in the park.

"Demonstrations in front of the White House on Lafayette 
Square, danger in the streets and in the square itself at night, 
vandalism and robbery are very real threats to St. John's. Yet 
in another sense, they are part and parcel of our religious or 
theological concern," Harper wrote in his 1974 book, "Sunday, a 
Minister's Story." 

Episcopal church on Alaska's Yukon River lost in a fire

(ENS) The village of Beaver on Alaska's Yukon River is mourning 
the loss of St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, lost in a September 
3 fire despite heroic efforts to save the 15-year-old structure.

The fire was discovered by a villager walking by the church 
in the center of the village. She sent out the alarm and people 
grabbed hoses and fire extinguishers to battle the fire. "It's 
hunting season so a lot of the key people were out of the 
community," said Chief Charleen Fisher-Salmon. "We did the very 
best we could. Children were carrying buckets from the river and 
doing whatever they were told to do."

While the outside of the building is standing, rebuilding may 
be difficult. Insurance may provide basic costs of a new 
structure and the village is moving quickly to get logs this 
winter to start rebuilding in the spring. Everything inside was 
lost, from pews to hymnals to parish records--and the beautiful 
altar beadwork that will be impossible to replace. "We had a 
whole set of photos of the bishops and photos of the community 
members who had passed on that we were saving," Fisher-Salmon 
said. "Everybody was just devastated after the fire but, as we 
get organized, we'll start fundraising and try to carry on."

The Rev. Scott Fisher, rector of a parish in Fairbanks and 
former priest at St. Matthew's, flew into the village and held a 
special service. The congregation is concerned now about where 
to hold services during Christmas since there are few spaces 
large enough.

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