wfn.org | Episcopalians: News Briefs

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October 1, 2002

2002-223

Episcopalians: News Briefs

Province of Canada reconsiders e-mail election process

(Anglican Journal)The Ecclesiastical Province of Canada, which 
earlier this year broke new ground and gained international 
attention by electing its archbishop by e-mail, has rescinded 
the process that made that possible.

The provincial council, meeting in Montreal this fall, also 
directed the chancellor of the province to prepare an amendment 
to the canons that would make such elections unnecessary in the 
future.

Last summer, Bishop Andrew Hutchison of Montreal was elected 
archbishop after council members voted by e-mail in a process 
believed to be the first such election in the Anglican 
Communion. He replaced Archbishop Arthur Peters of Nova Scotia 
and Prince Edward Island, who retired shortly after a meeting of 
the provincial council.

The ecclesiastical province's laws require a new archbishop 
to be elected within six months, and this would have meant 
convening a special meeting at an estimated cost of about 
$30,000. The e-mail election process was devised as an 
alternative.

Despite being told that the process was successful and 
efficient, the provincial council meeting in late September 
heard enough reservations about the confidentiality of the vote 
and the impersonal nature of e-mail elections to rescind the 
protocol.

The Rev. Alan Perry of Pierrefonds, Quebec, a self-described 
technophile who, along with chancellor John Arnold of Halifax, 
devised the protocol for the vote, reported to the meeting that 
97 per cent of eligible voters had cast an electronic ballot and 
that none of the votes were spoiled. He described the process as 
both successful and efficient.

However, Bishop Donald Harvey of Eastern Newfoundland and 
Labrador, who abstained from the original vote in protest, moved 
that the e-mail protocol be rescinded and that the provincial 
canons be amended to make such a vote unnecessary in the future.

Harvey stressed that he had nothing against technology, but 
that the electronic vote had detracted from the value of the 
council coming together to elect an archbishop and from a sense 
that the vote was truly democratic and secret.

"Errors may not have taken place," he said, "but errors could 
have taken place. What we did worked but it was a special 
situation and now we have the time to change our (canons) to 
make it unnecessary."

The Provincial Council approved his motion by a vote of 14 to 
11.

The Ecclesiastical Province of Canada includes the dioceses 
of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, Fredericton, Quebec, 
Montreal, Western Newfoundland, Central Newfoundland and Eastern 
Newfoundland and Labrador.

Anglicanos.net 'sowing faith on the Internet'

(ACNS) This September and October the pioneer Spanish-language 
portal website for Anglicans, www.anglicanos.net, celebrates 
weekly seedthought number 100 'sown' and the imminent fourth 
anniversary of its launch in 1998.

Anglicanos.net--"together in the Net"--has grown steadily 
over the years and its weekly mailing list risen to over 250, 
including agnostics, Anglicans, Baptists, Catholics, 
Evangelicals, and Pentecostals, among others from all over the 
Hispanic world. The pioneer website has received approval and 
support from Trinity Wall Street and the Southern Cone 
Provincial Executive Council as well as other websites, bishops 
and laity.

"It is exciting to see how this small initiative mushroomed" 
reported the Rev. Tony Somervell,of Paraguay who serves as the 
site's webmaster. "Concerned for local parishioners who find it 
difficult to meet midweek due to work and family commitments, I 
started to email a weekly seedthought to arrive in their office 
or home for Thursday morning. From the first list of about a 
dozen in 2000, it has grown to over 250 with people receiving 
this 'seed of faith' in Spain, Mexico, Argentina, USA, and 
Chile, among over a dozen other countries. This gets re-sent, 
copied and included in church noticeboards and magazines, so it 
gets multiplied on the way."

The website itself started as a hobby, but has become a 
passion as content has increased. There are over 200 pages 
available (only in Spanish) with a variety of materials from the 
classic Thirty-Nine Articles to the modern Essentials of 
Anglicanism, with pages about sects (which proliferate in South 
America) plus an international directory of diocesan offices and 
local congregations. The site figures on the major search 
engines and receives an average of 100 visits per day, peaking 
each week on Thursday and Friday after the weekly seedthought is 
received.

"Our greatest joy, however," concludes Somervell, "is to have 
two people who have integrated into our own congregation here in 
Asuncisn, Paraguay, as a result of visits to the website. There 
are several others in other countries who have done the same. 
This could be termed 'fishing on the 'Net'."

Christian leaders denounce plan to impeach Nigeria's 
president 

(ENI) Christian leaders have denounced calls from the Nigerian 
parliament for the impeachment of President Olusegun Obasanjo, 
warning that it could derail democracy in the country.

The executive of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), 
the country's main ecumenical body, representing Protestant, 
Anglican and Roman Catholic churches, on September 25 called on 
the nation's legislators to halt moves to impeach Obasanjo. 
"This executive calls on the House of Representatives [the lower 
chamber of the national legislature] to stop every attempt to 
impeach the president because it is our belief that this is a 
distraction from the reality of this nation, especially as we 
are moving forward and preparing for the next elections," said 
CAN in a statement following a meeting in Kaduna in northern 
Nigeria. Nigerian local, state and national elections are 
scheduled for early next year. 

In August, Nigeria's House of Representatives gave Obasanjo 
two weeks to resign or face impeachment, accusing him of 
demonstrating "monumental inadequacies, ineptitude, persistent 
disregard for the rule of law and obvious corruption." Obasanjo 
refused to resign, saying the accusations against him were made 
with malicious intent. In a 17-page rebuttal, Tunji Oseni, the 
presidential spokesman, called the claims made by the 
legislators "vexatious, malicious, mischievous, uncalled for, 
unconstitutional and therefore rejected outright as it was done 
in bad faith."

Although the deadline expired without action, legislators 
have kept the impeachment debate alive. The constitution 
provides for impeachment if the "president is guilty of gross 
misconduct in the performance of the functions of his office." 
It requires a two-thirds majority of the upper and lower 
chambers of the national assembly. 

Leaders of Nigeria's Anglican Church cautioned that a move to 
impeach the president could create chaos. Joseph Akinfenwa, 
Anglican bishop in Ibadan province and the church spokesman, 
said, "As of today, the general public is dissatisfied with the 
performance of the legislators. They are being seen as [confused 
and] prepared to go to any length to destabilize the country." 

After more than three decades of military rule, democratic 
rule returned to Nigeria in 1999. A former British colony, the 
country gained independence in 1960. 

Bishops warn of revolution if Nigeria won't fight 
corruption

(ENI) Nigerian Roman Catholic and Anglican Church bishops have 
warned that unless the government makes strenuous efforts to 
check pandemic corruption in the country, there might be a 
revolution that could sweep political leaders from power. 

Transparency International, a non-governmental organization 
working to eradicate corruption, in its 2002 index rated Nigeria 
as the second most corrupt country in the world, only beaten by 
Bangladesh. The organization had surveyed 102 countries for its 
annual report, released on August 28. When presenting the report 
in Berlin, Peter Eigen, president of Transparency International, 
said corruption was keeping many nations in poverty and 
hampering development--despite pledges by political leaders to 
crack down on it.

However, the Nigerian government says it does not agree with 
the country's ranking as the world's second most corrupt nation. 
Tunji Oseni, President Obasanjo's spokesperson, said the report 
was "fundamentally flawe," challenging the conclusions.

Nigerian Catholic and Anglican bishops do not, however, agree 
with their government's assessment of the Transparency 
International report. Dr. Anthony Olubunmi Okogie, Catholic 
archbishop of Lagos, expressed dismay that Obasanjo had not been 
able to tame corruption as he pledged when he took over from the 
military government. He described corruption as "a cankerworm 
eating into the fabric of the society."

In the same vein, Anglican bishops say the Nigerian 
government has deliberately shied away from fighting fraud in 
high places because the political leadership itself is corrupt. 
The Rev. Emmanuel Kana Mani, Anglican bishop of Maiduguri in 
northern Nigeria, said, "There have been alarming reports of 
large scale stealing of public funds by people in high places, 
looting of public treasury, extortion of public contracts and 
bribery." Yet, he said, "no serious attempt has been made to 
bring to book the so called leaders who have benefited from the 
ill-gotten gains, many of whom stashed the money in other 
countries." 

Welsh church quashes plan for ecumenical bishop 

(ENI) A long-standing plan to create an ecumenical bishop to 
serve several denominations in Wales has been vetoed by the 
(Anglican) Church in Wales, despite support by the church's 
bishops and other denominations. 

The proposal, which would have had the bishop belonging equally 
to each of the denominations supporting it, was approved by the 
governing body of the Church in Wales by 137 votes to 106, but 
failed to gain the required two-thirds majority.

The ecumenical bishop would have served an area of east 
Cardiff, where two local ecumenical projects have been operating 
since 1991, joining the Church in Wales, the Methodist Church, 
the United Reformed Church and the Covenanted Baptist Church. 
"People are very hurt and angry, and enormously surprised 
because the bishops were expected to carry the day," said a 
senior church figure speaking to ENI on condition of anonymity. 
East Cardiff is in the Monmouth Anglican diocese of Rowan 
Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury-designate, and the result 
could be regarded as a setback for him.

John Davies, bishop of St. Asaph, who is responsible within 
the Church in Wales for inter-church relations, expressed 
disappointment. "Had this gone ahead, it would have represented 
a significant step forward in ecumenical relations, in both 
practical ways and in terms of leading the way in ecumenical 
developments for the rest of the world," he said.

Stuart Jackson of the United Reformed Church's national synod 
of Wales said the synod was saddened and "sorry for those in 
east Cardiff who feel let down." He added, "Now is not the time 
for recriminations, but for reflection on what the future may 
hold. We journey on in the hope that the vision will not be 
lost."

The churches had been working on plans for the ecumenical 
bishop post for several years. Within the Anglican church, 
opposition is understood to have come from "high church" 
(Anglo-Catholic) figures fearful that the post would be a back 
door for the creation of women bishops. However, the first 
bishop would have been a man, because the Church in Wales does 
not consecrate women as bishops. 

Credit cards nudge out collection plates in US 
congregations

(ENI) While electronic giving may never entirely replace the 
traditional collection plate, charging offerings to a credit 
card or bank account is becoming an increasingly popular way to 
donate to a local parish or congregation.

"This is about reflective giving, rather than reflexive 
giving," said Andrew Goldberger, the co-founder of ParishPay, a 
New York-based company that has established an electronic 
credit-card payment system now being used by churches in New 
York, Illinois and California.

Rather than fumbling through pockets for bills or coins 
during a worship service, the system allows parishioners to set 
aside a designated amount each week or month which is 
automatically deducted from credit cards or bank accounts. "It's 
a more thoughtful way of giving," Goldberger told ENI in an 
interview. "It also makes it easier for people to give."

Among the company's clients are Greek Orthodox parishes in 
New York and the Catholic archdioceses of Chicago, Illinois, and 
San Jose, California. The firm expects to announce that it is 
signing on a number of Protestant groups shortly, as well as 
several Jewish bodies, he said.

The firm charges US $1 for each donor and a 1 per cent 
service fee for each transaction. That means that a church will 
receive a $98 donation for every $100 contributed. Goldberger 
noted that since the churches enrolled have seen an increase in 
donations, they are not missing the $2 that is charged for the 
service. They have also a more stable income, resulting in 
better cash flow during summers and other periods when church 
attendance in the United States tends to decline.

Goldberger underscored that the system is not intended as a 
turning away from worship attendance. By making more of a 
financial commitment, he argued that members are likely to have 
more personal "investment" in their churches and synagogues. 

However, Jack Wilkerson, the vice president of finance for 
the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's largest Protestant 
denomination, disagrees with credit-card giving. While saying he 
is "not opposed to technology," Wilkerson explained that the 
system would be adapted by "mainline Protestant denominations 
trying to prop up sagging [membership] numbers through a 
mechanical system of offering." 

Christians in Pakistan say they are suffering for the 
policies of the US 

(ENI) Following the latest lethal attack on a Christian 
target in their country, some churches in Pakistan have declared 
that they are being made to suffer because of the policies of 
the United States.

In a statement, the National Council of Churches in Pakistan 
(NCCP) blamed the "unfair false assumptions adopted by [the] 
United States of America" for the recent attacks on Christian 
targets in Muslim-majority Pakistan. The statement followed the 
killing on September 25 by unidentified gunmen of seven workers 
at the Idare-eb Amin-o-Insaf (Institute for Justice and Peace), 
an ecumenical social service center, in Karachi. The victims 
were tied to chairs and shot in the head. Attacks in Pakistan 
have claimed 30 Christian lives since October last year when the 
US and its allies launched military strikes in Afghanistan.

"Christians [in Pakistan] are confronting horrible 
massacres," said the NCCP, which groups mainline Protestant 
churches. It said that the "exemplary brotherhood" which had 
prevailed for decades between the minority Christian and 
majority Muslim population had been a victim of US foreign 
policy. "Christians are seen by them [Islamic groups] as agents 
of Western nations and so they are targeting us," Victor 
Azariah, the NCCP general secretary, told ENI.

Muslims make up 97 per cent of Pakistan's population of 138 
million, while the remaining 3 per cent is made up of Christian, 
Hindu, Parsee and Buddhist minorities.

"There is no doubt that we have become the hapless victims of 
the Western policies in Afghanistan and Palestine," said Father 
Yousaf Mani, director of the Justice and Peace Commission of the 
Roman Catholic Church in Pakistan. Mani said that of the seven 
staff killed at the Karachi ecumenical center, three were 
Catholic and the others belonged to other Christian 
denominations. All the major churches have been working with the 
center, which provides literacy, public health, human rights 
advocacy and legal aid programs for poor people of all faiths.

The killings in Karachi have also been condemned by churches 
around the world.

Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey said, "This is a 
dreadful act of violence against a Christian organization which 
has been offering welfare and social support to people of all 
faiths for 30 years."

Day 1 ecumenical program debuts on Sirius satellite radio

(Episcopal Media Center) "Day 1," the longest-running weekly 
ecumenical program on radio, debuts this week on Sirius 
satellite radio, airing Sundays at 10 a.m. (ET) on channel 180.

"Day 1" is produced by The Protestant Hour, Inc., in 
association with the Episcopal Media Center, the Evangelical 
Lutheran Church in America, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), 
the United Church of Christ and the United Methodist Church. 

"Together we work to share the good news of God's love over 
the air and through our Web site, exploring the Scriptures, 
offering hope and inspiration, and presenting the voice of the 
mainline denominations, which is too rarely heard on radio," 
said Peter Wallace, executive producer.

The half-hour radio program, a winner of the George Foster 
Peabody Award for broadcast excellence, also is heard weekly 
across North America on more than 150 radio stations, on the 
American Forces Radio Network broadcast to servicemen and women 
in 175 countries around the world, and via streaming audio at 
www.day1.net. 

Channel 180, the Sirius Trucking Network, is designed 
primarily to serve the trucking industry with round-the-clock 
programming. Launched earlier this year, it is programmed for 
Sirius by ABC Radio Networks and the Midnight Trucking Radio 
Network. Sirius uses three orbiting satellites to broadcast up 
to 100 channels of digital-quality radio to motorists throughout 
the continental United States for a monthly subscription fee of 
$12.95. Sirius delivers 50 channels of commercial-free music in 
almost every genre, and up to 50 channels of news, sports, talk, 
comedy and children's programming. Sirius-ready radios, tuner 
modules and adapters that allow any car radio to receive Sirius 
broadcasts, as well as home and portable products, are sold at 
most retailers of electronic products and through some car 
dealers. For more information on the Sirius satellite radio 
network, go to www.siriusradio.com.

Virginia Theological Seminary receives Lilly Endowment grant 

(ENS) Virginia Theological Seminary has been selected to 
receive a grant of $833,199 from Indianapolis-based Lilly 
Endowment Inc. to participate in a national program called 
"Sustaining Pastoral Excellence." The program is a new effort of 
the Endowment to focus attention and energy on maintaining the 
high caliber of many of the country's pastoral leaders.

Overall, 47 grants were awarded for a total of $57.9 million 
to religiously affiliated organizations across the country. The 
awards, given from three to five years, range from $252,355 to 
$2 million.

The Rev. Martha J. Horne, dean and president of Virginia 
Seminary, said, "This grant from the Lilly Endowment will enable 
us to begin what I believe will be an effective program for 
developing skills and habits that will enable our graduates to 
sustain a high level of pastoral excellence throughout their 
ministries. It has become increasingly clear that a three-year 
Master in Divinity degree program can only begin to prepare 
students for ordained ministry, and that some skills and 
practices are better learned 'on the job.' It has long been my 
hope that VTS could provide newly-ordained clergy with an 
opportunity to participate in a structured context of ongoing 
learning, reflection, and formation for pastoral ministry in the 
early years of their ministries. We are deeply grateful to the 
Lilly Endowment for this opportunity."

Over the past few years, the Endowment has put several 
programs in place to encourage current pastors in their work. It 
has established the National Clergy Renewal Program (2002 marks 
its third season). The Endowment also has supported small pilot 
programs of peer learning groups on a limited basis. 

"It became obvious, however, that many more pastors would be 
candidates for such programs and would benefit greatly from 
participating in them. So we invited 'any nonprofit organization 
committed to supporting pastoral work and prepared to create or 
enhance a high-quality pastoral leadership program' to submit a 
proposal in this program," said Craig Dykstra, Endowment vice 
president for religion.

"Judging from the response, we seem to have tapped into a 
wellspring of interest. More than 700 institutions put time and 
thought into proposals for this competitive program," he noted.

Most groups serve racially mixed groups of pastors, but two 
programs are aimed explicitly at African Americans, two at 
Hispanics, and one at Korean pastors on the West Coast. Most 
offer opportunities for pastors at any stage of their career, 
though several focus particularly on new pastors. "Peer group 
learning"-that is, small groups of pastors who meet regularly 
for several years for ongoing renewal and mutual support-form 
the basis for most of the programs.

"We will be most interested in following these projects over the 
next few years," Dykstra said. "They offer the promise of 
meaningful renewal for many pastors in this country."

Center for Seafarers' Rights protests unscrupulous recruiting 

(SCI) The Center for Seafarers' Rights (CSR) of the Seamen's 
Church Institute of New York and New Jersey is again protesting 
the illegal recruiting practices of Al-Najat Marine Shipping 
LLC. Recently, CSR received several reports that the Al-Najat 
Marine Shipping LLC, a United Arab Emirates company, is offering 
to recruit Indian nationals for positions aboard cruise ships by 
contacting various employment agencies in India. It appears that 
Al-Najat has attempted this recruitment without involving any 
Indian governmental office.

"CSR's lead voice in stopping this company's illegal 
operations in other countries is proof that the Church's call 
for social justice is heard by the maritime industry and the 
international press," said Douglas B. Stevenson, director of the 
Center for Seafarers' Rights. "The e-mail CSR is receiving from 
skeptical people researching the company on the internet reveals 
that even they really want to believe the ads. We suspect, 
however, that most unemployed Indian nationals seeking these 
jobs do not have access to internet information regarding this 
scam, which is why Al-Najat can successfully operate."

The Center for Seafarers' Rights has contacted the Indian 
Labour Minister in Delhi and the Indian ambassador to the United 
States in Washington, D.C. about AL-Najat's past practices in 
Kenya and Morocco. "The Indian government must act quickly 
because every passing day gives giving Al-Najat enough time to 
collect lots of illegal fees before official action," said 
Stevenson.

Last summer in Kenya, Al-Najat claimed to have 50,000 jobs 
available to Kenyan citizens for work aboard cruise vessels 
owned by U.K., Spanish, Portuguese, and Greek companies. This 
claim was later discredited. Similar reliable sources reported 
the fraud to CSR that started an international call to end the 
illegal practices. The Kenyan government confirmed that this 
cruise ship recruitment scheme bilked more than $500,000 from at 
least 10,000 Kenyan job seekers under the guise of requiring a 
medical examination fee. Reports of similar activities occurred 
in India and Pakistan as well. In each case, fees were collected 
but the agency did not provide any jobs.

The Center for Seafarers' Rights is a worldwide resource for 
legal research, education, advocacy and assistance on seafarers' 
rights issues. The center provides free counseling and referrals 
to merchant seafarers and seafarers' welfare agencies worldwide. 
The center also works to improve national and international laws 
and practices protecting seafarers and improving maritime 
safety.

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