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March 25, 2003

2003-066

Episcopalians: News Briefs

War forces Cuttington College in Liberia to evacuate campus 

(ENS) In a March 19 letter to the Anglican and Global Relations 
Office at the Church Center in New York, Liberian bishop Edward 
W. Neufville said that "the administration, faculty and students 
of Cuttington University College were again evacuated to 
Monrovia because of security concerns" in the region. "We are 
doing the best we can to ferry the three new generators, 
computers and other pieces of equipment" to the capital, he 
said.

At an emergency meeting of the college's board to consider 
options, Neufville said the diocese was exploring use of a 
building in Monrovia that was used for classes last year in a 
similar situation. The president of the college was authorized 
to write to the president of Liberia "requesting him to kindly 
underwrite the cost of rental costs of the Greater Diamond 
Building as he did last year," according to Neufville. 

In a subsequent telephone conversation with the bishop, the Rev. 
Benjamin Musoke-Lubega, Africa officer for the church, said that 
the college "is still looking for a place to hold classes." He 
pointed out that Cuttington is the only institution of higher 
learning that is operating in Liberia.

"We are determined not to give up but to remain steadfast and be 
seen as doing something sensible in the midst of an apparently 
hopeless situation," Neufville said. "We ask you to kindly 
continue to stand by us, and with us, and for us in the midst of 
this quagmire. Please continue to uphold us in your prayers and 
we certainly are doing the same for you, especially in these 
trying times."

South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission calls for 
reparations

(BBC) As he presented the final report of the Truth and 
Reconciliation Commission to South African President Thabo 
Mbeki, Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu recommended that $270 
million be paid to the 20,000 victims who, he said, had waited 
"too long." He called on big businesses, who had been 
beneficiaries of the apartheid policies, to contribute to the 
reparations process.

The commission gathered the testimonies of about 21,000 people 
from 1996 to 1998 in an effort to reconcile victims and 
perpetrators of human rights abuses. It granted amnesty to 1,200 
people but turned down more than 5,000 applications. Mbeki 
promised to respond to the recommendations quickly.

Tutu said that the state could not afford to prosecute those who 
were not granted amnesty because "the burden on our system would 
be quite intolerableand the cost astronomical." He added that 
"there are very many who should have applied for amnesty and who 
didn't."

Any future investigations are hampered by the fact that the 
government cannot use testimonies already presented to the 
commission. Tutu said that there was some solace to be found, 
even if perpetrators are not prosecuted. "This is a moral 
universe. You may walk as if you were free, but there is no 
doubt whatsoever you are going to have a trial living with 
yourself."

The final report was delayed by legal challenges, including one 
from the Inkatha Freedom Party, comprised mostly of Zulus in 
Natal, over passages on political clashes that left nearly 
12,000 dead.

Justice O'Connor speaks at conference for women in ministry

(VTS) Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor spoke on the 
subjects of women in power and leadership at the Conference for 
Women in Ministry at Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS), 
infusing her speech with stories of her own personal struggles 
in working her way to the top of the judicial system.

Some of the conference participants and leaders were pioneers in 
the struggle for ordination of women in the church--including 
the Rev. Alison Cheek and the Rev. Nancy Hatch Wittig who were 
among the 11 women "irregularly" ordained in Philadelphia in 
1974, setting in motion a chain of events that led to a General 
Convention decision in 1976 opening all orders of ministry to 
women. Also, Bishop Jane Holmes Dixon, recently retired 
suffragan bishop of the Diocese of Washington and the second 
woman elected a bishop in the Episcopal Church, led a workshop 
on "Women in the Episcopate."

In her welcome, VTS Dean and President Martha J. Horne, the 
first woman to head an Episcopal seminary, acknowledged Cheek 
and Hatch, both graduates of the school, for their "persistent 
efforts on behalf of the ordination of women [who] broke open 
the doors that had been tightly bolteddoors through which the 
rest of us have been able to walk."

O'Connor, who knows something about breaking open doors, ended 
her speech with some advice to the audience. "It's all well and 
good to be the first, but just don't be the last," she said.

Church leaders and civic groups demand repeal of Zimbabwe 
security law 

(ENI) Church and civic group leaders in Zimbabwe have demanded 
the "immediate repeal" of a security law that went into effect 
last year curtailing freedom of movement and of expression and 
forbidding public meetings without police permission.

"Since its enactment, the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) 
has been used to wantonly detain, intimidate and victimize 
pro-democracy actors such as labor activists, students, women's 
groups, congregants, civic and political leaders and the 
generality of Zimbabweans," the leaders said in a petition to 
the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, 
Patrick Chinamasa. Among the signatories were Pius Ncube, the 
Roman Catholic archbishop of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city; 
Wilson Sithsebo of the Zimbabwe National Pastors' Conference; 
the Rev. Raymond Motsi of the Baptist Union; and the Rev. Patson 
Netha.

The petitioners deplored the selective application of the act by 
the authorities and the "heavy-handedness with which the police 
have disrupted meetings, detained individuals and tortured 
detainees." Their call came two weeks after similar demands were 
made by the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe (EFZ) following 
the arrest and detention of Bishop Trevor Manhanga, the EFZ 
president, before a church meeting in Harare.

The security act was passed in January 2002 in the run-up to 
Zimbabwe's presidential election. Among the first people 
detained under the act were 11 church leaders in Bulawayo, who 
were arrested while praying for the release of a colleague taken 
into custody for organizing a peace march in the city.

"In just one year of the [act's] existence, thousands of 
citizens have been unlawfully arrested and detained," the 
petition said. "These arrests far exceed those made under the 
Law and Order [Maintenance] Act in the late 1970s when the 
country was less peaceful." The Law and Order Act, introduced by 
Ian Smith's government to suppress the 1970s' black nationalist 
movement in Zimbabwe, was repealed two years ago and replaced by 
the Public Order and Security Act.

New center opens to study one of Christianity's fastest-growing 
movements

(ENI) A unique center has been opened in the Netherlands to 
study Pentecostalism, one of the world's fastest growing 
Christian movements--and one which some members claim already 
accounts for more than one in four Christians worldwide. 

Called the Hollenweger Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of 
Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements and located at Amsterdam's 
Free University, the new center is a joint venture of the 
university's theology and social sciences faculties. It is named 
after Swiss Reformed theologian Walter Hollenweger, a respected 
pioneer in promoting contacts between the Pentecostal and 
ecumenical movements. "Our purpose is not to spread the 
Pentecostal message, but to study Pentecostalism and its current 
worldwide expansion," said the center's director, Andre 
Droogers.

Pentecostalism is a Christian renewal movement dating from the 
early 20th century marked by spontaneity in worship, and 
including such phenomena as speaking in tongues, prophesying and 
healing.

The launch of the Hollenweger Center comes about a decade after 
the Swiss theologian called on academic institutions in Europe 
to provide study facilities for Pentecostal students, declaring 
the absence of such facilities in Europe to be a theological 
scandal. The center was formally inaugurated at the end of 
February with a two-day symposium on "Non-Western Pentecostalism 
in the Netherlands," which drew about 70 participants.

In a keynote lecture, British academic Allan Anderson pointed 
out that of the more than half a billion Pentecostals 
world-wide, most come from Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Pressure grows for Church of England to allow women bishops 

(Church of England Newspaper) Divisions between traditionalists 
and supporters of women bishops could be widened by a vote 
scheduled for the weekend of March 29, which calls on the Church 
of England's General Synod to end the bar to women in the 
episcopate.

An overwhelming majority backed a motion at the Ripon and Leeds 
diocesan synod which asks General Synod "to bring forward 
legislation to permit the consecration of women to the 
episcopate in the provinces of Canterbury and York without 
further delay." 

The successful motion was tabled by Canon Penny Driver, the 
diocesan director of ordinands and a member of General Synod, 
who told delegates that it no longer made sense to decide who 
could be ordained as bishops along gender lines. "Many of us 
believe that an all-male episcopate can no longer properly 
fulfil the role of Christian leadership--we need both male and 
female bishops just as we have male and female priests, deacons 
and laity." Others speaking for the motion said that the church 
could not delay on an issue which was one of equality and "basic 
human rights."

Among those backing the motion was the Bishop John Packer of 
Ripon and Leeds. While he said that he was keen to see 
legislation brought forward, he stressed that it was important 
that provision was made for those who are opposed to such a 
move. "I'm very optimistic that we shall find ways, as we did 
over the ordination of women to the priesthood, in which we can 
live together within a single church respecting each other's 
conscientious provisions," he said.

At present, a General Synod Working Party, chaired by the bishop 
of Rochester, is due to report back in July 2004, and it seemed 
unlikely that the church would include women in the episcopate 
until the end of the decade. Opponents of women bishops had 
hoped that moves would not be fast-tracked so that breathing 
space would be given to find a compromise, but the vote could 
bring the issue back on to the agenda sooner than expected. 

The Rev. Timothy Lipscomb, area dean of Armley, was one of a 
number of speakers who opposed the motion on the grounds that it 
would cause further division and hurt, demoralizing further an 
already "demoralized church." Many traditionalists, opposed to 
the move would, he said, "either resign, become Roman Catholics 
or disappear into obscurity, disillusioned and broken."

Driver said that the vote would allow the General Synod to hear 
the overwhelming support of the Church of England for women in 
the episcopate.

Dissident Canadian churches accept offer of alternative 
oversight

(ENS) Eight Canadian churches calling themselves "The Anglican 
Communion in New Westminster" (ACiNW) have voted to accept an 
offer of "alternative episcopal oversight" by the bishop of the 
Diocese of Yukon, Terrence O. Buckle. 

The ACiNW churches walked out of the New Westminster diocesan 
synod over a disagreement with a June 2002 decision asking for a 
liturgical rite to bless  bless same-sex relationships. Attempts 
at reconciliation broke off in early February. 

In a letter dated February 24, New Westminster's Bishop Michael 
Ingham accused Buckle of issuing "ultimatums and threats against 
the bishop and the synod of the Diocese of New Westminster" and 
imposed inhibition against Buckle, preventing him from 
exercising ministry within the boundaries of the diocese. 
Failure to abide by the inhibition of ministry would result in 
referral of the matter to the metropolitan (senior bishop) of 
the Province of British Columbia, Archbishop David Crawley, for 
disciplinary action.

Responding to the vote by the churches, Buckle expressed thanks 
for support for the proposal from seven Anglican primates, the 
American Anglican Council, and 12 American bishops in recent 
weeks. 

"Although the bishop of New Westminster has so far indicated he 
is not open to this solution," Buckle wrote, "I trust he will 
accept the expressed will of the parishes to permit them the 
episcopal support and encouragement in remaining faithful to the 
widely accepted teachings of the Anglican church here in Canada 
and around the world." Buckle said he would be speaking with 
fellow bishops of the Province of British Columbia later in the 
week. 

Integrity USA blasts 'Gift of Sexuality' statement 

(ENS) Members of the board of Integrity, the Episcopal Church's 
affinity group for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender 
members and their friends and family, strongly criticized a 
theological statement from the House of Bishops theology 
committee entitled "The Gift of Sexuality: A Theological 
Perspective" following a March 22 meeting in Portland, Oregon.

In a statement, board members declared themselves "struck by the 
scant amount of theology" contained in the report and "deeply 
distressed" by what they termed a "condescending, dismissive, 
clinical tone," including the decision to refer to gays and 
lesbians as "homosexual persons." "It is abundantly clear to us 
that this is a political statement, designed, we suspect, to 
build on the fragile foundation of collegiality which has been 
carefully constructed in the House of Bishops over the past few 
years," they said. "That it did not result in a 'Mind of the 
House Resolution' is, perhaps, its sharpest criticism and, in 
our view, the most significant failure of this document."

The statement went on to announce a gathering May 7-10 of 
members of the steering committee of the coalition known as 
"Claiming the Blessing," in which Integrity is a partner, and 
members of the American Anglican Council and other conservative 
groups at St. James in Wilshire, California, in the Diocese of 
Los Angeles for a "national reconciliation conversation" on 
sexuality. 

"We are very clear that we are not meeting to negotiate a 
settlement," the statement said. "In the end, however, this is 
not about theology or politics. Neither is it about legislative 
action. It is about relationships. It is about behavior. It is 
about being known as followers of Jesus by the love and respect 
we show each other."

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