wfn.org | Episcopalians: News Briefs

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April 24, 2003

2003-087

Episcopalians: News Briefs

Human rights groups condemn Castro's crackdown on opposition in 
Cuba

(ENS)Human rights and religious groups around the 
world--including the World Council of Churches and an ecumenical 
group of Cuban clergy in the U.S.--have condemned a harsh 
crackdown on opposition in Cuba that drew stiff prison sentences 
for dissidents.

Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa, a strong critic of President 
Fidel Castro, said that the crackdown is "the natural expression 
of a dictatorship that has been oppressing human rights for 
years." An estimated 75 members of the opposition have been 
prosecuted in quick trials with the longest sentences given to 
independent journalists, one of them for 27 years. They were 
accused of collaborating with US diplomats to undermine the 
state.

Cuban authorities said that the dissidents had conspired with 
U.S. diplomat James Cason to harm the nation's economy and 
sovereignty. "We should be clear, the opposition is not a shadow 
government waiting to move into power," Cason said at a speech 
in Miami. "They are simply among the few who openly say what so 
many others believe, that it is time for change. Because they 
have become such effective advocates, the government attacks 
them, labeling them subversive traitors."

The 53-member United Nations Human Rights Commission meeting in 
Geneva on April 16 called on Havana to permit an investigator to 
visit Cuba, but stopped short of mentioning the imprisonment of 
dissidents. The demand for an investigator was rejected by the 
Cuban government. 

The Spiritual Guides, an ecumenical group formed several years 
ago to help the Cuban exile community in Miami, issued a 
statement that was signed by three Episcopal bishops, a Roman 
Catholic bishop, as well as Presbyterian and Lutheran clergy. 
"We strongly condemn the new repressive wave unleashed by the 
communist regime of Cuba against almost one hundred dissidents 
and peaceful opponents, independent journalists and leaders of 
civic movements whose civil rights have been shamefully 
violated," they said in the April 8 statement.

The group said that the detentions were "unjust, illegal and 
abusive, and their prison terms inhuman and cruel." They added, 
"We call upon the free governments of the world, and especially 
religious organizations, which are committed to respect human 
dignity, to make known to the Cuban government their opposition 
to these acts of repression."

Episcopal bishops Leo Frade, Onell Soto, Agustin Roman and 
Emilio Hernandez signed the statement.

World Council of Churches General Secretary Konrad Raiser called 
the severe sentences "a miscarriage of justice" in an April 15 
letter to Castro. He expressed "shock and worry" that "over 70 
people have been incarcerated for exercising their right to 
freedom of expression." He called for the immediate release of 
those held in detention.

Christians dwindling at Holy Land Easter services

(ENI)A diminished flock of local Christians and only a handful 
of pilgrims from abroad attended this year's Holy Land Easter 
services at which Jesus' resurrection from the dead was 
celebrated. Church leaders said many local Christians are 
fleeing the region and few of their foreign counterparts have 
been travelling to Jerusalem since the start of the 
Israeli-Palestinian clashes in September 2000. 

As a result, there were no crowds at this year's Easter services 
at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the site in Jerusalem most 
closely associated with Jesus' death and resurrection. The Holy 
Sepulchre is located in Jerusalem's walled Old City, and is the 
place where Jesus was said to have been laid to rest and, 
according to Christian belief, rose from the dead.

Before the troubles began, Easter brought so many tourists to 
Jerusalem that many had to be turned away from the crowded site. 
This year, the few visitors who made the journey to Jerusalem 
found they could walk right into the ornate interior of the 
church.

This has triggered a debate among some community leaders about 
the future of the sites themselves, in an area where there are 
fewer and fewer Christians and the major faiths are Judaism and 
Islam.

The Rev. Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, a scholar and Roman Catholic 
priest at the Ecole Biblique in Jerusalem, agreed that while the 
sacred areas might still survive with a further reduced 
Christian presence, the support of a strong local Christian 
community was still important. "If the local Christians leave, 
then of course, the holy places would be of interest to 
scholars, to pilgrims. But they would, in fact, be museums, and 
people like me, foreigners, would be the curators," 
Murphy-O'Connor told ENI. "They no longer--none of these 
churches--have vital communities."

Many Christian Palestinians in the West Bank were barred from 
reaching Jerusalem this year due to Israeli military 
restrictions. The West Bank, the area west of the River Jordan 
inhabited mainly by Palestinians, was closed off from Jerusalem 
due to Israeli concerns about possible terror attacks during the 
week-long Jewish Passover, which was celebrated at the same time 
as Easter.

The smaller Christian presence was particularly evident on Good 
Friday, when only several hundred people lined the cobblestone 
alleys of Jerusalem's Old City to participate in this year's 
ceremony retracing Jesus' steps towards crucifixion.

Fourteen stations mark the events of the last walk of Jesus from 
a courtyard where he was said to have been condemned to death. 
Small groups of Italian, German, Swedish, Filipino, South 
American and English pilgrims made their way along the Via 
Dolorosa to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

"This is nothing like it used to be when thousands used to come 
from all over the world," said Father Simon, a Franciscan monk. 
"But I am always happy to see people recognize the sacrifice of 
Christ and his pain." 

Mugabe and cleric foe join thousands to honor pioneer black 
archbishop 

(ENI)They came from all around the region to pay tribute to 
Zimbabwe's first black Roman Catholic archbishop, Patrick 
Chakaipa. President Robert Mugabe was there, as was one of his 
most ardent critics, Archbishop Pius Ncube. Ncube shook the hand 
of the president, who in turn praised the deceased bishop but 
used the service to launch into a bitter attack on opponents 
like Ncube, homosexuals and the British government.

Nearly 30,000 people, including Mugabe, other high-ranking 
Zimbabwean government officials and Roman Catholic Church 
representatives from neighboring countries, thronged the City 
Sports Center in Harare for a mass in honor of Chakaipa, who 
died in April 8 a private hospital recently at age 70.

Groups of Catholic youth from many dioceses carried banners 
lamenting the death of a man who was regarded by many as 
"grandfather" or a custodian of wisdom, while fellow clergy 
mourned "the passing on of a brother and leader."

Outspoken government critic Ncube, the archbishop of Zimbabwe's 
second city, Bulawayo, stunned mourners when he went and shook 
the hand of Mugabe, the person he has publicly criticized for 
the deteriorating economic and human rights situation in the 
southern African country.

"I went and shook his hand just to show that I have nothing 
personal against him," Ncube later told journalists. "The crux 
of the matter is that he should bring about good governance and 
the economic well-being of the people."

In contrast, Mugabe used the holy mass as a platform from which 
to denigrate perceived enemies of his government: the British 
government, gays and Ncube, whom he did not name, but described 
as "a bishop whose behavior does not befit that of clergy."

Mugabe said one of the reasons that relations between Zimbabwe 
and its former colonial power Britain were strained was because 
there were "many gays" in the British government. "According to 
us, a man only marries a woman, not a man marrying a man," 
Mugabe said. "That is one of the things where we differ with the 
British."

Leaders of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic 
Front (Zanu-PF) had sought to have Chakaipa declared a national 
hero. National hero status is conferred by Zanu PF's supreme 
decision-making body, the Politburo, on individuals considered 
to have made significant contributions to the country's 1970s 
liberation war.

Ncube opposed the ruling party's proposal, saying the late 
archbishop was not a politician. "National hero status is 
political and the archbishop was not a politician. I am sure he 
wouldn't accept it himself and I think the church people in 
Harare would not accept it either. His role was religious, not 
political." 

In Canada respiratory disease raises fears on religious 
practices

(ENI)Church leaders in Canada, the country outside Asia most 
affected by the mysterious Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome 
(SARS), are responding to concern about the infection being 
spread by the use of the "common cup" at the Eucharist.

In Toronto, where health authorities said all Canadian deaths 
have occurred, Anglican Archbishop Terence Finlay told the 
faithful, however, he did not recommend discontinuing the use of 
the common cup. "Many people are anxious, and media have 
increased this apprehension," Finlay noted in a letter to his 
priests. "The Eucharist is the central act of Christian worship 
instituted by Christ himself. We do not authorize moving to less 
frequent Eucharists or discontinuing the use of the common cup."

The archbishop proposed a number of hygiene precautions and 
invited prayers for "the victims of this disease, those who care 
for them, the quarantined, and the researchers who are searching 
for its cause and cure."

Canada is not the only country where there has been concern that 
religious practices might spread the disease. In Singapore, 
which has also been heavily hit by the disease, the Catholic 
Church has suspended the hearing of individual confessions and 
priests will instead pronounce a general absolution to all 
churchgoers.

Churches in the southeast Asian city-state have drained 
containers of holy water at church entrances and switched to 
putting communion wafers in the hands of worshippers, instead of 
on the tongues.

All cases so far registered in Canada occurred in persons who 
had traveled to Asia or who had contact with SARS cases in the 
household or in a health care setting, the World Health 
Organization has noted. Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien 
paid a visit to a Chinatown district in Toronto to help promote 
tolerance and reassure Canadians that SARS was not a race-based 
disease, a spokesperson said. Community officials have said 
ethnic Chinese people are being blamed for the spread of the 
disease. 

Bishop Michael Pryse of the Eastern Canada Synod of the 
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada urged precautions when 
sharing communion, saying that clergy and parishioners should 
wash their hands before distributing eucharistic elements and 
that communion servers should wipe the cup inside and outside 
the rim and rotate the chalice between communicants.

Communicants who were anxious about receiving wine from the 
common cup were advised by the bishop that "it is quite 
acceptable to receive communion under one kind" by taking only 
the bread and not drinking the wine.

Pryse referred to an article about the health risks of the 
common cup by Dr. David Gould, an Anglican cardiologist, first 
published in 1987, and reissued in 2000 when there was a 
heightened concern about AIDS. The Anglican Church of Canada has 
also republished the paper on its Web site saying it "may be of 
use when considering the common cup in light of concerns 
surrounding SARS."

In his paper, Gould noted that concern about disease being 
spread by using a common cup was not new. "The influenza 
epidemic in 1917 raised similar concerns, and the controversy 
has surfaced periodically since the 16th century," Gould wrote. 
"No episode of disease attributable to the common cup has ever 
been reported," he noted. "Thus for the average communicant it 
would seem that the risk of drinking from the common cup is 
probably less than the risk of air-borne infection in using a 
common building." 

Mel Gibson's film on Jesus stirring controversy

(ENS) Australian film actor Mel Gibson is making what he calls a 
historically accurate film, "The Passion," on the last 12 hours 
in the life of Jesus--and it is stirring apprehension and 
controversy.

The actor's father, Hutton Gibson, is a member of the 
traditionalist Roman Catholic movement that embraces a 16th 
century form that uses the Latin Mass and denies the legitimacy 
of all popes and church reforms since the Second Vatican Council 
(1962-65). Articles quote the father claiming that the Holocaust 
never happened and that the World Trade Center was destroyed in 
September 2001 by remote control.

Roman Catholic and Jewish scholars are expressing concern and 
alarm that the film might become a platform for some of the 
family's unusual views. "What we have here is a rich filmmaker 
whose beliefs may counter what the teaching of the church has 
been for the last 50 years," says Sister Mary Boys, a professor 
of theology at New York's Union Seminary. She worries that the 
film may "blame the Jews for the death of Jesus," a view that 
was repudiated by the Vatican Council.

"Historically, Passion plays have been very dangerous 
productions in terms of Christian attitudes towards Jews," said 
Rabbi Eugene Korn, director of interfaith affairs at the 
Anti-Defamation League in New York. "Many dramatic presentations 
of the Passion contained anti-Semitic elements that led to the 
charge of deicide and responsibility of Jews for the 
crucifixion--not only Jews who lived then but Jews for all 
time."

Gibson, who directed, wrote and financed the film with $25 
million of his own money, has been surprised and upset by the 
criticism. "This is not a Christian versus Jewish thing," he 
said in a television interview. "Looking at Christ's 
crucifixion, I look first at my own culpability in that."

Prof. William Fulco of Loyola Marymount College in Los Angeles 
defends Gibson, arguing that he has seen hours of the film's 
footage and finds nothing to question. He has also said that 
"the Jewish community portrayed in the film consists of people 
both sympathetic to Jesus and hostile to him, just as the Roman 
community is portrayed."

Britton named dean of Berkeley Divinity School at Yale

(ENS) The Board of Trustees of Berkeley Divinity School at Yale 
today announced the appointment of the Rev. Canon Joseph Harp 
Britton as dean of the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale and 
associate dean of Yale Divinity School.

Britton, formerly the canon missioner of the Convocation of 
American Churches in Europe, comes to Berkeley from the European 
Institute of Christian Studies in Paris, where he is the 
founding director. He received his A.B. from Harvard University 
in 1982, an M.Div. with honors from The General Theological 
Seminary in 1989, and a Th.D. in moral and systematic theology 
from the Institut Catholique de Paris in 2002. 

Before going to Paris, Britton served parishes in New York, 
Massachusetts, and California. He has also served as a tutor for 
the East Anglian Ministerial Training Course in Cambridge, 
England and as a thesis director for Columbia University 
Programs in Paris. His work has been published in such journals 
as the Anglican Theological Review, Anglican and Episcopal 
History, and the Sewanee Theological Review.

Britton noted that, "through its affiliation with Yale Divinity 
School, Berkeley offers an extraordinary opportunity for the 
formation of new clergy with both an intellectual and spiritual 
depth. Working within a rich ecumenical and academic 
environment, Berkeley students have the possibility to become 
grounded in the remarkable diversity of the Christian 
experience, as well as in the particular ethos of the Anglican 
tradition." 

The new dean, whose appointment is effective July 1, is an 
Episcopal Church Foundation Fellow, and a member of the Society 
of Christian Ethics and the American Academy of Religion. He has 
represented the Episcopal Church in a number of ecumenical 
roles, including as a Scaife-Anderson Fellow at the Russian 
Orthodox Institut Saint-Serge in Paris. Britton will succeed 
Bishop Frederick H. Borsch, the retired bishop of the Episcopal 
Diocese of Los Angeles, who served as interim dean.

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