wfn.org | Episcopalians: News Briefs

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June 5, 2003

2003-124

Episcopalians: News Briefs

Rural Maine church bracing for revelations in coffee pot arsenic 
poisonings

(ENI) A tiny rural community in Maine continues to deal with the 
aftermath of apparently deliberate arsenic poisonings that 
killed one man and occurred in the unlikeliest of places: a 
Lutheran church social hall. 

A church member put poison in a coffee pot, authorities believe, 
and later committed suicide over the incident, in which a fellow 
church member died from drinking the coffee. Authorities 
continue to investigate whether others were involved in the 
crime, and are also trying to determine if possible disputes or 
tensions within the Gustaf Adolph Lutheran Church in New Sweden, 
were a factor in the crime. The church is a member congregation 
of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the 
nation's biggest Lutheran body. The church has been in the 
process of searching for a new pastor, the ELCA News Service 
reported. 

The victim of the poisoning, Walter Reid Morrill, 78, died on 
April 28, the day after he and other members of the church 
enjoyed a typical Sunday afternoon social-hour snack of coffee, 
sandwiches and cake. 

Police said a suicide note left by fellow church member Daniel 
Bondeson--found dead at his home on 2 May, from a self-inflicted 
gunshot wound--appeared to link him to the incident, in which 15 
others were poisoned, though none of them fatally. Bondeson, a 
potato farmer who did not attend church the day of the 
poisonings, killed himself after authorities publicly announced 
that the poisonings were a deliberate act, though perhaps meant 
to look like a natural event, as the groundwater in rural Maine 
often has traces of arsenic. 

The incident has severely shaken the small congregation and 
drawn New Sweden, population of 162, unwanted national and 
international attention. The New York Times likened the case to 
a television murder mystery, and for days, the small town found 
itself besieged with reporters. 

Margaret Payne, the ELCA New England Synod's bishop, told ENI 
the incident had stunned the congregation and that members were 
bracing for word about the police investigation--but were 
remaining loyal to the church. "God's grace is present but a lot 
of healing needs to take place," said Payne. "We live in a 
broken world and sometimes things defy explanation."

Investigators have said it is likely that more than one person 
was involved in the crime and that other suspects could be in 
the congregation. "Waiting for the next development has been 
terribly painful and frightening," Payne said. "There is a lot 
of speculation and fear. We don't know what's coming next."

She noted that moving a church altar forward from a wall and the 
search for a new pastor had been on the minds of congregation 
members. Whether those or other issues--normal fare for any 
congregation --could have upset someone to the point of 
attempting fatal poisonings was not yet known, she said. "These 
are very common things for a congregation, but someone's actions 
were very uncommon," she said. 

Christian peace activist in Israel released after 17 days in 
detention

(ENI) A group of Christian peace activists based in the West 
Bank has succeeded in getting one of their members released from 
detention by the Israeli authorities and preventing his 
deportation. 

Greg Rollins, a Canadian volunteer with the Christian Peacemaker 
Team, was freed late on June 4 after spending 17 days in a 
prison in Ramla, Israel. "I am planning to go back to work next 
week," the 30-year-old Rollins told ENI.

A Mennonite Christian from Surrey, British Columbia, Rollins has 
been a volunteer for the past two years in the divided West Bank 
city of Hebron, attempting to help make peace between 
Palestinians and Jewish settlers. The West Bank lies to the west 
of the River Jordan and is an area, mostly inhabited by 
Palestinians, occupied by Israel in 1967. 

Members of CPT base themselves there in the hope of preventing 
clashes in a city which has frequently been a flashpoint for 
violence and where the vast majority of the population is 
Palestinian, but there is also a minority of Israeli settlers. 

Rollins said his arrest was still a mystery to him but said he 
believed he may have been a victim of a general Israeli 
crackdown against foreign peace activists working in the West 
Bank and Gaza Strip. "They never said what they thought I should 
be accused of, they never charged me," he said. During his 
detention, he shared a cell with five others and was allowed 
only a half-hour a day in the outside courtyard. Rollins' 
lawyer, Jonathan Katab, said the peace activist had been 
arrested while trying to cross into the Palestinian-controlled 
section of Hebron.

Israel's crackdown against peace activists began after two 
Britons organized a suicide bombing in May in a cafe in Tel 
Aviv. They were reported to have posed as volunteers for the 
International Solidarity Movement, which says it uses 
non-violent means to resist Israeli occupation of Palestinian 
territory. 

Middle East road map offers 'window of opportunity' says WCC's 
Raiser 

(ENI) The general secretary of the World Council of Churches, 
the Rev. Konrad Raiser, said on June 4 that a US-backed "road 
map" for Middle East peace was not ideal but provided a 
"new--albeit very small--window of opportunity." Raiser's 
comments came in a WCC news release from Geneva as US President 
George Bush was discussing the peace plan at a meeting in Jordan 
with the Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers.

"The 'road map' is seriously lacking in detail and is far from 
being ideal. There are many vague and disturbing elements in 
it," said Raiser. "However, it provides a new--albeit very 
small--window of opportunity for a two-state solution."

The peace plan was drawn up by the United States, the United 
Nations, the European Union and Russia, with Israeli and 
Palestinian consultation. It aims to create two states, setting 
up an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.

Raiser noted that the plan stressed the need for a solution to 
the conflict based on two key UN resolutions. "The 
implementation of these resolutions would mean an end of 'the 
occupation that began in 1967' and lead to the emergence of an 
'independent, democratic and viable Palestinian state living 
side by side in peace and security with Israel and its other 
neighbors.'"

However, Raiser deplored the fact that the road map hardly dealt 
with the issues of borders, the status of Jerusalem, Jewish 
settlements or Palestinian refugees until the end of the 
process. He said: "Whether it will lead the two sides to move 
from mutual destruction to a path of mutual benefit remains to 
be seen."

In the news release, Raiser also defended the WCC's stance of 
opposition to the US-led military action against Iraq, saying he 
continued to believe the war had been "immoral" and "illegal." 
"The war on Iraq did not produce regime change, but a regime 
demolition without a constructive and sustainable change," said 
Raiser. 

Raiser rejected the idea that churches were irrelevant because 
they had been unable to stop the war. Said Raiser: "The 
unanimity of the protest of the churches has, however, 
strengthened their voice and increased their moral standing in 
society. This is more important than their institutional power." 

Relax food import laws, church leaders urge Zimbabwe government 

(ENI) As famine worsens in the drought-stricken southern parts 
of Zimbabwe, church leaders have appealed to the government to 
relax its food import laws 

The Rev. Charles Chiriseri, a spokesperson for the Heads of 
Christian Denominations, said a number of churches had received 
offers of maize donations from their overseas partners and 
international donor agencies but had not imported the grain 
"because of existing legal restrictions." 

Maize is Zimbabwe's staple food crop, and its importation and 
distribution are regulated by the government-run Grain Marketing 
Board (GMB). 

Chiriseri told the independent Daily News On Sunday: "The church 
as a civic organization has an obligation to provide aid in 
times of need, and we are appealing to the government to relax 
the law further to enable churches and church-related charities 
to import and distribute maize to the needy." 

The US-based Famine Early Warning Systems Network said in its 
latest report that while food security had improved in some 
parts of Zimbabwe, the situation remained critical in the 
Matabeleland area and the northern Zambezi Valley, near Zambia. 
These regions had been hard hit by a drought, which has been 
blamed in large part for the food shortages. Disruptions in 
agricultural production caused by the government's chaotic, and 
sometimes violent, land reforms have also been blamed. The 
shortages have left close to 8 million people in need of 
emergency food aid.

In April, the government relaxed some regulations and allowed 
the importation of stipulated quantities of food by individuals 
without an import license. But the regulation amendment did not 
cover importers of large quantities of grain. The Grain 
Marketing Board has been accused, when selling maize, of 
favoring officials of the ruling Zimbabwe African National 
Union-Patriotic Front party. The officials reportedly hoard the 
grain and re-sell it at inflated prices.

The national Non-Governmental Organization Food Security Network 
said in its April report that "the price of GMB maize was 
reported to have risen, and political bias in access continued 
to be widely reported."

"Many people are now reported to have stopped trying to buy food 
from the GMB," the report said. "There appears to have been 
little progress in resolving bias in access to GMB maize or 
making the GMB maize sales more transparent within communities."

Australia debates church-state relations, and dealing with abuse 

(ENI) Australia is engaging in vigorous debate as to whether any 
former church leader should be allowed to serve as the country's 
constitutional head of state, following the resignation of a 
former Anglican archbishop from his post as governor-general at 
the end of last month. At the same time, the resignation of 
Peter Hollingworth has re-ignited debate on the thorny question 
of how churches deal internally and publicly with allegations of 
sexual abuse that relate to clerics.

Hollingworth resigned from his position as governor-general 
after months of controversy about how he handled alleged sex 
abuse cases, involving church workers, while he was archbishop 
in the east coast city of Brisbane. "The hard fact I have had to 
face is that in at least one incident, though I acted in good 
faith, I got it wrong," Hollingworth told Australia in a 
national broadcast address on May 28. "I did not think there was 
anything in my past ministry that would cause a problem for 
others or for me," he said. "If I did, I would certainly not 
have accepted his [the prime minister's] invitation [to take up 
the post]. The controversial matters which have now come to 
light did so several months after I had been in office."

Under Australia's constitution, the governor-general represents 
Queen Elizabeth II, the British sovereign, who is also Queen of 
Australia. The governor-general is appointed by the prime 
minister acting alone. Prime Minister Howard accepted 
responsibility for Hollingworth's selection, but admitted he did 
not do "background checks" before making the appointment. 

Hollingworth resigned under pressure from the findings of an 
Anglican church inquiry into his actions as archbishop of 
Brisbane. According to the findings, Hollingworth had given 
testimony that was found to be inaccurate, and also had allowed 
a known sexual abuser to continue acting as a priest. Three 
weeks before he resigned, Hollingworth denied a rape allegation 
involving a woman who had died earlier this year. Hollingworth 
stood aside as governor-general awaiting a decision of the 
Victorian [state] Supreme Court which later dismissed the case, 
after the dead woman's family asked the court to withdraw the 
action. 

The former archbishop had, however, admitted making a grave 
error of judgment in the sexual abuse case he oversaw as 
archbishop, but had also claimed that the church-run inquiry 
denied him natural justice. He has so far declined to release 
legal documents, which he says supports this claim. 

"His downfall then is also, in part, his [the Anglican] church's 
downfall," wrote columnist Muriel Porter in Melbourne's Age 
newspaper. "While he has been accused of being soft on 
perpetrators of sexual abuse, so has his church. He is not 
alone. He is just the public face of the failure of the wider 
church to care adequately for sexual abuse victims." 

ER-D launches new Bishops Blend fair trade coffee

(ER-D) Episcopal Relief and Development this month is launching 
Bishops Blend, a premium line of certified Fair Trade, dark 
roasted coffees from Central America and Indonesia. Through the 
sale of Bishops Blend, Episcopal Relief and Development will be 
able to further its mission of responding to the needs of the 
poor, hungry, homeless, and sick worldwide.

"We are very excited about this opportunity," said Sandra Swan, 
president of Episcopal Relief and Development. "Bishops Blend 
coffee will provide additional funds for us to improve lives 
around the world."

In addition to supporting Episcopal Relief and Development's 
ministry, Bishops Blend is certified Fair Trade, organic, and 
shade grown coffee. This ensures that coffee farmers are being 
paid a fair living wage and gain access to affordable credit. 

Episcopal Relief and Development is working with Pura Vida 
Coffee to sell Bishops Blend throughout the Episcopal Church. 
"We are delighted to help Episcopal Relief and Development 
expand its work worldwide," commented John Sage, Pura Vida 
Coffee president and co-founder. 

The product line will include three blends: Bishops Blend, 
Bishops Blend Decaf, and Bishops Cinnamon Spice. Individuals, 
dioceses, parishes, and other organizations can order Bishops 
Blend on a regular basis or purchase the coffee at wholesale 
prices for church fundraisers. Shipping is free on the first 
order. To learn more about ordering, visit www.er-d.org or call 
Bishops Blend customer service representatives at Pura Vida 
Coffee, (877) 469-1431.

Pura Vida Coffee is a Seattle-based company committed to 
partnering with organizations like Episcopal Relief and 
Development. One hundred percent of its net profits benefit 
at-risk children and families in coffee-growing countries

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