wfn.org | [ACNS] News Digest 1 April 2005

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

The following is a roundup of the recent ACNS Digest stories, with
reports from Melanesia, the Indian Ocean, Australia, Ireland, West
Africa, the US, England, and Lambeth Palace. The ACNS Digest can be
found here:

http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/digest/index.cfm

(355) 01-April-2005 - Archbishop dedicates provincial flagship -
Melanesia

Melanesian Messenger 050324-1
March 24, 2005

[Melanesian Messenger - Melanesia ] The Archbishop of Melanesia, the
Most Revd Sir Ellison Pogo, re-dedicated and blessed the Province's
flagship in Honiara in the Solomon Islands on March 23, 2005. This is
the address he delivered.

SPEECH by Archbishop Ellison Pogo during the Re-Dedication of the Church
of Melanesia's Flagship, the MV Southern Cross.

We gather this morning to offer thanks to God for the ministry and
mission, the staff and crew, of the Motor Vessel, the Southern Cross,
the 9th.

This 9th Southern Cross was built in Ballina, Australia in 1962 at the
request of the then Bishop of the Diocese of Melanesia, the Right
Reverend Alfred Thomas Hill.

Even by the mid-1950's, it was felt that the old Southern Cross needed
to be replaced, and the mission and ministry of the Church required a
smaller, speedier ship that would have lower running costs. The ship
they built in 1962 has served the Church far longer than any previous
Southern Cross. From 1962, this very ship we re-dedicate to day has run
tens of thousands of miles, and carried untold tons of cargo, and
innumerable people, back and forth from the British Solomon Islands to
the New Hebrides, to the independent nations of Solomon Islands and
Vanuatu.

For generations, this was the ship that carried people into the new
worlds opened up by the Holy Spirit to the Gospel of Jesus Christ; for
countless men and women of faith, this ship was the sun that dawned on
different cultures; Southern Crossbrought people to new experiences;
Southern Cross has made lifelong friendships and marriages, facilitated
peace and hope, projects and dreams, and not forgetting messages of
tragedy carried on board as well as news of joy.

This Southern Cross which we re-dedicate today is a powerful symbol of
the Gospel as lived and preached by the Church of Melanesia. The
flagship of the Church, a ship named after a constellation unique to the
southern hemisphere, is built not for business but for sharing the Good
News of Christ. Our ancestors welcomed the Southern Cross even as they
feared the slave ships forcing them to a life of labour. They welcomed
the Southern Cross bringing teachers and medicines, priests and proof
that they were not alone, but united with the whole church catholic
throughout time and space with the celebrations of the sacraments of our
redemption, and carrying the Gospels and liturgy in the languages people
could understand.

Today we re-dedicate this Southern Cross to the service of the Gospel,
this completely refurbished ship, every plank, every screw and bolt has
been replaced and renewed. We pray that the Church as a whole may follow
from this example, and seek to be made new.

Today we thank especially Drummond Ama, Still West Longden, and David
Mapuru, and those memorable people who provide needed help in to the
Mission ship, Dudley Solistino and Gotu, for materials, and Jonah Mitau
and Jimmy Oto, Brown Dalo, and mention must be made to the members of
the Mothers' Union at Taroniara, for looking after the workers with food
and support.

>From 2002 the staff at Taroniara has made the visions and dreams of the
church come true in the refurbishing, replacing and renewing of this
ship. They have laboured hard for the last 35 months. They began the
renovations of the Southern Cross on the 40th anniversary of the
commissioning of this ship from Australia in 1962.

The world is a different place since the 1960's ecological concerns are
for us in the new millennium of paramount importance. That is why this
new and renovated Southern Cross comes with all the latest technological
conveniences and marvels, not the least this ship now boasts
environmentally friendly solar energy, as part of our awareness of the
international Kyoto protocols on the environment, and the safety and
security of GPS.

Not only has there been a major refit, but the services she will be able
to render are greatly improved and enhanced. For example, from 10
passengers in bunks, the berth capacity has more tripled to 32 spaced
for passengers to recline in comfort.

This year 2005, is the 150th anniversary of the Commissioning of the
first Southern Cross by Bishop Selwyn.

May we who here today re-dedicate this flagship of the Church of
Melanesia, be ourselves re-dedicated and renewed in our commitment to
the true mission of the Church, that is to sharing the reconciling love
of God in Jesus Christ, reconciling the world to himself, and having on
our feet the readiness to spread the Gospel of Peace.

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(354) 01-April-2005 - Re-inventing the cathedral - Australia

Dean of Sydney Phillip Jensen is implementing an ambitious plan to
rebuild St Andrew's Cathedral one spiritual brick at a time, beginning
with a business bible study starting next Tuesday.

The Cathedral Bible Study will cater to the thousands of city workers
who stream past St Andrews every day. Dean Jensen says many
non-Christians see St Andrews as simply a tourist attraction;
Christians, as an appropriate place to hold ordinations.

"I want to reposition the cathedral so people think of it as a place
where the Bible is taught," he says. The plan to rebuild the church's
teaching reputation will also include steadily expanding the recent
Cathedral Easter Convention, and eventually exporting the model to
regional centres.

"An important part of re-invention is growing in the right direction,"
Dean Jensen says.
"So creating new Biblical ministries is critical to making the cathedral
the place in the city where people turn to have the Bible taught."

Ministry worker Andrew Lim is responsible for launching the new Tuesday
lunch-time studies. He says the cathedral has become home to a number of
great musical items that draw people in, but Bible teaching is sadly
lacking.

"The aim would be to feed people twice during a lunch-time," Mr Lim
says, describing the program as a serve of deeper thoughts pitched at
the university graduate. The Bible studies form part of the cathedral's
tactics for tackling the vast vertical mission field surrounding the
sandstone structure.

"It's about encouraging people to commit to church," says Mr Lim. Staff
believe the new ministry will augment ECOM (Evangelising Commerce)
Thursday lunchtime talks in the chapter house. "People come to Christian
ministries through networks of friends and this will establish a new
network," says Dean Jensen.

The Cathedral Bible Study will run from 1.15 PM to 1.45 PM, with CD
recordings available immediately after the talk.

Read more in April's Southern Cross:

http://www.anglicanmedia.com.au/southerncross/2005/april/

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(353) 01-April-2005 - Updates for Anglican Cycle of Prayer now available
- ACO

The Anglican Communion Office has now updated the Anglican Cycle of
Prayer (ACP) web site with material for the second quarter (April-June
2005). The ACP is available for download in three formats at
www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/downloads.cfm. The main calendar page can
be found here

Anglican Cycle of Prayer has been available from the Anglican Communion
web site since January of last year.

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352) 31-March-2005 - Many confirmed in Sirama - Indian Ocean

March 24, 2005

[Antsiranana - Indian Ocean] More than 60 people were confirmed in
Sirama Parish at a service on Sunday March 20, 2005.

The confirmations were carried out by the Right Revd Roger F H Chung Po
Chuen, the Bishop of Antsiranana in the Eklesia Episkopaly Malagasy. The
Revd J. Ravelomanana is in charge of the parish.

Sirama Parish is in a sugar-producing area in the north of Madagascar.

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(351) 31-March-2005 - Archbishop Eames' Easter Message - Ireland

As Christians celebrate the Resurrection of Christ with its message of
reassurance, hope for the future and victory over the darkness of death
and sin Northern Ireland cries out for a new dawn. In every department
of life here this Easter the message of hope for a new future is
urgently needed.

In politics a new reality which recognises the priority of democratic
agreement is the only way to build a stable future government. There can
be no place for the influence of criminality or terrorism in political
power. There can be no place for ambivalence towards violence in any
form in the political process. The time is long past for the people of
this community to be inflicted with the duality of politics and violence
in any form.

In everyday life vicious attacks against people in their own homes have
spread fear among our most vulnerable. Young and old have been subjected
to a new culture of criminality where the sanctity of life and the
sanctity of homes have been shattered.

Sectarianism is alive and well and it appears we have learned little
from the mistakes of the past. Thuggery in the name of tribalism is an
everyday occurrence. The sectarian divisions of the past continue to
frustrate the lives of too many this Easter.

The truth is that we are now seeing the real consequences and
inheritance of the Troubles. The days and nights of widespread
atrocities may be a thing of the past. But the new culture of violence
and division has been made possible by the events of the past. Trust was
the real casualty of those years. Violence too often appeared to produce
results and reward.

All this has led to new questions of what is morally justified and what
is immoral in the life of this community. Expediency has become the
watchword for too much of social and political development. Lawlessness
is filling a vacuum which is too often equated with the peace process.
So-called progress is too often built on a denial of truth.

A stable and just future for Northern Ireland demands the recognition of
the rights of decent law-abiding people of both communities. They
deserve the new dawn of hope which Christians celebrate at Easter. That
dawn will come for us all once the real message of Easter becomes a
reality right across this community.

The Most Revd Robin Eames
Primate of All Ireland

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(350) 31-March-2005 - Archbishop issues letter to Party Leaders -
Lambeth

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Revd Rowan Williams, has issued a
pre-election open letter, urging party leaders to avoid political
campaigns based on the exploitation of fear.

Dr Williams argues that although negative campaign strategies may make
headlines they do not determine the outcome of elections and that
politicians should focus instead on offering long-term solutions to
deep-rooted challenges.

Dr Williams goes on to identify four such issues: the environment,
international development and the arms trade, youth and family policy,
and criminal justice reform.

The full text of the open letter follows:

An open letter from the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Revd Rowan
Williams, to the leaders of political parties: General Election 2005

Dear Party Leader,

Despite the best of intentions, election campaigns can quickly turn into
a competition about who can most effectively frighten voters with the
prospect of what "The Others" are going to do. Regrettably, there seems
little reason to suppose that the forthcoming general election here will
be immune from such temptation. Indeed, it already looks as though
familiar anxieties over terrorism, asylum and immigration, and crime,
are going to feature prominently in the contest.

Yet, like a lot of other people, I suspect that voters don't make up
their minds primarily on the grounds of fear, and that this aspect of
campaigning, while it certainly grabs headlines, may not be especially
decisive. The technique is a bit too transparent and usually too
over-the-top to be taken wholly seriously.

But it is certainly true that fear tends to drive a fair amount of the
surrounding public argument and policy. I don't for a moment dispute the
evil of modern terrorism or the need to combat it vigorously; but the
problem with all the areas I mentioned is that fear makes us look first
for defences - and for reactive, damage-limiting solutions. And the
difficulty then is that such solutions can put deeper interests, rights
and needs, individual and collective, at considerable risk.

I don't envy the task you and your colleagues face in trying to
formulate responses to the real challenges here. But I hope you will
seek to do so in ways that do not simply allow our fears to go
unexamined.

Because there are things that really should make us tremble -
rootlessness and alienation among some of our urban youth, the
degradation of the environment, the downward spin into chaos and
violence of large parts of the poorer world. And these simply don't lend
themselves to defensive and short-term solutions.
I hope that the following may stimulate some thinking that will help to
address such issues.

  -	     First: What practical initiatives can be taken to halt and
reverse our collective lack of international responsibility about the
environment? What real support is available for something like the
'Contraction and Convergence' approach, under which pollution levies can
be ploughed back into sustainable development for low-pollution
economies? What arguments can you use to bring the USA to the table over
these issues? And, prosaically, nearer home, what level of commitment is
there to an enforceable code of practice for environmental audits of
government offices and public services?

  -	     Second: What are we really prepared to do about the
long-term effects of irresponsible international economic policies and
priorities, which serve to reinforce the instability that feeds violence
in poorer nations? There are many issues involved here of which debt is
probably the most familiar, but another blindingly obvious factor, as
the Africa Commission has highlighted, is the arms trade. The sale of
small arms in particular makes it easier to deploy child soldiers. How
is this disgrace to be brought to an end? And what sustained investment
can we promise to rehabilitate children already brutalised by these
conflicts?

  -	     Third: We worry about crime, yet we often seem not to notice
that the present penal system is characterised by staggeringly high
levels of reoffending. Do we want punishment to change anything? Are we
investing enough in the possibilities of "restorative justice" and in
first class education and rehabilitation facilities throughout the
prison service? No one seems really convinced that we have a working
system; building more prisons is no answer. Why not say so and propose a
better way? Who's going to make history by offering a constructive
alternative in penal policy, a plan that actually sets out to address
offending behaviour?

  -	     Fourth: The crime problem has a lot to do with a growing
number of young people who are severely emotionally undernourished and
culturally alienated. Ask anyone who works with children or young people
in any city. The climate of chronic family instability, sexual chaos and
exploitation, drug abuse and educational disadvantage is a lethal
cocktail. To call for more public support for stable families and
marriage is not in this context a bit of middle-class, Middle England
nostalgia; it's life and death. To ask for public investment in skilled,
properly resourced youth work is not begging for subsidised leisure;
it's asking for basic human necessities. So what is the programme for
fuller and better family support, fuller and better care for our
children throughout society?

There are other issues that could be listed, of course. But these have
something to do with the root causes of our presenting fears. Violent
instability makes both terrorists and refugees. Poor provision for youth
and an impossibly strained prison system breed crime.

Is all this just religious idealism, altruistic aspiration that can't be
taken too seriously? Of course I'm concerned about these things chiefly
because I'm a Christian who believes that the world is to be cherished,
the innocent protected and human dignity preserved.  But the Bible's
vision of a properly functioning society is in fact deeply realistic.
Sooner or later, injustice anywhere corrupts and kills a whole
community. Ignore the needs or the dignity of another and you strike at
your own life and dignity in the long run.

That's something worth being afraid of. But there are things we can do
not just to defend but, as the prophet says, to build and to plant. As
we head for the Election, this letter is a plea to see what you think
can be built and planted in some of the most vulnerable situations in a
vulnerable world.

Yours sincerely

+Rowan Cantuar

Lambeth Palace press office:

Tel:  +44 207 898 1280/1200
Fax: +44 207 261 1765

www.archbishopofcanterbury.org

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(349) 31-March-2005 - An Easter message from the Presiding Bishop - USA

The Episcopal News Service (ECUSA)

Jesus' resurrection plays havoc with the known, the safe, the familiar,
the predictable and opens the way for what is real. And what is real is
the unbounded and death-defying love of God which overcomes all
estrangement and division and overleaps the chasm between life and
death. It is an enduring and tenacious love that embraces all things
turning death into life, sorrow into joy, suffering into hope, and
bondage into freedom. As we celebrate the Easter feast may the same love
that raised Christ from the dead raise us up in the full freedom of the
Spirit to be agents and ministers of God's reality and hope to a world
which cries out for healing and repair.

The Most Revd Frank T Griswold
Presiding Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Church, USA

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(348) 31-March-2005 - Easter Greetings from the Bishop of Gambia - West
Africa

By the Rt Revd Dr S Tilewa Johnson
Mar 29, 2005, 13:53

Dear readers,

Christ is Risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia!

The season of Easter-or the Feast of the Resurrection-is a time of great
celebration in the Church. Jesus' resurrection from the dead assures us
that we too can have eternal life in the presence of God. However, it is
clear that the resurrection of Jesus on the first Easter Day would not
have been possible had it not been preceded by the first Good Friday.
The light and joy of Easter has to be preceded by the darkness and pain
of Good Friday.

More here:

http://www.observer.gm/artman/publish/article_5128.shtml

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(347) 30-March-2005 - Women Bishops study programme published - England

A study programme to help parishes, deaneries and dioceses engage with
the Rochester report, Women Bishops in the Church of England?, has been
published on the Church of England web site. The Archbishops of
Canterbury and York commended the Rochester report for prayerful study
within the Church when it was published last November.

The study programme is intended as part of the process of discussion
about women in the episcopate that began with two General Synod debates
on the issue in February. The Synod voted to take note of the report
Women Bishops in the Church of England? and to have a further debate in
July.

The downloadable material, available at

http://www.cofe.anglican.org/info/papers/womenbishops/

is not aimed simply to address the question 'yes or no?' but to
recognise the range of issues involved in the debate.

Further information from:
Steve Jenkins tel (020) 7898-1326
Alexander Nicoll (webmaster) tel (020) 7898-1459

Church of England Communications Unit
Church House
Great Smith Street
London SW1P 3NZ

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