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June 6, 1997
Episcopal News Service
Jim Solheim, Director
212-922-5385
ens@ecunet.org

97-1785
NEWSBRIEFS                           

Jubilee office to move back to New York
   (ENS) The Episcopal Church's officer for peace and justice, Brian
Grieves, recently announced that the Jubilee Ministries office will move
from the church's Washington Office back to the Episcopal Church
Center in New York. Grieves said that "the move to Washington along
with the Public Policy Network (PPN) had been taken in order to link
Jubilee with our advocacy work in DC.  While the move of the PPN has
led to dynamic growth and activity of the network, the Jubilee program
and the Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) office have been
disconnected administratively, which is unfortunate since both are part of
one integrated program." Ntsiki Langford, Jubilee Ministries officer,
requested the transfer to fulfill, according to Grieves, "a need to more
closely coordinate the work of Jubilee Officers with JPIC Networks."

More than one in ten clergy in England are now women
   (ENS) A tenth of the Church of England's clergy are women,
according to a recent survey carried out by the National Association of
Diocesan Advisers in Women's Ministry. The national survey is the first
of its kind conducted since women began to be ordained as priests in
March 1994. By the end of July 1996, the survey reports, there were
1,957 women in licensed ministry in the 43 dioceses. Almost half of the
women are paid a full stipend and most are between 40 and 60 years old.
Nearly 400 women are in charge of parishes, and about 200 are in
"sector" ministries, working as chaplains in hospitals, prisons,
universities, colleges and in industry. Sixty percent are married; 306 of
them to clergymen. The diocese with the largest number of women is
Oxford with 101.

Georgian Orthodox Church to leave WCC and CEC
   (ENI) The Georgian Orthodox Church in the former Soviet Republic
of Georgia recently decided to leave two major ecumenical bodies--the
World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Conference of European
Churches (CEC). The decision was made at an emergency meeting of the
Holy Synod of the church following strong pressure from Georgia's
leading monasteries against further participation in the international
ecumenical movement. According to the Metaphrasis religious news
agency, based in Moscow, the Georgian synod cited the "WCC
leadership's continued efforts to endow the organization with unified
ecclesiological functions" and the WCC's alleged "failure to take
interests of Orthodox churches fully into account" as reasons for its
decision. The sudden decision of the synod came as a surprise even to
those who had campaigned against the church's membership of the WCC.
It is the first time that an Orthodox church has left the WCC or CEC
and, according to some observers, the decision will strengthen anti-
ecumenical movements in other Orthodox churches. The Georgian
Orthodox Church joined the WCC in 1962. Its present leader,
Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II, has had an outstanding record as an
ecumenical leader, serving as one of the WCC's presidents from 1979 to
1983.

Australian church report calls for open attitude to sexuality
   (ENI) A recent report on sexuality, commissioned by the Uniting
Church, one of Australia's largest, has recommended stronger support
for marriage, but has also called for the introduction of liturgy
recognizing divorce and for a study on how the church might endorse
unions of faithful, same-sex couples. The report, "Uniting Sexuality and
Faith," to be considered by the church's national Assembly in July, takes
a positive approach to sexuality. It says "sexual beings" are part of God's
good creation and "sexual passion and the desire for the beloved are part
of God's good gift." Six of the 14 recommendations concern marriage
which, for Christians, is "the mutually faithful union of a woman and a
man," the report said. In support of this, the church will be asked to
adopt a new policy that its marriage celebrants "strongly encourage
couples seeking marriage to undertake appropriate preparation."  Two
other recommendations support programs of "relationship enrichment"
for couples and professional counseling for couples in difficulty. Divorce
is also accepted, not only as a reality, but also as a matter for church
action.  Based on the report, one recommendation proposes liturgical
resources "both to recognize the end of a marriage and [to] assist in the
process of grief, repentance and moving on in God's grace." By far the
most controversial issue in the report is the recognition of homosexual
relationships. The sexuality task group, whose report completes six years
of work, wants the next Uniting Church Assembly (in the year 2000) to
consider "how the church may respond to lesbian and gay people who
wish to have their commitment to a life-long faithful relationship
affirmed by the church."

Third world bishops force high profile at Lambeth for world debt crisis 
   (ENI) The debt burden of developing countries will feature high on
the agenda of the 1998 Lambeth Conference, the world-wide gathering of
Anglican bishops, according to the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town,
Njongonkulu Ndungane. Ndungane, who is to chair the session on the
debt crisis at the conference, recently said that the attention being given
to the issue on the conference agenda was significant, as previous
conferences had been dominated by the churches of Europe and North
America. "This time, representatives from the developing world and the
southern hemisphere have been highly influential in setting the agenda,"
he said. "This is also indicative of the new positive role we in South
Africa are called on to play." In an address at the Martin Luther King
Center in Atlanta, Georgia, Ndungane called on Christian churches in the
United States to tackle the issue in an organized manner by creating an
ecumenical commission. "The question we all face is whether we can
speak of progress when, on the one hand, incredible technological
advances make life easier for the affluent, but, on the other hand, have
little or no impact on the lives of the poor or marginalized," he declared.
"America--the `land of the free'--is also the land of the computer whose
brainpower is said to double every 18 months. Yet there are countless
millions of people throughout the world who have no opportunity
whatsoever to develop their brainpower or their God-given potential
because they live in abject poverty." The issue of international debt is a
major concern for developing countries. In sub-Saharan Africa, for
example, between 1980 and 1994, the total long-term debt stock grew
from $61 billion to $174 billion. Of the world's 32 severely indebted,
low-income countries with an annual income of less than $695 per
person, 25 are in Africa.

England's Muslim worshippers may outnumber Anglicans by year 2002
(ENI) The number of practicing Muslim adults in England is growing
annually by 30,000 while the usual Sunday attendance for the Church of
England shows a fall of 14,000 a year, according to Peter Brierley,
executive director of the Christian Research Association. If this trend
continues through the year 2002, Muslim worshippers, with 760,000
annual attendees, would outnumber Anglican worshippers, who would
record only 756,000 annual attendees. A Church of England spokesman
said, however, that 1.47 million adults were listed on church rolls in
1995 and that this was a better measure of support than usual Sunday
attendance. "I can't see the point of the comparison [between Anglicans
and Muslims] or where it takes anyone," he said. Brierley acknowledged
that the projection for Anglicans and Muslims was based on present
trends continuing through the next five years, "and life shows that
present trends don't continue!" Nonetheless, the Muslim community,
which commentators have hailed as proof of the country's religious
diversity, plans to build 100 more mosques. Britain's Muslim community
originates mainly from Bangladesh, Pakistan and India.  

Project Equality names Episcopal Church among award recipients
   (ENS) The Episcopal Church recently received a sponsor member
award from Project Equality (PE) in recognition of its funding support
and participation in that group's efforts to work with employers to
achieve fair employment practices. According to a PE statement, the
award was given because "the church has a continual commitment to use
PE's equal employment opportunity validation of suppliers of goods and
services, including the building service contract for the Episcopal Church
Center." PE noted also that the Episcopal Church has conducted a glass
ceiling analysis of its headquarters' staff and has a strong commitment to
affirmative action within the denomination. PE commended the church
for its public policy position of equal employment opportunity through
affirmative action, inclusion and diversity. The award was presented on
April 30 at a dinner prior to the 32nd annual meeting of PE. 

Hume takes Canterbury pulpit to stress role of Papacy
   (ENI) Cardinal Basil Hume, leader of the Roman Catholic Church in
England and Wales, recently used the pulpit of Canterbury Cathedral to
declare that moves towards Christian unity could not include renunciation
of the primacy of the Pope. The Archbishop of Canterbury, George
Carey, spiritual head of the world-wide Anglican Communion, was in the
congregation as Hume recalled that in 1982 Pope John Paul had come to
Canterbury as a pilgrim, "to plead for unity, not to cajole anyone into
it.'' Echoing the Pope's 1995 encyclical Ut Unum Sint, Hume said, "It is
not the primacy as such that is open to debate, but the manner of its
exercise. That is important. It does not threaten, and indeed should not.''
Hume and Carey were in Canterbury for a three-day celebration marking
the 1400th anniversary of St. Augustine's arrival near Canterbury on his
mission to evangelize the English. Roman Catholics revere St. Augustine
as the "Apostle of the English," as Pope John Paul II described the saint
this month. Anglicans look on St. Augustine--the first archbishop of
Canterbury--as the founder of the English church of which they believe
the Church of England to be the continuing embodiment.  

Navajo bishop blesses taboo hotel room
   (ENS) Bishop Stephen Plummer of Navajoland recently made life
simpler for the management and staff of the Strater Hotel in Durango,
Colorado. He was keynote speaker for the national conference of
Episcopal Communicators in Durango. After his talk, Plummer was
asked to bless one of the hotel's rooms. Several months before, a guest
of the hotel died in the room, and since that time, members of the hotel
staff who were Navajo refused to clean it. Navajo teach that after death,
a malevolent residue of a person's spirit persists in the place of death that
can cause "ghost sickness" in those who come in contact with it.
Plummer blessed the room using prayers from The Book of Common
Prayer and aspersed the room with holy water. During the ceremony,
several of the service staff entered the room while more clustered around
the door. Renata Widder, spokesperson for the Strater Hotel, noted after
the blessing that, "I think things are going to be fine now."--Tom
Beckwith

People

Kenneth Quigley, former editor of Tidings, the newspaper of the Diocese
of Central Pennsylvania, has been named president of the Morehouse
Group. The Morehouse Group is a publishing and communications
enterprise based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania that publishes books,
church-school curriculum and church supplies and support materials
including the Episcopal Church Annual and weekly lectionaries. Quigley
is a member of St. Stephen's Cathedral, Harrisburg, and currently serves
in the diocese's department of communications and on its committee on
spirituality and health.

The Rev. Dr. Harold T. Lewis, rector of Calvary Episcopal Church,
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is the first recipient of the Lawrence K.
Mikkelson Preaching Prize. The prize was established through a bequest
of Mikkelson, late rector of the Episcopal Church of St. John the Baptist,
Capitola, California, for the best sermon preached on a theme relating to
social justice. The winning sermon was originally delivered by Lewis at
an inter-faith service for justice, healing and hope, held in Pittsburgh on
November 25, 1996. Lewis will receive $10,000.

James H. Thrall, deputy director of news and information for the
Episcopal Church, will resign his position in August to enter a doctoral
program in the religious studies department of Duke University.