wfn.org | NewsBriefs

[ENS.parti@ecunet.org (ENS)]

October 16, 1997
Episcopal News Service
Jim Solheim, Director
212-922-5385
ens@ecunet.org

97-1981
NewsBriefs                                                          

NCC celebrates award of Nobel Prize to anti-landmine campaign
      (ENS) Officials of the National Council of Churches (NCC) hailed
the recent decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to the International
Campaign to Ban Landmines. The NCC has been a member of the
campaign since 1992 through its relief, development and refugee
assistance ministry, Church World Service (CWS). "Those of us in the
religious community have long felt the pain of people who have suffered
the loss of life and limb through the scourge of landmines," said the Rev.
Joan Brown Campbell, NCC general secretary. "We rejoice in this prize
and hope it will compel the United States and other nations that have not
yet agreed to sign the ban treaty in Ottowa in December to join this life-
saving effort." The Rev. Dr. Rodney Page, CWS director, said that
during a visit to Cambodia "they told me that their country was being
demined one leg at a time. The Nobel Peace Prize is a fitting tribute to
those who have lost their lives and the survivors who have inspired the
campaign's tireless efforts to allow future generations to walk the earth
free of the fear of landmines."

Archbishop applauds World Bank's forgiveness of Mozambican debt
      (ENS) Anglican Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane of Cape
Town, South Africa, recently released a statement praising the World
Bank's decision to take steps that could forgive up to 80% of
Mozambique's debt. "The writing off of Mozambique's debt will
unquestionably result in the country being able to lift itself from the cycle
of poverty into which it has been locked for decades," Ndungane said.
He cautioned, however, that "there are still many other countries in
Africa and elsewhere whose people are living in abject poverty, largely
as a result of debts incurred by their governments in the past." He
pleaded for international finance institutions to provide similar relief to
those countries.

Church urges Catholics not to reject gay offspring
      (ENS) The U.S. Catholic bishops recently issued a pastoral letter
imploring parents of gay children not to reject their sons and daughters
even though church doctrine condemns homosexual activity. In the
document, the bishops said that homosexual orientation is not freely
chosen and that parents must love and support their gay children in a
society full of rejection and discrimination. "All in all, it is essential to
recall one basic truth. God loves every person as a unique individual.
Sexual identity helps to define the unique person we are," the bishops
said. "God does not love someone any less simply because he or she is
homosexual." The document, titled "Always Our Children," was
approved by the administrative board of the National Conference of
Catholic Bishops early in September.

First cathedral school girl's choir inaugurated
      Twenty-four young women, all students at the National Cathedral
School for Girls (NCS) in Washington, recently became members of the
first Episcopal cathedral girl's choir associated with a cathedral school in
the U.S. During the October 9 Evensong, the students were
commissioned by Bishop Ronald Haines of Washington and Dean Nathan
Baxter in the great choir of the cathedral. Directed by Bruce Neswick,
who also serves as music director for NCS and St. Albans School, the
girls choir sang for the first time. The choir will sing Thursday
Evensongs throughout the fall and will perform during the Christmas
season. In the fall of 1998, the girl's choir will join the men's choir at
the principal Sunday Eucharist once each month.

Lutheran church closed under new Russian law
      (ENS) The authorities in the Russian Republic of Khakassia
recently revoked the registration of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission of
Khakassia "in accordance with the adoption of the law on freedom of
conscience and religious organization." Under the law, which was
recently signed by Yeltsin, "religious groups" that cannot prove they
have existed in Russia for at least 15 years will have fewer rights than
registered "religious organizations." The Evangelical Lutheran Mission
was registered in June 1996. The Rev. Pavel Zayakin, the mission's
director in Khakassia, argued that Lutheranism has existed in Russia for
more than 400 years. He added that the mission will file a court appeal
against the Khakassian authorities. Supporters of the religion law have
said it is aimed primarily against cults and "totalitarian sects," not "real
religions."

Churches must not be the `lap-dog' of the state, Tutu warns
      (ENI) Desmond Tutu, former Anglican archbishop of Cape Town
and current chairman of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation
Committee, recently warned that churches must not be the "lap-dog" of
the state. He said that churches must always reserve the right to be "in
critical solidarity" with the state. He was speaking at the opening day of
the All Africa Conference of Churches' (AACC) 7th general assembly, in
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Tutu, AACC's president, made his remarks in
reply to the welcoming speech by Ethiopia's president, Dr. Negasso
Gidada. Thanking churches around the world for their past assistance to
Ethiopia, Gidada encouraged Africa's churches to use their moral and
spiritual authority to enhance development and teach toleration and
common understanding. Declaring that the international community was
not doing enough to help Africa eradicate poverty, hunger and disease,
Gidada said the churches were called upon to exert maximum efforts
towards the mobilization of resources from inside and outside Africa.
Tutu praised Gidada's vision, but warned that uncritical cooperation with
the state was a trap for churches. "A church that agrees to be co-opted
into the government system is a lap-dog and is not a church of God," he
said.

Church leader asks UN official to renew Middle East peace efforts
      (ENI) The head of the Armenian Apostolic Church (Oriental
Orthodox) based in Lebanon has called on the United Nations to renew
its efforts to achieve Middle East peace and the full independence of
Lebanon. In a recent meeting with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan,
Catholicos Aram I of Cilicia, Lebanon, emphasized the necessity of
"giving a new push, a new dynamism to the peace process." Aram said
he also called for the UN to address human rights issues "more
seriously." He spoke particularly of the need for self-determination for
the people of Nagorno-Karabagh, a predominantly Muslim region
surrounded by Azerbaijan and populated largely by Armenians. Aram,
who is moderator of the Central Committee of the World Council of
Churches (WCC) in Geneva, also told Annan that the WCC and the UN
should develop a closer working relationship.