wfn.org | NewsBriefs

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

September 26, 1997
Episcopal News Service
Jim Solheim, Director
212-922-5385
ens@ecunet.org
97-1964
NewsBriefs                                              

As Moscow celebrates 850 years, the church takes pride of place 
      (ENI) Massive celebrations of the 850th anniversary of the
foundation of Moscow in early September served to remind the Russian
people of the close links between Russian culture and the Orthodox faith.
At all the main celebrations, Patriarch Alexy II, the head of the Russian
Orthodox Church, appeared alongside Russian President Boris Yeltsin
and Moscow's mayor Yuri Luzhkov. The church's Moscow Patriarchate
marked the 850th anniversary as an official religious holiday, and special
services were celebrated in all the city's churches. But even at the main
celebrations--including a concert in Red Square, a high-tech laser show
by French performer Jean-Michel Jarre and the closing ceremony at the
Luzhniki Stadium--Orthodox Christian emblems and symbols dominated,
stressing the inseparability of Russian patriotism and the Orthodox
Christian tradition. On September 3, Alexy, Yeltsin and Luzhkov
officially inaugurated the grounds surrounding the newly reconstructed
Christ the Saviour Cathedral, which now dominates central Moscow. The
exterior of the cathedral, crowned with five onion-shaped golden domes,
is now almost finished. The original cathedral was blown up in 1931 on
Stalin's orders. Alexy began the church's celebration of the anniversary
on September 6, with a liturgy in the Kremlin's Cathedral of Dormition.
The service was dedicated to Metropolitan Peter, the saint who in the
14th century transferred the see of Russian Orthodoxy to Moscow from
the city of Vladimir, thus ensuring Moscow's key role in the history of
Russia.

Palestinian politicians `sound alarm' for Christians in Holy Land 
      (ENI) A top-level delegation of Palestinian Christian politicians
recently told journalists that the Christian community in the Holy Land
could disappear in the next few years. The politicians sharply criticized
the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and said
they wanted churches and church organizations to pressure Israel to
respect the timetable for the Middle East peace process which is due to
be completed before the end of the century. They also promised that
Palestinians, in particular Palestinian Christians, would assume a much
higher international profile in their quest for peace and for land. Afif
Safieh, Palestinian ambassador to the United Kingdom and the Holy See,
along with Bethlehem's mayor, Hanna Nasser, and two members of the
Legislative Council of the Palestinian National Authority, met leading
officials of the World Council of Churches and other church
organizations in Geneva to press their case. "Today you have many more
Christian Palestinians in Chile than you have Christian Palestinians in
Palestine," Safief told journalists at the Ecumenical Center in Geneva.
"In Sydney, Australia, you have many more Christians from Jerusalem
than you have Christians in Jerusalem. That is the very tragic situation of
the Christian community."

Cardinal warns churches not to adopt German church model
      (ENI) A German cardinal recently accused the Roman Catholic
Church in his country of putting institutional interests above spiritual
concerns. The cardinal said that in East Germany the church's work had
been easier under communism than it was under capitalism in the
democratic west. "The German church is more an institution than a Holy
Spirit--it's like a car which has too weak an engine and too large a
body," Cardinal Joachim Meisner of Cologne said. "Unless we can build
a stronger engine, we will have to trim its body if we are to reach the
heavenly Jerusalem. It isn't important what we get there in--a great
Mercedes or a humble Volkswagen." Meisner, who said his church was
being forced by lack of funds to close certain institutions, advised Roman
Catholic communities in Eastern Europe not to "make the German
mistake" of "building more in the institutional sphere than the divine."
Meisner's comments come at a time of soul-searching within Germany's
mainstream churches--both Roman Catholic and Protestant--as they face
financial pressures caused by their nation's economic problems following
German unification in 1990.

Canadian bishops want to eliminate gambling
      (ENS) The Anglican, Lutheran and Roman Catholic bishops in
southern Alberta recently distributed a letter urging members to take
action to eliminate gambling in that province. "We must not sit back and
let the world for which Jesus died self-destruct through excessive
individualism, indifference to others, greed and selfishness," said the
letter, which was signed by Anglican Archbishop Barry Curtis, Roman
Catholic Bishop Paul O'Byrne and Bishop Stephen Kristenson of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. "Governments are less
motivated to enact just tax legislation and policy that accrue to the benefit
of all, when people voluntarily contribute millions to a secondary
taxation system that tends to draw from those least able to contribute,"
they said. "`Winning the lottery' has become our money-oriented
society's new definition of hope."

Anglican Church accuses S. Africa of aiding oppression by arms sales
      (ENI) South Africa's Anglican leaders have rebuked President
Nelson Mandela's government for selling weapons on the international
market and for buying military equipment with money which, the church
leaders say, is badly needed to alleviate poverty and to pay for social
services like health and education. The rebuke was made in a
memorandum presented by Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane of the
Church of the Province of Southern Africa to Professor Kader Asmal, the
chairman of the National Conventional Arms Control Committee. In the
memorandum, the church expressed astonishment that after the apartheid
struggle the South African government was willing to sell arms enabling
foreign leaders to suppress human rights. Asmal's committee was set up
to oversee and control the country's arms trade, and ensure it was
conducted responsibly with respect for human rights. The statement was
made soon after South Africa's Defense Minister, Joe Modise, visited
Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to promote sales of G6 artillery pieces and anti-
aircraft guns from South Africa valued at $1.5 billion. Last year a $600
million deal to sell tank-firing control systems to Syria was cancelled
after international pressure.

Pressure continues for U.S. to act against religious persecution
      (ENI) Republican leaders of the U.S. Congress have promised to
vote later this year for a bill designed to compel the Clinton
administration to take stronger action against religious persecution
overseas. The bill--called the Freedom from Religious Persecution Act--
was introduced to Congress in May by Representative Frank R. Wolf
(R), a Presbyterian from Virginia, and Senator Arlen Specter (R), a Jew
from Pennsylvania. The bill, if approved, would allow the establishment
of a White House Office of Religious Persecution Monitoring, a step
Clinton refused to take last year. The office would be responsible for
determining when governments were inflicting religious persecution or
ignoring persecution within their countries. The office would be expected
to direct immediate attention to religious communities and countries cited
in three previous congressional resolutions: Christians, Tibetan Buddhists
and Bahai's in China, Cuba, Egypt, Indonesia, Laos, Morocco, North
Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Vietnam.

EMM becomes part of Presiding Bishop's Fund
      (ENS) Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM) recently became
part of the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief in a move designed
to "enrich both EMM and the ministry of the fund," according to Bishop
Charlie McNutt, chief operating officer of the Episcopal Church Center.
In a written announcement, McNutt said that "re-establishing the ties
between the fund and refugee ministry will enable EMM to move
forward with recent General Convention resolutions directing EMM to
develop an advocacy agenda for refugees, disenfranchised immigrants
and asylum seekers." According to EMM director Richard Parkins, the
arrangement provides EMM "access to the larger church and thus a
constituency which can join with us in speaking on behalf of refugees and
immigrants at a time when advocacy for our most vulnerable sisters and
brothers is urgently needed." The fund originated out of the needs of
refugees in Europe created by World War II. Over the years, as the
Fund's mission expanded to include emergency relief and development
grants, certain refugee and immigration assistance efforts of the church
were lodged in a specialized program area called EMM.

Two Orthodox leaders to meet for first time since Estonia dispute
      (ENI) The two most important leaders of Orthodox Christianity--
Patriarch Bartholomeos I, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople,
and Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow, are to meet late in September in
Odessa, Ukraine, for the first time since a conflict erupted in 1995
between their two churches over church jurisdiction of Orthodox parishes
in Estonia. The meeting was announced recently by the Moscow
Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church. Some progress is expected
in the near future over the question of jurisdiction in Estonia. The
controversy was partly defused by a compromise allowing parishes to
choose between the patriarchates. Relations between the two patriarchs
became further complicated by failed attempts in June this year to set up
a meeting between them in Austria. Bartholomeos cancelled his visit to
Austria following reports that Pope John Paul II would travel to Austria
to meet Alexy. However, the projected meeting between the Pope and
Alexy subsequently failed to take place because of differences between
Rome and Moscow.

Leading church officer decides to resign in sexual orientation debate
      (ENI) A prominent Australian church minister, Dr. Dorothy
McRae-McMahon, who revealed in July that she is a lesbian, recently
resigned as national director for mission for the Uniting Church in
Australia after strong criticism from conservative parishes and church
groups. McRae-McMahon said she was resigning because her presence in
the senior position might distract the church from its real work. "As a
marginalized person, I'm not prepared to jeopardize work for other
marginalized people by holding to my position," she said. In an open
letter released after the church's National Standing Committee accepted
her resignation on September 1, she said that she would never resign her
ordination, because "it is of God . . . I also cannot fall from my genuine
conviction that I am standing on the prophetic ground of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ," she added. The controversy over ordination of
homosexuals in the Uniting Church intensified with the withdrawal of
funds by the church's biggest parish. A group of evangelical and
charismatic members of the church has also called for the resignation of
homosexual clergy and for the redirection of financial support away from
the church's ruling body. The conservative Wesley Mission, the Sydney
parish that has withdrawn funding from the church, said in a statement
that the call for resignations also was directed at people who did not
adhere to the biblical principles of celibacy for single people and fidelity
in marriage. The Uniting Church is Australia's second-largest Protestant
church.

Southern Africa's Anglicans plan Angolan diocese by year 2000
      (ENI) The Anglican Church of the Province of Southern Africa
(CPSA) is planning to expand its regional work by establishing a new
diocese in war-torn Angola by the turn of the century. A pilgrimage by
CPSA bishops, planned for mid-1999, will formalize the creation of the
24th diocese of the CPSA, a church spokesperson said recently. The
pilgrimage will signal the completion of work which began in 1995 when
the CPSA synod adopted a resolution to create a missionary diocese in
Angola. Bishop Dinis Sengulane of Lebombo in Mozambique has
overseen work in Angola since 1995, a CPSA statement said. In a report
on the work in that country, he said that creating the new diocese was
both a challenge and a privilege. Noting the devastation caused by the
war, the bishop said: "God cannot be smiling as he looks at what human
beings have done to one another and to his creation: graves, ruins,
carcasses, traumas and handicaps caused by the war. But we thank God
that we can restore his smile in Angola for the Angolans."

WCC announces change of date for eighth assembly
      (WCC) The World Council of Churches (WCC) recently changed
the date of its eighth assembly to December 3-14 at the University of
Zimbabwe, Harare. In a letter to member churches, WCC general
secretary Konrad Raiser explained that the WCC was informed on May
29 by the vice-chancellor of the University of Zimbabwe that the
university would not be available for the assembly in September, 1988,
as had been originally planned. Raiser said he was aware the change of
dates may cause difficulties, but said, "We can only ask for your
understanding for this decision which we regret and which was caused by
circumstances beyond the control of the WCC."

Raiser responds to Georgian Orthodox church withdrawal from WCC
      (WCC) Following the decision of the holy synod of the Georgian
Orthodox Church to leave the World Council of Churches (WCC), Dr.
Konrad Raiser, WCC general secretary, recently wrote to his Holiness
Elia II, Catholicos Patriarch of all Georgia. Raiser said the decision is "a
very serious development but it does not represent an exceptional
situation. Similar conflicts have arisen in many other churches
representing the whole spectrum of Christian traditions." He said that the
WCC considers such differences as "an almost natural consequence of
the fact that the ecumenical movement raises questions and poses
challenges for the churches." On May 22, Elia informed Raiser by letter
of the synod's decision, explaining that a "negative attitude towards the
ecumenical movement" had grown up in the Georgian Orthodox Church
and threatened to divide it. Raiser said that the WCC sincerely regrets
"that in some situations--and the Georgian Orthodox Church may not
constitute an exception--legitimate differences of assessment regarding the
ecumenical movement are being so linked with other internal conflicts
that the impression is created as if the ecumenical movement was a cause
of division in the church."

People

Carlson Gerdau, canon to the ordinary of the Diocese of Chicago, was
named assistant to Presiding Bishop-elect Frank Griswold. Griswold
announced his decision in a letter to clergy and lay leaders of the Diocese
of Chicago on July 31. Gerdau has been canon to the ordinary and
director of deployment, ministry development and communications in
Chicago since Griswold succeeded Bishop James Montgomery as
diocesan in September 1987. He was born in New York and graduated
from Harvard University in 1955. At the national level, he has served on
the Church Deployment Board, the Joint Standing Committee for
Planning and Arrangements for General Convention, and the Standing
Commission on the Church in Small Communities. At the General
Convention last July, he was elected a trustee of the Church Pension
Fund. 

David Harvin, a Houston attorney, is the new chair of the board of
trustees of the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest. He is the first lay
person to chair the trustees in the seminary's 45-year history. He joined
the seminary board of trustees in 1996 and served on its long-range
planning committee.

Fred Osborn, director of development programs for the Episcopal Church
Foundation, recently resigned from his position to serve as development
director for the New York State regional office of the Nature
Conservancy. Osborn was with the foundation for 11 years.

Ann Gordon retired from her position as executive director of the
National Association of Episcopal Schools on September 1. She served in
that post for 14 years.