wfn.org | NewsBriefs for February 27, 1998

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

February 27, 1998
Episcopal News Service
James Solheim, Director
(212) 922-5385
jsolheim@dfms.org

98-3004
Scriptures now in 2,197 languages
	(ENI) Thirty new translations of parts of the Bible were completed last year, bringing the total number of translations to 2,197, according to the United Bible Societies. The complete Bible is available in 363 languages, leaving a mere 5,637 to go, according to Bible Society estimates. "The biblical charge is to make disciples of all nations-which means ethno-linguistic groups, not necessarily states with politically drawn boundaries," said Fergus MacDonald, UBS general secretary. He reaffirmed a commitment to making Scripture available in a variety of formats, including audio, video and CD-ROM. The UBS currently is involved in 681 additional translation projects, according to the group's annual report.

Spain's Catholics urged to come clean on persecution of Protestants
	(ENI) Spain's minority Protestant churches have called on the Roman Catholic Church to acknowledge the persecution-including murders-of Protestants during the era of "nationalist Catholicism" in Spain. The Federation of Evangelical Religious Entities of Spain (FEREDE) said in a recent statement that simply forgetting about the past would allow prejudice, false information and discrimination towards Protestants to continue. The statement was issued because of a public debate in Spain about links between the Catholic Church and the Spanish dictator, General Francisco Franco, who ruled Spain from the end of the Spanish civil war in1939 until his death in 1975. Protestants suffered severe discrimination during the Franco dictatorship. 

National Cathedral, Warner Brothers settle dispute
	(ENS)  Sculptor Frederick Hart, the Washington National Cathedral and film maker Warner Brothers have settled a dispute involving the alleged use of Hart's sculpture Ex Nihilo in the film "Devil's Advocate," according to a spokesperson for the cathedral. Under the agreement, Warner Brothers denies using Hart's work and regrets any confusion about the origins of the artwork depicted in the film. The parties agreed there is no relationship between the sculpture in the film and Hart's bas-relief sculpture at the cathedral; that the artwork in the film is not intended to depict Hart's work; and that neither Hart nor the cathedral endorses, sponsors or is in any way affiliated with the film. Warner Bros. has agreed to change portions of the film to eliminate any perceived confusion. 

South African church leader warns against cloning plan
(ENI) Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town Njongonkulu Ndungane recently warned a South African doctor who is preparing to clone human beings that scientists should not play God, but should use their skills for the well-being of humanity. Ndungane issued his warning in response to the news that a Johannesburg fertility clinic had the expertise and equipment to replicate genetic material and create human clones and that a prominent fertility specialist was preparing a detailed application to the University of the Witwatersrand's ethics committee for permission to go ahead with the cloning. Ndungane said in a statement released on January 15: "Experiments with issues such as cloning frequently have much to do with individual gratification associated with scientific breakthroughs. Scientists should rather concentrate on breakthroughs that are the most good for the greatest number of people in the world." He noted that many people feared that the biotechnological developments in genet!
ic science in the past two decades would bring negative as well as positive changes, reducing biodiversity, risking harmful mutations and manipulating human destinies. 

Up to 2 million Christians will fast to stop U.S. 'losing its soul'		(ENI) Evangelical leaders in the United States have called on their followers to join in a 40-day fast for national revival starting on March 1. They hope that two million Americans will take part in the fast. The campaign-Pray USA! '98-is sponsored by an interdenominational movement, Mission America, but is mainly an initiative of Bill Bright, famous for founding the Campus Crusade for Christ.  Winner of the 1996 Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, Bright has used the prize of more than $1 million to promote fasting and prayer. Statistics are imprecise, but the conservative evangelical community is often estimated to include up to a quarter of the 264 million people in the United States.  "It is not far-fetched to think that millions will be joining in at least a part of the fast," Bright said. The fast is a response to a severe problem in the United States of moral decadence and turning away from God,!
 Bright explained. "We're losing our soul," he said, adding that fasting had been "overlooked in our generation."

'Cambodia's Gandhi' to receive peace prize
	(ENI) A prominent Cambodian Buddhist leader known as "Cambodia's Gandhi" is to receive a leading international peace award. The Niwano Peace Foundation of Japan in Tokyo announced that Maha Ghosananda, 68, supreme patriarch of Cambodian Buddhism and a well-known Buddhist leader, is to be awarded the 15th annual Niwano Peace Prize of $156,000. About 88 per cent of Cambodia's population of 10.5 million are Buddhist. The Niwano Peace Prize honors individuals and organizations that have contributed significantly to inter-religious cooperation, thereby furthering the cause of world peace. Ghosananda has played a major role in non-violent activities promoting reconciliation among the Cambodian people, offering support to refugees and encouraging the rebuilding of the nation. 

Europe's churches will sign ecumenical charter
 (ENI) Europe's churches-Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Protestant and Anglican-are hoping to sign a "European ecumenical charter" on Easter Sunday in the year 2001 to outline the main tasks for the churches in the new millennium. The announcement-made in Rome on February 23 by Dr Keith Clements, general secretary of the Conference of European Churches-noted that "on the day of Easter in 2001, the great feast of the resurrection of Jesus will be celebrated on the same date in all churches." For the past 400 years, the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant churches have calculated the date of Easter differently than the Orthodox churches. But from time to time the two calendars coincide, as in 2001. One of the issues that the charter will have to address is the question of "proselytism," which is of great concern to Orthodox churches in eastern Europe, which claim that their countries are being invaded by foreign missionaries from the west. Critics claim that a Russian law gives !
privileges to the Russian Orthodox Church and discriminates against other Christian denominations, such as the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches. The leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church reject these claims.

Churches make most of new openness of South Africa's government
	(ENI) South Africa's churches are organizing themselves to ensure that they have influence on the country's parliamentary legislation. Both the South African Council of Churches (SACC) and the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference (SACBC) have set up offices near parliament in Cape Town to liaise with members of parliament, offer input to parliamentary (portfolio) committees and monitor draft legislation. The offices of the SACC and the SACBC, with the Western Province Alliance of Reformed Churches, organized a joint ecumenical service at St Mary's Roman Catholic Cathedral last week to mark the opening of the parliamentary session. Under the previous apartheid regime, the anti-apartheid views of churches that opposed racial injustice received a very cool reception from parliamentarians.  Although the churches generally support President Nelson Mandela's government, there have been a number of differences of opinion between them since Mandela came to power. Parliamenta!
rians mostly welcomed the church involvement in the legislative process. "Before we opened our SACC office in June 1996, the parliamentarians complained: 'During the apartheid struggle the churches were involved, but now that we need them, the churches are quiet,'" they said.

Pope is not welcome in Moscow, Russian church official says
(ENI) Despite Russian President Boris Yeltsin's recent meeting with the Pope during a three-day state visit to Italy, the Russian Orthodox Church firmly rejected any suggestions that the Pope might visit Russia. "I think the president knows that the Russian Orthodox Church has currently a negative attitude to the idea of a papal visit," said Hilarion Alfeyev, the Moscow church official responsible for relations with non-Orthodox churches. The Pope and Yeltsin spoke privately for about an hour at the Vatican, but few details about their discussions were disclosed to the public. Yeltsin's spokesman, Sergei Yasztrzhembsky, said that the two leaders did not specifically discuss a visit by the Pope to Russia. Nor was the possibility of a meeting between the Pope and the Russian Orthodox Church's leader, Patriarch Alexei II, discussed. Several attempts in the past few years to arrange such a meeting have failed. Relations between the Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches were!
 reasonably cordial in the 1960s and 1970s, but became tense soon after Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev met with the Pope in 1989 and lifted the bans on the Greek Catholic, or Uniate, Church in the Ukraine and on the official establishment of the Roman Catholic Church in Russia.
 
  
Kenya's churches call for intervention to prevent disaster
	(ENI) Kenya's church leaders have called for the United States and Britain to bring pressure to bear on the Kenyan government to ensure that the recent tragedies in Rwanda, Burundi and Somalia are not repeated in Kenya. The church leaders' call for outside pressure demonstrates their sense of alarm as Kenya's ethnic, social and economic problems worsen, following the re-election of President Daniel arap Moi's government at the end of last year.  Relations between the Kenyan government and the churches have been tense for several years, but have deteriorated rapidly in the past month. Immediately after the December election, church leaders tried to urge
Kenyans to accept the election results, but their hopes for improvement in Kenya evaporated quickly as ethnic violence broke out last month, resulting in more than 200 deaths. The church leaders said the government was implicated in the tribal violence which, they suggested, was directed against ethnic groups who had supported the opposition parties in the election. The statement described the country's constitutional, ethnic and economic crises, and rebuked the government for its "lack of commitment" to the rule of law and protection of human rights.  Referring to the ethnic violence, the church leaders urged the British and United States governments to bring pressure to bear "to stop these murderous acts." Signatories to the statement included Anglican Archbishop David Gitari and Anglican Bishop Joseph Wesonga.

'If Christ preached today, he would have a helicopter and a credit card'
	(ENI) A credit card company, a bank and a missionary organization in Argentina are launching a credit card for ministers and missionaries. An international credit card company, Visa, Argentina's Mercantile Bank, and the Manantial Missionary Cooperative have signed an agreement to establish the "Visa-Manantial" card. The cooperative will earn a percentage income from the card. The card does not require a sponsor or guarantee, has a credit limit of $1,000 and is intended for pastors, Protestant workers and other church members nominated by pastors. The card is intended to provide credit for pastors and Protestant workers who often cannot get a credit card because they cannot prove their level of income. "There are people who say this is from the devil," said Erin Carneri, a Pentecostal missionary and member of the Manantial Cooperative's
administration council. "However, this is not true. If Christ preached today he would have a helicopter and a credit card, because he would have to preach more quickly. Christians must adapt to modern times."

People

Roger Wilson Blanchard, former bishop of the Diocese of Southern Ohio, died on Tuesday, February 17, after a long illness. He was 88. Blanchard was elected bishop coadjutor of the Diocese of Southern Ohio in 1958 and became diocesan bishop one year later, serving until 1971. In 1970, Presiding Bishop John Hines appointed him vice-president of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church. After retirement in 1974, he served both as an assistant at Trinity Church in Boston and as an assisting bishop in the Diocese of Massachusetts. For the past 18 years, he worked as a volunteer with the prisoners of the Maine State Prison System and their families. A memorial service will take place on Saturday, April 4, at 2 p.m. at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston.

The Rev. Harry R. Bainbridge was elected bishop of Idaho on the second ballot on February 14. He is currently rector of Christ Church, St. Peter's Parish, Easton, Maryland. He received his master of divinity and doctorate in ministry from the School of Theology of the University of the South. Bainbridge's consecration is scheduled for June 6. He succeeds Bishop John Stuart Thornton who is retiring on November 13.

The Rev. James Curry, rector of Trinity Church, Portland, Connecticut, was recently appointed the Diocese of Connecticut's canon to the ordinary by Bishop Clarence Coleridge. The canon to the ordinary is a senior administrator in the diocese and the executive officer to the diocesan bishop. "We have worked together on many occasions and I trust that his particular gifts for ministry and his sensitivities will serve me and our diocese well," Coleridge said. "I hope that his presence on this staff will allow me to spend more time in pastoral outreach and community work." Curry will replace the Rev. Canon Richard Tombaugh, who retired on February 6, 1998. He will begin his new position after Easter.