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99-135

News Briefs

Women's book of prayers draws 1,500 submissions

     (ENS) Clearly moved by the response to its request for 
contributions to a Episcopal women's book of prayers, the 
project's editorial board began work in early September on the 
final manuscript of the book, which will make its debut at next 
summer's General Convention.

     Nearly 1,500 prayers, poems, meditations and pieces of 
liturgy were submitted, reflecting the diversity--and the 
commonalties--of women's experience throughout the church.

     "We have been reading wonderful prayers," said Marge Burke, 
chair of the church's Commission on the Status of Women and a 
member of the book's editorial board. "They come from the heart."

     The group has received reflections and prayers on 
friendship, grief, children, love, aging and many more subjects. 
They range from intimate prayers, to be shared with one person at 
a time, to corporate prayers, including litanies for use in 
church services.

     The book, to be published by Morehouse, is the result of a 
discussion last winter during a meeting of presidents and chairs 
of Episcopal women's organizations. Money received from the sale 
of the book will be given to the Episcopal Women's Foundation for 
its programs and projects that address the issue of violence 
against women and girls.

     

Ecumenical charter hoping to reduce tensions

     (ENI) Europe's churches are being asked to agree to an 
"Ecumenical Charter" to help improve relationships among 
denominations and boost ecumenical work in Europe.

     Copies of a draft of the charter have been sent this month 
to all member churches of the Conference of European Churches 
(CEC) - which represents more than 120 Orthodox, Anglican and 
mainstream Protestant churches - and to national Roman Catholic 
bishops' conferences across Europe. The charter is intended to 
deal with issues such as "proselytism" (the poaching of church 
members by other denominations), the link between religious 
identity and national or ethnic identity, and what some observers 
believe is a growing gap between eastern and western Europe.

     The draft charter, which has been drawn up by 
representatives of CEC and of the Council of European (Roman 
Catholic) Bishops' Conferences (CCEE), states that "until we 
reach the goal of full church communion, we intend to act 
together in all matters in which no deep differences compel us to 
act separately," a principle which "shall be valid for all levels 
of the life of the churches in Europe."

     The commitments that churches are being asked to make 
include:

*to promote the "unity of Europe in all its cultural, ethnic 
 and religious diversity;"

*to promote democratic processes in Europe and social 
justice among all peoples;

*to ban every form of nationalistic exclusivity and 
marginalization, when love of one's own country leads to 
oppression of other peoples or of national minorities;

*not to induce people to change their church membership 
and never to use physical force, moral constraint, psychological 
pressure or material incentives to motivate people to conversion;

*in cases of controversy, especially with regard to ethical 
questions which threaten to split the ecumenical fellowship, to 
continue their dialogue together;

*to strengthen cooperation between CEC and the CCEE;

*to defend the rights of minorities and help to reduce 
misunderstanding and prejudice.

     Churches have been asked to respond to the text by September 
2000 so that a final version can be presented shortly after 
Easter 2001 at an Ecumenical Encounter of European churches.

Ndungane tells South Africa to cancel $5 billion purchase 

     (ENI) The Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Njongonkulu 
Ndungane, has called on the South African Cabinet to cancel plans 
to buy military equipment worth a reported $5 billion.

     It is not the first time that Ndungane has clashed with the 
government over its military budget. He told Deutsche Presse 
Agentur last year that as millions of South Africans continued to 
seek out a miserable existence and as there was no enemy on the 
horizon, money spent on military hardware should be diverted to 
housing construction, education and job creation. All of these 
areas of government spending are suffering badly. The government 
maintains it does not have money to fund them adequately.

     Details of the latest arms spending were revealed in South 
Africa's Sunday Times newspaper late last month. It quoted an 
anonymous report circulated in Parliament which claimed that $1 
billion would be wasted if the Navy went ahead with its plan to 
buy new ships and submarines. The government had planned to buy 
small naval escort vessels but had been sold larger and more 
expensive vessels, the report claimed.

     In a statement released on August 23, Ndungane asked the 
Cabinet to halt the military's equipment acquisition program 
until a "national consensus has been reached on these issues." He 
endorsed suggestions "of a full and public judicial investigation 
into the weapons acquisition."

     Civil society owed a debt of gratitude to the Sunday Times 
newspaper, the archbishop said, for drawing attention to a 
document which claimed "major incompetence" in the procurement 
program.

     News of the massive military spending is particularly 
embarrassing for the government as it comes after reports of 
endemic poverty in South Africa. It is estimated that 25 per cent 
of the population lives on less than the equivalent of $1 a day. 
A Poverty Index Report prepared for President Thabo Mbeki shows 
that 19 million of the population of 43 million people remain 
trapped in poverty, surviving on a household expenditure of $58 
per adult per month.

     South Africa is second only to Brazil in the size of the gap 
between rich and poor, according to one newspaper report.

     Despite the political transformation since the collapse of 
apartheid in 1994, about 61 percent of blacks are estimated to be 
poor. Even the most conservative estimates claim that 30 percent 
of the country's economically active population is unemployed. 
(In one town, Grahamstown, in the second most economically 
depressed province, the Eastern Cape, it is believed that one in 
two economically active people are jobless.)

     Supporters of the latest defense force spending - the 
shopping list includes fighter aircraft, submarines and marine 
patrol vessels - claim that the military needs to upgrade 
outdated and run-down equipment.

Vatican bars priest and nun from ministering to homosexuals

     (ENI) A Vatican decision to bar an American priest and nun 
from continuing their ministry to Catholic gays and lesbians and 
their families has sparked protests from a number of Catholic 
organizations in the U.S. and the United Kingdom.

     Pax Christi, a leading Catholic peace organization, has 
called on the United States National Conference of Catholic 
Bishops to appeal against the ban on Father Robert Nugent and 
Sister Jeannine Gramick. Two board members of the National 
Coalition of American Nuns (NCAN) have called for the resignation 
of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who heads the Vatican Congregation 
for the Doctrine of the Faith (DCF), which issued the July 13 
declaration.

     In a statement, Dignity/USA's president, Robert Miailovich, 
said, "That the Vatican, through the CDF, would seek to prohibit 
the pastoral work of Sister Gramick and Father Nugent runs 
counter to the church's clear teaching that homosexual people are 
the 'beloved creation of God,'"

     The declaration said the two had not sufficiently condemned 
homosexuality as "intrinsically evil" and that their ministry had 
caused confusion within the church, resulting in "erroneous and 
dangerous" teaching.

     Gramick said of the action against her and Nugent that the 
Vatican had acted as "prosecutor, jury, and judge in the same 
case." While neither had publicly challenged church teaching that 
homosexual activity was objectively immoral, they had based their 
ministry on the other aspect of church teaching - that gays and 
lesbians should be treated with "respect, compassion and 
sensitivity."

     Nugent said he thought it was possible that the U.S. 
Catholic bishops might try to appeal the decision. Over the 
years, he and Gramick had given workshops in nearly all of the 
180 Catholic dioceses in the US. Only about five per cent of 
bishops had forbidden such workshops, another five per cent had 
actively supported them, and the remaining 90 per cent had been 
neutral, but at least had allowed the workshops to take place, 
Nugent said. 

     "A lot of them would support us quietly," he added.

     The Leadership Conference of Women Religious said in a 
statement about the Vatican's decision: "Sister Gramick and 
Father Nugent, in the course of their long ministry, have 
consistently affirmed the essential dignity of each human being, 
and have worked to change attitudes that, unchecked, have led to 
derision and physical violence against lesbian and gay people. We 
regret the suffering and sense of alienation experienced now by 
those who have found ministry a reflection of God's love for them 
in the ministry of Sister Gramick and Father Nugent."

^From jail two Nigerian women gain support of English parish

     (ENI) A Church of England clergyman, David Gosling, is a 
mercy trip to Thailand in October in a bid to win the release of 
two Nigerian women who have been in jail for almost a decade for 
smuggling drugs. 

     According to a report, Gosling, a professor at the 
University of Cambridge, became aware of the plight of the women, 
Philomena Balogun and Cordelia Edinbus, several years ago when he 
made pastoral visits to Klong Prem Prison near Bangkok. The two 
women were arrested at Bangkok Airport in 1990 trying to smuggle 
heroin back to Nigeria. Their supplier had himself allegedly 
notified the narcotics police about the women in order to claim a 
reward for apprehension of drug smugglers.

     The women have been receiving assistance from Gosling's 
former parish of Dry Drayton near Cambridge. Gosling hopes to 
"nudge the system" on the women's behalf, and believes the King 
of Thailand's birthday in December, together with attention to 
the millennium, may create an environment for winning the release 
of the women from the rest of their 25-year sentences. A 
Colombian woman who was also in prison with the women has already 
been freed. 

      "Philomena and Cordelia are prisoners without immediate 
support because there is no Nigerian embassy in Thailand," he 
explained. "Both women were pregnant when they were arrested, and 
the children were born in prison. (The children were later 
returned to Nigeria where they are being raised by their 
grandparents.) 

     Asked whether convicted drug smugglers deserved to be 
supported, Gosling said: "Comparing crimes is not the starting 
point. Prisoners remain human beings and need support. There are 
no clear-cut, evangelical answers. It's the total picture."

WISE women call for greater role in British and Irish churches

     (ENI) An interdenominational women's synod has written to 
the heads of the churches in Britain and Ireland calling for 
women to be allowed half the places "on all decision-making 
committees and commissions."

     More than 150 women met in Liverpool, in northern England, 
from July 24 to 28 for the first women's synod in the two 
countries. The WISE - from Wales, Ireland, Scotland and England - 
church women also seek the ordination of women priests in the 
Roman Catholic Church and of women bishops in the Anglican 
churches of Britain and Ireland. 

     The letter to the church leaders urged them to "move from an 
ethos of obedience [for women] to an ethos of justice so as to 
challenge violence against women, sexism, racism and homophobia 
in our churches and exploitative market-driven values in 
society."

     Although the synod was not an official meeting of the 
churches (participants were not official delegates from their 
churches), it was acknowledged by the main ecumenical 
organization in the region, Churches Together in Britain and 
Ireland (CTBI), whose official for gender issues, Jean Mayland, 
attended the event.

     Mayland believed the synod had been particularly valuable 
for Roman Catholics because it was their "only voice" since the 
Catholic Church does not hold such synods.

     In an interview Myra Poole, a Roman Catholic nun and 
spokeswoman for the synod, said, "Women have no space in the 
Catholic Church, so we are taking this as an alternative. It is 
our public voice."

     Supporting the synod's call to move away from "an ethos of 
obedience," she said the issue was between "human obedience and 
obedience to the Holy Spirit." She contended there was "a deep 
contradiction" between the church's claims of authority and what 
she said was the Vatican II position that ultimately individuals 
must follow their own conscience. "We want to be part of the 
process of resolving the contradiction." Poole pointed out that 
the synod represented the "free voice" of women from all the 
churches because they were not delegates.

     Proposals to the church leaders also include:

 *the use of inclusive language in services and church 
documents;

*listening to women's theology;

*giving priority to the concerns of women, who "are the 
active majority within the church";

*establishing accountable and transparent structures 
and decision-making processes in the churches;

*discerning and using all the gifts of women "which can 
enrich the Christian community and further the mission of 
the church."

     The letter urged the creation of "a women's desk, or 
equivalent, in those churches which do not yet have such a post."

     The WISE women's synod followed similar events in other 
European countries, which were inspired by the first European 
Women's Synod in 1996. The organizers hope to arrange another 
synod in Britain or Ireland within two years.

Spyridon resigns as head of Greek Orthodox Church in U.S.

     (ENI) Archbishop Spyridon, of the Greek Orthodox Church of 
America, who has been facing growing criticism of his leadership 
for more than a year, has resigned.

     Spyridon made his announcement August 19, saying that he had 
submitted his resignation "effective August 30" to Ecumenical 
Patriarch Bartholomeos I, based in Istanbul, under whose 
jurisdiction the Greek Orthodox Church of America falls.

     The Ecumenical Patriarchate moved swiftly to appoint 
Metropolitan Demetrios of Vresthena, Greece, as new leader of the 
U.S. church. 

     In his announcement, Spyridon said that he was resigning 
"for reasons totally independent of and unrelated to my personal 
intentions," a sign, according to some observers, that the 
archbishop did not step down voluntarily.

     When he was appointed in 1996 to succeed Archbishop Iakovos, 
who had been primate for 37 years, Spyridon's appointment was 
generally welcomed in the United States as he was the first 
American-born leader of the Greek Orthodox Church. However, 
within a short period of time, criticisms were made that he had 
spent too much time in Europe and not enough on developing his 
pastoral skills in the U.S.

     There has been media speculation in Greece that the 
Ecumenical Patriarch might name Spyridon as his representative to 
the World Council of Churches in Geneva.

     But the Ecumenical Patriarchate has only said that Spyridon 
had been transferred to other church duties and would be 
"appointed to another service in the future by the Ecumenical 
Patriarchate."

     In his resignation statement, Archbishop Spyridon strongly 
defended his leadership of the church, saying that he had opened 
"the windows of the financial operations of the archdiocese with 
unparalleled accountability and candor" and had strengthened the 
communication of the  church through the Internet, an expanded 
press office and a "revitalized" publications effort.

     He said that he was extending his "heartfelt archpastoral 
forgiveness" to "those few of every grade who during these past 
three years have opposed this vital mission of the church and 
have spared little ordnance in an attack of words that has done 
far more damage to our Greek Orthodox family than it has to those 
entrusted with its leadership."

     He said that he hoped his critics would be able to imagine a 
future in which "words will cease to be weapons and become icons 
of the living word of God."

Asian theologians told, free beliefs from Western tradition

     (ENI) In the face of globalization, Roman Catholic, 
Protestant and Orthodox theologians from Asia have called for a 
radical new understanding of Christian mission.

     According to an official message issued by the Second 
Congress of Asian Theologians (CATS II), held in Bangalore 
earlier August, Christian mission needs to promote "dialogue and 
mutual conversion in the context of religious and cultural 
pluralism" as well as "resistance against the forces of 
oppression, exploitation and violence."

     Globalization was one of the main issues debated at the 
congress, which gathered more than 100 theologians from 15 
countries, with the theme "Celebrating Life in Asia."

     In recent years, Asia has witnessed at first hand the 
dramatic consequences of the globalization of economic and 
financial markets. Since mid-1997, the region has been plunged 
into financial turmoil, resulting in bankruptcies, massive 
unemployment, and a steep rise in prices of consumer goods.

     Governments have responded with cuts in social-sector 
payments. The people hardest hit have been women and children.

     In a keynote address, Johannes Baptista Banawirtna, an 
Indonesian Jesuit priest, told the gathering that globalization 
was not a "neutral phenomenon." Rather, he said, it was "pregnant 
with ambiguity, with unfair competition and unjust relationship."

     But he also warned that often religion, "instead of 
defending the poor, becomes part of the hegemony of power." 
Citing his own country's experience, which in recent months has 
seen an upsurge in inter-religious and inter-ethnic tension, he 
said that religion and ethnicity were easily manipulated by 
political and economic powers that pitted groups against each 
other.

     In this situation, Christianity should seek resources in 
contextual and liberation theologies as well as in the interfaith 
movement, he recommended.

     According to Philip Wickeri, an American theologian, 
missionary and expert on religion in China, the era of 
globalization calls for a new style of mission. He paid tribute 
to the "living theologies" of Asian Christians which were 
oriented towards Christian practice and life in specific contexts 
and "are not particularly concerned with academic responsibility 
or the articulation of normative Christian dogma." He stressed 
that "we must begin to understand mission from below, not from 
above."

     A Japanese theologian, Koichi Kimura, suggested that Asian 
spiritual values could confront the "idolatry" of the market and 
liberal democracy that characterized globalization, and 
contribute to the search for new global ethics and for 
spirituality, "the ethical womb" in which a global community of 
freedom and life could be formed.

     Participants at the congress also said that Asian theology 
should develop in new directions, free of traditional European 
influence.

Albania's Christians forge bridge across Balkans conflict

     (ENI) By reaching out to help Muslim victims of the Kosovo 
crisis, Albanian Christians have forged bonds of friendship and 
respect that may eventually contribute to peace and 
reconciliation in the troubled Balkans region, according to 
Archbishop Anastasios, the leader of the Orthodox Autocephalous 
Church of Albania.

     "The Orthodox Church in Albania was in special difficulty 
when the crisis [over Kosovo] started," Anastasios, said during 
an interview at the meeting of the World Council of Churches 
Central Committee meeting in Geneva. 

     "The Kosovars were blaming the Serbian Orthodox for their 
suffering and were asking what would be the position of the 
Orthodox in Albania," he said. "We were tempted to stay on the 
sideline in prayer, but then, that would not be authentic, since 
we are obliged to see in the faces of the suffering people the 
face of Christ."

     Now, Anastasios said, "many Kosovars who were formerly 
suspicious of us stop in our churches to give prayers of thanks 
on their way back to their homes."

     The Albanian church plans to send teams of relief workers 
into Kosovo to continue the aid to old and new refugees. This 
outreach of Orthodox Christians to Muslim victims of a 
devastating conflict crisis had roots reaching back to the end of 
the communist regime in 1991, Anastasios said.

     "After the coming of democracy, all the religious 
communities - two Christian, Orthodox and Roman Catholic, and two 
Muslim, Sunni and Bektashi - worked together to establish a 
climate of understanding and collaboration," he said. "Even those 
outside religion are still our brothers and sisters, and this 
made us more able to act in the crisis."

     Relief efforts by the Orthodox Autocephalous Church of 
Albania began late in 1998 when Kosovar refugees began trickling 
over the border into Albania. "Our assistance to the first 7500 
refugees between October and the end of the year gave us the 
experience and confidence that we could help," Anastasios said.

     So when the trickle turned into a flood, the church started 
a program, Diaconia Agapes (Service of Love), in conjunction with 
Action by Churches Together (ACT), a joint relief agency of the 
World Council of Churches and the Lutheran World Federation.

     The real tragedy of the Kosovo crisis, Anastasios said, "is 
the cultivation of hate that has been sown in the Balkans." To 
short-circuit the cycle of violence that had engulfed the region 
"will require much patience and the power of God for 
reconciliation," he said. "The only chance is to persuade the 
Balkan people to live together and to become fully integrated 
with the rest of Europe. The Balkan people have been together 
before - during the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman periods - so why 
can't they be together in the democratic period as well?"

     He insisted that religious leaders in Albania - Christian 
and Muslim - were committed to the effort. "Religious leaders 
must be faithful and bold, both Muslims and Christians believe 
this," Anastasios said. "This is not easy, but who said the easy 
things are the best?"

Brazil's Catholics lament death of 'voice of the voiceless'

     (ENI) On August 28 thousands of people carrying white flags 
and handkerchiefs joined the funeral procession, travelling from 
Recife to Olinda, of one of Brazil's most controversial 
clergymen, Dom Helder Camara.

     Former archbishop of Olinda and Recife, the Brazilian 
clergyman - branded the "Red Bishop" by his critics - once summed 
up his own life with the words, now famous: "When I give food to 
the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no 
food, they call me a communist."

     His death on August 27 brought a flood of tributes from 
church and political leaders and obituary-writers in the world's 
press. 

     In Paris a leading newspaper, Le Monde, described him as 
"the voice of the voiceless." In London The Times said that 
Camara "became a religious mouthpiece for the Third World in 
general."

     The World Council of Churches' general secretary, Konrad 
Raiser, expressed deep sadness over the death of the archbishop.

     Camara was a tireless advocate for the poor against the 
excesses of capitalism, once asking when the laws preventing 
cruelty to animals would be extended to cover human beings.

     He was repeatedly pressed by his political allies to assume 
major political roles, including, according to The Times, the 
post of Mayor of Rio, but he declined.

     But in 1964, he was made Archbishop of Olinda and Recife, 
which put him in the political spotlight simultaneously with a 
military coup in Brazil.

     Camara's words, his links with liberation theology, and his 
willingness to speak out and condemn injustice, particularly in 
Brazil, made him controversial.

     But, even though he was labeled by critics as "subversive" 
and "communist," he espoused non-violence. According to Le Monde, 
his stance was based not only on the New Testament but on the 
fact that, for him, it was "the only realistic political 
approach."

     Relations between Camara and the Vatican were often 
difficult. Once asked what his first action would be if he were 
elected as pope, he replied: "I would close down the nuncios' 
offices," referring to the Vatican's diplomatic missions which 
report to Rome from around the world about the activities of the 
local Catholic Church. At the same time, according to the BBC, 
"Helder Camara always described himself as loyal to Rome, and 
maintained a traditional attitude towards liturgy and clerical 
dress."

     In 1997, during a visit to Brazil, Pope John Paul II warmly 
embraced Camara in public, kissing the diminutive archbishop's 
bald head. The symbolic gesture was warmly welcomed by the 
millions of people, Catholic and non-Catholic, around the world 
who admired this hero of the poor.

New program at Seminary of the Southwest

     (ENS) Sunday school and youth groups should be a place where 
children and youth are formed as disciples for life. The new 
Certificates in Youth Ministry and Christian Education program at 
the Seminary of the Southwest promises to increase that 
likelihood.

     The program will begin offering professional certification 
and theological education for youth ministers and directors of 
religious education next summer. Seminary faculty will teach 
classes in scripture, theology and practical skills for ministry 
during the program's inaugural one-week session next June. 
Persons who then complete the program's second session in January 
2001 will be awarded the Basic Certificate. Associate and 
Advanced certificates will be available in following years 
following the same June and January course pattern.

     "Most youth ministers and directors of religious education 
learn their ministries by trial and error. That usually means 
they fail a lot, become very discouraged and burnout. It's also a 
poor use of parish resources," said Molly Bennett, director of 
the certificates program at ETSS.

     "We offer a short cut to successful parish ministry. It 
provides a solid foundation of skills training and theological 
education at a very reasonable cost with a minimum of time 
commitment," said Bennett.

     The program's one-week sessions will be held at Camp Allen, 
the Diocese of Texas conference center northwest of Houston 
(www.campallen.org). Courses for the June 25-July 1, 2000 session 
are Scripture, Faith Development and Family Systems, Leadership 
and Working with Volunteers, the Influence of Culture and 
Society, and Learning Styles and Bible for Children. Theological 
reflection groups will meet nightly, in addition to daily 
worship. January 2001 courses include Christian Theology I (God, 
Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit), Theories and Approaches to 
Christian Education and Youth Ministry, Basic Christian Ethics 
and the Ethics of Ministry, and Resources and Curriculums for 
Ministry. The program has no educational prerequisites.

     The cost for both sessions is $1,000. This includes ETSS 
tuition, accommodations for six nights per session at Camp Allen, 
registration and all meals for both June and January sessions.

     Brochures detailing the certificates program are being sent 
to all parishes in Province 7. For more information, contact 
Bennett mbennett@etss.edu or call 512-472-4133, ext. 340.