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Episcopal News Service
Kathryn McCormick
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99-149

News Briefs

Priest at center of heresy controversy resigns his parish

     (ENS) The Rev. Barry Stopfel, whose ordination to the 
diaconate as an openly gay man living in a relationship 
precipitated a heresy trial, has resigned from his parish.

     While calling his 10 years in ministry, the last six at a 
thriving New Jersey parish, "deeply gratifying but very 
stressful," he said that it had strained his relationship with 
his partner, the Rev. Will Leckie. The couple has moved to a farm 
and orchard in the Amish countryside in Pennsylvania.

     Stopfel said that he will write a new book, following a 
previous book he and Leckie wrote, "Courage to Love." This one 
will deal with the spiritual quest of people who have been 
disenchanted with organized religion.

     Parishioners at St. George's Church in Maplewood expressed 
disappointment and sadness but some said that they had welcomed 
homosexuals before Stopfel became their rector and would continue 
to do so in the future. One long-time member admitted that there 
were some difficult moments. "The church pulled together and was 
supportive of Barry and gay rights," said Tilly-Jo Emerson. "Yet 
we paid a price from constantly having to respond to the ugliness 
out there," she told a local reporter.

     Stopfel said that the parish had a reputation for welcoming 
everyone. "Among gays and non-gays St. George's has become an 
icon, representing the circle of God's love that includes 
everyone."

     Stopfel was ordained a deacon by Bishop Walter Righter, who 
was then accused of heresy and the charges went to the court for 
the trial of a bishop. The court decided that the ordination did 
not violate any core doctrine of the church.

     Some of the trauma from the trial still lingers, Stopfel 
said in a press interview. "For queers, hate is a day-to-day 
business," he said. "It is more hurtful when it comes from an 
institution that is supposed to represent God's love."

     He said that he reached his decision after a short sabbatical 
at his farm, finally coming to grips with the toll on his "psyche 
and spirit." He told the Newark Star-Ledger, "Will and I lived 
our relationship publicly from the very beginning, which is 
something a rector and spouse do without all the media. 
I felt it was time to not live so much in public."

     Stopfel said that he might explore some other ways of 
ministering outside of the traditional parish--perhaps reaching 
out to those who have left the church because of its inability to 
handle their concerns and questions on a whole range of spiritual 
and social issues. "I want to start an independent ministry for 
people with serious questions, who want to find a spiritual 
path," he told a reporter. "I believe the Episcopal Church has 
the elasticity to do that."

Cape Town will host century's last great inter-faith event 

     (ENI) Table Mountain, in Cape Town, South Africa, will be 
the gathering place, from December 1 to 8, for nearly 8,000 
spiritual and religious leaders from around the world who will 
participate in the Parliament of the World's Religions.

     According to the organizers, the Chicago-based Council for a 
Parliament of World Religions (CPWR), the gathering will be more 
than a scholarly inter-religious dialogue, it will also be a 
celebration and joyful sharing of different faiths by salt-of-
the-earth, grass-roots believers. It would offer "countless 
opportunities for discovery and inquiry, enabling participants to 
meet their own and others' traditions at deeper levels. 
Participants will encounter others whose practice, work and 
commitment can enrich their own."

     Among the many religious leaders expected to attend are: the 
Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists world-wide; 
Dr. Abdullah Omar Nasseef of Saudi Arabia, president of the World 
Muslim Congress; Sir Sigmund Sternberg of London, from the 
International Conference of Christians and Jews; Maha Ghosananda, 
Supreme Patriarch of Cambodia Buddhism; Master Hsying Yun of 
Taiwan, founder of the Fo Kuang Shan Buddhist Order; Christian 
theologian Hans Kung from Germany, principal author of the 1993 
Parliament document, Towards a Global Ethic: An Initial 
Declaration; renowned Hindu leader Swami Chidananda of India; and 
Christian feminist theologian Chung Hyun Kyung of South Korea.

     Jane Kennedy, of CPWR in Cape Town, denied that this 
conglomeration of divergent beliefs would lead to syncretism. She 
also said the event would not only bring together theologians and 
academics, but also lay people. "We want to honor and fall in 
love with our differences, and see God in our differences. We 
will have a wide cross-section in Cape Town, so that the inter-

faith gathering becomes a celebration of our diversity instead of a 
leveling out of our beliefs, a celebration instead of a fear of 
our differences."

     The themes of the 1999 Parliament are "Encountering Religion 
and Spirituality," "Making Connections," "Calling for Creative 
Engagements" and "Offering Gifts of Service."

Greek Orthodox Church in U.S. has new leader

     (ENI) Archbishop Demetrios was enthroned on September 18, in 
a ceremony in New York, as the new leader of the Greek Orthodox 
Church of America.

     Addressing an audience of more than 1,000 people, which 
included Hillary Rodham Clinton, leading New York political 
figures and heads of other U.S. churches, at the Cathedral of the 
Holy Trinity in Manhattan, Demetrios called on the Orthodox 
church in the United States to move beyond recent differences and 
controversies.

     "Without fear or hesitation, we are invited, beloved 
brothers and sisters, to set aside any differences, 
misunderstanding or conflict that could create differences among 
us, distances that shake the unity and drive away the peace of 
God," he said.

     Demetrios, former Metropolitan of Vresthena in Greece, has 
strong ties to the U.S., including teaching experience at Harvard 
University and at a Greek Orthodox seminary in the U.S. He was 
named in August to succeed Archbishop Spyridon, who had resigned 
earlier in the month, after a three-year tenure that was fraught 
with controversy over his time spent in Europe and not on 
developing his pastoral skills in the U.S.

     According to reports, the controversy grew so bitter that 
some lay people talked openly of the establishment of a Greek 
Orthodox church in the U.S., independent of the Ecumenical 
Patriarchate of Constantinople, to which the archdiocese belongs.

     Greek Orthodox American Leaders (GOAL), the lay group that 
led opposition to Spyridon, declared that the "crisis of 
governance" within the church had been resolved and that GOAL was 
now being disbanded, its goals "miraculously accomplished."

     In a statement, GOAL's leaders said they were confident that 
Demetrios would, among other things, "exercise ecclesial 
authority properly" and "enhance our Orthodox witness in 
America." "We feel confident that he will be a good and faithful 
steward of our archdiocese."

     Archbishop Iakovos, Spyridon's predecessor, who led the 
archdiocese for more than three decades before retiring, 
participated in the enthronement ceremony by passing Demetrios 
the gold staff that symbolizes his authority as archbishop.

Monks fear tourists will be tempted to site where Jesus withstood 
Satan

     (ENI) To the dismay of monks at the Greek Orthodox Monastery 
of Temptation, the site that according to ancient Christian 
history Jesus resisted the temptation of Satan is about to become 
a major tourist attraction.

     According to a report, for $8 a cable car, able to transport 
625 visitors a hour, will travel five minutes to a point 
alongside the monks' sanctuary, which overlooks the entire 
Jericho area. The developers hope that pilgrims will prefer this 
fast option to the walking path, which takes about 30 minutes. 
And unlike Jesus, who, according to the gospels of Mark (1: 13), 
Matthew (4: 1-11) and Luke (4: 1-13) fasted for 40 days before or 
during the encounter with the Devil, visitors will be able to 
feast in two restaurants serving Arab-French cuisine. One 
restaurant is at the base of the mountain and the other is built 
into the side of the mountain, adjacent to a series of ancient 
caves, where Christian hermits lived from the 12th to the 14th 
centuries.

     The monastery's three resident monks remain hospitable, but 
feel increasingly under siege as they prepare for a record number 
of tourists.

     Ahillios, one of the monks, said that putting in the cable 
car meant that everything would change. "It is good for the 
Palestinian economy, but we must keep the holy places. A 
monastery is a monastery," he said, adding that the emphasis on 
monastic life was at risk. "I don't want to say more about this."

     For many years the monks have been serving refreshments to 
handfuls of grateful pilgrims who have made the trek, often in 
the searing heat of summer. But if the cable car operates at full 
capacity, the monks will be receiving countless more visitors.

     Tourists will also be able to stay overnight at a three-star 
hotel, next to the base station of the cable car, and buy 
handicrafts from a series of souvenir shops.

     The owners, the Snukeret family of Hebron, have put about 
$10 million into the project. One monk, who has lived at the 
monastery for 15 years, told the family that if Jesus had climbed 
the mountain path 2000 years ago, then tourists could do the 
same.

     Ziegfreid Reidmann, a German Lutheran pilgrim to the mount, 
said that the development would be welcomed by visitors who now 
had easier access to the site. But, he added, it would also 
shatter quiet contemplation for resident monks. The whole 
development in the future will go in the direction of Disneyland 
and tourist attractions, and so it goes further away from the 
original story, as it happened to Jesus," he said.

Old Catholic Church ordains first Dutch woman priest

     (ENI) The Netherlands' first woman priest was ordained on 
September 18. Grete Verhey-de Jager, was ordained in the Old 
Catholic Church of Utrecht by Archbishop Antonius-Jan Glazemaker.

     "With women in office, I hope that there will be more 
integrity in the church, and also that ordinary churchgoers will 
relate more easily to the priest," said Verhey.

     A report stated that Verhey's decision to seek ordination 
had not been her own. "The idea came from the people with whom I 
work daily," she said. Before being ordained, Verhey worked for 
the church in two small villages, Oudewater and Schoonhoven, and 
visited people in a local hospital.

     The Old Catholic Church still has a special relationship 
with the Roman Catholic Church from which it broke away in the 
18th century, and there is still partial recognition by the 
Vatican of the ordained clergy of the Old Catholic Church. 
However, Verhey said she expected the Vatican to declare her 
ordination invalid.

     In an interview, she agreed that her ordination could be a 
new obstacle to relations between her church and the Roman 
Catholic Church. But she added, "What is the aim of ecumenism? If 
you want to unite with the Roman Catholic Church, you may as well 
stop most ecumenical activities. If your aim is to learn from 
each other's traditions, to enrich each other and to work 
together on special occasions, then why would my ordination be an 
obstacle?"

     Nonetheless, she has no ambitions to become a bishop. "My 
strength and my biggest interest at this moment are pastoral 
work," Verhey said.

     As recently as 1976 the International Bishops' Conference 
(IBC) - uniting the leaders of the world's Old Catholic churches 
- declared that the priesthood would not be opened to women. But 
in 1982 the IBC decided that women could become deacons, the 
first step on the way to priestly ordination. Then the Old 
Catholic Church in Germany ordained women priests, followed by 
the Old Catholic churches in Austria and Switzerland.

U.S. Conference of WCC will focus on reconciliation

     (WCC) One year after the World Council of Churches' (WCC) 
Eighth Assembly in Harare, Zimbabwe, the WCC's United States 
Conference will meet in Atlanta, Georgia, December 9 to 11 to 
weigh the Assembly's impact on the life and witness of U.S. 
churches.

     Archbishop Desmond Tutu, in residence at Emory University in 
Atlanta, Professor Miroslav Volf of Yale Divinity School, and Dr. 
Marion Best, Canadian church leader, will either make 
presentations or lead discussions on the theme, "Reconciled in 
Christ: The Churches' Ministry of Reconciliation."

     Konrad Raiser, WCC general secretary, will address the 
conference on the reconciling role of churches in a turbulent 
world and U.S. Conference board members, church leaders and WCC 
staff from Geneva, Switzerland, will lead workshops on the theme.

     Highlights of the program will include the installation of 
the Rev. Kathryn Bannister, one of eight presidents of the WCC, 
as moderator of the U.S. Conference. Conferees will also visit 
the crypt of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who was slated to 
address the Council's 1968 Assembly in Uppsala, Sweden, before he 
was assassinated.

     For additional information contact: Philip E. Jenks, 
Communications Officer, U.S. Office, WCC 212-870-3193; Fax: 212-
870-2528, E-Mail: WorldCoun@mail.wcc-coe.org

Argentina Protestants demand same rights as Catholics

     (ENI) More than 200,000 Protestants took part in a march in 
Argentina on September 11 to urge the national government to pass 
a new law giving equal legal status to all denominations.

     Currently, Protestant churches and non-Christian religious 
organizations are not officially recognized by the state. The 
only religious body with official status and the right to receive 
financial support from the government is the Roman Catholic 
Church. 

     The demonstration, which brought together all the nation's 
Protestant groupings, was organized by the new National Council 
of Evangelical Churches. The council was set up in 1996 and 
includes the Argentine Federation of Evangelical Churches (FAIE), 
representing mainline Protestant churches; the Association of 
Evangelical Churches in Argentina (ACIERA), representing mainly 
Baptist and Free Churches; and the Confederation of Pentecostal 
Churches. 

     "We believe this demonstration has been of great importance for 
our churches and also for Argentine society," said Emilio 
Monti, from the Methodist Church in Argentina. "It has shown that 
Protestant churches can come together and have one voice when 
demanding their rights. It has also shown that the renewal that 
is taking place in our churches throughout the country helps us 
to overcome old, denominational barriers and prejudices. We 
couldn't have dreamt of anything similar five years ago. But now 
we are ready to go on working in inter-denominational dialogue 
and in search of a common witness."

     The gathering included scripture readings, songs, prayers, 
and a public reading of a document demanding a new law" on 
Religious Entities. The document also addresses the concerns of 
the Protestant churches on issues ranging from corruption in 
government to violence on city streets.

     Monti said that the protest would start a new dialogue with 
the authorities, the politicians and the press. "We know that 
after this expression of opinion, the Protestant churches will be 
taken into account by everybody. This is a great opportunity, but 
also a great challenge."

U.S. TV series lists 'top ten religion stories' of the millennium

     (ENI) Spurred by what it calls "millennial fever," Religion 
and Ethics Newsweekly, a PBS program, compiled a list of what it 
describes as the top ten religion stories of the past 1,000 
years.

     Among the choices made were the split of Christianity into 
Eastern and Western branches; the Crusades; and Martin Luther's 
95 Theses, a key event in the development of Protestantism. The 
19th-century questioning of religious ideas by Charles Darwin and 
Karl Marx also made the list. Only one 20th century event, the 
Holocaust, was selected.

     The program's presenter, Bob Abernethy, said the list, made 
by the staff of the series in consultation with scholars, 
included a heavy emphasis on Christianity and Europe. "It was 
that kind of millennium," he said, adding that the audience might 
very well find the list "arbitrary or just plain wrong."

     Viewers were quick to post their suggestions on the 
program's web site, with several wishing the list had included 
mention of the development of the Baha'i faith. Another viewer 
added his suggestion that scholastic theology and Gregorian chant 
should have been included; another wondered why the Inquisition 
and the campaigns against Native Americans on the American 
frontier had been omitted.

     Kurt Hendel, who teaches historical and systematic theology at 
the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago, said that it would 
be "difficult to argue with any of the 10 topics that were 
chosen," though the focus on Christianity and the West was an 
"obvious limitation."

     He added, "I do see some important gaps, even as one focuses 
on Christian history and on the West," he said. "Perhaps the most 
important and lasting development of the Middle Ages, the great 
scholastic tradition, is not mentioned. Mysticism and 
particularly humanism are also ignored. The Enlightenment, which 
literally transformed the world view of the Western world, is not 
part of the list."

     The list follows in chronological order: The Great Schism; 
The Crusades; The Spread of Islam; The Gutenberg Bible; Church 
support of art, music and intellectual life; Martin Luther's 95 
Theses; Missionary movements; Religious Liberty; Challenges to 
religious ideas in the 19th century; and The Holocaust.

Bulgarian Orthodox Church 'to leave' CEC

     (ENI) The Bulgarian Orthodox Church has announced that it is 
withdrawing from the Conference of European Churches (CEC), one 
of Europe's main inter-church bodies, which has more than 120 
Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox members.

     However, according to CEC's rules, the withdrawal will 
become effective only on December 28, six months after the 
receipt, of the official notification of the decision of the 
church to terminate its membership.

     The news of the decision of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church 
became known during a September 21 to 26 CEC central committee 
meeting in Nyborg, Denmark. 

     According to a report, no reason for the resignation has 
been given, although the Bulgarian Orthodox Church last year also 
withdrew from membership of the World Council of Churches (WCC).

     In recent years there has been increasing criticism from 
within Orthodox churches about the activities of ecumenical 
organizations, which are perceived by some as being too dominated 
by Protestant churches and overly influenced by liberal 
theological trends. In 1997, the Georgian Orthodox Church 
resigned from both the WCC and CEC. The situation in Bulgaria is 
also complicated by a continuing power struggle within the 
country's Orthodox Church, despite a recent agreement to patch up 
a split between two rival church leaderships.

     CEC leaders hope that the six-month period before the 

resignation becomes effective will allow time for further discussions, 
and possibly a change of heart by the church. (Last 
year, the Baptist Union of the Czech Republic announced its 
resignation from CEC but then rescinded its decision within the 
six-month waiting period following discussions with CEC 
officials.)

     Dr. Keith Clements, CEC's general secretary, said that the 
news from Bulgaria had been received with "great sadness, not 
least because many contacts continue with members of the 
Bulgarian Orthodox Church."

     Asked whether CEC was facing a similar situation to that of 
the WCC, where representatives of Orthodox churches have called 
for major changes in the organization's structure and ethos, 
Clements said that these questions had not been raised "in the 
same way" within CEC.

     "CEC has always been their organization from the beginning," 
Clements said during the meeting of the central committee, 
pointing out that the participation in CEC of Orthodox churches 
from eastern Europe went back to the earliest days of CEC's 
foundation in 1959, unlike the situation in the WCC, where most 
Eastern Orthodox churches joined only after 1961, 13 years after 
the foundation of the WCC.

Anglicans welcome first Belizean women priests

     (Anglican News) The Anglican community in Belize celebrated 
two historic events on May 15 at St. John's Cathedral with its 
first triple ordination and its first ordination of women 
priests.

     Assisted by Anglican clergymen from all over the country, 
the Right Rev. Sylvestre Romero ordained Canstancio Apolonario 
Perez and Belizes' first two women priests, Lynda Carmita Moguel 
and Ilona Smiling.

     Moguel was deacon in charge of St. Peter's Church in Orange 
Walk Town and assisted at All Saints Church in Belize City. She 
is executive director of the Association of Tertiary Level 
Institutions of Belize and president of the Mothers Union in the 
Diocese of Belize.

     Smiling was deacon and assistant to the priest in charge of 
St. John's Cathedral and St. Mark's Hattieville. She obtained a 
Bachelor of Science degree in public administration from the 
University of the West Indies in Jamaica. She is an insurance 
consultant with G.A. Harrison Pilgrim Services in Belize City.

     Perez is a trained teacher and principal of St. Luke's 
School in Lemonal in rural Belize District. He was deacon in 
charge of St. Luke's Church at Lemonal, St. Philip's at Willows 
Bank and St. Stephen's at Flowers Bank. He also served the 
congregation at Double Head Cabbage.

     The newly ordained priests were the first to graduate from a 
four-year course at the Anglican Theological Institute in Belize 
City. They were the first to receive all of their advanced 
theological training in Belize.

Solo Flight breaking new ground for the Episcopal Church

     (ENS) Solo Flight, the only national effort for single 
adults in the Episcopal Church, will turn 10 years old next year. 
Plans for a Distant Learning Leadership Training program, liaison 
with the Episcopal Network for Evangelism and a new Winterflight 
Conference were announced at the annual conference at Kanuga 
September 4 and 5.

     Single people ranging in age from 23 to 80 came from 36 
dioceses in the Episcopal Church to attend this year's 
conference, entitled "Single and Standing on Sacred Threshold." 
Participants spent four days in workshops, discussions, small 
groups, morning and evening chapel services, fellowship and 
listening to keynote presentations by several speakers.

     Ted Mollegen, chair of the Episcopal Network for Evangelism, 
said he plans to introduce a proposal at the General Convention 
in Denver to fund the ministry of Solo Flight and provide a site 
per year until four additional sites exist in various parts of 
the country. "People who are struggling with being alone have an 
awful lot to offer other people. It is not just a single issue. 
It's a human issue. The church needs them."

     For more information visit the Solo Flight web site at 
http://home.earthlink.net/~singleministry.

Anti-Christian violence on the rise in India

     (Human Rights Watch) A September 30 report issued by Human 
Rights Watch stated the Indian government has failed to prevent 
increasing violence against Christians and is exploiting communal 
tensions for political ends. The 37-page report, Politics by 
Other Means: Attacks Against Christians in India, details 
violence against Christians in the months prior to the country's 
national parliamentary elections in September and October 1999, 
and in the months following electoral victory by the Hindu 
nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian People's Party, known 
as the BJP) in the state of Gujarat.

     The report stated that attacks against Christians throughout 

the country have increased significantly since the BJP began its 
rule in March 1998. They include the killings of priests, the 
raping of nuns, and the physical destruction of Christian 
institutions, schools, churches, colleges, and cemeteries. 
Thousands of Christians have also been forced to convert to 
Hinduism. The report concludes that as with attacks against 
Muslims in 1992 and 1993, attacks against Christians are part of 
a concerted campaign of right-wing Hindu organizations, 
collectively called the sangh parivar, to promote or exploit 
communal clashes to increase their political power base, The 
movement is supported at the local level by militant groups who 
operate with impunity.

     "Christians are the new scapegoat in India's political 
battles," said Smita Narula, author of the report and researcher 
for the Asia division of Human Rights Watch. "Without immediate 
and decisive action by the government, communal tensions will 
continue to be exploited for political and economic ends."

     The Hindu organizations most responsible for violence 
against Christians are the Vishwa Hindu Panishad (World Hindu 
Council, VHP), the Bajrang Dal, and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak 
Sangh (National Volunteer Corps, RSS). According to a former RSS 
member, these groups cannot be divorced from the ruling BJP 
party: "There is no difference between the BJP and RSS. BJP is 
the body. RSS is the soul, and the Bajrang Dal is the hands for 
beating."

     The report documents patterns that are representative of 
attacks across India. These include the role of sangh parivar 
organizations and the local media in promoting anti-Christian 
propaganda.

     Though eyewitnesses have identified politicians and local 
officials as participants in attacks, the state administration 
and Hindu nationalist leaders continue to portray the incidents 
as actions instigated by minority communities. The chief minister 
of Gujarat and BJP spokesmen have even blamed the violence on an 
"international conspiracy" to defame the political party. The 
Prime Minister has called for a national debate on conversions, 
signaling tacit justification for the motives underlying the 
attacks. The central and state governments continue to ignore the 
recommendations of the National Commission for Minorities.

     Human Rights Watch called on the Indian government to meet 
its constitutional and international obligations to ensure that 
religious minorities may equally enjoy freedom of conscience and 
the right to freely profess, practice, propagate and adopt 
religion. In particular, Indian officials should commit to taking 
steps to prevent further violence and end impunity for campaigns 
of violence and prosecute both state and private actors 
responsible for the attacks.

NOTE: The full text of the report is available online at 
http://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/indiachr/ 

     The password is smita.

Joslin of Central New York will move to Diocese of New Jersey

     According to Bishop Clay Matthews of the Office of Pastoral 
Development, Bishop David Joslin of Central New York has agreed 
"to become the assisting bishop in the Diocese of New Jersey until 
such time as the diocese elects and consecrates a new bishop, sometime 
after September 30, 2001." Bishop Herbert Donovan has been serving 
as interim, following the resignation of Bishop Joe Doss. Pointing out 
that the diocese "has suffered intense divisions and needs someone 
with the skills and compassion that David has demonstrated over the 
past nine years in Central New York," Matthews said that, after a 
meeting with the Standing Committee in New Jersey, they entered 
into "a productive period of conversation which lead to an agreement 
that Bishop Joslin would resign his position as diocesan bishop in Central 
New York in order to be appointed assisting bishop of New Jersey." 

The move requires consent from the church's bishops and, if received,
 Joslin would assume his new position by February 1, 2000. Matthews 
assured the Standing Committee in Central New York that "the sacrifice 
which is being asked of you was not entered into lightly but with the 
confidence that your life together is well-defined and healthy." He 
expressed gratitude for that sacrifice and concluded, "Your generosity 
comes at a critical time in the life of the Diocese of New Jersey and is 
appreciated by all."