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2001-209

News Briefs

Nigerian archbishop finds healthy church in America

     (ENS) After visiting four dioceses of the Episcopal Church in Chicago, Southern 
Ohio, Houston and Michigan, Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria said that, "the church 
I saw is as healthy as any church can be."

     In an interview with Church of Nigeria News, Akinola said that he did not see 
signs of crisis in the American church, although he said that he had heard "from a 
number of our bishops that orthodoxy is in jeopardy in the American church in the sense 
that a number of dioceses do not uphold the authority of Scripture." During his visit 
he saw "people who are committed to mission and evangelism, just as we are."

     Asked about the role of the Anglican Mission in America (AMiA), he said that he 
saw no signs of reconciliation between the Episcopal Church and the two bishops 
irregularly consecrated in Singapore January 2000. "Instead of working towards 
reconciliation, instead of working towards normalizing the consecration of those two 
bishops, more bishops are being made and that is totally wrong because the name for 
that is 'schism.' It's like creating another church within ECUSA. It is not 
permissible. In the Anglican world, there is the principle of autonomy, which requires 
bishops to recognize their geographical boundaries and to accord due process, 
recognition and respect to the bishop of another diocese."

     Akinola said that "the fact that there are parts of the American church that have 
problems is not a sufficient ground for brother primates or brother bishops to go and 
split the American church. It is not right. What we primates have advocated is that 
there should be a sustained pastoral care for those who feel alienated or marginalized 
by those dioceses that are not holding to orthodoxy." He added that he could not 
support "any schismatic or separatist agenda for any church, be it America, Singapore 
or Uganda or anywhere for that matter."

     

Conference is first step to develop plan for renewal of worship

     (ENS) In response to a General Convention resolution calling on the Standing 
Commission on Liturgy and Music to "implement a plan for liturgical renewal and 
enrichment of the common worship of this church," a November 9-13 conference in 
Minneapolis will take steps toward a process of data collection.

     Using the theme, "In the voices of all God's children," the conference will train 
"liturgical animators" to gather data in dioceses and communities "to define the scope 
of the proposed renewal and enrichment of the common worship." The task of data 
collection will be conducted as an educational project, providing programs "to deepen 
liturgical understanding and enhance liturgical skills." It will also seek ways to 
"celebrate our multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, and multi-generational 
church, supporting the unity and continuity of The Book of Common Prayer."

     The conference is supported by the Office of Liturgy and Music under the auspices 
of the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music, in conjunction with the Association of 
Diocesan Liturgy and Music Commissions. Contact cmorris@episcopalchurch.org for further 
information.

     

Ecumenical leader urges churches to recapture sense of spirituality

     (ENI) A top ecumenical leader has urged churches to recapture a sense of 
spirituality or risk losing their relevance. "Ecumenical organizations are in trouble 
spiritually," Dr. Choan-Seng Song, president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches 
(WARC), said at the organization's executive committee meeting in Michigan. He deplored 
the public perception that ecumenical institutions are "stressing social and political 
action without spiritual strength."

     The Taiwanese-born church leader noted that mainstream churches are losing members 
to charismatic churches. He believes that Protestant Christians are suffering from a 
"credibility problem," leading their ecumenical organizations to also lose financial 
support. "Spiritual support and financial support are related," Song added. 

     "We live in a world saturated with information about the life that is political, 
social, financial, cultural," he said, "but most Christians are not well informed about 
the life of faith that is biblically grounded and historically developed."

     

Vatican official urges churches to question status quo

     (ENI) "There is an urgent need for us to move away from the shore and out into the 
deep, to have the courage to question our status quo," Cardinal Edward Cassidy, 
recently retired president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian 
Unity, said during an ecumenical worship service at the World Methodist Conference in 
England. "What we have in common is so much more than what divides us," he said.

     Cassidy said that one of the most important achievements of the ecumenical 
movement has been the recognition that through baptism members of various Christian 
denominations have become "brothers and sisters in Christ." He said that churches need 
to "give the quest for unity a much higher place in our list of priorities."

     Churches today are facing an increasingly secularized and pagan world, the 
cardinal warned. "Perhaps for the first time in the history of evangelization we are 

confronted on a wide scale with a multitude of persons who do not feel any need of 
salvation. Even among those who believe in God and look forward to life after death 
many have lost the sense of sin," he said.

     

Two churches approve new ecumenical partnership

     (ENS) The United Church of Christ and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) 
formally approved a proposal to enter a new ecumenical partnership with seven other 
denominations, Churches Uniting in Christ (CUIC), that will be inaugurated January 20, 
2002 in Memphis. The July 16 votes took place at the joint meetings of the 
denominations in Kansas City.

     CUIC is successor to the Consultation on Church Union (COCU) that worked for more 
than 40 years to promote unity among historic black churches--such as the African 
Methodist Episcopal Church, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, and the 
Christian Methodist Episcopal Church--as well as the UCC, Disciples, Methodists, 
Presbyterians, Episcopalians and the International Council of Community Churches.

     The nine churches will retain their own identities but live into a partnership in 
which they will seek new cooperation in ministry and mission, especially ways to combat 
racism. The churches also look forward to the day when their clergy will be able to 
serve and preside at worship services in the other denominations, setting a goal for 
reconciliation of ministries by 2007.

     Bishop McKinley Young of the African Methodist Episcopal Church called racism "a 
church-dividing, faith-denying and community-destroying reality that must be 
eradicated. It is an evil practice among individuals, churches and nations. Racism is a 
sin and without repentance it is unto death."

     Young said that CUIC provides a "unique opportunity for the ecumenical community 
to embrace with enthusiasm and excitement a new future, devoid of the baggage of 
racism, where we exercise mutual respect and equal regard."

 
    

Lilly Endowment funds project to review theological education in Episcopal Church

     (ENS) The Lilly Endowment has awarded a grant of $419,565 to the Episcopal 
Theological Seminary of the Southwest that will enable the Council of Deans of all 
Episcopal seminaries to review theological education in the church.

     The project, "Theological Education in the Episcopal Church: A Renewed Vision," 
hopes to spark a national conversation and call the whole church into a fuller 
participation in the mission of providing theological education for all. It also hopes 
to create themes, resources, and programs for Theological Education Sundays. In 
addition to Lilly, the Office of Ministry Development at the Episcopal Church Center, 
the Episcopal seminaries, and Trinity Foundation have all committed significant 
resources to the project.

     In the first year of the four-year project, a planning process will lay the 
groundwork for the production of video resources and other material, followed by a 
three-year cycle of Theological Education Sunday visits to over 2,000 parishes designed 
to share a vision of theological education for all. The project will end in 2004 with a 
national conference to share learnings and plan for further collaborative efforts.