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2001-288

News Briefs

Tutu addresses issue of forgiveness and reconciliation in wake of terrorist 
attacks

     (ENS) In an interview with beliefnet, the on-line religion web site, 
Anglican Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu of Cape Town was asked about 
reconciliation and forgiveness in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks 
on New York and the Pentagon. He said that "forgiveness and reconciliation are 
not cheap, they are costly." He added that "forgiveness is not to condone or 
minimize the awfulness of an atrocity or wrong. It is to recognize its 
ghastliness but to choose to acknowledge the essential humanity of the 
perpetrator and to give that perpetrator the possibility of making a new 
beginning."

     Tutu added that forgiveness is "an act of much hope and not despair. It is 
to hope in the essential goodness of people and to have faith in their potential 
to change. It is to bet on that possibility. Forgiveness," he argued, "is not 
opposed to justice, especially if it is not punitive justice, but restorative 
justice, justice that does not seek primarily to punish the perpetrator, to hit 
out, but looks to heal a breach, to restore a social equilibrium that the 
atrocity or misdeed has disturbed."

     Tutu chaired South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission which sorted 
through the atrocities of the apartheid regime and extended official forgiveness 
to many who admitted their guilt, in the realization that "revenge and 
retribution merely unleash an inexorable cycle of reprisal provoking counter 
reprisal."

     	"What are you in the U.S. willing to do?" Tutu asked. "Are you willing to 
believe that even though they are guilty of a diabolical act, they still continue 
to be children of God, not monsters, not demons, but those with the capacity to 
change?"

     "We are in the forgiving business, whether we like it or not. And we can do 
this only through God's grace," Tutu said. It is ultimately God at work in us to 
make us to be like God. Yes, it is a tall order, but that is the love that 
changes the world, that believes an enemy is a friend waiting to be made." He 
ended  by reminding people that "ultimately there is no future without 
forgiveness."

     

Muslim, Christian and Jewish leaders pledge to work together

     (ENS) A week after the terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade 
Center in New York, an Episcopal bishop joined a rabbi and a Muslim professor to 
express their "common sorrow" that the attacks had "extinguished the light of 
life" in too many "beloved sons and daughters of Sarah and Abraham."

     In their joint statement published in the Washington Post on September 18, 
Bishop Jane Holmes Dixon, Rabbi Jack Moline of Alexandria (Virginia), and Abdul 
Aziz Said of American University said, "The starts are suddenly too few and our 
world seems darker for it. As the human family, and as people of faith, our 
sorrow is without bounds because we do not yet know the boundaries of our loss." 
Yet the religious leaders said that "as boundless as our sorrow may be, our love 
for the one God and for one another is even more expansive."

     The statement added, "Together we pledge to be active witnesses in a 
shattered world to a God who wants us restored and whole We promise to challenge 
every effort to demonize whole communities based on the outrageous acts of a few 
hate-consumed individuals." Pointing to shared beliefs, "especially the sanctity 
of all human life," they said that they would "honor the differences that have 
called us on separate paths to the same good destination where we are to do 
justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with our God."

     

Orthodox Episcopalians should stay in the church, bishops argue at AAC conference

     (AAC) Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh told a region conference of the 
American Anglican Council (AAC) meeting in Akron that biblically orthodox 
Episcopalians should stay in the church "where we can do the most good."

     Admitting that there have been times when he wished he were not a bishop in 
the Episcopal Church, Duncan said that "this is where God placed me, and I can do 
more with the flock that God has given me than with the purity of 
disassociation." As evidences that they should take hope, Duncan pointed to an 
increase of young people being called to ministry and signs that orthodox 
Episcopalians are now thinking creatively. "We are thinking outside the box," he 
said, pointing to the move by Bishop Jack Iker of Ft. Worth, Texas to provide 
pastoral care and oversight for Christ Church in Accokeek, Maryland, in its 
struggle with the Diocese of Washington over calling a new rector.

     Bishop Peter Beckwith of Springfield (Illinois) said in his keynote address 
that he has a grave concern that the Episcopal Church is in a state of 
"freefall." Using an analogy about parachuting, he said, "Up to a certain point 
you can open your chute, and you can land safely, but there comes the point when 
it is too late." He made it clear that he does not believe that point has been 
reached yet and that orthodox Episcopalians should be encouraged. "I am convinced 
that the AAC is the best hope for the Episcopal Church." Beckwith is one of the 
newest board members of AAC.

     "The Episcopal Church is God's church--and it is messed up, but that is his 
concern. We simply need to be prepared. And we need to be willing to suffer if 
necessary in standing clearly for the uniqueness of Jesus Christ, the authority 
of Holy Scripture and the full Gospel message," said the Rev. David C. Anderson, 
president of AAC. He urged orthodox Episcopalians to connect with those who have 
opposing theological convictions because such conversations provide a way to show 
a human face to one another. "It keeps us from demonizing each other," he said.

  
   

Episcopal priest writes daily offices for times of grief

     (ENS) When the Rev. Lisa Hamilton, an Episcopal priest from Connecticut, 
experienced the untimely death of her husband from cancer in 1990, she wrote a 
book to help others through the process of grief. "For Those We Love but See No 
Longer" is based closely on the Book of Common Prayer and offers a week's worth 
of four daily offices, with psalms and canticles chosen from the whole Anglican tradition.

     The book was published last year by Paraclete Press in Massachusetts. For more
information call 1-800-451-5006 or check the website at www.paracletepress.com