wfn.org | Episcopalians: News Briefs

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April 4, 2002

2002-085

Episcopalians: News Briefs

General Board of Examining Chaplains chooses new administrator

(ENS) The Rev. Richard Tombaugh of Connecticut has been 
appointed administrator of the General Board of Examining 
Chaplains which carries responsibility for preparing the General 
Ordination Examination used by most dioceses for prospective 
clergy as part of the overall assessment of a candidate's gifts 
for the ministry. Last January 290 students took the exam.

In announcing the appointment, Bishop Robert Ladehoff of 
Oregon, who chairs the board, said that in recent years "more 
and more candidates are receiving part or all of their 
theological education somewhere other than in an Episcopal 
seminary." He noted that the group taking the most recent exam 
included those who were "following alternate courses of 
education and those for whom English is a second language. These 
are often people with skill in electronic communication which 
opens new avenues for education and evaluation."

Ladehoff said that the board's system of examination "does 
not always match the needs and backgrounds and skills of those 
now completing their theological education. The challenge before 
the board is finding ways to serve the church more effectively. 
The board sees Tombaugh as one with the skill and experience to 
work with us and guide us as we build on the work already 
done--and as we serve the church well in a time of growth and 
change," he said.

Tombaugh is a graduate of Columbia, Princeton and the General 
Theological Seminary. He has served parishes in Illinois, 
Missouri and Connecticut and served as canon to the ordinary in 
Connecticut for 13 years.

Jewish journalist searches for a God of love in the Holy Land

(ENI) When Yossi Klein Halevi took two of his children into the 
Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem he was trying to 
demonstrate to them that they could feel at home and draw 
inspiration from what he describes as a "sacred place." The 
visit was also part of his larger personal search for God in the 
Holy Land, seeking out and praying with Christians and Muslims 
in an area where religion is more often used to divide people.

He says that his goal is "to see whether Jews, Christians and 
Muslims could pray together, could mediate together in this 
land, whether religion could be used as a way of inciting love 
rather than inciting hatred." He wants to see if believers 
"could experience something of the presence of God together" 
through prayer.

The author of a recent book describing that quest, At the 
Entrance to the Garden of Eden, Klein Halevi says that 
attempts to establish peace in the Holy Land have failed because 
they tried to "create an artificial peace amongst secular elites 
on the Palestinian and Israeli sides, ignoring the deep 
religious sensibility in this region. When peace comes it will 
have to have a religious component. The peacemakers must learn 
to start speaking a language that incorporates God."

In his book, he describes praying at the tomb of Abraham in 
Hebron for the Muslims on the other side of the wall. "This is 
the only building in the world that I can think of where Jews 
and Muslims pray under the same roof. Now we are separated 
because of security reasons. We are not allowed to get close 
together. Still, there is something about the gift of our father 
Abraham that enables this joint pilgrimage to this same place to 
happen, in one of the cities where Jews and Muslims are most at 
each other's throats."

Klein Halevi hopes that people will begin to take monotheism 
seriously. "And the real meaning of monotheism is that there is 
one God--but not one way. Where the real monotheistic faiths 
have failed in the past was to confused the one God for one way. 
There is one mountain peak but many roads up the side of the 
mountain."

Bishop of Chicago warns that no church is immune from scandal 
of clergy misconduct

(ENS) In his Good Friday sermon, Bishop William Persell of 
Chicago addressed the "shock and extreme distress" in the Roman 
Catholic Church over  the scandal of clergy sexual misconduct, 
warning that no church is "immune." He said that "we would be 
naove and dishonest were we to say this is a Roman Catholic 
problem and has nothing to do with us because we have married 
and female priests in our church. Sin and abusive behavior know 
no ecclesial or other boundaries."

As president of the interfaith Council of Religious Leaders 
of Chicago, Persell said that he has suggested an extended 
meeting "at which we will share our understandings and 
procedures with one another in the hope of helping all faith 
communities to improve on making our congregations safer, more 
nurturing places for all of God's children."

"The temptation is great to jump quickly from the cross to 
the triumph of the Resurrection," he added. "Unfortunately with 
this crisis we will be at the cross with all its pain, betrayal 
and brokenness for a long time to come. And on Easter Monday our 
Good Friday world will still be there with a weakened, 
discredited church seeking to bear witness to Christ in a world 
of so much violence and despair."

Persell said that "today Christ's body is in agony on the 
cross, this time over the failures of some clergy and over the 
failure of the church to protect its most vulnerable members. 
The illusion of a totally Christ-like, holy institution has been 
forever shattered, and what has happened in some churches 
affects all Christian churches. The process of making necessary 
changes, moving forward, and carrying on the life and mission of 
the church will be more difficult because of what has occurred," 
he said, but there are many who "will help the church to become 
a healthier, holier, more faithful, more truthful body of 
Christ."

Uganda Christian University Partners appoints first executive 
director

(ENS) Uganda Christian University Partners has announced the 
appointment of its first executive director, Mrs. Diane Stanton 
of Dallas. She has been active in Uganda since 1995 when she 
helped with the resettlement of the Batwa people, as well as a 
project for clergy widows, and a home for orphans. 

"Diane Stanton has a heart for the people of Uganda," said 
the Rev. Stephen Noll, an American Episcopalian who serves as 
vice chancellor (president) of Uganda Christian University, 
founded in 1997 using the facilities of the Bishop Tucker 
Theological College, the oldest seminary in the Anglican Church 
of Uganda. It has grown from about 120 theological students to 
almost 1,500 students today who take courses in theology, 
business, education, social work, communications, and law. It 
has recently added a second campus in the western part of the 
country.

"We have a great opportunity to influence a new generation of 
leaders in Africa for Christ and the Gospel," Noll said. "But we 
need mission partners to do so. I look forward to a long and 
fruitful relationship between our churches and our countries in 
the years to come."

Zimbabwean Anglican bishop banned in US

(ENI) The Anglican bishop of Harare, Nolbert Kunonga, has been 
named in a list of Zimbabweans banned from the United States.  

Kunonga, who once praised President Robert Mugabe as being more 
Christian than himself, joins more than two dozen of the 
president's influential associates and supporters of Mugabe's 
Zanu-PF political party in being prohibited from visiting the US 
because of their support for the president. Mugabe has also been 
banned.  

The list, which includes high-level military and government 
officials, was leaked to the news media earlier this week. In 
addition to the entry prohibition, those listed will find their 
assets in the US frozen. Immediate family members are also 
affected by the ban.  

Kunonga's pronouncements from the pulpit and elsewhere have 
divided Anglicans, many of whom see him as condoning violence 
committed by Zanu-PF supporters against opponents.  

In January, the bishop invited criticism when he took over an 
inter-denominational prayer meeting and gospel concert in Harare 
and turned it into a forum for promoting the government's 
controversial land reform program.  

Under this program, the government is taking over commercial 
farms, mostly owned by whites, and turning them over to blacks.  

Kunonga endorsed Mugabe in last month's presidential election 
and told guests at Mugabe's inauguration ceremony on March 17 
that the 78-year-old ruler was ordained by God to lead this 
southern African nation. He dismissed Mugabe's critics as 
"little voices shouting at a passing elephant."  

Zimbabwe's presidential elections were characterized by many 
local and international observers as violent and fundamentally 
"flawed." Zimbabwe's minister for information and publicity, 
Jonathan Moyo, brushed off the significance of the US travel 
ban. In a statement last week, Moyo said that the sanctions list 
had "no substantive policy content beyond the racist hatred of 
Africans who are proud of their history, dignity, sovereignty 
and independence." 

But Pius Ncube, the outspoken Roman Catholic archbishop of 
Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city, saw the presence of Bishop 
Kunonga on the list as a message for other church leaders.  

"This is a warning to church leaders that we should not take an 
overly partisan stand as we are representatives of God's 
kingdom," the archbishop told ENI.

Meanwhile, Sebastian Bakare, Anglican bishop in Mutare, 
distanced the church from the situation: "If [Kunonga] is banned 
because of his personal opinion what has that got to do with us 
as a church?"  

Kunonga's office said the bishop was out of the country and 
unavailable for comment.  

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