wfn.org | Episcopalians: News Briefs

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April 29, 2002

2002-103

Episcopalians: News Briefs

ECUSA urges senators to pass non-discrimination law

(ENS) The Episcopal Church's Office of Government Relations in 
Washington has signed on to a letter urging US senators to 
support S. 1284, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) on 
April 24. The Senate's Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions 
Committee is preparing to consider the bill.

"ENDA is a modest measure that would extend employment 
protections currently provided on the basis of race, gender, and 
disability to sexual orientation, thereby repairing the 
injustice that allows gay and lesbian Americans to suffer 
discrimination in the workplace," the letter said. "Under 
current federal law, it is entirely legal to fire, hire, demote, 
promote, and make all other employment decisions based on solely 
on sexual orientation, regardless of workplace performance. 

"As people of faith who stand for the equality and dignity of 
all people, we find this reprehensible. We oppose discrimination 
against all individuals, including gays and lesbians, for the 
stamp of the Divine is present in each and every one of us."

According to current polling data, 83 percent of the American 
public supports ENDA and equal rights for gays and lesbians in 
the workplace. Over 50 percent of Fortune 500 companies have 
policies consistent with ENDA. The legislation has been endorsed 
by a wide variety of religious organizations, women's groups, 
labor unions, civil rights organizations and businesses, 
including the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, Central 
Conference of Rabbis, Women of Reform Judaism, Unitarian 
Universalist Association, Presbyterian Church (USA) Washington 
office, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the United 
Church of Christ's Justice and Witness Ministries, the Friends 
Committee on National Legislation (Quaker), and the United 
Methodist Church's General Board of Church and Society.

Tutu compares West Bank conflict to apartheid

(ENS) Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu compared the 
Israeli occupation of West Bank towns to South African apartheid 
in remarks to an audience of 200 gathered at Boston's Old South 
Church. Tutu spoke April 13 at a "Conference on Ending the 
Israeli Occupation," co-sponsored by Sabeel, a Palestinian 
ecumenical liberation center in Jerusalem, and the Episcopal 
Diocese of Massachusetts.

"In our struggle against apartheid, the great supporters were 
the Jews," Tutu said. "Jews almost instinctively had to be on 
the side of the disenfranchised, of the voiceless ones, fighting 
injustice, oppression and evil. I have continued to feel 
strongly with the Jews. I am a patron of the Holocaust Center in 
South Africa. I believe Israel has a right to secure borders," 
he assured the audience. 

But that does not justify Israel's actions on the West Bank, 
Tutu continued. "I've been very deeply distressed in my visit to 
the Holy Land; it reminded me so much of what happened to us 
blacks in South Africa. I have seen the humiliation of the 
Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks. They suffer like us 
when young white police officers prevented us from moving about. 
They seemed to derive so much joy from our humiliation."

Tutu criticized Israeli authorities for excluding the news media 
from the West Bank and making it difficult to know what is 
really going on there. He spoke of the "desperation" of 
Palestinian Christians who have lost land and homes to Jewish 
settlers. "Have our Jewish sisters and brothers forgotten their 
humiliation?" he said. "Israel will never get true security and 
safety through oppressing another peopleWe condemn the violence 
of suicide bombers, and we condemn the corruption of young minds 
taught hatred, but we also condemn the violence of military 
incursions in the occupied lands and the inhumanity that won't 
let ambulances reach the injured. 

"Israel has three options: Revert to the previous stalemate 
filled with hatred and vengeance; exterminate all Palestinians; 
or strive for peace based on justice--withdrawal from the 
territories and establishment of a viable Palestinian state with 
secure borders," Tutu said. "Peace is possible--we are free 
today in South Africa because of people like yourselves."

SCI addresses UN at Law of the Sea conference

(SCI) Douglas B. Stevenson, the director of the Center for 
Seafarers' Rights of the Seamen's Church Institute, spoke to the 
United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea conference 
recently about the duty of vessels to rescue those in distress 
at sea. He also urged United Nations delegates to show the same 
concern for those who fish as they do for dwindling marine 
species. He was the only non-government speaker on the agenda.

"One of the most cherished and protected maritime traditions is 
a mariners' obligation to go to the aid of all persons in 
distress at sea, without regard to their nationality, status or 
religion," Stevenson said. "The Seamen's Church Institute is 
very concerned that no action be taken by any state that might 
create a disincentive for vessels to respond to a distress at 
sea. 

"We have dealt with cases where port states have placed 
unreasonable financial burdens on ships that have gone to the 
aid of persons in distress at sea, either by refusing entry or 
by imposing financial responsibility for feeding, housing and 
repatriating shipwrecked persons who were allowed entry. Such 
unreasonable financial burdens on rescuing vessels establishes a 
negative precedent for those masters and ship owners not to 
comply with their moral and legal obligation to rescue persons 
in distress at sea."

Stevenson opined that a "fragmented fishing industry coupled 
with a lack of political will by states" has resulted in few, if 
any, national or international fishing vessel safety regulations 
in one of the most dangerous occupations in the world. 
"Meanwhile, men and women who work on fishing vessels continue 
to be maimed and killed at alarming rates," he pointed out. "It 
is high time for the community of nations to say: enough is 
enough!

"I urge you to create at least the same political will to 
protect human beings on fishing vessels as, for example, was 
demonstrated in protecting dwindling fish stocks. We need to 
focus our attention on protecting the men and women whose 
workplace is the sea," he concluded.

Established in 1834, the Seamen's Church Institute is an 
ecumenical agency affiliated with the Episcopal Church whose 
mission is to advance the personal, professional, and spiritual 
well being of mariners worldwide. To learn more about SCI's 
ministry, go to www.seamenschurch.org.

CUIC announces its first director

(ENS) Churches Uniting in Christ (CUIC), a relationship among 
nine churches that have pledged to live more closely together in 
expressing their unity in Christ and to combat racism, has 
appointed the Rev. Bertrice Y. Wood of Cleveland as its first 
director. CUIC's nine "member communions" collectively represent 
more than 22 million Protestant and Anglican Christians in the 
United States.

"Bert's appointment brings new energy to our collective 
commitment to uniting around common essentials of faith and 
mission," said the Rev. Lydia Veliko, ecumenical officer for the 
United Church of Christ and chair of the search committee. 
According to Veliko, "she brings significant gifts in the areas 
of organizational skill, and sensitivity to the needs of 
individual member communions. She has won the respect of our 
many ecumenical communities."

Wood is a seasoned church executive and was the first woman 
pastor of the 137-year-old, historic and predominantly 
African-American Mt. Zion Congregational United Church of Christ 
in Cleveland. She is also currently vice president at large of 
the National Council of Churches.

"Bertrice Wood sounds wonderfully qualified and prepared to 
provide solid leadership for CUIC in this new stage of our 
relationship," commented Bishop Christopher Epting, deputy for 
Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations for the Episcopal Church. "I 
look forward to working with her in the years ahead." 

"I am excited that the communions of CUIC have made bold 
commitments to work toward not only cooperative programs, but 
toward mutual recognition and reconciliation of their 
ministries, and to overcoming racism, which divides the churches 
and our communities," Wood said. "I pray that we will be 
faithful to each other and to the Gospel which calls us break 
down the barriers that divide the church and the human family."

The nine member communions include the African Methodist 
Episcopal Church, African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, 
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Christian Methodist 
Episcopal Church, Episcopal Church, International Council of 
Community Churches, Presbyterian Church (USA), United Church of 
Christ and United Methodist Church. The Evangelical Lutheran 
Church in America also works with CUIC as a Partner in Mission 
and Dialogue.

Southern Moravians approve interim eucharistic sharing with 
the Episcopal Church

(ENS) The Southern Province Synod of the Moravian Church in 
America, meeting at Black Mountain, NC, April 17-21, has voted 
to establish interim eucharistic sharing with the Episcopal 
Church. The resolution for was drafted by the Moravian-Episcopal 
dialogue, appointed by the 1997 General Convention.

The resolution was modeled on the 1982 one which established 
eucharistic sharing with several Lutheran churches. Interim 
eucharistic sharing will be voted on by the Northern Province of 
the Moravian Church in June 2002, and a similar resolution will 
be submitted to the 2003 General Convention.

Interim eucharistic sharing is seen as an important step in 
process toward eventual full communion. An approved liturgy of 
the host church is used, and ministers from both traditions 
stand at the altar during the communion prayer. 

Bishop Michael Curry of the diocese of North Carolina preached 
the opening sermon at the Synod, and Bishop Gary Gloster, 
suffragan bishop of North Carolina and co-chair of the 
Moravian-Episcopal dialogue, brought official greetings.

The Moravian Church in America traces its life and ministry to 
the ancient Hussite Church of Bohemia, with a ministry of 
bishops, presbyters, and deacons stemming from the 15th century. 
Renewed in the 18th century, the Moravians were leaders in world 
missions and influential on John Wesley and the Methodist 
movement. The Northern and Southern Provinces combined have 
roughly 50,000 members and 200 churches, and are part of the 
worldwide Moravian Church with over 750,000 members in over 18 
countries. In the United States the Moravian Church is 
concentrated in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and the upper 
Midwest. The Moravian Church in Great Britain and the Church of 
England have also conducted an official dialogue which produced 
the 1995 "Fetter Lane Common Statement." 

Stories and prayers sought for stewardship resources

(ENS) The Episcopal Church's Standing Commission on Stewardship 
and Development is collecting personal stories of transformation 
about giving and prayers about stewardship for two publications, 
Faces of Faith and A Steward's Book of Prayers, 
that will be produced as part of the commission's report to the 
2003 General Convention.

Stories submitted should reflect the writer's personal 
experience of learning to give to support God's work in the 
world. Examples might include a decision to tithe despite job or 
economic uncertainty, an offering of time and talent to a 
mission trip or house construction project, or being the 
beneficiary of grace through others' giving. Prayers can be 
original, or perhaps a hymn, a song, or a poem. They can be 
prayers of giving, of generosity, or thanksgiving. Stories and 
prayers should represent the many facets of Christian 
stewardship in learning to live as disciples of Christ.

The commission especially hopes to collect stories and 
prayers that reflect the diversity of the Episcopal Church in 
terms of age, ethnicity, gender, economic status, geography, and 
language. Prayers and stories in languages other than English 
are particularly welcome and should accompanied by an English 
translation. Additional copies of these publications will be 
available after General Convention for congregations and 
dioceses to use for small-group study and leadership formation.

Although not all submissions can be used, the commission will 
select those stories and prayers that are most compelling and 
that tell a story of transformation and love of God. The 
commission assumes that, by submission of a personal story or 
prayer or those of others, permission to publish has been 
granted by the author.

Submissions should be sent by August 1, 2002, to Tom Gossen, 
co-chair of the commission, via e-mail at tomgossen@tens.org, by 
fax at 316-686-9102, or by mail to the Episcopal Network for 
Stewardship, ATTN: Faces of Faith and Steward's Book of Prayers 
Projects, 3750 E. Douglas Avenue, Wichita, KS 67208.

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