wfn.org | Episcopalians: News Briefs

[dmack@episcopalchurch.org]

July 9, 2002

2002-171

Episcopalians: News Briefs

Fresh elections in Zimbabwe necessary, says Tutu

(ENI) A potential political crisis in Zimbabwe could be averted 
by a rerun of the country's controversial March presidential 
election, said Desmond Tutu, the former Anglican archbishop from 
South Africa and Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

The election, which extended President Robert Mugabe's rule for 
a sixth term, was characterized by international observers as 
"fundamentally flawed" and fraught with violence and 
intimidation.

"Evidence shows that the presidential elections in March were 
not free and fair and thus the current government cannot regain 
its legitimacy," Tutu said in a foreword to a report by a 
coalition of non-governmental organizations. "A new vote with 
guarantees of fairness and free expression will undoubtedly be 
necessary."

The country's main opposition party, Movement for Democratic 
Change (MDC), has lodged a court challenge to the vote and is 
planning a mass protest to force a reelection.

The Zimbabwe Report was issued to the news media on June 27 
by the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, a group of 250 
organizations. It describes a deteriorating social, economic and 
political situation in Zimbabwe. The coalition was launched last 
year to help civil society "deal with socio-economic and 
political crises" and to promote "freedom and democratic values" 
in the country.

"The hard facts on the ground in Zimbabwe, so well-compiled 
in this report, suggest an alarming array of policies and 
practices that may be leading the country to a catastrophic 
future," said Tutu, who in late March criticized the South 
African government for having endorsed Mugabe's controversial 
win.

"It is now clear that the resolution to the Zimbabwe crisis 
can only be found in recapturing the legitimacy of the 
government and returning the country to a fair and just rule of 
law."

The release of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition report came 
as a delegation from the African Commission on Human and 
People's Rights was winding up a six-day probe of alleged human 
rights violations against supporters of opposition parties, the 
privately owned press, white commercial farmers and the general 
population of Zimbabwe by the state and militants of the ruling 
Zanu PF party.

The commission was created by a charter signed by African 
heads of state and government. It is expected to issue a report 
on Zimbabwe at its next meeting, scheduled for October in 
Gambia. 

WCC's Raiser tells Khartoum to end injustices

(WCC) World Council of Churches General Secretary Konrad Raiser 
has told the Sudanese government to end its policy of political 
exclusion and social injustice. 

Raiser, who is on a July 1-16 pastoral visit to the Greater 
Horn of Africa and Tanzania, expressed his concerns during a 
July 2 meeting with the Sudanese government minister of Guidance 
and Endowments, Dr. Issam El Bashir, in Khartoum. 

Raiser described the 18-year religious conflict in Sudan as a 
deceptive facade used by Khartoum's government while actively 
engaged in exacerbating all kinds of inequalities. He also told 
the minister that unfair distribution of wealth was yet another 
factor which must be addressed. 

Addressing an ecumenical gathering organized by the Sudanese 
Council of Churches (SCC), Raiser noted that Sudanese peace 
talks had become "endless," and stressed the WCC's commitment to 
conflict resolution and reconstruction of war-ravaged southern 
Sudan. The protracted conflict between the Arab Muslims in the 
north and mostly Christian population in the South has killed an 
estimated two million southerners and produced one of Africa's 
largest refugee population, estimated at over half a million. 

The WCC delegation also visited the Dar-es-Salaam camp for 
displaced people in Omdurman, Sudan province. It has a 
population of 250,000 people with a single clinic for 
tuberculosis cases. Describing the camp as a second hell, Raiser 
noted that the effects of two decades of war are pitifully 
evident on the faces of the children. For many of them, "the 
breath of hope is decreasing day by day," Raiser observed. 

The SCC expressed concern that the exploitation of oil, 
located in the south, is being used to sustain the war against 
southerners. In a message to the WCC delegation signed by 
leaders of 14 member churches, the SCC stressed that "the recent 
battles in Western Upper Nile region, where most of the oil 
wells are located, justify our concern..." Noting that the root 
cause of the civil war "is uneven socioeconomic development" 
caused by "unfair distribution of wealth," the council stressed 
that oil exploitation "is aggravating that imbalance in wealth 
distribution and contributing to the underdevelopment of the 
marginalized areas." 

The SCC went on to stress that religious freedom for 
non-Muslims remains restricted in Sudan. "Permits for building 
churches are not given and some of the old church properties 
built during the British colonial rule have been confiscated. 
Education syllabuses, they noted, "have been Islamized without 
due regard to Christian students." The council pointed out that 
"the state now favors Islam as a state religion. As Islam and 
Arabism are combined to project Sudanese identity, Africanism 
and Christianity are ignored. These two elements of identity 
(Islam and Arabism) have been utilized for control of power and 
wealth in Sudan." 

Canadian church donors can now give with a click

(ACC) Canadian Anglicans can now make donations via computer to 
the Anglican Appeal, the Anglican Church of Canada and its 
various ministries, thanks to a Canadian charity Web site. 

The General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada, the legal 
entity of the national church, recently registered with 
CanadaHelps. A not-for-profit Web site launched in November 2000 
by three university students, CanadaHelps is financially 
supported by some of the country's largest banks and various 
other corporate sponsors. Charities pay no fees to register with 
CanadaHelps and are even saved from having to issue tax 
receipts. Minutes after the online donation is made, the Web 
site issues an electronic receipt to the donor's e-mail address. 
Revenue Canada accepts electronic receipts for charitable 
donations.

Donors may either use the "Give to the Anglican Church now" 
button on the home page of the national church Web site 
 which links to the church's page on the 
CanadaHelps site, or log on to the CanadaHelps Web site 
 and type General Synod into the search 
engine. The search engine then returns a page with the name 
'General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada'; one click of 
the name brings up a page of general information about the 
church, a pull-down menu (donors may designate the donation to 
the Anglican Appeal, which funds the work of the church in the 
North and overseas) plus a box for the amount of the donation 
you wish to make. The site is, in Internet terms, secure so that 
credit card information is kept confidential. The donation 
appears as a charge on the donor's credit card.

Gail Holland, coordinator of the Anglican Appeal, is hopeful 
about the new donation method, which is already being used by 
the Primate's World Relief and Development Fund and a number of 
Anglican churches across the country. "Some of the other 
semi-automated methods we used leave a lot to be desired," said 
Holland. 

The Web site's corporate sponsorship even absorbs the 
merchant fees that businesses and charities pay to credit card 
companies in order to receive funds from credit card purchases 
or donations.

English Anglicans and Methodists move closer to unity 

(ENI) Anglicans and Methodists in England took a key step 
towards unity when their governing bodies accepted a report 
proposing a covenant between the two churches. Each church 
agreed overwhelmingly to refer the report for grass-roots 
reactions before bringing it back to the national bodies next 
year.

The covenant proposal was debated by the Methodist Annual 
Conference on July 1 and the Church of England's General Synod 
on July 6.

Richard Thomas, a Church of England diocesan official and a 
General Synod member, told Ecumenical News Internation: "It's 
likely to be a long process. Everyone is mindful of the previous 
attempt that failed [in 1972] because people were rushing it."

The 1972 unity attempt failed because of Anglican opposition 
-although it had come "within a whisker of establishing full, 
visible unity," the archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, told 
US Methodists in 2000.

Thomas expected that next year a timetable for further work 
would be set out if grass-roots reactions to the covenant were 
favorable. The plan needed "masses and masses of space."

The covenant was proposed in a Common Statement published in 
December last year following formal conversations between the 
two churches.

The statement explored common ground, including the 
profession of the fundamental Christian faith grounded in 
Scripture and expressed in the ecumenical creeds of the Church; 
the sharing of one baptism and the celebrating of one Eucharist; 
a common ministry of word and sacraments; and a common ministry 
of oversight. If adopted, the covenant would still be several 
stages short of a scheme of unity. It has been likened to an 
engagement with both partners working at removing obstacles to 
the marriage.

Thomas said that on the Anglican side, the covenant would be 
referred to dioceses. He described the timetable as "tight" but 
manageable.

The covenant would apply only to England, although the 
Methodist Church involved in the unity plan also covers Scotland 
and Wales. The Methodist Church is taking part in separate talks 
with Anglicans and other denominations in Scotland and Wales 
about church unity.

The founder of Methodism, John Wesley, was an Anglican 
clergyman, and the two churches have long been conscious of 
their common roots. In 1946 the then archbishop of Canterbury, 
Geoffrey Fisher, issued an ecumenical appeal to which the 
Methodists responded, starting the process that has led to the 
proposed covenant. 

Church leaders try to stem EU abortion report controversy 

(ENI) Church leaders have reacted with concern to a European 
Parliament report calling on member states and candidate members 
of the European Union (EU) to ease access to abortion and 
contraception.

In a vote that could anger many church leaders, the 
parliament in Strasbourg adopted a report on July 3 calling for 
abortion to be made "legal, safe and accessible to all," and for 
the "morning-after" pill to be sold cheaply in all EU countries.

The document, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, also 
urges the establishment of medical centers for women undergoing 
abortions, and demands equal access for all citizens to 
"high-quality" contraceptive methods.

But whatever political pressure an EU parliamentary vote on 
abortion or contraception may bring to bear on member states, it 
remains advisory in nature, and not legally binding on any EU 
country. The report itself acknowledges this limitation, stating 
that "legal or regulatory policy concerning reproductive health" 
is a matter for individual EU member states.

Richard Fischer, Strasbourg-based executive secretary of the 
Conference of European Churches' Church and Society Commission, 
urged church members to keep the parliamentary report in 
perspective and not to "exaggerate the significance" of the 
vote. The conference groups more than 120 churches, mostly 
Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox.

"Religious affairs, like education and culture, are matters 
of national sovereignty under EU rules," Fischer said.

But even if abortion and contraception lay outside the 
legislative competence of Members of the European Parliament 
(MEPs), Fischer regretted that the report could be 
"misunderstood" in countries seeking EU membership as an 
"attempt to dictate moral codes."

"Most churches lack sufficient knowledge of how European 
institutions work," he said.

The report comes at a sensitive time for the EU, when up to 
10 countries, most of them from post-communist eastern Europe, 
are negotiating to join the union starting in January 2004. 
Several of these countries have strict abortion laws, and any 
discussion of the subject is likely to be inflammatory.

CEC's general secretary, Keith Clements, said opinions on 
abortion differed "between and within" European churches, and 
CEC would not seek a "collective position" on the controversy. 

Archbishop's Christian-Muslim dialogue initiative to continue 
in Qatar

(ACNS) Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey has announced that 
the next meeting of the Christian-Muslim dialogue process will 
take place in Doha, Qatar, in the first half of next year, at 
the invitation of the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al 
Thani.

The conference will bring together leading Christian and 
Muslim scholars in an event similar to the first meeting, 
"Building bridges: overcoming obstacles in Christian-Muslim 
relations," held at Lambeth Palace in January 2002. This 
conference was addressed by Britain's Prime Minister, Tony 
Blair, and by HRH Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan, in 
addition to Carey.

Carey said he was pleased that the dialogue would be held in 
a Muslim country next year. "I am delighted that His Highness 
the Emir of Qatar has extended this generous invitation," he 
said. "I hoped that the work begun at Lambeth Palace earlier 
this year could be continued and that the conversations we 
started could be carried on.

"To move the discussions to a Muslim country will provide a 
new context as the participants share new insights and 
understanding about the history and development of our two great 
faiths and their place in the modern world," he added.

Carey has made inter-faith relations a significant aspect of 
his work during his tenure as archbishop.

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