wfn.org | Episcopalians: News Briefs

[dmack@episcopalchurch.org]

July 10, 2002

2002-174

Episcopalians: News Briefs

Anglican Communion plans Congress to promote concern for global 
issues

(ACNS) In order to provide a clear Anglican voice at the UN 
World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, 
representatives of the Anglican Communion plan to convene in 
South Africa in the week prior to the summit, August 18-22, to 
consider the communion's stance and to produce a statement to be 
presented to the summit by the Communion's UN Observer.

With 70 million members in 165 countries--including rich and 
poor scattered in all regions of the globe--Anglican 
participants will come to share their experiences of earth 
stewardship and to organize themselves effectively across the 
Anglican Communion.

The 1998 Lambeth Conference resolved to address environmental 
concerns. The congress in South Africa will review work 
undertaken so far, and look forward to the Lambeth Conference of 
2008.

The congress will consider economic and human justice, 
health, energy, water, food, biodiversity, habitats and 
urbanization. In addition, time will be spent reviewing a 
variety of projects now underway throughout the communion, 
launching its world-wide environmental network and looking at 
local environmental initiatives in the area around 
Hartebeespoort where the event will be held.

Confirmation cards bring perks to teenagers at German 
church

(ENI) With a marketing technique more common to airlines or 
retailers trying to build client loyalty, a church in northern 
Germany has issued confirmation cards entitling the parish's 
younger members to discounts in local shops.

 

The Rev. Josef Kalkusch, a Lutheran pastor in Sachsenhagen, near 
Hanover, has created a plastic card identifying teenagers 
enrolled in his church's confirmation class.

 

As with loyalty cards that qualify their holders to join a club, 
benefit from a sales promotion or accumulate bonus points 
towards a free flight, the Sachsenhagen confirmands can use 
their confirmation cards to get reductions on certain purchases.

 

Each card has a photograph of the holder, which helps the 
teenagers feel special and identify with their confirmation 
group, Kalkusch told ENI.

 

"One of our tasks in preparing these kids for confirmation is 
standing by them during one of their most difficult times of 
life," he said. "They are going through puberty trying to find 
their place in life and society."

 

Kalkusch convinced 25 business owners in Sachsenhagen--including 
a hairdresser, a cinema, a drugstore and a department store--to 
join the confirmation card program. Every month, one of the 
stores offers a discount to the confirmation class.

In a town with a population of only 2,000, Meier does not 
expect to gain new clients from the campaign yet he thinks it's 
positive that the program encourages the young consumers to shop 
in Sachsenhagen.

 

In return for their privileges, the confirmands have certain 
responsibilities. At the end of the year, shortly before 
confirmation, they are expected to volunteer for two weeks in a 
community institution, such as the senior citizens' home or the 
hospital, or to perform some other social service.

 

Lutheran leader in New York suspended for interfaith 
participation 

(ENS) The highest-ranking leader of the Lutheran Church-Missouri 
Synod in New York has been suspended for participating in an 
interfaith service at Yankee Stadium for the families of those 
killed in the September 11 terrorist attacks.

The Rev. David Benke, president of the New York-based 
Atlantic District, was also ordered to apologize for mixing 
Christian and non-Christian views in violation of the 
denomination's constitution.

Benke has appealed the ruling, according to Alan Pollack, a 
lawyer for the board of directors of the district, which claims 
42,000 members in the New York metropolitan area.

"To participate with pagans in an interfaith service and, 
additionally, to give the impression that there might be more 
than one God, is an extremely serious offense," wrote the Rev. 
Wallace Schulz, the Missouri Synod official who suspended Benke. 
If he does not apologize or appeal he will automatically be 
removed from the Missouri Synod's clergy.

The denomination's president, the Rev. Gerald Kieschnick said 
in a July 9 letter that the church "is experiencing a period of 
emotional anxiety and doctrinal disharmony, heightened by the 
filing of formal charges" against Benke. He announced that he 
was calling for a review of the decision, rquesting that it be 
"altered or reversed," arguing that Benke was not violating the 
church's constitution.

Israel takes first step to restrict immigration of Christians 

(Scotsman)  Israel has sparked a heated debate in the Jewish 
world by taking the first step to restrict immigration, 
following claims that many of those now moving to the region are 
Christians.

A committee of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, is 
supporting a bill that would end the so-called grandfather 
clause in the Law of Return that enables non-Jews to immigrate. 
The bill is being sponsored by the ultra-orthodox Jewish 
political groups in the wake of claims that hundreds of soldiers 
in the Israeli army have sworn allegiance to the state on the 
New Testament. Most of them are thought to come from the former 
Soviet Union.

"The Law of Return is one of the most important laws for 
defining the character of the State of Israel as the state of 
the Jews," said Sallai Meridor who heads an agency that 
encourages more Jews to move to Israel. Israeli Prime Minister 
Ariel Sharon has said that his goal is to bring one million more 
Jews to Israel.

Yet government figures show that slightly less than half of 
those who entered Israel in 2000 identified themselves as Jews, 
compared with 96 percent in 1990. Some officials are estimating 
that by 2010 only 4 percent of new immigrants will consider 
themselves Jews.

The debate also includes issues such as the loyalty of 
immigrant soldiers to Israel. Meridor pointed out that many of 
the immigrants whose loyalty was being questioned had in fact 
come from lands where for years the authorities had forced hem 
to suppress their religious identity, particularly when it was 
Jewish. "Children of Jewish men were considered Jews there and 
when they came to Israel they suddenly found themselves defined 
as non-Jews."

Papuan Christians fear onslaught from militants

(Barnabas Fund) Christians in the Indonesian province of Papua 
(Irian Jaya) are fearful that a violent campaign could be 
unleashed against them later this year as Laskar Jihad Islamic 
militants continue to flood into the province with the apparent 
collusion of government authorities.

A recent report from Australia's Uniting Church details the 
concerns of local Christians, who make up over 70 percent of the 
province's population. A number of Laskar Jihad military 
training camps are now situated in the province and military 
instruction is taking place quite openly in the compounds of 
some mosques every afternoon.  In the area of Fak Fak, over 175 
boats carrying Laskar Jihad personnel and equipment are reported 
along the coast since April. 

Meanwhile several Christians have reported the discovery of 
stockpiles of weapons which they fear could be used against them 
later this year. A number of Pakistani and Afghan mujahideen are 
thought to have come to join in the jihad against local 
Christians.  Laskar Jihad's magazine, which contains articles 
attacking Christians, Jews and the US, is now being sold openly 
in markets in Papua, and T-shirts, DVDs and books on Osama bin 
Laden are also on sale.

Laskar Jihad is reportedly forming links with local 
authorities, police and army units, and with the pro-Jakarta 
militia Satgas Merah Putih which opposes Papuan calls for 
independence from Indonesia.  Laskar Jihad is also believed to 
be insinuating itself with the local Muslim population, although 
the majority of Papuan Muslims still reject the Jihad's presence 
as a dangerous destabilizing factor in an already extremely 
tense region.  Local Christians believe the failure of police 
and army units to stop Laskar Jihad from expanding its military 
campaign into Papua implies complicity in the Jihad's 
activities. Four Laskar Jihad members carrying homemade guns 
were recently seized by Christians and handed over to the 
authorities. No action was taken against them. Others who have 
reported Laskar Jihad activities to the authorities say that 
they have been harassed, threatened with arrest themselves, and 
even received intimidating phone calls late at night.

Melanesian West Papua was annexed by Indonesia in 1963, and 
since then the majority-Christian Papuan people have struggled 
for their independence from repressive Indonesian rule.  The 
arrival of the Laskar Jihad, which since May 2000 has been 
responsible for murdering or forcibly converting and 
circumcising thousands of Christians in a genocidal holy war in 
Indonesia's Moluccas and Sulawesi regions, has prompted fears 
that the group could be used as a militia by the military to 
repress the local Melanesian Christian population.  During its 
occupation of East Timor Indonesia gained international 
notoriety for allowing pro-Indonesian militias to brutally 
terrorize the local Timorese population with impunity.  Now 
Papua's Christians fear that Laskar Jihad will be given a free 
hand to do the same there.

Russian Orthodox Church provides evidence of Roman Catholic 
'proselytizing'

(ENI) The Orthodox Church has presented what it describes as 
evidence supporting its long-standing charge of Roman Catholic 
proselytizing in Russia.

The Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church last 
week sent letters to the Vatican setting out its definition of 
proselytizing and listing cases of what it viewed as Roman 
Catholic poaching of its flock. "The Catholic Church has asked 
us to provide concrete cases of their proselytizing, and we are 
doing it," said Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, deputy chairman of 
the church's external relations department, at a press 
conference on July 5.  The letters were a response to recent 
Roman Catholic claims that attempts were being made to curb 
Roman Catholic church activities in Russia.

Observers suggested that the letters could be intended as a 
prelude to a new round of very frank talks to deal with a crisis 
between the two churches. Already strained relations between the 
Russian Orthodox Church and the Vatican plunged to a new low 
last February after Pope John Paul II created four full-scale 
dioceses in Russia united in an "ecclesiastical province" headed 
by an archbishop in Moscow. While the Vatican presented the 
changes as an internal administrative matter and a way of 
normalizing its life in Russia, the Russian Orthodox hierarchy 
perceived them to be a challenge to Orthodoxy, maintaining that 
they violated the spirit of ecumenical dialogue. Since then, the 
Russian government has expelled several Roman Catholic clergymen 
from Russia without explanation--a development the Orthodox 
Church claims not to have initiated, but which has further 
complicated relations between the churches.

At the press conference, Orthodox officials said their list 
of incidents of Roman Catholic proselytizing was based on Roman 
Catholic news stories and reports from Russian Orthodox 
dioceses. The list includes cases of Roman Catholic charity work 
with non-Roman Catholic Russian children. Their document also 
says that Roman Catholic priests and monks prevent people 
baptized in the Orthodox Church from having contact with 
Orthodox priests. The Moscow Patriarchate claimed that the true 
goal of Roman Catholics in organizing shelters for homeless 
children was "to make little Roman Catholics."

The involvement in Russia of Roman Catholic monastic 
orders--most of which were founded as missionary organizations 
or contain the word "mission" in their names--is considered in 
the Orthodox document as evidence of proselytizing. So is what 
the Orthodox describe as a Roman Catholic policy of searching 
for "local vocations," Russian nationals to join the priesthood, 
and the enrollment of students from traditionally Orthodox 
families in Roman Catholic seminaries. 

Leaders of the Roman Catholic Church in Russia reject the 
Moscow Patriarchate's interpretation of the concept of 
"canonical territory." The church says it is carrying out its 
mission among non-believers rather than Orthodox Christians. But 
the Moscow Patriarchate argues that Russians who have been 
forcefully torn from their Orthodox roots by decades of militant 
atheism could not accurately be described as non-believers. The 
patriarchate also says that the Vatican should refer Russians 
baptized in the Orthodox Church, many of whom are not practicing 
Orthodox, to Orthodox churches, rather than "evangelizing" them.

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