wfn.org | Episcopal News Service Briefs

[Daphne Mack <dmack@episcopalchurch.org>]

News Service Briefs

2002-215

News Briefs

Griswold attends meeting with National Security
Advisor to discuss Middle East issues

(ENS) Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold joined
Lutheran and Roman Catholic colleagues in a September
16 meeting with President Bush's National Security
Advisor Condoleezza Rice, urging the Bush
administration to take new steps to end the suffering of
Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza and to restart
peace negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians. 

The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the
Most Reverend Wilton D. Gregory, president of the
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops,
participated in the meeting. 

The three bishops represent churches that have significant
relief and development programs in the Holy Land. They
urged Rice to press for immediate and concrete measures
to alleviate a grave and deteriorating humanitarian
situation in the West Bank and Gaza. They reiterated their
long-standing condemnation of suicide bombings and all
forms of violence against civilians on both sides of the
conflict. They also welcomed the administration's
commitment to both a safe and secure Israel and a viable,
independent Palestinian state, and urged the
administration to take concrete steps to achieve these
twin goals in the context of new peace negotiations. 

While the original purpose of the meeting was to discuss
the Israeli-Palestinian situation, the church leaders also
discussed Iraq, welcoming the president's engagement of
the international community while reiterating the serious
moral concerns each had expressed in earlier statements
on the use of military force to overthrow the Iraqi
government. 

Peterson expresses gratitude, frustration at
Hong Kong meeting of Anglican Consultative
Council

(ENS) Secretary General John Peterson laid out sources
of gratitude and frustration in his opening address at the
12th meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC)
in Hong Kong September 17. 

After thanking the "youngest of all provinces in the
Anglican Communion" for its hospitality, Peterson
sketched the influences on the life and work of its 38
members in the wake of the terrorist attacks in the United
States last September 11 and the continuing conflict in the
Middle East. 

Among his frustrations, he cited a decision at the meeting
of the Communion's primates at Kanuga last year to
make the HIV/AIDS pandemic "a top priority." Peterson
said that he was "bitterly disappointment how slowly this
whole process has unfolded. To be honest, we were
promised funds to establish this programme in each one
of the African provinces, but the promised funds never
came through." He said that it took a grant from the
Parthenon Trust to launch the program. "In Africa AIDS
will not be defeated by the governments but by the
church," he said. 

With strong support from Archbishop of Canterbury
George L. Carey, the Compass Rose Society has set a
goal of $20 million to provide an endowment to support
new initiatives and special projects. The support from the
society and Trinity Church in New York has bolstered
support from ACC members who are wrestling with
financial crises that is making full support difficult.
"Regardless of the reasons, these shortfalls have a
devastating effect on the ministry of the Communion and
our inter-relatedness to each other," Peterson said. He
called on the member churches "to be more financially
responsible to each other as a Communion." 

Peterson highlighted an interim report, "Traveling
Together in God's Mission," that asks provinces of the
Communion to consider six broad areas of
mission--Islam, Developing Anglicanism, a Communion in
Mission; the journey towards wholeness and fulness of
life; mission and justice-making and peace-building;
money power and Christian mission; and evangelism. 

New White House AIDS policy director will
speak at National Episcopal AIDS Coalition
conference

(ENS) Dr. Joseph O'Neill, who was appointed director
of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy in
July, will speak at a conference sponsored by the
National Episcopal AIDS Coalition October 11-12 in
Austin, Texas. 

O'Neill is responsible for guiding national health policy on
care, treatment and financing for those living with
HIV/AIDS, and access for medically underserved
populations. A member of the faculty at Johns Hopkins
University School of Medicine, he served in several
government agencies dealing with related issues, as well
as a community AIDS clinic in Baltimore. 

Bishop Claude Payne of Texas will official at the healing
service that traditionally closes NEAC conferences at St.
David's Church in Austin. The conference will also offer a
variety of workshops, including those that deal with the
Lutheran AIDS Network, a co-sponsor of the
conference, and a discussion on AIDS and the spirit, led
by the Rev. Richard Younge of Seattle, former chair of
NEAC. Another session will talk about a needle
exchange program in Dallas led by Myrna and Jack
Taylor; a discussion of the Latino AIDS Prevention
Project in Los Angeles, led by Jack Plimpton; and a
session on the need for greater HIV/AIDS education for
older Americans, led by the Rev. C. William Frampton,
co-chair of NEAC. 

Another topic will be fundraising for AIDS service
organizations in light of a drop-off in contributions in the
wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, and a
discussion of the impact of the pandemic in America's
rural communities. 

For registration information, call NEAC at
800-588-6628 or e-mail at neac@neac.org. 

Epting joins ecumenical delegation in visit to
Armenian Church

(ENS) Bishop Christopher Epting, the Episcopal
Church's deputy for ecumenical and interfaith relations,
joined an ecumenical delegation in an August 22-25 visit
to the Armenian Church and a meeting with His Holiness
Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All
Armenians. 

Members of the delegation expressed deep appreciation
for the signs of renewal in the ancient church that has only
recently emerged from a period of suppression by Soviet
Russia. According to tradition, Christianity was first taken
to Armenia by apostles Thaddeus and Bartholomew and,
after periods of persecution, in 301 Armenia became the
world's first kingdom to adopt Christianity as its official
state religion. The church is a member of the Oriental
Orthodox family of churches that also includes Syrian,
Ethiopian, Coptic and a few smaller churches. 

"We have enjoyed a long-standing relationship with the
Armenians because we opened our doors to them during
the immigration in the late-19th century," Epting noted.
The first Armenian liturgy was celebrated September 22,
1889 at Grace Church on Broadway in New York, a
hospitality that was offered to Armenians in other
churches around the country. Many Armenian clergy have
attended Episcopal seminaries. 

Epting said that Karekin is "a vital young church-builder
who has a vision for the recovery of his church. Members
of our delegation shared his excitement as he described
those efforts. The church's rich and colorful liturgy, for
example, is being reclaimed, and we attended a
wonderful youth rally during our visit." The delegation
learned that the church's seminaries are full and many
youth have returned to the church. 

The delegation was particularly moved by its visit to
Tzitzernagapert, the memorial Armenian Genocide of
1915 at the hands of the Turks, a reminder of the deep
wound carried by the Armenians and their determination
to avoid such horror in the future. 

As they rebuild, the Armenians are also assuming a more
visible role within the worldwide Christian family, making
a distinct contribution based on their endurance--and the
rich and distinct traditions of their ancient church.
Members of the delegation said that the visit had
strengthened their conviction that the Holy Spirit is alive
and well in Armenia. 

(Photos of the trip are available at the National Council of
Churches web site at www.ncccusa.org.) 

Nigerian bishops march on legislature to protest
mass poverty 

(ENI) Eight Nigerian bishops marched to the House of
Assembly in the southeastern state of Anambra recently
to protest government policies that they claim have
created mass poverty, creating an "ugly situation in the
country." According to reports, the legislators listened
carefully to the bishops and their demands. 

Anglican Archbishop Maxwell Anikwenwa, who led the
protest, said that Nigeria's political leadership had failed
the people of the country. He accused the leaders of
"closing their eyes and ears to the suffering of the people,
contrary to the commands of God." An estimated 70
percent of Nigerians live below the poverty level, up from
just over 48 percent in 1998. A report warns that "there
is a growing threat to the bare physical survival of the
people," adding that "human deprivation, income poverty
and social deprivation have become aggravated." 

Anikwenwa told journalists, "We see thousands of our
people turned into beggars as the harsh social and
economic conditions bite harder. We are daily witnessing
the collapse of public institutions in the country. Security
is once more a serious issue as violent crimes are on the
increase. Education has been grounded while hospitals
and the judiciaries are not function," he said. 

The bishops said that it is the responsibility of the elected
representatives of the people to "do something to save
these people who are dying." A government official
contended that the situation in the country had improved
since the return of the democratic government in 1999. 

Lutheran leaders urge dialogue with other faiths
to avoid religious conflict

(ENI) Leaders of the Lutheran World Federation
(LWF), gathered in Wittenberg, Germany, where
Lutheranism had its beginnings in the 16th century, urged
dialogue with other faiths to ensure that no "confrontation
between religions is allowed to develop anywhere in the
world." 

"However unambiguously we may condemn and combat
terrorism and however committed our solidarity with the
victims, it is equally true that to propagate sweeping
hostile images, primarily of Arabs and Islam, and threats
of war is counterproductive for peace," said Bishop
Christian Krause, president of the LWF, which
represents 95 percent of the world's 65 million Lutherans.

Krause urged the LWF council to avoid a tendency to
adopt hostile images associated with an "axis of evil" and
instead strive for "an axis of hope," one that won't be
"misinterpreted as some kind of power struggle between
the religions." 

The meeting was intended for Jerusalem but was moved
because of the increased violence. Krause praised the
role of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the region,
citing its efforts to facilitate the encounter between the
"children of Abraham," the Christians, Jews and Muslims.
"Peace in the Holy Land can only be achieved, like
everywhere else, through dialogue, understanding and
trust between two peoples presently locked in conflict,"
said Dr. Ishmael Noko, a Zimbabwean who is general
secretary of the LWF. "This will depend, however, to a
large extent on Israel's decisive and genuine support for
an independent Palestinian state and a better future, rather
than fomenting desperation through measures that amount
to collective punishment."