wfn.org | Episcopal News Service Briefs

[Daphne Mack <dmack@episcopalchurch.org>]

2002-246
News Briefs

Bush signs Sudan peace legislation 

(ENS) Representatives of the Episcopal Church's Office
of Government Relations were present October 21 when
President George W. Bush signed into law a bill designed
to pressure Sudan's Islamic government to end its military
campaign against Christians, animists and moderate
Muslims in the country's central and southern regions. The
bill, called the Sudan Peace Act, threatens sanctions if the
Sudanese government doesn't negotiate in good faith with
the opposition. 

According the Associated Press, the Khartoum-based
government signed an agreement October 15 to suspend
fighting during negotiations and lifted a ban on relief flights
to the south, banned on August 31 after rebel forces
overran the strategically crucial town of Torit. Civil war
broke out in Sudan in 1983, and since then an estimated
2 million people have been killed, mainly through famine
caused by the fighting, and another 4 million have been
forced to flee their homes. Foreign companies drilling for
oil in central Sudan have been a cause of intensified
conflict in recent years. 

The Sudan Peace Act represents a compromise from an
earlier version, whose provision to bar companies from
being listed on U.S. stock exchanges if they participate in
oil development in Sudan, opposed by the Bush
administration, was stripped from the final version. The
compromise bill identified peace talks as the best
opportunity to promote a "negotiated, peaceful settlement
to the war in Sudan" and "commends the efforts of the
Special Presidential Envoy to Sudan, Senator John
Danforth, and his team in working to assist the parties to
the conflict in Sudan in finding a just, permanent peace to
the conflict in Sudan." Danforth is an Episcopal priest. 

It requires the administration to report to Congress on the
status of peace talks every six months to certify that the
parties are negotiating in good faith. A negative report
would trigger sanctions, including opposition to any new
loans for Sudan, downgrading or suspending diplomatic
relations between the US and Sudan, and denying
Khartoum access to oil revenues to make certain that
they are not used to obtain military equipment. 

Another section calls for an annual report by the
Secretary of State to Congress on sources of financing
for the Sudanese oil business, construction of
infrastructure and pipelines for exploration, effects on the
inhabitants of the region of the oil fields, and the ability of
Sudan to finance the war with oil proceeds. The report
requires a description of the extent to which any financing
was secured with involvement of US citizens. 

Ottawa postpones same-sex blessing decision 

(ACC) Four months after the diocese of New
Westminster voted to permit a formal blessing ceremony
for homosexual couples, Ottawa is the second Canadian
Anglican diocese to consider the idea, but decided it
needs more discussion and study. 

Delegates at Ottawa's annual synod, October 18-19,
considered a motion to ask their bishop to authorize
clergy in parishes that wish to bless same-sex
relationships. They also considered a competing proposal
to adopt the existing positions of the Canadian house of
bishops and of the 1998 Lambeth Conference, both of
which have opposed blessing homosexual relationships.
The synod voted to refer both motions to the diocesan
executive committee and directed the committee to form
a task force that will consider the implications of any
decision concerning the blessing of same-sex unions. 

"It's the first time this has come before this synod. I think
this was a very generous conversation. People were really
saying we need to discuss this and take more time," said
diocesan bishop Peter Coffin at a news conference
following a 45-minute debate on the motion. When asked
if he would have approved the same-sex motion if it had
passed, he replied, "No. That would be simplistic and
premature. I'm hearing that people want more discussion.
I want to help the conversation along. I want to listen
more intently." 

Several of 16 speakers during the debate expressed a
need for more information and discussion and a wide
variety of opinion about homosexuality and the place of
homosexuals within the church. Canon Garth Bulmer,
who presented the motion, said he wanted "my church to
say to gay couples that they are not perverted, sick or
acting contrary to God's word and acknowledge that their
relationships can be every bit as wholesome as
heterosexuals." As to whether the issue is divisive, Bulmer
noted that practices relating to the ordination of women
vary throughout the worldwide Anglican Communion.
"We have learned to deal with differences throughout our
communion," he said. He also said he agreed with those
who are calling for more discussion. 

During the debate, the Rev. George Sinclair said that six
passages in the Bible "speak clearly that same-sex sex
acts are contrary to God's will." God "desires us to be
faithful in heterosexual marriage or celibate in singleness.
We can't bless people who have sex outside marriage or
affairs outside marriage," he said. In an interview after the
votes, Sinclair said he believes "Anglicans would like the
issue to go away," and said it was odd that synod "didn't
want to take a position with the Anglican house of
bishops." 

In an interview, Ron Chaplin, a gay member of Bulmer's
parish who was observing synod but was not a delegate,
explained why a blessing ceremony is important for many
gay Anglicans. "It is the recognition. There is a meaning.
You are making a promise to each other before God.
(Participants) have come to witness it and support it."
Chaplin is a member of a group that was formed in 1997
at the direction of the diocesan synod to promote
dialogue and discussion around the issue of homosexuality
generally. 

The diocesan task force is to report through the executive
committee to the next regular session of synod, next
October in Cornwall, Ontario. 

Carey cautions primate on same-sex issue 

(ACC) Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, who
retires this month, has warned Canadian primate Michael
Peers and the house of bishops to go slowly in
deliberations on same-sex blessings and to consult with
the Anglican Communion. The house of bishops meets on
October 25 in Mississauga and will discuss last June's
decision by the diocesan synod of New Westminster to
allow blessings of same-sex unions. 

"It has to be faced," Carey said in an interview while in
Toronto to receive an honorary degree from Wycliffe
College of the University of Toronto, which is celebrating
its 125th anniversary. "It has to be faced and in a
generous context of understanding that there is a very
strong orthodox position that prevails in the world today,"
he said. He repeated his earlier predictions that dioceses
going it alone on controversial issues risk causing schism. 

"The local option," he added, "is not the Anglican way of
doing things. That's what I was saying at the Anglican
Consultative Council (in Hong Kong) three weeks ago."
At that meeting Carey publicly censured New
Westminster as well as a U.S. and an Australian diocese
for making controversial decisions alone. 

Any deviation from the orthodoxy of the Roman Catholic,
Anglican, and Greek Orthodox churches on issues of
sexuality is "going to have major ecumenical
consequences," he added. "Any deviation from the
Lambeth resolution (on sexuality) is going to destabilize
the communion." 

Carey acknowledged that "homosexuals have had a very
bad deal in the church. I'm aware of their pain and I am
aware of pain within myself. I am a generous person and I
wish I were able to say yes, I could bless (same-sex
unions) but I can't bless what God doesn't." 

He defended his criticism of Bishop Michael Ingham and
New Westminster at the ACC meeting. He insisted that a
motion he presented, which said that all dioceses should
consult widely on controversial issues, was "not about
sexuality but about how we handled disagreement...It was
interesting that all three or four people (we named) spoke
up and said 'hey, why are you picking us out?' I was quite
happy that we probably got it about right when everyone
was twitchy." 

He said that Ingham had not consulted widely enough in
the Anglican Communion before consenting to same-sex
blessings. "If he had consulted widely, he would have
consulted with me as one of the fundamental instruments
of unity, with the primates' meeting, with the
inter-doctrinal commission." 

Carey also had a warning for the primate. "I understand
there are 13 bishops (in Canada) who are deeply
unhappy. If I were the primate I'd be very worried in case
a great fissure opened in the church of Canada, which
would be sad." 

Church leaders in Philippines lament public
apathy to anti-war drive 

(ENI) Church leaders lament that public support for an
anti-war campaign has been lukewarm after a series of
terrorist bombings in the Philippines. 

"Public support for the anti-war campaign had been
lukewarm, despite the clear anti-war positions of the
Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines and the
National Council of Churches in the Philippines," Bishop
Allan Ray Sarte of the United Church of Christ in the
Philippines told reporters on October 24. 

Government critics see the bombings as a reaction to their
government's all-out support for a possible United States
war against Iraq. The National Council of Churches,
which groups mainline Protestant churches, and the
Roman Catholic bishops issued separate statements
earlier this month advising the government of President
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to rethink its support for a
possible US intervention in Iraq without United Nations
sanction. 

Many religious groups and churches are talking to
parishioners and others, trying to drum up support for a
campaign "officially rebuking an imminent American
military campaign against Iraq and the Philippine
government's subservience to the US agenda," Sarte said.
But despite these meetings many Filipinos are simply
indifferent, he noted. The Rev. Israel Rada of the
Philippine Independent Church explained the apparent
apathy, saying: "Filipinos participate only if they are
directly affected." 

Elections give Kenyan opposition a chance,
churches urge peaceful process 

(ENI) Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of Kenya's founding
president, on October 23 launched his presidential
campaign and asked for prayers, while at the same time
African church leaders pleaded for peace in elections that
could see the ruling party lose for the first time. Kenyatta,
President Daniel arap Moi's favorite, was chosen as the
candidate for the ruling Kenya African National Union
(KANU), despite the opposition of some senior party
members, several of whom defected after he was
nominated. 

"This is formally the start of my presidential campaign,
and I ask for your blessings and prayers as I go into the
political battlefield," Kenyatta said near the ancestral
home of his father, the late Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, not far
from Mount Kenya in the country's central highlands. 

Moi is standing down after 24 years in power, and the
election, set for December, is seen as the best chance the
opposition has of ousting the ruling party from power
since the country's independence 40 years ago. 

The All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC), a
grouping of 168 member churches in 39 African countries
representing 80 million Christians, prefaced the campaign
by urging Kenyans to preserve peace in the build up to
the East African country's third multi-party elections. "It is
our prayer that this image of Kenya will be maintained in
the trying moments when electioneering tends to provoke
violence in many countries," said the AACC's interim
general secretary, Melaku Kifle, in a statement on
October 21. 

Kenyan church leaders had earlier expressed fears that
Moi might try to thwart the implementation of a new
constitution being debated in Kenya, the draft of which
was unveiled last month by the Constitution of Kenya
Review Commission (CRCK). The draft constitution
considerably reduces the power of the presidency and
suggests radical changes for the judiciary. The parliament
would be able to vet the appointment of cabinet ministers,
now the prerogative of the president. But Moi dismissed
the draft document as unsuitable for Kenyans and only
workable in Europe. 

The Reverend Peter Njoka, senior minister at All Saints
Cathedral in Nairobi, said: "The Anglican Church of
Kenya wants the forthcoming elections held under a new
constitution," noting that the process for it was
unstoppable. 

Scottish church guides children to safe surfing
on the Internet 

(ENI) Worries about children unwittingly "talking" to
strangers on the Internet and giving out vital personal or
family information have prompted the Scottish Episcopal
Church to launch a children's guide to safe surfing. 

The church's four-page leaflet offers advice on enjoying
the Internet without risk, and net-savvy children and their
parents are being encouraged to download the
information (at
www.scotland.anglican.org/SafeSurfing.doc). 

The church, which is part of the Anglican Communion,
has distributed the leaflet to its 350 churches throughout
Scotland. "There has been a lot of demand for this
material," said Barbara Steele, the church's child
protection officer. "The subject keeps coming up. People
are generally very worried about what children can come
across on the Internet." 

Children as young as nine are using chat rooms, says
Steele, who is worried that they are not being as careful
about giving out information in chat rooms as they are in
the street. She told ENI: "Children, particularly the
hearing-impaired and those who can't communicate in
other ways, find chat rooms incredibly liberating, but they
may not have thought it through." 

In the leaflet she advises: "If an adult you didn't know met
you in the street, you wouldn't give them any personal
details. You should treat people you meet on the net the
same as someone you met in the street." 

Youngsters are urged to use nicknames in chat rooms,
not their real names, and to tell an adult they trust if they
have got in too deep. "The person you met on the net will
probably say you shouldn't tell anyone because you will
get into trouble, or your parents or carer will throw you
out. This won't be true," says the leaflet. 

As a backup to other sources of help, Steele has included
her own phone number for children to use. She said: "I'm
not expecting floods of calls, but we'll see. Part of my life
is to be on call." 

Inter-faith leaders adopt peace declaration in
South Africa 

(ENI) Representatives from seven major religions and 21
African countries have adopted an historic declaration
committing themselves to working for peace on the
African continent. 

The great variety of delegates to the Inter-Faith Peace
Summit--among them South Africa's Chief Rabbi Cyril
Harris and Benin's High Priest of Voodoo, Houna
Agbessi Daagbo Hounon--underlined the summit's
achievement in forging a common dedication to peace.
Harris, Hounon and Ishmael Noko, general secretary of
the Lutheran World Federation, were among the more
than 100 delegates at the week-long summit, which
ended with a closing ceremony October 20. They
represented African traditional religion, the Baha'i faith,
Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and
various ecumenical and peace bodies. 

Delegates declared Africa a "continent of faith," but also
noted it was one of conflict and violence, causing
"intolerable human suffering," which "undermines
prospects of a better future in many countries and the
continent as a whole." They adopted a plan of action
calling on religious leaders to take "immediate" action in
areas of conflict such as Sudan, Cote d'Ivoire, Uganda
and the Democratic Republic of Congo. 

Religious leaders acknowledged that they had at times
neglected to promote peace, been intolerant of one
another's beliefs and failed to speak up and act against
injustice, corruption, poverty and dictatorial leadership. 

Noko described the declaration as a "landmark and a
cornerstone." He said the gathering had been "an
opportunity to listen to one another for the first time on a
pan-African level," and to identify common values. Now,
said Noko, he had the "courage to speak with my Muslim
brothers and sisters" on the issue of the Nigerian Muslim
woman who is due to be stoned for committing adultery.
"Until now it would have been difficult to do so." 

"Africans are to be continually enveloped in fire unless we
can do something about tolerance," he said. "We have to
emphasize the positive things about religion, and one of
those things is tolerance." Religious leaders, as elders of
the African community, were ideally placed to mediate
conflicts he said, such as that between British Prime
Minister Tony Blair and Zimbabwean President Robert
Mugabe. "[They] will never make it on their own. We
have to play a role," said Noko, who is Zimbabwean. 

Among the other South African religious leaders attending
the conference were Bishop Mvume Dandala, presiding
bishop of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa and
president of the South African Council of Churches;
Bishop Antonious Markos of the Coptic Orthodox
Church; Cardinal Wilfrid Napier from the Roman
Catholic Church; and Ntate Kgalushi Koka, representing
African Traditional Religion.