US Church backs abortion funding: CEN 12.18.09 p 5. December 28, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Abortion/Euthanasia/Biotechnology, Church of England Newspaper, The Episcopal Church.comments closed
The Episcopal Church has endorsed a letter to members of the United States Senate endorsing taxpayer funding of abortions.
On Dec 4, the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice released a letter endorsed by the Episcopal Church, Catholics for Choice and other liberal religious groups expressing their opposition to an amendment to the health care reform bill before Congress that would remove abortion funding from the proposed legislation.
“We believe that it is our social and moral obligation to ensure access to high quality comprehensive health care services at every stage in an individual’s life,” the RCRC letter said, noting that “affordable and accessible care for all” was “necessary for the well-being of all people in our nation.”
Abortion was an essential element of this health care, the letter said. The RCRC claimed the “House-passed version of health reform includes language that imposes significant new restrictions on access to abortion services. This provision would result in women losing health coverage they currently have, an unfortunate contradiction to the basic guiding principle of health care reform.”
Providing abortion coverage in the bill was “a moral imperative” and the “selective withdrawal of critical health coverage from women is both a violation of this imperative and a betrayal of the public good.”
The RCRC claimed the current bill was “abortion neutral” and prohibited “federal funds from being used to pay for abortion services, while still allowing women the option to use their own private funds to pay for abortion care.” However, this claim cannot be substantiated by the language of the bill, Republicans and pro-life Democrats in the Senate have charged, rejecting claims it was “neutral.”
Neva Rae Fox, a spokesman for the Episcopal Church, denied the letter called for public funding of abortions, saying it “simply asks that the Senate maintain current language on abortion, which takes a neutral position.”
The Episcopal Church’s Office of Government Relations endorsed the letter on behalf of the whole church “based on longstanding policies of the Church,” she said.
The interim director of the Government Relations office, Alexander Baumgarten said the church stance on abortion, which allowed it to commit the church to the RCRC’s letter, was based on a 1982 General Convention resolution which stated the church “expresses its unequivocal opposition to any legislation on the part of the national or state governments which would abridge or deny the right of individuals to reach informed decisions [on abortion] and to act upon them.”
Georgette Forney, president of Anglicans for Life, told The Church of England Newspaper the “only honest sentence” in the RCRC letter was the affirmation of “our social and moral obligation to ensure access to health care at every stage of a person’s life. Sadly their definition of life doesn’t include human beings in the womb.”
She challenged the accuracy of the RCRC’s claims, saying the letter “misrepresent many facts including falsely stating the House bill would limit women’s access to abortion and cause them to lose existing insurance coverage for abortion. “
“If the RCRC and the denominations they represent really cared about women and their health, they would be working in partnership with pregnancy resource centers, where volunteers provide real choices for women facing unexpected pregnancies,” Ms. Forney said, “instead the RCRC members endorse using our tax dollars pay abortion clinics to harm women and kill their babies.”
“Abortion is not health care and is not good for women’s health,” she said.
Arrest follows murder of priest in South Africa: CEN 12.18.09 p 6. December 28, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Southern Africa, Church of England Newspaper, Crime.comments closed
An arrest and conviction has been made in the murder of the Rev. Clive Newman, a lecturer at the Anglican Church of Southern Africa’s theological college in Grahamstown, who was found bludgeoned to death in his rooms in college on Nov 10.
On Dec 7, Bongani Poulas (25) pled guilty to the murder of Fr. Newman and was sentenced to 16 years imprisonment. The prosecution’s affidavit stated Poulas had been picked up while hitchhiking by Fr. Newman (45) and the two returned to the priest’s rooms at the College of the Transfiguration, where they spent the night together.
Poulas left the college the following morning, but returned shortly thereafter as he was unable to find a lift. He spent the day with Newman and on the second evening, Newman allegedly made sexual advances towards him, Poulas claimed.
He told prosecutors he left the priest’s rooms, but returned with a knobkierre—a traditional Zulu fighting club with a rounded knob at its end—and bludgeoned to death Fr. Newman. He then ransacked the apartment and fled in the deceased priest’s automobile.
On Dec 1 the Grahamstown Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions announced Poulas’ arrest, and stated the matter has been set down for a short hearing date before the local magistrate.
In 1991, Newman’s testimony led to the conviction of two gay serial killers. Antonie Wessels and Jean Havenga attacked Fr. Newman after he picked them up while hitchhiking. They slit his throat and left him for dead. However, he survived the attack and regained his voice—later rejoining his church choir—and identified his attackers.
Wessels and Havenga were convicted of the assault and of the murder of three other men during a cross-country crime spree. Wessels was hanged but the 16 year old Havenga was given a 25 year sentence.
Priest arrested on child porn charges: CEN 12.18.09 p 5. December 24, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Abuse, Anglican Church of Canada, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
An Anglican priest in Canada has been arrested for possession and distribution of child pornography. |
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The arrest on Dec 8 of the Rev Robin Barrett, rector of St John’s Anglican Church in Goulds, Newfoundland, is the second recent high-profile arrest of a clergyman in Canada for possession of child pornography.
On Sept 25 Ottawa police charged Roman Catholic Bishop Raymond Lahey with possessing and importing child pornography. Bishop Lahey, who resigned as Bishop of Antigonish in Nova Scotia shortly before his arrest, allegedly brought a laptop home to Canada that contained images the Canadian Border Services found of “concern” during a customs inspection.
The laptop was confiscated and after a forensic analysis the Catholic bishop was charged with possession of child pornography.
Fr Barrett was arrested after detectives in Toronto, posing as paedophiles on an internet chat room, struck up an on-line relationship with the priest, and allegedly received pornographic images from him. “I can tell you that they are images that involve, basically, sexual activity, and it involves infants and babies. This person had what I would consider a fairly large collection, however the age of the [people in the] collection really concerns us,” Detective Paul Krawczyk told the Toronto Globe & Mail.
The Rt Rev Cyrus Pitman, Bishop of the Diocese of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador, said Fr Barrett had been suspended from his post while the investigation is underway. The bishop said the diocese was co-operating with the police in this matter.
In 2003 Canada’s Anglican Journal published a profile of the priest, telling of his having left his wife and three children “to publicly live the rest of his life as a gay man.” He told the Journal it was his intention to abide by the church’s guidelines which only permit celibate gays and lesbians to serve as clergy.
Bishop Pitman he was worried that “people will connect this up with people who are gay and lesbian, which is unfortunate.”
Bulgaria rejects Calendar request: CEN 12.18.09 p 6. December 24, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Bulgarian Orthodox, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Bishops of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church have rejected a plea from Moscow-backed conservatives in the church to return to the observance of the Julian calendar. |
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On Dec 9, a spokesman said the calendar question would not be included on the agenda of the Dec 20 session of the Holy Synod, contradicting earlier press reports that had quoted several of the church’s senior bishops who said 2009 might be the last year the Bulgarian Orthodox Church celebrated Christmas on Dec 25.
The calendar question has long proven to be a point of contention among the Orthodox Churches. Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Greece, Cyprus, Romania, Poland and Bulgaria, follow a church calendar synchronized with the modern Gregorian calendar, celebrating Christmas on Dec 25. The Orthodox Churches of Jerusalem, Russia, Serbia, Ukraine, and Georgia use the traditional Julian calendar, with Christmas celebrated on Jan 7. The Armenian church uses a third calendar, celebrating Christmas on Jan 6.
In March 1916, the nation of Bulgaria adopted the Gregorian calendar, and in 1963, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church followed suit — prompting a split within the church between “Old Calendarists” and “New Calendarists.”
At the 2008 meeting of synod, five bishops pushed for the return of the Julian calendar, however, a spokesman for the council, Patriarch Tihon, said: “There is no need to change the calendar, more so because Bulgaria is on the road to Western Europe where holidays are established and are celebrated on the same day.”
The Julian calendar was created by the astronomer Sosigenes for Julius Caesar and introduced in 44 BC and was adopted by the First Ecumenical Council that met in Nicaea in 325 for use in the Church’s liturgical year.
However, the Julian calendar is inaccurate by 11 minutes each year, and in 1582 astronomers commissioned by Pope Gregory XIII unveiled a new calendar that corrected this error — the Gregorian calendar.
The Roman Catholic and Protestant world adopted this new calendar, but in 1583 the Orthodox rejected it as heretical. Whoever followed the “new calendar of the atheist astronomers of the Pope; and, opposing the Councils, wishes to overthrow and destroy the doctrines and customs of the Church, which we have inherited from our Fathers, let any such have the anathema and let him be outside the Church and the Assembly of the Faithful,” Patriarchs Jeremias II of Constantinople, Sylvester of Alexandria and Sophronios of Jerusalem decreed.
However, in 1923 Patriarch Meletios of Constantinople convened an “Inter-Orthodox Congress” where a majority of churches adopted a revised Julian calendar, which is synchronized with the Gregorian calendar until the Twenty-third century.
The push to adopt the old Julian calendar in Bulgaria appears to be part of the rivalry between the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Russian Orthodox Church for leadership of the orthodox world, with the pro-Moscow faction pushing for the Julian calendar.
Change may come with a new patriarch, however, as the leader of the Bulgarian Church, the 95-year-old Patriarch Maxim, has opposed any change.
No discussion of Act of Succession: CEN 12.11.09 p 6. December 24, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Canada, Church of England, Church of England Newspaper, Politics.comments closed
The repeal of the 1701 Act of Settlement that bans the monarch from marrying a Roman Catholic was not discussed at last week’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm) in Trinidad, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key reports.
Mr. Key told the New Zealand Herald that discussions on the environment took up most of the meeting of government leaders from the Commonwealth nations. Aides to Prime Minister Gordon Brown last week said the question of ending the ban on the monarch marrying a Roman Catholic or ending the law of primogeniture that favors sons over daughters in the line of succession would be raised “on the margins” of the meeting.
On Nov 24 the member for Abingdon and Oxford West, Dr. Evan Harris (Lib Dem) urged the government to raise the issue in Trinidad with the Commonwealth leaders. “All Gordon Brown has to do is to consult Commonwealth Heads of Government so that we can get rid of this discriminatory symbol at the heart of our constitution,” he said.
“It’s hard to believe that countries like Canada and Australia would demand that discrimination against Catholics and women continues,” said Dr. Harris, who earlier this year brought a private members bill before parliament to overturn the Act.
At Prime Minister’s Questions Time Dr. Harris asked Mr. Brown if he believed Commonwealth leaders would support a repeal of the laws.
The prime minister responded by saying “most people recognise the need for change. Change can only be brought about by not just the UK but all realms where Her Majesty is Queen making a decision to change.
“That is why it’s important to discuss this with all members of the Commonwealth including countries such as Australia and Canada.” Mr. Brown said.
In March 2008, Justice Minister Jack Straw told Parliament that he fully understood the Act of Settlement was “seen as something which is antiquated.”
However, “lifting the prohibition on heirs to the throne from marrying Catholics is not straightforward as it raises broader issues relating to the Established Church.” He told MPs “because of the position Her Majesty occupies as head of the Anglican Church, it is rather more complicated than maybe anticipated, but we are certainly ready to consider this.”
Altering the Act of Succession is unlikely to be accomplished by the current government however, as it must also be approved by the governments where the Queen is the constitutional monarch and sovereign: Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, St Christopher and Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Tuvalu.
Prime Minister John Key says New Zealand will give its support to change.
However Canada will most likely balk at supporting the change. Under the terms of Canada’s 1982 constitution, laws governing the monarchy and the status of the French language can be changed only by the unanimous consent of the 10 provinces and the federal parliament. This unanimous consent has never been achieved in Canadian politics, including the introduction of the 1982 constitution—which was passed over Quebec’s objections.
Domestic Canadian political concerns make it highly unlikely that the laws governing the office of the Queen could be changed without affecting the French language laws. A political stalemate is currently in place that would see ‘Catholic’ Quebec likely block any laws changing the Act of Settlement for fear of losing the French language’s special protections.
Schism ‘now inevitable’ for Anglican Communion: CEN 12.11.09 p 4. December 23, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Human Sexuality --- The gay issue, Los Angeles.comments closed
The election of Mary Glasspool will likely put the final nail in the coffin of the Anglican Communion, evangelical leaders warn, and end Archbishop Rowan Williams’ hopes that an Anglican Covenant can hold the communion together.
Elected suffragan bishop of Los Angeles on Dec 5, Canon Glasspool is the first openly gay priest elected to the episcopate in the US following that church’s vote in July to end the ban on gay bishops and blessings.
While evangelical leaders have voiced disapproval with her election, the level of discord over her election is far below that of Gene Robinson’s election in 2003. South Carolina Bishop Mark Lawrence observed that it was bound to happen. “I can’t say it surprises me,” he told the Los Angeles Times, adding that the election would further divide an already crippled church.
“Is there anything that can be done to bridge it? No one has come up with it yet,” Bishop Lawrence said.
The Archbishop of Sydney, Dr. Peter Jensen told The Church of England Newspaper the election was “sad but not surprising.”
Its confirmation “will make clear beyond any doubt whatsoever that the TEC [the Episcopal Church] leadership has chosen to walk in a way which is contrary to scripture and will continue to do so,” he said.
Speaking on behalf of the GAFCON primates Dr. Jensen Saturday’s vote “confirms the rightness of GAFCON in producing the Jerusalem Declaration and establishing the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA).”
“The aim of the FCA is to recognise and give fellowship to those who wish to remain faithful to God’s revealed word and also to defend and promote biblical teaching throughout the Communion,” he said, adding that “it is all the more urgent that those who share the aims of the FCA should associate themselves with the movement and express their disapproval of actions which are contrary to scripture and contrary to historic Anglicanism.”
It also gives Dr. Williams “every reason to act decisively and dissociate from the Episcopal Church and to recognise the Anglican Church of North America,” Dr. Jensen said.
The Rev. Rod Thomas of Reform stated that at this point, a “schism is absolutely inevitable” with the communion.
Sydney Bishop Robert Forsyth told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Dec 7 the Anglican Communion “as a united body is now history.”
The election of Canon Glasspool alone did not kill the communion, “it just continues to cement the trajectory towards a restructuring of the Anglican Communion in the world,” he said.
Anglican Mainstream said it was “saddened but not surprised” by the election. “Unless their diocesan bishops and their standing committees decline to endorse the election, it will confirm that TEC had no intention of respecting the mind of the Communion and halting their current trajectory.”
“For any who doubted” the formation of the breakaway Anglican Church in North America was “justified,” this “latest announcement, made in full knowledge of its negative effect on the Communion’s Covenant process, will confirm that TEC, rather than wanting to remain within the Communion’s bonds of affection, is determined to walk away and follow its own path,” Dr Philip Giddings and Canon Chris Sugden said.
Dr. Kendall Harmon, canon theologian of the Diocese of South Carolina observed “this decision represents an intransigent embrace of a pattern of life Christians throughout history and the world have rejected as against biblical teaching.”
“It will add further to the Episcopal Church’s incoherent witness and chaotic common life, and it will continue to do damage to the Anglican Communion and her relationship with our ecumenical partners” he said after the vote on Dec 5.
The greatest damage however, will likely accrue to Dr. Rowan Williams African church leaders tell CEN. The election was not unexpected; “can a leopard change his spots,” one leader said. But those Global South leaders questioned by CEN all spoke of a “profound disappointment” with Dr. Williams’ handling of the crisis, that dates back to the aftermath of the 2007 Dar es Salaam primates meeting.
“I don’t think he completely understands how much trust and good will he lost after his changing of their decisions and the processes they laid out” in Dar es Salaam, a source said. The actions taken by the Global South over the past two years—speaking out, boycotting Lambeth, and breaking fellowship with the Episcopal Church have not had any effect.
The Episcopal Church will not stop, and Dr. Williams will not act, he said.
“The best the provinces can do that care about this is to find like-minded provinces, link up together, and carry on, and leave the others behind,” said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak on behalf of his primate said. “I think that’s called schism.”
New Primate elected in the West Indies: CEN 12.18.09 p 5 December 22, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of the West Indies.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Bishop of Barbados, Dr John Holder has been elected Primate of the Church of the Province of the West Indies. |
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Meeting at the Georgetown’s Convention Hall in Guyana, on Dec 10 the provincial synod elected Dr Holder to succeed Archbishop Drexel Gomez as primate and archbishop of the church in the English-language nations of the Caribbean, Belize and Guyana. Details of the vote tally have not been released, but the new archbishop bested the Bishop of Jamaica in the final round of voting.
“It is an honour to be elected. It’s a challenging task, but I am sure I would do my very best to carry on the good work of my predecessors,” Dr Holder told representatives of the Barbadian press after his election.
Educated at Codrington College in Barbados, Dr Holder was ordained a deacon in 1974 and priest in 1975 for the Diocese of the Windward Islands at St George’s Cathedral in St Vincent. He served two years as curate of the cathedral before returning to Codrington College to serve as a tutor in Biblical Studies. He earned degrees from the University of the West Indies and the University of the South in the United States, and in 1981 began doctoral studies at Kings College, London, earning a PhD in 1985.
Upon his return to Barbados, he rejoined the staff of Codrington College as Lecturer in Old Testament Studies while also serving as priest in charge of a several parishes on the island. In 2000 he was elected 13th Bishop of Barbados.
Married with one son, Dr Holder faces a challenging environment as archbishop. Crime and social issues have been primary topics of concern in recent years in the West Indies, and the church has been at the forefront of moves to strengthen the family and social structures on the islands. It has also taken the lead in opposing the reinstitution of the death penalty in the West Indies — reintroduced by several countries in response to the drugs-fuelled crime wave of the past decade.
The new archbishop is expected to continue the domestic and international policies of his predecessor, Archbishop Drexel Gomez, who like Dr Holder served as a tutor at Codrington College and as Bishop of Barbados.
Kunonga launches Christmas offensive against worshippers: CEN 12.11.09 p 6. December 18, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Persecution, Politics, Zimbabwe.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Dr Nolbert Kunonga has begun a Christmas offensive against the Diocese of Harare, using the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) to disrupt services and drive off parishioners loyal to Bishop Chad Gandiya and the Church of the Province of Central Africa. |
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Since the start of Advent the ZRP and Kunonga loyalists have disrupted services and locked out congregations across the diocese loyal to Dr Gandiya and the Church of the Province of Central Africa (CPCA).
Dr Kunonga’s fresh campaign for control of the church in Harare is a “real test to the fragile government of National Unity,” the Rev Paul Gwese reported, “as it was at the intervention of the co-ministers of Home Affairs” that Anglicans were able to “use their churches without been disrupted by rogue police officers aligned to Kunonga.”
In an email sent to supporters dated Nov 29, Dr Gandiya recounted how the ZRP and Kunonga clergy broke up a service he was leading at St Clare’s Mission in Murewa.
Upon arriving at the mission the bishop found the church locked, and occupied by pre-school children. The “Kunonga priest” in control of the property refused to allow Dr Gandiya to worship, and left to telephone Harare for instructions.
Dr Gandiya reported that he decided to hold a service outside the church, but proceeded first to the local police station to inform them of his intentions. The police offered no objections, he said.
Upon returning to the church, the bishop found the children had left, and the congregation proceeded to move inside and to hold a service of Holy Communion. “As I was doing the thanksgiving prayer the dean noticed the police walking outside and he went out to see them and was not allowed back in the church,” the bishop wrote.
“He and the churchwarden who had accompanied us to the police were detained in one of the police vehicles. There were about 10 policemen and six of Kunonga’s priests,” the bishop said.
“Just before we distributed the communion elements the police walked in and started driving people out of the building. They also asked us to vacate the building and so we quickly and unceremoniously cleared the altar and went outside. I tried to ask why they were driving the people out of the church but they just kept doing it,” he said.
The bishop said it was “very humiliating” but he “remembered the Passion of Christ and in particular his humiliation. I said to myself this is nothing compared to what Jesus went through. They started accusing us of refusing to listen and breaking the law. Even the officer in charge who had told us to go ahead with our service joined in accusing us of not listening to advice.”
The police officer in command “continued to accuse us of breaking the law and did not want us to explain anything. He also said he would have tear-gassed us if he had wanted to and that we would not be able to appeal to anyone” because the ZRP police commissioner was “aware of what he was doing.”
Dr Gandiya asked supporters to pray for his clergy and the people of the diocese and pray “the authorities in Zimbabwe to stop the police from harassing our peaceful people who simply want worship their God without interference from the police.”
Bishop elected to new CEC role: CEN 12.18.09 December 18, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England, Church of England Newspaper, Ecumenical.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Bishop of Guilford, the Rt Rev Christopher Hill has been elected vice-president of the Conference of European Churches (CEC). |
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On Dec 16 the CEC Central Committee elected Bishop Hill and the Rev. Cordelia Kopsch of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany (EKD) as its vice presidents, and Metropolitan Emmanuel of France as president of the fellowship of 120 Orthodox, Protestant and Anglican churches in Europe.
A native of Crete, Metropolitan Emmanuel, was appointed by the Ecumenical Patriarch as head of the Liaison Office of the Orthodox Church to the European Union in Brussels in 1995 and appointed a bishop the following year. In 2003 he was appointed the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s Metropolitan of the Holy Metropolis of France.
Pastor Kopsch is Senior Vice President of the Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau, a member church of the EKD. She has held this post since 2005.
In his acceptance speech, Metropolitan Emmanuel said he hoped to “reinforce the involvement of the Orthodox Churches and to encourage their constructive presence in the life of CEC.”
The reintegration of the Russian Orthodox Church into CEC would be a priority, he said. In 2008 Moscow withdrew from CEC after the Estonian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate was denied membership in CEC, although in 2007 it granted membership to the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church backed by the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
Sudan ‘on brink of civil war’: CEN 12.11.09 p 5. December 18, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Arms Control/Defense/Peace Issues, Church of England Newspaper, Episcopal Church of the Sudan, Politics.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Sudan is on the brink of civil war, the Provincial Standing Committee of the Episcopal Church of the Sudan (ECS) has warned in a statement released last week. |
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“With less than five months before National Elections and just over one year to the referendum on southern self-determination, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) is on the brink of collapse due to contentions over the referendum law, the demarcation of the January 1, 1956 borders, and violence recently perpetrated by other armed groups,” the ECS Standing Committee said at the close of its Nov 23-27 meeting in Rumbek.
In a July briefing, the International Crisis Group (ICG) — a national security thinktank — reported the Islamist-backed National Congress Party (NCP) government in Khartoum had reneged on the terms of the peace treaty that ended 28 years of civil war.
The IGC stated the NCP government had “held back the key concessions required for the democratic transformation” of the Sudan set forth in the CPA, “including repeal of repressive laws and restoration of basic freedom of association and expression, and it has blocked the actions necessary for a peaceful referendum, such as a credible census, demarcation of the border, fuller wealth-sharing and de-escalation of local conflicts in the transitional areas of Abyei, South Kordofan/Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile.”
The Khartoum government “appears to have decided to allow neither the secession of South Sudan nor meaningful political reforms in the North,” the ICG said.
There is “no alternative” to the CPA, the church warned. “It must be fully implemented” by both the North and South, and “must be fully supported by those guarantor governments who promised to do so in 2005.”
Following a state visit to Nairobi on Oct 28 by South Sudan President Salva Kiir, Prime Minister Raila Odinga said “Kenya as the principle Guarantor to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement wants to see the implementation of the accord to the letter as the African Union and UN seeks amicable solution to the Darfur conflict.”
US Special Envoy Lt Gen Scott Gration has also vowed to make saving the CPA a top priority of the Obama administration. However, the “inter-ethnic violence currently witnessed across much of Southern Sudan, the ongoing violence against civilians in Darfur, and the violent attacks on civilians being perpetrated by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in the south-west of the country,” was destabilizing the region, the church warned.
The escalation of violence “will make registration and voting in the elections and referendum very difficult,” the church warned. “The conclusion that is drawn is that this violence is intended to negatively affect the elections and referendum,” it concluded.
The ECS urged the national and southern governments “and the international guarantor nations of the CPA to uphold their promises of equality and freedom to the people of Sudan,” and act now to prevent the slide into war.
Canadian government urged to crack down on trafficking ahead of Winter Olympics: CEN 12.11.09 p 4. December 18, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Canada, Church of England Newspaper, Crime.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Anglican and Roman Catholic bishops in Canada have urged their government to crack down on human trafficking and prostitution at next year’s Winter Olympics. |
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At a press conference held at Christ Church Anglican Cathedral in Vancouver on Nov 20 the Rt Rev Michael Ingham, Bishop of New Westminster and acting co-chairman of the meeting read a statement highlighting the churches’ concerns. The Olympic Torch Relay is on a 106-day journey around Canada, making its way towards Vancouver for the start of the Games on Feb 12.
“We, the bishops of the Anglican-Roman Catholic Bishops’ Dialogue, stand together to call attention to the profound social ill of human trafficking,” Bishop Ingham said on behalf of the five Anglican and five Roman Catholic bishops who met for the 34th annual Anglican – Roman Catholic Bishops Dialogue of Canada held at the Vancouver School of Theology from Nov 18-20.
“The buying and selling of human beings subverts the very essence of the Olympic spirit,” he said, noting that over 800,000 people are trafficked across national borders each year.
“We call upon the faithful of our churches and all people of good will to uphold and defend the dignity of every human person,” they said. “We pray that the solidarity and success of the Olympic Games will give a new respect for human life around the world.”
Catholic co-chairman Bishop Gary Gordon of Whitehorse told the press conference the two churches had not yet undertaken any joint initiatives to combat trafficking, but the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver had initiated an internal education campaign. In February the Catholic bishops of British Columbia and the Yukon released a pastoral letter condemning trafficking and calling on people in all levels of society to do what they could to stop the illegal practice.
Bishop Gordon said the Anglican bishops had endorsed the Catholic campaign and wished to add their voice to the movement.
“It’s not clear what we could do as church people to stop this, but we can raise awareness among our own people that it might be happening,” Bishop Ingham said.
Peterborough benefits most from church investments: CEN 12.11.09 p 6. December 16, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Anglican Diocese of Peterborough receives over 13 times the income per member from investments and non-parochial income as the Diocese of Guilford, according to a report given to Parliament by the Second Church Estates Commissioner last week. |
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In response to a question from the Shadow Minister for Health, Mr Stephen O’Brien (Eddisbury, Cons.) for a breakdown of income between parish share and other income per church ‘member’, on Nov 26 Sir Stuart Bell reported that for the church as a whole, the income per church member in 2007 was £496. Of this, £304 came from parish giving while £192 came from other income.
“Church membership is estimated as an average of electoral roll, average Sunday attendance and average weekly attendance numbers,” Sir Stuart said, noting that the member’s question as to diocesan spending per church member was not collected by the Church Commissioners.
Diocesan ‘other’ income varied widely, with Peterborough reporting £886 per member, while Guilford reported £68.
The disparity in income may force several dioceses to cut back on staff and programme as a result of the economic downturn. The Diocese of Winchester, which came in on the low end of the ‘other’ income table at £74, but in 2007 reported above average parish share income of £ 316 on Nov 28 cut £1.6m from its 2010 budget after many parishes reported they were unable to meet the 3.8 per cent increase in requested contributions.
The Rt Rev Michael Scott-Joynt, Bishop of Winchester, said the diocese was “dependent on the generous giving of parishioners.
“We have very little historic income, and we face the likelihood of less income from the parishes next year than we would need to sustain all our present expenditure through 2010,” he said.
Police make arrest after priest’s murder: CEN 12.15.09 December 16, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Southern Africa, Church of England Newspaper, Crime.comments closed
| Police have made an arrest in the murder of the Rev Clive Newman, a lecturer at the Anglican Church of Southern Africa’s theological college in Grahamstown, who was found bludgeoned to death in his rooms in college on Nov 10.
On Dec 1 the Director of Public Prosecutions announced that an unnamed man had been arrested and was being held in custody for the murder of Fr Newman. |
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The prosecution’s affidavit states the suspect, a 25-year old man, had been picked up while hitchhiking by Fr Newman (45) and the two returned to the priest’s rooms at the College of the Transfiguration, where they spent the night together.
The suspect left the college the following morning, but returned shortly thereafter as he was unable to find a lift. The suspect spent the day with Newman and on the second evening, Newman allegedly made sexual advances towards the suspect, the affidavit stated.
The suspect allegedly left the priest’s rooms, but returned with a knobkierre — a traditional Zulu fighting club with a rounded knob at its end — and bludgeoned to death Fr Newman. The suspect ransacked the apartment and fled in the deceased priest’s car.
The Grahamstown Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions reports the matter has been set down for a short hearing date before the local magistrate.
In 1991, Newman’s testimony led to the conviction of two gay serial killers. Antonie Wessels and Jean Havenga attacked Fr Newman after he picked them up while hitchhiking. They slit his throat and left him for dead. However, he survived the attack and regained his voice — later rejoining his church choir — and identified his attackers.
Wessels and Havenga were convicted of the assault and of the murder of three other men during a cross-country crime spree. Wessels was hanged but the 16-year-old Havenga was given a 25-year sentence.
Abusing clergy ‘under God’s judgement’: CEN 12.11.09 p 6. December 14, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Abuse, Church of England Newspaper, Church of Ireland.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
“God’s judgment will follow” those clergy who abused the trust of the people of Dublin and sexually abused children, the Anglican Archbishop of Dublin, Dr John Neill said this week in response to the public release of the Murphy Report by the Irish government. The capacity for evil existed within every human breast, the Archbishop said, and “sadly the very structures of both church and of society which were there to protect the most vulnerable ended up merely protecting themselves. This does not excuse the betrayal of trust and the misuse of authority at every level” he said on Dec 1. |
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The Murphy Report investigated the Roman Catholic Church’s handling of allegations of sexual abuse laid against 46 priests of the archdiocese of Dublin between Jan 1, 1975 and April 30, 2004. The report identified 440 victims and stated that Archbishops John Charles McQuaid, Dermot Ryan, Kevin McNamara, and Desmond Connell, had acted improperly in investigating and responding to the allegations. It also faulted the Gardaí, accusing the police services of covering up the scandal.
The report documented a culture of cover-up within the church over clergy sexual abuse. One priest who admitted his guilt, confessed to having committed sexual abuse over 100 times, while a second admitted to having abused children for 25 years. The former Archbishop of Dublin, Cardinal Connell offered his apologies for his actions saying he bitterly regretted “that failures on my part contributed to the suffering of victims in any form.”
Ireland’s police commissioner, Fachtna Murphy offered his apologies as well. “Because of acts or omissions, individuals who sought assistance did not always receive the level of response or protection which any citizen in trouble is entitled to expect,” he said.
Justice Minister Dermot Ahern pledged that those “who committed these dreadful crimes — no matter when they happened — will continue to be pursued”
Dr Neill said the report “makes horrific reading,” but he applauded those victims who had come forward. “In having the courage to bring to light the dreadful experiences of their own childhood, the victims of abuse have challenged the whole of Irish society. They have performed an invaluable service to those who might be at risk now or indeed into the future,” he said.
“The tragedy is that abuse and the secrecy surrounding it has ruined so many young lives,” he said, citing the words of Mark 9:42. ‘If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea.’
“As Churches, we have continually to monitor and supervise all who are involved in the care of the young and of vulnerable adults, and it is encouraging that this process is now well established both in churches and in the wider community,” Dr Neill said, adding that “such processes must be under constant review. It is only with constant vigilance, coupled with honesty and openness that the evil of abuse can be countered.”
Church in Quebec is ‘dying’: CEN 12.04.09 p 7. December 13, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Canada, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
The Diocese of Quebec is all but dead, its bishop told the Canadian House of Bishop at their fall meeting in Niagara Falls, the Anglican Journal of Canada reports.
The Rt. Rev. Dennis Drainville said his diocese was “teetering on the verge of extinction” according to an account given by the church’s official newspaper.
Of the diocese’s 82 congregations, 50 were childless and 35 congregations had an average age of 75. These graying congregations often had no more than 10 people in church on Sundays, he said. “The critical mass isn’t there, there’s no money anymore,” he said.
Falling attendance is not solely confined to the Anglican Church, however. Until the 1960’s Catholic Church attendance stood at more than 90 per cent. However, According to a 2008 Léger Marketing poll, the proportion of Quebec’s nearly six million Catholics who attend mass weekly now stands at 6 per cent, the lowest of any Western society.
To combat the decline, Bishop Drainville, who told his colleagues it was very possible he would be the “last bishop of Quebec,” urged the House of Bishops to re-imagine how the church could engage society.
A church should provide a “a compassionate, caring community, a transformational relationship with God, and life-changing liturgy,” the bishop said. Anglicans had all three, but seemed unable to “present this to society.”
In 1901 ‘mainline’ Protestants, predominantly Anglicans, Presbyterians, Methodists and Baptists made up 56 per cent of the Canadian population. By 2001 this had fallen to 29 per cent. However, within the Protestant totals a dramatic shift away from the mainline churches has taken place, Dr. Bruce Guenther, associate professor of church history and Mennonite studies at Associated Canadian Theological Seminaries has noted.
Guenther found that total Protestant attendance had not declined in real numbers over the last quarter-century but there has been a massive shift within Protestantism. The mainline churches attendance declined by 33 per cent between 1981 and 2001, while evangelical church attendance rose by 50 per cent and was now 25 per cent larger than the old ‘mainline’.
Between 1961 and 2001 the Anglican Church of Canada lost 53 per cent of its members, with numbers declining from 1.36 million to just 642,000. The rate of decline has increased in recent years, according to an independent report given to the Canadian House of Bishops in 2006 by retired marketing expert Keith McKerracher.
After the report’s release, McKerracher said, “My point to the bishops was: Hey listen, guys, we’re declining much faster than any other church. We’re losing 12,836 Anglicans a year. That’s 2 percent a year. If you draw a line on the graph, there’ll only be one person left in the Canadian Anglican church by 2061.”
In his comments to the House of Bishops last month, Bishop Drainville said Quebec would not be the only diocese to go under. “There will be many other dioceses that will fail.”
Church welcomes Nigerian amnesty offer: CEN 12.04.09 p 6. December 11, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Nigeria, Politics.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Church leaders in Nigeria have applauded President Umaru Yar’Adua’s offer of amnesty to militants in the Niger Delta who have laid down their arms, but have also urged the government not to stint on its promise to integrate the former militants into society. On Nov 16 the Archbishop of the Niger Delta province of the Church of Nigeria, Bishop Ugochukwu Ezuoke of Aba told a public gathering the President was right not to seek a military solution to the insurgency in the Delta. |
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“We thank all those whom God has used as instruments in returning the Niger Delta to the path of peace,” he told the Vanguard newspaper. “If not for the amnesty, children of the region would have grown up to seek revenge.”
In August, the government announced an amnesty programme that promised jobs training and a temporary monthly stipend of 65,000 naira (£260) for rebels in the Rivers and Delta states who turned themselves in to the government by Oct 4. Between 15,000 and 20,000 former gunmen signed up for the programme, bringing a halt to violence in the region.
However, on Nov 16 hundreds of former militants took to the streets in Port Harcourt to protest the government’s failure to make the first amnesty payment. Rioters looted shops and paralyzed the city until security forces intervened and escorted the militants back to their internment camps.
Tribal and economic jealousies have plagued Nigeria in recent decades, with residents of the Niger Delta claiming the bulk of the region’s oil wealth has been spent outside of the south. President Yar’Adua has offered to allocate 10 per cent of Nigeria’s oil joint ventures to Niger Delta communities, and approved 200 billion naira (£800 million) in federal funding to build roads, hospitals and schools in the region.
Bishops in the Niger Delta have backed the government’s plans to seek a peaceful solution to the dispute with Nigeria’s main militant group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), arguing that no amount of military force could resolve the conflict that has brought economic and social progress in the region to a standstill.
Priest loses case for unfair dismissal: CEN 12.04.09 p 4. December 11, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
A Midlands priest banned last year by tribunal from officiating in the Church of England for 10 years after it found him guilty of adultery, has lost his case for unfair dismissal. |
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The Rev Patrick Okechi was sacked as vicar of the Church of the Good Shepherd with St John in West Bromwich three years ago, and was sanctioned by an ecclesiastical court in 2008. At an employment tribunal hearing in Birmingham last week, Mr Okechi was told by the court that he had missed the deadline for filing an application for relief.
Mr Okechi told the court the lawyer provided by the diocese to assist him in his defence had colluded with the diocese to wreck his appeal. He claimed that he had been told by the diocese that he should have an attorney, and “the Church of England insisted on me having their own solicitors who I felt misled me.”
He argued that he had instructed his lawyer to begin an appeal of his dismissal in December 2008, but she took no action. His appeal was further delayed by his eviction from the parish vicarage in West Bromwich in July.
“I have been homeless because the respondent evicted me and I have been practically on the streets,” he told the tribunal.
However, he was given until last Friday to provide documentary evidence that the Diocese had acted against him. At the hearing Dr Okechi withdrew the charges. Responding to the judgement, Gavin Drake, director of communications for the Diocese of Lichfield, said: “This has been a very long process for all concerned. But the Employment Tribunal claim is now at an end, the vicarage has been vacated and a new priest has been appointed to the Church of the Good Shepherd. The parish can now look forward to the future with a fresh start and we are delighted to have reached this point at long last.”
West Indies prepares to elect a new Primate: CEN 12.10.09 December 10, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of the West Indies.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper’s Religious Intelligence section.
The Church of the Province of the West Indies will elect a new primate today to succeed Archbishop Drexel Gomez of the Bahamas at a meeting of its provincial synod in Georgetown, Guyana. The Rt Rev Errol Brooks, Bishop of North East Caribbean and Aruba, has served as acting primate since Archbishop Gomez’ retirement at the end of 2008. The province has been unable to elect a primate due to the episcopal vacancy in the diocese of Guyana. |
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On Feb 12 delegates to a special meeting of the Guyana synod held in Queenstown were unable to elect a bishop to succeed Bishop Randolph George, who retired after 29 years as bishop. The failed Guyana election has also postponed the selection of a new archbishop for the province as the canons require a full House of Bishops to select the new primate.
Diocesan chancellor Desiree Bernard wrote to the House of Bishops asking that they appoint a bishop, a course open to the diocese under the provincial canons in the event of a failed election. On Aug 27 the bishops elected the Ven Cornell Moss, Archdeacon of the Northern Bahamas as bishop, and on Dec 8 he was consecrated at St George’s Cathedral in Georgetown, and the election for a new primate has been scheduled for Dec 10.
Three bishops are standing for election as primate, Dr John Holder of Barbados, Dr Alfred Reid of Jamaica, and Bishop Brooks. While all three have been strong opponents of the developments in the North American church over issues of human sexuality, the candidates differ in their approach to addressing the issue, with Dr Reid supporting a more conciliatory approach, while Bishop Brooks has followed Archbishop Gomez in distancing the province from the Episcopal Church.
Queen’s Bermuda service: CEN 12.04.09 p 1. December 10, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Bermuda, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh attended a service of thanksgiving on Nov 25 at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Hamilton to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the settlement of Bermuda.
On the second day of their three-day tour of Bermuda, the Royal couple joined 500 worshippers, local dignitaries and Foreign Secretary David Miliband at a 45-minute choral morning prayer service at the island’s Anglican Cathedral.
The Bishop of Bermuda, the Rt. Rev. Patrick White spoke of the island’s troubled racial history and the church’s tacit support for the slave trade. The church’s support and financial reliance on the labour of slaves was a “dark time” in its history, he observed.
“But where was the church. There in the middle still baptising, burying and so on but not rising above and challenging the process of slavery in any significant way at first.”
Bermuda’s history as having been founded as a commercial venture could be seen today in the materialism and consumerism many of its residents pursued, the bishop said. The lack of spiritual values was contributing to a violence prone younger generation, and a reawakening of racial tensions, Dr. White told the congregation.
The Queen’s first visit to Bermuda took place in 1953. Following the ceremony the Queen toured the naval dockyards, and a state dinner was held at government house at the end of the day. The Royal couple will travel on to Trinidad at the conclusion of their state visit.
Abortion guidelines ordered to be withdrawn: CEN 12.04.09 p 7. December 10, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Abortion/Euthanasia/Biotechnology, Church of England Newspaper, Church of Ireland.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
A High Court Judge in Belfast has ordered the Northern Ireland Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety to withdraw its medical guidelines on abortion, saying the government rules were misleading. On Nov 30, Lord Justice Girvan found that while the government’s guidance was correct in parts, it misled doctors and medical staff on questions of counselling and conscientious objection. |
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Abortion is illegal in Northern Ireland and is permitted only in cases where the life or long-term mental well-being of the mother is at risk.
Government guidance issued earlier this year stated that non-judgmental non-directive counseling should be available to women before, during and after termination of pregnancy. Lord Girvan said this statement was unclear and could lead to counselling practices currently forbidden by law, such as recommending travel to other parts of the UK for an abortion.
The court said that while medical staff had the right to refuse to take part in an abortion procedure, the language of the government guidelines was unclear.
A spokesman for the Lord Chief Justice’s office said: “Lord Justice Girvan concluded that, having regard to those aspects of the Guidance dealing with counselling and with conscientious objection which fail to give fully clear and accurate guidance, the court should order that the Guidance be withdrawn with a view to it being reconsidered by the Department taking account of the contents of his judgment.”
The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), which brought the case to court, welcomed the decision. Liam Gibson, of SPUC Northern Ireland, said: “We are very pleased that the court has highlighted some of the problems with the health department’s abortion guidance.
“Abortion is not health care,” he said. “In Northern Ireland it is a criminal offence. It is simply extraordinary that a government department should have issued guidance on criminal legislation and not have once mentioned the victim of the crime.
“The law in Northern Ireland protects both women and children and new guidance must reflect that,” Mr Gibson said.
NHS criticized over priest’s murder: CEN 12.04.09 p 5. December 10, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church in Wales, Church of England Newspaper, Crime.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The death of the Rev Paul Bennett, at the hands of a paranoid schizophrenic who fell through the cracks of the NHS, is a personal tragedy for his family and the Church in Wales, but also an indictment of the substandard care given to the mentally ill across Britain, the Archbishop of Wales tells The Church of England Newspaper. On Nov 27 a report released by Healthcare Inspectorate Wales found the NHS’s failure to provide adequate supervision and care for Geraint Evans contributed to the death of Fr Bennett.. |
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“While the homicide of Fr Paul could not have been predicted, had (Evans) received appropriate care and treatment, the risk of him committing an act of violence or homicide might have been reduced,” concluded Dr Peter Higson, the head of the Healthcare Inspectorate
On March 14, 2007, Fr Bennett was murdered outside of the vicarage of St Fagan’s Church, Trecynon, Aberdare, by Evans. He was a “compassionate and diligent priest,” said Dr Barry Morgan; one “who cared deeply for all his parishioners and is still very much missed.”
Since the age of 11, Evans had displayed serious behavioural problems, including the sexual assault of young girl, but had never been properly assessed and diagnosed, the report found, noting that even after slitting his own throat outside the vicarage in Aberdare in July 2006, Evans was allowed to walk free from hospital because there was a 40-minute delay before he could be seen by the psychiatric team.
The Healthcare Inspectorate found that a lack of concern and communication meant that Evans’ GP and community workers were not notified of the suicide attempt. The report went on to list a number of failures with the NHS system including failing to offer bereavement services to Mrs Bennett for over two months, the ambulance responding to the wrong address, the 999 operator’s request that Mrs Bennett check on her husband even though the killer was standing over the dying priest, and the paramedics failure to attempt resuscitation when they finally arrived 16 minutes after being dispatched. In a statement read out by Ms Ann Clwyd, the Member of Parliament for Cynon Valley (Lab.), on behalf of Mrs Bennett after the report was released, Fr Bennett’s family asked how many more people would have to suffer due to the failure of government.
“Once more, society has been let down by the failings of our social services and health authorities,” she said.
“How many more innocent people are going to lose their lives in the most horrific of circumstances before these organisations begin to realise the consequences of their inadequate actions?” In a statement released by the Church in Wales, Dr Morgan said he welcomed the report and trusted that “all its recommendations” would be taken on board “to lessen the chances of anything like this from ever happening again.”
He said he was encouraged the authorities had acknowledged their errors and “apologised for the failures highlighted in the report and have not tried to sweep them under the carpet.”
“It is difficult to know whether or not the killing of Father Paul could have been predicted or prevented, looking at it as we are with hindsight. What is clear, however, is that there were two tragedies here – firstly, Father Paul’s death and secondly, the failure of society generally to notice the increasingly desperate circumstances of his killer, Geraint Evans, as he grew up and to recognise his many cries for help before it was too late. Perhaps Evans’ tragedy reveals the stigma we attach to mental health – an area which sadly remains the Cinderella of the health service,” Dr Morgan said.
UK fights for religious freedom in Nepal amidst Maoist protests: CEN 12.04.09 p 7. December 9, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Nepal, Persecution, Politics.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Britain will press Nepal to guarantee freedom of religion in its new constitution, the Foreign Office has assured the Archbishop of York. The government’s pledge comes amidst a growing political crisis in the Himalayan republic with Maoists threatening to pull out of the 2006 agreement that ended the 10-year civil war that left over 10,000 dead. On Nov 12 Baroness Kinnock, the Foreign Office Minister for Africa, the Caribbean, Central America and the UN responded to Dr John Sentamu’s question whether Britain would “encourage” Nepal to “honour its obligations under international human rights treaties by guaranteeing freedom of religion and belief in their new constitution.” |
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“We regularly raise with the Government and political parties of Nepal the importance of ensuring that the new constitution is fully in line with Nepal’s commitments under international human rights treaties,” Baroness Kinnock told Parliament, noting Nepal’s interim constitution already “provides for freedom of religion,” and that the country was declared a “secular state” following the downfall of the Shah dynasty in 2007.
“We will continue to urge the government of Nepal to give priority to the implementation of all rights and freedoms, including religious freedoms,” she said.
After the last King of Nepal, Gyanendra Shah, was driven from office by a loose coalition of Maoist guerrillas and pro-Indian political parties, work began on a new constitution that would transform Nepal from a Hindu kingdom to a secular republic.
However, the talks broke down in May 2009, after the government led by the Chairman of Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-M), Pushpa Kamal Dahal — known by his revolutionary nom de guerre ‘Prachanda’, resigned after Nepali President Ram Baran Yafav backed the military in a dispute over the integration of former Maoist guerrillas into the army.
Prachanda and his cadres have since been campaigning across Nepal for the restoration of “civilian supremacy” and have called for a three-day General Strike beginning on Dec 20. The Nepal Telegraph last week reported that Maoist guerrillas had declared the Kirat region in Eastern Nepal an independent republic, with local cadres calling for a resumption of war with the central government. Nepal’s new constitution is scheduled to be unveiled in May 2010, however, the deadline has already been set back seven times.
Christians in Nepal have been hard pressed by Maoists and by Hindu extremist groups who seek to restore the Hindu monarchy. On May 23, a bomb at Church of Our Lady of the Assumption in Kathmandu killed three and injured 14 others. A Hindu extremist group, the Nepal Defence Army claimed responsibility.
Hindus have also come under pressure from Maoists. In January 2009, the Maoist government intervened in a dispute at the Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu, the Hindu temple of Lord Shiva and seat of Nepal’s national deity.
Priests at the temple have traditionally been Brahmans from south India, but the CPN-M government backed a mob headed by the Young Communist League that forced the Indian priests from the temple, stripping them naked and parading them through the streets. The Indian government objected and a diplomatic incident was averted when the Nepali Supreme Court ordered the reinstatement of the Indian Brahmans at the temple.
Sharia law worry over new Kenyan constitution: CEN 12.04.09 p 6. December 9, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Kenya, Church of England Newspaper, Islam, Politics.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Kenya’s new constitution should not give special rights to Sharia law, the Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK) said last week at the close of a meeting of the House of Bishops in Limeru. On Nov 27 Archbishop Eliud Wabukala told reporters the church did not “want the Constitution to be contradicted by elevating one religion above others. It should maintain equality.” |
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Muslim leaders have called for Kadhi Courts, Muslim-only courts empowered by the state to hear disputes that fall under the terms of Sharia law, to be given special protections and guarantees under Kenya’s new constitution.
Dr Wabukala said current laws that allow Parliament to authorise their creation was sufficient, but taking the further step to guarantee their powers under the new constitution would privilege Islam.
The bishops offered 20 recommendations to the Committee of Experts overseeing the drafting of the new constitution, including a clear statement guaranteeing the right to propagate a religion and the right to convert to another religion — points currently at odds with Sharia law.
They also asked that abortion be prohibited, with a statement that Kenyan law recognized the start of life at the moment of conception.
The bishops also urged a reform of Kenya’s national and local governments. Governors should be elected directly by the people, and not appointed by the central government, and the role, powers and boundaries of local governments be clearly delineated under the new constitution.
Judges should also be freed from political pressure, and the judiciary should be devolved to the local administrative areas. However the police and security services should be organized on a national level with a single commander in chief. The bishops also called for a clear demarcation of powers between the country’s President and Prime Minister.
Past attempts at constitutional reform had failed due to the interference of politicians and power brokers. Dr Wabukala said it was the duty of the Committee of Experts to “ensure that all Kenyans get access to the harmonised draft Constitution with adequate time provided for reading, evaluating and preparing memoranda” in response to the draft.
Kenyans faced an important moment in the life of their country, he said, and urged political and civic leaders to take part in “mature discussions of the draft so that we can chart the way forward for the country.”
“This draft is good but it can be better and we pray to God for blessings and guidance in our endeavour to get a new constitution,” the archbishop said.
Do not confirm ‘gay’ bishop, says Dr. Williams: CEN 12.11.09 p 1. December 9, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Archbishop of Canterbury, Church of England Newspaper, Human Sexuality --- The gay issue, Los Angeles.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has urged the Episcopal Church to think carefully before affirming the election of a lesbian priest as suffragan bishop of Los Angeles. On Dec 6, Dr. Rowan Williams said the election of the Rev Mary Glasspool raised “very serious questions not just for the Episcopal Church and its place in the Anglican Communion, but for the Communion as a whole.” |
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The Bishop of Los Angeles, the Rt Rev J Jon Bruno the day before urged the Episcopal Church not to kowtow to foreign prelates, and affirm her election. “To not consent in this country out of fear of the reaction elsewhere in the Anglican Communion is to capitulate to titular heads,” he told reporters after the vote in Riverside, California.
However the Archbishop of Canterbury on Sunday reminded the Episcopal Church that the “bishops of the Communion have collectively acknowledged that a period of gracious restraint in respect of actions which are contrary to the mind of the Communion is necessary if our bonds of mutual affection are to hold.”
He noted the “process of selection however is only part complete. The election has to be confirmed, or could be rejected, by diocesan bishops and diocesan standing committees. That decision will have very important implications,” Dr. Williams said.
Delegates to the 114th annual convention of the diocese were asked to elect two suffragan bishops from six candidates. In a bid to bolster the diversity of the diocese, the slate was limited to two Hispanic priests, one gay and one lesbian priest, and two other women priests to replace the Rt Rev Chester Talton and the Rt Rev Sergio Carranza.
On the first day of the convention, the 680 delegates elected the Rev. Diane Jardine Bruce, rector of St Clement’s-by-the-Sea in San Clemente, California as its first woman suffragan bishop.
On Dec 5, Ms Glasspool, canon to the ordinary to the Bishop of Maryland was elected the diocese’s second suffragan bishop on the seventh ballot, defeating Los Angeles priest the Rev Irineo Martir Vasquez.
A graduate of Dickinson College and the Episcopal Divinity School, Canon Glasspool was ordained to the diaconate in 1981 and the priesthood in 1982 and has served in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts as a priest, and has a partner of 19 years, Becki Sander.
“I’m very excited about the future of the whole Episcopal Church, and I see the Diocese of Los Angeles leading the way into that future,” Bishop-elect Glasspool told the convention after the election. “But just for this moment, let me say again, thank you, and thanks be to our loving, surprising God.”
Reactions within the Episcopal Church followed familiar patterns. The gay pressure group Integrity said it “salutes the election” of Canon Glasspool.
“It takes both a courageous candidate and a courageous community to fully embrace inclusion and to be prepared for the public attention this historic opportunity offers the Episcopal Church and the United States of America at this time,” Integrity President David Norgard said. “Today’s election means the Episcopal Church has taken another step toward the full inclusion of all the baptized in all the sacraments becoming a reality in the Episcopal Church.”
The conservative American Anglican Council said the election of Canon Glasspool demonstrated the Episcopal Church’s “further departure from biblical Christianity.”
“Unfortunately, this election provides further clarity to the rest of the Anglican Communion,” said Bishop David Anderson of the AAC. If the election were affirmed, it would provide a baleful moment of clarity as “there can be no more pretending that The Episcopal Church holds to Anglican Communion doctrine and 2,000 years of biblically based Christian teachings. Not only have they elected another non-celibate homosexual bishop, but they repeatedly defy the moratorium on same-sex blessings called for by the Windsor Report.”
Within 120 days of notice of the election, a majority of the church’s diocesan bishops and standing committees must affirm the new bishops’ elections. If affirmed, Bishop-elect Glasspool will be consecrated in Los Angeles on May 15.
In comments reported by the Episcopal News Service, Bishop Bruno said that “if by chance people are going to withhold consents because of Mary’s sexuality, it would be a violation of the canons of this church.
“At our last General Convention, we said we are nondiscriminatory. They just as well might have withheld their consents from me because I was a divorced man and in my case, it would have been more justified than someone withholding them from someone who has been approved through all levels of ministry and is a good and creative minister of the Gospel,” he said.
Bishop-elect Glasspool’s election comes two days after Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori told an Atlanta radio station that there were no contradiction between the Episcopal Church’s 2006 pledge to abide by the Communion’s ban on consecrating gay bishops and actually electing gay bishops.
The 2009 vote by the Church’s General Convention was not “a reversal” of the moratorium, she said, as the canons had “for a long time said that the discernment process is open to any baptized person,” she told National Public Radio.
“The door has been open for many years” for gay and lesbian bishops, the presiding bishop said, confirming that she would go ahead with the consecration of a lesbian or gay bishop.
During the debate on resolution D025 at the July General Convention, the bishops noted there was a distinction between intentions and actions, with the moratorium being broken when the Episcopal Church consecrated a new gay bishop. Bishop Jefferts Schori said that was “my understanding of it. We have been asked to exercise restraint, and we have done so.”
“Effectively a moratorium remains until it is ended,” she later said on July 18.
Kenya urged to address resettlement of forest dwellers: CEN 12.04.09 p 6. December 9, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Kenya, Church of England Newspaper, Politics.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK) has called for the government to take a “humane approach” to the problem of the resettlement of traditional forest dwellers in the country’s national parks. On Nov 28 Archbishop Eliud Wabukala criticized the government’s eviction of 1900 Ogiek families from the 400,000 hectare Mau forest, saying it was “grossly inhumane” that they had been removed from their homes and “left to live on the road-sides. Such people should be given alternative settlement.” |
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“We recognize that the government has a duty to protect the environment. To this end the intention to reverse the destruction of Mau complex is noble,” the Archbishop said, but the government should also respect the rights of indigenous peoples.
The Mau forest controversy has also taken on political overtones, with MPs from the Rift Valley calling for a vote of no confidence on Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s handling of the controversy.
The Mau forest is Kenya’s primary watershed and its deforestation has led to the drying up of lakes and rivers that water the Serengeti plains in Tanzania and Kenya.
To reduce the loss of forest habitat, the government has begun removing the Ogiek people from the reserve along with squatters from the surrounding lowlands. A forest dwelling people, the Ogiek are subsistence farmers and hunter/gatherers.
Between 1904 and 1918 the British colonial government tried to expel the Ogiek from the forest. The forest was set aside as a preserve in 1932 and the colonial government in 1941 sought to remove them but succeeded only in driving them deeper into the forest.
In 1972 the Kenyan government expelled the Ogiek, but most moved back into the forest within six months. Expulsion campaigns have been mounted in 1987 and in 1992, but have been unsuccessful. While the government has focused its efforts on the Ogiek, the forest has suffered from extensive logging and livestock grazing. A government plan to settle the Ogiek on five-acre plots of land has drawn sharp criticism from NGOs as the bulk of the land has so far been given to migrants from outside the forest.
Member of Parliament Julius Kones told the Kenyan press there had been consultation among the leaders of three political parties to bring a vote of no confidence in the Prime Minister over his handling of the evictions.
“It is absurd that Mr Odinga is happy to see squatters being removed from their farms without compensation or being resettled, yet it had been agreed in the Cabinet and Parliament that either of the options had to be fulfilled before the evictions were carried out,” Dr Kones charged.
However, the Prime Minister said those calling for his removal were “shedding crocodile tears” and were interested in consolidating their own power rather than taking the hard choices on preserving the environment.
Archbishop Wabukala called “upon all politicians to stop playing politics with this issue. Protection of the people of Kenya and the environment are not just matters of politics but of life and death.”
“Politics should not be played” in finding the right balance between the rights of indigenous peoples and environmental needs, the Archbishop said.
Plea for ‘Kennedy 13′: CEN 12.04.09 p 6. December 9, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Southern Africa, Church of England Newspaper, Politics.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Bishop of Natal has issued a plea for the immediate release of the “Kennedy 13”, claiming the men are political prisoners jailed for “speaking the truth to the power” of the ANC government in KwaZulu-Natal. On Nov 16, Bishop Rubin Phillip and 40 other Natal clergy gathered outside of the magistrate’s court in Durban to protest the arrest of 13 members of homeless movement Abahlali baseMjondolo. |
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The accused have been “in prison for two months without trial – two months in prison without any evidence being presented to a court and without a decision on bail. This is a moral and legal outrage that amounts to detention without trial by means of delay,” the bishop said and “borders on unlawful detention.”
In September an armed mob allegedly led by ANC militants attacked the Kennedy Road shanty town, killing four, seizing property and driving many residents from their homes — while police allegedly watched. After the attack the police arrested 13 of the victims of the violence, arraigning them for attacking themselves.
The attack and the response to the attack by the police and government leaders in KwaZulu-Natal make it “patently clear that there was a political dimension to the attack and that the response of the police has been to pursue that political agenda rather than justice,” the bishop charged.
The “days of the political prisoner” did not end with the apartheid era, Bishop Phillip warned. The detention of the Kennedy 13 and the magistrate’s refusal to hold a bail hearing shows “that this is quite clearly a political trial in which the rules that govern the practice of justice are not being followed.”
He called for “people of conscience outside of the state to join us as we set up an independent inquiry into the attack on Kennedy Road on September 26; the subsequent demolition of the houses of Abahlali baseMjondolo members, the ongoing threats to Abahlali baseMjondolo members, the role of the police, politicians and courts in this matter.”
On Nov 17 Archbishop Thabo Makgoba endorsed Bishop Phillip’s call for justice for the Kennedy 13, calling on the ANC and the government to “take practical steps to reassure us of their commitment to the democratic rights of shack dwellers.”
Democracy in South Africa was “being lacerated by the attacks” on the people of the Kennedy Road, the Archbishop said. “Like the Psalmist, I lament with you and pray that you will not lose hope, and that justice with mercy will be possible in your lifetimes.
“I plead with both Minister Jeff Radebe and President Zuma to usher in democracy for all in South Africa, including these displaced, hurting people of God, who are experiencing neither the freedoms nor the fruits of our democracy,” Archbishop Makgoba said.
Same-sex blessings authorised in Massachusetts: CEN 12.04.09 p 7. December 9, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Human Sexuality --- The gay issue, Massachusetts.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Bishop of Massachusetts has authorised his clergy to solemnise same-sex marriages. The Nov 29 announcement by the Rt Rev M Thomas Shaw, SSJE follows announcements by the Bishops of Bethlehem, Huron and Southern Ohio authorising their clergy to bless gay civil unions. In a letter read to congregations last week, Bishop Shaw said that experience had shown him that many same-sex relations are characterised by “fidelity, monogamy, mutual affection and respect, and the holy love which enables spouses to see in one another the image of God.” |
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Because Christian marriage is a “sacramental rite” it must be “open to all as a means of grace and sustenance to our Christian hope,” he said.
In 2004 the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court authorized gay marriage. Courts in California, Iowa, and Maine followed suit, as did the Vermont legislature. Referendums mounted by petition in California and Maine, however, have nullified the courts’ decisions.
In the Diocese of Massachusetts, “while faithfully waiting for the General Convention of the Episcopal Church to act in response” to the legalisation of gay marriage, “our clergy have not been allowed to solemnise same-gender marriages, but they have been permitted to bless them after the fact.” Bishop Shaw said the decision by General Convention this year to “provide generous pastoral response to meet the needs of members of this church,” allowed him to give the go-ahead for gay church weddings.
The Prayer Book rite for marriage, with its language of ‘man and woman’ was not to be used, the bishop said, noting, however, that other trial liturgies were available.
In Canada, where gay civil marriage is also authorised, the Rt Rev Robert Bennett on Nov 26 told his clergy that “as we await General Synod 2010, the Diocese of Huron will maintain the moratorium agreed to at Lambeth” and not permit gay marriage, but would allow blessings of gay unions. “These celebrations are understood to be a pastoral response to same-sex couples in our communities,” he said, and are to take place in the context of the celebration of the Eucharist, but “there is to be no exchange of vows, no exchange of rings and no nuptial blessing.”
Clergy in Bethlehem and Southern Ohio have also been authorised to perform gay blessings. But the Rt Rev Paul Marshall of Bethlehem reminded his clergy that they could not hold out these ceremonies as marriages as state law did not recognize their validity.
Writing to the Archbishop of Canterbury on July 16 and 17, US Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori claimed the Episcopal Church had not authorized gay marriage.
Convention resolution C056, which authorised dioceses to “collect and develop” same-sex blessings rites, and encouraged a “generous pastoral provision” of support for gays and lesbians, including offering gay blessings rites “does not authorise public liturgical rites for the blessing of same-gender unions,” said Bishop Jefferts Schori said.
Archbishop speaks out for sheep farmers: CEN 11.27.09 p 4. December 7, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, EU, Farming, House of Lords.comments closed
The Archbishop of York, Dr. John Sentamu has urged the government to support sheep farmers facing financial ruin through the imposition of EU regulations requiring every sheep in Britain to be fitted with an electronic tag (EID).
Speaking in Parliament on Nov 4, Dr. Sentamu asked the government how it intended to support sheep farmers following the implementation of the tagging regulations in 2010, “given the current inaccuracies in tag reading equipment.”
In 2007 EU regulators mandated that by 2010 every sheep and goat in Europe be fitted with an EID device to monitor its movement. The costs of the programme to British farmers is estimated at £42 million annually, with each tag costing approximately £1.50 per sheep and monitors costing £5000 per farmer. Britain is home to over 40
On Oct 27, Jim Fitzpatrick, Minister for Food, Farming and Environment at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) said the government had “no plans to fund any equipment or software required for compliance with electronic sheep tagging regulations (EID).”
The National Farmers Union has protested the introduction of the regulations, warning it would bankrupt small farmers. “These regulations make no sense and have the potential to decimate the sheep industry,” NFU livestock board chairman Alistair Mackintosh warned, and the “additional costs involved, coupled with the recording requirements, will force many producers out of business while having absolutely no cost benefit.”
In response to Dr. Sentamu’s question, Lord Davies, the Labour Party’s Deputy Chief Whip in the House of Lords said the government was “aware of concerns” about EID working properly, and did not “think that it is reasonable to penalise a keeper in these circumstances.” The government would not penalise farmers “when incomplete data are provided by a central point recording centre.”
Dr. Sentuma thanked the minister for his assurances that “a failure of equipment will not result in penalties through single farm payments. If it did, it would not be good for those farmers’ well-being or health. If tagging equipment fails on prisoners, those who use that equipment are never penalised in their pay, so why should the farmers be?”
Conservative peer Lord Vinson acknowledged the Government “have done their best to stop this unnecessary, expensive and crazy EU regulation,” and asked if this were not an example of a “triumph of EU bureaucracy over our democracy and an example of the democratic deficit that lies at the heart of the EU experiment, which will surely lead to its downfall?”
Lord Davies responded the regulation had been “imposed against the will of the British Government,” but the regulations had arisen in the wake of the 2001 foot and mouth disease epidemic.
But help was on the way as “we are on the brink of major negotiations regarding reform of the [Common Agricultural Policy], and, whatever their view of the European Community, I doubt whether there is a single noble Lord who does not agree that the CAP needs reformation—if I can use that word in this context. We are looking towards reform of the CAP that would give a better deal to these farmers.”
British Muslims told not to fight in Iraq: CEN 11.27.09 p 6. December 7, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Arms Control/Defense/Peace Issues, British Foreign Policy, Church of England Newspaper, Iran, Iraq.comments closed
The Director of the Islamic Centre of England has called for British Muslims serving in the armed forces to quit the services, as it is ‘haram’, forbidden for them to fight fellow Muslims.
In an interview with the Times, Abdolhossein Moezi , who serves as Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei’s Special Envoy to Britain said Muslims could not serve in Western armies when those armies were engaged in fighting Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“Not only do I not accept it for Muslims to go there, I don’t accept non-Muslims to go there as well. We say that Muslims are not allowed to go and kill Muslims. Do you think Christians are allowed to go and kill Muslims?” Moezi told the Times last week.
Moezi explained that his role as leader of the Islamic Centre was to provide spiritual guidance to all British Muslims, encouraging them to become good British citizens. “My personal belief is that if Muslim migrants are better Muslims in this society, they can shape their individual lives in a better way and could be better members to this society,” Moezi said.
The Iranian cleric’s call is not likely to carry great weight in the British Muslim community, as the vast majority of British Muslims are Sunni and do not recognize the spiritual authority of Shia leaders such as Moezi.
Turkey sued over access to churches on Cyprus: CEN 11.27.09 p 4. December 7, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Greek Orthodox, Property Litigation, Turkey.comments closed
The Church of Cyprus has filed suit against Turkey in the European Court of Human Rights, charging the Turkish government has violated international human rights treaties by preventing Greek Orthodox worship at religious sites in the Turkish controlled northern third of the island.
On Nov 23, a lawyer for the church said the lawsuit would seek the return of 522 churches, monasteries, chapels and cemeteries in the Turkish occupied zone. Greek Orthodox Christians have been forbidden access to the sites since the Turkish invasion of 1974 and many of the sites are now derelict or used for secular purposes.
A speedy resolution of the dispute is unlikely, as negotiations between the Greek Cypriot south and Turkish Cypriot north over unification are at a standstill.
On Nov 18 the European Court of Human Rights held a Grand Chamber hearing before a 20-judge panel to review the case of Emopolous v Turkey and seven related cases arising from the 1974 occupation.
In the Emopolous case, the applicants are Greek-Cypriots who claim to be owners of property located in Northern Cyprus. They have alleged that the Turkish authorities are preventing them from having access to their property and disposing of it as they wish, violating Articles 1 of Protocol No. 1, 8 (right to respect for private and family life), 13 (right to an effective remedy), 14 (prohibition of discrimination), and 18 (limitation on use of restrictions on rights) of the European Convention on Human Rights
The Emopolous case was lodged with the Court in 1999, and in May 2009 the case was assigned to the Grand Chamber for a hearing. A decision is expected next year.
Archbishop agrees new talks with Pope: CEN 11.27.09 p 1. December 7, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Archbishop of Canterbury, Church of England Newspaper, Roman Catholic Church.comments closed
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams and Pope Benedict XVI held a full and frank exchange of view last week over the future of Anglican-Roman Catholic relations, agreeing to a pursue a new round of dialogue between the two churches.
In their first meeting since the Oct 20 announcement by the Vatican of an Apostolic Constitution that would create Personal Ordinariates for Anglicans wishing to enter into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church, Dr. Williams and Pope Benedict met for a half hour on Nov 21 at the Vatican.
A statement released by the Vatican Press Office after the audience said that “in the course of the cordial discussions attention turned to the challenges facing all Christian communities at the beginning of this millennium, and to the need to promote forms of collaboration and shared witness in facing these challenges.”
The talks “also focused on recent events affecting relations between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion, reiterating the shared will to continue and to consolidate the ecumenical relationship between Catholics and Anglicans, and recalling how, over coming days, the commission entrusted with preparing the third phase of international theological dialogue between the parties (ARCIC) is due to meet”.
Speaking to Vatican Radio after the meeting, Dr. Williams said that among the topics discussed were his “concerns about the way in which the announcement of the constitution had been handled and received.
“Clearly many Anglicans, myself included, felt that it put us in an awkward position for a time – not the content so much as some of the messages that were given out.
“I needed to share with the Pope some of those concerns. I think those were expressed and heard in a very friendly spirit.”
Aides to Dr. Williams confirmed that the Pope reaffirmed the Vatican’s desire for a third round of ARCIC talks. Dr. Williams also expressed his view, articulated publically in his Nov 19 address to the Gregorian University that the Apostolic Constitution was a “pastoral” response, and not a new ecumenical or ecclesiological way forward in Anglican-Catholic relations, the aide said.
Notwithstanding all of the media hype and claims of an end to meaningful ecumenical relations in the past few weeks, the meeting “did go really well” the aide said.
Christian leaders sign up to ‘Manhattan Declaration’: CEN 11.27.09 p 7. December 3, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of North America, Church of England Newspaper, Politics.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Conservative Christian leaders in the United States have released a statement of conscience and civil disobedience, affirming neither they nor the institutions under their care will honour any government mandate compelling their support for abortion, assisted suicide, or gay marriage. The 4,700-word Manhattan Declaration was released at a press conference in Washington on Nov 20 and was endorsed by 148 Orthodox, Anglican, Catholic and evangelical leaders. |
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Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia told reporters at the launch of the declaration at the National Press Club last week that the principles in the document “are not the unique preserve of the Christian community — they can be known and honoured by people apart from divine revelation.”
The document stated: “We are Christians who have joined together across historic lines of ecclesial differences to affirm our right — and, more importantly, to embrace our obligation — to speak and act in defense of these truths. We pledge to each other, and to our fellow believers, that no power on earth, be it cultural or political, will intimidate us into silence or acquiescence.”
Arising out of a meeting of Christian leaders held at the Metropolitan Club in Manhattan last year, Princeton University law professor Robert George prepared the first draft of the declaration. It attracted the support of the country’s leading evangelical and Protestant leaders, six Roman Catholic Archbishops, including the Archbishops of New York, Newark, and Washington, and Anglican leaders Archbishop Robert Duncan and Bishops David Anderson and Martyn Minns of the Anglican Church in North America.
Only two non-Americans were included among the initial signatories: Anglo-Canadian professor JI Packer and Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola.
The declaration offered a statement of civil disobedience to “anti-life” laws, stating “we recognize the duty to comply with laws whether we happen to like them or not, unless the laws are gravely unjust or require those subject to them to do something unjust or otherwise immoral.”
It further stated: “We will not comply with any edict that purports to compel our institutions to participate in abortions, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide and euthanasia or any other anti-life act; nor will we bend to any rule purporting to force us to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriage or the equivalent or refrain from proclaiming the truth, as we know it, about morality and immorality and marriage and the family.”
The Manhattan Declaration states the United States is facing a growing threat to religious liberties from the government and the secular left including the use of anti-discrimination laws to force religious social service agencies to permit adoptions by gay couples, hate crime laws that are used to silence free speech and religious discourse, and the weakening of conscience clauses protecting religious workers in the health industry.
The declaration states that it is not a partisan political statement as both Democrats and Republicans have been “complicit in giving legal sanction” to a “culture of death.” It notes that President Barack Obama’s goal of reducing the need for abortions is “commendable” but his pledge to make abortions more readily available contradicts this pledge.
However, the declaration will likely be used by conservatives in the current battle over health care legislation before Congress, using it as a lever to remove the Obama Administration’s support for liberalizing abortion laws.
“We will fully and ungrudgingly render to Caesar what is Caesar’s,” the declaration said, “But under no circumstances will we render to Caesar what is God’s.”
Irish urged to combat sectarian violence: CEN 11.27.09 p 7. December 3, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Ireland, Terrorism.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Archbishop of Armagh along with Ulster’s Roman Catholic, Presbyterian and Methodist leaders, has written to the Northern Ireland government urging all parties to work together to combat sectarian violence. In a statement released on Nov 10, Archbishop Alan Harper, Cardinal Seán Brady, Presbyterian Moderator Dr Stafford Carson, and Methodist President the Rev Donald Kerr said that while the latest report released by the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) “has much to encourage, but it also highlights the continuing risk of violence we face as a society.” |
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On Nov 4 the IMC released its 22nd report on paramilitary activity covering the first part of this year. It found that the threat from dissidents was at its highest level since it began monitoring the situation in 2004.
The four church leaders stated they were “greatly concerned at the levels of violent crime in our society” and asked that a “comprehensive and collective approach by all community and political leaders in responding to this issue” be undertaken so that “the future of Northern Ireland will be one of peaceful respect and care for every person.”
“We call on all armed paramilitary groups to immediately disarm and to stop all criminal activity,” they said, and asked “everyone in Northern Ireland to support” the police and to “cooperate fully with them in bringing those who commit crime to the due process of the law.”
While there were some encouraging signs in the IMC report, violence in Northern Ireland would only be stopped if the province’s political leaders worked together. “We believe that risk will best be overcome by demonstrating clear, united and stable political and community leadership at all levels,” the four church leaders said.
Don’t blame us, says Vatican: CEN 11.20.09 p 7. December 3, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England, Church of England Newspaper, Roman Catholic Church.comments closed
It is not the Vatican’s fault that ecumenical relations with the Anglican Communion have soured, Cardinal Walter Kasper has declared. The Anglican Communion’s civil wars over women and gay bishops are the primary obstacles to Catholic-Anglican ecumenical dialogue Cardinal Kasper said in an interview published in L’Osservatore Romano.
Cardinal Kasper, the president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity said in an article published on Nov 15 in the Vatican’s official daily newspaper that ecumenical relations between the Vatican and the Anglican Communion would not be harmed by Anglicanorum Coetibus, the apostolic constitution for Anglicans seeking to join the Catholic Church.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams’ Nov. 19-22 visit to Rome “demonstrates that there has been no rupture and reaffirms our common desire to talk to one another at a historically important moment,” he said.
Cardinal Kasper said Dr. Williams telephoned him for an explanation before the constitution was announced. “We talked about the meaning of the new apostolic constitution, and I reassured him about the continuation of our direct dialogue, as indicated by the Second Vatican Council and as the Pope desires.”
Dr. Williams “has maintained a balanced attitude since he was informed” of the constitution. “Our personal relations are friendly and transparent. He is a man of spirituality, a theologian.”
The obstacles to ecumenical dialogue come from the internal tensions in the Anglican world, Cardinal Kasper said. (“In realtà oggi gli unici ostacoli al dialogo ecumenico possono venire dalle tensioni interne al mondo anglicano.”)
“A group of Anglicans asked freely and legitimately to enter the Catholic Church,” he noted. “It was not our own initiative. They turned first to our council, and as president I replied that it is the competence of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.”
He stated that his office had not been directly involved in the creation of the constitution, but had seen the document before its release and had offered its views. The impetus for the constitution had arisen from Vatican II and the “direct dialogue” with the Anglican Communion that followed.
Cardinal Kasper said we “certainly cannot oppose if an Anglican or a group of Anglicans wants to enter into full and visible communion with the Catholic Church. The Pope opened the door with kindness. He showed a road. He offered a real possibility that certainly is not opposed to ecumenism.”
“To think, as some commentators have, that the Pope made this decision because he only wants to ‘enlarge his empire’ is ridiculous,” he said.
The practical implementation of the constitution were unclear he said. “First we need to know specifically who and how many Anglicans are determined to seize this opportunity.”
The Catholic Church will examine each group seeking reunion on a “case by case basis,” he said. “You cannot only be a Catholic because you are in disagreement with the choices of your own confession.”
In the wake of Vatican II there had been “great hopes” of closer relations and reunion between Anglicans and Roman Catholics, but the ordination of women first to the priesthood, then to the episcopate, the consecration of a homosexual bishop and the blessing of same-sex unions had caused “serious inner tensions” within the Anglican world and also “widened the ditch” between Catholics and Anglicans.
These criticisms of Anglicanism’s liberal drift were not unique to the Catholic Church, he added, as the Evangelical wing of the communion was also opposed to these innovations. However, Cardinal Kasper said he expected Evangelicals to reject the invitation to become Roman Catholics.
Both liberals and evangelicals in North America have rejected the constitution. In his address to the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC)—the Canadian wing of the Anglican Church in North America, Bishop Don Harvey said he found the Vatican’s offer “offensive in the extreme.”
“Apart from being an intrusion at the very highest levels of one major church into the internal affairs of another, under the guise of being ecumenical, this invitation offers very little that is new,” Bishop Harvey said on Nov 12.
The Episcopal Church’s ecumenical officer, Bishop C. Christopher Epting on Nov 16 observed the constitution “be understood as ‘pastoral’ but is not necessarily very ecumenical.”
“This is ‘come home to Rome’ with absolute clarity,” Bishop Epting said and “flies in the face of the slow, but steady progress made in the real ecumenical dialogue of over forty years.”
Police investigate priest’s murder: CEN 11.20.09 p 6. December 3, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Southern Africa, Church of England Newspaper, Crime.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Police in South Africa are investigating the murder of a lecturer at the College of the Transfiguration, the Anglican Church of Southern Africa’s residential theological college. On Nov 10 the body of the Rev Clive Newman was discovered in his rooms in college by the school’s rector, the Rev William Domeris. The 45-year-old priest had been bludgeoned to death. |
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“I went to look for him in his room because he didn’t pitch up for class. In fact, he didn’t even come to church on Sunday but nobody was worried. We thought he was just sick,” Dr Domeris said. “I then found him in his room at 10am. I didn’t look at the body. I only saw the feet and, judging by the smell in the room, the body was obviously decomposed,” he told the South African press.
A note had been pinned to Fr Newman’s door saying he would be away for the weekend. Police are looking for a man seen loitering around the college and for Fr Newman’s car, which was missing.
“We are shocked and weep with the college community and Fr Clive Newman’s family,” Archbishop Thabo Makgoba said, adding that “we are also comforted by the knowledge that Christ who wept at the grave of his friend Lazarus is with us in our grieving. In the scriptures, he assures us ‘Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted’.”
“We pray for God’s healing and for the perpetrators that they may come to realize the enormity of their actions,” he said.
In 1991 Newman’s testimony led to the conviction of two serial killers. Antonie Wessels and Jean Havenga attacked Newman at random, slitting his throat and leaving him for dead. However, he survived the attack and regained his voice — later rejoining his church choir — and identified his attackers.
Wessels and Havenga were convicted of the assault and of the murder of three other men during a cross-country crime spree. Wessels was hanged but the 16-year-old Havenga was given a 25-year sentence.
Patriarch Paul of Serbia dies: CEN 11.20.09 p 5. December 3, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Serbian Orthodox.comments closed
Patriarch Paul of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) has died. Confined to his sick bed in a Belgrade military hospital since Nov 13, 2007, Paul died in his sleep on Nov 15. He was 95 years of age.
The patriarch’s body will lie in state at Great St Sava Cathedral in Belgrade until his funeral on Nov 19 at the Rakovica Monastery.
Elected spiritual leader of the Serbian Church in 1990, Paul served as Archbishop of Peć, Metropolitan of Belgrade and Karlovci, and Patriarch of Serbia. Born in the waning days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Croatia, Paul entered holy orders in 1948 and in 1957 was elected bishop of Raš-Prizren in Kosovo.
In October 2008 Paul offered to resign as Patriarch due to ill health, but the Holy Synod of Bishops declined to accept his resignation. However, the Synod designated the church’s senior bishop, Metropolitan Amfilohije Radović of Montenegro as an ecclesial regent for the ailing patriarch.
Following the formal announcement of the patriarch’s death by the Synod of Bishops, forty days of mourning will be observed, and a successor will be elected by the bishops on the fortieth day.
Under current canon law, the Synod selects three nominees, and the patriarch is then selected by lot from among the three.
During his tenure as Patriarch, Paul led the church from the margins of Serbian society under the Communist government to one of the key players on the country’s political and social scene. A champion of the rights of the minority Serb population in Kosovo, Paul had written and preached extensively on the cultural destruction of Serbian churches in Kosovo by Albania nationalists and the diaspora of Serbian Kosovars from the province.
He was criticized for his perceived ties to former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosavić. However, Paul managed to keep the SPC from being tied to the fortunes of any one political party or leader, while keeping the church at the center of Serbia’s national revival.
Russian Orthodox threat to Lutheran Church: CEN 11.20.09 p 7. December 3, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, EKD, Russian Orthodox, Women Priests.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Russian Orthodox Church has threatened to suspend ecumenical relations with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany (EKD) in the wake of the election of Bishop Margot Kaessmann as its leader. On Nov 11 the Russian newspaper Kommersant quoted the head of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations Archbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk as having said Moscow might suspend dialogue with the EKD as it did not recognize the validity of women ministers. |
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“We planned to celebrate the 50th anniversary of our dialogue with the Lutheran Church in Germany in late November or early December. The 50th anniversary of the dialogue will become the end of it,” Archbishop Hilarion said.
“We can develop the dialogue, but there raise lots of simple protocol questions. How will the Patriarch address her or meet with her?” the Russian Church representative said.
On Oct 28 the EKD elected Bishop Kaessmann of Hanover as its first female leader. The sole nominee to succeed Bishop Wolfgang Huber of Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia as chairman of the EKD’s church council, Bishop Humber polled 132 out of 142 votes at the national synod meeting in Ulm.
Elected Bishop of Hanover in 1999, Bishop Kaessmann made headlines in 2007 when she filed for divorce from her husband of 26 years. However, her marital difficulties did not appear to play a role in the vote.
Bishop in appeal for Iranian convert: CEN 11.27.09 p 6. December 1, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England, Church of England Newspaper, Iran.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The former Anglican Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali has called upon the Home Office not to deport an Iranian Christian living in exile in England, saying the man would be in danger if sent back to Iran. Dr Nazir-Ali’s plea comes the day after two Iranian Christian women were released from Tehran’s Evin prison, Release International reports. Maryam Rustampoor and Marzieh Amirizadeh Esmaeilabad, converts to Christianity from Islam, were jailed for 259 days for apostasy and Christian proselytising.. |
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The two were released from prison but still face trial. On Nov 19 Dr Nazir-Ali said he was “thankful” the two had been freed “without conditions of bail and pray that justice will be done for them and for others who are being held in Iran in due course.”
“At the same time it seems ironic that while Maryam and Marzieh have been released by the Iranian authorities, the Home Office in this country is proposing to deport an Iranian Christian,” he said. “Amir – not his real name – attends an Orthodox church in the north of England and is on the church committee. It seems clear that if he is deported he will face interrogation, arrest and possible imprisonment in Iran simply because he is a Christian.
“I appeal to the Home Office to allow Amir to remain free and to continue living in safety in this country,” Bishop Nazir-Ali said.
In June 2009, a legislative committee of the Iranian parliament, the Majlis, rejected a bill brought by the government of President Mahmoud Amadinejad mandating the death penalty for male apostates from Islam, and life imprisonment for female apostates. The country’s ruling Guardian Council, however, can overrule the legal and judicial commission of the Majlis and restore the penalty. Islam’s five major schools of jurisprudence, the Madh’hab, call for the death penalty for those who leave Islam for another faith.
Bishop MacDonald: ‘Catholicity Is At Stake’: TLC 12.01.09 December 1, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Canada, Living Church, The Episcopal Church.comments closed
First published in The Living Church magazine.
The Rt. Rev. Mark MacDonald has questioned Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori’s assertion that he must renounce his orders as a bishop of the Episcopal Church because of his ministry in Canada.
The former Bishop of Alaska and Assistant Bishop of Navajoland now serves as the Anglican Church of Canada’s National Indigenous Bishop.
Bishop MacDonald told The Living Church he was “shocked and surprised” by the Presiding Bishop’s remarks on his ministry, adding that he has “written to her asking for clarification.”
“I am on loan to the Anglican Church of Canada under the PB’s supervision. I have an unofficial position, with no set authority or jurisdiction,” he said.
“I was in conversation” with the Presiding Bishop “well before I took the position” in Canada, Bishop MacDonald said. “I had never heard at all that this would be seen as a de facto renunciation of my orders.”
The question of Bishop MacDonald’s orders arose after the Rt. Rev. Keith L. Ackerman, SSC, wrote to Bishop Jefferts Schori that he wished to serve as a bishop in the Diocese of Bolivia. She responded to Bishop Ackerman on Oct. 7, writing that “as you know there is no provision for transferring a bishop to another province,” and releasing him from his orders as a bishop of the Episcopal Church.
Through her press officer, Neva Rae Fox, the Presiding Bishop has declined to answer questions about the orders of Bishop MacDonald and other bishops serving outside the Episcopal Church. On Oct 22, however, she sent an email message to the House of Bishops regarding Bishop Ackerman.
“We have been and will be consistent regarding our canons, which clearly state that The Episcopal Church can accept the ministry of a bishop of The Episcopal Church functioning temporarily in another province of the Anglican Communion, when it is clear that that province does not seek to undermine or replace the ministry of this Church,” she wrote, although she did not cite which canon forbids such an action.
“Such temporary duty requires the full and informed consent of the respective ecclesiastical authorities,” the Presiding Bishop wrote. “The ministry of Mark McDonald is an example, but as his position becomes permanent, his loyalty will have to be to the Anglican Church of Canada, rather than The Episcopal Church, and a recognition of his renunciation of orders in this Church will be necessary.”
Bishop MacDonald sees no such necessity. The Rt. Rev. Edward Leidel, retired Bishop of Eastern Michigan, “is more official than I am,” and is a congregational coach in the Diocese of Huron, Bishop MacDonald said, noting too that the Rt. Rev. Walter Jones, the former Bishop of South Dakota, became Bishop of Rupert’s Land from 1983 to 1993. Neither bishop had to renounce his orders.
“I would like to see clarification from the PB on this issue,” he said. “There has to be a better way. I would like to see our canons embody the understanding of the catholicity of the church.”
The “indelibility of orders is not the issue,” Bishop MacDonald said. The “Christological doctrine of the catholicity of the church is at stake.”
