Prayers for Norway: The Church of England Newspaper, July 29, 2011 p 6. July 31, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Terrorism.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Church leaders have offered their condolences to the people and government of Norway following the worst mass killing in Europe since the 2004 Beslan school siege.
The initial statements from Anglican and European church leaders have expressed shock and outrage at the attacks, and also reflect the early confusion of the media over Anders Behring Breivik’s motives for his 22 July rampage.
The Archbishop of Canterbury expressed his “deepest sympathy with the people of Norway in the wake” of the bombing and shootings in Oslo that have left at least 76 dead. Dr Williams said that Norway had played “so great a part over many years in international reconciliation as well as developing its own distinctive national ethos of openness and fairness” that it as a “special tragedy that it should suffer this outbreak of senseless carnage.”
The prayers of the Church of England were with “all those who died and all those who mourn them; and we are grateful for the many signs of strength and spiritual maturity that the Norwegian people have shown in their response to evil and destructiveness,” the Archbishop said.
On 23 July Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone sent a message of condolence, in the name of Benedict XVI, to King Harald V of Norway.
The Pope expressed his “profound sadness” at the “great loss of life” and offered “fervent prayers for the victims and their families, invoking God’s peace upon the dead and divine consolation upon those who suffer.”
Explanations and justifications for the attacks provoked disgust and outrage from Archbishop Thabo Makgoba of Cape Town, who said he could not “be silent in the face of the horror and brutality.”
“I feel saddened and shocked by this outrageous lack of regard for human life and more angered by stories emerging about the justification for such violence. I trust that firm and tough legal action will be taken against Anders Behring Breivik.”
Writing to the Presiding Bishop of the Church of Norway, the Archbishops of Dublin and Armagh and the Bishop of Clogher offered the Church of Ireland’s “deepest sympathy, and the fellowship of our prayers to the Norwegian people.
“There is something blindly unjust about such an attack in a country which is a byword for toleration,” the Irish bishops said, noting Norway was regarded as a model of “mutually respectful diversity and generous tolerance.”
The traits cited by the Irish bishop for approbation, however, were amongst those denounced by the Oslo bomber as signs of his country’s moral collapse that could only be resolved through violent revolution.
The World Evangelical Alliance released a statement saying it was “saddened to read reports that the suspect claims a ‘Christian’ faith,” adding that “evangelical Christians globally condemn religious violence in the strongest possible terms, and are sickened when such violence is carried out in the name of Christ.”
Meanwhile in London the Evangelical Alliance also issued a statement promising prayers for the victims.
The statement said that the EA “expresses its deepest sympathy to the people of Norway at this tragic time. Our prayers are with the families and friends of those murdered in Oslo and on the island of Utoeya. We also pray for the many people injured in the attacks.
“As all Norwegians begin to deal with this national trauma, our hope is that Christians in Norway play their part in the healing process. We also hope that this diabolical reminder of the persistence of evil will not adversely affect the much cherished freedoms and social harmony in the country.”
The Scottish Episcopal Church along with a number of English dioceses prepared prayers for the people of Norway for use by congregations this week. On 25 July, the Diocese of Exeter released a “Prayer for Norway.”
‘God our saviour, we pray with those in Norway who are shocked, grieving or in pain.
‘In your mercy, look on this wounded world, and hold us closely to your promise of hope in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen’
Anglican Unscripted July 29, 2011 July 31, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican.TV.comments closed
George Conger and Kevin Kallsen discuss this day in History and the death of John Stott. This week we also have two contributors – AS Haley delves into New York states new same sex marriage law and Bishop Love discusses how this new law affects the Diocese of Albany NY. –Oh and for the curious…. we have the blooper reel at the end of the show.
Bible burning vicar under investigation: The Church of England Newspaper, July 29, 2011 p 6. July 30, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Biblical Interpretation, Church in Wales, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
Geraint ap Iowerth
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
A Welsh vicar’s foray into modern art has elicited responses of bad taste and heresy — and has landed him in hot water with the Bishop of Bangor.
On July 23 the Western Mail reported the Rev Geraint ap Iorwerth, vicar of St Peter ad Vincula Church in Pennal, Machynlleth, was under investigation by his bishop for burning parts of the Bible he believed were unchristian and contrary to the teachings of Jesus.
The 60-year-old vicar cut out passages of the Bible that offended his moral sensibilities and displayed them on a mural in the church hall, and burned the scraps from the Bible in a symbolic gesture celebrating the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible.
Mr ap Iorwerth told the Western Mail: “The passages I cut out referred to the wrath of God, a God who killed millions of people in a vengeful, spiteful way. This has absolutely nothing to do with Jesus, a reactionary leader who preached peace. I’m not a complete pacifist, I’d use a baseball bat if anyone came for my family.
“But he was the ultimate campaigner for peace and I wanted to literally cut out parts of the Bible that seemed to preach violence – naughty children being rewarded, bad children not being just punished but killed violently,” he noted.
“Nietzsche said we should philosophise with a hammer, whereas I prefer to theologise with a pair of scissors,” Mr ap Iowerth said.
The Bishop of Bangor, the Rt Rev Andrew John responded that “destroying parts of the Bible we don’t like is disrespectful and will offend many people. I have therefore written to the Rev Geraint ap Iorwerth and will be investigating the matter.”
While there were difficult sections of the Bible, “it is not given to us to pick and choose” those passages we will honour. “Sometimes the most challenging parts are those which we need to wrestle with most of all,” the Bishop said.
However, Mr ap Iorwerth said he was not persuaded by his Bishop’s words. “The charred remains [of the burnt Bible] were a memorial to the millions whose lives have been destroyed as a result of the cruelty of this kind of God and his followers,” he said.
While Mr ap Iowerth’s actions may be avant-garde for the Diocese of Bangor, they have arisen from time to time in the course of church history. In the second century, Marcion taught that Jesus was the saviour sent by God and Paul of Tarsus his chief apostle. However, Marcion rejected the Old Testament, believing the wrathful God of Israel was different from the loving God of the New Testament. The early church denounced Marcion as a heretic, and while his writings have not survived, Tertullian’s Adversus Marcionem has preserved some of his arguments.
Church property fight turns violent in India: The Church of England Newspaper, July 29, 2011 July 29, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of North India, Property Litigation.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
A battle for control over a church school in the Diocese of Lucknow turned violent last week after three bombs were tossed at the front gate of the Girls High School of Allahabad in North India.
The fight has prompted the Bishop in Lucknow, the Rt Rev Morris Dan to seek police protection against supporters of former headmaster CV Innes.
Founded by the East India Company in 1822 to educate British and Anglo-Indian children of the company’s servants, the Boys High School and Colleges (BHS) and Girls High School and Colleges (GHS) in Allahabad were established at their present site in 1861 and run by missionaries of the Church of England.
The dispute arose between the Bishop and the former headmaster after Mr Innes attempted to change the school’s bylaws to remove the Bishop as head of the schools. The dispute was brought to the courts and the Allahabad Supreme Court ruled last month the attempt to oust the Bishop was unlawful and confirmed the Bishop’s nominee, Mr David Luke, as the new headmaster.
On 5 July three bombs were tossed against the wall of the girl’s school, demolishing the gate and front entrance, while police reported that a crowd of approximately 200 people attempted to force their way into the school, allegedly to oust Mr Luke as headmaster.
The Indian Express reported that the situation was defused after senior police and administration officials responded to the riot with armed police.
Speaking to the press after the riot, Bishop Dan charged his predecessor, Bishop AR Stephen with colluding with Mr Innes to take control of the school. While the resort to violence in Allahabad was unusual, disputes over the control and ownership of church schools in India are common, as they provide a sizeable source of income for the Church.
Church schools also are a source of illegal income anti-corruption activists have charged, claiming that bribes are often paid for places in India’s premier private schools — of which the majority are affiliated with the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches.
Bishop mourns Jamaica’s ‘culture of death’: The Church of England Newspaper, July 29, 2011 July 29, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of the West Indies, Crime.comments closed
Bishop Robert Thompson of Kingston
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Bishop of Kingston has denounced the island’s “culture of death,” saying Jamaica was turning into a dystopia ruled by gang violence, corruption and greed.
Speaking at the funeral of 17-year old Khajeel Mais at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Kingston on July 16, Bishop Robert Thompson said the young man’s death was symbolic of the nation’s woes. “Morality is eroded,” he told the congregation, and Jamaica had become a place “where life is disposed of in favour of the symbols” of prosperity.
“We live in a society that embraces a culture of death from which we must repent. It makes us numb to justice,” said the bishop.
On July 1 Mais, a passenger in a taxi, was shot to death by a man driving a BMW X5 after the taxi scratched the side of the luxury car. A student at Kingston College, Mais was on his way to a school fete when the shooting took place. He died shortly after being admitted to hospital.
Speaking to a packed cathedral congregation that included students from the college, family and friends, Bishop Thompson said Mais’ death was not only an abomination, but was a tipping point in the collapse of the social order.
“The expression of outrage by the public is causing a shift in our society,” the bishop said.
He urged Jamaicans to stand up to those who sought power or wealth through the barrel of a gun.
“They can kill, but cannot kill the soul,” he said.
Bishop Thompson added that silence in face of evil, made one complicit with evil, warning those who were part of the “conspiracy of silence” that surrounded criminals were as “much to blame as those who pulled the trigger.”
The only way forward, the bishop said, was to turn towards God. Taking as his text the 10th chapter of Matthew, the bishop reminded the congregation that the one who stands firm in his faith to the end will be saved. “Let us face our fear of violence in our society with faith as Christians, when terror and death” surround us, Bishop Thompson said.
Hate the key to Oslo bombing: The Church of England Newspaper, July 29, 2011 p 1. July 28, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Terrorism.comments closed
Anders Behring Breivik
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Oslo bomber, Anders Behring Breivik, was a self-appointed Knight Templar tasked with freeing Europe from the scourge of ‘cultural Marxism’ and Islam, according to his 1,518-page manifesto posted on Stormfront.org, a white supremacist internet forum.
Initially tagged as a “Christian fundamentalist” by Norwegian police, Breivik’s apologia shows only a passing concern with religious belief, but professes a fanatical faith in European culture.
On 22 July, the 32-year-old Norwegian detonated a car bomb in central Oslo, killing at least eight people. He then proceeded by ferry boat to Utoya Island where he shot and killed 68 people attending a youth camp organized by the Labour Party.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg told a national television audience the attacks would forever change Norway, but he vowed to ensure it remained an “open society.”
Initial reports stated that a hitherto unknown Islamist terrorist group had claimed responsibility, but police quickly arrested Breivik. The shooter admitted his crime and claimed it was a political statement, a police spokesman said. Oslo Deputy Police Chief Roger Andresen told reporters “Mr Breivik belongs to a Christian, fundamentalist, extreme-right environment in Norway,” the Aftenposten newspaper reported.
Breivik was arraigned on 25 July before a closed session of court and entered a plea of not guilty. However, he told Judge Kim Heger the killings were necessary. “What the court understands (is that) the accused believes that he needed to carry out these acts in order to save Norway and Western Europe from, among other things, cultural Marxism and Muslim take over,” Judge Heger said during a televised news conference after the hearing.
“The operation was not to kill as many people as possible. It was to give a strong signal that could not be misunderstood, that as long as the Labour Party keeps driving its ideological line and keeps deconstructing Norwegian culture and mass importing Muslims then they must assume responsibility for this treason. And any person with a conscience cannot allow its country to be colonised by Muslims,” the judge explained.
Breivik’s alleged motives find support in his manifesto, published online shortly before the attack. Entitled “2083 — A European Declaration of Independence” and written under the pseudonym Andrew Berwick, the manifesto states Breivik had joined with nine other men in 2002 to re-form the Knights Templar and he was its “Justiciar Knight Commander.”
“Our purpose,” in forming the Knights Templar was to “seize political and military control of Western European countries and implement a cultural conservative political agenda,” he explained.
Muslims would be expelled from Europe and war waged against their Marxist and multi-culturalist allies. “The time for dialogue is over. We gave peace a chance. The time for armed resistance has come,” he wrote, estimating the revolution would leave “45,000 dead and 1 million wounded cultural Marxists/multiculturalists in Western Europe.
The “2083 — A European Declaration of Independence” manifesto is divided in three sections, with the first two containing dozens of articles and quotes from a cross section of authors.
Articles from conservative European bloggers and commentators predominate, but passages and snippets from the writers as diverse as Melanie Phillips, Jeremy Clarkson, Mahatma Gandhi, Thomas Jefferson, William Burke, John Stuart Mill and other commentators, philosophers and political writers abound.
In the third section of his manifesto, Breivik sets out his agenda of cleansing Europe of Muslims and suppressing multi-culturalism and lays out his personal beliefs.
To join his crusade, one must take the Knight Templar’s Oath and swear to “protect the interests of all free, indigenous Europeans, European cultures and Christendom in general through armed struggle.”
“Europeans have not just a right, but a duty to resist through political and military means; cultural Marxist/multiculturalist atrocities and crimes committed against the indigenous peoples of Europe. As such, any European Christian conservative can act as a Justiciar Knight. This includes Christian agnostics and Christian atheists.”
Culture, not religious belief nor ethnicity are the defining qualifications of this new knighthood, Breivik wrote, stating on page 820 that although the Knights Templar “is a pan-European indigenous rights movement we give all Europeans, regardless of skin colour, the opportunity to become a Justiciar Knight as long as the individual is either a Christian, Christian agnostic or a Christian atheist.”
He also denied any personal belief in Jesus Christ and voiced disapproval of Christian moral teachings, but was comfortable in professing the merits of “Christendom.”
“If you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and God then you are a religious Christian. Myself and many more like me do not necessarily have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and God. We do however believe in Christianity as a cultural, social, identity and moral platform. This makes us Christian,” Breivik wrote on page 1309.
Equal in merit as a bulwark against Marxism and Islam, in the bomber’s eyes, were Hinduism and Buddhism. Breivik applauded the stance of Hindu Nationalist groups like the BJP and denounced Christian missionaries in India for diluting the strength of Hinduism.
He attacked the Indian Congress party for making common cause against the BJP by “appeasing Muslims and very sadly proselytising Christian missionaries who illegally convert low caste Hindus with lies and fear alongside Communists who want total destruction of the Hindu faith and culture.”
Breivik’s social views are confused as well. He professed a fondness for Barak Obama and Vladimir Putin, and espoused libertarian social mores. On page 658 he lamented the hijacking of a number of worthy causes by the multi-culturalists: “They often recruit under false and deceptive idealistic banners we all have sympathy for (anti-racist, pro-minority, pro-gay, anti-war, pro-environment, pro-wildlife, helping Palestinian children and similar organisations).”
Breivik has been remanded in custody for eight weeks, and if convicted of all the killings faces a maximum sentence of 21 years imprisonment under Norwegian law.
Moderator’s suspension quashed: The Church of England Newspaper, July 29, 2011 p 6. July 28, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of South India, Corruption.comments closed
Bishop S. Vasanthakumar
First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
An Indian appeals court has thrown out a Madras civil court order suspending the moderator of the Church of South India (CSI).
On 15 July the court voided a 28 June order that suspended Bishop S Vasanthakumar from exercising the office of moderator, and further ordered a return to the status quo of the administration of the CSI pending a final adjudication of the dispute.
Last month Judge Thiru Chandrasekaran suspended the powers of all “office-bearers” of the church elected at the 17 January, 2010 general synod, including the moderator, deputy moderator, treasurer and general secretary in response to a lawsuit filed by a lay member of the synod from the Diocese of Madras who argued the elections were fraudulent.
The court found that a prima facie case could be made that the elections were voidable. On 25 February, 2010 the court issued an order suspending the elections that was subsequently overturned. On 28 June the court issued a second order suspending the elections, which was also overturned.
The church anti-corruption campaign group, the CCC noted the order suspending the moderator had “huge negative implications for the CSI and [put] into jeopardy several major policy and administrative decisions including the recent appointment of some bishops.”
The matter has now been set down for adjudication.
Church protests over Scottish base closings: The Church of England Newspaper, July 22, 2011 p 6. July 27, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Arms Control/Defense/Peace Issues, Church of England Newspaper, Politics, Scottish Episcopal Church.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church has joined opposition leaders in criticizing the government’s decision to close the RAF base at Leuchars in Fife.
In a statement given to Parliament on July 18 Defence Secretary Liam Fox said the coalition was forced to close bases due to the fiscal irresponsibility of the previous government.
“This government inherited both a national economic disaster that represented a strategic threat, and a defence programme undermined by a £38bn black hole,” Dr. Fox said, adding that “without a fundamental review for 12 years, our Armed Forces were still largely configured for the 20th Century despite a decade of sustained operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
“This failure to set out a coherent long-term strategy for defence and to effectively match commitments to resources is one of Labour’s worst legacies,” he said.
He announced that RAF Leuchars will be taken over by the army and the existing Typhoon Squadron will be redeployed to RAF Lossiemouth in 2013, while army barracks in Edinburgh will be closed and other operations consolidated across the Scotland.
While there would be fewer active bases in Scotland, Dr Fox said told Parliament the reorganization would give Scotland a larger “defence footprint” and would “increase by well over 2,000 posts” in the region..
Labour’s Shadow Defence Secretary Jim Murphy responded sharply that “today’s announcement of a smaller army comes from a party that promised thousands of extra troops in opposition.
The SNP said the announcement confirmed the “massive and disproportionate defence cuts to the Royal Air Force and Royal Marines in Scotland that had been feared”.
Sir Menzies Campbell, the member for North East Fife, said he could not “support the decision not to retain Leuchars in my constituency as an RAF base because I believe it to be fundamentally wrong, strategically inept, and likely to increase the risk to our citizens.”
Bishop Chillingworth concurred with the sentiments of the opposition writing on July 18 the decision will bring “sadness and disappointment” to the people of Fife.
Although it is encouraging to hear that there will be a new future for Leuchars, yesterday’s announcement will bring to an end a long and proud tradition of service. There will be a significant impact on the local economy – not just for business life but for schools and community infrastructure. In the Scottish Episcopal Church, we have enjoyed warm relationships with Chaplains and the faith community at Leuchars. We shall be sorry to lose those contacts.
“These are difficult and fast-changing times. Economic circumstances are pressing – defence priorities are under constant review. But our first thoughts are with the people of the Leuchars community – for them the issues are personal; for this announcement will bring disturbance and challenge in personal and family life.”
Lord Carey challenges Cairo seminarians to evangelize Egypt: The Church of England Newspaper, July 22, 2011 p 5.. July 26, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Episcopal Church in Jerusalem & the Middle East.comments closed
All Saints Cathedral, Cairo
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey presided over graduation ceremonies last week for the Alexandria School of Theology. Meeting at All Saints Cathedral in Cairo, Lord Carey awarded 27 B.Th. degrees and 3 diplomas in theology to the class of Egyptian and Sudanese seminarians.
The July 16 ceremony was the third commencement exercise for the six year old theological college, which holds classes in Alexandria and Cairo and draws students from across Egypt.
In his address, Lord Carey spoke of the challenges of bearing Christian witness in a majority Muslim country. “How can you be orthodox but gracious?” he asked the congregation.
Citing Jesus’ response to the woman caught in adultery, he called on the new clergy and catechists to demonstrate the truth of the Gospel while tempering it with grace. “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God,” the former archbishop said, citing William Carey’s maxim.
The college principal, the Rev Emad Mikhail encouraged the graduates to take an active role in shaping the new Egypt and not to be afraid of the change unfolding around them. The Bishop of Egypt, Dr. Mouneer Anis stressed the importance of Christian solidarity in their ministries and urged the new clergy to respect the country’s other Christian traditions, while the papal nuncio Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald paid tribute to the tenacity of students who continued their studies amidst the breakup of the Mubarak regime.
Egypt “is the place to do theology, and it doesn’t stop after graduation,” Archbishop Fitzgerald said.
Anglican.TV episode July 23, 2011 July 24, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican.TV, Interviews/Citations.comments closed
A new episode of Anglican.TV was filmed last week and released on July 23.
Cash for admissions scandal rocks Church of South India: The Church of England Newspaper, July 22, 2011 p 5. July 24, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of South India, Corruption.comments closed
The Bishop-elect in South Kerala, the Rev. A. Dharmaraj Rasalam
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Officials of the Diocese of South Kerala have been accused by an Indian television network of selling admissions to a church-affiliated medical school. The scandal over the sale of admissions has prompted a walkout of the opposition in the Kerala Assembly and appears to have implicated leaders of the Church of South India (CSI) in another corruption scandal.
Last week the Asianet broadcasting network reported that it obtained a list of 50 students admitted to the church-affiliated Dr Somervell Memorial Medical College located on the grounds of the London Missionary Society (LMS) hospital in Karakonam. However, the admissions list was drawn up two days before students sat for their entrance exams.
A reporter for Asianet, posing as an official of the Church of South India (CSI), contacted the students on the list and learned that each had made cash payments of up to Rs 50 lakh (£70,000) for a place in the college. However, the payments were not considered tuition payments and were “off the books.”
Asianet reported that “All those who spoke to us admitted the money was accepted by the CSI management without providing any receipt.”
The funds were collected by “the treasurer of CSI located at the CSI headquarters at LMS in cash. The applicants were clearly told the amount was just a token and annual fees should be paid in extra,” the broadcast said.
After the story was aired, reporters descended upon the LMS compound. An Asianet reporter and cameraman were allegedly assaulted and had their cameras smashed. The attack prompted other journalists to visit the hospital, and in the ensuing mêlée police beat a reporter for India Vision TV.
On July 15, the leftist members of the Kerela Assembly walked out in protest. The Leader of Opposition and former chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan told the state’s Chief Minister, Oommen Chandy, the scandal “should should have been more seriously viewed by you and you failed to come out with any strong measures.
In response to the allegations made in the Asianet broadcast and in the subsequent fracas, Mr. Chandy said his government would investigate the affair.
The cash for admissions scandal comes at a difficult time for the diocese, which is currently without a bishop. In December, Bishop J.W. Gladstone retired as Bishop in South Kerala and Moderator of the CSI. The principal of the Kerala United Seminary, the Rev. Dr. G. Sobhanam—who was also vice-chairman of the medical school’s board, was subsequently elected by the diocesan synod and confirmed by the CSI’s general synod as the new bishop. However, Bishop-elect Sobhanam died on March 26, 2011.
The runner up in the election, the Rev. Dharmaraj Rasalam, was appointed bishop of the diocese last month in place of Dr. Sobhanam, and will be consecrated on July 23. Anti-corruption activists are hopeful the new bishop will clean up the diocese.
The lay-led anti-corruption group, the CCC stated this latest scandal is “an unprecedented opportunity to clean up the massive corruption in medical admissions and boost the finances of the diocese should he choose to do so. The big question is whether he has both the motivation and the ability to take on such a challenge.”
The CCC stated that “selling seats in educational institutions is a major source of corruption within the CSI. It not only weakens the moral fibre of the church and those who administer it but also deprives the institution of crores of rupees that would have otherwise come to it every year.”
CSI moderator suspended: The Church of England Newspaper, July 21, 2011. July 22, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of South India, Corruption.comments closed
Bishop S Vasanthakumar
First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
A civil court in Madras has suspended Bishop S. Vasanthakumar from exercising the office of moderator of the Church of South India (CSI).
On June 28, Judge Thiru Chandrasekaran suspending the powers of all “office-bearers” of the church elected at the January 17, 2010 general synod, while the City Civil Court in Chennai reviews the legality of the elections. The court heard an emergency motion from the CSI on July 6 seeking to vacate the order, but Judge Chandrasekaran declined to modify the injunction and has set the matter down for hearing on July 15.
On Jan 17, 2010 the 32nd session of the CSI general synod met in Courtallam in Tamil Nadu and elected a moderator, deputy moderator, general secretary and treasurer. Before the election was held, however, a court in Karnataka issued an injunction disqualifying Bishop Vasanthakumar from attending the meeting and standing for election.
However, a judge in Madras issued a second order permitting Bishop Vasanthakumar to attend. The synod Reference Committee agreed to allow him to attend the meeting, but withheld his right to vote. The bishop contested the election for moderator and was subsequently elected.
Immediately after the election, synod member Albert Jeyaraj brought suit asking the election be voided as it did not conform to the CSI’s constitution. Mr. Jeyaraj, a lay member of synod from the Diocese of Madras, stated the election was improper as votes for proxy were allowed—though forbidden by the CSI constitution. He also alleged that those exercising the proxy votes, allegedly on behalf of Bishop Vasanthakumar, were amongst those facing criminal indictment for defrauding the Episcopal Relief and Development Fund of aid money sent to India in the wake of the Indian Ocean Tsunami.
On Feb 25, 2010 the court granted an injunction suspending the election, but the CSI succeeded in overturning the first order. The second injunction, however, makes voidable all of the CSI senior management’s civil actions.
The church anti-corruption campaign group, the CCC welcomed the decision, noting the “ruling has huge negative implications for the CSI and puts into jeopardy several major policy and administrative decisions including the recent appointment of some bishops.”
Massachusett priest re-arrested on new abuse charges: The Church of England Newspaper, July 15, 2011 July 20, 2011
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The Rev. Franklin E. Huntress, Jr.
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
A priest arrested by Lincolnshire Police in 1994 for child abuse, has been re-arrested in the United States for sex crimes committed in New Hampshire.
Last week Franklin E Huntress, Jr, was arrested at his home in Massachusetts and extradited to neighbouring New Hampshire following his indictment of having twice sexually assaulted a child under the age of 13 in January 1984 and April 1985.
The incidents occurred while Mr Huntress served as rector of St Stephen’s Church in Schuylerville, NY, and took place during a church programme in New Hampshire. In April allegations of child abuse by Mr Huntress were filed with the New York State police, however, the Saratoga Country District Attorney said his office could not pursue criminal charges against the retired priest.
At the time the alleged abuse took place, New York law required that criminal proceedings be brought within five years, or five years after the alleged victim turned 18. The statute of limitations on sex crimes differs in New Hampshire and a grand jury returned an indictment on two counts of abuse committed over 25 years ago against Mr Huntress.
The former clergyman posted a $25,000 bond in New Hampshire and has been released from custody pending trial.
Claims the 77-year-old priest molested a child in 1974 last year prompted an investigation by the Diocese of Massachusetts. During the course of its investigation, the Diocese learned Mr Huntress had been arrested by police for abusing a child in 1994 while service as vicar of St Matthew’s Church in Skegness, Lincs.
No charges were filed as the victim’s family did not want the child to testify in court. However, Church investigators concluded the allegations were true after reading the police report and speaking to the officers involved, said Canon Mally Lloyd, the Bishop of Massachusetts’s assistant.
Confronted with the charges, Mr Huntress resigned his orders, and was formally removed from the priesthood on 11 February by Bishop Thomas Shaw SSJE of Massachusetts.
However, the Director of Communications for the Diocese of Massachusetts told The Church of England Newspaper “there is nothing in the records here indicating that the Diocese of Massachusetts was contacted by either civil or Church authorities in England regarding the 1994 charges there.”
A spokesman for the Diocese of Lincoln confirmed that Mr Huntress “had been arrested and charged in 1994 on accusations of abusing a minor when he was serving in England. However it appeared that these charges were dropped and the detail and the circumstances were unclear.”
Diocesan spokesman Will Harrison stated that “when the request for further information from the Diocese of Massachusetts was received the former Diocese of Lincoln file had been destroyed as part of a previous archive policy.”
Mr Huntress gave permission for the Lincolnshire Police to release their file on his arrest to the Diocese of Massachusetts, Mr Harrison said, adding the Diocese “was then informed that he was removed from the priesthood in the USA and the Diocese therefore notified the national Church authorities in case he moved back to the UK.”
Ordained in 1962, Mr Huntress served parishes in Massachusetts, New York and New Hampshire and in the UK. From 1965 to 1967 he served at St Mary’s, Chester, from 1967-1971 at Waltham Abbey in Essex, from 1975 to 1979 at St Gabriel’s Abbey in Leicester, and from 1991 to 1994 at St Matthew’s in Skegness.
Cardinal backtracks on women priests: The Church of England Newspaper, July 15, 2011 p 8. July 19, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Roman Catholic Church, Women Priests.comments closed
Cardinal Jose da Cruz Policarpo, the Patriach of Lisbon
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Patriarch of Lisbon has backtracked on his statement that there are no theological reasons why women cannot be priests.
In a letter to the Zenit News Agency Cardinal Jose da Cruz Policarpo stated he had perhaps not been as clear as he would have liked and had not meant to suggest that Pope John Paul II’s statement that women would never be priests was up for negotiation.
In an interview last month with OA, the monthly magazine of the Portuguese Order of Attorneys, Cardinal Policarpo said there could be women priests “when God wills,” however, it was better “not to raise the issue.”
He added: “I think that there is no fundamental obstacle” to women priests. “It is a fundamental equality of all members of the Church. The problem is a strong tradition that comes from Jesus and the ease with which the Reformed Churches have granted priesthood to women.”
The Cardinal’s comments caused a stir in Catholic circles as John Paul II in his 1994 Apostolic Letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis said the Roman Catholic Church would never ordain women to the priesthood. The following year the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith held Ordinatio Sacerdotalis had been “set forth infallibly by the ordinary and universal Magisterium,” and “must always be kept, everywhere and by all the faithful, because it belongs to the deposit of faith.”
In his letter to Zenit, Cardinal Policarpo said he had since come to “consider the issue more carefully.”
He acknowledged he had not taken into consideration Ordinatio Sacerdotalis in his thinking. John Paul’s Apostolic Letter was not only a “practical way to proceed” but was “an expression of the mystery of the Church, which we must accept in faith,” the Cardinal wrote.
“The fact that there are no women among these cooperators and successors [of the apostles] does not mean a minimization of women,” the Cardinal explained, for in the early church “it is known that there was harmony between the apostolic priesthood granted to men, and the importance and dignity of women in the Church.”
The push for women priests was partly a result of the “loss of awareness” of the “dignity of the priesthood, thereby reducing the priestly expression to ordained priesthood,” the Cardinal explained.
Others had been misled to believe the “ministerial priesthood” was a “right and power, without perceiving that no man or woman can claim this right, by accepting the Church’s call to this service, which includes the gift of one’s life.”
“We are therefore asked to observe the teachings of the Holy Father, in the humility of our faith,” Cardinal Policarpo wrote, “to continue to deepen the relationship of the ministerial priesthood with the priestly quality of all the People of God and discover a female way of building the Church, in the critical mission of our sisters, the women.”
Christian population in the Middle East rising: The Church of England Newspaper, July 15, 2011 p 8. July 18, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Archbishop of Canterbury, Church of England Newspaper, Episcopal Church in Jerusalem & the Middle East, Israel.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has launched an appeal to sustain the Christian communities in the Holy Land.
The Archbishop’s call comes amidst a sharp decline in the Muslim-majority countries of the Middle East over the course of the 20th Century. However, in recent years the Christian population of Israel has grown sharply, with the Pontifical Mission to Palestine reporting the return of Christian emigrants from abroad to the Holy Land.
In his address to the General Synod’s July 2011 Group of Sessions, Dr Rowan Williams said that he “returned from a visit to the Holy Land last year with a very, very strong sense that we had to do more to express our solidarity with the Christian communities there… We know our brothers and sisters there are suffering; and we don’t always ask ourselves often enough what our response needs to be.”
He asked Anglicans to support the financial appeal “with which we might assist projects of community development and work creation, especially among Palestinian Christians.”
A demographic study published in 1998 by the Oxford University Press entitled Christian Communities in the Arab Middle East noted that in 1914, Christians constituted 26.4 per cent of the total population in what is now Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, while by 1995 they represented 9.2 per cent of the population.
However, the decline has not been evenly spread. While Christians have fled from areas controlled by Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, in Israel their numbers have grown rapidly. The Statistical Abstract of Israel 2008 reports that Israel’s Christian population grew from 120,600 in 1995 to 151,600 in 2007, representing a growth rate of 25 per cent — a rate faster than the growth of the country’s Jewish population.
Dr Williams’ appeal comes ahead of a joint conference with the Archbishop of Westminster scheduled for 18/19 July at Lambeth Palace. “The rate of emigration from Christian populations in the Holy Land has been growing steadily for a long time” the Archbishop of Canterbury said in an introductory video.
“People are leaving, Christians are leaving, and we want to say that the Christian presence in the Holy Land is important to its balance… not just its historical reality, but to its present and future viability” added Archbishop Vincent Nichols.
However, the Pontifical Mission to Palestine, an agency created by Pope Pius XII in April 1949 to coordinate all the Catholic aid activities in favour of the Palestinian refugees and victims after the War of 1948, reports that Christians are now returning.
The mission’s regional director Sami el-Yousef told EWTN News the number of Christians living in the Holy Land had stopped falling, and perhaps even increased slightly.
“In recent years I think we have not witnessed any waves of emigration out of the Holy Land,” Mr el-Yousef said. Some families that emigrated in past years have recently returned, he reported.
Anglican.TV Episode July 15, 2011 July 17, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Abuse, Archbishop of Canterbury, Church of England, Interviews/Citations, The Episcopal Church.comments closed
A new episode of Anglican.TV recorded on July 14 and broadcast on July 15.
Topics this week are the Nevada controversy and the Presiding Bishop, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the leadership deficit of the Church of England, and the Anglican Mission in England.
Swazi bishop cleared of misconduct: The Church of England Newspaper, July 14, 2011 July 16, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Southern Africa, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
Bishop Meshack Mabuza of Swaziland
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Bishop of Swaziland has been cleared of charges of financial misconduct. However, the Rt Rev Meshack Mabuza told members of the diocesan synod gathered on 9 July at the Thokoza Anglican Centre in Mbabne that he was standing down as bishop.
In 2010 the Rev Bhekubuhle Mbatha, vicar of St Augustine’s church in Mpaka filed charges against the bishop alleging misconduct. While the allegations were never made public, the Times of Swaziland reported that a “team of investigators” sent by the Archbishop of Cape Town were reviewing charges of “mismanagement of moneys” sent by the Dioceses of Brechin and Iowa.
Last week’s announcement clears the Bishop of the misconduct charges. The Bishop has declined to say, however, why he was stepping down.
The financial misconduct charges were only part of the Bishop’s worries. On the evening of 21 February, traffic officers from the Lobamba police station stopped the Bishop while he was driving along the Manzini-Mbabane freeway. The Bishop failed a breathalyzer test and arrested him for driving while under the influence of alcohol.
Bishop Mabuza’s hearing was held in camera the following morning before the Mbabane Magistrate’s Court. While the outcome of the proceedings is not known, under Swazi law a first drink-driving arrest is most often punished by a fine and an admonishment.
The Bishop’s drink-driving arrest followed a February 2010 Swazi media storm centring round Anglicans and alcohol. Local newspapers had a field day when the bar bill for the Southern African House of Bishops meeting, which was held in Swaziland, was given to the press.
Asked to comment on the propriety of imbibing bishops, Bishop Mabuza told the Times of Swaziland the church does not require its clergy to be teetotalers but took a dim view of public intoxication. “To us, it is not a crime when you take alcohol, but getting drunk is a vice,” the Bishop explained.
Priest jailed 75 days for child abuse: The Church of England Newspaper, July 14, 2011 July 15, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Abuse, Church of England Newspaper, The Episcopal Church.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
An Episcopal priest who pled guilty in April to two counts of child abuse will only serve 75 days in jail for his crimes.
Last week a Maryland court handed down a 10-year suspended sentence to the Rev Donald Belcher for molesting an eight-year old girl in 2010, and for molesting a 15-year-old girl in 2006 while serving as an associate for pastoral care at St Mary’s Church in Abingdon, Maryland.
The Newark Post reported that at the sentencing hearing the Assistant State’s Attorney asked that Mr Belcher be jailed for nine to 19 years. However, the judge had stated he would hand down a suspended term of imprisonment if a pre-sentencing investigation revealed no other criminal activities in Mr Belcher’s past.
The 82-year-old priest was subsequently released from custody, having served 75 days in the county jail while awaiting sentencing. He must serve five years of supervised probation, register as a sex offender and may have no unsupervised contact with minors.
Ordained in 1997, Mr Belcher entered the ministry after working as a wine broker, tavern owner and pharmaceutical company executive. He is also a part-time publican, having purchased the Dirty Shame Saloon in Yaak, Montana in 2006.
In a statement released following his arraignment in January, the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland said it took “very seriously our Church’s commitment to maintaining a safe environment for all who come to us seeking pastoral care and God’s sacraments.”
Questions remain for Nevada on abuse case: The Church of England Newspaper, July 14, 2011 July 14, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Abuse, Church of England Newspaper, The Episcopal Church.comments closed
Bishop Dan Edwards of Nevada and Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori
First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Bishop of Nevada has issued a statement asserting that his predecessor did not violate canon law by receiving the Rev. Bede Parry into the priesthood of the Episcopal Church. However, anti-abuse activists have lambasted Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori’s continued silence in the affair, and have warned the Church that silence will not end questions on what she knew, and when she knew it.
In a strongly worded statement released on July 5, Bishop Dan Edwards stated the decision to receive Fr. Parry was not taken alone by Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori in 2004, but was “a multi-level decision which meticulously followed the applicable canons.”
However, some of the facts laid out by Bishop Edwards conflict with statements given by other participants in the Parry affair. The bishop, who has declined to respond to questions from The Church of England Newspaper, has also sidestepped the issue of what his predecessor knew about Fr. Parry, as well as why the bishop and diocese felt free to ignore its own guidelines on sexual misconduct when it received the former Roman Catholic priest.
Bishop Edwards stated the diocese’s clergy selection board, the Commission on Ministry, knew of the “incident of ‘inappropriate touching’ that allegedly occurred with a young man in his late teens. That incident was not covered up.”
He also denied any knowledge of a 2000 psychological examination that identified Fr. Parry as a serial sexual abuser. “No such report was sent to the Diocese of Nevada and, to this day, we have no knowledge of its existence other than an assertion” in a law suit.
Bishop Edwards added that even were such a test performed in 2000 as claimed, “reliable testing to predict such sexual abuse was not even developed until nearly two decades later, so the assertion in the John Doe complaint is dubious.”
He did state that an independent psychological evaluation by the diocese “did not indicate any pathology or risk.”
Bishop Edwards added that his predecessor, Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori “added the restriction that [Fr Parry] should not have contact with minors. This was to add double protection and prevent even the appearance of any threat to minors. This restriction and the reasons for it were conveyed by the bishop to people who supervised Fr. Bede’s work.”
The bishop noted that there had been no complaints about Fr. Parry’s conduct, stating that “since he became a priest, there has been no report, formal or informal, credible or incredible, no rumor or innuendo of any repetition of the [1987] incident.”
Fr. Parry’s colleagues amongst the Nevada clergy have confirmed Bishop Edwards’ assessment of Fr. Parry’s probity and dedication whilst serving as an Episcopal priest. The former rector of All Saints Church in Las Vegas, Fr. Eldwin Lovelady told CEN that during the five years Fr. Parry was his assistant “I found him to be faithful to his priestly ministry, a wonderful pastoral presence to me and to members of the parish, and a friend.”
In an apparent contradiction to the bishop’s claim that restrictions were placed on Fr. Parry’s ministry and the “reasons for it conveyed” by Bishop Jefferts Schori to his supervisors, Fr. Lovelady said he “never had even the smallest hint of any kind of inappropriate behavior, or any inclination to such. I was not aware of anything in his past and now that I’ve been made aware of these allegations, I have not changed my opinion about Bede in any way and if I were still in the diocese of Nevada, I would be supporting him.”
Bishop Edwards’ claim the diocese did not receive the 2000 psychological profile of Fr. Parry is at odds, as he notes, with the claim made in a lawsuit filed last month in Missouri, which stated the Episcopal Diocese was given a copy of the report. However, the bishop’s further contention that any psychological profile conducted in 2000 that indicated a predilection for abuse would be “dubious” as such tests would not be developed until “20 years later” appears to be a misstatement.
The bishop’s assertion that no test in 2000 could accurately gauge predilection towards abuse cannot be substantiated by reference to scientific literature. The September 1989 issue of the journal Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment reports the Multiphasic Sex Inventory (MSI I) “is also an excellent instrument for differentiating between deniers and non-deniers of abuse.” The second edition of the test, MSI II, was released in 2000 and has been used in over 50,000 cases to identify and plan treatment regimes for sexual abusers.
An attorney for Fr. Parry told CEN his client shared details of the 1987 incident with Bishop Jefferts Schori as well as his subsequent hospitalization. What remains unclear, however, is why a background investigation failed to look into Fr. Parry’s four previous incidents of abuse known to the Catholic Church—incidents that would have been noted in any report on his hospitalization for abuse in 1987.
The bishop’s claim that all procedures were followed in the Diocese of Nevada process, does not address issues raised by canon lawyer Allan Haley that Bishop Jefferts Schori and the diocese appear to have violated canon law by not following the rules governing the reception of Roman Catholic clergy into the Episcopal Church. Nor has the bishop explained how the Diocese of Nevada’s absolute prohibition on serving in the ordained ministry for those who have committed child abuse was waived in Fr. Parry’s case.
Supporters of the embattled priest, tell CEN they are disappointed by the Presiding Bishop’s silence and the diocese’s lack of support for a priest, whom Bishop Edwards has noted has an “unblemished” record.
Anti-abuse advocates are equally outraged. David Clohessy, the national director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, the nation’s largest and oldest self help group for clergy molestation victims was unimpressed by the Episcopal Church’s response.
Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori was “ducking and dodging. If she truly acted responsibly with this admitted predator, she’d address the roiling questions of why she ordained him,” he said.
Former president’s wife should stay out of politics, bishops say: The Church of England Newspaper, July 8, 2011 p 6. July 13, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of West Africa, Politics.comments closed
Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, former first lady of Ghana
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Church leaders have urged the wife of Ghana’s former leader, Jerry Rawlings not to contest the leadership of the country’s National Democratic Congress (NDC) party. The bid by Mrs. Nana Rawlings for the ‘flagbearership’ of the NDC was an end run around the constitution, said Bishop Daniel Allotey of the Cape Coast, and would damage Ghana’s fragile democracy.
Speaking at a political forum on July 2, Bishop Allotey, who served as a member of the Constituent Assembly that drafted the 1992 Constitution for Ghana’s Fourth Republic said Mrs. Rawlings bid to become party leader threatened to return Ghana to the era when men, rather than laws, governed the country.
“Mrs Rawlings’ bid is a violation of article 69(1) of the Constitution which states modalities for removing the President; what is going on constitutes an attempt to remove the President of Ghana,” he said according to an account given by the Ghana News Agency.
“The fourth republic since 1993 has established a democratic tradition – the sitting President is spared the vigorous, distractive tendencies and divisive mechanism of campaigning for a second term.
“The two former Presidents enjoyed it, and Professor John Evans Atta Mills should have been allowed to go through the same evolving tradition,” Bishop Allotey said.
In 1979 Flt Lt Jerry Rawlings led a group of junior military officers in a coup, and ruled Ghana as a military dictator in 1979 and from 1981 to 1992. In 1993 he was elected president of the Fourth Republic from 1993 and reelected to a second term in 1997.
Barred by the constitution from standing in any election, Pres. Rawlings endorsed his vice-president John Atta Mills as the NDC’s presidential candidate in 2000. However, the NDC candidate lost the election to the rival candidate John Agyekum Kufour of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in 2000 and again in 2004, but was elected president in 2008.
The power struggle within the NDC was diverting the energies of the government from more pressing tasks, the bishop said.
“The President was elected by Ghanaians and can only be removed by Ghanaians. It is not the duty of the party or any individual within to tell us that the President is not performing. Judgment day is at the next general election not at a party congress,” Bishop Allotey said.
Speaking at 29th ‘Martyrs’ Day’ remembrance service on June 30, commemorating the murder of three high court judges by a military death squad in 1982, Archbishop Justice Akrofi of Accra called for renewed vigilance to prevent political passions from spilling over into violence.
Ghana’s political development was lagging, the archbishop said, as too many leaders had succumbed to a “power complex” that put their interests above the nation.
No change to American ban, ACC says: The Church of England Newspaper, July 8, 2011 p 6. July 11, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Consultative Council, Church of England Newspaper, The Episcopal Church.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Archbishop of Canterbury’s ban on American participation in the Anglican Communion’s international ecumenical dialogues remains in place, a spokesman for the Anglican Consultative Council reports.
However, the addition of an American Episcopalian to the delegation to the third Anglican–Lutheran International Commission (ALIC) meeting in Jerusalem last week was not a violation of the ban on participation in ecumenical dialogue of those who propagate views contrary to the church’s teachings on human sexuality, the ACC says.
A spokesman for the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) tells The Church of England Newspaper that the communiqué misstated the status of the American member of the Anglican team. The Very Rev. William Petersen, Provost and Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Bexley Hall Seminary in the United States, was a “consultant not a member of ALIC. The reference to him in the communiqué as a member was incorrect,” ACC spokesman Jan Butters said.
The statement has since been amended on the ACC’s website to note this change of status.
Since Dr. Rowan Williams issued his May 28, 2010 Pentecost letter to the Anglican Communion, there has been controversy over how faithfully its terms have been implemented by the London-based staff of the ACC.
In his letter, Dr. Rowan Williams stated that members of provinces that were in breach of the moratoria would no longer participate in the communion’s ecumenical dialogues. They “should not be participants in the ecumenical dialogues in which the Communion is formally engaged,” Dr. Williams wrote, leading to the dismissal of five Americans from the dialogue teams.
On June 7, 2010 ACC general secretary the Rev. Canon Kenneth Kearon announced that he had written to the American participants, including Dr. Petersen “informing them that their membership of these [ecumenical] dialogues has been discontinued.”
Speaking to the press during the Canadian General Synod in Halifax last year, Canon Kearon explained that: “If they don’t share the faith and order, then they shouldn’t represent the Communion on faith and order questions.”
The Americans had been stood down as “at the very minimum to be honouring to our ecumenical partners so that they know who they are in conversation with,” Canon Kearon said.
The subsequent appointment of an American priest and a Canadian bishop whose diocese had formally instituted gay blessings to the ARCIC team was permitted, the ACC explained as the Canadian national church had not endorsed gay blessings, and the American priest—through still canonically resident in the Diocese of Chicago—was teaching in the UK.
The reappointment of one of the dismissed Americans to the ALIC, with the same role in the dialogue as before but with the new title of “consultant” further diminished the credibility and integrity of the ACC staff, one Global South leader told CEN.
At their meeting in Jerusalem, participants learned of the difficulties facing Christians in the Middle East, and Dr. Williams gave a speech urging greater Anglican-Lutheran cooperation in the region.
Govt report blames Al Qaeda for Bhatti murder: The Church of England Newspaper, July 8, 2011 p 7. July 10, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Pakistan, Persecution.comments closed
Shahbaz Bhatti
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Al-Qaeda terrorists murdered the Minister for Minorities, Shahbaz Bhatti, the Pakistani Ministry of the Interior has concluded.
Theories the sole Christian in Pakistan’s cabinet was murdered in a personal dispute unrelated to his faith have been dismissed by the government, the dead man’s brother Paul Bhatti reports.
The investigation is now focused on an al-Qaeda cell in Pakistan known as “Brigade 313” led by Taliban leader Ilyas Kashmiri.
On 2 March, Mr Bhatti, a 42-year-old Roman Catholic, was leaving his home when a gunman sprayed his car with 20 bullets. He died while being transported to the Shifa Hospital in Islamabad. The government minister was usually accompanied by security guards, but he had told them that day not to accompany him.
Last year Mr Bhatti told a public meeting “when I’m leading this campaign against the Sharia laws and for the abolishment of the blasphemy law and speaking for the oppressed and for the persecuted Christians and other minorities, these Taliban threaten me.
“I’m ready to die for a cause. I’m living for my community and suffering people and I will die to defend their rights,” said Mr Bhatti, the chairman of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance. “I will prefer to die for my principles and for the justice of my community rather to compromise.”
Speaking to the Fides news service Paul Bhatti said the investigations into his brother’s murder were “finally on the right track: it is the work carried out by the Taliban and Islamic fanatics. Now we are waiting for the capture of the perpetrators of the crime, who are in Dubai.”
Minister of Interior Rehman Malik has issued a warrant for the killers and is seeking the assistance of the Dubai government to round up the accused.
The Commission of Inquiry set up by the Interior Ministry concluded that Brigade 313 contracted the killing out to a Taliban leader in the Punjab, who used members of the ‘Tehrik-e-Islami’ and a faction of the ‘Ghazi Force in Islamabad’ to kill the minorities minister, Mr Bhatti said.
“After the sidetracking of the inquiry and attempts of reducing the charge of murder due to personal enmity, slinging mud at my brother, the truth is emerging: we were convinced that he was killed for his commitment to human rights, the rights of Christians, for the brave denunciation against the blasphemy law,” he said.
“Now the investigation proves us right. We are hoping for a rapid conclusion, with the capture of the perpetrators of the crime. It would be a good sign for the health of the state of law in Pakistan,” Mr Bhatti said.
‘Prohibition for life’ on theft charges for Carlisle vicar: The Church of England Newspaper, July 8, 2011 p 5. July 9, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Canon Law, Church of England, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
An ecclesial tribunal found a Carlisle vicar guilty of fiscal misconduct last week and has imposed a sentence of “prohibition for life” against the Rev. Karl Wray.
According to papers filed with the disciplinary tribunal, in 2009 the Archdeacon of Carlisle, the Ven. Kevin Roberts was alerted to “pastoral and governance concerns” at St Luke’s Church in Morton. A review of the parish returns raised a red flag as the vicar reported conducting one marriage and 17 funerals between 2000 and 2008. “In a parish the size of St Luke’s,” Archdeacon Roberts testified to the tribunal, the diocese expected “to see about 40 funerals a year.”
Confronted by the discrepancies, Mr. Wray admitted to not turning over fees for services and withholding information from the diocese, but testified there had been no attempt to be “dishonest.” However, he admitted that his handling of parish fiscal affairs was marked by “incompetence and inefficiency.”
Mr. Wray (60) was appointed vicar of St Luke’s in 1992. He was suspended from office in 2009 and resigned his post in January of this year. The investigation concluded Mr. Wray had pocketed approximately £21,000 in wedding and funeral fees.
On May 7, 2009, Cumbria police arrested Mr. Wray on suspicion of theft and false accounting. However the Crown Prosecution Service said that while it was “clear” the vicar had been “negligent in his handling of money,” the CPS was “not satisfied that we could prove beyond reasonable doubt that he had been criminally dishonest,” the tribunal reported.
At his hearing, Mr. Wray said “he had failed to pay the correct amount because of his bad record keeping. His returns were, he accepted, inaccurate but not false and not dishonest or fraudulent,” the tribunal’s records show.
However, the tribunal was not persuaded by his arguments
It said: “Mr. Wray’s misconduct was systematic, over a long period of time, and in breach of trust. Also, there appears to be no attempt by Mr Wray to learn from his misbehaviour, and no suggestion of remorse or repentance.
“There has been no attempt by him to put matters right, and no expression of contrition.”
A sentence of prohibition for life means Mr. Wray will be banned from the parish ministry for life.
Archbishop’s arrest warrant quashed: The Church of England Newspaper, July 8, 2011 p 6. July 8, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Tanzania, Church of England Newspaper, Politics.comments closed
Archbishop Valentino Mokiwa of Tanzania
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Court of Appeal in Dar es Salaam has quashed an arrest warrant for the Primate of the Anglican Church of Tanzania (ACT), Archbishop Valentino Mokiwa.
The Citizen newspaper of Dar es Salaam reported on 3 July that Chief Justice Mohamed Othman Chande had set aside a warrant issued by Arusha District Justice Kakusulo Sambo. The case has been removed to the High Court in Dar es Salaam, The Church of England Newspaper has learned, and the warrant suspended pending a full review of the case.
On 13 June the High Court in Arusha issued a bench warrant for Dr Mokiwa for contempt of court, after prosecutors claimed the Archbishop ignored a court order blocking the consecration of the Bishop of Mount Kilimanjaro. The election of Stanley Hotay has been a source of controversy within the ACT, and has served as a proxy war for the wider divisions within the Anglican Communion combined with a heady mix of tribal and personal jealousies.
The Diocese elected the Mr Hotay bishop of the northern Tanzanian diocese on 15 April. Supporters of the unsuccessful candidate filed a complaint with the High Court in Arusha asking the election be set aside. They claimed Mr Hotay was not yet 40, the minimum age for a bishop in Tanzania.
Justice Sambo issued a restraining order shortly before the scheduled consecration, directing the Church not to consecrate Mr Hotay as Bishop of Mount Kilimanjaro. However, on 12 June the Archbishop consecrated Mr Hotay to the episcopate, but did not install him as bishop of the Diocese.
The judge responded by issuing a warrant of arrest for the Archbishop, stating: “What the respondent, including Bishop Valentino Mokiwa, did is clear contempt of court.”
The general secretary of the ACT, Dr Dickson Chilongani said the consecration service did not violate the injunction. The consecration of Bishop Hotay was to episcopal office, but did not confer jurisdiction upon the new bishop. “What we did was to consecrate him as a new bishop… as of now he does not belong to any diocese,” said Dr Chilongani.
The judge defending issuing a criminal arrest warrant for the Archbishop writing he was aware the Archbishop was “not party to this case and application” but his actions led to the “disobeying a lawful order.”
The Arusha arrest warrant has come under sharp public criticism in Tanzania, prompting editorials in local newspapers decrying what they see as abuse of power by the local court. Under Tanzanian law, section 4.3 of the Appellate Jurisdiction Act (1974), the Court of Appeal may examine the record of any proceedings before subordinate courts “for the purpose of satisfying itself as to the correctness and legality of any finding, order or any other decision.”
The matter will now be reviewed de novo by the Court of Appeal in Dar es Salaam.
Silence from NY on clergy abuse case: The Church of England Newspaper, July 8, 2011 p 7. July 7, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Abuse, Canon Law, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
The Rev. Bede Parry
First published in The Church of England Newspaper. A collection of some of the primary materials in this case can be found here.
Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori broke national Church canon law by receiving a Catholic priest with a history of sexual misconduct into the ministry of the Episcopal Church, a leading canon lawyer has concluded.
The Presiding Bishop’s office has refused to respond to questions about her alleged violations of Episcopal Church canon law, stating they do not comment on litigation. However, an investigation by The Church of England Newspaper suggests there is a prima facie case that the Presiding Bishop also violated rules she put in place in the Diocese of Nevada governing clergy sexual misconduct when she received the Rev Bede Parry into the priesthood in 2004.
The Presiding Bishop’s silence and the subsequent uproar comes as the Church’s new disciplinary canons came into effect on July 1, making her liable for ecclesiastical discipline for her actions as Bishop of Nevada. It also raises questions about the fairness of the clergy sexual abuse rules, as the canons presume that change of life and rehabilitation are impossible for those who have committed sexual sins.
Last month Fr Parry (69) resigned as an assistant priest on the staff of All Saints Episcopal Church in Las Vegas. On 23 June he was named as a sexual predator in a lawsuit filed by a Missouri man against Conception Abbey, a Roman Catholic monastery and seminary.
The lawsuit, filed in Nodaway County Circuit Court in Missouri, alleges that Fr Parry abused a teenage boy attending a choir camp at the abbey in 1987. The boy’s parents complained to the abbot and Fr Parry, who had previously confessed to four earlier incidents of abuse, was suspended and sent to a church-run clinic for sexual abusers in New Mexico. Upon completion of his treatment Fr Parry worked as a church music director in the Southwest and in 2000 applied for admission to another monastery.
The Missouri lawsuit contends that a psychological profile administered in 2000 by the monastery “revealed that Fr Parry was a sexual abuser who had the proclivity to reoffend with minors.”
Fr Parry began work as music director at All Saints in 2000 and in 2004 was received into the ministry of the Episcopal Church by Nevada Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori.
Joseph Paul Smith, an attorney for Fr Parry told CEN his client “has been open since 1987 about his involvement in the misconduct. Fr Bede went to church-prescribed treatment and has obtained treatment on his own since that time. There have been no episodes of misconduct at all since 1987.”
When he applied for reception Fr Parry “did inform” Bishop Jefferts Schori “of the incident in 1987 and his subsequent treatment,” Mr Smith said, adding that “Fr Bede has not been guilty of or participated in any misconduct during his tenure as an Episcopal priest.”
At the time of the 1987 incident, Conception Abbey notified the police of the abuse and “participated and fully cooperated” in their investigation, Mr Smith said, rejecting suggestions there had been a “cover-up”. “The District Attorney at that time made a decision to not prosecute,” he noted.
However, the Diocese of Nevada’s October 2003 Manual of Policies and Procedures Concerning Sexual Misconduct states: “There shall be no ministerial or pastoral role within a congregation for any professional … with a civil or criminal record of conviction of sexual misconduct.”
The diocesan manual further states: “There shall be no interaction with children and youth by anyone with a civil or criminal record of child sexual abuse or who has admitted prior sexual abuse.”
Canon lawyer Allan Haley finds the Presiding Bishop violated the national Church’s canons when she received Fr Parry. The canons governing the reception of Catholic clergy require a certificate “that the departure of the person from the Communion to which the person has belonged has not arisen from any circumstance unfavourable to moral or religious character.” The canons further require background checks and a psychological evaluation.
Mr Halley noted the “questions of what Bishop Jefferts Schori was told, what information she had available to her in the 2000 report, and any subsequent updating of it, and as a result of the background check done on Parry, thus become key to evaluating her decision to allow him to become a priest under her jurisdiction.”
“But her spokesman” he observed, “says only this: ‘We do not comment on lawsuits or allegations’.”
However, Bishop Jefferts Schori was not being asked to comment on lawsuits or the allegations, Mr Haley stated, but to explain her “overriding of the highly disturbing conclusion supposedly reached by the 2000 report: that Father Parry was a sexual abuser who had the proclivity to re-offend with minors.”
“The report was sufficient to keep Father Parry out of a Catholic monastery. Was it not also sufficient to keep him out of a position as an Episcopal priest? If not, why not?” Mr Halley asked.
Asked “who was harmed by Bishop Jefferts Schori’s casual reception of a paedophile,” Mr Halley stated: “Surely the other clergy in the Diocese of Nevada have a right to expect that their bishop would adhere to a standard that a candidate for orders in the Church who is caught in a lie about his background would not be accepted? And do not all Episcopalians have cause to be concerned about the adverse publicity that would come upon the Church once the facts came out, as is happening now?”
“How can any Episcopalian,” Mr. Halley asked, “be assured that their newly ordained/received priest is not an admitted paedophile?”
The Bede Parry saga takes a further unusual turn critics note, as it is the Presiding Bishop who has stonewalled the investigation, while Fr Parry has freely confessed his guilt and tendered his resignation from the ministry. His attorney told CEN Fr Parry had resigned as “he did not want this scandal to further harm the Church or its important work. He didn’t want the allegations to harm anyone else and did not want to be a distraction.”
At the height of the Roman Catholic clergy abuse scandal in 2005, Cardinal Avery Dulles writing in First Things argued there are times when priests can not only be forgiven of sin but rehabilitated and, with prudence, returned to public ministry: “Permanent exclusion from priestly ministry is the spiritual equivalent of the death penalty.”
Mr Smith sees the Parry case in this light. “It is a rather unfortunate event that some 24 years of good, even exemplary service, are wiped out and an otherwise good priest is given the ‘spiritual equivalent of the death penalty’,” he observed.
The Rev Ed Lovelady, Fr Parry’s former superior at All Saints told CEN his assistant was “faithful to his priestly ministry, a wonderful pastoral presence to me and to members of the parish, and a friend. I never had even the smallest hint of any kind of inappropriate behaviour, or any inclination to such.”
While he was not aware of his past actions, they would not change his opinion that that Bede Parry is a “true and valued friend and fellow priest.”
“I agree that priests should be entitled to the forgiveness and reconciliation in the Church that we preach about during Lent,” Fr Lovelady added. “We, as the Church, are in the forgiveness business.”
Fury over Dr. Williams’ Palestine remarks: The Church of England Newspaper, July 1, 2011 p 6. July 6, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Archbishop of Canterbury, Church of England Newspaper, Episcopal Church in Jerusalem & the Middle East, Israel.comments closed
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has come under sharp criticism from Palestinian activists, who have accused Dr. Rowan Williams of being an ill-informed right-winger bent on “demonizing Islam” and supporting the Israeli government.
However, a spokesman for Dr. Williams tells The Church of England Newspaper that Kairos Palestine had improperly construed the archbishop’s remarks about the plight of Christians across the Middle East to be an endorsement of Israeli government policies.
In a June 14 interview with the BBC Radio 4 programme World At One, Dr. Williams noted that life for some Middle East Christians was “becoming unsustainable.”
There was a “hemorrhaging of Christian populations from the Holy Land,” the archbishop said, adding that the “fact that Bethlehem, a majority Christian city just a couple of decades ago, is now very definitely a place where Christians are a marginalized minority.”
“It’s not ethnic cleansing exactly because it’s been far less deliberate than that I think,” Dr. Williams said.
“What we’ve seen though is a kind of Newtonian passing on of energy or force from one body to another so that some Muslim populations in the West Bank, under pressure, move away from certain areas like Hebron, move into other areas like Bethlehem. And there’s nowhere much else for Christian populations to go except away from Palestine,” the archbishop told the BBC.
On June 18, Mr. Rifat Odeh Kassis, the coordinator for Kairos Palestine wrote to Dr. Williams stating his remarks on Muslim extremism as the “the greatest threat facing Christians in Palestine and the primary reason for our emigration” were “inaccurate and erroneous.”
He added the archbishop’s “statements about Bethlehem are particularly faulty and offensive especially when you say that the movement of Muslims into the Bethlehem area, where space is limited, is forcing Christians to leave.”
“Equally shocking,” Mr. Kassis said, was Dr. Williams’ silence on Israeli actions that Kairos Palestine believed were one of the “major reasons that push not only Christians to emigrate, but also many other Palestinians.”
Kairos Palestine was disappointed that Dr. Williams did not speak with a “different voice than the one in mass media and other right wing political parties, which exploit our sufferings to fuel some Islamophobic tendencies and negative images about Islam.”
No stranger to the Middle East’s political fracas, Kairos Palestine was formed by a group of Palestinian clergy in 2004. According to the Jerusalem-based think tank NGO Monitor, Kairos “advocates a supersessionist theology, exploits related themes to demonize Israel, denies the Jewish historical connection to Israel, and ignores the extreme harassment and violence committed by Palestinians against Christians.”
A spokesman for Lambeth Palace told CEN Kairos’ concerns were overblown. “This is partly a fall out from a misquote on the BBC website,” he said.
The spokesman noted that on June 14 the BBC’s website stated: “Dr Rowan Williams said there was a ‘haemorrhaging of Christian populations from the Holy Land’ because of violent extremism, and in Bethlehem they were now a ‘marginalised minority’.”
The following day, the BBC rewrote the introduction to the story. The introduction to the link to the interview now read: “Dr Rowan Williams said there was a ‘haemorrhaging of Christian populations from the Holy Land’, violent extremism driving Christians from Egypt, and in Bethlehem they were now a ‘marginalised minority’.”
NY passes gay marriage law: The Church of England Newspaper, July 1, 2011 p 7. July 5, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Human Sexuality --- The gay issue, Marriage, New York.comments closed
Bishop Mark Sisk of New York
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The state of New York has legalized ‘gay marriage’. On 24 June, the state senate voted 33-29 to redefine marriage, making New York the largest and most influential American state to adopt the innovation. It also ends a string of defeats for the gay marriage movement, which saw similar bills rejected in Maryland and Rhode Island last month.
Church leaders in New York split over the vote, with five of the state’s six Episcopal bishops backing the measure while the Roman Catholic and Evangelical Churches opposed it.
In 2009 a similar bill failed to pass the Democrat-controlled senate. The state senate swung Republican last year, giving the GOP a 32-30 margin. However, when the vote came before the senate last week four Republicans voted in favour of the bill after language protecting religious liberties was introduced by Gov Andrew Cuomo.
The National Organization for Marriage, which opposed the bill, lambasted the “sham religious liberty language” in the compromise and vowed to turn the four Republican out of office.
Maggie Gallagher, founder of the National Organization for Marriage, warned: “New York Republicans are responsible for passing gay marriage. The party will pay a grave price.”
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins also blamed Republicans saying that “while it was the Democrats who were pushing this agenda, it is the Republicans in the NY Senate who ultimately allowed this to happen.”
New York Bishop Mark Sisk told the Episcopal News Service he welcomed the legislation, saying: “It was with thanksgiving and joy that I received the news of the New York State legislature’s affirmative action on the Marriage Equality legislation that it had been debating with such intensity.
“The legislation, as enacted, appears to be closely aligned with the long-standing views of this Diocese that the civil rights of all people should be respected equally before the law.
“The legislature’s action in broadening the definition of marriage to include same-sex unions has to do with civil law, as it properly should,” Bishop Sisk noted.
“It does not determine Church teaching about the nature of sacraments. That is our continuing work. However, nothing in the unfinished nature of that work should cause us to hesitate to give our most profound thanks for the step that has been taken in affording equal civil rights for our brothers and sisters,” the Bishop said.
ACNA up 34% in 18 months: The Church of England Newspaper, July 1, 2011 p 7. July 5, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of North America, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
ACNA Archbishop Robert Duncan
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) has bucked the trend of mainline church decline in the US and has added almost 250 new congregations, Archbishop Robert Duncan told delegates to the church’s second provincial council held last week in Long Beach, California.
“Two years ago we were 706 congregations. The annual parochial and diocesan reports for 2010,” Archbishop Duncan said on June 21, “identify 952 congregations as part of the dioceses of the ACNA and its ministry partners. Statistically this represents a 34 per cent growth in congregations at the end of the first 18 months of Church life.”
Growth has been strong across all age groups and demographics, the leader of the breakaway province of conservative Anglicans in the US and Canada told the delegates. One statistic Archbishop Duncan found particularly encouraging was the report on baptisms for 2010.
Over the past year ACNA parishes recorded “987 baptisms of adults over thirty, 424 baptisms of young people aged sixteen to thirty, and 1647 baptisms of children.” These numbers excluded baptisms performed in the Anglican Mission in the Americas (AMiA).
“What is so stunning about this data is that the number of baptisms of those 16 and older is almost equal to the number of children baptized,” he said.
“What this says is that we are reaching adolescents and adults who have never known Christ, never been part of a church. This is to reach North America with the transforming love of Jesus Christ, one sign among many that something quite extraordinary is unfolding,” Archbishop Duncan noted.
A one to one ratio of adult to children’s baptisms is uncommon among Anglicans in North America. Data released by the Episcopal Church for 2009 recorded 33,778 children’s baptisms and 5113 adult baptisms.
In his presidential address Archbishop Duncan reported the church’s finances were sound, its membership rolls expanding, and the internal tensions and strains of forming a new Anglican province comprising a range of traditions from Anglo-Catholic, to High Church, to Evangelical to Pentecostal were under control.
The province welcomed four new dioceses and dioceses-in-formation: the Mid-Atlantic, the Carolinas, the Southwest (covering West Texas and New Mexico) and Cascadia (covering the Pacific Northwest).
He reported that the non-geographic Diocese of the Holy Spirit, originally formed by congregations that had come under the oversight of the Church of Uganda, had voted to dissolve. “All of its congregations and clergy have now been dispersed to other dioceses,” Archbishop Duncan said, and he added that Holy Spirit’s bishop, John Guernsey, had been elected Bishop of the Mid-Atlantic.
“There are many evidences of God’s favor toward us, not because we deserve it, but because we continue to work so hard to align ourselves with His will,” the archbishop said.
Indian bishops to adopt code of conduct: The Church of England Newspaper, July 1, 2011 p 8. July 3, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of South India, Corruption.comments closed
Bishop S. Vasanthakumar, Moderator of the CSI
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Moderator of the Church of South India has called for the creation of a code of conduct to govern bishops.
Speaking at the National Consultation on Ecclesiology held at the Ecumenical Christian Centre in Bangalore on from June 14, Bishop S. Vasanthakumar stated the Church of South India “needs to establish a system of governance which is fair, transparent and accountable. In order to meet this challenge the Bishops have taken a decision to bring out a ‘Code of Conduct’ for both the Bishops in active service and the Bishops who have retired.”
Bishop Vasanthakumar announced he had appointed four bishops: Dr. Surya Prakash, Dr. J.S. Sadananda, K.G. Daniel and Paul Vasanthakumar to prepare a draft code for discussion at the next meeting of the House of Bishops.
“Serious discussion is underway” within the House of Bishops to create a “cell for redressal of grievances” independent of the current church court structure, Bishop Vasanthakumar said.
The court of grievances was needed, he said, as “one of the severest criticism leveled against the church [was] that there is no mechanism available in the church for the redressal of grievances” against bishops.
Questions about the priest’s conduct could be brought to the attention of his bishop, but allegations of misconduct by a bishop were subject to an unwieldy canonical process, he said.
Anti-corruption activists welcomed the moderator’s call for a mechanism to keep bishops honest. However, the CCC, the Christ-Centered Coalition—a leading anti-corruption lay association in the CSI, urged the bishops to give lay leaders a voice in the creation of the code of conduct.
The asked the bishops to “include respected lay CSI members and those who have been advocating good governance in the church in drafting both the code of conduct and the redressal mechanism.”
The warrant for lay involvement in clergy discipline was Biblical, they said. “The church that Jesus added people to at the beginning was a ‘called out’ or ‘gathered’ church where no clergy-laity distinction existed,” the CCC said.
Abuse of office has been an on-going problem in the CSI for the past decade from the arrest and imprisonment of Bishop M. I. Kesari of the Diocese of Kannyakumari in 2000 for corruption and contempt after he defied a court order not to declare the outcome of an election allegedly rigged by his supporters to the recent theft of disaster relief funds by the former CSI Secretary General Dr. Pauline Sathiamurthy following the Indian Ocean Tsunami. Half a dozen corruption cases are pending against sitting bishops in the CSI, including one against Bishop Vasanthakumar.
Martyrdom in Nigeria: The Church of England Newspaper, July 1, 2011 p 8. July 3, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Nigeria, Persecution.comments closed
The village church in Ung Kerau in Nigeria's Kaduna State after an attack by Muslim militants
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
A Christian village in Northern Nigeria’s Kaduna State has been burnt to the ground and its wells poisoned by Muslim militants, the Bishop of Ikara writes.
In an email to Barnabas Aid, Bishop Yusuf Ishaya Janfalan reported that on April 18 approximately 300 armed Muslim militants attacked the village of Ung Karau. As the villagers fled, the mob set fire to the village destroying 183 homes and businesses and the village church.
The attackers also fouled the town well in a bid to drive the inhabitants away. Bishop Janfalan wrote the villagers “were drinking from two wells. But when the mobs arrived they broke their store rooms, carried pepper and poured inside the well. They also poured their clothes, mortars, firewood and all sort of rubbish inside the well. We have stopped the villagers from drinking from the well, as we are suspecting that the mobs poisoned the well.”
They “were attacked simply because they are Christians,” the bishop said.
Barnabas Aid also reports that a minister in Nigeria’s Bauchi State was martyred for refusing to renounce his faith.
The Nigerian pastor was travelling as a passenger in a van when it was pulled over by uniformed men posing as police. The gunmen asked whether any of the passengers was a Christian. After the pastor professed his faith, he was dragged from the van.
The gunmen demanded the pastor renounce his faith, but he refused. He was beaten and his eyes were gouged out before he was put to death. His body was dragged into a field and set alight.
Barnabas Aid reports the minister leaves a widow and eight children.
Muslim militants, including the Boko Haram sect, have burnt over 200 churches and killed at least 800 people since the April 17 election of a southern Christian, Goodluck Jonathan, as President of Nigeria.
The attacks on Christians in Nigeria are not isolated incidents, but part of a larger assault on the faith. On June 2, Italian sociologist Massimo Introvigne told an EU Conference in Hungary that Christians were dying for their faith at the rate of one every five minutes.
Given current trends, Dr. Introvigne predicted 105,000 Christians would be martyred this year.
No theological obstacles to women priests says cardinal: The Church of England Newspaper, July 1, 2011 p 6. July 1, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Roman Catholic Church, Women Priests.comments closed
Cardinal Jose da Cruz Policarpo of Lisbon
There are no theological reasons why women cannot be priests, the Patriarch of Lisbon said last week, however the time for such a change in church tradition is not right.
In an interview with OA, the monthly magazine of the Portuguese Order of Attorneys, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in Portugal, Cardinal Jose da Cruz Policarpo said there could be women priests “when God wills,” however, it was better “not to raise the issue.”
Cardinal Policarpo stated: “I think that there is no fundamental obstacle” to women priests. “It is a fundamental equality of all members of the Church. The problem is a strong tradition that comes from Jesus and the ease with which the Reformed Churches have granted priesthood to women.”
He noted that Pope “John Paul II at one point seemed to settle the matter” with his Apostolic Letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis. Written in 1994 after the Church of England opened the priesthood to women, the Pope stated the Roman Catholic Church would never do so.
Cardinal Policarpo explained the question of women priests could not be “resolved like this. Theologically there is no fundamental obstacle, let’s just say that there’s this tradition: it has never been done otherwise.”
The 75-year-old Cardinal’s comments are likely to spark controversy in Catholic circles as they appear to contradict formal Church teaching. Criticized by some for his refusal to automatically excommunicate Catholic politicians who voted to legalize abortion in Portugal, in its 11 April, 2005 preview of the election of a new Pope, the Guardian said he was “a dark-horse candidate for pope, capable of bridging the divide between the Europeans and the Latin American Roman Catholic cardinals.”
In 1995 the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, then headed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, held Ordinatio Sacerdotalis had been “set forth infallibly by the ordinary and universal Magisterium,” and “must always be kept, everywhere and by all the faithful, because it belongs to the deposit of faith.”
No going back on women priests in Bermuda: The Church of England Newspaper, July 1, 2011 p 8. July 1, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Bermuda, Church of England Newspaper, Women Priests.comments closed
Bishop Patrick White of Bermuda
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Bishop of Bermuda has dismissed suggestions his diocese was rethinking its 2009 decision to permit women priests.
Bishop Patrick White told The Church of England Newspaper that speculation over the postponement of the ordination of the island’s first woman deacon was misplaced. Neither the diocese nor I have “changed our minds about women’s ordination. It is in this case about a decision not to ordain this particular woman,” he said.
Elected in 2008, Bishop White had promised to end the ban on women priests in the diocese. Shortly after his election, he told the diocese: “It’s important to extend the ministry to women to have them ordained,” adding that it’s a “priority for me and I hope for other people in the church as well. It is a decision that we will work on together.”
On June 22 the Bermuda Sun reported the ordination of the island’s first woman deacon had been postponed. The decision not to ordain Jennifer Hodgkins (68) who trained at St John’s College, Nottingham prompted speculation that the diocese had second thoughts about what the Sun described as the ‘bitter’ battle over allowing women priests.
However, Dr. White said the issues revolved around a particular candidate for holy orders, not over women priests in general. “To say anything more would be insensitive to her,” he said.
The bishop also questioned the Sun’s characterization of conservative clergy as “bitterly opposed to our decision to go ahead with the ordination of women. I work and worship with these men on a regular basis. If they are bitter they are hiding it well,” he noted.
First female dean for Wales: The Church of England Newspaper, July 1, 2011 p 6. July 1, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church in Wales, Church of England Newspaper, Women Priests.comments closed
Dr. Sue Jones of Bangor
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Church in Wales has appointed its first female dean.
The Bishop of Bangor has appointed Dr Sue Jones, the Residentiary Canon Missioner of the diocese, to be the 56th dean of the cathedral. She will take up her appointment on August 1st.
Born in South Wales, Dr. Jones worked for the Midland Bank before entering the ministry after training at Ripon College Cuddesdon, and was ordained to the deaconate in 1995. She was one of the first women priests in the Church in Wales when she was ordained in 1997 in Brecon.
She has served as Chaplain at Swansea University, Director of Studies at St Michael’s college in Llandaff, vicar of St Peter’s Church in Penrhosgarnedd as well as being the Area Dean for Ogwen and Canon of Bangor Cathedral.
Dr. Jones thanked Bishop Andrew John for her appointment and stated, “The Diocese of Bangor is in good heart. It is committed to being a Learning Church through the Exploring Faith Programme and nurturing committed and articulate disciples and fostering vocations for lay and ordained ministries. The Diocese of Bangor is the place to be.”
“St Deiniol brought the Christian faith to Bangor in 525 and his Cathedral Church has been a continuous place of prayer, praise and study ever since,” the new dean said, adding she looked forward to “standing in St Deiniol’s shoes” and to “continuing his commitment in shaping the cathedral as a powerful witness to Christ nurtured within the distinctive and special culture and language of Wales.”
