Archbishop calls for government to return nationalised schools: The Church of England Newspaper, Oct 28, 2011 p 7. October 30, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church News, Anglican Church of Tanzania, Church of England Newspaper, Education, Mission Societies/Religious Orders.Tags: Christian Education, Edward Lowassa, Valentino Mokiwa
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Archbishop Valentino Mokiwa
First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
Archbishop Valentino Mokiwa has urged a leading candidate for president to promise to return to the church mission schools nationalized by the government.
Speaking at a school fundraising event on 24 Oct 2011 in Dar es Salaam, Dr. Mokiwa asked Edward Lowassa MP to return the schools if he wins the presidency. Elections are scheduled in the east African nation in 2015 to succeed President Jakaya Kikwete. While Mr. Lowassa has not formally announced his candidacy, he is considered a front runner for the post.
Following independence in 1961, church schools received financials support from the government as long as they followed the Department of Education’s national curriculum. Government policies changed, however, following the promulgation of the Arusha Declaration on 5 Feb 1967 by President Julius Nyerere. The Arusha Declaration outlined the principles of Ujamaa — African socialism — and called for the overhaul of the economic system and self-reliance in locally administered villages through a villagization programme.
The villagization programme, implemented between 1973 and 1976, created a collective farming system through the resettlement of peasants who lived and worked their own land onto new villages that could provide economies of scale. The programme also saw a push towards self-reliance in industry and education. In 1974 the government nationalized private primary schools established by the Anglican, Catholic and Lutheran churches, and forced many missionary school teachers to leave the country.
African socialism proved to be an economic and education catastrophe for Tanzania, and in the 1980’s the government permitted new private schools to be opened. The government’s failure to maintain the confiscated schools and its disinclination to invest in education has led to a boom in private school enrollment, according to a UN report, such that over half of all students in Tanzania are now privately educated.
In his speech to kick off the fundraising drive for the Bishop John Sepeku School in the Yombo Buza district of Dar es Salaam, Archbishop Mokiwa asked the political leader to pledge to return the schools. “If you are blessed to win the presidency, please make sure that you return former church-owned schools to us… there are many properties belonging to the churches that were taken over by the government,” said Dr Mokiwa according to local press reports.
The Anglican Church in Tanzania has urged the government to return its confiscated schools, arguing that it is able to educate more children at a higher standard for less cost than the government.
The nationalization campaign had scarred many people, Dr. Mokiwa said, and it was now time to set politics aside for the good of the nation and support the best interests of children.
US Diocese asked to rehabilitate Pelagius: The Church of England Newspaper, Oct 28, 2011 p 7. October 29, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper.Tags: Diocese of Atlanta, Pelagius
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First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Diocese of Atlanta has been asked to rehabilitate Pelagius.
Delegates to the diocesan convention will be asked to reverse the condemnation of the Council of Carthage upon Pelagius, and to explore whether the Fifth century heretic may inform the theology of the Episcopal Church.
Resolution R11-7 before the convention states in part:
“Whereas the historical record of Pelagius’s contribution to our theological tradition is shrouded in the political ambition of his theological antagonists who sought to discredit what they felt was a threat to the empire, and their ecclesiastical dominance, and whereas an understanding of his life and writings might bring more to bear on his good standing in our tradition;”
“And whereas his restitution as a viable theological voice within our tradition might encourage a deeper understanding of sin, grace, free will, and the goodness of God’s creation, and whereas in as much as the history of Pelagius represents to some the struggle for theological exploration that is our birthright as Anglicans, Be it resolved, that this 105th Annual Council of the Diocese of Atlanta appoint a committee of discernment overseen by our Bishop, to consider these matters as a means to honor the contributions of Pelagius and reclaim his voice in our tradition.”
A British monk, Pelagius rejected the doctrines of original sin, substitutionary atonement, and justification by faith. Mankind possessed an unconditioned free will and was able to obtain his own salvation through personal betterment rather than grace, he argued. In the Letter to Demetrias, Pelagius argued that Adam’s sin was not what caused us to sin. Humans were born good, but over time became wicked through voluntary acts. “Over the years our sin gradually corrupts us, building an addiction and then holding us bound with what seems like the force of nature itself.”
The Council of Carthage in 416 condemned Pelagius’ teaching. Augustine argued that the British monk’s teaching contradicted Paul’s words in Philippians 2:12-13 because Pelagius located the capacity “to will and to do” what pleases God in human nature rather than in God’s grace. (On the Grace of Christ, V.6 and VI.)
“We must realize that Pelagius believes that neither our will nor our action is helped by divine aid…he believes that God does not help us to will, that he does not help us to act, that he helps us only to be able to will and to act.”(On the Grace of Christ, V.6).
The proposed resolution has brought mixed responses from the Episcopal Church’s House of Deputies chat room, with some ridiculing the notion that the Diocese of Atlanta believed itself capable of redefining church doctrine. However, other deputies have endorsed the resolution saying it gives a breath of Celtic Christianity to the Episcopal Church and enhances the church’s theological diversity.
The vote on Pelagius takes place on 4 Nov 2011.
Jews as Christ Killers: GetReligion Oct 28, 2011 October 28, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Get Religion, Judaism, Press criticism, Roman Catholic Church.Tags: anti-Semitism, Deicide, Guardian, Richard Williamson, Society of St Piux X
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Bishop Richard Williamson of the Society of St Pius X (SSPX) is up to his old tricks and has angered the European Council of Rabbis with his remarks about the Jews’ role in the crucifixion of Jesus. The bishop believes Jews are Christ-killers — and his latest words on the subject come as Pope Benedict XVI begins an inter-faith summit in Assisi. Among his many attributes, I must say Bishop Williamson has great timing.
The Guardian ran a story last week on the Jewish reaction to the bishop’s comments. However, the story had some problems. “Bishop’s blog raises tensions between Jews and the Vatican” misstates church history and makes assumptions about the relationship of Bishop Williamson to the Catholic Church. And like most reporting on Vatican-Jewish relations misses or misunderstands the pope’s outstretched hand to the Jews.
Let’s take a look at the story. It begins with the the author’s interpretation of events, a sentence clarifying who Williamson is, what he believes and what the Catholic Church teaches, is followed by quotes from his latest missive and the ECR’s response.
Relations between Jews and Catholics are under immense strain after a bishop made controversial remarks on his blog.
Richard Williamson, who has previously denied the existence of gas chambers and the murder of 6 million Jews during the Holocaust, accused the Jews of killing Jesus, a charge that divided the two faiths for centuries until Pope Benedict XVI declared this year that Jews could not be held responsible for Jesus’s death.
In his weekly post, Williamson wrote that “the killing of Jesus was truly ‘deicide’ ” and that “only the Jews (leaders and people) were the prime agents of the deicide because it is obvious from the gospels that the gentile most involved, Pontius Pilate, … would never have condemned Jesus to death had not the Jewish leaders roused the Jewish people to clamour for his crucifixion.”
His comments have angered Jewish leaders and Holocaust survivors, who are urging Rome to cease reconciliation talks with the ultra-traditionalist splinter group to which Williamson belongs, the Society of St Pius X. Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt of the European Council of Rabbis said: “We call upon the Catholic church to suspend negotiations with extremist Catholic tendencies until it is clear that these groups show a clear commitment to tackling antisemitism within their ranks.”
Let’s start with the obvious problem and then move back to the deeper issue of identity. The Catholic Church did not stop accusing “the Jews of killing Jesus” in 2010. On 28 Oct 1965 Pope Paul VI promulgated the Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions (Nostra Aetate). A product of the Second Vatican Council, Nostra Aetate rejected the charge of deicide leveled against the Jews.
True, the Jewish authorities and those who followed their lead pressed for the death of Christ; still, what happened in His passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today. The Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God, … [and the Church] decries hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone.
What happened in 2010 was the publication of excerpts from the pope’s latest book, Jesus of Nazareth – Holy Week: From Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection, which was published in March of this year. The Daily Mail reported that in his new book Benedict:
confronts the controversial text of St Matthew’s Gospel in which ‘the Jews’ demand the execution of Jesus and shout to the Roman governor Pontius Pilate: ‘Let his blood be on us and on our children.’
The passage has been described as a ‘rallying cry for anti-Semites down the centuries’.
But the Pope said when St Matthew wrote ‘the Jews’ he meant the mob in Pilate’s courtyard and not the Jewish people in general.
As such the crowd was representative of the whole of sinful humanity, he added.
In addition to the factual error, the identification of Richard Williamson in this article I also find problematic. It is possible for a man to be Roman Catholic and a bishop, but also for that same man not to be a Roman Catholic bishop. Richard Williamson is not a Roman Catholic bishop — he is a bishop of the Society of St Piux X, and his consecration as a bishop in 1988 led to his excommunication from the Catholic Church. The way the first sentence is worded implies that Williamson is a Roman Catholic bishop (and the photo caption identifies him as such.)
The SSPX and the Vatican have been engaged in talks to end the split — which is (rather confusingly) not a schism. As blogger Fr John Zuhlsdorf notes:
In the 1988 Motu Proprio Ecclesia Dei adflicta Pope John Paul used the word “schism“. It looks like a schism, to be sure. But officials of the [Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei] have affirmed over the last few years that while Archbishop Lefebvre’s actions in 1988 were schismatic acts, the SSPX did not in fact go into schism.
In 2009 the excommunication was lifted, but Williamson has not been permitted to function as a bishop. His denial of the Holocaust and rejection of Nostra Aetate led the Vatican to state that “in order to be admitted to episcopal functions within the Church, [Williamson] will have to take his distance, in an absolutely unequivocal and public fashion, from his position on the Shoah, which the Holy Father was not aware of when the excommunication was lifted.”
It is not just the Vatican who is appalled. Williamson’s comments were also published in defiance of his SSPX Superior General, Bishop Bernard Fellay, who not only ordered him to stop making “any public statements on political or historical issues”, but has also denounced his anti-Semitism.
In a limited sense, Williamson is right in saying that Jews are Christ-killers. The catechism states that “All sinners were the authors of Christ’s Passion” (cf CCC 598). However this means that all Jews, all Gentiles — you, me, everyone — is responsible for the crucifixion. But that is not what Williamson is saying and while the Guardian story at its close does note that the Vatican has asked Williamson to recant, the overall tone of the story does not give a true sense of the church’s rejection of this pernicious evil.
Christianity’s relations with Jews and Judaism has been fraught with cruelty, abuse and murder. The Catholic Church should not be singled out on this point, however. Quakers aside, I am hard pressed to think of any Christian body that has not behaved badly. However, the past few decades have seen great strides in Catholic-Jewish relations. Cardinal Ratzinger, as he was then, was and is a consistent and strong voice for rapprochement — when I covered Catholic – Jewish relations in Europe for the Jerusalem Post I heard time and again from members of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and other Jewish leaders of their respect and appreciation for Joseph Ratzinger (and later Benedict XVI).
It is the absence of this underlying element, Joseph Ratzinger’s philo-Semitism, that distorts the reporting on the Vatican’s relations with Jews and Judaism. (That and factual errors.)
First printed in GetReligion.
US Executive Council rejects Anglican Covenant: The Church of England Newspaper, Oct 28, 2011 p 6. October 28, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Covenant, Church of England Newspaper, Executive Council, The Episcopal Church.comments closed
The Episcopal Church’s Executive Council has rejected the Anglican Covenant.
On 24 Oct 2011 the council unanimously endorsed a resolution recommending the General Convention – the governing body of the Episcopal Church – not endorse the covenant as it now stands. The Anglican Covenant was a political and theological threat that would alter the American church’s power base and undo the advances made by the church’s liberal wing in recent years.
The US recommendation to reject the covenant likely spells the death blow to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s plan to forge an agreement that sets limits on the acceptable parameters of doctrine and disciple within the Anglican Communion, and follows upon last week’s vote by the Sydney synod to reject the agreement. With liberals and conservatives united in opposition to the proposed agreement – though for different reasons – the political future of the covenant is grim.
While Sydney rejected the covenant out of concern for its theology, the executive council rejected it for not been sufficient welcoming of diversity. A report submitted by an executive committee task force stated the Episcopal Church must heed “the work of the Spirit in new understandings of how we are called to be in community and relationships. We believe our unity is best expressed in our efforts to be a church that fully welcomes those who have not always been welcomed. This understanding of who we are as a church does not allow the Executive Council to support any covenant that might jeopardize this vocation.”
The covenant was too clerical, the task force said and “consistently ignores the importance of the role of the laity and their full expression of ministry in all spheres of the life of the church.”
According to the task force report, 29 of the church’s 110 dioceses responded to requests for comments about the covenant. A press release noted that some dioceses had endorsed the covenant, but their views were not included in the report as they had not been transmitted to the executive council.
Suggestions the Episcopal Church adopt those portions with which it agreed were rejected by the task force in the belief that “this would not honor the intention of the covenant’s creators that the document stand as a whole. We also do not believe that using language such as ‘receive’ the covenant without approving it honors the intention of the document.”
The report further noted that “to adopt the current version would mean changes to both the Constitution and Canons which would significantly alter our current understanding of what it means to be an autonomous province.”
While the executive council remained committed to “continuing engagement in thoughtful dialogue within the Anglican Communion around issues that may be divisive,” it could not “recommend adoption of the covenant in its present form.”
The resolution adopted by the executive council calls for the Episcopal Church to “recommit itself to dialogue with the several provinces when adopting innovations which may be seen as threatening the unity of the communion.” It also pledges “continued participation in the wider councils of the Anglican Communion” and dialogue “with our brothers and sisters in other provinces to deepen understanding and to insure the continued integrity of the Anglican Communion.”
Anglican Unscripted, Oct 24, 2011 October 26, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican.TV.Tags: China, Pelagius, Yue Yue
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http://blip.tv/play/g5IjgtqJTgI.html
Intrepid hosts Kevin and George explore the theology of Pelagius and the conflicted morality Capitalism in a Communist country. Tough topics to be sure, but with contributors Mollie Hemingway and Allan Haley Episode fifteen becomes a sound addition to the archives and Anglican.TV.
Bishops’ call to prayer for Egypt: The Church of England Newspaper, Oct 21 2011 p 6. October 26, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Episcopal Church in Jerusalem & the Middle East, House of Lords, Persecution.Tags: Egypt, Mouneer Anis
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First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has called for an investigation into the killing of 24 Christians by the Egyptian security services during a pro-democracy march in Cairo last week.
On 18 October Dr Rowan Williams asked the Foreign Office to press the Egyptian government to ensure the review would be impartial and there would be a “proper distance of that inquiry from the military establishment.”
Government indifference was exacerbating the crisis, he said, telling the peers there had been a “prolonged failure by the security forces to guarantee the safety of Christian personnel and property” in Egypt.
Foreign Office minister Lord Howell responded that Dr Williams was correct as there was “recent evidence of a rising tide of extremism in the clashes that have occurred,” adding that “I can only reassure you that the dialogue continues, the pressure is on.”
In a letter sent to The Church of England Newspaper and other supporters on 11 October, the Bishop of Egypt, Dr Mouneer Anis said Christians held a three-day fast last week in solidarity with those killed on 9 October 2011.
“It is now clear,” Dr Anis wrote, “that the demonstrations started by the Christians were peaceful.
“Some Muslims joined in the demonstrations in support of the rights of the Christians. But, unidentified persons were able to infiltrate the demonstrations aiming to make these demonstrations violent. They gave a false impression that Christians were violent and they were the ones who attacked the army soldiers. In response, the army fired against the demonstrators and used their tanks to run over some of them. The price was the death of 24 Christians and the injury of over 318 Christians and Muslims.”
The Bishop said the demonstrations began as a “reaction to the burning of the newly built church of Mari Nab” near Aswan by “Muslim fundamentalists” who set fire to the church “after Friday prayers.” The police declined to stop the arson attacks, he said.
Egypt’s Christian and Muslim leaders held an emergency meeting last week under the presidency of the Grand Imam of the al-Azhar, Sheikh Ahmed el Tayyib, and adopted a joint statement condemning the violence.
The interfaith council, the Beit el Aila – House of the Family – called for the government to deal with the root causes of “sectarian incidents”, and not seek “superficial and temporary reconciliations.”
They also asked the government fulfil its promise to permit the building of churches and to “investigate thoroughly these incidents and to bring to justice those criminals who were involved directly or indirectly … delay will only lead to a repetition of these incidents.”
Dr Anis added he was heartened by the goodwill of many Muslims towards Egypt’s Christians and thanked those who spoke out against their oppression. He asked Anglicans across their communion to pray for Egypt – for Christians and Muslims – and for peace.
Mollie and the Spin Doctors: Get Religion Oct 25, 2011 October 25, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Archbishop of Canterbury, Church of England Newspaper, The Episcopal Church.Tags: Mollie Ziegler Hemingway, Wall Street Journal
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No, the title of this post does not refer to a now forgotten second tier ’80s band. Mollie and the Spin Doctors will not join Souxsie and the Banshees, Hootie and the Blowfish, Adam and the Ants, and Echo and the Bunnymen in the remainder aisle at Wal-Mart. I chose this title to tell a cautionary tale about religious journalism concerning one of my colleagues at GetReligion, Mollie Ziegler Hemingway, and the Communications Office at the Episcopal Church.
The moral of the story if you want to skip to the end of the piece can be found in Numbers 32:23. “But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out.”
Now I am not equating journalism or journalists with the godhead (though the New York Times does tend towards an omniscient, holier than though attitude towards creation). What I am drawing from this passage from Scripture is the lesson not to exaggerate, lie or spin an unpalatable truth. For in the end you will be found out.
Our parable begins with an article written by Ms Hemingway for the Wall Street Journal entitled “Twenty-First Century Excommunication”. She reports:
In 2009, breakaway Episcopalians in the U.S. and Canada formed the Anglican Church in North America, which now reports 100,000 members in nearly 1,000 congregations. This group has been formally recognized by some Anglican primates outside of the United States.
[Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine] Jefferts Schori says this new Anglican group is encroaching on her church’s jurisdiction, and she has authorized dozens of lawsuits “to protect the assets of the Episcopal Church for the mission of the Episcopal Church.” The Episcopal Church has dedicated $22 million to legal actions against departing clergy, congregations and dioceses, according to Allan Haley, a canon lawyer who has represented a diocese in one such case.
Now the Episcopal Church has upped the ante: It has declared that if congregations break away and buy their sanctuaries, they must disaffiliate from any group that professes to be Anglican.
The article has turned out to be a great success. As of the date of my writing, it has generated 119 comments, 944 Facebook likes, and been tweeted 105 times. Not all of the comments have been favorable though. For an article that touches upon church property law to generate this sort of response, both positive and negative, is extraordinary. I’m rather envious of Mollie’s success.
The Episcopal Church has responded to the piece by publishing a Talking Points page on its website disputing the accuracy and tone of the story. The page entitled “Perspectives” has been picked up by the Anglican/Episcopal blogosphere with some defenders of the Episcopal Church denouncing the story. Kevin Kallsen of Anglican TV interviewed Mollie about the story and she discusses the responses she has received so far. Her segment begins at the 28 minute 15 second mark.
A disclosure. I am a priest of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida. Mollie Ziegler Hemingway is talking about my church. I am also a religion reporter and have published a little over 3500 stories about the Episcopal Church and the wider Anglican Communion over the years.
The Episcopal Church laid out 12 talking points to refute the WSJ story. Ten offer contrary opinions, pointers to web sites, or summarize legal arguments. Two allege errors of fact.
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori did not make any of the statements that the author claims she made in the article.
The author of the article stated that, “Of the 38 provinces in the global Anglican Communion, 22 have declared themselves in “broken” or “impaired” fellowship with the more liberal American church.” As recently as Monday, October 10, Lambeth Palace confirmed that there is no basis for this claim by the author.
Talking point 2 states the Presiding Bishop did not make the statements cited in the story. In the WSJ story Bishop Jefferts Schori is quoted as saying:
“We can’t sell to an organization that wants to put us out of business,” said Bishop Jefferts Schori, who added that her job is to ensure that “no competing branch of the Anglican Communion impose on the mission strategy” of the Episcopal Church.
But she did say this according to those present on 19 April 2011 at a Q&A session at Trinity Cathedral in Pittsburgh. The sentiment that the Episcopal Church would not sell properties to rival Anglican bodies was also expressed forcefully in a deposition given by her in a Virginia lawsuit.
On its face point 3 was the strongest argument. If the Archbishop of Canterbury’s office said Mollie was wrong, she must be wrong.
Following the consecration of the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire in 2003, I reported on the phenomena of Anglican provinces breaking with the Episcopal Church over the appointment of a gay bishop. At the time I reported on each of these announcements for the church press in the US and the UK, and I have long used the “22 of 38” figure as cited in the WSJ. Was I wrong too? 
I went through my story archive, tallied the figures and came up with the 22 of 38 number. In 2004 the Deputy General Secretary of the Anglican Consultative Council, Canon Gregory Cameron, also cited these numbers in a speech to the Anglican Church of Canada. He stated:
Within our own Communion, the leaders of twenty-two of the thirty-eight provinces of the Anglican Communion, representing about forty-four million Anglicans, have pronounced that they reject the moves in New Hampshire and in New Westminster as incompatible with the Gospel and with the Christian fellowship of which they are part. They have said that developments tear the fabric of the Communion at its deepest level, and a state of broken Communion now exists between ECUSA and some twelve to eighteen provinces of the Communion.
If the Episcopal Church Talking Point was true, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s office was repudiating the speech of a senior communion official. Or, had there been developments of which I was unaware. I sought to find out.
I emailed the Episcopal Church’s Communications office and asked who, when and how had Lambeth Palace told them there was no basis for the 22 of 38 claim. Episcopal Church spokesman Neva Rae Fox responded:
The conversation you reference was a private conversation, as was the mode of discussion, and both shall remain private.
I also telephoned and emailed the Lambeth Palace and was told by press secretary Marie Papworth:
Sorry for the delay, but I don’t know where this comes from and the reality is that there are Provinces which don’t agree on certain issues, but relationships continue between all Provinces at a host of levels – from the individual level through to the parish, diocesan and also provincial level.
Let’s sum things up. The claim the Presiding Bishop did not say what she was quoted as having said is challenged by third party reports of remarks she made in Pittsburgh. And the claim that Lambeth Palace supported the statement there was no basis for the claim that 22 of 38 provinces were on the outs with the Episcopal Church was false, or perhaps it is better to say cannot be verified as being true by Lambeth Palace.
What is the moral of this tale? Have your facts straight. Otherwise there is every chance you will look like a fool.
First published by GetReligion.
Sydney rejects Anglican Covenant: The Church of England Newspaper, Oct 21 2011 p 7. October 25, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Australia, Anglican Covenant, Church of England Newspaper.Tags: Diocese of Sydney, Mark Thompson, Robert Tong
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First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
Sydney has rejected the Anglican Covenant. The 11 October vote by the 49th meeting of the Diocese of Sydney Synod likely spells the death knell for Dr Rowan Williams’ plan for a global agreement to set the parameters of doctrine and discipline for the Anglican Communion.
Support for the Covenant peaked in the run-up to the 2009 meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council in Kingston, however, Dr Williams’ untimely intervention into the Covenant debate and changes made to the document have alienated both left and right.
Liberal dioceses in New Zealand, Australia and the US have rejected the plan as un-Anglican, while the Global South Primates last year stated that “while we acknowledge that the efforts to heal our brokenness through the introduction of an Anglican Covenant were well intentioned, we have come to the conclusion the current text is fatally flawed and so support for this initiative is no longer appropriate.”
The Sydney motion was moved by Dr Mark Thompson of Moore College, and assistant chancellor Robert Tong, and followed a September recommendation by the diocesan standing committee to reject the Covenant.
In his report to Synod, Dr Thompson said the Covenant was “the wrong approach to the crisis in the Communion; the proposed Covenant has serious theological flaws; and it just won’t work: it won’t solve the crisis.”
The difficulties in the Anglican Communion “ought to have been addressed in terms of the New Testament patterns of fellowship rather than with a fresh appeal to law or regulation,” Dr Thompson said.
He added that “fellowship is nourished by our common commitment to truth and so faithfulness to the teaching of Scripture; it is undone by a refusal to submit to the teaching of God’s word.”
Creating a Covenant that establishes a “new legal structure that is incapable of distinguishing between the betrayal of biblical principle on the one hand, and unpopular but faithful adherence to biblical principles on the other” will not work, he argued.
Dr Thompson cited five theological flaws in the proposed agreement. “It fails to give sufficient attention to historic Anglican formularies; It embodies a confused ecclesiology; It expresses an inflated view of the Anglican bishop; It gives formal expression to an accrual of inordinate power and authority by the Archbishop of Canterbury; and the Covenant fails to give due weight to the teaching of Scripture.”
The Anglican Communion Covenant as it has been drafted is “fundamentally concerned with maintaining structural and institutional unity rather than with biblical faithfulness,” Dr Thompson argued.
“Those who have created the problem won’t sign it; and if they did without repenting of the departures from the teaching of Scripture it would only demonstrate the uselessness of the Covenant itself. What is more, a number of orthodox Anglican provinces throughout the world have already indicated they won’t sign it for various other reasons,” he noted.
“It’s the wrong way of dealing with the problem; the draft given to us has serious theological flaws; and in the end it just won’t work,” Dr Thompson said.
Synod adopted the motion by an overwhelming majority.
Pittsburgh property loss for Duncan: The Church of England Newspaper, Oct 21, 2011 p 6. October 25, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of North America, Church of England Newspaper, Pittsburgh, Property Litigation.Tags: Robert Duncan
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First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Bishop of Pittsburgh reports the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has rejected his diocese’s appeal to set aside a lower court ruling that gave control of property titled in the diocese’s name to the faction backed by the national Church.
In a statement posted on his website, the Archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America, Robert Duncan stated “we accept that the courts have not found in our favour and will, of course, comply with all court orders.”
The Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh was “committed to reaching a negotiated settlement with the Episcopal Church diocese. In light of this judgment by the courts, we will redouble that commitment to reaching a final resolution of all issues between the Episcopal Church diocese and the Anglican diocese through negotiation,” he said on 18 October.
Unlike the other property cases currently in litigation in the US, the underlying dispute in Pittsburgh centred round the interpretation of contracts. Following the election of Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire in 2003, a liberal congregation in Pittsburgh brought suit against Bishop Duncan alleging he was planning on leading the diocese out of the Episcopal Church in protest.
In October 2005 the suit was settled when the parties signed an agreement that stipulated the diocese would keep all its assets intact, and would not allow individual parishes to depart from the diocese without paying adequate compensation for their properties.
Acting upon a complaint filed by the disaffected parish, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori authorized a Church tribunal to investigate Bishop Duncan for abandoning the Episcopal Church – although he had not taken any overt action to leave at that time.
In a controversial vote Bishop Duncan was then deposed by the House of Bishops in September 2008. At its diocesan convention the following month, Pittsburgh voted to quit the Episcopal Church.
In response Bishop Jefferts Schori recognized the minority loyalist faction as the new diocese and brought suit to enforce the terms of the 2005 settlement, which they claimed had been breached when Bishop Duncan’s diocese voted to leave.
After review the trial court held that the terms of the 2005 stipulation had been breached and ordered the diocese’s endowment funds and title to those properties held by the diocese to be turned over to the minority faction. Subsequent appeals to reverse the judge’s interpretation of the stipulation were unsuccessful, and the Supreme Court order ends further litigation on this issue.
The loss of its funds and some of its buildings will not change the mission of the diocese, Archbishop Duncan wrote. Pittsburgh Anglicans sought to transform “our world with Jesus Christ. We do this chiefly by planting congregations.”
He noted that at since the diocese withdrew from the Episcopal Church, each year “congregations are being added to our diocese both locally and across the country, for which we give thanks to God. We pray God’s continued favour on our mission, his grace towards those who remain within the Episcopal Church, and his help for our beloved Communion as we move into the challenges and opportunities of this new millennium,” the Archbishop wrote.
Free will, miracles and the BBC: Get Religion, Oct 24, 2011 October 24, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Get Religion, Press criticism.Tags: African Indigenous Churches, BBC, faith healing, free will, John Henry Newman, Matthew Arnold, miracles, TB Joshua
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“In miracles we are dealing … with the unreal world of fairy-tale,” Matthew Arnold wrote over 125 years ago in God and the Bible. An observer of the BBC’s religion reporting would not be wrong in concluding the Corporation follows this general line, treating faith with a modicum of skepticism.
However, a recent story on faith healing and HIV crosses over the line of healthy skepticism that all good reporting should display into pamphleteering — offering an opinion as news and marshaling facts to support the argument.
The author of Church HIV prayer cure claims ‘cause three deaths’ means well and his intentions of exposing a religious charlatan are good. Intentions aside, this BBC piece is bad journalism. It is poorly sourced, offers inferences as facts — repeat after me correlation does not imply causation — displays an ignorance of religion and lacks context, balance and tone. On a philosophical level it also breaks with the BBC’s stance on free will — which is not such a bad thing, by the way.
But let’s first jump into the story and see if you see what I see. It begins thus:
At least three people in London with HIV have died after they stopped taking life saving drugs on the advice of their Evangelical Christian pastors.
The women died after attending churches in London where they were encouraged to stop taking the antiretroviral drugs in the belief that God would heal them, their friends and a leading HIV doctor said.
Sometimes I think I will die after attending church, but setting aside faulty syntax let’s return to the story. It continues with a critique by a former government health minister of the general principle of stopping one’s medicine in such circumstances before moving back to substantiate its opening sentences.
Jane Iwu, 48, from Newham, east London, described one case, saying: “I know of a friend who had been to a pastor. She told her to stop taking her medication – that God is a healer and has healed her.”
“This lady believed it. She stopped taking her medication. She passed away,” said Ms Iwu, who has HIV herself.
BBC London spoke to a second woman from east London who told of a friend who died after taking advice from her pastor who told her to stop taking her antiretroviral drugs.
Meanwhile, the director of a leading HIV research centre in east London said she had dealt with a separate case in which a person with HIV died as a result of advice from a pastor.
The story then moves to the experts, who say such practices are harmful.
“We see patients quite often who will come having expressed the belief that if they pray frequently enough, their HIV will somehow be cured,” she added.
“We have seen people who choose not to take the tablets at all so sometimes die,” [said Prof Jane Anderson, director of the Centre for the Study of Sexual Health and HIV, in Hackney.]
The culprits are then identified.
HIV prevention charity African Health Policy Network (AHPN) says a growing number of London churches have been telling people the power of prayer will “cure” their infections.
“This is happening through a number of churches. We’re hearing about more cases of this,” AHPN chief Francis Kaikumba said.
AHPN said it believed the Synagogue Church Of All Nations (SCOAN), which has UK headquarters in Southwark, south London, may be one of those involved in such practices.
The church is headed by Pastor T B Joshua, Nigeria’s third richest clergyman, according to a recent Forbes richlist.
When approached by BBC London, leaders of the church described themselves as Evangelical Christian pastors.
The church’s website, which was set up in Lagos, Nigeria, shows photos of people the church claims have been “cured” of HIV through prayer.
The article offers extracts from SCOAN’s website about its healing ministries and quotes a London resident who said that when she spoke with a representative of the church on the telephone she was told prayer can cure HIV.
At this point a SCOAN representative appears on the scene, but he doesn’t appear to be on the same script as the BBC.
However, when asked by BBC London if it claimed its pastors can cure HIV, SCOAN responded: “We are not the healer. God is the healer. Never a sickness God cannot heal. Never a disease God cannot cure.
“We don’t ask people to stop taking medication,” the church added. “Doctors treat; God heals.”
Let’s go through the problems in the order they appear in the story. The story claims that three people have died after they were told to stop taking their HIV medications by “Evangelical Christian pastors”. The evidence for this claim comes from friends of the deceased (whose names have been changed for the story, the article reports in a footnote.) In other words, there is no credible evidence for the claim. No one in a position of authority (police, doctor, coroner) is suggesting the deaths were caused by having stopped taking medications.
We don’t know who has died; we don’t know what they were told; we don’t know when they were told; we don’t know who told them; we don’t know if what they were told led to their deaths; we don’t know how they died. No evidence is presented that the three deaths were linked in any way to their church-going, or to their religious beliefs. Rather friends of the deceased think this might be so.
And on a lesser point, but one that particularly irritates me, we have the claim of Evangelicals being behind this, based upon someone from the church in question self-identifying as evangelical. However, Pastor T.B. Joshua and his Synagogue Church Of All Nations (SCOAN) is not an evangelical church, but comes out of the Pentecostal tradition. And a review of the literature about SCOAN finds that Nigerian Christian leaders have denounced it as a cult. Possessing a Christian overlay of vocabulary and symbolism, SCOAN is better described as an African Indigenous Church that combines elements of Christianity with Nigerian traditional beliefs — others argue TB Joshua is a charlatan. But I’m jumping ahead in the narrative.
The group that fingers SCOAN as the villain, said it “believed” the church “may be one of those involved.” In other words, we only have conditional language linking SCOAN to the deaths, and that is not enough to convict.
When the SCOAN spokesman appears, the statements he makes about prayer and healing are so anodyne they could have been offered by the Church of England. If this was meant to shock the reader, I’m afraid the author will be disappointed.
The bottom line here is that there is no evidence to support the statements made in the lede. There is nothing in this story other than the author’s opinion that it is wrong to stop taking antiretroviral drugs and the statements of experts who support this view. Now I happen to agree with this view. But this story as journalism is junk.
However, if we take all of the inferences and assumptions laid out in the story as being true, I was struck by the shift in the BBC’s views on human autonomy this would imply. The Corporation has long championed the cause of euthanasia and has been accused of supporting the right to die through biased news reporting. To be philosophically coherent, I would have assumed the BBC would have supported the choice of the three HIV patients to have stopped taking their medication. The Corporation’s support of human autonomy, of freedom conceived as the faculty of acting spontaneously according to the representation of ends (the will), is rejected in this story and has been replaced with a censorious moralism. “What these people have chosen to do with their own lives is bad,” is how I understand the author’s point of view in this story.
I should say I do not disagree with this sentiment, yet though we have arrived at the same destination I came on a different train. Free will, when it is expressed in secular terms is a moral good for the BBC. Free will when expressed as a choice to believe in miracles and hope for God’s intervention in your life is treated with scorn by the Corporation.
It may have been his sweet reasonableness or Victorian sensibilities, but Matthew Arnold tried to coat his unbelief with with a gentile wash of regret.
The reasons drawn from miracles on cannot but dismiss with tenderness, for they belong to a great and splendid whole, — a beautiful and powerful fairy-tale , which was long believed without question, and which has given comfort and joy to thousands. And one abandons them with a kind of unwilling disenchantment, and only because one must.
The BBC, unlike Arnold, doesn’t do sympathy for the Christian world view and as such misses the deeper story here. The question why someone would do what the BBC is claiming they have done is glossed over — yet the why is the most important question.
John Henry Newman stated that “Catholics believe that [miracles] happen in any age of the Church, though not for the same purpose, in the same number, or with the same evidence, as in apostolic times.” The question for the believer is not whether miracles can occur—of course they can, if God is God—but why they should occur so randomly, why this person and not that should be their recipient.
As he explained to Charles Kingsley in his Apologia pro vita sua, miracles “must be clearly proved, because perhaps after all it may be only a providential mercy, or an exaggeration, or a mistake, or an imposture.”
Here is the heart of the story — a Nigerian pastor has been promising miracles to those who believe (in him?) and three of his followers have died after following his council. This story is inferred but not told, and as such fails.
The article does appear to have legs, however, with the Guardian, and the Sunday Herald in Scotland among others picking it up. I do hope though that those who follow in the reporting do take the time to get to the heart of the matter and answer Newman’s question. What is going on here: providential mercy, an exaggeration, a mistake, or imposture.
Dunedin dean jailed for theft: The Church of England Newspaper, Oct 21, 2011 p 7. October 24, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Aotearoa New Zealand & Polynesia, Church of England Newspaper, Corruption.Tags: Jonathan Kirkpatrick
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First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
The former Dean of Dunedin has been sentenced to three years, two months’ imprisonment for fraud by a New Zealand court.
On 6 Oct 2011 the Auckland District Court ordered the Rev. Jonathan Kirkpatrick be jailed and to pay a fine of $20,000. In August, Mr. Kirkpatrick, who served as head of the business innovation centre at the Auckland University of Technology, pled guilty to 82 counts of theft.
Court documents show Mr. Kirkpatrick began stealing from the university shortly after his appointment in 2002 by generating false invoices from companies he controlled, bilking AUT out of almost £330,000.
The Diocese of Auckland suspended Mr. Kirkpatrick following his arrest from his post of Priest in Charge at St Alban’s Church in Balmoral in central Auckland. The Bishop of Auckland has withdrawn the licence of the 53 year old priest, who served as Dean of Dunedin before his move to Auckland.
Prosecuting attorney, Rachael Reed told the court “this is a man who should have no need to steal but who obviously had taste beyond his salaried means.” The proceeds of his crimes were spent on luxurious living, she said.
However the court did learn that Mr. Kirkpatrick was a good corporate citizen. To facilitate his thefts, he generated false invoices from companies he controlled and then authorized payments from the university’s account. Judge A.A. Sinclair noted it was an unusual situation in that the defendant had paid income and sales taxes via his companies on the money he stole.
Priest murdered in India: The Church of England Newspaper, Oct 21, 2011 October 24, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of North India, Persecution.Tags: Orissa
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First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
An Anglican priest was murdered in his home last week in India’s strife torn Orissa state. Indian newspaper reports state the Rev. Jiban Masi Munda (70) was sitting on the veranda of his home reading his Bible when he was killed by an arrow.
On 9 Oct 2011, Manamasi Tappo (35) attacked the priest in the village of Badaraxi in the Sundergarh District of India’s eastern Orissa state. The assailant shot several arrows at the Church of North India clergyman, striking him with one. After he had loosed his volley, Tappo fled the scene. Alerted by the priest’s cries, villagers chased Tappo and caught him and bound him to a tree. They then beat him to death. The priest died shortly thereafter of his wounds.
The bodies of the dead men were taken to the district police office the following day. Press accounts vary as to the killer’s motive with some reporting him as being insane, others claim the assailant bore a grudge against his victim, while a third source stated Tappo committed suicide. They are also investigating claims the killer committed suicide. The police investigation is on-going.
Sectarian violence has plagued Orissa in recent years. In Graham Staines, an Australian missionary, and his two sons, were murdered by a Hindu fanatic on 22 Jan 1999. In 2009 the state saw mass rioting and anti-Christian pogroms after Hindu fanatics blamed the death of a Swami on Christians. Tens of thousands of Christians were driven from their homes by the violence at its height, and were forced to shelter in the jungle until the army restored order.
Apology and compensation for abuse victims in Iceland: The Church of England Newspaper, Oct 21, 2011 p 7. October 23, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Abuse, Church of England Newspaper, Church of Iceland.Tags: Ólafur Skúlason, Karl Sigurbjörnsson
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The Rt. Rev. Ólafur Skúlason, former Bishop of Iceland
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Bishops of the Church of Iceland have released a public statement of regret over the Church’s mishandling the sexual abuse investigation of former Bishop Ólafur Skúlason, but have rejected calls for the Church’s current leader to step down.
On 11 October the bishops apologized to Gudrún Ebba Ólafsdóttir, the daughter of the late Bishop Skúlason, after she went on national television to chronicle the abuse she had suffered at the hands of her father and the Church’s subsequent failure to respond to her allegations.
Allegations of cover-ups of clergy sexual abuse have swirled around the Church of Iceland and have prompted calls for Bishop Karl Sigurbjörnsson to resign. In 1996 three women complained to then Pastor Sigurbjörnsson that they had been sexually harassed by his superior, Bishop Skúlason. The complaints were not forwarded to the police, and one of the victims has since claimed Pastor Sigurbjörnsson attempted to “hush up” the incidents and urged them to drop their complaints.
In June Bishop Sigurbjörnsson told the Fréttabladid newspaper: “I regret that there are women out there who have grievance and anger towards the church’s servants, myself included, for having failed them in these matters.”
The Bishop said at the time the abuse was reported to him, he attempted to mediate between Bishop Skúlason and his accusers. However, Bishop Skúlason denied the charges and the National Church of Iceland, the Þjóðkirkjan — a partner of the Church of England under the Porvoo Agreement — took no further actions.
In July the National Church Council offered £9,000 to each of the three women to compensate them for the Church’s inaction.
In their statement Iceland’s three bishops said: “We are all going through a painful learning process. It is a matter of regret that Gudrún Ebba’s report to the Church Council in 2009 was not replied to in writing immediately and the Bishop has apologized for that publicly, privately and in writing. However, it should be pointed out that the mistakes made in responding to her report did not impact how her case was treated.”
Bishop Sigurbjörnsson declined to comment further, as did the Suffragan bishop of Hólar the Rt Rev Jón Adalsteinn Baldvinsson. Asked by the Fréttabladid newspaper if Bishop Sigurbjörnsson should resign, the Suffragan Bishop of Skálholt, the Rt Rev Kristján Valur Ingólfsson said, “The Bishop shouldn’t resign for what Ólafur Skúlason has done.”
Harare court halts purge of Anglican teachers: The Church of England Newspaper, Oct 21, 2011 p 6. October 22, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Property Litigation, Zimbabwe.Tags: Chad Gandiya, Daramombe Mission, Nolbert Kunonga
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First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Education has ordered the immediate reinstatement of church school staff fired by breakaway bishop Dr. Nolbert Kunonga. The 13 Oct 2011 government order comes in the wake of a court ruling which held the dismissal of the staff at the Daramombe Mission was unlawful.
Last month the deputy sheriff, acting on a writ obtained by Dr. Kunonga in the drawn out dispute over the control of church property in Zimbabwe, evicted the head teachers of the mission’s primary and secondary schools and 12 other staffers, including the tuck shop steward. Located in the Mashonaland East Province some 120 miles south of Harare, the mission school was destroyed in fighting during the war against white rule. Over the past decade it was rebuilt and is now one of the leading schools in the region.
In an interview published in The Zimbabwean, Harare Diocesan Secretary, the Rev. Clifford Dzavo, said the Anglican Church had so far lost 90 churches and 70 rectories valued at over $50 million to Dr. Kunonga. The breakaway bishop has also sought to take over the church’s schools, orphanages and hospitals, diverting their income to his own use.
The Harare diocese filed suit last month, asking the court to block the staff firings, arguing a lower court order granting temporary possession of the properties could not be construed to allow Dr. Kunonga to fire state teachers. On 12 Oct 2011 Harare High Court Justice Chinembiri Bhunu held the breakaway bishop had gone too far.
“It is a fundamental rule of law that no one shall be evicted or dispossessed without due process of law and without being heard. The need to hear the other side before making any determination affecting the rights of another is the bedrock upon which our legal system is founded,” the court held.
“It follows” Justice Bhunu said, the lower court “did not mean that [Dr. Kunonga] could evict and dismiss employees without recourse to due process of the law.
“The evictions of members of the School Development Committee from premises they previously occupied in terms of their respective contracts of employment were therefore, illegal and not permissible at law though they were carried out through the auspices of the Deputy Sheriff,” the judge ruled.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) party’s national executive council also issued a statement in support of the diocese last week.
The MDC faction led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai released a statement on 12 Oct saying: “Churches have ceased to be a place of worship and spiritual solitude but have become havens of political patronage and violence. The Anglican Church community has, since 2007, been traumatized as the police and Zanu (PF) continue to side with a group loyal to renegade Bishop Nolbert Kunonga to destabilise parishes and ordinary people.”
Zimbabwe court victory for Anglican Communion: The Church of England Newspaper, Oct 21, 2011 p 6. October 22, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Property Litigation, Zimbabwe.Tags: Diocese of Mutare, Elzon Jakazi, Julius Makoni
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Locked out bishops praying before the doors of St John's Cathedral, Mutare Zimbabwe
First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
A Zimbabwe High Court has threatened a breakaway bishop with contempt, telling former Bishop Elzon Jakazi that if he does not turn over a contested church to the Bishop of Manicaland, Dr Julius Makoni, he will be imprisoned for contempt.
The 10 October decision came the same day as the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, toured the eastern Zimbabwe diocese. A statement from the Archbishop’s office about the trip noted that Manicaland was “an area where Anglicans have suffered a high proportion of the persecution in Zimbabwe, so the Archbishop’s visit provided an opportunity to show the people there that they have not been forgotten.”
Speaking to members of the Diocese of Manicaland gathered at a Mutare sports ground, Dr Williams said he and the Archbishops of Southern Africa and Tanzania had come to Mutare “to see the real Church – and that is the Church that prays and loves and suffers. And, in all of that, we from the Anglican Communion stand with you and share your witness and give thanks for it.”
We share in your suffering,” Dr Williams said, “and we share in your joy also. And we give thanks that you show us what faith is and we pray that God will give you the strength, day after day, to go on showing us God’s power, God’s grace and God’s work.”
When the archiepiscopal party visited St John’s Cathedral in Mutare, they were met by a crowd of Bishop Jakazi supporters, who blocked their entrance to the cathedral. “The group then formed in a circle outside the Cathedral door to pray for an end to the violence and persecution,” Dr Williams’ office reported.
While the bishops were in Mutare, the High Court handed down an order directing Bishop Jakazi to vacate All Saints Church in Zimunya. In 2007 Bishop Jakazi was excommunicated by the Church of the Province of Central Africa after he quit the church to join Dr Kunonga’s Anglican Church of Zimbabwe. While he renounced his allegiance to the Church, he did not turn over the Church’s properties to his successors, and the diocese has fought to regain control of its lands.
In August, a district court ordered Bishop Jakazi and three confederates to turn over All Saints Church to the Bishop of Manicaland, Dr Julius Makoni.
Last week High Court Justice Tendai Uchena issued an order to “the respondents — Jakazi, Maupa, Ndlovu and Katanga” who “herein are ordered to restore forthwith to the Anglicans possession, control and use of the All Saints Anglican Zimunya Church.” If they failed to comply with the order the four would be jailed at Chikurubi Prison for contempt, the judge said.
Dr Makoni told CEN “We are delighted to have won back All Saints Zimunya. I shall cleanse and rededicate the church building this Sunday.”
He noted the “Judge’s ruling was clear, cogent and straightforward and referred to no external influence directly or indirectly. The Archbishop [of Canterbury]‘s visit had nothing to do with the case. We need to give credit [to the courts] where it is due.”
Confucian ethics and modern China: Get Religion Oct 21, 2011 October 21, 2011
Posted by geoconger in China, Get Religion, Popular Culture, Press criticism.Tags: By-Stander Effect, Confucianism, ethics, Yue Yue
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The terrible story out of China of a toddler run over by a van as she wandered alone through a market has seen extensive news coverage. As two-year old Yue Yue lay in the street badly injured, a security camera recorded 18 people passing by before a woman stopped to help. There has been an outpouring of outrage on blogs and social media, some of it prompted by the passers-by making excuses for their behavior.
The incident has sparked a debate on China’s cultural and legal strictures and the state of Chinese society. There have been some solid pieces about China’s moral malaise as well as examinations of high profile cases involving similar issues. A few thoughtful stories have also discussed the “by-stander effect”: a phenomena best known from the 1964 case of Kitty Genovese, whose murder in a crowded stretch of Kew Gardens became known as a metaphor for moral decay after no came to her aid.
The blog The Useless Tree offers one explanation:
The problem is, at base, the rampant materialism of contemporary Chinese society that has led some people, elderly included, to extort “good Samaritans.” Here is an infamous case:
This phenomenon essentially began Nov. 20, 2006, when Xu Shuolan, a 65-year-old woman, fell and broke her hip while attempting to board a bus in Nanjing. Peng Yu, a 26-year-old, was the first to help her. He gave her 200 reminbi and escorted her to the hospital, staying with her until her family arrived. In thanks, Xu sued Peng for 136,419 reminbi, or $18,000, claiming that he was the one who knocked her down.
In one of the best-known, most important Chinese judicial rulings of the last decade, a court decided that Peng owed Xu 45,000 reminbi, or $6,076. The court didn’t have any evidence that Peng committed the crime of which he was accused by Xu. But the court, controversially, used the “daily life experience to analyze things” standard and claimed that the aid Peng gave to Xu was sufficient evidence of guilt. It wasn’t, as many outraged Chinese at the time felt, a simple act of decency.
That court case has proved to be morally corrosive, creating an incentive for fraud. The judge’s presumption, essentially, is that only a guilty person would “help” someone in trouble; aid is an indication of guilt. Thus, if a fraudster can induce a person to come to his or her aid, there is a chance for a payoff. Perverse, to say the least.
Yet in all of these discussions of ethics and morals, questions about the reluctance of the Chinese to play the Good Samaritan for Yue Yue, there has been no serious examination of the religious or philosophical issues at play (that I have seen). BBC Radio 4’s Thought for the Day did raise the issue of faith in the Yue Yue story. The Rev. Lucy Winket argued that “some blame communism” or “Confucian philosophy” for China’s moral void. However, the C of E cleric was otherwise agnostic about the faith issues. She did observe though that “indifference and callousness is part of the human condition” — could this be an an incipient Calvinism rearing its head? Alas no. I think it is more cliche than belief in the total depravity of mankind.
A commentator for Britain’s SkyNews thought her explanation a “cop-out.”
Some responsible voices point out there is a problem in China and it does truth no service by pretending otherwise. This is not to trade in crude racial stereotypes, they say, but to deal with the reality of China’s recent history.
For decades conscience was contracted out to the Communist state — it removed the ability of people to think and act for themselves.
I cannot prove it, but I think there would be less likelihood of such a dehumanising tragedy unfolding in a country where popular morality had been shaped by a monotheistic religion like Christianity, Islam or Judaism — where charity is embedded in the theology and, ultimately, the culture. Jesus equipped his followers with the Golden Rule — do as you would be done by. Mohammed encouraged alms giving — zakat — to the poor.
In China, in the gallop towards affluence and material plenty, there does not always seem much time for the poor. However, it is encouraging to see the scale of the response to the scandal of [Yue Yue]’s suffering — from the Chinese themselves. It is a terrible wake-up call.
The vast majority of stories about Yue Yue assume a Christian worldview — one where being a Good Samaritan is a moral good. China experts note that this does not give a true picture. This 2009 article states that Confucian culture does not value the Good Samaritan. It is a foreign concept. The China Hope Live blog cites My Country and My People by Lín Yutáng to explain the faith issues at play for a non-Chinese audience.
Confucianism omitted out of the social relationships man’s social obligations toward the stranger, and great and catastrophic was the omission. Samaritan virtue was unknown and practically discouraged. Theoretically, it was provided for in the “doctrine of reciprocity” … But this relationship toward “others” was not one of the five cardinal relationships, and not so clearly defined. … In the end, as it worked out, the family became a walled castle outside which everything is legitimate loot.
The Hong Kong based psychologist, Michael Harris Bond, develops this theme further in his book Beyond the Chinese Face:
The Hong Kong based psychologist, Michael Harris Bond, develops this theme further in his book Beyond the Chinese Face:
The only principle that might guide behavior towards strangers is the Chinese ‘golden rule’ of Confucius, ‘Do not do unto others as you would not have them do unto you.’ This counsel, however, is in the negative and prohibits harmful acts rather than promoting helpfulness. It is quite different in its consequences from doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. This Judeo-Christian dictum is another universal principle, but one that endorses an active reaching out to strangers. It finds its expression at the broader political level in constitutional safeguards for minority rights and a social welfare system; at the interpersonal level, in a greater willingness to assist the underdog. Such a principle operates less strongly in Chinese society.
In reporting context is key. Omitting the moral, historical and religious context of the Yue Yue story paints a false picture of China. While it could be possible that those who passed Yue Yue in the street were moral monsters, it is more likely they are representative of the religious and cultural flux underway in China. I would argue that this story needs to be seen against the backdrop of Chinese history.
Since the liberalizations of the early 1980’s one of the key challenges that Chinese individuals have faced is the question, “What is the meaning of life? For what purpose do I live?” A century of warfare culminating in the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) not only undermined traditional Confucian values but shook the rhetoric and ideology of revolutionary Maoism. The new emphasis on individual freedom, prosperity and happiness stands in sharp contrast to the Maoist vision of self-sacrifice, self-discipline and self-restraint. The question for the journalist is how to tell this story in proper context.
Regardless of all the talk of the secularization of the media and culture in Europe and America, we in the West still live in Christendom. By this I mean that a Western journalist can assume that his audience has a shared Judeo-Christian worldview on base moral matters. One of these is the Good Samaritan ethic.
Is such an ethic appropriate? Is it possible for a journalist to stand outside his culture? The Yue Yue story illustrates this dilemma. Were the 18 bystanders moral monsters, or were they acting according to a different faith code? Should the Judeo-Christian worldview be the prism through which this story is told to the world? Is there a single moral good or truth? Is the enlightenment project — is reason — dead?
What say you GetReligion readers?
First published by GetReligion.
Orthodoxy an option for Scotland: The Church of England Newspaper, Oct 21, 2011 October 21, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Politics, Scottish Episcopal Church.Tags: David Chillingworth, gay marriage
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First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The work of the church is not to guard orthodoxy, but promote diversity, the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church declared last week.
Writing in the Scotsman on 13 Oct 2011, Bishop David Chillingworth of St Andrews, Dunkeld & Dunblane criticized the Catholic Church in Scotland’s condemnation of the SNP government’s consultation on gay marriage. The primus argued that discussion of same-sex marriage was a proper subject of government review, and noted the Scottish Episcopal Church was itself rethinking the issue.
Dr. Chillingworth stated that he believed “the church must and should be an unequivocal supporter of marriage and family life.”
“But Jesus did not call the church into being as a citadel of orthodoxy. He was constantly criticised because he spent time with people who didn’t fit the conventional patterns and were deemed unacceptable by others. He told stories about nets and fishing, about lost sheep and banquets where the guests were to be gathered from the highways and byways,” the primus said.
“If there is a mandate for us in the churches, it is to try and build communities of faith which honour the way in which we believe Jesus responded to people in their diversity,” he noted.
Dr. Chillingworth’s musings on the nature of the church came in response to criticism of the Scottish Government’s consultation on same-sex marriage from the Catholic Church.
If the government believes it should “legislate in this way, I believe that it is their right to do so.
“It is clear that there would be an ‘opt-out’ protection for those who cannot accept this. Churches and faith groups would have to decide whether they wished to use or to stand outside the provisions of such legislation. The suggestion has been made that the Scottish Government does not have a mandate to introduce legislation which is of such fundamental significance for our society.
“The implication is that these are ‘non-negotiable’ areas. If the Scottish Government was proposing to legislate to enshrine in law discrimination on the grounds of gender, sexual orientation, colour or race, I would publicly oppose their moral right to do so. But that is not the nature of these consultation proposals,” the primus said.
A spokesman for the primus told CEN the Scottish Episcopal Church “is considering its response to the Scottish Government’s consultation on same sex marriage. This will be done through our Faith and Order Board by the end of the consultation period.”
However, they declined to respond to requests for clarification of the primus’ views on orthodoxy.
Oz abuse policies under review: The Church of England Newspaper, Oct 21, 2011 October 21, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Abuse, Anglican Church of Australia, Canon Law, Church of England Newspaper.Tags: Diocese of Brisbane, Phillip Aspinall
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Archbishop Phillip Aspinall
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia is backing a rethink of the Church’s sexual abuse reporting polices.
Archbishop Phillip Aspinall of Brisbane told the Australian that he was having “second thoughts” about the policy of mandatory reporting of child abuse allegations to the police – regardless of the victim’s wishes.
In the wake of the child abuse reporting scandal that forced the former Archbishop of Brisbane, Dr Peter Hollingworth, to resign as Governor General of Australia in 2003 after he was found to have inadequately investigated child abuse claims in his diocese, his successor, Dr Aspinall, introduced the mandatory reporting requirement.
The diocesan protocol, which is followed by most Australian dioceses, is to turn over all complaints of child abuse to the police for investigation. Brisbane follows this policy, the Archbishop said, but he did see the wisdom of arguments that the wishes of the victim should be considered.
“When you’re dealing with an adult who is reporting abuse that happened to them as a child, it’s really important to empower that adult,” he said.
“And if you take that decision out of their hands and say, ‘Regardless of what you want, I’m going to report it to the police’, you are disempowering that adult and maybe even re-abusing them.
“I understand that position. But we have taken the view that because of the need to be accountable to the wider public, and because of allegations of cover-up and what have you in the past, then we will report everything.
“And then it is a matter between the police and the complainant … the Church will not interpose itself in that relationship and lay itself open to the allegation of covering up.”
Dr Aspinall has asked the diocese’s professional standards commission to review the policies, and to see whether Australia should adopt the policy currently in force in the Church of England, which takes the victim’s views into account.
The Australian reported that under the current protocol, three clergy have been defrocked. In 2005, 29 cases were reported to the Church. Only one complaint was filed last year and none have been submitted this year – there were no active investigations, the diocese reported.
The House of Bishops’ policy and its accompanying guidance ‘Protecting all God’s Children’ and government guidelines found in ‘Working together to Safeguard Children 2006’ forms the basis of diocesan policies in Britain.
The Church of England’s policy commits it to the “safeguarding, care and nurture of the children within our church community;” to “respond without delay to every complaint made, that a child or young person for whom we are responsible may have been harmed;” to “fully cooperate with statutory agencies;” to “offer informed pastoral care” to those who have “suffered abuse;” and to “care for and supervise any member of our church community known to have offended against a child.”
Sydney synod begins: The Church of England Newspaper, Oct 14, 2011 p 7. October 19, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Australia, Church of England Newspaper.Tags: Diocese of Sydney, Peter Jensen
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Dr. Peter Jensen
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Archbishop of Sydney has denounced the use of church courts to bypass the Anglican Church of Australia’s General Synod to set doctrine and discipline. However, Dr Peter Jensen also reaffirmed the diocese’s commitment to the Anglican Church of Australia, saying Sydney Anglicanism had a central place in the faith life of Australia.
In his hour-long presidential address to the diocese’s 49th synod on 10 October, Dr Jensen addressed social questions, noting the parlous state of family life in Australia and urged politicians to push back against the country’s “gambling culture.”
He also touched upon the spiritual and financial health of the diocese. Participation was ”more than holding its own,” he said. Growth was “not vast but in a world where clubs, political parties and voluntary organisations are struggling to stay alive, it is significant.”
Taking as his text 1 Kings 19, Dr Jensen stated that “Like Elijah, we sometimes feel alone … But what we have is what Elijah was given – not God in earthquake, wind and fire, but the God in his Word. We live by faith, not by sight. Our business, whatever our situation, is to consult the Word of God, to trust it and to keep it.”
As Elijah was “emboldened by God’s Word, so you too take heart,” he told synod.
Speaking about the diocese’s difficult relations with the national Church, Dr Jensen noted the “division or dismemberment of the Anglican Church of Australia is not in the best interests of Christianity in this country.” The Archbishop’s remarks follow an attack last month upon the diocese by journalist Muriel Porter on the ABC, who accused the Sydney diocese of perverting Anglicanism.
The Archbishop stated that from Sydney’s perspective it was “best” if the national Church was “committed in form and fact to orthodox doctrine and behaviour.”
Sydney also laboured “to retain the integrity of the national Church,” he said, adding the diocese “always insisted that the national federation be decentralized in ethos and diocesan in structure as it is under the Constitution. Sydney also had an ongoing “role to encourage and support the growth of evangelical ministries throughout the national Church,” Dr Jensen said.
He also criticized the process by which women were permitted to be ordained to the episcopate, saying the circumvention of the national synod by an appeal to the church courts harmed the integrity of the institution.
“We want to establish the point that the ready appeal to the law to solve relational and political problems is unfruitful and to ensure that there is minimum interference with the life of the dioceses, in line with the spirit and intent of the Constitution,” Dr Jensen said.
He also touched upon the “For Kid’s Sake” report prepared by Sydney academic Patrick Parkinson. The Parkinson paper chronicled an increasingly dysfunctional youth population, with alarmingly high rates of substance abuse, self-harming behaviour and sexual promiscuity. The rise in bad behaviour could be linked to the decline of the family, he said. “The missing ingredient [in Australian family life] is commitment – a public commitment in the marriage vows,” Dr Jensen said.
“There is a cultural malaise here, a tsunami is beginning which, should it be unchecked, will engulf us. At the base of it the problem is spiritual – it is sin and evil, broken promises and broken hearts, our abandonment of God and our elevation of the individual self to the throne,” the Archbishop said.
Over the next two weeks, the synod will address the diocese’s financial situation and plans for future growth.
Cape Town archbishop denounces hate speech: The Church of England Newspaper, Oct 14, 2011 p 6. October 19, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Southern Africa, Church of England Newspaper, Free Speech, Politics.Tags: African National Congress, hate speech, Jacob Zuma, Julius Malema, Thabo Makgoba
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Julius Malema, Photo:Gary van der Merwe
First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Archbishop of Cape Town has stepped into the African National Congress (ANC)’s political civil war, obliquely chastising the leader of the party’s youth wing, Julius Malema, for racist speech.
In a speech printed in the Cape Times on16 September, Archbishop Thabo Makgoba called on South Africans to join him and “denounce” inflammatory language. “Hate speech, racist talk, sexist language only oppresses and imprisons,” he said.
The Archbishop’s comments follow last month’s court ruling that ruled Mr Malema was guilty of hate speech for his singing of “Shoot the Boer” at political rallies. The refrain in the Zulu language song popularized during the apartheid era — “the cowards are scared, shoot shoot, shoot shoot, shoot the Boer” — was found to be hate speech under South African law.
A political rival to President Jacob Zuma, Mr Malema denounced the court’s 12 September ruling as racist saying “once again we find ourselves subjected to white minority approval. Apartheid is being brought through the back door.”
He called for songs from the apartheid era to be protected as free political speech. “These were the songs of resistance and they will never die,” he said.
In 2009 Mr Malema helped President Zuma gain the top spot in the ANC, but he has since broken with the president. He faces an internal ANC disciplinary hearing for bringing the party into disrepute after he called for the Botswana government to be overthrown, calling it “puppet” of the West.
He has also clashed with the president on economic policy, applauding Robert Mugabe’s regime and has called for the state to nationalize South Africa’s mines and seize white-owned farms.
Archbishop Thabo Makgoba stated that freedom of speech “is entrenched in our Constitution” and was a “necessary bed-rock of democratic life.”
“But this does not mean we can and should say anything, anywhere, merely on the grounds that we claim it is ‘truth’. Nor should restraint merely consist in establishing the maximum we can get away with when arguing before the courts. No, freedom of speech touches on the very essence of what it is to be human, and to be committed to the well being of other human beings.
“Hate speech is not merely a legal category. It is, as I have said often before (when people have been called ‘snakes’ and ‘dogs’ and worse), any utterance that diminishes and degrades other human beings, other children of God. More than this, it diminishes and degrades not only its target, but also the speaker – for it demonstrates a general failure to understand and respect people at large,” the Archbishop said.
“The same is true of those who resort to racial epithets, or demeaning sexual slurs,” he said, adding that such language “undermines our capacity to ‘fulfil the promise’ of democracy, through building the sort of individual character and mature society which will help create the opportunity for every citizen to flourish.”
Anglican Unscripted: October 17, 2011 October 18, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Australia, Anglican.TV, Church of Ireland, Episcopal Church of the Sudan, Property Litigation, South Carolina.Tags: Diocese of Sydney
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http://blip.tv/play/g5IjgtjoSgI.htmlhttp://a.blip.tv/api.swf#g5IjgtjoSgI
Kevin and George both seem to be qualified to perform the Sacrament of the Eucharist under new rules readopted by the diocese of Sydney. Meanwhile the Archbishop of Canterbury had a very successful visit to Zimbabwe and our hosts tip their hats to the new and improved head of the communion. Almost predictably, Allan Haley builds a defense for the Diocese of South Carolina while stacking the deck against the most arrogant Presiding Bishop to serve in North America. Kevin also interviews Bishop Abraham Neal (formally one of the Lost Boys) of the Province of Sudan.
Irish ban on clergy civil unions: The Church of England Newspaper, Oct 14, 2011 p 6. October 18, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Ireland.Tags: gay marriage
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First published in The Church of England Newspaper
The Bishops of the Church of Ireland have called for a moratorium on clergy entering into same-sex civil partnerships.
In their 5 October pastoral letter to the Irish Church, the bishops also asked critics of clergy civil unions to moderate their language while they debate the issue. “We urge people of all shades of opinion within the Church of Ireland to refrain from any actions or the use of emotive or careless language which may further exacerbate the situation within the Church. Such restraint will greatly facilitate the work ahead,” the bishops said.
The threat of schism has hung over the Church of Ireland in the wake of revelations that Bishop Michael Burrows permitted the Dean of Leighlin, the Very Rev Tom Gordon, to register a same-sex civil union.
The outcry forced Bishop Burrows to skip the consecration of the Bishop of Tuam and has sparked protests. A statement issued by the Church of Ireland Evangelical Fellowship, the Evangelical Fellowship of Irish Clergy, New Wine (Ireland) and Reform Ireland said: “If the orthodox view of marriage and sexuality is allowed to be shattered by the actions of Dean Gordon and others then it is difficult to see how a respectful fellowship can be maintained.”
Changing Attitude Ireland criticized the conservatives’ statement, noting their statements “have not been a consequence of a Church of Ireland clergyman living in a same-sex partnership per se, but of a Church of Ireland clergyman choosing to formalise that partnership in law.
“The attitude of the four conservative evangelical and charismatic groups seems, therefore, to be that it is alright to be in a same-sex relationship as long as one is not public about it,” the liberal advocacy group said.
In their pastoral letter, the bishops said that while they had been planning on reviewing their 2003 statement on human sexuality, however, recent events had “given added impetus to the bishops’ process of reflection.”
“Recent well–publicised events within the Church of Ireland concerning the issue of serving clergy and civil partnerships have caused considerable hurt and confusion to many. Others saw what had happened as a positive development. In the Church of Ireland as a whole, in consequence, this has led to a painful experience of disunity. We as bishops take very seriously our responsibility at this time to act in a way that will help to further the unity of the church in truth and love,” they said.
To this end, “we plan to organise a major conference in spring 2012, to which members of the General Synod and some others will be invited. The purpose of the conference is to discuss the content of this Pastoral Letter, to assist the church in becoming more fully informed, and to explore wider issues related to human sexuality.”
The conference will not settle the issue, they noted, and “is not envisaged to be an end in itself. Study in biblical, theological and legal issues, both before and after the conference, needs to be encouraged and undertaken.”
Diocesan victory in US property case: The Church of England Newspaper, Oct 14, 2011 p October 18, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Connecticut, Property Litigation.Tags: Bishop Seabury Church, Ron Gauss
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The Rev. Ron Gauss, Rector of Bishop Seabury Church
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Connecticut Supreme Court has rejected the appeal of a Groton parish that it be allowed to depart from the Episcopal Church with its property.
In a 30 September ruling, the court held that under Connecticut law the Episcopal Church’s property rules – the Dennis Canon – took precedence over state property laws.
Writing for the court, Justice Peter Zarella sated “we now conclude under neutral principles of law that the Dennis Canon applies and that it clearly establishes an express trust interest in the property in favour of the Episcopal Church and the Diocese.”
At the 1979 General Convention the Episcopal Church adopted a canon that gave an interest in all church property to the diocese and national Church. Bishop Seabury Church, which quit the Episcopal Church to join the Nigerian-backed Convocation of Anglicans in North America in 2007, had argued that this rule violated state law which required restrictions on the title of property to be recorded with the courts. The Connecticut court held that the Episcopal Church’s canons on property took precedence over this common law principle.
In a statement to the Associated Press, Bishop Ian Douglas said it was a “sad circumstance when other Christians are forced to resolve their disputes in court, because that draws significant resources away from our work in the wider world in service of God’s mission.
“It’s been a long and bad process. There are no victors here,” he said.
The parish released a statement saying: “We are disappointed that the Supreme Court has rejected the important legal principle that the owner of property identified in a recorded deed is the true owner of the property,” the statement said. “Our members relied upon that principle in donating their time and money to build a multimillion dollar church building. Special rules should not be made for favoured religious denominations.”
Canon lawyer Allan Haley told Anglican TV the Connecticut case was ripe for review by the US Supreme Court. “New York, California and Connecticut law give the Episcopal Church the force to override civil property laws,” he said. These rules privileged the Episcopal Church over other churches and violated the First Amendment of the US Constitution, he observed.
State Supreme Courts have ruled in favour and against the legality of the Dennis Canon. South Carolina’s Supreme Court nullified the operation of the Dennis Canon in that state, holding that a trust could not be established without the written consent of the owner of land. However, New York, California and now Connecticut have held that this did not apply to Episcopal Church property cases. The appeals courts in Louisiana, Missouri, Indiana, Georgia, Texas, Virginia and Pennsylvania have also given differing opinions on the legality of this issue.
The parish is currently weighing its options, CEN was told, and will decide whether to file an appeal to the Supreme Court shortly.
Mugabe meeting for Dr. Williams: The Church of England Newspaper, Oct 14, 2011 p 1. October 18, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Archbishop of Canterbury, Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of Central Africa.Tags: Bingu wa Mutharika, Malawi, Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe
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First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has presented a dossier to President Robert Mugabe chronicling the oppression of Zimbabwe’s Anglicans at the hands of the security services and thugs in the pay of breakaway bishop Dr Nolbert Kunonga.
During his two-hour meeting with President Mugabe on 10 October, Dr Rowan Williams urged the Zimbabwe strongman to halt the attacks. President Mugabe professed ignorance of the persecution, but countered by asking the Anglican Church to condemn the sanctions imposed by the West against his regime and for the church to take a firm stand against homosexuality.
Speaking to the press after the meeting, Dr Williams – who was accompanied by Archbishops Albert Chama of Central Africa, Thabo Makgoba of South Africa, Valentino Mokiwa of Tanzania, and the bishops of Harare and Botswana – characterised the meeting as having been “very candid” where “disagreements were expressed clearly, but I think in a peaceful manner.”
Dr Williams also clarified the Anglican Communion’s stance on homosexuality, disavowing recent moves by the American and Canadian Churches to authorise gay bishops and blessings stating the church “does not allow same-sex relationships and that is common ground across the Anglicans.
“On the practice of homosexuality by bishops in the US and Canada, these are provinces, which do not represent the general line,” he told reporters.
A statement from the bishops said the dossier presented to the President “gives a full account of the abuses to which our people and our church has been subject. We have asked, in the clearest possible terms, that the President use his powers as Head of State to put an end to all unacceptable and illegal behaviour.”
Archbishop Makgoba reported that “although moving on in age and forgetful in certain instances, the President was aware of our pain, frustration and disappointment at the police-aided church conflict and violence by Kunonga.”
The archbishops “appealed to his heart and his Catholic conscience, and asked him to stop the suffering of his people,” Archbishop Makgoba said, adding that “President Mugabe asked that we also pray and intervene to end sanctions, as they were hurting all Zimbabweans. He also said Britain had dishonoured its pledges in the implementation of the country’s post-independence land reform programme.”
After introductions and pleasantries, the meeting began with an hour-long presentation by Dr Williams and his team on the problems facing the church. According to the government-run Harare Herald, President Mugabe said he was unaware of many of the incidents cited by the bishops, but stated the courts would have to sort out the dispute.
President Mugabe then launched into a 30-minute soliloquy, denouncing homosexuality, Western sanctions against his regime and the evils of white colonial rule. He also urged the two Anglican factions to engage in dialogue to resolve their differences.
“He said it would be better for everyone if they united. The President said he hoped the Anglican delegation did not come to Zimbabwe under the impression that the disharmony is the act of Government,” a source told the Herald.
Motion denied in the Dating Game lawsuit: The Church of England Newspaper, Oct 14, 2011 p 7. October 18, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Australia, Canon Law, Church of England Newspaper.Tags: Brian Farran, Diocese of Newcastle, John Gumbley, Professional Standards Board
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First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
The New South Wales Supreme court has rejected a bid by a former Diocese of Newcastle priest to compel the Diocesan Professional Standards Board to turn over a transcript and documents used in a hearing that ruled he be removed from the ministry.
Newcastle District Court Judge Margaret Sidis dismissed the motion to produce documents of John Gumbley and ordered the former priest to pay costs after she ruled on Sept 28 that he had failed to present a case to the court.
In August, Mr. Gumbley charged Bishop Brian Farran and the Professional Standards Board with using unlawful and immoral means to remove him from the ministry. In May 2010 the bishop defrocked Mr. Gumbley after the board found he had engaged in misconduct by consummating a sexual relationship with a member of his congregation. The 40-year-old unmarried clergyman had protested his innocence, but his veracity was questioned after the board reviewed journals that chronicled his private life.
Mr. Gumbley charged the diaries had been stolen and should not have been used in evidence against him. The Bishop conceded the diaries had been unlawfully downloaded from the priest’s computer by a spurned lover who had handed them over to the Diocese. But the bishop defended the propriety of using them in an ecclesiastical trial. However, the solicitor for the diocese, told the court the “stolen” reference was “an allegation, not a fact,” according to a report printed in the Newcastle Herald..
Mr. Gumbley’s solicitor told the court her client needed the documents to determine whether the professional standards board acted improperly. The court said it was “not going to allow this to be a fishing expedition” and rejected the motion.
Bishops canvas support for action against the USA: The Church of England Newspaper, Sept 4, 2003. October 17, 2011
Posted by geoconger in 74th General Convention, Church of England Newspaper, Primates Meeting 2003.Tags: Gene Robinson, Mouneer Anis
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The American Episcopal Church could find itself reduced to observer status, without voice or vote, when Anglican Primates meet in October to decide their response to the unprecedented decision to ratify the election of a practising gay bishop.
An estimated 22 to 25 Primates of the Anglican Communion, representing the vast majority of the world’s Anglicans, are likely to oppose the American decision in the strongest possible terms. Last Friday, the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams, recognising the gravity of the situation, called an emergency meeting of the Primates in October. It is the first time that an extraordinary meeting has been called to deal with just one issue, and points to the growing strength of the Primates as a body to deal with discipline in the Anglican Communion.
According to sources close to Primates of the global south, there are already plans to hold a number of meetings in the run-up to the extraordinary Primates’ Meeting to discuss a strategy.
The strategy is likely to be based on proposals in a document entitled, ‘To Mend the Net’, commissioned by the former Primate of the Southern Cone, Maurice Sinclair, and the Archbishop of the West Indies, Drexel Gomez.
Although early reports suggested that a parallel province in north America could result from Dr Rowan Williams’s meeting of the Primates, which would enable conservative Episcopalians to disassociate themselves from the General Convention, this is likely to be rejected by conservative primates.
Instead they are increasingly setting their minds against creating the ghetto of a third province for mainstream Anglicans in America and want to press for discipline.
The first step would be stripping ECUSA of its right to vote and voice at Lambeth Conferences, Primates’ Meetings and the Anglican Consultative Council. Secondly, the Primates’ Meeting could recommend to the Archbishop of Canterbury that he “authorises and supports appropriate means of evangelisation, pastoral care and Episcopal oversight” in ECUSA. Finally, if the American Church persisted in its defiance of the views of the majority it could be expelled from the Anglican Communion and a new jurisdiction would then be recognised as a representative part of the Anglican Communion.
The ‘To Mend the Net’ proposals are currently in the hands of the Anglican doctrinal body set up in 2001 to look at the limits of diversity in the Communion. But this body has not reported and was recently criticised by one of its members, Dr Paul Zahl, for failing in its purpose of responding to crises such as those created by the election of Canon Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire.
The Anglican Church of Kenya has already broken communion with the Diocese of New Hampshire. Condemnations of the General Convention decision came from as far a field as New Zealand, Nigeria, South America and the West Indies.
The Bishop of Egypt, Mouneer Anis, stated: “We cannot comprehend a decision to elect as bishop a man who has forsaken his wife and the vows he made to her in order to live in a sexual relationship with another man outside the bonds of his marriage.”
He added, “We had not expected this to be done to us by brothers and sisters who are in communion with us. We had expected that they would think of us before taking such a grave step. It showed great disrespect to the majority of the members of the Anglican Communion and the church worldwide. In fact, the decision shows disregard for the value of being in communion and part of the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. It also places in doubt the future of the Lambeth Conference. When its resolutions are no longer respected by members of the conference what purpose does it have?”
The day after the election, the American Anglican Council, the coalition of evangelical and traditionalist organisations in the Episcopal Church announced a meeting to be held in Texas in early October to coordinate strategies among dioceses and parishes. A number of conservative dioceses have scheduled special conventions in September and October to discuss the actions taken at Convention and to debate what steps to take in response.
In addition to the formal meeting of Primates called by Rowan Williams, small groups of Primates will be gathering in a number of meetings around the world in the coming weeks to coordinate strategy and develop a common front in response to the election of Gene Robinson.
The varieties of responses proposed by individual Primates range from suspension of ECUSA from the Communion to the creation of an alternate “orthodox” province for North America. What is certain in all of this is that the status quo of Anglicanism, before Gene Robinson and Minneapolis, cannot be regained. 
Holy Cow Batman!, The Guardian on Hinduism: Get Religion Oct 16, 2011 October 17, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Buddhism, Get Religion, Islam, Judaism, Press criticism, Roman Catholic Church.Tags: Guardian, Hinduism, Jainism
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After me everybody … “Hindus do not worship cows.”
Repeat please … “Hindus do not worship cows.”
One more time like you really mean it … “Hindus do not worship cows.”
It is the caped crusader’s sidekick who cries “Holy Cow”, not the sadhu.
Hindus venerate cows. There is a difference.
The Observer — the Sunday edition of the Guardian newspaper in London — doesn’t appreciate the distinction. Nor does it appear to be fully on board about a number of religious dietary laws. But it does have an excruciatingly hip article in its lifestyle section entitled “Religion and food: Lord knows, they don’t mix.”
Written in a jocular, off-hand style this article offers the philosophical musings of a food writer on the dietary laws and food customs of some of the world’s major faiths. It is also a silly little piece whose treatment of religion is puerile, offensive and profoundly ignorant of the subjects it seeks to address. I am not complaining mind you. Critics need stories like this. When a quality newspaper like the Guardian is willing to throw a slow pitch down the center of the plate it is churlish of me to complain. Let’s take our place at the plate.
There are lots of good reasons for cutting down on meat; Jesus really isn’t one of them. Not that the Catholic Church would agree. A few weeks ago the UK’s bishops declared that they would be encouraging their congregations to give up flesh on Fridays as a way to “deepen… the spiritual aspects of their lives”. Organised religions have form where this sort of thing is concerned. This summer also saw the publication of Kosher Modern, a cookbook designed to make the stringent dietary rules of observant Jews – no pork, no shellfish, no mixing of milk and meat – an opportunity rather than a constraint. A few years ago, a Welsh Hindu community went to court (unsuccessfully) to save a bull called Shambo, marked down for slaughter because he had tested positive for bovine tuberculosis. Hindus don’t eat beef. They worship the animals. The Muslims don’t eat pork. The Buddhists are vegetarians and the Jains are strict vegans who won’t even touch root vegetables because of the damage it does to the plants.
From this I can reach only one conclusion: God is a seriously picky eater. And yes, I know, the Jains and the Buddhists don’t have an overarching deity per se, but you get the point. The divine is marked by a palate that would shame a three-year-old brought up on crisps and Sunny Delight.
From this point forward in the article the author provides his interpretation of these dietary laws, noting that he is a “head-banging atheist” and consequently a “Very Bad Jew”. I am not concerned with the author’s views on the merits of religion or dietary laws. His sentiment: “Worship however and whatever you wish, but don’t expect me to respect you for it,” is not the subject of this critique. What concerns me are the statements of fact.
Let’s go through these one by one in order of veracity.
“Muslims don’t eat pork.” Yes.
“Jews – no pork, no shellfish, no mixing of milk and meat.” Yes … but.
The author’s interpretation as to why Jews keep kosher: “Because it defines difference. It sets them apart” — would not meet with universal approval amongst all rabbinic scholars.
England’s Catholic “bishops declared that they would be encouraging their congregations to give up flesh on Fridays as a way to “deepen… the spiritual aspects of their lives”. Yes and no.
Effective 16 Sept 2011, Roman Catholics in England and Wales are to abstain from eating meat on Fridays as an act of penance. Those who do not eat meat normally should abstain from some other food. The bishops stated:
“Every Friday is set aside by the Church as a special day of penance, for it is the day of the death of our Lord” … the Bishops’ Conference wishes to remind all Catholics in England and Wales of the obligation of Friday Penance. The Bishops have decided to re-establish the practice that this should be fulfilled by abstaining from meat.
The Catholic Church in Britain is going back to meatless Friday’s as a mark of penance. No the bishops are not “encouraging their congregations to give up flesh”, it is an obligation. And they are not to give up “flesh”, but meat.
“Jains are strict vegans.” No.
Jains are “strict” vegetarians but not all Jains are vegans. Vegetarians do not eat meat, fish, or poultry. Vegans, in addition, do not consume animal by-products such as eggs, dairy products, or honey. Guided by the principle of ahimsa (non-harm) some Jains in the Indian diaspora have adopted a vegan lifestyle out of an ethical concern over Western factory farming practices. Their holy texts do not prohibit the consumption of dairy products and Jains may consume milk, curds and clarified butter (ghee).
“Buddhists are vegetarians.” No.
Not all Buddhists are vegetarians. The Buddha was not a vegetarian, and he did not prohibit eating meat. Some schools of Buddhism interpret his ethical strictures so as to discourage meat eating. Roughly speaking among the two major Buddhist traditions, the Mahayanists are vegetarian and the Theravadins are not. There are exceptions to this dictum. Ceylonese monks of the Theravadin school are often strict Buddhists, whilst amongst Tibetan and Japanese Buddhists of the Mabayanist school vegetarianism is rare.
“Hindus don’t eat beef. They worship the animals.” No.
Taking as my guide, What is Hinduism? published by Hinduism Today:
Hindus don’t worship cows. We respect, honor and adore the cow. By honoring this gentle creature, who gives more than she takes, we honor all creation … Gandhi once said, “One can measure the greatness of a nation and its moral progress by the way it treats its animals. Cow protection to me is not mere protection of the cow. It means protection of all that lives and is helpless and weak in the world. The cow means the entire subhuman world.”
Looking at the box score, 2.5 answers rights, 3.5 answers wrong. This would have prompted a Holy Cow! out of Harry Caray.
I appreciate the audience for this article is the home team Guardian reader. But it does help not to be infantile when posing as l’enfant terrible. When you mock the religious sensibilities of others in a superior tone it helps to know what you are talking about. The Guardian doesn’t.
Kenyan church call for tax cuts: The Church of England Newspaper, Oct 14, 2011 p 6. October 16, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Kenya, Church of England Newspaper.Tags: Eliud Wabukala, Wangari Maathai
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First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
Tax cuts, prayer, and efficient government were among the chief topics of the Anglican Church of Kenya’s provincial synod last month.
Meeting at the All Saints’ Cathedral Trinity Centre on 30 Sept 2011, the synod released a pastoral letter under the signature of the Archbishop of Kenya Dr. Eliud Wabukala that touched upon a series of industrial accidents and other issues facing the nation.
To “those who have lost loved ones in the several cases of road carnage, the Sinai slum and Busia tanker fires, deaths caused by the consumption of lethal local brews, collapsing of buildings under construction and the inhaling of poisonous chlorine fumes in Shauri Moyo,” the church offered its prayers and support.
“Some of these disasters are preventable, if only individuals and corporate institutions would be more proactive in protection of human life,” said Dr. Wabukala.
The church faulted the government’s response to recent calamities, saying “little has been done to implement the Disaster Preparedness policies and prescribed regulations” set down by law. Nor had the government enforced regulations prohibiting the illicit production of alcohol, which had led to a rash of poison deaths.
“As Christians, there is no question on the effectiveness of prayer when dealing with threats to human life. We call upon churches across denominations to join in prayer for comfort and peace for all who are bereaved and for God to avert the disasters that have been witnessed in our country,” the synod letter said.
In the wake of rising food, fuel and housing prices, the church also urged the Government to cut taxes to stimulate the economy. In addition to their economic stimulus value, the tax cuts would “be a show of concern and solidarity with the majority of Kenyans who are struggling to make ends meet.”
The synod also called upon Parliament to refrain from piecemeal amendments to the constitution and joined in tribute to the late Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai. “Her efforts positioned Kenya in the map of the world as a land capable of bringing forth a heroine whose resilience, commitment and vision won her praise and accolades worldwide.”
She was a “passionate environmentalist who stood firm against deforestation and paid a great price to reclaim grabbed public land at a time when land grabbing was rife in the country. Her legacy echoes to each one of us to be a hummingbird, doing the best we can to bring the change we want to see” in Kenya, the synod said.
Zimbabwe Court denounces political interference in the Kunonga affair: The Church of England Newspaper, Oct 14, 2011 p 7. October 16, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Property Litigation, Zimbabwe.Tags: Godfrey Chidyausiku, Harare, Peter Hatendi
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Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku
First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Chief Justice of Zimbabwe has lashed out against the Anglican Diocese of Harare, accusing it of trying to circumvent the courts by appealing to political leaders to resolve its dispute with breakaway bishop Dr Nolbert Kunonga.
On 1 October the state-run Harare Herald reported that Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku had “blasted” the Anglican diocese for interfering with the independence of the judiciary.
The Herald reported the former Bishop of Harare, the Rt Rev Peter Hatendi, wrote to the Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs, Patrick Chinamasa, on 23 September urging the government to remove Judge Chidyausiku from the case.
“The Church of the Province of Central Africa has made a Constitutional appeal against the judgment of Chief Justice Chidyausiku dated 4 August, 2011 in chambers and requested him to recuse himself.”
Bishop Hatendi’s letter, the Herald said, asked the justice minister to “assist in the processing of the appeal.”
“My successor Dr Nolbert Kunonga grabbed both the old and the new structures when he resigned in 2007,” Bishop Hatendi wrote. “Where is commutative justice to be found save in our courts of law? I look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible, please,” he was alleged to have written.
On 28 September, Judge Chidyausiku instructed the registrar of the Supreme Court to inform the attorneys for the parties of his displeasure with Bishop Hatendi. “In view of the persistent attempts by the litigants in this matter, in particular the [Church of the Province of Central Africa], to try and influence the outcome of this matter outside the judicial process, no further applications will be entertained from either party except in open court.”
“The issues set out above can only be determined by the Supreme Court. I accordingly take great exception to conduct undermining the independence of the judicial process by seeking political intervention in judicial matters,” the letter said.
CEN was unable to reach Bishop Hatendi to confirm whether the allegations made by the Herald were true. However, Judge Chidyausika has asked that all of the Anglican cases before the court be consolidated for his adjudication.
“The issues set out above can only be determined by the Supreme Court. I accordingly take great exception to conduct undermining the independence of the judicial process by seeking political intervention in judicial matters,” the letter said.
CEN was unable to reach Bishop Hatendi to confirm whether the allegations made by the Herald were true. However, Judge Chidyausika has asked that all of the Anglican cases before the court be consolidated for his adjudication.
Church lauds peaceful transition of power in Zambia: The Church of England Newspaper, Oct 14, 2011 October 16, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of Central Africa, Politics.Tags: Guy Scott, Michael Sata, Rupia Banda, Zambia
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President Michael Sata
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
There were no losers in last month’s presidential election in Zambia, the country’s Anglican leaders declared in a statement that offered congratulations to the new president and thanks to the outgoing president for the peaceful transition of power.
On 20 Sept 2011, Zambians went to the polls to elect a president and representatives to the National Assembly. Three days later Chief Justice Ernest Sakala announced that Michael Sata of the Patriotic Front Party had defeated incumbent President Rupiah Banda of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy by 1.17 million to 987,000 votes. Hakainde Hichilema of the United Party for National Development came in third with approximately 500,000 votes.
On Sept 23 the new president was sworn in by Chief Justice Sakala as Zambia’s fifth president since the country declared independence from Britain in 1964. The victory by President Sata and his Patriotic Front has ended two decades of rule by the Movement for Multiparty Democracy which came to power in the country’s first multiparty elections in 1991.
In an address to the nation outgoing President Banda stated “now it is time for me to step aside. Now is the time for a new leader. My time is done. It is time for me for goodbye. May God watch over the Zambian people and may he bless our beautiful nation.”
He urged the country to “rally behind your new president.”
In his inauguration speech, President Sata pledged to fight poverty and corruption, and restore confidence in the rule of law. The Ten Commandments would form the guiding principles for his government, President Sata said.
President Sata has also appointed the first white vice president in post-independence Africa. Dr. Guy Scott was born in what was then Northern Rhodesia in 1944, was educated at Cambridge and earned a PhD in cognitive science from the University of Sussex before returning to Zambia. He will succeed President Sata should the 74 year old leader die in office.
In a statement released after the inauguration, Bishop William Mchombo of Eastern Zambia said the Anglican Church believed “there is no victor or vanquished in this election but that the will of Zambians has prevailed and that we should all continue to live in unity and peacefully alongside each other and contribute to the development of this great nation.”
He also lauded former President Banda for graciously exiting the political stage – a rarity in African politics.
“We also congratulate the electorates for coming out in their numbers to cast their votes in a relatively peaceful manner thereby entrenching our democracy. Once again we have shown the world, especially in the sub-region that peaceful elections where the will of the people is respected are tenable. Above all we give praise and glory to God to whom all people of faith turned for prayers of peace and justice. Long live Zambia,” the bishop said.
Evangelical bishop under assault in America: The Church of England Newspaper, Oct 14, 2011 p 5. October 14, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Canon Law, Church of England Newspaper, South Carolina.Tags: Dorsey Henderson, Josephine Hicks, Mark Lawrence
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Bishop Mark Lawrence
First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Bishop of South Carolina reports that he is being investigated by a church disciplinary committee for having abandoned the Episcopal Church.
One of the few remaining conservative bishops in the Episcopal Church, Bishop Mark Lawrence has been sharply critical of the Church’s embrace of the gay agenda and the new morality. While removing him from the House of Bishops would silence his voice, it will also provoke a constitutional crisis for the Episcopal Church, canon lawyers tell The Church of England Newspaper.
The national church’s Title IV Disciplinary Canons — which went into effect in July — do not have legal force in South Carolina following amendments to its bylaws made by the diocesan convention. The South Carolina Supreme Court has also nullified the Dennis Canon, saying the national Church rule that property is held in trust for the diocese and the national Church is invalid in that state –- effectively placing the diocese and its property beyond the reach of the national Church and its allies.
On 5 October Bishop Mark Lawrence and the president of the diocesan standing committee, Dean Paul Fuener, reported that on 29 September the diocese received a letter from Bishop Dorsey Henderson, the president of the Disciplinary Board for Bishops, stating that “serious charges” had been lodged against the bishop.
Bishop Henderson forwarded a 63-page indictment of 12 charges brought by unnamed accusers alleging Bishop Lawrence’s actions violated canon law. A Church attorney had also been appointed to investigate the charges, South Carolina learned.
The Church attorney, Josephine Hicks, was the Episcopal Church’s lay representative to the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC). At ACC-14 in Kingston she gave a spirited defence of the Episcopal Church’s legal war against defecting dioceses when questions were raised by delegates from the Global South about the about the probity of the Episcopal Church’s conduct.
In an unusual twist to normal jurisprudence, the prosecutor in the case, Ms Hicks is entitled to vote in the deliberations on the bishop’s guilt or innocence.
Among the charges listed was the accusation that an October 2009 synod vote violated national canon law. The diocese voted to “begin withdrawing from all bodies of the Episcopal Church that have assented to actions contrary to Holy Scripture, the doctrine, and worship of Christ as this Church has received them, the resolutions of the Lambeth Conference which have expressed the mind of the Communion, the Book of Common Prayer, and our Constitution and Canons, until such bodies show willingness to repent of such actions.”
The diocese’s endorsement of the Anglican Covenant, its opposition to national Church support for abortion, and the content of a number of articles and speeches made by the bishop have been cited as evidence of his unfaithfulness to the church, as well as his decision to ordain his son to the priesthood.
The charge sheet alleges the Rev Chadwick Lawrence was not a proper deacon when he was ordained a priest by his father.
On 10 October, Bishop Henderson released a statement saying the disciplinary board would not follow the new canonical procedures, but would follow an expedited process to review the charges as Bishop Lawrence was being charged with abandoning the communion of the Episcopal Church. The Anglican Communion Institute has criticised this decision, noting the canons do not allow Bishop Henderson to dispense with the rules of procedure.
In an interview with Anglican TV, canon lawyer Allan Haley stated the prosecution of the case presents problems for the national Church. “South Carolina doesn’t recognize the new canons” used to indict Bishop Lawrence and it is likely they will refuse to cooperate with the investigation, he said.
Mr Haley noted the Episcopal Church “has no constitutional court to decide this issue” of a conflict of laws and should it take action against Bishop Lawrence and South Carolina, it could not enforce its decisions through the civil courts.
On 10 October Bishop Lawrence met with the South Carolina clergy to discuss the case. A response to the charges from the diocese is expected shortly.
Matrimonio all’italiana and the taxman: Get Religion, Oct 14, 2011 October 14, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Get Religion, Marriage, Press criticism, Roman Catholic Church.comments closed
Writing the story of the Belgian dockworkers was like eating sand.
Once upon a time he’d persuaded himself that technical facility was its own reward: a sentence singing hymns to the attainment of coal production norms in the Donets Basin was, nonetheless, a sentence, and could be well rendered. It was the writer’s responsibility in a progressive society to inform and uplift the toiling masses.
From Dark Star by Alan Furst
I have my favorites. Writers whose work I turn to again and again for enjoyment, inspiration and to steal phrases. The American novelist Alan Furst is one of the best. He is a superlative craftsman and storyteller — each re-reading of his work offers new insights into the human experience as well as being just plain fun.
To my mind, this passage from his 1991 novel Dark Star illuminates the internal processes of reporting. For every scorcher or exclusive, for every fascinating glimpse or profound discussion of life, God or the world — I’ve turned out hundreds of stories on committee meetings, speeches and conventions. The eating sand imagery is quite real to me, as is the sense of pride and pleasure a writer takes in mastering his craft.
A tax story from La Stampa, the Turin-based Italian national daily newspaper is an example of the writer’s craft at its best. I say this not because the story is fascinating, or the topic of international or moral significance, but because the author, Laura Anello, has done a great job with what could have been a tedious story about the wedding business and Italian tax policy.
“Gli sposi sotto il torchio del Fisco” (“Newlyweds under pressure from the taxman”), has a lightness of touch and the story is infused with a wry humor. I especially like her phrasing. However, I do think there is one hole in the story — the religious one.
The story essentially is this. The Palermo Inland Revenue office is sending newlyweds “belated gift … that requires a response” — a tax questionnaire that asks for a full accounting of their wedding expenses. The lede, as translated by Worldcrunch, states:
Life as a newlywed couple is never easy. After months of preparations, the wedding celebrations, and the return from the honeymoon, the new twosome should be set to finally start their new life together. But in Sicily, rather than happily-ever-after, newlyweds run in to a visit from the taxman.
The tax-collection agency for the Sicilian capital of Palermo has launched a crackdown on tax evasion in the lucrative wedding business.
Some 2,000 couples from Palermo who have gotten married in the last five years have received a form from the local tax office requiring a full accounting for every detail of their ceremonies, which in Sicilian tradition tend to be extravagant affairs even if the bride and groom come from modest backgrounds.The newlyweds are required to list who provided flowers, photos, wedding gifts, and the bride’s bouquet, how much they paid and, most importantly, if they have received sales receipts, which are supposed to be mandatory for every sale or service in Italy. Despite the economic crisis, the wedding business is still very successful in Sicily, where an average ceremony costs 25,000 Euros. On the other hand, many dodge taxes. The sales receipts are the proofs that they are paying VAT. Too often they do not.
The story quotes a variety of Sicilian newlyweds who report their experiences of having received false receipts, no receipts or payments in kind from florists, photographers, beauticians, restaurants, car rental agencies and related service providers.
Under pain of a fine for non-compliance and a visit from the Guardia di Finanza, newlyweds must return an itemized form to the tax office. As Italian law does not require consumers to keep receipts, they will not be required to defend the veracity of their wedding tax returns. However, the Treasury wants:
newlyweds to speak with the same voice that they used at the altar to say, ‘I do.’ Speak, denounce, give names, addresses and numbers. And tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth … not claiming the bouquet was made of wild flowers gathered by the groom and catering by the grandmother. If a check on the couple’s bank account finds a discrepancy, there will be trouble. But there is a third way: taking refuge in a series of ‘I do not remembers’. While it is hard to believe in collective amnesia, they could be excused their forgetfulness as there may have been too much emotion before the altar. Or, perhaps, it was a desire to escape.
Given what Ms Anello had to work with, this is very good. It strikes the right tone, offers both sides a voice, while also being crisp and light. My only addition would be to ask, ‘what about wedding fees to the church?’ Is the taxman checking up on this too?
In the Church of England clergy are required to turn over wedding fees to the parish. From time to time stories will appear about a crooked priest pocketing the cash — sending some to jail, while in the US we see stories about tax fraud when clergy don’t report their fee income. Do the churches and clergy of Palermo charge fees? If so, how is this reported?
A line or two about church fees would have rounded this story out nicely. Or, it may well be that Sicilian clergy more honest than florists. What say you GetReligion readers?
First published in Get Religion.
New Moderator for the CNI: The Church of England Newspaper, Oct 12, 2011 October 14, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of North India.Tags: Philip P. Marandih, Pradeep Kumar Samantaroy
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The new moderator of the Church of North India, Bishop Philip P. Marandih (left) and deputy moderator, Bishop Pradeep Kumar Samantaroy (right)
First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Church of North India reports the Bishop in Patna has been elected to a three year term as moderator of the united church.
Meeting from 6-0 Oct 2011 at St. Thomas School in New Delhi, the 450 delegates and guests to the 14th meeting of synod gathered under the theme of “Arise and Build: Fear not, for I am With Your Always.”
A press statement from the gathering said “this triennial event in the life of the church draws its significance from the deliberations, sharing of ideas and vision for mission which is then entrusted to a new leadership for carrying them forward.”
Delegates elected the Rt. Rev. Philip P. Marandih, Bishop in Patna, the church’s outgoing deputy moderator as moderator in succession to the Rt. Rev Purely Lyndoh. The Rt. Rev. Pradeep Kumar Samantaroy, Bishop in Amritsar, was elected deputy moderator for the coming triennium.
“Please uphold these two Bishops in your prayer as the whole church looks up to them for their vibrant and earnest leaderships in fulfilling the motto – Unity, Witness and Service,” the press statement said.
The Church of North India has 27 dioceses in the northern half of the country and maintains 580 schools, 61 hospitals and 17 colleges including Delhi’s St Stephen’s College.
“Faithful” of Harare lauded by Canterbury: The Church of England Newspaper, Oct 14, 2011 p 1. October 14, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Archbishop of Canterbury, Church of England Newspaper, Zimbabwe.Tags: Chad Gandiya, Harare, Robert Mugabe
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First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has praised the “faith and endurance” of the Anglicans of Zimbabwe in the face of persecution by “false brethren,” calling their witness an inspiration to the world.
Dr. Rowan Williams – accompanied by the primates of Central Africa, South Africa, Tanzania, and the bishops of Zimbabwe and Botswana — received an enthusiastic greeting on Oct 9 from approximately 15,000 Anglicans packed into a sports arena in Harare. Across town outside the city’s Anglican cathedral, occupied by supporters of breakaway bishop Dr. Nolbert Kunonga, pickets denounced the archbishop with signs labeling him a colonialist and supporter of homosexuality.
One member of the congregation (who for safety reasons cannot be named) told CEN he was overjoyed by the archbishop’s visit, writing that Dr. Williams’ presence gave encouragement to the Harare’s embattled Anglicans.
God’s “purpose is justice: not an abstract idea of fairness, but a situation where every person has the fulfilment God desires for them, without interference from others,” Dr. Williams told the congregation, taking as his text Matt 22:10-11.
Addressing the persecution suffered by Anglicans at the hands of Dr. Kunonga’s supporters, the archbishop said, “You know very well, dear brothers and sisters, what it means to have doors locked in your faces by those who claim the name of Christians and Anglicans. You know how those who by their greed and violence have refused the grace of God try to silence your worship and frustrate your witness in the churches and schools and hospitals of this country.”
Yet in the midst of this oppression, the will of God “is so strong that it can triumph even over these mindless and Godless assaults. Just as the Risen Jesus breaks through the locked doors of fear and suspicion, so he continues to call you and empower you in spite of all efforts to defeat you,” the archbishop said.
The assaults upon the church had taught Zimbabwe’s Anglicans “that it is not the buildings that make a true church but the spiritual foundations on which your lives are built,” he said, urging them to hold fast.
Touching upon Zimbabwe’s turbulent history, he noted that “for a long period in this country, an anxious ruling class clung on to the power they had seized at the expense of the indigenous people and ignored their rights and their hopes for dignity and political freedom. How tragic that this should be replaced by another kind of lawlessness, where so many live in daily fear of attack if they fail to comply with what the powerful require of them.”
The faithful Christians of Zimbabwe were a model to the world, Dr. Williams said. “Day by day, you have to face injustice and the arrogance of ‘false brethren’,” he said.
“Yet you must know that we give thanks to God for you – for your patience and generosity and endurance. Your life here is tortured by uncertainty and the constant risk of attack, yet it speaks to all of us in the worldwide Communion of the victory of Jesus Christ and the undefeated will of God to welcome people into his Kingdom and to seat them at the table of his Son so that we can celebrate the marriage of heaven and earth in the fleshly life and death and resurrection of the Lord,” the archbishop said.
Franco, Spain and Catholicism: Get Religion Oct 12, 2011 October 13, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Get Religion, Press criticism, Roman Catholic Church.Tags: ABC, El Mundo, El Periodico, Spain, Valle de los Caidos
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GetReligion readers of a certain age may remember the catchphrase: “This just in … Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.”
The drawn out death of Franco in 1975 provided comic fodder for Chevy Chase during the first season of Saturday Night Live. This gag poked fun at the reporting surrounding the generalissimo’s death and was repeated each week, occasionally changing to some version of: “Generalissimo Francisco Franco has been critically dead now for eleven weeks, and his doctors refuse to speculate on how long he can last in his present condition.”
While Francisco Franco is still dead, his mortal remains are providing an election boost for the government of Spanish Prime Minister José Luís Zapatero. An article in the Barcelona daily El Periódico on the debate over what to do with Franco’s body also offers a straight forward example of the philosophical constructs of European journalism and its disinclination to “get religion”.
On 10 Oct 2011 the center-left El Periódico published a story with a front page headline “Los expertos proponen desenterrar a Franco.” (“The experts propose to dig up Franco.”)
The article states that a commission created by the Zapatero government has prepared a report on the Valle de los Caídos (Valley of the Fallen), the cemetery where Franco is burried. It is also the tomb of 33,000 Nationalists and Republicans killed during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). One recommendation leaked to El Periódico is to remove Franco’s body from the central mausoleum and re-inter him with his wife in a cemetery outside Madrid.
The “presence of the dictator’s corpse in the Valley of the Fallen continues to haunt” the relatives of the Republican dead, El Periódico reports, and moving his body would allow the cemetery to become:
a monument dedicated to the cause of reconciliation. … [It would allow the] recognition of the memory of victims, in accordance with [Zapatero’s 2007] Historical Memory Law.
The exhumation of Franco is a proposal, not one of the “definitive conclusions” of the report — which is not scheduled for release until after the 20 Nov 2011 general elections, El Periódico notes. It further states the members of the commission deny they are being pressured by any political party, and hope their “proposals on the icon of Francoist repression would not be used as a weapon during the election campaign.”
The article closes with an editorial aside.
It remains to be seen if Mariano Rajoy [the Popular Party leader] will respect the decision of a commission created by a socialist government, which raises an issue as controversial as the exhumation of the former dictator.
Like most European newspapers, the editorial voice of El Periódico follows a particular political line and supports the government of Socialist leader José Luís Zapatero. The article is crafted in such a way as to make it clear that all right thinking Spaniards would agree that Franco was an evil dictator and the attempt to erase his legacy is a proper aim for a Socialist government. With the exception of an unnamed Franco grandchild, who states Mrs. Franco would have wanted to have been buried with her husband, no voices are offered save for those of the left.
The structure and the front page teaser for the story, even though it is only a possible recommendation, also serves to boost the electoral prospects of the Zapatero government. Polls show the Socialists running behind the PP. Raising the Franco specter brings out the left’s base, which has seen some supporters threaten to stay home on election day in protest to the government’s poor handling of the economy.
While critics charge some American newspapers with spinning the news in this fashion to advance the interests of a particular party, the tenets of traditional American journalism reject overt politicking. The reporter’s role is to establish the facts and let them dictate how the story is written.
European advocacy style reporting draws upon a different intellectual tradition. “All history is contemporary history,” idealist philosopher Benedetto Croce said — it only exists in the present. In this school the past has reality only in the mind of the writer. He must be faithful to the truth, but truth does not exist independently. This relativist-subjective approach is the norm for most Continental newspapers, and the shading of tone to advance a particular cause is expected by most European readers.
The practical problem with the relativist approach is that it can leave gaps. What is not reported in El Periódico’s story are the philosophical and religious angles.
The Valley of the Fallen houses a Benedictine-run Basilica. On 3 Nov 2010 it was closed to tourists as well as to the faithful who want to attend Mass. On 7 Nov 2010 the Benedictines celebrated Mass at the entrance to the Valley, protesting the closure of their church. Speaking to reporters while traveling to Santiago de Compostela the day before, Pope Benedict lamented the secular anti-Catholic atmosphere he had found.
In Spain, a strong, aggressive laicity, an anti-clericalism, a secularization has been born as we experienced in the 1930’s.
The Catholic Church was persecuted during the Civil War with thousands of priests and religious murdered, and most churches in Republican controlled areas ransacked. Benedict is comparing that era to the present. Strong stuff!
Nor is he the first to criticize Zapatero. In 2005 Pope John Paul II accused Zapatero of “promoting disdain towards religion” and said the Catholic Church in Spain would never yield “to the temptation to silence it.” The Church campaigned against the Zapatero government in the March 2008 general elections and has bitterly opposed the legalization of abortion, gay marriage and the government’s changes to state sponsored religious education.
The left’s critique of the Church has been coupled with an attack on its supporters on political right. Writing in the leftist Madrid daily El País on 18 July 2011, Antonio Elorza stated that a definitive account of the Spanish Civil War cannot yet be written because the right refuses to atone for the past. While Germany went through de-Nazification:
In Spain, this is not happening … broad swathes of our political right … have been able once again to bring out the arguments for the legitimacy of Franco’s military uprising … Of the different fascisms in Europe, of what happened in Germany or Austria, of what that political right proposed and promoted [in Spain] – not a word [of apology.]
However, in the conservative Madrid daily ABC José María Carrascal countered that for liberals:
the Spanish Civil War is still not over … It continues to be fought out in books, articles, lectures and debates with the same ardor, partiality and ferocity as ever. Because those who lost it are demanding at least the moral victory, and the winners will not give it to them. In every war, the first casualty is truth. In a civil war, the truth is assassinated twice, once by each camp.
Other conservative voices are even sharper. An editorial in the leading conservative Madrid daily El Mundo stated:
the historical revisionism of recent years, including Zapatero’s Historical Memory Law passed in October 2007, has taken on a kind of paranoid or obsessional delirium in interpreting the events of the present by the key policies of the Republican period and the Civil War – as if Spain were the same country eight decades later.
Now a Spaniard is likely to be aware of some, if not all of these things — of the historic antipathy and anti-clericalism of the left. Reporting on the religious dimensions of de-Francoing the Valley of the Fallen may very well be obvious to the readers of El Periódico. However, I believe this type of reporting does a disservice to the reader by not giving him the context and is unfaithful to truth. Pontius Pilate may have had the luxury of asking ‘what is truth?’, but this won’t do for a quality newspaper.
First published by Get Religion.
Archbishop kicks off Central African tour in Malawi: The Church of England Newspaper, Oct 12, 2011 October 12, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of Central Africa.Tags: Bingu wa Mutharika, James Tengatenga, Malawi
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President Bingu wa Mutharika with Dr Williams
The Archbishop of Canterbury has urged Malawians to embrace Christian ambiguity, setting aside their certainties in order to be reconciled with the world. Anglicans “must be always a church that is on pilgrimage towards the Christ,” Dr. Rowan Williams said, a Christ “who can be discovered in the most needy and helpless.”
On the first stop of his 5 – 13 October Central African tour, Dr. Rowan Williams met with the President of Malawi and led services to mark the 150th anniversary of the Universities Mission to Central Africa (UMCA).
Political relations between Malawi and the UK – Malawi’s largest aid provider – have been tense since the country expelled the British High Commissioner earlier this year after his remarks critical of President Bingu wa Mutharika were published. Bishop James Tengatenga and other Anglican leaders have pressed the government to restore relations, saying the diplomatic stand-off harmed the poor.
On 7 Oct 2011 Dr. Williams met with President Mutharika at the Sanjika Palace – the president’s residence outside of Blantyre. He told reporters “we had very interesting discussions about agriculture in Malawi and problems facing the future of food production.”
Diplomatic in his comments, the archbishop spoke of the government’s work in improving agricultural output, and noted the importance of introducing scientific farming methods to “guarantee food security.”
Speaking the next day before a congregation of approximately 5000 in Magomera to mark the 150th anniversary of the UMCA, Dr. Williams spoke of the need to set aside one’s convictions in order to reconcile with others and to make a better world. “We want to invite all people to be part of this [Christian] fellowship so that they can more effectively work with God for the healing of his world,” he said.
“The life of the Anglican Church in this country has from the very beginning been a life devoted to liberation,” he said. The missionary imperative to end slavery that brought David Livingstone, Bishop Mackenzie and other missionaries to Malawi was founded on the belief that slavery caused suffering to slaves and slave-owners, Dr. Williams claimed.
Slavery “was also something that made slave-traders and slave-owners less than properly human. It degraded everything and everyone it touched. When Mackenzie and his companions battled against the slave trade, they did so in order that slaves and slave-owners alike might be free.”
The message of the Sermon on the Mount, the archbishop’s text for his address, was that “human lives are blessed by God when they are devoted to justice and peacemaking; when they are lives without arrogance and greed; when they are lives concentrated on the love of God and ready to take risks for the sake of God, not worrying about hostility even when it is violent.”
Christians, he said, “must always, always, seek to be reconciled with one another and must always, always, take the first step to make peace with their enemies and pray for them.”
Church backs constitutional protection for aboriginal rights: The Church of England Newspaper, Oct 7, 2011 p 6. October 11, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Australia, Church of England Newspaper, Politics.Tags: Aboriginal People, Brisbane
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First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Diocese of Brisbane has backed the call for amendments to the Australian Constitution that would grant greater self-government to the country’s indigenous peoples.
The diocese’s paper was one of 3,400 submissions to an expert panel appointed by the federal government that has been charged with studying changes to the Australian constitution that would codify the legal rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
In a statement printed on the diocesan website on 3 October, the chairman of the Diocesan Social Responsibilities Committee, Dean Peter Catt, said the reforms were necessary to unite the country.
Among the proposed changes were the creation of dedicated seats for Indigenous peoples in the federal parliament, the establishment of an Indigenous parliament, and putting a “Treaty or Makarrata back on the public agenda,” Dr Catt said.
“If a new preamble [to the Australian constitution] is truly to unite the peoples of this country and bring a new sense of optimism for Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders then it must recognise their prior sovereignty and custodianship. It should be aspirational in tone rather than legal,” he said.
The diocese stated the recognition of native rights was a moral issue. The church’s view was “underpinned also by the value of traditional cultures and recognition of the historical roots of our peoples; and an acknowledgement of God as the basis of human integrity and community.
“We are called at this time to do justice. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples must determine their own lives and futures,” the dean said.
A majority of submissions received by the close of the comment period on 30 September supported changes to the constitution. However, The Australian reported that those sections of the document came under fire from some respondents.
The expert panel is scheduled to meet in Canberra this week to discuss the submissions and will forward its recommendations to parliament later this year.
$25 million bill for Washington’s National Cathedral: The Church of England Newspaper, Oct 7, 2011 p 7. October 11, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Washington.Tags: Washington National Cathedral
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First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
Washington’s National Cathedral will need more than $25 million to repair the damage sustained in the 23 August earthquake, but will reopen in time for the 12 November consecration of the diocese’s new bishop, Dr Mariann Budde.
In a statement released on 4 October, the cathedral estimated the cost of repairs to be in the “tens of millions of dollars” and announced the launch of an “aggressive fundraising effort to raise at least $25 million to offset the costs of the early restoration work and to help support its operations through the end of 2012.”
“The short-term priorities are around stabilizing the building, re-opening the Cathedral, and continuing its operations and mission. The overall restoration of the Cathedral is expected to take numerous years, and the effort will seek contributions large and small from across the country,” a statement published on the cathedral’s website said.
Washington Bishop John Chane, who is serving as the cathedral’s interim dean, said “reopening is only the first step down a long path toward restoring the Cathedral to its previous state. We will reach the end of that path only through the support of this community and people across the nation.”
Engineers have determined the central and west front towers of the cathedral must be stabilized, and work has begun placing steel beams weighing a total of 70 tons in the central tower.
“The Cathedral has been entrusted to us as an important resource and national treasure to serve as the spiritual home for the nation,” said the Rev James Wind, chairman of the cathedral chapter.
“We take that trust very seriously and will do everything necessary to restore the building to the condition our national community of supporters has come to expect,” Dr Wind said.
Alabama immigration law blocked: The Church of England Newspaper, Oct 7, 2011 p 7. October 11, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Immigration.Tags: Diocese of Alabama, Henry Parsley
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Henry Parsley
First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
Church leaders in Alabama have hailed a federal court blocking implementation of part of the state’s new immigration law.
The Sept 28 ruling by Judge Sharon Blackburn “is good news,” Alabama Episcopal Bishop Henry Parsley and Methodist Bishop William Willimon said in a joint statement.
The ruling “protects our churches’ ministries from prosecution under this overreaching law, and substantially protects our religious liberties,” they said.
On Aug 1, the two along with the Roman Catholic bishops of Mobile and Birmingham filed suit to overturn the state’s new immigration law, arguing they had “reason to fear that administering of religious sacraments, which are central to the Christian faith, to known undocumented persons may be criminalized under this law.”
The Alabama law sought to forbid illegal aliens from residing in Alabama or holding employment in the state. It also forbad residents from providing shelter or services to illegal aliens and requires schools to report on the residency status of its students.
The bishops’ lawsuit argued that “if enforced, Alabama’s Anti-Immigration Law will make it a crime to follow God’s command to be Good Samaritans.”
Judge Blackburn last week upheld the requirement that state schools report the residency status of students and permitted local police to question those whom they suspected were in the country illegally.
However the judged blocked sections of the law that would have made it a crime for an illegal alien to solicit work. She also struck down a regulation that would have criminalized the transportation or harbouring of illegal aliens. The bishops’ lawsuit argued this provision would have placed them in the “untenable position of verifying individuals’ immigration documentation” before providing aid to the needy.
Following the ruling, the bishops said their churches would “continue to provide food, shelter, transportation, housing, and the church’s sacraments to all of God’s people, regardless of race, class, or citizenship status.”
Last year, the US House of Bishops released a pastoral letter calling for a halt in the enforcement of US immigration laws and demanded a halt to “practices that treat undocumented workers as criminals.” At its July 2009 General Convention, the Episcopal Church called for the “millions of undocumented immigrants who have established roots in the United States” to have “a pathway to legalization.”
However, surveys of the US electorate have consistently shown the church’s leadership to be out of touch with its members over immigration. A Nov 2009 poll conducted by Zogby International found that 69 per cent of Roman Catholics, 72 per cent of main-line Protestants, and 78 of evangelical Protestants believed the current level of immigration was too high.
Asked to choose between stricter enforcement to encourage illegal immigrants to return home versus allowing them to find pathways towards legalization in the US, overwhelming majorities favored sending illegal aliens home: Roman Catholics 64 to 23 per cent; main-line Protestants 64 to 24 per cent; and evangelicals 76 to 12 per cent.
US cathedral to close: The Church of England Newspaper, Oct 7, 2011 p 7. October 11, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper.Tags: Delaware, St John's Cathedral
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St John's Cathedral, Wilmington
First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
A lack of people in the pews and money in the plate has led an American cathedral to announce that it will close its doors next year.
On 25 September the vestry of St John’s Cathedral in Wilmington – the seat of the Bishop of Delaware – would close in July 2012. “We have fought long and hard and have done everything possible to continue our worshipping congregation here at St John’s, but reality says it is time to close,” the vestry reported in a letter to the congregation.
“For several years the Cathedral has been having difficulty meeting the expenses of our beautiful buildings. Declining membership and an inability to attract new members and pledges in sufficient numbers has added to the financial uncertainty,” the announcement said.
“The Cathedral has been on the verge of closing several times over the last five years as it has used up its reserves. During that period, several committees and working groups from the Cathedral and Diocese have looked at options and ideas for bringing in additional funds. The Cathedral has also reduced expenses dramatically in an effort to balance its budget.”
However, the plans to revitalize the cathedral have not borne fruit and after “discussion with the bishop”, the vestry voted to close the church.
Founded in 1857, the cornerstone of the Gothic style church was laid in 1858. During the 20th century classrooms, a parish hall, and rectory were added, and in 1935 St John’s was named the cathedral church of the diocese, and the bishop’s offices added to the campus.
Statistics published by the Episcopal Church’s national offices show that in 1999 the cathedral recorded approximately 500 baptised members and an average Sunday attendance of approximately 175. By 2009, the last year of published data, the membership rolls had remained steady, but average attendance had slipped below 100. During the same period, the average Sunday attendance for the diocese as a whole remained constant at approximately 4,000.
Delaware Bishop Wayne Wright stated the diocese would assist the cathedral in the coming months to cover the gap between income and expenses.
“There are numerous procedures to be followed as we prepare to close down the operations of the Cathedral. The Bishop will appoint a Diocesan trustee to oversee the closing steps and will also appoint a curator to assist with disposition of liturgical items, art and other tangible property,” the vestry said.
The cathedral’s memorial “Garden of Praise can possibly be kept where it is, while allowing access for a period of time, even if the Cathedral property is sold. In the alternative, the entire Garden could be moved to a new location.”
Anglican Unscripted, Oct 9, 2011 October 10, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican.TV, Canon Law, Property Litigation, South Carolina, Traditional Anglican Communion.Tags: John Henry Newman, Katherine Jefferts Schori, Mark Lawrence, Occupy Wall Street
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Episode 13 of Anglican Unscripted aired on Oct 9. The caption for the show reads:
Episode 13 brings a fresh perspective on the Diocese of South Caroline Vs 815. Kevin and George also discuss the death of Steve Jobs and Kevin gives his unique perspective on Steve Jobs’ legacy. Alan Haley provides detailed legal options for the Diocese of South Carolina… perhaps too detailed. And, Today-in-history is about the first Anglo-Catholic.
The problem of miracles: Get Religion Oct 8, 2011 October 8, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Get Religion, Press criticism, Roman Catholic Church.Tags: Associated Press, miracles, Poland
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Writing about the miraculous — apart from baseball — is a tricky task. The key to a good miracle story is its tone. If a writer is too deferential to his subject he becomes an apologist. Too harsh and he becomes an antagonist. Adopting the voice of the village atheist or a credulous devotee fails the test of sound journalism.
There are some wonderful contemporary apologetic essays on miracles, Frederica Mathewes-Green’s piece “Why C.S. Lewis is So Irritating!” springs to mind, while Christopher Hitchens and some other members of the new atheists fraternity have equally well written critiques of the miraculous.
But the reporter’s task is to let the facts drive the story and to allow the principles of the drama to speak. The writer’s craft is then displayed by having “A sense of the fitness of things, my dear” as Waldo Lydeker observed in Otto Preminger’s Laura. It courses through all his work by imparting faithfully the facts, the setting and the worldview of those involved — and allows a reader to draw his own conclusions.
This imperative is made difficult for a wire service reporter, however, who must cram as much as possible into 400 words or less. A wire service religion story can hit the right chord, but brevity sometimes robs the story of accuracy.
The balance between pitch and context is illustrated in a miracle story from the Associated Press. On Oct 2 newspapers around the globe ran a brief — 330 word — story whose title took some form of: “Catholics in Poland celebrate what they see as miraculous communion wafer.”
The AP has done a great job in finding the proper editorial voice, but the absence of context does not give the general reader enough information to know what is happening. The article begins by going through the “what,” “where” and “who” says so.
Roman Catholics in Poland gathered Sunday for a special Mass celebrating what they see as a miracle: the appearance on a communion wafer of a dark spot that they are convinced is part of the heart of Jesus.
The communion wafer in question developed a brown spot in 2008 after falling on the floor during a Mass in the eastern Polish town of Sokolka. Two medical doctors determined that the spot was heart muscle tissue, church officials have said.
The local archbishop offers his endorsement, a brief history is offered and an explanation of Catholic doctrine is presented.
Bialystok Archbishop Edward Ozorowski said during the Mass that in history, the “substance of Christ’s body or blood has become available to the human senses, and this also happened in Sokolka.”
“For God, nothing is impossible,” Ozorowski said.
The dark-spotted wafer was carried aloft in a reliquary by a golden-robed priest in a procession and was put on display in the town’s church of St. Anthony as about 1,000 faithful looked on, according to a report and footage carried by the TV station TVN.
Catholics believe that the bread and wine that priests use during the sacrament of communion — or the Eucharist — are changed into the body and blood of Jesus Christ.
The wafer was dropped by a priest celebrating communion in 2008. In accordance with church practice, the priest placed the wafer in water to dissolve it. Several days later a nun found that the wafer had not dissolved completely, and found a red mark on it.
It winds toward a close by stating the miracle has not been confirmed by the Vatican, and ends with the wry twist of local skeptics asking the police to investigate.
… the Vatican is still examining the matter and has not yet officially decided whether to declare it a miracle, church spokesman Andrzej Debski said.
A group of rationalists complained about the matter in 2008, and called on authorities to investigate if a murder or other crime was involved if human flesh was indeed found on the wafer. Police say they have no evidence of any crime.
Now I like how this story has been framed. It is respectful to the Catholic principals while also giving skeptics the opportunity to scoff. However, a surface reading of the story presents a quibble: “local” should have been inserted before “church” in the second sentence, as we are not told until the end of the article that the Vatican has not yet ruled on this matter.
It the deeper issues of context and accuracy that troubles me. The statement about what Roman Catholics believe happens in the Eucharist is true as far it goes, but it is incomplete in explaining the theological importance of this story — the “so what” factor. Catholics believe that in the celebration of the Eucharist the the bread and wine are substantially changed into the body and blood of Christ by means of the consecratory Eucharistic Prayer. The accidents — the outward appearance of the bread and wine — remain the same. This change in substance is called transubstantiation.
What is claimed by the Catholic Church in Sokolka is a second, extraordinary Eucharistic miracle where the accidents have been changed also. In his Summa Theologica III, 76.8 ad 2, Thomas Aquinas explains this second miracle by stating:
… (W)hile the dimensions remain the same as before, there is a miraculous change wrought in the other accidents, such as shape, color, and the rest, so that flesh, or blood, or a child, is seen. And, as was said already, this is not deception, because it is done “to represent the truth,” namely, to show by this miraculous apparition that Christ’s body and blood are truly in this sacrament. And thus it is clear that as the dimensions remain, which are the foundation of the other accidents, as we shall see later on (77, 2), the body of Christ truly remains in this sacrament.
Eucharistic miracles have been recorded in the past. A 2005 story in Zenit (one of the best Roman Catholic news services) describes a conference that offered the results of an investigation into the 8th century miracle at the Church of St. Legontian in Lanciano, Italy.
A Basilian monk, who had doubts about the real presence of Christ in consecrated elements, was offering a Mass in the church. When he pronounced the words of the consecration, the host was miraculously changed into physical flesh and the wine into physical blood. The blood and flesh were preserved and these relics were examined by anatomists in 1971 who pronounced the flesh as being cardiac tissue, and the blood as human blood of type AB.
An informed reader would have been aware of the significance of the second extraordinary Eucharistic miracle repoted in Sokolka, and may have heard of the Lanciano miracle, a general reader is not likely to have been aware of this background.
Which leads me back to Sokolka. In recounting the archbishop’s remarks and summarizing the story, the AP has either made a mistake or the local church has shifted its position. In 2009 the Archdiocese of Bialystock released a report under the signature of its chancellor that was much more circumspect in its claims. A scientific investigation commissioned by Archbishop Ozorowski stated:
On 7 January 2009 the sample from the Host has been taken and examined independently by two professionals in pathomorphology of Medical University in Bialystok. They have issued a common statement as follows: “the sample sent to assess (…) in our opinion (prof. Maria Sobaniec-Lotowska and prof. Stanislaw Sulkowski) looks like the myocardial tissue, at least of all the tissues of living organisms it most resembles.”
The miraculous host “looks like” heart tissue is not the same thing as saying it “is” heart tissue.
The Bialystock metropolitan curial report states the files had been passed to Warsaw for review, but in the opinion of the local church:
The Case of Sokolka does not oppose to the faith of the Church, rather confirms it. Church believes that the words of consecration, by the power of the Holy Spirit, transform a bread into the Body of Christ and wine into His Blood. It also provides a call to ministers of the Holy Communion to distribute the Body of Christ with faith and attention and to faithful – to receive It with reverence.
In other words the report found that it could be true and belief that it is true is not contrary to the Catholic faith, but the Vatican must make the final decision. The AP story gives the impression that this is a new miracle (it isn’t), that the scientific evidence says it is true (no it does not), and that the Catholic Church has an official view of the miracle (it does not).
Am I asking too much? I do not expect a wire service story to offer Catholic catechesis nor to smack the story down as the ignorant vaporings of the Polish peasantry. Would the story have been improved by the addition of a few words of historical and theological context and a dash of nuance? Or is it impossible in this post-modernist age to be balanced? What say ye, GetReligion readers?
First printed at GetReligion.
Dr. Kunonga attacks Canterbury on eve of Zimbabwe visit: The Church of England Newspaper, Oct 7, 2011 p 7. October 7, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Archbishop of Canterbury, Church of England Newspaper, Zimbabwe.Tags: Harare, Nolbert Kunonga
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First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
The former Bishop of Harare, Dr Nolbert Kunonga, has launched a pre-emptive strike against the Archbishop of Canterbury the weekend before Dr Williams’ visit to Zimbabwe.
At a press conference on 30 September, Dr Kunonga denounced Dr Williams as a political interloper who would attempt to re-colonise Zimbabwe during his 5-13 October trip to Central Africa.
“The Anglican Church is a political organisation when it is in England,” he told reporters. “Rowan William was appointed by the Queen and the Prime Minister and he is a civil servant of Britain. In a political and economic environment, the civil servant represents and symbolises with his State.
“He is a diplomat like [US Ambassador] Charles Ray. He is coming to represent neo-colonialism. He is coming to lobby for homosexuality and for him it is a timely move as we are making our constitution.”
In 2007 Dr Kunonga quit as Bishop of Harare in the Church of the Province of Central Africa and formed his own Anglican Church of Zimbabwe. With the support of the security services and sympathetic judges, he has gained control over church properties in the diocese and has announced his intention to seize all Anglican property in Zimbabwe.
The dispute between Dr Kunonga and the Anglican Diocese of Harare is currently before the country’s Supreme Court. However in an interim ruling issued in August, the court gave Dr Kunonga custody of church properties pending a final decision.
Dr Kunonga told reporters he would never compromise with Harare Bishop Chad Gandiya and the Anglican Communion. “There is one diocese, one bishop and one throne, not two,” he said, adding the dispute was political. “I am fighting the British, and not any of you, black Zimbabweans when you are also poor and continue being trampled upon,” Dr Kunonga said.
“I will not be silenced, nobody silences a true bishop,” he said.
On 1 October the Diocese of Harare released a statement saying Dr Williams’ “visit is to show support to Anglicans in Zimbabwe in the face of on-going persecution at the hands of an ex-communicated man who has nothing else to do than focus his attention on destroying what generations of Anglicans built using their own resources.”
The diocese has requested a meeting with President Robert Mugabe for Dr Williams, but a spokesman for Lambeth Palace on 4 October told CEN that no response had so far been given.
Seattle bishop suspended: The Church of England Newspaper, Oct 7 , 2011 p 6. October 7, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Olympia.Tags: Title IV, Vincent Warner
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Bishop Vincent Warner
First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
An American bishop has been suspended from exercising his priestly ministry pending investigation of charges he had committed adultery.
On 30 September the bishop of the Seattle-based Diocese of Olympia announced that in light of a “credible allegation of recurrent marital infidelity,” the ministry of his predecessor, the Rt Rev Vincent Warner, had been restricted by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori.
“I first heard the allegations several weeks ago, and promptly reported them to the Presiding Bishop’s office, which is the procedure required by the canons of the Episcopal Church,” said Olympia Bishop Gregory Rickel. On 26 September, “I received word that Bishop Jefferts Schori had restricted Bishop Warner’s ministry.”
Bishop Rickel stated the allegations of misconduct did not concern minors nor with individuals who were receiving pastoral care from the bishop. Under the Episcopal Church’s newly revised disciplinary canons an investigation will be conducted and a “restriction will remain in place until the matter is resolved following procedures outlined in Title IV of the canons of the Episcopal Church.
“In these proceedings, the Diocese of Olympia’s role is limited to providing information requested by an investigator who is chosen by and works on behalf of the Presiding Bishop’s office.”
Bishop Warner served as head of the Western Washington state diocese from 1989 to 2007. At his 2002 diocesan convention, the bishop announced he was divorcing his wife of 40 years, and shortly after remarried.
The bishop made news in 2007 when a priest working in his diocese, the Rev Ann Holmes Redding, announced that she was a Christian and a Muslim. Bishop Warner told the Seattle Times he accepted Ms Redding as an Episcopal priest and a Muslim, and found the interfaith possibilities “exciting”. However, the Bishop of Rhode Island who held oversight over Ms Redding subsequently deposed her from the ministry.
In his letter to the diocese announcing the suspension, Bishop Rickel urged “clergy and lay leaders to reach out to those whom they believe might need support during this time,” and to “say your prayers for all involved, for this diocese, and especially for Bishop Warner and his family.”
Indian bishop accused of swindling diocese: The Church of England Newspaper, Oct 7, 2011 p 6. October 7, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of South India, Corruption.Tags: Christopher Asir
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Bishop Christopher Asir
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Tax authorities in India have questioned the Church of South India’s (CSI) former moderator, investigating allegations he illegally sold church land and pocketed the proceeds.
On Sept 23 the Revenue Divisional Officer in Madurai issued a summons to the Bishop in Madarui-Ramnad ordering him to a hearing at his office on Oct 3 to answer questions over his stewardship of church lands.
The tax investigation follows a Jan 28 order by Justice V. Kuruppiah of the Madras High Court directing police to investigate Bishop Asir for defrauding the diocese by selling church land at below market prices in return for a kickback from the buyer.
The tax and criminal investigations are reviewing a 2008 sale of land. Upon the creation of the CSI in 1947 an American missionary society assigned 46.71 acres of land belonging to the Lucy Perry Noble Institute for Women to the Church of South India Trust Association (CSITA). The terms of the transfer required the CSITA to hold the land in perpetuity on behalf of the church and rent the property, using the income to support women’s ministries in the church.
However, Bishop Asir in collusion with Pauline Sathyamurthy, the former treasurer of the CSI who is currently being sought by police in connection with the theft of funds donated by Episcopal Relief and Development to assist survivors of the 2004 tsunami, sold 6.74 acres of land for £2.2 million, pocketing £925,000 of the proceeds.
Though several complaints have been filed by members of the diocese over the alienation of the church’s land, no action has been taken so far by the police. In his Sept 23 petition to the RDO, a lay member of the diocese, Mr. J.M. Bhaskar, has asked the tax authorities to cancel the sale and return the land to the church.
Indian bishop hits back against accusers: The Church of England Newspaper, Oct 7, 2011 p 6. October 7, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of South India, Corruption.Tags: Manickam Dorai
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Bishop Manickam Dorai
First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
The battle between the suspended Bishop in Coimbatore and the Church of South India’s (CSI) standing committee took a new turn last week, after charges of fraud were leveled against the bishop’s accusers.
The Hindu newspaper reported that a court has ordered police to investigate charges of fraud leveled against the moderator of the CSI, Bishop S. Vasanthakumar, the acting bishop in Coimbatore, and the general secretary and treasurer of the CSI general synod along with six other church officials by supporter of Bishop Manickam Dorai.
According to a complaint filed in the Madras High Court by Arul Prabhu, the moderator and his confederates misappropriated 1 million rupees (approximately £13,000) from the accounts of the CSI Engineering College in Ketti.
Last year the Bishop Dorai was suspended by the CSI synod while he stood trial on criminal charges of embezzling funds from the college. The synod appointed Dr. Paul Vasantha Kumar, Bishop in Tiruchy-Thanjavur, as acting bishop for the diocese and assumed management of its financial affairs.
Mr. Prabhu alleges the church leaders withdrew the funds from the operating accounts of the college to underwrite the costs of the World Classical Tamil Conference held in Coimbatore last year. However, an inquiry found the funds were not paid over to the conference.
When he brought this discrepancy to the attention of the CSI moderator, Bishop Vasanthakumar took no action. Last month he brought the matter to the attention of the Madras court, which directed the police to conduct a probe and register a case, if a cognizable offence was made out in the inquiry.
Church leaders did not respond to requests for clarification, but the anti-corruption watchdog the CCC (Christ Centered Coalition) told CEN they were encouraged by the investigation.
“This is a welcome sign that the the long existing pact among thieving bishops in the CSI not to squeal on each other is falling apart. Disgraced Bishop Dorai of Coimbatore, who is facing a battery of criminal cases and blames the Moderator and his fellow office bearers for his plight, has found a way to hit back … by getting one of his followers Mr Arul Prabhu to file the case against the CSI top brass.”
The Guardian doesn’t get atheism: Get Religion Oct 5, 2011 October 6, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Get Religion, Press criticism.Tags: Atheism, Christopher Hitchens, Guardian, Guy Kahane, Julian Barnes, Theodore Dalrymple, Thomas Nagel
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`Tweedledum and Tweedledee
Agreed to have a battle;
For Tweedledum said Tweedledee
Had spoiled his nice new rattle.Just then flew down a monstrous crow,
As black as a tar-barrel;
Which frightened both the heroes so,
They quite forgot their quarrel.’`I know what you’re thinking about,’ said Tweedledum: `but it isn’t so, nohow.’
`Contrariwise,’ continued Tweedledee, `if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn’t, it ain’t. That’s logic.’
`I was thinking,’ Alice said very politely, `which is the best way out of this wood: it’s getting so dark. Would you tell me, please?’
But the little men only looked at each other and grinned.
They looked so exactly like a couple of great schoolboys, that Alice couldn’t help pointing her finger at Tweedledum, and saying `First Boy!’
`Nohow!’ Tweedledum cried out briskly, and shut his mouth up again with a snap.
`Next Boy!’ said Alice, passing on to Tweedledee, though she felt quite certain he would only shout out “Contrariwise!’ and so he did.
Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871) by Lewis Carroll
Good atheism journalism is as rare as good religion journalism. Assumptions about what an atheist believes more often than not are couched in terms of what he does not believe, turning it into a game of Tweedledee and Tweedledum with the theist and atheist in turn shouting ‘contrariwise’. The varieties of atheistic thought are so wide it makes as little sense for a reporter to say ‘atheists think … ’ as it does to say ‘Muslims think … ’ or ‘Christians think …’.
In recent years there has been an upsurge of interest in atheistic writing and a ready market for the works of biologist Richard Dawkins, critic Christopher Hitchens, and philosophers Daniel Dennett, A.C. Grayling, Sam Harris, Thomas Nagel and Michel Onfray. However, there is no one atheistic worldview for within this genre there are incompatible viewpoints, arguments and varieties of tone.
Guy Kahane has observed that the arc of atheism encompasses those who do not believe in God, but runs from those who regret his absence to those who posit his absence is necessary for a moral world. Polemicists like Harris and Hitchens do not want God to exist and see religion as a force of evil while Thomas Nagel argues we should not want God to exist. ” I hope there is no God! I don’t want there to be a God; I don’t want the universe to be like that.”
At the other end of the arc are those who want God to exist, even though he does not. In his 2008 memoir the English writer Julian Barnes observed: “I don’t believe in God, but I miss Him.” God does not exist for Barnes, but he feels his absence — a sentiment forcefully expressed by a character in Samuel Beckett’s play “Endgame” who stated: “God doesn’t exist — the bastard.”
Theodore Dalrymple in an essay entitled “What the new Atheists Don’t See” in City Journal argued: “To regret religion is to regret Western civilization.” In his critique of those new atheists who see in religion the cause of all evil in the world, Dalrymple (an atheist) noted that “If religious belief is not synonymous with good behavior, neither is absence of belief, to put it mildly.”
In fact, one can write the history of anything as a chronicle of crime and folly. Science and technology spoil everything: without trains and IG Farben, no Auschwitz; without transistor radios and mass-produced machetes, no Rwandan genocide. First you decide what you hate, and then you gather evidence for its hatefulness. Since man is a fallen creature (I use the term metaphorically rather than in its religious sense), there is always much to find.
This brings me to a recent article by the Guardian entitled “Rising atheism in America puts ‘religious right on the defensive’.” In this rather silly advocacy piece the Guardian manages to play into its stereotypes. 
In his report on an atheists conference in New England, the Guardian’s U.S. reporter offers a one-sided view of American politics and religion and offers statistics to substantiate the editorial voice: atheism is good, its triumph inevitable, and one day the American masses will come round to the Guardian’s way of thinking.
The story begins with the setting of the scene and then moves into assumptions, opinions and facts that gathers evidence for its conclusion.
At the meeting, members of the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) will hear speakers celebrate successes they have had in removing religion from US public life and see awards being presented to noted secularist activists.
The US is increasingly portrayed as a hotbed of religious fervour. Yet in the homeland of ostentatiously religious politicians such as Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry, agnostics and atheists are actually part of one of the fastest-growing demographics in the US: the godless. Far from being in thrall to its religious leaders, the US is in fact becoming a more secular country, some experts say. “It has never been better to be a free-thinker or an agnostic in America,” says Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the FFRF.
The exact number of faithless is unclear. One study by the Pew Research Centre puts them at about 12% of the population, but another by the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture at Trinity College in Hartford puts that figure at around 20%.
Most experts agree that the number of secular Americans has probably doubled in the past three decades – growing especially fast among the young. It is thought to be the fastest-growing major “religious” demographic in the country.
Anecdotal evidence is offered to support the claims of fast growing atheism: Sunday shopping, low church attendance on Super Bowl Sunday, and so forth. The story then turns to politics.
Yet there is little doubt that religious groups still wield enormous influence in US politics and public life, especially through the rightwing of the Republican party. Groups such as Focus on the Family are well-funded and skilful lobbyists.
[An expert cited in the story] said the attention paid by politicians and the media to religious groups was not necessarily a sign of strength. “When religion was doing well, it did not need to go into politics. Secularity of our population and culture is obviously growing and so religion is on the defensive,” he said. … Others think that one day it will become politically mainstream to confess to a lack of faith as US political life lags behind the society that it represents. “Politicians have not yet caught up with the changing demographics of our society,” said Gaylor.
My concerns with this story are not with the viewpoints offered by FFRF. It is with the uncritical assumptions and observations made by the Guardian. “Survey said” may work for a game show but it doesn’t cut it in serious reporting especially when there are other surveys that report opposite findings. In a 2008 story in the Washington Times, Julia Duin reported on a Baylor University survey that came to the opposite conclusion of the Trinity College study.
Baylor researchers also criticized a much-ballyhooed “new atheism” as a barely discernible trend, saying the number of Americans who are atheists has stayed at 4 percent since 1944.
Why? Atheism is a “godless revolution that never happened,” the survey said, adding that irreligion often is not effectively transmitted to children who, when they reach adulthood, often join conservative religious denominations.
An American Spectator story offered the argument earlier this year that atheism is collapsing as a worldwide phenomena. It cited a 2010 Gallup poll that reported 43 per cent of Americans said they attended church at least monthly. In 1937 this figure was 37 per cent, rising to 49 per cent in the 1950s and settling at 42 per cent in 1969, where it has remained constant for the past four decades.
The question whether atheism is the “fastest-growing major ‘religious’ demographic” or a “barely discernible trend” in American religious life is not settled, nor is it the issue I am raising in this critique. An opinion or news analysis piece may argue that one view is superior to another. It is a mistake for a news story to write as if the issues were settled.
Nor is it helpful to leave the discussion of atheism as that of a purely “anti-” phenomenon. This story gives us the ‘who’ and the ‘where’, but assumes we know ‘why’ — why does the FFRF believe religion should be driven from the public square? What are their moral or metaphysical views? What sort of atheists are they? Leaving it this way paints the group as a gathering of village atheists. Atheists are not cranks, yet the Guardian’s portrayal leaves this impression of monomania
The bottom line: This article about atheism would have been improved by detailing what atheists believe and why they believe (or not-believe). The statements of fact offered by the subject should have been challenged or checked, and more than one expert point of view should be offered — especially when the issue is in dispute. While the tone and editorial voice of the story is sympathetic to the atheists’ agenda, the omissions, assumptions and biases served to make the atheist view appear unserious —a contrarian Tweedledee to the theist’s Tweedledum.
There was an opportunity to treat this phenomena seriously, but instead you have what you see.
First printed in GetReligion.
Court and government will not intervene in the Kunonga dispute: The Church of England Newspaper, Sept 30, 2011 p 6. October 5, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of Central Africa, Zimbabwe.Tags: Chad Gandiya, Harare, Lazarus Dokora, Nolbert Kunonga
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First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
A Harare high court judge has dismissed a petition to halt the expulsion of Anglican clergy from their homes and the seizure of church run schools and orphanages by breakaway bishop Dr Nolbert Kunonga.
On 23 September, Judge Tendai Uchena rejected the petition filed on behalf of the Church of the Province of Central Africa and Bishop Chad Gandiya saying he would not rule on the matter as Supreme Court Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku had jurisdiction over the case.
Last month Chief Justice Chidyausiku signed an order in chambers that pending a final ruling on the property dispute, custody of the buildings would remain with Dr Kunonga’s faction. While the order attempted to preserve the status quo, the ruling has been used by Dr Kunonga to seize more property.
Justice Chidyausiku was expected to rule on the province’s petition to halt the evictions last week, but has yet to hand down an order.
A spokesman for Dr Kunonga, Bishop Alfred Munyani told the Voice of America that Bishop Gandiya’s group was the source of the troubles. “They are the ones who say there is no rule of law, now the courts have ruled but they keep on launching one court application after the other,” said Bishop Munyanyi. “They should just abandon that and come back to church.”
Supporters of the Anglican diocese have asked the Zimbabwean government to intervene in the dispute, citing the seizure of the Arthur Shearly Cripps Home, a church-run orphanage.
In a question to the Deputy Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Lazarus Dokora, Zengeza West MP Collen Gwiyo asked the “minister to explain government policy with regard to church disputes that are now interfering with classes, in particular there is a faction led by Bishop Kunonga of the Anglican Church which has actually affected the education system.”
Mr Dokora (ZANU-PF) responded that “when a matter is before the courts or a judgment is in the course of being implemented, the less we speak about it, the less we interfere with that process, the safer for all of us.”
Donors ignoring Pakistan flood appeals, aid agencies report: The Church of England Newspaper, Sept 30, 2011 p 5. October 5, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Pakistan, Disaster Relief.Tags: Oxfam, Save the Children
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First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
Donor fatigue has infected the international aid community, NGOs involved in Pakistani relief efforts report, with only a trickle of aid reaching the flood-ravaged country.
On 26 September, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported the flooding had caused a “major humanitarian emergency, but the situation has not received sufficient international attention. At least 5.4 million people need help, and the number is growing. In some areas of Sindh, humanitarian needs are approaching the levels of 2010. This crisis requires an urgent response.”
In 2010, 18 million people in Pakistan were affected by the “largest floods in living memory, and they have not recovered,” the UN said. “Levels of food insecurity and malnutrition were already at emergency levels before this year’s rains.”
However, the international community has been slow to respond to requests for assistance with only eight per cent of the $357 million requested by the UN received within the first 10 days of the appeal. Five days after the 2010 Pakistan flood appeal was launched, $148 million, or 32 per cent of the total requested, had been raised.
“This is a cruel repeat of last year. Again funding is too little and far too slow. Donors must recognise the gravity of the situation,” said Neva Khan, Country Director of Oxfam in Pakistan.
Over 5.4 million people in Sindh have been affected by this year’s monsoon rains. Approximately 6.8 million acres of land have been damaged by the floods that have destroyed 73 per cent of standing crops, 36 per cent of livestock and 67 per cent of food stocks in the 13 worst affected districts of Sindh. In a province where already 72 per cent of the population is acutely short of food, Oxfam reports “this loss of crops means hundreds of thousands more people don’t have enough to eat.”
“Millions of innocent people, the majority of which are women and children, are in desperate need of the basics: food, water, sanitation, healthcare and shelter. If assistance does not come quickly, then a second emergency of rising malnutrition and rising water-borne diseases risks making a public health disaster a reality. There is no time to waste. We must all act now,” she said.
David Wright, Country Director for Save the Children Pakistan reported that at least four million children were at risk of hunger and disease from the flooding. “These people are now living on the edge and they need help fast. Aid agencies will not be able to meet the needs of millions of families unless countries start to take notice and bridge the funding gap,” he warned.
The Diocese of Hyderabad has also launched an appeal for funds, and hopes to raise $50,000 to support 100 families displaced by the flooding. But time is running out.
“People are living in desperate conditions. Each passing day puts more people at risk of deadly diseases, forces more people into hunger and destroys more futures. We are in a battle against time. Donors, the UN, aid agencies and the government, need to step up their response immediately. People need help now,” said Oxfam’s Neva Khan.
Ordinariate falling short in US: The Church of England Newspaper, Sept 30, 2011 p 6. October 5, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Ordinariate, Church of England Newspaper, Traditional Anglican Communion.Tags: John Hepworth
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First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
The American branch of the Traditional Anglican Communion, the Anglican Church in America (ACA) has called upon Archbishop John Hepworth to resign, saying it will not follow him into the Roman Catholic Church.
Meeting at the Our Lady of the Snows conference center in Belleville, Illinois, the ACA synod released endorsed a resolution stating they would not follow Archbishop Hepworth to Rome under the terms of the Anglican Ordinariate.
“It is increasingly obvious to us and those for whom we are pastorally responsible that recent developments have made it impossible for you to continue to function effectively as Primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion, and that the responsibilities of that office add immeasurably to the personal stress inevitable in your personal situation.”
The American rebuff to Archbishop Hepworth and the Anglican Ordinatriate follows similar moves by the TAC’s South African and Indian branches rejecting the move towards Rome.
Archbishop Hepworth, who made headlines last month after he revealed he had been sexually abused by three Roman Catholic clergy while he was a seminarian and young priest, told ABC radio this week that he would not step down.
“Nine years ago, when I became the primate, I wrote to the then Cardinal Ratzinger who headed the CDF, which is where unity takes place, and said that if I ever became an obstacle through my personal circumstances or background, then understand that I will step aside,” Archbishop Hepworth said.
“Now, at the moment, the Vatican isn’t saying that to me, they’re saying to me the opposite, to keep going as you are.”
While the American branch of TAC had rejected the Ordinariate, “in England, Canada and Australia, we’re going ahead with some careful planning and we hope our people will become involved early in the New Year,” Archbishop Hepworth said.
“Naturally those not going in to the unity [with Rome] at this stage, would prefer a primate who wasn’t going in to it either,” he said.
