c. 1996 Religion News Service

Lutherans in flap with China over Hong Kong assembly

(RNS)-China has asked the Lutheran World Federation to postpone its 1997 world assembly scheduled for Hong Kong because the meeting is to be held just one week after the British colony comes under Beijing’s control.

So far, the federation-which consists of 122 Lutheran denominations around the world-has declined to postpone the gathering, which will mark its 50th anniversary and bring about 2,000 church delegates to Hong Kong.

Hong Kong will revert to Chinese rule at midnight on June 30, 1997. The world assembly is set for July 8-16.

China, speaking through its official Xinhua news agency, said it was upset that it had not been consulted in advance of the assembly being scheduled and blamed the British authorities in Hong Kong for the situation.”The British Hong Kong government should have taken the initiative and contacted the Chinese side so as to submit the matter … for discussion and a decision,”Xinhua said.

In response, a Hong Kong government spokesman said there was no need to alert China to the assembly because it was a private event that, under current Hong Kong law, required no official sanction, the Reuter news agency reported. The spokesman also reminded China that it has said it would respect religious freedoms once it assumes control of Hong Kong.

A spokesman for Xinhua told the Associated Press Tuesday (Feb. 27) that its concern over the date of the assembly should not be seen as an attempt to restrict freedom of religion, but rather a matter of bad timing.

The Rev. Ishmael Noko, the Lutheran World Federation’s general secretary based in Geneva, said the July 1997 date was picked to avoid conflicts with other international ecumenical gatherings set for 1997 and 1998. He told Ecumenical News International, a church news agency, that changing the date of the assembly would be”impossible.” Noko said he would soon travel to Hong Kong and China in an attempt to resolve the conflict.

The Hong Kong meeting would be the Lutheran World Federation’s first assembly in Asia.

In 1970, the federation had similar problems with its assembly. The meeting was first set for Weiner in the former East Germany, but was moved to Porto Alegre, Brazil, following problems with the East German communist government. Just six weeks before the session was to open, the meeting was again moved, this time to Evian, France, because of concerns about human rights abuses in Brazil.

Morton to retire as dean of Cathedral of St. John the Divine

(RNS)-The Very Rev. James Parks Morton will retire Jan. 1, 1997, after 25 years as dean of New York’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the world’s largest Gothic cathedral.

As chief administrator of the famed Episcopal cathedral on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Morton, 66, gained a reputation for innovation and interfaith outreach. The New York Times said that under Morton the cathedral-which at 601-feet long and 155-feet high is also the largest church structure in the United States-has become”a place for the the nation’s biggest city to examine and heal its soul.” Morton is credited with turning the cathedral into a center for the arts, involving it in the environmental movement, and creating regular services or events that focused attention on AIDS, Native American spirituality, China’s occupation of Tibet and such instances of genocide as the Nazi Holocaust, Turkey’s slaughter of Armenians and the current situation in Bosnia.

He also involved the cathedral in helping the homeless, including a program that created 20,000 apartments in previously abandoned buildings. In an interview, Morton called the cathedral’s”nitty-gritty involvement with the life of the city”his greatest achievement.

Construction of the cathedral began 104 years ago, but has yet to be fully completed. After a 40-year hiatus, the work began again under Morton, who had European master stone cutters train neighborhood youths to do the work. However, two years ago money problems and a dispute with a contractor again halted the work.

The cathedral also serves as the seat of the Episcopal bishop of the Diocese of New York.

Morton and his wife, Pamela, will remain in New York and stay active in interfaith causes. Morton said he will head a new organization that plans to open an independent, interfaith center in the city”to celebrate the diversity of religion and takes seriously the presence here of that diversity.”

Zaire expels two American Catholic church workers who aided Rwandans

(RNS)-Two Americans who worked with the Roman Catholic aid group Caritas have been expelled from Zaire for allegedly teaching Rwandan refugees how to passively resist efforts to force them out of the central African nation.

The two Americans were identified by the Reuter news agency as Paola Green and David Grant. No hometowns were listed.

Rwandan Hutus fled to Zaire after the 1994 civil war in which up to one million Rwandan Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered by militant Hutus. Many of the refugees took part in the killings and fear reprisals from Rwanda’s new Tutsi-led government.

However, Zaire wants the refugees to leave. A statement from the Zairean Foreign Ministry released on Sunday (Feb. 25) said the two Americans”initiated the refugees in methods of passive resistance to the security forces”-a reference to the Zairean soldiers who are expected to begin closing the Rwandan refugee camps in March.

National Missionary Baptist Convention picks new president

(RNS)-The Rev. W.T. Snead of Los Angeles was installed Monday (Feb. 26) as president of the 3.5 million-member National Missionary Baptist Convention of America.

The black denomination broke away from its parent body, the National Baptist Convention of America Inc. in 1988 in a dispute over the church’s publishing efforts.

Snead, 60, pastor of the Greater Temple of God Missionary Church in the south-central section of Los Angeles, will serve as president until 1998. The denomination’s third president, he was elected late last year to finish the unexpired term of the late Rev. S.M. Wright of Dallas.

Snead was installed in New Orleans during the denomination’s annual meeting.

Quote of the day: Sharon M. Daly, social policy specialist for Catholic Charities USA, speaking to a Catholic Social Ministries Conference in Washington Monday (Feb. 26) on the recent welfare reform proposal submitted to Congress by the National Governors Association.

“In the Gospels, Jesus told the paralyzed man to stand up and walk. That’s exactly what the folks on the Hill expect us to do: Tell the most vulnerable members of society to stand up and walk.”They argue that churches and charities will pick up the slack when after two or five years, welfare recipients’ benefits are cut off. Lots of people on welfare go on to find jobs. But what about those who, for whatever reason, cannot? Are you prepared to feed, clothe and house these people? The politicians think you are.”To get a sense of just how much `slack’ charities and religious groups will have to pick up, we divided the total amount of federal cuts (in programs for the poor) by the total number of churches, synagogues and mosques that are big enough to at least have a telephone listing. Over seven years, each church, mosque and synagogue will have to raise $2 million to make up the shortfall-that’s $2 million more than they already raise. What’s being proposed here is very, very dangerous.”

MJP END