c. 1996 Religion News Service
Episcopal Church agrees to settle civil suit against former treasurer
(RNS)-Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning of the Episcopal Church has announced that the church reached an agreement to settle its civil suit against former treasurer Ellen F. Cooke, who pleaded guilty to embezzling church funds, and her husband, Nicholas T. Cooke III.
A one-paragraph statement agreed to by lawyers for the Cookes and the denomination said the agreement includes transfer to the church of”substantially all of their (the Cookes’) liquid assets, valued at approximately $100,000.” In addition, the statement said Mrs. Cooke will turn over an unspecified amount of”tangible personal property of the church”which Mrs. Cooke had in her possession.
When the allegations against her were first made public last May, the church said Mrs. Cooke’s embezzlement included misuse of a church credit card that she used to buy $325,000 in personal items, including jewelry and Tiffany glassware.”The terms of the agreement will not be further publicized, but the church is satisfied that the settlement is in the church’s best interest under all the circumstances in this case,”the statement said.
The settlement of the civil suit, filed in Virginia and seeking more than $2 million from Cooke and her husband, a former Episcopal priest, resolves one aspect of the 14-month-old case. It began in January 1995, when the church discovered financial irregularities and confronted Mrs. Cooke, who had earlier resigned her post as the 2.4 million-member’s top financial officer.
In June, the church announced that an audit showed $2.2 million in church funds were missing.
On Jan. 24, 1996, Cooke pleaded guilty in federal court in Newark, N.J., to embezzling more than $1.5 million from the church and to evading federal income tax on more than $310,000 that she stole during 1993. She is scheduled to be sentenced on those charges April 29.
The civil suit against the Cookes was part of a church effort to recover the $2.2 million. To date, the church has received $1 million from its insurance company and about $325,000 from the sale of a home in Montclair, N.J., one of two properties the Cookes turned over to the church. The other property, a farm in Lancaster, Va., is on the market.
Rights groups accuse China of a crackdown in Tibet
(RNS)-China is cracking down on religious and pro-independence activists in Tibet, two human rights organizations said Tuesday (March 26).
The two groups, the New York-based Human Rights Watch-Asia and the London-based Tibet Information Network, released an 80-page report charging that at least 800 Tibetans are being held by China as political prisoners. It said the number could be even higher.”In its drive to crush dissent, the Chinese state is widening the range of discontent, increasingly criminalizing the process of political criticism, and imprisoning more ordinary Tibetans than at any time since the late 1980s,”the report said.
The report said China is severely restricting religious activity in Tibet because such activity is considered a sign of support for the Dalai Lama, the spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism and a spokesman for Tibetan independence.
Among the rights violations it said China is committing are limiting the number of nuns and monks allowed in each religious institution, establishing a de facto ban on participation in religious activities by civic leaders, and closing a number of religious institutions.
The report’s release was timed to coincide with a debate on China’s human rights record by the United Nations Human Rights Commission, which is meeting in Geneva.
China said the two groups were trying to”hoodwink”the world.”Tibetan affairs are purely China’s internal affairs,”Reuters quoted the government’s Foreign Ministry as saying.
Tibet was free until 1949, when China invaded it, but a nationalist movement, rooted in Buddhism, continues to seek independence.
Update: Latin American churches criticize Cuba, U.S. over plane incident
(RNS)-The Latin American Council of Churches, the umbrella organization for 150 Protestant churches in 21 Latin American and Caribbean nations, has called on Cuba and the United States to take steps to ease tensions between the two nations.
In an open letter to President Clinton and President Fidel Castro, the Quito, Ecuador-based council said Cuba’s downing of two unarmed civilian planes operated by anti-Castro exiles in February was a”disproportionate and violent”response to provocations by the exiles.
But the council also said the U.S. reaction-passage of tougher economic restrictions against Cuba-was equally disproportionate and will result in”morally unacceptable sacrifices”and economic hardship on the part of the Cuban people.
The March 20 letter was signed by the Rev. Walter Altmann, a Brazilian Lutheran who is president of the council.
Altmann’s letter said there has been”a climate of mistrust and antagonism which has been prolonged for too long”and urged both countries to take steps to ease the tensions between them.”We pray … that this incident be the last in a history of confrontation which has brought anxiety to the people of the United States and pain and sacrifice to the people of Cuba,”the letter said.
Pope warns of”crisis of values”in Asia
(RNS)-Pope John Paul II warned South Korean bishops Tuesday (March 26) they must fight growing materialism and a”crisis of values”that he said is taking hold in the region.”As you yourselves point out, your society’s economic development is accompanied by a certain materialistic view of reality, which is coming to the fore and even seems to dominate people’s outlook,”the pope said in a meeting with the Korean bishops.
He said that throughout Asia,”certain cultural influences are gaining ground which are in contrast with some of the more authentic human values upon which your society has hitherto based itself.” In an apparent reference to the increasing use of artificial birth control and abortion across the continent, the pope added,”I encourage you never to tire of proclaiming, teaching and defending the inviolable sanctity of human life from conception to natural death.” The pope, who opposes artificial forms of birth control, has regularly criticized international efforts aimed at slowing population growth rates in Asia and Africa.
Montana educator elected president of Luther College
(RNS)-Jeffrey D. Baker, commissioner of higher education for the Montana University System, has been elected president of Luther College in Decorah, Iowa.
Baker, 54, a lay member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), succeeds the Rev. H. George Anderson, who was elected president of the ELCA last August. Baker will assume the presidency on July 1.
The 135-year-old Luther College is a four-year liberal arts college affiliated with the ELCA.
As commissioner of higher education, Baker is the chief executive officer for six four-year institutions and five colleges of technology.
Quote of the day: The Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, general secretary of the National Council of Churches
(RNS)-The Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, general secretary of the National Council of Churches, gave the keynote address at the founding convention of the Cultural Environment Movement, a new citizens group to fight what it calls”cultural pollution.”Campbell spoke on the relationship of religion and the media:”What does a couch potato have in common with a worshiper in the pew? More than you might think. Both listen to compelling stories. Both are shaped by what they hear from the two most powerful storytellers in our culture: television and organized religion. Television and religion both speak to an audience as hungry for stories as our tribal ancestors, who sat around campfires eager for a retelling of the myths and legends that bound them together.”
MJP END RNS
