c. 1998 Religion News Service
Bronx teacher suspended for distributing Bibles, religious books
(RNS) A Bronx elementary school teacher has been suspended on charges he distributed religious books and promoted Christianity in his classroom.
The teacher, Simpson Gray, said he is being unfairly singled out for his beliefs.
Gray, a fifth-grade teacher, was suspended after a school board investigation of a parent’s complaint that he provided students and the school library with six copies of the Bible and four religious books that he had written.
Gray acknowledged he brought the books into the school but said he was merely trying to broaden the selection of reading materials and show the children that at least one of their teachers was also an author, The New York Times reported Sunday (Dec. 13).”I know the law,”Gray said.”What is says is that you can’t preach, you can’t pray and you can’t teach the Bible in school.”Nowhere does it say it is illegal for a teacher to bring a Bible into an elementary school,”he said.
But a spokeswoman for the board of education said there is”quite an array of allegations concerning this particular teacher. There are allegations that he may have said or written things that were adverse toward other religious faiths, that he advocated religion in his classroom and there are some corporal punishment charges.” Gray said he has filed a lawsuit against the board charging it with religious discrimination and defamation of character. A hearing on the suit is set for Friday (Dec. 18).
Child-sponsorship agencies will have outside evaluation
(RNS) An umbrella organization for 162 agencies that seek sponsors to send money for poor children says it will hire outside evaluators to ensure the money raised is used as pledged.
Officials at InterAction, a Washington-based group, say evaluators will check financial accounts and make periodic visits to the nonprofit groups’ international field operations, the Associated Press reported.
The agencies, which include some of the most well-known charities that raise money through emotional appeals, have agreed to comply with 14 new standards, including documenting that children in sponsored families receive the expected benefits. The rules take effect Jan. 1.
InterAction President Jim Moody said the standards reflect a first attempt by the global relief and development community to adopt comprehensive regulations. The agencies raise more than $400 million a year from U.S. residents.
Moody’s Friday (Dec. 11) announcement follows the Chicago Tribune’s yearlong investigation of four leading sponsorship organizations, including the Christian Children’s Fund and Save the Children.
The investigation found that several children sponsored by Tribune editors and reporters received few or no promised benefits. A few others received occasional handouts, such as cooking pots and toothpaste. Some received ill-fitting shoes and clothing. Children who were sick sometimes got checkups and medicine but not all the time.
British brewery names a chaplain
(RNS) _ One of Britain’s best-known breweries has formally appointed a chaplain in what is thought to be the first such appointment in British church history, despite the historic links between church life _ especially monastic life _ and brewing.
The new chaplain is Canon Bill Brockie, the Episcopalian rector of St. Martin of Tours church in Edinburgh, Scotland, and in whose parish the Caledonian Brewery is located.
As a chaplain, Brockie will make himeself available to the brewries’ workers.
Even before Brockie’s appointment, there were plenty of unofficial links between brewery and parish.
Last year, for example, when Brockie cycled from St. Petersburg, Russia to Moscow to raise funds for Scope, the cerebral palsy charity, the pub around the corner from the brewery _ unofficially known as the brewery’s sample room _ sponsored the ride.
And last month, when the parish celebrated the 1,600th anniversary of the death of its patron, St. Martin of Tours, the Caledonian Brewery brewed a special St. Martin’s ale to mark the occasion.”It’s an extension of being the parish priest,”Brockie said.”I hope to see and be seen (at the brewery), chat and be chatted to and be available.” Two years ago England’s first pub chaplain was appointed by the diocese of Ely. Also two years ago a Sussex rector with three churches to look after started a brewery to help raise funds toward their maintenance. Last year his brewery contributed $5,000 to aid the parishes.
Westminster Abbey organist’s ouster upheld
(RNS) In a case that twists through the peculiar nature of the historical relationship of church and state in England, the dean and chapter _ leaders _ of Westminster Abbey, where English sovereigns have been crowned since William the Conqueror, have won vindication for dismissing abbey organist Martin Neary, and his wife, who acted as his part-time secretary.
The judgment was delivered Dec. 10 by Lord Jauncey of Tullichettle, one of the so-called law lords in the House of Lords who make Britain’s supreme court. He was appointed to hear the case by Queen Elizabeth when Neary and his wife appealed to her as the abbey’s”visitor.” The abbey is what is known as”a royal peculiar,”which means it does not belong to any diocese but falls under the Queen’s jurisdiction. In appealing his dismissal Neary had the support of a number of prominent politicians, musicians, and others in the arts world.
While upholding the dean, Jauncey also ruled the abbey’s attempt to convene a disciplinary hearing at very short notice and without providing a detailed statement of the charges against the Nearys”must score gamma minus on the scale of natural justice.” But Jauncey found the Nearys had been”in clear breach of their duty of fidelity to the abbey”by failing to inform the abbey authorities of the financial arrangements they had set up in 1994 so salaried members of the abbey choir _ the”lay vicars”or adult male singers who make up the choir along with the boy choristers of the abbey choir school _ could continue to receive fees for outside concerts and recordings as free-lance earnings.”For some three and a half years Dr. and Mrs. Neary ran a business whose principal income-earning assets were the lay vicars and the choristers,”said Jauncey in his ruling.”They derived profits from this business in the shape of fixing fees and surpluses on events involving the choir. They did not tell anybody in the abbey what they were doing.”
Jackson will hold Capitol prayer vigil on impeachment vote
(RNS) The Rev. Jesse Jackson has announced he will lead a prayer vigil Thursday (Dec. 17) on the steps of the Capitol as the House of Representatives debates whether to impeach President Clinton.”We’re asking God for mercy, the Congress for a sense of proportional justice,”Jackson said Sunday in announcing the vigil.”After all, all men and women have sinned.” Jackson, generally a supporter of Clinton, said the prayer vigil would seek to turn the Congress from impeachment to censure of Clinton, the Associated Press reported.”If we win, our presence will have made a statement,”Jackson said.”If we lose the vote, at least we were witnesses to this action.”
Quote of the day: President Bill Clinton
(RNS)”The time has come to sanctify your holy ground with genuine forgiveness and reconciliation. Every influential Palestinian, from teacher to journalist, from politician to community leader, must make this a mission _ to banish from the minds of children glorifying suicide bombers, to end the practice of speaking peace in one place and preaching hatred in another, to teach school children the value of peace and the waste of war, to break the cycle of violence.” _ President Bill Clinton in his Dec. 14 speech to the Palestinian National Council.
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