c. 2000 Religion News Service
Orthodox and Catholic Leaders End Meeting Without Agreement
(RNS) Orthodox and Catholic leaders ended a summit in western Maryland on Wednesday (July 19) without agreement on theological issues that have divided the two churches for almost 1,000 years.
Forty-six delegates from the Orthodox and Catholic churches wrapped up 10 days of talks at Mount St. Mary’s College and Seminary in Emmitsburg at the first summit to be held in the United States since talks first began in 1980.
While failing to reach agreement, both sides said they left with a better understanding of the issues that have divided the two churches since the Great Schism of 1054.
Orthodox and Catholics make up the bulk of world Christians, with 1 billion Roman Catholics and 228 million Orthodox around the globe. The churches share similar theologies but have different hierarchies.
“The discussions of this plenary were far-reaching, intense and thorough,” read a short and limited statement issued at the end of the meeting.
The central issue at the meeting was the role of Roman Catholics living in formerly communist countries. Under communism, Catholics were forced into the Orthodox Church, but 10 years after the fall of communism, a turf battle still rages between Orthodox and Catholic leaders over who owns churches that had been Catholic before the post-war Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe.
Orthodox leaders have accused the Vatican of encouraging dissension within the Orthodox communion by raising questions of church ownership.
Several significant barriers remain before the two churches could reach full communion, most importantly the papacy. The Orthodox church does not recognize the pope as leader of the church, and decisions are made by Orthodox bishops on a synod level.
Still, both sides say the discussions were enlightening.
“We have come to a certain point where we can state some points commonly,” said Archbishop Stylianos of Australia, according to the Associated Press. “We now have to wait a while to breathe.”
Billy Graham’s Scheduled Appearance at Conference Uncertain
(RNS) Poor health may thwart Billy Graham’s plans to speak at an international conference of evangelicals in Amsterdam next week.
“What’s uncertain today is what his schedule will be relative to Amsterdam,” spokesman Mark DeMoss told the Associated Press. “If he doesn’t travel for the beginning or any of the conference, provisions have been made for him to address the conference by satellite.”
Graham, 81, was scheduled to deliver the opening and closing speeches at a nine-day Christianity conference expected to draw more than 10,000 evangelists from 190 countries.
Graham, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, has been undergoing physical therapy in Rochester, Minn., since being released earlier this month from the Mayo Clinic. He was admitted to the clinic in June for surgery to relieve a buildup of fluid on the brain. He has been hospitalized several times since being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease six years ago.
The treatment has left Graham weakened, his son Franklin told the Associated Press, making it uncertain whether the evangelist will have regained sufficient strength before the conference begins July 29.
“He realizes this conference doesn’t hinge on him,” said Franklin Graham. “He doesn’t want this to be Billy Graham. He wants the focus to be on the evangelists.”
Presbyterian Court Says Churches Must Abide by Church Law
(RNS) The highest court in the Presbyterian Church (USA) has said individual congregations have the right to protest churchwide policy but not to openly violate it if they disagree.
In a closely watched case, the church’s Permanent Judicial Commission ruled July 7 that a Burlington, Vt., church does not have the right to reject a policy on sexual standards for church officers, and that the Northern New England Presbytery must work with the church to get it into compliance.
At issue was a decision by Christ Church in Burlington not to comply with church standards requiring “fidelity in marriage and chastity in singleness” for church officers. The policy is a de facto ban on non-celibate gay and lesbian clergy, and the church’s pastors said they would not abide by or enforce the policy.
The Northern New England Presbytery, which oversees Presbyterian churches in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, originally instructed the church to get into compliance, but then rescinded that order. The court found that the presbytery was not doing enough to enforce church law.
The court drew a significant distinction between protest of church law and active disobedience. If there is “inconsistency, confusion or ambiguity,” about a policy, then churches may protest. But when policies are clear-cut, there “are no constitutional grounds for a governing body to fail to comply with an express provision of the constitution.”
The court also said it was the duty of the presbytery to “exercise pastoral and administrative oversight” of its churches. “This begins as an act of pastoral care, but may become an act of church discipline.”
The court issued two other rulings earlier this year. The most significant case allowed the blessings of same-sex unions since the church did not explicitly prohibit them. But when the church met in Long Beach, Calif., in June, delegates narrowly approved a prohibition, which now needs approval from a majority of the church’s 173 regional presbyteries.
PETA Drops `Jesus Was a Vegetarian’ Campaign
(RNS) Jesus may have been a vegetarian, but the Priests of the Sacred Heart have told an animal rights group to find another picture of him for their campaign to promote the ethical _ and biblical _ benefits of vegetarianism.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has pulled its popular “Jesus Was a Vegetarian” ad campaign after the 122-year-old religious order claimed ownership of the image of Jesus the animal rights group was using in its materials.
PETA, known for its outlandish efforts to promote animal rights, agreed to pull the campaign and is now looking for a “new Jesus to star in its ads.”
The campaigns featured a devotional image of Jesus with a lemon slice halo around his head. The priests, who number about 130 in the United States, said they own the copyright to the image and want to keep it for devotional use.
“The image of the Sacred Heart has been tied to the Priests of the Sacred Heart for many years, and for those who have a devotion to the Sacred Heart, we would like to have it kept for use of the priests,” said Mary Gorski, a spokeswoman for the order.
Gorski said the issue went beyond the “nitty gritty” aspects of copyright law, but declined to say whether PETA had cheapened the image by using Jesus to promote vegetarianism. “That’s not our issue,” she said.
PETA, in a statement, said some scholars believe Jesus was a member of a religious sect of vegetarians who rejected animal sacrifice. PETA said 9 billion animals are killed each year, “most eaten by Christians.”
Bruce Friedrich, PETA’s Vegetarian Campaign coordinator, said his organization will be back with new ads soon.
“This campaign has been perhaps our most successful ever,” Friedrich said. “We’re simply asking that people extend compassion to all God’s creatures by becoming vegetarians.”
Falun Gong Followers Detained During Anniversary Protests
(RNS) Chinese police Thursday (July 20) arrested about 90 Falun Gong followers who had gathered in Tiananmen Square to mark the one-year anniversary of China’s crackdown on the banned spiritual group, and swiftly broke up scattered protests elsewhere.
The Tiananmen Square arrests took place early Thursday morning while thousands of schoolchildren were visiting the popular tourist attraction, the Associated Press reported.
China’s ban on Falun Gong _ a blend of traditional Chinese exercises and Buddhist and Taoist principles _ began in July of last year when the government declared the group a public menace.
Since then, thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been arrested and their movement leaders sentenced to prison terms as long as 18 years.
About 24 followers have died while in police custody, according to the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy.
Also on Thursday (July 20), about 120 practitioners gathered outside China’s representative office in Hong Kong demanding the Chinese government free Falun Gong followers from detention and cancel its arrest warrant issued for the group’s founder, Li Hongzhi, who now resides in New York.
“The suppression is getting more and more serious in China,” Falun Gong spokeswoman Hui Yee-han told Reuters news agency. “We want to support our fellow practitioners in China.”
Though Hong Kong has not banned Falun Gong, its members still face discrimination and harassment, Hui said. Protesters said they planned to hand-deliver a petition to the Central Government Liaison Office as part of a 10-hour demonstration.
Death Toll of Ugandan Doomsday Group Announced
(RNS) Ugandan officials have placed the final death toll from a Ugandan religious sect’s mass suicide and murder earlier this year at 780, authorities announced Thursday (July 20).
Hundreds of members of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God perished in a fire inside their church in southwestern Uganda in March. The group believed the world would end in the year 2000.
Officials initially believed the fire was a mass suicide, but in the weeks following searchers discovered more bodies buried on property associated with the group. A number of the victims, many of them children, appeared to have been strangled and mutilated, prompting officials to investigate the deaths as murder instead of suicide.
“According to police pathologists, 780 people died not only in the church but in the other graves we unearthed around the country,” police spokesman Assuman Mugenyi told Reuters news agency, adding he believed no more graves would be discovered.
Warrants have been issued for the arrest of six group leaders, though officials are unsure whether the leaders died in the fire or managed to escape.
Quote of the Day: Author George Weigel
(RNS) “Sexual love between husband and wife, the pope proposes, is an act of worship. All of which is about as far as it’s possible to get from the sexual revolution’s concept of sex as a contact sport.”
_ Author George Weigel, author of “Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II,” defending John Paul’s view of homosexuality. His comments appeared in the July 12 Wall Street Journal.
DEA END RNS
