c. 2003 Religion News Serevice
Presbyterians Tweak Late-Term Abortion Policy
DENVER (RNS) The Presbyterian Church (USA) revised its position on late-term abortions Thursday (May 29) to say a fetus should not be aborted to save the life of the mother if it could survive outside the womb.
Delegates to the church’s annual General Assembly meeting revised the abortion policy first set in 1992 and then amended in 1997 and 2002. Though the policy remains essentially the same, the 548 delegates rejected an alternative statement that would have been slightly more restrictive.
The policy calls late-term, or “partial-birth,” abortions a “matter of grave moral concern” that should be used only in cases of rape or incest, a threat to the mother’s health or a fetus’ “untreatable life-threatening medical anomalies.”
The revised policy, adopted on a 405-108 vote, says that when a mother’s health is threatened by a pregnancy and if the “baby may be able to live outside the womb, a procedure should be considered which gives both the mother and the child the opportunity to live.”
In one minor addition to last year’s policy, the church said it “appreciates the challenge each woman and family face when issues of personal well-being arise in the later stages of a pregnancy.”
Delegates rejected a measure that would have removed the rape and incest provisions in a 353-150 vote. They also rejected a measure that would have banned the procedure from coverage in the church’s health insurance plan.
Jonathan Ball, a seminary student at Columbia Theological Seminary outside Atlanta, told the assembly the new statement “affirms the precious nature of life, and the precious nature of a woman’s ability to function as a child of God and as a capable moral agent.”
But Bill Conway, a church elder from the Huntingdon Presbytery in south-central Pennsylvania, said the more restrictive statement that was defeated was “not in any way in favor of infringing on a woman’s right to chose. … We are concerned with the voice of a viable human being not being heard.”
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Historic Preservationists Cite Urban Houses of Worship as `Endangered’
(RNS) The National Trust for Historic Preservation has named urban houses of worship to its list of the nation’s most endangered historic places.
“America’s older religious properties are national treasures,” said Richard Moe, president of the National Trust, in a Thursday (May 29) announcement of the 2003 list of “America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.”
“They embody the faith, aesthetic aspirations and cultural diversity of generations of Americans and play critically important roles in the civic and social lives of their communities.”
The trust noted that the churches, synagogues, mosques and meetinghouses in urban settings have suffered due to limited capital budgets, increasing real-estate values and changing demographics.
It praised efforts by Philadelphia-based Partners for Sacred Places and other groups to provide assistance and training in developing new sources of funding to maintain these landmarks.
Six houses of worship from across the country were chosen as “poster children” to illustrate the extent of the threat against urban religious structures. They are: Beth Hamedrash Hagadol Synagogue in New York, First United Methodist Church in Seattle, Acts of the Apostles Church in Philadelphia, Quinn Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Chicago, Mount Bethel Baptist Church in Washington and St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church in Denver.
The trust is urging that houses of worship receive equal access to state and federal preservation funds as well as greater recognition by the philanthropic community to help repair religious structures and maintain the social services they provide.
The trust has named historic sites to its endangered list since 1988 in hopes of raising awareness about the need for resources to help those that are threatened.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Film’s Direct Line to God Clogs Real-Life Phone Lines
(RNS) More than 30 homes and businesses across the country have been taking calls for God after a new film used a real-life phone number for the Almighty.
In the movie “Bruce Almighty,” Jim Carrey plays TV news reporter Bruce Nolan, who temporarily receives God’s powers. When the character of God tries to reach Nolan, God’s phone number is displayed repeatedly on Nolan’s pager.
But instead of the bogus 555 prefix usually used in movies and television shows, the seven-digit number that appears in “Bruce Almighty” is a working number in many areas of the country _ and droves of pranksters and seeking souls have been dialing it up.
According to the Associated Press, a woman in Pinellas Park, Fla., is threatening to sue the movie studio over the 20 calls per hour she has been getting on her cell phone.
Calls for God are also reaching a Denver radio network _ which is planning a contest based on the incident _ and residences in Arkansas, Florida and South Carolina, among other states.
The Augustin family of Parrish, Fla., has received hundreds of calls and is amused by the mix-up. Their answering machine tells callers they have reached “God’s messenger” and they should “call Jim Carrey” instead.”
In a few area codes, the listings actually belong to places of worship.
“I’m not too thrilled with it at all,” said the Rev. Bruce MacInnes, pastor of Turner’s Chapel Church in Sanford, N.C., who thinks the movie “mocks God and makes a mockery of religion.”
Still, MacInnes said, “the Lord God is one that could use something that’s meant for evil and turn it for good. So this may very well be the reason that that number showed up.”
For the studio’s part, Universal Pictures said in a statement this week that the phone number was selected for God because it does not exist in the Buffalo, N.Y., area where the movie is set.
Church Leaders Urge G-8 to Spend More on Fighting AIDS
(RNS) Church leaders gathered in Germany are calling on the leaders of the world’s richest nations to spend more money to combat AIDS.
“At this critical moment, we can arrest the hourly funerals across Africa, slow the steep climb of infection rates in Eastern Europe, save the lives of millions of children,” said 63 leaders in a statement released by the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance, a Geneva-based international network that concentrates on AIDS and global trade issues.
The leaders want the Group of Eight, or G-8, as the major industrialized countries are known, to pledge an additional $1.4 billion to the United Nations’ Global Fund to Fight AIDS, the Geneva-based Ecumenical News International reported Friday (May 30).
Leaders from the G-8, including President Bush, are scheduled to meet beginning Sunday in Evian, France.
In a related development, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan urged the G-8 leaders to double their aid to developing countries and keep promises to drop trade barriers, the Associated Press reported.
In an open letter released at the United Nations in New York, Annan said it was time for the eight nations “to set aside recent differences” over the war in Iraq “and give due priority to the issues of poverty and development.”
Annan, who has been invited to attend the Sunday session of the summit, called on the rich nations to simultaneously take on three crises in Africa _ AIDS, hunger and the “emaciated capacity” of many countries to govern _ because each feeds on the other.
The Protestant, Orthodox and Roman Catholic religious advocates gathered in Berlin said AIDS could be treated and in some cases prevented at minimal cost.
The Rev. Cornelia Fulkrug-Weitzel, director of Bread for the World in Germany, warned of the negative consequences of the AIDS pandemic to world economic development, ENI reported. “Still growing rapidly, the epidemic is reversing development gains, robbing millions of their lives, widening the gap between rich and poor, and undermining social and economic security,” she said.
_ David E. Anderson
Saint Paul School of Theology Gains New President
(RNS) The appointment of a new president of Saint Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Mo., marks the first time an African-American will lead a predominantly white United Methodist seminary.
The Rev. Myron F. McCoy, pastor of St. Mark United Methodist Church in Chicago, will begin the position Aug. 1, United Methodist News Service reported.
McCoy, 47, will become the school’s fourth president since its founding in 1958. He succeeds the Rev. Lovett Weems, who will become a professor of church leadership and the founding director of a center for church leadership at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington.
McCoy said he looks forward to helping the seminary and other schools of theology “deal with the reality of diversity in our church and the world.”
Quote of the Day: The Rev. Richard Cizik of National Association of Evangelicals
(RNS) “Evangelicals have substituted Islam for the Soviet Union. The Muslims have become the modern-day equivalent of the Evil Empire.”
_ The Rev. Richard Cizik, vice president for governmental affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals. He was quoted by The New York Times.
DEA END RNS
