c. 2003 Religion News Service

South African Archbishop Says Church Cannot Avoid Same-Sex Unions

(RNS) The Anglican archbishop of South Africa said his church cannot avoid the controversial subject of same-sex unions, even though U.S. Episcopal bishops advised their church against sanctioning rites for gay couples.

A report submitted to Cape Town Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane by a panel of lay and clergy leaders said same-sex marriages, while “infrequent,” can be found throughout African cultures and are “considered far from abnormal.”

The report is significant because most other Anglican bishops in Africa strongly oppose homosexuality, an issue that has strained relations with more liberal Western churches, including the Episcopal Church in the United States.

It also stands in contrast to a March 17 recommendation by U.S. bishops that the church not move to allow gay unions “because at this time we are nowhere near consensus in the church regarding the blessing of homosexual relationships.”

The Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of the Anglican Communion, will vote this summer on whether to authorize marriage-like rites for same-sex couples. Conservatives have vowed to fight the measure.

Ndungane is considered one of Africa’s more progressive Christian leaders. In January, referring to a 1998 worldwide Anglican conference that opposed homosexual behavior, he said it is “not possible to assert that the matter was closed for all time.”

“The issue of same-sex unions strikes at the heart of the Anglican church, which has fought long and hard for justice and inclusivity, but a definitive stand is likely to lead to polarization rather than unity unless all debaters are treated with respect and dignity,” he said, according to Episcopal News Service.

Ndungane said that while the unity of the church must be preserved, it must not be used as “a delaying tactic or as an excuse to avoid the issue.” He also called on his church to move away from a “fundamentalist” and “absolutist” reading of the Bible to one that “accepts that the Bible is God’s Word, but argues that it operates dynamically, in interaction with everyday life.”

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Methodists to Vote on Repealing Mandatory Retirement Age

(RNS) God does not end his calling to ministers just because they turn 70, a United Methodist Church panel said in calling for an end to the denomination’s mandatory retirement policy.

The church’s Committee on Older Adult Ministry approved legislation that would revoke the mandatory retirement age of 70. In order to become church policy, the legislation will need to be approved by delegates to next year’s General Conference meeting in Pittsburgh.

The panel, which met in Nashville March 25-27, called the policy “antiquated and ageist” and said, “God does not take away God’s blessing, including opportunity to serve in full capacity, simply because someone has reached the age of 70 years or older.”

The resolution will now be considered by the church’s General Board of Discipleship and then forwarded to the Pittsburgh assembly, according to United Methodist News Service.

The Rev. David Maldonado, president of Methodist-related Iliff School of Theology in Denver, told the committee that “aging is part of God’s creation; it is not a condemnation.”

The committee has worked on the current resolution since last year, when it pointed to two contradictory statements on the issue _ the church’s constitution that contains the age cap, and a resolution passed in 1988 and upheld in 2000 that calls for the elimination of the mandatory retirement.

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Vatican Reassigns Bishop Moscow Expelled From Russia

MOSCOW (RNS) In a sign the Vatican has lost hope that the Russian government will relent, the Holy See on Thursday (April 17) appointed a new bishop for eastern Siberia to replace the prelate expelled from the country a year ago.

Cyryl Klimowicz, a Belarus citizen currently working in that former Soviet state as an assistant bishop, is taking the place of Bishop Jerzy Mazur, who headed the world’s largest diocese in territory based in Irkutsk, Siberia.

The move was greeted Thursday with relief among Russian Catholic leaders, but also some concern that the Vatican was caving in to the Russian government’s meddling in internal church affairs. Despite loud protests from Rome and the diplomatic efforts of several Western countries, Russian officials never explained _ much less rescinded _ the expulsion of Mazur and four Roman Catholic priests last year.

“The Vatican is defeated, at least in this instance,” said Yakov Krotov, a church historian in Moscow. “They waited for one year. They’ve understood that this was not a chance incident and so they have changed their tactics.”

Mazur and the other foreign Catholic clergy were kicked out of Russia following the Vatican’s February 2002 decision to create four dioceses to serve Roman Catholics, who make up less than 1 percent of the country’s 145 million citizens. Leaders of the dominant, politically powerful Russian Orthodox Church were infuriated by the Vatican’s decision, staging anti-Catholic demonstrations in at least a dozen Russian cities.

As a citizen of Belarus, Klimowicz has the right to live and work in Russia without the visa required of Mazur, a Polish citizen. This will make him less vulnerable to the whims of Russian officials, noted the country’s leading Catholic prelate, Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz.

“I do hope that it will be easier for him,” said Kondrusiewicz, who gave Klimowicz his first job as a parish priest in 1990 in Belarus.

Using e-mail and the telephone, Mazur had been running his diocese from a Divine Word monastery in Warsaw, seven time zones to the west of Irkutsk. He was reassigned Thursday to head the Diocese of Elk in northeastern Poland.

_ Frank Brown

World Council of Churches Seeks Clemency for Florida Teen

(RNS) The general secretary of the World Council of Churches has appealed to Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to treat an imprisoned teenager with clemency.

The Rev. Konrad Raiser wrote to Bush concerning the case of Lionel Tate, who was sentenced in 2001 to life in prison without parole. Tate was 12 when he was convicted of killing a 6-year-old girl.

“Given the circumstances of the case, the council is of the view that the punishment meted out by the U.S. Court to the accused, who was a minor at the time when the crime was committed, is not only harsh but also fails to take into consideration his tender age,” he wrote in the April 2 letter.

Raiser asked the governor to “exercise clemency so that Lionel Tate can be reunited with his family and lead a normal life.”

He said the council endorsed a 2001 request by Florida’s Episcopal bishops, who also sought clemency for Tate, saying the punishment was cruel and unusual.

The request was written the day before Tate’s case was presented to the United Nations Human Rights Commission.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Canadian Churches Take SARS-Related Precautions for Easter Week

(RNS) Some liturgical churches in Canada will change the way worshippers take Communion during Easter week celebrations due to the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

Roman Catholic Church officials instructed priests in Toronto on Wednesday (April 16) to place Communion wafers, which represent the body of Christ, in parishioners’ hands rather than on their tongues. The traditional distribution of consecrated wine will not occur, The Washington Times reported.

Worshippers on Good Friday are asked not to kiss the crucifix, which is traditional, but instead bow or kneel and make the sign of the cross.

The hand-shaking that usually occurs during the exchange of peace should be replaced with a gesture such as bowing, Catholics were told.

“Their public-health duty is their religious duty,” said Catholic Bishop John Boissonneau, auxiliary bishop of Toronto, of Catholic clergy. “They’re responsible before their God and within their community to safeguard the common good.”

Anglican church officials issued similar instructions to their Toronto-area dioceses Wednesday.

“We are aware that many clergy and worshippers find this a stressful time and seek guidance from the church,” said the Most Rev. Terence E. Finlay, the Anglican archbishop of Toronto. “It is more important that everyone feel comfortable.”

SARS has similar symptoms to the cold or flu, including fever, coughing and sneezing. It has killed about a dozen people in the Toronto area and more than 150 worldwide.

The Easter restrictions were announced a day after public-health officials revealed that more than 500 members of a charismatic Catholic group in the Toronto region had been quarantined after some members contracted the virus.

In a separate but related matter, the Baptist World Alliance has announced that it has postponed a global youth conference scheduled for this July in Hong Kong until August 2004.

“We had hoped that this would not be necessary,” said Emmett Dunn, director of the alliance’s youth department, in a statement released Monday (April 14).

“But the BWA must act responsibly to protect the thousands of young people we expected in Hong Kong and move to allay the fears of many people who were concerned that the disease would not be under control by July.”

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced April 4 that “no missionaries will be sent to Hong Kong until further evaluations are made” as a precaution against the virus.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Quote of the Day: Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony

(RNS) “I’d rather have the (Easter) basket carry wine, which is deeply rooted in the history of the state and its missions, than some chocolate duck.”

_ Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony, quoted in the Los Angeles Times, about wine sales at his new cathedral’s gift shop.