c. 2003 Religion News Service
NCC Financial Health Recovers, Reserve Funds Tripled
(RNS) The National Council of Churches has improved its financial health by paying off all debts, doubling its net worth and tripling the amount of reserve funding, its top officer said Wednesday (Oct. 1).
The Rev. Bob Edgar, general secretary of the NCC, said reserve funds have increased from $2.3 million last year to $9 million as of June 30. In addition, he said the body of 36 mainline Protestant and Orthodox churches has “zero debts.”
“We’re in the healthiest position we’ve been in 10 years,” Edgar said.
When Edgar assumed leadership in early 2000, the council was deeply in debt and its endowment had dwindled from $24 million in 1994 to just $3 million.
An audit presented to the NCC’s executive board this week (Sept. 29-30) showed an overall net worth of $12.6 million on June 30, up from $6.3 million a year ago. Expenses were down from $7.1 million to $5.6 million over the same period.
The Council now has 40 full-time employees, down from a high of 102 in late 1999. The NCC also is largely independent of its humanitarian arm, Church World Service, and in fact has a larger endowment.
“The bottom line is it’s the cleanest audit the Council has had in years,” Edgar said. “It takes away all the arguments that the Council is going out of business.”
Boosting the reserve funds, or endowment, means the NCC can plan on about $500,000 each year to pad its estimated $6 million annual budget. It also helps cushion the Council against unexpected losses in income, or decreased giving from member churches, Edgar said.
Several donations have helped replace lowered giving from the NCC’s two largest contributors, the United Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Church (USA). Both denominations have said they want other churches to pay more so they are not giving more than 50 percent of the NCC’s membership dues.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Religious Leaders Criticized for Silence During French Heat Wave
PARIS (RNS) The fallout of a killer summer heat wave continues to roil France, with the latest finger pointing now directed at the country’s religious leaders.
A weekly French publication, Christian Witness, has assailed “the silence of Jewish, Catholic, Protestant and Muslim authorities” as temperatures soared, and bodies piled up in French morgues and hospitals.
“The silence of religions during the heat wave is, for us, incredible,” the magazine wrote in a recent edition, the cover of which featured a prone man in the desert, stretching out a hand to a mosque, church and synagogue _ each of which appeared closed, and covered with cacti prickles.
“If religions remain voiceless in the face of the fractures and anguish … which this summer has unveiled, they risk becoming even more marginalized and discredited by a society which judges by actions,” added Christian Witness, in its editorial.
The criticism coincides with a new government report that finds nearly 15,000 people died in France during the August heat wave _ a figure five times higher than initial government estimates, and apparently far higher than deaths elsewhere in Europe, as well.
Much of the rap has descended on the conservative government of Jean-Pierre Raffarin, for failing to properly finance and prepare emergency services _ and for being on vacation during much of the catastrophe.
But the death toll has also sparked massive soul-searching in France over the erosion of family bonds. Many of the victims were elderly and sick, who often suffered and died in solitude.
In its report, Christian Witness particularly singled out France’s leading Roman Catholic church, for failing to speak out during the height of the catastrophe, much less offer a “spiritual light.”
Catholic leaders have rejected such criticism. “We’re not machines for public declarations,” retorted Monsignor Philippe Barbarin in an interview with Le Figaro newspaper.
Jean Arnold de Clermont, president of the Protestant Federation of France, also denounced hasty efforts to lay blame. “The question is too serious to be treated with easy phrases by the press,” he said in a telephone interview. “What’s more important _ and this is a reflection we must undertake _ is what this signals about our society.”
Nonetheless, Christian Witness was not entirely critical of French clerics.
In particular, the magazine praised Dalil Boubakeur, rector of the Paris Mosque. Boubakeur not only called on Muslims to pray for rain early in the heat wave, but he was among the first religious leaders to issue a statement of regret over the weather’s victims.
The magazine also saluted the ministers, priests, rabbis and imams who helped the suffering and presided over funerals for the dead.
_ Elizabeth Bryant
Television Watchdog Group: Prime-Time Foul Language on Increase
(RNS) Prime-time network television features increasing amounts of foul language, according to a study by the Parents Television Council.
The use of various kinds of foul language _ from curses to offensive epithets to sexually suggestive language _ were examined by analysts viewing prime-time series on major broadcast networks from the first two weeks of the 1998, 2000 and 2002 November sweeps periods.
“It’s easy to be dismissive of foul language on TV, but it does have an impact,” said the executive summary of “The Blue Tube: Foul Language on Prime Time Network TV.”
“Ultimately, the entertainment industry needs to get serious about reducing the flood of vulgarity coming into the family home over the broadcast airwaves.”
Across the board, analysts found that foul language during the “family hour” of 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. ET/PT increased by 94.8 percent between 1998 and 2002. It increased by 109.1 percent during the 9 o’clock hour and 38.7 percent during the last hour of prime time.
The report also cited “minor qualitative improvements” that were discovered through the research.
“… in every time slot, mild oaths and curses (`hell’ and `damn’) comprised a larger share of the foul language in 2002 than in 1998, which means that harsher foul language became marginally less prominent.”
The report cited Fox as the sole broadcast network that showed significant improvement during the family hour, with foul language decreasing in that time period by 25 percent between 1998 and 2002. Other networks _ ABC, CBS, NBC, UPN and WB _ had increases in foul language during the family hour.
The Los Angeles-based council was founded in 1995 and is dedicated to improving the quality of entertainment programming, especially on television.
_ Adelle M. Banks
A Reinvigorated Pope Addresses 12,000 Pilgrims at Outdoor Audience
VATICAN CITY (RNS) An apparently reinvigorated Pope John Paul II addressed some 12,000 pilgrims Wednesday (Oct. 1) at a two-hour general audience in St. Peter’s Square. He waved, kissed a baby and received a long line of well-wishers.
The improved appearance of the ailing, 83-year-old pontiff relieved fears raised by reports on Tuesday that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger had told the German weekly magazine Bunte that John Paul was “very ill. We must pray for the pope.”
A transcript of the interview issued later showed that Ratzinger, German prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, had said the pope was “ill,” not “very ill.” The informal interview took place at a reception in Rome given by Bavarian brewers.
John Paul showed no effects of the gastrointestinal upset that forced him to cancel his regular general audience last Wednesday (Sept. 24). He appeared stronger and spoke more clearly than on Sunday (Sept. 28) when he led the midday Angelus prayer from his study window and read out a list of newly created cardinals.
The pope, who is debilitated by Parkinson’s disease and severe arthritis, circled the piazza in an open white Fiat Campagnola, waving broadly with his right arm. He kissed and caressed an infant boy handed over the crowd barriers.
During the audience, John Paul skipped some passages as he read a brief talk on the Benedictus canticle of Zacharius, father of John the Baptist. When he paused to cough, the pilgrims clapped loudly in encouragement, and he resumed with a smile.
“Our uncertain steps, which during the day often swerve on the dark and slippery road, are sustained by the light of the truth that Christ spreads in the world and in history,” he said.
He confirmed he would travel as planned next week to Pompeii, the Roman resort near Naples buried by the lava of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D.
“God willing, on Oct. 7, the day dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Rosary, I will go in pilgrimage to the Sanctuary of Pompeii to thank God for the great work of sanctification of hearts he carries out uninterruptedly thanks to this marvelous prayer. Let us turn more often to him,” the pope said.
_ Peggy Polk
Suit: Brick Stating `Thank you Jesus’ Excluded From State Park
(RNS) A Washington state couple who wanted to inscribe the message “Thank you Jesus” on a commemorative brick in a state park have filed a discrimination suit against state officials after their request was denied.
Dan and Olga Buchanan of Lynnwood, Wash., wanted to participate in a fund-raising effort to build a playground in St. Edward State Park in Kenmore, Wash., a Seattle suburb.
They had requested that their brick read “Thank you Jesus, Daria & Evan Buchanan.”
When they viewed their brick in the playground walkway, it simply read, “Daria & Evan Buchanan,” the Associated Press reported.
“This is a case where the state has violated the free speech rights of our clients by targeting a message for exclusion because of its religious content,” said Stuart J. Roth, senior counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, in a statement.
“The law is very clear: if a state permits a wide variety of messages to be posted in a public area, the state cannot reject a message because it contains a religious reference.”
The Virginia-based law firm, which was founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, filed suit Sept. 24 in U.S. District Court in Seattle on the couple’s behalf.
Virginia Painter, a spokeswoman for the state Parks and Recreation Commission, said volunteers who were involved in the project were attempting to respect the constitutional separation of church and state, the AP said.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Australian Anglican Leader Urges Sanctions For Canada Church on Gays Issue
LONDON (RNS) Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has been called on to withdraw recognition from the Canadian diocese of New Westminster because of its introduction of a service of blessing for same-sex unions.
The proposal was made by Archbishop Peter Jensen of Sydney, Australia, in an article in New Directions, the periodical of Forward in Faith, the movement linking members of the Church of England opposed to the ordination of women priests.
Jensen’s article is a response to one by Williams in the same periodical a month ago forecasting a “messy” future for the Anglican Communion because of the dispute over homosexuality.
In his article, Jensen concentrated on the situation in New Westminster, only mentioning the election of Canon Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire in a passing reference.
He cited the nine parishes that have withdrawn from the diocese of New Westminster in protest against what they see as something that would involve them “in an immoral activity … specifically forbidden by the Bible.”
The parishes have sought the oversight of the bishop of the Yukon and the recognition of some other bishops in Canada and elsewhere, and have appealed to the archbishop of Canterbury to recognize them as authentically Anglican and still part of the Anglican Communion.
In this situation Williams must choose between three “extremely painful choices,” Jensen said. He could do nothing, which would mean leaving the issue to be settled by the Canadian Church and the diocese and treating the dissenters as akin to the many splinter groups that had broken away from the Episcopal Church in the United States over the years.
Or, he could recognize both the dissenters and the Diocese of New Westminster. “The fact that the two groups are structurally out of communion with each other for the time being is not something which should trouble the archbishop,” wrote Jensen. “His role is to take the long view and hold them together. “This would amount to a recognition that the Anglican Communion is a federation or network of local churches (dioceses), in varying relation to one another, but held together by history and respect for Canterbury.”
Finally, Williams could take the view that Bishop Michael Ingham “has in fact broken unity by his action,” an action so much at odds with the mind of the Anglican Communion and the teaching of Scripture that he could no longer be recognized by Canterbury.
He argued Williams’ peaceable approach has run out of time. “First, although we may want to regard issues of human sexuality as of the second order, they are in fact so prominent in the Bible and the moral tradition is so clear that the `time for listening’ beloved of liberal thinkers is not available,” he wrote.
_ Robert Nowell
Quote of the Day: Civil Rights Activist Jim Lawson
(RNS) “In God’s eyes, there is no such thing as an illegal person.”
_ Civil rights activist Jim Lawson, a retired United Methodist pastor, speaking at a rally in Nashville, Tenn., for the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride 2003. He was quoted by United Methodist News Service.
DEA END RNS
