c. 2004 Religion News Service

Mayors Create Network for Faith, Government Leaders to Aid Ex-Offenders

(RNS) The U.S. Conference of Mayors has approved the creation of a “national re-entry consortium” that will bring government and religious leaders together to help people leaving prison readjust to society.

A resolution calling for the consortium was proposed after the mayors’ Faith-Based and Community Task Force held a summit in Philadelphia in April to address coordination of efforts to assist ex-offenders.

It was adopted during the annual meeting of the conference in Boston, which ended Tuesday (June 29), after being proposed by Philadelphia Mayor John Street, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and Miami Mayor Manuel A. Diaz, said Nicole Maharaj, program director of the Mayors’ Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.

The resolution calls for faith leaders, city governments, community advocacy associations and others to enhance national efforts to share information, offer technical assistance and promote advocacy on re-entry issues. The conference supports greater efforts to promote job training and placement, transitional housing, mentoring, family unification and life skills education.

The statement adds that the mayors support efforts such as the proposed Second Chance Act of 2004, which calls for state and local projects that include faith-based and community organizations in assisting ex-offenders. President Bush supports the legislation, which was introduced in the House of Representatives on June 23 and includes elements of his proposal to address the needs of ex-offenders.

A separate resolution opposing a proposed federal constitutional ban on same-sex marriage was tabled during the meeting, The Washington Post reported. The conference voted 46-44 to table the matter, and efforts to revive it were defeated 47 to 45.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Jewish Groups Organize Voter Registration, Education Effort

(RNS) A consortium of major American Jewish organizations has released an election guide designed to galvanize the Jewish community for the upcoming presidential and congressional elections.

“Get Out the Vote 2004” was launched Monday (June 28) by a partnership among the Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist Jewish movements, as well as the Jewish Council for Public Affairs.

The guide cites demographics that show that while Jews comprise less than 3 percent of the U.S. population, 90 percent of American Jews are concentrated in states with the highest number of electoral votes, including California, New York and Texas. “Swing” states including Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Florida, which are considered undecided going into the election, also are home to a high percentage of Jews.

The guide provides a time line for activities like helping to register homebound or handicapped people to vote, volunteering as poll workers and asking rabbis to preach sermons on the importance of participating in the electoral process.

Programs that explore the different sides of policy issues, as well as meet-the-candidate forums for congressional elections, were also suggested in the guide. As long as these efforts are nonpartisan, the guide explained, nonprofit organizations that receive government funding can conduct them.

Organizers stressed the importance of every vote, particularly in light of the close presidential election in 2000.

“There is a great deal at stake in the upcoming presidential and congressional elections, including vital political, economic and moral issues important to all Americans as well as issues of special concern to American Jews,” said Rabbi Marla Feldman, who is the director of the Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism, which created the guide.

_ Holly Lebowitz Rossi

Colorado Supreme Court Rules State Voucher Program Unconstitutional

(RNS) The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday (June 28) declared the state’s school voucher program to be unconstitutional because it removes control over education from local school boards.

The 4-3 decision upheld a lower court ruling, the Associated Press reported.

Colorado’s voucher law had not been put into effect because of legal challenges. It was the first passed in the country after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld voucher programs in 2002.

The Colorado high court said the voucher program violated the local-control provisions of the state constitution because it required school districts to turn over some locally raised funds to private schools, which local school boards do not control.

Voucher supporters are expected to introduce a new version of the law in the 2005 legislature that would conform to the ruling. “I think it would be fairly easy to draft legislation that didn’t use local dollars,” said Rep. Nancy Spence.

The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, hailed the decision.

“This is a great victory for public schools and the taxpayers,” he said in a statement. “Public funds should never be diverted to religious and other private schools that don’t have to answer to the people.”

Study Says Women Hold Half of Administrative Jobs in Catholic Church

(RNS) A new study by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops found that women held nearly half of the administrative jobs available to laypeople in U.S. dioceses and archdioceses in 2003, but only about 27 percent of the “top positions.”

The “top positions” are defined in the study as “chiefs of pastoral services, finance, personnel education and community services.”

The survey, conducted by the National Association of of Church Personnel Administrators, canvassed 106 dioceses and archdioceses in the United States. That number represents 60 percent of all U.S. Catholic dioceses.

Both the number of women employed by the dioceses and the number of women in top leadership positions increased slightly from 2002, the study found.

In 1998, the Bishops’ Committee on Women in Society and in the Church encouraged the appointment of women to church leadership positions. The recent study was intended to “help gauge progress toward this goal.”

“The results of the survey are indeed encouraging,” said Bishop Edward P. Cullen of Allentown, Pa., who is the chairman of the committee. “Now that women hold nearly 50 percent of the diocesan leadership positions, there is an even greater need for the document that the Women’s Committee is developing to promote collaboration between the women and clergy.”

According to the survey, women hold 67 percent of the “non-supervisory professional positions” in U.S. Catholic dioceses. Included in that definition are executive secretaries to the bishops, payroll managers and media services coordinators.

_ Daniel Burke

Jews, Moderate Baptists Foster Ties Frayed in Past 25 Years

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (RNS) Moderate Baptists celebrated interfaith ties on Friday (June 25) in a joint luncheon with Jewish leaders held during the annual meeting of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

“During the past quarter-century, the relationship between Southern Baptists and members of the Jewish community has hit rock bottom,” said Robert Parham, executive director of the Baptist Center for Ethics, whose Nashville, Tenn.-based organization sponsored the gathering.

The opportunity for a joint gathering was welcomed by Jewish leaders.

“Working together with moderate Baptists can benefit both of us,” said Jonathan Levine, national director of community services for the American Jewish Committee in New York. “This is important to both of us.”

Parham said the luncheon could help usher in a new era of cooperation.

“Some ministers and rabbis are talking for the first time, forming new relationships,” he said. “Some Baptists have committed themselves to interfaith initiatives by simply being here today.”

Some religious leaders said cooperative efforts have occurred successfully in the past.

Rabbi Arnold Belzer of Congregation Mickve Israel in Savannah, Ga., founded in 1733 and the third-oldest U.S. synagogue, said First Baptist Church of Savannah has collaborated for more than a century with the Jewish community.

Pastor Steve Jones of Southside Baptist Church in Birmingham recalled hosting Temple Emanu-El during the synagogue’s renovation in 2001-02. “I got ready to do a baptism and found a yarmulke in the baptistery,” Jones said. Even though the church was criticized for allowing Temple Emanu-El to put a drape over the cross during its services, Jones said the experience drew the congregations close together.

“We are unashamedly Christians. They are unashamedly Jewish. And we are good friends,” he said.

The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, a group of moderates that formed in 1991 in reaction to the conservative turn by the 16.3 million-member Southern Baptist Convention, concluded its meeting Saturday.

_ Greg Garrison

Quote of the Day: Iraqi Christian Sabah Nasser

(RNS) “Please, Lord and Mother Mary, let there be no explosions on Ziad’s wedding. Please, God, keep car bombs and guns away from them on Friday. Amen.”

Sabah Nasser, an Iraqi Christian, telling the Wall Street Journal that she knelt before a framed poster of the Virgin Mary in her living room and silently prayed this prayer in the weeks leading up to her son’s recent marriage.

KRE/PH END RNS