c. 2005 Religion News Service
Black Religious Leaders Announce October `Millions More Movement’
WASHINGTON (RNS) Dozens of black religious leaders gathered Monday (May 2) to announce plans to bring African-American men, women and children to the nation’s capital for a massive Oct. 15 rally on the National Mall.
Commemorating the 10th anniversary of the “Million Man March” _ which brought nearly 2 million black men to Washington in 1995, according to organizers _ the “Millions More Movement” rally in October will have the theme “A Declaration for a Covenant With God.”
The Rev. Jesse Jackson of the Rainbow PUSH coalition, Dorothy Height of the National Council of Negro Women and other religious leaders joined Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, convener of both the “Million Man March” and the “Millions More Movement.” The announcement was made at the National Press Club, in what organizers promoted as a show of African-American unity across religious and political lines.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, 2004 presidential candidate, said the U.S. needs strong black leaders rather than “leading blacks” chosen by powerful institutions.
“Black leaders are anointed by God,” Sharpton said.
Benjamin Chavis, former national executive director of the “Million Man” and “Million Family” marches, said the October rally will bring together people of different faiths.
“While we talk about different religions, there’s only one God,” Chavis said to the crowd of more than 100 _ including black Christian, Jewish and Muslim groups _ gathered Monday to support the march.
Bishop Vashti McKenzie, the first female bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, said in a statement read at the event that black men and women must join hands to fight for common causes.
“Let us come together as the whole family of God in the `Millions More Movement,”’ McKenzie said.
March demands emphasized by the speakers included preserving the Voting Rights Act, gender equity, workers’ rights, and united action to combat high rates of poverty and imprisonment in black communities.
Farrakhan said the conditions for black families in the U.S. amount to a “moral and spiritual death.”
“When we awaken we will call the whole world back to the worship of God and the brotherhood of humanity,” Farrakhan said.
“We have a mission that’s bigger than all of us.”
_ Celeste Kennel-Shank
Pope Marks One-Month Anniversary of John Paul II’s Death
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI marked the one-month anniversary of the death of Pope John Paul II on Monday (May 2) by celebrating a Mass in his memory and praying at his tomb beneath St. Peter’s Basilica.
Benedict concelebrated a morning “month’s mind” Mass with Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, who was John Paul’s secretary and closest aide, in the private chapel attached to the papal apartment in the Apostolic Palace.
The Vatican said the pope then planned to make a private visit for a moment of prayer at his predecessor’s tomb in the Vatican grottoes, which was closed to the public. Benedict had visited the tomb for John Paul’s burial, and for prayers with his fellow cardinals before the conclave that elected him to succeed John Paul.
_ Peggy Polk
New Pope Transitioning Into Job
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI continues to methodically transition into his new job.
On Saturday (April 30), he took over the repainted papal apartment _ but without his piano and his cats, which are expected to be delivered after further renovation is completed this summer.
The cats, according to the pope’s longtime assistant, musician Ingrid Stampa, “are an amusing legend.” She said they are not real cats but are made of porcelain. They were given to Benedict by nuns from a Benedictine Monastery near Florence “because they knew how much he loves cats,” she said.
On Sunday (May 1), he led midday prayer for the first time for some 40,000 pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square. Benedict greeted the crowd from his study window on the fourth floor of the Apostolic Palace.
Benedict is scheduled to hold his first audiences with two heads of state this week. He will receive Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi on Tuesday and President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa on Friday.
On Thursday, the pope will travel by helicopter to Castelgandolfo, a hill town about 25 miles south of Rome, to take possession of his country residence.
Even though he was formally inaugurated as pope in a public Mass on April 24, Benedict will not be fully installed until Saturday, when he will preside as bishop of Rome at a Mass in the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the cathedral of Rome and the “mother and chief of all churches.”
The last piece of still unfinished business is the pending appointment of a new prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the powerful position of guardian of Catholic faith and morals that, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he held for more than two decades.
Benedict on Saturday approved the selection of Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican secretary of state, as dean of the College of Cardinals, a post Ratzinger held as cardinal. Cardinal Roger Etchegaray was chosen to succeed Sodano as assistant dean.
_ Peggy Polk
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Woman Nominated to Head Gay Denomination
(RNS) A longtime leader in the Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC) has been nominated as the next moderator _ and first woman _ to lead the predominantly gay Christian denomination.
The Rev. Nancy Wilson, currently pastor of Church of the Trinity MCC in Sarasota, Fla., was nominated to succeed the Rev. Troy Perry, the founder and longtime moderator of the 44,000-member church.
If confirmed by the church’s General Conference in Calgary, Alberta, this July, Wilson would be the first woman and only the second moderator of the MCC since its founding in 1968 in Los Angeles.
Wilson was the sole nominee of a five-member church search committee, and her application was then ratified by all eight of the church’s regional conferences.
From 1979 to 1999, Wilson was the church’s ecumenical officer, and also served as vice moderator from 1993 to 2003. In 1976, she was elected as the youngest member of the church’s Board of Elders and continues to hold a seat on the board.
Wilson, 54, has pastored four MCC churches, including 14 years as senior pastor of the MCC’s “mother church” in Los Angeles. A former United Methodist, she holds a divinity degree from SS. Cyril and Methodius Seminary, a Catholic seminary in Michigan. She has lived with her partner, Paula Schoenwether, for 27 years.
If confirmed by delegates at the convention in Calgary, she will be installed at an Oct. 29 ceremony at Washington National Cathedral.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Associated Church Press Names `Best in Class,’ Other Winners
(RNS) The Alabama Baptist newspaper, the Mennonite Weekly Review and U.S. Catholic magazine were among the top winners in the “Best in Class” categories of the annual Associated Church Press awards.
The Alabama Baptist won an Award of Excellence in the regional newspaper category. The Mennonite Weekly Review won the same honor in the national or international newspaper category. U.S. Catholic was similarly honored in the category of denominational general interest magazine.
The awards were presented April 26 during the organization’s annual meeting in Nashville, Tenn.
Other top “Best in Class” winners were:
Special-interest magazine: Horizons
Ecumenical Magazine: Sojourners
Journal: Touchstone
Newsletter: Vital Theology
News Service: Presbyterian News Service
Independent Web site or E-zine: Cafe _ Stirring the Spirit Within
Religion News Service was honored several times, including a second-place “Best in Class” win in the news service category.
RNS Senior Correspondent Adelle M. Banks won an Award of Excellence for a news story on Christian teens who admit to music piracy and an Award of Merit for a biographical profile of George Beverly Shea, a longtime singer with evangelist Billy Graham’s crusades.
RNS National Correspondent Kevin Eckstrom won an Award of Excellence for his coverage of the United Methodist General Conference last spring.
The Associated Church Press is believed to be the oldest religious press association in North America.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Quote of the Day: California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown
(RNS) “There seems to have been no time since the Civil War that this country was so bitterly divided. It’s not a shooting war, but it is a war. … These are perilous times for people of faith.”
_ California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown, a U.S. appeals court nominee, speaking April 24 in Darien, Conn., at a Roman Catholic Mass with lawyers and judges sponsored by the Diocese of Bridgeport. She was quoted by The Advocate of Stamford, Conn.
MO/PH END RNS
