c. 2006 Religion News Service

Swiss Religious Leaders Launch Europe’s First Interfaith Council

PARIS (RNS) Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders in Switzerland have inaugurated the country’s first interfaith council _ and possibly the first in Western Europe _ aimed at promoting dialogue, peace and understanding among the country’s three main religions.

“The most important thing is not just the inter-religious dialogue _ this goes on all the time among churches and religious organizations on many levels,” said Thomas Wipf, president of the Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches, and a member of the new council. “It’s also tackling the challenge of how to live together.”

The new Swiss Council of Religions was launched Monday (May 15), and seeks to work together on thorny issues such as immigration and integration, and to try to understand religious sensitivities and priorities among its different members.

It will also act as a representative body for the three faiths before the Swiss government.

“It’s important to tackle very difficult and dividing questions, and not just the ones where we have the same opinions,” Wipf said in a telephone interview from Bern.

As elsewhere in Europe, the once overwhelmingly Christian face of Switzerland has changed markedly in recent decades. Today, Islam is the country’s second-largest faith after Christianity, with Muslims accounting for more than 5 percent of the country’s 7.4 million people.

“Now, we are more multi-religious and multicultural. It’s a new situation we have to deal with,” Wipf said of Switzerland. “Many people are afraid of it. And we don’t know what the Jews and Muslims think about the challenges in our society, and vice versa.”

The three faiths face another common challenge _ growing secularization in Switzerland, as in elsewhere in Europe.

Wipf first thought about creating the religious council in 2003, shortly before the start of the war in Iraq. Representatives from Switzerland’s main religious bodies signed a joint declaration at the time vowing to maintain peace among the faiths.

It was the first time, he said, that Jewish and Muslim leaders had met, face to face.

“We were all very concerned about the instrumentalization of religion by all sides,” Wipf said of the Iraqi conflict. “And we thought in every religion there is a very deep wish for freedom and to live together. We wanted to take our responsibility as Christians, Jews and Muslims in Switzerland.”

_ Elizabeth Bryant

Ndungane, Ally of U.S. Church in Africa, to Retire in 2008

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (RNS) Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane, 65, announced he will retire in 2008 from his position as leader of the 4 million- member Anglican Church in Southern Africa.

“It is an extremely demanding position with many wide-ranging responsibilities, and although _ according to the canons of our church _ I could continue to fill it until I am 70, I have decided that the time is coming for me to step down,” Ndungane said in a statement Thursday (May 18).

The successor to Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu, Ndungane has been the spiritual leader of an Anglican province stretching from South Africa to the northern limits of Angola and Mozambique. Before his retirement, Ndungane anticipates serving alongside his successor, who will be chosen next year.

He said the new archbishop will be in a position to carry forward decisions made during the 2008 Lambeth Conference _ a global gathering of Anglican bishops _ after an extensive training period.

For 10 years, Ndungane has drawn wide respect throughout the 77 million-member Anglican Communion, serving as a chair of the influential Lambeth Conference in 1998 and as an Anglican representative at the Vatican.

But in recent years, he has been a focus of controversy for strongly supporting openly gay Episcopal Bishop V. Gene Robinson and the liberal-leaning U.S. church. Confrontations with Nigeria’s Archbishop Peter Akinola, who vociferously condemns the ordination of homosexuals, has largely overshadowed Ndungane’s attempts at social reform.

Ndungane, a political detainee during the apartheid era, said he is ready to pursue other passions, particularly the African Monitor _ an organization he developed as a watchdog over spending of donated funds on the continent.

“Happily for me, there is life after being an archbishop and there are many projects I wish to pursue once I have retired. I will continue my interest in issues of development,” Ndungane said.

Since 1996, Ndungane has led attempts to refocus the mission of the church from issues of sexuality toward the completion of the United Nations anti-poverty Millennium Development Goals. He said he also hopes to support the revival of traditional church schools in South Africa, which fostered an educated black elite during the apartheid struggle but have since fallen into disrepair.

“Most of all, what I believe our church needs now is an injection of youthful energy and enthusiasm so that it continues to serve southern Africans in ways that meet their present-day needs,” he said.

_ Jason Kane

Nevaeh _ A Rather Backward Name _ Soars in Popularity

(RNS) Spell heaven backwards and what do you get? The 70th most popular name for American baby girls.

Nevaeh, usually pronounced nuh-VAY-uh, cracked the top 100 names for newborn baby girls for the first time in 2005, with 4,457, according to the New York Times.

It is the fastest-rising name since the Social Security Administration began keeping such records more than a century ago. In 1999, only eight newborn girls were named Nevaeh.

The Times reports that the name, which holds no Biblical significance, is popular among African-Americans and evangelical Christians. Nevaeh was more popular last year than names like Amanda, Sara and Vanessa.

The major reason for the surge in Nevaeh is MTV. Christian rocker Sonny Sandoval of P.O.D. mentioned his new baby daughter Nevaeh on the network in 2000. That year, there were 86 Nevaehs. The next year the number shot up to 1,191.

The name Heaven ranked 245th in 2005.

_ Nate Herpich

Diverse Groups Join to Seek Common Ground on Sexual Issues

WASHINGTON (RNS) Delegates of Planned Parenthood, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the National Organization of Women and the National Council of Churches have all reached some agreement on a topic that usually divides them _ sex.

Members of these groups, and 14 others whose views range from abortion and birth-control rights to staunch opposition to abortion, together released an interim report Thursday (May 18) on the sexual health and behavior of Americans.

While the points of consensus were relatively controversy-free _ such as a call for parental responsibility and a condemnation of sexual violence _ the fact that members of such diverse groups came together marks a milestone, officials said, even though some groups walked away from the process.

“We feel that America needs to talk more about sex and sexual health, and especially in a mature and respectful fashion,” said Dr. David Satcher, former U.S. surgeon general and interim president of the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta.

“We got a group of people who aren’t known for talking to each other … but who agreed to try and come together.”

Satcher led the project on behalf of his school’s Sexual Health Program in the National Center for Primary Care, following up on his calls for more discussion of sexuality. He convened a series of meetings among the groups from April 2004 to February 2006.

“It became an incredible opportunity to build towards the common good,” said the Rev. Michael D. Place, the recently retired president of the Catholic Health Association. “I never get uncomfortable with the presence of folks with whom I disagree as long as we can build toward something that would be good for the society.”

Sharon Camp, president of the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a left-leaning sexual research firm, agreed with Place.

“I had to get inside the heads of people that I had never really had much of a conversation with before,” Camp said. “I think that if we can continue to have these types of conversations, we might be able to lower the level of polemics a little bit. … I think that in the future we’re all going to cut each other a lot more slack.”

But of the 28 participants invited to the discussions, three rejected the invitation upfront, and seven people withdrew from the talks. Andrea Lafferty, executive director of the conservative Traditional Values Coalition, said she withdrew from the discussions because of repeated “unprofessional and nasty comments.”

Lafferty claimed Satcher personally berated her a number of times, adding that Janice Crouse, a senior fellow for Concerned Women for America, was “practically threatened by him” and also left as a result.

Others who left included Kevin Jennings from the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network and Walt Larimore, a former top official of Focus on the Family.

“It was never balanced from the beginning,” argued Lafferty. “There was a spirit of continued intimidation and an attempt to intimidate those of us who were religious conservatives.”

Lafferty said she has not seen the interim report but said there is “no way that it can be balanced, and probably … should be disregarded.”

_ Piet Levy

Report Says Williams Favors Two-Track Solution for Anglicans

LONDON (RNS) Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams is backing a plan that, in hopes of avoiding open schism, would allow liberals and conservatives in the worldwide Anglican Communion to move along separate paths on contentious issues such as gay clergy, the London Daily Telegraph reported Friday (May 19).

The newspaper said it had obtained a copy of the proposals, which it described as “audacious” and said had been drafted by senior advisers and approved by Williams and church leaders at a private meeting in March.

The report suggested the “two-speed” plan could permit North American liberals _ in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada _ to push ahead with divisive reforms such as openly gay bishops while the majority of conservatives in the 77 million-strong global Anglican Communion continue along their own, more traditional path.

The blueprint is seen as the basis for a new “covenant” aimed at averting future crises such as the furor over the gay issue that was triggered by the Episcopal Church’s consecrating Gene Robinson as Anglicanism’s first openly gay bishop. The move has pushed the Anglican Communion to the edge of outright schism.

The blueprint was short on details, but the Daily Telegraph said the archbishop of Canterbury will appoint a 10-member panel to “flesh out” the proposals with practical terms and procedures ahead of the 2008 Lambeth Conference of bishops.

The preliminary plan calls for all 38 autonomous Anglican Church provinces that make up the worldwide Communion to be asked to sign the covenant as an agreement that would stop them from acting unilaterally over contentious issues.

But even if a number of provinces _ the Daily Telegraph suggested that up to one-third of the 38 _ refuse to sign because they want to retain their freedom, under terms of the covenant they would not necessarily be seen as less Anglican. The could, however, find themselves still shoved toward the fringes.

Other potential pitfalls abound. The newspaper report suggested that Anglican conservatives could see this whole project as an attempt to buy their compliance amid their demands that the U.S. church be kicked out of the Communion because of Robinson.

But what Williams hopes, the Daily Telegraph said, is that the plan “may help to dilute some of the acrimony and distrust that has grown up between the rival factions of the church.”

_ Al Webb

Insurer Aims to Limit Swimming Deaths at Church Summer Camps

(RNS) A leading insurer of religious organizations has developed a new system designed to eliminate drowning deaths at church-owned summer camps.

Church Mutual Insurance Company’s Swimmer Safety Program features fluorescent, color-coded wristbands that swimmers wear to indicate the level of their swimming ability.

Non-swimmers wear red wristbands according to the program’s system, intermediate swimmers yellow and “qualified swimmers” will wear green. Non-swimmers must stay in designated areas, while intermediates are forbidden from entering water above their shoulders.

“These bright-colored wristbands are intended to allow lifeguards and other supervisors to quickly scan the swimming area to see if a poor swimmer has wandered beyond the safe zone,” said Rick Schaber, the company’s risk control manager.

In 2004, 11 people covered under Church Mutual policies drowned _ a nearly 100 percent spike from the year before _ and 38 have died by drowning since 1998. Church Mutual insures 94,000 religious organizations nationwide.

According to the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, in 2003 there were 3,306 unintentional non-boating-related deaths from drowning in the United States.

_ Nate Herpich

Randall Terry, Founder of Operation Rescue, Joins Catholic Church

(RNS) Randall Terry, the anti-abortion activist who founded and directed Operation Rescue, left his evangelical roots to join the Catholic Church just days before Easter.

Now president of the Society for Truth and Justice and a state Senate candidate in Florida, Terry, 46, told the National Catholic Register that his conversion began when he became friends with Catholic clergy.

“They told me that the farther you go in Reformation theology, the more you end up in Catholicism and liturgy,” Terry told the newspaper, a conservative independent weekly.

Terry ran Operation Rescue, a group that frequently blocked entrances to abortion clinics, from 1987 until the mid-1990s. He told the newspaper that a string of lawsuits by abortion-rights organizations led him to file for bankruptcy in 1998. He also divorced and remarried.

In 2005, Terry thrust himself into the high-profile Terry Schiavo situation, siding with Schiavo’s parents as they conducted an unsuccessful fight to keep their brain-damaged daughter alive.

Terry said he had always been impressed by his Catholic friends’ devotion to fighting abortion.

“I would look at my evangelical friends, who would come and go from the pro-life movement. They would proclaim undying devotion for pro-life activism and then later disappear. Then I would look at my Roman Catholic friends who would never swerve. That had a tremendous magnetism for me,” Terry said.

After overcoming the “hurdles” of papal infallibility, Marian dogma and purgatory, Terry was confirmed in the Catholic faith during Holy Week at a church in Binghamton, N.Y.

Terry, a Republican who ran for Congress in New York in 1998, said he hopes his evangelical and Catholic ties will be an asset in his political career.

“My wife says that I am bilingual _ I can speak both languages,” Terry said.

_ Daniel Burke

N.Y. Military Chaplain Cleared for Possible Sainthood

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. (RNS) A military chaplain who was killed in 1967 during the Vietnam War has been officially declared a “Servant of God,” which sets him on a path to possible sainthood.

The Rev. Vincent Capodanno, popularly known as “the Grunt Padre,” received the designation during a Mass on Saturday (May 20) at the Basilica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.

Father Vincent, as he was known to his eight siblings, was a Maryknoll missionary who left the safety of a parish in Taiwan in 1966 to serve as a chaplain in Vietnam.

Sixteen months after he arrived in the country, he was killed while caring for a wounded Marine in a raging battle.

Now, thanks to the untiring efforts of his brother, James Capodanno of Eltingville, N.Y., the organization Catholics in the Military, and the Archdiocese for Military Services in Washington, the Vatican announced in February that it had accepted the cause of canonization for Capodanno.

To be named a saint, Capodanno’s intercession would have to be found responsible for two miracles.

_ Leslie Palma-Simoncek

Quote of the Week: Mormon convert and singer Gladys Knight

(RNS) “They thought I was crazy. They thought I had lost my mind. `What are you doing over there with those Mormons? They don’t like black people.’ Yes, when I came to this church, I asked, `Do y’all like black people or not?”’

_ R&B Grammy winner Gladys Knight, speaking at the Suitland (Md.) Stake Center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the weekend of May 20. She was quoted by The Washington Post.

KRE/JL END RNS