c. 2006 Religion News Service

Pope, Williams Acknowledge `Serious Obstacles’ to Unity

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Doctrinal differences between the Anglican Church and the Vatican loomed large as the archbishop of Canterbury paid a visit to Pope Benedict XVI.

As Archbishop Rowan Williams met with Benedict in the Vatican on Thursday (Nov. 23), recent decisions by some Anglicans to sanction gay bishops, women priests and same-sex marriages _ practices that the Vatican continues to fiercely oppose _ continued to hamper the decades-long push to improve ties between the two churches.

A joint statement released at the conclusion of the meeting acknowledged the difficulty ahead.

“Our long journey together makes it necessary to acknowledge publicly the challenge represented by new developments which, besides being divisive for Anglicans, present serious obstacles to our ecumenical progress,” the statement said.

The two churches officially split in the 16th century when King Henry VIII broke ties with Rome and founded the Church of England. In recent years, Anglicans have struggled to keep their own ranks from splintering after the Episcopal Church _ the U.S. branch of Anglicanism _ approved an openly gay bishop in 2003.

Before he was elected as Pope Benedict XVI, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger sent his “heartfelt prayers” to conservative Episcopalians in 2003, saying “there is a unity in truth and a communion of grace which transcend the borders of any nation.”

In his meeting with Williams, the pope seemed to indicate nothing had changed.

“Recent developments, especially concerning the ordained ministry and certain moral teachings, have affected not only internal relations within the Anglican Communion but also relations between the Anglican Communion and the Catholic Church,” Benedict told Williams.

_ Stacy Meichtry

Muslim Leaders Say Islamic Ringtones Hit a Sour Note

CHENNAI, India (RNS) Muslim clerics in India have asked people not to use verses from the Quran as ringtones for their mobile phones, saying the practice violates Islamic law.

“Koran verses are not meant for entertainment,” said Mohammed Asumin Qazmi, an official of the Dar-ul-Uloom seminary at Deoband, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. “Anyone who persists in using Koran verses or Muslim call to prayers should be ostracized from society.”

A leading cleric in the state capital of Lucknow, Mufti Badrul Hasan, said he fully supported a ban on such ringtones. “One should hear the complete verse of the Quran with a pious mind and in silence. If it is used as a ringtone, a person is bound to switch on the mobile phone, thus truncating the verse halfway,” he said. “This is an un-Islamic act.”

Three Islamic ringtones were introduced in mobile phones by Reliance, one of India’s major telecom operators. But Shiite cleric Maulana Arshad Jafri is agitated over the “anti-Islamic nature” of some tones. He has asked Reliance to withdraw the tones.

Maulana Jafri said all music was alien to Islam. By introducing musical ringtones as Islamic tones, the company had hurt the sentiments of Muslims.

Some Muslims, including clergymen, take a different line, however, calling the controversy unnecessary. Faiz Siddiqui, a Muslim bank manager, said: “Whenever my cellphone rings, I hear verses that stress the values of hard work and honesty, and I feel closer to my religion.”

_ Achal Narayanan

Report Says Women Clergy Could Help Fill Empty Anglican Pulpits

LONDON (RNS) Women priests could well be the salvation of the Church of England because without them, its pulpits threaten to become “depopulated” in the years ahead, according to research by a leading British university.

The findings by the University of Manchester, published Sunday (Nov. 26), indicated that nearly a quarter of the church’s male parish priests are 60 or older, and nearly half of all priests ordained in recent years have been women.

The Church of England began ordaining women in 1994, and they account for about 2,000 of its 12,000 priests today. Across the world, 26 of the 38 Anglican churches (including the Episcopal Church in the United States) allow women clergy.

“Without women,” said David Voas, the senior researcher on the Manchester project, the Church of England’s pulpits “would become as depopulated as the pews in the years to come.”

“It seems pretty clear that in a couple of decades, women will not only be 50 percent of the inflow,” he told the Reuters news agency, “but 50 percent of the stock of serving clergy.”

For all that, Voas said, the Church of England “is far from being an equal opportunity employer. Women are not yet allowed to become bishops, and they are far more likely to be `second-class’ clergy.”

He cited statistics from the English Church Census, funded by Britain’s Economic and Social Research Council, showing that there were no women priests in churches with 300 or more worshippers on a typical Sunday.

“The larger the church,” Voas said, “the more likely it is that a man will be put in charge.”

“Women are left with the dregs,” he told reporters. “Well over half of women ministers in all denominations serve in rural areas, with very few found in the flagship city center churches.”

The Church of England continues to debate whether to elevate women as bishops, although churches in Canada, New Zealand and the United States have chosen women as bishops.

_ Al Webb

Quote of the Day: Muslim American Society Executive Mahdi Bray

(RNS) “It’s a shame that as an African-American and a Muslim I have the double whammy of having to worry about driving while black and flying while Muslim.”

_ Mahdi Bray, executive director of the Washington-based Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, reacting to the removal of six imams from a US Airways flight Nov. 20.

KRE/PH END RNS