c. 1996 Religion News Service
French bishop slain in Algeria
(RNS) Bishop Pierre Claverie, the French-born head of the diocese of Oran, Algeria, was assassinated Thursday (Aug. 1) by a bomb just hours after returning from a ceremony honoring seven French monks slain by Algerian terrorists.
Officials from both France and Algeria condemned the attack.
Pope John Paul II also expressed condolences.”I beseech the Lord to provide for (the church), and for the people of Algeria whose suffering and hopes it wants to share, the chance for a new stride toward a society in which man is not betrayed, in which violence has no place, and in which differences can be overcome for the good of all,”the pope said in a message reported by Reuters.
Claverie’s slaying came just as the bishop had returned to his residence after attending a ceremony in Algiers honoring the slain monks. At the ceremony he met with French Foreign Minister Herve de Charette.
The two discussed the safety of clergy in Algeria, where 19 priests, monks and nuns have been killed since 1992 by suspected Islamic militants seeking the overthrow of the Algerian government. The militants have targeted foreigners in Algeria.
Militants in the hardline Armed Islamic Group have been waging a terrorist campaign against foreigners since 1993, following the 1992 cancellation of a general election in which another Muslim group, the Islamic Salvation Front, was poised to win.
The ISF condemned the killing of Claverie as”sadistic and immoral.” Claverie, 58, although a French citizen, was born in Algeria and supported the Algerian fight for independence from France during the 1954-62 war of liberation.
In May, after the slaying of the seven monks, Claverie was asked why he did not leave Algeria.”The church in Algeria is Algerian, not French,”he replied.”Our blood is mixed. We have chosen to share the fate of the Algerian people for better or for worse.”
Women’s meeting in Europe urges access to power in church, society
(RNS) More than 1,000 women, most from Europe but representing 45 countries, have adopted a statement demanding women’s full-participation in their churches, including ordination to the Roman Catholic priesthood.
The ecumenical European Women’s Synod, meeting in Gmuden, Austria, also called for the separation of church and state in Europe and urged efforts to overcome poverty in Europe, especially in the nations of Eastern Europe.
In a five-page statement adopted at the end of the July 18-21 meeting, the delegates spelled out a host of concerns touching on politics, economics, spirituality and personal development.”Women’s rights are fundamental human rights,”the declaration said.”We demand their implementation in Europe as well as on the global level.”We reject as illegal every form of violence against women, physical, structural and cultural.” On spiritual issues, the Gmuden declaration stated that”women have spiritual and religious authority in all spheres of life.”We therefore demand access to all church ministries, including the ordained ministry of women in the Roman Catholic Church.” The statement said the women were”inspired by creation spirituality”and affirmed”the spirituality of women’s experiences as a new mysticism and prophecy born in the solidarity and struggle for justice, peace and the integrity of creation.” Previous national”women’s synods”have been held in The Netherlands, Austria, Germany and Switzerland.
Falwell to launch yearlong”God Save America”campaign
(RNS) The Rev. Jerry Falwell, who catapulted to national fame in the 1970s as the founder of the Moral Majority, has announced that he will lead a yearlong”God Save America”campaign calling the nation to repentance, prayer and fasting.”I strongly believe that America is perilously close to experiencing the judgment of God,”Falwell said in an article in the July issue of his National Liberty Journal, a conservative Christian monthly.”I do not believe the Republicans or the Democrats have the solution to America’s moral and spiritual dilemma. Only a pervasive and national spiritual awakening can prevent us from entering the post-Christian era as we go into the 21st century.” Falwell, pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Va., plans to appear at rallies at mostly evangelical churches across the country.
The article noted that Falwell held similar rallies in 1976, which served as a catalyst to the formation of the Moral Majority. The organization folded in 1988.
But Falwell spokesman Mark DeMoss said the 1996 rallies are not a precursor to a new organization.”He’s not going to relaunch the Moral Majority or anything like it,”DeMoss said.”This is really just going to be a series of rallies in churches. This will be much more spiritual in nature and content than political.” The campaign also will serve as an admissions tool because Falwell plans to meet with prospective Liberty University students at receptions prior to each rally, DeMoss said. Falwell is the chancellor of Liberty University, which, according to his publication, expects to have a record 1996-97 fall enrollment of 6,000 resident students and 8,000″external degree”and doctoral program students.
Use of tax money to support pope’s visit sparks flurry of French protests
(RNS) Plans to earmark taxpayer money to help pay for next month’s visit to France by Pope John Paul II has sparked a small flurry of protests, including a lawsuit filed on Friday (Aug. 2), Reuters reported.
John Paul is scheduled to visit Reims, Tours and Brittany during his Sept. 19-22 trip.”We’re not against the pope’s visit,”said Andre Fitament, head of the group that filed the suit in Brittany.”But public subsidies planned for this visit contradict republican law, which since 1905 has decreed a separation between church and state.” The group asked the Rennes administrative tribunal in Brittany to cancel a plan for spending $60,000 in connection with the pope’s stop at the pilgrim’s shrine of Sainte-Anne d’Aubray.
Small marches against the pope’s visit have also been held in Reims.
United Methodist Church reports a hefty increase in giving
(RNS) Giving to the major benevolence funds of the United Methodist Church during the first six months of the year were a hefty 3.5 percent, or $1.1 million, more than in the same period in 1995, the denomination has reported.
The so-called”apportioned,”or benevolence funds, which finance the operation of the denomination’s national offices as well as such projects as ministerial education, mission initiatives, the Africa University, and the historically black colleges related to the denomination, received a total of $33.7 million during the first six months of the year, the Council on Finance and Administration said.
In addition, the denomination reported that giving to its”Advance Specials,”designated funds dealing with particular disaster relief or special national and world mission projects, was $12 million for the first six months. Because of changing world conditions, the giving to those funds was not compared with the previous year.
Church of God fires official for keeping his book profits
(RNS) The Church of God, a Pentecostal denomination headquartered in Cleveland, Tenn., has fired its top official over a dispute over who should get the profits from the books he wrote _ him or the church, the Associated Press reported Friday (Aug. 2).
At issue is $40,614 in profits from books authored by Robert White, general overseer of the 4 million-member denomination.
According to church spokesman Mike Baker, White was fired as overseer on July 12. At the same time, his ministerial credentials were revoked for one year.
The church’s 18-member governing council said it believed all profits from three books, copyrighted in the name of White and his wife, Kathy,”should have been the property of the Church of God.
Gypsies mark the wartime mass murder of their people at Auschwitz
(RNS) Gypsies from across Europe gathered at the former Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp on Friday (Aug 2) to mourn the mass murder of Roma people by the Nazis during World War II.
Up to 1.5 million people, mostly Jews, were killed at Auschwitz during World War II. Among their number were 21,000 Gypsies.
The annual ceremony recalls the gasing on the night of Aug. 2, 1944, of about 3,000 Gypsy prisoners _ largely women and children _ and commemorates hundreds of thousands of other Gypsies killed by the Nazis in what the Gypsies call the”forgotten Holocaust.” Reuters reported that about 200 members of Roma communities from Germany, The Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Australia attended the ceremony.
Quote of the day: Church historian Leon McBeth on women and ministry
(RNS) Leon McBeth, a church historian at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, spoke at a recent Texas Baptist study committee on current trends in American religion. According to Associated Baptist Press, an independent Baptist news agency, one of the trends McBeth identified is the increased leadership role of women in the nation’s churches, including Baptists:”What we are now seeing in women’s ministries in the church is not so much new as a recovery of earlier roles. In the 21st century, a Southern Baptist church with men-only deacons will be the exception. A church or denomination that rejects women from leadership roles will forfeit the future.”
MJP END RNS
