c. 1997 Religion News Service
North Korea to allow church aid coordinator in
(RNS) North Korea, one of the world’s most closed societies but faced with a potentially devastating famine and badly in need of outside aid, has agreed to allow a special liaison officer into its territory to coordinate and oversee relief aid by church agencies and other non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
Erich Weingartner, a former World Council of Churches (WCC) official, will head the new Food Aid Liaison Unit that will be housed in the offices of the United Nations’ World Food Program _ the major international agency supplying aid to North Korea _ but will be financed by church and non-governmental relief agencies.
Weingartner, who was recommended for the post by Action by Churches Together (ACT), the joint WCC-Lutheran World Federation relief agency, has a one-year assignment to North Korea. He will facilitate the visits of relief agency delegations to the country and serve as their liaison with the North Korean government.
According to reports out of North Korea, the famine has left entire villages surviving on diets of grass, straw and weeds, while hospitals are unable to function because of a lack of fuel, food and drugs.
The World Food Program estimates that North Korea will need at least 1.3 million tons of food to meet its basic needs in 1997. It has appealed for 200,000 tons of aid _ worth about $96 million _ but to date has received less than half that.
Relief efforts have been plagued by world politics and the North Koreans’ extreme suspicion of foreigners. On Tuesday (May 13), North Korea accused the South Korean government of blocking aid from religious and other private groups.
According to Reuters, a statement by the Korean Religionists Council _ an official North Korean agency _ said South Korea’s insistence that private aid to the North go through official channels is”throwing a chill over the assistance to the North.” Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious news agency, said the North Korean government requested the presence of an NGO liaison because it needed help in meeting NGO requirements, such as prompt information for contributors about what happens to the aid and assurances it reaches the people it is intended to help.
Alabama clergy oppose courtroom prayer, Ten Commandments display
(RNS) A group of 50 Alabama clergy have filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the Supreme Court of Alabama arguing that Judge Roy Moore’s sponsorship of Christian prayers and the display of the Ten Commandments in his Gadsen, Ala., courtroom violates the Constitution.”Church-state separation is not an anti-religious concept,”the clerics said in their brief,”but instead protects religious diversity and equality by ensuring that government remains neutral on religious matters, neither favoring nor inhibiting religion.” The brief was one of a flurry of written arguments filed with the Alabama court as it considers a lower court decision that ruled against Moore’s practices. The lower court had said Moore must confine his judicial authority to the secular matters within his authority and insisted he not inject his personal religious beliefs into his official actions.
The case has drawn national attention and involvement, pitting religious conservatives against liberals and church-state separationists.
An April 12 rally in Montgomery, Ala., in support of Moore and featuring Christian Coalition executive director Ralph Reed, was endorsed by a host of national conservative groups, including the American Family Association, the Eagle Forum, Concerned Women for America and the American Center for Law and Justice.
But the case has also drawn opposition from national groups.
The American Jewish Congress has called on the Alabama Judiciary Commission to investigate Moore’s conduct following remarks the judge made that he would ignore any ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court that went against his courtroom religious practices.
Joining the 50 Alabama clergy in signing the brief were the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs, the Interfaith Alliance, and the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.
A separate brief also asking the Alabama court to ban Moore’s practices has been filed by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the American Jewish Congress and People for the American Way. It argued that the use of courtroom walls to espouse a specific religious doctrine _ Moore’s display of the Ten Commandments _ clearly links religion and government.”Over the last decade, the courts have considered a significant number of cases involving religious speech by government, whether speech is explicit or symbolic,”the brief said.”The upshot of these cases is that, as a general rule, government and its officials may not broadcast religious messages.”
Roman, Orthodox churches seek to ease tensions in Ukraine
(RNS) Amid growing tensions between Orthodox Christians and Roman Catholics in Ukraine, the Vatican and the Orthodox patriarchate in Moscow have urged both sides to tone down their rhetoric to achieve reconciliation.
Since the collapse of the former Soviet Union, the division between the two churches has sharpened, with frequent outbreaks of violence between them.
The mutual call for restraint was made in a joint statement Tuesday (May 13), after a May 7-8 meeting in the southern Italian port city of Bari. The meeting also involved representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the Greek-Catholic Church.”Both parties stated the need to activate efforts of reconciliation and to eradicate every form of violence, whether it be physical, verbal or moral,”the communique said.
The churches declared that a joint study should be conducted on the theological and pastoral practices that divide them.
The two sides also recommended that the Orthodox and Catholic communities in Ukraine establish a working group composed of two bishops, one from each church, to resolve disputes.
The Greek Catholics are aligned with the Roman Church, while the Orthodox follow the patriarchate in Moscow.
Reconciliation between the Eastern churches and Rome has become a buzzword in Vatican circles, with Pope John Paul II regularly appealing for unity, which has evaded the two camps for centuries. The Eastern churches do not accept the primacy of the Roman papacy, upon which John Paul insists for full unity.
Planned attack on pope in Lebanon alleged
(RNS) The Lebanese government was warned by Interpol _ the international police intelligence agency _ about a possible assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II during his visit to the Middle East nation last weekend.
In a statement Tuesday (May 13), the Lebanese Interior Ministry said”Beirut Interpol bureau received telegrams on Friday, May 9, from Europe saying that some groups prepared a military operation using rockets against the pope during his visit to Lebanon,”Reuters reported.”All security and military organs took the necessary measures to prevent any criminal acts from occurring,”the ministry said.
Beirut newspapers said the terrorists’ plan was to shoot down the pope’s plane using surface-to-air missiles. However, Lebanese officials stressed they had no knowledge an attack was imminent and insisted the missiles were never brought into Lebanon, the Associated Press reported.
Islamic extremists were said to be behind the alleged plot.
The Vatican had no comment.
John Paul spent 32 hours in Lebanon. On Sunday, he celebrated Mass in Beirut before an estimated 500,000 people.
In April, a papal trip to Sarajevo, Bosnia, was marred by the discovery of anti-tank mines planted under a bridge along the pope’s planned route into that city.
Dove Award winner’s”Butterfly Kisses”hits secular music charts
(RNS)”Butterfly Kisses,”the composition named”Song of the Year”at the Gospel Music Association’s 1997 Dove Awards, has become a hit on secular music stations.
The ballad on the album”Shades of Grace”was performed and co-written by contemporary Christian artist Bob Carlisle, who wrote the ballad for his daughter Brooke. It also won a Dove for inspirational recorded song of the year.”`Butterfly Kisses’ is a song that was never intended to even be on the album,”Carlisle said while accepting the Dove April 24 in Nashville.”I wrote it a couple of years ago as a gift for my daughter on her 16th birthday. I was persuaded to put it on the record.” Now, the album is No. 1 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart and No. 1 on the music magazine’s Heatseekers chart for the week ending May 17. It has been on the Top Contemporary Christian chart for 44 weeks, reported USA Today.
The opening lyrics are:”There’s two things I know for sure. She was sent here from heaven, and she’s Daddy’s little girl.” Carlisle, who co-wrote the song with Randy Thomas, told USA Today that”butterfly kisses”are”the fluttering of one’s eyelashes on the cheek of another person.” The singer and writer also explained how he came to write the song:”I came to the realization that I wasn’t going to have this child under my roof much longer. I fell apart one evening. The song just poured out of me.”
United Methodist bishop and educator dies
(RNS) The Rev. William Ragsdale Cannon Jr., a past president of the World Methodist Council and ex-dean of Emory University’s Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, has died at age 81.
Cannon died Sunday in Atlanta, where he served as United Methodist bishop from 1972 to 1980. Prior to that, he was a professor and dean at Candler. At the time of his death, Cannon was bishop-in-residence at Northside United Methodist Church in Atlanta.
A friend of former President Jimmy Carter, Cannon delivered the invocation at Carter’s inaugural in 1977 and traveled to the Middle East as Carter’s unofficial representative.
Born in Chattanooga, Tenn., Cannon was the author of 13 books. In addition to his post with the World Methodist Council, the worldwide organization of Wesleyan churches, Cannon also served as president of the World Methodist Conference, the international assembly of Methodist churches that meets every five years.
Bill to restrict concerts and fashion shows fails in Kuwait
(RNS) Kuwait’s parliament has rejected a bill that would have banned concerts and fashion shows that do not conform strictly with Islamic teachings.
The bill failed Tuesday (May 13), gaining just 20 of the 44 votes needed for passage. Kuwait already bars public dancing and alcohol.
Conservative Muslim legislators said they proposed the failed bill because they are concerned about women singing before men, or vice versa, and women dressing attractively around men who are not close relatives, Reuters reported.
Guru’s foundation selling estate for $25 million
(RNS) The Maharishi Foundation _ named after the Hindu guru who taught Transcendental Meditation to the Beatles in the 1960s _ is selling its 50-bedroom, historic British country estate because it needs more room.
The foundation, created by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who now lives in Amsterdam, hopes to sell its Mentmore Towers Estate for as much as $25 million.
Foundation officials said Mentmore Towers, built in 1855 for Baron Meyer Amschel de Rothschild of the famous banking family, had become too small for the organization.”The success we are experiencing with our new activities means we are looking for a new home,”foundation chairman Geoffrey Clements told Reuters.
Quote of the Day: Cardinal John O’Connor of New York
(RNS) The Anti-Defamation League recently honored New York’s Roman Catholic Cardinal John O’Connor for his contributions to intergroup relations. In his acceptance speech, O’Connor said to leaders of the Jewish group:”Never forget the values that made you what you are. I plead with you: Jews, be Jews. This is a great, great gift to humanity, to all religions. We are all in your debt, and certainly Catholicism is totally rooted in Judaism. Be Jews. Don’t yield to the passion for respectability. Be Jews, proud of your spiritual homeland, and continue, please to support it. Don’t be swayed. Don’t ever feel embarrassed. Don’t feel you have to hide.”
MJP END RNS
