c. 1997 Religion News Service
African Christians urged to put moral values into politics
(RNS) A new report by African church leaders from 20 countries says the continent’s churches need to”inject a new moral culture into politics”as part of the effort to rebuild countries devastated by war, poverty and corruption.”We are determined to work out a vision that promises life with dignity for the African people,”the 100 delegates said in a statement released at the end of a World Council of Churches-sponsored meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The May 10-17 meeting,”Jubilee and the African Kairos: Towards a New Vision and Agenda for Life,”was called to draw up a plan of action for the churches as they enter the new Christian millennium. In a final report, the delegates touched on issues ranging from discrimination against women to the relationship of faith and culture.”Economically, Africa is fraught with contradictions,”the report said.”While the continent is rich in oil and minerals, its people are poor and starving, and its nations are weighed down by unimaginble and unsustainable debt.” But it said despite that, Africa is not”a hopeless case”and that in the midst of the poverty that grips the continent, many people lead lives of”dignity and courage.””The history of our continent, which has been plundered and sacrificed, can and should have a different future,”the report said.
The group also adopted five resolutions, three of which are aimed at combatting domestic and sexual violence against women.”The liberation and affirmation of women is integral to the liberating message of the gospel,”the report said.
The other two resolutions concern corruption, which the report acknowledged is rife in many African nations and sometimes involves the churches, adding that although corruption is not peculiar to Africa, it should be declared a”sin”by public officials wherever it occurs.
Finally, the report said the churches must neither”alienate”themselves from government nor allow themselves to be”co-opted and become mere instruments of the governing groups.”
Church of Scotland urges caution on Toronto Blessing
(RNS) The general assembly of the (Presbyterian) Church of Scotland has called for churches to exercise caution with regard to the so-called Toronto Blessing, a revival phenomenon in which worshipers fall to the floor, break out in uncontrollable laughter and sometimes make animal noises.
The revival, which began at the Airport Vineyard Church outside Toronto in 1994, has drawn adherents in the United States, Western Europe and Great Britain, including Scotland.
Its unique manifestations are believed by many of its adherents to be gifts of the Holy Spirit, similar to the phenomenon of speaking in tongues.
The assembly approved a report by a committee that endorsed the concerns of those opposed to the revival as not an authentic act of the Holy Spirit.”God gave us dominion over the animals,”said delegate William Wishart, a deacon from Glasgow.”He didn’t expect us to behave like them.” But George Newlands, the chair of the panel that conducted the study, while supporting the reservations expressed in his panel’s report, also noted that,”In history thousands have queued up for religious happenings which we might regard today as entirely grotesque.” The report urged churches”to remain open to the renewing work of the Holy Spirit”and said officials should monitor any effect the Toronto movement might have on church life.
In other action at the general assembly, delegates condemned the”routine”cloning of animals as”an unacceptable commodification of animals.” But the delegates said they could accept in principle the”genetic modification,”or cloning of farm animals in research with”therapeutic value,”as in the case of the creation of Dolly, the sheep cloned last February near Edinburgh.
Delegates accepted a report by the church’s Society, Religion and Technology panel that said the routine cloning of animals for reasons of economics or convenience is”unacceptable”and would”represent one step too far beyond conventional selective breeding in the way we use animals as commodities.” It also expressed its”strongest possible opposition”to the any cloning of human beings and urged the British government to press for an international treaty that would ban human cloning worldwide.
No action against Browning in Episcopal Church gay deacon case
(RNS) No action will be taken against Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning of the Episcopal Church for his alleged refusal to launch an investigation into the 1994 ordination of a non-celibate homosexual.
Concerned Episcopalians, a conservative faction within the Episcopal Church, had urged action against Browning, claiming he had failed to fulfill his canonical duty by not naming a board of inquiry to look into the ordination of a practicing homosexual as a deacon by Bishop Allen Bartlett of the Diocese of Pennsylvania.
Concerned Episcopalians interprets church law to prohibit the ordination of homosexuals who admit to being sexually active.
However Bishop Arthur B. Williams Jr., suffragan bishop of the Diocese of Ohio and vice president of the House of Bishops, dismissed the call for action, Episcopal News Service, the denomination’s official news agency, reported Friday (May 23).
Williams said an ecclesiastical court’s dismissal last year of a similar charge brought against retired Bishop Walter Righter”established for the church at this time that the ordination by a bishop of a non-celibate homosexual person is not a disciplinary `offense’ for which a charge may be brought.” Righter formerly headed the Diocese of Iowa, but now lives in New Hampshire. He was working as an assistant in the Diocese of Newark, N.J., when he ordained as a deacon an admittedly sexually active gay man.
Williams also said the call for action against Browning was not made in accordance with Episcopal Church guidelines.
Williams said church rules require any charge brought against a bishop must be made by at least one priest and no fewer than six lay persons from the bishop’s diocese. Browning officially is a resident of the Diocese of Hawaii, while those who brought the complaint against him were from the Diocese of Pennsylvania.
Update: Nun Bun items off the shelves _ at least for now
(RNS) It’s tough to keep saying no to Mother Teresa. Ask Bob Bernstein.
Bernstein, owner of the Bongo Java coffeehouse in Nashville, at first balked when the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Roman Catholic nun sent him a letter urging him to refrain from cashing in on the nun bun _ a cinnamon bun that some people said bears a curious likeness to her.
He shellacked the bun, put it on display in his coffeehouse and began selling T-shirts, coffee mugs, prayer cards and other items featuring the nun bun. That upset Mother Teresa, who won’t even allow her name put on Bibles to raise money for the poor she helps worldwide.
But Thursday (May 22), he had second thoughts. For now, at least.
Bernstein told the Associated Press he will talk to Mother Teresa’s lawyers before deciding whether to permanently quit the nun-bun business.
Besides, he said,”I’ve made so little money on this that there’s no point antagonizing anybody.”
Will Muslim worshipers outdistance Anglicans in England?
(RNS) England _ birthplace of the Anglican Communion _ may soon have more adult Muslims who actively practice their faith than Anglicans who typically attend Sunday church services.
Peter Brierley, executive director of London’s Christian Research Association, said surveys show England’s practicing Muslim adult population is growing by 30,000 individuals annually. At the same time, the Sunday attendance for the Church of England is dropping by 14,000 each year.
If those trends continue, Brierley told Ecumenical News International, a Geneva-based religious news service, there will be 760,000 practicing Muslim adults in England in 2002, compared to 756,000 Sunday church-going Anglicans.
The total number of adults listed by the Church of England is 1.47 million.
Quote of the day: Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning
(RNS) Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning of the Episcopal Church leaves office in July after 12 years as head of one of the nation’s most powerful denominations. In a speech to a recent meeting of the church’s Executive Council, Browning recalled being asked by his spiritual director what he thought God’s purpose was in making him Presiding Bishop:”And he (the spiritual director) said, maybe this calling was a means by which I could work out my own salvation. … And I want to share with you that is exactly what has been happening for me. Through these days, with God’s grace, I have been working out my own salvation. … It has meant coming to understand that the issue is not the pain, or the suffering, it is what you do with it. Coming to understand this, I believe, is what the Christian journey is all about.”
MJP END RNS
