c. 1997 Religion News Service
Orthodox women urge greater attention to role of women in church
(RNS) A meeting of some 50 officially appointed Orthodox women delegates has called on church leaders to give greater attention to the role of women in the church, including making theological education a top priority.
In a carefully worded statement, the women _ who met in Istanbul, Turkey, May 10-17 _ also touched on the sensitive issue of women’s ordination, a practice barred among Orthodox Christian churches.”Some participants at the consultation welcome the idea that an inter-Orthodox conference on the ordination of women to the priesthood be organized where women and men will have the opportunity to examine this topic in greater depth from both the theological and spiritual perspective,”the statement said.
The statement did not associate all delegates with an inter-Orthodox conference on women’s ordination nor did it specifically call for such a session.
The consultation was organized by the World Council of Churches as part of its observance of the Ecumenical Decade of Churches in Solidarity with Women. The session was opened by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual head of the worldwide Orthodox movement. Bartholomew also led a worship service for the delegates.
In their statement at the end of the meeting, the women also urged Orthodox leaders to re-examine a number of church practices and policies. It singled out the tradition of mothers not going to church for 40 days after childbirth and”certain prayers … for miscarriages, abortions and post-partum mothers.””These practices and prayers do not properly express the theology of the church regarding the dignity of God’s creation of woman and her redemption in Christ,”the statement said.
On another sensitive topic _ the role of Orthodox churches in the ecumenical movement _ the women delegates urged that Orthodox leaders make more significant use of women as representatives to various ecumenical agencies.
A number of Orthodox churches, both in the United States and on the international level, are questioning their involvement in the World Council of Churches and other regional ecumenical bodies.
But the women said Orthodox churches should”seriously consider”complying with a WCC request that at least 50 percent of their representatives at the next assembly of the council be women.
Authors cry foul over Polish edition of pope biography
(RNS) References to Pope John Paul II’s ill-health, Polish anti-Semitism and criticism within Poland of the Roman Catholic Church have been removed from a best-selling biography of the pontiff, according to the authors.”Clearly the Polish publishing industry suffers from the same kind of mentality that characterized the communist era,”charged author Carl Bernstein, who co-wrote”His Holiness”with Italian journalist Marco Politi.
The authors’ charge that the Polish version of their book was censored has prompted their U.S. publisher, Bantam Doubleday Dell, to sue the Polish publisher, Amber Publishing Ltd., in Poland. The American publisher has asked for monetary damages and the return of the more than 14,500 copies of”His Holiness”published in Polish.
Amber defended its altering of the book as proper, considering the high esteem that heavily Catholic Poland has for the pope, The New York Times reported Thursday (May 29). Moreover, Amber noted, the pope is scheduled to begin a 10-day visit to Poland, his homeland, Saturday (May 31).
Referring to the sections left out of the Polish version as”fragments,”Amber editor-in-chief Malgorzata Cebo-Foniok said:”We thought that these two or three fragments, presenting him just before he came to Poland as a very old, ill and angry man, couldn’t be good for his reception. These fragments, in our opinion, don’t in any way change the whole meaning of the book. This is a wonderfully written book.” The Polish publisher insisted that less than four pages were altered. However, Doubleday, the division of Bantam Doubleday Dell that released the U.S. version of”His Holiness,”claims the book was cut by almost 35 percent.”His Holiness”has so far been published in 10 nations. Politi said the Vatican has not responded negatively to the book.
Book: Secret code in Old Testament predicts future
(RNS) A new book claims that a secret code embedded in the Hebrew version of the Old Testament foretold the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, plus predicted World War II, Watergate and the Oklahoma City bombing.
While attempts to find hidden messages in the Bible are as old as the text itself,”The Bible Code”(Simon & Schuster) relies upon computers to discern what author Michael Drosnin claims is a startling array of predictions.
The book, which went on sale in the United States Thursday (May 29), has been the subject of great media fanfare, and Warner Bros. has purchased the rights to produce a movie based on it.
The code described by Drosnin was first written about in a 1994 article published in Statistical Science, a scholarly journal. Eliyahu Rips, a well-respected Israeli mathematician, was reportedly the primary discoverer of the code.
The purported code was discovered by stringing together all the letters in the Hebrew language edition of the Old Testament and then using a computer to scan the text for words arranged in a crossword puzzle-like arrangement in accordance with mathematical formulas.
More than a year prior to the event, Drosnin said he tried to warn Rabin that the Bible code predicted his assassination. Rabin was assassinated in November 1995.
The author claims the Bible code also foretells a major earthquake in Los Angeles early in the next century and a possible nuclear war, perhaps within a decade, triggered by a case of nuclear terrorism against Israel.
United Methodist bishop held at gunpoint during Sierra Leone unrest
(RNS) Bishop Joseph Humper, the United Methodist bishop of Sierra Leone, was held at gunpoint for a time Monday (May 26) after the military there seized power from the elected civilian government.
Humper, leader of the nation’s 85,000 United Methodists, was at the United Methodist compound in Kissy, a suburb of the country’s capital, Freetown.
According to United Methodist News Service, the news agency of the denomination, about 10 armed men approached the compound, shot the locks off the gate and demanded the bishop hand over keys to the vehicles in the compound. When Humper told them the keys were with the drivers who were at their own homes, the men threatened to kill the bishop but finally left without the vehicles.
The Rev. Ray Buchanan, a United Methodist who co-directs the Society of St. Andrew, a relief agency in Sierra Leone, described the situation in the country as”grave.” The United Methodist Church currently has one missionary _ Doretha Brown _ in Sierra Leone. Board of Global Ministries officials said on Tuesday they believed she was safe.
Other relief and aid groups said they were preparing to evacuate their expatriate personnel, if necessary.
On Thursday (May 29), the U.S. government announced it would fly about 250 Americans, including some missionaries and relief personnel, out of the country because of continued sporadic gunfire in Freetown. State Department officials estimated there are about 400 Americans in Sierra Leone.
Vatican says electronic fertility predictors ethically acceptable
(RNS) Electronic fertility predictors are ethically acceptable as a family planning method within marriage, the Vatican said Wednesday (May 28).
But moral theologian Gino Concetti, writing in the Vatican’s semi-official newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, said such devices, which indicate the likelihood of pregnancy based on a woman’s hormone levels, should not be construed as licenses for”free love,”Reuters reported.”If, by using this (device), one intends to regulate births according to the criteria of responsible fatherhood and motherhood laid down by the teaching of the Church, then no reservations arise,”Concetti wrote.”The judgment would be very different if the use of the indicator were to serve for exclusively selfish and hedonistic ends or for free love,”he added.
The Roman Catholic Church allows only heterosexual sex between married couples, and forbids artificial birth control. Natural methods of family planning are permitted, however.
High Court turns away appeal from former United Way president
(RNS) Without comment, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal Tuesday (May 27) from former United Way president William Aramony, who was convicted in 1995 of stealing money from the nation’s largest charity.
Aramony and Thomas J. Merlo, United Way’s former chief financial officer, were convicted of defrauding the charity out of about $600,000.
The 1995 convictions included charges of fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy. Aramony was forced to resign and sentenced to seven years in prison, while Merlo was sentenced to four years and seven months in prison.
Both men were ordered to repay $552,000 to United Way.
In the appeal rejected by the Supreme Court, attorneys representing the two men said the jurors should have been allowed to decide whether alleged misstatements on the two men’s income tax returns were legally relevant to the case.
Quote of the day: Anglican Bishop Victoria Matthews
(RNS) On Saturday (May 31), Suffragan Bishop Victoria Matthews will become the first woman to head a diocese in the Anglican Church of Canada in a”Welcoming and Seating”service at All Saints Cathedral in Edmonton, Alberta. When she was advised of her election to head the diocese, Matthews responded:”The church has prayed; the Spirit has led us; the church has called me; I accept.”
MJP END RNS
