c. 1998 Religion News Service

Catholic, Mennonite leaders open talks to `heal memories’

(RNS) For the first time, an international group of Roman Catholic and Mennonite theologians and church leaders have sat down together to discuss what separates the two faith bodies.”The purpose of the consultation was to promote better understanding of positions about Christian faith held on each side and to contribute to overcoming prejudices that have long existed between Mennonites and Catholics,”the group said in an official communique issued as a result of the Oct. 14-18 meeting.

During the meeting, two sets of papers were delivered. The first set included a profile by each church describing for the other church”who we are,”while the second set focused on historical questions helping to shed light on the reactions to each other in the 16th century.

The consultation was sponsored by the Mennonite World Conference, headquartered in Strasbourg, France, and the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

The Mennonite movement dates from the early 16th century and was a radical wing of the Protestant Reformation known as Anabaptists that stressed the simple living of the New Testament as central to its faith as well as pacifism and nonresistance. Members of the movement were martyred both by Catholics and the Lutheran reformers.

Although the meeting was closed, Larry Miller, Mennonite World Conference executive secretary and co-secretary of the sessions, characterized the conversations as”the sort you have when sitting around the table with friendly people of conviction who are learning to know one another.” Helmut Harder, a theologian and general secretary of Conference of Mennonites in Canada, who also participated in the discussions, said the conversations were”confessional”in two senses:”There was an effort to identify the distinctives as well as the convergences in our two `confessions’; and, there was a readiness to `confess’ our prejudices toward the other church and to seek understanding and reconciliation where this was needed.” The two sides will meet again in October 1999.

Survey: Americans give to charity but don’t know where money goes

(RNS) A survey by the American Association of Retired Persons said Thursday (Nov. 12) that while 80 percent of Americans give to charity through phone solicitations, many of them don’t really know where their money is going.

According to the survey, more than two-thirds of those who give to a charity through a telephone solicitation said they weren’t sure the telephone callers represented the organizations they claimed to and about 57 percent said they never asked how their donations would be spent.

This makes charity fraud a potential goldmine for scam artists who pose as legitimate organizations or for telemarketers who solicit money on behalf of legitimate groups but claim the bulk of what they raise as”fees,”according government, anti-fraud and consumers group.

The survey said that of those who respond with a donation to telephone solicitations, 42 percent gave more than $100 and 10 percent gave more than $1,000.

In 1995, an estimated $1.43 billion in donations were misused or absconded with, the Associated Press reported law enforcement officials as saying.

In addition, sound-alike charities with titles similar to legitimate groups also deceive consumers by playing on name recognition.”Between Thanksgiving and Christmas is when these people go into high gear,”Jim Miles, South Carolina’s secretary of state, told the AP.

Jesse Jackson seeking to mediate Africa conflict

(RNS) The Rev. Jesse Jackson, acting as a special envoy for President Clinton, arrived Thursday (Nov. 12) in Guinea in an effort to resolve a conflict between three West African nations _ Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia _ before it erupts into armed conflict.

Reuters reported that Jackson immediately went into talks with Guinean President Lansana Conte and presidents Ahmad Tejan Kabbah of Sierra Leone and Charles Taylor of Liberia.

The three countries have been struggling against internal unrest and rebel raiding groups using bases across their common borders.

The unrest has at times recently driven missionaries and humanitarian aid workers from the country.

Jackson made no comment on arriving in Guinea.

Bulgarian Jews get first school since World War II

(RNS) The first Jewish school to open in Bulgaria since World War II welcomed its first students Wednesday (Nov. 11) in that nation’s capital.

The Jewish School of Sofia has about 350 students in grades 1 through 8, who will learn Jewish history and Hebrew in addition to their regular secular curriculum.

The school is the 12th Jewish school to open in Eastern Europe’s former communist bloc as a result of efforts by the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation. Lauder, the former ambassador to Austria and cosmetics heir, donated $300,000 to start the Sofia school, the Associated Press reported.

Bulgaria was a German ally during World War II, but refused to allow the Nazis to deport Bulgarian Jews to death camps. Some 50,000 Jews lived in Bulgaria at the start of World War II, and after the war all but 5,000 of them emigrated to Israel.

Today, about 3,000 Jews live in Bulgaria. Most of them are highly assimilated, according to the World Jewish Congress.

Monks’ dispute forces postponement of Korean Buddhist election

(RNS) Two days of clashes between rival South Korean Buddhist monks has forced the indefinite postponement of an election for the leader of the nation’s largest Buddhist denomination.

The fighting has been between supporters of Song Wol-ju, head monk of the Chogye Buddhist Order, and opponents who say he is incompetent and corrupt, the Associated Press reported Thursday (Nov. 12). Song’s supporters say the opponents are conservatives who oppose reforms.

Song is seeking a third four-year term. The opponents, who include the 1,000-year-old denomination’s spiritual leader, 83-year-old Wol Ha, want him to step down. The denomination has 1,700 temples in South Korea, and the head of the order controls the appointment of monks to the various temples.

The denomination claims 8 million followers and is associated with Buddhism’s Zen school.

Quote of the day: Evan Hendricks of Privacy Times

(RNS)”If you’re running for the church board of directors, would you want it known that you bought something from from the Playboy catalog?” _ Evan Hendricks of the magazine Privacy Times, commenting on a Thursday (Nov. 12) report that Playboy Enterprises is considering sharing information about who buys what from its catalog and sharing it with other other marketers.

DEA END RNS