c. 1998 Religion News Service
Lilly Endowment issues theological school grants to foster leaders
(RNS) The Lilly Endowment has issued grants of more than $55 million to 58 theological schools in North America to help enhance pastoral leadership of churches.
The grants from the Indianapolis-based foundation will support two different theological school programs _ one to help schools attract leaders for local congregations and the other to help them interest high-school students in pursuing careers as pastors.
The 202 theological schools in North America that are accredited by the Association of Theological Schools were invited to apply for either or both programs.
Forty-five schools received a total of $53.4 million in grants for the first initiative,”Program to Enhance Theological Schools’ Capacities to Prepare Candidates for Congregational Ministry.” Recipients included the Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond in Virginia, which received $806,821; the Claremont (Calif.) School of Theology, which received about $1.5 million; Howard University School of Divinity in Washington, which received $1.5 million and St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in Crestwood, N.Y,, which received more than $1.2 million.
The second initiative,”Theological Programs for High School Youth,”will support theological schools’ efforts to involve high schoolers in theological study. Eleven schools were awarded a total of $1.8 million in grants to help them start new programs for youth immediately. Another 11 schools were given planning grants to design programs.
Nine schools received grants in both of the foundation’s initiatives.
The foundation also has awarded almost $2 million in grants to 20 religious publications that have proposed ways to increase the quality of their magazines.
Awardees include America, Christian Century, Christianity Today, Commonweal, Other Side and Theology Today.
The foundation supports causes of religion, education and community development.
Church founder Elizabeth Clare Prophet has Alzheimer’s disease
(RNS) Elizabeth Clare Prophet, founder of the controversial apocalyptic Church Universal and Triumphant, has Alzheimer’s disease.
Prophet, 59, who last year stepped down as church president after it was disclosed she had a neurological disease _ said at the time to be undiagnosed _ told followers that her illness”now has a name.” Prophet’s former husband Mark Prophet founded the church in 1958, combining elements of Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism and New Age thought. In the late 1980s, she warned of a coming nuclear Armageddon and moved her church from suburban Los Angeles to Corwin Springs, Mont., just north of Yellowstone National Park.
In Montana, the church sought to become a self-sufficient community capable of surviving a nuclear holocaust. But after the prophesied disaster never materialized, the church began losing thousands of members _ including Prophet’s four adult children _ and much of its income.
In recent years, the church has sought to recast itself as more mainstream, but has still been forced to sell more than two-thirds of its 12,000-acre headquarters property, Royal Teton Ranch.
In a letter to followers released Nov. 25, Prophet, who remains her church’s spiritual leader, said that despite her illness,”I have not wavered in my determination to continue in my mission to the utmost of my ability.”
Seeking revenge, Indonesian Christians attack mosques
(RNS) Christians said to be bent on revenge attacked four mosques in eastern Indonesia Monday (Nov. 30), less than a week after Muslims burned and ransacked more than 20 churches in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital.
The mosque attacks occurred in Kupang, a Christian-dominated city in eastern Indonesia, the Associated Press reported. Christians also burned a market, a Muslim school, a hotel used by Muslim pilgrims and several other Muslim-related facilities.
The attacks came after thousands of Christians took to the streets of Kupang to protest the burning of the Jakarta churches. Fourteen people died in the Jakarta violence. There were no reports of injuries in Kupang.
Following the Kupang attacks, the city’s Roman Catholic bishop, Petrus Turang, went on television to apologize for the mosque attacks and urged Muslims not to continue the violence by seeking their own revenge.
Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim nation. About 90 percent of the island nation’s 202 million people are Muslims.
Update: Korean Buddhist monks clash again
(RNS) At least seven monks were injured Monday (Nov. 30) in new clashes between rival groups within South Korea’s largest Buddhist sect. It was the third clash since early November stemming from a leadership dispute.
At least ten monks were injured in the latest clash, which included pitched battles with rocks and Molotov cocktails.
The dispute revolves around an attempt by the eight-million- member Chogye sect’s current chief monk to hold on to his post. Dissidents opposed to Song Wol-ju’s continued reign as chief monk have taken over the 1,000-year-old sect’s administrative temple in Seoul, the South Korean capital. Monks who support him attempted to regain control of the structure, touching off the latest clash.
Some 1,500 monks _ some of them trained in martial arts _ were involved in the fighting.
Kofi Annan receives World Methodist Peace Award
(RNS) U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has won the 1998 World Methodist Peace Award”for his efforts to bring dignity, reconciliation and peace to our world.” Annan joins such luminaries as Anwar Sadat and Mikhail Gorbachev in winning the prestigious award given by the World Methodist Council to people or groups displaying”courage, creativity and consistency”in pursuit of peace.
A native of Ghana, Annan has worked for the United Nations for more than 30 years and was named secretary general in 1996.
In a Nov. 17 speech at the Church Center for the United Nations in New York, Annan recalled that he received his primary education at the Mfantsipim School, a Methodist school in Ghana.”There, I was privileged to have teachers who understood the value of knowledge infused with a moral purpose,”he said.”They knew that learning and education are the strongest bulwarks against evil and ignorance.” In his speech, Annan stressed the peacemaking role of the U.N.”To make peace between warring parties, to convince fighters to lay down their arms and tyrants to give up their tyranny, it is critical to see conflicts in all their complexity,”he said.”To make peace, we may sometimes have to shake the hands of aggressors and lend our ears to voices of enmity.”
Quote of the day: Eddie Gibbs, evangelism professor
(RNS)”The day of the local church is over. The day of the mission outpost has come. Our focus needs to be out there in the community and not upon ourselves.” _ Eddie Gibbs, professor of evangelism at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., in a presentation in Pomona, Calif., to pastors of the Church of the Brethren’s Pacific Southwest District.
DEA END RNS