c. 1998 Religion News Service

Methodists, in open letter, seek lifting of same-sex ban

(RNS) In an open letter to their bishops, 363 clergy and laity of the United Methodist Church are urging their top representatives to overturn the denomination’s ban on same-sex ceremonies.

The letter comes in response to an August decision by the Judicial Council, the church’s top judicial body, that a 1996 statement prohibiting United Methodist ministers from officiating at same-sex unions is equivalent to church law. It was released Sunday (Oct. 11) by the Rev. Jimmy Creech of Raleigh, N.C., who was acquitted narrowly in March for performing a union service of two women while he was pastor of First United Methodist Church in Omaha, Neb.”Our church is adrift, buffeted by forces that seek to steer our course away from the prophetic, just and compassionate course of Christ,”the letter reads.

The writers urge that bishops seek a way for discussions to continue where there is”honest disagreement”rather than being stifled by legal action.”No longer can we be true to our theological task which states, `we test various expressions of faith …'”the letter states.”We will become a denomination of `winners’ and `losers’ where authority will be determined by the judgment of ecclesiastical trial.” The signers of the letter hope the bishops will create”teaching days”to help clergy and laity develop”a non-condemning acceptance of homosexuality.” The signers, acknowledging that not all ministers will abide by the rule prohibiting same-sex unions, encourage bishops to celebrate such ceremonies.”Stand with those who will witness to the church that the current state of our church law is condemnatory and exclusionary,”they wrote.”Let the world know that those who lead the United Methodist Church are as courageously caring as those who worship within it.” In response to the letter, the Rev. George Bashore, president of the Council of Bishops, said church members wishing to reverse the church law that bans same-sex unions will have to wait two years and act through the next church legislative session, the Associated Press reported.

In a separate, but related matter, United Methodist officials in Nebraska have given permission to the 325 members who broke away from Creech’s Omaha church to form a new congregation, the United Methodist News Service reported. They had opposed the church leaders’ support of same-sex ceremonies.

Methodists reject plea not to meet in Cleveland Indians’ city

(RNS) Despite the plea of the church’s Commission on Religion and Race, the United Methodist Church will hold its General Conference in Cleveland in 2000.

The commission wants to boycott the city because of the Cleveland Indians’ baseball team’s mascot, known as Chief Wahoo. It believes the depictions of Native Americans by the team are offensive.

The general conference is the denomination’s top legislative body, which meets every four years with close to 1,000 delegates attending from across the globe. The next meeting is scheduled for May 2-12, 2000.

The commission planning the gathering believes it would be very difficult to move the meeting because of commitments and contracts. Its members also support the idea of being present rather than absent to take a stand on such issues, reported United Methodist News Service.”There are other ways to make a statement than moving or not being present,”said General Conference Secretary Carolyn Marshall of Veedersburg, Ind.”Let’s make our statement another way.” She echoed the feelings of several members who were sympathetic about the Native American issue but who did not think staying away from Cleveland was the answer.

The Rev. Kenneth Chalker, pastor of First United Methodist Church in Cleveland and a chief planner of the meeting, said Methodists and Native Americans in Ohio have long struggled with the issue.”Even the Native American community is split on the issue of (the) name,”he said.”For some, it is not a pejorative term. The first Native American to play on a team early in the century was here. It was in remembrance of that that the team got its name.”

James Dunn, religious liberty advocate, to leave post

(RNS) The Rev. James Dunn, longtime religious liberty advocate, has announced he plans to leave his position as executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs next year.

Dunn’s plans were accepted by the committee’s board of directors during a meeting Oct. 5-6 in Green Lake, Wis., reported Associated Baptist Press, an independent news service.

Dunn, 66, said he would leave his post by Sept. 1, 1999, when he is scheduled to become a visiting professor of Christianity and public policy at the Wake Forest University Divinity School in Winston-Salem, N.C.

He has been in charge of the Baptist Joint Committee since 1981 and hopes to continue to work with the agency on a part-time basis.

Aidsand Wright-Riggins, chairman of the committee, said Dunn”has been the most dynamic personality for religious liberty in the United States over the past 18 years. The vacuum created by his announcement is a very huge space largely due to his perspective, his political savvy, his persistence.” At the same meeting where Dunn announced his plans, the committee’s directors approved a statement encouraging states to pass state Religious Freedom Restoration Acts similar to the federal law whose provisions applying to the states were struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1997.”State RFRAs are needed because individuals are often substantially burdened by laws that do not explicitly target religion,”the statement says.”Without state RFRAs, most (people of faith) are and will continue to be forced to choose between breaking the law and keeping their faith.”

Update: Rushdie reward upped

(RNS) Salman Rushdie is clearly not out of the woods: an Iranian foundation has raised its reward for killing the writer to $2.8 million.

Rushdie is the author of”The Satanic Verses,”a novel that some Muslims consider blasphemous because of its depiction of the Prophet Muhammad, Islam’s founder. In 1989, the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or Islamic religious ruling, saying Rushdie should be killed for his blasphemy, and the semi-official Iranian Khorad Foundation offered a $2.5-million reward.

Since then, Rushdie has lived an underground existence, surfacing only on occasion to speak at public events to urge artistic and diplomatic support for himself.

In September, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said his government had distanced itself from the reward, although he did not actually say it had been nullified. Still, that was enough to lead Rushdie _ an Indian-born, secular Muslim now living in Great Britain _ to say his ordeal appeared over.

Instead, Iranian hardliners have insisted the fatwa and reward remain in place, a sign of the infighting between moderates and militants currently taking place within the Iranian power structure.

To underscore that point, Monday (Oct. 12) the Korad Foundation increased its award by $300,000. That followed by days an announcement by the Association of Hezbollah Students at Tehran University that it was offering its own reward of $333,000 for Rushdie’s death.

Frances D’Souza, who heads Rushdie’s defense committee, said she found the latest turn of events”extremely serious.”As for the foundation, D’Souza told the Associated Press it is”undoubtedly sanctioned by the government.”

Backer of women priests says she was”excommunicated by telephone” (RNS) A leading member of an Australian movement promoting the ordination of women to the Roman Catholic priesthood says she has been told by a bishop that she may no longer receive communion, read the lessons at Mass or serve on her parish council.

Bishop Geoffrey Mayne, who is both a parish priest in the Canberra suburb of Campbell, and is bishop for the Australian Defense Force, has told Ann Nugent, one of his parishioners, that her public advocacy of women’s ordination meant she could not be in full communion with the church, according to Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious news agency.”I, as a bishop or priest, cannot in conscience give communion to someone who is working against the teachings of the church,”Mayne told the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper. … To be a Catholic we have to accept the totality of the church’s teaching.” Nugent told ENI that Mayne had first raised the issue of her advocacy”when he bumped into me in the shopping center about five months ago.”But she said the bishop indicated he would not exclude her from communion.”He said he had known me for a long while, and knew that I held my position conscientiously, although he thought it was in error, so he would not refuse me communion.” But she said after the Vatican’s June announcement warning of”just penalties”for those who dissented from church teachings, Mayne’s attitude apparently changed.

She said she was informed of the decision to deny her communion by a telephone call.”Excommunication by telephone. There was a great lack of pastoral care,”she said.”I had to go back to him in person and ask him if this actually was what he meant.” She added that she told the bishop he”could exclude me from communion, but not from Christ.”

Quote of the day: UNICEF official Kul Gautam

(RNS)”Most people think Africa is the land of malnutrition. But you will be surprised that child malnutrition rates in South Asia are twice as high as sub-Saharan Africa.” _ Kal Gautam, director of UNICEF for East Asia and the Pacific in an interview Monday with Reuters on the impact of the Asian economic crisis on children

DEA END RNS