c. 1999 Religion News Service

Religious groups continue to mobilize aid to Turkish quake victims

(RNS) More religious groups are mobilizing to offer assistance to the victims of the major earthquake that ravaged Turkey on Tuesday (Aug. 17), even as the death toll continued to rise.

Turkish-American Muslims announced the formation of the Turkish Relief Association, which will work with the Humanitarian Aid Foundation in Turkey.”Muslims around the world have a duty to help their brothers and sisters suffering in Turkey,”said Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.”American Muslims will do their part.” Other existing American Muslim relief organizations, including the Holy Land Foundation and Life for Relief and Development, intend to offer assistance as well.

Turkish government officials announced Thursday the death toll was nearing 7,000 and more than 33,000 people were injured. The survivors are faced with decreasing food supplies as well as lack of power and water amid hot weather conditions.

Groups that are among those accepting donations are Baptist World Aid; Christian Reformed World Relief Committee; World Vision; the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee; and B’nai B’rith International Center for Community Action. The Adventist Development and Relief Agency, Catholic Relief Services and Church World Service have also established funds.

World Concern International, a Christian relief and development organization based in Seattle, Wash., also plans to send financial aid to help the victims.”The earthquake disaster in Turkey has caused great fear, not only because of the magnitude of the destruction initially, but because of the numerous aftershocks,”said World Concern President Paul Kennel.”People are in the streets and afraid to go back inside. We grieve with those who have lost family members and friends or have been injured in this quake.”

More Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) members picture God as”Father” (RNS) Members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) are far more likely to refer to God as”Father”than”Mother,”a church poll has found.

Despite an increasing presence of inclusive language about God in Presbyterian congregations, the poll found that 89 percent of pastors, 84 percent of specialized clergy and 94 percent of elders and members say they are”extremely likely”or”somewhat likely”to imagine God as”Father.” The results came from a recent Presbyterian Panel poll conducted by the denomination’s Research Services Office.

The poll found that smaller percentages of respondents in the various categories were”extremely likely”or”somewhat likely”to say they imagined God as”Mother”: 46 percent of specialized clergy, 38 percent of pastors, 16 percent of elders and 13 percent of members.

The respondents were not asked to choose between”Father”and”Mother.” Specialized clergy are ordained clergy who are not serving as pastors.

One in nine clergy and about half of both elders and members agreed that”God is best understood in masculine terms.” About two-thirds of members and elders and more than 90 percent of ministers agreed that”God is beyond gender. … God is neither female nor male.” At least eight in 10 of those surveyed agreed that”most people use male terms for God simply because that’s the traditional language of the church.” A majority of each group agreed that”our language about God should be varied and diverse, reflecting the wide range of terms to describe God that are found in the Bible and the Reformed tradition.” Asked to choose from a list of 12 common images of God, those surveyed gave the highest ranking _ 90 percent _ to”Creator,”followed in order by”Redeemer,””Father,””Healer,””Master,””King,””Friend,””Judge,””Liberator,””Lover,””Mother”and”Spouse.” Clergy are more apt than lay people to imagine God as”Mother and”Lover”while lay people are more likely to imagine God as”Judge”and”Master.”

AME Zion bishop sets up transition team for megachurch

(RNS) A regional African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church bishop has set up a transition team to determine the future leadership of what was one of the denomination’s largest churches.

The decision came after he learned that the Rev. John A. Cherry, and many of the members of the 24,000-member Full Gospel AME Zion Church in Temple Hills, Md., decided to leave the denomination.

Bishop Milton A. Williams, the leader of the Mid-Atlantic II Episcopal District, held a special session of the Philadelphia and Baltimore Annual Conference on Sunday (Aug. 15) to discuss the matter.

Williams told about 600 people at the session in Washington that Cherry informed him in a July 8 letter that he was leaving the denomination because God had told him to”get out of Zion and to get out now.”Cherry said his ministry is now called From the Heart Church Ministries.

Williams stated that Cherry’s actions did not follow church law. Cherry could not immediately be reached for comment.”Only the Annual Conference can decide when a member church of the Conference no longer exists,”Williams said.”A pastor may withdraw from the AME Zion Church, with or without honor. Members of a local church may choose to go with a pastor who is leaving. This does not do away with the local AME Zion Church.” Based on church law, Williams called the session to declare that Full Gospel AME Zion Church remains a member of the conference.

The Rev. Staccato Powell, the deputy general secretary of the National Council of Churches, was appointed as interim pastor and head of the transition committee.”That’s just for the purpose of reorganizing the church,”Powell told Religion News Service.”I am not the pastor who will be succeeding Dr. Cherry. … The transition team is strictly for the purpose of reconstituting the remnant that remains.” He expects the bishop will be able to name a new full-time pastor within weeks.

Williams also stated that he has learned that properties of Full Gospel AME Zion Church may have been deeded to From the Heart Church Ministries without the consent of denominational leaders. He said that matter is under investigation.

Unswayed by pleas for mercy, judge maintains Lyons’ sentence

(RNS) Despite receiving scores of letters and pleas for mercy, a Florida judge Wednesday (Aug. 18) denied a motion to reduce the state prison sentence of the Rev. Henry J. Lyons, former president of the National Baptist Convention U.S.A.

Lyons was sentenced to 5 1/2 years in state prison after he was convicted Feb. 27 of grand theft and racketeering charges. Circuit Judge Susan Schaeffer determined the sentence was fair and took into consideration Lyons’ good deeds. He could have been sentenced to eight years and one month, the Associated Press reported.

Lyons, 57, was found guilty of swindling $4 million from businesses while serving as head of the prominent African-American denomination. He also was found guilty of stealing close to $250,000 donated by the Anti-Defamation League to rebuild burned black churches across the South.

Lyons also was sentenced to four years and three months on federal tax evasion and bank fraud charges. He is serving that term concurrently with the state sentence.

The judge was not prompted to change the state sentence when she received pleas from pastors, church members and relatives to reduce Lyons’ sentence.

The former denominational president now works in a prison library.”Thirteen days alone in a 5 x 8 hotbox tested me and my faith. Thank God my faith held,”Lyons wrote in a three-page letter to the judge, describing his first days of confinement.”My lessons here in prison are hard and well-learned and earned.”

Baptist Asian seminary ends link with Southern Baptist Convention

(RNS) The Asia Baptist Graduate Theological Seminary has broken its 40-year-old ties with the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board to form a partnership with the Baptist but more theologically moderate Mercer University in Macon, Ga.

Under the arrangement, the seminary _ a consortium of nine Baptist schools throughout Asia _ will receive financial support from Mercer and the Georgia school will establish a scholarship fund to allow an Asian student to study at Mercer’s McAfee School of Theology in Atlanta.

The consortium does not have its own facilities but is based in offices provided by the Philippine Baptist Theological Seminary.

The vote, according to Baptist news agencies, reflects a growing desire to have the direction of the school determined by Asians and not Western missionary organizations that provide funding. Associated Baptist Press, the independent, moderate-oriented news agency of U.S. Southern Baptists, said the vote also reflected dissatisfaction with policies of the Richmond-based IMB.

It also means an end to IMB funding for the school because the board refuses to participate in any partnership with Mercer because of the views of the university’s president, R. Kirby Godsey.”You cannot imagine the grief the Mercer proposal has caused in our hearts,”Don Dent, the IMB’s regional leader for Southeast Asia and Oceania wrote the Asian seminary’s trustees in an Aug. 6 letter, shortly before the trustees voted on the partnership with Mercer.”We cannot work with Mercer in the area of theological education, but we do not want to give up our relationship with you.” Theological conservatives, who currently dominate the SBC, have been sharply critical of Godsey and his book,”When We Talk About God … Let’s Be Honest,”charging it is at odds with Baptist theology.”If we were to officially partner with Mercer, we would either be stating that Dr. Godsey’s theology is of no concern to us or that we believe the president has no influence over an institution,”Dent said in his letter, according to Baptist Press, the SBC’s official news agency.”We are unable to to make either of those affirmations,” Graham Walker, who has been academic dean of the Asian school since 1993, has resigned as an IMB missionary in the Philippines to join Mercer’s faculty as a professor of theology and will serve as the university’s liaison for the partnership.

Campaign urges students to carry biblical book covers

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(RNS) Heidi Johnson, a student at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., is urging teens to help”change our nation’s direction”in a radio campaign sponsored by the Family Research Council.

The radio spots, airing in 166 markets, will begin Saturday (Aug. 21.).

Johnson is promoting book covers produced by the Family Research Council, a Washington-based conservative Christian public interest group. One book cover is a graphic depiction of the Ten Commandments. The second shows photos of teens from different racial and ethnic backgrounds with the quote,”Love thy neighbor as thyself.” Johnson, who was in the school library when the shootings took place last spring, was not hurt but tells in the radio spot of seeing her classmates shot.”How could this happen in America?”she asks.”Why are kids killing other kids?” Johnson urges other Christian teens to carry the covers on their books as a memorial to the students who died and as a testimony to fellow students.”America’s young people need to know God loves them,”she says.

The spot will air on Christian radio stations during teen-oriented programs.”Although we realize that a piece of paper does not change hearts,”Janet Parshall, Family Research Council spokeswoman, said,”our book covers are a practical and constitutional way to start a discussion on the role that moral law plays in the public marketplace of ideas.” The Family Research Council said it has distributed 277,000 of the book covers since the program began in 1996. The new campaign offers two free covers to any student who calls a toll-free number provided during the radio advertisement.

Quote of the day: Denton Lotz, Baptist World Alliance general secretary

(RNS)”We need to get over our hang-up of the use of the word `charismatic’ and deal with the content of the matter. The fact is, it was a rediscovery of the power and work of the Holy Spirit that brought this movement into being, whatever its name. Therefore, Baptist theologians and students need to take seriously the work of the Holy Spirit.” _ Baptist World Alliance General Secretary Denton Lotz, speaking at a July celebration of the International Baptist Theological Seminary’s 50th anniversary in Prague, Czech Republic, about the need for Baptists to pay attention to the charismatic movement.

DEA END RNS