c. 1999 Religion News Service

Southern Baptist Executive Committee affirms Mission America

(RNS) The Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee has affirmed participation in the Mission America evangelistic movement while continuing to caution against SBC ecumenical relationships that would”compromise the historic distinctives”of the denomination.

Mission America is a coalition of more than 300 Christian leaders aiming to evangelize all Americans by the end of the year 2000. The”Lighthouse Movement,”in which Christians are encouraged to pray for their neighbors, show concern for them and share their faith with them, is a key initiative of Mission America.

The North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention has been involved in the coalition, reported Baptist Press, the official news service of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Some Executive Committee members were concerned about the beliefs of denominations and ministries affiliated with Mission America, but others voiced trust in their mission board leaders that they would not compromise Baptist doctrine by participating in the movement.

Gary Frost, pastor of a Youngstown, Ohio, church and a former SBC second vice president, said he supported Southern Baptist involvement in Mission America.”I am very much Baptist, very much Southern Baptist, and I’ve not compromised anything,”said Frost,”but we’ve been working together in our community with Pentecostals and United Methodists and others in one purpose, and that is to glorify Jesus Christ.” The affirmation of Mission America and the recommendation concerning relationships with other Christian groups were sparked by a motion from a delegate to June’s annual meeting of the SBC. A Louisiana pastor questioned whether any denominational agency was spending money for ecumenical relationships that compromised SBC principles.

The recommendation, which along with the affirmation involved lengthy debate, passed overwhelmingly.

It asks SBC agencies to”avoid committing Southern Baptist resources, personnel or ministries to relationships which would compromise the historic distinctives or the unique witness of Southern Baptists to the world.”

Alliance of Baptists board endorses ecumenical affiliations

(RNS) Directors of the Alliance of Baptists, a moderate Baptist group, have endorsed affiliations with the National Council of Churches and the pension board of the American Baptist Churches USA.

Ties to the groups will be considered for final action by the NCC and the General Board of the American Baptist Churches, both of which have meetings in November.

The NCC’s Membership and Ecclesial Relations Committee approved the alliance’s membership application on Sept. 13, said Stan Hastey, executive director of the alliance.

The interest by the alliance in joining NCC is consistent with past ecumenical involvement, said Mark Caldwell, chair of the alliance’s Ecumenical Development Committee.”From our beginning in 1987, the Alliance of Baptists has embraced broad ecumenical interests,”said Caldwell.”While a part of the larger Baptist tradition within Christianity, the Alliance has valued other denominational and spiritual traditions.” The directors of the alliance unanimously endorsed the possibility of taking part in the pension plan of the American Baptists’ Ministers and Missionaries Benefit Board, reported Associated Baptist Press, an independent news service.

In other action, the Rev. Welton Gaddy, president of the alliance, told the board he will appoint a Committee on Ordination to aid congregations in ordination procedures.

Hastey said one way the committee might help local congregations is to serve, when asked, as an”association of churches”for alliance churches that have no affiliation with a local association.

Christians to mark `Feast of Tabernacles’ in Jerusalem

(RNS) Christians from war-torn Kosovo and Indonesia as well as from as far away as Fiji and Micronesia will gather in Jerusalem Friday (Sept. 24) along with pilgrims from Europe and the United States to launch the annual”Feast of the Tabernacles”sponsored by Jerusalem’s International Christian Embassy.

The event, expected to draw nearly 5,000 participants from 100 countries, will rate as one of the most diverse gatherings of pilgrims ever seen in Jerusalem, and include one of the largest contingents of Christians from predominantly Muslim countries ever to attend such an event, organizers say.

Hundreds of delegates will arrive from Jakarta, Muslim Indonesia’s capital,along with smaller Christian groups from the neighboring Muslim principality of Brunei, on the island of Borneo, and Middle Eastern Christians from Egypt and Jordan, they said.”One thing we are seeing this year is quite a surge in interest from Pacific countries,”said Johann Luckhoff, founder and director of the Christian Embassy.”Christian communities in the Pacific region, in particular, are experiencing a tremendous explosion in growth due to a great spiritual thirst and the poverty and social unrest that is spreading all over Indonesia.” The nine-day”feast,”which stresses the biblical expectation that one day all the peoples of the world will come to worship in Jerusalem, is especially relevant to Christians, said Dave Parsons, a spokesman at the Christian Embassy. The event coincides with the Jewish festival of Sukkot, which commemorates the desert wanderings of the ancient Israelites, and the harvest period that was celebrated by Jews here during biblical times.

The event will include a visit to the Dead Sea area of Ein Gedi to experience the”desert atmosphere”of Sukkot, in which Jews typically reside outside in three-walled booths or lean-tos. The Christian pilgrims also will attend a gala musical festival, seminars and worship sessions, and march through the streets of Jerusalem in their native dress, including the buckskin garments of Native Americans, Indian saris and Dutch clogs.”For many Westerners, coming here is a matter of getting on an El Al plane or KLM and we are worried mostly about the security checks,”Parsons observed.”For some people, however, this is a real quest in the biblical style and tradition.” One tribe of African bushmen set out for Jerusalem on foot, he said, leaving their homes in the Kalahari desert region of southern Africa several months ago. The group apparently made it as far as the upper Nile region of Egypt and then ran out of steam, according to the Embassy’s field contacts.”I don’t think they’re going to make it this year,”said Parsons.”I think it just got to be too long of a walk for them and they had to rest somewhere.” Anglicans urge”careful and critical”study of authority statement

(RNS) The Anglican Consultative Council has urged the 70 million Anglicans around the world to give”critical and careful”study to a controversial statement on authority issued by a joint Roman Catholic-Anglican theological panel.

The document,”The Gift of Authority,”was published in May by the second Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission. The ACC, meeting in Dundee, Scotland, welcomed the document and urged five years of careful deliberation on the statement.

The document not only explores the questions of papal primacy and infallibility but also stresses the role of the laity in the establishment of doctrine. It concludes by suggesting Anglican and Roman Catholic bishops find”ways of cooperating and developing relationships of mutual accountability in their exercise of oversight.”Wherever possible, the ecumenical statement says, the leaders of the two churches”should take the opportunity of teaching and acting together in matters of faith and morals”.

Presenting the document to the ACC meeting at a session closed to reporters, Bishop Mark Santer of Birmingham, England, and Anglican co-chairman of ARCIC II, said the issue of authority is not new but is”simply inescapable.” He said it was”a cop-out”for Anglicans to focus on the question of the authority of the pope because this is only one of a number of questions, including the authority of bishops and the problematic authority of kings and civil authorities over the church.

The key question, he said, is”Who speaks for the people as a whole, and by what authority?””Perhaps the deepest question,”he said according to the official news release,”is whether we really believe that Christ has given living organs of authority to his people such that when necessary the church as a whole can recognize that it is being spoken to and spoken for in the name of its Lord.”

Quote of the day: Southern Baptist President Paige Patterson

(RNS)”One Jew has said to us, `You cannot witness and you cannot pray for the salvation of the Jews.’ Another Jew has said to us, `You must share my message with everybody in the world, and you must pray for the conversion especially of my people, the Jewish nation.’ … If it’s all the same with you, we’re going to follow the example of the one who died for us on the cross.” _ Southern Baptist Convention president Paige Patterson, speaking about a letter he sent to Abraham H. Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League, who complained to Patterson about Southern Baptist plans to pray during the Jewish High Holy Days for Jews to accept Jesus as the Messiah. Patterson was quoted by Baptist Press, the SBC’s official news service.

DEA END RNS