c. 2000 Religion News Service
Presbyterian Court to Hear Appeals on Homosexuality Cases
(RNS) The highest appeals court within the Presbyterian Church (USA) will hear three cases Friday (May 19) that may push the church to refine its position on homosexuality.
The three cases all hinge on interpretations of church law that prohibit the ordination of open homosexuals and the blessing of same-sex union ceremonies. All three cases are appeals from lower local courts in the church in New Jersey, New York and Vermont.
The General Assembly Permanent Judicial Council will hear the cases on Friday in Baltimore.
In the first case, seven ministers and eight churches in New York are appealing an earlier lower court ruling that said same-sex union ceremonies are not explicitly banned under church law. Because the church’s constitution does not explicitly prohibit the blessing of such ceremonies, the church’s Hudson River Presbytery said a 1998 service at a Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., church does not violate church law.
In the second case, the Northern New England Presbytery is appealing a lower court ruling that ordered it to enforce churchwide sexual ethics on a Burlington, Vt., congregation. The church’s Book of Order calls for “fidelity within marriage … or chastity in singleness” for clergy and church officers. The Burlington church, which has an outreach to gays and lesbians, said it would not enforce the rule because it is inconsistent and interferes with its ministry.
In the third case, 11 ministers and six churches in the West Jersey Presbytery are appealing a lower court ruling that allowed an openly gay man to remain as a candidate for ministry, even though the church will not ordain openly gay people as clergy. Church officials in New Jersey who allowed Graham Van Keuren to continue in his training said the church rule applies to clergy, not seminary students.
The church _ the nation’s largest Presbyterian body with 5.2 million members _ will meet in Long Beach, Calif., June 24 to July 1. Progressive factions in the church plan to challenge the church’s ban on blessing same-sex union ceremonies, but gay ordination will not come up until 2001.
Update: Police Arrest Suspect in New York Church Vandalism
(RNS) Police in New York have arrested a man suspected of vandalizing statues at several Roman Catholic churches in Brooklyn.
Primus St. Croix, 34, was arrested Tuesday (May 16) after police received an anonymous tip, the Associated Press reported. He faces several felony charges of criminal mischief and aggravated harassment in connection with attacks on 12 Catholic churches and organizations last year, the Associated Press reported.
St. Croix, a Catholic, confessed to participating in five of the attacks, but police believe he may have joined as many as 12 people in carrying out a dozen vandalism attacks, according to The New York Times.
“We believe that he or his followers were involved in most of the desecrations,” said Police Commissioner Howard Safir. “We believe he was acting with others, and there will be further arrests.”
St. Croix told investigators he vandalized the statues because he believed graven images were wrong according to the beliefs of Rastafarianism, a religious movement that originated in Jamaica.
“He told us that he believed that God had told him to do it _ that the Bible suggested to him that he should not worship graven images,” said Safir.
News of the arrest pleased many parishioners, a spokesman for the Diocese of Brooklyn said.
“It comes as good news, especially for the people of the affected parishes,” said Frank DeRosa. “But we are saddened by what appears to be the reason for the desecrations. The statues represent Jesus and they represent saints who in those images remind us of the life that we should live according to what God expects of us. In no way is this idolatry. We’re not venerating a piece of plaster.”
Ten Commandments Display Removed From Kentucky Courthouse
(RNS) A federal judge in Kentucky ruled Wednesday (May 17) that a display of the Ten Commandments should be removed from a county courthouse.
Agreeing with the American Civil Liberties Union’s contention that display of the Ten Commandments constitutes government endorsement of religion, U.S. District Judge Jennifer Coffman reaffirmed her ruling earlier this month that the McCreary County Courthouse display be removed until a lawsuit challenging its constitutionality is resolved.
Coffman said the display _ which also featured excerpts from the Declaration of Independence, the Kentucky Constitution and the Mayflower Compact _ was religious in nature, the Associated Press reported.
“No reasonable observer of the displays could conclude otherwise,” Coffman said.
In November the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on behalf of citizens in McCreary, Harlan and Pulaski counties against the counties’ governing agencies, arguing that the displays violated constitutional separation of church and state laws.
But defense attorneys say the displays are secular, merely tracing the development of American government. An order to remove the Ten Commandments would constitute censorship, they claim.
The Rev. Willie Ramsey, of the Somerset Church of Christ, denounced Coffman’s decision to remove the Ten Commandments.
“That’s a dark and shameful day,” he said. “That’s communism. That’s atheism.”
Jeff Vessels, executive director of the ACLU in Kentucky, applauded Coffman’s decision and said he was glad no disruptions occurred when the display was taken down.
On Wednesday (May 17), a similar display in the Pulaski County courthouse was also removed. The superintendent of schools in Harlan County said the school district intended to do the same with its Ten Commandments display.
“Today or tomorrow they will probably be taken off the walls and stored,” said Harlan County Schools Superintendent Don Musselman. “But I’m sure they will be going back up one day.”
Unity Plan Presented to Two Black Denominations
(RNS) Two historically black Methodist denominations may become one body in 2004 if a merger plan is approved by both churches.
The Christian Methodist Episcopal Church and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church have been flirting with a merger for more than 100 years. Now, officials in both churches say God has told them it is time to finally get together.
Representatives met in Louisville last month, and the unity plan will be presented to the AMEZ Church when it meets in Greensboro, N.C., July 26 to Aug. 4.
The two churches would have a combined membership of more than 2 million. Both denominations split from what eventually became the United Methodist Church and share John Wesley’s spiritual beliefs and governance through bishops with other Methodist bodies.
Bishops from both churches said they had a “clearer understanding of the call of God in Jesus Christ through the prompting of the Holy Spirit that the time has come for these two churches to be one.”
If the agreement is approved by the AMEZ convention, and ratified by two-thirds of its regional conferences, the plan will be presented to the meeting of the CME church in 2002. The plan would have to be adopted by that convention, and then by two-thirds of its regional conferences. Both churches will be meeting in Charlotte, N.C., in 2004 and could officially merge then.
The talk of union comes at the same time that the United Methodist Church apologized for the institutional racism that drove blacks from the church to form denominations such as the AMEZ and CME. During the Methodists’ General Conference in Cleveland May 2-12, delegates donned sackcloth and ashes to apologize for racial prejudice.
The AMEZ Church was formed in 1796 in New York City after black Methodists were mistreated at John Street Methodist Church. In 1870, the CME Church was formed after freed slaves in the southern branch of the Methodist Church left to form their own independent body. Similar racism prompted the birth of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1787; the AME is the largest of the black Methodist splinter churches with 2 million members.
Quote of the Day: Christian Balslev-Olesen, general secretary of DanChurchAid
(RNS) “Allan Boesak and I were close friends for many years, and what he has done amounts to a profound breach of a relationship based on trust.”
_ Christian Balslev-Olesen, general secretary of DanChurchAid, on the jailing of former cleric and onetime president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches Allan Boesak for embezzlement of funds contributed by the Scandinavian churches to the fight against apartheid. He was quoted by Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious news agency.
DEA END RNS
