c. 2000 Religion News Service
Episcopal Presiding Bishop in `Good Spirits’ After Cancer Surgery
(RNS) Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold is recovering and “in good spirits” following surgery for prostate cancer on Monday (Sept. 11).
Griswold, 62, was diagnosed with the early stages of prostate cancer in July just after the 2.5 million-member church concluded its triennial General Convention meeting in Denver. Doctors expect a full recovery.
A church press release said Griswold’s doctor is “entirely satisfied with the results of the surgery and anticipates a smooth recovery.”
Griswold’s assistant, Barbara Braver, said the bishop “is doing fine. He’s doing well, he’s in good spirits.”
Braver said Griswold was hoping to return to work by the end of the month, but he had vowed to be an “obedient patient” and not overdo it.
Griswold’s wife, Phoebe, said in the press release that her husband was sitting up and reading. “Knowing that people around the church have been praying for Frank has been such a gift to us both,” she said.
Griswold, widely considered to be a church moderate with liberal leanings, was elected to a nine-year term as the 25th presiding bishop in 1997. Prior to that position, Griswold had served as a bishop of Chicago for 10 years. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1963.
As presiding bishop, Griswold oversees the entire U.S. church, serves as president of the 200-member House of Bishops and represents the Episcopal Church in the worldwide Anglican Communion.
Texas Baptists May Slash Southern Baptist Seminary Funding
(RNS) A Texas Baptist study committee plans to recommend that the amount of money the Baptist General Convention of Texas sends to Southern Baptist seminaries be reduced from $5.3 million to a maximum of $1 million next year.
Charles Wade, executive director of the largest state convention within the denomination, said if the proposal is accepted, it would be “the most dramatic thing undertaken by any state Baptist convention,” reported Associated Baptist Press, an independent Baptist news service.
Committee Chairman Bob Campbell presented a preliminary report regarding the recommendations at a Sept. 8 administrative committee meeting.
The proposed changes come at a time when some Texas moderates have urged the state convention to stop sending undesignated donations to the Southern Baptist Convention each year. The moderates have political and theological differences with conservative leaders who have gained control of the denomination since a resurgence began in 1979.
The committee would recommend that the $4.3 million be redistributed in special project funds and student grants to theological schools affiliated with the state convention.
Among the issues addressed by the theological-educational committee is the requirement of the six seminaries for faculty members to sign the “Baptist Faith and Message” statement that was revised in June, provoking much controversy.
Some Baptist officials are criticizing the proposal.
“The disadvantage of the proposed funding plan is that it does not give Texas Baptist churches the privilege of investing in students from around the world,” said Kenneth S. Hemphill, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.
Baptist Press, the SBC’s news service, reported that the heads of the SBC’s Council of Seminary Presidents and Executive Committee oppose the proposal.
“Its underlying motive is hostility, and its effect is directed at thousands of faithful young ministers of the gospel studying at our seminaries,” said Williams Crews, president of Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in Mill Valley, Calif., and council chairman.
SBC Executive Committee President Morris Chapman encouraged Texas Southern Baptists to attend the Oct. 30-31 meeting of the state convention where a final decision is expected to be made.
“If you go this year, I hope and pray you will see how important it is to go every year and protect your cherished beliefs and strong relationship with the Southern Baptist Convention,” Chapman said.
The theological-education study committee is expected to present its report to the executive board of the state convention Sept. 26.
Religious Leaders Urge Clinton to Support Shared Jerusalem
(RNS) The head of the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops and nearly every mainline Protestant leader have written to President Clinton to urge the sharing of Jerusalem between Jews and Muslims as the peace process slowly drags on.
The Sept. 6 letter, signed by 15 religious leaders, commended Clinton’s leadership in the peace talks but said his administration has not paid “adequate” attention to the concerns and interests of U.S. churches.
“The significance of Jerusalem to the international community must receive higher consideration if a political agreement is to be broadly endorsed and enduring,” the letter said.
The leaders said both Jews and Palestinians must be considered in the future and control of Jerusalem, and that the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem is “illegal” and efforts to keep Palestinians out are “unacceptable and discriminatory.”
The letter said the leaders were “sorely disappointed” by Clinton’s suggestions that he might move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem before a final agreement is reached, but commended him for resisting “destructive” congressional efforts to move the embassy.
Much of the criticism, however, was reserved for Israelis who have tried to “weaken the Palestinian community in Jerusalem” while continuing to build Jewish settlements on Palestinian territory in the West Bank.
The future of Jerusalem must take into account the concerns of Muslims, Christians and Jews who view Jerusalem as a holy city, the leaders said. “The churches’ interest extends to the living communities of believers as well as to the holy sites,” the letter said.
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Signing the letter were Bishop Joseph Fiorenza, president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops; the Rev. H. George Anderson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; the Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church; the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (USA); Bishop Melvin Talbert, ecumenical officer for the United Methodist Church; the Rev. Andrew Young, president of the National Council of Churches; the Rev. John H. Thomas, president of the United Church of Christ; and the Rev. Richard Hamm, president of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
Other signers included John Buehrens, president of the Unitarian Universalist Association; C. Wayne Carter, general secretary of the Friends United Meeting (the Quakers); Stephen Glodek, president of the Catholic Conference of Major Superiors of Men; the Rev. Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, general secretary of the Reformed Church in America; Ronald J.R. Mathies, executive director of the Mennonite Central Committee; the Rev. Jody Mills Reimer, executive director of the Church of the Brethren; and Metropolitan Phillip Saliba, leader of the Antiochan Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America.
Thomas Nelson Cancels Weight-Loss Book Amid Trinity Controversy
(RNS) Thomas Nelson Publishers has canceled the contract for the next Christian weight-loss book by author Gwen Shamblin, who has been accused of rejecting the doctrine of the Trinity.
Shamblin, founder of the Weigh Down Diet, included comments on the Weigh Down Web site that have prompted questions, reported ChristianityToday.com.
She posted a weekly e-mail message on Aug. 10 that prompted the controversy.
“As a ministry, we believe in God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit,” Shamblin wrote. “However, the Bible does not use the word `trinity’ and our feeling is that the word `trinity’ implies equality in leadership, or shared Lordship. It is clear that the scriptures teach that Jesus is the Son of God and that God sends the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit does not send God anywhere. God is clearly the Head.”
On Sept. 8, Thomas Nelson halted publication of Shamblin’s new book, “Out of Egypt,” which was scheduled to be sent to bookstores in late September.
“Gwen has touched the lives of untold thousands of people,” said Michael S. Hyatt, executive vice president and publisher of Thomas Nelson. “However, because of the recent controversy created by her doctrinal positions, we do not feel that we can go forward with this project.”
In the same e-mail _ now deleted from the Web site _ Shamblin wrote that Jesus would not want Christians to uphold doctrines not found in the Bible.
“If God wanted us to refer to himself, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit as the `trinity,’ he would not have left this word completely out of the Bible,” she wrote.
Shamblin told Christianity Today she thinks some people have been “on a witch hunt” and she continues to get support from ministers ranging from Episcopalians to Baptists.
“People don’t care about this,” she said. “They don’t care about the Trinity. This is going to pass. What the women want is weight loss. They care about their bodies being a temple and their lives turned over to the Lord. That’s what my ministry is about.”
Shamblin’s book, “The Weigh Down Diet,” has sold more than 1 million copies since it was published in 1997. Tens of thousands of churches _ including thousands of evangelical ones _ hold Weigh Down Workshop gatherings in their buildings each week.
Religious Leaders Ask for Visa Program Extension
(RNS) A coalition of Jewish, Catholic and Protestant religious leaders has asked Congress to permanently extend a visa program that allows foreign missionaries to enter the country on a short-term basis.
The provision, passed originally as part of a 1990 immigration bill, has been reauthorized twice but will die Oct. 1 unless Congress votes to extend the program. The “Mother Teresa Religious Worker Act of 1999” would permanently extend a program that allows up to 5,000 foreign religious workers to enter the United States each year on short-term projects.
In a Sept. 6 letter to members of Congress, nine religious leaders said U.S. churches and synagogues need these foreign missionaries, and their work benefits U.S. citizens, sometimes taking the place of government social service programs.
“Failure to extend it permanently would substantially undermine the services that religious denominations and organizations in the United States provide to their members and communities,” the letter said.
The religious leaders said these “non-minister special immigrant” workers are needed to work in communities, care for the sick, work with troubled families and assimilate new immigrants.
“Although admissions into the United States under the non-minister special immigrant religious worker visa provisions are small … the need for these workers is great,” the letter said.
The bill to extend the program was originally introduced in May 1999 by Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif. The bill is currently in a House subcommittee.
The letter’s signers included Mark Franken, executive director of immigration services for the U.S. Catholic Conference; LaMar Sleight, director of government affairs for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons); Ralston H. Deffenbaugh, president of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service; and Mark Pelavin, associate director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.
New Jersey Nun Makes History With Congressional Prayer
(RNS) The House of Representatives welcomed the first Roman Catholic nun to open the body with prayer on Tuesday (Sept. 12).
Sister Catherine Moran, a member of the Dominican Sisters in New Jersey for 55 years, served as guest chaplain and offered the opening prayer at the start of the session, according to the Associated Press.
The House chaplain, the Rev. Daniel P. Coughlin, said Moran was the first non-ordained woman to offer the opening prayer in the House. Coughlin is the first Catholic chaplain in the House’s history.
Moran works at the New Community Corporation in Newark, N.J., a community development project started by a Catholic priest. She was previously a teacher, principal and superintendent of schools in the Archdiocese of Newark, and also taught at schools in New York.
Guest chaplains are nominated by members of Congress to offer prayers. Moran was nominated by Rep. Donald Payne, D-N.J.
Vatican Confirms Cardinal’s `Personal’ Visit to Beijing
(RNS) The Vatican confirmed Tuesday (Sept. 12) that Cardinal Roger Etchegaray will visit Beijing this month but said he will make the trip “in a personal capacity” without any diplomatic mission.
Etchegaray, former president of the Vatican Council for Justice and Peace and the papal charity Cor Unum, will attend a Symposium on Religions and Peace Sept. 14-16. The meeting was organized by an Italian-Chinese cultural association in cooperation with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
The French prelate, who currently heads the Vatican’s Central Committee for the Grand Jubilee of the Holy Year 2000, will be the highest ranking churchman to visit China since the buildup of tensions over Beijing’s creation of seven new government-selected bishops.
“The cardinal will participate in a personal capacity and is not charged with any mission of a diplomatic character,” Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said.
Navarro-Valls indicated that Etchegaray would meet with Chinese church officials but said that the contacts “cannot be interpreted as a recognition of the existing ecclesiastical structure.”
The Vatican has not had diplomatic relations with China since the new Communist government expelled its nuncio in 1951. In 1957, Beijing established the Patriotic Catholic Association, with no ties to the Vatican.
The Vatican spokesman said the cardinal’s visit is consistent with a Holy Year message that Pope John Paul II addressed to all Chinese Catholics on Dec. 8, saying that he learned “with joy that you offer, as a precious gift for the celebration of the Grand Jubilee, unity between you and with the successor of Peter.” The pope acknowledged, however, that the road to reconciliation and unity is not easy.
The installation of the new bishops in January threw cold water on the Vatican’s hopes for a rapprochement with China, and when Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji visited Italy in July, he had no contact with the Vatican.
A Foreign Ministry spokeswomen said that even if the Vatican breaks off relations with Taiwan and recognizes the People’s Republic of China, Beijing will never relinquish control of the state-sanctioned church.
Chinese officials say the patriotic church has 4 million members. The Vatican believes that at least an equal number of Catholics loyal to the pope continue to practice their religion underground.
Quote of the Day: Pricilla Atuel, president of the United Methodist Women Society for Christian Service
(RNS) “We want to break the notion that the highest level of leadership in the church is only for males. We want to increase the awareness among our male leaders about partnership and about the fact that women have the capacity to lead.”
_ Pricilla Atuel, president of the United Methodist Women Society for Christian Service in the Philippines, speaking about efforts to elect a woman bishop in the Philippines during church elections in December. Atuel was quoted in a story produced by United Methodist News Service.
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