c. 2003 Religion News Service
Anglican Leaders Blast Vancouver Bishop for Same-Sex Rites
(RNS) By deciding to bless same-sex unions in his diocese, the Anglican bishop of Vancouver has placed himself in “an automatic state of impaired communion” with the rest of the church, eight Anglican leaders said in a stern rebuke.
Last week (May 28) Bishop Michael Ingham of the Diocese of New Westminster officially allowed six churches to bless gay unions. Ingham’s decision came just one day after leaders of the 70 million-member Anglican Communion said they could not “support the authorization of such rites.”
The leader of the Anglican Communion, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, expressed “regret” for the “inevitable tension and division that will result.”
Seven primates, or top bishops, of the communion’s 38 autonomous member churches blasted Ingham for his “revisionist innovation.”
“Bishop Ingham’s action has brought the Anglican Communion to a defining moment in which the clear choice has to be made between remaining a communion or disintegrating into a federation of churches,” said the primates of the West Indies, South America, Central Africa, Kenya, South India, Papua New Guinea, South East Asia and the Philippines.
The primate of the world’s largest Anglican church, Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, formally severed relations with Ingham’s diocese and accused him of “a new imperialism.” Archbishop Mpalanyi-Nkoyoyo of Uganda called Ingham a “heretic” and urged him to repent.
Seven parishes have all but left Ingham’s diocese and asked for new pastoral oversight. Ingham said he was simply responding to votes by delegates in 1998, 2001 and 2002 to allow the blessing of same-sex unions. The Vancouver rites are the first official same-sex rites in the Anglican Communion; in the United States, the Episcopal Church unofficially allows the blessing of such unions on a local basis.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Powell Meets With Pope to Discuss Postwar Iraq
(RNS) U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell met at the Vatican on Monday (June 2) with Pope John Paul II, telling him that the war against Iraq was justified because the Iraqi people were liberated from a “dictator.”
Powell met privately with John Paul for 30 minutes and discussed Middle East peace, Africa and the reconstruction of Iraq. A Vatican statement issued after the meeting did not mention the pope’s staunch opposition to the war.
“Among the themes discussed in the conversations was the material and political rebuilding of Iraq, which must be able to count on the cooperation of the international community and must pay particular attention to fundamental rights such as the right to religious freedom,” Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said in the statement.
In an interview with Italian television before the meeting, Powell said he hoped to convince the pope “that the people of Baghdad are liberated.”
“A dictator who has suppressed the people and has kept their hearts locked up so they could not achieve their dreams” is gone, Powell said, according to The New York Times. “These people are now free to achieve their ambitions.”
Religious Advocates Criticize G-8 on AIDS, Trade
(RNS) Religious advocates for poor nations have sharply criticized the just-concluded summit of leaders from the G-8 _ the world’s industrialized nations _ saying the leaders failed to respond to the needs of poor nations.
“We see the G-8 as an illegitimate group because they were not elected by anybody to rule the world,” Rogate Mshana, an official of the World Council of Churches, told a news conference in Geneva, where the religious activists have been meeting.
The G-8 meeting, which President Bush attended for one day, met June 1-3 in Evian, France, to discuss the world economy, military security issues, democracy and the global fight against HIV/AIDS. Other nations include Britain, France, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia.
At the end of the meeting, the G-8 leaders issued a joint statement warning Iran and North Korea _ both named by President Bush as part of an “axis of evil” that also included Iraq _ not to develop weapons of mass destruction.
“On whose behalf are they speaking?” Mshana asked, according to Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious news service.
Nicola Bullard of Focus on the Global South, a Bangkok, Thailand-based research organization, accused the G-8 of “hypocrisy” in its warnings on weapons of mass destruction, noting that “most of the nations of the G-8 (themselves) have nuclear capability” and two members _ the United States and Great Britain _ “were involved in an illegal war of occupation” in Iraq.
The activists also accused the G-8 leaders of claiming to address the AIDS crisis in Africa by backing trade agreements that looked after the rights of pharmaceutical companies before the needs of public health.
“Thirty million people are doomed to die because they don’t have access to drugs,” Bullard said.
Separately, the Roman Catholic bishops of England and Wales and of Scotland issued a joint statement saying that without just trade agreements, Third World countries could not emerge from poverty.
“Despite all of the efforts made to transform the situation, the economic and trade relationships between the wealthy and poor countries of the world remain deeply unjust.”
The bishops said that trade is not an end in itself.
“It is evaluated by its relationship to a more comprehensive human good,” they said.
_ David E. Anderson and Robert Nowell
Hare Krishna Couple Flees Town Where Sacred Cows Drew Complaints
(RNS) A Hare Krishna couple who drew the ire of neighbors for raising cows in the back yard has decided to move to a Hindu enclave in Bangor, Pa., where the sacred animals can roam free.
Neighbors and local businesses in Angelica, N.Y., complained of the smell from the cows and flies they attracted to Stephen and Linda Voith’s back yard. Town officials filed suit last year, charging that the couple was raising farm animals without a permit, The New York Times reported.
The Voiths, like other Hindus, believe that cows are sacred and said the law violated their religious freedom rights. Without the cows, “our house is devoid of life,” Stephen Voith said.
Sankar Sastri, a professor who retired to Pennsylvania three years ago to open a shelter for abandoned animals, invited the couple to move to his 42-acre farm after hearing of the couple’s plight.
Sastri, who spent most of his life living in New York City, said he could use help caring for the nine cows and a blind dog that live with him. The Voiths plan to bring four cows and a goat.
“I really need help,” Sastri told The Times. “I have worked only with inner-city students.”
Kay Coles James Named `Distinguished Christian Statesman’
(RNS) Kay Coles James, director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, has been named this year’s Distinguished Christian Statesman by the D. James Kennedy Center for Christian Statesmanship.
The Capitol Hill ministry announced the award on Wednesday (June 4), the day she was to be presented with it in a Washington ceremony.
“Throughout her 20 years of public service she has demonstrated a genuine concern for the spiritual well-being of America and its citizens,” said George Roller, the newly appointed executive director of the center. “Her dedication and heart for service can be clearly linked to her love for Christ.”
Prior to her current role, James served as a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, dean of the School of Government at Regent University and health and human resources secretary for the state of Virginia.
The center, founded in 1995, offers spiritual outreach and ministry training to government officials. Past recipients of its annual award include Attorney General John Ashcroft, Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.
Roller succeeds Frank Wright, who became president of the National Religious Broadcasters.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Quote of the Day: Televangelist Jim Bakker
(RNS) “I have had the best of everything, 3,000 employees, the finest talent and equipment. Here I have an audio man who is learning, camera people who have never done this before, the copier is broken, and we don’t even have phones yet. With all that, the most awesome thing happens every day. The presence of the Lord comes into this place and people have been healed, depression lifted, and many come to know the Lord.”
_ Televangelist Jim Bakker, speaking about “The New Jim Bakker Show” that launched in January from a cafe in Branson, Mo. The former leader of the Praise the Lord (PTL) television ministry was quoted by Charisma News Service.
DEA END RNS