c. 2003 Religion News Service
Cheney Leads Memorial for Seven Astronauts at National Cathedral
WASHINGTON (RNS) The fallen crew members of the space shuttle Columbia were mourned by Vice President Dick Cheney and NASA officials at Washington National Cathedral on Thursday (Feb. 6).
“May a merciful God receive these seven souls,” Cheney said. “May he comfort their families, may he help our nation to bear this heavy loss, and may he guide us forward in exploring his creation.”
The majestic cathedral was packed with NASA officials, members of the military and Congress, and the families of the astronauts. An Israeli flag, to honor Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon, was displayed with an American flag on the steps leading up to the high altar.
NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe, in remarks honoring the seven explorers, remembered Commander Rick Husband’s words that “there is no way you can look at the stars, at the Earth, at the moon, and not come to realize that there is a God out there who has a plan and has laid out the universe.”
Singer Patti LaBelle fought back tears as she sang “Way Up There,” a song about space travel. One of the cathedral’s most famous stained glass windows contains a piece of moon rock.
Gen. Charles Baldwin, deputy chief of chaplains for the Air Force, said the seven astronauts had “placed themselves on the altar of discovery, and we are indebted to them and their families.”
The Rev. Stephen McWhorter, pastor of St. David’s Episcopal Church in Ashburn, Va., where O’Keefe is a member, prayed: “Lord God, help us now to lift our eyes to the heavens, as did these brave seven astronauts. And for us, as for them, may we find there your perfect peace.”
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Evangelical and American, African Political Leaders Meet on AIDS
WASHINGTON (RNS) U.S. evangelical leaders and top American and African politicians met at the Capitol on Wednesday (Feb. 5) to foster relations as leaders on the two continents make plans to further address the AIDS crisis in Africa.
The closed-door meeting, hosted by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., came just a week after President Bush proposed $15 billion in funding to assist in battling the disease in Africa and the Caribbean.
Religious leaders said the meeting of about 30 people affirmed their role in assisting in the global cause.
“Frist views the evangelical community as an important actor on the scene,” said the Rev. Richard Cizik, vice president for governmental affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals.
After the meeting, NAE President Leith Anderson said that evangelicals have not addressed AIDS “soon enough or adequately,” but he agreed with other leaders at the gathering that there is now a convergence of interest on the subject.
“I think there’s broader understanding and we are hearing the president of the United States, Bono of U2, large churches, missions organizations, all of these coming together with synergy with the same message,” he said.
Tom Correll, missions pastor at Anderson’s Wooddale Church in Eden Prairie, Minn., has convened a group with three other megachurches that have pledged “millions” of dollars to address AIDS in Africa.
“We recognize that we in the West with huge resources cannot simply say, `It’s their problem,”’ said Cordell, convener of the Africa AIDS Initiative. “We need to come along beside them and encourage and go with them.”
Steve Haas, a vice president for World Vision, an evangelical relief organization, said the African leaders who detailed the plight of those affected by AIDS also affirmed the necessity for religious assistance.
“It was important for them to state the importance of the need for the church to weigh in in the way in which the church can weigh in, through its moral messages, through arms of compassion,” he said.
Although the meeting focused on practical steps for addressing AIDS, there were hopes _ and prayers _ by those present that U.S. funding will back up their plans.
Santorum, upon leaving the meeting, said he hopes the religious leaders who heard firsthand from representatives of countries such as Burundi and South Africa will be spurred to encourage support from evangelicals for the president’s proposal.
“I just want to make sure there’s sufficient political support from the grass-roots level so it gets done,” he said.
Added Anderson: “When the prime minister of Uganda prayed and thanked God for America and our willingness to give $15 billion, in my heart I thought, `Oh, I hope it happens.’ If it doesn’t pass in Congress, there’s going to be an enormous disappointment.”
_ Adelle M. Banks
First Survivor Group Member Named to Crisis Review Board
(RNS) The Diocese of Metuchen, N.J., in what has been called a major breakthrough for victims of sex abuse by priests, will name a member of the country’s largest survivors’ advocacy group to its crisis review board.
Bishop Paul Bootkoski is the first Roman Catholic bishop in the nation to invite a representative from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, to help evaluate accused priests.
“This is a major, although belated, breakthrough,” said SNAP national director David Clohessy, noting that a small minority of the 194 Roman Catholic dioceses throughout the country have victims on their crisis teams.
“And in the small number that do (have victim representatives), they were hand-picked by the church to have the most positive attitude towards the church,” Clohessy added.
“This not only acts as recognition of SNAP as an independent voice for the victims, but indicates that the bishop of Metuchen is recognizing how important the victims are in this process.”
Bootkoski said his decision to appoint a SNAP member is part of his commitment to do “everything humanly possible to protect our children’s safety and to restore, reaffirm and renew trust in our priests.”
“It is important that the members of the Diocesan Review Board bring to their deliberations varying experiences as professionals, as laypeople, as clergy and as victims.”
The boards, hand-picked by each bishop, are supposed to independently review and assess the credibility of sex accusations made against priests.
The names of board members are confidential, said a diocese spokesman.
SNAP officials said Thursday that membership had grown “like wildfire” in 2002 to 4,500 members in 44 cities, up from 3,000 members in nine chapters the year before.
The Chicago-based group started new chapters in 35 cities last year and has plans to start groups in seven more. In addition, SNAP said seven cities with sporadic membership are now more active and meeting regularly.
_ Judy Peet
Huntsville’s Hindu, Sikh Communities Hit Hard by Astronaut Loss
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. _ The Hindu and Sikh communities of this city, with strong ties to both India and the space program, were hit doubly hard by the loss Saturday (Feb. 1) of astronaut Kalpana Chawla and the rest of the crew of the shuttle Columbia.
Chawla, a native of India and an American citizen, was a source of pride for people in the local Hindu and Sikh communities, since many of them also call both countries home. And a number of Hindus and Sikhs here are directly or indirectly involved in the space program, so when they gathered Sunday for services, the tragedy still weighed heavy on hearts and minds.
“You just don’t know how to mend a loss like this,” said Sarat Praharaj, a member of the Huntsville Hindu Temple and Cultural Center board of directors.
“It was a very somber service,” said Rajinder Mehta, a leader of the local Sikh community and a longtime NASA employee. “We had a period of silence for the astronauts and prayers that the families will be given the strength to deal with this tragic loss.”
Praharaj did extensive work following the Challenger explosion 17 years ago, investigating what went wrong and helping redesign the spacecraft.
“I haven’t worked with the shuttle in eight or 10 years, but it’s still a part of me,” said Praharaj. “It really hit me hard.”
Praharaj, an engineer, said he had known Chawla, the first native of India to fly on a shuttle, during work in Houston.
“I had no idea she was 41. She looked much younger,” said Praharaj. “People have told me she was a very determined person and very pointed in her work. We are definitely very proud of her.
“They (the astronauts) were just looking for truths of space, and sometimes truth is elusive and doesn’t come. Sometimes you lose your life, but you have to keep on going.”
Bhagbat Sahir, chairman of the temple’s board of directors, attempted to bring a positive word about the loss to those gathered at Sunday’s service.
“The loss of the seven astronauts was like the loss of seven rishis (prophets or spiritual teachers in the Hindu religion),” Praharaj quoted Sahir as saying. “Their bones were dedicated from space and showered over the Earth. They were spreading their wings over us so we can continue (their work).”
_ Yvonne Betowt
Kremlin-Connected Youth Group Targets Scientology
MOSCOW (RNS) A Kremlin-connected youth movement is targeting the Church of Scientology with pickets and a planned lawsuit in an attempt to shut down the group’s center in St. Petersburg, Russia’s second largest city.
“We’ve decided to go after the most odious and dangerous of the cults,” said Aleksey Kuznetsov, an organizer with the St. Petersburg chapter of Walking Together, a national youth group that supports the policies of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Walking Together members pitched a tent near the Scientologist headquarters in central St. Petersburg for 12 days, distributed anti-Scientologist pamphlets and erected a large sign reading, “The Sect Is There,” with an arrow pointing at the five-story Scientologist building.
As nighttime temperatures dropped to minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit earlier this week, the youth group abandoned its encampment Tuesday (Feb. 4) and will now focus on legal avenues, Kuznetsov said.
A spokesperson for the Scientologists said Thursday (Feb. 6) the group had filed three legal complaints against Walking Together. Nina De Kastro predicted that the Scientologists would triumph in court, saying, “I think, in the end, whoever organized this will be punished.”
“It is perfectly clear that someone else put Walking Together up to doing this. They themselves were buying Scientology books to understand it better,” De Kastro said from the Scientologists’ headquarters in Moscow.
De Kastro pointed her finger at a cult-fighting organization supported by the politically powerful Russian Orthodox Church. Walking Together officials in St. Petersburg acknowledge the link.
“The Orthodox Church helped us a lot with this protest. They appealed to all their parishioners to go to the picket and support us,” said Maria Petko, head of the St. Petersburg branch of Walking Together, which claims 70,000 members nationwide.
De Kastro stressed the Scientologists are legally registered as a nonreligious social organization in St. Petersburg and about 80 other cities across Russia. Only in Moscow do the Scientologists have the status of a religious group despite five years of battling for the right in other cities, De Kastro said. She claims the Scientologists have 200,000 members in Russia.
In a related development, the Church of Scientology in Germany has, for the first time, won partial exemption from taxation.
But, according to a news accounts, it is because there is a double taxation agreement between Germany and the United States, where the Church of Scientology is tax-exempt, and not because German authorities have recognized it as a religious organization.
“This does not in any way mean that Scientology in Germany is now recognized as a charitable organization or indeed as a church,” government officials in Bavaria said.
But a Scientology spokesman called the move an “important step” for them to be treated just like other religious communities in the country.
_ Frank Brown and Robert Nowell
Quote of the Day: Habitat for Humanity founder Millard Fuller
(RNS) “God is broadcasting, young folks. If you will extend your spiritual antennas, God will reveal to you your unique ministry, and what it is that God wants you to do.”
_ Habitat for Humanity founder Millard Fuller, speaking at an ecumenical conference for college students in late December in Albuquerque, N.M. He was quoted by Presbyterian News Service.
DEA END RNS
