c. 2003 Religion News Service

Episcopal Bishops Advise Against Blessing Gay Unions

(RNS) A panel of Episcopal bishops advised the church against blessing same-sex unions because members are so badly divided on the issue of homosexuality.

In a report received Monday (March 17) by the church’s House of Bishops after 18 months of study, a panel of six bishops and seven theologians urged “the greatest caution” as the church considers whether to sanction gay unions and gay ordination.

“Because at this time we are nowhere near consensus in the church regarding the blessing of homosexual relationships, we cannot recommend authorizing the development of new rites for such blessings,” the report said.

The report will likely color the debate on gay unions as the church prepares for its triennial General Convention meeting this summer in Minneapolis. When the church last met in 2000, delegates voted to “support” lifelong, non-married relationships, but stopped short of formally blessing them.

The report by the bishops’ theology committee called sexuality “one of God’s wonderful, complex, confusing and, sometimes, dangerous gifts” that is “part of God’s good creation and intended to be a source of blessing and joy for human beings.”

However, the report reflected the divisions of the church between those who view homosexual activity as sinful and those who say that homosexuals deserve support and respect.

The committee said the divisions should not be “church-dividing issues” and urged the church to “refrain from any attempt to `settle’ the matter legislatively.”

The report was less clear on whether to ordain non-celibate gays and lesbians. Gay ordination is unofficially allowed in some dioceses, and the report called on bishops to be “respectful” on how policies in one diocese can affect the wider church, noting that “ordination is for the whole church.”

_ Kevin Eckstrom

House Votes to Support `Under God’ in Pledge

WASHINGTON (RNS) The House of Representatives voted 400 to 7 on Thursday (March 20) to condemn a federal court ruling that found the words “under God” unconstitutional in the Pledge of Allegiance.

The nonbinding House resolution said, “The recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag, including the phrase `one nation, under God,’ is a patriotic act, not an act or endorsement of religious faith or belief.”

The resolution came three weeks after the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld its controversial decision that found the pledge violates the constitutional separation of church and state. Attorney General John Ashcroft has said he will appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Atheist Michael A. Newdow sued the Elk Grove, Calif., Unified School District last year, claiming that his daughter’s religious freedoms were violated by being forced to recite or listen to the pledge. A lower court rejected the suit, but the 9th Circuit agreed with Newdow.

The resolution, introduced by Rep. Doug Ose, R-Calif., said the court’s ruling could lead to the prohibition of other “voluntary speech containing religious references” in classrooms.

Both houses of Congress approved similar resolutions last summer. All seven members voting against the resolution were Democrats; 15 other Democrats voted present.

_ Kevin Eckstrom

American Falun Gong Member Convicted, Faces Expulsion

(RNS) A California man who is a member of Falun Gong, a banned spiritual movement, was sentenced Friday (March 21) to three years in prison by a Chinese court after being convicted of sabotaging television broadcasts.

Charles Li, 38, of Menlo Park, Calif., also was ordered to be expelled, but it was not clear when the expulsion would occur, the Reuters news agency reported.

Li, also known as Chuck Lee, was taken into police custody on Jan. 22 after entering China, the Xinhua news agency said. He became a U.S. citizen in 2002.

The Intermediate People’s Court in Yangzhou convicted Li in October 2002. The court is located in the hometown of former president Jiang Zemin, who banned the Falun Gong group in 1999.

The spiritual movement, on its Web site at http://www.faluninfo.net, said Li had defended himself and said it was impossible for him to have a fair trial.

“China’s legal system is just another tool utilized to persecute Falun Gong practitioners,” the Web site quoted Yeong-ching Foo, Li’s fiancee, as saying.

“Choosing a lawyer would only serve to legitimize this show trial.”

More than 20 members of the group have been tried and sentenced on charges of hijacking TV signals around China. Falun Gong material has been broadcast at times over hijacked signals.

Falun Gong is a combination of Buddhism, Taoism, traditional Chinese breathing exercises and the ideas of its founder, Li Hongzhi.

Diocese of Manchester to Sell Bishop’s Home in Cost-Cutting Move

(RNS) The Catholic bishop of New Hampshire will have to find a new home after church officials decided to close his official residence as part of budget cutbacks.

Bishop John McCormack will vacate the stately brick home by June 30 as part of a $500,000 cutback. The Diocese of Manchester was ordered to trim its $2.5 million operating budget after paying $6.29 million in sex abuse claims last year.

The diocese has spent $2.2 million of its $2.5 million in savings on abuse cases, according to The New York Times. Part of the cutbacks include eliminating 19 jobs, including the staff at the bishop’s residence, and closing the diocese’s youth center.

Closing the residence could save the church $47,000 a year, said Patrick McGee, church spokesman.

Cardinal Francis George of Chicago has also floated the idea of selling his landmark residence in order to save money, and church officials in the Archdiocese of Boston have also considered selling the cardinal’s palatial residence there.

Russian Orthodox Church Leader Condemns American War Against Iraq

MOSCOW (RNS) The head of the world’s largest Orthodox church has condemned the American-led attack on Iraq, calling on the United States to “spare thousands of innocent people.”

Patriarch Alexy II, leader of the 80 million-member Russian Orthodox Church, reacted Thursday (March 20) within hours of the first word of a bomb attack on Baghdad, where his envoy and Russian Muslim leaders had been earlier in the week on a last-minute peace mission.

“This visit testified to the solidarity of the Russian faithful with the Iraqi people and showed that the use of force is not to be explained by the confrontation between Christianity and Islam and that this conflict has no religious roots,” the patriarch said.

Leaders of Russia’s 20 million Muslim minority also spoke out Thursday. The country’s Council of Muftis called the start of the war “an attack on Muslims and believers that naturally evokes feelings of solidarity among Muslims of other countries.”

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, a powerful Buddhist politician who took part in the peace mission to Baghdad, characterized the effort to depose Saddam Hussein as purely financial. Quoting the founder of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Lenin, he warned of “the savage capitalist with bared teeth who seeks to widen his markets.”

_ Frank Brown

British Religious Leaders Join in Interfaith Appeal for Tolerance

LONDON (RNS) Christians, Jews and Muslims in Britain have been urged not to let the war in Iraq drive them apart.

The appeal came in a joint statement by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams; Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, archbishop of Westminster; Free Churches Moderator David Coffey; Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks; the chairman of the Council of Mosques and Imams UK, Shaikh Zaki Badawi; and the co-president of Churches Together in England, the Rev. Esme Beswick.

“This is a conflict neither about religion nor between religions,” they said. “We completely reject any attempt to misrepresent it in this way. As Christian, Jewish and Muslim religious leaders in this country, we believe that it is vital, amid so much uncertainty and turmoil, to resist any attempt to drive our communities apart.”

They said they were saddened the diplomatic road to peace was blocked but argued military action could only be “a limited means to an end. We pray that early efforts to achieve a just, lasting and secure peace both in Iraq and throughout the Middle East may follow swiftly in the footsteps of war.”

The religious leaders also stressed that respect for every human being during a war, as set out in the Geneva conventions and protocols, must be guaranteed on all sides. “The rights and needs of civilians innocently affected by the conflict must be fully protected,” they said.

_ Robert Nowell

Activist Kopp Convicted of Murdering Abortion Provider

(RNS) Anti-abortion activist James Kopp was convicted of murder Tuesday (March 18) for shooting a doctor who had performed abortions.

Kopp, 48, was convicted in a Buffalo, N.Y., court of murdering Dr. Barnett Slepian with an assault rifle through a window of the doctor’s home in 1998. The conviction on a state charge of second-degree murder came after a one-day trial the previous day.

At his sentencing, scheduled for May 9, Kopp faces a minimum of 15 years and a maximum of life imprisonment, the Associated Press reported.

Erie County District Attorney Frank Clark said his office would seek “not a day less” than the maximum sentence.

Kopp’s attorney, Bruce Barket, said of the court decision: “Jim and I were disappointed by the verdict but not shocked by it.”

He added that Kopp asked him to ask this question of society: “What are you going to do to protect babies?”

Kopp claimed he had only wanted to wound Slepian to prevent him from performing abortions.

Marilynn Buckham, executive director of GYN Womenservices, the Buffalo clinic where Slepian worked, said the verdict revealed Kopp “to be the cold, calculating, premeditated murderer that he is.”

Kopp still faces a related federal charge of interfering with the right to an abortion.

Quote of the Day: The Rev. Konrad Raiser, General Secretary of the World Council of Churches

(RNS) “The sheer fact that the overwhelming majority of United Nations member states have rejected the project of war against Iraq is an indication that the basic values upon which it was founded are still being affirmed. The war against Iraq is not a defeat for U.N., but a moral and political defeat for the government of the United States and her allies.”

_ World Council of Churches Secretary General Konrad Raiser at an ecumenical prayer service March 20 in Geneva.

DEA END RNS