c. 2003 Religion News Service
Evangelical Groups Promote `Orphan Sunday’ Observance on Oct. 5
(RNS) Leaders of two evangelical Christian organizations are urging churches to observe the first “Orphan Sunday” on Oct. 5.
The inaugural observance is designed to focus the attention of congregations on the growing number of orphans in need of care across the globe.
“Orphan Sunday is a movement. It isn’t an actual organization,” said Gary Schneider, chairperson of Orphan Sunday and president of Every Orphan’s Hope.
“What’s unique about Orphan Sunday is it’s not meant to benefit any one organization or institution. Any organization that’s serving the orphan in Christ’s name can use Orphan Sunday to unite the church in purpose and intent.”
Schneider, whose Round Hill, Va.-based organization ministers to African orphans, said the idea was sparked by a Zambian pastor. That pastor, whose small church is comprised primarily of widows and orphans, encourages them to do more to help orphans during a monthly “Orphan Sunday” service.
“If we could get the church of Christ around the world to come together for one day and look after the orphans, what kind of testimony could that be to the world?” Schneider asked in an interview with Religion News Service.
He hopes churches will pray for orphans and take action on their behalf by supporting groups that serve orphaned children or help Christian families adopt orphans.
Organizers of the special day cite a 2002 report from the U.S. Agency for International Development that estimates there will be 106 million children worldwide under age 15 who will have lost one or both parents by 2010. Twenty-five million of that number will be orphaned because of HIV/AIDS, said the report, titled “Children on the Brink.”
“That has accelerated it like gasoline on a spark,” said Schneider of the AIDS crisis.
Virginia Woods, CEO and founder of Alliance for Children Everywhere, said some churches in the United States and abroad will feature pulpit speakers addressing the issue on Oct. 5.
“I think that sometimes our multitude of material things in this country kind of anesthetizes us … to the reality of suffering in other places,” said Woods, whose organization is based in Tucson, Ariz., and works with orphans in Africa and Latin America.
Schneider and Woods expect mostly evangelical and mainline Protestant churches to observe the day and intend to spend the next year involving denominations and relief organizations in future efforts.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Nigerian Woman Wins Appeal of Stoning Conviction for Adultery
(RNS) A Nigerian woman condemned to death by stoning on charges of adultery had her sentence overturned Thursday (Sept. 25) after human rights groups demanded her life be spared.
A five-judge Islamic court in the northern town of Katsina ruled 4-1 to overturn the conviction of Amina Lawal, who was convicted in March 2002 after having a baby outside wedlock two years ago.
Lawal, 32, is the second Nigerian woman to have her death sentence overturned since 12 northern states adopted Sharia, a strict Islamic legal code, in 1999, according to the Associated Press.
“It is the view of this court that the judgment of the Upper Sharia Court, Funtua, was very wrong and the appeal of Amina Lawal is hereby discharged and acquitted,” Judge Ibrahim Maiangwa wrote in the court’s decision, according to the Reuters news agency.
Even though Lawal had lost an earlier appeal, the court said she was not given enough time to understand the charges against her and that only one judge _ not the required three _ presided at her trial.
Human rights groups and Western governments pressured Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo to intervene in the case. The implementation of Sharia law has sparked violence between Christians and Muslims in Africa’s most populous nation.
“It’s a victory for the law. It’s a victory for justice,” said defense attorney Hauwa Ibrahim, according to the Associated Press. “And it’s a victory for what we stand for _ dignity and fundamental human rights.”
Five people, including Lawal, have been sentenced to death by stoning. Three have seen their sentences overturned. The Associated Press reported that one man was hanged for killing a woman and her two children, and three people convicted of stealing have had their hands amputated.
Canadian Catholic Archdiocese Ends Ties With Credit Union Over Gays
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (RNS) Vancouver’s Catholic archdiocese has canceled a long-standing partnership with Canada’s largest credit union because the financial institution actively supports the city’s gay and lesbian community.
Vancouver Archbishop Adam Exner ended a VanCity Credit Union program operating in four Catholic schools after the giant organization launched an ad campaign featuring two men sitting cheek-to-cheek, saying, “I want to bank with people who value all partnerships.”
Accusing VanCity of engaging in an “objectionable cause,” Exner said the credit union’s pro-homosexual advertising campaigns and sponsorships display public support for “agendas which are worrisome and harmful to the church and to society.”
As a result, the 350,000-member Catholic archdiocese forbade four of its Catholic schools to continue to take part in VanCity’s in-school junior banking program, which teaches students how to save and invest their money, run a business, and develop mathematical and leadership skills.
One of the Catholic elementary schools, St. Helen’s in Burnaby, a Vancouver suburb, had been active in the VanCity program for seven years. In that time, VanCity official Sara Holland said, 600 students had saved their allowances and earnings and together deposited more than $250,000 in the junior banking program.
Exner, who has a doctorate in moral theology, acknowledged that VanCity’s youth banking programs are a “significant good” because they teach financial responsibility to children. Exner nevertheless wrote in a four-page, philosophy-laden letter to the four Catholic schools that “a good effect must not be produced by the bad effect” of cooperating with an organization that promotes homosexual relationships.
“We’re certainly disappointed,” said Dave Mowat, chief executive officer of VanCity, which has 295,000 members. “But it’s up to the Catholic Church to make its own decision. We are trying to make our services available to everyone out there. We’re trying to reduce barriers. But there’s always someone who will have a different viewpoint.”
_ Douglas Todd
Newark Polish Community Marks Pope’s 25-Year-Old Pontificate
NEWARK, N.J. (RNS) He will never forget the moment he heard the news, almost a quarter-century ago as a child in Stawisza in the Polish countryside.
“I was 8 years old, we were coming back from church,” the Rev. Miroslav Krol of St. Theresa’s in Linden, N.J., recalled. “An older lady came out and shouted, `Children! Children! We have a Polish pope!’ I remember I knew something great had happened.”
Krol and more than 1,000 other people, most of them Polish, sang and prayed Sunday (Sept. 21) at a special Mass celebrating the 25th anniversary of the papacy of John Paul II at Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark.
The actual silver anniversary of John Paul’s pontificate is Oct. 16, but Newark’s archdiocese and many around the world have begun commemorating it on their own. The Vatican will have a special Mass on the anniversary, to be followed three days later by the beatification of Mother Teresa, who died in 1997.
The 1978 election of John Paul II, born Karol Wojtyla, by the College of Cardinals thrilled Poland. The first non-Italian named successor to St. Peter since Dutch-born Adrian VI died in 1523, Wojtyla had been archbishop of Krakow while Poles coped with Soviet influence during much of the Cold War.
All those at the Newark Mass who lived in Poland in 1978 seemed to remember where they were when they heard about John Paul’s election.
Walenty Dabrowski of Jersey City, a former Polish Army lieutenant, had been laboring in a shipyard in Gdansk, just a building over from where Polish Solidarity leader Lech Walesa worked.
“They announced it over the speakers,” said Dabrowski, who wore his green army uniform for Sunday’s service. “This was very great news. Everybody was very happy.”
Many say the pope’s constant calls for religious freedom and human rights, as well as his strategic appearances in Poland, helped weaken the Communist regimes in Eastern Europe and Moscow in the 1980s.
His election in 1978 “was important for Polish people, not only for faith and religion reasons, but also for freedom,” said Ludwik Wnekowicz, president of the Polish-American Congress in New Jersey. “He’s not just a great church leader, but he helped bring freedom for lots of Eastern European countries, especially Poland.”
Wnekowicz said he heard the news of Wojtyla’s election in 1978 while driving in Poland. “It was unbelievable. I already knew him from church in Krakow.”
During the service, Newark Archbishop John J. Myers called the pope “a son of Poland who we all love and have the deepest feelings of emotion, admiration and gratitude (for).”
_ Jeff Diamant
African Anglican Prelates at Odds Over Gay Bishop
(RNS) The new leader of Anglican bishops in Africa has reprimanded the archbishop of South Africa for supporting a gay American bishop and saying his colleagues have an “ostrich mentality” on homosexuality.
Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola, the outspoken conservative leader of the world’s largest Anglican province, was elected Thursday (Sept. 25) to head the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa.
On Monday, he rebuked Archbishop Ndongonkulu Ndungane of Capetown for saying that African Anglican leaders have become obsessed with homosexuality and have ignored more pressing needs of AIDS and poverty.
Akinola has denounced the Episcopal Church _ the U.S. branch of the Anglican Communion _ for approving an openly gay priest, the Rev. Gene Robinson, to serve as bishop of New Hampshire. Akinola called the decision a “satanic attack on God’s church.”
“Peace, hunger, Sharia (Islamic law) and HIV/AIDS are indeed major life and death issues, albeit they are at the physical level,” Akinola said in a public statement. “Unfaithfulness to Scripture is a more major life and death issue because it is spiritual.”
Akinola accused Ndungane of sowing dissension among African prelates prior to an emergency Oct. 15-16 gathering of Anglican leaders in London to discuss the fallout from Robinson’s election.
Prelates from the 12 autonomous Anglican provinces in Africa will meet Friday (Sept. 26) to discuss their position before the London meeting. Akinola said African church leaders “have come of age, they are no longer to be pulled by the nose or taken for granted.”
“Your criticism is so burdened with such sad and most unfortunate presuppositions that see our stand from the point of arrogance and intolerance rather than a strong will to defend the faith that was once delivered to the saints,” he said.
“When you accuse us of arrogance and intolerance, be courageous enough to direct the searchlight at yourself and those for whom you spoke.”
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Quote of the Day: President Bush
(RNS) “I would never use God to promote foreign policy decisions. I recognize that in the eyes of an Almighty, I am a lowly sinner, and I ask for strength and wisdom, and I pray for calmness when the seas are storming.”
_ President Bush, in an interview Sunday with Fox News, speaking about faith and Iraq. He was quoted by The Washington Post.
DEA END RNS
