c. 2003 Religion News Service

Methodists Call on Bush to `Repent’ for Policies

(RNS) A group of United Methodists, including seven bishops, has called on President Bush to “repent” of his war policies they say are “incompatible” with Christian teaching.

More than 120 Methodists signed the “prophetic epistle” printed in The Christian Century, a mainline Protestant journal. Both Bush and Vice President Cheney are members of the United Methodist Church.

“It is our judgment that some policies advanced by your administration give evidence of the spiritual forces of wickedness that exist in our society today,” the ad said.

The signers said Bush’s domestic and foreign policies are “incongruent” with Jesus’ message of hope for the poor. The group called on Bush to “earnestly repent and lead our nation away from an idolatry of oil and wealth and weapons of mass destruction.”

“You once claimed to be a `compassionate conservative’ but your policies fall well short of the kind of compassion that Jesus spoke of and demonstrated,” the group said.

Signers included Chicago Bishop C. Joseph Sprague, who was arrested outside the White House in a peaceful demonstration on March 26, and Bishop Melvin Talbert, who has appeared in television and print ads publicly opposing Bush’s war on Iraq.

Methodist bishops tried repeatedly to meet with the president, but he has turned down their requests. The White House has said the president respects their views but does not agree with them.

The conservative Institute on Religion and Democracy, which supports the president and contends that Methodist leaders like Sprague do not speak for most church members, criticized the ad.

“These United Methodist officials are effectively telling the president he is not a good Christian because his policies do not match their own left-wing beliefs,” said Mark Tooley, director of IRD’s United Methodist committee.

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Lutherans Say Pope’s Letter on Eucharist Sours Relations

(RNS) A leading global Protestant body said Pope John Paul II’s new encyclical on the Eucharist threatens to delay progress in relations between Protestants and Catholics.

The Geneva-based Lutheran World Federation said that the pope’s 79-page document on Communion threatens to prolong “the status quo” in relations between the two churches, and could be “detrimental” for the ecumenical movement.

In his encyclical issued Thursday (April 17), John Paul reiterated his position that non-Catholics may not be admitted to Catholic celebrations of the sacrament, and said such celebrations would be an “obstacle” to full unity by blurring differences between Protestant and Catholic theology.

Catholics believe that the bread and wine used in the Eucharist literally become the body and blood of Jesus Christ, while Lutherans generally believe that the bread and wine contain the “real presence” of Jesus.

The Rev. Ishmael Noko, general secretary of the 65 million-member LWF, said the encyclical shows no “new considerations” of how to broaden the unity with non-Catholics.

“If no consequences for institutional church relations emerge, this can become detrimental to the strength of the ecumenical movement,” Noko said. “In the long run, the value of reaching doctrinal agreements can be called into question.

“For this reason, an indefinite status quo in this area is clearly not satisfactory, either for the Roman Catholic Church or for its ecumenical partners.”

In 1999, the LWF signed a historic agreement with Vatican officials that affirmed similar beliefs on salvation, an issue that has divided Catholics and Protestants since the 16th century Protestant Reformation. Noko said, “Christians from different traditions experience a deep longing for the strength that comes from sharing the gift of their unity with Christ also through the Eucharist.”

At the same time, a liberal U.S. Catholic group said that if the pope wants Catholics to participate in the Eucharist, he should ordain women to help stem a shortage of priests.

“If, as the pope says, the church truly `draws her life from the Eucharist,’ then we are in danger of starving,” said Sister Christine Schenk, director of FutureChurch, a Cleveland-based group that advocates women’s ordination.

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Southwestern Seminary President Retires, Becomes Baptist Strategist

(RNS) Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Kenneth S. Hemphill is retiring from his position to become a national strategist for the Southern Baptist Convention.

Hemphill, 55, has presided over one of the largest evangelical seminaries in the world for nine years. He will leave his post in Fort Worth, Texas, to become involved in the “Empowering Kingdom Growth” movement, a joint venture of the SBC Executive Committee and LifeWay Christian Resources that is scheduled to start this summer, the denomination announced.

Hemphill, who announced his departure during a April 8 chapel service, said his decision came with sadness and excitement.

“These have been nine exciting and profitable years, and I will always be grateful for the opportunity the Lord has given me through the call of the trustees of this institution to serve as the president of the greatest seminary in the world,” he said of the school that is one of six Southern Baptist seminaries.

“I am privileged and humbled to be invited to give national leadership to Empowering Kingdom Growth. I believe that this emphasis is from God and could radically change our denomination and our world.”

Southern Baptist leaders said Hemphill will help shape the movement that will attempt to foster prayer, daily Christian activity and evangelism.

“He’s a gifted and Spirit-led leader who will work untiringly and unselfishly with EKG Task Force members to build ever-increasing momentum in preparation for God to soften our hearts and bring a genuine revival,” said Morris Chapman, president of the SBC Executive Committee.

Under Hemphill’s leadership, the seminary raised about $50 million in a capital campaign and began an Islamic studies program, one of three in the nation designed to teach Christian ministers how to approach potential converts from Islam.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Judge: Church Can Post Seminar Fliers in San Diego Schools

(RNS) A San Diego school district must permit a church to post fliers advertising seminars on parenting and school violence, a district court has ruled.

The American Center for Law and Justice sued the San Diego Unified School District in 2001 after school officials rejected requests by the Rev. James Jerpseth, pastor of Atonement Lutheran Church in San Diego, to post the ads.

“At a time when the San Diego community was dealing with the trauma and tragedy of school violence, the school district rejected a legitimate request from the church to reach out and help,” said Stuart J. Roth, senior counsel of the ACLJ, in a statement. “The court correctly determined that this kind of treatment was not only wrong, but unconstitutional.”

The fliers, which the church distributed in the wake of shootings at two area high schools, were for seminars with titles such as “How to Spot a Troubled Kid: Stopping the Violence” and “Be a Better Parent.”

In a modified decision issued April 8, U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey T. Miller of San Diego ruled: “This policy would prohibit a religious group access to address a topic addressed by a secular group, even on a topic secular in nature and supportive of school educational goals. Such a policy cannot survive constitutional scrutiny.”

The ACLJ is continuing its legal effort to lift school districts’ restrictions on distributing similar materials.

The school district’s attorney did not return calls from Religion News Service.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Catholics Give $11 Million to Support Poor Dioceses

(RNS) The nation’s poorest Catholic dioceses will receive $11.1 million in special aid this year, with particular help going to Hispanic, African-American, Asian and Native American missions.

The annual Catholic Home Missions Appeal will distribute its highest amount ever, up from $4.5 million in the appeal’s first independent collection in 1998. The fund-raising drive was part of a global missions fund from 1924 to 1997, when a separate collection was started.

Forty percent of the fund will be given to Hispanic ministry programs; 15 percent will go to mostly ethnic Eastern rite churches; 7 percent will aid African-American causes; 6 percent will fund outreach to Native Americans; 4 percent will go to Asian ministries.

“The Home Missions Appeal serves as a wonderful reminder that all we Catholics are linked in the community of faith,” said Bishop Paul Zipfel of Bismarck, N.D., who oversees the campaign. “Through the appeal, Catholics in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles help those in Mississippi, New Mexico and Wyoming to participate fully in the life of the church.”

The next collection for the annual fund will be held the weekend of April 26-27.

Among those receiving grants this year will be the Diocese of Fairbanks, Alaska, which will receive $175,000 to fund Native American lay ministry programs; the Diocese of Tucson, Ariz., which will get $175,000 for Hispanic evangelization; and the Chicago-based Ukrainian Eparchy of St. Nicholas, which will get $110,000 for mission development and youth ministry.

Grants will also go to churches in the Caribbean and Pacific Islands and organizations such as the National Association for Lay Ministry and Xavier University in New Orleans, a historically black school founded by St. Katharine Drexel.

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Scottish Churches Urged to Become Post Offices

LONDON (RNS) Congregations throughout Scotland, especially in the more remote rural areas, are being encouraged to consider offering a home for the local post office in order to offset the effect on fragile communities of post office closures.

In 2001 at least 18 post offices closed, a further 20 in 2002, and more are pending this year.

In a report to the general assembly of the Church of Scotland, which meets in Edinburgh from May 17 to 23, the Church and Nation committee underlined the damaging effect closing the local post office can have.

In Scotland, 1,878 of the country’s 1,933 post offices are sub-post offices, where the post office is combined with a shop or sometimes a filling station. If the shop closes _ and small village shops are finding it more and more difficult to stay afloat _ then the post office goes too.

Additional pressure on post offices has come from the British government’s plan to transfer payment of welfare benefits to direct payments into an individual’s bank or post office account rather than in cash over the post office counter. Another threat comes from the opening up of the postal service to commercial competition, with the implications this has for maintaining the current system of postal deliveries to all communities, however scattered and remote.

In its report, the committee drew attention to the example of the congregation of Birsay, Harray and Sandwick, Orkney, which has offered its church hall as a new home for the local post office. “We call upon other congregations throughout Scotland to consider whether they too could exploit their buildings and other resources to make a similar commitment,” the committee said.

Nor is the problem of village sub-post offices closing one confined to Scotland. In the English Midlands, the village of Sheepy Magna lost its post office with the closure of the village shop a month ago. The nearest convenient post office is two or three miles away in the town of Atherstone.

So the Rev. Annette Reed and her congregation, with the blessing of their bishop, are having the rather large vestry of the village church of All Saints converted so it can serve as the village post office, opening probably two or three mornings a week.

“I don’t think there’s another Church of England church doing this,” Reed said.

The only problem she foresees coming from the church’s dual function is with funerals during the week, when she would need to use the vestry for its original purpose.

Quote of the Day: Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Texas

(RNS) “I think congressmen should live by the Ten Commandments more and preach about them less from the floor of the Capitol.”

_ Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Texas, speaking at a recent Rosslyn, Va., gathering when he received the 2003 Associated Baptist Press Religious Freedom Award. He was quoted by Associated Baptist Press.

DEA END RNS