c. 2003 Religion News Service

Methodists Trim 18 Missionaries in $7.5 Million Cutback

(RNS) The United Methodist Church will not renew the contracts of 18 missionaries as part of a $7.5 million cutback to offset losses from the stock market.

The church’s New York-based Board of Global Ministries said an additional 33 missionary positions will be cut because of retirements or missionaries who asked not to be reassigned. Of the 144 missionaries whose contracts are up this year, 93 will be reappointed.

Some of the retiring missionaries will end their terms early, saving the missions agency additional money. The office has also decided not to deploy new missionaries in 2003, although applications are being accepted for 2004.

“A lot will be determined by where we are financially” next year, Edith Gleaves, the executive in charge of missions personnel, told United Methodist News Service.

The missions agency, which serves the nation’s second-largest Protestant denomination, has cut 94 staff positions since 2001 because of declining income from the stock market and other sources. Last year the board employed 2,151 people in 74 countries.

Other denominations’ missions agencies have also been hard-hit by the sinking economy. The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod recently reduced its national ministries staff of 320 by 48 people, with more than half of the cuts from its missionary force.

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Muslim Group Asks White House to Monitor Islam Conference

WASHINGTON (RNS) Muslim activists have asked the White House to monitor an upcoming Christian Coalition symposium on Islam for fear that it will “be nothing more than an exercise in Muslim bashing.”

Eric Erfan Vickers, executive director of the American Muslim Council, said that if speakers at the Feb. 15 symposium attack Islam, the Christian Coalition should be denied funding under President Bush’s “faith-based” initiative.

“Given the history of the speakers that have been arranged for the program, we have every reason to believe that this symposium will be nothing more than an exercise in Muslim bashing,” Vickers wrote to Jim Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.

The symposium, “Muslims and the Judeo-Christian World: Where to From Here?”, will feature Daniel Pipes, the director of the Middle East Forum, who has been widely criticized by Muslim groups for his views on Islam.

Roberta Combs, president of the Christian Coalition of America, said the three-hour seminar would reveal “the true nature of Islam” and feature “many different opinions” about links between Islam and terrorism.

Vickers said “organizations that spew this venom” against Islam should be disqualified from receiving government “financing” under Bush’s faith-based plan.

The Christian Coalition has typically not sought government funding for any of its activities. Vickers, in an interview, said, “Whether or not they choose to apply, I don’t know, but if they do have a conference that does this, then they should not receive federal funds.”

The Christian Coalition was unavailable for an immediate response. Vickers said Towey had left a message about the conference, but they had not actually spoken yet.

_ Kevin Eckstrom

World Churches See Common Response to Iraq War as Britons Speak Out

(RNS) The World Council of Churches has summoned leaders of member churches throughout the world to a one-day meeting in an effort to forge a common response to the looming war against Iraq.

The meeting, set for Berlin, is scheduled for Wednesday (Feb. 5), the same day Secretary of State Colin Powell is due to lay out for the United Nations the U.S. proof that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has amassed weapons of mass destruction.

“The crisis in Iraq is moving into a new, even more critical phase” since the weapons inspectors’ Jan. 27 report to the Security Council, said Peter Weiderud, coordinator of the WCC’s international affairs team.

Weiderud said the meeting will be “valuable both for individual churches as well as for the ecumenical movement as a whole, in order to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe” and to examine “the far-reaching implications a possible war would have on the region as well as internationally.”

In Britain, meanwhile, religious leaders continued to voice opposition to the war and to Prime Minister Tony Blair’s staunch support of President Bush’s aim to disarm and oust Saddam.

On Sunday (Feb. 2), Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said a war with Iraq would be an “unacceptable humanitarian catastrophe.” He said he was lobbying Blair in an effort to prevent the conflict and “would continue to do so after the outbreak of hostilities.”

Separately, Caritas Europa _ which links all the Roman Catholic aid agencies of Europe _ also warned the war could be a humanitarian nightmare and said it is preparing to help Iraqi victims.

It also said the war would be immoral.

The aid group said it has signed an agreement with the Iraqi Red Crescent Society for training doctors, staff and volunteers and worked out a contingency plan for its centers to act as first-aid points and referral stations to nearby hospitals.

The cost to the Caritas network for the preparations has been about $815,000.

Since the Gulf War, Caritas Iraq has been active in providing help for the people of Iraq, who have been suffering as a result of the U.N. sanctions imposed on their country.

“The whole program risks being paralyzed the minute bombs start to fall,” said Caritas Europa. “Under war conditions bridges, roads, warehouses and electrical power generators will be destroyed. Personnel responsible for food distribution will inevitably be dispersed. The once-a-month food distribution system could collapse.”

Joining the chorus of war critics, faith leaders in Birmingham, England issued a statement saying military action would be “ill-judged and premature” and could not be morally justified.

The Monday (Feb. 3) statement was issued by the leaders of all Birmingham’s major faith communities _ Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist.

“It is crucial that this (inspections) process be allowed to run its course,” they said. “To launch a military action while there remains the potential to secure a peaceful resolution would be ill-judged and premature.”

_ David E. Anderson and Robert Nowell

Quote of the Day: Na’ama Yehuda, co-founder of the Awareness Center

(RNS) “I don’t think pedophilia has a religion.”

_ Na’ama Yehuda of New York, co-founder of the Awareness Center, an organization for Jewish survivors of childhood trauma. She was quoted by The Washington Post.

DEA END RNS