c. 2003 Religion News Service
Presbyterians Elect First Woman Pastor as Moderator
(RNS) The Presbyterian Church (USA) has elected the Rev. Susan Andrews, a progressive pastor from Bethesda, Md., as moderator for the 215th General Assembly.
Andrews, pastor of Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church, is the first woman pastor to serve as moderator. She will preside at the annual legislative meeting through this week (May 31) and serve as the church’s top leader until next year’s General Assembly in Richmond, Va.
Andrews beat out two other candidates to win on the second ballot in voting by the 548 assembled delegates. She named Charles Easley, an African-American elder from Atlanta, as her vice moderator.
“I’ve loved the Presbyterian Church (USA) all my life, and want to share that love with the whole church,” Andrews said after her election, according to Presbyterian News Service.
Andrews serves on the board of directors of the Covenant Network of Presbyterians, which wants to overturn the denomination’s ban on actively gay clergy. However, Andrews does not support efforts at this year’s meeting to rescind the ban.
“That provision is unjust, but it’s more important to keep the church together,” she said, preferring to instead refer the matter to a blue-ribbon panel that is probing the church’s theological diversity.
Andrews dismissed complaints from conservatives that the 2.5 million-member church is in a “constitutional crisis” because of open defiance of church law. She warned that there are consequences for disobedience.
“We have always in this country believed in the right of people to civilly disobey when they believe a law or government activity is fundamentally unjust,” she said, recalling her protests against the Vietnam War 30 years ago. “I believe it’s legitimate to ecclesiastically disobey. I went to jail in 1974 for my protest actions then. If we disobey, we must accept that there will be consequences.”
Andrews succeeds the Rev. Fahed Abu-Akel, a Palestinian-born pastor from Atlanta, as moderator.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Anglican Primates Reaffirm Stance Against Same-Sex Marriage Rites
LONDON _ Warning the issue is still too divisive, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and other leaders of the Church of England have reaffirmed the Anglican Communion’s stance against homosexual marriages.
The new statement, issued in a pastoral letter at the end of the primates’ meeting in Brazil, is an attempt to avoid schism over one of the most divisive issues facing the 70 million-member worldwide Anglican Communion.
Some maverick bishops in Canada and the United States have defied the church’s stance.
The primates head the church’s 38 provinces. They asked that the pastoral letter be read in churches on Pentecost, June 8.
In the letter, the primates said “the question of public rites for the blessing of same-sex unions is still a cause of potentially divisive controversy” in the church’s ranks. “The archbishop of Canterbury spoke for us all when he said that it is through liturgy that we express what we believe, and that there is no theological consensus about same-sex unions.”
“Therefore,” the Anglican primates said, lacking any such theological consensus, “we as a body cannot support the authorization of such rites.”
Meanwhile, a newly released biography of the recently installed archbishop of Canterbury, “Rowan Williams: An Introduction,” by Rupert Shortt, says Williams himself still believes that the Church of England will one day accept homosexuality in the same way it accepts remarrying divorced worshippers.
Williams’ private view, according to the biography, “remains that an adjustment of teaching on homosexuality would not be different from the kind of flexibility now being shown to divorcees who wish to remarry.”
_ Al Webb
Mahony Dedicates Cathedral Chapel to Sex Abuse Victims
(RNS) Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles on Sunday (May 25) dedicated a chapel in the new Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels to the victims of clergy sex abuse.
Mahony said the side chapel would help the church heal from a devastating sex abuse scandal that erupted last year. “We need to get this resolved,” he told reporters after the surprise dedication, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The chapel, one of 10 alcoves in the soaring $189 million cathedral, includes a prayer table, candles and bulletin board where the photos of victims can be posted. A painting of a farmer tending crops includes the words “Justice shall look down from the heavens.”
“The stories filled us with anger, sadness and disappointment,” Mahony said during the Mass. “It also filled us with a resolve to do all that is humanly possible to eliminate the scourge of abuse from our church and to ensure the safety of all of our people.”
Some victims’ advocates, however, dismissed the dedication as a public relations stunt designed for television cameras. Mary Grant, regional coordinator for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said she was never told about the new chapel.
“Clearly this continues to be about the cardinal and not the victims,” Grant told the Los Angeles Times. “I think Cardinal Mahony knew that if victims were aware of this ahead of time, they’d be here telling parishioners that real change needs to happen _ and that the priests who abused them are not yet behind bars.”
New Hampshire Diocese to Settle Abuse Claims for $6.5 Million
(RNS) The embattled Catholic Diocese of Manchester, N.H., has agreed to settle sexual abuse cases filed by 61 people in a $6.5 million agreement.
Diocesan officials said the money would be covered mostly by insurance, and stressed that church offerings or the sale of property will not be used to foot the bill, according to The New York Times.
“I hope this response by the church will help them (victims) heal from the wound of abuse,” Bishop John McCormack said in a statement. “I am personally sorry for the hurt they have experienced and have written to each person expressing my deep regret, an apology on behalf of the church and my willingness to assist them personally in any way that is helpful.”
Last December, the diocese was the first in the nation to settle a criminal case with state prosecutors. The pact avoided criminal charges but acknowledged “failures in our system that contributed to the endangerment of children.”
The 61 victims, most of whom filed the cases after the abuse scandal erupted in the neighboring Archdiocese of Boston last year, will be paid between $20,000 and $455,000, depending on the severity of abuse. The payments will be dispersed starting in December.
To date, the diocese has paid more than $15 million to settle 176 cases of abuse, according to The Times. The church depleted its $2.2 million reserve fund in the process and now needs to cut its 2003 budget of $2.5 million by $500,000. As part of the cutbacks, the church plans to move McCormack out of his stately brick residence, but has not decided whether to sell the property.
McCormack, a former deputy to Cardinal Bernard Law in Boston, has refused repeated calls for his resignation. “I do not concur with your observation that my moral authority as bishop has eroded, nor do I agree that the Church of Manchester is in a state of spiritual distress,” McCormack told critics April 14.
World Evangelical Alliance Appoints New President
(RNS) The International Council of the World Evangelical Alliance has appointed a new president.
The Rev. Ndaba Mazabane, president of the Association of Evangelicals in Africa, was appointed to the post during the council’s meeting May 7-10 in High Ongar, United Kingdom.
Mazabane, who lives in Durban, South Africa, also serves as the manager of media and ministry relations with Focus on the Family South Africa.
“I see a need for evangelicals to cooperate with others in our communities to help meet the needs of people and be vocal on issues of morality and justice without compromising our identity,” Mazabane said in a statement.
The World Evangelical Alliance is an international network representing 121 nations where there are evangelical church alliances.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Editor Named to Head New Disciples Magazine
(RNS) A start-up magazine that will cover the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has named an Indiana pastor as its first publisher and editor.
The Rev. Verity A. Jones will assume control of DisciplesWorld magazine this summer. She is currently the pastor of Central Christian Church in Terre Haute, Ind.
The magazine was started last year following the demise of the church’s official magazine, The Disciple. The new independent magazine will continue to be overseen by James C. Suggs, president of the company that owns the magazine, and founding editor Robert L. Friedly.
Jones, 36, was ordained in 1995 in a Connecticut church dually aligned with the American Baptist Churches USA and the United Church of Christ. She is married to an Episcopal priest. Her father, Joe R. Jones, was dean of Disciples-affiliated Phillips Theological Seminary and later president of Phillips University.
Jones has written for Christian Century magazine, Biblical Preaching Journal and other publications.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Quote of the Day: Erik Strand, Lutheran co-pastor in Edina, Minn.
(RNS) “We personally have to inform everybody coming through the door that firearms are prohibited, so it’s like `Peace be with you, now get rid of the guns.”’
_ Erik Strand, co-pastor of Edina Community Lutheran Church in Minnesota, which has filed a legal challenge questioning the constitutionality of a new state conceal-and-carry gun law. He was quoted by the Star Tribune.
DEA END RNS
