c. 2003 Religion News Service
ELCA Reports Drop in Membership, Boost in Revenues
(RNS) The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America reported a decline of 61,871 members last year _ a drop of 1.21 percent _ but said church revenues are up by $41 million.
The ELCA, which will hold its Churchwide Assembly in Milwaukee on Monday (Aug. 11) through Sunday, had a total membership of 5,038,006 at the end of 2002.
ELCA Secretary Lowell Almen said the decrease was caused by fewer new members, 17 congregations which left the denomination and 27 that were disbanded, and 186,162 people who were taken off church membership rolls.
The Chicago-based ELCA reported an average weekly attendance of 1.5 million, and said the number of “communing and contributing” active members stood at 2.39 million, a drop from the 2.46 million reported in 2001.
In 2002, the average number of active members in a congregation was 226, while average baptized membership (including children) was 474, and confirmed adult membership was 354, according to a church news release.
Since 1991 _ the last time the ELCA reported an increase in membership _ total membership has dropped about 4 percent. The ELCA also reported a drop in infant and adult baptisms, youth confirmations, adult affirmations of faith and transfers of membership.
The ELCA fared slightly better in financial reporting. Total revenues for the church’s 10,721 congregations stood at nearly $2.5 billion, an increase of nearly $41 million, or 1.7 percent, from 2001.
Members gave slightly more in 2002 _ an average of $534, up from $526 in 2001. Congregations gave slightly less to the national church, however _ a decrease of 1.7 percent for a total of $133 million.
Local churches spent $1.6 billion, an increase of 3 percent from 2001, but smaller than the 5 percent increase reported between 2001 and 2002. Congregations reported a total of $1.61 billion in savings, investments, endowments and memorial funds.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Boston Archdiocese Offers $55 Million Settlement
(RNS) Just one week after the Most Rev. Sean O’Malley was installed as archbishop, the Archdiocese of Boston offered $55 million to settle more than 500 clergy sex abuse cases.
Victims’ lawyers said the offer was a “very good start” but said the offer must be open to further negotiation. Some victims said the average of $60,000 per victim was too low.
“It is substantial enough that it is worthy of real consideration,” attorney Roderick MacLeish, who is representing 260 plaintiffs, told The New York Times.
Attorney Jeffrey Newman, who represents 200 plaintiffs, told the Associated Press that “we think it’s a very good start, but it’s only a start.”
The Rev. Christopher Coyne, a spokesman for the archdiocese, said the church has a policy of not commenting on pending litigation. Lawyers applauded O’Malley’s quick moves to settle the cases.
If approved, the $55 million deal would be the largest settlement reached since the abuse scandal erupted in early 2002. Last June, the Archdiocese of Louisville agreed to pay $25.7 million to 243 victims.
Last September, the Boston church paid $10 million to settle with 86 victims of former priest John Geoghan, who helped spark the scandal when The Boston Globe revealed that the former archbishop, Cardinal Bernard Law, transferred Geoghan between parishes despite abuse allegations.
Some victims said the settlement was too low, and said other dioceses would take note because of the prominence of the Boston cases. “It makes my life very cheap,” said Phil Cogswell, a Geoghan victim, according to the Associated Press. “It makes me feel very worthless.”
Other victims cautioned that the settlement does not end the healing process. “No one should mistake a settlement, if reached, for some `final chapter’ in what will remain a long-running painful saga for so many betrayed victims and Catholics,” said Bill Gately, New England co-coordinator for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
Canada’s Catholic Leaders Vow Fight on Gay Marriages
(RNS) Canada’s political leaders are pushing ahead to legalize same-sex marriage despite warnings by the country’s Roman Catholic bishops that politicians could pay the ultimate spiritual price for their stance on the issue.
Bishop Fred Henry of Calgary said last week that Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien and other Roman Catholics in his cabinet could burn in hell for their efforts to extend marriage rights to gays and lesbians.
“I pray for the prime minister because I think his eternal salvation is in jeopardy,” he said, according to The New York Times.
After an Ontario court last June approved marriage rights for same-sex couples when it ruled that the federal definition of marriage violated same-sex couples’ equal rights under Canada’s version of the Bill of Rights, a British Columbia appeals court issued a similar decision, paving the way for the legalization of same-sex marriage across Canada.
Last month, Prime Minister Chretien’s government drafted a bill redefining marriage as “the lawful union of two persons to the exclusion of all others.”
Advocates of same-sex unions scored another victory when the United Church of Canada, the country’s largest Protestant denomination, condoned same-sex marriages during a meeting in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, last week, urging politicians to push ahead with the legislation.
“For us it is a justice issue, and if we are working for equality in relationship with gays and lesbians, we would obviously want politicians to support that,” said the Rev. Marion Pardy, moderator of the United Church of Canada, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported.
But the country’s Roman Catholic bishops have followed the Vatican’s lead in opposing same-sex marriages, stirring a resistance movement that is unlikely to reverse Canada’s revolutionary leap toward gay marriage.
Some 13 million of Canada’s 32 million citizens are Catholic, as are the majority of the country’s prominent politicians. A recent survey of 2,018 Canadians found that 53 percent support same-sex marriage and 43 percent oppose it.
_ Alexandra Alter
Jordanian Priest Allowed to Re-Enter U.S. After Canadian Detention
(RNS) A Jordanian priest was allowed to re-enter the United States after being detained at the Toronto Airport by the American Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services last month.
The Rev. Emil Salayta, a Roman Catholic priest who represents the Catholic Church and the Latin Patriarchate in Jerusalem, is an internationally recognized peace advocate and cofounder of the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded by American Christians to preserve a Christian presence in the Holy Land.
A frequent speaker about the need for reconciliation between Jews and Arabs in the Middle East, Salayta was on his way to meet with members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops when he was detained in Toronto on July 20.
“After reviewing the pertinent laws and checking with experts, to this day, the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation firmly believes that Father Emil was detained in error,” Ratib Rabie, HCEF president, said in a statement.
During his 20 days in limbo in Toronto, other clergy and Arab-American activists bombarded members of Congress with phone calls requesting his release, which was granted on Aug. 8. The bishops’ conference, the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee and the Arab American Institute took up the fight on Salayta’s behalf.
“I want all my supporters who worked for my release to know that I am humbly grateful for their help,” Salayta said in a statement.
` Now we must turn to our brothers and sisters in the Holy Land who suffer more than we can imagine and work for their survival in the land where Christ was born.”
_ Alexandra Alter
Quote of the Day: Retired Episcopal Bishop Alfred Marble
(RNS) “We use that term, same-sex, as if a relationship is all about sex. Let me assure you that those of us who are heterosexual and married can say that is not the truth.”
_ The Right Rev. Alfred Marble, retired Episcopal bishop of Mississippi, addressing the church’s House of Bishops last week during debate on whether to draft liturgies to bless same-sex couples.
DEA END RNS
