c. 2003 Religion News Service

Anglican Dissidents Pledge to Work for Greater Unity

(RNS) Conservatives who have grown dissatisfied with the Episcopal Church or who have left it altogether promised to work across denominational lines to preserve the country’s “orthodox” Anglican traditions.

The U.S. Anglican Congress, which met in Atlanta in December, has been circulating the “Atlanta Covenant,” a framework that calls for the dissidents to grow together, respect each other’s ministries and find ways to attract minorities to their churches.

“We are feeling our way toward a new style and depth of unity, thereby stimulating reform and renewal in Western Christianity so that the gospel might be released, more than ever before, to the world around us,” the covenant said.

The Atlanta meeting was attended by four Episcopal bishops who say the national denomination has grown too liberal. The meeting also drew supporters from the Reformed Episcopal Church, which broke away in 1873; the Anglican Mission in America, which started in 2000; and the Anglican Province in America.

Two overseas Anglican bishops who have angered U.S. church leaders by their support of the dissidents also attended the meeting. The Episcopal Church is the American branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Organizers said overseas Anglicans, particularly in the fast-growing Third World, are concerned about the “declining witness” of the Episcopal Church and the “anti-biblical and anti-creedal revision and the inevitable departures from apostolic faith and witness.”

The new group said it is “a network rather than a formal hierarchical structure, in which we seek to safeguard one another’s convictions and honor each other’s canonical (church law) limitations.”

Episcopal leaders met with representatives from the Reformed Episcopal Church and the Anglican Province in America in January in Washington in a series of “get acquainted” talks. Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold said he has no communication with the Anglican Mission in America.

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Ad Campaign Aims to Inform Americans About Hijab

(RNS) The third installment in a yearlong weekly ad campaign about Islam began in mid-February, featuring an American Muslim woman who chooses to wear a hijab, the Muslim head covering.

The campaign, which is sponsored by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, will offer weekly informative ads, each highlighting a different aspect of Muslim practice and lifestyle.

The “Islam in America” series of ads will appear in The New York Times op-ed section each Sunday for 52 weeks. CAIR is urging Muslim communities across the country to place the ads in their local newspapers as well.

The goal of the ads, CAIR leaders say, is to stem what they call the “rising tide” of anti-Muslim rhetoric in America that has resulted from the war on terror and an equating of Islam with terrorism.

The latest ad attempts to counter the belief that modest Muslim dress is tantamount to the oppression of women.

It features an accomplished woman who has a master’s degree and is active in politics. “I choose to wear hijab _ a head scarf and modest attire _ because the practice is integral to my religious beliefs, and because I am proud to be a Muslim woman,” she says.

The previous two ads took on different aspects of Islam. The first showed an African-American, Asian and European person and asked, “Which one of us is a Muslim?” All three were in fact Muslims. The second featured a Muslim Girl Scout troop, the first of many ads that will highlight individual American Muslims or Muslim communities.

Future ads will focus on issues like the shared beliefs of Christianity, Judaism and Islam; the prophet Abraham; the interpretation of the term “jihad”; and how Muslims are taught to relate to non-Muslims, according to CAIR communications coordinator Hodan Hassan.

_ Holly Lebowitz Rossi

Appeals Court Sticks by `Under God’ Ruling in Pledge

(RNS) The federal appeals court that last June struck down the Pledge of Allegiance because it contains the words “under God” refused Friday (Feb. 28) to reconsider its ruling.

The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals defended last year’s decision and said it will not be swayed by public opinion in favor of the pledge.

The court, however, stepped back from its original ruling that invalidated the 1954 law that inserted the words “under God” into the pledge. In the new ruling, the court focused only on the requirement to force school children to recite the pledge; the pledge’s constitutionality remains intact.

“We may not _ we must not _ allow public sentiment or outcry to guide our decisions,” wrote Judge Stephen Reinhardt, who was a member of the original three-judge panel that ruled against the pledge last year. Nine of the court’s 24 judges voted to rehear the case.

Attorney General John Ashcroft promised to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, which legal scholars said is likely to hear the case. “We will defend the ability of Americans to declare their patriotism through the time-honored tradition of voluntarily reciting the pledge,” he said in a statement.

Until the high court agrees to hear the case, students in the nine Western states covered by the 9th Circuit will not be able to recite the pledge in schools.

Atheist Michael A. Newdow sued the Elk Grove, Calif., Unified School District when he claimed his daughter’s religious freedoms were violated by being forced to recite or listen to the pledge. A lower court rejected the suit, but the 9th Circuit agreed with Newdow.

Members of Congress and most religious groups quickly condemned the ruling last year. The ruling was also criticized by other members of the 9th Circuit, including Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain, who wanted to rehear the case.

“We should have reheard the case … because it was wrong, very wrong _ wrong because reciting the Pledge of Allegiance is simply not `a religious act,’ wrong as a matter of Supreme Court precedent properly understood … and wrong as a matter of common sense.”

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Alabama Jewish Community Commissions Specially Written Torah

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. _ It’s a sight Alabama has probably never seen before: a rabbi with a quill in his hand, hunched over to write the words of the Hebrew Bible in ancient calligraphy, in accordance with sacred standards.

It’s being billed as the first Torah scroll ever written for Alabama’s Jewish community. Most Torah scrolls are handed down from various congregations over the years and taken to new Jewish communities.

The Torah, the first five books of the Bible, is kept rolled in scrolls on wooden staves and is stored in a closet called the Holy Ark to be used in Jewish worship.

“It’s the holiest thing around in Judaism,” said Rabbi Yochanon Klein of New York, who started Alabama’s Torah scroll on Sunday in Birmingham by writing the first few verses of Genesis.

Klein, 22, has been working as a fourth-generation Torah scribe since he was 17. He has sent the scroll on to a scribe in Israel who will finish it and send it back to him. “We have scribes who write exclusively for us in Israel, which is a holier place,” Klein said.

Klein will be back in Birmingham to complete the Torah with the last few verses of Deuteronomy on June 1. That is the last weekend before Shavuot, a Jewish holiday commemorating the giving of the law to Moses at Mount Sinai.

When completed, the Alabama Jewish Community Torah will be housed at the Bias Ariel Chabad Center in Birmingham.

_ Greg Garrison

Bible School Wins Fight to Drop 666 in Phone Number

(RNS) The devil went down to Georgia, according to the old Charlie Daniels Band. But for too long, according to officials at Kentucky Mountain Bible School, when you dialed his number _ 666 _ you got their school in VanCleve, Ky., instead.

MDULOfficials at the school now say they are “elated” that they were finally able to have their phone number changed from the old 666 prefix to a 693 prefix.

“It was like we had this Scarlet Letter attached to us,” college Vice President Rob Roy MacGregor told the Associated Press.

According to the Book of Revelation, 666 is the mark of the anti-Christ or the devil in the last days. MacGregor said the number represents Satan, and many Christians have been reluctant to use it.

The need for more phone lines forced the local telephone company to add another prefix for Vancleve, about 80 miles southeast of Lexington. The school petitioned for a new phone number that begins with 693, and is now changing its publicity materials.

“If people start giggling when I give my phone number, I know they have at least read the Bible,” the Rev. Vaughn Rasor, pastor of First Baptist Church in nearby Jackson, which also has 666 phone numbers, told the Associated Press.

Quote of the Day: United Methodist official Jim Winkler

(RNS) “No matter how contemptible Saddam Hussein is, the people of Iraq do not want a U.S. Army general as their new dictator, viceroy or proconsul.”

_ Jim Winkler, head of the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society, speaking out against a war in Iraq on Feb. 26 in Washington.

DEA END RNS