c. 2003 Religion News Service
Study: One in Four Catholics Attend Nonlocal Parishes
WASHINGTON (RNS) One in four U.S. Catholics do not attend the parish located closest to their home, and 19 percent say they have “shopped” for a church home for better sermons, according to data from a Georgetown University research center.
Typical Catholic parishes serve a designated geographical area within a city or town. The number of Catholics who go somewhere other than their neighborhood parish is up from 15 percent in 1983, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA).
Researchers found that Catholics under the age of 30 are the most likely to “church hop,” and those who stick with their local parish are more likely to say they chose it because of the ability to become involved in activities outside of Mass.
The 19 percent who sought out a church they liked were more likely to say they based their decision on the quality of the preaching.
The study, taken from the 2002 CARA Catholic Poll, was presented last November at the Religious Research Association/Society for the Scientific Study of Religion convention in Salt Lake City, and made public in the Winter 2003 CARA newsletter.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
National Cathedral Offers a New Sound to Worshippers
WASHINGTON (RNS) Under the lofty arches of the Washington National Cathedral, a new sound is being heard.
While the organ continues to reverberate against the stone walls of the church building, the spoken word is clearer now, say the technicians involved in the recent installation of a new sound system.
“It’s a remarkable difference,” said Mark Huffman, the cathedral’s longtime audio engineer and project manager for the audio system.
“It’s gone from where people that had any kind of hearing loss would have problems hearing to where I rarely have to distribute the hearing-impaired headsets anymore. The articulation’s much improved and the sound from music is much more natural.”
Craig Janssen, principal consultant for Acoustic Dimensions in Addison, Texas, discussed potential changes for more than a year with the cathedral before completing the work late last year.
“Any cathedral has a very long reverberation time and, traditionally, sound systems have really battled in those rooms,” he said. “The technology tools that have come out in the last decade … allowed us to use a customized and unique approach to solving the problem.”
His company worked with Eastern Acoustic Works of Whitinsville, Mass., manufacturer of the loud speakers, to develop the system needed by the cathedral.
Huffman said the digitally controlled system replaced old speakers that contained 50 smaller speakers within them. The replacements include the same components as a home stereo _ woofers, tweeters and midranges _ but almost three times the number that were in the 20-year-old system.
The new system aims the sound in ways that improve the clarity of the words spoken within the Gothic architecture.
“The reverberation is because the sound bounces off the stone,” Huffman said. “If you keep it off the stone by focusing it just down on the people, that reduces the reverberation. … It doesn’t eliminate it by any stretch of the imagination but it makes it much better.”
He declined to say the exact cost of the project but said it amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Acoustic Dimensions has done work on other well-known worship spaces, including Bishop T.D. Jakes’ The Potters House in Dallas and Riverside Church in New York City.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Citing Donation Drop, Focus on Family Has First Layoffs
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. _ Focus on the Family, one of the nation’s most influential evangelical Christian groups, has laid off 34 employees and eliminated an additional 66 positions as a result of a drop in donations, the ministry said this week.
The media and broadcast ministry says it will cut $5 million from its $130 million budget in response to a 3 percent decrease in giving that stretches back to fall 1999.
The layoffs are the first in the 26-year history of the organization, which child psychologist James Dobson founded in Arcadia, Calif., and relocated to Colorado Springs 12 years ago. The layoffs amount to 2.6 percent of the ministry’s Colorado Springs work force, which has held steady at about 1,300 for several years.
The employees who lost their jobs held low to midlevel positions across the ministry, and some will be considered for open positions that have not been eliminated, said Paul Hetrick, a Focus on the Family spokesman.
Like most nonprofit groups, Focus on the Family weathered a tough 2002 fund-raising climate filled with layoffs, stock market declines, anxiety over the prospect of war with Iraq and eroding public trust in some large institutions.
Focus on the Family relies entirely on donations for its budget, and the ministry says the average donation is $30. Focus on the Family avoids taking on debt and has no reserve fund. Dobson said that fits into a philosophy: “If the money doesn’t come, we simply do less.”
Dobson issued fund-raising pleas in his newsletter and on his radio show in recent years, allowing the ministry to make up ground but not recover completely.
In October, the Focus on the Family board of directors, of which Dobson serves as chairman, ordered the $5 million budget reduction, according to a Jan. 30 memo from Dobson to his staff. He called the layoffs heart-wrenching but necessary.
In addition, Focus on the Family will reduce average merit pay increases, cut its flagship magazine from 10 to eight issues per year, close a cafeteria, curtail travel, cancel an employee picnic and make other cuts, the memo says.
Dobson wrote “some programs will be eliminated or drastically reduced in scope,” but he offered no details.
Nationally, donations to many Christian nonprofits are down and some are up, said Paul Nelson, president of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.
Child-sponsorship or mission groups, which forge long-term relationships with donors, are more likely to weather recessions than groups such as Focus on the Family that count on people to buy books and tapes, Nelson said.
Two other large Colorado Springs evangelical ministries, Compassion International and the Navigators, report gains in donations in the last year.
_ Eric Gorski
U.S., Scottish Presbyterians Lobby Bush and Blair on Iraq
LONDON (RNS) The moderators of sister Presbyterian churches in the United States and Scotland have petitioned President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair to continue to search for peaceful alternatives to war with Iraq.
“We believe that the call of peace must still be heard before the siren voice of war,” wrote the moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Rev. Fahed Abu-Akel, and the modeator of the Church of Scotland, the Right Rev. Finlay Macdonald, in a joint letter to Bush and Blair.
“The detailed involvement of the United Nations, respect for its decisions, and adherence to international law have been and continue to be vital,” said the letter, also signed by the clerks of both churches. “Any international response must have transparent international agreement and legitimacy. To achieve this, the nations of the UN must be allowed to reach a collective decision, free from threats or economic inducement. Only in this way can suspicions about the motivation for war be allayed.”
While the Middle East urgently needs justice for all its peoples, the Presbyterians questioned whether war in Iraq would only serve to destabilize the region further.
“In fact, might it not be that war will only exacerbate an already difficult situation and further inflame anti-Western feeling?” they asked. “This is of particular concern in relation to our shared hope for peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
_ Robert Nowell and Kevin Eckstrom
Pope Marks World Day of Sick Telling Catholics to Defend Life
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope John Paul II told Catholics working in the field of health care Friday (Feb. 7) to abide by church teachings on the right to life from birth to natural death and to oppose any research involving human fetuses.
In a message for observance of the church’s 11th World Day of the Sick on Tuesday, John Paul said Catholics who care for the sick “must act in full communion among themselves and with their bishops.” This year’s observance will be at the National Shrine of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, and will bring participants from around the world.
“This is of particular importance in Catholic hospitals, which in responding to modern needs are called upon to reflect ever more clearly in their policies the values of the gospel,” he said.
The pope said abortion, euthanasia, the relegation of the weak and poor “to the margins of society by consumerism and materialism” and “the unnecessary recourse to the death penalty” are all part of a “culture of death” opposed to the gospel message.
“The church, which is open to genuine scientific and technological progress, values the effort and sacrifice of those who with dedication and professionalism help to improve the quality of the service rendered to the sick, respecting their inviolable dignity,” he said.
“Every therapeutic procedure, all experimentation and every transplant must take into account this fundamental truth. It is never licit to kill one human being in order to save another,” the pope said.
John Paul has attacked as a violation of human dignity research involving the creation of human fetuses in order to remove stem cells for use in treatment of such conditions as Parkinson’s disease, from which he is believed to suffer.
_ Peggy Polk
Sen. Brownback Honored With Wilberforce Award
(RNS) U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., was presented with the Wilberforce Award Wednesday (Feb. 5) for his humanitarian efforts in the United States and abroad.
“Sen. Brownback is being honored for his courageous effort to alleviate the exploitation and suffering of innocent people and defend human rights and dignity,” said Chuck Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship, the organization that sponsors the award.
The senator has been known for successfully passing legislation dealing with global issues of sex trafficking and slavery.
For 15 years, the prize has been given to an individual who has made a difference in addressing societal problems. It is named for humanitarian William Wilberforce, who campaigned against slavery in Britain in the 18th century.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Quote of the Day: Jerald Ottley, Former Director of Mormon Tabernacle Choir
(RNS) “Music is a way for people of different faiths and beliefs to worship together. When people sing or chant, the melody and tone speak louder than words, resonating positive feelings that transcend belief.”
_ Jerald Ottley, former director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and coordinator of the second annual Interfaith Roundtable Musical Tribute to the Human Spirit on Feb. 9 at the tabernacle in Salt Lake City. He was quoted by The Salt Lake Tribune.
DEA END RNS
