c. 2004 Religion News Service
European, U.S. Churches Issue D-Day Statement
PARIS (RNS) On the eve of observances marking the 60th anniversary of D-Day in France’s Normandy region, European and North American church organizations have called for peace and international reconciliation at a time when transatlantic relations are badly strained over Iraq.
“We appeal to the governments who will be reunited on June 6 on Normandy’s beaches to invest in the same responsibilities of 60 years ago; to give to the world the means for reconciliation and peace,” said a statement issued by five ecumenical church groups from France, Britain, Germany, Canada and the United States.
The groups, which include the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA and the Council of Christian Churches in France, also urged world leaders to reinvest in postwar multilateral organizations like the United Nations, and to adopt economic policies favoring justice and peace.
The call comes ahead of D-Day commemorations in Normandy that will gather some 17 heads of state and tens of thousands of World War II veterans and their families. Few analysts expect the festivities will do more than paper over deep transatlantic divisions over the U.S.-led war on Iraq and postwar occupation _ most notably between Paris and Washington.
Indeed, the differences go far beyond Iraq, touching on issues as disparate as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and support for an international court of justice and the Kyoto global warming protocol.
A series of polls show European public perception of the United States _ and of President George W. Bush in particular _ has sunk to new lows. A March survey by the Pew Charitable Trust, for example, found that 85 percent of French held an unfavorable view of Bush.
Separately, an ecumenical Christian group in Lion sur Mer, Normandy, is organizing an overnight march between June 5 and 6 to commemorate the 1944 Allied invasion, which led to the liberation of Europe from Nazi occupation 11 months later.
_ Elizabeth Bryant
Canadian Anglicans Pick Liberal as New Primate
ST. CATHARINES, Ontario (RNS) The Anglican Church of Canada on Monday (May 31) elected as its national leader Montreal Archbishop Andrew Hutchison, seen as one of the church’s most liberal voices on the explosive and potentially divisive issue of homosexuality.
Hutchison, 65, was chosen primate on the fourth ballot in a tense, drawn-out day of voting by delegates at the church’s meeting of its synod, or governing body. He defeated Bishop Ronald Ferris of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, a conservative on the issue of same-sex blessing ceremonies.
“We will get clear leadership from Andrew,” said Bishop Michael Ingham of the Diocese of New Westminster, where the blessing of same-sex unions in 2002 has wrought division among Anglicans worldwide.
Ingham said he was confident Hutchison would support his diocese and that the new primate will send a clear message to Anglicans everywhere.
“He’s clearly the liberal candidate, and for him to be elected indicates the Anglican Church is not moving to the right,” Ingham told the Toronto Star.
Hutchison was among 146 bishops to publicly dissent from the Anglican Communion’s decision in 1998 to oppose priests in active homosexual relationships and blessing rituals for same-sex couples as “incompatible with Scripture.”
Following his election, Hutchison was quoted as saying he cannot endorse same-sex marriage: “I can’t take that on board yet. It’s mainly cultural; there are not strong theological underpinnings.”
However, same-sex blessings are another matter. “When two human beings are attracted to one another in a relationship of love, active in the life of the church, and are clearly Christian, and want their union blessed, I have no difficulty with that.”
Hutchison’s opponents may take some solace in the fact that he will likely serve only one three-year term before mandatory retirement at age 70.
Hutchison, who speaks French fluently, has headed the Montreal Diocese since 1990. He has been a prison and university chaplain and is Anglican bishop to the Canadian Armed Forces.
Threats of a global schism in the Anglican Communion were reinforced by last year’s consecration of the first openly gay bishop, New Hampshire’s Gene Robinson, by the U.S. Episcopal Church. The man who presided over Robinson’s consecration, U.S. Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, will preach at Hutchison’s formal installation Friday.
In the glare of media from around the world, delegates will vote Wednesday night on whether to allow dioceses to provide same-sex blessing ceremonies. Officials are predicting a bitter showdown that will cause divisions in the church no matter the outcome.
_ Ron Csillag
Gay Catholics Turned Away in Chicago, Welcomed in Los Angeles
(RNS) A gay Catholic group was denied Communion at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago on Sunday (May 30) while lay activists tried unsuccessfully to block members of the same group from the sacrament in St. Paul, Minn.
Cardinal Francis George had directed priests in Chicago not to give Communion to members of the Rainbow Sash Movement, which advocates for greater acceptance of gays and lesbians, to prevent the Eucharist from being used as a protest statement.
Some priests shook the hands of members wearing the rainbow-colored sash while others made the sign of the cross on their foreheads, according to the Associated Press.
At the same time, priests at the Cathedral of St. Paul jockeyed with members of the lay group Ushers of the Eucharist who tried to prevent Rainbow Sash members from receiving the sacrament.
Archbishop Harry Flynn of Minneapolis-St. Paul had said Rainbow Sash members would be welcomed, prompting lay activists to kneel in prayer and protest down the center of the main aisle, according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
“Those who object ask how we can disobey the bishop’s authority,” said lay leader David Pence. “The bishop has abdicated his authority. That’s the problem in the Catholic Church.”
The demonstration went on without incident, and no one was denied the Eucharist, according to the newspaper.
In Los Angeles, Rainbow Sash members chose to forgo their sashes because of “the warm public welcome” issued by Cardinal Roger Mahony, said Joe Murray, the leader of the nationwide movement.
“I believe this year the Holy Spirit is setting out a path for us to follow,” Murray said in a letter posted on the group’s Web site. “We should never respond with anger to those who bear false witness about us. We should always remember that all things must be done in charity and love.”
UCC, Marking Barmen Declaration, Warns on Asking God to Bless Crusades
(RNS) Just as German Christians once blessed the cause of Nazis in the name of God, American Christians today go similarly astray when “counting on God to bless their crusades and praying to `Jesus, the warrior.”’
That message goes out this week to more than 1,400 leaders in the United Church of Christ from at least 14 members of the steering committee of Confessing Christ, an orthodox reform movement. More signatories could join the statement this week (June 1).
The occasion is the 70th anniversary of the Barmen Declaration, a statement of defiance against creeping Nazism signed by the Confessing Synod of the German Evangelical Church on May 31, 1934.
The Barmen Declaration urged German churches to find a way to “reject the false doctrine (resulting from) changes in prevailing ideological and political convictions.” In its pastoral letter this week, Confessing Christ asks, “Can they help us bear witness in our time as they did in theirs?”
“Confronting the `German Christians’ and their fusion of blood and soil with the `one Word of God,’ Barmen spoke a bold `No!’,” reads this week’s letter. “Today, we have to do with `American Christians’ who cannot separate nation from gospel, counting upon God to bless their crusades and praying to `Jesus, the warrior’ rather than to `the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.’ To this, we likewise speak a firm `No!”’
As U.S. troops in May fought for control in Iraq, worship services on the home front have increasingly included prayers for God to bless the campaign. For instance, on May 6, the National Day of Prayer, organizers urged participants in more than 1,000 local services to pray, “Lord, bless our military as it advances freedom’s cause around the world.”
To draw an exact parallel between the situations in America today and in 1934 Germany would be a mistake, according to steering committee member Frederick Trost, since “every situation is unique.” But in asking whether the Christian message has conformed once again to ideological or political convictions, he said, “the question is as real today as it ever was.”
“Laity and clergy should be prayerfully grappling with this issue,” Trost said, “in the face of the shadows cast by grotesque distortions of the Christian message that abound in the churches today, e.g. the notion of the U.S. as a `righteous empire,’ or as God’s `chosen nation’ to bring `democracy’ and `humanity’ to the world.”
_ G. Jeffrey MacDonald
Church of the Brethren Membership Drops 1 Percent
(RNS) The Church of the Brethren reported its largest membership loss in three years in 2003 with a total loss of 1,363 members. Membership in the Church of the Brethren now stands at 132,481.
The losses in 2003 were the largest since the church reported a loss of more than 2,400 members in 2000. The last time the denomination reported membership growth was in 1974.
Fifteen of the church’s 23 districts reported net losses, and the number of congregations in the United States and Puerto Rico dropped from 1,032 to 1,025. Church officials said several new churches were started, but not enough to offset church closures.
Officials reported in a news release that the average amount given by parishioners rose slightly from $41 to $44.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Quote of the Day: British Hurdler Tasha Danvers-Smith
(RNS) “So the thought did cross our minds as an option. But this line from the Scriptures kept coming into my head: `For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?’ For me, the whole wide world was the Olympics. At the same time, I felt I would be losing my soul.”
_ British hurdler Tasha Danvers-Smith, explaining to The Daily Telegraph in London how she briefly considered and rejected the option of abortion upon learning of her unexpected pregnancy. She has dropped plans to participate in the upcoming Olympics in Athens, Greece.
DEA/PH END RNS
