c. 2004 Religion News Service

Religious Groups Say Marriage Amendment is Unnecessary

WASHINGTON (RNS) Leaders from several mainline Protestant churches that are deeply divided by homosexuality said a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage would force all churches to accept only one definition of marriage.

The Washington offices of the Episcopal Church, Presbyterian Church (USA) and Evangelical Lutheran Church in America told Congress that the amendment would restrict a church’s ability to bless gay unions if it chose.

“It is not the task of our government and elected representatives to enshrine in our laws the religious point of view of any one faith,” they said in a joint letter to Congress on Thursday (June 3). “Rather, our government should dedicate itself to protecting the rights of all citizens and all faiths.”

Twenty-six groups joined the letter, including Quakers, Sikhs, the Interfaith Alliance, American Jewish Committee and the Loretto Women’s Network, an order of liberal Catholic nuns.

Several of the signers _ the predominantly gay Metropolitan Community Churches, United Church of Christ, Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism and Unitarian Universalists _ already allow their clergy to officiate at gay unions, including gay civil marriages in Massachusetts.

The letter is significant because many of the groups who signed it have not taken official positions on gay marriage or the proposed amendment. Other groups, including Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians and conservative evangelical groups, have pushed hard for the amendment.

Karen Vagley, director of the Lutherans’ government affairs office, said the letter was not a statement about homosexuality or even gay marriage, but reflected the church’s concern for civil rights.

“All of our positions and statements are based on policy statements that have been approved by the church body,” she said. “This is a civil rights issue, and our social statement is very clear on civil rights.”

The joint letter said clergy are already protected from having to solemnize gay unions, but said the proposed amendment would restrict the First Amendment’s protection of “free exercise” of religion for clergy who may want to bless gay marriages.

“We strongly believe that Congress must continue to protect the nation’s fundamental religious freedoms and continue to protect our nation’s bedrock principle of respecting religious pluralism,” the letter said.

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod Issues Guidelines on Civic Events

(RNS) A year after a dispute resolution panel of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod lifted the suspension of a New York official who took part in a prominent interfaith prayer service, the denomination has issued guidelines for participation of its pastors in civic events.

The majority of the denomination’s Commission on Theology and Church Relations determined that Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod pastors may take part in certain public events involving leaders of other Christian and non-Christian faiths.

“The question is whether it is possible under any circumstances for an LCMS pastor to offer a prayer in a public setting involving a variety of religious leaders without engaging in `joint prayer and worship,”’ the guidelines read.

“Some believe that this is not possible. The majority believes that it may be possible depending on such factors as how the event is arranged and understood and how the situation is handled by the pastor in question, in order to make it clear that `joint prayer and worship’ is not being conducted or condoned.”

The 23-page document was posted online late last month (May). In May 2003, the denomination announced it had lifted the suspension of the Rev. David Benke, the president of the Atlantic District of the LCMS, after he had been punished for taking part in an interfaith event at Yankee Stadium following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

The guidelines state that the LCMS pastors participating in civic events should be sure that their prayers reflect the belief in the Trinity and “the exclusivity of access to God through faith in Christ alone.”

A minority opinion on the guidelines rejected their conclusion that there may be “an irresolvable tension” between providing a Christian witness at such events and risking the appearance of approval of syncretism, or worshipping with non-Christians.

“If the document is not intended as an unambiguous, confessional attempt to prevent future participation in events like the Yankee Stadium one, then we cannot in good conscience subscribe to it,” two members in the minority concluded.

The commission said the guidelines were not to be viewed as a judgment on the 2001 event or the decisions subsequently made about it.

“The CTCR (Commission on Theology and Church Relations) wishes to move beyond these events and it offers these guidelines as a way of promoting unity in practice within our Synod in the future,” it stated.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Canadian Anglicans Defer Same-Sex Marriage Vote

ST. CATHARINES, Ontario _ The Anglican Church of Canada on Wednesday (June 2) dodged the explosive issue of same-sex marriage by voting to defer it until its next national meeting in 2007.

Delegates to the church’s synod, or governing body, meeting here voted 142-118 to put off a vote on gay marriage until its next synod in three years. Bishops favored deferral by a vote of 22 to 12.

The potentially divisive issue was referred to a theological commission to determine whether same-sex marriage conforms to church doctrine. The commission is slated to report in 2006, and if it finds that gay marriage is a matter of doctrine, the ruling cannot be changed at the local level.

Delegates had been due to vote on a motion to allow individual dioceses the right “to authorize the blessing of committed same-sex unions.” The motion to back away from the resolution was introduced at the 11th hour.

Among those voting against deferral was the newly elected primate of the church, Archbishop Andrew Hutchison, who was chosen leader Monday. Hutchison, a liberal seen as supporting same-sex blessing rites but not homosexual marriage, said he’s “nervous about whether this can survive three further years without other dioceses going ahead.”

On other other hand, Hutchison conceded the deferral came as a “great relief,” and said he’s “grateful we’re not pushing the church to the brink.”

He said he wanted to avoid “a major schism in the life of the church, either here or in relationships with our sister churches.”

The issue has threatened to split the worldwide 70 million-member Anglican communion. Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola, head of the second-largest Anglican church in the world, has stopped attending meetings with the leader of the U.S. church after it made a bishop of New Hampshire’s Gene Robinson, a gay priest living in a relationship.

But in the meantime, the deferral will not stop individual priests from conducting same-sex blessing rites. The Toronto diocese, for example, will decide in November whether to permit them.

_ Ron Csillag

Chicago Cardinal Says U.S. Church in `Danger’ From Outsiders

(RNS) A leading American cardinal told Pope John Paul II that the U.S. Catholic Church is in “great danger” of government interference in the internal life of the church.

Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, addressing the pope on May 28, said the recent clergy sexual abuse scandal has allowed civil institutions to inject themselves into the church’s internal affairs.

“Courts and legislatures are more ready to restrict the freedom of the church to act publicly and to interfere in the internal governance of the church in ways that are new to American life,” George said. “Our freedom to govern ourselves is diminished.”

George made his remarks during an every-five-years “ad limina” visit to the Vatican by bishops from Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.

His remarks echo concern from others in the church that the abuse scandal has made the church vulnerable to courts that order the release of private documents, or lawmakers who attempt to force priests to report crimes they have heard in confession.

George said the scandal has resurrected “a more overt expression of anti-Catholicism which has always marked American culture.” But he added that the U.S. church is also being attacked from within, by liberals who challenge church teaching on sexuality, and conservatives who confront bishops “who do not govern exactly and to the last detail in the way expected.”

“The church is an arena of ideological warfare rather than a way of discipleship shepherded by the bishops,” he said. “The freedom of the church is now threatened by movements within the church and by government and groups outside the church.”

In response, John Paul challenged the U.S. bishops to “speak courageously and with a united voice in addressing the great moral and spiritual issues confronting the men and women of our time.”

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Pope Rules Out Establishing Ukrainian Patriarchate

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope John Paul II said Thursday (June 3) that Orthodox opposition makes it impossible at present for him to establish a patriarchate for the 4.5 million Ukrainian Catholics who celebrate the Byzantine Rite.

Addressing the members of the Permanent Synod of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, the pope praised the church for its “heroic witness” under communism and said he supported its aspiration to have “a full juridical-ecclesial configuration.”

But John Paul indicated that he would bow at least for the present to the strong opposition of the Russian and other Orthodox churches to a Ukrainian Patriarchate, which would put the Ukrainian Church on the level of Orthodox churches.

Bartholomew I, ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople, warned in a letter to the pope several months ago that the creation of a Ukrainian Catholic Patriarchate could mean the end of Catholic-Orthodox dialogue.

The warning carried extra weight because Bartholomew normally has cordial relations with John Paul and will lead an Orthodox delegation to celebrations of the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul on June 29.

“I share in your prayer and also in your suffering, awaiting the day fixed by God in which I will be able to confirm, as successor to the Apostle Peter, the mature fruit of your ecclesial development,” the pope told the Ukrainian Synod.

“In the meantime you well know that your request is being studied seriously, also in the light of the valuations of other Christian churches,” he said.

Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, leader of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, has accused Orthodox Patriarch Alexey II of Moscow and All Russia of organizing opposition to a Ukrainian Catholic Patriarchate but said he would not press the issue at the risk of “misunderstandings.”

The Russian Orthodox Church considers Ukraine to be part of its canonical territory. Since the fall of communism the Russian Orthodox and Ukrainian Catholic churches have been at odds over church property confiscated by the Communists.

Alexey has repeatedly cited the property disputes and alleged Catholic proselytizing as the major impediments to a papal visit to Moscow. The visit has long been a goal for John Paul because it would mark important progress in efforts to heal the 1,000-year-old schism between the Orthodox and Catholic churches.

_ Peggy Polk

Quote of the Day: Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss.

(RNS) “This is not Sunday school; this is interrogation; this is rough stuff.”

_ Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., defending some of the treatment of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers in an interview with WAPT-TV in Jackson, Miss. He was quoted by The Washington Post.

DEA/PH END RNS