c. 2004 Religion News Service
Missouri Synod Sees Large Congregation Increase
(RNS) The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod increased its number of congregations by 94 in 2003, the most in the last 15 years.
Robert Scudieri, the top U.S. missions official for the denomination, said the LCMS has increased by an average of about 60 congregations each year over the last decade.
More than half of the new congregations represent non-white ethnic groups, the denomination announced. For example, 24 are Hispanic and 15 include African immigrants from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Liberia and Sudan.
The highest number of new churches _ 14 _ were started in the denomination’s Florida-Georgia District. Most of those new churches were started by congregations that already existed rather than by denominational administrators.
“More and more LCMS churches are taking this kind of initiative and starting new missions,” said Scudieri in a statement.
He especially credited multicultural and ethnic congregations, saying their emphasis on outreach has led to new churches. Scudieri cited the example of Christ Assembly Lutheran Church in Staten Island, N.Y. That congregation of African immigrants has started 10 churches in eight years.
The St. Louis-based denomination has a total of 6,150 congregations in the United States.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Vatican Hails U.N. Vote Upgrading Its Permanent Observer Status
VATICAN CITY (RNS) The Vatican’s representative to the United Nations on Friday (July 2) hailed the upgrading of the Vatican’s permanent observer status in the world body and said that full membership is still possible in the future.
Archbishop Celestino Migliore commented on the unanimous vote of the General Assembly on Thursday approving a resolution on “strengthening of the United Nations system,” which includes a provision on the Vatican’s status.
Migliore said that the Holy See is still a permanent observer, but its role will be “much fuller, much more fluid.” With Switzerland’s U.N. membership in 2002, the Vatican is the only remaining permanent observer, a status it has held for 40 years.
“The status of member or of observer at the United Nations was based on a right that is more custom than written, while now it is written,” the prelate said. He said the new statute is “clearer and more favorable.”
“Now, for example, we will be able to intervene without having to wait for permission from regional groups,” he said. “We will be able to circulate our documents as working documents of the General Assembly. We will have the right to reply when a reference is made to the Holy See.”
Migliore said the new statute does not preclude full membership, which the Vatican has been considering for several years. He said that the Vatican will base its decision “first of all on its mission, and the mission of the Holy See is principally spiritual and moral.”
Migliore said the Vatican’s new status is a setback for a campaign to oust it from the United Nations because of its anti-abortion stand. He said the campaign was based on “mainly ideological presuppositions,” but the Vatican’s status is now “regulated by arguments of a juridical and not ideological character, and it is just that it should be.”
Addressing the General Assembly after Thursday’s vote, Migliore thanked the 191 member-states for their action, which he said “is an important step forward and reflects the lofty values and collective interests shared by the Holy See and the United Nations.”
_ Peggy Polk
Prominent Israeli Rabbi Warns on Land Issue
JERUSALEM (RNS) Avigdor Neventzal, a prominent Israeli rabbi, said Tuesday (June 29) that people who are prepared to relinquish Israeli territory to non-Jews are so dangerous they fall under the category of “rodef.”
The term “rodef,” based on biblical law as cited in the Talmud, refers to a person who, unless stopped, will commit murder. According to Jewish law, a person may pre-emptively kill someone about to commit a murder.
“It should be known that anyone who wants to give away Israeli land is like a rodef, and certainly land should not be given to idolators,” Neventzal was quoted as saying by Israeli newspapers.
The term “rodef” is politically charged, because Yigal Amir, an Orthodox Jewish nationalist, assassinated then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in November 1995, after some rabbis opposed to territorial compromise with the Palestinians labeled the Israeli leader a rodef.
At the time Amir said that he had killed the prime minister in order to prevent him from handing over land to the Palestinians.
Neventzal’s remarks come at a time when Ariel Sharon, Israel’s current prime minister, has vowed to evacuate Jewish settlements and to withdraw all Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip.
Gaza settlers are appealing to all Israelis, but particularly Orthodox Jews, to fight the land transfer.
_ Michele Chabin
`Lutheran Vespers’ Speaker Walt Wangerin to Leave Post
(RNS) The Rev. Walt Wangerin Jr. has announced he will leave his role as speaker for “Lutheran Vespers,” the radio ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the denomination announced.
Wangerin’s final program will air on Jan. 2, 2005. He will be succeeded by the Rev. Peter W. Marty, a Davenport, Iowa, pastor who will begin broadcasting Feb. 13. The Rev. Stephen P. Bouma, bishop of the ELCA Metropolitan New York Synod, will serve as interim speaker before Marty begins.
Wangerin, an ELCA pastor, author and lecturer, chose to leave the ministry to reduce his professional duties.
“There’s a lot of writing I want to do, and there are large works that I’ve been thinking about that I need to pay attention to,” said Wangerin, 60. “Those are tough to do with other commitments.”
Wangerin, the fifth “Lutheran Vespers” speaker since the program’s founding in 1947, will continue his work as a writer-in-residence at Valparaiso University in Indiana.
Susan V. Greeley, director/producer for “Lutheran Vespers,” said the program was greatly aided by Wangerin’s presence as host for the last decade.
“Within the first year of his tenure, we nearly doubled the number of stations carrying the program,” she said in a report from the ELCA News Service. “He leaves this ministry on a much firmer foundation than he found it.”
The weekly 30-minute program airs on Sunday mornings on 186 stations.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Unitarians Vote to Oppose Marriage Amendment
LONG BEACH, Calif. (RNS) The Unitarian Universalist Association’s annual convention endorsed gay marriage, called for affordable housing and saw dozens of delegates and others flock to two independent panels discussing polyamory _ the controversial notion it is morally acceptable to have multiple love partners.
Support for gay marriage was an assembly theme of the 225,000-member, Boston-based religious organization.
Some 4,700 people attend this year’s June 24-28 assembly, which approved new resolutions opposing the proposed constitutional amendment limiting marriage to heterosexuals and calling for the resignation of Attorney General John Ashcroft for his role in limiting civil liberties.
The assembly also called for a federal ban on assault weapons. On Iraq, the Unitarian Universalists condemned torture and said U.S. officials should be held accountable to the United Nations.
Concerns over affordable housing were expressed most visibly at the assembly when 150 Unitarian Universalists and 450 local clergy and activists marched through Long Beach, with Unitarians donating $57,000 toward building a new homeless shelter.
An independent group, Unitarian Universalists for Polyamory Awareness, sponsored two workshops for delegates and others.
“Say yes to the transforming power of love,” said Doug Walters of Portland, Ore., one of four polyamorists leading the workshops. “Is it safe to be openly supportive of polyamory in your congregation?”
UUPA has met at General Assembly meetings since 2000. “UUs are allowed to organize around any issue that they consider significant,” said Unitarian Universalist Association communications director John Hurley. “This group is not endorsed by the Unitarian Universalist Association.”
Though renowned for their tolerance, some Unitarian Universalists did not know what to make of people supporting multiple partner relationships. “I do have questions,” said Diana McClure, 29, a Long Beach schoolteacher. “How do you make a covenant out of it (polyamory)?”
The June 27 workshop turned tense when Mark Acuna, a gay Native American from Montclair, Calif., said he was insulted by a workshop organizer’s claim that all gay men want multiple partners. “I don’t like hearing that said, that all gay people are polyamorous,” Acuna said.
At the end of the panel the workshop organizer privately apologized to Acuna, who later said he was open to polyamory discussions but stunned to find stereotyping at a Unitarian gathering. “I found that just an awful thing to say,” Acuna told Religion News Service. “That in a meeting of people who don’t want to stereotype, they were stereotyping gays.”
_ David Finnigan
Quote of the Day: Senegalese Music Celebrity Youssou N’Dour
(RNS) “The Muslim religion is not a history and a religion only for the Arabs. My music is the noise of peace, and I am Muslim. And I think that peace is tolerance, is recognizing diversity, and is very important.”
_ Senegalese music celebrity Youssou N’Dour, whose album “Egypt” had its U.S. release in June. The artist, whose collection features songs he composed to celebrate Islam, was quoted in The Washington Post.
DEA/PH END RNS
