c. 2007 Religion News Service

Anglican Leaders Fuming Over `No Smoking’ Signs

LONDON (RNS) Senior Anglican clerics have blasted government plans to force churches and cathedrals in Britain to post “no smoking” signs at their entrances starting July 1.

The move is part of a nationwide ban on smoking in public places _ including places of worship _ imposed by Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government.

Anglican reaction has been swift and furious. The Very Rev. Colin Slee, dean of Southwark Cathedral in London, described the government’s action as “nonsense.”

“We get all sorts of things,” the dean told journalists, including “the modern custom of men wearing hats indoors, people wanting to bring their pets in, or even wanting to eat their ice cream cones (or) their hamburgers,” all of which church stewards are well trained to handle.

But, Slee said, “one is bound to ask, when did you last hear of somebody smoking in church?”

Bishop of Fulham John Broadhurst, also in London, fumed that “the whole thing is stark raving mad,” and described it as “another example of the aggressive nanny state” that Britain has become.

The Department of Health, which is supervising imposition of the new ban, has insisted that religious institutions abide by the new law. It said providing any exemption, as the clerics have requested, “would have created a dangerous precedent.”

But Slee suggested that churches could be in for a rough time. He said he knew of one fellow dean who had already been warned by his local government authority that “we’ll close you down if you don’t put up the sign.”

“All (church) deans have received a very formal letter and been instructed that it’s mandatory to put up these signs,” he told BBC radio.

Slee told the BBC the new law will target “not just churches, but also synagogues, temples and mosques as well.”

_ Al Webb

Lausanne Movement to Host South Africa Conference

(RNS) The Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization has announced that it will hold its Third International Congress on World Evangelization in 2010 in South Africa.

The first congress, held in 1974, was convened by evangelist Billy Graham in Lausanne, Switzerland, and attracted more than 2,700 evangelical leaders from 150 countries. The second, in 1989, brought together 3,600 leaders from 190 countries to Manila, Philippines.

“There is no doubt that we have entered a new era in global Christianity,” said the Rev. S. Douglas Birdsall, executive chairman of the Lausanne committee, which is based in South Hamilton, Mass.

“We need to strategize about how we can advance the spread of the gospel around the world. This is especially important as our world continues to shrink through new technologies, and as the evangelical population has shifted to the Southern Hemisphere.”

Organizers hope 4,000 church and mission leaders from 200 countries will attend Oct. 16-25, 2010.

The first meeting produced “The Lausanne Covenant,” which declared a theological basis for collaborative evangelism across the globe. The covenant was reaffirmed at the 1989 meeting.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Mosque Where Four Suspects Prayed Rejects Extremism

PAYMYRA, N.J. (RNS) The suspects in an alleged plot to attack Fort Dix have been described by federal authorities as “radical Islamists,” but the leader of the mosque where four of the men worshipped said Islam has no room for violent extremists.

During his Friday (May 11) prayer service sermon, which he entitled “Islam: The Middle and Moderate Path,” Islamic Center of South Jersey trustee Ismail Badat told about 150 worshippers that their religion “denounces terrorism.”

“Islam teaches gentleness and softness in everything,” Badat said from the lectern next to a large white-and-blue tile mosaic and between two minarets. “There are some Muslims who do not know Islam.”

With reporters in the back of the room and police cars outside in case of reprisal, Badat acknowledged that brothers Dritan, Shain and Eljvir Duka, as well as Serdar Tatar, worshipped at the center, but said their alleged actions do not represent the mosque or its worshippers.

“We are all American _ Muslims are Americans,” he said. “We don’t distinguish from others. We are part of the same society that we live in. We condemn terrorism, there is no doubt about it. We don’t condone violence. We have been here 15 years in this mosque and we haven’t had any problems.”

The Dukas, Tatar and Mohamad Shnewer were denied bail Friday by a U.S. District Court magistrate in Camden, N.J., on charges that they conspired to kill U.S. soldiers at Fort Dix. A sixth man, Agron Abdullahu, was also ordered held on weapons charges.

The arrests have prompted members of the mosque, who are largely Indian and Pakistani professionals, to open their doors to political leaders and the public.

“We want to show that this is an open place, that it’s not a secluded place,” said Syed Noor, the center’s secretary.

_ Rick Hepp

Quote of the Day: Mormon Attorney Jonathan Hansen

(RNS) “I belong to a religion that will take care of me. I don’t need the Social Security system and I don’t want it.”

_ Mormon attorney Jonathan Hansen of Las Vegas, who argued before a federal court that his religion proscribes participation in Social Security. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the case on May 14. He was quoted by the Reuters news agency.

KRE/LF END RNS