c. 2008 Religion News Service
`Knights Templar’ file suit against pope
VATICAN CITY (RNS) A Spanish group claiming to be the heirs of the Knights Templar have filed a law suit against Pope Benedict XVI, seeking the “habilitation” of the once-powerful Catholic religious order that was disbanded 700 years ago.
The Association of the Sovereign Order of the Temple of Christ also demands recognition _ though not restitution _ of $156 billon in assets that it claims the original Templars lost upon their dissolution.
The Knights Templar, officially known as the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, were founded in the early 12th century to protect Christian pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land. But their growing military and economic power inspired envy, suspicion and accusations of heresy. Pope Clement V, under pressure from King Philip IV of France, disbanded the order in 1312.
The Templars’ glorious and tragic history has figured prominently in legend and popular culture, including Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code.”
Last year, the Vatican published a document only recently discovered in its archives showing that Clement had actually absolved the order of heresy before dissolving it for political reasons.
According to statements appearing on the plaintiffs’ Web site, the current law suit was originally submitted to a Madrid court last December, and dismissed two months later. The group says it has appealed the dismissal, and expects a decision in October.
A report by the EFE news agency said the first judge dismissed the case on the grounds that the court lacked jurisdiction, since events so far in the past are “properly the subject of historians.”
_ Francis X. Rocca
Young scholar tapped for Riverside Church pulpit
NEW YORK (RNS) A New Testament scholar at Vanderbilt University Divinity School has been nominated to become senior minister of New York’s Riverside Church, one of the nation’s most prestigious and visible pulpits.
The Rev. Brad R. Braxton has been selected by a church search committee to succeed the Rev. James A. Forbes, who served at Riverside 18 years until his retirement last year.
Braxton’s selection was announced during the regular Sunday (Aug. 3) service of the multi-racial, interdenominational church near Columbia University on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The congregation will vote on the nomination Sept. 14.
Braxton told The New York Times he hoped to continue what he called the dual legacies of “congregational care internally, and bold, courageous, prophetic action externally, for which the Riverside Church has been known now for so many years.”
If his nomination is approved, as expected, Braxton will join the ranks of a select group of 20 preachers _ included Harry Emerson Fosdick and William Sloane Coffin _ who have championed social justice causes from the pulpit of the 78-year-old church founded by John D. Rockefeller Jr. Braxton would also be, after Forbes, the second African-American to hold the senior minister’s position.
At 39, Braxton would bring a youthful profile to the post; Forbes was 71 when he retired. Braxton’s appointment would also mark another turn to relative youth for an established liberal Protestant institution in New York City: Earlier this year, the 48-year-old Serene Jones, a Yale University scholar, was selected to succeed the Rev. Dr. Joseph Hough, 74, as president of Union Theological Seminary, across the street from Riverside.
Braxton currently serves as associate professor of homiletics and New Testament at Vanderbilt in Nashville, and previously taught at Wake Forest University Divinity School in Winston-Salem, N.C. He is the author of three books focusing on Pauline studies and interpretation.
Braxton is a graduate of the University of Virginia; holds a master’s degree from Oxford, where he was a Rhodes scholar; and received his doctorate in New Testament studies from Emory University.
He served as senior pastor of the Douglas Memorial Community Church, a 600-member interdenominational congregation in Baltimore, and preached at Westminster Abbey in London during 2007 bicentennial commemorations of the end of the British slave trade.
Sixty-five candidates were reportedly interviewed for the senior minister’s position at Riverside, which is affiliated with both the American Baptist Churches and the United Church of Christ.
_ Chris Herlinger
Unitarians rededicate church where gunman killed two
(RNS) Unitarian Univeralists in Knoxville, Tenn., reopened their doors on Sunday (Aug. 3), just one week after a gunman opened fire during a production of a church musical and left two people dead.
“This sanctuary, which has been defiled by violence, we rededicate to peace. This holy place, which has been desecrated by an act of hatred, we reconsecrate for love,” the Rev. Chris Buice told an overflow crowd at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church.
Joined by two former ministers, Buice praised the congregation’s commitment to progressive social justice in the face of violence.
“(The gunman) came into this space with a desire to do an act of hatred. But he has unleashed unspeakable acts of love,” Buice said.
According to Knoxville police, Jim D. Adkisson, 58, opened fire during a July 27 performance of the musical, “Annie,” killing two and wounding seven. In a letter found in Adkisson’s car, the shooter blamed the church’s liberal teachings for his current unemployment.
Adkisson had no formal ties to the church, although The Associated Press reported that his ex-wife had been a former member.
“Last Sunday, a man walked into this sanctuary with the intention of inflicting terror. And he inspired quick and decisive acts of courage,” Buice said. “Reports tell us that he thought that liberals were soft on terror. He had a rude discovery.”
The FBI and Knoxville Police Department are currently investigating to determine whether Adkisson, who is currently in police custody, can be charged with hate crimes. The attack is the first of its kind on a Unitarian church.
“You could have returned the hatred that was directed at your community,” wrote the Rev. William Sinkford, president of the Boston-based Unitarian Universalist Association, in a letter to the congregation. “But instead you greeted hatred with love, and you created meaning from an unspeakably destructive act.”
The service ended with a chorus of “Tomorrow,” the popular song from the production being staged at the time of the shooting. The song has become a rallying cry for the congregation since the shooting, and was performed at a candlelight vigil last Monday.
“We are untied as a community, saying `the sun will come out tomorrow,”’ Buice said.
_ Tim Murphy
Baha’i gardens named world heritage site in Israel
(RNS) The latest site in Israel to win designation from UNESCO as a World Heritage Site is Haifa’s Baha’i Gardens, a place sacred to what may be the least-known religion in the conflict-torn Holy Land.
The gardens, which climb from the base of Mount Carmel to its summit, include the Shrine of the Bab, a prominent Haifa landmark and a visual symbol of the Baha’i faith’s emphasis on worldwide religious unity.
The domed shrine, completed in 1953, contains the tomb of Siyyard Ali Muhammed, a Persian who was the chief precursor of the Baha’i religion. He was executed for heresy in 1850 by Muslim authorities. His remains were brought to Haifa in 1909 and remained hidden for years before the permanent memorial was built.
The Baha’i faith was an outgrowth of Muslim culture in much the same way that Christianity arose from Jewish traditions. Baha’is believe there is one God, and great world prophets including Moses, Jesus, Buddha and Muhammad are heavenly teachers with the same basic message.
Baha’u’llah, the latest of these messengers, was born in Iran in 1817 and laid the foundations for the modern Baha’i faith before his death in 1892. He taught the oneness of God, the oneness of the human family, and the oneness of religion _ views that led to his imprisonment and exile from his native Iran. Today the Baha’i faith has spread worldwide and counts about 6 million adherents in 200 countries.
In the late 1980s, followers marshalled the resources to complete the Baha’i “World Centre” in Haifa _ work that literally included moving and reshaping a mountain. The 19 meticulously landscaped terraces rising up Mount Carmel were officially opened in May of 2001.
The Baha’i Gardens already are the sixth or seventh most visited spot in Israel. They join eight other Israeli sites on the UNESCO list, including the oldest portions of Jerusalem and Acre and the tels of Beersheba and Hazor.
_ Valerie Sudol
Quote of the Day: Bernadette Snyder, consecrated virgin
(RNS) “He completes me. I don’t even know if marriage is the proper term; I feel like he’s my husband.”
_ Bernadette Snyder, who recently became a consecrated perpetual virgin in the Catholic Diocese of Richmond, Va., speaking of her relationship with Jesus Christ. She was quoted by The Virginian-Pilot.
KRE END RNS
