c. 1996 Religion News Service

(Following is a collection of domestic religion stories compiled from RNS staff, wire and denominational reports).

Parishioners shun visit by female Episcopal bishop

(RNS)-The Rev. Arthur Woolley of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Bladensburg, Md., an opponent of women’s ordination, vowed to”use every means at my disposal”to block a visit to his traditionalist parish by Bishop Jane Holmes Dixon, the suffragan bishop of the Washington diocese.

But on Sunday (Jan. 14), Dixon, joined by about 45 worshipers from other parishes and nine of St. Luke’s 200 members, made her visit to St. Luke’s, celebrating Holy Communion and underscoring the point that differences over women’s ordination still deeply divide the 2.5 million-member Episcopal Church.

St. Luke’s is one of six parishes in the Washington diocese that indicated last summer they would not receive an official visit by the suffragan bishop because of their opposition to women’s ordination. Three have since relented and no visits have yet been set for the other two.

Such a visit usually includes the bishop presiding at the celebration of the Eucharist, or Holy Communion, and joining the rector in leading the service. Woolley, like the vast majority of St. Luke’s members, boycotted the event.

Bishop Ronald Haines of the Washington diocese said he is using the visits in an effort to unite the diocese around acceptance of women as priests and bishops. Despite the fact that the Episcopal Church has been ordaining women to the priesthood for 20 years and there are six female bishops in the United States, pockets of traditionalist resistance remain in nearly all of the church’s dioceses.”Until we (traditionalists) are legally, officially excluded from this church, they do not have the right to force their theology down our throats,”Stella Green, a St. Luke’s parishioner and one of those opposing the visit, told the Washington Post. She monitored Dixon’s visit but did not participate. Green said the ordination of women”is a denial of the truth”that priests must be men because Jesus and the apostles were men.

But another St. Luke’s member, Earl Talifero, brought bread and wine for the communion service.”I did it because I think it’s proper for a lady to be a bishop,”he told the Washington Times.

Supreme Court won’t hear religious bias case by follower of Wicca

(RNS)-The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by a follower of the pagan religion of Wicca that he was discriminated against because he was denied religious reading material while awaiting a military court-martial trial in North Carolina.

The court, without comment, let stand rulings that refused to decrease Allen Phillips’ prison sentence based on the denial of the reading material.

Phillips sought access to the Wican bible, commonly known as the Book of Shadow, while he was in jail in Cumberland County, N.C., awaiting trial on cocaine-related charges.

Wicans believe in the sacredness of nature and adherents practice witchcraft as part of their religious observances.

Phillips was eventually convicted, in a court-martial trial at Fort Bragg, N.C., of conspiracy to distribute cocaine, wrongful possession and distribution of the drug, and of being absent without leave. He was sentenced to 20 months in prison.

According to court records, Phillips’ request was denied because a jail official decided the Wicca religion was not recognized in North Carolina.

Phillips’ appeal to the Supreme Court sought to have his prison time reduced because of what he called the”wrongful punishment”he received in being denied access to the Book of Shadows.

Armenian Orthodox patriarch meets with President Clinton

(RNS)-Patriarch Karekin I, Catholicos (pope) of Armenian Orthodox Christians, met Tuesday (Jan. 16) with President Clinton to thank the U.S. leader for supporting Armenia’s independence from the former Soviet Union.

Karekin I, on his first visit to the United States as catholicos, presented Clinton with the”Gregory the Illuminator Award”for his leadership in providing humanitarian aid to Armenia.”President Clinton noted the special ties that exist between the United States and Armenia and expressed his commitment to continue to deepen those ties,”White House spokesman Mike McCurry said in a statement after the meeting.

McCurry said Clinton and the patriarch”discussed their deep concerns about the conflict around Nagorno-Karabakh and in the Caucasus region”where Armenians are engaged in a off-and-on violent confrontation with neighboring Azerbaijan. Both”emphasized the importance of reinforced efforts toward a durable peace based on compromise from all sides,”McCurry said.

There are about 1 million Orthodox Armenians in the United States, according to church officials.

Former Jerusalem mayor says peace won’t come by talks alone

(RNS)-Teddy Kollek, the former mayor of Jerusalem, told an American audience this week that peace won’t come to Israel by negotiations alone.”People must learn to live together and to speak together,”Kollek said.”Division is not only by name, but by heritage, a deep division that needs to be overcome.” Kollek, 84, made his remarks during Martin Luther King Jr. Day observances at Loyala University in Chicago.

Kollek, who served as mayor of Jerusalem from 1965 to 1993, said a number of efforts to overcome sectarian differences involving Jewish, Christian and Muslim children were taking place in Jerusalem.

He also said that the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin has not damaged the peace process between Israel, its Arab neighbors and Palestinians.”His (Rabin’s) ideals were strengthened by the terrible and tragic way he lost his life,”Kollek said.

MJP END