c. 1996 Religion News Service
Ancient Buddhist scrolls obtained by the British Library
(RNS) What are believed to be the earliest surviving Buddhist texts, dating back to the first century A.D. and written on pieces of brittle bark, have been acquired by the British Library and are in the process of being translated.
The texts, according to scholars, are the Buddhist equivalent of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Graham Shaw, deputy director of the library’s Oriental and India Office Collection, said the texts”will allow scholars to get nearer to what Buddha said than ever before.” The Indian prince Siddartha Gautama, known as the Buddha after he achieved enlightenment, died in 486 B.C., about 600 years before the dates ascribed to the texts.
The 60 fragments of about 25 texts from various parts of the Buddhist canon, include Buddha’s sermons, poems and treatises on the psychology of perception. They are written in Gandhari, the language of the ancient region of Gandhara which is now modern Afghanistan and Pakistan. The region was an important center of early Buddhism.
Scholars said the texts appear to be part of the canon of the Sarvastivadin sect, which dominated the region and helped Buddhism extend into central and east Asia.”They are in some respects comparable to the Dead Sea Scrolls in respect to understanding early Buddhism,”said Richard Salomon, a professor at the University of Washington in Seattle who is leading the team of translators.”They are the most exciting thing I have ever had my hot little hands on.” The Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered in caves above the Dead Sea, were written between the first century B.C. and the first half of the first century A.D. and include the oldest known biblical manuscripts as well as scrolls associated with the Essenes, a Jewish sect. The scrolls have provided scholars with invaluable information about the period in which Christianity emerged from Judaism.
Salomon said the Buddhist texts offer”no great shocks”and do not show any major diversions from known Buddhist teachings.
The library bought the scrolls 18 months ago from an unidentified dealer for an undisclosed sum.
New York’s Roman Catholics form health care network
(RNS) The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York and the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul of New York announced Thursday (June 27) they are merging their health care facilities to create the Catholic Health Care Network of New York.
The network, with 31 hospitals and nursing homes, will be the largest Roman Catholic health care delivery system in the country and will treat an estimated 2.5 million patients a year, the organization said.
The new network of nine hospitals and 22 nursing homes is the latest in a flurry of mergers in the health care industry prompted by cuts in Medicaid reimbursements and cost-cutting pressures from insurers and health maintenance organizations.
In many instances, the mergers have seen non-profit, religious institutions swallowed up by for-profit secular firms, causing the religious hospitals to lose their specific denominational identity.
Cardinal John J. O’Connor said creation of the new network was driven not only by the need for management efficiency and bottom-line benefits but also by the desire to maintain a Catholic identity in the health care field.”Creation of the network is a covenant with New Yorkers that Catholic health care will continue its ministry based on the values of the church _ charity, justice, respect for life in all its stages and special concern for the poor.” In a statement, network officials said the new agency will provide patients with a”seamless”health care delivery system by sharing medical information through computers and save money by jointly purchasing new medical equipment.
It will serve a 10 county area including parts of New York City and the surrounding area.”The primary goal of our network is to promote the Catholic health care ministry,”said Dr. Mary Healey Sedutto, the network’s executive director and chief executive officer.”But to that end, we realize that we must do everything that we can to maintain the viability and solvency of our institutions.”
Update: Congress passes law imposing stiffer penalties for church arson
(RNS) Congress completed action Thursday (June 27) on legislation to stiffen the penalties for arson in places of worship and to make it easier for federal authorities to investigate incidents such as the rash of fires at predominantly black churches in the South.
The Senate passed the legislation on a 98-0 vote on Wednesday. The House approved the bill by voice vote Thursday morning. It now goes to President Clinton, who has indicated he will sign the bill.
The measure doubles, to 20 years, the maximum prison term for anyone convicted of arson of a place of worship and increases the statute of limitation for prosecution of such cases from five to seven years.
It also authorizes $10 million in federal loan guarantees for banks financing reconstruction of arson-gutted, under-insured churches.”If we in Congress can’t agree that church burning is a despicable crime, what in the world can we agree on?”said Sen. Lauch Faircloth, R-N.C. Faircloth and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., are the leading Senate sponsors of the bill.
In separate but related developments, two religious-based groups added their voice to the chorus of condemnation on the rash of arsons.
David V. Kahn, president of the New York-based American Jewish Congress, called on American Jews to mark the Jewish fast day of Tisha B’Av by contributing money that would have been spent on food that day to a special fund for the rebuilding of the burned churches. Tisha B’Av falls on Thursday, July 25, this year.
The fast day, observed mostly by Orthodox Jews, marks the Babylonian destruction of the first Temple in 586 B.C., and the Roman destruction of the second Temple in 70 A.D. Jews that observe the fast day are forbidden from eating and drinking from sundown of July 24 to nightfall of July 25.
In a statement, Kahn called on”American Jews of all levels of observance to reach out symbolically within the special meaning of the day … to rebuild southern black churches destroyed by arson fires. Those who do not observe the fast are urged to participate by contributing the appropriate amounts.”
Quote of the day: The Rev. Clyde A. Anderson, an area executive secretary for Africa of the United Methodist Church, on the killings in Burundi.
(RNS) The continued ethnic-based killing in Burundi has forced United Methodist Church missionaries out of the country. They now work with Burundian refugees in Zaire and Kenya. The Rev. Clyde A. Anderson, an area executive secretary for Africa of the United Methodist Church’s Board of Global Ministries, is pessimistic about the future of the country:”Unfortunately, the ethnic wars will continue in Burundi because both sides are after absolute power, the government is corrupt, and the citizens who are the victims of all this often seem to have reached a conclusion that the only solution to their problem is death.”
MJP END RNS
