c. 1997 Religion News Service
Southern Africa’s Anglican bishops apologize to gays
(RNS) The bishops of the Anglican province of Southern Africa, which includes the nations of South Africa, Namibia, Mozambique and Lesotho, have apologized to homosexuals hurt by the”unacceptable prejudice”within the church.”The harshness and hostility to homosexual people within our church (are) neither acceptable nor … in accord with our Lord’s love of all people,”the bishops said in a statement.”We repent of this of this attitude and ask forgiveness of many homosexual people who have been hurt, rejected and marginalized because of this deep-seated prejudice,”the bishops said.
At the same time, the bishops rejected all forms of sex outside of marriage, Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious news agency, reported Wednesday (March 12). The bishops were meeting in Cape Town, South Africa.”The church’s position is that sex is for life-long marriage with a person of the opposite sex for companionship, sexual fulfillment and procreation,”the statement said.
The bishops also noted, however, that”the reality is that divorce and remarriage, polygamy, same-sex unions, single-parent families, and persons living together outside marriage”do exist.”As a church, we have to find loving, pastoral and creative ways of dealing with all these situations,”the Anglican leaders said.
The bishops also acknowledged that there is no consensus on the topic of homosexuality in the church or among themselves.
Clinton’s bioethics panel begins work
(RNS) President Clinton’s new advisory panel on bioethics, formed in the wake of fears that scientific research is headed in the direction of the cloning of human beings, held its first meeting Thursday (March 13) looking at the legal and moral dimensions of human cloning.”I think like all great moral issues there is no permanent consensus,”Harold Shapiro, president of Princeton University and chairman of the panel, told reporters before the meeting began.”Society can just reach a temporary resolution that seems to make sense in their times, for their feelings.” The panel, formed following the publicity surrounding the successful cloning of a sheep in Scotland, has 90 days to review the issues involved in cloning research. Clinton has banned the use of federal funds for any research involving human cloning and asked privately funded researchers to engage in a 90-day moratorium on such research while the bioethics panel does its work.”What we’re supposed to do is to try and think through as carefully as we can what are the legal and ethical issues, to help provide some advice to the president and Congress about what actions, if any the federal government or other branches should take,”Shapiro said.
The meeting was briefly interrupted by four demonstrators from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, who objected to what they said was treatment of animals as if they were”test tubes with tails,”the Associated Press reported.
The Scottish cloning experiment has led legislators on Capitol Hill and in many other nations to begin examining what measures they might take to ban human cloning. Many scientists and ethicists, however, are urging lawmakers to exercise caution, fearing a backlash could lead to a ban on all cloning-related research, including cellular research that could give rise to treatments for genetic diseases and cancers.
On Thursday, a panel of Protestant and Roman Catholic ethicists all voiced their moral opposition to human cloning.”In the cloning of humans there is an affront to human dignity,”said the Rev. Albert Moraczewski of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.
European churches urging governments to aid refugees, migrants
(RNS) Church organizations from across Europe are calling on their governments to ratify an international convention on displaced people they say will be a first step in more humane treatment for the world’s 15 million refugees.
The call came at the end of the first Pan-European Ecumenical Conference on Uprooted People, held in London last week. The conference was jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches and the Conference of European Churches.
Patrick Taran, the WCC’s secretary for migration, said that in country after country in Europe, migrants and displaced people are facing an”onslaught of inhumanity”in which governments adopt restrictive measures”with the support of their peoples, (making) migrants the scapegoats for the ills of society.” He noted that no European country has ratified the 1990 U.N.-sponsored convention to improve the official status of migrants.
Of the uprooted, an estimated 2.5 million are in Europe, according to Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious news agency.
Participants at the meeting called on churches to become”the church of the stranger,”welcoming migrants and absorbing them into church activities.
But Taran also stressed that while”churches are in the frontline”of aid to refugees,”the churches can’t work in isolation.””The globalization of economic and political policies call for a global response,”he said.”We want to offer an alternative vision to that (which) governments are adopting.”
Update: Mexican judge frees two jailed priests
(RNS) A Mexican judge late Thursday (March 13) freed two Jesuit priests whose arrests on murder charges sparked street protests and a vigorous denial by the bishops of the Roman Catholic Church.
Judge Fausto Blas, a district judge in the state of Chiapas _ an area of Mexico seething with discontent and the cite of the Zapatista uprising _ ruled that there was not enough evidence to jail the two priests and two local Indian leaders, the Reuter news agency reported.
The four had been charged with leading an ambush on police last week sparked by a land dispute. The police had removed Indian peasants from land they had seized near the tourist city of Palenque.
Church officials in Chiapas said the arrests were part of a crackdown by local politicians angered by the church’s work with peasants in the turbulent state.
On Wednesday (March 12,), thousands of people demonstrated against the arrests and the Mexican bishops conference issued a statement denouncing them.”We affirm that our priestly brothers had nothing to do with the accusations against them,”the bishops said.
Update: Adventists join exodus from Albania
(RNS) The Seventh-day Adventist Church said Friday (March 14) it has evacuated all of its international personnel from Albania.”Recognizing the deteriorating situation in the country, on Thursday afternoon … the church’s international personnel were expected to leave by different routes,”the denomination said in a statement.
It was unclear how many Adventist personnel were leaving.
The denomination also reported that its warehouse in Tirana, the capital of Albania, was looted by armed robbers.”We are saddened by this setback,”said John Arthur, the regional director of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency. Arthur said, however, that”we intend to resume operations just as soon as there is a reasonable level of safety for our people.” On Thursday, the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board reported that the last of its 18 workers had been evacuated from Albania, as the former communist country appeared to be sliding close to anarchy.
A rebellion in the southern part of the country, sparked by the collapse of a government-backed bogus invest scheme, was spreading throughout the country.
On Friday, the United Nations refugee agency said it had asked two of Albania’s neighbors _ Italy and Greece _ to be prepared to accept Albanians fleeing the violence.
But the agency said that so far only a”limited number”of Albanians had fled.
Quote of the day: Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah
(RNS) Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, joined Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., at the Children’s Defense Fund annual conference on Thursday and the two leaders unveiled a plan to triple the federal tax on cigarettes to fund health care for the estimated one of every seven children currently not covered. Hatch said the plan would not only raise money but discourage teen smoking:”I don’t like tax increases, but really there is an added advantage here. We think its the right thing to do.”
MJP END RNS
