c. 1997 Religion News Service
Presbyterians amend rule book to bar ordaining gays
(RNS) The Presbyterian Church (USA) has voted to amend its official rule book to bar gays from holding office and requiring heterosexuals to”live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage … or chastity in singleness.” The amendment, added to the denomination’s Book of Order, climaxes _ for the time being _ a 20-year effort by liberals to change the church’s policy prohibiting non-celibate gays and lesbians from serving in the ordained leadership roles of deacons, elders or ministers.
The ban was officially adopted as an addition to The Book of Order _ the church’s constitution _ on Tuesday (March 18) after it was approved by presbyteries, or regional bodies, in Miami and Charlotte, N.C., giving the amendment the simple majority of 87 affirmative needs for adoption.
Gay and lesbian groups are already protesting the new requirement.
Scott Anderson, co-moderator of Presbyterians for Gay and Lesbian Concerns, said the ban will force more homosexual Presbyterians to leave the 2.7 million-member church.
“It’s one more club that has been used to beat up gay and lesbian people in the Presbyterian Church,” he said.
But the Rev. Jack Haberer, moderator of the Presbyterian Coalition, which strongly backed the ban, said the amendment”says to the country that Presbyterians are committed to reaffirming their biblical center for faith and practice.” The Book of Church Order has not specifically addressed the ordination of homosexuals. In 1993, however, the denomination’s General Assembly _ its highest decision-making body _ affirmed the church’s policy of banning non-celibate homosexuals from ordination.
Anderson said activists plan to keep working to change the amendment and he said some churches have significant opposition to it.
“The Presbyterian Church is a house divided, a church divided,” he said.
Bishop Tutu says his cancer has spread
(RNS) Retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu has announced that he has been told by his doctors in Cape Town, South Africa, that his prostate cancer had spread and that he will undergo radiation and hormone therapy in an effort to treat it.
Tutu, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the fight against apartheid, said he will travel to the United States later this year to receive radiation therapy, Reuters reported Wednesday (March 19). He will first undergo a three-month course of hormone treatment in Cape Town.
Tutu, 65, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in January and saw doctors in the United States during a visit last week.
Alliance of Baptists conversing with UCC
(RNS) The Alliance of Baptists, a moderate Baptist group formed 10 years ago after disagreeing with the conservative leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention, has opened discussions with the liberal mainline United Church of Christ (UCC) about possible ways the two groups might work together.
During the alliance’s 10th anniversary convocation, held March 14-16 in Raleigh, N.C., executive director Stan Hastey announced that dialogue with the UCC had begun.”We believe these conversations are of God and we have a future together,”said the Rev. Rollin Russell, conference minister of the UCC’s Southern Conference, reported Associated Baptist Press, an independent Baptist news service.
Among the topics of discussion between the two groups are”privilege of call,”which allows pastors of other denominations to serve in the UCC, Russell said. He told convocation participants the UCC is”receiving many of your colleagues and (has) been doing so for the past 20 years.” The alliance also has ongoing dialogues with the Progressive National Baptist Convention, the Roger Williams Fellowship of American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A., the Canadian Atlantic Baptist Fellowship and the Fraternity of Cuban Baptist Churches.
Convocation participants adopted a pastoral letter to the Cuban group, which sent a delegation of four representatives to the meeting. The letter criticized U.S. policy toward Cuba and the near-century presence of the U.S. military on the island.”Even today the Guantanamo military base stands as the living testimony to our nation’s rejection of its founding impulse for freedom, self-determination and democratic rule,”the letter reads.”Today our nation stands virtually alone among the family of nations in its refusal to allow your people the unimpeded opportunity to choose your own future.” Hastey told RNS the letter marks the fourth year in a row the alliance has adopted a statement on Cuba. He said he did not want the group to be silent at its first meeting since the passage in March 1996 of the Helms-Burton law, which tightens the U.S. economic embargo on Cuba.
After a decade of existence, the alliance, which now includes Baptists from a variety of denominations, has moved from being a protest movement within the Southern Baptist Convention to a more independent group. This has prompted its members to take a look at its goals and mission. A”visioning committee”is expected to report on possible new directions at next year’s meeting.”I think that the alliance is at one of the best places in its history right now,”said the Rev. Nancy Hastings Sehested, the organization’s president.”We have gotten past the grief of the early days of leaving our Southern Baptist homeland. We are experiencing some fresh energy and vision about our future.”
Indian Christians stage rally to demand job quotas
(RNS) Hundreds of Christians in India protested job and education discrimination in a march toward India’s parliament Wednesday (March 19), demanding job and education quotas.
Demonstrators, most of them Indian Christians whose low-caste ancestors converted from Hinduism to Christianity, clapped and sang “We Shall Overcome” as they carried signs demanding justice for “dalit,” or oppressed, Christians.
“When there is such an overwhelming support for ending the undeclared apartheid against Christian dalits, what prevents the government from taking the next logical step forward?” a spokesman for the All India Christians People’s Forum said.
Police stopped marchers about half a mile from the parliament, where they turned back. Organizers estimate about 500 people participated, while police estimates placed the number closer to 200.
The government already sets aside positions in state-funded universities for low-caste Hindus who become Sikhs or Buddhists to escape from the caste system. But low-caste Hindus who become Christians receive no such protection.
Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda’s 15-party coalition government has promised to extend the quotas to Christians.
Christians make up 2.4 percent of India’s 936 million people population. About 11 million of them are converts from low Hindu castes and are unable to receive educational or white-collar job opportunities.
S. Africa’s Catholic bishops praise land mine decision
(RNS) The decision by South Africa’s government to ban the production and use of anti-personnel land mines is being hailed by the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops.”We believe this step is a significant contribution to the reduction of weapons of destruction in the southern African region and the continent as a whole,”the South African Bishops Conference said in a statement released in Pretoria.
The South African government announced the new land mine ban Feb. 20. The country had been the largest producer of land mines in sub-Saharan Africa.
In addition to ending production, the government said it will destroy most of its stockpile of 160,000 mines but would retain a”limited and verifiable”stock of mines to train military personnel in de-mining techniques.
Quote of the day: Roman Catholic Bishop Anthony M. Pilla
(RNS) Cleveland Bishop Anthony M. Pilla, president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, spoke Sunday (March 16) at the Pentecostal Church of Christ in Cleveland, at the invitation of the church’s pastor, Bishop J. Delano Ellis II, who believes the sermon marked the first time a Roman Catholic bishop had preached at a regular Sunday worship service of a U.S. Pentecostal congregation. Pilla urged his listeners to refrain from sexual relations outside marriage:”Sex is good. It is like a fire. In a fireplace it’s warm and delightful. Outside its hearth, it’s destructive and uncontrollable.”
MJP END RNS
