c. 1997 Religion News Service
Episcopal Church apologizes for mistreatment of homosexuals
(RNS) The Episcopal Church apologized publicly Friday (July 25) to gays and lesbians for their past treatment by the church and approved a three-year theological study of same-sex unions.
The actions came during the closing hours of the 2.4 million-member church’s 10-day triennial General Convention in Philadelphia.
Unlike the church’s previous public repentance “for the sin of racism,” the apology to homosexuals did not include references to repentance or sin on the part of the church. Those references were removed from the tersely worded proposal while the statement was in committee.
Instead, the convention approved an apology to gays and lesbians “for years of rejection and maltreatment by the church.”
Accompanying the apology was a directive for a theological study of same-sex unions. The convention’s lower House of Deputies _ which Saturday (July 19) rejected a proposal to look at possible same-sex union rites _ agreed to the study Friday following earlier passage by the upper House of Bishops.
The theological study will be directed by the church’s Standing Liturgical Commission and will include an examination of such diverse aspects of sexuality as abstinence, committed relationships and youth sex education.
The commission is to make recommendations for consideration at the church’s next convention in the year 2000.
Conservatives who voted for the study saw it as a chance to influence the debate about same-sex relationships.
The Rev. Michael W. Hopkins, a spokesman for Integrity, the church’s homosexual caucus, welcomed the study, but urged the commission to include gays and lesbians in their deliberations.
Catholic diocese ordered to pay almost $120 million for priest’s abuse
(RNS) The Roman Catholic Diocese of Dallas was ordered Thursday (July 24) to pay $119.6 million in damages for covering up for an ex-priest accused of sexually molesting altar boys.
The verdict is reportedly the largest cash penalty ever in a priest molestation case.
A state District Court jury also urged the church to confess its wrongs in the case.”Please admit your guilt and allow these young men to get on with their lives,”a statement from the jury said.”I hope they wake up the pope tonight with this,”Sylvia Demarest, the plaintiffs’ attorney, told Reuters.”This verdict sends a clear message to the Catholic hierarchy of the world that this abuse must stop.” The Rev. Rudolph Kos and the Dallas diocese were sued by 10 men and the family of an 11th man who committed suicide after accusing Kos of sexual assault. The church suspended Kos from the priesthood five years ago.”I hope that tonight when I go to bed, I can feel safe in my heart that one less person will be abused,”said Robert Hultz, one of Kos’ accusers, the Associated Press reported.”That next year, this will not happen again. That throughout the country, this will set the standard for what needs to be done.” The jury found the diocese had hid information in its handling of sexual abuse complaints against Kos and was grossly negligent. Church officials denied the diocese was negligent, but did not deny the molestation charges.
Kos, who now lives in San Diego, was not at the trial, and still faces criminal charges of sexual abuse of two of the plaintiffs.
The plaintiffs claimed they were molested between 1977 and 1992 while Kos was at Holy Trinity Seminary in Dallas and was assigned to three Texas parishes.
Church officials said they would probably appeal the verdict.
After final arguments were heard and the jurors were dismissed Monday (July 21), the judge in the case took the unusual step of removing her judicial robe and speaking to the plaintiffs, The New York Times reported.”I’ve been so close to your tragedy it just breaks my heart,”District Judge Anne Ashby told them.”Everybody in the courtroom has been grieving. If anything like this can ever be positive, then let there be healing and let there be hope.”
Update: Yeltsin defends veto of Russian bill restricting religion
(RNS) President Boris Yelstin has defended his veto of legislation that would have restricted the operations of”non-traditional”Russian religions, saying a democracy”cannot encroach upon the interests of minorities for whatever seemingly noble motives.” Yelstin’s comments Friday (July 25) were in response to the criticism he has received from the Russian Orthodox Church, a prime backer of the vetoed legislation.
Also speaking Friday, Patriarch Alexii II, who leads the Russian Orthodox Church, said the vetoed bill”does not trample upon anybody’s rights.”Rather, he continued, the bill”would have brought to order all the fake missionaries and destructive orders which, unfortunately, have flooded Russia and its closest neighbors,”the Associated Press reported.
Alexii’s remarks appeared to refer to Western evangelical Protestants, Mormons and other religious groups who have been successful in attempts to win Russian converts since the fall of the Soviet Union.
The legislation vetoed earlier this week _ which would have given special status to Russian Orthodoxy, Judaism, Islam and Buddhism as”traditional”Russians religions while making it difficult for all other faiths to operate _ was viewed as a way of protecting Russian Orthodox church members from conversion attempts.
Yelstin noted the wide support for the vetoed measure in the Russian parliament. In what was interpreted as a nod toward supporters of the bill, he said he understood the Russian Orthodox Church’s concerns and agreed the church should be protected from”radical sects.” The vetoed measure was widely denounced as anti-democratic. Critics included Pope John Paul II, President Clinton and the United States Senate, which threatened to cut off all economic aid to Russia if Yeltsin signed the bill into law.
Updated: Beijing dismisses State Dept. report critical of China
(RNS) The Chinese government has dismissed as”irresponsible”a State Department report that said Beijing was guilty of persecuting Christians and members of other religious faiths.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Tang Guoqiang Thursday (July 24) said”a few Western countries, including the United States, lack the necessary understanding about China’s religious situation,”the Associated Press reported.
Tang said religion was used”as an excuse for making irresponsible remarks about China’s internal situation. We absolutely oppose this.” While the Chinese constitution supports freedom of religion, the government requires all Christians to associate with officially sanctioned”state”churches. Fearing government control and theological compromise in the state churches, most Chinese Christians belong to illegal”house”churches.
The State Department report, released Tuesday (July 22), said house church members regularly face harassment, jailing and physical violence.
The report also noted Chinese persecution of Buddhists in Tibet and Muslims in China’s northwest.
U.S. Army chaplains get official training center
(RNS) For the first time in its eight-decade history, the training program for U.S. Army chaplains has a permanent location.
The first building designed expressly for the Army Chaplain Center and School was officially opened Wednesday (July 23) at a dedication ceremony at Fort Jackson, the Army’s largest training post in Columbia, S.C.”This is home,”said Chaplain George Pejakovich, the commanding officer of the school.”We’re in a building that’s made for us. Jokingly, I tell people I poured the foundations real deep.” Previously, the school had been housed in buildings left behind by other operations in remote corners of various Army posts. The school had moved 16 times and had been located, at one time or another, in 11 states.
Now, it is in an $8 million, 58,000 square-foot building with 20,000 books in its library _ on topics ranging from world religions to military science _ and access to the Internet and video-conferencing.
Chaplains have been ministering in the U.S. military since the Revolutionary War. They have served alongside troops in battle as well as at training posts.
The new school is named in honor of Charlie Watters, a chaplain who was killed in Vietnam and was one of five chaplains to earn the Medal of Honor.
Federal agency funds dictionary of Jesus’ language
(RNS) A federal agency is spending $1.3 million on a 20-year project to put together the largest dictionary ever published of the language of Jesus: Aramaic.
Publication of the five-volume”Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon”should begin by 2003, the Associated Press reported.
Aramaic was spoken from Pakistan to southern Egypt 2,500 years ago. In Jesus’ time, many Jews who did not know Hebrew spoke Aramaic. Now, the language is only spoken in some villages in the Ukraine and the Middle East. Contemporary Jewish prayer books contain some prayers written in Aramaic.
Aramaic and Hebrew are similar, but, like Dutch and German, those who speak one language do not always understand the other.
Scholars believe Jesus also may have known Hebrew and some Greek, but Aramaic was spoken in his native Galilee, the Associated Press reported.
According to the Bible, Jesus’ last words on the cross, were in Aramaic:”Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?,”to which St. Mark, apparently writing in Greek, added,”which is, being interpreted, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” The grants for the dictionary have come from the National Endowment for the Humanities, which has spent $167,000 on the project so far this year.
Atheist objects to overtime pay for holiday work
(RNS) Michael Last has willingly worked the past four Christmas holidays at a sewage treatment plant in Hilo, Hawaii. He doesn’t mind working on Christmas, but he is bothered by the plant’s policy of giving him overtime pay for working on the holiday.
Last is an atheist who believes he should earn a regular salary when he works on religious holidays.
Hawaii County officials agreed to his demand last December, but the issue is not yet settled. The United Public Workers union has filed a grievance against the county for its decision and wants an arbitrator to decide the issue.
Last rejected suggestions that he donate any overtime pay to charity, saying he would still have to pay taxes on it.
Quote of the Day: The Rev. Tim McDonald
(RNS) The Rev. Tim McDonald, a board member of the liberal advocacy group People for the American Way in Washington and president of Concerned Black Clergy in Atlanta, testified before a congressional subcommittee Tuesday (July 22) about why he opposes a proposed Religious Freedom Amendment:”My parishioners and I know that truly voluntary prayer is already permitted and occurs every day in our public schools. … What isn’t permitted is `captive audience’ prayer _ prayer led by students or school officials during classes or over the loudspeaker or other school-sponsored settings where students are captive audiences for someone else’s prayer.”
MJP END RNS
