c. 1997 Religion News Service
RU486 could be on market by year end
(RNS) The Population Council, holder of the U.S. rights to the French abortion pill known as RU486, says it has settled a suit with a California businessman over selling the pill and the controversial drug could be on the market by the end of the year.
The council also said it had set up a new company to sell the drug _ Advances for Choice _ which will be headed by Jack Van Hulst, a Dutch-born U.S. citizen and former pharmaceutical executive.”We’ve laid a good foundation and now that we have a new partnership and new partner, we can make this happen,”said Margaret Catley-Carlson, president of the Population Council.
The drug, known as mifepristone, induces abortion if taken in the early weeks of pregnancy. The Food and Drug Administration said last September that mifepristone was”approvable,”meaning that it considered the drug safe and effective. But it also asked for more information on manufacturing and labeling.
RU486 has been the object of fierce debate in the United States. Some supporters of legal abortion hail it as a”do-it-yourself”abortion that is less intrusive than other procedures. Abortion opponents argue that the safety of the drug has not been adequately tested and they have threatened to boycott any drug company that seeks to bring it market.
The legal settlement announced by the Population Council involved businessman Joseph D. Pike. The council had contracted with Pike to set up the network for marketing the drug but in months after the contract, the council learned that Pike had been disbarred from practicing law in 1993 and had pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor forgery charge in North Carolina last May.
Famed London cathedral embroiled in women priest controversy
(RNS) The controversy over the ordination of women as priests in the Anglican Church has hit famed St. Paul’s Cathedral in London with the appointment of the first woman priest to the staff of the prestigious cathedral.
On Tuesday (Feb. 11), as the Rev. Lucy Winkett was named one of the cathedral’s three minor canons with responsibilities for some of the music at the church, Canon John Halliburton, chancellor of the cathedral, announced that he would refuse to attend any celebration of the Eucharist (Holy Communion) at which Winkett presided.”I don’t believe her to be a priest,”he said.”I don’t think the Church of England has the right to go ahead with the ordination of women when the greater part of the universal church does not. I do not believe anyone has the authority to ordain a woman to the priesthood.” However, the cathedral’s top official, Dean John Moses, said that Winkett was the best candidate among a list of five for the post.”The decision was made not because she was a woman but because, by a majority, we believed her to be the best candidate and she was in a class of her own musically,”Moses said.”We are not in the business of gender politics at St. Paul’s,”Moses said.”We will always seek the best candidate for any position.” The Church of England has been ordaining women as priests only since 1994 and the issue has deeply divided England’s official state church. A majority of the priests of the diocese of London are believed to be opposed to the practice and a leading opponent of women’s ordination, Bishop John Broadhurst, was recently appointed suffragan bishop of the diocese of London.
Lutheran numbers edge up around the world
(RNS) The number of Lutherans around the world edged up slightly in the past year, with about 800,000 new members and a worldwide total of nearly 61 million, the Lutheran World Federation has announced.
The Geneva-based federation said 57.3 million of the 60.9 million belong to the 122 LWF-member churches.
The Church of Sweden remains the world’s largest Lutheran body, with 7.6 million members, followed by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, with 5.2 million members. Germany, where the Lutheran movement began, has the largest number of Lutherans _ 14.2 million in its various Lutheran denominations. The United States is second, with 8.3 million Lutherans.
But the largest increases in membership were reported by two Lutheran denominations in Africa _ the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus, which grew by over 400,000 members, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania, which grew by 100,000.
The biggest decline was reported by the North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church in northern Germany, which dropped from 2.5 million members to 2.35 million.
Helms calls for the ouster of Flynn as Vatican envoy
(RNS) Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., citing what he calls”serious allegations of ethical misconduct,”Friday called for the ouster of U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican Raymond Flynn.
Helms, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a longtime critic of the former Democratic mayor of Boston, made his call for Flynn’s ouster in a letter to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, the Associated Press reported.
Flynn has been twice reprimanded by former Secretary of State Warren Christopher, first for what was considered inappropriate criticism of Republican domestic priorities, and a second time for permitting his campaign committee to pay his expenses as ambassador.
The State Department had no immediate comment.
In recent months, Flynn has expressed repeatedly a desire to leave the Vatican post soon.
AME Bishop Robert Pruitt dies at 64
(RNS) Bishop Robert L. Pruitt, a former leader of the Texas district of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, died Monday (Feb. 10) at the age of 64 of cancer, a church official said.
Pruitt, a native of Greenville, S.C., served two of the church’s episcopal districts in Africa as well as the Tenth Episcopal District, which encompasses the state of Texas. Pruitt took a leave of absence from his Texas post after he was convicted in 1990 of a felony drug charge.
In 1992, church leaders restricted some of his work within the denomination, but he regained the privileges of bishops in 1996, a church official said. Pruitt did not have a current assignment at the time of his death.
Prior to serving as bishop, Pruitt was the pastor of Metropolitan AME Church in Washington, D.C. He also served churches in North Hills, Pa., Boston and New York.
Finnish bishops: no berry wine for Communion
(RNS) The eight bishops of Finland’s Evangelical Lutheran Church say they have nothing against berries, nor even against good berry wine. But they don’t want berry wine used for Holy Communion.”It’s because the wine is not made from grapes like in the Bible,”Mikko Oinonen, a church spokesman told the Associated Press.
On Wednesday (Feb. 12), the bishops’ synod unanimously approved the ban, acting on complaints that some churches were breaking tradition by serving berry wine at Communion.
The use of berry wine came with changes in the government’s stringent liquor laws that allowed private producers to make their own wine.
The 600 congregations in Finland consume 18,000 bottles of Communion wine a year.
Quote of the day: writer Dorothy Bass
(RNS) Writer Dorothy Bass, who also directs the Project on the Education and Formation of People of Faith at Valparaiso University (Valparaiso, Ind.), wrote in a recent issue of The Christian Century magazine about the need to revive the keeping of the Sabbath:”Whether we know the term Sabbath or not, we the harried citizens of late modernity yearn for the reality. We need Sabbath, even though we doubt that we have time for it.”
MJP END RNS