c. 1997 Religion News Service
Billy Graham to give eighth inauguration invocation
(RNS) Evangelist Billy Graham is scheduled to give the invocation at President Clinton’s Jan. 20 inauguration ceremony, marking the eighth time he has participated at such an event.”I am both humbled and honored to be invited by President Clinton to again lead the invocation at his inauguration,”Graham said.
The 78-year-old evangelist has known Clinton and Vice President Al Gore since before they entered national office.”This is a critical time for our nation and our world,”Graham said.”And yet such historic occasions provide opportunity to reflect on the moral and spiritual foundations of our country, our responsibility to pray for its leaders and the need for renewal across our land, which can only come from God.” The ceremony will begin at 11:30 a.m. at the U.S. Capitol and the swearing in is expected to begin at noon.
Another prominent religious leader, the Rev. Gardner Taylor, pastor emeritus of Concord Baptist Church in Brooklyn, N.Y., is scheduled to give the benediction. Taylor, who was called the”dean of the nation’s black preachers”by Time magazine in 1980, gave the sermon at the 1992 inaugural prayer service.
The inaugural prayer service is scheduled to be held at the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, an historic African-American church in downtown Washington, D.C. The church was also the site of Clinton’s first inaugural prayer service.
Musical selections at the ceremony will include performances by the Immanuel Baptist Church Sanctuary Choir and Orchestra from Clinton’s Southern Baptist church in Little Rock, Ark. Santita Jackson, daughter of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, will sing the national anthem with the Resurrection Choir, which includes adult members of 10 houses of worship that were destroyed by arson.
There also will be a performance by Children of the Gospel Choir, which features children from churches in the Washington, D.C. area.
Sandi Patty, another Christian musician, is expected to perform at the Presidential Inaugural Gala Jan. 19. Patty, a Grammy award-winner, is slated to sing her rendition of the national anthem at the televised event.
Catholic Church in England studying how to help priests’ lovers
(RNS) The Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales is looking at ways it may be able to aid women _ including giving financial assistance _ who have had affairs with priests.
Bishop Christopher Budd of Plymouth, England, said a team of two bishops and an unspecified number of lay people has been set up to meet with representatives of women who have been involved with priests. Some of the women have had children fathered by priests.
The new committee comes in the wake of several public revelations of clandestine sexual affairs among the clergy, most notably last fall’s celebrated case involving Bishop Roderick Wright of Argyll and the Isles. Wright, it was disclosed, had not only run off with a divorcee but also was the father of a 15-year-old boy by another woman.
Women involved in affairs with priests have formed at least two national support groups and the bishops’ newly established panel will meet with representatives of the groups to listen to their concerns.”We’ll certainly see what can be done with regard to funding,”Budd told the BBC.”After all, if a priest has fathered a child by a woman, in some ways he is personally responsible, and that means he may have to leave the ministry and earn sufficient (money) to support the child and the mother.” Budd said that it was important that the truth of such affairs come out and that the priests involved face the consequences of their actions.”The priest concerned must actually accept the truth and move out of the ministry and do what he can to support either the woman or the woman and children,”Budd said.
Some N.Y. religious leaders want to keep soccer moms in services
(RNS) Religious leaders in the New York City suburb of Larchmont, N.Y, are striving to get soccer moms and their families back to weekend services at local houses of worship.
More than 500 members from five churches and synagogues have asked the Larchmont Junior Soccer League to avoid holding games between 9 a.m. and noon on weekends to prevent conflicts with religious services, the Associated Press reported.”We believe that soccer is an important part of our children’s lives, as is faith (and) religion,”said the Rev. Michael Nelms, associate pastor of Larchmont Avenue Presbyterian Church.”We realize it is not possible to totally block off those times. We’re respectfully asking that those times be respected so that children who are involved in both can do both.” Soccer league director Tom Munno said most games are planned for Saturdays. But Saturday games postponed due to inclement weather are often played on Sunday. Munno said he would do all he could”to minimize the number of Sunday morning games.” There are 1,700 children in the soccer league. Nationwide, 2.5 million kids are registered soccer league members.
Soccer association officials said they had heard few complaints about scheduling conflicts.
Charlene D’Antonio of the Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association suggested most children could attend a service that didn’t conflict with their game.
But many churches have only one service and many of those that have more than one usually have one that is specifically designed with children in mind.
Jane Hewson, an elder at Larchmont Avenue Presbyterian, said she has missed her children’s games to be at church and her husband has had to skip services to coach.”I would never ask them to give it up,”she said of soccer.”It’s a dilemma no one should have to face.”
U.S. abortion rate at lowest level in 20 years
(RNS) The abortion rate for American women has fallen to its lowest level in two decades, a government agency has reported.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention said abortions decreased nearly 5 percent in 1994 from the previous year, Reuters reported.
Among women ages 15 to 44, the number of legal abortions decreased to 21 per 1,000 women in 1994, the lowest rate since 1976.”The number of abortions peaked in 1990,”said CDC epidemiologist Lisa Koonin.”That was also the year of the highest number of live births in the country.” There were 321 abortions for every 1,000 live births in 1994, the latest year for which figures are available. There were 334 abortions for every 1,000 live births in 1993.
Among the possible reasons cited by CDC for the decline in reported abortions are changes in attitudes about having an abortion, reduced access to abortion services and fewer unintended pregnancies.
In addition, more women are becoming less fertile with the aging of the national population. Women under 30, considered to have the highest fertility rate, dropped from 58 percent of women of reproductive age in 1980 to 46 percent in 1994. On the other hand, women over 35, who are associated with lowest fertility, rose from 25 percent in 1980 to 35 percent in 1994.
Most women who had legal abortions in 1994 were younger than 25, unmarried and white. About one-fifth were 19 years old or younger.
About 88 percent of legal abortions were performed during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, the CDC said. About 54 percent occurred during the first eight weeks.
Catholic Bishop Markiewicz of Kalamazoo, Mich., dies at 68
(RNS) Roman Catholic Bishop Alfred Markiewicz, head of the diocese of Kalamazoo, Mich., died Thursday (Jan. 9) in New York after a long battle with inoperable brain tumors, the Kalamazoo diocese announced. He was 68.
Markiewicz, who was named bishop of the Kalamazoo diocese and its 104,000 Catholics in January 1995, had left the diocese in September to seek treatment at Mercy Hospital in Rockville Center, N.Y. Because his health was not improving, Markiewicz stopped medical treatments just before Christmas and was living in a nursing home on Long Island at the time of his death.
A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Markiewicz was ordained to the priesthood in 1953. He served as a priest in the newly formed diocese of Rockville Center beginning in 1957 and was named an auxiliary bishop of the diocese 1986.
Cardinal Adam Maida, archbishop of Detroit, praised Markiewicz as a prelate who”radiated the warmth, joy and peace of Jesus”and said he had”brought joy and peace to all through his humble, faithful ministry.”
Quote of the day: Labor Secretary Robert Reich
(RNS) Labor Secretary Robert Reich is leaving government Sunday (Jan. 12) to spend more time with his family. In what was billed as his last major speech as secretary, Reich on Thursday (Jan. 9) spoke to the Council for Excellence in Government on the disintegration of the social compact _ growing economic equality, access to social insurance such as unemployment benefits, and educational opportunity _ that marked American society in the decades after World War II:”But there should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that unchecked, left unchecked, the disintegration of the social compact threatens the stability and threatens the moral authority of this nation. It threatens to strip away much of what we love about America and render our country little more than an arid economic unit, and needlessly so, because it is within our power to restore the culture of broadly shared prosperity. But the bridge to America’s future must first traverse the chasm of inequality. … It is a reaffirmation of our heritage that Americans must not be walled off from each other by class divisions. The gated communities that we see cropping up in all our metropolitan areas are merely the metaphor of the manifestation of these walls.”
MJP END RNS
