c. 1997 Religion News Service
Appeals court rejects Cooke’s appeal
(RNS) A federal appeals court has turned down former Episcopal Church treasurer Ellen F. Cooke’s appeal of her five-year sentence on charges stemming from the embezzlement of $2.2 million from the denomination.
Cooke’s lawyers had asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, sitting in Philadelphia, to erase the sentence imposed by Judge Maryanne Trump Barry of the U.S. District Court in Newark, N.J., on the grounds that Barry went beyond federal sentencing guidelines in giving Cooke five years in prison.
The lawyers asked the court to appoint another judge to pronounce a new sentence within the guidelines for the charges _ tax evasion and transporting stolen money across states lines _ to which Cooke pleaded guilty. Under federal sentencing guidelines, Cooke’s transgressions call for a jail sentence of between 30 months and 47 months.
Judge Barry, however, imposed a stiffer sentence because of her assessment of the impact of the crime on the 2.5 million-member church, including statements from church leaders that the embezzlement caused a decline of income and an erosion of trust.
Update: Baptist missionary shot during Albanian evacuation
(RNS) A Cooperative Baptist Fellowship missionary has successfully reached Italy after being shot Thursday (March 13) during her evacuation from Albania.
Debbie Ayers, 45, was hit by a stray bullet in the port city of Durres amid the gunfire in Albania, where armed chaos has followed the collapse of fraudulent get-rich-quick schemes.”God was with us the whole way,”said Ayers, whose injury was not life-threatening.”I’ve always known that danger goes with the job of being a missionary and that we have to place our trust in God. This shows how big he is.” Ayers and her husband, Bert, were assigned to Lezhe, Albania, by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, a moderate Southern Baptist group. She is the first Cooperative Baptist Fellowship missionary to be injured by violence, reported Associated Baptist Press, an independent Baptist news service.
Debbie Ayers was treated at a hospital. An Albanian doctor said the bullet hit the back of her head and only grazed her skull before exiting.
Ayers, her husband and their three children were among the nine Cooperative Baptist Fellowship staff and seven children who traveled to Durres and were evacuated to Italy. They were among a number of missionaries who recently left the country because of the civil unrest.
Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross made an urgent appeal Tuesday (March 18) for money to finance emergency aid for Albania. Red Cross officials said the country is running out of medicine and food, the Reuter news agency reported.”Albania is practically cut off from the outside world and is receiving no supplies of food or medicines,”the Red Cross stated.”The situation is all the more alarming because reserves are running out and considerable numbers of armed men are roaming freely around the country.”
British churches blast politicians on employment policies
(RNS) An upcoming report by the Council of Churches for Britain and Ireland, due to be released in the midst of Britain’s election campaign, blasts the country’s major political parties for failing to address the pressing unemployment problems.
The report, being prepared under the direction of Anglican Bishop David Sheppard of Liverpoool, is scheduled for release April 8, just weeks before the May 1 election. Leaked portions of the report are being described in the British press as”the most hard-edged (church) intervention in politics”since a 1985 report on urban life that critics called”Marxist theology.””None of the political parties is putting forward a program which offers much real hope of improvement to those in greatest need,”the report said.”In the general election campaign, the political parties are competing for votes by promising lower taxation,”it adds.”When so many are living in poverty and unemployment, it is wrong to give priority to the claims of those that are already well off.” While criticizing all of the major parties, the 220-page report is likely to be interpreted as being more in line with the policies of the leftish Labor Party than with the Conservative government of Prime Minister John Major.
It says that in some regions of Britain, children as young as 12 say they expect to live their whole life on welfare and it is highly critical of the way high unemployment has come to be taken for granted.”People who are unemployed feel they have become invisible and that society is indifferent to them, if not actively hostile,”the report said.
Among the measures it recommends is initiation of a minimum wage _ a proposal fiercely resisted by the Conservative government.
Va. Baptist churches aligning with new conservative group
(RNS) Close to 100 churches have affiliated with a new, more conservative organization of Southern Baptists in Virginia.
The Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia was formed last September by those displeased with what they consider a liberal trend in the Baptist General Association of Virginia.
According to the new group’s newsletter, 66 churches have”uniquely aligned”with the group and another 32 have”dually aligned,”which means they have maintained ties with both organizations, reported Associated Baptist Press, an independent Baptist news service.
The combined membership of the 98 churches was about 58,800 in 1995, the last full year for which figures are available.
The Baptist General Association of Virginia had 1,564 churches in 1995, with a combined membership of 594,904.
The split in the state organization of Baptists in Virginia _ sparked by long-standing theological battles between moderates and conservatives _ is considered unprecedented in Southern Baptist history.
German government to brand Scientology-run companies
(RNS) The German government has announced it will identify companies owned by Scientologists with the letter”S”in employment office data banks, saying potential employees and job-seekers have a right to such information.”That’s part of the educational duties of the office,”Federal Labor Minister Norbert Bluem told the private television network RTL.
The German government and the Scientologists have been engaged in a long-running feud. The government contends Scientology is a dangerous cult and the Scientologists have likened government harassment to the Nazi persecution of Jews.
A spokesman for Scientology called the latest move similar to a”computerized Star of David,”the identifying symbol the Nazis forced Jews to wear, the Associated Press reported.
WCC: No hasty reconciliation in sight in Rwanda
(RNS) A World Council of Churches official, just back from Rwanda, says reconciliation and forgiveness in the genocide-torn country will only come after”a long, long journey.” Genevieve Jacques, a specialist in international affairs for the Geneva-based international ecumenical body, said Rwanda is under heavy pressure from the international community for hasty reconciliation and quick forgiveness to erase the memories of the 1994 massacres in which more than 500,000 Rwandans, mostly minority Tutsis, were killed.”This is deeply hurting those who had loved ones killed in the genocide,”Jacques said.”Today is still a time of heavy silences between the Rwandans. External pressure for reconciliation and forgiveness shows a complete lack of understanding that it is only three years since the genocide and that this was the result of a deep and long-standing ideology based on ethnic divisions.” Jacques made her comments after attending a seminar,”Christianity Before, During and After the Genocide in Rwanda,”sponsored by the Protestant Council of Rwanda. The seminar brought together a cross-section of Hutu and Tutsi church leaders from different denominations.”Rwanda is a small country which is deeply traumatized,”Jacques said.”It consists of those who are victims and those who realize that people within their own families were involved in the killings.” She said the international ecumenical community needs to be sensitive to the needs of Rwanda and called especially for coordination of religious and relief work in the country.”Previously there were 12 Protestant denominations in Rwanda; now there are 48,”she said.”The fragmentation in Rwanda is a reflection of our own ecumenical fragmentation and it does not help.”
Quote of the day: Baseball player Kevin Seitzer of the Cleveland Indians
(RNS) Major league baseball player Kevin Seitzer recalled for USA Today newspaper the first time he went to bat after his cheekbone was crushed by a pitcher’s fast ball:”I was praying all the way into the on-deck circle. There’s nothing anyone can say to you. It’s up to God to give you courage.”
MJP END RNS
