c. 1997 Religion News Service

Rhem found guilty of sexual misconduct at church trial

(RNS) A local jurisdictional body of the Reformed Church in America has found the Rev. Richard Rhem guilty of”gross sexual conduct”and has removed him from the ordained ministry of the denomination.

The verdict, rendered by the Muskegon Classis of the RCA, means Rhem, the controversial pastor of the 2,800-member Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Mich., means the denomination no longer recognizes him as a minister and he will be barred from preaching or administering the sacraments in other RCA churches.

Rhem’s own congregation, however, has no intention of removing him from the pulpit and has filed a civil suit asking a secular court to order the classis to allow the church to leave the RCA. The congregation declared its unilateral independence of the RCA on July 4, 1996.

The trial, which Rhem did not attend, is the latest in a long and tangled relationship between the pastor, his congregation and the classis.

Rhem has been at odds with the classis for two years over his views on salvation _ he believes God saves people other than Christians _ and the use of his church building by a predominately gay and lesbian congregation.”We do not recognize this `trial’ and its judgment as a valid event in the life of our ministry,”said Don Van Ostenberg, chairman of the board of trustees of Christ Community Church, according to the United Reformed News Service, an independent agency that monitors the denomination.”We and our pastor resigned from the RCA on July 4, 1996,”Ostenberg said.”We have a dispute with the Muskegon Classis over that action, which is in the civil court.” The sexual misconduct charges were brought against Rhem by a former organist at the church. Last year, the Muskegon Classis had dismissed the charges but in May the Synod of the Great Lakes _ a regional body _ ordered the local classis to reconsider them.

Rhem, in a statement, said he was”disappointed”by the trial and the vote to depose him.”This has been a difficult time made worse by a lack of civility and human decency,”he said.”As I said to this (Christ Community) congregation, `I will not defend myself. My life and my ministry are the only defense necessary.'” Rhem can appeal the Muskegon Classis action to the Great Lakes Regional Synod and the General Synod, the RCA’s highest decision-making body.

ABA stays out of assisted-suicide debate

(RNS) The American Bar Association has voted to stay out of the debate over physician-assisted suicide, saying the issue is best decided by individual state legislatures.

At its annual meeting in San Francisco Wednesday (Aug. 6), the ABA’s policy-making House of Delegates first defeated a motion endorsing physician-assisted suicide. By a voice vote, it then backed the resolution leaving the issue to the states.

Those not wanting the ABA to take a stand on the issue argued that physician-assisted suicide is predominantly a moral _ not a legal _ decision. However, supporters said attorneys should use their legal expertise to recommend standards.”Physician-assisted suicide will continue whether or not we act,”said attorney David McIntosh of Beverly Hills, Calif., according to the Associated Press.”We needs to provide guidance and leadership on this issue.” In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Americans have no constitutionally guaranteed right to physician-assisted suicide. Only Oregon has approved physician-assisted suicide, but the law is being challenged in the state’s courts.

Update: Meeting set on Russian religion legislation

(RNS) Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Russian Orthodox Church leader Patriarch Alexii II have set Sept. 1 for the first meeting of a commission that will seek new language for a controversial bill that limits religious freedom in Russia.

Formation of the commission was ordered by Yeltsin, who earlier had vetoed a bill designed to protect the Russian Orthodox Church from”non-traditional”faiths _ including Roman Catholicism and Protestant groups _ that have gained increased numbers of converts in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The law would have made it virtually impossible for the non-traditional faiths to operate in Russia, while granting special status to four traditional faiths: Russian Orthodoxy, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism.

Yeltsin’s veto prompted a rift with the Russian Orthodox Church, which supported the bill. On Wednesday (Aug. 6), Yeltsin and Alexii appeared together at a Moscow religious service and publicly ended their dispute, agreeing to work together to create a new bill more acceptable to Yeltsin.

Episcopal Church honors Florence Nightingale

(RNS) The Episcopal Church has added Florence Nightingale _ generally recognized as the founder of modern nursing _ to the list of model Christians worthy of commemoration.

As members of the Anglican Communion, Episcopalians do not have a formal canonization process, as does the Roman Catholic Church. However, the Episcopal Church does add post-Reformation names to its commemoration list without formally calling them saints, noted ENI, the Geneva-based religious news agency noted. Scriptural readings and prayers are designated to be read or said in their honor.

Nightingale achieved fame for her hospital reform and nursing care in London and during the Crimean War. She was born in 1820 in Italy and died in 1910.

Earlier attempts to get Nightingale’s efforts recognized by the Episcopal Church failed because of allegations she died of syphilis. It was determined earlier this year that she died of chronic brucellosis, which exhibits symptoms similar to syphilis.

Church rights groups says 30,000 died in Guatemala’s civil war

(RNS) A Roman Catholic Church-sponsored human rights group is preparing a massive 500-page report on human rights abuses during Guatemala’s long civil war that documents the death of at least 30,000 people at the hands of government or rebel forces during the conflict.

According to many estimates, some 150,000 people were either killed or”disappeared”during the 34 year conflict.

The report, by the Project to Recover the Historic Memory, is being prepared for Guatemala’s official three-member”truth commission,”known formally as the Commission for the Clarification of Human Rights Violations and Violent Acts.

The Guatemala commission is similar to that established in South Africa investigating human rights abuses during apartheid.

The church-sponsored group, known by its Spanish acronym REMHI, has assembled more than 6,000 detailed testimonies from surviving victims of the violence that wracked Guatemala until a church-initiated and U.N.-brokered peace agreement went into effect in December 1996.

Even as REMHI made public some of its initial findings, however, it was criticized by some evangelical church leaders in Guatemala.”There needs to be a genuine pardon, and that means forgetting,”Marco Antonio Rodriguez told Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious news agency. Rodriguez is the president of the Evangelical Alliance in Guatemala.”But they (REMHI) want to write it down and remember it instead of forgetting,”he said. He called REMHI”a bad idea.” But Auxiliary Bishop Juan Gerardi of the diocese of Guatemala City defended the human rights activities of the church.”The person who forgets or who pretends to forget doesn’t do away with what happened,”Gerardi said.”You can’t get rid of it. To pardon really means to create new attitudes, to provoke change inside people and between people, not just to mitigate the violence and hurt that remains.” REMHI’s report is based on interviews conducted in Spanish and 17 Mayan languages by 800 church workers trained by the group in interviewing techniques. According to officials of the human rights group, the report describes more than 600 massacres _”where the clear intention was to annihilate an entire community or family”_ during the conflict.

Quote of the day: Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey

(RNS) Although the Church of England was at least partly born out of conflict between King Henry VIII, who had six wives, and the Roman Catholic Church over the issue of divorce, the prospect that the current heir to the British throne, the divorced Prince Charles, might remarry continues to bother church leaders. The English monarch is”Supreme Governor”of the Church of England. Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, the head of the church, told a news conference in Sydney, Australia, that the church opposes remarriage after divorce and if Charles remarries it will be a major problem for the church:”All Prince Charles has to be is the next heir to the throne, so the very fact he’s divorced is not an issue at all. It is true that remarriage would create a crisis for the church. That is well-known.”

END RNS