c. 1998 Religion News Service
Church of Scotland eases stance against gambling
(RNS) The general assembly of the (Presbyterian) Church of Scotland _ by a mere 11-vote margin _ has relaxed its opposition to gambling to allow local congregations and other church agencies to apply for National Lottery funding to help pay for community work and the repair and maintenance of historic church buildings.
The vote Monday (May 18) essentially affirmed the report of a special commission set up last year to look at the tricky question of the church benefiting from lottery money when it opposes gambling as immoral.
The commission report said Britain’s National Lottery was an intrinsic part of the mix of public funding for many activities in which the church is involved and that the division between lottery and other public funding had become indistinct.
Critics of the lottery said the commission’s report would undermine the church’s expressed opposition to gambling on moral grounds _ a stand the assembly reaffirmed along with its concerns over the effect of the National Lottery on the nation.
The Rev. Gilbert C. Nesbit said the church was in danger of”(jeopardizing) our principles if we apply for funding from sources we roundly condemn”. He instead urged that church agencies be instructed not to apply for lottery funding.
At the end of a two-hour debate, the general assembly voted 290-279 to accept the commission’s recommendation to apply for lottery funding.
National Council of Churches faults Helms’ Cuba proposal
(RNS) The National Council of Churches says a proposal by Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., that all humanitarian aid going to Cuba be channeled through”independent non-governmental organizations”would politicize and could undermine efforts to help the Cuban people.”The legislation would politicize aid, and does not appear to be motivated by a genuine desire to help the Cuban people, but rather focuses on weakening the Cuban government,”the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, NCC general secretary, said in a statement announcing the ecumenical agency’s opposition.
On May 14, Helms, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, introduced legislation calling for $100-million worth of food and medicine that would go through the island’s Roman Catholic Church and other independent relief organizations in an effort to undermine Fidel Castro’s grip on the nation, the Associated Press reported.
The president would designate and the Congress would approve the groups allowed to provide the humanitarian aid.
Helms said the purpose of the legislation is to”do today for the people of Cuba, what the United States did for the Solidarity movement in Poland during the 1980s: give (them) the resources to build a free, functioning civil society.” But NCC officials said the”control of religious or non-profit assistance (through White House and congressional approval) would run counter to historic patterns of voluntary aid,”and would violate the independence of private agencies to respond to humanitarian need free from partisan political and foreign policy concerns of government.
Since 1992, Church World Service, the NCC’s relief arm, has provided more than $7 million in humanitarian aid which has been distributed through the Cuban Council of Churches.
Complaint against United Methodist bishop dismissed
(RNS) A complaint by two laymen that United Methodist Bishop Ed Paup of Portland, Ore., failed”to perform the work of his ministry”has been ruled invalid by Bishop Melvin Talbert, immediate past president of the 10-state Western Jurisdiction College of Bishops.
The action was another skirmish in the 25-year-old struggle in the nation’s second largest Protestant denomination over the church’s relationship to gays and lesbians.
The complaint alleged that Paup had failed in his duty when he did not rule out of order a resolution adopted at the 1997 Oregon Idaho Annual Conference meeting declaring the regional unit a”reconciling conference.””This means that we commit ourselves to welcome persons of all sexual orientations as persons of sacred worth into the life of the United Methodist Church,”the resolution said.”It also means that we commit ourselves to work at building bridges of understanding and trust between persons who have been divided on this (homosexuality) issue,”the resolution added.
The Oregon laymen, Daniel Richman and Eric Lundgren of Alsea (Ore.) United Methodist Church, said Paup should have ruled the resolution out of order because church teaching forbids the ordination of homosexuals and same-sex marriages. By not doing so, they said, Paup failed to perform the work of his ministry, a chargeable offense in the denomination’s rule book, the Book of Discipline.
Under church rules, complaints against bishops are sent to the regional college of bishops for investigation and action. Talbert was president of the Western College when the complaint was made.”Because a bishop chooses not to rule an action of the annual conference out of order does not constitute grounds for filing a complaint,”Talbert said in statement, the United Methodist News Service reported.”Only when it has been demonstrated that your bishop willfully and intentionally acted in violation of the Book of Discipline are there grounds for a complaint.”
Police suspect arson at Bhutan’s renowned Buddhist monastery
(RNS) The Royal Bhutan police believe that arson and murder were involved in a devastating fire at Bhutan’s most revered Buddhist monastery.
Government officials confirmed that arson was suspected in the April 19, fire that claimed the mountain sanctuary, commonly referred to as the Tiger’s Lair, the Associated Press reported. Police also found bones believed to be the remains of the monk who looked after the 17th-century Taktshang monastery, Bhutan’s national newspaper reported.
Bhutan is a developing country of 60,000 people in the Himalayas north of India where serious crime is rare. Police have not disclosed the suspected motive.
India has donated $635,000 and an unidentified Bhutanese businessman donated $1.3 million to reconstruct the monastery, which was built on the face of a towering cliff over a cave where tradition holds that Buddhist saint Guru Rimpoche meditated before an epic battle with evil spirits.
Most of the monastery’s sacred paintings were destroyed or damaged, but the most revered relics were rescued from the inner sanctum.
Two Lutheran bodies plan `summit’ over ecumenical rift
(RNS) The heads of the two largest Lutheran denominations in the United States _ the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod _ will meet in August in an effort to overcome a deepening theological rift between them.
Differences between the theologically conservative Missouri Synod and the more mainline ELCA have become more apparent _ and discussed _ since last summer when the ELCA approved an ecumenical pact with three Reformed tradition denominations _ the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the United Church of Christ, and the Reformed Church in America.
Following the agreement, the Rev. A. L. Barry, president of the Missouri Synod, wrote that the ELCA’s ecumenical moves”represent a significant movement away from historic Lutheranism”and are”unacceptable for a Lutheran church.” But the Rev. H. George Anderson, ELCA presiding bishop, said he was”deeply disturbed”by Barry’s characterization of the ELCA’s ecumenical actions. ELCA leaders, he said,”do not feel that we have been fairly represented but have been characterized in a way that put us in the most negative light.” While the two Lutheran bodies cooperate in a number of areas, such as disaster relief, the Missouri Synod does not permit ELCA members to receive communion in their churches. Nor are clergy from the ELCA permitted to preach in Missouri Synod churches.
The August meeting between the two leaders will focus on how to foster communication between the two churches and on who should be talking in the effort to overcome the theological differences.
Quote of the day, the Rev. Gunnar Stalsett, Bishop of Oslo, Norway
(RNS)”A folk church should be a church for all who are baptized. Too many church members are regarded by the `inner circle’ in the church as `alien to the church’ and as a consequence this has become the self-understanding of many people toward the church.” _ The Rev. Gunnar Stalsett, who will be consecrated May 24 as the Bishop of Oslo in the (Lutheran) Church of Norway, on his desire to create a church attractive to all Norwegians.
DEA END RNS
