c. 1998 Religion News Service

Controversial Islamic school gets OK from Virginia county board

(RNS) Leaders of a suburban Washington, D.C., county have, over sharp objections from some residents, approved plans to build a private Islamic school for 3,500 students that would be financed by the Saudi Arabian government.

The $50 million Muslim school was approved by a vote of 7 to 2 Wednesday (March 4) by the Board of Supervisors of Loudoun County, Virginia.

Board members said their decision was based on the fact that plans for the school meet land-use rules, The Washington Post reported. They did not heed the concerns of opponents, who thought the plan should be rejected because the Saudi Arabian government has a poor human rights record and the school might be a target for terrorists.

The dispute over the school has attracted national attention.

The Islamic Saudi Academy will enroll students from kindergarten through 12th grade and is scheduled to open in the fall of 2000 near the small town of Ashburn.

Members of the board said the debate over the school had been one of the most heated they had faced in county politics.”I … hope that the healing process starts because, let me tell you, it has been a really nasty process,”said Board Chairman Dale Polen Myers.

One opposition group, Concerned About Loudoun’s Future, already has stated it may file a lawsuit attempting to block construction of the school. The group said it believes the school is too big for its site and poses a security risk because terrorists might attack it.

Supporters of the academy said the opposition was mostly based on racial and religious intolerance. They cited a flier warning the school would”bring Muslim and Arab terrorists to Loudoun”and that”thousands of Middle Eastern strangers (would be) roaming our streets while we work.” The Rev. James Ahlemann, pastor of the Christian Fellowship Church in Ashburn and a vocal opponent, voiced disappointment in the decision.”We, as a congregation, are going to continue to pray for those who are suffering persecution and who are being killed in Saudi Arabia for their faith,”he said.

Ashburn resident Katie Smith, 24, said she saw no reason to prevent the school from opening.”We live in a country that has freedom of religion,”she said.”They have just as much of a right to be here as anybody else.”

Aides: Blair to remain in the Church of England

(RNS) Speculation that British Prime Minister Tony Blair might leave the Church of England and become a Roman Catholic has been been firmly dismissed by 10 Downing Street.”Though the prime minister regularly worships at a Catholic church with his wife and family, he is not converting to Catholicism,”an official spokesman said Thursday (March 5).

The speculation arose after a London newspaper reported Blair had been seen on”several”occasions since Christmas attending Mass at Westminster Abbey Cathedral alone.

Blair, an Anglican, has long been in the habit of accompanying his Roman Catholic wife Cherie and their children to Mass, and for several years _ until it became public knowledge last July _ used to receive Holy Communion on such occasions. He stopped the practice even though it has become a fairly widespread but covert practice in England among mixed-marriage couples.”The only occasion on which he has attended Westminster Cathedral alone arose because he had been at a speaking engagement and his family had attended church earlier,”the prime minister’s spokesman said.

A spokesman for Westminster Cathedral said it”does not give out details or comments on those who come to worship here.” Another well-placed Roman Catholic source said it was extremely unlikely Blair would convert.

Britain has not had a Roman Catholic prime minister since the office emerged in the 18th century under the first Hanoverian King, George I. Roman Catholics were barred from public office until 1829, but the ban on the monarch being a Roman Catholic remains.

Cardinal Thomas Winning, archbishop of Glasgow, who during the campaign before last year’s election was pointedly critical of Blair’s unwillingness to oppose abortion, said, when pressed during a radio interview, that”of course”he would welcome Blair into the church.

But the Scottish cardinal would say nothing else of Blair’s worshipping habits.”It would be quite unfair for me to comment publicly on this matter,”he said.”As one of Mr Blair’s aides said last night, `That is an intrusion too far,’ and I would also consider it an intrusion.”

Russian church expresses doubt on bones said to be last Czar

(RNS) The Russian government, putting aside concerns of the Russian Orthodox Church, has decided a set of bones believed to be the remains of Nicholas II, the last Czar, and his family and servants, will be buried in an official ceremony later this year in the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul in St. Petersburg.

President Boris Yeltsin’s cabinet made the decision in an emergency meeting on Feb. 27, according to Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious news agency.

The burial of the bones is set for July 17 _ 80 years after the imperial family was murdered in the Bolshevik Revolution. On Monday (March 3), Yeltsin gave his approval to the cabinet decision.

The remains were discovered in 1978 in a shallow grave and exhumed in 1991. Since then they have gone through a long series of tests to determine their authenticity.

However, Russian monarchists and some conservative Orthodox Christians have refused to accept the results of the tests and claim the discovery of the bones was a hoax perpetrated by the secret police of the former Soviet Union.

The identity of the bones is particularly important to the Orthodox Church because it is likely to grant sainthood to the imperial family and the remains will automatically be proclaimed as sacred relics.

The day before the government made its final decision on the authenticity and set the burial date, the synod of the Russian Orthodox Church refused to accept the scientists’ findings, noting the scientists’ conclusion had”generated serious doubts and even confrontation in the church and in society.” Nevertheless, Orthodox officials said the church would take part in the burial ceremonies.”Our decision was a moral one,”said Metropolitan Yuvenali, who represented the church on the government panel investigating the remains.

Gay Lutheran pastor to appeal suspension from ministry

(RNS) The Rev. Steve Sabin, a gay pastor whose ministerial status was revoked by a disciplinary committee of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, says he is appealing the decision.

Sabin, pastor of Lord of Life Lutheran Church in Ames, Iowa, refused to take a vow to abstain from sexual relations with others of the same sex.

He is scheduled to be removed from the ELCA’s clergy roster on April 15 but Sabin asked for a delay until an appeals committee hears his case and makes a decision.

The ELCA allows the ordination of gays and lesbians to the ministry but only if the pastor promises to live a life of sexual abstinence.

Sabin is arguing that the church has not clearly defined what it means to be a”practicing homosexual,”the AP reported Wednesday (March 4).

Quote of the day: Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson

(RNS)”When it comes to education, we don’t need to fear religion. We need to fear low test scores, high drop out rates and low graduation rates.” _ Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson addressing a rally Wednesday (March 4) at the state capitol building supporting a school choice program providing state-financed vouchers for private schools, including religious schools.

DEA END RNS