c. 1998 Religion News Service

Denver church service features bell tolling for Oklahoma victims

(RNS) A Denver church bell tolled 168 times Wednesday (Jan. 7) during a memorial service for the victims of the Oklahoma City federal building bombing. The interfaith service was attended by relatives and friends who had traveled to Colorado for the trials of the men convicted for their roles in the 1995 explosion.

The service was held after a jury deadlocked on the sentence for Terry Nichols, who was convicted of conspiracy and manslaughter. His sentence will be determined later by U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch. Timothy McVeigh was convicted and sentenced to death for his part in the bombing.

Holy Ghost Catholic Church, the site of the service, had opened its doors as a”safe haven”for family members of the bombing victims during their visits to Denver. Christians, Jews and Muslims in the Denver area have contributed to the efforts, providing not only a place for relaxation, but counseling and meals during the lengthy time that Oklahomans have traveled west to attend hearings and trials.

During the service, prayers were said for the victims and the Rev. Lucia Guzman thanked the Oklahomans for the friendships that were fostered between the visitors and their hosts.”You have reminded us how long it takes to heal and renewed our sense of what suffering is about,”she said. Calling the bombing an”unwanted and uninvited tragedy,”Guzman added,”We know that healing is a journey. God’s people have always been challenged by oppression and injustice.” Rabbi Brant Rosen told the crowd the survivors are”a holy community”and said the memory of those who died remain with the living and”binds their souls with yours.”

Mongolian government releases 10,000 children’s Bibles

(RNS) The Mongolian government, in a goodwill Christmas gesture, announced Wednesday (Jan. 7) that it will release 10,000 children’s Bibles that it seized last year.

The predominantly Buddhist country, however, plans to continue to retain 600 Christian videotapes that have been impounded.

European Union parliament members had protested the confiscation of the Bibles, which had been shipped to the Mongolian Bible Society. Hundreds of letters of protest were also written by Mongolians and foreigners.”It has been decided that the 10,000 books would be released as a sign of good will,”said S. Badral, an aide to Prime Minister Mendsaikhanii Enkhsaikhan.”We hope foreign relations and cooperation will not be hindered by problematic issues of religion.” Based on a law restricting organized introduction of foreign religions, the Bibles were intercepted by customs officials last May, Reuters reported.

Although the isolated North Asian nation guarantees freedom of belief, the law has been used to limit faiths such as Islam, Christianity and shamanism in Mongolia.

Mongolia’s main religion of Tibetan Buddhism receives preferential treatment.

Badral said the government”has to pay attention to preventing conflicts between religions.” The videotapes remain in the government’s hands because they depict Christianity as a superior faith to Buddhism.

Same-sex blessings affirmed by 1,300 Methodist clergy

(RNS) Some 1,300 United Methodist clergy have signed a statement expressing their dissent from the denomination’s teachings on homosexuality and affirming”appropriate liturgical support”for same-sex marriages or covenant partnerships.

The statement, which has been circulating within the denomination since the end of the church’s 1996 General Convention, and its signatories was made public as a gesture of support for the Rev. Jimmy Creech, an Omaha, Neb., pastor who has been suspended pending an investigation of his presiding at a covenant service uniting two women in his congregation.”We feel this is a moment for our movement to go public in support of Jimmy Creech and all United Methodist clergy who seek to extend pastoral care to persons without discrimination as to sexual orientation,”said the Rev. Greg Dell, pastor of Broadway United Methodist Church in Chicago and a coordinator of the”In All Things Charity”movement.

The movement was sparked by a statement during the 1996 meeting of the church’s top governing body in which 15 bishops said that while they will continue to uphold the denomination’s teaching on homosexuality, they disagreed with that teaching.

The church describes the”practice”of homosexuality as incompatible with Christian teaching, bars the ordination of gays and lesbians and forbids clergy from performing same-sex marriages.

In the”In All things Charity”statement, signers promised to continue”faithfully presenting … the positions of the denomination”but said they would also witness to their disagreement with that teaching.”We believe that public dissent from a teaching of the church must be done only prayerfully and with humility,”the statement says.”However, we also believe that when we are confronted with an injustice, we must not remain silent.”

Vatican issues Ramadan appeal for peace; pope invited to Holy Land

(RNS) The Vatican on Thursday (Jan. 8) urged Muslims to join together with Christians in an”alliance for peace”to counter war, terrorism and injustice.

The appeal was made by Cardinal Francis Arinze, head of the Vatican’s Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue, in what has become an annual message marking the start of Ramadan, the holy fasting month for Muslims.”We are called to make an alliance for peace in which we renounce violence as a method of solving matters of contention,”Arinze’s message said, according to Reuters.”We cannot turn a blind eye to the dramatic crises of our world, the wars between different countries, civil war, terrorism in all its forms, injustice which is forever widening the gap between rich and poor.” In a separate development involving the Vatican, Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert said Thursday (Jan. 8), he plans to send an invitation to Pope John Paul II to attend millennium celebrations in the Holy Land.

But, the Associated Press reported, Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah, the top Roman Catholic clergyman in the region and a Palestinian, responded to the Jerusalem mayor’s announcement by saying the time is not yet ripe for a papal visit.”We hope God will give us the right moment in which to hold this visit,”Sabbah said.”We need the correct context, a historical context.” Sabbah appeared to be referring to stalled peace talks between Israel and Palestinians and perhaps to the desire of Palestinians to establish a capital in east Jerusalem, where key holy sites are located. The Vatican, although it has established diplomatic relations with Israel, has not recognized Israel’s annexation of east Jerusalem, which it captured from Jordan during the 1967 Six Day War.

U.S. missionary returns to Romanian home after disappearance

(RNS) A Michigan missionary in Romania who was missing for several days returned to his home Wednesday (Jan. 7) after being abducted and drugged, U.S. church officials said.

Bible Baptist Fellowship missionary Jeremy Gaudett, 27, disappeared Sunday in Ploiesti, about 30 miles north of Bucharest, the Romanian capital.

Tamera Franzel, a secretary at Capitol City Baptist, his home church in Holt, Mich., said the church learned Wednesday that the missionary was back home.

Franzel said the church had not yet learned the exact circumstances, but Gaudett was abducted, drugged and his hair was cut.

The Michigan church sent Gaudett and his wife, Holly, on the Romanian mission about two years ago.

Church pastor Erwin Robertson said Holly Gaudett was driving to church Sunday when she discovered her husband’s car, abandoned with two flat tires. An empty wallet and blood were found near the car by police, he said.

But Gen. Carjan Lazar of Romania’s General Police Inspectorate denied Wednesday that Gaudett’s car had any signs of violence. Lazar confirmed that between $300 and $400 was missing from the missionary’s empty wallet, found in nearby shrubbery.

Lazar also said preliminary police interviews with Holly Gaudett gave the impression that her husband’s disappearance was”voluntary.”

Quotes of the day: Remberto Perez and Bill Ryan

(RNS) Reports that home entertainment maven and TV personality Martha Stewart had applied for a journalist’s visa to cover Pope John Paul II’s Jan. 21-25 visit to Cuba provoked these responses:”I find it out of place. It’s further humiliation for the Cuban housewife. She (Stewart) would be like a Martian there. I really don’t see it. She is so far removed from the reality of the struggle.” _ Remberto Perez, head of the New Jersey chapter of the Cuban American National Foundation, an influential anti-Castro organization.

“You’re kidding, right?” _ Bill Ryan, spokesman for the U.S. Catholic Conference, the social action arm of the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops.

MJP END RNS