c. 1998 Religion News Service
NCC matches $500,000 Helmsley gift for burned churches
(RNS) The National Council of Churches said Monday (Jan. 19) it has raised the $500,000 needed to receive a matching gift from New York real estate tycoon and philanthropist Leona Helmsley for its burned churches fund.
NCC officials said the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, general secretary of the NCC, and Luther Gatling, president of One Hundred Black Men, who represented Helmsley, deposited the $1 million at the Carver Federal Savings Bank in Harlem on Jan. 15 _ the birthday of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
At the bank, Campbell offered a meditation on King’s life and work and reported on the ongoing work of the Burned Churches Fund.”The church burnings are symptomatic of the sickness in our country, exemplifying both the racial prejudice and the lack of economic opportunity,”she said.”A society should worry greatly if its churches are being burned.” Between 1996 and December 1997, 233 burned churches in 18 states have come to the attention of the NCC, officials said. Most are African-American and a majority _ but not all _ are in the Southeast.
To date, the NCC’s Burned Churches Fund, which is supported by a broad interfaith group of Jewish, Muslim and other Christian bodies, has helped more than 100 congregations with rebuilding grants, in-kind donations,volunteers or technical assistance. Some 130 churches remain on the council’s list of those needing help.”We have to keep telling the story, because many more churches need help,”Campbell said.”More burned churches keep coming to our attention, including five burned in Maryland in recent months.” Of the new $1 million infusion, 25 percent will go to the racial justice and reconciliation part of the program _ a component that has come under fire from some critics of mainline Protestantism who believe it advances a liberal political agenda.
Denver Catholic men get OK to participate in Promise Keepers
(RNS) Roman Catholic Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver has given a thumbs-up to Catholic men who want to participate in Promise Keepers, the evangelical, Protestant-oriented men’s movement that originated with former Colorado football coach Bill McCartney.
But Chaput, in an editorial in the Catholic Register, the diocese’s newspaper, said participation in the movement should lead Catholic men back to the church and not into separatist groups.
Chaput’s comments followed a lunch meeting between the archbishop and McCartney, as well as by questions from Catholic pastors as to whether their parishioners should be allowed to participate in Promise Keepers rallies and other events.
Chaput noted that many Catholics may be”wary of the evangelical roots and personality”as well as the”revivalistic flavor”of Promise Keepers stadium events. But Catholics are called to serve Jesus, he said,”and in some ways that obligates us to joyfully embrace groups like Promise Keepers. Jesus told his disciples that `Whoever is not against us is for us,'”Chaput wrote.
At the same time, Chaput said Catholics have legitimate concerns about Promise Keepers. He said that while he agreed, for example, that the Bible is God’s inerrant revelation, Catholics also believe in”sacred tradition,”noting the church”preceded Scripture.”The church has the authority given to her by Christ himself, to interpret, teach and safeguard Scripture.”That task rests with the bishops, he said.
Chaput said he will celebrate a Mass for Catholic members of Promise Keepers in early March.
Pilgrims take advantage of rare Jordan River access for baptisms
(RNS) Thousands of Christian pilgrims marked Epiphany and the feast commemorating the baptism of Jesus, by being dunked in the Jordan River at the spot where tradition says John the Baptist baptized Jesus.
On Sunday (Jan. 18), Greek Orthodox and Eastern Rite Ethiopian Catholics gathered on the banks of the Jordan at Kasser El-Yahud, in the West Bank, a location usually sealed off as a military zone, the Associated Press reported.
The baptism site, in the shadow of an abandoned 13th-century monastery just south of the biblical town of Jericho, is open to pilgrims only three times each year. Besides the Epiphany opening, pilgrims are granted access at the end of October and at Easter.”Clean, clean,”gasped an elderly Greek Orthodox nun as she struggled up the steep bank after her baptism, as Israeli and Jordanian soldiers watched from opposite banks of the river, according to the AP report.
Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan during the 1967 Six Day War, and the riverfront was heavily mined. For years, the baptism site was completely sealed from the public, but was reopened under military restrictions in 1983. Some mines in the area have been cleared, but hazards remain.”Since we can’t usually come here, it’s special for us,”said Leila Brahim, a Palestinian Christian from nearby Beit Sahour and one of nearly 6,000 attending Sunday’s observances.
On Monday, Coptic Christians and Syrian Orthodox Christians were expected to flood the area for similar rites.
Catholic Alliance severs last ties with Christian Coalition
(RNS) The Catholic Alliance, the conservative advocacy group formed in 1995 as a division of the Christian Coalition, has announced a new restructuring and the severing of its last ties with the Pat Robertson-founded organization.”This reorganization is really a rebirth and rededication to Catholic Alliance’s original mission: to be an authentically Catholic voice in public policy debates and to mobilize Catholic voters and public opinion,”said Keith Fournier, president of the group.
The group became legally independent from the Christian Coalition in 1996 but remained linked financially.
The ties between the two groups had raised some questions among Catholic bishops because the coalition’s social policy views are often at odds with that the U.S. Catholic Conference, the bishops social policy arm.”We are grateful for all of their (Christian Coalition) support,”Fournier said in a statement.”We anticipate that on many issues, we will agree with the coalition because our theological foundations are so similar.” Fournier also said the separation has caused some prominent Catholic conservatives _ he mentioned former baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn and Domino’s Pizza CEO Tom Monaghan _ to come forward to join the group’s board of directors.
He also said the group will establish a bishops’ advisory board.
The Alliance claims 50,000 members.
Quote of the day: Cliff Frazier, New York Metropolitan Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolence
(RNS)”We want to bring the faiths together. These artificial racial barriers we have created must be torn down. We are all God’s children.” _ Cliff Frazier, executive director of the New York Metropolitan Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolence, during a march from a New York synagogue to a Presbyterian church to honor slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
DEA END RNS
