c. 1999 Religion News Service

Mega-church leaves AME Zion body over authority dispute

(RNS) The pastor and many of the members of the 24,000-member Full Gospel AME Zion Church in Temple Hills, Md. _ one of the largest congregations in the 1.5 million-member AME Zion denomination _ have decided to leave the parent church body in a dispute pitting the pastor against the church hierarchy.”Growth necessitates change and change facilitates growth,”the Rev. John A. Cherry, pastor of the mega-church told a meeting of 15,000 of the congregation’s members last Thursday (July 8).

The break-away members renamed their church From the Heart Ministries, the Washington Post reported Monday (July 12).

It comes at a time when mega-churches still linked to national church bodies are increasingly questioning denominational loyalties and the economic and bureaucratic ties membership in a wider church entails.

Some critics of Cherry said the split from the denomination was prompted in part because he had been passed over as a delegate to next year’s General Conference despite the success of his church and the $67,000 it pays in denominational dues.

The critics contend Cherry has ignored the authority of other church leaders but his supporters said that many of the church leaders have been jealous of the pastor.

In the 18 years he has headed the church, it has grown from 24 members meeting in a storefront to a 24,000 member mega-church with a national television ministry, two sanctuaries and a 10,400-seat building still under construction.

Bishop Milton Williams, head of the Mid Atlantic II Episcopal District of the AME Zion church, said Cherry has been a renegade pastor even though he joined the church to help steer it in the right direction.”Since I have been his presiding bishop, I have defended his actions before the Board of Bishops,”Williams told the Post. He also said Cherry has been in trouble with church leaders because he has been”ordaining”other ministers, a role that is reserved for bishops in the denomination.

Vacationing in the Alps, pope makes plea for the environment

(RNS) Speaking from the cottage where he is vacationing high up in the Italian Alps, Pope John Paul II called on all mankind Sunday (July 11) to conserve”the majestic beauty of creation”for future generations.

The pope made the appeal before reciting the Angelus Domini prayer, his only public appearance since he began his annual two-week vacation last Wednesday (July 7) in the Valle d’Aosta near the French border.”Every time I am able to return to the mountains and to contemplate this countryside, I thank God for the majestic beauty of creation,”said the pontiff, who grew up hiking and skiing in the mountains of his native Poland.”Mountains, in particular, not only constitute magnificent scenery to contemplate but almost a school of life,”he said.”In them, we learn to work hard to reach a goal, to help each other in moments of difficulty and to enjoy the silence together, recognizing our own smallness in a majestic setting.” Reflecting on”the role of man in the cosmos,”John Paul said that”to be human carries a specific responsibility in the environment of life in relation not only to the present but also to future generations.” The pope prayed for mankind to meet”the great ecological challenge”in the 21st century.”May the humanity of 2000 reconcile itself with creation and find the paths of harmonic and sustainable development,”he said.

John Paul urged his fellow vacationers in the Valle d’Aosta to”enjoy so much natural beauty _ the air, the woods and the waters _ with great respect for all the treasures that the Creator entrusts to us.” Speaking in French, the pope also recalled the victims of avalanches in the French Alps last winter and of a fire in the tunnel through Mount Blanc and said he was praying for them and their families.

This is the seventh time John Paul has spent his vacation at Les Combes. He is staying in a rented, two-story cottage of wood and stone with a slate roof set among fir trees and larches at an elevation of about 5,000 feet above sea level.

Church of England report criticizes NATO Kosovo campaign

(RNS) A report by the Church of England’s Board of Social Responsibility has sharply criticized NATO’s campaign in Kosovo and warned that the underlying causes of the conflict remain unresolved.”The legitimate fear exists that the sustainability of NATO’s settlement remains tenuous and susceptible to outside interference,”said the report, presented at the Anglican denomination’s general synod Monday. The general synod is the church’s highest decision-making body.

The report said the scale of human tragedy has created the perception that NATO’s 78-day bombing campaign in Kosovo and Serbia precipitated rather than prevented the catastrophe.”It is clear that while Serbia was engaged in a policy of ethnic cleansing prior to NATO military involvement in Kosovo (Serb President Slobodan) Milosevic used the conflict as cover for the `final solution’ to its `Albanian problem.'” It also raised questions about NATO’s refusal to put its own ground troops at risk.”NATO’s unwillingness to risk ground troops casualties and its ineffectiveness in preventing the atrocities might encourage some rogue regimes to believe that they can effectively discount the risk of military intervention on the ground because NATO’s only strategy is bomb countries into submission,”the report said.

The board’s report also said it did not see how the essential contradiction of the interim settlement that brought an end to conflict _ retaining Kosovo under Serb sovereignty while guaranteeing Albanian autonomy and protection for human rights _ can resolve the underlying conflict between the Serbs and the ethnic Albanians.”It is difficult to see how an interim settlement which was rejected by both sides prior to the conflict will prove to be any more successful after the conflict given the atrocities that have been committed by both sides during this conflict,”the report said.

In other action at the general synod, delegates heard strong negative reaction from lay delegates to a proposal that the Church of England adopt a translation of the Nicene Creed proposed by the English Language Liturgical Commission.

The proposal would substitute the wording”by the power of the Holy Spirit he (Jesus) became incarnate of the Virgin Mary”with the phrase”was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary.”The latter, according to translators, is a more precise rendering of the original Greek.

Opposition to the new wording was led by evangelicals within the Church of England who expressed the fear it gave too prominent a role to Mary in the incarnation of Jesus.

Catholics, Muslims to promote”religious values”among political leaders

(RNS) Representatives of the Roman Catholic Church and Islam have agreed to work together to promote”religious values”among political leaders, the Vatican said Monday (July 12).

The Vatican said the Islamic-Catholic Liaison Committee, established in 1995 to further dialogue between the faiths, discussed”common action to sustain permanent religious values in a changing world order”at a meeting in Paris July 1-3.”The committee underlined the need to call attention to the religious values which should guide political leaders in achieving a world order which will assure the good of all human beings,”a Vatican statement said.

The delegations, led by Cardinal Francis Arinze, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, and Kamel al-Sharif, secretary general of the International Council for Da’wa and Relief in Cairo, also considered how to go about”building a culture of dialogue in the present generation,”the statement said.”Both sides agreed that this culture of dialogue should be based on belief in the one God and the fulfillment of ethical principles which reflect the will of the Almighty,”it said.

The Vatican said the committee appealed to the communications media”to promote religious values and the culture of dialogue”and agreed to continue consultations in order to cooperate on the application of these principles at local and international levels.

Relative seeks to prevent sect member from giving money to group leader

(RNS) A relative of a member of the Concerned Christian sect, a group described by some as a”doomsday”cult, has taken legal steps to prevent the member from giving money to Monte Kim Miller, the group’s leader.

Betty Chavez, sister of sect member Jan Cooper, sought and received a temporary court-appointed overseer for Cooper’s estate from the Boulder (Colo.) District Court.

The Concerned Christians group had been based in Denver but 78 members of the sect mysteriously disappeared in 1998, prompting many relatives of sect members to fear the group was planning some form of mass suicide or other act of violence as the millennium neared.

Some 14 of the sect members turned up in Israel last September, settling in two homes in the suburbs of Jerusalem. But in January, Israeli police raided the homes and subsequently deported the group members. Miller was not among them and was said to be in either England or Greece.

Miller has told people at various times that he is the last prophet of God and reportedly said he would die as a martyr in the streets of Jerusalem around Dec. 31, 1999. At the time of the raids in Israel, Israeli police said they believed sect members were planning to provoke a bloody shootout, believing the violence would hasten the end of the world.

Chavez’ lawyer, Jim England, said Chavez had decided to seek the court-appointed overseer because Cooper’s residence in Boulder had been sold for $475,000 and 50 percent of the proceeds would have gone to Jan Cooper.

Judge Carol Glowinsky, in an order granting the overseer, said Cooper”has become irrational, has distanced herself from most family members and close friends and has made very poor financial decisions.” The order prevents any of Cooper’s money from going to Miller.

Last October, Jennifer Cooper, the daughter of John Cooper _ Jan Cooper’s husband and also a sect member _ received a similar court-ordered overseer for John Cooper’s estate.

England said none of the frozen assets will go to Chavez or Jennifer Cooper but simply means Jan and John can’t spend it.

Quote of the day: Leon Wieseltier, author and literary editor of the New Republic

(RNS)”Most people in politics don’t believe in God, they believe in religion. The genuinely pious people I have known have been very quiet about it. Religion is not arm candy.” _ Leon Wieseltier, author of the book”Kaddish,”and literary editor of the New Republic magazine, quoted July 12 in the Washington Post.

DEA END RNS