c. 1999 Religion News Service
Carey: Anglican Communion will hold together
(RNS) Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, in an interview Tuesday (Sept. 21) with RNS, said he was confident the worldwide Anglican Communion, frayed by issues such as women’s ordination and the role of gays in the church, will hold together.
But Carey also warned conservative dissidents in the Episcopal Church in the United States not to take any unilateral action in breaking with the denomination that could damage the communion of some 70 million Anglicans around the world.”I am also conscious that some of the more conservative branches could also act irresponsibly,”he said. But, he added,”this is not a cry of fear but an expression of concern.” Carey was interviewed in Dundee, Scotland, where he is presiding over the 11th meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council, the small body of 70 bishops, clergy and laity representing the 38 autonomous provinces of the Anglican Communion. It meets every two or three years in between the once-a-decade meeting of the Lambeth Conference.
Asked about the tensions and differences among Anglicans, Carey said every church has its fissures.”My belief is that open study and honest disagreement are very important for any community,”he said.”The Anglican community has always prided itself on being that kind of community that washes its dirty linen in public, if you like. But I believe that over the past three Lambeth Conferences what we have seen is an emerging consensus.” That consensus, he said, includes the fact that a majority of provinces now accept the ordination of women. He also cited the”huge”vote at last year’s Lambeth Conference in favor of maintaining the traditional approach of banning gays from the ministry. Therefore, he said, he did not think the fissures within Anglicanism were widening.
Carey also acknowledged some Anglicans were worried by what they saw as a centralizing tendency within the movement, embodied particularly in a resolution of the 1998 Lambeth Conference suggesting church leaders should be able”in cases of exceptional emergency”to intervene in the affairs of an autonomous province.
The resolution was prompted by the situation in Rwanda in which Carey had to convince the then-archbishop of Rwanda to resign after he had been in exile for 18 months, fearing if he returned to Rwanda he would be killed by those seeking revenge for the genocide that swept the country in 1994.
Carey, however, preferred not to talk about centralizing tendencies.
He said that for himself the issue is how the primates _ heads of the provinces _ exercise responsible leadership. Over the past 25 years, he added, there has been a growing desire for the primates to take greater corporate responsibility. He said the primates will begin meeting every year.”This is not centralizing,”he said.”This is leadership exercised on behalf of others, and I want always to follow the principle of subsidiarity. The rest of the body should only do what the local cannot do.” He conceded this was a potentially dangerous path and acknowledged critics’ fears that it could result in a pattern similar to that of the Vatican in which Rome’s power to intervene in the affairs of local churches has grown. But Carey said the archbishop of Canterbury has a very small office that could not be compared to the Vatican bureaucracy.
Poll: 44 percent of Russians are strongly anti-Semitic
(RNS) Some 44 percent of Russians hold strong anti-Semitic views, according to a new survey by the Anti-Defamation League. Another 37 percent were found to be”not completely prejudice-free in their attitudes toward Jews.” The survey follows recent attacks against Jewish sites in Russia and numerous anti-Semitic statements in the Russian parliament by some elected officials. Russian Jewish leaders say the increase in public anti-Semitism reflects the frustration ordinary Russians are feeling over the nation’s ailing political and economic health.
Taking note of that, ADL national director Abraham Foxman called the survey results”extremely troubling and potentially dangerous, especially in (Russia’s) climate of political and economic turmoil.””The deep pessimism among the Russian people about their country and the high level of anti-Semitism are a bad combination in light of Russia’s centuries-old anti-Semitic tradition,”Foxman said.
By comparison, a 1998 ADL survey of anti-Semitic beliefs in the United States found that 12 percent of Americans harbor strong prejudices against Jews.
The new survey, released Tuesday (Sept. 21), found that 77 percent of Russians believe Jews stick together more than other ethnic groups. Sixty percent agreed that Jews”always like to be at the head of things,”and 49 percent said Jews have”too much”power in Russia.
Forty-two percent said Jews have too much control or influence over Russia’s banks, while 33 percent said Jews are more loyal to Israel than Russia.
Reflecting widespread pessimism over the future of their nation, 78 percent said Russia is headed in the wrong direction and 72 percent said the nation’s economy is very bad. Eighty-eight percent said Russia’s leaders do not care about the people they govern.
More than 1,500 Russians were interviewed for the survey between May and June. The margin of error was listed as plus or minus 3 percent.
Quebec’s bishops will not apologize to church orphans
(RNS) The Roman Catholic bishops of Quebec say they will not apologize to thousands of Quebec orphans who claim they were beaten and sexually abused in psychiatric institutions run by the church from the 1930s to the 1950s.
Such an apology, said Bishop Pierre Morissette,”would constitute a denial of the historic work accomplished under difficult conditions by religious communities involved.”It would be a betrayal of the efforts of those persons who have dedicated their lives to helping the least fortunate.” The bishop said the church plans to make a financial contribution to help the orphans.”We consider that the church has already given a lot and continues to give generously,”he said.
Morissette, head of the 30-member assembly of Catholic bishops in Quebec, made his comments at a Sept. 15 news conference, the Geneva-based religious news agency Ecumenical News International reported Tuesday (Sept. 21).
During the period between 1930 and the end of the 1950s, babies born in Quebec to unwed mothers, along with orphans and many children from poor families, were placed in church institutions by the government of Quebec Premier Maurice Duplessis, a Roman Catholic, in what was known as the Holy Alliance.
A group of those orphans and others, now adults and known as the Duplessis Orphans Committee, has charged that between 5,000 and 6,000 children were put in the institutions, run by a number of women’s and men’s religious orders, and many of them were subjected to beatings, electric-shock treatment and sexual abuse.
In 1992, survivors filed 321 criminal complaints against nuns, brothers and monitors who worked in the institutions. Quebec’s justice minister, however, decided that for technical reasons, the government could not lay any criminal charges.
But the government has proposed paying $2 million in compensation, and Morissette said the church would support that proposal.
Nigerian state moves to institute Islamic law
(RNS) Nigeria’s northern Zamfara state has become the first region in the West African nation to declare itself under Islamic law, a move that has alarmed the country’s Christians.
Nigeria’s 120 million residents are almost evenly divided between Christians and Muslims, with Christians dominating in the south and Muslims in the north.
Nigerian Roman Catholic Archbishop Anthony Olubunmi Okogie warned the move in Zamfara state could pit the two sides against each other, according to Compass Direct, an evangelical Christian news service.”What benefit will this serve us in a multireligious secular society to have Sharia (Islamic law) and civil laws together? Nigeria is a secular country. Nigeria is not an Islamic country,”Okogie said.
Zamfara state governor Alhaji Ahmed Sani said Islamic law was necessary because it”is the way of life of a Muslim.””We are not saying that every citizen of Zamfara must practice Islam as a religion,”Sani said.”All we are saying here is let Muslims be allowed to practice the Sharia law because it is in consonance with their religion and way of life from time immemorial.” M.B. Uthman, a professor at Ahmadu Bello University, an Islamic school in Nigeria, said the nation’s constitution prohibits the imposition of Islamic law.”Declaring Sharia is tantamount to declaring a parallel government in Nigeria,”he said.
Republican lawmakers propose aid to anti-abortion groups
(RNS) Two Republican lawmakers believe the federal government should aid groups offering alternatives to abortion.
Rep. Joseph Pitts and Sen. Rick Santorum, both of Pennsylvania, announced Tuesday (Sept. 21) their plans to introduce legislation that would give $85 million a year to help finance private groups that run adoption services, maternity homes and”crisis pregnancy”centers.
The grants would not be available to family planning centers or other organizations that perform abortions, provide abortion counseling or refer women to abortion providers. Pitts and Santorum said the federal government already provides abortion-rights groups with financial assistance, the Associated Press reported.”No woman should ever feel that abortion is her only option,”Santorum said.”Not everyone who walks into a family planning clinic wants to have an abortion.” Agencies could use the grants to help women faced with an unplanned pregnancy to obtain pregnancy testing, prenatal and postpartum health care, adoption information and abstinence advice. The money could also be used for such services as education, housing and job training, and baby items such as food, clothing and diapers.
The federal funds would be allocated to each state based on the number of out-of-wedlock births and abortions there. Poorer women would be given first priority.
The National Abortion Federation criticized the proposal, saying it”poses a significant public health danger because it would support organizations that withhold information about safe, legal options to unintended pregnancy.” Vicki Saporta, the group’s executive director, said abortion providers discuss abortion alternatives with their patients.”Under this bill someone with a political or religious agenda who erroneously informs a woman that she has only one option would receive funding, while a skilled health care professional who informs her of all her options would not,”she said.
Retired Orthodox Bishop Basil dies
(RNS) Bishop Basil, a retired leader of the Orthodox Church in America who led the church in Washington, D.C., and San Francisco, has died. He was 84 and died Friday (Sept. 17) _ the day he was to obtain his American citizenship.
Born Basil Rodzianko in Russia, he took monastic vows in 1979 following the death of his wife. The following year Basil became the OCA’s first Washington-area bishop, as well as the church’s bishop for San Francisco and the West. He retired in 1984.
Basil was well known for producing religious radio programs that were broadcast to the former Soviet Union for more than 40 years. He was also involved in ecumenical work and lectured widely on Russian Orthodox spirituality.
Basil was found dead at his home by a friend who had come to take him to obtain his U.S. citizenship, according to OCA officials.
The OCA is an independent denomination that has its roots in the Russian Orthodox Church.
Quote of the day: Chaim Katz, adviser to Orthodox Jewish basketball star Tamir Goodman
(RNS)”He wanted the world to know that to be close to HaShem is more important than to be close to Dick Vitale.” _ Chaim Katz, adviser to and former coach of Orthodox Jewish basketball star Tamir Goodman, on why Goodman rejected a full athletic scholarship to the University of Maryland rather than play on the Jewish Sabbath. HaShem is Hebrew for God; Vitale is a TV college basketball announcer. Katz was quoted in the Sept. 17 Baltimore Jewish Times.
DEA END RNS
