c. 1999 Religion News Service

Greek Orthodox leader, said to be on the way out, returns home in charge

(RNS) The leadership drama that has engulfed the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America continued unresolved Tuesday (July 13) as the church’s embattled head returned home still in charge following meetings in Istanbul, Turkey, with the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, Orthodox Christianity’s leading international figure.

For weeks leading up to the meetings, Greek and Greek-American newspapers have been filled with reports of Archbishop Spyridon’s imminent ouster. Late last week, when he was unexpectedly called to the Phanar _ Bartholomew’s Istanbul headquarters _ speculation increased that Spyridon would be removed from office by the ecumenical patriarch and his Holy Synod, or council of metropolitans (bishops).

Instead, the visit ended with a statement by Spyridon’s office that he would return to the Phanar in August for further discussions. Bartholomew’s office issued its own statement, saying only that the meetings were held and that”the ecumenical patriarch shall definitively assess all that has been presented until now as well as all the stated viewpoints.” It was Bartholomew who appointed Spyridon in 1996 to lead the 1.5-million member Greek Orthodox Archdiocese. However, for most of Spyridon’s tenure he has been besieged by controversy over his alleged heavy-handed management style, alleged financial missteps and reputed disregard for archdiocesan procedures regarding lay and clerical input.

The archdiocese’s five metropolitans, more than 100 priests and a dissent lay movement have called for his removal. A growing number of parishes have voted not to contribute money to the New York-based archdiocese while Spyridon remains in power.

This week’s meetings in Istanbul were reminiscent of similar meetings last January, at which time Greek and Greek-American newspapers were also filled with stories maintaining that Bartholomew and the Holy Synod had decided to oust Spyridon.

The Rev. Mark Arey, Spyridon’s spokesman, insisted Tuesday (July 13) there was no indication the archbishop’s job is in jeopardy.”There are issues to be resolved, and they are being addressed with a sense of urgency. That’s it,”he said.

Moscow Jewish leader stabbed in anti-Semitic attack

(RNS) A prominent Jewish leader in Moscow was stabbed in a synagogue Tuesday (July 13) by a man identified as a neo-Nazi.

Leopold Kaimovsky, the 52-year-old director of the Jewish Cultural Center at Moscow’s historic Choral Synagogue, was reported in grave condition after being stabbed several times in the knee, thigh, shoulder, face and stomach. The chief intensive care physician at Moscow’s Hospital No. 36 said Kaimovsky”lost a lot of blood.” The attacker, identified as Nikita Krivchun, 21, was said to have a reverse swastika tattoo on his chest, the Associated Press reported. Synagogue security men detained Krivchun after the stabbing.

The attack is the latest in a growing wave of anti-Semitic incidents in Russia. In May, bombs were set off near the Choral Synagogue and another Jewish house of worship in Moscow.

Neo-Nazi groups have repeatedly denounced Jews at public rallies, and communist politicians and others have made anti-Semitic comments on the floor of the Russian parliament.

As a result, Jewish emigration has jumped sharply. About 500,000 Jews are believed to remain in Russia.

Church of England pledges to eradicate racism in church

(RNS) The Church of England has pledged to eradicate racism within the denomination and to work toward eradicating racism in society as a whole.

At the church’s General Synod, the highest decision-making body of the Anglican body, delegates affirmed the call of Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey to take on racism at all levels of church and community life.”We cannot afford to rest, either as a church or as a society, until we have confronted racism at its deepest level, in ourselves, in our nation, in the structures of our church, in the ordained ministry, in congregational life,”Carey said.

Carey’s comments followed a speech by Bishop John Sentamu, one of two black bishops in the Church of England and a member of the government inquiry into the 1993 murder of black teen-ager Stephen Lawrence by a gang of white youths. No one has been punished for the crime in part because of what the panel termed the”racism-inspired incompetence”of the police investigation.

Sentamu called on the church to face up to the implications of the Lawrence report.”Within its own walls, the expectation of the historic white elite English norm is maintained, regardless of the make up of a congregation,”he said.

At the same time, Sentamu said,”racism is not innate. It’s caught, learned, taught, imitated, and then practiced.”It can be rooted out.”

ELCA women endorse international debt relief campaign

(RNS) Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the official women’s organization of the 5.2 million-member denomination, have voted overwhelmingly to endorse the international debt relief campaign known as Jubilee 2000.

The group, which ended its triennial convention in St. Louis on July 11, adopted a resolution”calling for a jubilee year in 2000 for the cancellation of international debt to the poorest nations in our global community, for the purpose of restoring basic human services benefits to the neediest citizens of these countries.” The debt relief program is urging governments and international lending agencies such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to cancel the debts of the 41 heavily indebted poor nations. Last month, the G-7 nations _ the world’s most industrialized nations, including the United States _ adopted a package of debt relief proposals aimed at reducing by some $70 billion the debt of some poor countries.

Jubilee 2000 activists have said the G-7 program is inadequate and will continue to force poor nations to reduce public sector spending on such areas as health and education in order to service their debt.

In other action at the convention, the women also endorsed a call by 20 Nobel Peace laureates to make the years 2000-2010, a”decade of nonviolence”and pledged they would urge their congregations to”teach, practice and model nonviolence.” The women were also urged to become active in combatting what one workshop leader called”the sex industry.””We need to do more than pray,”said Heidi Somerset, a former prostitute who said she became involved in the sex-for-money world in college.”My call is to the church. I’m not going to let the pornographers and pimps run our country. We need to help our kids. As a church we need to lead.”

World Alliance of Reformed Churches will study membership criteria

(RNS) After agreeing to accept three new member churches, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches has also decided to examine the criteria for membership in the Geneva-based international organization.”I am uneasy when we begin to recognize churches with three congregations and 200 members,”said the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), quoting figures about one of the new churches in the 217-member WARC.

The alliance includes churches of a wide variety of sizes, from some with fewer than 100 members to several who count their membership, like the PCUSA, in the millions.

Kirkpatrick and others said they were concerned that alliance membership criteria might actually be encouraging the splintering of church bodies rather than Christian unity.”My concern is that the membership committee be asked to look more generally at the criteria for membership,”Kirkpatrick told Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious news agency.”We seem to be in a time of splintering of the Reformed family in which there are more and more small churches being created.”Part of what we are about is promoting a sense of Christian unity and common Reformed witness,”he said. He said rather than giving institutional recognition to small churches, WARC should instead encourage small churches in the same country to link up.

Pope names Florida priest new bishop of Charleston, S.C.

(RNS) Pope John Paul II has accepted the resignation of Bishop David B. Thompson of Charleston, S.C., and named the Rev. Robert J. Baker of Jacksonville, Fla., to succeed him, the Vatican said Tuesday (July 13).

Thompson, who is 76, submitted his resignation after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75. He has been bishop of Charleston, which has 116,726 Catholics out of a total population of 3.7 million, since 1990.

His successor, who is 55 and a native of Fastoria, Ohio, has been priest of Christ the King Parish, the largest parish in the diocese of St. Augustine in Jacksonville, since 1997.

Baker studied at the Pontifical Josephinum College in Columbus, Ohio, and received degrees in theology from Catholic University in Washington and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

Following his ordination, he served for two years as assistant priest of St. Paul Beach, taught at Bishop Kenny High School in Jacksonville Beach and directed diocesan marriage preparation courses.

Baker returned to Rome as a student at the North American College from 1972 to 1975, then spent a year as spiritual director of the Pontifical Josephinum College.

From 1976 to 1981, he was administrator of St. Augustine Parish in Gainesville, Fla., which includes students at the University of Florida. In 1981 he became a professor of theology at the Regional St. Vincent de Paul Seminary at Boynton Beach, Fla., and from 1984 to 1997, served as rector of St. Augustine Cathedral.

Armenian church election set for October

(RNS) Armenian Apostolic Church leaders will meet in October to elect a new head of the 1,700-year-old church.

Since the death in June of Catholicos Garegin I, Archbishop Nerses Pozapalyan has served as temporary head of the church, which has followers in the former Soviet republic of Armenia and among Armenians living in the United States and elsewhere around the globe.

A church spokeswoman in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, told Reuters news service that the church’s Ecclesiastical Synod will meet Oct. 26-31 to pick a successor.

Quote of the day: The Rev. Staccato Powell, National Council of Churches

(RNS)”Murder, intolerance, racial polarization and bigotry, all serve to unravel the delicate fabric used to weave the beloved community. … The healing of this nation’s racial divide rests within the collective power of our will. The mainline community cannot continue to be complicitous through the sin of silence.” _ The Rev. Staccato Powell, associate general secretary for national ministries of the National Council of Churches, in a statement on the recent killing spree in Illinois and Indiana allegedly carried out by white supremacist Benjamin Smith.

DEA END RNS