c. 2000 Religion News Service
Methodists Agree to $400,000 `Advance’ for NCC
(RNS) The United Methodist Church has agreed to a $400,000 “advance” for the National Council of Churches as part of a $2 million bailout fund for the fiscally troubled ecumenical agency.
Earlier this year, the Methodists agreed to give $700,000 to the bailout fund paid for by a number of the NCC’s member churches. The Methodist contribution was the largest, and the church tied its gift to financial and structural reforms promised by the NCC.
The NCC needs the bailout money to balance its books for the year 2000 and end the year in the black. Under the agreement approved Saturday (Nov. 18) by the church’s General Council on Finance and Administration, the Methodists will advance the NCC the promised $400,000 out of the church’s expected contributions over the next four years at 7 percent interest.
The interest will be repaid in full in the form of a grant, church officials said, once the NCC “demonstrates positive net assets and a balanced operating budget.”
Both NCC and Methodist officials would not call the agreement a loan but rather an early delivery on church funds that have already been promised to the NCC. The plan means that the NCC will receive lower Methodist contributions in the next four years, a scenario that has already been planned for, said the NCC’s general secretary, the Rev. Bob Edgar.
“We would have preferred it to be new money, but each of the member communions had to decide how to give us the money over and above what they already give,” Edgar said. “We recognize that this is an advance on future monies.”
Clare Chapman, executive director of finance and administration for the Methodists’ ecumenical agency, said the agreement is in line with the NCC’s commitment to lower each church’s share to no more than 25 percent of all church contributions. Currently the Methodists contribute the largest share of any church to the NCC.
Chapman said the Methodist share to the NCC will eventually fall but it would be “crippling” if the church automatically pared down its contribution to the 25 percent level.
The Methodists still owe $200,000 from their initial promised contribution, and that money will come from various church agencies and offices.
Gospel Artists Work to Make Black Church Aware of AIDS
(RNS) Award-winning gospel artists have joined forces to produce a CD to raise awareness in African-American churches about AIDS.
The CD is part of a “One Voice: Gospel Artists Respond to AIDS” campaign that has been supported by U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher and members of the Congressional Black Caucus.
“Our church has AIDS,” said the Rev. Yvette Flunder, a gospel artist and leader of the campaign, at a recent news conference in Washington. “Our church has to respond to this epidemic, but it won’t happen until we grab hold of this issue.”
Grammy Award winners Richard Smallwood, Edwin Hawkins, Walter Hawkins, Kirk Franklin and Andrae Crouch are involved in the project, along with Black Entertainment Television gospel host Bobby Jones, The Washington Post reported.
The song “One Voice” will be released on CD in the spring, around the same time that artists plan to encourage people to get tested for HIV infection during a series of concerts scheduled for Chicago, Washington and Los Angeles.
Satcher welcomed the efforts to draw attention to the high percentage of African-Americans who have AIDS.
“If you look at the new AIDS cases reported to the Centers for Disease Control last year, 47 percent were African-Americans,” he said. “If you look at the new HIV infections, African-Americans represent well over 50 percent.”
Faith Groups Commit to Saving the Environment
(RNS) More than 100 religious leaders ended a conference on environmental conservation by drafting 26 pledges or “sacred gifts” advocating protection for the environment.
The pledges _ made by religious leaders from 11 faiths, including Shintoism, Islam, Judaism and Christianity _ included promises to help save endangered species and clean up polluted rivers.
Other pledges included a commitment from Sikhs in India to use solar power to reduce their fossil fuel consumption by as much as 15 percent.
The 26 measures were presented to Britain’s Prince Philip, president emeritus of the World Wide Fund for Nature. The nature fund co-organized the conference along with the Alliance of Religions and Conservation.
“These sacred gifts are catalysts for action. … Through them we can reach out to huge new constituencies … and work with them to conserve our planet,” Claude Martin, director of World Wide Fund for Nature International, told the Associated Press.
Some 500 wildlife activists also attended the conference, which was held Nov. 13-17 in the Nepalese capital city of Katmandu.
Rapper Continues Thanksgiving Tradition
(RNS) A 30-year-old Thanksgiving tradition begun by civil rights leader Hosea Williams will go on this year thanks to funding from rapper and producer Sean “Puffy” Combs.
Combs announced Sunday (Nov. 19) that he will pay for a Thanksgiving dinner at Turner Field in Atlanta to feed the homeless, an event expected to attract 30,000 people. The dinner continues a Thanksgiving and Christmas tradition begun by Williams, a lead adviser to Martin Luther King Jr., during the civil rights movement. Williams died Thursday (Nov. 16) of kidney cancer complications. He was 74.
His daughter, Elisabeth Williams-Omilami, will organize the dinners.
“It’s a crazy thing to have your stomach growling and not know you’re going to eat,” Combs told the Associated Press. He did not say what the meal would cost him.
“I feed the hungry in New York every year for the holidays and I’ve seen hands-on what this does for the people, and it’s something we need to all come out and support, even if it’s just a dollar,” Combs said.
Seventh-day Adventist Evangelist George E. Vandeman Dead at 84
(RNS) Seventh-day Adventist evangelist George E. Vandeman died Nov. 3 in Newbury Park, Calif.
The evangelist and author, who was well-known for founding the “It Is Written” television program, was 84. He died of heart failure.
The internationally broadcast program was established in 1956 and is now viewed in more than 150 countries.
Vandeman was the presenter for the program for more than 35 years, the Adventist Press Service reported.
“We at `It is Written’ will mourn his loss but we praise God for his creative, visionary leadership and the spiritual mold in which he cast the `It Is Written’ ministry,” said Mark Finley, the evangelist who has presented the half-hour weekly program since 1992.
Princess Orietta Pamphilj, Ecumenical Dialogue Supporter, Dead at 78
(RNS) Princess Orietta Doria Pamphilj, who was born into the papal nobility and devoted most of her life to art, charity and the support of ecumenical dialogue, died Sunday (Nov. 19). She was 78.
The princess, known as Donna Orietta, was the last blood member of a distinguished family that included the 16th century Admiral Andrea Doria, three cardinals and Pope Innocent X, who reigned from 1644 to 1655.
During her visit to Rome last month, Queen Elizabeth made Donna Orietta a member of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of her aid to the Anglican Center in Rome and her close ties to the city’s English community.
Donna Orietta, who suffered from bone cancer, received the honor Oct. 18 at a ceremony in the Quirinal presidential palace, which she attended in a wheelchair. She later accompanied the queen on a visit to the Anglican Center, which is housed in the Doria Pamphilj Palace in the center of Rome.
Born in London, Orietta Emily Mary Doria Pamphilj was the daughter of Prince Filippo Andrea VI Doria Pamphilj and Gesine Mary Dykes, who was Scottish.
She spent much of World War II in Rome with her parents, who were outspokenly anti-fascist. Her father, who was jailed for a time during World War II and later forced into hiding, became Rome’s first mayor after the war.
With her husband, Frank Pogson, Donna Orietta opened the Doria Pamphilj Palace to Anglican and Protestant observers during the sessions of the Second Vatican Council between 1962 and 1965. The couple helped to found the Anglican Center and established a center to promote Christian unity in another of their Rome properties.
Donna Orietta also worked as a volunteer in movements supporting human rights, public health, scouting and the protection of animals. Until she became ill, she often rode around the center of Rome on her daughter’s old bicycle, and she adopted dogs from the city pound to guard her gardens and become family pets.
In recent years, Donna Orietta gave the city of Rome the Villa Pamphilj and its grounds, which now make up the city’s largest public park, and gave the Vicariate of Rome the Church of Sant’Agnese in Agone in Piazza Navona, an important Baroque church designed by Borromini as Innocent X’s family chapel.
Quote of the day: Atlanta resident Renee Dawson
(RNS) “He was one of the last true activists. I wanted (daughter) Riana to see him and understand that because of him there’s a lot of people better off.”
_ Renee Dawson on why she brought her daughter to the viewing of Hosea Williams, the civil rights activist and friend of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Williams died Nov. 16. Dawson was quoted by the Associated Press.
DEA END RNS
