c. 2000 Religion News Service

Church of Two Presidents Selling Silver Chalices to Buy New Roof

QUINCY, Mass. (RNS) A once-esteemed church where wealthy presidents used to say their prayers has fallen on such hard times that it’s selling its prized silver collection in order to fix the roof.

On Jan. 19, Sotheby’s auction house will sell 11 pieces of silver that the Quincy family gave to what is now United First Parish Unitarian Church. Emergency building repairs to the tune of $1.7 million made it necessary to sell even the caudle cups and chalices used at times for communion.

“There was some disappointment, like saying goodbye to an old friend,” said the Rev. Sheldon W. Bennett, minister of the church. “But these were given as financial assets in the event of an emergency in the future. … The people who gave the silver, given the current situation of the church, would have supported the sale.”

The 126-member church meets in an 1828 building beneath which presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams are buried. Crumbling infrastructure, however, meant the church had to replace the plaster ceiling and put up 16 steel trusses to support the roof. All this left the church questioning the purpose of keeping silver in a safe deposit box.

The choice was between “having the silver with no building, or having the building with no silver,” Bennett said.

For six months, the congregation debated whether to part with the set: two chalices, four caudle cups, three tankards and two beakers. All items date back to Colonial days and appeal to collectors in part because they came from the hands of John Hull and Robert Sanderson, two of America’s first silversmiths.

With expert estimates saying the items could fetch between $900,000 and $1.3 million, the congregation decided this fall to sell the silver _ but not before entertaining many a fresh discussion about Puritan sacramental theology.

“What was sacred to them was the congregation itself,” Bennett told parishioners. The cup for the communion wine “was more of an incidental instrument” because it didn’t actually hold Christ’s body in a literal sense. This understanding, he said, made parting with the silver easier.

_ G. Jeffrey MacDonald

The Rev. Judy Weidman, Former RNS Editor, Dead at 59

(RNS) The Rev. Judy Weidman, retired United Methodist Communications executive and former editor of Religion News Service, died of gastric cancer Tuesday (Dec. 19) in Nashville, Tenn. Weidman, 59, served for five years as the top staff executive for the United Methodist Church’s communications agency before her retirement in 1999, according to a news story issued by the church. The Savanna, Ill., native previously served for 10 years as editor of RNS, which at the time was called Religious News Service and was based in New York. “Judy was tenaciously committed to improving and increasing coverage of religion in major newspapers around the country and her efforts did a great deal to advance the field,” said Pam Schaeffer, managing editor of National Catholic Reporter and news editor for RNS in the early 1990s. “Judy Weidman was one of the true believers,” said Joan Connell, former editor of Religion News Service, which changed its name shortly after it was bought in 1994 by Newhouse News Service and moved its offices to Washington. “She believed in her God, her denomination, the United Methodist Church and in the vital role Religion News Service played in journalism _ in the United States and in the wider world,” added Connell, who now is executive producer for opinions and communities at MSNBC.com. Tom Roberts, who served as news editor of RNS from 1984 to 1991, said Weidman was instrumental in helping RNS survive during a time when it was in severe financial trouble. She “really nursed it back to health and then, I think, helped it flourish,” said Roberts, now editor of National Catholic Reporter. Weidman began her journalistic career as a special assignment reporter at the Kokomo (Ind.) Tribune and went on to work at the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry, the United Methodist Publishing House and the forerunner of today’s United Methodist Reporter, which owned RNS during her time as editor of the news service. She played a principal role in the development of the “Igniting Ministry” initiative designed to make United Methodism more visible through the use of media, which was approved at the denomination’s 2000 General Conference. In 1998, she began the Racial Ethnic Minority Fellowship Program at United Methodist Communications, which provided resources to help minority college graduates learn the work of communications professionals in the church. “Judy knew herself to be God’s child,” said Peggy West, a retired staff executive at United Methodist Communications who succeeded Weidman. “She lived and died with the clarity of purpose and courage such a heritage would inspire.” _ Adelle M. Banks Survey: Majority of Congregations See Benefit of Internet (RNS) The vast majority of churches and synagogues surveyed by the Pew Internet & American Life Project report that the use of the Internet has improved congregational life. Eighty-three percent of those responding to the survey said the life of their congregations had been helped by the Internet, and 91 percent said e-mail had helped congregation and staff members keep in better touch with each other. “These responses show that e-mail and the Web are being used by many real _ not virtual _ congregations to sustain and deepen their members’ faiths, to enrich their worship, to evangelize and to fulfill their missions,” said Lee Rainie, director of the project, a Washington-based research center funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts. “These very traditional places tell us that their use of these 21st century technologies has made a difference for the better.” The study, released Wednesday (Dec. 20), is not a representative sample, but is based on people who voluntarily responded to an e-mail invitation to complete an online questionnaire. A total of 1,309 Christian, Jewish and Unitarian Universalist congregations responded. The report also included responses from 471 ministers and rabbis about their personal use of the Internet. Eighty-one percent said they found information for worship services on the Internet and 77 percent said they sought scriptural information online. “They use the Internet just as many others do _ they treat it as a vast library in which to hunt for material that matters most to them,” said Elena Larsen, the project’s research fellow and principal author of the study. Most of the respondents use their Web sites to increase their visibility in their local communities and explain their beliefs. The survey found that 83 percent encourage visitors to attend their church or synagogue; 77 percent post sermons, mission statements and other information about their faith; and 76 percent provide links to denomination and faith-related sites. Researchers found that Web sites were used for a wide array of activities, from providing spiritual materials for the deaf to creating online activities for teens to keeping a congregation informed about mission work abroad. In an ongoing survey of Internet users, the project has found that 21 percent of Internet users _ between 19 million and 20 million people _ have searched for religious or spiritual information online. One-third of African-Americans with Internet access sought such information, compared to one-fifth of online whites. _ Adelle M. Banks Iowa Bishop Named Ecumenical Director for Episcopal Church (RNS) The Episcopal bishop of Iowa has been tapped to lead the church’s ecumenical office and interfaith relations, replacing the Rev. David Perry, who is retiring. The Rt. Rev. Christopher Epting will become the church’s ecumenical liaison in mid-April, according to an announcement from Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold. “Bishop Epting comes to his role at a time when we are seeking to establish interfaith dialogue and to expand our relations with churches of the East,” Griswold said. “I can think of no one better suited both by experience and temperament to assume this important ministry on behalf of our church.” Epting attended the University of Florida and studied theology at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary and General Theological Seminary. After serving as a priest in Florida for 20 years, he was elected the bishop of Iowa in 1988. In the Hawkeye State, Epting has served on the state’s Council of Churches, Ecumenical Ministries of Iowa and with the Interfaith Alliance. He is also president of the church’s Province VI, a regional grouping of churches in the upper Midwest, plains and mountain states. On Jan. 6, Episcopalians and Lutherans will inaugurate a historic “full communion” agreement in a ceremony at the National Cathedral in Washington. The church is pursuing other similar agreements, a job that is likely to take up much of Epting’s time. _ Kevin Eckstrom Greek Orthodox Leader of Jerusalem Dies at Age 77 (RNS) The leader of the Greek Orthodox Church in Jerusalem, Diodoros I, died late Tuesday (Dec. 19) following complications from diabetes. He was 77. According to the Associated Press, Diodoros I died at a Jerusalem hospital from liver ailments related to his diabetes. The patriarch represented the fourth most important patriarchate in the Eastern Orthodox Church, behind Istanbul (formerly Constantinople), Turkey; Alexandria, Egypt; and Antioch, Syria. Diodoros was born in Greece in 1923 and started work in Jerusalem in 1943, the Associated Press reported. He became a monk in 1944 and was renamed Diodoros Kalrivalis. He became a priest in 1947 and was made an archbishop in 1962 before being named patriarch in 1981. During Diodoros’ tenure in Jerusalem, his church was caught up in land disputes and access to holy sites with other churches. Speculation on a successor has been brewing for two years, but a date for a vote by the patriarchate’s Holy Synod has not been set. _ Kevin Eckstrom British Catholic Leaders Concerned by New Rules on Embryos LONDON (RNS) The British House of Commons’ vote on Tuesday (Dec. 19) to allow therapeutic research on stem cells farmed from human embryos has caused grave concern on the part of England’s Roman Catholic Church. Its leaders said they fear the country is now traveling down a “morally wrong road” with no end in sight. Archbishop Cormac Murphy-O’Connor of Westminster and Cardinal Thomas Winning of Glasgow said the vote to allow the research “opens the door to human cloning.” Government officials cautioned, however, that human cloning would not be allowed under the new rules. Yvette Cooper, undersecretary of state at the Department of Health, committed the government to introducing new legislation to maintain and strengthen the ban on human reproductive cloning. Murphy-O’Connor agreed that stem cell research was important, but said there were other sources, such as adult bone marrow, for such cells. The procedure is controversial because new embryos must be created and then destroyed in order to harvest the stem cells. “Research can be carried out without the deliberate creation and destruction of new human lives,” he said. “Cloning, even for therapeutic purposes, is a new form of human reproduction with massive moral implications.” Interviewed by BBC Radio, Murphy-O’Connor asked, “Where is this morally wrong road going to end?” Winning described the vote as “a new and serious assault” on the sanctity of life. “It legalizes the use, abuse and destruction of tiny human beings as a means to an end,” he said. The Church of England has taken a more relaxed attitude. A spokesman pointed out that the proposed research opened up the possibility of effective therapies for a number of untreatable conditions and that the “ultimately desirable final end” of this research was the reprogramming of adult cells, not the continued and increased use of embryos. For the (Presbyterian) Church of Scotland, the Rev. Richard Corbett, a member of the Kirk’s Board of Social Responsibility, said the church was “disturbed” by Parliament’s decision to allow embryos to be used in medical research. “Since the Church of Scotland `affirms the sanctity of the embryo from conception,’ we cannot think it right to use human embryos for even the best of purposes,” he said. _ Robert Nowell Quote of the Day: Southern Baptist Missionary Kristin Cato (RNS) “I never thought I could be a missionary doing drama. I thought you had to be a missionary in the jungle fending off anacondas or mosquitoes.” Southern Baptist Missionary Kristin Cato, who uses drama to evangelize teen-agers in Moscow. She was quoted in the Dec. 19 report of Baptist Press, the official news service of the Southern Baptist Convention. KRE END RNS