c. 2000 Religion News Service
Lutherans Offer Alternatives to Communion Agreement With Episcopalians
(RNS) Members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) who oppose a proposed “full communion” agreement with the Episcopal Church have officially offered their proposals to alter the terms of the agreement.
Members of the WordAlone Network met in Minnesota last month to chart their strategy. The meeting came at the same time that the ELCA’s Eastern North Dakota Synod met and passed a resolution saying its churches should be able to “freely accept or reject local implementation” of the agreement.
The “full communion” agreement would allow the Episcopal Church and the ELCA to share clergy and missions and to recognize each other’s sacraments. Lutherans approved the agreement last year, and Episcopalians are expected to approve it this summer.
A key sticking point, however, has been the adoption of the “historic episcopate” of the Episcopal Church. Under the agreement, ordinations would be supervised by members of the historic line of bishops stretching back to the earliest days of the church. Some Lutherans say this would alter both Lutheran tradition and identity and displace the role of the laity.
That opposition to the historic episcopate is what is driving members of the WordAlone Network. In their “Common Ground Resolution,” the group asked ELCA leaders to consider delaying the agreement until after the church’s 2001 convention. In addition, they offered suggestions for allowing Lutheran pastors and bishops to be officially recognized, even though their ordinations may be “irregular” in terms of the historic episcopate.
The ELCA’s Church Council is scheduled to meet in Chicago this weekend (April 8-9). WordAlone members asked the council to consider their resolution during the meeting.
“The WordAlone Network commends the Common Ground Resolution as a helpful step, but not a final resolve, toward greater unity in the ELCA,” a resolution passed by the group said.
Church officials have taken a cautious approach to WordAlone’s objections, saying they were “open” to considering alternatives but remained solidly behind the Lutheran-Episcopal accord.
Presbyterians Approve Guidelines for Ecumenical Movement
(RNS) The Presbyterian Church (USA) has come one step closer to adopting a sweeping agreement with other mainline Protestant churches after a majority of its regional presbyteries adopted the basic principles of the Churches Uniting in Christ (CUiC) agreement.
The CUiC agreement, previously known as the Consultation on Church Union, would be a network of nine Protestant denominations to share ministries, recognize one another’s churches and share in Communion. Organizers hope to have the movement organized by 2002.
In an April 3 memo to members of the Presbyterian Church, Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick, the highest-ranking fulltime official in the denomination, said a majority of the church’s regional presbyteries had agreed to the principles of CUiC. Those votes will become official when the church convenes for its convention this summer in Los Angeles.
The COCU arm of the ecumenical movement has been talked about for four decades, but only recently has the movement captured the attention of its member bodies. Several issues still need to be worked out in individual denominations; Episcopalians have concerns over what role bishops will play in the new organization and Presbyterians have reservations about the role of elders.
Kirkpatrick said despite those issues, the agreement is one of the most significant steps toward broad Christian unity.
“I believe that the arrival of Churches Uniting in Christ will present each of us with a historic opportunity to be God’s church in the world globally, yet at the same time precisely where we live,” Kirkpatrick said.
The nine members of the CUiC movement, with a combined membership of about 17 million, are: the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Episcopal Church, the United Methodist Church, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the United Church of Christ, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church and the International Council of Community Churches.
In First for His Papacy, Pope Receives a Weapon
(RNS) In a first for his long papacy, an imperturbable Pope John Paul II received a weapon _ a sharply honed scimitar _ as a gift from President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen.
Vatican sources said they believed it was the first time since he was elected Roman Catholic pontiff more than 21 years ago that a visitor has presented John Paul with any form of weapon.
The pope and the Arab leader exchanged gifts after a private audience lasting about 20 minutes. Both were smiling broadly, and John Paul gave no sign of surprise when Saleh opened a blue velvet box and drew out the scimitar, which had an ivory hilt set with five red stones and a sharp, curving blade.
Saleh made clear that his intentions were entirely peaceful.
“This gift is a symbol of your role in ending the Cold War,” the Arab leader told the pope through an interpreter.
In the exchange of gifts, which is traditional after a papal audience, visitors often give the pope a work of art, but John Paul also has received presents ranging from wedding dresses for African brides to bocce balls and hiking boots.
The pope gave Saleh a series of medals of his pontificate in gold, silver and bronze.
The Vatican gave no information on what the pope discussed with Saleh, who has led Yemen since 1978 and last year became the first democratically elected president of the unified Republic of Yemen.
Update: Teens Arrested in South Carolina Church Attacks
(RNS) South Carolina law enforcement officials have charged two teen-agers with recent attacks on two predominantly African-American churches in Columbia, and are investigating the separate incidents as hate crimes.
Bryan Alan Carraway, 18, was charged with attempted arson and burning of personal property after he confessed to throwing a firebomb Monday (April 3) through a window of St. Paul AME Church. He also confessed to setting fire Saturday (April 1) to two Easter crosses outside Sumter County’s oldest predominantly black church a few miles away, Goodwill Presbyterian.
The firebomb at St. Paul did not ignite, and no one was injured in either incident.
A 15-year-old, whose name has not been released, faces the same charges in connection with the two incidents, the Associated Press reported.
Sheriff Tommy Mims said both suspects are also charged with breaking windows at the local office of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Mims said Carraway and the 15-year-old gave indications the crimes were racially motivated.
“It’s a sad commentary on today’s society that we find ourselves here discussing this,” said Mims, who said more arrests are expected. “I would hope because of what has been done, it will create a sense of healing and coming together.”
The remains of the crosses and the firebomb were being analyzed. The Goodwill congregation plans to replace the crosses.
English Panel Rejects Use of Church Land for Biotech Crops
LONDON (RNS) The Church of England’s ethical investment advisory group has recommended church land should not be used to grow genetically modified (GM) crops and that future leases for church-owned farmland should specifically exclude the planting of such crops.
But church authorities cannot stop present tenant farmers from growing GM crops until their leases come up for renewal, the committee said.
In a report, the panel said publicity about genetically modified crops in the media, much of it negative, had contributed to public confusion and misinformation “but has also, crucially, revealed deep-seated anxieties that should not be ignored.”
Among areas of public concern which the present secular regulatory system does not address are the alleged social benefits of GM food, particularly to consumers; the potential indirect long-term effects on health; the effects on agricultural practice in Britain’s ecology; and the contribution such crops might make in eliminating world hunger.
“In practical terms, the purpose and manner of any GM trial requires careful evaluation to determine its impact on our neighbors in proximity and on the created order as a whole,” the committee said. “Until knowledge can be applied with wisdom and more perfect understanding, there may indeed be things that can be done, but should not be done, or at least should not be done yet.”
The panel recommended precaution and prudence.
“Where the benefits of early action are judged to be greater than the likely costs of delay, it is appropriate to take a lead and make public the reason for such action,” it said. “Where there is the possibility of irreversible damage to natural life-support functions, precautionary action should be taken irrespective of the forgone benefits.”
The Church of England owns some 125,00 acres of agricultural land leased to tenant farmers.
Recently the British government announced 30 sites in England and one in Scotland on which farm-scale trials of GM crops would take place. The crops involved are forage maize, sugar beet and fodder beet.
House Supports Ban on Late-Term Abortions
(RNS) The House of Representatives voted Wednesday (April 5) to ban a controversial late-term abortion procedure known in the medical community as intact dilation and extraction and called by its opponents “partial-birth abortion.”
The vote came despite a promised veto by President Clinton, who has twice vetoed similar legislation.
“Partial-birth abortion is a barbaric procedure that has no place in a civilized society,” said House Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas. “I hope the president will search his heart and do the right thing.”
Both his vetoes have been overriden by the House, whose bipartisan 287 to 141 vote on Wednesday again provides the two-thirds majority needed to override a presidential veto.
But the Senate, which approved a companion bill last fall, has sustained Clinton’s vetoes each time and is expected to do so again.
Supporters of the measure said it outlaws an unnecessary procedure.
“Everybody in this room knows this is wrong. It is not legally or morally defensible,” said Rep. Rick Hill, R-Mont.
“Most Americans wouldn’t have this done to a dog _ yet the White House and others turn their heads away as it is done to babies,” said House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, according to the Washington Post. “The abortion industry has gone too far.”
But opponents contend the ban on late-term abortions threatens to undermine Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling legalizing most abortions.
“Proponents of this bill are not just chipping away at the right to choose, they are taking a jackhammer to it,” said Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., agreed.
“Do not be fooled,” he said. “This is nothing less than an attempt to outlaw abortion.”
Wednesday’s vote comes less than two weeks before the Supreme Court will hear arguments on a challenge to Nebraska’s ban on late-term abortions.
First Hispanic Named President of Iliff School of Theology
(RNS) The first Hispanic to lead a United Methodist-related seminary has been appointed president of Iliff School of Theology in Denver.
The Rev. David Maldonado, 57, will begin the post on June 1, succeeding the Rev. Donald E. Messer, who served as president for 19 years.
Maldonado also is the only Hispanic to lead one of the 135 Protestant denominational schools affiliated with the Association of Theological Schools, reported United Methodist News Service.
Maldonado, a United Methodist minister, is professor of church and society at Perkins School of Theology, a United Methodist-related seminary in Dallas. He will hold the same teaching position at Iliff, a school whose student body includes United Methodists as well as members of more than 30 other denominations.
“As a fourth-generation Methodist and a Hispanic, I bring a deep appreciation for religious heritage and ethnic identity,” he said. “I join Iliff in affirming the ecumenical tradition and the spirit of diversity and inclusion.”
Quote of the Day: Letter to the editor in the Mennonite Weekly Review
(RNS) “Under the guise of nonviolence and an `authentic peace witness,’ you have again violently nailed Christ to the cross.”
_ A letter to the editor, signed by 18 people, in the March 16 issue of the Mennonite Weekly Review. The letter objected to a recent ad in the newspaper by Mennonites who want the church to welcome gays and lesbians into church life.
DEA END RNS
