c. 2000 Religion News Service

Prince Charles Warns of Lost `Sacred Trust’

(RNS) Britain’s Prince Charles on Wednesday (May 17) warned that a growing reliance on reason and science threatens to rupture “the sacred trust between mankind and our Creator.”

The heir to the British throne has long been a supporter of the environment and earth-friendly agricultural policies. Charles has also used his position to cast doubt on bio-engineering science and has urged a return to traditional farming methods.

Speaking on a BBC radio program, the Prince of Wales said a faith in science has dangerously replaced a faith in “the Creator” and threatens to reduce humanity and the natural world to “a mechanical process.”

“If literally nothing is held sacredly any more _ because it is considered synonymous with superstition or in some other way `irrational _ what is there to prevent us from treating our entire world as some `great laboratory of life’ with potentially disastrous long-term consequence?” the prince asked, as reported by Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious news agency.

Charles warned that seeing the natural world as a system that can be manipulated and re-engineered for human needs reduces the “guiding hand” of the Creator to a dangerously low level of significance.

“It is because of our inability or refusal to accept the existence of a guiding hand that nature has come to be regarded as a system that can be engineered for our own convenience or as a nuisance to be evaded and manipulated, and in which anything that happens can be fixed by technology and human ingenuity,” he said.

While scientists generally dismissed the prince’s remarks, several in the environmental community praised him for seeing the environment as a sacred eco-system to be protected.

“It’s long overdue that someone pointed out how bereft and barren of humanity are those people who claim they are acting on the basis of `sound science,”’ said Peter Melchett of Greenpeace UK. “They say in effect that culture, society, values and religion don’t exist.”

Former Archbishop of Canterbury Coggan Dies at 90

(RNS) The first archbishop of Canterbury to support the ordination of women, the Most Rev. Frederick Donald Coggan, died at a British nursing home on Thursday (May 18). He was 90.

Coggan served as spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion from 1974 to 1980. Coggan first advocated the ordination of women in 1970, a move that caused deep divisions in the church. The Church of England allowed the ordination of women in 1994, while the Episcopal Church in the United States has allowed women clergy since 1976.

Coggan died after a lengthy illness at a facility near Winchester, according to Lambeth Palace, the official residence of the archbishops.

His death “brings to an end an illustrious ministry as a distinguished Hebrew scholar, devoted pastor and dedicated archbishop,” said the current archbishop, the Most Rev. George Carey.

The funeral will be a private, family service, followed by a public memorial service this summer, according to the Associated Press.

New Hampshire Votes to Abolish Death Penalty; Governor Promises Veto

(RNS) New Hampshire became the second state to kill its own death penalty policy on Thursday (May 19), but the state’s governor has promised to veto the measure and keep capital punishment alive.

The State Senate passed the measure on Thursday, following similar action by the state’s House of Representatives in March. Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat, has said she will veto the measure.

“There are some murders that are so heinous that the death penalty is an appropriate measure, and, accordingly, I will veto this legislation,” Shaheen said, according to the Associated Press.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976, only two states _ Nebraska and now New Hampshire _ have voted to abolish the death penalty. The 1979 Nebraska measure also died with a governor’s veto.

The action by New Hampshire’s legislature is the latest in a series of dramatic reassessments of the death penalty across the country. In January, Illiois Gov. George Ryan, a Republican and death penalty supporter, imposed a moratorium on executions while state officials investigate why more death sentences have been overturned than carried out.

Following Ryan’s moratorium, several states have reexamined their own death penalty laws. Death penalty opponents, led by a chorus of religious leaders, have asked President Clinton for a federal moratorium, but so far the president has refused to do so.

According to the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center, 87 people have been released from death row since 1973. Meanwhile, the number of death row inmates has grown to 3,600. Thirty-eight states have the death penalty, in addition to the federal government and the military.

New Hampshire does not have any death row inmates, and the crimes punishable by death are relatively few, including murder of a law enforcement officer, murder for hire and murder during a rape or attempted rape. Still, supporters said the state needs capital punishment as a deterrent to crime, an aid for crime victims’ families and as a prosecution bargaining chip.

Pope Says 20th Century Saw Unprecedented Attacks on Life

(RNS) Pope John Paul II, receiving birthday greetings from the Vatican diplomatic corps, said Friday (May 19) he has lived his 80 years at a time of both unprecedented attacks on life and “sublime witness in its favor.”

The Roman Catholic pontiff, who celebrated his birthday Thursday (May

18) with a Mass dedicated to the priesthood and a concert of Haydn’s

oratorio “The Creation,” met with ambassadors from the 173 countries and international bodies that have diplomatic relations with the Vatican.

Normally, he receives the full diplomatic corps only once a year at a New Year audience.

“The gift of life is a gift that springs from an act of love. It is, therefore, with love that we must welcome it, respect it, cultivate it and promote it in every way, defending it when it is threatened,” the pope told the ambassadors.

“My 80 years,” he said, “have been spent in a century that has known attacks against life as never before seen but also, at the same time, sublime witness in its favor.”

John Paul has made the defense of life from conception to natural death a hallmark of his papacy. He has spoken out repeatedly against biological manipulation, artificial means of contraception, abortion and euthanasia.

Church World Service Names Interim Director

(RNS) The global relief arm of the National Council of Churches has named a United Methodist Church official as interim director as the agency seeks to refine its financial agreement with the NCC.

The Rev. John L. McCullough, who is currently the general secretary for the Methodists’ General Board of Global Ministries, will serve as interim director of Church World Service while the agency seeks a full-time replacement for the the Rev. Rodney Page, who is retiring.

While serving with the United Methodist Church, McCullough oversaw more than 1,150 new missionaries and the introduction of new mission programs to Africa.

The NCC will hold its executive board meeting in Washington May 22-23. Part of the agenda will be dominated by fleshing out details over how the NCC and Church World Service will relate to each other. The financially troubled NCC is asking the relief agency to make larger financial contributions, and CWS is seeking greater autonomy, especially on financial matters, from the NCC.

Quote of the Day: Assistant U.S. Attorney Gerald Carruth

(RNS) “Yeah, and people claim to have seen Elvis, too.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Gerald Carruth, attorney in charge of the murder case against Gary Paul Karr, responding to claims famed atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair has been seen since she disappeared in 1995. He was quoted in the Monday (May 15) edition of USA Today.

DEA END RNS