c. 2000 Religion News Service
Former Southern Baptist President Announces His Divorce
Eds: Gearl is cq in the 8th graf)
(RNS) Former Southern Baptist Convention president Charles Stanley has announced he and his wife have divorced.
Stanley, the senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Atlanta, and his wife, Anna, had been separated for almost seven years.
“On February 16, 2000 my wife filed for divorce,” Stanley told his congregation during Sunday (May 21) morning services. “The case was filed as an uncontested divorce and all terms of the divorce have been agreed upon by both parties.”
Stanley, 67, thanked his congregation for its continuing support.
“In the last seven years (God) has affirmed _ and you have affirmed _ my commitment to preach the gospel in a way that is touching the entire world,” he said. “As I have shared with you many times, God has assured me I’m where he wants me to be, doing what he has called me to do. I remain committed to that call.”
The Stanleys’ marriage, which lasted 44 years, has long been a troubled one. Stanley, who like other leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention has been a prominent spokesman for conservative family values, at one time told his congregation he would resign if he divorced. But he said he was encouraged to continue his ministry.
“The love you have shown me and the love I have for you have encouraged me to remain faithful to God’s call on my life,” Stanley told the congregation.
The Rev. Gearl Spicer, administrative pastor for First Baptist Atlanta, spoke on behalf of the church’s leadership after Stanley addressed the congregation.
“In many ways, this experience of seven years has prepared Dr. Stanley in a unique way to minister to us and to the world,” Spicer said. “It is my biblical, spiritual, and personal conviction that God has positioned Dr. Stanley in a place where his personal pain has validated his ability to minister to all of us.”
The congregation gave Stanley a standing ovation to affirm their support of his leadership and then prayed for all of the parties affected by the divorce.
Stanley, a best-selling author, also is founder of In Touch Ministries, a radio and television ministry that is seen on more than 300 television stations and heard on more than 800 radio stations. He was president of the Southern Baptist Convention in the mid-1980s and has been the spiritual leader of the 14,000-member Atlanta church for three decades.
New Class of Ordained Priests Reflects Areas of Church Growth
(RNS) The class of 2000 of newly ordained Catholic priests highlights demographic areas in which the church is growing, with more priests coming from non-white ethnic backgrounds and from the South, according to figures released by the church.
Nearly 400 priests will be ordained this year by the church, according to figures submitted by 133 of the 192 U.S. dioceses and 28 religious orders. According to the figures, most attended Catholic elementary or high schools, and more than half are under the age of 39.
The new priests represent areas in which the church is growing, notably among Hispanic and Asian populations and in the South. Twelve percent of the priests are Hispanic, and 9 percent are Asian. Asian-Americans make up only 2 percent to 3 percent of the U.S. Catholic Church.
Forty-two priests will be ordained in dioceses in North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Alabama and Tennessee. Catholics make up about 12 percent of the population in the South, a figure that has doubled in the past 50 years.
In the western United States, the church plans 36 ordinations in Colorado, Idaho, Washington, Oklahoma, California, Oregon and Utah. The Catholic population in Western states has increased by 2 1/2 times in the past 50 years.
Other highlights from the 2000 ordination class include:
_ There will be 309 priests ordained by local dioceses, and 74 ordained by religious orders. Priests in religious orders typically follow their orders’ profession; Jesuits, for example, staff schools and colleges, while the Paulist fathers work in media.
_ Sixty percent attended Catholic elementary school, and 50 percent attended Catholic high school.
_ Two members _ David Naylor of Louisville, Ky., and James McClelland of Shreveport, La. _ are former ministers in the United Methodist Church. Jeff Gatlin, also of Louisville, is a former Presbyterian chaplain.
_ Jan Krutewicz, who will be ordained in Chicago, holds the Guinness Book of Records honor for building the world’s smallest telephone.
Pope Joins in Church Appeal for Cease-fire in Ethiopia-Eritrea Conflict
(RNS) Pope John Paul II, responding to an “anguished appeal” from the Roman Catholic bishops of Ethiopia and Eritrea, called Wednesday (May 24) for concerted efforts to halt the conflict on the Horn of Africa.
“As the conflict grows worse and innocent people, already hungry and deprived, are forced to leave their homes and land, I cannot but ask those in power to spare them from more suffering and to resume respect for the territorial integrity of your countries,” the pope said in a message to the bishops.
John Paul replied to an appeal for an immediate end to fighting issued by the Council of Bishops of the Catholic Church of Eritrea on May 18 and published by the Vatican on Saturday (May 20). The bishops of the two warring countries belong to a joint Episcopal Conference.
The bishops issued what they called an “anguished appeal”: “Immediately block the way to the possibility of more massacres; silence the arms without delay; do not permit the violence to continue to prevail over rationality.”
The bishops said that after two years of warfare, the conflict has now “entered its most tragic phase. The last glimmer of hope linked to mediation attempts has vanished; arms have the last word.”
In an interview published Wednesday by the Italian religious information service SIR, Bishop Yohannes Zekarias of Asmara, Eritrea, compared the conflict to World War I and said Ethiopia was attacking with “sophisticated arms, planes and helicopters.” He called the situation “very grave.”
“There are thousands of dead and wounded,” he said. “About 20,000 people have fled toward Sudan. They will join another 160,000 Eritrean refugees, who are already in the region.”
Zekarias said Eritrea’s Catholic bishops have joined Orthodox and Muslim leaders in a united but so far fruitless appeal to the governments of Ethiopia and Eritrea to stop the war.
The population of Eritrea is 53 percent Christian, mainly Orthodox, and 47 percent Muslim. Catholics make up 5 percent of the population.
The pope urged a “return to dialogue through respect for the principles of international law” and pledged that the Vatican “will continue to ask the international community to help in the search for conditions which will allow a cease-fire and the flow of humanitarian aid.”
“Africa has a right to peace and solidarity, especially your two countries, heirs to a rich tradition of Christian culture, who for long lived together in mutual respect and harmony,” he told the bishops.
Latest Nigerian Death Toll Tops 100
(RNS) Violence between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria has claimed an additional 100 victims as the government tries desperately to restore a sense of calm to the northern city of Kaduna.
More than 2,000 people have died in clashes between Christians and Muslims since the beginning of the year. The violence stems from plans to institute Islamic Sharia laws by the Muslim majority on the Christian minority.
The Sharia laws would set up Islamic courts in the northern part of Africa’s most populous nation. Christians say the laws would treat them as second-class citizens and subject them to barbaric and inhumane punishments.
In the latest outbreak of violence, police imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew in Kaduna after 100 people were killed on Tuesday (May 23). According to the Associated Press, residents of a predominantly Christian neighborhood attacked Muslim neighbors, and Muslims responded by attacking a largely Christian neighborhood.
Schools and stores were closed while bodies piled up in the hospital morgue. Government officials met with religious leaders to try to put an end to the religious violence.
Government leaders also issued a warning to residents with illegal weapons.
“The (police) command will soon embark on house-to-house searches to recover illegal firearms and anybody found with such firearms will not only face prosecution but will be treated as an armed robber,” said Mohammed Shehu, the Kaduna state police commissioner.
Religious Groups Collect $81.8 Billion in 1999
(RNS) The nation’s soaring economy continues to be good for charitable donations, with personal gifts rising $11.6 billion in 1999, according to figures released Wednesday (May 24).
The AAFRC Trust for Philanthropy released its annual report on charitable giving, and figures show that in the last year of the 20th century, individuals gave a total of $143.7 billion to charity, up 7.2 percent from 1998.
Total overall giving surpassed $190 billion in 1999, continuing an upward trend in the 1990s. The percentage of personal income given to charity has risen from 1.5 percent in 1995 to 1.8 percent in 1999.
Religious groups saw the most giving, representing about 43 percent of all contributions last year. Religious groups received $81.78 billion in 1999, up from $77.49 billion in 1998.
Giving to religious groups _ which traditionally tops the list _ was followed by giving to education. A total of $27.46 billion was given to education in 1999, up $2.14 billion from 1998. Giving to international affairs charities and the environment also rose by 23.6 percent and 11 percent, respectively.
Americans donated $11 billion to the arts and $17.95 billion to health-care organizations.
Within the context of the overall economy, the United States continues to earmark more money for charity. In 1995, philanthropy represented 1.7 percent of the gross domestic product; in 1999, the figure was 2.1 percent.
Corporations also joined in giving to charity. Corporate giving rose by 14.2 percent in 1999, to just over $11 billion. Giving by foundations also rose 16.5 percent to reach $19.8 billion.
Scottish Church Criticizes Lottery Funds for Millennium Dome
(RNS) News that the Millennium Dome at Greenwich, England, is getting an extra $29 million from funds raised by the national lottery has been criticized by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
At its meeting in Edinburgh, the assembly Tuesday (May 23) overwhelmingly adopted a last-minute resolution expressing its concern at the further expenditure for the Dome. The lottery had already provided $509 million.
It urged the British government “to reorder its priorities in favor of the poor and the health service.”
The question was raised at the conclusion of a debate on raising the minimum wage so the poor have not only access to good health care but also the opportunity to play their full part in society.
The resolution urged the government to establish the machinery needed to find out what an acceptable minimum level of income might be.
Earlier the assembly deplored the way in which some parts of the media had been reporting the issue of refugees and asylum-seekers and urged the press to reflect “responsibility and a sound basis of information.”
Alison Elliot, convener of the Church and Nation Committee, said the level of anti-immigrant rhetoric on the subject produced by some politicians was “in some ways appalling” while some of the press coverage had been “awful.”
Quote of the Day: Kathy Thornton, National Coordinator of NETWORK
(RNS) “We find the present debate regarding congressional action to extend Permanent Normal Trade Relations to China to be a meaningless exercise that obscures the far more critical question of how to restructure the international financial and trade architecture in a way that focuses on human growth and development and on protection of the global environment.”
– Kathy Thornton, national coordinator of NETWORK, a Catholic social justice lobby, on the May 24 vote in the House on giving China permanent normal trade status
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