c. 2000 Religion News Service
Church World Service To Be Financially Independent of NCC
(RNS) The humanitarian outreach arm of the National Council of Churches will now balance its own books as the financially troubled ecumenical body begins to reassess its mission and possible death and rebirth as a different organization.
Church World Service and Witness, which coordinates disaster relief and humanitarian aid for the NCC, will now be financially separate from the larger body but still accountable to the council’s General Assembly.
The agreement puts to rest a long-running tension between the Council and CWS, which accounts for 85 percent of the Council’s budget. CWS officials were upset by the financial troubles facing the NCC and wanted to manage its own financial affairs.
Under the new plan, CWS will have its own board of directors and executive director. The Rev. Bob Edgar, the NCC general secretary, will oversee both bodies, but each will be largely independent from the other. The plan is set to take effect on July 1.
The fiscal woes at the NCC have stabilized, but debt projections in the NCC’s reserve funds rose from $4 million to $6.4 million. Officials on both sides say the new financial arrangement should help ease the situation.
Pope Urges Drastic Reorganization of the Global Economy
(RNS) – Pope John Paul II, renewing his call for debt relief for poor countries, on Thursday (May 25) urged world leaders to consider a drastic reorganization of the global economy.
The Roman Catholic pontiff, accepting the credentials of the new ambassadors of New Zealand, Kuwait, Republic of the Congo and Ghana to the Holy See, also warned that a change in the traditional family could destroy society and strongly upheld “the inviolability of human life.”
“The turn of the century is indeed a particularly opportune occasion to envision moving still further forward on the question of the debt of the poor countries so that they may take an active part in international life,” John Paul said. The pope has linked debt forgiveness to this year’s Jubilee Holy Year celebrations.
In addition, he said, “there is a need to restructure international economic relations so that the less fortunate in Africa and elsewhere will be enabled to share equitably in the world’s resources.”
The pope said that the present organization of the world economic works “to the detriment of the producers of raw materials and the profit of the richer nations.”
John Paul also attacked the “materialistic views of the world and the person” that he said came to the fore in the late 20th century.
“Totalitarian systems may have foundered, but new forms of materialism have emerged, less ideologically driven and less spectacular in their manifestations perhaps, but nonetheless destructive in their effect on people and on the fabric of society,” he said.
“We are quickly learning how vital it is to respect the ecology of nature if we are not to cause serious harm to the world which future generations will receive from us,” the pope said. “More urgent still, though more difficult, is the need to learn to respect the ecology of the human world.”
The pope, who opposes unmarried and same-sex unions, said the traditional family is one of the “fundamental elements of this human ecology.”
“Attempts to define the family as something other than a solemnized lifelong union of man and woman which looks to the birth and nurture of children is bound to prove destructive,” he said.
“This claim is not a matter of attachment to a bygone cultural model which refuses to face the facts but precisely a recognition of a fundamental truth: the family is the basic cell of human society.”
The pope said “the inviolability of human life, especially at its beginning and its end” was another key element of human ecology.
“A society will be judged on the basis of how it treats its weakest members, and among the most vulnerable are surely the unborn and the dying,” he said.
Sudanese Holy City Threatened by Civil War
(RNS) One of Islam’s holiest sites is in danger of destruction because of the 17-year-long civil war in Sudan, the U.S. Committees for Refugees warned Wednesday (May 24).
Hamesh Khoreb _ home to a 7,000-student Koranic school founded in 1951 _ was seized early in April from the Sudanese government by the National Democratic Alliance, an opposition group.
“Hamesh Khoreb is a place at extreme risk,” said Roger Winter, executive director of the U.S. Committee for Refugees, a nonprofit humanitarian organization. “All parties to the conflict in Sudan should declare Hamesh Khoreb a neutral zone. This will protect the civilians of the town who are not involved in the hostilities.”
The government of Sudan has begun to bomb areas around Hamesh Khoreb, the Committee reported, possibly in preparation for an attempt to reclaim the town. Some 35,000 people live in the town, and about 150,000 people inhabit the surrounding region.
Hamesh Koreb is also threatened by the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea, according to the Committee. Conditions for those who live in and around the town could worsen since Ethiopia’s invasion of Eritrea limits the possibility of food and medical aid from that country.
The Committee reported that its recommendation to declare Hamesh Khoreb neutral territory has already been approved by the National Democratic Alliance.
Church-State Group Criticizes Bipartisan `Community Renewal’ Pact
(RNS) The announcement by President Clinton and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., of a bipartisan agreement on “community renewal” legislation has drawn criticism from a group advocating church-state separation.
The president and Hastert announced their agreement Tuesday (May 23) on a “New Markets and Community Renewal” legislative initiative that would help poor communities by encouraging private-sector equity investment in impoverished areas. It also would allow faith-based substance abuse treatment and prevention programs to qualify for federal funds in the same way that other nonprofits have since the passage of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act. That act includes a “charitable choice” provision that permits faith-based groups to use public funds to provide services such as job training, food and basic medical care.
“Both the president and vice president believe that faith-based and community-based organizations can play an important and constructive role in addressing some of our nation’s most pressing problems, including preventing and treating substance abuse,” reads a White House statement detailing the agreement. “At the same time, the administration has been clear that the `charitable choice provisions’ included in this agreement and in other legislation the president has signed can and must be construed and implemented consistent with the constitutional line between church and state.”
But the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of the Washington-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State, criticized the plan.
“This agreement could lead to a constitutional disaster,” Lynn said. “If this becomes law, Americans will be forced to fund religious groups and subsidize employment discrimination, and those in need will face religious pressures in order to receive assistance. This is a terrible mistake.”
Clergy: Mistrust of Doctors Contributes to AIDS Crisis Among Blacks
(RNS) A lack of knowledge within the African-American community about AIDS and HIV is rooted in a deep mistrust of white medical professionals, partly because of the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study, African-American clergy leaders said Wednesday (May 24) during a weeklong conference on AIDS.
The conference, which drew more than 300 African-American church leaders, was held in Tuskegee, Ala., the site of the 40-year study in which the U.S. government deliberately withheld treatment for syphilis from about 400 African-American men infected with the disease. The study ended in 1972.
“It has resulted in a community that is very paranoid about health care and about white doctors,” said Pernessa Seele, an AIDS activist who organized the conference at Tuskegee University, according to the Associated Press. “We have to get people into treatment, into care.”
Among African-Americans between the ages of 25 and 44, AIDS is the leading cause of death, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. One in 50 African-American men and one in 160 African-American women carry the virus that causes AIDS.
The Rev. Debra Hickman, an associate minister at City Temple of Baltimore Baptist Church, said that by teaching parishioners to ask questions of their doctors, clergy can help erase mistrust of white doctors.
“There’s still a deep-seated mistrust of doctors among members of the black community, especially doctors who don’t look like them,” Hickman said.
Church of Scotland Hesitant on Moves Toward Unity
(RNS) The prospect of union between the Church of Scotland and the Scottish Episcopal Church _ along with the United Reformed Church in Scotland and the Methodist Church in Scotland _ has survived, but only narrowly, as delegates to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland defeated a move to scuttle the entire unity process.
By a 276-238 vote, the assembly rejected a motion from James Whyte, former professor at St. Andrews and a former moderator, that would have withdrawn the church from talks on unity with the other churches.
The motion called for recognition of the vital importance of Christian unity and diversity of witness in Scotland, but also expressed the belief that union was neither necessary nor desirable at this time.
Even though the defeat of Whyte’s resolution means the Church of Scotland will now officially move forward in talks for union at all levels of the church, the narrowness of its defeat reflects a hesitancy for the church to proceed. Final unity proposals are expected to be presented to the General Assembly in 2002.
The plan in effect involves the Presbyterians (Church of Scotland) accepting the episcopal system of bishops into their structure, and Episcopalians accepting presbyterianism, with bishops operating within regional councils covering roughly the same area as presbyteries or dioceses.
Quote of the Day: Singer and actor Jim Nabors
(RNS) “I’ve never been able to articulate how I feel about God. I’ve only been able to do it with music, so that’s the reason I went back in the studio.”
Singer and actor Jim Nabors, explaining why he recently released “When He Spoke,” an inspirational collection of hymns, gospel tunes and contemporary music, his first musical release in two decades. He was quoted in the Thursday (May 25) edition of USA Today.
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