c. 2003 Religion News Service
Conservative Episcopalians Urged to `Stand Firm’ for Now
(RNS) Conservative Episcopalians are being urged to “please stand firm a little while longer” and not leave the denomination until officials can develop an alternative network for dissidents.
The Rev. David Anderson, president of the American Anglican Council, a Washington-based conservative group that led opposition to the election and consecration of an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire, said “any decision to leave now would be premature.”
“If it is simply impossible for you to remain where you are … then you may wish for the time being to consider gathering together with other orthodox Episcopalians in your same situation to form a new informal `congregation’ that meets in a home or school,” Anderson said in a letter to supporters.
Anderson said Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh has been named the moderator of a new conservative network that would provide oversight for parishes or clergy who oppose the denomination’s positions on homosexuality.
The network, which would exist alongside the Episcopal Church, has the blessing of 13 bishops and, Anderson said, the leader of the Anglican Communion, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams.
The Episcopal Church is one of 38 autonomous churches in the 77 million-member Anglican Communion.
“I can personally assure you that there is an unwavering commitment on the part of the Anglican primates to ensure that you and I have an Anglican home now that the Episcopal Church has left the Anglican family,” Anderson wrote.
At the same time, a separate group of Anglican churches that have broken away from the Episcopal Church met recently in Orlando, Fla., to “begin a common commitment to do mission collaboratively via a new federation.”
The new alliance, spearheaded by the group Anglicans United, brings together the Anglican Mission in America, the Reformed Episcopal Church, Forward in Faith and some members of the Episcopal Church. Most of the groups are not officially recognized by the archbishop of Canterbury.
The new federation will be overseen by the Most Rev. Leonard Riches, presiding bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church, which broke away in 1873 over doctrinal differences.
“We are committed to gospel initiatives which include … clear evangelistic preaching that is ordered to bring people into the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ in a godly community of faith,” said a statement adopted by the group.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Conservative Christians Ask FCC to Review Curse Word Decision
(RNS) Several conservative Christian organizations have joined a legal complaint asking the Federal Communications Commission to reconsider its ruling that the airing of a curse word uttered during the Golden Globe Awards did not violate indecency law.
The seven-page request called the commission’s Oct. 3 ruling about language uttered by U2 lead singer and AIDS activist Bono “a departure from common sense.”
During the show, which aired in January, Bono uttered the phrase “this is really, really f—brilliant.”
The FCC’s Enforcement Bureau said the use of the f-word was “not within the scope of the commission’s prohibition of indecent program content” because it was not used to “describe sexual or excretory organs or activities” but rather was used “as an adjective or expletive to emphasize an exclamation.”
The request to reconsider the decision was submitted to the FCC on Thursday (Dec. 4) by Morality in Media, and was joined by such groups as Alliance Defense Fund, American Family Association, Concerned Women for America, Family Research Council and Focus on the Family.
Disagreeing with the FCC’s reasoning, the groups argued that “a fleeting or isolated use of a vulgarism for sexual or excretory activities or organs” should be prohibited.
“One would think that in determining whether programming is `patently offensive,’ the commission would take into consideration that citizens are assaulted by broadcast indecency in the home and that large numbers of children are in the audience between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.,” they argued.
An FCC spokesman could not be reached immediately for comment.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Update: Controversial Virgin Mary Billboard Removed in Providence
(RNS) A Providence, R.I., billboard featuring the Virgin Mary holding a dead chicken was removed Thursday (Dec. 4) after local Catholics called it offensive.
Bob Murray, owner of Murray Outdoor Communications, said his two-man advertising firm could not handle the volume of complaints and the vandalism, trespassing and media interest the sign generated.
“We’re a billboard company, we’re not in the business of having debates on the issue,” Murray said. “We’re big proponents of the First Amendment, but we can’t be sponsoring debate forums.”
The ad by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals featured the Virgin Mary holding a dead chicken with the words “Go Vegetarian. It’s an Immaculate Conception.”
Catholics celebrated the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, in which they believe the mother of Jesus was conceived without sin, on Monday (Dec. 8).
Roman Catholic Bishop Robert Mulvee called the sign “disturbing” and said, “This use of one of the most sacred images of the Christian faith trivializes not only the Mother of Jesus but also the very cause PETA strives to advance.”
Murray said he approved the ad and did not find the image offensive. “The Virgin Mary is doing what she’s known for. She wasn’t holding a meat cleaver, she was just holding a dead animal.” Murray said part of PETA’s contract fee will be refunded.
PETA director Bruce Friedrich, a Catholic, said he still hopes to post similar ads throughout the country by the end of the year.
“No one has been able yet to explain why it’s offensive. They all say it is, but can’t say why,” he said. “What is offensive about depicting Mary with a chicken? It’s a lovingly rendered image.”
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Weak and Fragile Pope Cries Out for Peace in the World
ROME (RNS) A weak and fragile Pope John Paul II cried out for the “precious gift of peace” in the world Monday (Dec. 8) as he observed the Catholic Church’s Feast of the Immaculate Conception with a visit to the historic center of Rome.
Sitting bent over in a wheelchair at the foot of a statue of the Virgin Mary on a tall marble column near the Spanish Steps, the 83-year-old Roman Catholic pontiff prayed to the Virgin Mary, whom he called the “queen of peace.”
Although his voice was weak and his pronunciation slurred, the prayer that the pope had written himself was stark and dramatic. Speaking in Italian, he repeated the word “peace” nine times.
“Hear the cry of pain of the victims of wars and of so many forms of violence that bloody the Earth,” John Paul said. “Disperse the gloom of sadness and solitude, of hate and vendetta. Open the minds and hearts of everyone to faith and to pardon.”
John Paul was an outspoken opponent of the war waged by the United States and Britain to depose Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, and he has deplored the bombings that have followed. He also appeals constantly for an end to violence between Israelis and Palestinians in the Holy Land.
Continuing a tradition started by his predecessors, the pope drives to Piazza Mignanelli in the heart of Rome’s most elegant shopping district each Dec. 8 to pray at the city’s only outdoor statute of the Virgin Mary on the feast day celebrating the dogma stated by Pope Pius IX in 1854 that Mary was conceived free of original sin. Known as the Immaculata, the day is a public holiday in Rome.
Thousands of Christmas shoppers and tourists applauded John Paul as he emerged from a black limousine to be greeted by Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni. In past years he kneeled on the cobblestones of the square to pray, but he is now confined to a wheelchair by Parkinson’s disease and arthritis.
_ Peggy Polk
British Church Leaders Stress Need for Affordable Housing
LONDON (RNS) The urgent need for affordable housing was emphasized by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor of Westminster as they launched a new Christian housing charity called Housing Justice.
It has been formed by merging the Catholic Housing Aid Society, founded nearly 50 years ago, and the Churches’ National Housing Coalition, which came into being in the early 1990s.
The housing situation in Britain has worsened considerably in recent years. One estimate suggests that, while thanks to inflation average incomes today are about 10 times what they were in 1970, house prices in the London area are about 50 times what they were.
The situation has been exacerbated by the decision of the Conservative government led by Margaret Thatcher between 1979 and 1990 to sell off council (public) housing on favorable terms to existing tenants while barring councils from using the proceeds to build more houses and apartment units.
Preaching at a service at St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields in London to launch the new body, Williams asked why people employed in essential services could not afford to live in the areas where they worked.
“We live in an environment where there is, or seems to be, an immense gulf between the needs of ordinary people for a stable background that helps them to be human … and the way in which a property market operates which seems to have very little indeed to do with human resources, human need or human dignity,” he said.
Murphy-O’Connor pointed out that having somewhere to call home is “a fundamental part” of human dignity.
“Home is the place where we build our families and find the space to develop alongside friends and loved ones,” he said. “To be deprived of such a basic necessity is to feel less than human.”
Summing up the aims of Housing Justice, he said, “We want everyone who wants a home to have one.”
_ Robert Nowell
London’s Chief Rabbi Wins Prestigious Grawemeyer Award
(RNS) Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks of London has won the prestigious 2004 Grawemeyer Award in Religion for his book arguing that tolerance is necessary to attain peace.
“For too long, the pages of history have been stained by bloodshed in the name of God,” Sacks wrote in “The Dignity of Difference: How to Avoid the Clash of Civilizations.”
“Allied to weapons of mass destruction, extremist religious attitudes threaten the very security of life on Earth. In our interconnected world, we must learn to feel enlarged, not threatened, by difference.”
The book was first published in hardback by Continuum in 2002 and was reissued in a revised paperback edition in 2003.
“Sacks makes a biblical and theological case for valuing difference, petitioning us to look upon `the other’ as enriching the collective heritage of humankind,” said Susan R. Garrett, coordinator of the Grawemeyer Award in Religion and a New Testament professor at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Kentucky.
The award, which includes a cash prize of $200,000, is given jointly each year by the Louisville Seminary and the University of Louisville.
Sacks, a London resident who has authored 13 books, has been chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth since 1991.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Quote of the Day: Pagan Bookshop Manager Fritz Waltjen of North Hollywood, Calif.
(RNS) “I don’t think the man was being malicious. I think he was just ignorant.”
_ Fritz Waltjen, retail manager of Raven’s Flight, a pagan bookshop in North Hollywood, Calif., commenting on White House official Jim Towey’s recent remark that he was not familiar with “a pagan group that cares for the poor.” Waltjen was quoted in a Washington Post story about pagans responding with reports of their charitable activities.
DEA END RNS
