c. 2003 Religion News Service
Gay Bishop Clears First Hurdle in Episcopal Church
(RNS) The Episcopal Church on Friday (Aug. 1) made its first official endorsement of an openly gay priest to serve as the next bishop of New Hampshire.
The Rev. V. Gene Robinson was elected as the church’s first openly gay bishop on June 7. Robinson’s election needs to be certified by bishops, clergy and lay delegates to the General Convention meeting in Minneapolis.
Conservatives have threatened to lead a schism if Robinson is confirmed.
On Friday, a committee of lay and clergy delegates approved Robinson’s nomination after two hours of emotional testimony. The committee’s vote tally was not announced, according to Episcopal News Service.
Robinson’s election, and those of nine other bishops, must be ratified on Sunday (Aug. 3) by the House of Deputies, comprised of more than 800 lay and clergy delegates.
If Robinson is approved by the House of Deputies, his election will then need to be certified by the church’s House of Bishops. That hearing is scheduled for Monday or Tuesday.
The 2.3 million-member church will also debate whether to create liturgies to bless same-sex unions during the convention that ends on Aug. 8.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Assemblies of God Members Urged to Be a Movement, Not `a Monument’
(RNS) The Rev. Thomas Trask, general superintendent of the Assemblies of God, opened the group’s biennial General Council with a call for its members to maintain their Pentecostal mission.
“This is a defining moment for the Assemblies of God,” Trask told about 9,500 gathered at the MCI Center in Washington on Thursday (July 31). “Either we will be a spirit-filled movement or we will become a monument.”
The group, long called a “fellowship,” began in 1914 and has 2.7 million members in the United States. Trask said worldwide numbers now near 48 million.
“God never intended for the Assemblies of God to become a denomination,” Trask said. “We must ask ourselves … are we transformed enough to be able to transform our society or is society going to transform us?”
He urged members of the church group to be serious about evangelism and prayer and to continue holding evening services at which he believes miracles occur.
“You can’t have that when you shut down the place,” he said to applause.
President Bush greeted the council attendees via recorded video, noting their “common values” include the belief that “every life counts.” Assemblies of God leaders presented Washington Mayor Anthony Williams with a check for $30,000 for “transformation schools” that have been labeled as having the greatest potential for improvement.
Attorney General John Ashcroft _ who Trask called “the Assemblies of God’s favored son” _ was honored at a banquet recognizing the church group’s “compassion ministries.”
Ashcroft, noting that he was not speaking in his role as attorney general, urged continuing compassion for those in need.
“When we love our neighbors as ourselves, we love God and show our love to God,” he told more than 3,000 at the banquet.
More than 21,000 individuals had registered for the Assemblies of God gatherings by Friday morning. That number included more than 10,000 youth and children who are attending concurrent events.
_ Adelle M. Banks
`Regular Baptists’ Take Stand Against `Open Theism’
(RNS) The General Association of Regular Baptist Churches has taken a stand against the theological concept of “open theism,” the belief that God does not fully know the future and can be spontaneous.
The messengers, or delegates, to the June 23-27 meeting in Riverside, Calif., said they “reject open theism because it redefines the orthodox, biblical teachings on the attributes of our great God.”
Their resolution states that open theism inaccurately redefines biblical doctrine about the omniscience and omnipotence of God and undermines doctrine about God’s sovereignty.
“We further encourage the churches of the GARBC to be vigilant and watchful over their members and to guard against open theism being taught in and accepted into our churches’ study groups.”
The topic has been a source of disagreement among evangelical scholars. Seventy percent of members of the Evangelical Theological Society voted in 2001 to reject the concept, which argues that God can “change his mind.” Classical theists believe God never improvises and has complete foreknowledge.
The General Association of Regular Baptists has about 132,000 members. It was founded in 1932 after withdrawing from a more moderate Baptist convention over doctrinal differences.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Pope Names New Bishop in Brooklyn
(RNS) Pope John Paul II on Friday (Aug. 1) named the bishop of Camden, N.J., as the new bishop of Brooklyn, N.Y., to succeed Thomas Daily, who has come under fire for decisions he made as a deputy bishop in the scandal-scarred Archdiocese of Boston.
Daily, who reached the mandatory retirement age of 75 last year, will be replaced by Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, who has led the suburban Philadelphia diocese since 1999. The Brooklyn Diocese is the nation’s fifth-largest diocese with 1.8 million Catholics in Brooklyn and Queens.
Daily served as an auxiliary bishop in Boston from 1974 to 1984. A July 23 report by Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas Reilly said Daily had a “clear preference” for protecting abusive priests while serving under the late Cardinal Humberto Medeiros. Daily left Boston for Palm Beach, Fla., four months after Cardinal Bernard Law was appointed in 1984.
In the neighboring Diocese of Rockville Centre, which covers the rest of Long Island, Bishop William Murphy _ another former Boston auxiliary bishop _ has directed his pastors to avoid a petition drive in support of the embattled bishop.
Reilly’s report said Murphy, who served in Boston from 1995 to 2001, “took some positive steps” in handling abusive priests but nonetheless “continued to place a higher priority on preventing scandal … than protecting children from sexual abuse.”
A petition drive sponsored by the New York-based Catholic League to support Murphy may continue, the bishop said, but without the official sanction of parish pastors.
In other appointments, the pope named the Rev. Peter Jugis as the new bishop of Charlotte, N.C., succeeding Bishop William Curlin, who resigned last year. He also named Bishop Sam Jacobs of Alexandria, La., as the new bishop of Houma-Thibodaux, La., to succeed Bishop Michael Jarrell, who was named to Lafayette, La., last November.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
O’Malley Replaces Church Abuse Lawyer; Reformers Offer 100-Day Plan
(RNS) Just one day after his installation as the leader of Boston’s Catholics, Archbishop Sean O’Malley replaced the church’s lawyer with a veteran known for settling sexual abuse cases.
On Thursday (July 31), O’Malley appointed attorney Thomas H. Hannigan Jr. to handle the 500 sexual abuse cases pending against the archdiocese. Hannigan will replace the church’s longtime attorney, Wilson D. Rogers Jr.
“The fact that he did this so swiftly indicates, for us, that Archbishop O’Malley is in charge and has a plan to bring a resolution forward,” Jeffrey Newman, a lawyer who represents about half the plantiffs, told The New York Times.
Rogers will remain as the archdiocesan counsel on all other legal matters, but some church observers expect him to be phased out entirely over time.
Hannigan has a long association with O’Malley, who was formerly the bishop of the neighboring Diocese of Fall River. In 1992, Hannigan settled 101 lawsuits brought against the Fall River diocese, all of which involved serial abuser James Porter.
Legal experts say it could cost the cash-strapped archdiocese as much as $100 million to settle the suits.
At the same time, a lay reform group that was born in the wake of the sex abuse scandal offered a six-point plan for O’Malley’s first 100 days in office.
Voice of the Faithful urged O’Malley to acknowledge the findings of a recent state attorney general’s report on abuse in the church, disclose the details of a national church audit to measure the scope of the scandal, lift the bans on Voice of the Faithful meetings in parishes, install financial “transparency” policies, reach a fair settlement with victims and launch a three-year “truth and reconciliation process” to help the church heal.
“The promise we hope for is that our new archbishop … will provide the pastoral vision and leadership to help the church move from this blackest picture of our church to its brightest picture of justice and faith,” said the group’s president, Jim Post.
Latter-Day Saints, Salt Lake City Try to End Dispute With Land Swap
(RNS) Officials of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Salt Lake City hope they have ended a long-standing dispute over a city block by completing a land swap.
On Monday (July 28), Mayor Rocky Anderson and Bishop David Burton signed an agreement that permits the Latter-day Saints to regulate behavior in a park it bought from the city, the Associated Press reported.
In return, the city has received two acres on which it plans to build a community center. The swap comes after federal courts ruled that the city’s sidewalk easement included free speech rights that could not be curtailed by the church.
“This is the best resolution and is going to bring about some great things for this community,” Anderson said at the signing.
Burton, presiding bishop of the religious body, said the church has no plans to limit public access to the block.
“Unless there’s something that really disrupts, is negative toward the ownership of the plaza, we don’t say much,” he said.
The new agreement gives the church complete control over the block, which it transformed into a pedestrian mall with gardens and a reflecting pool after it purchased it.
The church originally tried to make rules for the plaza, including bans on protesting, swearing, smoking and playing music. The American Civil Liberties Union led critics in suing to overturn the original sale, claiming the church’s restrictions violated citizens’ constitutional rights.
A federal appellate court ruled last October that the church could not restrict activities, such as speech, on the sidewalks that run through its plaza and the Supreme Court declined to review that decision in June.
Baptist Pastor Seeks to Pay White Visitors to Diversify Congregation
(RNS) The pastor of a Shreveport, La., church has announced plans to offer white people money to help his congregation become more diverse.
Bishop Fred Caldwell said he will pay $5 per hour for attendance at Sunday services at Greenwood Acres Full Gospel Baptist Church and $10 an hour for Thursday services, the Associated Press reported.
“Our churches are too segregated, and the Lord never intended for that to happen,” he said after the idea came to him during his sermon on Sunday (July 27).
White visitors will have to register when they attend in order to get their money. Caldwell plans to pay them from his own funds and seek help from the congregation if necessary.
After a television news story aired on Monday, Caldwell said he has had several positive responses from whites in the community and he plans to put out extra chairs on Sunday. One man said he appreciated the invitation but didn’t want the money.
Criss Williams, one of the congregation’s few white members, said the idea of a payout doesn’t bother her.
“I don’t see it as any different than a lot of the churches that have different social functions to attract visitors,” she said. “Bishop just kind of cut to the chase and went to the money.”
Quote of the Day: National Association of Evangelicals Vice President Richard Cizik
(RNS) “You don’t need an evangelical lobby. You’ve got an evangelical in the Oval Office.”
_ The Rev. Richard Cizik, vice president of the National Association of Evangelicals, quoted in The Charlotte Observer.
DEA END RNS
