c. 2003 Religion News Service
Judge Permits Testimony From Navy Chaplain Selection Boards
WASHINGTON (RNS) A U.S. district court judge has ruled that members and staffers of the U.S. Navy’s chaplain selection boards must give testimony in lawsuits charging the military service with religious discrimination.
The opinion by Judge Ricardo M. Urbina of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia rejects the Navy’s defense that the boards’ proceedings should be kept private. Plaintiffs in two cases, including one that is a class action suit, sought the testimony, saying it was relevant.
In both cases, current and former Navy chaplains have sued the Navy alleging that it favors liturgical Christians over nonliturgical Christians when promoting its chaplains.
“Without addressing the merits of the plaintiffs’ claims, the court concludes that the plaintiffs have provided an adequate factual basis for their belief that the requested testimony will provide evidence of government misconduct,” Urbina wrote.
“The various reports and statistics cited by the plaintiffs are adequate at this stage to support a belief that the Navy engaged in discrimination against nonliturgical chaplains.”
The judge directed the parties involved in the suits to jointly propose a plan regarding the testimony.
Art Schulcz, a lawyer representing the chaplains, said Urbina’s opinion was “very important” for the chaplains he is defending.
“We argued we should be able to examine the personnel on the boards and see what they saw, what they heard,” Schulcz told Religion News Service. “Because that’s effectively the only way you’re going to determine whether there’s bias and prejudice.”
Lt. Jon Spiers, a public affairs officer for the chief of Navy chaplains, declined comment, saying, “It’s inappropriate to comment on pending litigation.”
_ Adelle M. Banks
Mennonite Church USA Trims Staff, Budget
(RNS) The Mennonite Church (USA), facing bleak budget numbers along with many mainline Protestant churches, will reduce its staff by 10 percent and trim expenses by $150,000 to meet an expected decrease in income in 2004.
The church is projecting a drop of $30,000 in income from local church conferences next year. In addition, the church’s Executive Board is planning on the discontinuation of $250,000 in start-up funds from church agencies after a 2001 merger.
The 118,000-member church was created in 2001 by the merger of the Mennonite Church and General Conference Mennonite Church.
“It is tempting to try to do more with less by simply reassigning the work of staff who will be leaving or who have reduced assignments, but we know we need to readjust some program expectations,” Ron Byler, associate executive director for the Executive Board, said in a news release.
The board trimmed full-time staff to 27 by eliminating three full-time positions. In additions, four employees’ hours were trimmed back from full-time to part-time.
Employees who will lose their jobs will receive two- or three-month severance packages, depending on their experience. The job cuts will be effective Feb. 1, 2004. Miscellaneous expenses will also be pared back.
“Some congregations, conferences and churchwide agencies are also facing financial challenges, and we know we are not alone in making difficult financial decisions,” Byler said.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Changing With the Times, Vatican Invites Giving by Credit Card
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Changing with the times, the Vatican is inviting charity by credit card.
Normally, Catholics worldwide are asked to make a “Peter’s Pence” contribution once a year on June 29 or the nearest Sunday when the church celebrates the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul. The collection, which totaled $52.8 million last year, goes directly to the pope to use for charity or church expenses.
Now the Vatican Web site is inviting contributions at any time of the year by a choice of four credit cards (American Express, Visa, Diners or MasterCard). It instructs donors to fax their name, credit card number and expiration date and the amount they want to give to (39) 06-6988-3954.
The move is the latest in a series of electronic updating by Vatican officials.
The Vatican earlier this year began transmitting a papal thought for the day by cell phone in Italy and Ireland and since June has been offering virtual visits via the Internet to the Sistine Chapel and five other sections of the Vatican Museums.
“Peter’s Pence is the name given to the financial support offered by the faithful to the Holy Father as a sign of their sharing in the concern of the successor of St. Peter for the many different needs of the universal church and for the relief of those most in need,” the Vatican Web site says.
The collections originated at the end of the eighth century among Anglo-Saxon Catholics, who sent Denarius Sancti Petri, or Alms of St. Peter, to Rome.
The Vatican said in its financial report issued July 10 that that the offerings rose by 1.8 percent in 2002 despite the pedophilia scandals in the United States and elsewhere.
_ Peggy Polk
Vatican Urges `Definitive End to All Nuclear Weapons Testing’
VATICAN CITY (RNS) The Vatican has urged the nations of the world to put a “definitive end to all nuclear weapons testing” by ratifying the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
“A so-called peace based on nuclear weapons cannot be the type of peace we seek for the 21st century,” Archbishop Pietro Parolin, Vatican undersecretary of state, told the Third Conference on Facilitating the Entry into Force of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
The Vatican on Friday (Sept. 5) issued the statement that Parolin made Thursday to the three-day meeting in Vienna.
Noting that the Vatican ratified the treaty on July 18, 2001, the prelate said “the Holy See wishes to express its profound conviction that the time is ripe for all the nations of the world to put a definitive end to all nuclear weapons testing.”
“Any accumulated delay inevitably increases the risk that nuclear testing will resume and nonproliferation be much harder to sustain,” he said.
To date, 168 states have signed the 1996 treaty and 104 have ratified it, including 32 of the 44 nuclear-capable whose ratification is necessary for the treaty to enter into force. The United States and China have signed but not ratified the treaty.
A moratorium on testing is in effect, but North Korea withdrew from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty at the start of the year and has threatened to develop and test nuclear weapons.
“The Holy See is convinced that today, more than ever, close international cooperation and a multilateral approach are essential in order to face the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction to peace and international security,” Parolin said. “Global security will be guaranteed through global cooperation within the framework of an authentically multilateral system.”
Pope John Paul II has made “International Law, Guarantee of International Relations aimed at Fostering Peace Between Nations” the theme of the next World Day of Peace, which will be observed on Jan. 1, 2004.
“Humanity faces a crucial challenge and more than ever needs to live in a renewed and authentic spirit of international legitimacy. Unless it manages to equip itself with truly effective institutions to avert the scourge of war, these is a risk that the law of force will prevail over the force of law,” Parolin said.
Anglican Cathedral Withdraws Permission for Gay Meeting
LONDON (RNS) Manchester Cathedral has “reluctantly” withdrawn its permission for the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement to use the cathedral for a service during its “Halfway to Lambeth” conference to be held in Manchester Oct. 24-26.
One of the keynote speakers at the conference will be Canon Gene Robinson, bishop-elect of New Hampshire, along with Canadian Bishop Michael Ingham of New Westminster.
In a statement the cathedral chapter said it had withdrawn permission “in the light of sensitivities and timing in relation to the current debates in the Church of England and the Anglican Communion.”
But it emphasized that it regarded the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement as “a legitimate Christian organization” and that it regarded the movement’s commitment to greater inclusivity “as a proper moral claim on church and society.” It wished the movement well in its forthcoming conference.
In response, the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement recalled that prayer and praise were the “joyful duty” of all God’s people and formed the bedrock of their gathering.
“It is horrifying to think that any person, no matter what their views on human sexuality, might welcome this ban on what is a sacred obligation for all Christians,” it said.
Noting that the Anglican Communion was committed to listening to lesbian and gay people, the movement said it seemed that “even when we try to lift our voices in adoration of God we are to be silenced.”
_ Robert Nowell
American Jewish Committee Names New U.S. Interreligious Exec
(RNS) The American Jewish Committee has named David Elcott as its new U.S. interreligious affairs director.
“David Elcott’s talent for bringing diverse peoples together on collaborative efforts will help ensure that AJC’s impact on the interreligious scene continues to be significant,” said David A. Harris, executive of the New York-based organization, in a Wednesday (Sept. 3) statement.
Elcott served for 16 years as vice president of CLAL, the National Center for Learning and Leadership, an educational and training institution for American Jews. For the last four years, he has headed a consulting firm that aided nonprofit groups and major corporations in refashioning their missions for the 21st century.
Elcott will work with the Jerusalem-based Rabbi David Rosen, the committee’s director of interreligious affairs. Both are continuing interfaith program efforts that were previously done for decades by Rabbi Marc Tanenbaum and Rabbi James Rudin, who remains the AJC’s senior interreligious adviser.
“Religion looms larger than ever in aspects of politics, culture and even economics,” said Elcott. “It is an honor to have the opportunity to engage with other religious communities, to help them understand us and to work with them in acts of tikkun, of improving the world.”
In a separate announcement, the AJC said it has appointed Dina Siegel Vann as director of Latino and Latin American affairs. The appointment, announced Tuesday, marks the first time the committee has had a senior staffer whose intent is to expand outreach to Latino communities in the United States and Latin America.
Siegel Vann, a native of Mexico, previously served as executive director of Tribuna Israelita, the public affairs agency of the Jewish community of Mexico.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Quote of the Day: Christian singer/songwriter Paul Baloche
(RNS) “A steady diet of doctrinal hymns is like too much filet mignon. But living on repetitive four-line choruses is like making a meal of potato chips. Ideal is a mix.”
_ Christian singer/songwriter Paul Baloche, quoted by USA Today.
DEA END RNS
