c. 2003 Religion News Service
Nigerian Archbishop Says Western Churches are Spiritually Bankrupt
(RNS) The Episcopal Church may be financially wealthy but the recent election of an openly gay bishop has left it spiritually bankrupt, the leader of the world’s largest Anglican church said.
Archbishop Peter Akinola, primate of the 18 million-member Anglican Church in Nigeria, said his church must become financially independent so that it no longer has to rely on “handouts from the rich churches of the Western world.”
Akinola also severed relations with the Anglican Diocese of New Westminster in Vancouver after the bishop there authorized the blessing of same-sex unions.
“Our boldness in condemning the spiritual bankruptcy of these churches must be matched by our refusal to receive financial help from them,” Akinola said in a June 21 “encyclical.” “This means that we must become self-reliant as a matter of urgency so that we will not only meet our own need locally, but also those of our poor African brethren.”
Akinola, along with several other conservative African and Asian Anglican leaders, said the June 7 election of the Rev. V. Gene Robinson as the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church threatens the “already fragile relationship that the Episcopal Church has with the Anglican Communion worldwide.”
Robinson’s election must be certified by the Episcopalians’ General Convention meeting next month. Akinola urged the church “not just to refuse to ratify this election, but to take measures to forestall any such moves in the future.”
In an interview with the Lagos, Nigeria, newspaper Guardian, Akinola called Robinson’s election “a Satanic attack on God’s church.”
“I cannot think of how a man in his senses would be having a sexual relationship with another man,” he said. “Even in the world of animals, dogs, cows, lions, we don’t hear of such things.
“When we sit down globally as a communion, I am going to sit in a meeting with a man who is marrying a fellow man. I mean, it’s just not possible. I cannot see myself doing it.”
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Gay Denomination Founder to Legally Wed Partner in Toronto
(RNS) The founder and leader of the nation’s only predominantly gay church said he’s going to Toronto to be legally married to his partner of 18 years.
The Rev. Troy Perry, who founded the Metropolitan Community Churches in 1968, will marry Phillip Ray DeBlieck at the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto on July 16 in a private ceremony.
The Canadian government agreed last week (June 17) to allow gay marriages after an Ontario court ruled that restricting marriage to heterosexuals was discriminatory and unconstitutional.
“One of the desires of my heart is to legally marry him before I die,” Perry said Wednesday (June 25). “We’ve always said that to each other, and we finally have the chance to do it.”
Perry predicted that the new Canadian policy would result in gay marriage in the United States within five years. Perry first sued the state of California in 1970 on behalf of two lesbians who wanted to marry. “We lost that suit and that battle, but we didn’t lose the war,” he said.
Perry’s denomination of 46,000 members conducts 6,000 same-sex weddings a year _ the church stopped calling them “holy unions” five years ago _ even though gay marriage is not recognized outside Belgium, the Netherlands, and now Canada.
Perry said he would continue to lobby states each Valentine’s Day to “bite the bullet” and grant full marriage rights to gay couples. “When I got involved in this, I said I’m going to keep doing it until the fat angel calls me home.”
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Dispute Erupts Over Teaching of Religion in Spanish Schools
MADRID (RNS) Civil rights groups and leftist political leaders are fuming after the conservative government of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar said it would make religion class obligatory in high school.
The education reform was expected to be ratified as early as Friday (June 27) by Aznar’s cabinet and to take effect in stages over the next few academic years, said Education Ministry spokesman Roberto Rodriguez. It does not require parliamentary approval, since it will be promulgated as a royal decree.
The reform gives all high school students a choice of taking confessional religion classes in their own creed or an alternative class in the history and philosophy of religions, said Rodriguez.
Those classes will count toward the student’s grade point average. The average is necessary for graduation and also a factor in determining university entrance eligibility in restricted areas of study such as engineering and medicine.
Currently religion classes are optional in high school and there is no grading. The classes are available in the major monotheistic faiths but 90 percent of those who request them opt for Roman Catholicism.
The Catholic Church hailed the legislation.
Msgr. Juan Antonio Martinez Camino, spokesman for the Spanish bishops’ conference, said religion classes are necessary for “the complete education of the individual.”
The government says the reforms were implemented after the Council of State, an advisory body, said the old system discriminated against students who had chosen to take religion.
And for the other students, Education Minister Pilar del Castillo says it was important to find a way of teaching them “the impact of religion in the history of humanity.”
However, Carmen Chacon of the opposition Socialist Party said the education reform will give students a choice between “religion and religion.”
And one labor union said it “brings us back to the Franco area,” when the church held sway in matters of education and other social questions such as film censorship.
Critics worry that the legislation will allow the church to regain some of that influence.
Under a treaty signed with the Vatican after the dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco, the church still has the authority to appoint religion teachers in public schools, even though they are paid out of state funds.
That provision touched off a storm of protests recently after several religion teachers were fired for behavior seen as incompatible with church teaching, such as dating divorced men.
_ Jerome Socolovsky
Dutch Workers Try to Build Church of Cheese
(RNS) Construction is expected to begin this weekend (June 28) on the world’s first church made entirely from cheese.
Volunteers in the Dutch town of Edam, famous for its distinctive rounds of cheese, will try to build a 12-foot-high replica of the landmark St. Nicholas Church. The builders hope to raise about $262,000 to help repair damage from wood beetles and mold in the 15th century church.
“As far as we know no church has ever been built from cheese before,” Nel Eijk, the project’s spokesman, told Ecumenical News International.
The plans call for 10,000 of the ball-shaped cheeses to be used to build the replica. Organizers are charging about $11 to “sponsor” each round of cheese; so far, 3,500 sponsorships have been bought.
Each sponsor will receive one free ticket to visit the completed cheese church, while other visitors will pay about $4.50 to look inside. The cheese church is expected to stay open until mid-September.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
`Rowan Bears’ Production Draws to an End
LONDON (RNS) Since February, shortly before his enthronement as archbishop of Canterbury, those with $225 to spare have been able to order a hand-made teddy bear looking remarkably like Rowan Williams, complete with beard and suitably vested in cope and mitre.
But no longer. Madeley Bears, the Redditch company that made them at the instigation of Ship of Fools, the whimsical Christian Web site, has decided that enough is enough after orders for 83 Rowan Bears have come in. No more will be made.
“The project has been a real challenge,” said expert bear-maker Lynne Madeley. “Each bear is taking a day and a half to make, and all the little cassocks, copes, mitres and stoles have given my workroom the appearance of a Lilliputian vestment supplier.
“We’ve got through 12 meters of mohair, 37 pounds in weight of steel shot _ and more fiberfill than I care to think about. Sewing on 3,237 tiny cassock buttons can only be described as … a lot of buttons.”
_ Robert Nowell
Hobgood to Be Interim Leader of Disciples
(RNS) A veteran pastor and church administrator is expected to serve a 21-month term as interim leader of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
The Rev. William Chris Hobgood has been nominated to lead the church until someone is chosen to permanently serve as general minister and president for the 800,000-member denomination.
The church’s current president, the Rev. Richard Hamm, resigned earlier this year and will serve until October. Hobgood is expected to be confirmed by the church’s Administrative Committee and General Assembly meeting in October.
“It is the unanimous decision of the moderators that our church would be well-served by having Chris Hobgood in leadership at this time,” said the Rev. Alvin O. Jackson, pastor of National City Christian Church in Washington and the denomination’s moderator.
Hobgood is the public witness and advocacy director for the Disciples’ North American missions agency. For 17 years, he supervised churches in the Washington, D.C., area and in Arkansas. He also served as pastor of congregations in Kentucky, Indiana and Virginia for 25 years.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
`Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly’ Receives Additional Funding
WASHINGTON (RNS) “Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly,” the PBS newsmagazine program, has received renewed funding support from Lilly Endowment for its upcoming seventh season.
The Indianapolis-based foundation has committed $6.4 million to the 52-week series, Thirteen/WNET New York announced.
The new season for the series hosted by Bob Abernethy will begin Sept. 5 and be distributed on Fridays at 5 p.m. ET (check local listings) to PBS stations nationwide.
The program is produced by Thirteen/WNET New York and receives additional funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Quote of the Day: Syracuse University Professor Robert Thompson
(RNS) “`Star Trek’ is not rocket science, and `The Simpsons’ is not Martin Luther. However, as `Star Trek’ was a pretty good bait and lure to get people into rocket science, `The Simpsons’ is a pretty good bait and lure to get these people to explore (religion) in a more sophisticated way.”
_ Robert Thompson, professor of television and pop culture at Syracuse University, speaking to The New York Times about the spiritual themes in “The Simpsons”
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