c. 2003 Religion News Service
With Potential War Looming, Religious Leaders Call for Prayer
(RNS) As a potential war with Iraq looms, religious leaders are calling for prayer in early March.
Noting the symbolism of March 3 _ 03/03/2003 _ the World Prayer Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., has asked Christians worldwide to consider that day a “Worldwide Day of Prayer.”
Other leaders have urged that Ash Wednesday and the beginning of the Christian reflective period of Lent be a special time for prayer. That day will be observed Wednesday (March 5) by many Protestant and Roman Catholic traditions and March 10 by many Orthodox traditions.
Ted Haggard, president of the World Prayer Center, said some Christians think the numerical sequence in the March 3 date is a reminder of the Trinity.
“The significance of 03-03-03 becomes even more pressing as America could launch a war with Iraq at about that very hour, against a leader, Saddam Hussein, who has only recently embraced Islam as a way of gaining support from the Islamic world,” Haggard said in a statement.
The center, an evangelical ministry, asks for specific prayers concerning the ongoing tensions between the United States and Iraq.
“Pray that Saddam Hussein will leave the country before war is required to remove him from power,” the center suggests. “Pray that a spiritual shield will contain hostilities within the Iraqi borders (if war cannot be avoided), such that it doesn’t spill over to the entire Islamic world. Pray that weapons of mass destruction, if they are deployed on any side of the battle, will be powerless.”
The World Council of Churches called for the beginning of Lent to be a global day of prayer for peace in Iraq in all its member churches. The ecumenical agency has posted suggested prayers in a variety of languages on its Web site.
Pope John Paul II also asked the world’s 1 billion Catholics to pray and fast for peace on Ash Wednesday.
(Web site for the World Prayer Center is http://www.worldprayerteam.org and the listing of prayers on the Web site of the World Council of Churches is at http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/international/iraqprayers-e.html)
_ Adelle M. Banks
Campus Crusade Founder’s Condition Worsening
(RNS) Campus Crusade for Christ founder Bill Bright’s health condition is worsening, his wife has reported to staff members.
Bright, 81, is suffering from pulmonary fibrosis, a life-threatening lung condition.
“It appears that what God has prepared for Bill in heaven is about ready,” Vonette Bright wrote in a letter to staff, board members and others that was posted on the ministry’s Web site Feb. 20.
She said a doctor has told them that her husband “might have six months or less to live.”
Vonette Bright, who co-founded the evangelical Christian organization, marveled at her husband’s accomplishments in the time since his diagnosis in the fall of 2000.
“Bill has surprised us all with two years of great productivity including 16 new books and the launch of the Global Pastors Network, and the Discover God movement, which is unfolding,” she wrote.
Steve Douglass succeeded Bright as president of the Orlando, Fla.-based organization in 2001. It includes dozens of ministries with outreaches to students, athletes, diplomats, families and military personnel.
_ Adelle M. Banks
House Passes Ban on All Human Cloning
WASHINGTON (RNS) The House of Representatives passed a comprehensive ban on all human cloning on Thursday (Feb. 27) for the second time in two years.
By a vote of 241 to 155, House members agreed to ban cloning for both reproductive purposes and controversial “therapeutic” research that supporters say could hold the cure to several human ailments.
An alternative bill that would have allowed cloning for medical research was defeated 231 to 174. The House passed a nearly identical ban in 2001, and President Bush has said he will sign the bill if it passes the Senate.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Fla., would make any attempt to clone a human punishable by a $1 million fine and up to 10 years in jail. It also bans the importation of medical treatments gleaned from cloning research overseas.
Catholic groups praised the House vote against a procedure they call immoral, for whatever purpose. In a letter to Congress before the vote, Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua of Philadelphia said the “allegedly lofty goals proposed for cloning cannot outweigh the grim reality of the activity itself.”
The American Humanist Association and Hadassah, a Jewish women’s group, however, said Congress was stifling scientific research. “Clearly this act is born of misplaced fear, driven by sectarian motives, and mandated by anti-abortion politics,” said Tony Hileman, executive director of the American Humanist Association.
The bill’s future in the Senate remains unclear. Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., has introduced a mirror version of the House bill that enjoys wide support. But a competing bill that would allow cloning for research has drawn support from several prominent Republicans, including Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah.
The White House said it will not support a bill that allows cloning for any purpose.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Evangelical, Jewish Leaders Urge Greater Christian-Jewish Cooperation
(RNS) Evangelical Christian leader Ralph Reed and Orthodox Rabbi Daniel Lapin are spearheading a new effort to encourage Jews and Christians to collaborate on moral and political issues.
The two men will unveil their ideas about the partnership at a March 11 gathering in Atlanta called “Christian and Jewish Dialogue: Towards a New Common Ground.” It is sponsored by Toward Tradition, a national interfaith coalition founded by Lapin.
“The survival of both of our communities depends on Jews and Christians joining in a united defense of American culture and traditions,” said Lapin in a statement. “The old paradigm of conflict and distrust between us is anachronistic today. Our common foundations of faith should unite us in strengthening our society against the threat that Iraq, al-Qaida and worldwide terrorists groups pose to all of us.”
In the last year, some American Jews and Christian conservatives have worked together in pro-Israel activities but Lapin and Reed would like to build on that cooperation to address issues that will benefit Americans.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Preservation Group Aims to Save Alaska’s Historic Orthodox Churches
(RNS) A new nonprofit group in Alaska hopes to help restore the state’s most historic Russian Orthodox churches.
Russian Orthodox Sacred Sites in Alaska has drawn together a board of Native leaders, Orthodox clergy, government officials, architects and preservationists to save the deteriorating churches, many ravaged by wind, weather and time, according to the Anchorage Daily News.
Visitors to the annual Fur Rendezvous festival in Anchorage in February could view snow sculptures of eight of those churches, painstakingly carved from 8-foot blocks of snow and adorned with icons and candles.
The “Spirit in Snow” exhibit was a collaboration of St. Innocent Russian Orthodox Cathedral and ROSSIA, which distributed pamphlets and took donations at the event. Since organizing in March 2002, ROSSIA has raised about $35,000.
Alaska has more than 92 active Russian Orthodox churches and chapels, many more than 100 years old, according to ROSSIA. Six were restored between 1992 and 2001 with funds allocated by Congress to the Aleutian-Pribilof Islands Restitution Act. Seven churches are National Historic Landmarks, and 33 are on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Russian Orthodox Church has had a continuous presence in Alaska since its first mission was established on Kodiak Island in 1794.
_ Christina Denny
Religious Freedom Panel Issues Warning on Afghanistan
(RNS) Amid continuing concerns by U.S. human rights and religious freedom groups that human rights conditions in Afghanistan are worsening, Afghanistan’s president seems to be wavering in his assessment of the strength of U.S. support for his country.
President Hamid Karzai told reporters at the Pentagon on Thursday (Feb. 27) the United States “will continue to support Afghanistan and that the attention there will be focused and continuous,” the Associated Press reported. But following an earlier meeting with President Bush at the White House, Karzai said there would likely be “a reduction in the amount of time spent on Afghanistan” should there be a U.S.-led war with Iraq.
In anticipation of Karzai’s visit, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent federal agency, said it was “seriously concerned” about reports of continued human rights abuses in Afghanistan.
Among numerous concerns, the commission said it was worried about reported efforts to deny equal rights to women and religious minorities in Afghanistan’s new constitution, and continued abuse of women and children, sometimes with support from local authorities.
The panel, established in 1998 to advise the president and Congress on issues related to religious freedom internationally, also criticized “misguided judicial activism” by Afghanistan’s chief justice, including endorsing amputations and other abusive corporal punishments. It also cited coercive measures by official agencies, including the so-called “religious police,” that require Afghans to follow specific religious practices.
Other points of concern include the practice of charging political reformers with blasphemy and the use of torture against prisoners.
The commission has recommended Bush appoint a high-level human rights monitor based at the U.S. diplomatic mission in Afghanistan “to promote, coordinate, monitor and report on the implementation of international standards of human rights, including religious freedom.”
“A renewed and enhanced commitment by the U.S. government to promoting respect for human rights and religious tolerance in the process of Afghanistan’s reconstruction would strengthen the moderate, reformist elements of which President Karzai is a leading member,” the commission said in a letter to Bush.
Since the late 2001 downfall of the Taliban and the subsequent emergence of the U.S.-backed Karzai as president, both international human rights groups and human rights activists within Afghanistan have said Karzai’s government does not have sufficient political or military strength to match the power of warlords or religious conservatives.
Some have also decried the insufficient levels of U.S. and Western support for reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, and have said a war in Iraq could reduce such support even further.
_ Chris Herlinger
Bishops Brief Canon Lawyers on New Abuse Rules
WASHINGTON (RNS) More than 200 Catholic priests have been briefed on how new church policies will affect their jobs as prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges in church sex abuse trials.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops began two weeks of training on Feb. 17 for 210 canon lawyers on how to interpret new rules that were adopted by the bishops last June and then approved by the Vatican last November.
Vatican officials ordered changes to the bishops’ original plan because they were concerned that accused priests’ legal rights were not being protected. The final rules detail the processes that could eventually lead to an abusive priest being removed from the priesthood.
“Because of the gravity of the crime involved and its serious consequences, it is even more essential that anyone accused of it be able to avail himself of the processes established by the church,” said Minneapolis Archbishop Harry Flynn, chairman of the bishops’ sex abuse committee.
The priests were instructed by Monsignor Charles Scicluna, a prosecutor for the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which will handle all abuse cases.
On Feb. 7, Pope John Paul II quietly revised rules so they they now allow the Congregation to defrock a priest without a trial in some cases, and also allow lay people to serve on some abuse tribunals. Previously those tribunals were restricted to priests.
“No one should think that we approach this matter, at every level of the church, with anything but the most profound sense of responsibility,” said Bishop Thomas Doran of Rockford, Ill., who helped negotiate the changes with the Vatican.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Britain Finally Gets Its First Eruv
LONDON (RNS) Over six months after work began, Britain’s first eruv is now in operation in London and Orthodox Jews living within its 12-mile perimeter in northwest London are able to carry keys and push baby carriages without breaking the Sabbath.
Work on the eruv _ a visibly marked boundary within which it is permissible to carry things on the Sabbath _ started Aug. 20.
Maintaining the eruv is estimated to cost about $32,000 a year. This will be funded by donations and also by a family membership fee of $80 a year for which families will receive a text message telling them whether the eruv is operational on any particular Sabbath.
People can also find out by looking at the eruv Web site and seeing whether the traffic lights at the head of the home page are showing green.
While Jews have been assured by Dayan Chanoch Ehrentreu, of the London Beth Din, that the eruv is kosher _ though if strong winds are blowing people should assume that the eruv is down and should not use it _ three rabbis from within the eruv have warned that relying on it “would endanger the sanctity of Shabbat.”
The three rabbis belong to the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations.
_ Robert Nowell
Quote of the Day: Pope John Paul II
(RNS) “You begin your ministry as archbishop of Canterbury at a painful and tense moment in history, a moment nonetheless marked by hope and promise. … It is precisely amidst these tensions and difficulties of our world that we are called to serve.”
_ Pope John Paul II in a message of good wishes to newly enthroned Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams.
DEA END RNS
