c. 2004 Religion News Service
UCC Calls for Defeat of Gay Marriage Amendment
(RNS) One of the nation’s most liberal Protestant denominations has urged the defeat of a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage, as well as the repeal of a 1996 federal law that defines marriage as between one man and one woman.
The Executive Council of the United Church of Christ, meeting in Atlanta on Monday (April 26), also called for the defeat of state proposals that would prohibit gay marriage.
“We hold that, as a child of God, every person is endowed with worth and dignity that human judgment cannot set aside,” the 76-member board said in a statement that was also adopted by four separate church agencies.
“We believe that recognition of the sacred joining of individuals is deserving of serious, faithful discussion by people of faith, taking into consideration the long, complex history of marriage and family life, layered as it is by cultural practices, economic realities, political dynamics, religious history and biblical interpretation.”
The Cleveland-based denomination claims 1.3 million members and has long been the vanguard of liberal Protestantism. The UCC was among the first churches, in 1972, to ordain an openly gay man as a minister.
The board urged individual churches to discuss “diverse understandings of marriage” and “affirm equal rights for all couples who seek to have their relationships recognized by the state.”
A constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage has been endorsed in principle by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, while Southern Baptists, Eastern Orthodox bishops and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod have spoken against gay marriage in general.
Reform Jews and Humanistic Jews have supported gay marriage, as has the Metropolitan Community Churches, a predominantly gay denomination formed in 1969.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Cleveland Bishop Bans “Future Church” From Diocese
CLEVELAND (RNS) An influential group of liberal-minded Catholic reformers is debating a response to Bishop Anthony Pilla of Cleveland, who recently banned the organization from meeting on church property.
Future Church, which claims more than 5,000 members nationwide and 800 members locally, is based in Cleveland. It advocates allowing priests to marry and women to be ordained as the best ways to alleviate clergy shortages.
The group had operated unrestricted in the Cleveland diocese for more than a decade. But the truce ended unexpectedly April 1 after Pilla issued an edict to all pastors.
“Future Church is not an organization affiliated with the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland, nor does it have the support or approval of the bishop of the diocese,” Pilla’s warning read.
“Future Church is an independent organization of individuals who promote an agenda that is not consistent with the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church,” the statement continued, and the group’s activities are “not appropriate” at church institutions or facilities.
An internal debate over how to respond has been raging ever since via e-mail exchanges among Future Church leaders. Some members are urging the group’s executive director, Sister Christine Schenk, to appeal directly to the Vatican’s ambassador in Washington. Others recommend a more deliberate approach, hoping to preserve some semblance of the status quo.
“We’re puzzled and saddened by the description of us as not being in line with Catholic teaching,” Schenk said recently. “We have some of the best Catholics in the diocese as members.”
In a statement posted April 23 on Future Church’s Web site, Schenk said the group’s beliefs are consistent with the church’s teachings, and called on the bishop to open discussions on the issues of priestly celibacy, the inequality of women in the church and increased participation of all baptized Catholics in church ceremonies.
Diocesan officials have declined to discuss Future Church or the bishop’s edict. Spokesman Bob Tayek referred a reporter to Pilla’s statement on the group as the final word on the controversy.
Future Church was founded in Cleveland in 1991 to oppose the decision by American bishops to allow laymen to administer communion at Sunday services when no priests are available. Its founders argued that a better way of dealing with the shortage of priests would be to let priests marry and women to be ordained.
_ James F. McCarty
Promise Keepers’ Study Shows Men Don’t Rank Faith as Top Need
(RNS) Promise Keepers officials say they intend to change the focus of their Christian men’s ministry after a survey they commissioned found that most men do not consider matters of faith a top need or challenge in their lives.
Thirteen percent of 415 Christian men surveyed by Barna Research Group said that faith or spirituality represented one of their top challenges.
By category, family matters and careers figured higher on these men’s lists of “top-of-mind” needs and challenges that they are facing.
Forty-two percent cited issues related to family or children and 39 percent mentioned money or career issues.
Promise Keepers President Tom Fortson said the Denver-based organization is changing from a “movement” to a mission to have Christian men be a greater influence in society.
“It’s time to get out of the arena and into the marketplace,” Fortson said in a statement issued Wednesday (April 28). “We are calling Christian men to change society by living under biblical authority and teaching others to do the same.”
When asked about spiritual needs, the survey found that 36 percent of the men either weren’t sure of any or couldn’t identify one.
Sixteen percent said that being closer to God was a spiritual need for them.
Overall, 42 percent of men said the church is doing an “excellent” job at generally meeting their needs as men. But smaller percentages gave the church high marks for helping them in such areas as influencing others for Christ, holding them accountable for their thoughts and actions and developing deep, personal friendships. In the lowest rating, 20 percent of men said the church was doing an “excellent” job in helping them with their job or career.
Asked if they would turn to Christian friends to help them in a crisis, 42 percent said they would.
Researchers also found that 31 percent of the Christian men surveyed said they were actively involved in a small church group that met for Bible study, prayer or accountability.
The 415 men who described themselves as a “committed born-again Christian” and/or an “active churchgoer” were surveyed by telephone between July 24 and Sept. 4, 2003 by Barna Research Group, which is based in Ventura, Calif. The margin of error for the findings is plus or minus 5 percentage points.
Promise Keepers plans to hold conferences in 18 cities between June and November.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Pope Urges Freeing of Italian Hostages `in the Name of the One God’
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope John Paul II, in a message carried by Arabic television channels, has called on Iraqi insurgents “in the name of the one God, who will judge us all” to free three Italian security guards they are holding hostage.
Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, the Vatican’s foreign minister, read the pope’s appeal to some 5,000 demonstrators, who, led by the hostages’ families, marched in silence to St. Peter’s Square late Thursday (April 29).
The kidnappers had demanded an anti-war demonstration as a condition for releasing the three men they have held since April 9. They executed a fourth Italian, Fabrizio Quattrocchi, 36, on April 14 with a bullet fired into his neck.
The Vatican had appeared reluctant to give its blessing to the march, fearing that it would be politicized by attacks on Washington and the Italian government, but the crowd marched in silence, carrying only rainbow-colored peace flags, and ended the demonstration with prayers under the pope’s study window.
Both Al-Jazeera in Qatar and Al-Arabiya in Dubai ran footage from the march and reported the pope’s appeal.
Lajolo told the demonstrators that the pope had prayed at his morning Mass “for the liberation of the hostages held in Iraq, as well as for all those who suffer in that country.” He said John Paul was at that moment praying in his private chapel.
“In the name of the one God, who will judge us all, John Paul II renews his pressing plea to the kidnappers to quickly return the kidnapped persons to their families,” the prelate said.
“At the same time,” he said, “his holiness John Paul II thanks those working to re-establish in Iraq a climate of reconciliation and dialogue in view of the country’s recovery of full sovereignty and full independence in conditions of security for all the population.”
The pope strongly opposed the U.S.-led intervention in Iraq and has repeatedly urged a greater role for the United Nations in restoring peace and rebuilding the country.
_ Peggy Polk
Creation Festivals Win Lifetime Achievement Award
(RNS) The Gospel Music Association has awarded the Creation Festivals, which holds contemporary Christian music festivals each year on both coasts, with a GMA Lifetime Achievement Award.
Co-founders Harry Thomas and Tim Landis received the award in a ceremony on Monday (April 26), the festivals announced.
“It is a true honor to receive this award,” Landis said in a statement. “We are very encouraged, and also humbled, to be the first live-concert organization awarded with such an honor.”
The award recognizes major contributors to the gospel music industry who have shown a commitment to it for two decades or more.
Past honorees include the Gospel Music Workshop of America, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and the Christian Booksellers Association, now known as CBA.
The festivals, which include music and speakers, celebrated their 25th anniversary last year. Originally held solely in Lancaster, Pa., they now are held annually in Mount Union, Pa., and George, Wash.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Quote of the Day: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
(RNS) “I fully intend to receive Communion, one way or another. That’s very important to me.”
_ House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on her intention to receive Communion at Catholic Mass despite her support of abortion rights, which the Catholic Church considers immoral. She was quoted by the Associated Press.
DEA/PH END RNS
