Thursday’s RNS report is chock full of news, starting with a story from Rome from Eric J. Lyman about the upcoming World Youth Day, which was created by Pope John Paul II 20 years ago “World Youth Day events scheduled to begin Tuesday (Aug. 16) in Cologne, Germany, are expected to attract more than 800,000 faithful from 190 countries, some 600 bishops, thousands of security personnel, and the enormous shadow of the late Pope John Paul II.”
We also have a report from Washington by Chuck McCutcheon that looks at the possibility of Tony Blair’s tough new anti-terrorism measures making it across the pond. “Absolutely it can happen here, and it frightens the dickens out of me,” says former Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., a leading critic of the USA Patriot Act. “We need to go back and start teaching people what the Bill of Rights means and about their history, so they’re not willing to chuck it out the window.” But some terrorism experts and Muslim groups say they have faith in the Constitution’s protections.
RNS is also in Orlando, Fla., with correspondent David Briggs and Associate Editor Kevin Eckstrom reporting from the biennial meeting of the Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Briggs writes that the Churchwide Assembly has approved a more gender-neutral worship book, while Eckstrom writes that they approved an interim pact to share Communion with the United Methodist Church. What are the implications of both these decisions?
