c. 2005 Religion News Service

Church Aid Still Flows to Hurricane Victims

NEW ORLEANS (RNS) Storm-damaged New Orleans families continue to receive gifts of private, faith-based aid, including $400,000 that Catholic school children around the country raised.

The $400,000 was New Orleans’ share of $1 million that children in Catholic schools raised for other children across Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, said the New Orleans archdiocesan schools superintendent, the Rev. William Maestri.

Separately, a representative of a Greek Orthodox organization arrived in New Orleans on Friday (Dec. 9) to distribute $50,000 raised by the American Hellenic Education Progressive Association for 50 Greek families in the area.

The money is in addition to more than $100,000 already distributed to New Orleans families by Philoptochos, the philanthropic arm of the Greek Orthodox church in the United States, and another agency, International Orthodox Christian Charities. Another $400,000 is expected to arrive from other Orthodox sources.

Representatives of the National Catholic Educators Association said they expected to raise about $250,000 when they asked children in Catholic schools around the country to give aid to children in New Orleans and elsewhere affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Their campaign raised more than four times that.

In New Orleans, school officials will ensure that the money goes directly to individual aid for tuition, clothing and other kinds of personal assistance, and not for building repair, Maestri said.

Maestri said he hoped the gift would reassure New Orleanians that the city’s needs are still on the minds of distant neighbors, even as the community worries whether the area’s recovery is slipping off Washington’s radar.

“I think what this shows is that faith-based communities are very concerned about our schools and our region. People are concerned about us beyond Washington and beyond the government. It’s important that we see the outpouring of aid that can come from private, faith-based sectors of our economy,” he said.

_ Bruce Nolan

Methodists Hope to Accept Pope’s Offer on Salvation Document

(RNS) Methodist leaders said they plan to accept an invitation from Pope Benedict XVI to join a 1999 statement between Catholics and Lutherans that overcame centuries of division on the nature of salvation.

Bishop Sunday Mbang of Nigeria, president of the World Methodist Council, said he expects the Joint Declaration to be ratified when the Methodists meet next summer in Seoul, South Korea.

“We are expecting … to be able to sign an agreement whereby all three parties will declare and demonstrate their agreement on this doctrine that was crucial and which remains crucial to our preaching and teaching of the gospel,” Mbang told the pope during a meeting Friday (Dec. 9).

Martin Luther, the founder of Lutheranism, sparked the 16th century Protestant Reformation by challenging the Catholic doctrine of “justification,” which holds that good works are essential to attaining salvation. Lutherans held that salvation was God-given and achieved by faith alone.

In the 1999 compromise, Catholics and Lutherans agreed that salvation is achieved through God’s grace, which is reflected in good works.

The World Methodist Council represents more than 70 Methodist church bodies, including the 8.3 million-member United Methodist Church in the United States.

_ Kevin Eckstrom and Stacy Meichtry

Boycott Called Off After Target Changes `Christmas’ Advertising

(RNS) A conservative group has canceled a national boycott against Target after the retailer promised to make more references to Christmas and Hanukkah in its advertising.

Donald E. Wildmon, chairman of the Mississippi-based American Family Association, claimed victory by canceling the boycott Friday (Dec. 9) after Target assured customers “Christmas” advertising will increase as the holiday approaches.

“We are pleased to learn that Target has heard our concerns and decided to use Christmas in their advertising and marketing efforts,” Wildmon said in a statement. “We think you will see a different approach next year.”

Target said this year’s “Gather Round” theme was designed to encompass all aspects of the season, and will specifically mention the individual holidays of a variety of faiths.

“Over the course of the next few weeks, our advertising, marketing and merchandising will become more specific to the holiday that is approaching _ referring directly to holidays like Christmas and Hanukkah,” Target said in a statement.

“Christmas images and themes have been used in our advertising and marketing in the past and you will continue to see these images and themes in the future,” the company said.

AFA called for the boycott in October after discovering Target planned to ban Salvation Army kettles from its sidewalks and the use of “Merry Christmas” in its advertising and in-store promotions. Nearly 700,000 supporters signed an Internet petition by Dec. 12, according to AFA.

Such consumers said Target represented the latest attempt by major retailers to secularize the Christian holiday.

Wal-Mart, Lowe’s, Macy’s and Walgreens reversed marketing decisions and specifically referenced “Christmas” rather than “holiday” products after similar complaints.

Staples, Home Depot, JC Penny, Best Buy, Kohl’s, Kmart and Office Max all make little or no reference to Christmas, activists say, and could be the next targets of consumer boycotts.

_ Jason Kane

Editors: Chrismukkah.com is CQ

Happy/Merry Chrismukkah!

(RNS) Hanukkah starts at sundown on Christmas Day this year, and to Ron Gompertz that means the “mother of all Chrismukkahs.”

Gompertz, a Jew from New York City, and his Christian wife, Michelle, launched Chrismukkah.com last year, offering for sale a host of cards, T-shirts, ornaments and other items blending Christmas and Hanukkah icons.

“We got opposition from the pundits of the religious right, both Christian and Jewish … for what we thought was a lightweight, whimsical tribute to harmony,” Gompertz says.

But Chrismukkah.com has only increased its offerings, and Gompertz says business so far is three times better than last year.

Chrismukkah’s target audience is interfaith families. It’s a market other card companies have noted as well.

Owner Kathy Doll at Kathy’s Hallmark in Lower Paxton, Pa., carries six cards blending Christmas and Hanukkah greetings. That’s more than Hallmark made last year, she said.

“Basically we pretty much sell out of them. That’s why they increase the number,” she says.

The Hallmark cards are all fairly serious. Chrismukkah.com is less reverent. “We aim to arouse your secular senses,” the Web site says. “We pray our inspirational collection … will do just that.”

_ Mary Warner

Quote of the Day: Teenager Katie McMunn, wearer of a `chastity ring’

(RNS) “I want to give all of my body to my husband.”

_ Katie McMunn, a 17-year old who promised abstinence until marriage when she slipped on a “chastity ring” at a pro-abstinence event three years ago in Pittsburgh. McMunn was quoted by The New York Times.

MO/PH END RNS