c. 2006 Religion News Service

Financial Allegations Roil Orthodox Church in America

(RNS) A former treasurer of the Orthodox Church in America is alleging that millions of dollars in church funds were misspent in the 1990s, a charge that church hierarchs have been loath to discuss _ until now.

On Wednesday (March 1), the church’s 10-member Holy Synod of Bishops will convene in “special session” in Syosset, N.Y., to review “a number of issues facing the church.” The issues presumably include the financial scandal.

Deacon Eric Wheeler, who was dismissed in 1999, has claimed the church is hiding a “multitude of sin,” including $67,000 given by military chaplains for Bibles that were never bought, and payments on personal credit cards of between $5,000 and $12,000 a month.

Wheeler’s allegations were sent in an Oct. 17, 2005, letter to the church’s top leader, Metropolitan Herman. In recent weeks, they were posted on a Web site, http://www.ocanews.org, that is run by parishioners seeking an investigation.

“During my years at the central church, I experienced a total abuse of power with no concern for accounting practice nor aspiration for accountability both internal and external,” Wheeler wrote.

Wheeler worked at church headquarters from 1988 to 1999, spending his last three years as treasurer, and served as personal secretary to former Metropolitan Theodosius, who retired in 2002.

He said millions of dollars were spent to “safeguard the church from scandal, cover embarrassing credit card debts incurred by the Metropolitan (Theodosius), provide family members who leeched off their relatives with a steady stream of assistance, pay blackmail requests and provide the means to entertain with dinners, trips and gifts of cash.”

The Washington Post reported that more than $1 million contributed by Dwayne Andreas, the retired chairman of the Archer Daniels Midland Co., that was intended for a Russian church was diverted to personal accounts, which the church refused to make available for audits.

In January, church leaders promised audits for 2004 and 2005 and issued a vague statement acknowledging “error, lack of good judgment and sin” by church employees, but not the church itself.

Until now, Herman has tried to silence all discussion of the allegations, but growing numbers of parishioners and clergy _ including Archbishop Job of Chicago _ are demanding an independent investigation.

“My fundamental question posted to the Metropolitan … `Are any of the allegations true, or are they false?’ remains unanswered,” Job said in a Jan. 23 statement.

The 400,000-member church traces its roots to the Russian Orthodox Church, but has been independent of Moscow since 1970.

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Vatican’s Highest-Ranking American Explains Teaching on Gay Priests

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Cardinal-elect William J. Levada, the Vatican’s highest-ranking American, has told American seminarians in Rome that when a priest is openly homosexual it makes it difficult for Catholics to perceive him as Christ’s representative.

As Pope Benedict XVI’s choice to head the Vatican’s Doctrinal Congregation _ and one of two Americans recently elevated to cardinal status by the pope _ Levada underlined the church’s teaching on homosexuality at a special Mass on Sunday (Feb. 26) for seminarians.

Speaking to 170 seminarians gathered at the North American College in Rome, he referred to a biblical description of Christ as “the bridegroom of the church,” and said priests are Christ’s representatives. He said openly homosexual priests place themselves “at odds with the spousal nature of love, as revealed by God, whose image is reflected in humanity.”

He told the seminarians that implementing the church’s updated teaching on homosexuality _ issued by the Vatican on Nov. 29 _ is an important task. The document bars openly gay men from entering the priesthood and disallows gay ordained priests from teaching at Catholic seminaries. It does not seek to remove priests who are gay but underlines the church’s teaching that homosexuality is “objectively disordered.”

Levada’s homily Sunday followed a weeklong Vatican seminar to clarify the church’s position on homosexuality. At the John Paul II Institute on Marriage and the Family in Rome, scholars and psychotherapists condemned adoption by gay partners and a homosexual view of sexuality that they said prioritizes desire and degrades the love expressed by the sexual difference in heterosexual couples.

_ Kristine M. Crane

Swede Launches Investigation of Web Site Threatening Gays by Name

(RNS) Changing course, Sweden’s chief prosecutor has ordered an inquiry into death threats posted on a religious Web site against 129 gay Swedes.

“I am ordering a new investigation because it is inappropriate and illegal to use biblical texts to threaten people,” chief prosecutor Sven-Erik Alhem said in an interview from his office in the southern city of Malmo.

Another prosecutor had previously said he would not pursue an investigation because he thought a Swedish Supreme Court decision made even hateful religious speech allowable.

Alhem said that under the headline “Sodomites,” the names of musicians, priests, athletes and TV celebrities were posted on a Web site affiliated with a right-wing Christian group, Phineas Priesthood.

The Web site quoted Leviticus 20:13, a biblical verse that says, according to the New International Version, “If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.”

An initial inquiry into the threats was closed after prosecutor Hakan Roswall said he could do nothing under the law because biblical texts were used. In a highly publicized case in 2005, the Supreme Court ruled that, despite new hate crimes legislations, the Rev. Ake Green was allowed to preach that homosexuality was a “cancerous tumor” in society because it was a personal interpretation from the Bible.

In the interview, Alhem said he has concluded the case involving the Web site is different. While Green preached a sermon about homosexuality, the Web site is calling for the killings of gays.

“No one can compare the two situations. Threatening the lives of people by using the Bible is against our laws,” said Alhem.

_ Simon Reeves

Church of England Bishop Says `Burnout’ Wrecking Marriages of Clergy

LONDON (RNS) An Anglican bishop says clergy in Britain are overworked and running the risk of “burnout” and wrecked marriages, and he wants a national debate on what to do about it.

Bishop of Hulme Stephen Lowe suggests that a 48-hour work week “would be a start in slowing down, although he concedes it is an idea that he feels `somehow uncomfortable about.”’

Writing in February’s issue of the Manchester (England) diocesan magazine Crux, Lowe says some clergy are working 70 or 80 hours a week and never taking vacation, “and I know some clergy families who feel that they always come second to the job and suffer as a result.”

“We cannot go on like this,” he says. “Burnout happens and is often hidden. … Clergy marriages are not supposed to break down or go through choppy waters.”

Lowe said one result is an inevitable decline in the number of clergy as the responsibilities become overwhelming for the growing numbers of church buildings, schools, parish projects, evangelism initiatives and community demands.

“There has to be fundamental change,” the bishop says. “This subject needs debating by clergy and laity alike. It needs a national debate so that those beyond the church know that there is a problem.”

Part of the problem is with the clergy itself, he says. “We love the job and spend too much on it because part of us never wants to stop. We can never do enough.”

He forecast that, one way or another, “the nature of clergy employment is going to change radically over the next few years. The old practice of clergy having a freehold office, which means they are accountable to themselves, will go.”

In its place, Lowe said, “will come something nearer to most people’s experience of employment relationships: job descriptions, annual appraisals, disciplinary procedures” _ and possibly even that 48-hour work week.

_ Al Webb

Quote of the Day: New York Yankees Chief Operating Officer Lonn Trost

(RNS) “When we heard what had happened to our neighbor, we wanted to reach out and enable them to continue their much-needed community service.”

_ Lonn Trost, chief operating officer of the New York Yankees, commenting on the baseball team’s donation of $20,000 on Feb. 23 to the recently burglarized Greater Universal Baptist Church in the Bronx, N.Y. A robbery had forced the church to close its soup kitchen indefinitely.

MO/PH END RNS