c. 2006 Religion News Service
U.S. Catholic Bishops’ President Wants Action on Marriage Amendment
(RNS) The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has urged Catholics to actively support a federal constitutional amendment that would declare marriage as the union of one man and one woman, thus banning gay marriage.
“Today there is a growing sense shared by many people, including a wide range of religious leaders, that a Marriage Protection Amendment is the only federal-level action that ultimately will protect and preserve the institution of marriage,” Bishop William S. Skylstad said in a March 27 letter, released Monday (April 3), to all of the nation’s bishops.
“In particular, timely and focused efforts are needed to help the Catholic faithful form their consciences on such an important matter.”
Writing at the request of the administrative committee of the bishops’ conference, Skylstad asked bishops and people in their diocese to take an active role in the support of an amendment, which is likely to be reconsidered in June by the U.S. Senate. In his letter, he encouraged cooperation with a national postcard campaign by the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal organization, that has offered to distribute postcards to every diocese and parish in the country.
“I am aware that the time is short for taking action, so I urge you to do whatever you can, given the situation and the resources available to you,” Skylstad wrote.
In the letter, he cited Pope Benedict XVI’s first encyclical that placed “the highest value on love between a man and a woman.”
Skylstad said the administrative committee had supported an amendment when an unsuccessful attempt was made for its passage two years ago. On March 14, the committee unanimously reaffirmed the position it took in a 2003 document called “Promote, Preserve, Protect Marriage.”
In that statement, the committee said legislative action was necessary to preserve marriage. It noted that “homosexual persons … must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity,” but opposed any form of same-sex unions.
“What are called `homosexual unions,’ because they do not express full human complementarity and because they are inherently non-procreative, cannot be given the status of marriage,” the 2003 statement reads.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Mormon President, 95, Addresses His `Sunset,’ Decries Racism
(RNS) Gordon B. Hinckley, the 95-year-old president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, used a major gathering of his religious body to speak about his waning years and to call attention to the need to fight racism.
The leader of Mormons worldwide underwent treatment for colon cancer in January. He told those gathered Sunday (April 2) for the 176th Annual General Conference of his church that doctors have said the surgery has left some “residual problems.”
“I am in the sunset of my life,” he said, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. “I am totally in the hands of the Lord.”
He then spent time describing how he had been blessed throughout his career as a church leader and said he expects to appear again at the church’s semiannual general conference in October.
“I trust you will not regard what I have said as an obituary,” he said. “I look forward to speaking to you again in October.”
A day earlier, Hinckley strongly decried racism in a speech during the men-only priesthood session of the conference.
“Racial strife still lifts its ugly head … even right here among us,” he said, the Tribune reported. “I plead with you, brethren, do all that you can to stop racial divisiveness of any kind.”
The worldwide religious body continues to grow in membership, according to a statistical report released during the meeting.
Worldwide membership in 2005 was 12.6 million, an increase of more than 2 percent over 2004, when there were 12.3 million members worldwide.
_ Adelle M. Banks
NCC Yearbook Says Assemblies of God Grew Fastest in One Year
WASHINGTON (RNS) The Assemblies of God grew the fastest in one year, mainline Protestant churches lost members and the Roman Catholic Church remained the largest church body in the U.S., according to the National Council of Churches’ 2006 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches.
The yearbook includes a record 219 national church organizations, with combined memberships of more than 163 million Americans. As in the past, the Catholic Church is out front in terms of numbers _ nearly 68 million members, an increase of nearly 1 percent from the previous year.
As in other years, statistics are the latest available for an entire year. The 2006 Yearbook reports numbers from 2004, with comparisons to 2003. Data from the latest yearbook was released Thursday (March 30).
The Assemblies of God, the 10th largest church, saw a rise of almost 2 percent, climbing to nearly 3 million members. That made the Assemblies, a Pentecostal group, the fastest growing among the nation’s largest denominations.
“I’m disappointed that we’re not growing faster, but … we’re grateful for any growth we have” said Dr. George O. Wood, general secretary for the General Counsel of Assemblies of God. “We’ve got the greatest message in the world, and we want to share it.”
Continuing a trend, mainline Protestant churches continued to drop in number, including three ranked in the top 10 _ the United Methodist Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the Presbyterian Church (USA). Even the largest Protestant denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, decreased 1 percent, the council said.
“To grow, you need to change,” said Stephen Drachler, executive director of public information for the United Methodist Church. “We are rooted in tradition, focused on practices that are not as attractive to younger people. So we really have to place our focus on meeting the needs of persons in contemporary society, while maintaining our identity and our commitment to be disciples and to make disciples for Jesus Christ.”
According to the yearbook, the 10 largest church bodies in the United States:
_ The Catholic Church _ 67,820,833
_ The Southern Baptist Convention _ 16,267,494
_ The United Methodist Church _ 8,186,254
_ The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints _ 5,599,177
_ The Church of God in Christ _ 5,499,875
_ National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. _ 5,000,000
_ Evangelical Lutheran Church in America _ 4,930,429
_ National Baptist Convention of America _ 3,500,000
_ Presbyterian Church (USA) _ 3,189,573
_ Assemblies of God _ 2,779,095
_ Piet Levy
Catholic Church in Britain Lobbies Against Assisted Suicide Measure
LONDON (RNS) The Roman Catholic Church is launching a major campaign in England and Wales to try to stop Britain’s Parliament from legalizing physician-assisted suicide, but it may have a tough fight on its hands.
Archbishop of Cardiff Peter Smith, who is spearheading the Catholic drive, told London’s Daily Telegraph newspaper that bishops are sending out some 500,000 anti-euthanasia brochures and DVDs, blanketing every church in the two regions.
The controversial bill, which is expected to come up for debate in the House of Lords, Parliament’s upper chamber, in May, would allow doctors to prescribe lethal doses of medicines to terminally ill patients. Many in Britain support it.
It is similar to the state of Oregon’s “death with dignity” law that permits the terminally ill to end their lives with a lethal prescription. The U.S. Supreme Court in January (2006) upheld that legislation, rejecting Bush administration attempts to punish physicians who prescribe the overdoses.
The Church of England has already signaled that it is urging its members to lobby against the bill. But Archbishop Smith acknowledges that religious bodies are going to need support from the public at large if the assisted suicide legislation is to be beaten back.
“It’s all very well for bishops to be giving out instructions,” he said of the Catholic campaign, “but we need ordinary Catholics to go to peers (in the House of Lords) and MPs (elected members of Parliament) and say we do not want this law.”
A public opinion poll conducted by The Daily Telegraph last year suggested that 87 percent of Britons would back a change in the law to give terminally ill people the right to determine how and when they ended their lives, even if it means getting assistance to commit suicide.
_ Al Webb
At Urging of Dalai Lama, Tibetans Vow Not to Use Animal Skins
(RNS) As part of a campaign to save wildlife endorsed by the Dalai Lama, more than 1,000 Tibetans have vowed not to use skins of endangered animals.
The initiative is sponsored by the Tesi Environmental Awareness Movement (TEAM), a nongovermental organization. The group’s executive director, Tsering Yangkey, said Tibetans traditionally use tiger and snow leopard skins in their clothing, but the time had come to save these endangered animals.
The campaign was endorsed publicly on March 14 by the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, during a preaching session in Dharamsala, his headquarters in the north Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. More than 1,000 Tibetans soon signed a vow not to use such animal products in the future, and donated their outfits made of pelts, Yangkey said.
Yangkey also said participating Tibetans would place all donated pelts and other endangered animal products in a special stupa (a Buddhist religious monument) in the Himachal Pradesh town of McLeodganj.
Led by Buddhist nuns from Shugseb nunnery, Tibetans have organized a special prayer in McLeodganj for all animals whose lives were sacrificed.
The campaign reflects a noticeable growth in environmental activism since the Dalai Lama made a fervent appeal to Tibetans at the Kalachakra (“wheel of time”) congregation at Amaravati, in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, in January. At the 13-day gathering, the Dalai Lama had called on Tibetans to stop using garments adorned with animal skins, and for an end to trade in these products.
_ Achal Narayanan
Survey Says One of Three Americans Rarely Attends Religious Services
WASHINGTON (RNS) Americans are among the world’s most religious people, but a new study indicates that more than a third of all adults in the United States rarely attends any religious service.
The annual tracking survey conducted by the Barna Group found that 34 percent of American adults _ about 76 million people _ have not attended any type of church service or activity in the past six months, excluding special events such as weddings and funerals.
The March 20 study said the majority of Americans referred to as “unchurched” had attended at least one religious service earlier in their lives. Sixty-two percent of the unchurched described themselves as Christian, 4 percent said they are Jewish, 4 percent said they follow an Eastern religion and 24 percent said they are atheist.
Surveys show Americans attend church more frequently than citizens of at least two U.S. allies. An October 2005 Gallup poll found that 66 percent of Canadians rarely attend religious services and 80 percent of Britons go unchurched.
The U.S. figures were based on a random sample of 1,003 adults collected by the Barna Group, a Christian community research firm based in Ventura, Calif.
_ David Barnes
Quote of the Day: United Methodist Bishop Timothy W. Whitaker of Florida
(RNS) “America has become a Linus nation where we are always searching for our security blanket. … There is nothing more dangerous than a powerful nation that is afraid.”
_ Bishop Timothy W. Whitaker of the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church, speaking at the “Building Human Security” conference, sponsored March 25-28 by Church World Service at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, N.J.
MO/JL END RNS
