c. 2007 Religion News Service

Presiding Bishop of Church of God in Christ Dead at 67

(RNS) Bishop Gilbert E. Patterson, the presiding bishop of the Church of God in Christ, died Tuesday (March 20) of heart failure. He was 67.

Patterson was in his second term as presiding bishop of the predominantly black Pentecostal denomination, after first being elected in 2000. Patterson, the pastor of Temple of Deliverance Church of God in Christ in Memphis, Tenn., was defeated by one vote in a close election in 1996.

“The entire church and world mourns the loss of our leader,” said Bishop Charles E. Blake Sr., the denomination’s first assistant presiding bishop, in an announcement on the Church of God in Christ’s Web site.

“He was the leader of our international church, a leader in the Memphis community and a leader in the Christian community.”

Sherry DuPree, an authority on African-American Pentecostal groups, said Patterson worked to modernize his denomination, helping ministers and others gain health insurance benefits and other services.

“I think he carried the church forward,” said DuPree, a member of the Church of God in Christ. “He was working towards helping the church to become more self-sufficient and helping the members of the church to have services that they don’t have ordinarily.”

Patterson prayed at President Bush’s inaugural prayer service in 2005 and supported his faith-based initiative, but also criticized the Bush administration’s plans for the Iraq war and declared that he was “not recruiting African-Americans for the GOP.”

DuPree said he was an “eclectic” leader.

In addition to his pastoral and administrative roles in the denomination, Patterson was influential in television and radio broadcasting and was involved in music ministries. He was a Grammy nominee and won a Stellar Gospel Music Award in January for traditional male vocalist.

Patterson, a native of Humboldt, Tenn., was ordained in 1958. His Memphis congregation has more than 12,000 members.

The Church of God in Christ was ranked as the fifth-largest denomination in America by the Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches, with a membership of almost 5.5 million. It will celebrate its 100th annual Holy Convocation in November in Memphis.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Moscow Art Show Called Blasphemous

BERLIN (RNS) A Moscow art show designed to incite controversy seems to have done just that, eliciting calls from the Russian Orthodox church for a boycott and dismissal of the show’s curator.

The “Forbidden Art 2006” show at the Sakharov Museum was conceived as a showcase for artwork that was removed from other museums throughout Russia last year because of censorship or, more frequently, self-censorship. One of the 20 items in the display is a picture of Mickey Mouse as Jesus Christ, according to the Berliner Zeitung newspaper.

The church has indicted that work, and others, as an “insult to Christian sensibilities.” It has also urged Moscow residents to file charges against the museum for attacks on Christianity. Additionally, Andrej Kurajew, a professor at Moscow’s Theological Seminary, has called for the exhibit’s curator, Andrej Jerofejew, to be fired.

Jerofejew and other supporters of the exhibit have argued that the exhibit shouldn’t bother the church since, in their opinion, the fact that so many other curators have chosen not to show these pieces shows how strong the church remains in Russia. Beyond that, the artwork will only be visible by a peephole. Visitors must be older than 16.

“This isn’t about religion,” said Jerofejew, who says he is trying to convince other museums that they can show controversial art. “If we don’t publicize this problem, we’re going to see a catastrophic limiting of the space for modern art in Russia.”

The controversy has echoes from 2003, when a similar display at the museum, titled “Warning: Religion,” was destroyed by Orthodox faithful who also considered that show insulting. In that case, charges were filed against the curator and museum director but not against the vandals.

_ Niels Sorrells

Lobbying Begins to Allow Women Clergy in Christian Reformed Church

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (RNS) Lobbying has begun to persuade delegates to this year’s Christian Reformed Church Synod to overturn measures that would allow all CRC churches to ordain women but bar them from serving as synodical delegates or deputies.

The measures were approved by last year’s Synod, but allowing all churches to ordain women must be ratified this June to take effect.

“I’d like to see women in the Christian Reformed Church be empowered to lead,” said the Rev. Jacci Busch, a Calvin College chaplain and member of vigil organizer Hearts Aflame.

“It’s a matter of putting ourselves as a denomination and as a people before God in prayer over the issue of women in office. We want God to heal our denomination and to move the issue forward.”

Hearts Aflame is one of two groups formed to build momentum for change as the Synod approaches. A second, called Cloud of Witnesses, plans a number of lobbying efforts.

Shirley Roels, a management professor at Calvin College and a member of Cloud of Witnesses, attended the vigil.

“I work with a lot of students thinking about ministry,” she said. “There is an abundance of men and women. The church needs their energy so badly, and I just want the church to have places for all of them.”

Roels said another proposal on the table _ a seven-year moratorium on discussing the issue _ is unhealthy.

Change “is not going to happen overnight, but we have to keep talking to each other. That’s how the spirit of God works in the church,” she said.

The Rev. George Vander Weit, pastor at Fuller Avenue Christian Reformed Church here, compared the 2006 Synod to that of 1994, which declared that women could not be ordained. A year later, that decision was reversed.

“People do not want first and second-class office bearers,” he said. “That’s what we have now.”

_ Patricia Mish

Quote of the Day: Rev. Jan Brittain, Pastor of Found Boy Scout

(RNS) “I can’t praise God loud enough or often enough. We feel like Easter came three weeks early for us.”

_ The Rev. Jan Brittain, pastor of the family of Michael Auberry, a Boy Scout who was found Tuesday (March 20) in the mountains of North Carolina after being lost for four days during a Scouting trip. Brittain, pastor of Greenboro’s Christ United Methodist Church, was quoted by USA Today.

KRE/LF END RNS