c. 2007 Religion News Service

Anglicans in Montreal, San Francisco vote for same-sex blessings

TORONTO (RNS) A second Canadian Anglican diocese has voted to approve the blessing of same-sex marriages.

Delegates at the Diocese of Montreal’s annual synod voted Friday (Oct. 19) to request that the bishop grant permission for clergy whose conscience permits to solemnize registered civil marriages, including those between same-sex couples, where at least one party is baptized.

It also asks that the bishop authorize an appropriate rite for same-sex ceremonies and to enact regulations for their use in supportive parishes.

Clergy delegates to the synod voted 44-25 and lay delegates 59-32 in favor of the measure. The tally was similar to one passed recently in Ottawa, where delegates to that diocese’s synod also asked that priests be allowed to conduct same-sex marriages, should the priest and parish approve.

In Montreal, Bishop Barry Clarke supported the resolution, telling reporters after the vote that he is “glad we came to a place where we made a decision.”

Clarke added that he “will consider seriously what I have heard today. I will take it into serious and prayerful consideration. I am a pastor at heart.”

But the decision makes no immediate change in the policies and practice of the diocese, he noted. He said he would bring the results of the vote to a meeting of Canadian bishops Oct. 25-30 in Ontario.

Both resolutions seem to fly in the face of a vote at the national church’s general synod last June, where delegates voted down a plan to let local churches decide for themselves whether to bless same-sex marriages.

The day after the Ottawa vote, representatives of the San Francisco-based Episcopal Diocese of California approved use of rites for the blessing of same-sex couples, opening the way for Bishop Marc Andrus to allow them on a trial basis in Bay Area Episcopal churches.

The resolution both affirmed “the unanimous decisionâÂ?¦to refuse to discriminate against partnered gay and lesbian(s)” and deplored “the lack of access to adequate pastoral and ritual care for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in large parts of the Episcopal Church and the refusal of the majority of our bishops to make provision for it.”

_ Ron Csillag

Pope deplores violence in the name of religion

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Speaking to more than 300 religious leaders at a peace conference on Sunday (Oct. 21), Pope Benedict XVI denounced all violence committed in the name of religion.

“Faced with a world lacerated by conflicts, where violence is still justified in the name of God, it is important to reassert that religions must never become vehicles of hate,” Benedict said.

“On the contrary, religions can and should offer precious resources for constructing a pacific humanity.”

Among those listening to the pope’s remarks were the Anglican archbishop of Canterbury, the Orthodox patriarch of Constantinople, the chief rabbi of Israel and several representatives of Islam, Buddhism, Shintoism, Hinduism and Zoroastrianism.

Benedict spoke on the opening day of the 21st International Meeting for Peace in Naples, Italy, sponsored by a Roman Catholic lay group, the Community of Sant’Egidio. The annual event was inspired by the interreligious World Day of Prayer for Peace held by Pope John Paul II in Assisi, Italy, in 1986.

Following his remarks, Benedict joined the other religious representatives for lunch, where he sat at the same table as Ezzeddin Ibrahim, founder of the University of the United Arab Emirates and one 138 Muslim scholars and clerics who earlier this month published an open letter seeking better relations with the Christian world.

The topic of religious violence has been an especially sensitive one in Catholic-Muslim relations recently. Last year, Benedict angered many Muslims with a speech in Regensburg, Germany, in which he quoted a medieval Christian emperor describing the teachings of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad as “evil and inhuman” and “spread by the sword.”

Benedict later expressed his “regrets” and held a special meeting with diplomatic representatives of Muslim nations to soothe feelings in reaction to the speech.

_ Francis X. Rocca

Pastor charged after women allege abuse

PORTLAND, Ore. (RNS) At least 100 people were gathered for Sunday afternoon prayer at a Northeast Portland church when a woman stood to interrupt the preacher’s sermon with some alarming allegations.

Pastor Sergio Alvarizares, she said, had used sweet talk and lavish compliments to draw her into his office, lock the door and make unwanted sexual advances.

Soon, other women rose to make similar accusations. A ruckus erupted, and the pastor tried to shout over them from the pulpit, “That’s a lie! That’s a lie!”

Church leaders and the pastor’s son called police. “The crowd is going wild,” one caller said, “ … while the pastor is trying to preach.” A dispatcher alerted officers: “Complainant says church people inside are out of control. … Everyone is hostile at the preacher.”

The Sept. 30 event at Casa del Padre, a nondenominational Spanish-speaking church, sparked a two-week police investigation that resulted in a 15-count indictment against Alvarizares on charges of rape and sexual abuse.

Alvarizares, 38, was arraigned on Friday (Oct. 19), pleading not guilty. Judge Christopher Larsen doubled his bail to $5.8 million.

The indictment accuses Alvarizares of using his position as pastor to rape or sexually abuse six women parishioners between January 2003 and March 2007.

Congregants familiar with the allegations said some of the advances occurred in the pastor’s offices, sometimes when others were inside the church. Others allege the pastor assaulted them at hotels. Police interviewed nine women either before or after Alvarizares’ arrest.

On Oct. 12, a grand jury indicted Alvarizares on one count of first-degree rape, two counts of first-degree attempted rape, 10 counts of first-degree sexual abuse and two counts of third-degree sexual abuse.

He’s accused of raping one woman in the fall of 2005 and attempting to rape two others in the winter of 2004. The indictment says he compelled the women and four others into having sexual contact, trying to kiss or grope them.

At the Sept. 30 service, the pastor left the pulpit during the uprising and ducked into his office, congregants said. Police arrived at the church and stayed about 25 minutes.

A group of women later gathered at a home and called the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office to report their allegations. A deputy took the information and turned it over to Portland detectives.

“We’re not out to destroy this man. This is not what we want,” parishioner Noe Hernandez said. “But we want to get the truth out to people.”

_ Maxine Bernstein, Lynne Palombo and Alex Pulaski

Quote of the Day: Theologian Jim Bretzke of the University of California

(RNS) “The sisters do not meet the criteria the church has for denying Communion. Over-accessorizing and poor taste in makeup is not an excommunicable offense.”

_ The Rev. Jim Bretzke, a professor of moral theology at the University of California at San Francisco, about San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer offering Communion (mistakenly, the archbishop later said) to members of the satirical group the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence at Mass Oct. 7. Bretzke was quoted by the San Francisco Chronicle.

KRE DS END RNS