c. 2007 Religion News Service

British cardinal slams lesbian parenting bill

LONDON (RNS) The top Catholic leader in England and Wales has condemned as “profoundly wrong” proposed legislation that would make it easier for lesbian couples to become parents using in vitro fertilization (IVF).

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor of Westminster said a bill to remove the requirement that IVF clinics make sure a male parent is involved would result in the traditional role of fathers being “radically undermined.”

The legislation is part of the Human Fertilization and Embryology Bill, generated by Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Labor government, which is being debated this week in the House of Lords.

Murphy-O’Connor’s blast, in a letter to The Times newspaper in London on Monday (Nov. 19), spearheads a drive by members of Parliament across the political spectrum to kill the law.

“This (legislation) radically undermines the place of the father in a child’s life and makes the natural rights of the child subordinate to the desire of the couple,” the cardinal wrote. “It is profoundly wrong.”

Under the law, opponents fear, the father’s role in an IVF baby’s life would effectively end once his sperm was deposited in a laboratory test tube.

But Ruth Hunt, a spokesman for the gay rights campaign group Stonewall, insisted the legislation would not be “denigrating the principle of fatherhood.”

Rather, she said, “this is a very logical and timely step, to ensure that a child can have two parents from the moment of conception, and that is safeguarded throughout their upbringing.”

Stonewall’s official stance is that in the present day, when 3 million children are raised by single parents in Britain, more of them would benefit from a two-parent household, regardless of the parents’ gender.

_ Al Webb

Ecumenist sees `new day’ dawn at Global Christian Forum

KENTWOOD, Mich. (RNS) A church leader from Chad told of losing his parents at age 2 but meeting Christ when he was 8. A Canadian Anglican bishop said Jesus told her as a teen she would be a priest.

Their stories stick with the Rev. Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, general secretary of the Reformed Church in America, after a recent Christian summit in Kenya where Granberg-Michaelson said he sensed God at work in a historic moment for the worldwide church.

“It was thrilling,” Granberg-Michaelson recalled in his office here. “You wouldn’t have seen this 10 years ago. Many have just prayed for a time like this.”

He believes the Global Christian Forum, an unprecedented gathering of 245 church leaders from 72 countries, marks a promising new chapter for the Christian ecumenical movement.

Through personal testimonies, discussions and speaking the Lord’s Prayer in their native tongues, participants paved the way for global cooperation among Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, Pentecostal and evangelical believers, the longtime RCA leader said.

“The church’s witness is immeasurably harmed by our divisions from one another, our hostility, judging and fighting with one another,” he said. “At least at this level of leadership, we’re trying to demonstrate our love for one another and our desire to demonstrate God’s love for the world.”

It was the first worldwide gathering of the Global Christian Forum, an organization nearly 10 years in the making. The World Council of Churches in 1998 first proposed the idea of a broader Christian assembly to include both its Protestant and Orthodox members, and Catholic, Pentecostal and evangelical churches outside the WCC.

Granberg-Michaelson, a former WCC staff member, also chairs Christian Churches Together, a new, broad-based fellowship of U.S. denominations.

In Kenya, he met with a diverse lot of leaders from groups including the WCC, the Vatican, the Pentecostal World Fellowship and World Evangelical Alliance.

The broad assembly broke through historic doctrinal barriers, such as churches that emphasize life after death while others focus on this-life issues of justice, Granberg-Michaelson said. It also gathered Northern Hemisphere churches with those of the South, where Christianity is growing the fastest, he said.

“We needed to create some new space where all parts of the body (of Christ) would be brought together and feel safe,” Granberg-Michaelson said.

While acknowledging differences remain, forum leaders agreed to continue with local and regional events to “deepen this journey toward the goal of reconciliation.”

Granberg-Michaelson cautions the gathering was a “very fragile” first step. But he sees the potential for cooperative mission work on issues such as AIDS, poverty, the environment and evangelism.

“It is the beginning, at least, of a new day,” he said.

_ Charles Honey

Diverse group of Christians seek better ties with Muslims

(RNS) A wide range of Christian theologians and leaders have endorsed a document calling for increased efforts to work with Muslims for peace and justice. The move responds to an earlier call from Muslim leaders seeking common ground.

The new document, “Loving God and Neighbor Together: A Christian Response to `A Common Word Between Us and You,”’ was signed by almost 300 Christians and published in a Sunday (Nov. 18) advertisement in The New York Times.

“Given the deep fissures in the relations between Christians and Muslims today, the task before us is daunting. And the stakes are great,” the statement reads. “The future of the world depends on our ability as Christians and Muslims to live together in peace.”

Four scholars at Yale Divinity School initially released the document in mid-October, responding to an open letter by 138 Islamic clerics and scholars to Pope Benedict XVI about the need for partnerships aimed at peace.

The Yale document has expanded to include endorsements from such varied Christian voices as Rick Warren, author and pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif.; William A. Graham, dean of Harvard Divinity School; Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary; Robert Schuller, founder of the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Calif.; Richard Cizik, vice president of the National Association of Evangelicals; David Neff, editor in chief of the evangelical magazine Christianity Today; and John M. Buchanan, editor of the mainline Protestant magazine The Christian Century.

The Christian leaders acknowledge that people of their faith “have been guilty of sinning against our Muslim neighbors” and ask for forgiveness.

Organizers of the document hope it will lead to conferences and workshops involving some of the signatories as well as other Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Quote of the Day: George Washington University professor Jonathan Turley

(RNS) “This election, the candidates are talking so much about faith that one would think they wanted to be in the College of Cardinals rather than the Hall of Presidents.”

_ Jonathan Turley, professor of public interest law at George Washington University, writing in a column in USA Today.

KRE/PH END RNS