c. 2008 Religion News Service
Anglican Church of Canada facing defections over gay blessings
TORONTO (RNS) Seven congregations have cut ties with the Anglican Church of Canada because of theological differences on blessing same-sex unions and related issues, adding to a wave of conservative defections.
And the head of one breakaway group predicts more are on the way.
Last weekend (Feb. 15-17), seven parishes voted to leave the national church to join with a South American archbishop.
Six Anglican parishes in Ontario, eight in British Columbia and three in Alberta have decided to operate outside the Anglican Church of Canada and join the recently formed Anglican Network in Canada, which holds more traditional views.
Of the 17 dissenting congregations and parishes, 10 have voted to align themselves with the Anglican Communion’s more orthodox Province of the Southern Cone, which covers most of South America.
“I’m quite confident that this is just a beginning,” Bishop Donald Harvey, moderator of the recently formed Anglican Network in Canada, told reporters.
Harvey said the breakaway parishes seek a “haven” under the jurisdiction of the South American archbishop, Gregory Venables.
Vianney Carriere, a spokesman for the Anglican Church of Canada, noted that despite the recent departures, almost 2,300 congregations remain in the national church.
The Canadian church’s top governing body decided last June that blessing same-sex marriages does not violate basic church doctrine, prompting anger among conservative congregations.
Canada’s bishops have decided to continue a moratorium on same-sex marriages, however. Some local parishes and dioceses are blessing the unions anyway.
_ Ron Csillag
Pope urges Jesuits to commit to orthodoxy
VATICAN CITY (RNS) For the second time in two months, Pope Benedict XVI urged leaders of the Catholic Church’s largest religious order to affirm their commitment to orthodoxy in several controversial areas, including religious pluralism and human sexuality.
Benedict made his remarks on Thursday (February 21) at a meeting with delegates to the 35th General Congregation of the Society of Jesus, also known as the Jesuits.
The pope asked the Jesuits for their “renewed commitment to promote and defend Catholic doctrine,” as a response to the “powerful negative forces” of contemporary life, including “subjectivism, relativism, hedonism (and) practical materialism.”
Citing a letter he wrote last month to the order’s retiring leader, he repeated his appeal for assent to church teaching on “the relationship between Christ and religions, some aspects of the theology of liberation,” divorce and homosexuality.
In recent years, the Vatican has censured several Jesuit theologians for deviations from orthodoxy on such matters as the uniqueness of the Catholic Church as a means of salvation and the compatibility of Christianity with the teachings of Karl Marx.
While he praised the Jesuits for their extensive assistance to the needy, particularly refugees, Benedict also enjoined them to “rediscover the fullest sense” of their order’s unique vow of obedience to the pontiff. That vow, the pope said “does not imply only the readiness to be sent on mission to distant lands, but also … to `love and serve’ the Vicar of Christ of Earth.”
The pope’s remarks are the latest evidence of tension between the order and the Holy See. At a Mass to open the Jesuit congregation last month, the Vatican official in charge of religious orders voiced “sorrow and anxiety” over the unwillingness of “some members of religious families” to “think with the church” and obey the hierarchy.
_ Francis X. Rocca
UpDATE: NFL OKs big-screen church Super Bowl events
(RNS) The National Football League will now allow churches to air live showings of the Super Bowl on a screen of any size, reversing a previous ban on widescreen televisions.
Members of Congress, including Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and church leaders had objected to the NFL’s rule that churches could not hold Super Bowl parties featuring TV screens larger than 55 inches, even though sports bars routinely do.
“For future Super Bowls, the league will not object to live showings _ regardless of screen size _ of the Super Bowl by a religious organization when such showings are free and on premises used by the religious organization on a routine and customary basis,” wrote NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in a Feb. 19 (Tuesday) letter to Hatch.
Hatch had written to Goddell on Feb. 13, asking a series of questions about the policy and saying he wanted to ensure that “all Americans” could watch the game with “loved ones and neighbors.”
NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said the change was made to clarify confusion about the matter.
“We were not going after churches, not investigating churches and we have never sued a church,” he said Thursday. “What we’re doing now is simply eliminating the question and confusion about copyright law.”
Hatch was pleased with the NFL’s decision.
“I am grateful that this accommodation was made to allow the NFL to protect its copyrighted material, while respecting the interests of churches,” the senator said. “Many families want to enjoy the Super Bowl in a group atmosphere _ but obviously aren’t going to take their kids to a sports bar.”
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., introduced legislation Feb. 4 that would allow churches to show the Super Bowl on widescreen televisions.
Goodell told Hatch the league believes legislation is not necessary and will begin its policy with the Super Bowl next Feb. 1.
McCarthy denied that the league was pressured to make the policy change.
“It was responding to the confusion over the last couple of years but Sen. Hatch … did play into the overall shift,” he said.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Church-state group challenges Michigan city’s efforts to “serve God”
HUDSONVILLE, Mich. (RNS) A Wisconsin organization that champions separation of church and state is urging a Michigan city to remove from its Web site a reference to city officials striving “to serve God.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation, a 12,000-member organization based in Madison, Wis., sent a letter to Mayor Don VanDoeselaar of Hudsonville, asking the city to remove the reference to God from its mission statement.
Annie Laurie Gaylor, foundation co-president, said the group sent the letter after it received a complaint from a Hudsonville resident.
“The (letter) was on their behalf,” said Gaylor, who declined to identify the individual.
Gaylor said people who contact the nonprofit group with complaints often are reluctant to challenge what they perceive to be improper mixing of church and state, fearing reprisal from others.
She wrote VanDoeselaar that it “is not the business of a city in our secular republic to `strive to serve God.”’
“A city should have no religious beliefs,” Gaylor said in the letter. “That neutrality is the only way to ensure religious liberty for all citizens, which by definition includes the freedom to disbelieve and the freedom to dissent.”
Gaylor considers the contact “educational” and said it “should not take litigation or the threat of litigation” to draw a distinction between government functions and religious practices.
The issue is prompting Hudsonville to talk to its lawyers, said VanDoeselaar, who has been mayor since 2003.
“We won’t respond to anything until we consult with our legal counsel,” VanDoeselaar said.
He said he was unaware of other complaints about the mission statement, which was approved in 1995.
_ Keith Essenburg
Controversial blogger resigns from Southern Baptist mission board
(RNS) A controversial blogger who recently resigned from the Southern Baptist’s International Mission Board vows to keep fighting what he calls an increasingly political atmosphere in his denomination.
“I will continue to press for more cooperation and accountability, transparency and openness on our boards,” Wade Burleson, an Enid, Okla., pastor, said Wednesday (Feb. 20). “And I will continue to fight against what I believe to be politics that have taken the place of following the leadership of the Holy Spirit and the word of God.”
Burleson resigned from the mission board after telling fellow trustees last month that he regrets causing a “distraction” for the board.
He was censured by the board last November because he “repeatedly failed” to follow the board’s standards for appropriate conduct. In 2006, the board dropped an effort to oust Burleson after he had defended the right of missionaries to speak in tongues despite a board policy barring missionary candidates who embrace that practice.
Burleson said he is considering writing a book about concerns he has about Southern Baptists who he feels have been “steamrolled for `doctrinal’ reasons.”
International Mission Board Chairman John Floyd said he did not feel Burleson apologized to the board when he made his January statement.
“I feel like he did the right thing,” Floyd said of Burleson’s resignation.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Virgin Mary on a pretzel? Going once, going twice …
(RNS) A disc jockey for a Eugene, Ore., radio station has received a bid of more than $10,000 for a pretzel that some people think resembles the Virgin Mary.
Tanner Haney, who works for KFLY radio, put the pretzel on eBay on Wednesday afternoon, and by Thursday afternoon it had fetched a high bid of $10,950.
There are also what appear to be several hoax bids _ one as high as $99 million _ and the situation appeared to spawn several other auctions offering various combinations of religious icons and pretzels.
The person who had bid $10,950 appears to be a legitimate bidder and has purchased or bid on a variety of items over time. The bidding closes March 1. Shipping is free.
Haney could not be reached for comment, but he told Eugene television station KVAL (13) that “we’re kind of capitalizing on the stupidity of eBay and that people will buy anything.” He hosts the “Donkey Show” from 2 to 6 p.m.
Michael Fleming, who owns the pretzel, told KVAL that he found the pretzel in a bag of Rold Gold three years ago.
“People seemed generally moved by these images,” Fleming said. “And they really seem to believe that the Virgin Mary is before them.”
Beliefs aside, similar images have attracted money in the past. For example, a grilled cheese sandwich Virgin Mary went for $28,000 on eBay in 2004.
The assigning of religious significance to such objects is not uncommon.
In Boardman, Ore., in 1994, a woman thought she saw an image of Our Lady of Guadeloupe within a painting. In 1998, an image of the Madonna on a road sign about 20 miles southeast of Yakima, Wash., drew hordes of faithful.
There is an entire Wikipedia site dedicated to religious sightings. Among them are the NunBun, the Virgin Pizza Pan and two images that some think to be Jesus: one on a tortilla, the other on a dental X-ray.
KFLY’s Rold Gold Virgin Mary pretzel is not a first. Another similar-looking pretzel sold on eBay in 2005 for $10,600.
_ Michael Rollins
Chosen few get stadium tickets for papal Mass
NEWARK, N.J. (RNS) Christine Larrabee is grateful there were witnesses. Otherwise the news would have been a tough sell at her Catholic church in Cranford, N.J.
The drama at St. Michael’s, like at most Catholic churches in New Jersey, revolved around who would get tickets to see Pope Benedict XVI celebrate Mass at Yankee Stadium April 20.
Eighty people at St. Michael’s vied for the five tickets given to each parish in the Newark Archdiocese. Larrabee and her husband, Bardsson, each had their names picked, defying long odds that a wife and husband could win.
“I’m glad they did it in a public forum,” said Christine Larrabee, “or no one would have believed it. … I’m fairly active in the parish, so there was definitely going to be a lot of teasing if it wasn’t done the way it was done.”
Of the 60,000 tickets available for the papal Mass, only about 3,500 went to New Jersey. The archdioceses of Boston and Philadelphia received double that number because they are celebrating bicentennials, according to media reports.
The New York Archdiocese is in charge of distributing the tickets for the Yankees Stadium Mass, giving somewhere between a third and half of the total tickets to the 400 churches within its boundaries, said Joseph Zwilling, an archdiocese spokesman.
“Basically our general rule of thumb was, the bicentennial dioceses and then the contiguous dioceses (to New York) _ Newark, Brooklyn and Bridgeport _ would get a little bit larger allotment than would the other dioceses in New York state,” he said.
New Jersey pastors were able to use their own discretion when handing out tickets. Some pastors held raffles, others awarded the papal Mass tickets to church volunteers or staff. Shugrue gave most of his church’s share to pastoral council members.
The Rev. Stephen Feehan, of Little Flower Parish in Berkeley Heights, N.J., made his available only to church employees.
“I didn’t want to make a big thing about it. … I only had five tickets,” he said. “There was no point in spreading out the invitations when you had very little to give.”
_ Jeff Diamant
Union Seminary appoints first woman president
NEW YORK (RNS) Serene Jones, a feminist scholar who currently teaches at Yale Divinity School, has been named the new president of Union Theological Seminary, one of the flagship institutions of liberal Protestantism.
Jones, 48, is the first woman to head the 172-year-old non-denominational seminary located in upper Manhattan and affiliated with Columbia University.
Her presidency also represents a generational shift: Jones succeeds 74-year-old Joseph C. Hough Jr., who is retiring after serving nine years in the post.
Jones will begin her duties July 1 at an institution that has served as a scholarly home for such major theological figures as Reinhold Niebuhr, Paul Tillich and, more recently, the black theologian James Cone.
In announcing the appointment, David Callard, the chairman of Union’s board of trustees, said that Jones will help Union “not only to continue its role as a leading institution of theological education but also to be a strong voice at a time when religion, with all its pluralistic manifestations, has become an increasingly powerful and divisive issue.”
Union is emerging from a period of financial uncertainty, and one of Jones’ challenges will be to build on Hough’s record of raising money. Hough is credited with helping boost Union’s endowment to close to $100 million, averting fears that the seminary might shut its doors. Last year, he said fundraising would have to remain a major part of his successor’s job.
In an interview Tuesday (Feb. 26), Jones acknowledged that fact but also said her job will be made easier because “Union is completely stable. It’s not going away.”
“The dark clouds have passed; the place is lean but ready to go,” she said, adding that the seminary is now poised to begin a period of expansion.
Given Union’s urban locale, Jones said, the school is in a unique position to become a center of dialogue and study about the contemporary cultural shifts in Christianity _ changes that she said might prove ultimately as important as the changes caused by the Reformation.
Jones has taught at Yale for 17 years and holds degrees from the University of Oklahoma, Yale Divinity School and Yale University. She is an ordained minister in both the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ.
_ Chris Herlinger
Muslim scholars extend olive branch to Jewish leaders
LONDON (RNS) Muslim scholars and leaders meeting in Britain have sent a letter to Jewish rabbis around the world calling for a far-reaching dialogue to try to end long-standing conflicts between the two faiths.
Some 100 imams, rabbis and community leaders, as well as businessmen and journalists, gathered Monday (Feb. 25) in Cambridge for what organizers billed as the “world’s first cross-denominational statement in modern times from Muslims to Jews.”
In the keynote address, Oxford University professor Tariq Ramadan explained the letter as an attempt to “generate dialogue and understanding between Jews and Muslims.”
“At the moment,” the letter said, “there is no challenge more pressing than the need to bring to a closure some of the historical and long-lasting estrangements between the Jews and Muslims.”
The letter outlined no details, but instead called for “positive and constructive action to improve Muslim-Jewish relations.” It insisted, “We must keep talking, especially when we do not agree.”
Ramadan said he saw dialogue with Jews as “a risk but a necessity.”
He said, “We need to get beyond `tolerance,’ which is saying that `I put up with you but I would rather you were not here,’ to a mutual knowledge and respect.”
Rabbi Danny Rich, head of England’s Liberal Judaism movement, welcomed the letter, saying Muslims and Jews “have more in common than divides them, and … together could contribute to making the world a more decent place for us, our children and future generations to occupy.”
_ Al Webb
UpDATE: Benny Hinn submits records to Senate committee
WASHINGTON (RNS) After several weeks of delay, televangelist Benny Hinn has submitted a “significant amount” of financial material to a Senate committee that is investigating the finances of six prominent ministries.
Jill Gerber, a spokeswoman for the Senate Finance Committee, said ranking Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa “and his staff will evaluate whether the material responds sufficiently but are encouraged by the demonstration of cooperation.”
Rusty Leonard, the founder of MinistryWatch.com, a North Carolina-based watchdog organization that advocates financial accountability of Christian ministries, welcomed Hinn’s cooperation.
“We were pleased to hear that Benny Hinn has come to his senses and agreed to cooperate with Sen. Grassley,” Leonard said. “We hope that the other … uncooperative ministries will also reach the same conclusion that answering the senator’s very legitimate questions is their best option.”
Two other ministries _ Joyce Meyer Ministries in Fenton, Mo., and Kenneth Copeland Ministries in Newark, Texas _ have already provided materials that were reviewed by Senate staff.
Joyce Meyer Ministries has provided substantial information in response to Grassley’s questions, a representative for Grassley said. Details will be discussed in a meeting between Grassley’s staff and Meyer’s representatives.
While Copeland has responded, the material he provided did not adequately answer Grassley’s questions, Gerber said. Grassley is considering additional steps in the congressional review.
The other three ministries _ Creflo Dollar, Paula and Randy White and Bishop Eddie Long _ have yet to provide financial records. Grassley’s investigators continue to be in contact with these ministries, as Grassley considers sending follow-up letters.
_ Brittani Hamm
Quote of the Week: Sister Mary Ann Walsh, spokeswoman for Catholic bishops
(RNS) “It’s a minor feast. Don’t tell that to the Irish, though.”
_ Sister Mary Ann Walsh, spokeswoman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, about St. Patrick’s Day, March 17. U.S. bishops have encouraged Catholics to honor the patron saint of Ireland earlier in March, so as not to interfere with Holy Week, which begins March 16 this year. Walsh was quoted by the Chicago Sun-Times. (Feb. 22)
KRE END RNS
