c. 2008 Religion News Service

Episcopal bishops oust breakaway California bishop

(RNS) The Episcopal Church’s House of Bishops voted Wednesday (March 12) to officially oust a conservative bishop who last year led his California diocese to secede and join a more like-minded Anglican province.

Bishop John-David Schofield of the Fresno-based diocese of San Joaquin is the first bishop removed for breaking ties with the national church since feuds over homosexuality and the Bible erupted in 2003.

Wednesday’s vote at a semiannual meeting of Episcopal bishops in Texas was widely expected after Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori restricted Schofield from ministry in January.

“As of today he is no longer a bishop in the Episcopal Church,” Jefferts Schori said.

Schofield resigned from the House of Bishops earlier this month and maintains that the Episcopal Church has no jurisdiction over him.

“I am still an active Anglican bishop, and I continue to be the bishop of the diocese of San Joaquin,” Schofield said in a statement.

Last December, the San Joaquin diocese, with Schofield’s encouragement, voted to secede from the Episcopal Church and place itself under the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone, which is based in South America. The Anglican Communion has 38 provinces; the Episcopal Church is its U.S. branch.

Communion members have fought bitterly since the election of openly gay V. Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire in 2003.

San Joaquin’s unprecedented secession led Episcopal bishops to determine Wednesday that Schofield had “abandoned” and “repudiated the doctrine, discipline and worship of the Episcopal Church.”

“This is a bit like saying, `You can’t quit, you’re fired,”’ said the Rev. Daryl Fenton, a member of the Anglican Communion Network, a conservative group of North American churches and dioceses.

A lengthy and expensive legal tussle over church property is expected. The Episcopal Church maintains that people may leave the church but diocesan and congregational property does not.

Already, Jefferts Schori has moved to rebuild the diocese with the estimated 2,000 Episcopalians the church says remain loyal to it. A convention is planned for March 29 to elect a new bishop.

The House of Bishops also voted to remove Suffragen (assistant) Bishop William Jackson Cox of Maryland from ministry. He had also sought to leave the Episcopal Church, according to the church.

_ Daniel Burke

Pope condemns killing of kidnapped archbishop

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday (March 13) deplored the “inhuman” killing of a Chaldean Catholic archbishop in Iraq as the latest act of violence against that country’s embattled Christian minority.

Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, 65, was kidnapped by gunmen on Feb. 29 outside the Holy Spirit cathedral in Mosul, just after leading a devotional service of the Stations of the Cross. Three other persons were killed during the abduction.

Church authorities and Rahho’s family were later approached for a large ransom. On Wednesday (March 12), according to the Associated Press, the kidnappers phoned church officials to inform them of the archbishop’s death and the whereabouts of his body.

No group has publicly taken responsibility for Rahho’s kidnapping or death.

In a telegram of condolence to Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, leader of the Chaldean Catholic Church, the pope denounced an “act of inhuman violence that offends the dignity of the human being and gravely harms the cause of fraternal coexistence of the beloved Iraqi people.”

In an unusual gesture, Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi issued a separate written statement emphasizing the pope’s distress.

“Unfortunately the most absurd and unjustified violence continues ruthlessly to afflict the Iraqi people and in particular the small Christian community, to whom the pope and all of us are particularly close in prayer and solidarity in this moment of great pain,” Lombardi wrote.

Benedict has frequently lamented the plight of Iraq’s Christians, who reportedly numbered around 1 million before the fall of Saddam Hussein. Many have fled the country, leaving several hundred thousand behind.

_ Francis X. Rocca

UpDATE: Adventist found guilty of fraud scheme

LONDON (RNS) A Seventh-day Adventist who conned hundreds of his fellow worshippers in London out of millions of dollars to fund a life of luxury has been sentenced to seven years in prison.

Lindani Mangena was convicted of persuading some 1,000 fellow Adventists to invest about $6.4 million in a string of bogus investments with promises of profits of up to 3,000 percent in just six months.

Prosecuting attorney Stephen Winberg told a jury that “the victims were much more ready to believe what they were told because it came from members of the same tight-knit religious community.”

Winberg said Mangena spent the money on luxury cars, expensive apartments and visits to luxury Middle Eastern hotels, including about $111,630 for one night at a seven-star hotel in Dubai.

He was found guilty of fraudulent trading, money laundering and carrying on an unauthorized investment business.

_ Al Webb

Faith-based groups support water relief effort

WASHINGTON (RNS) World Vision, Islamic Relief and Catholic Relief Services are among several faith-based groups supporting the new U.S. WASH-in-Schools Initiative, which aims to bring clean water to Third World schools.

“There’s something everyone can be doing,” said David Douglass, president of Water Advocates. “It’s a really unusual situation. Here you have one of the world’s most serious problems and it can be solved.”

Approximately 1 billion people living in underdeveloped countries are dying from preventable illnesses related to poor water quality, humanitarian groups said. Girls are unable to attend school because they are either gathering water or caring for the sick.

Having clean water is a basic need taken for granted in most countries, but for children living in underdeveloped countries, accessible clean water can be life-changing.

“It is a fact that student absenteeism decreases dramatically when water-related sickness and illnesses decrease,” said Gil Grosvenor, chairman of the National Geographic Society.

Water Advocates chose water for schools as the best way to approach a crisis that affects entire communities. The goal of the WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) program is to bring fresh water to schools so children spend their day in a classroom learning, rather than outside hauling water.

American schools are getting involved through H2O for Life, a program that pairs a school in the U.S. with one in the developing world. Public schools, however, cannot support an overseas religious school under the program.

“We have to be cautious of that just because of the church and state separation,” said Patti Hall, president of H2O for Life. “But if (for example) a Catholic school wanted to do a match, then certainly we can do that if the Catholic school is fine with supporting a school that either is Catholic or not.”

_ Brittani Hamm

Quote of the Day: Bishop Thomas W. Weeks III

(RNS) “I want to apologize to my wife for all she’s had to go through.”

_ Atlanta-area minister Bishop Thomas W. Weeks III, turning to speak to his wife, televangelist Juanita Bynum, after pleading guilty on Tuesday (March 11) to assaulting her. He was sentenced to three years’ probation. He was quoted by the Associated Press.

KRE/PH END RNS