c. 2008 Religion News Service
ACLU seeks end to noontime prayer at U.S. Naval Academy
WASHINGTON (RNS) The American Civil Liberties Union has asked the U.S. Naval Academy to halt its practice of expecting midshipmen to stand for a prayer at their noon meals, saying it makes some of them uncomfortable.
“We believe it is long past time for the Naval Academy to discontinue the official lunchtime prayers that all midshipmen are compelled to attend,” wrote Deborah A. Jeon, legal director of the ACLU of Maryland, in a letter to a vice admiral at the academy in Annapolis, Md.
ACLU officials tied their request to a 2003 federal appeals court ruling that organized prayers before mandatory meals at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Va., were unconstitutional.
“People have to separate themselves out if they do not wish to be seen praying,” said Jeremy Gunn, director of the ACLU’s Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief. “It’s creating a dual status for people, those who are accepting the Naval Academy’s prayer versus those who are not.”
Gunn said the May 2 letter from the ACLU followed a similar request last year. He said the ACLU, which has heard from nine midshipmen concerned about the tradition, will consider suing if the policy does not change.
The academy, in a statement, said it is developing a response to the ACLU but seemed reluctant to change a tradition that’s been a part of academy life since it was founded in 1845.
“The academy does not intend to change its practice of offering midshipmen an opportunity for prayer or devotional thought during noon meal announcements,” it said.
In a September 2007 memo drafted after a previous ACLU complaint, the U.S. Naval Academy called the noon meal prayer “a worthwhile and beneficial practice that tangibly supports the mission of the USNA, as well as individual midshipmen who are preparing to lead sailors and Marines in the fleet.”
It said the prayer is “not mandatory or compulsory” but midshipmen are “expected to be respectful of those who do wish to pray.”
_ Adelle M. Banks
New Orleans churches return favor and aid Midwest flood victims
NEW ORLEANS (RNS) A team of New Orleans Episcopal volunteers is headed to the Midwest to help flood victims in Quincy, Ill., a community that reached out to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
The four-day trip by the Rev. Jerry Kramer and seven companions from the Free Church of the Annunciation will deliver money and personal cleaning supplies to the Midwestern flood zone, said Duane Nettles, pastoral associate at the church.
It’s also a reconnaissance mission to see what further help the New Orleans church might provide, he said.
The Episcopal Diocese of Quincy, although one of the poorest in the area, sent more than 20 teams of relief workers to help homeowners in the Church of the Annunciation’s New Orleans neighborhood, Nettles said.
“They’ve been tremendous in support of us,” he said.
He said the New Orleanians will sleep on the floor of an Episcopal church “just like their people did for us.”
_ Bruce Nolan
Communion to be served on the tongue, kneeling at papal Masses
VATICAN CITY (RNS) In the latest sign of the Vatican’s increasing penchant for tradition, the pope’s master of ceremonies said that receiving Communion by mouth while kneeling would become the normal practice at papal Masses.
Monsignor Guido Marini made the statement in an interview published in the Thursday (June 26) issue of the official Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano.
Receiving Communion in the hand while standing has become increasingly common over the last four decades, even at papal Masses; but on two widely noted occasions in recent weeks, Pope Benedict XVI has distributed the sacrament in the more traditional manner.
Asked if “this (is) a procedure destined to become habitual at papal celebrations,” Marini replied, “I really think so.”
Marini, who oversees all liturgies celebrated by the pope, noted that permission to distribute Communion in the hand constitutes an exemption, granted to national bishops’ conferences that request it, from the church’s “universal law.” Communion in the mouth, he said, remains the “norm valid for the whole Church.”
According to Marini, the traditional method of distribution “better illuminates the truth of the real presence (of Christ) in the Eucharist, assists the devotion of the faithful, (and) introduces them more easily to the sense of the mystery.”
_ Francis X. Rocca
Bibles to be available at China Olympics
LONDON (RNS) Despite controversy earlier this year, thousands of Bibles and Gospel booklets will be distributed to athletes and visitors at this summer’s Olympic Games in Beijing _ with the approval of the Chinese government.
The British-based Bible Society said the organization’s 180 affiliated branches around the world are jointly funding the project in a country whose Communist government once confiscated all Bibles during the turbulent Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s.
James Catford, the Bible Society’s chief executive, said in a statement: “This great sporting event presents a unique opportunity to make the life-changing message of the Bible available to thousands of athletes and visitors from all over China _ and all over the world.”
The Bible Society said some 50,000 booklets with the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John published in Chinese and English will be available at the Athletes’ Village in Beijing and five other Olympic cities.
In addition, some 10,000 complete Bibles and 30,000 copies of the New Testament in Chinese and English also will be printed by the China-based Amity Printing Press for the 16,000 athletes and an estimated 2 million visitors expected for the games that open Aug. 8.
The Bible Society conceded that as late as earlier this year, there was controversy “over whether the Chinese authorities would allow Bibles” but said the project now “has the approval of the Beijing Olympic organizing committee.”
Peter Meadows, the Bible Society’s director of communications and giving, told journalists that the Chinese government “is quite happy to do things _ as long as it’s done in the right way. It was about building a good relationship and taking it slowly, so they know we’re not about to bring the government down.”
_ Al Webb
Breakaway Catholic group rejects reconciliation deadline
VATICAN CITY (RNS) The leader of a breakaway group of conservative Catholics rejected a Vatican proposal for reconciliation, saying that last year’s revival of traditional liturgy by the pope does not go far enough to undo decades of modernization in the church.
“They speak of reconciliation, but it is an integration in the new, and we don’t want that,” said Bishop Bernard Fellay, in a sermon available on the Web site of “Voice of Catholic Radio on Long Island.”
Fellay gave the sermon last Friday (June 20) at a seminary in Winona, Minn., that’s run by the Society of Saint Pius X.
Founded in 1970 by the late French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, the group has consistently protested the changes wrought by the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, including the replacement of the so-called Old Latin Mass with a newer liturgy typically celebrated in local languages.
Lefebvre died in 1991, three years after he was excommunicated by the Vatican. Last July, Pope Benedict XVI lifted restrictions on the Latin Mass, expressing hope that the move would lead to reconciliation with Lefebvre’s followers.
Earlier this week, an Italian newspaper reported that the Vatican had given Fellay an ultimatum, offering to repeal the excommunication of group leaders if they affirmed respect for the pope’s authority. The offer came with a deadline of the end of June.
Fellay characterized the Vatican’s position as an unacceptable demand for silence.
“They just say shut up,” he said. “We are not going to shut down our mouth or to shut up. … We have fought now for 40 years to keep this faith alive, to keep this tradition not only for ourselves but for the church, and we are just going to continue, happens what happens.”
_ Francis X. Rocca
Russian Orthodox join U.S. Orthodox umbrella group
NEW YORK (RNS) For the first time in its 50-year history, an umbrella group of Eastern Orthodox Christian leaders now represents every American church in communion with the spiritual leader of world Orthodoxy.
At its June 12 meeting, the Standing Conference of the Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (SCOBA), leaders of nine Orthodox churches welcomed Russian Orthodox Bishop Mercurius to join the group.
SCOBA includes the U.S. leaders of the the Orthodox Church of America and America’s Albanian, Antiochian, Bulgarian, Carpatho-Russian, Greek, Romanian, Serbian, and Ukranian Orthodox churches.
The Russian Orthodox Church originally belonged to SCOBA, but withdrew in 1970 as the Orthodox Church in America stepped in to represent its United States parishes. But, about three dozen parishes opted to remain under Moscow’s leadership, and will now be represented by Bishop Mercurius, explained the Rev. Mark Arey, SCOBA general secretary.
The bishop can also speak for about 100 parishes in the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR), which recently reconciled with Moscow after splitting away during the Cold War. Arey predicted that ROCOR leaders will request their own conference seat next year.
“My prediction is they’ll be members of SCOBA,” he said. “As long as you’re a canonical, legitimate Orthodox church in America, you can be in SCOBA.”
With the addition of the Moscow Patriarchate’s parishes, the biannual conference now coordinates 10 Orthodox Christian denominations in their nonprofit endeavors in the United States, ranging from prison ministries to campus fellowships.
“The needs of our own parishioners are so demanding, it’s hard sometimes to get outside your own parochial world to talk to the guy down the street, even though he’s the same faith,” Arey explained. “This association provides an umbrella for cooperative work.”
The next SCOBA meeting will be held this fall, Arey said.
_ Nicole Neroulias
Walter elected new president of Evangelical Covenant Church
(RNS) Gary B. Walter was elected the ninth president of the Chicago-based Evangelical Covenant Church on Wednesday (June 25) at the denomination’s annual meeting in Green Lake, Wis.
A 27-member search committee had nominated Walter to succeed retiring President Glenn Palmberg. Walter will start his four-year term on Sept. 1.
Walter, 53, had previously served as the executive minister of the church’s church growth and evangelism department, where he oversaw a growth rate of about 56 percent through new church plants and other initiatives.
Walter quoted Palmberg at the meeting, saying, “We are a small denomination, but not too small to change the world.”
Walter outlined three priorities, including evangelism, compassion and justice ministries and church unity.
“From the very beginning, the Covenant’s commitment has been to join together, not principally to be talkers of the word, nor philosophers on the word, but at the core to be doers of the Word, to live out the promises of God,” Walter said, according to Covenant News Service.
Walter has also pastored Covenant churches in Washington state, California and Illinois. The moderate evangelical denomination counts about 115,000 U.S. members and was founded by Swedish immigrants in 1885.
_ Ashly McGlone
McCain has `excellent conversation’ with Grahams
WASHINGTON (RNS) Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain visited evangelists Billy and Franklin Graham on Sunday (June 29) at the elder preacher’s North Carolina home.
“We had a very excellent conversation, and I appreciated the opportunity to visit with them,” the Arizona senator said in a statement following the meeting.
“Billy Graham recalled that during the Vietnam War when I was a prisoner, he visited my parents twice in Honolulu, and he and my father prayed together for me. And I expressed my appreciation for that a long time ago.”
Franklin Graham said the 45-minute private meeting was held at McCain’s request. “I was impressed by his personal faith and his moral clarity on important social issues facing America today,” he said in a statement. “We had an opportunity to pray for the senator and his family, and for God’s will to be done in this upcoming election.”
McCain, who has been urged to do more outreach to evangelicals, told reporters afterwards he did not know if either Graham would vote for him, the Associated Press reported. “I didn’t ask for their votes,” the senator said.
Franklin Graham did not consider the meeting to be a presidential endorsement.
“While as a Christian minister I am not endorsing a candidate for president, I do endorse the responsibility of men and women of faith everywhere to vote and to be involved in the political process,” he said.
Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, held a June 10 meeting with Christian leaders that included Franklin Graham.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Jews encouraged by Presbyterian action on Middle East
(RNS) Jewish groups said the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s recent call for peace in the Middle East is an “important step forward” in repairing relations between the two sides after several years of acrimony.
At the Presbyterians’ recent General Assembly meeting in San Jose, Calif., the church called for a non-partisan approach to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“We will avoid taking broad stands that simplify a very complex situation into a caricature of reality where one side clearly is at fault and the other side is clearly the victim,” said a statement passed by the assembly.
The church, in a 504-171 vote, also joined with other denominations to endorse the Amman Call, which was initially issued by the World Council of Churches last June and urges a peaceful two-state solution. Delegates also called for more direct U.S. involvement toward brokering a peace agreement and to refrain from unilaterally supporting either side of the conflict.
Previously, Jewish groups were upset with what they perceived as the church’s bias against Israel, arguing that the church overlooked the actions of Palestinian militants. In response to the Assembly’s statements, the nine Jewish groups expressed hope that the church will direct pressure against Iran and Syria, both of which have provided support for terrorist acts against Israelis.
While optimistic, the Jewish groups expressed concern with some elements of the Assembly’s position.
“(The Amman Call) purports to advance peace, but is inconsistent with a political solution that would include a viable Jewish state alongside an independent Palestinian state,” the groups said in a statement.
Tensions flared between Jews and Presbyterians when the church voted in 2004 for “phased, selective divestment” in companies with operations in Israel, such as Motorola, Caterpillar, and Citigroup. Two years later, the assembly changed course, seeking investment only in “peaceful pursuits” and individually engaging the companies to discuss concerns.
_ Tim Murphy
Canadian Anglican leader says church `obsessed about sex’
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (RNS) The leader of the Anglican Church of Canada wants his divided flock to get their minds off sex.
“The church is about much more than sex, here and elsewhere. But some Anglicans are obsessed about sex,” Anglican Archbishop Fred Hiltz said in an interview.
Elected last year as Canada’s senior Anglican, Hiltz emphasized Anglicans should especially get their minds of sexuality as practiced by gays and lesbians.
Hiltz was referring to his denomination’s decade-long battle over the blessing of same-sex relationships, an issue that threatens to rupture the church in Canada and around the world.
Hiltz, 54, said it’s unfortunate some Christians are “preoccupied” with sexual acts between homosexuals _ and “falsely equate homosexuality with promiscuity.”
The small number of Canadian Anglican congregations that provide same-sex blessings, he said, offer them only to gay or lesbian couples ready to commit to long-term monogamous relationships.
ince Vancouver-area Bishop Michael Ingham formally sanctioned same-sex rites in 2002 and an openly gay Episcopal bishop was elected in the U.S. in 2003, Hiltz is disturbed some conservative Anglicans are threatening to break up the global communion over homosexuality.
The subject will be front and center when the world’s Anglican bishops meet this July in England for the once-a-decade Lambeth Conference. Some Anglican primates in the Third World, where the church is growing rapidly, have warned they will not attend.
_ Douglas Todd
Angry parishioners storm out of church-closure meeting
NEW ORLEANS (RNS) With food rations and toiletries stacked on a back pew, defiant parishioners of a church scheduled for closure as part of a post-Katrina downsizing plan angrily rejected all talk of closing their parish.
But after a heated meeting on Monday (June 30), parishioners returned to their homes without seizing the church in protest, as they had said they might.
“I think we’re OK for now, but in a heartbeat we’ll let you know if we’re not,” parishioner Alden Hagardorn told more than 150 parishioners as the raucous meeting ended.
The Archdiocese of New Orleans had summoned parishioners of St. Henry Catholic Church to meet with three volunteer facilitators who were to help the church fashion new leadership as their 152-year-old parish closed and merged with two others.
But the meeting broke down within moments. The facilitators were unable to generate any discussion of the mechanics of merger; one after another, parishioners, most of them elderly, lifelong Catholics, rose to denounce the closure plan and vowed not to abandon their church.
“If I have to sit on the front step and put on a hunger strike, I’ll do it,” 85-year-old Anthony LaRocca, a parishioner for 60 years, told the facilitators. “We’re not moving, and that’s final.”
Archbishop Alfred Hughes has ordered that St. Henry be closed and merged with two nearby parishes. The archdiocese says it can no longer staff small, closely spaced parishes because of a growing shortage of priests.
But Hagardorn and other lay leaders have asked Hughes and his aides to consider alternative solutions, including a cluster arrangement in which the three parishes remain open under some kind of priest-sharing arrangement.
Hagardorn and others have said the archdiocese has refused even to acknowledge the suggestions, much less discuss them, which has infuriated parishioners all the more.
Archdiocesan spokeswoman Sarah Comiskey monitored the meeting and had asked television crews to remain outside the building out of respect for the facilitators inside. But the meeting broke down when the crowd learned that cameras were being kept out. They rose and began to chant, “We want the media!” ending the hourlong session.
Parishes resisting the closure plan have until the end of the year to complete their merger, she said. Given the breakdown of the transition process, however, it was not clear what the next step will be.
_ Bruce Nolan
Quote of the Week: L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper
(RNS) “The Pope does not wear Prada, but Christ.”
_ The official Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, in an article by Spanish writer Juan Manuel de Prada, in an article entitled “Liturgical Vestments According to Ratzinger.”
KRE/PH END RNS
Editors: Freddrick in Full Gospel item is CQ
