c. 1996 Religion News Service

EDITORS: Koeltl in 42nd graph is cq.

Presbyterians elect peacemaker as moderator

(RNS) The Rev. John Buchanan, pastor of Chicago’s Fourth Presbyterian Church _ a centrist who says he does not object to the ordination of homosexuals _ has been elected to a one-year term as moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Buchanan was elected Saturday (June 29) at the opening session of the 208th General Assembly of the 2.7 million-member denomination’s top decision-making meeting.”There is no scriptural reason that homosexual persons should not be ordained,”Buchanan said in a speech to the 2,000 commissioners, or delegates, gathered in Albuquerque for the eight-day meeting.”I can live in a church that trusts (local) churches and presbyteries to make their own decisions.” Buchanan succeeds Marj Carpenter as the denomination’s highest elected non-paid official.

Buchanan, considered a peacemaker in the faction-torn denomination, was elected on the second ballot, beating Norman Pott of San Rafael, a strong supporter of gay ordination, and John Clark Poling of Las Cruces, N.M., an opponent of homosexuals in the ministry.

The issue of gays in the church has sharply divided the mainline Protestant denomination and critical votes on changing the church’s Book of Order, or lawbook, to specifically ban ordination of gays and lesbians were scheduled for later in the convention. Current church law puts the ordination issue in the hands of local and regional bodies; Buchanan’s comments suggest he supports maintaining that stance.

But he added that the issue of gay ordination needs to be resolved or the denomination must at least find”a way to disagree and stay together.”

Anglican bishops turn toward the left

(RNS) Bishops of the Church of England have a reputation for being so staunchly conservative that the denomination has been known as”the Tory Party at Prayer.” But according to a survey of 50 bishops conducted by The Sunday Times of London, a growing number of prelates in the mother church of the worldwide Anglican communion say they support the policies of opposition Labor party leader Tony Blair rather the Conservative Party of Prime Minister John Major.

Some 110 bishops serve in the Church of England’s 44 dioceses.

The survey was sparked by comments made by Blair in April in which he said that his own Christian values led him to oppose”the narrow view of self-interest that Conservatism represented, particularly in its modern, more right-wing form.” According to the paper, 17 agreed with Blair, 16 disagreed and 17 had not made up their minds or refused to say.

Only two of the bishops polled said the Conservative Party’s social policies were closest to their own, the newspaper said. Those willing to be quoted voiced agreement with Blair.

Bishop Graham Dow of Willesden, one of the London area’s four Anglican bishops, told the newspaper that the present Conservative stance,”with its emphasis on personal responsibility to the detriment of shared responsibility for one another, is incompatible with Christian faith.” Bishop Peter Hall of Woolich, a London diocese south of the Thames, cited Conservative Party positions on refugees and law-and-order as”distinctly un-Christian. Under the economic policies followed by this government, 30 percent of the population have done disastrously worse.”

Cooperative Baptist Fellowship won’t leave the fold

(RNS) Members of the moderate Cooperative Baptist Fellowship voted overwhelmingly at their general assembly not to break away from the more conservative Southern Baptist Convention and form a new denomination.

During the group’s meeting June 27-29 in Richmond, Va., a motion to”declare ourselves to be a new convention”was soundly defeated, according to a the Associated Baptist Press, an independent news service.

When a similar motion was ruled out of order at last year’s general assembly, a committee was appointed to study the issue. That committee produced a lengthy report that showed that the vast majority of fellowship members believe a formal split is likely inevitable, but they do not think the time is right for that now.

The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship formed in 1991 to oppose the conservative resurgence of the Southern Baptist Convention that began in the 1980s.

Bill Montgomery, a member of Woodland Baptist Church of San Antonio, Texas, has made the motions two years in a row that would have given the fellowship a more separate identity.”I want us to get out of the trenches and charge,”he said.”I want us to quit being so hesitant and timid about what we already are.” But other fellowship supporters said they were concerned that the formation of a separate denomination would further divide churches with members on both sides of the long-standing fight between Southern Baptist conservatives and moderates.

In other action, the general assembly named Lavonn Brown, pastor of First Baptist Church of Norman, Okla., as incoming moderator. Martha Smith, a piano teacher from Gastonia, N.C., was chosen as moderator-elect.

Muslim leader says Islamic militants hurt faith’s image

(RNS) The leader of the worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim movement said that Islamic leaders who use violence to advance political aims are to blame for the negative image that Islam has among many in the West.

Mirza Tahir Ahmad, the supreme head of the 10-million member, century-old movement that began in Pakistan, said the violence is responsible for the fear with which many in the West view the current religious resurgence taking place in the Islamic world.”In this, unfortunately, the Muslim leadership is itself to blame,”he said Monday (July 1) in Washington.”Unfortunately, the Muslim states are passing through a stage that Christianity passed through several hundred years ago”during the Crusades and Spanish Inquisition.”If Christianity is to be blamed for what it did, then Islam must be blamed now.” Mirza Tahir Ahmad is the fourth successor to the founder of Ahmadiyya movement, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who died in 1908, as well as his grandson. Because his followers considered Mirza Ghulam Ahmad a prophet, the reform movement ran afoul of orthodox Muslims, who say Muhammad, the founder of Islam, was the final prophet.

Tensions have persisted ever since, and today Ahmadiyyas are a persecuted minority in Pakistan, where an estimated 2 million to 3 million now live. Mirza Tahir Ahmad resides in London, having fled there in 1984. The Pakistani constitution officially declares Ahmadiyyas to be non-Muslims and bars them from holding public office.

Mirza Tahir Ahmad traveled to the United States to attend the annual American Ahmadiyya convention held last weekend in Silver Spring, Md. He cited the bloody civil war in Afghanistan and Pakistan’s struggle to gain full control of divided Kashmir from India as examples of Muslim political leaders cloaking themselves in Islam to justify violence.

The Ahmadiyya movement, which sends missionaries around the world, was one of the earliest Muslim sects to establish itself in the U.S. Today, the movement has about 10,000 American followers, including converts and Pakistani immigrants.

Jehovah’s Witness in Singapore convicted for owning Bible

(RNS) A 72-year-old grandmother in Singapore was convicted Monday (July 1) of owning a banned Bible and other literature published by her religious denomination, the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The woman, Yu Nguk Ding, a retired nurse, faces up to two-years in jail, according to the Reuters news agency. Her case is one of many stemming from a crackdown on the group last year in which 64 Jehovah’s Witnesses were arrested.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses were banned in Singapore in 1972 because male followers of the group refused to perform compulsory military duty. Since last November, Singapore courts have convicted more than 60 members of the religious group in cases that have sparked protests by human rights groups.

Yu was convicted under Singapore’s Undesirable Publications Act.

Although people are allowed to have Bibles in Singapore, they cannot have Bibles produced by the Jehovah’s Witness’ publishing arms, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society and the International Bible Student Association. Yu’s Bible was printed by the Watchtower.

Yu spent five days in jail in April after she refused to pay a fine for a separate conviction on the charge of possessing another banned book, the Associated Press reported.

During her one-day trial, Yu admitted having the books and testified that they were vital to her faith.”I need these to help me worship the almighty God Jehovah and also to carry out my evangelizing work,”she said.”These Christian publications explain the truth of the Bible very clearly.”

Methodist cleric jailed on sex charges wins review

(RNS) The Rev. Nathaniel T. Grady, found guilty and jailed 10 years ago on charges of sexually abusing children at a Bronx, N.Y., day care center, has been granted a review of his case and could be free within 60 days.

U.S. District Court Judge John G. Koeltl of the Southern District of New York, ruled June 26 that Grady did not receive effective legal advice during his appeal process and that the original indictment against him was improperly prepared, United Methodist News Service reported. He sent the case to the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court for review.”At this time, the likelihood of (Grady’s) success on appeal is undeniable,”Koeltl said.

The Appellate Division has 60 days to review the the case, either overruling Koeltl or freeing Grady.

Grady has adamantly insisted on his innocence since the case first broke in 1986 as part of highly publicized probe of alleged sexual abuse of minors led by Mario Merola, then the Bronx District Attorney. He was found guilty by a Bronx Criminal Court jury on 19 counts of rape, sodomy and sexual abuse involving five boys and a girl all between the ages of 3 to 5.

Merola’s investigation of possible child abuse situations at three city-financed day care centers led to the convictions of five people, including Grady. Four of those convictions were later reversed.

In May, Grady’s lawyer filed a brief with Koeltl arguing that the original indictment of Grady, a longtime community activist, was”duplicitous”and his original lawyer negligent in not raising the issue of the faulty indictment on appeal”even though … it would have assured reversal of the conviction and dismissal of the indictment.” Despite 640 hours of videotape surveillance during which Grady was not observed doing anything wrong and the lack of any physical evidence linking him to abuse, he was convicted on the basis of testimony by the children.

Quote of the day: Darlene Tullos, a freelance dramatist from Nashville, Tenn., speaking about the best way to start a church dance program

(RNS) Darlene Tullos, a freelance dramatist from Nashville, Tenn., spoke recently to music leaders attending the Church Music Leadership Conference at Ridgecrest (N.C.) Baptist Conference Center about how to incorporate dance into worship services.

Among her recommendations, reported by Baptist Press, the official news service of the Southern Baptist Convention, was for music ministers to start a dance program with a low-key approach.”Start slow, start safe, start with a hymn that everybody already thinks is OK,”she said at the June session.”Don’t start with some rock and roll song that will blow them out of the water. Then you will never get to do it again.” JC END ANDERSON