c. 2006 Religion News Service
Mormons Vow to Safeguard Missionaries After Va. Shooting
(RNS) Officials of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have vowed to work to keep their missionaries safe after one missionary was murdered in Chesapeake, Va., and another was injured.
The statement from the Salt Lake City-based church was issued Wednesday (Jan. 4), two days after Elder Morgan W. Young was killed and Elder Joshua D. Heidbrink was seriously injured as they were making door-to-door visits.
“We assure those currently serving missions or who are contemplating missionary service that the church will continue to make every effort to safeguard the health and safety of missionaries throughout the world,” Mormon church officials stated.
The Virginian-Pilot newspaper reported that a suspect has been charged in the shootings. James R. Boughton, 19, was arrested late Wednesday in Chesapeake and charged with first-degree murder, malicious wounding and attempted malicious wounding.
Investigators believe Young, 21, and Heidbrink, 19, may have been shot because they were witnesses to a crime, the newspaper said. Young was close to completing his two-year mission and had planned to return home to Bountiful, Utah, in March. Heidbrink, a missionary for two months, was expected to fly home with his parents to recover in Greeley, Colo.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Jews Pray for Sharon After Stroke
JERUSALEM (RNS) Jews around the world prayed for the recovery of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who suffered a massive stroke and brain hemorrhage late Wednesday (Jan. 4) night.
Many Israeli synagogues held special prayer services for the ailing 77-year-old leader, as did rabbis at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Israeli Chief Sephardic Rabbi Shlomo Amar urged Jews to recite psalms on Sharon’s behalf.
“I’m going to say a prayer for Sharon when I get to synagogue,” said Shaul Chaimson, a Hasidic Jew in his 50s, who was on his way to evening services. “I’m also going to pray that the country will have good, steady leadership and peace. Ultimately, everything is in God’s hands.”
Some Holy Land Christians said that they, too, were praying that Sharon would make a recovery and again lead the nation.
“We just put out a worldwide statement asking our constituency to pray for him, and of course for Israel as a nation at this time,” said Malcolm Hedding, executive director of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, an evangelical organization with millions of supporters.
Many Palestinian Christians and Muslims said they could not find it in their hearts to pray for Sharon’s health, because they see him as an oppressor. Although there were no reports of Muslims praying for Sharon’s health, many individual Muslims said they did not want Sharon to suffer.
“I am not praying for him, but I am praying that whoever becomes the Israeli leader after Sharon will be fair and just with the Palestinian people,” said a Muslim taxi driver who gave his name as Sami.
In contrast, some radical Muslims reacted gleefully to the news that Sharon was near death.
“We say it frankly that God is great and is able to exact revenge on this butcher. … We thank God for this gift he presented to us on this new year,” Ahmed Jibril, leader of the Syrian-backed faction Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, told the Associated Press.
_ Michele Chabin
Orthodox Patriarch to Visit New Orleans, Florida
NEW ORLEANS (RNS) Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the successor to the apostle Andrew and the spiritual leader of some 250 million Orthodox Christians worldwide, will visit New Orleans on Saturday (Jan. 7) to encourage and pray with members of his Greek Orthodox flock struggling to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina.
It will be the first time an Orthodox patriarch has visited New Orleans. In recent weeks, members of the Greek Orthodox community have responded with a furious outpouring of labor to restore their flood-damaged Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral.
In a half-day visit Saturday, Bartholomew will tour part of the Lower 9th Ward with New Orleans Catholic Archbishop Alfred Hughes and lead a short prayer service for 1,000 guests at the cathedral.
Bartholomew will come to New Orleans as part of a five-day U.S. visit to celebrate the feast of the Epiphany in Tarpon Springs, Fla. He will return to Florida on Saturday.
As patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew is “first among equals” among Orthodox patriarchs, those successors of ancient Eastern patriarchs in Alexandria, Antioch, Constantinople and Jerusalem who split with the pope, then the patriarch of Rome, in the 11th century.
Today the patriarch of Constantinople enjoys honorary primacy among the primates, or heads, of more than a dozen Eastern Orthodox churches, including the Russian Orthodox Church, the Serbian Orthodox Church and others.
The Rev. Anthony Stratis, dean of the cathedral, said Katrina’s impact on the city _ including a quarter of the community’s 500 Orthodox families whose homes were destroyed _ only made Bartholomew more determined to visit.
“Especially since Katrina, this has become a pastoral visit. He’ll want to talk to and encourage his flock,” Stratis said.
Bartholomew will be accompanied by Archbishop Demetrios, the leader of the Archdiocese of America, and by Metropolitan Alexios, the regional leader of the Greek Orthodox Church, based in Atlanta.
_ Bruce Nolan
Edgar Calls for Universal Ethics Code After Abramoff Scandal
(RNS) The guilty plea by high-powered lobbyist Jack Abramoff underscores the need for a code of ethics to steer politicians from the “moral pitfalls” of Washington, the head of the National Council of Churches said Wednesday (Jan. 4).
The Rev. Bob Edgar, a former Democratic congressman who was elected in 1974 in the shadow of the Watergate scandal, said Abramoff’s admission in federal court Tuesday (Jan. 3) to fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to bribe public officials comes “as no surprise” to people of faith.
“In these treacherous times, the sinful have included politicians, industrialists, judges, attorneys and, yes, even servants of the church,” said Edgar, the general secretary of the umbrella group of 35 mainline Protestant, Orthodox and black churches.
“As dismayed as we are by the behavior of politicians who flocked to Jack Abramoff’s bountiful trough, church persons know we are not qualified to cast the first stone.”
Edgar said the Abramoff scandal shows the need for “a strict and comprehensive set of ethical guidelines” that can be applied across the board at all levels of government.
Edgar urged religious leaders to join him in the call for an ethics code. He singled out James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, to demand reform during Justice Sunday III, a event addressing the selection of justices to the Supreme Court that is scheduled to be nationally televised Sunday (Jan. 8).
“As a Christian and former member of Congress, I am convinced that a universally accepted and enforceable code of ethics _ not just promises and empty words _ is the best assurance that we the people will be honestly served.”
_ Jason Kane
Quote of the Day: Indiana House Speaker Brian Bosma
(RNS) “We are a nation of laws, even laws that we disagree with.”
_ Indiana House Speaker Brian Bosma, speaking about how House members will continue a new practice of preceding official state business with voluntary prayer in the back of the chamber while a ruling prohibiting legislative prayers promoting Christianity is appealed. He was quoted by the Associated Press.
KRE/PH END RNS
