c. 2008 Religion News Service

First Muslim congressman makes pilgrimage to Mecca

(RNS) The first Muslim elected to Congress has become the first sitting member of that body to travel to Mecca for the hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Islam’s holiest sites.

“It was transformative. It was a wonderful experience,” Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., told the Associated Press. “I learned a lot about myself, about my faith.”

Ellison traveled to the Saudi Arabian city for the annual pilgrimage attended by millions of Muslims from across the globe. He said he was impressed by how diverse Muslims were “kind of the same” as they made the pilgrimage together.

“You had people of all backgrounds, all races, all descriptions,” he said. “You had people there who were clearly well-to-do, you had people who were desperately poor.”

Ellison, D-Minn., had planned the trip for more than a year, his spokesman Rick Jauert told the Star Tribune newspaper. He didn’t expect that Congress would be addressing possible assistance for the auto industry in the midst of a tough economy.

“The plans were made not anticipating there would be a lame-duck session at all, and if there was, it wouldn’t be this late,” Jauert said. “He had let the speaker and majority leader know that he was going, and they were OK with that. If they knew they were going to bring up something on which his vote was essential, he probably wouldn’t have gone.”

Ellison, who was elected in 2006, was accompanied by members of his mosque, Jauert said, but his wife, who is Catholic, and two sons remained at home.

The congressman paid for the journey with his own funds.

“It was a personal trip, a pilgrimage,” Jauert said.

_ Adelle M. Banks

No Bethlehem carol for British parish

LONDON (RNS) An Anglican vicar has banned his parish in Britain from singing the Christmas carol “O Little Town of Bethlehem” after his visit to the strife-torn city.

The Rev. Stephen Coulter told parishioners that the carol’s sentimental words, “how still we see thee lie,” belies the 21st century reality of the West Bank city.

The rector of Bryanston, Durweston, Stourpaine and Pimperne in southwest England said he was saddened to find on a recent pilgrimage that the Arab-Israeli conflict had wrecked the population, the economy and the tourism of Bethlehem.

As a result, he told journalists, “my parishioners know why we will not be singing `O Little Town’ in church this year.

Instead of shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night, Coulter said, Bethlehem’s citizens these days are kept watch around the clock by police and security guards.

“Bethlehem today is, indeed, a place of dark streets and hopes and fears,” the vicar said, even though “the Christians we stayed with consider themselves descendants of the very shepherds who were keeping watch over flocks by night 2,000 years ago.”

“Can you imagine how they feel being stopped by security guards,” some of whom “have been in the country (Israel) for just five years and who have all the freedoms denied those who have been there for centuries?” Coulter added.

_ Al Webb

American Bible Society’s new president begins Jan. 1

(RNS) A longtime executive of evangelical organizations will become the new president of the American Bible Society on Jan. 1.

The Rev. R. Lamar Vest, the current executive vice president of Global Scripture Ministries for the New York-based society, was chosen in November by the society’s trustees.

Vest, 68, succeeds Paul Irwin, whose contract with the society ended in June weeks after news reports that an Internet contractor that had received millions of dollars from the society had previous ties to the pornography industry.

At the time, a society spokeswoman said the nonrenewal of Irwin’s contract “was not a reflection of any wrongdoing.” The society also had ended its relationship with the Internet contractor.

Vest had interim responsibility for some of the society’s day-to-day activities following Irwin’s departure.

“Grounded in his deep commitment to the church as well as his many years of fostering new global Bible mission, Dr. Vest will provide strong leadership for the ongoing work and ministry of the American Bible Society,” said society board chairman Dennis C. Dickerson.

Vest is a member of the executive committee of the United Bible Societies Global Board. He has been chairman of the National Association of Evangelicals and chairman of the American Bible Society’s board of trustees. He also has worked as an executive of the Church of God (Cleveland, Tenn.).

_ Adelle M. Banks

Quote of the Day: Rev. A. R. Bernard

(RNS) “It’s a wonderful time, a great evangelistic opportunity for us. When people are shaken to the core, it can open doors.”

_ The Rev. A. R. Bernard, senior pastor of the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., a large evangelical congregation that, like others, is finding that tough economic times are increasing worship attendance. He was quoted by The New York Times.

DSB/KRE END RNS