c. 1998 Religion News Service
Hamby, COCU general secretary, resigns
(RNS) The Rev. Daniell Hamby, general secretary of the Consultation on Church Union, an effort to build ecumenical relations among a number of Protestant denominations, has resigned.
Hamby, who has led the effort known as COCU for four years, has accepted a position as rector of St. Andrews Episcopal Church in Yardley, Pa. Among his predecessors as rector is the Rev. Frank Griswold, now presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church. Hamby will begin his new post in September.
The Rev. Lewis Holladay Lancaster Jr., an ordained teaching elder of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), will become interim general secretary on Sept. 1, said COCU President Vivian U. Robinson.
COCU’s member communions include the African Methodist Episcopal Church, African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Episcopal Church, International Council of Community Churches, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), United Church of Christ and United Methodist Church.
Mahony treated for blood clot month after prostate surgery
(RNS) Roman Catholic Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles is being treated for a blood clot, but is expected to be released from the hospital in a few days.
Mahony, 62, had surgery in June for the removal of a cancerous prostate gland.
The cardinal”says he feels terrific. His spirits are great,”said archdiocesan spokesman Gregory Coiro.
Mahony entered an undisclosed hospital Saturday (July 25) and was expected to be released”within a few days,”Coiro said.
The clot was dissolved and Mahony has been given blood-thinning medication, the Associated Press reported.
Mahony, leader of the nation’s largest Catholic archdiocese, had surgery June 15 after early diagnosis of prostate cancer. He had returned to his normal duties when the clot was discovered.
British official urges church to cooperate in debt relief effort
(RNS) British finance minister Gordon Brown told Anglican bishops from around the world Tuesday (July 28) they should work with rather than oppose politicians and financial institutions, such as the World Bank, in tackling poverty and the international debt of poor nations.
Brown’s comments flew in the face of sentiments at the Lambeth Conference, the once-a-decade gathering of Anglican bishops, that the church should push for erasing Third World debt.
And they have criticized the World Bank’s own highly touted debt relief plan _ the Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative that would ease but not erase the debt of some countries _ as inadequate.
Six of the world’s 20 poorest countries have signed up with the HIPC debt restructuring plan. Brown, defending HIPC, urged the bishops to use their power of persuasion to encourage the other 14 countries to join.
Brown said simply writing off debt is not a simple thing because of the way it might impact the international capital markets. “Last year, the 48 least developed countries received, between them, less than 1 percent of foreign commercial investment in all the developing nations,”he said.
And to attract capital flows, he added, countries must tackle corruption, wasteful military expenditure as well as adopting internationally accepted standards of monetary and fiscal policy _ the requirements for participation in HIPC.”In my view, these codes of good practice that can bring both stability and international investors need not be oppressive _ indeed they can be liberating,”he said.
Utah governor asks for `policy statement’ on prosecuting polygamists
(RNS) Gov. Mike Leavitt has asked Utah’s attorney general to explain why the state isn’t prosecuting polygamists, many of them members of Mormon splinter groups.
The Republican governor recently was drawn into the controversy surrounding polygamy when he said that cases of human or civil rights violations involving polygamists should be prosecuted, but that the practice itself may be protected by the religious freedom clauses of the First Amendment.
His comments were condemned by self-described victims of polygamy, who said Leavitt was condoning a long-illegal practice. Monday (July 27), members of Tapestry of Polygamy, a group of former polygamist wives and children, held a news conference outside Leavitt’s office urging him to enforce the law against polygamy.
Leavitt, a Mormon, made his comments in connection with the court case of John Daniel Kingston, a prominent member of a large polygamist group who has been charged with child abuse. He pleaded innocent to the charge, which stems from allegations he beat his 16-year-old daughter with a belt after she refused to submit to an arranged marriage to Kingston’s brother.
Polygamy was a part of the early history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but was banned by the church in 1890. The Utah Constitution also includes an anti-polygamy clause.
Still, there are an estimated 30,000 practicing polygamists _ many of them connected to small, Mormon splinter groups that rejected the main Mormon church’s ban on polygamy _ in the West, according to the Associated Press.
A spokesman for the governor said Leavitt has asked the Utah attorney general to issue a”policy statement”on polygamy prosecutions.
The last time Utah prosecuted a polygamists solely for practing multiple marriages was in 1952.
Report: Tibetan monks dies following torture by Chinese
(RNS) A Tibetan monk jailed two years ago for displaying banned photographs of the Dalai Lama has died after being tortured in prison by Chinese officials, a London-based Tibetan freedom group has reported.
The Tibet Information Network said Tuesday (July 28) that the monk, Yeshe Samten, 22, died May 12 _ six days after he was released from prison limping on crutches and with two broken ribs. The group said Samten had been tortured, but did not say why or directly attribute his death to the torture.
Samten was arrested in May 1996 at the Ganden monastery 25 miles east of Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, after monks attacked Chinese troops seeking to enforce a ban against displaying photos of the Dalai Lama.
China has militarily occupied Tibet for nearly 50 years. The Dalai Lama, Tibet’s ex-political head and its top Buddhist spiritual leader, now lives in exile in India.
Buddhist monks and nuns have been in the forefront of the Tibetan opposition to Chinese control.
Veteran Assemblies of God missionary dead at 84
(RNS) Veteran Assemblies of God missionary Louise Jeter Walker died Saturday (July 25) after a lengthy illness. She was 84.
Walker was the author of”The Great Questions of Life,”a correspondence course for the Assemblies of God’s ICI University that was translated into 110 languages and used in 164 countries. Dallas-based ICI University was formerly known as the International Correspondence Institute.
Walker also wrote a three-volume history of the Assemblies of God in Latin America, which was published in Spanish, the Assemblies of God News & Information Service reported.”Her legacy lives on in the ministries of literally thousands of ministers who have studied her textbooks in Bible schools across the breadth and depth of the Spanish-speaking world and the countless souls whose lives have been touched by her writings and her poetry,”said her nephew Don Jeter, a longtime missionary to Latin America.
First Jewish woman Army chaplain dies
(RNS) Rabbi Chana Timoner, the first Jewish woman to serve as a full-time U.S. Army chaplain, died July 13. She was 46.
Timoner began full-time work as a chaplain at Fort Bragg, N.C., in 1993. She later served in Korea and at Fort Benning, Ga.
She had received a medical discharge after developing the Epstein-Barr virus, according to a statement from the Jewish Community Centers Association of North America.
Timoner was endorsed to serve in the Army by a division of the JCC Association of North America.
Quote of the Day: Peggy Bowen, all-female Eucharist attendee
(RNS)”I don’t view it as if I’m going to a female version of a Mass. It is a special spiritual time of connection for me with the community that I’m gathered with and with my God. And I don’t view it in conflict with my Catholic tradition. … I don’t need a male priest to experience this service.” _ Peggy Bowen, a secretary from Annandale, Va., quoted in The Washington Post Tuesday (July 28) about her participation in a monthly all-female Eucharist service in the basement of Northern Virginia home.
END RNS
