Episcopal Press and News
News Briefs
Episcopal News Service. January 7, 2003 [2003-001-1]
New archbishop of Canterbury raises morality issues in first public lecture
(ENS) In what one newspaper called a "morality crusade," the new archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, used his first public lecture to plead for a role for religion in political debate.
In the Dimbleby Lecture, delivered December 19 before a distinguished audience of politicians, church leaders, journalists and other opinion makers, Williams argued that without religion "our whole politics is likely to be in deep trouble." He also pointed to the limitations of governments to provide a moral basis for citizens or long-term security.
Williams said we are living in a time when the "basic assumptions about how states work are shifting" and may be witnessing "the end of the nation-state," replaced in the developed world "by what some call the market-state." As a result, short-term expectations could produce "instability, reactive administration, rule by opinion poll and pressure."
"We are bound to ask where there is a future for the reasonable citizen, for public debate about what is due to human beings, for intelligent argument about goals beyond the next election," he said. "My conclusion is that this future depends heavily on those perspectives that are offered by religious belief."
Williams described an educational system that is largely empty of vision, a system that fits "too neatly into the consumer model" that allows the "actual philosophy of education itself to be obscured behind a cloud of sometimes mechanical criteria of attainment."
Religion could fill the vacuum, according to the archbishop. "If specifically religious tradition has a place here it is because of those elements that only religious conviction seems to secure in our sense of what is human. To see or know anything adequately is to be aware of its relation to the eternal," he said. "With that relativising moment, our whole politics is likely to be in deep trouble." He added that he is convinced that religion can offer ways to open the way for human choices, providing a wider context and setting for understanding who we are as individuals and communities.
Prime Minister Tony Blair praised Williams for his "insights," suggesting in a newspaper interview that "the church should always speak out where it feels strongly about things." He said that he did not agree, however, that consumerism was driving morality out of politics.
(Full text of the lecture is available at www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/)
Episcopalians working with Muslims in Georgia
(Journal-Constitution) Episcopalians and Muslims are working together in the Atlanta metro area to help refugees establish new lives in Georgia.
"We'll learn from each other and we'll grow together," said the Rev. Bob Hudak, rector of Church of the Nativity in Fayetteville. He is working with the Muslim Community Center of Atlanta and the Christian Council of Metro Atlanta on the refugee plan. The Muslim Community Center has become a popular meeting and prayer center and an anchor for the thriving Muslim community in Fayette that now numbers more than 500 people.
While the reception has been mostly warm, there are signs that some are hesitant to accept Muslims in the community following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon. "The wounds haven't healed," said Hudak. "A lot of people won't come out and express their real opinions." For example, some Episcopalians were not prepared to support a joint remembrance service with Muslims to mark the anniversary of the terrorist attacks and promote tolerance.
Yet Hudak is committed to interfaith networking, pointing out that some of his church members attended a dinner during the month-long Muslim observance of Ramadan.
Diocese of Los Angeles uses ads to fight violence
(Episcopal News) The Diocese of Los Angeles launched a series of 30-second ads on local television stations around Christmas to carry a message against violence--and to welcome people to the Episcopal Church.
The "Stop the Violence" campaign stemmed from the recent cross-country "Hands in Healing" trip taken by diocesan leaders and youth. The spots feature some of those youth speaking out for the prevention of domestic violence, child abuse, sexual assault, gang activity, hate crimes and terrorism. The spots were prepared at the request of Bishop Jon Bruno by the diocesan communications office in partnership with Collage Digital Video of Glendale.
While recognizing that it was not possible to use cable television to provide complete coverage within the six-county region, the diocese made every effort to use its budget to purchase air time for maximum effectiveness. In some cases it was possible, for example, to place the spots for as low as $50.
Other congregations and dioceses that might want to consider adapting the spots for local use should contact Bob Williams at the diocesan office of communication, tel. 213-482-2040, ext. 240 or at e-mail, media@ladiocese.org.
Churches join humanitarian campaign to address health needs of Iraqi children
(NCC) Several religious organizations--including Church World Service (CWS), the relief and development arm of the National Council of Churches--have joined a campaign to raise $1 million to address critical health care needs of Iraqi children.
Funds raised by the "All Our Children" campaign will purchase desperately needed items such as antibiotics, anesthesia, intravenous kits and devices to monitor clean drinking water. The United Nations attributes the death of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children to a complex web of internal and external forces, especially the trade sanctions imposed in 1990.
"It is a crisis of tragic proportions to which compassionate people of faith in the United States must respond," according to the appeal. "At a time of great anxiety about another war in Iraq, this effort by people in the USA will be a tangible demonstration of our love for children, a love shared by all humanity." The plan is to distribute the supplies to pediatric hospitals under the supervision of international relief organizations.
Many of those organizations have been providing relief for more than a decade. CWS, for example, has already provided more than $3 million in blankets, food, medical supplies and other aid for children and their families since 1991. The Mennonite Central Committee has shipped about $4.2 million worth of food and material assistance and supports a number of agricultural, educational and health-related developmental relief projects. CWS is cooperating with the Mennonite Central Committee to raise funds for more supplies and school kits that it shipped earlier to Jordan.
(For more information call 1-800-297-1516 or go to the web site at www.churchworldservice.org.)
Consultation calls for local initiatives in interreligious dialogue
(WCC) Representatives of international Christian and Muslim organizations met in Geneva recently at a consultation sponsored by the World Council of Churches (WCC) and concluded that "globalized markets and information systems threaten to create new structures of oppression and thus feed extremism and militancy."
The purpose of the conference, "Christians and Muslims in Dialogue and Beyond," was to focus on "a critical examination of the present state of relations between the participants' respective communities, and an assessment of what has been achieved" through dialogue, according to Dr. Tarek Mitri, executive of the WCC's Interreligious Relations and Dialogue office.
Participants expressed particular concern over media coverage of events "where Christians and Muslims are perceived to be in conflict" because those reports "often contribute to the worsening of unrelated situations" by politicians and extremists who set the communities against each other. In its final report, the consultation emphasized "the role of education by and for our communities as a key arena in which to crate the trust and mutual understanding which are essential to resist attempts to exploit religious differences for destructive ends."
The participants also shared stories of local initiatives that have built trust and understanding in many parts of the world, often under the leadership of parents, teachers and faith leaders. The consultation concluded that those local initiatives would serve as the main source of models for new ways of living together--and that real change would happen in communities where Christians and Muslims live, pray, worship and work together.
Church leaders meet with Department of Defense officials at Pentagon
(RNS) A group of religious leaders met with Pentagon officials, including Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, December 18 to discuss aspects of the war on terrorism. Participants described the two-hour meeting as a "good exchange."
Pentagon officials briefed the church leaders on America's role in Afghanistan and the changing shape and source of threats. They took questions from the church leaders on the religious and moral implications of the military campaign. "Today the enemy is not all that visible or discernible or noticeable and yet is a very, very real threat and represents imminent danger," said the Rev. Clarence Newsome, dean of the Howard University School of Divinity in Washington, DC.
Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold said that he left the meeting with "an enlarged sense of the complexities of the problems" facing military leaders as they combat the threats of terrorism, but he reasserted his opposition to the possibilities of war with Iraq. "I still have the gravest reservations about a war, but I certainly was encouraged that some of the nuances and complexities that are so integral here are being included in the conversations" at the Pentagon, he said in an interview.
Newsome and Griswold said that the church leaders suggested that an increase of American concern for some of the major problems of the world, such as the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa, might help combat terrorism. As Anglican churches continue their explosive growth in many African countries, Griswold said that a generation of AIDS orphans and militant strains of Islam threaten to destabilize the region and make it ripe for terrorists looking for recruits. "I said I think we need to be aware of these sorts of larger concerns," he said.
Bishop John Chane, the new bishop in the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, joined the church leaders in the Pentagon discussions, along with Jewish, Roman Catholic, Methodist and Evangelical representatives.