Front Page

War Responses, Relationships, ELCA Assembly Top 2003 News Stories

January 6, 2004, CHICAGO - Top Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) news stories of 2003 included the church's response to the war in Iraq, the election of the ELCA presiding bishop as president of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), and a series of extraordinary meetings between ELCA leaders and international church and political leaders. In addition, actions of the 2003 ELCA Churchwide Assembly - affirming a timeline for the ELCA Studies on Sexuality, and adoption of an evangelism strategy and social statement on health and health care - were among the key news stories involving the church in 2003. Top stories were determined by the ELCA News Service, a component of the ELCA Department for Communication, based here at the ELCA churchwide offices.

Women Leaders Now Known in Russian Church, Bishop Says

January 9, 2004 – Women in leadership have become a trademark of the United Methodist Church in Russia, according to the denomination's bishop there. In his report of church activities for 2003, Bishop Ruediger Minor of Moscow noted that seven of the 12 districts in his region - which also includes the Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Belarus and Kirgistan - have female superintendents. These women, along with their colleagues in local churches, are well accepted, he said, adding that "even Baptists and Pentecostals in the local settings are beginning to accept them as colleagues."

General News

Church Plates Collection Sets Guinness World Record

Jan. 6, 2004, MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The Guinness Book of World Records has certified a church plate collection owned by a United Methodist couple as the world's largest. Barbara and Thomas Southwell didn't set out with that goal in mind. But, Thomas noted with a grin, "I don't suppose Imelda Marcos really started out to collect 3,000 pairs of shoes, either." The collection began in 1988 on a trip to Kansas City, when the recently married Southwells visited their Uncle Billy, a frequent yard-sale customer. The couple accompanied him on one of his shopping expeditions. Rummaging through the odds and ends, Barbara spotted a Methodist Church plate crafted by World Wide Art Studio in Covington, Tenn., only a hop, skip and jump north of Memphis.

California Pastor Will Run for Stated Clerk
Bob Davis Says He Aims to 'Change the Ethos' of the PC(USA)

January 9, 2004, LOUISVILLE - The Rev. Robert "Bob" Davis, executive director of the Presbyterian Forum, has announced that he is running for stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (USA). Davis, 39, said his candidacy is an opportunity for the PC(USA) "to go in a new direction" and "establish what really is the Presbyterian witness, at a time when we've gotten lost in process, and the system is breaking down." Davis, 39, said he wants to "change the ethos" of the PC(USA) so that the focus of national leaders is on "equipping the people of the church to do the work of the church ... rather than having the work done for them." The election of a stated clerk - the denomination's top ecclesiastical officer - is on the agenda of this summer's 216th General Assembly of the PC(USA) in Richmond, VA.

Archbishop of Canterbury's New Year Message

January 3, 2004, LAMBETH PALACE - When you find yourself facing a new challenge, there's quite a lot you have to take on trust. For example, that despite initial evidence to the contrary - it isn't impossible. Also, that the person who claims to be trying to help you isn't just having a joke at your expense...Trust too that, however difficult at the outset, you will sooner or later be gliding along with the rest of them... There's clearly quite a lot to that little word "trust." And the more you examine it, the more important it becomes to our overall sense of security - the sense that we really are standing on solid ground. Sometimes it seems automatic. When a child puts out its hand, completely confident that mother or father is going to take it, you see trust at work in a way that looks so natural you wonder how you could ever question it. Sometimes trust becomes second nature - the basic currency on which some of us have to rely in order to be able to make our way in the world.

Largest Group of Missionary Trainees at Seminary of the Southwest January 10-25

January 6, 2004, AUSTIN, Texas - With some Anglican provinces threatening or actually breaking communion with the Episcopal Church (ECUSA) over the actions of General Convention 2003, the work of ECUSA missionaries continues as usual throughout the world. Thirty future missionaries will take part in the second annual Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society (DFMS) orientation on the campus of the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest (ETSS) for two weeks in January. The incoming group of missionaries is the largest group to attend such a single training event in 40 years, said the Rev. Jane Butterfield, mission personnel director for the Anglican and Global Relations Cluster of the Episcopal Church Center and head of the January 10-25 orientation session. After training they will serve in Africa, Asia, Latin America or the Middle East at the invitation of local Anglican bishops.

Commentary: Judicial Council Holds Church Accountable to Polity

January 9, 2004 – I wholeheartedly welcome a recent decision by the United Methodist Judicial Council that should provide much-needed clarity in the ongoing debate over parts of the denomination's Book of Discipline. A strongly worded decision reversed and set aside the actions of a conference committee on investigation and a jurisdictional committee, which had refused to uphold the Book of Discipline in the case of the Rev. Karen Dammann, a lesbian pastor in Washington state. The Judicial Council sharply warned the lower courts that "nullification of the Discipline ... is an egregious error of church law." It further cautioned that members of a committee on investigation who are "unwilling to uphold the Discipline for reasons of conscience ... must step aside" and other members should be appointed in order to "enable (the committee) to complete its responsibility."

Commentary: Judicial Council Should Rethink 'Step Aside' Mandate

January 9, 2004 – The United Methodist Judicial Council has instructed people elected to annual conference committees on investigation to step aside and allow others to serve in their places if they are "unwilling to uphold the (Book of) Discipline for reasons of conscience or otherwise." They have also ruled that people "who state that they cannot in good conscience uphold the Discipline are ineligible to serve on a (church) trial jury." (Judicial Council Decision No. 980.) It seems to me that this is a ruling that may require additional thought and discussion among United Methodists.

Nominees Sought for PC(USA) Justice Ministry Awards
Honors to Be Handed out During Phewa'S GA Fete

January 9, 2004, LOUISVILLE - Nominees are being sought by the Presbyterian Health Education and Welfare Association (PHEWA) for five General Assembly awards in the area of social justice ministries. The awards will be presented at the PHEWA Awards Reception during the 216th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in Richmond, VA, next summer. They are sponsored by four of PHEWA's 10 constituent networks. Two of the awards are given by the Presbyterian Association for Community Transformation: the Community Ministries and Neighborhood Organizations Award recognizes a community ministry that has been creative and faithful in serving its community; the Urban Network of Congregational Leadership Award honors the ministry of an urban church that has strengthened its congregation and served its neighborhood through and effective outreach ministry.

Career Ministry 'Worth its Weight in Gold,' Says Jobless Man

January 8, 2004 – After Rick Kent of Atlanta lost his job as a well-paid sales director, he went to church. At Sugar Hill United Methodist Church, he found what he needed-not only emotional and spiritual support but also a free job search. Kent knew about Sugar Hill's Crossroads Career Ministry for the unemployed firsthand. He had spoken to members of the support group a year and half earlier. "I gave a testimonial, when I was still employed, about making a career change in a positive way and how God has worked in our lives," he says. "Obviously, when I had the need for a search, I knew this is one of the best venues and paths to look for help," he says. "It's worth its weight in gold because it gives you some optimism."

4 Special Offerings Said to Shine
Prospects for a New One Are Iffy, Suggests Task Force Chair

January 9, 2004, LOUISVILLE - The chair of a task force asked to evaluate the four special offerings of the Presbyterian Church (USA) said on Jan. 9 that they "continue to be a bright spot." The Rev. Karl Travis, pastor of Grosse Ile (MI) Presbyterian Church, heads up the nine-member group, to which last year's General Assembly assigned the review of the churchwide offerings: One Great Hour of Sharing, for anti-hunger, disaster-relief and self-development programs; Peacemaking, which funds much of the PC(USA)'s peacemaking efforts at national and local levels; Christmas Joy, which supports racial-ethnic schools and colleges and the Board of Pensions' assistance programs for retired church workers; and Pentecost, which helps pay for programs for needy and at-risk children, teens and young adults.

Ecumenical News

ELCA Panel Offers Advice to Lutherans and Mel Gibson

January 7, 2004, CHICAGO - The Consultative Panel on Lutheran-Jewish Relations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) offered advice to Lutherans, civic organizations, Mel Gibson and "people of good will everywhere" in anticipation of "The Passion of the Christ" - a film to be released Feb. 25, Ash Wednesday, the day Western Christians begin the Lenten season. Gibson is writer, director and producer of the film about the last 12 hours of the life of Jesus Christ. "Tragically, portrayals of the Passion over many generations have led to the virulent condemnation of Jewish communities, with Christians lashing out to punish those they had learned to call 'Christ-killers.' This doleful history demands a special vigilance from any who portray the Passion today," said a Jan. 6 statement from the panel of six Lutheran scholars and church leaders. The panel said Gibson "has been widely quoted as aiming to produce the most accurate historical portrayal of Jesus' Passion ever filmed. This goal requires that he give credence to the critique of historical scholars who are expert in the period, cultures and sources of this story.

Statement of the Bishops of the Anglican Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo on Homosexuality and Blessings of Same-sex Unions Within the Anglican Communion

January 5, 2004 – We, the Bishops of the Anglican Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, (DRCongo) gathered in Kinshasa, its capital city, on behalf of the clergy and laity from the DRCongo, take this opportunity to officially express our unhappiness regarding the issues which have recently arisen pertaining to the issues of homosexuality and the blessing of same-sex relationships which we believe are contrary to Holy Scripture, and to moral law in the Third World. We therefore strongly condemn: . the consecration of Canon Gene Robinson, a divorcee and an actively gay bishop of the US New Hampshire Diocese of the Episcopal Church on 2nd November 2003; . the access to priesthood of actively gay and lesbian people; . the use of the newly devised Prayer Book published by the Diocese of New Westminster/Canada for the purpose of officiating the blessing of same-sex marriages.

'Day 1' Radio Program Features Atlanta ELCA Pastor

January 7, 2004, CHICAGO - The Rev. Robert F. Sims, senior pastor of Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, Atlanta, is the featured speaker Jan. 18 and Feb. 22 on "Day 1," the award-winning radio program. Day 1 is broadcast on more than 150 stations nationwide, on the American Forces Network to U.S. service men and women around the world, and at http://www.day1.net on Day 1's Web site. An ordained pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and a graduate of Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, Columbia, S.C., Sims has served ELCA congregations in South Carolina and Virginia. He has been recognized for his special skills and gifts in growing and developing congregations, and is a member of the Wittenberg Center for Global Ethics, Wittenberg, Germany. In his Jan. 18 sermon, Sims says, "We are called by God to be his living people, but somehow we must learn to give some sign of life, some evidence to the world and to ourselves that we are alive, that the power of God is active, alive, moving and stirring within us." The Day 1 programs include a sermon and brief interviews with Sims. A television version of Day 1 is also broadcast on the Hallmark Channel's "America at Worship" on Sunday mornings.

New York Metropolitan Area

New York City Worship Service January 12 Launches Decade to Overcome Violence Focus on USA in 2004

January 10, 2004, NEW YORK - "The power and promise of peace" is the compelling theme for activities to be carried out this year within the framework of the World Council of Churches' (WCC) Decade to Overcome Violence (DOV) 2004 focus on the USA. A Monday, Jan. 12, noon worship service will mark the opening of a year dedicated to strengthening and resourcing churches and movements working for peace in the USA. A calendar of events for 2004 is to be drawn up by the US DOV committee, comprised of US denominational representatives, at a 12-13 January meeting in New York, where a DOV reference group and an international advisory group will also be looking at the mid-term and future of the Decade in general. Taking place at midday at the Interchurch Center at 475 Riverside Drive, the Monday service will lift up the legacy of Rev. Dr Martin Luther King, Jr., as a source of inspiration to the US churches. Scheduled as guest preacher is Rev. Dr Otis Moss Jr, who was a friend and associate of King, and serves on the national board of the Martin Luther King Jr Center for Non-Violent Social Change. The service will also honour a special guest, the former chief of staff to Dr King, Rev. Dr Wyatt Tee Walker, for his lifetime commitment to seeking reconciliation and peace.

National News

Howard Dean Is One of Many United Church of Christ Members:
Presidential Candidate's Church Is Rich with Heritage, Diversity

Dec. 6, 2004 – Like Bill Clinton and Al Gore, presidential candidate Richard Gephardt wears the Southern Baptist tag, while George Bush and John Edwards are United Methodists. John Kerry and Dennis Kucinich are life-long Roman Catholics. Carol Moseley Braun, no longer Catholic, worships as an Episcopalian. Joseph Lieberman is an Orthodox Jew, and the Rev. Al Sharpton, a Pentecostal minister, spends his Sunday mornings in the pulpit. But Howard Dean, the former five-term Vermont Governor who has emerged as the Democratic Party's presidential front runner, is piquing interest with word that he's a "Congregationalist" - a faith label much less recognizable to those living outside the Congregationalist-laden Northeast. Not since a war-time Richard Nixon cried Quaker have so many expressed interest in learning about a presidential aspirant's faith tradition.

International News

Africa Tour Stirs Moderator
'Jesus Being Reborn Again and Again' amid Pain and Joy, Andrews Finds

December 22, 2003, LOUISVILLE - Christmas came early this year for the moderator. In November, the Rev. Susan R. Andrews, moderator of the 215th General Assembly (2003) of the Presbyterian Church (USA), received gifts too numerous to count during a three-week visit to Africa. Andrews was fulfilling one of the many roles she has as moderator, serving as an ambassador to the PC(USA)'s global partners and witnessing to the ministries undertaken by Presbyterians and partner Christians for the sake of the gospel. She returned from the trip tired but energized. Accompanying the moderator on the trip were her husband, the Rev. Sim Gardner; elder Charles Easley, the vice-moderator; and Doug Welch and Jon Chapman, PC(USA) area coordinators for Africa. Numerous PC(USA) mission personnel served as hosts. Andrews visited Ethiopia, South Africa and Cameroon. Everywhere she went, she saw an evangelical joy sweeping across the continent, a spirit she said can "help us in the United States reconnect across theological perspectives."

LIRS Official: Upcoming Film Raises Awareness about Political Asylum

January 8, 2004 – The president of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS), Baltimore, says he hopes a film premiering Jan. 19. on cable television moves the hearts of Lutherans and other Americans to join us in welcoming those seeking political asylum. In an LIRS news release, Ralston Deffenbaugh says the film, Chasing Freedom, reminds us not only of the peril asylum seekers face when they flee war and persecution in search of freedom, but of our responsibility as a country to greet them with humanity and justice when they arrive on our shores. The film is scheduled for 8 p.m. (Eastern time), Jan. 19 on the Court TV channel. The release encourages Lutheran church groups and others to watch the film, discuss related faith-based questions at the www.lirs.org Web site, and to write letters to their representatives in Congress, urging them to support the Unaccompanied Alien Child Protection Act now before Congress.

Peterborough Cathedral's Canon Pastor, Stephen Cottrell, to Be next Bishop of Reading

January 6, 2004 – It has been announced from Downing Street at 11.00 am today that the Queen has approved the nomination of the Revd Canon Stephen Cottrell as the next Bishop of Reading. Canon Cottrell is currently canon Pastor of Peterborough Cathedral and well known nationally as an author and speaker on spirituality and the mission of the church. He has been in Peterborough since 2001, and has responsibility for the pastoral care and faith development of the congregation, and the Cathedral's links with the local community. Speaking of his appointment, which he will take up in the spring, Canon Cottrell has said: "I'm honoured that the Church has put such trust in me, to ask me to be a bishop. I'm sad to be leaving Peterborough after only three years, which I had never imagined would happen so quickly.

Mixed Reaction Follows Same-sex Wedding

January 10, 2003 – Some of the callers and writers were viciously, personally abusive, others were supportive, others disappointed and still others were confused. That was the range of reaction reported by Bishop Ralph Spence and Dean Peter Wall of the diocese of Niagara after Dean Wall married a lesbian couple last August at Christ's Church Cathedral in Hamilton, Ontario. Reflecting their different positions in the diocese - Bishop Spence is Dean Wall's supervisor - and their different roles in the event, Bishop Spence's mail was more critical than Dean Wall's. "It was exactly as I predicted. There have been two reactions. Some were indifferent and some were furious - both clergy and laypeople," said Bishop Spence, referring to the dozens of letters, e-mails and phone calls he has received since a story about the wedding appeared in the Anglican Journal last December.

Africa University Breaks Ground for Peace Institute

Jan. 7, 2004 – Zimbabwe's economic problems have not eroded the confidence that United Methodist and U.S. officials have in Africa University's ability to move the continent toward peace. The university recently broke ground for a $1.8 million building to house its Institute of Peace, Leadership and Governance. The institute, at the school's campus in Mutare, Zimbabwe, will focus on helping African nations build a sustainable culture of peace, improved management systems, security and socio-economic development. Construction funds for the three-story building were donated by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), a longtime supporter of the university. Since the university was formally established in 1992, the agency's Schools and Hospitals Abroad Program has contributed $8.3 million for development and expansion at the university. This has included building and equipping the library, the faculty of agriculture and natural resources, and the faculty of health sciences.

Middle East News

American Baptists Help Fund Relief Work in Iran

January 8, 2004, Valley Forge, Pa. - The American Baptist World Relief Office has released One Great Hour of Sharing emergency funds to two major ecumenical relief organizations that are helping meet wide-ranging needs in Iran following the Dec. 26 earthquake there. OGHS grants of $15,000 to Church World Service and $5,000 to Baptist World Aid have been sent to fund efforts providing emergency shelter, medical supplies, food, blankets and other critically needed commodities. As many as 40,000 or more people may have died in the quake, which registered 6.6 on the Richter Scale. The Iranian city of Bam was leveled in the catastrophe, and thousands still are believed to be buried under rubble there. Sandor Szenczy, president of Hungarian Baptist Aid, reported last week on site in Bam that more than three-quarters of the city's buildings had collapsed. "Everywhere we looked injured and wounded people tried to get treatment...patients with the most serious injuries were being flown to other cities," he said. Malik Khodaverdian, emergency liaison in Iran for the Middle East Council of Churches, has said that the relief and rehabilitation work will be ongoing-"at least a five-to-seven-year commitment."

California Congresswoman, Two ELCA Bishops Travel to Middle East

January 9, 2004, CHICAGO - U.S. Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif. 23rd) will travel to the Middle East with two synod bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Jan. 9-16. They will meet with government and religious leaders, peace activists, relief and development experts, human rights workers and others, said the Rev. Mark B. Brown, assistant director for international issues, Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs (LOGA), the ELCA's federal public policy office in Washington, D.C. Capps is an ELCA member and a graduate of Pacific Lutheran University, an ELCA higher education institution in Tacoma, Wash. She is now serving her third full term since she was elected to succeed her late husband, U.S. Rep. Walter Capps, in 1998. Bishops traveling with Capps are the Rev. Murray D. Finck, ELCA Pacifica Synod, Yorba Linda, Calif., and the Rev. Dean W. Nelson, ELCA Southwest California Synod, Glendale. Brown and his wife, Susanne, are also traveling with the group.

PDA Sends $100,000 to Iran to Aid Quake Survivors
Church Appeals for Financial Support of Continuing Relief Efforts

January 9, 2004, LOUISVILLE - Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA), responding to last month's devastating earthquake in Iran, has distributed $100,000 in humanitarian assistance. PDA also has issued a churchwide appeal for money in support of its continuing relief efforts. The money is part of $150,000 earmarked for the quake-torn region. A tremor that measured 6.6 on the Richter scale of ground motion struck the ancient city of Bam on Dec. 26, leveling most of the town, killing an estimated 30,000 people and destroying a historic 2,000 year-old fortress near the city in southeastern Iran.