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Easter 2005 from Jerusalem
Al-Masih Qam Hakkan Qam!
Christ Is Risen! He Is Risen Indeed!

We share with you greetings of Easter joy from the place of Resurrection! "I am the resurrection and the life," Jesus said. Through the life-giving grace of the new life in Christ we all live and move and have our being. God's mighty act is at once a victory over sin and death and a triumph over all that binds humankind. Yet the first century shouts of "Hosanna!, the urgent pleas to Jesus from those who lined the road into Jerusalem to free us now, are still echoed by the prayers of those who continue to suffer here. The pain of oppression is as real now as it ever was in this Holy Land. Our joy may give us confidence that we can always trust in God's ultimate sovereignty, but in the meantime the failings of ordinary men and women create the weight of injustice. The renewed peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians have rekindled a spark of optimism that people might live in true peace in this land where so many have died, and so many more have lost land and hope and future. Yet there is little rejoicing.

An Easter Message to the Anglican Communion
from the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Revd Rowan Williams

March 22, 2005 – The document that came from the recent meeting of Anglican Primates in Northern Ireland has been read and discussed very widely. But one paragraph has barely been mentioned by any commentator, inside the Church or outside. The Primates repeated and underlined their commitment to the Millennium Development Goals defined by the United Nations – including the hope to reduce poverty and hunger by a half before 2015. They also renewed their commitments in respect of HIV/AIDS education and prevention, noting too the need for similar work to get rapidly underway in dealing with the spiralling threats of TB and malaria.

World Alliance of Reformed Churches' Easter Message

March 24, 2005 – The power of the suffering love of Jesus Christ continues to transform the world, leaders of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) said in their annual Easter message to member churches. Rev. Dr. Clifton Kirkpatrick, president of WARC, and Rev. Dr. Setri Nyomi, general secretary of WARC, said in a message Tuesday March 22 that while the WARC family of churches minister in contexts where many experience hopelessness, there is hope in the suffering love of Christ that inspires the work of many in the church.

Red Lake Tragedy Prompts Call for Prayers, Episcopal Clergy Provide Pastoral Care

March 22, 2005, DIOCESE OF MINNESOTA – Episcopal clergy are providing much-needed pastoral care on the Red Lake Indian Reservation after a high school student killed nine persons on Monday, March 20, and then took his own life. The Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota's ministry with the Chippewa on the Red Lake Reservation dates back to 1879 and the founding of the Mission Church of St. John in the Wilderness. St. John's vicar, the Rev. James Speer, was returning home from a recreational outing with his children on Monday afternoon when he was met in the driveway by his wife, Mary. She told him of the tragic shooting. He headed immediately for the reservation where he was involved in pastoral care to victims' families and friends until the early hours of Tuesday morning. His ministry on the Reservation continued throughout the day Tuesday.

General News

Father Forgives Man Who Murdered His Son

March 24, 2005, HARTFORD, Conn. – Three simple words – "I forgive you" – were the hardest ever written by the Rev. Walt Everett. Everett penned those words in a letter to the man who murdered his son. Now, the two share what might seem an unlikely friendship. And the Connecticut minister encourages other crime victims to forgive while he also works to abolish the death penalty. "My anger was destroying me," said Everett, pastor of the United Methodist Church of Hartford, Conn.

ELCA Boards Commend Ethnic Strategies to Church Council

March 24, 2005, CHICAGO – The boards of the Division for Higher Education and Schools (DHES) and Division for Outreach (DO) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) reviewed two proposed ethnic ministry strategies during their spring meetings this month. Both commended to the ELCA Church Council the strategies, which could help the church reach out to people of African descent and people of Arab and Middle Eastern heritage. The council is expected to review the proposed strategies and consider transmitting them to the 2005 ELCA Churchwide Assembly for approval. The Church Council is the ELCA's board of directors and serves as the legislative authority of the church between churchwide assemblies. The council meets here April 7- 11. Assemblies are held every other year; the next is Aug. 8-14 in Orlando, Fla.

Lutherans Offer Counseling, Trauma Services in Red Lake

March 22, 2005, CHICAGO – Lutheran Social Services of Minnesota, St. Paul, is offering professional counseling and trauma support services in Red Lake, Minn., after a student killed five others students, a teacher and school security guard, and wounded several others at Red Lake High School before killing himself March 21. Other victims included the student's grandfather and the grandfather's wife. Red Lake High School is located on the Red Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota. Lutheran Social Services of Minnesota is offering grief support services to the Red Lake Band of Chippewa, families, friends and others in the Red Lake community.

Mission Volunteers Have Variety of Opportunities for Service

March 23, 2005, NEW YORK – United Methodist Volunteers in Mission often is associated with building and repairing schools, homes and churches, but the program offers many kinds of service opportunities. This winter, for example, 19 youth and adults from the North Central New York Annual (regional) Conference traveled to New York City to serve people who are poor, hungry and homeless. The trip was organized by Sylvia Reimer, a retired obstetrician- gynecologist who has led teams to rural work camps but wanted to raise awareness of the needs in urban settings.

Products, Resources Help Church Leaders Welcome, Teach, Learn

Mar. 21, 2005 – As one of the biggest Sundays on the church calendar approaches, United Methodist Communications is offering tips to help churches make visitors feel welcome, along with resources to enhance spiritual development throughout the year. Through Igniting Ministry, the church's four-year old welcoming and television ministry, the denomination's communications agency is providing local churches with suggestions for welcoming non-regular attendees on Easter.

Volunteer Service Begins with Application Process

Mar. 23, 2005, NEW YORK – Individual mission volunteers often can choose where they want to serve – as long as they have an invitation. "We do not place anybody where it is not requested," said Greg Forrester, who is national coordinator of the individual volunteers program for the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries. Those requests come from heads of churches or various programs and are later confirmed by the local bishop or church president when a specific individual is chosen.

Editorial Page

Memo to Teachers: the Kid May Not Be Lying

by Thomas Goodhue
Executive Director
Long Island Council of Churches

Nearly every year, the Orthodox priest reported, at least one teacher accuses his child of lying when he says that he not be in school that week on Good Friday, saying something such as, "Don't give me that! Good Friday was weeks ago!" Others are accused of fibbing when they say that their father is a priest – which also happens to Preachers Kids (a.k.a. Theological Offspring) among Episcopalians and Lutherans who claim that their mother is a priest. In one particularly memorable exchange, a flustered teacher insisted, "If your father is a priest, then you can't have a mother!" The problem is not limited to educators. One of the barriers to achieving greater unity among Christians is that we are often woefully ignorant of those who practice different varieties of our faith. Tell some folks that you are an Orthodox Christian and they will ask if you are still Jewish. During the Cold War, the Rev. Alex Garklavs, told our Board of Governors a few weeks ago, he was often called "a Commie" by other boys who discovered that his father was a Russian Orthodox cleric and had no idea how adamantly anti-Communist most members of the Orthodox Church in America were. Other Orthodox Christians suffer the indignity of their neighbors assuming that they are Fresh Off the Boat, even though Orthodox missionaries from Russia arrived in Alaska in 1794. By the time their neighbors' ancestors landed on Ellis Island, Orthodox Christians had been living in communities across North America for a century.

'Human Life Is a Gift from God'

by Jim Wallis

On Monday, the U.S. Catholic Bishops launched a new "Catholic Campaign to End the Use of the Death Penalty." Cardinal Theodore McCarrick opened a press conference by noting: "This holy week is the time Catholics and all Christians are reminded of how Christ died - as a criminal brutally executed." The church first opposed the death penalty 25 years ago, but this new campaign, he said, "brings greater urgency and unity, increased energy and advocacy, and a renewed call to our people and to our leaders to end the use of the death penalty in our nation." I am against the death penalty in principle. We simply should not kill to show we are against killing. It's also easy to make a fatal mistake, as alarming DNA testing has demonstrated. The death penalty is clearly biased against the poor who cannot afford adequate legal representation, and is outrageously disproportionate along racial lines. Few white-collar killers sit on death row and fewer are ever executed. And there is no real evidence that it deters murder; it just satisfies revenge.

Spanish News

Obispo Luterano Deplora Actitud Disidente

21 mar 2005, SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador – El obispo de la Iglesia Luterana Salvadoreña, Medardo E. Gómez, declaró sentirse apenado por la actitud secesionista de dos pastores de su denominación. El obispo Gómez reconoció la semana pasada que había suspendido a los reverendos Ricardo Cornejo y Roberto Pineda, porque han cometido desacato contra la iglesia, pero aclaró a un diario local "no haré público los problemas internos de la iglesia."

Millares De Cristianos Celebran Semana Santa

22 mar 2005, JERUSALÉN, Israel/Palestina – Miles de cristianos, que agitaban ramas de palma, recorrieron el camino tomado por Jesús en su ingreso triunfal a Jerusalén, en la tradicional procesión del Domingo de Ramos, que marcó el comienzo de las celebraciones de la llamada Semana Santa. Peregrinos de diversos países se unieron a los cristianos de la región en la procesión, que empezó en el Monte de los Olivos y cruzó las puertas de la antigua muralla de Jerusalén, recorriendo el camino que siguió Jesús cinco días antes de su crucifixión.

La Pascua Recuerda La Pasión Y Muerte De Toda La Humanidad, Dice Teólogo

23 mar 2005, SAO LEOPOLDO, Brasil – La Semana de Pascua, también llamada Semana Santa, recuerda a los cristianos la pasión y muerte de Jesús, pero también se refiere a la pasión y muerte de toda la humanidad, sostiene Érico Joao Hammes, doctor en Teología Sistemática y profesor de la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Porto Alegre. Hammes disertó sobre el "Sentido de la vida y de la muerte" en el Encuentro de Ética, promovido el pasado lunes por el Instituto Humanitas de la Universidad del Valle del Río dos Sinos (Unisinos), en Sao Leopoldo.

Judíos Y Palestinos En Tierra Santa

22 mar 2005, CHICAGO – Celebramos una vez más la llamada Semana Santa, cuya tradición tiene una fuerte influencia en nuestra América Latina y el Caribe. Me parece atinado compartir esta reflexión después de varias semanas de nuestra visita a Israel y Palestina. Además, de solicitar la solidaridad de hombres y mujeres de buena voluntad hacia una situación grave y urgente. Visitamos Israel y Palestina por primera vez mi esposa Raquel y yo en setiembre de 1973, junto a una delegación de líderes de la Iglesia Cristiana (Discípulos de Cristo) de los Estados Unidos y Canadá, para asistir a un congreso internacional sobre religión y espacio sagrado. Han pasado ya más de tres décadas.

National News

United Methodists, Community Grieve for Victims of Explosion

March 23, 2005 – Members of two Paonia, Colo., United Methodist churches were on the scene binding wounds and offering prayers after a March 19 explosion at a mountain lodge killed three children and wounded several others. "Jesus Christ came to North Fork," said the Rev. Rick Clair in his Palm Sunday message to the congregation of Crawford/Hotchkiss United Methodist Church. Clair and the Rev. John Nadasi, pastor of Paonia United Methodist Church, were among the first to respond. Many of the 20 to 30 people at the lodge were family members gathered for a reunion. "These people were hurt, burned up, lot of broken bones, and head traumas," said Nadasi, a trained EMT.

International News

United Methodists Need Emergency Funds to Complete Russian Seminary

March 22, 2005, NEW YORK – Emergency efforts are underway to develop a plan that will complete a United Methodist theological seminary building in Moscow and assure the institution's future operations. Officials of two of the denomination's general agencies are working with the new bishop of Moscow to find funds to complete a complex that will house both the seminary and the United Methodist offices for the Eurasia Area. The projected May dedication of the facility has been postponed because of a shortage of money to finish building it. The spring academic term also is in jeopardy because of a lack of operating capital.

Reflections on the Tsunami Disaster

March 23, 2005 – Last week I traveled to Aceh, Indonesia to help the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee, a Canadian NGO (non-governmental organization), plan its tsunami reconstruction program. It took me 10 flights to get there and back – one for every day that I was away from my kids. We worked from an office at the back of a closed pharmacy. After the basement had flooded to eye-level and the city became a morgue of thousands of bodies, the Acehnese owners left and moved to another city. They left their medicines behind, and the walls were still lined floor to ceiling with small, square drawers of antibiotics and pain relievers.

WSC-AR Statement on Verdict in Canada Declaring Two Sikhs Innocent

March 23, 2005 – Nearly twenty years after the June 1985 tragic bombing of an Air India Flight and after more than a four year long judicial probe, Justice Ian Bruce Josephson of the Supreme Court of British Columbia (Canada) declared on March 16, 2005 that Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, two Sikhs charged with the crime, are innocent. The World Sikh Council – America Region (WSC-AR) is pleased with the verdict upholding the innocence of the two Sikhs charged with this crime. WSC-AR is concerned, however, that those who are really responsible for the murder of 329 innocent victims (many of whom were Sikhs) of this tragedy are still free. Many news sources have repeatedly cited the notorious operations of India's intelligence agencies in Canada for masterminding this state-supported terrorism to defame Sikhs in Canada and all over the world.

Middle East News

Middle East: A Message from the Presiding Bishop

March 22, 2005 – In this season, which for Christians speaks of resurrection and new life, our hearts are lifted by new hopes, however fragile, for peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Important and encouraging steps are being taken by both President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon toward resolution of the Israeli/Palestinian crisis. President Bush and his administration have given new impetus to the peace process and renewed their commitment to a two-state solution for Palestine and Israel. Congress is considering legislation that would give economic opportunity to the Palestinians, opportunity that could lead to the stability necessary for Israel and Palestine to live side by side in peace. My prayers are with all of these leaders, and most especially with the Palestinian and Israeli people who for too long have lived with uncertainty and fear. May we give our encouragement and support to these efforts so that all may know the blessings of peace.

Can Refusal Stop the Occupation?

March 22, 2005 – The refusal movement in Israel has grown rapidly over the last few years. It has become more accepted in Israeli society to refuse military service in the occupied territories and become what is known as a "refusenik." According to a very optimistic Arik Diamant, director of Courage to Refuse, the movement can lead to what many believe to be the unthinkable. "We are getting very good vibes," says Diamant. "We will be ending the occupation within five years." A member of the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) gives an account of this new phenomenon. Since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, the army has played a very large role in Israeli society. Many of Israel's most powerful politicians had long careers in the army. The army employs tens of thousand of people, and most citizens in Israel have done two or three years of military service, not including the many years spent on reserve duty.

People in the News

Esther F. Perkins, Chaplain at Creedmoor, Dies

March 23, 2005, QUEENS VILLAGE, NY – The Reverend Esther F. Perkins, Protestant Chaplain at the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center since 1980, died as a result of cancer on March 22, 2005. She was two weeks away from her 68th birthday. A Wake Service will be held on Easter Sunday evening, 7-9 p.m., at Forbes Temple, 191-12 Jamaica Avenue, Hollis. On Monday morning, March 28, there will be a time of viewing at 9 a.m. with the Funeral Service at 10:30 a.m. in Faith Chapel at Creedmoor. Burial will follow at Pinelawn.

Israel Izidor, Haiti Church President, Dies

March 22, 2005 – Rev. Israel Izidor, president of The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Haiti, died of meningitis March 20 in Les Cayes, Haiti. A funeral service for Izidor will be held Saturday, March 26, at First Evangelical Lutheran Church in Les Cayes. Izidor, 54, studied theology at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, from 1985 to 1987. He was ordained in 1992 and began mission work in Les Cayes that same year, hosting worship services and a school for 20 children in his home. Izidor also served as the founding president of The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Haiti.