Front Page

NCC Commends Taco Bell and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers;
Calls on Fast Food Chains to Guarantee Human Rights of Farm Workers in Their Supply Chains

June 1, 2005, LOUISVILLE – The executive board of the National Council of Churches USA has called on fast food chains to follow the lead of Taco Bell to guarantee the human rights of farm workers in their supply chains. "Four years ago farm workers from Immokalee Florida stepped forward in faith, believing that together as consumers, corporations, and workers we could create a better way of doing business that builds human well-being," said Bishop Thomas J. Hoyt, Jr., President of the NCC.

General News

Baptists Emphasize Evangelism at Global Gathering

June 3, 2005, VALLEY FORGE, PA – American Baptists were among participants at the 2005 Conference for World Mission and Evangelism emphasizing "being and vocalizing the Good News" as essential to mission in the 21st century. Meeting under a theme of "Come Holy Spirit, Heal and Reconcile!," the more than 600 attendees gathered at the former Olympic Village in Athens, Greece, May 9-16. The World Council of Churches-organized event represented a wide range of Christian traditions including Roman Catholic, Pentecostal, evangelical and mainline.

Reconciliation Theme of Global Episcopal Mission Network June Meeting

May 31, 2005 – Dioceses, congregations and individuals interested in global mission will meet at Christ Church Cathedral in Indianapolis, Indiana, June 23-24 for the ninth annual Global Episcopal Mission Network's (GEM) Educational Institute. Meeting under the theme "Ambassadors of Reconciliation" the conference will feature presentations, workshops, and opportunities for networking with other mission leaders from around the Episcopal Church. The keynote speaker is Dr. Esther Mombo of Kenya. She is an academic dean at St. Paul's United Theological College in Limuru and will speak to the role of ambassadors of reconciliation and lead a Bible study.

Episcopal Church Website Refinements Continue; Interim Homepage Launched
Groups & Organizations Directory Expanded; Website Feedback Survey Offered

June 1, 2005 – Ongoing refinements to the Episcopal Church website continue today with the launch of a new interim homepage that provides more content features, less code, and no flash enabling faster load times (especially for users with narrow-band connections.) New links on the interim homepage lead directly to the site Calendar, the Episcopal Church Center Page, and an improved section of Groups & Organizations. Search, the Site Map, and A-to-Z Directory are also prominently featured.

Ecumenical News

WCC Anticipates "New Phase" in Interreligious Dialogue

June 2, 2005 – As representatives from the world's major faith communities prepare to meet in Geneva 7-9 June 2005, leaders of the World Council of Churches (WCC) have expressed hope that the event will provide a new impetus to interreligious dialogue. Recognizing the difficulties facing interreligious relations in many contexts provoked by conflict and migration, the "Critical Moment Conference" hopes to signal a shift in approaches to interreligious dialogue. The conference is organized by the WCC and will involve over 120 Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu and other religious leaders, academics, human rights activists, humanitarian workers, journalists, and people experienced in working across religious traditions and from virtually all regions. "The question is no longer why do we need dialogue but rather how do we transform dialogue into peaceful coexistence; how do we translate dialogue into common action?" underlines Catholicos Aram I, moderator of the WCC central committee.

Spanish News

Hay Que Incluir a Los Pueblos Indígenas Para Una Democracia Verdadera, Dice Kobia

3 junio 2005, BOLIVIA – La inclusión "de los pueblos indígenas en la vida social y política" de Bolivia es uno de los pasos necesarios "para la construcción de una democracia profunda y verdadera," afirmó el secretario general del Consejo Mundial de Iglesias (CMI) pastor Dr. Samuel Kobia, en una carta a las iglesias bolivianas fechada en Ginebra el 3 de junio. Refiriéndose a la carta pastoral ecuménica "Póngase todos de acuerdo," emitida esta semana por el arzobispo católico de La Paz junto con presidentes y obispos de once iglesias protestantes y pentecostales bolivianas, Kobia expresó su "dolor ante el sufrimiento del pueblo boliviano," pero también su "alegría al comprobar que las iglesias se han unido para expresar su voz profética en un momento difícil."

Iglesia Católica Pierde Fieles E Influencia Política

30 mayo 2005, SÃO PAULO, Brasil – La Iglesia Católica ha perdido en los últimos años no solamente miles de fieles sino también su capacidad de influencia política, y su prerrogativa de hablar en nombre de las masas, afirma el sociólogo Reginaldo Prandi en una nota publicada en el influyente diario Folha de Sao Paulo. "Hoy las catedrales católicas compiten, en Brasil, con las catedrales de los creyentes en términos de visibilidad e importancia," dice Prandi, profesor titular de la Universidad de Sao Paulo (USP) y autor del libro "Segredos Guardados" (Secretos Guardados), cuyo tema central es el candomblé.

Candidato Presidencial Evangélico Lanza Duras Críticas a Políticos

3 junio 2005, LIMA, Peru – El pastor Humberto Lay, probable candidato presidencial en las elecciones del 2006 por el Movimiento de Restauración Nacional, lanzó duras críticas al gobierno del presidente Alejandro Toledo y a los políticos que condujeron el país en los últimos 40 años. "Esos gobiernos, según Lay, pareciera que se hubieran puesto de acuerdo para ejecutar un plan de destrucción sistemática del país, cada uno complementando lo que hizo el anterior." "Hoy, agregó, estamos, en medio de una crisis generalizada y con una presión social peligrosa, que puede producir una explosión social incontenible y desembocar en la anarquía o en otra aventura extremista o dictatorial."

National News

Immigration Reform, Workers' Rights:
Arizona Diocese Sets August Summit

June 3, 2005 – The Episcopal Diocese of Arizona is hosting an Aug. 19-20 summit to help empower local congregations as advocates for immigration reform and the rights of undocumented workers, Diocesan Bishop Kirk S. Smith has announced. The conference is a faith-based response to existing anti-immigration sentiment, which is often fueled by misinformation, fear and racism, said Smith, the Bishop of Arizona. "Economic survival is a basic human right. It comes right out of the Biblical imperative about how we treat the stranger in our midst," Smith said.

International News

For True Democracy Indigenous Peoples must Be Included, Says Kobia

June 3, 2005, BOLIVIA – The inclusion of Bolivia's "indigenous peoples in social and political life" is one of the requisite steps "for the construction of meaningful and true democracy" in the country, the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia affirmed in a letter to the churches of Bolivia today, 3 June. Referring to the ecumenical pastoral letter "Come to a common agreement," sent this week by the Catholic archbishop of La Paz together with the presidents and bishops of eleven Bolivian protestant and pentecostal churches, Kobia expressed "his pain at the suffering of the Bolivian people" but also his "joy at the confirmation that the churches have united to speak with a prophetic voice at this difficult time."

Church of the Brethren Leaders to Take Part in Delegation to Sudan

June 2, 2005, ELGIN, IL – A small interfaith delegation of spiritual leaders from the United States will visit the Darfur region of Sudan, where many thousands of black Sudanese have been killed or forced into refugee camps by what many are calling a genocide. The delegation is being sponsored by leaders of the National Black Leadership Roundtable and the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation. Two Church of the Brethren leaders have been invited to join the delegation: Jim Hardenbrook, Moderator of the Church of the Brethren Annual Conference; and Phil Jones, Director of the Brethren Witness/Washington Office of the Church of the Brethren General Board.

"Lithuania Never Felt Disconnected from Europe"
Bishop Mindaugas Sabutis: Challenging Situation for Lutheran Church after EU Membership

May 30, 2005, GENEVA – It has been a wave of significant political changes in Europe since the fall of the "Iron curtain" in the early 1990s, and the subsequent emergence of newly independent states. But not only that: On 1 May 2004 Lithuania together with nine other Central and Eastern European countries, joined the European Union (EU), the regional body founded in 1993 with the aim to enhance political, economic and social co-operation. Expectations among the Lithuanian population were high, and this new political situation also brought about new challenges for the churches, according to Bishop Mindaugas Sabutis, head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Lithuania (ELCL).

Middle East News

Vicar of Nazareth Appeals for Help

May 31, 2005 – An appeal for the churches in Britain to help bring an end to the inequality and discrimination suffered by Palestinian Christians in the Holy Land was made today by Father Samuel Barhoum, Anglican Vicar of Nazareth. Preaching at the National Pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, Father Samuel requested the church's "solidarity and support so that we can continue with our work, so that we can encourage Christians to remain steadfast." Thousands of pilgrims packed the streets of the Norfolk village, which was last year voted England's favourite spiritual place in a poll of BBC Radio 4 listeners.

Reviews

Keller Criticizes Apocalyptic Mind-set in U.S.

June 2, 2005 MINNEAPOLIS – The questions raised by use of American power in the world today and the advent of an "American empire," Catherine Keller argues in her new book, God and Power: Counter-Apocalyptic Journeys, reveal a deeply troubled political unconscious that is still wrestling with basic religious issues of power, terror, territory, and love. Keller traces our response to the current national, international, and religious situation to the deeply fraught legacy of Christian apocalypticism. Religious and political factions both left and right, she argues, read our situation in apocalyptic terms without truly understanding that complex legacy. After diving deeply into the multiple and conflicting political and religious meanings of the Book of Revelation, she proposes a "counter-apocalypse, " an anti-imperial political theology of love.