Front Page

Commentary: Memories of Martin Luther King and Two Aprils

January 17, 2006 – On April 4, 1967, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a powerful speech in opposition to the Vietnam War to 3,000 people attending a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned about Vietnam at New York City's Riverside Church. A few days later, he defended his words at a midtown Manhattan press conference packed by news reporters including myself. I was Protestant-Orthodox editor for Religion News Service in 1967 and 1968 and was assigned to report on Martin Luther King's opposition to Vietnam War. The Riverside speech was not King's first action in opposition to the war. He had earlier taken part in a war protest march in Chicago and given a strong anti-war speech in Los Angeles. But the thundering condemnation of the war on that April day, exactly a year before he was killed in Memphis, brought torrents of criticism.

Lutheran Leaders Analyze the Future of Religious Institutions

January 18, 2006, ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – Approximately 80 leaders representing colleges, universities, seminaries, outdoor ministries, social ministry organizations, and the synods congregations and churchwide organization of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) met here Jan. 12-14 to discuss "The Future of Religious Institutions in American Society," emphasizing the governance of institutions and how Lutheran institutions are interrelated and interdependent. The ELCA's 10,585 congregations are organized into 65 synods. The Chicago-based church has 28 colleges and universities, eight seminaries, and 145 camps and retreat centers. It relates to approximately 300 social ministry organizations through Lutheran Services in America, based in Baltimore.

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity Plays Role in Developing Ecumenical Spirituality, Kobia Says

January 19, 2006 – The marks of ecumenical spirituality are "readiness to rethink and to be converted" and willingness "to bear the otherness of the other, including refugees, people of another colour and other faiths, the old and the poor – all God's people," said Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia yesterday, the first day of the 2006 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Preaching at a service in the French-language church in Switzerland's capital Bern, Kobia recognized that bearing the otherness of the other "is not a simple matter." For this to happen, Christians "must develop the spiritual capacity to hear and see the grace of God in the other, [...] the capacity to feel the pulse of the world around us and to listen to the voices of those far and near."

General News

Commentary: An Encounter with Truth on MLK Day

January 17, 2006 – Three years ago, in January 2003, I was at the Scarritt-Bennett Center in Nashville, Tenn., for a conference of United Methodist leaders. The meeting would take place on the Monday on which the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is remembered. For many people this was and is a holiday. I arrived at the school late on Sunday evening; we would begin our work the next day at noon. The dorms were plain, austere and cold! The next morning, I woke up and made my way to the dining hall. A couple there introduced themselves: James and Eunice Mathews.

Dance of Kings Helps Inner-City Youth

January 19, 2006, WASHINGTON – Something more than dancing is taking place as Barbara Gaskill teaches a ballet lesson at an inner-city elementary school. In the shadows of the poverty of a largely immigrant neighborhood, Gaskill introduces her students to the dance of kings. "It just changes their whole self-image. You know, they're doing something special," says Gaskill, who teaches dance history and appreciation at the University of Maryland-College Park.

Bishops Announce Ratification of Constitutional Amendments

January 19, 2006, WASHINGTON – The United Methodist Council of Bishops has announced that all eight amendments to the church's constitution passed by the 2004 General Conference have been ratified by the annual conferences. The new amendments are effective immediately, the council said. The process for amending the Constitution of the United Methodist Church requires a two-thirds majority vote of delegates to the General Conference, the denomination's top lawmaking assembly. Annual (regional) conferences must then ratify the amendments by a two-thirds affirmative vote.

Anglican Communion Theological Work Fully Representative of the Provinces

January 19, 2006 – Approximately 35 members of the Anglican Communion Working Group on Theological Education (TEAC) are currently gathering for a major meeting at Kempton Park Conference Centre near Johannesburg, South Africa. Meeting dates are January 14-21, 2006. The Working Group, which includes representatives from most of the Anglican Provinces, is holding its second plenary meeting (the first was in June 2004) to develop the work it has done to date and to make specific proposals with suggestions for implementation.

Wild Life Refuge – Liberians Displaced by Terror Flock to Camps for Relative Safety

January 19, 2006, BREWERVILLE, LIBERIA – Running in fear has been a way of life for Liberians for 14 years. Practically any citizen who survived the civil war that raged here between 1989 and 2003 can tell you a story about taking flight to the thunderous sound of rebel mortars just down the road. Or about being so dehumanized by marauding fighters that they had no choice but to run. So the story told by Fatu B. Barrie, a 43-year-old mother of five girls, is a familiar one. When she was nine months pregnant, a rebel soldier claiming to be a rescuer tried to extract money from her. When she resisted, he became violent. "I said, ‘No,'" Barrie recalls. "So he took the knife and put it right on my chest."

ELCA Transforming Program to Transform Urban Ministry

January 17, 2006, CHICAGO – The 1997 Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) established "In the City for Good" (ICG), a 10-year initiative to transform lives, congregations and communities in urban settings across the United States and Caribbean. Five years into the initiative, the ELCA Division for Outreach's urban team reviewed its progress and decided some changes were needed that are now in place. "We used to enter into urban ministry assuming it was a remedial setting and work from weakness trying to create strength," said the Rev. David D. Daubert, executive for renewal of congregations, ELCA Evangelical Outreach and Congregational Mission.

University of La Verne Group Spends Thanksgiving Doing Disaster Relief Work

January 19, 2006, ELGIN, IL – Six University of La Verne (ULV) students and four university staff members traveled to the Lake Charles area of Louisiana over the Thanksgiving break to help clean up debris and destruction left in the wake of Hurricane Rita. ULV is a Church of the Brethren school in La Verne, Calif. Although it had been more than six weeks since the hurricane hit, communities were still struggling to recover from extensive damage. Much of the destruction inland resulted from uprooted trees falling into houses and buildings. In Cameron Parish, a tremendous storm surge did enormous damage t lakefront homes, killed animals, and pushed furniture, house siding, appliances, and large boats hundreds of feet onto the land. We worked at a number of different sites.

Ecumenical News

Archbishop Demetrios of America to Make Historic Visit to Cyprus

January 20, 2006, NEW YORK – His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios of America will visit the Republic of Cyprus January 24 – 29, 2006 in response to an invitation from the President of the Republic of Cyprus Mr. Tassos Papadopoulos. This is the first official visit of an Archbishop of America to Cyprus. During his visit, Archbishop Demetrios will meet with President Papadopoulos and the presiding hierarch of the Holy Synod of the Church of Cyprus, Metropolitan Chrysostom of Paphos and other members the Holy Synod. Archbishop Demetrios is also scheduled to meet with the President of the Parliament Mr. Demetris Christofias, the Minister of Foreign Affairs George Iacovou and the Minister of Education and Culture Mr. Pefkios Georgiades.

WCC General Secretary to Meet Swiss Churches, Government

January 16, 2006 – On 18-19 January, World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia will pay his first official visit to the churches of the country that is home to the headquarters of the WCC. On the agenda of the two-day visit to Switzerland's capital city Bern are discussions with the leadership of the Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches (SEK-FEPS) and its member churches. The WCC general secretary will also meet with Moritz Leuenberger, the current president of Switzerland's seven-member Federal Council, and with Micheline Calmy-Rey, the federal councillor responsible for foreign affairs. Since Kobia's visit to Bern coincides with the beginning of the 18-25 January Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, he will preach at a Week of Prayer for Christian Unity service at the French-language church in Bern.

Not Yet There, but Praying Hard... Together

January 18, 2006 – The large worship tent at the World Council of Churches (WCC) 9th Assembly in Porto Alegre will be a unique space and one of the main features of the Assembly life. Some 3,700 participants coming from churches from all over the world will gather twice a day under its white ceiling to celebrate their faith, hope and fellowship in Jesus Christ and to pray for greater unity. The WCC Assembly, the largest and most representative gathering of Christian churches from across the globe, will be a praying assembly. Its theme is itself a prayer: "God, in your grace, transform the world." Its deliberations and discussions, its policies and programmes will be shaped by the spirit of prayer to the triune God – the Creator, Sustainer and Saviour of all.

Christian Unity Week Focuses on Ireland
Ecumenical Group Commends the Power of Forgiveness

January 18, 2006, LONDON – Efforts to overcome religious divisions in Ireland have inspired this year's Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, in which denominations throughout the world pledge to work for church unity. The worldwide Week of Prayer for Christian Unity began on Jan. 18. The 2006 theme for the annual observation – "Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them," a quotation from Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew – was chosen by an ecumenical group in the Irish republic's capital of Dublin and highlights the importance of forgiveness in promoting reconciliation. One member of the group, the Rev. Mary Hunter, a Presbyterian minister, said forgiveness is important in Ireland, where all communities have suffered deeply and where violence has engendered fear in many people.

National News

United Methodists Minister to Families in Mine Tragedy

January 11, 2006 – When the community of Buckhannon, W. Va., gathers to remember the miners who died in the Sago Mine tragedy, it will probably be the voice of a 10-year-old boy they will never forget. Ti (Thomas Issaic) Anderson, son of Tom Anderson, will read Psalm 91 at a community memorial service being organized by church leaders who were with the families throughout the ordeal. The service will be at 2 p.m., Jan. 15, at United Methodist-related West Virginia Wesleyan College in Buckhannon. Psalm 91 was his father's favorite, Ti told the Rev. Mark Flynn, a United Methodist pastor, as they waited in the Sago Baptist Church for news about the miners. Flynn, pastor of First United Methodist Church in Buckhannon, went to Sago Baptist Church early Jan. 4 after getting a phone call from his wife, who had heard news reports of a mining accident that had left 13 men trapped underground. The families were gathering at the Baptist church to await news about their loved ones.

Spanish News

Todavía Hay Camino Por Andar, Pero Oramos Con Fervor... Y Juntos

19 enero 2006 – La gran carpa de culto de la IX Asamblea del Consejo Mundial de Iglesias (CMI) en Porto Alegre será un espacio único y elemento esencial de la vida de la Asamblea. Unos 3.700 participantes procedentes de iglesias de todo el mundo se reunirán dos veces por día bajo su blanco techo para celebrar su fe, su esperanza y su comunión en Jesucristo y para orar por una mayor unidad. La Asamblea del CMI, la reunión más grande y más representativa de las iglesias cristianas de todo el mundo, será una Asamblea de oración. Su propio tema es un ruego: "Dios, en tu gracia, transforma el mundo."

Líderes Evangélicos Se Reunieron Hoy Con Presidenta Electa Michelle Bachelet

16 enero 2006, SANTIAGO, Chile – Una delegación de líderes evangélicos chilenos se reunió hoy lunes con la mandataria electa Michelle Bachelet. "Fue una visita muy grata para felicitarla por su elección y expresarle éxitos en su gestión," dijo el obispo Francisco Anabalón, presidente del Comité de Organizaciones Evangélicas (COE). "Ella no es desconocida por las autoridades evangélicas, pues como ministra de Salud y luego de Defensa, sostuvo periódicas reuniones con líderes evangélicos," dijo en una comunicación telefónica a ALC.

Indígenas Evangélicos Apoyaron a Subcomandante Marcos En 1994

13 enero 2006, MÉXICO – Por primera vez desde que inició el alzamiento zapatista en 1994, el subcomandante Marcos reconoció públicamente el apoyo de indígenas evangélicos desde los inicios de su lucha. "Estos hermanos – sostuvo el líder zapatista-, evangélicos en su mayoría, chamulas la mayoría, indígenas todos, nos dieron la mano y salvaron la vida de muchos de nuestros compañeros (...) y fue en esta ciudad, con los indígenas que la levantaron y de la que los expulsaron hasta acá, donde el EZLN encontró su primera alianza y el primer apoyo de gente humilde y sencilla."

Secretario General Del CMI Se Reunirá Con Iglesias Y Gobierno Suizos

17 enero 2006 – Del 18 al 19 de enero, el secretario general del Consejo Mundial de Iglesias (CMI), pastor Dr. Samuel Kobia, hará su primera visita oficial a las iglesias del país donde el CMI tiene su sede. En el programa de la visita de dos días a Berna, capital de Suiza, figuran reuniones con la dirigencia de la Federación de Iglesias Protestantes Suizas (SEK-FEPS) y con sus iglesias miembros. El secretario general del CMI se reunirá también con Moritz Leuenberger, el actual presidente del Consejo Federal suizo de siete miembros, y con Micheline Calmy-Rey, la consejera federal encargada de los asuntos exteriores.

Israel Reconsiderará Decisión De Detener Proyecto De Parque Cristiano Financiado Por Pat Robertson

17 enero 2006, JERUSALÉN, Israel – Israel reiniciará contactos con el tele-evangelista estadounidense Pat Robertson después que éste se disculpó por haber sugerido que el derrame cerebral que sufrió el primer ministro Ariel Sharon era un castigo de Dios por la retirada de Israel de la Franja de Gaza. Robertson había propuesto una inversión de US$ 50 millones de dólares para construir un parque cristiano en las riberas del Mar de Galilea en tierras proporcionadas por el gobierno israelí, pero el Ministerio de Turismo decidió cancelar los tratos después de las desafortunadas frases del predicador difundidas, a comienzos de enero, en el programa "Club 700" de la Cadena Cristiana de Televisión.

Obispos Católicos Llaman a Superar Barreras De Intolerancia Frente a Haitianos

20 enero 2006, SANTO DOMINGO, Republica Dominicana – Una invocación al pueblo a superar las barreras de la intolerancia y la discriminación frente a los haitianos que viven en el país y a los demás extranjeros que vienen de visita en calidad de turistas, hizo este viernes la Conferencia Episcopal. El pedido invocación está contenido en la Carta Pastoral emitida por los 20 obispos dominicanos con motivo de la fiesta de la Virgen de La Altagracia, patrona del Pueblo Dominicano, que se celebra este sábado 21 de enero.

Pastor Pentecostal Destaca Presencia Evangélica En La Sociedad

19 enero 2006, LIMA, Perú – El pastor pentecostal Darío López Rodríguez afirmó que las iglesias evangélicas de América Latina tienen una presencia cada vez más visible en el escenario público y un notable crecimiento numérico que se acentuará en las próximas décadas. Ese incremento está modificando el mapa religioso y hoy la Iglesia Católica, predominante en el continente, ya no es la única confesión que regula la dinámica religiosa, sostuvo López, vice-presidente del Concilio Nacional Evangélico y pastor de la Iglesia de Dios.

Paz Y Esperanza Afirma Que Después De 10 Años Sigue Creyendo En La Justicia

19 enero 2006, LIMA, Peru – Paz y Esperanza, una asociación cristiana surgida tras la guerra interna que ensangrentó al Perú en las dos últimas décadas del siglo pasado, cumplió hoy su décimo aniversario. "Diez años después, seguimos creyendo en la justicia," afirmó el abogado Alfonso Wieland, director ejecutivo de la organización. El 19 de enero de 1996, un pequeño grupo de seis profesionales cristianos, decidió formar la Asociación Paz y Esperanza, dando continuidad a la labor pionera que realizó el Concilio Nacional Evangélico.

Es Un Pecado Negar Oportunidades El Pueblo, Dijo Predicador Carlos Escorcia

18 enero 2006, MANAGUA, Nicaragua – "Es un pecado negar oportunidades al pueblo," dijo el predicador Carlos Escorcia, tras sostener que Nicaragua vive una de sus peores crisis política, económica, social y de falta de valores morales y espirituales. Hay medio millón de nicaragüenses en Costa Rica y un millón en Estados Unidos que se vieron forzados a emigrar por la falta de trabajo que hay en el país, y lamentó que después de 20 años de iniciado ese éxodo, "no hay nadie que dé una repuesta," declaró el evangelista y ex dirigente de la iglesia Asamblea de Dios de Managua. Escorcia, graduado en Teología en el Seminario Bíblico Latinoamericano, hoy Universidad Bíblica , es comentarista en una radio de Los Angeles, conferencista y colaborador del Washington Post.

People in the News

Once-Expelled Civil Rights Leader Receives Honors at Vanderbilt

January 20, 2006, NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Decades following his expulsion from Vanderbilt University as a student, civil rights pioneer James Lawson will return as a distinguished visiting professor for the school's 2006-07 academic year. While studying at the university, Lawson helped organize nonviolent sit-ins at Nashville's segregated lunch counters. Vanderbilt's Board of Trust voted in 1960 to expel him for his role. The board reversed its decision shortly afterward, but Lawson had already enrolled elsewhere. The public announcement of Lawson's return to the campus came Jan. 18 during the Vanderbilt Alumni Association's banquet honoring the United Methodist pastor as the university's 2005 Distinguished Alumnus, an award established in 1996 to recognize the global achievement and service of alumni. "No other alumnus has ever contributed so much to issues of national and international justice and peace, and the promotion of a nonviolent world view," said Chancellor Gordon Gee. "James Lawson – and the faculty and students who supported him in 1960 – knew Vanderbilt's true mission even before Vanderbilt understood it entirely."

Bishop Who Converted to Rome Is Tipped for Top Honour

January 2, 2006 – A married former Anglican bishop who led the protest against the ordination of women priests may make history by becoming a Roman Catholic cardinal. Two former Cabinet ministers are backing the move to give Graham Leonard, who was the Bishop of London, the highest honour the Vatican can bestow. If Pope Benedict XVI backs the idea, it would be the most significant promotion for an Anglican convert since John Henry Newman was made a cardinal in 1879. In 2000 Pope John Paul II awarded one of the highest Catholic honours – the honorific title of the Right Rev Mgr – to Father Leonard, 84, who led many other priests out of the Anglican fold. In 1995 he had become a Catholic priest after being an Anglican bishop for more than 30 years.