Front Page

NCC Announces Kinnamon's Departure, Transition Plan

January 6, 2012, NEW YORK – The Executive Committee of the National Council of Churches has announced that the Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon completed his service as NCC General Secretary on Dec. 31, 2011, at the close of his four-year term. The NCC Governing Board will meet on January 20, 2012 to address the next steps in this leadership transition. Kinnamon announced his intended departure at the November 2011 Governing Board meeting. Based on advice from his cardiologist, Kinnamon relayed that frequent travel and other demands of the office were detrimental to his health.

Pope Announces Timothy M. Dolan, Edwin F. O'Brien to Be Made Cardinals

January 6, 2012 – His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI has announced that His Excellency the Most Reverend Timothy M. Dolan, Archbishop of New York, and His Excellency the Most Reverend Edwin F. O'Brien, Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher, will be elevated to the dignity of Cardinal in a Consistory to be held on February 18, 2012. Archbishop Dolan released a statement today in which he expressed his gratitude to Pope Benedict XVI saying that he is "honored, humbled, and grateful." He also thanked the people of the archdiocese of New York, "this is about an affirmation of love from the Pope to a celebrated archdiocese and community, and a summons to its unworthy archbishop to serve Jesus, His Church universal, His vicar on earth, and His people better."

Hunger, Need to Reduce Risk for Major Disasters among Top Concerns for 2012

January 4, 2012, NEW YORK – The number of children in poverty who are hungry could reach unparalleled levels in 2012 given the state of the global economy, Church World Service says in its annual New Year's assessment. "Those numbers could be considerable and unparalleled, even in the so-called ‘First World,'" said John L. McCullough, CWS executive director and CEO. The increase in hunger will put more pressure on humanitarian groups like CWS, necessitating not only further responses to fight hunger and poverty but requiring the humanitarian community to "to decry the failure of governments to provide an adequate social safety net," said the CWS head.

LWF New Year Message Urges Recognition of Human Vulnerability
General Secretary Junge Calls for Action on Financial and Ecological Crises

January 6, 2012, GENEVA – The current financial and ecological crises will not be overcome by continuing to please the markets, says The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) General Secretary Rev. Martin Junge in his 2012 New Year Message. Junge urges instead resolve to address justice issues within the human family in his reflections on Paul's Second Letter to the Corinthians (12:9), also the Moravian tradition watchword for 2012: "My power is made perfect in weakness." The LWF general secretary points out that human beings' pursuit of power and control over creation and the financial systems "is pushing humanity closer and closer to the abyss of ecological disaster."

New Report Connects Farmers, the Hungry

January 5, 2012 – Darin Greear of Riner, Va., loves farming so much that he uses income from his full-time job as a real estate agent to subsidize his passion. Raised on a family farm, he leases out most of the 450 acres he still owns with his father but cultivates an alfalfa crop with a partner. A few years ago, he bought a one-pound pack of turnip seeds to plant along with the alfalfa, which led to plenty of turnips and a partnership with the United Methodist-related Society of St. Andrew. The society uses a volunteer network to glean excess and unwanted produce from farmers. "We wound up picking around 60,000 pounds that year and distributing to the local food banks," Greear said.

General News

Church Produced Low-Budget Film on Depression Premieres in Taipei Cinemark

January 1, 2012 – Passion 99 Harvest Church is a church with a calling to minister to people struggling with depression. The church located in the glitzy, eastern district of Taipei City is very concerned that national statistics have revealed an increasing number of young people afflicted with clinical depression in recent years. In response to these statistics and as part of its outreach ministry, Passion 99 Church recently filmed "Smile At It," a low-budget film, which premiered at 18:30 on December 20, 2011 at Cinemark in Living Mall. The church made a point to invite senior high school students from various schools to come to the movie's premiere after class and managed to fill every seat in the room for the viewing.

The Rev. D. Paul Sullins, a Sociologist at Catholic University,
Has Interviewed over 70 Married Priests for a Book He Is Writing.

January 6, 2012 – On New Year's Day, the Vatican announced the formation of a nationwide ordinariate – kind of a diocese without borders – for Episcopal priests and their congregations who want to move together into Roman Catholicism. The big news is not that some Episcopalians will have a zippier express lane into Catholicism, but that there will soon be even more married Catholic priests in America. And married priests raise provocative questions for the Catholic Church, whose shortage of clergymen is worsening by the day. Most Americans, perhaps most American Catholics, do not know that the church allows married priests.

Science Can Help Church Keep its Young Folk

January 4, 2012 – An article, "Six Reasons Young Christians Leave Church," highlights results from a study by the Barna Group. The findings were reported in the recently published book, "You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving the Church ... and Rethinking Faith" by David Kinnaman. This nationwide study found evidence that for too many young folk, "Churches come across as antagonistic to science." The study found "three out of 10 young adults with a Christian background feel that churches are out of step with the scientific world we live in (29 percent)" and that many young people are "turned off by the creation-versus-evolution debate."

Ecumenical News

Texas Bishop Weighs in on Ordinariate

January 7, 2012 – Seeing as how the Anglican Ordinariate has set up shop in his backyard (it will run out of Houston), The Rt. Rev. Andrew Doyle, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas, thought it wise to frame the event with some of his own understanding about what it is and how it might be regarded. We're the richer for his recent analysis on the subject. It's forthright and helpful. As many of you may be aware, the Anglican Ordinariate launched nationwide this week and it will be operated out of the Roman Catholic diocesan office in Houston . The Rev. Jeffrey Steenson, a former Episcopal bishop, now a Roman Catholic priest working and teaching in Houston, will oversee the Ordinariate.

Catholic ‘And' Episcopalian

January 4, 2012 – January brings an annual event, the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Jan 18-25). Across the country you will find ecumenical services in various houses of Christian worship, all with the intent to bring about Jesus' prayer for us to his Father, "…that they may be one as we are one." (John 17:22) This new year also officially brings to the U.S. Roman Catholic efforts to create a church home for disaffected Anglicans and Episcopalians. A liturgical rite (aka, "ordinariate") has been established for parishes and clergy wishing to leave the Anglican tradition and unify with Rome.

Spanish News

La Iglesia Metodista Argentina Envió Una Carta
a La Presidenta Fernandez Orando Por Su Salud

3 enero 2012, BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – El pastor Frank de Nully Brown, Obispo de la Iglesia Evangélica Metodista Argentina (IEMA), hizo pública una Carta Episcopal dirigida a la Presidenta de la Nación Argentina Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. Habiendo recibido la noticia sobre su salud y la próxima operación a la cual será sometida este 4 de enero por un carcinoma en la glándula tiroidea, "quisiéramos que supiese que en estos momentos de prueba estaremos orando por usted y su familia," dice el Obispo.

La Iglesia Evangélica Del Río De La Plata Se Suma
a Las Peticiones Por La Salud De La Presidenta

4 enero 2012, BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – La Pastora Sonia Skupch, Secretaria General de la Iglesia Evangélica del Río de la Plata (IERP), suscribe una carta que fue enviada ayer a la Presidenta de la República Argentina, Dra. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, quien esta mañana fue intervenida quirúrgicamente por un tumor en la glándula tiroidea. "Con preocupación hemos recibido la noticia sobre su estado de salud, pero cierta tranquilidad al mismo tiempo al saber que será sometida a una operación en unos días que, entendemos, brinda altas posibilidades de mejoría. Sabemos que es una mujer fuerte.

Asociación Cultural Evangélica Acaba De Conceder Premio
De Difusión Bíblica a Gabino Fernández Campos

4 enero 2012, ESPAÑA – El Premio "Jorge Borrow" de Difusión Bíblica 2012, acaba de ser concedido por la Asociación Cultural Evangélica que honra ese nombre, a Gabino Fernández Campos, quien ha validado a los escritores perseguidos u olvidados en España por practicar la fe del protestantismo, según se dio a conocer en Salamanca esta semana que concluye.

La Iglesia Luterana Unida Compromete Oración
Por La Salud De La Presidenta Y Por La Nación Toda

6 enero 2012, BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – El vocero presidencial Alfredo Scoccimarro dió a conocer el tercer comunicado sobre la recuperación de la Presidente, quien mejora "sin complicaciones" y está de "muy buen ánimo." Oficialmente se informó que la jefe de Estado permanecerá internada en el Hospital Austral, de Pilar, hasta mañana al mediodía. Mientras, continuan los pedidos por su salud y el apoyo de diversos sectores sociales.

Católicos Y Presbiterianos Socorren a Moradores De La Favela Del Moinho

5 enero 2012, BRASIL – Congregaciones de la Iglesia Presbiteriana Independiente (IPI) recolectaron ropas, alimentos y productos de higiene personal en el culto de la noche de Navidad y los entregó, el 26 de deciembre, a los moradores de la favela del Moinho, que vivian en un predio de vários andares y que se incendió en las vísperas de las fiestas navideñas. El fuego mató a dos personas e hirió a otras tres.

People in the News

McCullough Re-elected to Head Global Humanitarian Agency

January 6, 2012, NEW YORK – Church World Service begins 2012 with the Rev. John L. McCullough re-elected to lead the global humanitarian agency as executive director and CEO for four more years. Over the last four years, McCullough, who has led the agency since 2000, initiated a sweeping vision that challenges CWS to "dramatically expand its capacity and its impact in the fight to end hunger and poverty." The new vision, called CWS 2020, empowers CWS – already a significant presence among hunger fighting agencies – to intensely focus on hunger and nutrition in its work with grassroots organizations in the United States and several regions of the world. In recent years the agency has operated in an environment McCullough describes as "volatile," where major disasters, threatened budget cuts, huge numbers of displaced people, a collapsed economy and rising food prices throughout the world pulled the agency in many directions.

National Cathedral Appoints Francis H. Wade Interim Dean
Search Process Also Announced for New Dean

January 4, 2012 – The chair of the Washington National Cathedral Chapter, the Rev. James P. Wind, announced Jan. 4 the appointment of the Rev. Francis H. Wade as interim dean of the cathedral. Wade has been called on a part-time basis to focus on spiritual guidance and support to the cathedral during its search and transition to a new dean. Canon Kathleen A. Cox, the cathedral's executive director and chief operating officer, will continue to oversee the day-to-day operations of the cathedral.