Ecumenical Press Service (EPS) 59th Year 1992

530 Pages·1992·50.4 MB·English

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P.O. Box 2100
CH - 1211) Geneva 2
Swiizerland
FOR THE PERIOD 01-15 JANUARY 1992
Ecumenical team visits the Baltics to express solidarity 92.01.01
South Africa: ecumenical body targeted by tricksters' leaflets «O02
Nationalist tensions impacting on Orthodoxy in Macedonia, Ukraine 03
World Reformed body expresses solidarity with Togolese Christians 04
-05
WCC welcomes repeal of Zionist resolution by the UN 06
Church of England clergy sign protest note, defy leader's pleas 07
Racism alive and well in new and old forms, concludes symposium 08
Kuwait: church growth cited, relief aid main factor 09
UK: church bodies unite to fight housing crisis - 10
Canada: confidentiality of confessions jeopardized by court ruling pla.
Hong Kong church leaders visit China, discuss human rights see.
Church opposes plans for Japanese participation in UN military efforts ws
Evangelist Graham not to retire yet 14
Mexico: state governor sides with Protestants pF)
South Africa: churches give ‘careful support’ to peace talks . 16
WCC official calls for efforts to stop discrimination against women ey
Russia: Orthodox seminar sets priorities for education 18
Romanian Orthodox church pledges ‘unfailing commitment' to ecumenism 19
Three WCC books cited among top mission study books for 1991 -20
USA: ecumenical body says homosexuality poses ‘great seismic fault' Via
Switzerland: figures of visitors to ecumenical centre released baie
Vanuatu: church body thanks government for democracy, justice ye
Anglican leader to pay visit to Vatican 24
ECUVIEW: Evangelical Presence in Central America AG LS
imenical Press Service provides news and information about the ecumenical movement. Its material may be freely reproduced with acknowledgement. EPS is a service of
: World Council of Churches in partnership with the World Student Christian Federation, the World Alliance of YMCAs, and the World YWCA. Opinions expressed are not
>essarily those of the WCC or the partners.
Ecumenical Press Service: Year 59 / Issue 01
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The Jerusalem and the Middle East Church Association, publishers of the
Magazine, Bible Lands, advise that their new address is 1 Hart House, The
Hart, Farnham, Surrey, GU9 7HA. Tel: (0252) 726994.
The Life and Peace Institute, a Swedish-based international Christian centre
for peace research seeks to employ a Director of Publications beginning 1 June
1992. Application deadline is 10 February. Further information is
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Finland by Harri Heino.
Appeals (in US dollars) from WCC/CICARWS, Box 2100, 1211 Geneva 2;
Bangladesh: 4.3 million for cyclone recovery (16 December).
Pakistan: 86 000 for post flood rehabilitation (18 December).
Albania: 600 000 for primary health needs (17 December).
The EPS index for 1991 is available on request. However, if you have asked
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Ecumenical Press Service
EPS 92.01.01
ECUMENICAL TEAM VISITS THE BALTICS TO EXPRESS SOLIDARITY
At its meeting in Canberra/Australia in February 1991, the World Council of
Churches' Central Committee adopted a statement in which it urged member
churches to extend to the churches in the Baltics ‘every possible assistance'
including ‘material and spiritual' help.
In translating that statement into action, the WCC and the Conference of
European Churches (CEC) assembled an ecumenical team to visit the churches in
the Baltic republics of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, from 9-16 January.
The visit aims at expressing the solidarity of the ecumenical community with
the churches of the Baltic states in their new and changing situation,
learning of the current problems and new opportunities for the life and
witness of the churches, and learning of new initiatives in the life of the
churches there.
Other objectives include encouraging ecumenical cooperation among the churches
in the region and gathering insights and information for wider circulation to
the WCC and CEC consitituency and beyond.
The team is composed of Anna Marie Aagaard, a WCC president and professor of
theology at the University of Aarhus, Denmark, John Briggs of the Baptist
Union of Great Britain and member of the WCC executive committee, and
Kondothra M. George of the WCC Ecumenical Institute-Bossey.
Others are Okr Hermann Goeckenjan, representing CEC, Bishop Jeremias of the
Autocephalic Orthodox Church of Poland and former member of the WCC Central
Committee, and Elizabeth Salter of the WCC Commission of the Churches on
International Affairs. [EPS]
EPS 92.01.02
SOUTH AFRICA: ECUMENICAL BODY TARGETED BY TRICKSTERS' LEAFLETS
The South African Council of Churches (SACC) announced 4 December that some
unknown people distributed leaflets calling on the poor and unemployed to
visit Khotso House, the ecumenical body's headquarters in down-town
Johannesburg, 'to receive food parcels’.
The SACC said in a statement that it was ‘most disturbed’ that some unkown
person or group had distributed leaflets which were printed on sheets bearing
the name and logo of the SACC.
The leaflet also carried an alleged ‘apology' by the SACC that its stand on
the maintenance of sanctions against the South African government had ‘put
many black workers out of their jobs’.
It went on: "So we confess to the fact that we caused a great deal of
unemployment and poverty in South Africa. We now want to help the poor and
unemployed. We will give you a special Christmas parcel of food and clothing
to make you and your starving family happy. We offer this as a token of our
repentance’.
‘The days of covert operations against those who stand for justice and truth
are not yet over' in South Africa, commented Frank Chikane, SACC general
secretary, who added that police were carrying out investigations into the
matter. [EPS]
Ecumenical Press Service
EPS 92.01.03
NATIONALIST TENSIONS IMPACTING ON ORTHODOXY IN MACEDONIA, UKRAINE
Nationalist tensions and moves for independence in the southern Yugoslav
republic of Macedonia and in the Ukraine are having repercussions on Orthodox
churches there.
Archbishop Milosev Gavril, head of the Macedonian Orthodox Church, unexpectedly
announced his retirement in December. Poor health was the official reason,
but some observers suggest that behind the decision lay conflicts within the
Macedonian church hierarchy over relations with the Serbian Orthodox
patriarchate.
The Macedonian church declared itself juridically autocephalous thirty years
ago, but this was recognized by neither the Serbian Orthodox Church, the
Ecumenical Patriarchate, nor any other Orthodox church.
There have been recent initiatives by some Macedonian bishops to regularize
relations with the Serbian ‘mother church' in a way that would assure the
Macedonian church's ‘autonomy’. Gavril has rejected these efforts, charging
those making them with dividing the church. He has also had difficulties
with the Macedonian government, which has pressed him to relinquish his
canonical responsibilities for Macedonians outside the country.
The autonomous Orthodox Church of the Ukraine, attached to the Moscow
Patriarchate between 1682 and October 1990, is seeking complete canonical
autocephaly from Moscow. The Orthodox church situation in the republic is
complicated by the presence of an autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church,
under the leadership of Mstyslav Skrypnyk, which in 1990 declared its
independence as the patriarchate of Kiev.
Skrypnyk's group, whose canonicity is not recognized by any Orthodox church,
claims to comprise some 1100 parishes; the autonomous Orthodox Church of the
Ukraine has about 6000 parishes, according to its primate, Metropolitan
Philaret of Kiev.
Following overwhelming approval of Ukrainian independence in the referendum on
1 December, Philaret has worked to overcome the nationalist split among the
Ukrainian Orthodox. But it is not certain that the decision by the
autonomous church to request autocephaly from Moscow will resolve the
Situation, given the fact that Philaret was on record earlier as having said
that the Ukraine should remain within the Soviet Union.
An official of the Moscow Patriarchate, interviewed in the Paris-based
Orthodox press service SOP, offered the personal opinion that there is no
formal obstacle from the side of the Russian Orthodox Church to the Ukrainian
request, so long as canonical communion is maintained between the _ two
churches. The only problem, he said, would be in the southern and eastern
parts of the Ukraine where much of the population is of Russian origin; and
compromises about the language of the liturgy and the ethnic origin of the
clergy would have to be found in those regions.
Meanwhile, in an interview published by the Italian Catholic magazine
Avvenire, Metropolitan Kirill, head of external relations for the Russian
Orthodox Church, said the current disintegration of the Soviet Union, with
worsening poverty and ethnic conflicts, is ‘a tragedy from the social and
economic point of view'. Unless ‘a new way of living together' is found, he
said, the country is ‘headed for catastrophe’. [EPS]
Ecumenical Press Service
EPS 92.01.04
WORLD REFORMED BODY EXPRESSES SOLIDARITY WITH TOGOLESE CHRISTIANS
A military coup d'état which interrupted progress towards democracy in Togo
was the subject of a letter sent (12 December) to Kokou Béné Touleassi, head
of the Evangelical Church of Togo, by the Geneva-based World Alliance of
Reformed Churches' (WARC) general secretary Milan Opocensky.
Recalling the hopes raised by a July-August National Conference which laid the
groundwork for a peaceful transition to multi-party democracy in Togo,
Opocensky noted that once again Togo faces ‘a period of considerable social
and political uncertainty’.
On 28 November, military units occupied radio and television stations,
surrounded government buildings and closed the country's airport and
frontiers. Interim Prime Minister Joseph Kokou Koffigoh was arrested (3
December) after the army demanded that the transition government be dissolved
and a new prime minister named.
The role played in the coup by General Eyadema, who heads the party that has
ruled Togo over the past 25 years but whose powers, as president, were
considerably reduced by the National Conference, remained unclear.
With an estimated 20-100 000 Togolese fleeing to neighbouring Benin and Ghana
and most of the members of the government in hiding, Koffigoh (who was
released on 5 December) issued repeated appeals for French intervention.
But, although 300 French soldiers were despatched to Benin, the French
government appeared reluctant to intervene in the impasse.
‘Law and pluralism are among the values to which the Reformed family is deeply
attached', Opocensky said. His letter added: ‘Our attachment is part of our
testimony to Christ the liberator. We should like to think that, as a
church, you will attempt to foster dialogue and reconciliation, in order that
true democracy may be installed for the benefit of your country and people’.
Expressing sympathy with those who lost family members in the ‘repeated
violence marking Togo's political life over the past few months', Opocensky
assured Touleassi of WARC's prayers, and readiness to provide such solidarity
as may be needed. [EPS]
EPS 92.01.05
GEORGIA: CHURCH CALLS FOR ECUMENICAL SUPPORT, LEADER FLEES COUNTRY
As conflict intensified in Tbilisi between armed opposition forces and persons
loyal to the government of President Zviad Gamsakhurdia, the catholicos
patriarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church told the nation that Georgia was ‘in
danger of civil war' and ‘on the verge of utter destruction’. Ilia II
reiterated an earlier call on all parties to show wisdom and ‘responsibility
towards God and the nation' and to solve their differences by peaceful
negotiations.
Gamsakhurdia was democratically elected president of Georgia in May, but
opponents subsequently charged him with taking dictatorial powers and
violating human rights. About 75 people were killed and 400 wounded in
fighting that began in mid-December. The president himself finally left
Georgia on 6 January. In a cable asking WCC General Secretary Emilio Castro
for ecumenical ‘support and spiritual unity with Georgia and its people’, the
patriarch (a president of the WCC from 1979-83) strongly rejected what he
called ‘slanderous rumours’ that the church hierarchy and clergy have been
‘indifferent’ to the current situation. ‘The mission of the church has
always been and is the spiritual elevation of the whole nation, peace and
unity among people', Ilia wrote. [EPS]
Ecumenical Press Service
EPS 92.01.06
WCC HAILS REPEAL OF ZIONIST RESOLUTION BY THE UN
World Council of Churches General Secretary Emilio Castro has characterized
the 15 December decision by the United Nations General Assembly to revoke
Resolution 3379 (1975), which described Zionism as ‘a form of racism and
racial discrimination', as an important step towards peace in the Middle East.
In an interview with the German Protestant press service EPD, Castro called
the judgement of Zionism in the earlier resolution ‘absolutely false' and said
the conflict in the Middle East is a political one between two nations. He
expressed hope that the revocation of the 1975 resolution would enhance
prospects for a political solution and reconciliation between Israel and the
Palestinians.
Immediately after the UN declaration was passed in 1975, Castro's predecessor
Philip Potter declared the WCC's ‘unequivocal opposition to the equation of
Zionism with racism' and called on the UN to ‘reconsider and rescind it'.
Citing earlier UN statements on racism, Potter said Zionism ‘is a _ complex
historical process ..., subject to many understandings and interpretations.
None of these can properly be used to condemn Zionism as racism'.
The WCC's Seventh Assembly (Canberra, 1991) reiterated the Council's advocacy
of the rights of the Palestinians to self-determination and an independent
State of their own and appealed for compliance with UN resolutions calling for
an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories since 1967. [EPS]
EPS 92.01.07
CHURCH OF ENGLAND CLERGY SIGN PROTEST NOTE, DEFY LEADER'S PLEAS
At least a fifth of the Church of England's 10 000 clergy ignored the advice
of Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, last December, and signed an open
letter to the leadership of the Church of England expressing their deep
concern over inter-faith worship, such as the annual Commonwealth Day service
in Westminster Abbey.
'We believe that these events, however motivated, conflict with the Christian
duty to proclaim the gospel', said the letter which was published as an
advertisement in the Church press. ‘They imply that salvation is offered by
God not only through Jesus Christ but by other means, and thus deny his
uniqueness and finality as the only Saviour’.
The signatories appealed to the Church's leadership ‘to oppose and, where
possible, prevent such gatherings for inter-faith worship and prayer in the
Church of England and to seek to discourage them elsewhere’.
The text of the open letter was mailed to all the Church of England's
full-time stipendiary priests and curates. So far, it has attracted the
Signatures of 2014 clergy, while a trickle of additional signatures has
followed publication. One of the organizers estimated that it could end up
with 3000 signatures - nearly a third of the church's clergy.
In October last year, Carey told his diocesan synod that if he had been
invited to sign the open letter, he would not have done so. He then urged
the organizers to abandon the project because he did not regard it as helpful.
‘It failed to define inter-faith worship and prayer', he said, adding, ‘It
divided me from my predecessor [Robert Runcie]. It played on Christian fears
about encounter with people of other faiths. It was likely to lead to an
assumption that they were an unwelcome presence in our society’. [EPS]