Articles Index

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INTERFAITH

World: Public Yearning, Grief Dominant Stories in '97. By Michael J. Paquette. In the world of faith, the past year was marked by events of sweeping religious and spiritual proportions, as masses of humanity gathered around the globe to publicly act out rituals of collective yearning and grief to a degree rarely, if ever, seen before. [Religion News Service]

World: Homosexuality and Religion – 1997 in Review. By Heather Elizabeth Peterson. Homosexuality, a subject that has divided members of many denominations and faiths in recent years, emerged in 1997 as an issue that threatens to split apart several mainline denominations. [Greenbelt Interfaith News]

World: British Government Considers Ending School Worship. By Margaret Holness. The Government is to face renewed pressure in the spring to end the requirement for daily collective worship in schools. [Church Times]

World: Interfaith Group Persuades Australian State to Change Law on Inquests. By Chris McGillion. The relatives of a dead person will soon be able to appeal against a post-mortem examination being conducted on the body, thanks to the efforts of an unusual alliance of religious groups. [Sydney Morning Herald]

World: Observatorium for Cults Formed in Belgium. An Observatorium for Cults and Religious Movements will be established soon in Belgium, after political parties have reached a consensus on the topic. [Golden Compass]

U.S.: Interfaith Campaign Targets Issue of Environmental "Sin" Pollution. By Larry B. Stammer. Moved by a Greek Orthodox patriarch's declaration that environmental abuse is "sin," an interfaith group of Christians, Jews and Native Americans have stepped up efforts in the religious defense of the natural world. [The Los Angeles Times]

U.S.: Alabama Officials Issue Guidelines for School Religious Activities. By Art Toalston. A list of 10 "permissible activities" has been distributed to Alabama school superintendents by the state superintendent of education and attorney general. [Baptist Press]

Washington: Maryland City Removes Reindeer from Holiday Lights Display After Citizen Complains. By Heather Elizabeth Peterson. The city staff of Greenbelt, Maryland, thought they had done everything right: they gave the city's holiday celebration the neutral title of "Festival of Lights," they scheduled classes to teach Hanukkah and Kwanzaa crafts, and they set up a lights display consisting of such secular symbols as Santa, snowmen, and reindeer. Then a citizen complained that the reindeer were too religious. [Greenbelt Interfaith News]

ECUMENICAL

World: World Council of Churches Seeks Justice in Climate Change Negotiations. A plea for justice was the theme of a two-page statement that World Council of Churches representatives addressed to the parties working for a climate change treaty December 9 – a day before the historic gathering in Kyoto, Japan, was to adjourn. [United Methodist News Service]

World: Ethical Dilemmas of Iraq Sanctions Plague Religious Leaders. By Alexa Smith. Doubtful about the diplomatic or political effect of economic sanctions against Iraq, U.S. church leaders are not quite sure what to say or do next in what has become a foreign policy debate with staggering humanitarian consequences. [Presbyterian News Service]

U.S.: Revision of New International Reader's Version Prompts Continued Debate over Bible Translations. By Art Toalston. The debate, centering largely on the New International Version Bible translation, flows from a storm of controversy sparked by news last spring of a gender-inclusive revision of the NIV planned for the U.S. market. [Baptist Press]

See also Pro-Gay, Ex-Gay, and a Few Mistakes

ADVENTIST

World: Ukrainian Reformed Adventists Re-unite with Seventh-day Adventist Church. By Jonathan Gallagher. Two congregations of Reformed Adventists reunited with the Seventh-day Adventist Church denomination in the Ukraine. The Reformed group split from the Adventist Church in 1928, and has existed separately since. [Adventist News Network]

ANGLICAN

World: Church of England Bishops Respond to Pope's Ecumenical Overture. By Glyn Paflin. Ut Unum Sint ("That They May Be One"), published in May 1995 and addressed to all Christians, stressed the Pope's hopes of unity with the Orthodox Churches, and the shared RC-Orthodox insistence on the mystery of the Church, the bond between faith and sacraments, and the apostolic succession. The House of Bishops has now followed up a brief initial statement made by Lambeth Palace and the Council for Christian Unity with a fuller response, May They All Be One, published December 9. [Church Times]

U.S.: Dispute Heats Up Between Episcopal Leaders, Conservatives. By Nancy Phillips. A long-simmering struggle between conservative Episcopalians and the leadership of the Episcopal Church intensified in December as a group of conservative religious leaders announced it had formed a nonprofit corporation using the historical name of the larger church. [Philadelphia Inquirer]

See also Greenbelt Anglican News, The Rollright Stones and the Diocese of Oxford

BAPTIST

World: Belgian Baptists Receive Official Recognition. By Wendy Ryan. Baptists in Belgium are now officially recognized, after having been classified as a "cult" for a number of years, and thus outside the country's constitutional protections. [Baptist Press]

World: Nagaland Celebrates 125 Years of Christianity with Call to Peace. The quasquicentennial celebration of 125 years of Christianity in the insurgency-afflicted Nagaland State in northeast India, November 27-30, was marked by a call to peace and reconciliation. [American Baptist News Service]

U.S.: Conservative Baptists in Texas to Form New Convention. By Dave Parker. Southern Baptists of Texas, a conservative group disenchanted with recent actions by the Baptist General Convention of Texas, has begun the process of creating a new state convention. [Baptist Press]

BUDDHIST

U.S.: New Leader, New Life for Vietnamese Buddhist Temple. By Sudarsan Raghavan. It has been nearly three years since Thich Hanh Man, a Buddhist monk from Saigon and spiritual leader to thousands of Vietnamese Buddhists in Philadelphia, was stabbed to death by a mentally ill homeless man inside the Chua Bo De Temple. [Philadelphia Inquirer]

CATHOLIC

World: Faith and Society – The Twin Poles of the American Synod. The special assembly of the Synod of Bishops for America in Rome has broken 500 years of silence during which North America and South America have ignored each other, an archbishop from Guatemala, Martínez Contreras, declared in the synod hall. Many of the participating bishops have echoed his sentiments. [The Tablet]

World: Pope Renews Ecumenical Plea to Orthodox Leader. On Sunday, November 30 – the feast of St. Andrew, patron of the patriarchate of Constantinople – Pope John Paul II sent a message of greetings to Patriarch Bartholomew I, emphasizing his desire for progress toward ecumenical unity and evangelization of the entire world. [Catholic World News]

World: Catholic Bishops Fight for Religious Holidays in Austria. Austria's Catholic bishops are fighting to preserve the integrity of Sundays and religious holidays. At their meeting in November, the bishops repudiated attempts to abolish 8 December, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, as an official holiday. [The Tablet]

World: U.S., Canadian Students Submit Petition in Support of Pope. A group of U.S. and Canadian students on November 19 submitted to Pope John Paul petitions with more than 90,000 signatures pledging loyalty to the Church's teachings and to the Holy Father himself. [Catholic World News]

See also Observatorium for Cults Formed in Belgium, Church of England Bishops Respond to Pope's Ecumenical Overture

EASTERN CHRISTIAN

World: Bomb Attack Prompts Concern for Safety of Ecumenical Patriarchate. A bomb attack on the Istanbul headquarters of the Ecumenical Patriarch, one of the world's most senior Orthodox church leaders, has prompted an international appeal to the Turkish authorities to apprehend the perpetrators. [Ecumenical News International]

World: Russian Patriarch Slams TV Station Over Religious Film. By Natasha Alova. The head of the Russian Orthodox Church assailed a TV station in December for airing a controversial Martin Scorsese film about the life of Christ, accusing NTV of violating the law and insulting believers. [Associated Press]

See also Interfaith Campaign Targets Issue of Environmental "Sin" Pollution, Pope Renews Ecumenical Plea to Orthodox Leader

Episcopal – see Anglican

HINDU

World: Indian Hindu Leaders Call for Autonomous Control of Temples. The eighth State conference of Hindu religious leaders, organised by the Viswa Hindu Parishad, began with a call to liberate the temples from Government control. [The Hindu]

U.S.: Hindu Priests Converge Upon Poconos Mountain Center. For the first time in America, 121 traditionally-trained Vedic priests performed the ancient Ati Rudra Maha Yajna over eleven days in the tranquil Poconos mountains of eastern Pennsylvania. [Hinduism Today]

ISLAMIC

World: Islamic Summit Considers Political and Religious Matters. The 8th Islamic Summit concluded its meetings in Tehran after issuing the Declaration of Tehran which determines the vision of the Islamic world towards the diverse political, economic, social and cultural issues which face the Islamic world. [ArabicNews.Com]

World: Circumcision of Females Ruled Out in Egypt. By Mae Ghalwash. Ending a long battle between Islamic fundamentalists and human rights groups, Egypt's high court Sunday upheld a Health Ministry decision banning government-certified doctors and health workers from performing female circumcision. [Associated Press]

See also Bomb Attack Prompts Concern for Safety of Ecumenical Patriarchate

JEWISH

World: Reform Jews Draw Line in Sand Amid Ongoing Conversion Talks. By Debra Nussbaum Cohen. The Reform movement is drawing its line in the sand: It has issued a seven-page statement outlining what it would and wouldn't accept from negotiations with the Orthodox on religious pluralism in Israel. [Jewish Telegraphic Agency]

World: Zionists Adopt "Unity" Resolution Without Support of the Orthodox. By Naomi Segal. Around-the-clock efforts at the 33rd Zionist Congress to achieve a unified position on religious pluralism failed in late December, and the worldwide gathering ended with the adoption of a resolution that Orthodox delegates could not support. [Jewish Telegraphic Agency]

Text of Zionist Congress Resolution [Jewish Telegraphic Agency]

U.S.: Orthodox Jews Defend Stance on Pluralism. By Lori Silberman Brauner. Agudath Israel's 75th national convention was much like many of the Jewish organizational gatherings in the United States this year – the discussions centered on religious pluralism issues. [New Jersey Jewish News]

U.S.: Jewish Intermovement Group Urges Dialogue on Pluralism Issues. By Debra Nussbaum Cohen. A group of prominent Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Jews has issued a public appeal encouraging the work of a committee in Israel charged with resolving the seemingly intractable conflict over religious pluralism. [Jewish Telegraphic Agency]

LUTHERAN

World: Danish Politicians Consider Intervening in Matter of Lutheran Homosexual Blessings. The bishops' decision on not introducing a ritual for blessing in church of registered partnerships was welcomed by all who wanted them to stress the difference between marriage and homosexual partnership, but the Association of Gays and Lesbians together with a great deal of the public described it as discriminating. [Church News in Denmark]

World: Statement on Refugees by Danish Lutheran Bishops Creates Stir. The five bishops' call for a Christian humane attitude towards refugees and immigrants is occasioned by the growing pressure for a tightening of the Government's policy concerning refugees and immigrants. [Church News in Denmark]

See also Conservatives in Dutch Reformed Church Oppose Church Merger

METHODIST

U.S.: Representatives of Black Methodist Denominations React to United Methodist Plans for Repentance. By Tom McAnally. Initial plans by the United Methodist Church to repent for acts of racism – historical and contemporary – drew mixed responses from representatives of three black Methodist denominations during meetings in Cincinnati December 1-4. [United Methodist News Service]

Muslim – see Islamic

Orthodox Christian – see Eastern Christian

PAGAN

World: Winter Solstice at Scottish Megalith Receives Web Broadcast. By Heather Elizabeth Peterson. One of the world's most ancient religious rituals was recreated on the World Wide Web in December when a Dutch archaeoastronomer broadcast the solstice sunset at the Maes Howe burial chamber in Orkney, Scotland. [Greenbelt Interfaith News]

U.S.: Pagan Leaders Send Definitions to Dictionary Editors. Leaders of some of the best-known Pagan organizations in the U.S. sent a letter to six major dictionary publishers in December, urging the adoption of new definitions for Neo-Paganism and Witchcraft. [Pagan Educational Network]

See also The Rollright Stones and the Diocese of Oxford

REFORMED

World: Conservatives in Dutch Reformed Church Oppose Church Merger. On December 6, it became clear that the conservative right wing of the Dutch Reformed continues its resistance to the forthcoming United Protestant Church in the Netherlands. [Golden Compass]

Roman Catholic – see Catholic

SIKH

U.S.: Sikh Temple Plans Run Afoul of California Neighbors. By Maria Alicia Gaura. After years of scrimping and saving, the Gurdwara-San Jose Sikh community decided to go all-out and build the biggest, most beautiful temple its members could afford. They never dreamed that their building would provoke a firestorm of opposition. [The San Francisco Chronicle]

Wiccan – see Pagan

ZOROASTRIAN

Washington Feature: How I Spent My Summer Vacation: A Zoroastrian Looks Back on His Priesthood Training. By Heather Elizabeth Peterson. When Firoze Rao was a fifteen-year-old living in India, his parents asked him an important question: Did he want to go to the United Kingdom for the summer? or did he want to go to the fire temple and become a priest? [Greenbelt Interfaith News]

Washington: Zoroastrians of Different Traditions Join in Solstice Celebration. By Heather Elizabeth Peterson. Over the centuries, different Zoroastrian traditions have developed different calendars, with the result that Zoroastrians of one ancestry may be unfamiliar with the festivals of others Zoroastrians. [Greenbelt Interfaith News]

HOMETOWN

Greenbelt: The Great Wind and the Philadelphia Rose: A History of St. George's Chapel in Glenn Dale, Maryland. Vestry minutes of Holy Trinity Parish in August 1888 contain only one line: "Chapel blew down in cyclone." [The Mission Times]

See also Maryland City Removes Reindeer from Holiday Lights Display After Citizen Complains, Survey for Greenbelt Area Readers

MAGAZINE MATTERS

Letters: Pro-Gay, Ex-Gay, and a Few Mistakes [Greenbelt Interfaith News]

Letters: The Rollright Stones and the Diocese of Oxford [Greenbelt Interfaith News]

Editor's Note: Survey for Greenbelt Area Readers [Greenbelt Interfaith News]

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December 1997