Geneva (ENI). Long-standing problems caused by the neglect or abuse of economic, social and cultural rights in Brazil are getting worse, according to a report drawn up by human rights organisations and presented to a United Nations committee this week. The report says that Brazil's federal government has failed to give "concerted attention" to these issues, despite Brazil's ratification in 1992 of a UN human rights agreement intended to address rights such as employment, shelter, education and adequate living standards. [761 words, ENI-00-0164]

27 April 2000

Warsaw (ENI). The newly elected leader of the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia hopes to forge closer ties with other Christian denominations. But Archbishop Nikolai (Kocvar) of Michalovce-Slovakia, who was elected Metropolitan on 17 April, cautioned that it was too soon to outline his ecumenical priorities. [369 words, ENI-00-0160]

Australian archbishops in public row over Christ's role

Melbourne (ENI). Dr Harry Goodhew, Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, head of Australia's most populous and powerful diocese, has accused the newly-elected primate of the Anglican Church of Australia, Dr Peter Carnley, of breaching church doctrine and betraying the church's belief in the significance of the resurrection and of Jesus Christ himself. At the same time, some clergy in Sydney, a conservative diocese with a strong evangelical influence, have called for a boycott of the installation of Dr Carnley as primate next Sunday, 30 April. Dr Carnley is a leading liberal theologian who angered conservatives in 1992 when he ordained Australia's first women priests. [1187 words, ENI-00-0161]

International community has no excuses in Ethiopia, says aid official

Dubuluch (ENI). More than 100 carefully-built rock cairns mark the new cemetery at the edge of this small, arid town in southern Ethiopia. The new cemetery, set apart from the graves of the residents of this desert community, is for the many people who have died in recent weeks after migrating here in search of food, fleeing the ravages of a drought that now threatens to devastate the Horn of Africa with a deadly famine. [1436 words, ENI-00-0162]

Mugabe's party refuses to join church-sponsored talks to end violence

Harare (ENI). President Robert Mugabe's political party, Zanu PF, has snubbed an all-party meeting convened by the Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC) to discuss escalating political violence in Zimbabwe that has caused the death of 10 people and injured many others. [1145 words, ENI-00-0163]

26 April 2000

Copenhagen (ENI). The (Lutheran) Church of Sweden, to which most of the country's population belongs, is changing some of the words in its official prayers and omitting verses from its hymnbooks in an effort to remove all traces of anti-Semitism. The changes result from a new report on Christian-Jewish relations, published recently by a church commission which has studied the problem for five years. The report is strongly critical of anti-Jewish utterances by Martin Luther, one of the leading figures of the Reformation. [872 words, ENI-00-0158]

Kosovo takes a lesson from Bosnia in inter-faith relations

Warsaw (ENI). Leaders of Kosovo's Muslim, Orthodox and Roman Catholic communities have set up a joint council to promote democracy and human rights, modelled on an inter-religious body in Bosnia-Herzegovina. "With one united voice, we again strongly condemn all acts of violence and all violations of basic human rights," three religious leaders said in a declaration from Kosovo's capital, Pristina. The declaration was signed by Kosovo's Muslim Mufti, Rexhep Boja, by the Serbian Orthodox Bishop of Rasko-Prizren, Artemije Radosavljevic, and by the head of Kosovo's Roman Catholic community, Bishop Marko Sopi. [801 words, ENI-00-0159]

25 April 2000

New York (ENI). Ecumenical leaders who took part in efforts to reunite six-year-old Elian Gonzalez with his Cuban father have regretted the fact that force was used to remove the boy from his Miami relatives. But they expressed relief that Elian had finally been reunited with his father. [937 words, ENI-00-0156]

After Elian, Cuba's churches will play leading role in time of transition

New York (ENI). Cuba's Protestant churches intend to play an important "intermediary" role in what are expected to be imminent years of change and transition within Cuba, according to the new general secretary of the Cuban Council of Churches (CCC). Speaking before federal officials seized Elian Gonzalez from his Miami relatives to reunite him with his father, Reinerio Arce singled out the Gonzalez case as an example of how churches in Cuba, working with ecumenical partners in the US, had been able to bring Cubans and Americans together amid continuing hostility between Washington and Havana. [624 words, ENI-00-0157]

20 April 2000

New York (ENI). A dissident group within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has vowed to continue its battle against an ecumenical agreement that would bring the ELCA into full communion with the Episcopal (Anglican) Church in the United States. Despite this opposition, the ELCA council has voted to continue the move towards full communion, which is scheduled to come into effect on 1 January 2001 and is known as "Called to Common Mission (CCM)". [951 words, ENI-00-0154]

Church officials warn of collapse of 'rule of law' in Zimbabwe

Geneva (ENI). Senior officials of international church bodies have warned that the occupation of white-owned farms in Zimbabwe by thousands of supporters of war veterans, in defiance of court rulings, is undermining the "rule of law". The general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), Dr Ishmael Noko, who is himself Zimbabwean, said that "illegal occupations of properties, violence and intimidation cannot, in my view, be condoned". Dr Konrad Raiser, general secretary of the World Council of Churches, warned that recent developments in Zimbabwe, including the property invasions, gave the impression of a "massive breakdown" of the rule of law. "Combined with the already tense economic situation, they appear to threaten widespread chaos," he said. [572 words, ENI-00-0155]

19 April 2000

London (ENI). Among the 11 candidates campaigning to become the first directly elected mayor of London in the election next month, is a religious party leader who wants to bring Christian values to a campaign dominated so far by the strictly secular issues of traffic congestion and how to fund the Underground railway system. The candidate, Ram Gidoomal, of the Christian Peoples Alliance, describes himself as "a Hindu brought up as a Sikh, who went to a Muslim school and who now follows Jesus Christ". [873 words, ENI-00-0152]

US Congress appoints Catholic as Chaplain after four-month debate

Washington DC (ENI). The historic and unexpected appointment of a Roman Catholic priest as chaplain of the US House of Representatives has brought to an end a four-month controversy in which members of the House openly accused each other of religious bigotry and pandering to sectional religious interests. But the controversy has led to a debate in newspapers throughout the United States as to whether, given the separation of church and state in the US, the House of Representatives should have a chaplain at all. [1039 words, ENI-00-0153]

17 April 2000

Moscow:For the past 80 years Russia's heads of state have not been in the habit of congratulating monks on their birthdays. But last week the country saw another post-communist change when President-elect Vladimir Putin and the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Alexei II, joined many priests and lay people in offering congratulations to mark the 90th birthday on 11 April of Archimandrite Ioann Krestyankin, a monk with enormous spiritual and moral authority. Krestyankin is one of only a few Russian Orthodox priests who enjoy the status of "startsy" - elders - and are believed to have superior spiritual insight enabling them to understand people's lives and to offer them spiritual support. [838 words, ENI-00-0148]

14 April 2000

Harare: Evangelical Christians in Zimbabwe have declared that they are not willing to engage in interfaith dialogue with Muslims, Hindus and followers of traditional African religions. Their refusal presents a major obstacle to the Zimbabwe National Forum for Inter-Faith Dialogue (ZNFIFD) even before it begins its work. ZNFIFD will be officially launched in June to promote the peaceful coexistence of all religions in the country. [686 words, ENI-00-0145]

Tributes to Czech pastor who tried to bridge Cold War divisions

Warsaw: A prominent Czech pastor, Jaroslav Ondra, who made major efforts to build bridges during the Cold War, died on 8 April at the age of 75. "Dr Ondra devoted his life to the ecumenical movement and struggled to remain faithful to Christ and the Gospel," said Milan Opocensky, a Czech theologian who recently retired as general secretary of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, based in Geneva, Switzerland. [796 words, ENI-00-0146]

Bishop calls for Sri Lanka's churches to unite to promote peace

Colombo: Colombo's Anglican bishop has called for all Sri Lanka's mainstream Protestant churches to revive long-standing plans to unite, in a bid to promote harmony in this ethnically divided island. Bishop Kenneth Fernando told ENI that the unity of churches was of "paramount significance" in Sri Lanka where ethnic division had led to civil war. "Unless we are united, we cannot speak of unity and reconciliation to the nation," he said referring to the long-standing conflict between Sri Lanka's minority Tamils who want independence from the Sinhala-speaking Buddhist majority. [610 words, ENI-00-0147]

12 April 2000

Let Africans honour ancestors with blood libations in Mass, says bishop

East London: A South African archbishop has suggested that a libation of blood - a ritual pouring as a symbolic sacrifice honouring the ancestors of black Africans - should be incorporated into local Catholic liturgies such as the Mass. Archbishop Buti Tlhagale, of Bloemfontein, said recently: "Sacrifice to the ancestors continues to be a very common practice among Africans. The slaughtering of an animal - cow or sheep - takes place wherever there is a funeral or a marriage feast, or in times of illness, unemployment, family feuds or the birth of a child. Is there a way to integrate this custom with their Christian belief as a step towards meaningful inculturation?" [888 words, ENI-00-0141]

Perpetrators of East Timor's violence must go on trial says Ramos-Horta

Geneva: Jose Ramos-Horta, the East Timorese leader and Nobel peace prize laureate, today called for the Indonesian leaders responsible for atrocities in East Timor to be put on trial. Ramos-Horta, who left East Timor three days before Indonesia troops invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996, together with Catholic Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, for his efforts to promote a settlement to the conflict on the island, where thousands of people died following the Indonesian invasion. He returned to East Timor in December last year, following the withdrawal of Indonesian forces and the establishment of a United Nations administration in East Timor, pending the full independence of the island. Speaking today at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, where the World Council of Churches and other international church bodies are based, Ramos-Horta paid tribute to the efforts of ecumenical organisations, church leaders and other campaigners in supporting the campaign for East Timor's independence. [920 words, ENI-00-0142]

11 April 2000

---

Moscow's patriarch accuses West of double standards over Chechnya

Moscow: The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Alexei II, has accused international human rights organisations of applying "double standards" to Russia's policy in Chechnya. Reacting to recent criticisms of Russia's actions in Chechnya by Mary Robinson, the UN's high commissioner for human rights, and by the Council of Europe's parliamentary assembly, Patriarch Alexei said: "Those who come to our country from PACE [the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which promotes European unity and safeguards local culture and human rights] or the United Nations, do not see what they don't want to see and do not hear what they don't want to hear." [670 words, ENI-00-0139]

Elian will be with his father soon, says ecumenical official

New York: The long and bitter custody battle over six-year-old Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez is close to being resolved, according to the former general secretary of the US National Council of Churches (NCC), which has played a major role in the political saga over Elian's future. Dr Joan Brown Campbell predicted, in an interview with ENI on 10 April, that some time this week Elian would be reunited with his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez. Elian's father travelled from Cuba to the US last week to try to ensure that he regains custody of his son. Throughout the controversy, the NCC has held the view that the boy should be returned to his father and to Cuba. [854 words, ENI-00-0140]

10 April 2000

---

Don't water down the faith, says Melbourne's controversial archbishop

Melbourne: The Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne, Australia, lives up to his episcopal motto - "Be Not Afraid". Dr George Pell's strong views on faith and on the practice of Catholicism have, in his short four years as archbishop, made him one of the most controversial and prominent church leaders in the country. [1055 words, ENI-00-0136]

For many Russian Christians, bar codes signal coming of the Antichrist

Moscow: A plan by the Russian government to give every citizen a tax identification number has alarmed many Orthodox Christians who fear that the numbers, along with bar codes, are hostile to the Christian faith. Discussions about the possible introduction of social security cards with bar codes have added to the growing concern here. All bar codes developed according to the international UPS standard include three pairs of parallel lines which critics suggest could represent the number 666. According to the Book of Revelation in the New Testament, 666 is the "number of the beast" (Revelation 13:18). The "beast" is also widely seen as the "Antichrist", whose coming is predicted in the New Testament, along with a series of disasters and the death of Christian believers. [774 words, ENI-00-0137]

Pakistan's Christians 'not shocked' by life sentence for former PM

New Delhi: The sentence of life imprisonment given to Pakistan's deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif by a special court last week has prompted mixed reactions from Pakistan's church leaders, with many local Christians declaring that life has improved under the nation's unelected military leader, General Pervez Musharraf. [767 words, ENI-00-0138]

07 April 2000

---

Evangelisation debate divides Sri Lanka's churches

Colombo: Sri Lanka's mainline churches are concerned that the actions of some evangelical groups are upsetting the good relations between churches and also with the island's majority Buddhist population. [645 words, ENI-00-0135]

05 April 2000

---

Dorothy Day, American radical, could become a Catholic saint

New York: The Vatican has formally begun the process of considering Dorothy Day, the well-known American Catholic radical, activist and journalist, for sainthood - a cause Day herself discouraged. Cardinal John O'Connor, of New York, a prelate of conservative views, has personally recommended that Dorothy Day be canonised. [914 words, ENI-00-0131]

Official vows to make WARC more 'relevant' to its 75 million
Christians

Geneva: Dr Setri Nyomi, a pastoral theologian from Ghana who has just taken up the post of general secretary of the Geneva-based World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC), has promised to make the organisation more relevant to the daily concerns of the 75 millions Christians who belong to WARC's 215 member churches in 106 countries. Dr Nyomi, aged 45 and until recently a senior executive with Africa's main ecumenical organisation, the All Africa Conference of Churches, praised WARC's long-standing commitment to social issues and human rights, but suggested that often the effects of this commitment did not go far beyond the meetings of WARC's governing bodies and staff. Such principles should not be confined to resolutions "filed away after church meetings", but must reach "the grass roots", the people within WARC's churches. [764 words, ENI-00-0132]

04 April 2000

---

Catholic theologian calls for major rethink on issue of 'Uniatism'

Warsaw: A Roman Catholic member of the Catholic-Orthodox International Commission, the highest-ranking body linking two of the oldest Christian traditions, has urged Uniate (Greek Catholic) Christians to begin a "sincere dialogue" with Orthodoxy. Professor Waclaw Hryniewicz, of the Catholic University of Lublin, Poland, made the call at a critical moment in relations between Orthodox and Catholics. In June, the commission is due to reconvene and will have to deal with a number of obstacles to closer relationships between the two sides. [1148 words, ENI-00-0129]

Scottish Congregationalists join UK's United Reformed Church

London: The small Congregational Union of Scotland (CUS), which has 7000 members and 30 full-time clergy, has demonstrated its commitment to ecumenism by merging with Britain's 95 000-member United Reformed Church, most of whose congregations are in England and Wales. The union was inaugurated on 1 April with a ceremony in Glasgow. The churches have common roots in Congregationalism and Presbyterianism. The combined church will be called the United Reformed Church. [936 words, ENI-00-0130]

Indonesia's traditional values are key to harmony, says WCC official

Geneva: Indonesia must find a way of restoring the values of cooperation and tolerance - enshrined in the traditional Indonesian beliefs of pancasila - to help end violent conflict between Christians and Muslims in the world's fourth most populous nation, according to the general secretary of the World Council of Churches. Dr Konrad Raiser, a German Protestant theologian, was speaking to ENI after a visit to Indonesia (17 to 25 March). [896 words, ENI-00-0128]

Consult the rest of the news from 2000:

January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December

Top of Page

Go to ENI Home Page

---

Ecumenical News International, PO Box 2100
CH - 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland
Tel: +41-22 791 6111     Fax: +41-22 788 7244   
Email: eni@eni.ch