Jerusalem (ENI). The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, has made an impassioned plea for Christians to strengthen their presence in the Holy Land, warning that the Christian community here is at risk of becoming a vanishing minority. Dr Carey, the leader of the world-wide Anglican Communion, said he was "shocked and disturbed" at the violence and economic hardships in the region that are driving many Christians to flee the area. [453 words, ENI-01-0268]

Pakistani Christians fight against 'apartheid' in election system

New Delhi (ENI). Christian leaders in Pakistan have gained ground in a campaign against an election system that identifies voters by religion and, they claim, discriminates against religious minorities. The Pakistani Supreme Court recently ruled that Christians may contest the post of village or district council head, a judgement that chips away at the nation's current voting system and in effect supports the notion of more voting rights for religious minorities, Christian activists claimed. [778 words, ENI-01-0269]

Find spiritual strength or risk losing relevance, churches warned

Holland (ENI). A top ecumenical leader has urged churches to recapture a sense of spirituality or risk losing their relevance in the 21st century. "Ecumenical organisations are in trouble spiritually," Dr Choan-Seng Song, president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC), told members of the WARC executive committee meeting here. "We have to take the leadership, not only follow what other people are doing." [649 words, ENI-01-0270]

World's Methodists to be challenged on global economy

Brighton (ENI). A draft document on justice in the global economy is set to divide members of the World Methodist Council (WMC), according to one of its promoters. According to the document, economic activity must promote social justice, encourage democracy and preserve the environment and the integrity of creation. The outgoing chair of the WMC's social and international affairs committee, told ENI: "There will almost certainly be a division in the [WMC] executive committee about this document. There will have to be trade-offs, but I hope that in the end the whole council will own it. The issue is globalisation. Do we accept it, or set ourselves against it?" [392 words, ENI-01-0271]

World's Methodists hope US$20 million fund will secure financial future

Brighton (ENI). A US$20 million endowment fund designed to secure the finances of the World Methodist Council has reached more than a fifth of its target even before its official launch. Council members, meeting in Brighton ahead of the 18th World Methodist Conference from 25 to 31 July, formally endorsed the funding appeal, known as Achieving the Vision. They heard that already $1.47 million had been raised and another $3.1 million secured through pledges, trusts and deferred gifts. [439 words, ENI-01-0272]

30 July 2001

Brighton (ENI). An international task force is to be set up to tackle the vexed question of separate Methodist groups vying with each other through new church plantings. The World Methodist Council (WMC), which brings together 77 independent churches with common roots in the Methodist tradition, heard that as Methodists migrate from one country to another they sometimes establish branches of their own churches without consulting Methodist churches already at work in the area. [430 words, ENI-01-0265]

Churches have poor record in caring for the earth says top scientist

Brighton (ENI). The Christian churches have a poor record of opposing environmental pollution, one of the world's top climate scientists has claimed. Sir John Houghton, co-chairman of the United Nations-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, told a seminar at the World Methodist Conference in Brighton on 27 July: "Christianity has not been prominent in environmental legislation or in trying to care for the earth." However, another scientist at the conference, astrophysicist David Wilkinson of Durham University, in England, took a more upbeat view of the churches' environmental record. [786 words, ENI-01-0266]

Green investment call rejected by World Methodist Council

Brighton (ENI). The World Methodist Council has voted down a proposal to invest only in environmentally-sensitive companies as part of its response to climate change. A key section of a motion brought by the council's social and international affairs committee called for a projected US$20 million endowment fund to invest "in companies that use renewable energy sources or are working towards the development of new and sustainable technologies". After an animated debate on 28 June, the proposal was heavily defeated. [538 words, ENI-01-0267]

13 July 2001

Harare (ENI). Grace Mugabe, Zimbabwe's First Lady, says the church holds the answer to challenges facing the nation, particularly the Aids pandemic ravaging this southern African country. Mrs Mugabe was addressing the annual general meeting of the Zimbabwe Council of Churches on 4 July. [645 words, ENI-01-0260]

Salvation Army, like the Vatican, resists injecting rooms

London (ENI). Vatican opposition to drug injecting rooms where addicts can give themselves fixes hygienically and safely has drawn support from the Salvation Army, a Protestant movement that is heavily involved in the fight against drug abuse. Adrian Bonner, the Army's head of addiction services for Britain and Ireland, described injecting rooms as "a bridge too far". The Vatican has said that injecting rooms would mean "co-operation with grave evil". [531 words, ENI-01-0261]

Hanging not a solution for those who infect others with Aids churches say

Nairobi (ENI). Church leaders have criticised a controversial suggestion by Kenya President Daniel arap Moi that those who "knowingly or deliberately" infect others with the HIV virus be hanged. The president made his remark to reporters on arrival in Nairobi from the United Nations HIV/AIDS summit in New York last month. His statement came after Kenya's attorney general indicated that a bill soon to be brought before the parliament would include harsh treatment for those who deliberately infected others with HIV. [478 words, ENI-01-0262]

Balkan church leaders caution about war crimes extraditions

Warsaw (ENI). Church leaders from the former Yugoslavia have warned that the extradition of alleged war criminals to the international war crimes tribunal in the Hague risks "creating martyrs" and cautioned against using recent cases to suggest all Balkan people are "equally guilty". "We in Croatia must accept guilt for bad things in our people's history, and our church will contribute to this [effort]", said Bishop Vlado Kosic, Roman Catholic co-chairman of Croatia's Ecumenical Co-ordinating Committee of Churches. [1009 words, ENI-01-0263]

Dutch Protestants edge closer to blessing same-sex partnerships

Amsterdam (ENI). The largest Protestant church body in the Netherlands has moved a step closer to giving the go-ahead for the blessing of same-sex partnerships. A working group report of the Uniting Protestant Churches in The Netherlands (Samen op Weg-kerken) has recommended that the church allow for the blessing of "alternative relationships". [408 words, ENI-01-0264]

12 July 2001

Waterloo, Ontario (ENI). The Anglican Church of Canada (ACC) has taken steps to deal with a crisis arising from the threat of bankruptcy and the possible demise of the church's highest governing body. Archbishop Michael Peers, the ACC's primate, told delegates to the general synod who met here from 4 to 11 July, "We have come to a moment in history in which we may be facing the winding up of general synod." But, he assured them, "it is the structures that are at risk, not the essence of our [church's] life." [671 words, ENI-01-0258]

The South set to export Gospel to northern hemisphere

Pretoria (ENI). While the northern hemisphere's aid agencies propagate western values in poor nations, African churches are ready to take the Gospel back to the industrialised world from which it came, a conference in South Africa heard last week. Speaking at the third and final conference of the Currents in World Christianity project, Sierra Leonean theologian Jehu Hanciles said that, of all religions, the Christian faith was the most adaptable to local conditions. Far from dying out, he said, it was set to be reinvented and exported to the countries which sent their missionaries to Africa during the colonial era. [599 words, ENI-01-0259]

11 July 2001

Warsaw (ENI). A spokesman for Bulgaria's Orthodox Church has welcomed a decision by the country's exiled King Simeon II to form a government following his party's landslide victory in last month's elections. Orthodox leaders counted on King Simeon, as he is popularly called, to "give life to forgotten values", said Angel Velickov, a spokesman for the Bulgarian Orthodox Church's governing Holy Synod. But Velickov denied that the church favoured restoration of the monarchy. The king was expected to assume the premiership of a new government by 25 July. [906 words, ENI-01-0256]

Bishops protest against moves to legalise euthanasia in Belgium

Amsterdam (ENI). Belgium's Roman Catholic bishops have protested against a bill on euthanasia in the Belgian senate which, if passed, would make Belgium the second country after The Netherlands to legalise mercy killings and assisted suicides. Supporters say that the measure could be ready for adoption by the end of this year. [607 words, ENI-01-0257]

10 July 2001

Harare (ENI). The Zimbabwe government has announced that it will soon bar churches, aid agencies and civic organisations from carrying out voter education campaigns ahead of the presidential election scheduled for spring next year. Jonathan Moyo, Zimbabwe's information minister, said recently that the government would soon outline the policy through the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs. [857 words, ENI-01-0253]

Declaration creates closer ties between Canada's Anglicans and Lutherans

Waterloo, Ontario (ENI). The Anglican Church of Canada (ACC) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) have ratified an agreement that brings the two denominations into full communion, echoing similar ecumenical understandings in other parts of the world. The vote took place in the Ontario city of Waterloo, where simultaneous meetings were being held between the two churches: the triennial general synod of the Anglican Church of Canada, from 4 to 11 July, and the biennial convention of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, from 4 to 8 July. [720 words, ENI-01 0254]

Church media workers challenged to use Internet for social change

Noordwijkerhout The Netherlands (ENI). Although most of the world has never even heard of the Internet, new information technologies offer the world's poor a unique opportunity to make their voices heard. New technologies "have a tremendous potential to reshape media power relations, taking a large measure of power out of the hands of government censors and the hands of commercial gatekeepers - who are censors by another name - and giving it back to the [information] producers," said Anuradha Vittachi, director of One World International, a London-based foundation supporting democratic media development. [798 words, ENI-01-0255]

ENI is seeking a senior journalist for the post of News Editor. For further details and an application form consult http://www.eni.ch/employment/

9 July 2001

New York, 9 July (ENI). Former US President Jimmy Carter, a prominent Baptist who publicly broke ranks last year with the increasingly conservative Southern Baptist Convention, is calling on fellow moderate Baptists in the United States and Europe to form a new alliance. Speaking during the annual gathering of one of the most prominent moderate Baptist groups, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF), Carter said it was time that the CBF and a number of other groups form a loose coalition and cooperate on education and mission projects. [677 words, ENI-01-1251]

Communicators promise to work for reconciliation

Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands, 9 July (ENI). Media professionals working for the world's churches ended a four-day conference here with a call for communicators to be "voices of reconciliation" throughout a violence-torn world. "Responsible communication promotes understanding within and between faiths and cultures, supports local traditions of peace-making, explores creative uses of new technologies, and seeks dialogue between faith and science," read part of a final declaration adopted by more than 250 church-related media workers gathered at the third congress of the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC). The conference ended 7 July. [667 words, ENI-01-0250]

Canadian Lutheran church elects a new leader

Waterloo, Ontario, 9 July (ENI). The grandson of German immigrants who fled to Canada from Russia in 1906 has been elected national bishop of the 200 000-member Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC). The Rev. Raymond Schultz, 59, bishop of the ELCIC's British Columbia Synod was elected to a four year term at the 8th biennial convention of the church held in Waterloo in the province of Ontario, from 4 to 8 July 2001. [358 words, ENI-01-0252]

6 July 2001

Jos, Nigeria, 6 July (ENI). A leading association of Nigerian Christians is calling for the country's constitution to be strengthened to reinforce religious liberty in Nigeria. Saidu Dogo, the secretary general of the northern Nigeria chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), made the call at a public meeting in Kaduna on 30 June organised by a presidential committee reviewing the constitution. Thirteen states in the country have adopted and are implementing Sharia, the Islamic legal code, in their respective states, leading to religious clashes, reportedly killing hundreds of people. [741 words, ENI-01-0248]

Rwandan official praises churches' role in reconciliation

Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands, 6 July (ENI). Rwanda's churches played a significant role in that country's 1994 genocide, yet they are today helping to build reconciliation at the grass-roots level, according to the Rwandan government official overseeing the African country's long journey towards peace. "No one can talk about reconciliation in Rwanda unless the churches join in the discussion," Aloisea Inyumba, the executive secretary of the National Commission for Unity and Reconciliation in Rwanda, told ENI in an interview here, during a congress of the World Association for Christian Communication. [849, ENI-01-0249]

5 July 2001

New Delhi (ENI). Special prayers are being said in churches in both India and Pakistan as the leaders of the two nations prepare to meet at a crucial summit in India later this month. In India, V. S. Lal, vice president of the National Council of Churches in India (NCCI), welcomed "the gesture from both leaders [to move away] from the path of hatred", describing the summit as "a most exciting development". In neighbouring Pakistan, the moderator of the Church of Pakistan, Bishop Samuel Azariah, told ENI that there was much "hope and optimism" in his country that the summit would "bear good results for relations between both the countries". [650 words, ENI-01-0246]

Church communicators urged to support reconciliation

Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands (ENI). A Dutch government minister has warned church journalists from around the world that their work is not "a miracle cure" for a world plagued by poverty and violence. "Lack of communication can indeed breed misunderstanding and exclusion," acknowledged Eveline Herfkens, minister of development of The Netherlands, speaking before the third congress of the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC). Yet, she added, better communication was not "a kind of miracle cure that automatically leads from confrontation to reconciliation." [628 words, ENI-01-0247]

4 July 2001

Harare (ENI). Thousands of workers in Zimbabwe heeded a call for a mass work boycott yesterday and today after the government ignored calls by the biggest labour union, churches and human rights groups to reduce sharp rises in fuel prices last month. Most factories, banks and shops in this southern African nation were closed for the second day today in response to a work "stay-away" call by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, the nation's main labour union. [622 words, ENI-01-0245]

Swap 'pagan feast' for Christian Women's Day, says Orthodox theologian

Warsaw (ENI). A Romanian Orthodox theologian has called on churches to set up a Christian alternative to International Women's Day as a way of "reaffirming the dignity of women" against what he believes is a "pagan feast". Professor Gheorghe Precupescu, a lay theologian, wants to see the creation of a Christian Women's Day to "pay homage to Christian women and enable them to come together in defending and practising an active Christian life". [473 words, ENI-01-0244]

3 July 2001

3 July (ENI)--With twin signing ceremonies in Canterbury and Paris, an historic accord has come into force between France's main Protestant churches and the Anglican churches of Britain and Ireland. The Reuilly Common Statement commits the churches to sharing "a common life and mission" while taking further steps towards "full visible unity". The Reuilly accord was signed on 1 July in the Saint-Esprit church, Paris, following the counterpart ceremony on 16 June in Canterbury Cathedral. [731 words, ENI-01-0243]

2 July 2001

2 July (ENI)--Pope John Paul's recent visit to Ukraine, his fourth to a predominantly Orthodox country, has brought a warning from a senior Russian Orthodox Church official that Orthodox-Roman Catholic ties are now in a "dead-end situation". The visit by Pope John Paul II to Ukraine from 23 to 27 June at the invitation of the country's president, Leonid Kuchma, and Catholic leaders, was marked by a simmering controversy between Ukraine's biggest Orthodox church and the Vatican about the role of the Catholic Church in traditionally Orthodox lands. [1034 words, ENI-01-0242]

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