Jos (ENI). Soldiers were called upon to quell skirmishes yesterday in this central Nigerian city where ethno-religious conflict already claimed hundreds of lives earlier this month. Burnt-down houses and churches, and torched cars still line the streets here after this month's clashes between Muslims and Christians, but final fatality figures have not yet been confirmed. "Reports reaching me have indicated that about 300 lives have been lost," Joshua Dariye, governor of the state of Plateau told ENI. Property and even human beings were randomly set on fire, and shops looted during the violence, which lasted from 7 to 17 September. The number of dead brought in to three major city hospitals suggested that government casualty figures would have to be adjusted upwards, perhaps by hundreds. [681 words, ENI-01-0334]

Churches call on EU to lead the way in 'environmental conversion'

Warsaw (ENI). An ambitious European Union (EU) strategy for sustainable development could be weakened unless it is matched by concrete proposals, two of Europe's leading church organisations have warned. The strategy, intended to help combat global warming and promote long-term improvements in transport, public health and natural resources, was adopted at an EU summit in June. The adoption of the strategy was a "ground-breaking event" that would help promote policies that "reconcile the need for economic growth with social and environmental justice," according to the Conference of European Churches (CEC) and the Commission of the (Roman Catholic) Bishops' Conferences of the European Community (COMECE). [602 words, ENI-01-0333]

27 September 2001

Rome (ENI). The official refusal by the Vatican this month to the ordaining of women as deacons in the Roman Catholic Church has prompted strong protests by groups campaigning for equality between men and women in the church. The Vatican ruling came in an official "notification" published on 17 September by three senior cardinals - Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Jorge Arturo Medina Estevez, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, and Dario Castrillon Hoyos, prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy. The statement said that the notification had been approved by the Pope three days earlier. Elfriede Harth, spokesperson of the international movement "We are Church", which is campaigning for radical changes in the Catholic Church, said: "For how much longer will the Roman Catholic Church allow some of its sons to have the audacity to deny to women in the church, because of their sex, the dignity and comfort provided by a sacrament [ordination]?" [533 words, ENI-01-0332]

26 September 2001

25 September 2001

Fribourg (ENI). The 19th World Congress of the International Catholic Union of the Press (known by its French acronym, UCIP) has approved a new set of statutes that provide for admitting non-Catholics to the organisation. But a senior Vatican representative has warned against the move, stating that UCIP should maintain its "Catholic identity". UCIP, which is officially recognised by the Vatican, is a leading organisation for Catholic journalists and media workers. [575 words, ENI-01-0330]

24 September 2001

New York/London/Amsterdam (ENI). In spite of efforts by church leaders and public officials in many countries to head off potential anti-Muslim sentiment in the wake of the 11 September terrorist attacks in the United States, tension has been on the increase in several places around the world. In the United States, members of the US Muslim community have praised national and city officials for issuing strong words against intolerance aimed at Muslims and Arab Americans, but continue to be worried about new outbreaks of violence. In Britain, incidents of harassment and abuse of Muslims, and damage to mosques, have also been reported, but the country has so far been spared large-scale anti-Muslim protests. [1105 words, ENI-01-0329]

21 September 2001

Vancouver (ENI). The release of the results of a controversial poll commissioned by the federal government has angered Canadian church leaders who say it threatens talks underway to resolve charges of abuse at residential schools for indigenous peoples. Anglican, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic and United Churches are facing about 7000 lawsuits with claims of over C$1 billion (US$700 million) brought by aboriginal people who allege to have been abused sexually, physically or culturally at residential schools operated by the churches on behalf of the federal government from 1820 to 1969. [801 words, ENI-01-0328]

20 September 2001

London (ENI). The development agency Christian Aid has warned that at least 3.5 million people face starvation in Afghanistan, with only two weeks of food relief left in the country. Estimates are being revised daily as thousands of refugees rush to the borders amid fears of bombing raids by the United States and allies following the 11 September terrorist attacks in the US. Chris Buckley, Christian Aid's programme officer for Afghanistan, told ENI that the famine had originated in a three-year drought in the north and west of the country. The United Nations had estimated, before the present political crisis, that 5.5 million people - about a quarter of the Afghan population - would be dependent on food aid by December. [750 words, ENI-01-0327]

Catholic dioceses in The Netherlands face 'radical' restructuring

Amsterdam (ENI). In what has been described as a "radical change of course", the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Utrecht, in The Netherlands, is planning to abandon the church's traditional parish structure and replace it with pastoral teams serving groups of parishes. In a brochure sent to the governing bodies of its deaneries and parishes, the archdiocese said that the traditional parish was no longer sufficient to address the "needs and questions of modern believers". Like the other dioceses in the country, the archdiocese is facing falling numbers of clergy and lay members. [445 words, ENI-01-0326]

19 September 2001

New Delhi (ENI). While the Orissa state government has been accused of "insensitivity and callousness" in responding to the starvation deaths of dozens in this eastern Indian state, church charities have stepped in to help the villages most affected. More than two dozen people have reportedly starved to death since August in the Kashipur region of Orissa alone. Tribal people in the region have taken to eating a stew of mango kernels in a desperate bid to survive. Similar stories have also been reported from villages in the Gajapati district of the state. Weaker-sections Integral Development Agency (WIDA), a charity of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church of India, has already distributed a two-week supply of foodstuffs - including wheat, rice and other staples - to 160 families in the most affected villages of Kashipur. But more is needed, say WIDA and other aid organisations. [664 words, ENI-01-0325]

18 September 2001

Warsaw (ENI). Western Europe's major cities are witnessing a "spiritual revival", defying assumptions about religious decline in modern society, according to a recent study. More residents of major European cities say that they are religious and that they believe in God than did 10 years ago, said Father Paul Zulehner, a Vienna-based researcher and priest, who has compared religious trends in cities of over a million inhabitants. [795 words, ENI-01-0324]

17 September 2001

Oxford (ENI). A Protestant laywoman from eastern Germany is undertaking a 2000 kilometre pilgrimage to Rome on foot carrying an appeal to Pope John Paul II to allow inter-communion between Protestants and Roman Catholics. Arnhild Ratsch, aged 47, from Tegwitz, in Thuringia, began her pilgrimage on 29 July in Eisenach. She hopes to arrive in Rome in mid-November and to hand her 400-word appeal to the Pope at a private audience. [674 words, ENI-01-0322]

With grief and anger, the US mourns its losses

New York (ENI). Nearly a week after unprecedented terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington DC, the United States mourned its losses in an outpouring of public grief and remembrance. At least 2000 people, including New York's mayor, Rudolph Giuliani, and the secretary general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, last night packed St Patrick's Cathedral in New York, for a Mass to remember all those who were killed on 11 September. Hundreds more, unable to get into the cathedral, gathered outside listening to the service over loudspeakers. [981 words, ENI-01-0323]

14 September 2001

Bielefeld (ENI). Following a long period with few employment opportunities for theology graduates, future German theology students will be able to find jobs in churches after their studies. Over the past decade enrolment in theology studies has dwindled as Protestant churches were unable to absorb all the graduates coming out of the nation's theology faculties. But tomorrow's graduates will find more openings in churches, university administrators say. [455 words, ENI-01-0321]

13 September 2001

New York (ENI). Although already responding to the 11 September terrorist attacks in New York and Washington DC, US faith communities have had to cope - as has the rest of the nation - with communication breakdowns and other problems. With US air travel grounded, mail delivery halted and phone lines into New York City and elsewhere hard to access, church-related relief agencies have had to rely on the Internet for much of their communication. "At the moment communications are next to impossible with our congregations, synods, districts, social ministry organisations," said Gil Furst, director for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Domestic Disaster Response Program. ELCA congregations throughout the US would be open for shelter and prayer, Furst said. [518 words, ENI-01-0320]

12 September 2001

Geneva (ENI). While US officials started a hunt for the culprits of yesterday's brutal attacks in New York and Washington, leaders of churches in the United States appealed to their members and to national leaders to show restraint and wisdom in the days ahead. "We all will be tempted to surrender to our rage, to seek vengeance and to be consumed by bitterness," said the leader of the United Church of Christ (UCC), asking church members nonetheless to "resist the impulse to respond to violence with violence". [838 words, ENI-01-0319]

11 September 2001

Guatemala City (ENI). Friends and co-workers of a slain American nun are putting pressure on officials here to keep the investigation of her murder alive. When Barbara Ann Ford, a 62-year-old member of the Sisters of Charity order, was gunned down on 5 May, her friends decided they were not going to let the killers get away with it. "We're pursuing the case so that Guatemalans can know they don't have to continue living with impunity and injustice," said Sister Virginia Searing, a nun from the same order as Sister Barbara, who has asked the Guatemalan courts to let her participate officially in the investigation into her fellow nun's killing. [928 words, ENI-01-0317]

Church leaders call for 'courage and wisdom' after attacks on US

Geneva (ENI). As people in the United States and throughout the world try to take in the scale of the carnage and destruction caused by today's attacks in New York and Washington DC, church leaders world-wide have spoken of their shock and horror and called for prayers for the victims and their families. "We join all in our nation and world in shock and anger at today's horrific chain of attacks on sites that are national symbols, claiming yet-unaccounted for innocent lives," the leaders of two of the main US ecumenical agencies said in a joint statement issued in New York. [887 words, ENI-01-0318]

10 September 2001

Durban (ENI). Following frantic through-the-night negotiations, the World Conference Against Racism ended here on Saturday, a day later than scheduled, having agreed a form of words on Israel and on slavery, the most contentious issues before the gathering. According to the deal, hammered out in negotiations between the European Union and the Arab-African bloc, slavery and slave trading were declared crimes against humanity while direct criticism of Israel as a racist state was dropped in the final declaration. The EU was not willing to brand racism or past, trans-Atlantic slave trading as crimes against humanity for fear that this would unleash court cases against countries such as Britain and the United States. [638 words, ENI-01-0316]

7 September 2001

London (ENI). The Archbishop of Canterbury's duties need to be restructured so that he can concentrate on his role as leader of the 70 million-strong world-wide Anglican Communion, a report has argued. In addition to his international role, the Archbishop, Dr George Carey, is spiritual head of the Church of England and the diocesan bishop of the See of Canterbury. The report says this creates a heavy burden where the Archbishop is always "on show". [773 words, ENI-01-0314]

Vatican coins featuring Pope to be legal tender in Europe

Rome (ENI). The Vatican will produce its own euro coins with the image of Pope John Paul II when the new currency starts circulating next year. Although not part of the European Union, the Vatican City State obtained authorisation to adopt the euro through a convention with Italy, signed in Rome at the end of last year. Banknotes will be identical throughout the euro zone. Coins, however, will have a common design on one face, while the other face will feature a design unique to each country. [460 words, ENI-01-0315]

6 September 2001

Rome (ENI). Three months after their marriage caused consternation in the Roman Catholic Church, Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo and Maria Sung, a Korean doctor, put a definitive end to a story that had been in the headlines of European and American newspapers for weeks. Milingo and Sung were among 60 couples married in New York on 27 May, in a televised, collective ceremony celebrated by Sun Myung Moon, head of the Unification Church. The marriage caused embarrassment to the Vatican, which threatened to take disciplinary measures if the archbishop refused to repent. [740 words, ENI-01-0313]

5 September 2001

Harare (ENI). The Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC) believes itself to be the target of a smear campaign after its publication last week of a pastoral letter strongly critical of state-sanctioned violence in the country. A report in the government-controlled Sunday Mail on 2 September said that the ZCC - Zimbabwe's biggest Christian organisation - had received US$150 000 from the International Republican Institution (IRI), a foundation in the United States. [790 words, ENI-01-0311]

Citing language on Israel, US pulls out of racism talks

Durban (ENI). The United States' decision to walk out of the world conference on racism - ostensibly over attempts to single out Israel as a racist state - was roundly condemned on Tuesday by delegates and organisers in Durban. The decision on Monday night to scale down the US delegation to the weeklong 163-nation conference in South Africa immediately met with claims that the US had used the Middle East issue to avert attention from the subject of reparations for the transatlantic slave trade. Meanwhile, a document drawn up by a forum of non-governmental organisations as a contribution to the conference's final declaration, caused sharp reaction in many circles. [459 words, ENI-01-0312]

4 September 2001

New Delhi (ENI). Churches in India have hailed legal changes passed last week by the country's parliament making divorce laws for Christians "equitable to women". An amendment to the Indian Divorce Act of 1869 approved by the lower house of India's Parliament on 30 August gives Christian women divorce rights equal to those of Christian men, churches say. Under the act, which dates from British colonial rule, a civil court could award a divorce to a Christian husband on the grounds of adultery, desertion, change of religion or cruelty on the part of his wife. However, a Christian woman had to prove several of these factors together - making it virtually impossible for her to get a divorce. [692 words, ENI-01-0309]

Child prostitution in Thailand is 'racism', pastor tells UN conference

Durban (ENI). Children lured into Thailand's sex tourism trade are mostly drawn from the country's indigenous minorities, a pastor has told the United Nations world conference on racism, taking place in South Africa. A five-minute video of the children, brought to Durban by the Rev Sirirat Pusurinkham, has shocked hundreds of delegates to the conference, which has otherwise been dominated by high-level political wrangling over Zionism and about reparations for the transatlantic slave trade. [553 words, ENI-01-0310]

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