Amsterdam (ENI). Religious and political controversies have continued to dog plans for the wedding of the Dutch crown prince and his Argentinian fiancée, set to take place here on 2 February. Two issues cast a shadow over the preparations of Prince Willem-Alexander and Maxima Zorreguieta, even before their engagement was officially announced last March. The first is that, while the future monarch is a member of the Netherlands Reformed Church (NHK), his fiancée is Roman Catholic. The second is that the bride-to-be is the daughter of a leading official in Argentina's military junta of the 1970s. [822 words, ENI-02-0029]

30 January 2002

New Delhi (ENI). Churches in the southern state of Kerala have taken the lead in a secular campaign to demand government curbs on the sale of alcohol. A month-long anti-liquor protest march is making its way across 640 kilometres of Kerala - the state said to have the highest liquor consumption rate in India. The march is organised by the Anti-Liquor Front (ALF), a secular organisation that counts a number of Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant churches among its members. Under the banner "temperance and prohibition", the march started on 6 January on the northern border of the state and will conclude with a rally at the state capital, Thiruvananthapuram, on 9 February. [617 words, ENI-02-0028]

29 January 2002

New York (ENI). Methodist clergy and missionary lay pastors in Cuba are taking to the streets of their country on two wheels thanks to a new fleet of more than 400 bicycles. In a country where car ownership is relatively rare and bicycles are a major form of transport, the clergy are now able to expand their evangelistic reach. The creation of the Methodist "bike brigade" comes at a time of increased interest in religion in Cuba. [402 words, ENI-02-0027]

28 January 2002

Berne (ENI). Leaders of ecumenical organisations and churches are among tens of thousands of people expected to gather this week in Brazil for a global forum against corporate-driven globalisation. Called the World Social Forum, the gathering - from 31 January to 5 February in Porto Alegre - is timed to coincide with the World Economic Forum, a three-decade-old annual meeting of world business and government leaders. The World Social Forum was launched last year to provide an alternative point of view to the older forum. Meeting on the theme "Another World Is Possible", participants at the Brazilian gathering intend to debate political and economic alternatives to globalisation. [364 words, ENI-02-0026]

25 January 2002

New York (ENI). Nine US churches have formally launched a new venture that they hope will lead to greater Christian unity on a number of issues, particularly the cause of fighting racism in the United States. Churches Uniting in Christ (CUIC) was inaugurated at four days of services and meetings from 18 to 21 January in Memphis, Tennessee. Memphis is the city where the late US civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated in 1968, and the meeting concluded on the day that the United States formally honours King with a national holiday. [871 words, ENI-02-0023]

Leaders of three faiths join in condemnation of Holy Land violence

Jerusalem (ENI). Christian, Jewish and Muslim religious leaders this week jointly condemned violence in the Holy Land as a "desecration" of God's name. The leaders issued a proclamation of their rebuke at the end of a conference in the Egyptian port city of Alexandria convened by the archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey. [630 words, ENI-02-0024]

World's religions gather at Assisi to reject violence and call for peace

Assisi (ENI). Leaders of a dozen great world religions came together yesterday in this city where St Francis was born eight centuries ago to pray for peace and to commit themselves to work for global reconciliation. It was the third inter-religious summit hosted by Pope Jean Paul II in Assisi, 200 kilometres north of Rome. Addressing yesterday's gathering, Pope Jean Paul II recalled the tragedy of the terrorist attacks of 11 September in the United States that took thousands of lives. "Humanity is always in need of peace, but now more than ever, following the tragic events which undermined its confidence and in the face of persistent flashpoints of cruel conflict which create anxiety throughout the world," the Pope said. [890 words, ENI-02-0025]

24 January 2002

Amsterdam (ENI). The hours worked by volunteers in the two biggest Protestant denominations in The Netherlands are equivalent to having an extra 11 full-time clergy per congregation, according to the findings of a recent survey. The survey of the two denominations found that, on average, 114 volunteers were active in each congregation, spending an average of four hours per week on voluntary activities such as producing church newsletters, participating in youth and children's work and serving as church elders. [487 words, ENI-02-0022]

23 January 2002

London (ENI). An ambitious scheme for church union in Scotland is under threat because of grass-roots opposition within the (Presbyterian) Church of Scotland, the largest partner in the process. The church's general assembly will decide in May whether it can continue with the Scottish Church Initiative for Union (SCIFU) after consultations revealed that a large number of congregations failed to support it, according to a report leaked to the news media. At the root of the difficulties are concerns about the authority of bishops and the role of elders in a united church, echoing 400-year-old Christian divisions. [598 words, ENI-02-0021]

Australian church's crisis over sexual assault deepens

Sydney (ENI). The Australian Anglican church's crisis over sexual assault allegations has broadened beyond the state of Queensland with the conviction last Friday of a former Anglican priest with a criminal record for paedophilia dating back more than 40 years. Robert Ellmore, 64, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for abusing three girls, one as young as eight. He worked mainly in the New South Wales Diocese of Bathurst. He became a priest in 1976. His criminal record for sex offences dated from the 1950s but there is no evidence to suggest his diocese knew of his offences before he became a priest. [651 words, ENI-02-0020]

22 January 2002

Istra, Russia (ENI). Snow covered the banks of a river near Moscow where several hundred people led by Orthodox priests slid along an icy path on 19 January to cleanse their souls and bodies with the river water. A small choir singing in Church Slavonic was barely audible to onlookers striving to get a glimpse of the activity at the river's edge. A priest dipped a heavy liturgical cross hanging on a rope into the water, making the sign of the cross three times. Minutes later, sweaters and sheepskin coats were dropped on the snow, and the bravest of the pilgrims, hurriedly crossing themselves, plunged into the icy river. [926 words, ENI-0019]

21 January 2002

New Delhi (ENI). Church leaders in Pakistan have hailed the scrapping of electoral rules that they say discriminate against Christians and other religious minorities. The Pakistani government announced on 16 January that it was abolishing the Separate Election System (SES). Christians have claimed that this system marginalised them and other religious minorities by allowing them to vote only for candidates of their own faith. The announcement came as part of a package of measures ahead of general elections scheduled for October. [463 words, ENI-02-0017]

Australian governor-general feels heat from handling of abuse cases

Sydney (ENI). Australia's constitutional head of state - a former Anglican archbishop - has come under increasing pressure to resign over his handling of sexual abuse at Anglican schools during his time as archbishop. Governor-General Dr Peter Hollingworth, who acts as Australia's head of state on behalf of the British sovereign, was alleged at a Supreme Court trial last month to have failed to contact the parents of a 12-year-old girl sexually abused by a boarding school master. [959 words, ENI-02-0018]

18 January 2002

Warsaw (ENI). Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, who visited Poland this week, has said his country is "proud of the Pope", and that he expects during his time as head of state to host a visit by Pope John Paul II. However, the remarks by President Putin, made in an interview with a Polish newspaper, were sharply criticised by the head of Russia's Orthodox church. Patriarch Alexei II said he would be unwilling to meet the pontiff until the Roman Catholic Church ceased its "expansion" in former Soviet territories. [734 words, ENI-02-0014]

Church body takes to TV to promote alternatives to Alaska oil drilling

New York (ENI). The National Council of Churches in the USA (NCC) has joined forces with a leading US environmental group to launch an advertising campaign to promote alternatives to controversial plans for oil drilling in an Alaskan wildlife refuge. The first-ever joint television and newspaper advertising campaign by the NCC and the Sierra Club, one of the longest-established environmental bodies in the US, says that oil drilling in "special places" such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska does not provide the answer to meeting the energy needs of the US. [499 words, ENI-02-0015]

'Omissions' found in investigation of threats against slain church activist

Mexico City (ENI). The Mexican government ignored threats against Digna Ochoa, a prominent Catholic human rights lawyer who was gunned down in October last year, according to an official report. In the report, the attorney general's office accused the interior ministry of "unjustified omissions" in its investigation of death threats which Ochoa reported to the police in September 2000. The interior ministry "acted too quickly" in shelving Ochoa's complaint and "not complying efficiently with the obligations inherent in its mandate", according to the 13 January report. [583 words, ENI-02-0016]

17 January 2002

Warsaw (ENI). During a historic four-day visit to Iran that ended early this week, the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians called on Muslim and Christian leaders to do their part to relieve world tension. "Dialogue is one of God's greatest gifts to humanity, and religious leaders should play a key role in extinguishing tensions and working for peace," Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomeos I of Constantinople (Istanbul), told a Tehran seminar. The patriarch's trip marked the first visit to Iran by an Orthodox patriarch since the country's 1979 Islamic revolution. [570 words, ENI-02-0013]

16 January 2002

London (ENI). The launch of a special child protection unit by the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales has been overshadowed by continuing debate over the role of the Vatican in sex abuse cases. The creation of the unit, the Catholic Office for the Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults (COPCA), was a key recommendation of a committee set up in Britain to respond to a series of sex abuse scandals involving Roman Catholic priests. The church acknowledges that in recent years an average of four priests a year in Britain have been convicted of sex offences against children. [565 words, ENI-02-0012]

15 January 2002

New Delhi (ENI). Church officials have praised a move by India's federal government to extend the supply of subsidised wheat and rice to the entire 7.3 million population of the poverty-stricken areas of the eastern state of Orissa. "This is a very positive decision," Bishop-elect A. C. Khosla of the Jeypore Evangelical Lutheran Church told ENI on 11 January from the Koraput district of Orissa, where the church's headquarters are based. India's federal food minister, Shanta Kumar, announced last week that 1.4 million families - accounting for 7.3 million people - in the starvation-hit districts of Kalahandi, Bolangir and Koraput would be eligible for food grain subsidised by 30 per cent. [334 words, ENI-02-0010]

New Lutheran bishop promises to speak out for justice in Zimbabwe

Harare (ENI). The new bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zimbabwe has called on Zimbabweans to uphold Christian values in order to achieve peace in this violence-torn southern African nation. Bishop Litsietsi Maqethula Dube, who took over as head of the church at the end of 2001, told ENI he would speak out against any form of injustice. "We cannot compromise on values such as truth, justice and love because those values can bring peace," he said. [636 words, ENI-02-0011]

14 January 2002

Vancouver (ENI).The primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, Archbishop Michael Peers, has cautioned that secularism in Canada is threatening the public expression of religion. In a New Year's sermon at Ottawa's Christ Church Cathedral, Archbishop Peers said that government officials were ridding public ceremonies of religious references for fear of offending someone. He pointed to the national service of mourning held three days after the 11 September attacks in the United States. The ceremony, on the lawn of the parliament buildings, attended by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and other government leaders, avoided any religious reflection, the archbishop said. [611 words, ENI-02-0009]

11 January 2002

Jerusalem (ENI). Muslim groups have warned they will challenge the Israeli government's decision to halt construction of a mosque next to a major Christian holy site in Nazareth. The Israeli security cabinet, apparently responding to pressure from the Vatican and other Christian bodies, announced Wednesday it was stopping the erection of a mosque near the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth. The basilica is built on the site where tradition holds that the Angel Gabriel told the Virgin Mary she would give birth to Jesus. [748 words, ENI-02-0007]

Czech churches protest against a law 'hostile' to religion

Warsaw (ENI). Churches in the Czech Republic are challenging a controversial new law that they claim restricts religious activities, comparing it to controls placed on religion under communist rule. Under the new law, government officials have jurisdiction over the opening of places of worship and the establishment of religious communities. The legislation also requires churches to use income from their activities solely for religious - not civil or social - purposes. Among other things, the law obliges church charities such as the Roman Catholic Caritas to re-register as taxable civic enterprises. [648 words, ENI-02-0008]

10 January 2002

Harare (ENI). A Methodist bishop has made a passionate appeal to Zimbabwe's political parties and the government of President Robert Mugabe to take action to stop the continuing political violence in the country. At a New Year's ceremony on 7 January, attended by judges and senior government officials, Bishop Cephas Mukandi said: "We hear incidents of citizens of this country fighting or killing one another because of political differences ... Battles have never settled a quarrel, neither will they now." Political violence and intimidation have been mounting in Zimbabwe over the past few months in the run-up to the presidential election, scheduled for 9 and 10 March. [453 words, ENI-02-0006]

9 January 2002

New Delhi (ENI). Amid continuing tensions between India and Pakistan, Indian church leaders have warned that "war hysteria" is gripping their country and have called for dialogue to resolve differences between the two states. The current dispute follows the storming last month of the Indian parliament complex. The Indian government claims the attack was carried out by Pakistani-backed militants. While the Indian authorities have failed to rule out military action against Pakistan in their response to the attack, churches in India are urging their government to resolve the issue through dialogue with its neighbour. [674 words, ENI-02-0005]

8 January 2002

London (ENI). The archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, leader of the world's 70 million Anglicans, is to retire three years ahead of the usual retirement age for the post. Dr Carey, who made the widely-expected announcement today, will leave office in October, days before his 67th birthday, after having helped Queen Elizabeth II mark the 50th anniversary of her reign. A senior church official at a press briefing today denied that Dr Carey was retiring early, pointing out that bishops could retire from age 65. "Dr Carey wants to hand on the baton to his successor while he is still full of energy, vitality and commitment and I can assure you that he is," the official said. [1109 words, ENI-02-0004]

Bishops don't live like princes, says Church of England

London (ENI). The Church of England's bishops, seeking to shake off the image of grandees living in palaces, have gone public with their individual costs for the first time. The church hopes to dispel the picture of bishops created by such writers as Anthony Trollope, a 19th-century author still popular in Britain. Trollope wrote about the fictional diocese of Barchester, whose bishop lived in high style. His novels continue to colour some people's perceptions of the Anglican hierarchy. Yet church authorities point out that only about one in four of today's diocesan bishops lives in a palace. Even where the bishop still occupies an historic palace, his living quarters are likely to be a small flat within the mansion. [677 words, ENI-02-0003]

7 January 2002

New York (ENI). Though the United States remains a strongly religious nation, the percentage of Americans saying they have no formal religious identity is growing, the authors of a recent survey have concluded. A national survey of US religious affiliation suggests the existence of a "wide and possibly growing swath of secularism" in the US population. The American Religious Identification Survey 2001, released by the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY), also suggests that the proportion of Christians in the US has dropped - from 86 per cent in 1990, when the study was first conducted, to 77 per cent in 2001. [765 words, ENI-02-0002]

3 January 2002

Warsaw (ENI). The new Orthodox leader of Poland's Ecumenical Council has pledged to improve ties with the predominant Roman Catholic Church in this country where inter-church relations have often been tense. Minority churches still suffered from the "ignorance and bad will" of many lay people, and were the object of "un-Christian statements" by some Roman Catholic priests, said Orthodox Archbishop Jeremiasz (Anchimiuk), the new council leader. But co-operation between Orthodox and Roman Catholic leaders was increasing, added the archbishop, who heads Poland's 570 000-member autocephalous (self-governing) Orthodox church. [710 words, ENI-01-0001]

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