Iraqi Anglicans Feared Dead

The entire lay leadership of a lone Anglican church in Iraq was missing and feared dead at this writing, after being attacked on a dangerous road west of Baghdad.

The five Iraqis were last heard from on September 13 when they reported being attacked while traveling between Ramadi and Fallujah.

U.S. forces searched for the leaders, but found no sign of them. The possibility of kidnapping was discounted because there had been no ransom demand.

The Anglicans were returning from a trip to Jordan for a pastors' conference when they disappeared.

"This is a great blow to us and an immense sadness," said the Most Rev. Clive Handford, president bishop of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East. He said he thought it

unlikely that the five were specifically targeted.

"They had just entered some of the most dangerous country in Iraq, where there are an enormous number of robberies. People will steal cars, money, anything of value, and sometimes people get killed," he said.

The presumed dead leave a big gap at St. George's Anglican Church in Baghdad. They are Maher Dakel, the lay pastor of St George's; his wife, Mona; their son, Yeheya, who oversaw the

church's music ministry; Firas Raad, a deputy lay pastor; and their Iraqi driver.

The Anglican parish offers worship services and humanitarian assistance to a flock of 800 Christians from various denominations. With help from the British Embassy and the diocese, St. George's, which had been thoroughly looted, was restored in 2003. Desperately poor Christians and Muslims from the neighborhood flooded in, especially beginning last year, when Western missionaries started fleeing the country. The lay leaders were the main people conducting Sunday services for this throng.

"None of these people are Anglicans by tradition," said Canon Andrew White, a London-based priest who oversees St. George's and an Anglican chapel in Baghdad's green zone. "They come because St. George's is the nearest and safest church. There's fear all the time; no one goes on the streets anymore."

Canon White planned to return to the green zone in October to appoint new lay leaders for the church.

Sources: BBC, The Washington Times

African Consecration Of English

Bishop-Elect Uncertain

An African diocese had started preparations at this writing for the consecration of an English priest, even though Central African Archbishop Bernard Malango postponed the rite after concerns were raised about the candidate's orthodoxy and morality.

The Rev. Nicholas Henderson--a London cleric who had helped raise some 250,000 pounds for Anglicans in Malawi over some 20 years--was elected bishop of the Diocese of Lake Malawi on July 29. However, his selection was followed by local protests and procedural challenges by those who were aware or became aware of Henderson's chairmanship of the Modern Churchpeople's Union, which advances liberal theology in the Anglican Church.

In late August, Archbishop Malango, a conservative who helped produce the Windsor Report, asked Henderson, presently the vicar of the west London parishes of St. Martin's Acton West and

All Saints' Ealing Common, to subscribe to the Creeds and Articles of Religion and to affirm that he "fashions his own life and...his household according to the doctrine of Christ." Because of reports of Henderson's "advocacy of the gay and lesbian movement," Malango wrote to ask if the cleric could assure him that "your conduct conforms to the historic teaching of the church" on human sexuality and that "you are not in, nor have you been in, a sexual relationship outside marriage."

Archbishop Malango further asked Fr. Henderson to dispel suggestions that he held heterodox theological views. In a column the priest wrote in 2002 for The Times of London, Henderson

questioned the fairness of "the current contentious doctrine of the virgin birth," which he said "has been made a litmus test by traditionalists."

In an interview August 15, Fr. Henderson said he enjoyed Archbishop Malango's full confidence and declined to respond to questions concerning his private life.

The Bishop of Willesden, Pete Broadbent, who condemned the public airing of Malango's questions to Henderson, said: "Nick has answered all those satisfactorily--his belief in the

authority and sufficiency of scripture, the Creeds and the Articles, his assent to the Lambeth resolution, his capacity to work with the Windsor Report framework.

"He has given assurance on all these matters, and that his lifestyle is consonant with his life as a priest. It's now up to Archbishop Malango to decide whether he thinks those answers are

satisfactory."

Sources included The Church of England Newspaper , Christianity Today, The National Online, Church Times

C Of E Synod Election Results

Variously Interpreted

Depending on who is talking, the recent elections for the English General Synod's next five year term have either left the body in liberal ascent, more conservative, or not greatly changed in terms of partisan percentages.

There were some high profile gains as well as losses for Church of England Evangelicals, possibly resulting in a net increase or roughly maintaining the status quo. Preb. David Houlding, chairman of the Catholic Group in Synod, said that group had retained its percentage share in the new body, and there would be collaboration with Evangelicals.

The Church of England Newspaper (CEN) wrote in part that: "Evangelical scholar Oliver O'Donovan defeated the leading liberal theologian Marilyn McCord Adams in the defining contest

of the General Synod elections. Despite a campaign by the liberal grouping, Inclusive Church, to gain seats on Synod, the next quinquennium is likely to be mainly conservative, at least in the

House of Laity on moral issues. It is likely that legislation to ordain women as bishops will gain the necessary two-thirds majority in each house, but only a minority will support a single clause measure, which would deprive traditionalists of any protection for their consciences."

Speaking for the liberal group Inclusive Church, the Rev. Giles Goddard described the results as mixed, and believed that the election process had produced a fair result across the country, and one that reflected the C of E as a whole.

"We had quite a lot of people elected using the Inclusive Church name. It's hard to know how effective our campaign was, but certainly many people were supporting the values that we

support," he said. He observed that clergy had seemed to be broadly more "inclusive" than the laity, which probably reflected the reality. And CEN concludes later in its write-up that: "The

profile of the new Synod in terms of churchmanship and attitudes is unlikely to have changed greatly." The main difference, it noted, is that the Synod has been downsized, with 52 fewer lay

members. "While the House of Clergy has only been reduced by one, the special constituency of Archdeacons has been completely abolished, while other special constituencies have been reduced."

Sources: The Church of England Newspaper, Church Times

It Won't Be Long, Now

Not that conservatives place any hope in it, but the process of selecting a successor for liberal Episcopal Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold is well underway. The Joint Nominating Committee for the Election of the Presiding Bishop met June 17 in Chicago to narrow the list of potential new leaders, and was to start conducting interviews in September with a confidential number of candidates.

The committee hopes to complete its work sometime in March, at which time a list of three to five names will be submitted to the House of Bishops, according to the Rev. Canon Mark Harris of Delaware, who has been designated to prepare press releases on behalf of the committee.

After the House of Bishops receives the list of nominees, there will be an interval during which bishops and elected members of the House of Deputies will be able to submit the names of

candidates by petition. That interval will conclude prior to the start of convention in order to allow sufficient time to conduct background checks on nominees successfully added by petition, Canon Harris said.

The House of Bishops is to select the new presiding bishop in Columbus, Ohio, on June 18, 2006, during the 75th General Convention. Its selection must then be confirmed by the House of Deputies, which is comprised of up to four clergy and four laypersons from each of the 110 dioceses in the denomination.

Source: The Living Church

Newark Settles Claim Of

Gay-On-Straight Harassment

In a strange case, the liberal Episcopal Diocese of Newark has agreed to pay $80,000 to settle a suit brought by two women who said they were sexually harassed by a male, openly gay

priest.

The diocese also agreed to update its policy against discrimination and harassment and redistribute it to employees.

The women, Maxine Gooden and Michelle Wilson, were administrative assistants at the diocesan headquarters in Newark. They contended that, when the Rev. Dana Rose would visit, he

would say or imply--in the presence of others--that he had sex with them and would grab or try to caress their breasts, waists or arms.

Among the comments Rose is alleged to have made to or about the women were: "You know I'm your baby's daddy"; "This is my wife, and I'm going to impregnate her and have lots of babies";

and "If I could have you, I would change (from being gay)." The last remark is perhaps the most bizarre, since homosexuals frequently claim they cannot change their orientation.

The women said the diocese did not take corrective action despite their complaints, and claimed they suffered emotional distress.

In the settlement, the diocese did not admit guilt, and in court documents it denied the women's claims that they were harassed.

The two women have left their jobs with the diocese, and the church led by Rose, 51--Trinity, Irvington--closed two months before the lawsuit was filed in March. He remains a diocesan priest but does not work at a church, said John Zinn, the diocese's chief financial officer.

Source: Religion News Service/Christian News

Archbishop Of Canterbury

Takes Media To The Woodshed

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams delivered a verbal drubbing in early summer to all quarters of the media- -print, broadcast, and web-based.

Claiming that the overall effect of most modern journalism is to "disfigure public life," England's chief prelate told a June 16 gathering of church leaders, politicians, and

professional journalists at Lambeth Palace that "humanity, imagination and a real sense of community are what is needed to rescue journalism from its parallel universe."

Interestingly, the accusation that journalists are living in a parallel universe echoes (certainly unintentionally) a critique that has become a constant with talk-radio giants Rush Limbaugh

and Sean Hannity, who often speak of a media "echo chamber" in which reporters end up reporting the same thing from the same perspective, often in the same words, and in which the interviewing of other reporters has become a staple element.

Williams slammed both "high levels of adversarial and suspicious probing" and the habit that many journalists have of assuming that because institutions frequently maintain confidentiality and reticence about their internal processes they necessarily are concealing things that are nefarious.

He also called for a deflation of "the rhetoric about the media as guardians and nurturers of democracy simply by virtue of the constant exposure of `information.'" He went on to say that,

"we need to be cautious about a use of `public interest' language that ignores the complexity and, often, artificiality of our ideas of `the public.'" He suggested that often it is the media itself which defines "the public" and then plays to its own creation, which may have little resemblance to the public as a whole. (This, too, is a phenomenon that has been noted by the

American alternative media.)

Though Williams contended that, "A flourishing, morally credible media is a vital component in `argument about the common good,'" he said that, "such talk is not in rich supply just now." While suggesting that the media bear a sizable share of the blame for this situation, he said it is not theirs alone, since "societies to some extent have the media they deserve and license."

Sources included The Times of London, The Guardian, Church Times, The Church of England Newspaper

Orthodox-Roman Relations Gain;

Orthodox-Anglican Talks Limp

Leaders of the Eastern Orthodox Churches sent word to Pope Benedict XVI in late June that they are prepared to re-enter negotiations with the Vatican aimed at healing the breach between

the two communions that has officially existed for over 950 years.

This follows a break in talks resulting from an acrimonious meeting of the Roman Catholic-Orthodox Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue in 2000 at Emmitsburg,

Maryland.

The new Pope, like his predecessor, has made it clear that his top ecumenical priority is the restoration of unity between the two long-separated communions.

A prominent theologian who represents Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, Metropolitan Ioannis Zizioulas of Pergamon, said that the bilateral talks would concentrate "on

ecclesiological issues concerning, in particular, on the subject of primacy, the Petrine ministry in the church."

Agreement on the role of the Bishop of Rome in worldwide Christianity is seen as the last major hurdle to Roman Catholic-Orthodox intercommunion and may be made less difficult by Pope

Benedict's observation that the renewed talks are unlikely to end in "absorption [or] fusion."

MEANWHILE, DIALOUGE between the Canterbury Communion and the Orthodox Churches appears to remain virtually stalled after a June 2-8 meeting of the two communions' International Theological Dialogue Commission on the island of Cyprus. The group, co-chaired by retired Episcopal Bishop Mark Dyer (who served on the Eames and Lambeth Commissions), worked on joint statements on women's ministries and heresy, schism, and "reception." The aim of the dialogue was described in a welcoming address by Orthodox Bishop Nikiforos of Kykkos as being that "one day, through the power of the Holy Ghost, we may communicate in the common chalice of the bread of life."

It is likely that this day, if it ever arrives, will be long in coming. While there is division among the Orthodox on some practical questions with theological import (such as the recognition of Anglican orders, which most Orthodox jurisdictions do not grant), there is among them--in contrast to the Canterbury Anglicans--no disagreement on primary matters of faith and

practice.

Sources included The Living Church, The Washington Post

Vatican Says Archdiocese

Can't Seize Parish Assets

The Vatican has ruled that the Archdiocese of Boston cannot unilaterally claim the assets of parishes that have been closed, reports Catholic World News. The Vatican declaration affects not only the Boston archdiocese, where it could delay parish closings, but also other American dioceses that are seeking bankruptcy protection in federal courts.

The decision addresses the hotly disputed topic: whether parish assets belong to the diocese, or must be considered separate, the story said.

Following canonical protests by seven Boston parishes to the Vatican and suits filed by parishioners of several closed parishes, "the Congregation for the Clergy said that parish assets cannot be seized by the archdiocese, and can be turned over to the archdiocese only with the consent of the pastors and their parish finance councils.

"From an American civil law perspective, this is a fairly significant development," said the Rev. Charles Nalls of the Canon Law Institute. "It could cut against a strictly hierarchical polity analysis for evaluating ownership of assets." It remained to be seen, he said, how the Vatican ruling would effect bankruptcy proceedings and Massachusetts property suits, that state being "heretorfore highly favorable to an hierarchical approach to church property litigation."

STILL, U.S. ROMAN CATHOLIC PARISHES and other property are not invulnerable to confiscation, it appears. The Vatican decision did not forfend one from a federal bankruptcy judge that all parish churches, parochial schools and other property of the Catholic Diocese of Spokane, Washington, could be liquidated to pay victims of clergy sexual abuse. The August 25 decision was watched nationwide, as Catholic dioceses in several states had argued that parishes are independent financial entities and should not be tied to the dioceses for purposes of calculating damages in civil cases.

A more startling decision, also related to the Catholic Church?s clerical sexual abuse scandal, came from U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Elizabeth Perris, who agreed in July to expand the Portland (OR) Archdiocese bankruptcy case to include every Roman Catholic parishioner and contributor in Western Oregon--more than 389,000 people. About 80,000 Catholic households were to receive

news in the mail that they are defendants in the property dispute between more than 200 plaintiffs who say they suffered abuse at the hands of Catholic clergy and the Archdiocese of Portland.

None of the parishioners or contributors will be personally liable for paying claims if they lose the case. But they could see their parish assets sold or put up as collateral for loans to pay settlements. The legal maneuver, known as a defendant class action, is so rare in bankruptcy court that Perris has never dealt with one in her 21 years on the bench. All parties involved agreed the class action was the best way to get the stalled, 11-month-old property litigation restarted. The heart of the dispute--ownership of property by the archdiocese's 124 parishes and three high schools --is vital to the year-old bankruptcy case. If the $500 million to $600 million in disputed real estate, investments and cash is found to belong to the archdiocese, it will become available to pay off abuse claims now totaling hundreds of millions of dollars. It is those claims that the archdiocese said pushed it into bankruptcy last July.

If the property is found to belong to the parishes, as the archdiocese argues, the parish assets will be declared off limits for abuse settlements. At the time of its Chapter 11 filing, the

archdiocese said it owned $10 million in real estate and $9 million in cash deposits.

Sources included The Oregonian

From San Francisco To Rome,

With Strange Baggage

Analysis By Lee Penn

This has been a banner year for former San Francisco Archbishop William Levada, who was tapped by Pope Benedict XVI in May to become the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF)?Benedict?s previous job. Since August, Levada has been in charge of the Vatican bureaucracy that defends the Catholic faith against heresy, and that deals with priests accused of abuse. As such, he holds the second-most powerful post in the Vatican, and is the first American to hold such high rank and great influence within the Catholic Church.

The problem with this for Catholic and other conservative Christians is that Levada?s appointment does not compute. As Archbishop, Levada chose compromise rather than confrontation on several hot-button ?culture war? issues; spoke favorably to Pope John Paul II about the controversial United Religions Initiative; and was last seen in San Francisco reluctantly accepting subpoenas that demanded his testimony about his role in managing--or covering up--the priest abuse scandal.

LEVADA?S RISE in the Catholic hierarchy began in 1976, when he was appointed to the staff of the CDF at the recommendation of Joseph Bernardin, who was then the President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). During this Vatican posting, which lasted until 1982, Levada met Ratzinger and they became friends. In 1986, Levada became the Archbishop of Portland, Oregon; in 1995, Pope John Paul II moved him to San Francisco.

From 1986 to 1993, Levada was the only American member of the Vatican committee who wrote the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Because of this, Levada acquired a reputation for orthodoxy, to the point that liberal Catholics in San Francisco dubbed him ?Darth Vader? when they heard that he was coming to the region.

Archbishop Levada, however, proved to be a moderate, not a strict conservative. In 1996, he struck a compromise with San Francisco when it decided to require those doing business with the city to provide benefits to same-sex domestic partners. In 2004, he said that bishops should ?dialogue? with Catholic politicians who vote for abortion, while other Catholic bishops were insisting that such politicians must not be given the Sacrament. As well, he never allowed the celebration of the pre-Vatican II Latin Mass in the Archdiocese, despite a 1988 Papal statement urging bishops to be generous in offering the old rites to those who desire them.

Levada has also fostered Catholic participation in the aforementioned United Religions Initiative (URI), the New Age-oriented interfaith movement--founded in 1995 by liberal California Episcopal Bishop William Swing--which appears aimed at creating a one-world religion.

Levada allowed Fr. Gerard O?Rourke of the diocesan Office of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs to serve on URI?s board of directors from 1996 to 2002. In recent years, the Archdiocesan newspaper has run several news stories friendly to the URI, and Bishop Swing was the featured speaker at a February 2004 young adult outreach event co-sponsored by the local Catholic and Episcopal dioceses. Eight members of the URI board of directors were public participants in an archdiocese-sponsored January 2002 interfaith prayer service at the Catholic cathedral in San Francisco. The event included joint prayer and reading of holy texts by members of many faiths--activities the Vatican carefully avoided in its 2002 Assisi interfaith gathering, so as not to give the impression of religious syncretism. Levada, highly praised by Swing earlier this year, ignored requests from several local Catholics to disassociate himself from the URI.

In 2003, the head of the interfaith office of the USCCB raised no objection to the URI activity in the San Francisco Archdiocese; in 2004, the USCCB followed through by donating to the URI.

LEVADA AND THE SAN FRANCISCO ARCHDIOCESE say that they have responded in a timely, compassionate manner to the ongoing scandal of sexual molestation by Catholic priests. When Levada left for Rome, he told a news conference that, ?We have done our best to reach out? to the victims of abuse, and ?I leave San Francisco with a good conscience.?

However, while no one has ever accused Levada of abuse, his record indicates that he has, like many other American bishops, responded to the scandal with cover-up, spin, and evasion of responsibility.

The Archdiocese of Portland, which Levada led for nine years, filed for bankruptcy protection in July 2004--the first U.S. diocese to do so, as a response to lawsuits by abuse survivors who were seeking $155 million in damages. Within the last year, three of the Portland-area plaintiffs have committed suicide. According to Catholic World Report: ?Several of the devastating lawsuits against the archdiocese involved priests who were restored to parish work by Archbishop Levada after having been accused of molesting children, or protected from criminal prosecution when their misdeed came to the archbishop?s attention.? In July 2005, Levada blamed the Portland crisis on ?the greed of plaintiffs? attorneys.?

On August 7 of this year, just before he began his final Sunday Mass in San Francisco, a process server handed Levada a subpoena requiring him to testify about the abuse cases in Portland. The Archbishop called the server ?a disgrace to the Church,? but accepted the summons. He will waive diplomatic immunity, and return to the U.S. to testify in January 2006. On August 13, at his farewell dinner, Levada received another Portland-related subpoena from a process server disguised as a paying guest.

Levada managed the abuse scandal in San Francisco in similar fashion. There, Catholic World Report states that ?the archbishop has been roundly denounced by sex-abuse victims for what they see as his uncooperative attitude in efforts to identify and punish clerical abusers. But some of the criticism raised against Archbishop Levada has also come from neutral parties. For example, James Jenkins, a layman chosen by the archbishop to chair an independent review board examining child-abuse allegations, eventually resigned in protest, charging that Levada had stymied the work of the board through `deception, manipulation, and control.??

In 1997, when Fr. John Conley turned in a fellow priest, Fr. James Aylward, whom he had caught ?wrestling? with a teenage boy in a darkened parish sacristy, Levada?s first move was to punish the whistle-blower and to quietly transfer Aylward to another parish. Only later, after the ?wrestler? admitted his sexual activities in a civil suit, was Aylward suspended. Since then, the Archdiocese has paid a $750,000 settlement to Fr. Conley for wrongful termination, and agreed that Conley did the right thing when he reported the Aylward case to the police.

According to San Francisco Faith, Levada had known since 1996 of charges that Fr. Gregory Ingels, a prominent canon lawyer, had ?orally copulated a teenage boy in Marin County in 1972.? Ingels was also accused of abusing a high school girl for four years starting in 1973, and the Archdiocese paid a large settlement in June 2005 to his (and other priests?) victims. (Criminal charges were barred by the statute of limitations.) Until his forced retirement under the 2002 zero-tolerance policy, Ingels had advised U.S. bishops on handling clergy abuse cases, served as an expert witness in abuse cases all over the U.S. on behalf of the Church, gave legal advice to accused priests, and served on the diocesan tribunal that decides on marriage annulments. Since 1995, Ingels has shared an elegant house on the campus of St. Patrick?s Seminary in Menlo Park, California with John Quinn, Levada?s predecessor as Archbishop of San Francisco.

Given these facts, it remains a mystery as to why Benedict XVI, who has a stern reputation in dealing with clerical abuse and theological aberrations, chose Archbishop Levada as his successor at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Lee Penn, a frequent contributor to The Christian Challenge, is the author of False Dawn: The United Religions Initiative, Globalism, and the Quest for a One-World Religion (Sophia Perennis, 2005).

Stem Cell Research

Breakthrough Reported

Harvard scientists say they have fused an adult skin cell with an embryonic stem cell in a potentially dramatic development that could lead to the creation of useful stem cells without first having to create and destroy human embryos.

Preliminary results of the groundbreaking research?which could end heated social and religious debate over stem cell research--were disclosed August 21 on the Science magazine web site, and the Harvard researchers discussed their findings in more detail the following day. They said they were able to show in their early research that the fused cell "was reprogrammed to its embryonic state."

The technique uses laboratory-grown human embryonic stem cells, such as the ones that President Bush has already approved for use by federally funded researchers, to pre-program the genes of a person?s skin cell, turning that skin cell into an embryonic stem cell itself.

"If future experiments indicate that this reprogrammed state is retained after removing the embryonic stem cell DNA, currently a formidable technical hurdle, the hybrid cells could

theoretically be used to produce embryonic stem cells lines that are tailored to individual patients without the need to create and destroy human embryos," said a summary of the research

reported on the Science site.

The hybrid cells created by the team "had the appearance, growth rate, and several key genetic characteristics of human embryonic cells," the summary of their work said.

"They also behaved like embryonic cells, differentiating into cells from each of the three main tissue types that form in a developing embryo. The authors conclude that human embryonic

cells have the ability to reprogram adult cell chromosomes following cell fusion."

Since the stem cells created by the new technique areessentially rejuvenated versions of a person?s own skin cells, the DNA of those stem cells matches the DNA of the person who

provided the skin cells. In theory at least, that means that any tissues grown from such newly minted stem cells could be transplanted into the person to treat disease without much risk

that they would be rejected.

IN A SEPARATE DEVELOPMENT, a team of Texas and British researchers said in August that it had produced large amounts of embryonic-like stem cells from umbilical cord blood, a

process that, if effective, could also avoid the need to kill human embryos. The international researchers said the cells have the ability to turn into any kind of body tissue. Some of their

work was described in the August issue of Cell Proliferation.

Sources: foxnews.com, The Washington Post, The Washington Times

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