Religion Today Summaries – July 15, 2005
Daily briefs of the top news stories impacting Christians around the world. In today's edition:
- G8 Summit's Focus On Africa Nothing New For Missionaries
- The "Connecticut Six" Places Limits On Diocesan Bishop’s Visits To Congregations
- Billy Graham Declines Invitation To Conduct Crusade In London
- 'Intentional Racial Reconciliation' Championed in Mississippi Churches
G8 Summit's Focus On Africa Nothing New For Missionaries
Sue Sprenkle, Baptist Press
Politicians, celebrities and activists turned the world's eyes toward Africa during the recent international Group of Eight (G8) meeting in Scotland. The G8's shared goals: to save lives and eradicate poverty on the continent. For more than 150 years, Southern Baptists have been working toward the same goals in Africa. Some of the first Southern Baptist missionaries landed in Liberia and Nigeria in the mid-19th century. Today, hundreds of International Mission Board missionaries work throughout the continent. While they strive to alleviate physical suffering and death on a daily basis, their main concern is Africa's state of spiritual lostness. Mark Hatfield, an IMB mission strategist for central, eastern and southern Africa,states that "Africa has the resources both human and physical to be independent of outside aid.". Many Africans voiced the same view at a meeting of the continent's leaders held a few days before the G8 sessions. While some called for total debt relief for the entire continent, Uhuru Kenyatta, a leader in the KANU party in Kenya, told the world not to expect self-supporting improvement in Africa if outside nations keep handing out money. One of the fears of G8 leaders in disbursing funds in Africa is corruption -- the cause of much of the current suffering and economic chaos in Africa. British Prime Minister Tony Blair acknowledged that no amount of money will improve Africa's prospects without better national leadership.
The "Connecticut Six" Places Limits On Diocesan Bishop’s Visits To Congregations
Agape Press
The "Connecticut Six," a group of Episcopal churches that has been at odds with their diocesan bishop over his abandonment of Anglican Church teachings, have respectfully but firmly placed limits on his recently scheduled official visits to their congregations. In a recent letter delivered to Bishop Andrew Smith, the six churches informed their bishop that, although he would be welcomed at any time, their clergy and members feel it would be inappropriate for him to preach or preside at the Eucharist -- Anglicans' term for the sacrament of Holy Communion. Citing Smith's repeated public attacks against them, the church leaders stated in the letter that the bishop has engendered "an atmosphere of hostility and mistrust" that makes a shared Eucharist impossible. The conflict in the Diocese of Connecticut is rooted in a communion-wide crisis in Anglicanism, centered on differing views on homosexual issues, church order, and biblical authority. The Connecticut Six charge that Bishop Smith has violated his ordination vows by departing from traditional Anglican teaching, scriptural authority and biblical norms. The principled stance of the six churches has been recognized by Primates of the Anglican Communion and the Archbishop of Canterbury as an expression of faithfulness rather than rebellion.
Billy Graham Declines Invitation To Conduct Crusade In London
Baptist Press
Billy Graham has declined an invitation to hold an evangelistic crusade in London, a decision he deferred until after his just-concluded Greater New York Crusade, according to a July 13 news release from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Church leaders in the United Kingdom had invited Graham to hold meetings in London later this year. Age and health concerns of the 86-year-old evangelist and his wife, Ruth, made the distance from home and logistical considerations a greater challenge than recent domestic crusades, the BGEA news release stated. "After much prayerful consideration I determined I should not be that far from home," Graham wrote in a letter notifying those who had invited him to London. "This was a difficult decision because London has played such a significant part in the life of my ministry." Since making the decision in early July, Graham has been closely following events in London, including the city's selection as the site to host the 2012 Olympic Games followed by the terrorist attack in London. The evangelist assured British church leaders of his continued prayers for the people of London, especially the victims and their families, and called on people of faith around the world to do likewise.
'Intentional Racial Reconciliation' Championed in Mississippi Churches
Charisma News Service
Racist attitudes have gripped Mississippi for decades, but Dolphus Weary is changing hearts in the state's churches. He is the executive director of Mission Mississippi (MM), an organization that has eight chapters, five affiliates and 75 support churches of various denominations, and is dedicated to overcoming racial and denominational barriers. "We're not talking about fly-by-night racial reconciliation. We're talking about an intentional racial reconciliation in your community," Weary told Charisma magazine. MM was organized formally in 1993 after plans for a citywide crusade in Jackson evolved into a racial-reconciliation rally. Crusade organizer Pat Morley, who is white, and his evangelist friend Tom Skinner (since deceased), who was African-American, had discussed the proposed event at a gathering of businessmen and pastors. Weary recalled that as the organizer and evangelist explained their own friendship to the group "a black pastor raised his hand and said, 'We don't need a crusade; we need to learn how to love each other like you do.'" Instead of a crusade, the group held the rally, which drew 25,000 people and led to an ongoing movement to improve race relations across the state. The idea is simply for blacks and whites to make friends with one another. "Everything we did was an opportunity to bring blacks and whites together in relationship," said Weary. (www.charismanews.com)
Originally published July 15, 2005.
