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The United Church of Canada has decided to require all its personnel, including clergy, to undergo background checks for criminal and sexual abuse offenses every three years. The unprecedented move, taken at the UCC’s national convention in August, is an attempt to address the public perception that churches aren’t doing enough to prevent abuse. The screening process will vary with how closely individuals work with vulnerable groups such as children. The cost of the screenings, which ranges from $20 to $50, will be paid by the individuals themselves. No other denomination in Canada has such a vigorous policy. The Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada allows its eight regional districts to decide if ministers need to undergo background checks as part of the accreditation process, but the national office requires all personnel in summer camps and children’s ministries to undergo screening. – Faith Today
The Anglican Church of Canada is cutting $1 million from its annual budget of $10.9 million due to residential school lawsuits. The Church is facing 350 lawsuits from 1600 aboriginal plaintiffs who claim they were abused at the schools. Associated legal costs were $1.5 million this year. The denomination, the third largest in Canada, claims about 1 million members. The deepest cuts were to Anglican ministries in northern Canada and overseas. The cuts also eliminated eight full-time positions at the national office and a national Resource Centre that lent books and videos. However, the denomination’s Healing and Reconciliation Fund, which supports aboriginal peoples, more than doubled to $547,000. The restructuring will have only a minimal effect on individual parishes and dioceses, with the exception of a handful of western Canadian dioceses named in suits and the northern dioceses subsidized by the denomination. The church’s paper, Anglican Journal, has been cut from 20 pages to 12 and incorporated into a “news and information group” along with the church’s leadership magazine, Ministry Matters, and its Web-based media. Journal editor David Harris has resigned, and a successor will not be named until next year. Litigation costs are being covered by the church’s assets, not by current church donations. The Anglican, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian and United Churches are lobbying the federal government to settle the disputes that will not threaten the financial security of the churches but will utilize their resources in the process of healing. Church-run residential schools for aboriginals were a joint venture between the federal government and churches, primarily between the 1870s and 1970s. Anglicans closed their last such school in 1969, but other schools remained open until the 1980s. Over 7000 appellants are now making claims against the government and churches. Not all claimants have named the churches in their suits, but the federal government has named them as third parties. – Faith Today
The average Ontario congregation contributes $144,818 worth of social programs, according to a recent study. Femida Handy, who has a Muslim background and was one of the authors of the study, said religious make significant contributions to society, deserve the tax breaks they receive and should be consulted more on social issues. Handy is a professor of environmental studies at York University. Ram Cnaan, the other author of the study, is Jewish and a professor of social work at the University of Pennsylvania. The study involved 46 congregations, including Anglican, United and evangelical churches and Jewish and Islamic bodies in Kingston, London and Toronto. On average, each congregation reported offering four programs to the community, with the most common being food pantries, international relief, clothes closets, choral groups, recreation for teens, soup kitchens, shelters and summer day camps. At least half of the congregations also offer hospital visitation, community bazaars, interfaith services and music performances. Members, not clergy, are the chief initiators of most programs. Four-fifths of the assistance goes to people who are not members of the faith group. Handy said congregations give because they believe God wants them to. However, she noted that congregations do not consider themselves substitutes for government funding of social programs. – Faith Today
Students in Lesotho, a landlocked country surrounded by South Africa, are learning what democracy means through the Democracy Project, part of the Transformation Resource Centre in the capital of Maseru. The Resource Centre is a partner of Mennonite Central Committee, which is giving funding to the Democracy Project. Through the Project, secondary school students engage in debates, hold mock elections and visit the national parliament. They also learn how laws are made and what limits there are on freedom in a democracy. The next round of national elections is scheduled for May 2001. Lesotho’s elections in 1998 were marred by fighting. – Mennonite Central Committee
Mennonite Central Committee celebrated 30 years in Bangladesh Oct. 23. Over 400 past and present MCC workers, both local and international, attended. Addresses were made by Matia Chowdhury, Bangladeshi Minister of Agriculture, Paul Myers, director of Ten Thousand Villages, and Edgar Metzler, director of MCC International Programs. Later presentations included storytelling, drama, a cultural show of music and traditional dance and a trivia game about past MCC workers and events. MCC began work in Bangladesh in 1970 after the worst cyclone of the century swept through the country, then part of Pakistan. Today, MCC continues to provide material aid to Bangladesh, but programs focus mainly on agriculture and job creation. For instance, MCC’s Farm Family Development Program (FFDP) helped 3000 Bangladeshi farmers in the Maijdi area determine the best use of their land; their plots average one-third of an acre. Growing the traditional crop of rice earns farmers $84 an acre. With help from the FFDP, farmers also grow vegetables and soybeans and raise fish, livestock and poultry, raising their annual incomes by as much as $1150. – MCC
Rmaish, a Maronite Christian village in Lebanon near the Israeli border, is benefiting from a tree seedling project supported by Mennonite Central Committee and the Middle East Council of Churches. The project, costing $9,300, includes distributing a variety of trees (including almond, apple, pear, grape, walnut and plum trees) to 200 farmers to determine which trees will grow best in the area. In May 2000, Israeli troops withdrew from South Lebanon after having occupied the area for 22 years. During this time, much of the land was left uncultivated. – MCC
Franklin Graham, son of evangelist Billy Graham, was named chief executive officer of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association by a unanimous vote of the BGEA board in November. Billy Graham, 82, remains chairman of the Board. Franklin, 48, will also continue as first vice-chairman, a position he has held since it was created in 1995, as well as remaining chairman and CEO of Samaritan’s Purse, an international Christian relief organization. He also plans to conduct about six crusades each year. John Corts will continue as president of BGEA, a position he has held since 1992. Billy Graham, who founded BGEA in 1950, just completed a four-day evangelistic campaign in Jacksonville, Fla., drawing 242,000 people; he told the Board that he would like to accept two or three crusade invitations next year. – Evangelical Press News Service
A bill that will provide $435 million in debt relief to 30 of the world’s poorest nations was passed by the US Congress Oct. 25. The bill resulted from lobbying by Christian churches as part of the Jubilee 2000 campaign based on the Old Testament concept of “jubilee”, the idea that every 50 years debts should be forgiven and slaves freed. – EPNS
Mennonite Disaster Service has received a cheque for $600,000 US to assist its work in North Carolina. The money was part of a local 1999 campaign that raised $19 million to assist flood victims from Hurricane Floyd. MDS has been involved with cleanup and repair that began in November 1999. The money will be used to assist Hurricane Floyd flood victims in the state, including the repair of about 20 homes. MDS is expected to remain in North Carolina at least until April. – Connections
Sunrise Community Church in Edmonton hosted a worship workshop Oct. 21. Several Edmonton churches and Big Tent Ministries, a worship ministry from Guelph, Ont., were involved. The workshop challenged participants “to be instruments of noble purpose, made holy, useful to the Master, and prepared to do any good work” (2 Timothy 2:21). The workshop also included songwriting based on Scripture. The weekend concluded with “The River”, a monthly event featuring praise, testimonies, music, prayer, drama, meditation, food and fellowship – this evening led by Big Tent and the Sunrise “River” worship team. Big Tent leader Vince Goobie encouraged the audience to be obedient to God’s direction, to forgive one another and to be blessed and united. Pictured are (back, l-r) Michelle Wylie of Sunrise, Gary Koop of Sunrise, Vince Goobie of Big Tent, Claudia Witzke of Big Tent, Welma Klassen of Sunrise; (front) Rudy Koop of Sunrise, Allan Funk of Sunrise, Martin Witzke of Big Tent and Jen Hoogendam of Big Tent. – Sunrise Community Church
A three-year-old ruling banning student prayer in public schools was overturned in October by the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. The original ruling by US District Judge Ira DeMent prohibited any form of public prayer on school grounds in DeKalb County, Ala. He went so far as to appoint an attorney to serve as a “prayer monitor”, visiting schools to ensure the ruling was enforced. This was the second time the Appeals Court has struck down DeMent’s ruling. Last year, it ruled unanimously that DeMent’s order wrongly restricted student-initiated religious expression. Earlier this year, the US Supreme Court ordered the Appeals Court to reconsider its decision in light of a new Supreme Court ruling forbidding student-led prayer at high school football games in Texas. However, the Appeals Court stuck with its decision, distinguishing between government-sponsored prayer in Texas and student-led prayer in Alabama. – EPNS
International Christian Concern (ICC), a Christian human rights group, has launched a call for prayer and action on behalf of about 100,000 Christians on the Indonesian island of Ambon. According to ICC, Likshar Jihad, a radical Islamic paramilitary group, is attempting to drive all Christians from the island. Witnesses reported that the Islamic group has met little to no resistance from local police or government troops stationed on the island. In fact, the Indonesian government has confirmed that troops and police have taken part in several attacks against civilians. Since 1999, over 3,000 people reportedly have been killed in the area. Indonesia’s political leaders have been unable to control the situation and have refused to request help from the United Nations. While Indonesia’s population is 90% Muslim, not all Muslims support the violence. A number of peaceful Muslims have tried to protect Christians. – EPNS
Mikhail Gorbachev, former Soviet premier and the man credited with dismantling Russian communism, said in an interview with Robert Schuller that spiritual freedom was essential to a free society. “There can be no freedom without spiritual freedom, without human beings being able to choose,” Gorbachev said. The two men, who have been friends since 1989, when Gorbachev allowed Schuller to speak on Russian television, spoke during a 30-minute interview Oct. 15 at Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Calif. Gorbachev said that the growth of the Russian Orthodox Church was one of the greatest gains of the reforms he initiated (called perestroika). “People are back in the cathedrals and the churches, and the cathedrals have been given back to the people. And even in times of economic hardship new cathedrals, new churches are being built,” said Gorbachev. He also said he was an atheist, but acknowledged that he grew up in a Christian family. – EPNS
In a recent poll conducted for USA Today, 47% of those with incomes less than $15,000 US saw money as leading to spiritual growth, and 48% saw money as leading to a spiritual decline; 30% of those making between $15,000 and $29,999 thought wealth advanced spirituality, but 53% thought it caused spirituality to decline; 39% of those in the $30,000 to $49,999 income bracket thought wealth helped spirituality, and 49% thought wealth hindered it; and 25% of those with incomes of $50,000 or more thought wealth promoted spirituality, and 62% thought it led to decline. – Sightings
An Alberta judge ruled June 1 that pro-lifers demonstrating near an abortion clinic in Calgary may no longer hold signs that use words like “killing”. Justice Bair Mason feared a passerby might conclude that an illegal act was occurring inside. In 1991 the judge imposed a “temporary” injunction, sheltering the abortion clinic from public attention. A lawyer for the clinic asked the judge to ban within sight of the clinic all words such as “killing”, “murder”, “baby murder” and “killers of babies”. Michael O’Malley, a prolifer who was acquitted May 5 for a peaceful demonstration within the “bubble zone” of the clinic, objected in court that “killing” is not a legal term and cannot by itself imply a criminal activity. Justice Mason ignored the argument, declaring that suppressing it was a reasonable limit on free speech. However, Craig Jones, president of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association – which is pro-choice – suggested that the ruling went too far and that “no one hearing the words ‘killing babies’ in an abortion context is going to think abortion doctors are doing anything different from what they actually are.” – Western Report
The 2001 Canadian Census for the first time will include a question asking if the respondents are living in a same-sex common-law relationship. This has become an important issue in light of various court decisions and government legislation extending common-law marital status to homosexual relationships. Gay lobbyists have also pushed for this information to be included in the census, claiming that up to 15% of Canadians are practising homosexuals. Documents reveal that 14% of all submissions received by Statscan during public consultations about the 2001 census were made by gay lobbyists, surpassed only by federal and provincial government submissions. One of the most energetic of the lobby groups was an obscure Vancouver group called the December 9 Coalition. Between 1993 and 1999 it organized public forums, met numerous times with Statscan officials, bombarded local media with commentary about the issue, organized a demonstration outside the agency’s offices and filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission. Sources in the gay press in Vancouver, however, think the group may now be defunct. In the 1996 census, Statscan gathered imprecise data on the number of same-sex couples through two different tabulations, both of which only indirectly gave respondents the option of identifying themselves as being involved in homosexual partnerships. About 18,000 couples (0.25% of Canada’s 6.7 million married and common-law couples) were thus identified as being in same-sex relationships. In 1998 Statscan conducted its National Census Test, an exercise which tested three variations of the new same-sex question. Questionnaires were sent to 77,000 homes in 13 different communities across Canada, with two of the sites chosen because they were presumed to have high concentrations of homosexuals. The responses indicated that 1% of couples were homosexual. However, the sample was skewed by the inclusion of the two high-density homosexual sites. In the other 11 sites, less than half of 1% of respondents indicated involvement in same-sex relationships. While the 2001 census will ask people whether they are in a homosexual relationship, it will not ask people to report their sexual orientation. – Western Report
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Last modified January 5, 2001.
© 2001 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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