Evangelical Christians from Indonesia and other countries have intensified efforts to minister to the physical and spiritual needs of thousands of East Timorese people settling into refugee camps at the western end of the Indonesian island.Despite limited funds and inadequate staffing, believers are sharing the gospel with refugees from ethnic people groups that previously have had little or no access to the message.An estimated 300,000 people have fled into the Indonesian-held western half of the island of Timor since East Timor voted for independence from Indonesia in August. The vote sparked violent reactions in the already tumultuous region, with hundreds of people in East Timor believed to have been killed by militias loyal to the Indonesian government in Jakarta.Baptist relief efforts began as members of Kupang Baptist Church in West Timor ministered to 14 Baptist families from Dili, East Timor, who had fled to Kupang. As the refugee numbers increased, a team of 11 young adults from a Baptist student group in Jakarta joined the church in Kupang to help care for the refugees, who were being housed at the Noelbaki refugee camp outside the city.A Baptist representative involved in the relief efforts said the 515 people (105 families) the church is now caring for had fled their village near Dili, leaving their homes, land and most of their belongings. Their village leader is a member of Dili Baptist Church.He added that the size of the camps has continued to increase because refugees are not quickly returning to East Timor, mainly due to misinformation and intimidation tactics being used by anti-independence elements in Timor.”Opportunities for ministry are increasing and we are moving the ministry into a longer-term project, even though we have neither the funds nor adequate personnel,” said the representative. “The project is functioning by faith on gifts from Indonesian Baptist Churches, [international] churches in Indonesia, individuals and a church in Australia.”Workers saw an immediate need to begin ministering to the physical, spiritual and social needs of the refugees, beginning with the target group of 105 families from Dili, but open to any who want to attend.”We have distributed milk and basic food items, clothing and school books and have three nurses and a doctor working in the camp clinic,” he said. “We are holding Bible lessons for the children, which have opened the door for adult Bible studies and personal witnessing.”Working with Campus Crusade for Christ, the Jesus film has been shown several times in the camps, he added. However, “we have only enough personnel to continue what we have been doing into early December. We desperately need funds and more people to continue.”Although the majority of East Timor claims to be Catholic and the West Timorese claim to be Protestant, the Timorese are animistic at heart, said a Southern Baptist worker.”The refugees from East Timor come from 17 people groups that are less than 2 percent evangelical,” he said. “Our goal is to establish a church-planting movement among the refugees who come from these different unreached people groups.”According to reports, the Noelbaki camp—with approximately 13,000 inhabitants—and a second camp nearby, Tuapukan, housing 30,000 refugees—do not meet even the basic needs of the refugees.The Baptist response teams also have installed a pump on one well at the Tuapukan camp and a water storage tank. In addition, 15 water purifiers donated from individuals in the United States have been installed in both camps to provide clean drinking water.”Noelbaki is a series of barracks built with tin roofs, plywood dividers and no floors, stretching several kilometers,” said the Baptist representative. “Each barrack is divided into 16 sections of 2.5 square meters. Families get one or two sections, depending on the size of the family. The government-built barracks cannot hold all the refugees, so a thousand refugees have built shelters of palm leaves.”Conditions in the camp are deplorable, relief workers said. Noelbaki camp, located on a seasonal rice field, flooded when the first early rainstorm of the season hit in October, spreading human waste throughout the camp. Because of the condition of the barracks, refugees were forced to sleep in the mud.”Our doctor and nurses have begun to circulate through the camp doctoring the sick,” said a Baptist worker. “Even still, the poor living conditions in the Tuapukan camp are taking the lives of four to 11 children every day.”

Contributions toward the relief efforts in West Timor can be sent to the International Mission Board, Hunger and Relief Fund—Timor Relief, P.O. Box 6767, Richmond, VA 23230. Rankin is an overseas correspondent covering Asia for the International Mission Board. Copyright © 1999 Baptist Press. Related Elsewhere See our earlier story, “Church Aids Refugees Despite Violence” (Oct. 25, 1999)

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As church bells rang and sky rockets exploded in the sky, leaders of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) and the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) signed a Covenant of Partnership that could lead to full union “in God’s own time.”The covenant, signed November 28, is a 400-word document binding the UCCP, itself a union of churches from the Reformed tradition, and the IFI, a Filipino church that separated from Rome but which has retained Catholic practice and tradition.The church leaders declared in the document that despite differences in doctrine, polity and religious practices, both churches are “integral parts of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church of Jesus Christ.” The document adds that the two denominations draw strength and inspiration from a common Scripture and common creeds. Recognizing common beliefs and hopeful in Jesus’ prayer “that they may be one,” the churches also agreed to undertake joint theological and doctrinal studies, service programs, and theological education.Tomas A. Millamena, Obispo Maximo (leading bishop) of the IFI, and Bishop Elmer M. Bolocon, general secretary of the UCCP, signed the covenant. Among the witnesses who also signed were NCCP leaders, mission partners, and representatives of workers’ organizations, the urban poor and student groups.Bishop Erme Camba, as the chair of the UCCP Communion on Church Union and Unity, oversaw the negotiations for the covenant. He said that formal talks had started three years ago in an ecumenical fellowship of bishops.The two churches have a history of co-operation, especially in actions against the Marcos dictatorship more than 20 years ago. “We wanted to put it in writing,” Bishop Camba said. “Although there are certain agreements regarding baptism, issues regarding the Eucharist and apostolic succession need to be discussed. But that does not deter us from coming together,” Bishop Camba added.He stressed that the phrase “in God’s own time” was important because the theological understanding and the practice of the Eucharist and the ministry in the two churches were completely different and “seem irreconcilable.”But he expressed optimism that work for peace, justice and integrity of creation between the two denominations would proceed in a higher gear.

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After months of controversy, the leaders of Germany’s Roman Catholic Church have agreed to a demand by Pope John Paul II that they end church participation in a system of compulsory counseling for women considering abortion.”We have tried as long as possible to resist, but now we have lost,” Bishop Karl Lehmann of Mainz, chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference (DBK), said at a press conference last week. Bishop Lehmann’s announcement is significant since he had previously refused to rule out the possibility of remaining within the current system. But despite Bishop Lehmann’s announcement, a number of Catholic bishops have already announced that for the time being they are unable to follow the wishes of the Pope in withdrawing from the system.Although abortion is technically illegal in Germany, women can obtain one if they get a certificate from an officially recognized counseling center stating that they have talked over the matter. Of Germany’s 1685 counseling centers, 254 are sponsored by the Protestant church and 264 by two Catholic organizations.Church organizations have traditionally played a major role in Germany in providing social services on behalf of the state.Official church participation in the counseling system has deeply split Germany’s Catholic community. Catholics critical of their church’s participation in the system argue that by issuing certificates that will allow women, if they wish, to have an abortion, the church is an accessory to the killing of unborn life. But Catholic supporters say that it is better for women considering abortions to attend centers run by the Catholic Church and that the church should not turn its back on women who find themselves with an unwanted pregnancy. They add that after counseling many women decide not to request a certificate, and that not all women who request certificates decide to go through with an abortion.In recent months Rome has exerted increasing pressure on the German bishops to stop Catholic counseling centers from issuing certificates, which would mean that the church would no longer be part of the official system.Last month, after German bishops visited the Vatican, Pope John Paul again wrote to them making clear his expectation that the Catholic Church would withdraw from the system. The letter called for all German dioceses to act on the Vatican’s wishes as soon as possible.The issue has also divided the country’s 27 Catholic bishops. While Cardinal Joachim Meisner of Cologne and Bishop Franz Dyba of Fulda have led a minority of bishops opposing the counseling system, Bishop Lehmann and at least 12 others have tried to find a compromise respecting the Pope’s wishes but allowing the church to remain within the system.Despite the efforts of Bishop Lehmann, however, the church remains divided. The standing council of the DBK agreed last month that Catholic counseling centers should stop issuing certificates in the course of 2000. Such a step would have the effect of ending Catholic participation in the current state-sponsored system.The dioceses of Paderborn, Munster and Speyer have already announced that they will withdraw from the system in January 2000. However, Bishop Hermann Josef Spital of Trier, Bishop Franz Kamphaus of Limburg and five others have said that they reserve the right to remain in the present system “if no convincing alternative can be found.”Bishop Lehmann has warned them that they must follow the wishes of the Pope. At the same time, Bishop Lehmann has been exploring ways in which the church could remain part of the counseling system but would not be obliged to issue certificates. He suggested this week that the law could be changed to allow women simply to declare on oath that they had attended counseling. But so far the state has rejected the idea of changing the law.”We saw it coming that the bishops would not resist the pressure of Rome,” said Annegret Laakmann of the We Are Church movement, which is seeking major reforms in the Catholic Church.The German bishops could have prevented a lot of confusion and damage done to the church if they had taken a stronger stand from the start, Laakmann told ENI. “They should have decided either to stay within the system or leave when the Pope first contacted them on the matter.”Every woman, she said, must be able to attend a Catholic counseling center.Laakmann is also president of Frauenwuerde (Women’s dignity), an association founded by Catholic lay people last year to examine the issue.The controversy about the participation in the counseling system has provoked a much wider debate in Germany about the relationship between church and state, including the system of church tax whereby the state collects a tax from church members on behalf of the churches.The Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), the country’s biggest Catholic lay movement, has created its own association—Donum vitae (The Gift of Life)—to take over the Catholic counseling of pregnant women considering abortion.Christine Bergmann, Germany’s minister for family matters, has said she regretted the bishops’ decision.”The state will not finance counseling that will not issue a certificate,” she said in an interview with the radio station Deutschlandfunk early this week.The Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), Germany s main Protestant body, has also expressed disappointment over the withdrawal of the Catholic Church from the present system. Manfred Kock, EKD chairperson, said at a press conference that the EKD would remain within the system, but would not be able to fill the gap left by the Catholic Church.”A Roman Catholic woman has the right to counseling by her church,” he said.Bishop Margot Kassmann of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover—one of the EKD’s 24 member churches—told ENI that it was “morally acceptable” for the Protestant church to remain within the counseling system.Although the Protestant and Roman Catholic churches had issued a joint statement—”God is a friend of life”—on the issue of abortion issue, it was only possible to save unborn life with the help of the mothers, she said.Churches should always respect and stand by those women who felt unable to continue with their pregnancy, whether because the child would be handicapped, because they were pregnant because of rape or for financial reasons, Bishop Kassmann said.She added that no woman who visited a counseling center of either the Protestant or Catholic church should be let down, pointing out that stopping counseling would not put an end to abortion.Hans Kung, a leading Swiss Catholic theologian whose license to teach Catholic theology was removed by Rome in the early 1980s, has called on the German bishops to follow their own consciences rather than orders from Rome. He criticized what he called “the despotic principle to obey the command of a superior without any regard for one’s own responsibility,” particularly in the light of Germany’s own history where many subordinates of the Nazi regime claimed to be only following orders.

Used with permission, Ecumenical News International, Copyright © 1999

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A Baptist Christian and former mission leader arrested on Sunday, November 28 in Tashkent was still being subjected to lengthy police interrogations in the Uzbek capital yesterday. Nikolai Andreus is being threatened with a two-year prison term, Christian sources in the Central Asian state report.Andreus was detained as he was traveling by bus to a Sunday morning worship service. A police lieutenant on the bus demanded to see his identity documents and then searched Andreus’ bag, uncovering some 200 Christian tracts in the Uzbek language.The officer then halted the bus near the Khamzin district police station, just two stops from Andreus’ home. The Christian was interrogated by an officer named Karimov, deputy head of the police station, who reportedly threatened and tried to intimidate Andreus, accusing him of “anti-state activities.”Two hours later, police officers conducted a search of Andreus’ home in the presence of the required four witnesses, but without authorization from the procurator, sources told Compass. The officials confiscated all the Christian literature they found.During the search, Andreus’ daughter Nataliya asked the police officers what would happen to her father. The most senior policeman told her he faces a two-year prison term.Andreus was later transferred to the criminal department of the police, where he was again interrogated. He was asked where he had obtained the literature, where he was taking it, who it was for and why. The interrogators tried to force him to admit he was guilty of anti-state activity, missionary activity (which is illegal in Uzbekistan) and the distribution of anti-Islamic propaganda.Andreus insisted that the books had been imported from Russia two years ago, before restrictions were imposed on the importation of religious literature. He denied he had conducted anti-state activity.Although freed at 7 p.m. on Sunday, Andreus was instructed to report the next morning for further questioning at the Chief Police Department. The interrogations lasted from 10 in the morning until 8 in the evening.”Only one of the three officers interrogating him gave his name,” a source told Compass. “He was a police officer called Rakhmonov. The other two were in civilian clothes.” Andreus believes they were officers of the National Security Ministry (the former KGB).”The whole day they tried to get him to admit that he is guilty of missionary activity, distributing literature and, through this, helping to destabilize the political situation in the country,” the source added.He was allowed to return home for the night, but his identity documents were not returned to him. When Andreus protested that he would need his passport to vote in the upcoming December 5 elections, he was told that he did not understand the law: no one in prison was allowed to keep their documents, let alone take part in voting, the police explained.His interrogations resumed again on Tuesday, November 30.Andreus had been deputy head of the Khudo Khokhlasa (If God Wills It) mission in Tashkent until it was banned by Uzbek authorities in 1997.In separate news, Compass has learned from sources in Uzbekistan that local Mahalla Committee authorities in Nukus have refused to give the necessary signature on the registration application of the Full Gospel congregation in the city. “All the other signatures on the registration application are there,” the source reported, “but obviously the local authorities do not want the church to be registered.”Although the church has asked the Mahalla Committee to issue a statement spelling out why they will not sign the application, the committee has so far refused. The church filed its registration application with the Karakalpakstan Ministry of Justice in Nukus in early October.The Nukus Full Gospel Church became well known when three of its leading members were arrested and sentenced to heavy prison terms earlier in the year, including the pastor, Rashid Turibayev. The three were among five Christian prisoners freed on President Islam Karimov’s orders in August, after intensive protests from around the world.

Related Elsewhere The U.S. Department of State Annual Report on International Religious Freedom examines Uzbekistan’s religious freedom from political and societal perspectives, and remarks on what the U.S. government has done in response to human rights infringements in the country.Earlier Christianity Today stories on Uzbekistan include “Uzbek Pastor Faces Drug Charges” (April 26, 1999) and “Uzbekistan Religion Law Jeopardizes Evangelism” (October 5, 1998)For more on Uzbekistan, see Britannica.com’s article on the country.

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The Leprosy Mission International (TLMI) has marked the 125th anniversary of its foundation by dedicating its latest venture in the fight against leprosy to the late Diana, Princess of Wales.TLMI officials said that the princess had helped the organization “enormously” with her patronage.The Diana Princess of Wales Health Education and Media Center—entirely funded by a grant of 890,000 pounds sterling (US$1.43 million) from the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Fund—was opened November 28 at Noida, on the outskirts of New Delhi.”She [Princess Diana] would have been thrilled to see this health-education and media center bearing her name, dedicated to promoting awareness and to countering the stigma associated with leprosy,” Christopher Spence, chairman of the memorial fund, said at the center’s inauguration.Spence reminded the TLMI delegates that the Princess of Wales had “cared very deeply about the campaign and the work [to eradicate] leprosy. She was well aware of the power of communication to spread awareness, to promote the end of stigma and marginalization of leprosy patients.”More than 150 members of TLMI’s international general council, from 33 countries, attended celebrations in New Delhi marking the 125th anniversary. TLMI was founded in India in 1874 by an Irish teacher, Wellesley Cosby Bailey.Now based in London, TLMI is a Christian action group with churches and individual Christians contributing 80 percent of its annual budget of US$13 million.Thomas Townley Macan, Britain’s deputy High Commissioner in India, said it was appropriate that the media education center should have been dedicated to Diana, a “supporter of the causes of the poor.””She would surely be rejoicing that the fund created in her memory is supporting a cause dear to her heart,” the British diplomat said.”Diana had special concern for anybody who was disadvantaged. When [in the early 1990s] we asked her to be our patron, she accepted it cheerfully,” said Stewart Smith, TLMI chairman.Smith later told ENI that “more than anybody else, she [the Princess of Wales] could touch hearts. She was precious to us.” A photo of the princess sitting on the bed of a patient in a leprosy hospital in Nepal made news headlines in 1993, he said.”The impact of this single photo on the front page of the national daily [newspaper] probably did more than what we had achieved in ten years of our awareness campaign,” TLMI’s general director, Trevor Durston, said.”Leprosy has remained not only a disease that afflicts a large number of people, but it carries with it a stigma,” C. Chidambaram, former Indian finance minister, said in a speech at the opening. Leprosy had been regarded in rural areas as “an incurable affliction,” said Chidambaram, who is originally from the state of Tamil Nadu in southern India, which has a high incidence of leprosy. “In fact, it is considered a curse suffered in this birth [life] for what one may have done in the last birth,” he said, adding that “awareness and health education are as important as health care” for the eradication of leprosy.In 1998, according to figures from the World Health Organization, India accounted for nearly 70 percent of the 800 000 new cases of leprosy detected worldwide.Spence later told ENI: “Towards the end of her short life, due to personal crisis, she [the Princess of Wales] wanted to reduce the number of charities [more than 100] of which she was patron. She chose to head only six, and one of them was Leprosy Mission.”When the memorial fund offered to support the Leprosy Mission with funds, the Indian branch of the organization proposed the establishment of the media center. The proposal was in fact based on a question the princess asked during a visit to a Leprosy Mission hospital in Calcutta in 1992.”What are you going to do with the stigma?” Princess Diana had asked TLMI officials.Cornelius Walters, TLMI’s South Asia director, told ENI at the opening: “This center is a fruit of that question.”Related Elsewhere The Leprosy Mission International’s Web site has news updates, a kid’s page, and other resources regarding leprosy.

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An ecumenical coalition of gay and lesbian organizations has instituted an annual award to be given to a US heterosexual religious leader who has championed the cause of homosexual rights.The award is named after the man who is also its first recipient, Paul H. Sherry, recently retired president of the United Church of Christ.The Dr Paul H. Sherry Leadership and Courage Award will be given each year by the Interfaith Assembly of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Caucuses and Affirming Organizations during the annual general assembly of the National Council of Churches (NCC), the principal ecumenical organization in the US.The Interfaith Assembly represents caucuses in more than a dozen US churches.Dr Sherry received the inaugural award last month during the NCC’s general assembly and 50th-anniversary celebrations in Cleveland, Ohio. At a prayer breakfast on 11 November, he told Interfaith Assembly members that those who deserved the award most were the members themselves.Expressing surprise at receiving the award, Dr Sherry said: “I know the exclusion and pain you have felt. But I truly believe that through your efforts God’s purpose will be fulfilled.”In an interview with ENI, Dr Sherry said he had always believed it was a “Gospel imperative” that the church embrace all, including sexual minorities. “Gays and lesbians have been so put upon,” Dr Sherry said, particularly within the church. He felt the issue had to be addressed directly by a church leader.The 1.4 million-member United Church of Christ, whose roots are in the US Congregational church—the church of the American Puritans—has gained a high profile for its progressive views on many social issues. About 300 of its congregations welcome gay and lesbian members, and the church is among the few US churches to ordain openly gay and lesbian clergy.Dr Sherry has been one of the most prominent US church leaders to call for full participation of gays and lesbians in the church. He has repeated his appeal not only in the US, but also in international ecumenical meetings.He told ENI he was optimistic about the cause of gay and lesbian rights, but acknowledged that numerous obstacles remain. “I continue to hope that there will be leaders in our communions who will fight for what I believe is right,” he said.But he suggested that the NCC and its member denominations continued to give “mixed signals” on the issue of homosexuality.Questions related to homosexuality remain a cause of tension and division for some NCC member churches, including several of the biggest Protestant denominations in the US, such as the United Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Church (USA). Recently the United Methodist Church has argued over the blessing of relationships for same-sex couples, while the Presbyterians have for years debated the ordination of openly gay and lesbian clergy.”There’s hardly a communion within the council that is not dealing with the issue of ‘what do we do with these homosexual folk’?” said Gwynne Guibord, US ecumenical officer of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC), a predominantly gay and lesbian denomination. She chaired the Interfaith Assembly’s prayer breakfast in Cleveland.The NCC itself has repeatedly called for equal rights for homosexuals in the public sphere, but the MCC has not been allowed to join the NCC. Earlier this decade the NCC declined to take action on a request by the MCC for “observer status” at NCC meetings. Opposition by several US churches—including Orthodox and mainly black congregations—has often been cited as the reason for the NCC’s refusal to recognize the MCC. (The NCC has since cancelled “observer status” for non-member churches.)However, the continued internal debates over the issue of homosexuality within NCC-member churches had also been an important factor in the NCC’s reluctance to formally embrace the MCC, said Eileen Lindner, NCC associate general secretary.Both Lindner and Guibord said the MCC has been making quiet inroads within the US ecumenical movement. “Informally there have been great advances,” Lindner said.But Lindner said full acceptance of the MCC and even the Interfaith Assembly itself was still some way off for many within NCC-member denominations. However, pointing out that she was speaking here as a church historian and not as an ecumenical official, Lindner added: “Can anybody doubt that time is not on the side of those who have an exclusionary view of the church?”A United Methodist minister from Nebraska has been defrocked by a church court for performing a “holy union” for a male couple. Jimmy Creech was stripped of his credentials by a 13-member United Methodist jury in Grand Island, Nebraska. He was found guilty of violating church law by performing the ceremony in North Carolina last year. Creech immediately criticized the 17 November decision, calling it “a scandalous day for the United Methodist Church,” the Associated Press reported. The jury foreman said the jury was simply following church law, which prevented clergy from performing such ceremonies.

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A “spiritual summit” bringing together 1,000 of the world’s religious and spiritual leaders is being organized by the United Nations next August-the first such gathering in the UN’s 54-year history. The Millennium World Peace Summit, as the gathering is known, will take place from August 28 to 31, 2000 just days before the world’s political leaders gather for the UN Millennium Heads of State Summit.”Our dream is to get the pre-eminent religious leaders to the UN so they can support the peace process, in concert with the political bodies there,” Bawa Jain, the executive co-ordinator of the world peace summit, said today 3 December in Cape Town.”I definitely feel that the religious and spiritual communities can play a substantial role in easing tensions in the world zones of conflict,” he added.UN secretary-general Kofi Annan will give the welcoming address at the religious summit.”Ultimately, this first-ever council of senior religious and spiritual advisers will be established as a resource to the UN secretary-general, and its members could be ‘parachuted’ into trouble spots,” Jain said.Jain was speaking at a media briefing held during the 1999 Parliament of World Religions, which opened in Cape Town on 1 December. Much of the work and discussions of the 10-day parliament will be channeled into next August’s gathering of religious leaders.Almost 6,000 international and local spiritual leaders, theologians and believers from the world’s major religions are attending the parliament, which includes a wide range of talks, symposia, plenary sessions, workshops, worship and meditation.Western secular clothes and clerical garb were juxtaposed at the opening ceremony with flowing saffron robes, red cassocks and orange Buddhist robes, blue turbans and white scarves.”The parliament is grounded in the certainty that without the insight, energy, inspiration and goodwill of the world’s religions and spiritual communities, there can be no real answers to the daunting problems we all face at the beginning of a new century,” a welcoming document said.Only a small group of Muslim extremists protested against the PWR on the opening day. They asked why “Satanists” were gathered in Cape Town, accused the parliament of being a “Zionist conspiracy” and claimed that “Islam is the only way of life.”However, the leaders of all of Cape Town’s faith communities support the gathering which is taking place on the campus of the Cape Technikon tertiary institution, at the foot of the world-famous Table Mountain, and at various venues in the city center and suburbs.For those who are overwhelmed by the marketplace of possibilities vying for their attention, a relaxing transcendental meditation workshop is available on the green grass of the Technikon open-air amphitheater. Standing under the hot African sun or in the shade of the trees, they listen to the soothing voice of a guru and shake off all the tensions and the information overload.

Copyright © 1999 Ecumenical News International. Used with permission. Related ElsewhereRelated Elsewhere:See today’s related Parliament of the World’s Religions story, “Help Us Develop Our Souls, Mandela Tells World Religious Leaders | Former South Africa president awarded by Parliament of the World’s Religions”The Parliament of the World’s Religions South Africa site has a program of the meeting and daily highlights.

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In an historic display of unity, the heads of the 13 traditional churches of Jerusalem gathered together in Bethlehem’s Manger Square over the weekend to pray for a joyful Christmas and to launch the millennium celebrations for Christianity’s 2000th anniversary.At the official launch patriarchs, archbishops and other church heads and officials from the Holy Land were joined by church representatives—Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox—from around the world and by thousands of pilgrims.Palestinians, some of them dressed in biblical costumes, danced behind marching bands in the shadow of the Church of the Nativity, built over the spot where Jesus is believed to have been born.But the celebrations could not conceal the fact that most of Bethlehem’s residents are Muslims. Christians are a shrinking minority here. A reminder of the changing demography of this sacred town was the fact that a church choir had to wait until a Muslim service ended at a mosque across Manger Square before singing Christmas carols.But one of the principal participants, Pope John Paul II’s envoy to the Holy Land, Archbishop Pietro Sambi, told Ecumenical News International (ENI) the start of the new millennium was an appropriate moment for Christianity and Islam to show greater respect for one another.”Bethlehem has been totally renovated for the year 2000 and the work has been done by Muslims and Christians together,” he said. “The message at the beginning of the new millennium is that we have to recover this capacity—the Muslims to rejoice with the Christians when the Christians rejoice, and the Christians to be capable of rejoicing with the Muslims when the Muslims rejoice.”Bethlehem, a Palestinian-controlled area in the West Bank about ten minutes’ drive from Jerusalem, has undergone a $180-million facelift financed by foreign donations and private funds. Two million tourists are expected to visit Bethlehem next year for the 2000th anniversary of the birth of Christ.Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, signaled the climax of the festivities by switching on the lights of a gigantic Christmas tree to launch a year of activities that he hopes will boost tourism and improve the local economy.Earlier, in a speech read out on his behalf, Arafat had criticized the Israeli government, and stressed his people’s need to have independence and freedom.Many other officials present, some of whom were attending a meeting of general secretaries of Christian World Communions, emphasized the importance of the event for Christians world-wide. Holding up a candle, one of the guests, John L. Peterson, secretary general of the Anglican Communion, told ENI it was unlikely there had been a greater show of Christian unity in a long time.”The 13 church heads [of Jerusalem] walking together—indeed that is a sign of unity. And to come here and to be able to see this Manger Square absolutely packed with people and most importantly with indigenous Christians; to celebrate and look forward to this new millennium, certainly it is sign of tremendous hope for the church,” he said. “And not only hope for the church in this land, but hope for the church around the world.”Sitting alongside him was Joe Hale, general secretary of the World Methodist Council, who said the show of Christian unity must come as a surprise to non-Christians. “Many people are confused. They think of the different denominations, the different families of churches, as different religions, when we all really have the same foundation and the same message,” he said.Dr Ishmael Noko, general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, told ENI the gathering of the heads of Jerusalem’s churches in one place had sent a powerful signal to other religions that Christians of different denominations were prepared to make a united stand. “I think it sends a very good message to the religious communities in this land, to the Islamic community and also the Jewish community, that Christians are united and that is very important,” he said.”I don’t think the churches will remain the same. And I think we are moving into the third millennium with some kind of encouragement and good signs that the unity we have been praying for, for so long, is ahead of us.”Also attending was Dr Milan Opocensky, general secretary of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, who also told ENI he was encouraged by the gathering.”I think that it is a sign of unity especially in this part of the world, but I think it is also a sign of unity around the world,” he said. “Because, if the churches in this area, who have been separated very often from each other, if they are able to march, to walk together, then I think it is a very important, symbolic sign.”The Bethlehem event came three weeks before Christmas Eve, when the town is expected to become the focus of attention for many of the world’s Christians as they celebrate the coming of the new millennium in the place where many believe Christianity began, with the birth of Jesus Christ.However, the biggest crowds are expected in March, when Pope John Paul is due to arrive in Bethlehem as part of a visit to the Holy Land. He is also expected to visit Jerusalem and Nazareth, the two other places most closely associated with the life of Jesus.

Copyright © 1999 Ecumenical News International. Used with permission. Related ElsewhereRelated Elsewhere:See our earlier coverage of Israel and the Millennium, “Preparing for Pilgrims | Religious rivalry complicates millennial planning.” (June 14, 1999)In addition to promoting tourism to Jesus’ birthplace, the Bethlehem 2000 Web site offers such strange sayings as “Bethlehem 2000 is the only Truth, the only Way, the only Triumph.” Hmmm.See the New York Times coverage of the event here, but you’ll need to register for the site if you haven’t before.See also the coverage in the UK’s Daily Telegraph, the Boston Globe, or FOX News.

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Amid enthusiastic applause, cheers, whistles and a standing ovation, South Africa’s former president Nelson Mandela paid tribute December 5 to the nation’s religious institutions.Without them, he said, he would not be where he was today.Nelson Mandela is the star speaker at the eight-day Parliament of the World’s Religions (PWR), which ends in Cape Town on 8 December. Yesterday he addressed a plenary session of about 6500 spiritual leaders, their followers and delegates from 90 countries and a broad spectrum of religious traditions.Mandela, in demand the world over for his charisma and for his work as a peacemaker and campaigner for justice, endeared himself to the PWR participants still further when he informed them he had originally been scheduled to be in the United States December 1 for an engagement that had been arranged long ago.”But when I was told about this occasion, I changed my whole itinerary so that I could be here,” he said. “This gathering at the close of our century serves to counter despairing cynicism and calls us to the recognition and reaffirmation of that which is great, generous and caring in the human spirit.”The 81-year-old former head of the liberation struggle against apartheid said his generation was the product of religious education. “We grew up at a time when the government of this country owed its duty only to whites, a minority of less than 15 percent. It took no interest whatsoever in our education.” It was religious institutions—Christian, Muslim, Hindu and Jewish—which bought land, built and equipped schools, employed teachers and paid them.”Without the church religious institutions, I would never have been here today,” Mandela said. “But to appreciate the importance of religion, you have to have been in a South African jail under apartheid, where you could see the cruelty of human beings to others in its naked form. It was again religious institutions who gave us hope that one day we would come out of prison.”This was why he respected religious institutions and tried as much as possible to read the sacred books of the different religions, he added.Moving on from his personal testimony to the work of the PWR, Mandela said: “We shall have to reach deep into our faith as we approach the new century. Religion will have a crucial role to play in guiding and inspiring humanity to meet the enormous challenges that we face.”In South Africa, he said, there was a pressing need for efforts in material and social development and reconstruction to be accompanied by an “RDP of the soul”—a reference to the Reconstruction and Development Program, South Africa’s post-apartheid strategy for economic and social development. “That is no less true of our entire world,” Mandela said.The globalization of the world economy and the advances in communications technology had drawn nations together. Those advances might, however, have contributed to a growing confusion of values, Mandela told the gathering.Religions, like all other aspects of human life, faced their own challenges. “We have seen how religion at times provided the basis and even legitimization to violent expressions of intolerance and hatred. Tragically, religion sometimes seems to have lost its ability to hold people to good values and inspire them.”But few other dimensions of human life reached to such a massive following as religion, in every sphere of society, where even political leaders and the economically powerful had no say.”Hence the importance of religion to draw once more on those resources of spirituality and innate goodness. In drawing upon its spiritual and communal resources, religion can be a powerful partner in meeting the challenges of power, alienation, the abuse of women and children, the destructive disregard for our national environment and of HIV/AIDS,” Nelson Mandela said.Nelson Mandela was honored with two awards during the PWR plenary session December 5—the Juliet Hollister Award and the Gandhi-King Award. Making the first award, Dr Karan Singh, chairman of the Temple of Understanding, described Mandela as “the symbol of the African renaissance, a man who completed the anti-colonial movement begun by Mahatma Gandhi.” The annual Juliet Hollister award is named after the founder of the Temple of Understanding, one of the oldest interfaith movements in the United States. Started in 1960, the Temple of Understanding is based in New York and now works also in India and other countries.The World Movement for Non-Violence presented Mandela with the Gandhi-King Award in recognition of his deep commitment to the principles and practices that guided the lives and actions of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.Copyright © 1999 Ecumenical News International.

Used with permission.Related ElsewhereRelated Elsewhere:See our earlier coverage of the Parliament of the World’s Religions here, as well as today’s other article on the meeting, “First United Nations ‘Spiritual Summit’ Planned | 1,000 of world’s spiritual leaders to meet in August 2000″See also past Christianity Today articles about South Africa:“Truth-Telling on Trial | Will racial reconciliation move beyond amnesty for those who admitted their errors?” (July 12, 1999)”Truth and Consequences in South Africa | A PBS documentary asks what the Truth and Reconciliation Commission achieved.” (April 5, 1999)” ‘How Much Truth Can We Take?‘ | South Africa’s Christian experiment for finding healing from its violent past.” (February 9, 1998)See more coverage of Mandela’s speech at the Parliament of the World’s Religions South Africa site.

Copyright © 1999 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.