SOUTH CAROLINA: TALK AT EPISCOPAL FORUM CENTERS ON WAYS TO AVOID SCHISM

Associated Press 2/22/2004

CHARLESTON, S.C. - Theological differences over homosexuality are causing rifts in the Episcopal Church, but they do not have to be fatal to the church's unity, according to speakers at a forum here.

Nearly 200 Episcopalians from around the state gathered Saturday to discuss ways of coping with conflicts over the 2003 confirmation of V. Gene Robinson, the denomination's first openly gay bishop.

Clergy and laity, most from the Charleston-based Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina, gathered for "Seeking Unity in Diversity," a conference set up by the Episcopal Forum of South Carolina. The Mount Pleasant-based group was formed to help members of the diocese try to find common ground despite differences over Robinson's confirmation.

"Our goal today was to get some constructive conversation going within the Episcopal Church because there is so much polarization in the church and in our diocese," said Lynn Pagliaro of Mount Pleasant, one of the Forum's board members. "Members of the diocese want to learn about different opinions on these issues, and we see ourselves as an ongoing place for conversation within the Episcopal Church."

The Rt. Rev. Edward L. Salmon, bishop of the Diocese of South Carolina, has been one of the most vocal opponents of Robinson's confirmation. In December, the diocese he leads became one of four charter members of the Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes. The network is for Episcopalians opposed to Robinson's confirmation.

Network membership, as well as differences of opinion over Robinson, same-sex unions and other issues have caused distress among many lay members of the diocese.

The only way to continue conversation between the two sides is to recognize the seriousness of the step the Episcopal Church took in affirming Robinson, said the Rev. Kendall Harmon, the diocese's canon theologian. "This is a debate about essentials," he said.

Both Harmon and the Very Rev. William McKeachie, dean of the Cathedral Church of St. Luke and St. Paul, challenged Robinson's supporters to come up with a way to reconcile gay relationships with Scripture.

"The biblical case for monogamous, heterosexual unions has not suddenly been proven wrong," McKeachie said. "... If schism and the breaking up of the Anglican Communion is incipient, it is not, in the view of the Diocese of South Carolina, we who caused the schism."

McKeachie said both sides need to work out a theological compromise, such as the statement worked out at the 1988 General Convention that recognizes abortion as legal but also as a serious matter.

The Very Rev. Samuel Candler, dean of the Cathedral of St. Philip in Atlanta, said he believes in "the possibility that certain same-sex relationships can offer the grace of God."

Many members said they were encouraged after the daylong conference. "I think this is a step in the right direction," said Georgia Ann Porcher, a member of Grace Episcopal Church in Charleston.

FAITH UNDER FIRE - HUGE CHRISTIAN GROWTH SHOCKS CHINA'S LEADERS - CRACKDOWN REPORTEDLY SPARKED BY NEW VIDEO, BOOKS RELEASED IN U.S.

February 20, 2004 Christianity Today

More than 50 Chinese Christians, including three prominent Protestant leaders have been arrested in a new crackdown that follows the release of a video and book in the United States documenting the massive growth of the unregistered, or "underground" church.

A report by the evangelical magazine Christianity Today said the crackdown began during a meeting of China's top officials in charge of regulating religion.

"They will especially hunt those in Beijing," a Hong Kong source told CT. "It took them by surprise that there were so many Christians in China. Every week pastors are arrested and thrown in jail. The communists see Christians as a threat because there are [more] Christians than party members."

China has more than 15 million Christians in government-sanction churches but as many as 80 million in unregistered congregations branded by the communist regime as "illegal cults," though estimates vary widely.

Fifty or more Christians were arrested in January after communist leaders viewed a new video, "The Cross: Jesus in China," produced by a California-based group, China Soul for Christ Foundation, CT said.

The Chinese officials also were briefed on a new book that shows the extraordinary growth of the church in China and its potential to transform the nation in coming decades, "Jesus in Beijing," by former Time magazine Beijing bureau chief David Aikman.

The digitally formatted video, which has been widely distributed across China, has been classified as "political matter" and confiscated by police along with other Christian literature, the CT report said.

In January police arrested three prominent Protestant leaders from Henan province, Qiao Chunling, 41, Deborah Xu Yongling, 58, and Zeng Guangbo, 35. Guangbo escaped two days after his arrest and remains in hiding, CT said.

The crackdown, which began at China's annual National Religious Working Conference, could last for 30 days and become as brutal as the repression of the Falun Gong sect, which has resulted in hundreds of deaths, according to a watchdog group.

Liu Zhenying a Chinese Christian leader imprisoned many times who now lives in Germany, told CT China's communist officials are trying to split unofficial groups any way they can.

"They tried to isolate one house-church group, now to single them out. By doing that, they can divide house-church unity," he said in an interview at the recent National Prayer Breakfast in Washington. "This purpose is very obvious, very evil. We really prayed the eyesight, the insight, the discernment of the eagle to really clearly see this trap of Satan."

Liu, better known as Brother Yun, said China uses "international propaganda" to deceive Westerners and promote China's policy stance toward religion.

Top Christian leaders are invited to travel through China to see first-hand how the government allows churches to operate openly, but this does not present the full picture, he told CT.

The Chinese government considers all Protestant churches outside the official government-controlled Three-Self Patriotic Movement to be subversive. The official churches are restricted, to varying degrees around the country, in their doctrine and practice. Catholics also are restricted to a government-controlled church, which is not allowed to recognize the authority of the pope.

As WorldNetDaily reported, a video recently was smuggled out of China documenting the destruction of an unregistered church in Zhejiang Province, according to Voice of the Martyrs.

In November, Chinese

Continue

officials closed 125 places of worship, affected 3,000 Christians.