Religion news 4 July 2022

Congolese mass at the Vatican. Image credit: Vatican news

Church leaders issue messages to DRC and South Sudan

The Pope, the Moderator of the Church of Scotland and the Archbishop of Canterbury have each issued video messages to the people of Democratic Republic of the Congo and south Sudan, whom they were due to visit this week. The trip was cancelled due to the Pope’s mobility issues, but he sent a cardinal to visit instead and celebrated mass at the Vatican for the Congolese community. His message spoke of the need for reconciliation as people were tired of war and hungry from famine. Archbishop Justin Welby echoed the theme and said he prayed for people to change the spirit of revenge into the spirit of reconciliation. The Church of Scotland has links with the Presbyterian Church of South Sudan and is actively engaged in a peace and reconciliation programme. Its moderator, the Rev Dr Iain Greenshields, looked forward to a time when they could reschedule the visit.

Catholic church signs agreement with DRC government

The Pope sent his emissary, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, to visit the Democratic Republic of the Congo this weekend. While there the Congolese Catholic Bishops’ Conference signed a formal agreement with the government to define the church’s legal status in the areas of health, finance, pastoral care, and social services. This recognises the official status of the church, which had previously been registered as a non-profit organization.

US separation of religion and state ‘under threat’

The recent decisions of the US Supreme Court represent “a desperate power-grab as the sun is setting on white Christian America”, according to Robert P Jones, president and founder of Public Religion Research Institute in the United States. He told The Guardian that the US faces an “apartheid situation” where there is minority rule “by this shrinking group that’s been able to seize the levers of power, even as their cultural democratic representation in the country shrinks.” His critique follows recent decisions — the overturning of Roe v Wade, the rights of a high school football coach to pray on a field after a game, the rights of a controversial Christian group to fly the flag at Boston City Hall, and allowing taxpayers’ money to be spent on religious schools in Maine. The Guardian quotes opinion that Thomas Jefferson’s separation of religion and state is under threat and this is a danger to democracy. Elsewhere, in the Jewish Chronicle, writer Hadley Freeman says American evangelism has “shacked up” with American individualism and she sees an unrecognisably fanatical religious country, in which she can never imagine living again.

Orthodox split in Ukraine as ties with Moscow are severed

The Financial Times considers the rift in the Orthodox church within Ukraine, as the war has forced a decision to split away from Russia. At the start of the war there were two branches, one Orthodox church of Ukraine under the Patriarch in Constantinople, and the other aligned to Patriarch Kirill in Moscow. This was the largest group, with 12,000 churches, a third of all Russian Orthodox churches. But at the end of May, it decided to sever ties with Moscow. Now the Orthodox Times reports that there is confusion over how these two churches in Ukraine will work together, and how they are organised within Orthodoxy.

Police free 77 people locked in a church awaiting the Second Coming

In Nigeria, police have freed 77 people, including children, from a church where they were locked in for months awaiting the second coming of Jesus. Police said many in the group had expected Jesus to return in April and some children had abandoned school in expectation. The alarm was raised when a mother reported her children as missing. The pastor and deputy leader of the Whole Bible Believers Church in the Valentino area of Ondo Town, has been arrested. BBC story here

Book of Mormon show in Newcastle turned into evangelism

Theatre goes in Newcastle who watched the musical The Book of Mormon, which sends up the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, emerged to find real life members of the church giving out leaflets. The BBC quotes a church elder saying they weren’t trying to recruit, simply to spark a conversation. A theatre goer said when she saw them in their neat shirts, with smart tie and tidy hair, she thought it was part of the show. When she discovered they were for real, she said “It made me think they have a sense of humour” and reflected they probably thought no publicity is bad publicity.

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