Ecumenical News International News Highlights - 23 April 2001 A unique gathering in Strasbourg bringing together church leaders from Europe's main Christian traditions and young people from across the continent has ended with the solemn signing of an ecumenical charter intended to boost inter-church relations. At a packed ceremony yesterday (22 April) in Strasbourg's historic St Thomas' Lutheran Church, attended by leading church officials from throughout Europe, Orthodox Metropolitan Jeremie, the president of the Conference of European Churches (CEC), and Cardinal Miloslav Vlk of Prague, president of the Council of European (Catholic) Bishops' Conferences (CCEE), signed the "Charta Oecumenica" - a set of "guidelines" to promote co-operation among churches in Europe.

Russian church objects to new ecumenical charter for Europe's churches Strasbourg (ENI). The Russian Orthodox Church has distanced itself from an ecumenical charter for Europe to be signed here on Sunday, warning that the charter could prove "harmful and counter-productive" to dialogue between churches and might lead to "new divisions" between Christians. The Charta Oecumenica, which has been almost two years in the making, sets down guidelines for ecumenical work in Europe. The Charta will be signed on 22 April in Strasbourg.

Albanian archbishop tells Europe's churches to challenge globalisation Strasbourg (ENI). Albania's Orthodox Archbishop has warned Europe's churches that they risk "betraying the Gospel" if they allow "secular financial and political entities" to dominate the world. Archbishop Anastasios of Tirana and All Albania called on European Christians to work to replace "economic globalisation which leads to the exploitation of many" by an "ecumenical brotherhood that rests upon freedom, respect for one another and love".

'Patients' right to life must have priority over pharmaceutical profits'
Johannesburg, London, New Delhi, Geneva (ENI). Christian officials throughout the world have hailed the decision of 39 pharmaceutical companies to drop their lawsuit against South Africa, permitting the Pretoria government to buy anti-Aids medicine at generic-drug prices. Churches and church agencies in several countries told ENI that the patients' right to life must come before the pharmaceutical companies' desire for profits. But their optimism was tempered by continued uncertainty over whether the medicine will soon be available to the estimated 4.7 million South Africans - or one in nine people - infected with HIV.


Ecumenical News International News Highlights 25 April 2001 - Germany's newest woman bishop wants to be an 'ecumenical' bishop Strasbourg (ENI). "Churches cannot live without the contribution of women, they will be poorer without it," according to Barbel Wartenberg-Potter, who was installed as Lutheran bishop of Holstein-Lubeck, in northern Germany, on 1 April this year. Bishop Wartenberg-Potter, a prominent ecumenist and Germany's third woman bishop, was interviewed by ENI after speaking at a major ecumenical gathering in Strasbourg, France, at the weekend. She said that churches had to "empower women [and] prepare them for leadership".

Sydney (ENI). Anglican Archbishop Peter Hollingworth has been appointed as the Governor-General of Australia. He will be the first churchman to hold the controversial post as representative of Queen Elizabeth II and Australia's constitutional head of state. The appointment has sparked a debate on the separation between church and state and renewed long-running controversy on the relevance of the British monarch, who is also Queen of Australia, and her representative to modern-day Australia.

3,000 U.S. congregations to be surveyed April 29 by John Filiatreau LOUISVILLE, Ky. Presbyterian News Service April 10, 2001 More than 850,000 worshipers from a random sample of more than 3,000 congregations across the United States will be asked to fill out a short survey form during worship on Sunday, April 29. The $1.3 million U.S. Congregational Life Survey is part of a project funded jointly by the Louisville Institute and the Lilly Endowment and supported by the Presbyterian Church (USA). Similar surveys are being conducted in three other countries: England, Australia and New Zealand.

In all, the four-nation study will involve about 2.45 million worshipers from 77 denominations and 17,300 congregations The U.S. survey is expected to produce the first comprehensive statistical portrait of U.S. worshipers and their congregations. When the results have been tabulated, each participating congregation will receive several free reports summarizing the findings and comparing their own responses to those of worshipers across the country. Each will also receive a workbook intended to help congregations find ways to use the information.

The study administrator is U.S. Congregations, an ecumenical religious research group headquartered in the Presbyterian Center at 100 Witherspoon Street in Louisville. More specifically, the planners hope the project will help congregations better understand themselves; develop resources to help congregations assess their ministries and relate more effectively with their communities; create a database that will enable congregations to measure themselves against denominational, national and international benchmarks; and create resources for church leaders and planners. [ For more information: www.uscongregations.org ] Accord brings greater unity to Anglican and French Protestant churches

Ecumenical News International News Highlights - 3 July 2001 (ENI)--With twin signing ceremonies in Canterbury and Paris, an historic accord has come into force between France's main Protestant churches and the Anglican churches of Britain and Ireland. The Reuilly Common Statement commits the churches to sharing "a common life and mission" while taking further steps towards "full visible unity". The Reuilly accord was signed on 1 July in the Saint-Esprit church, Paris, following the counterpart ceremony on 16 June in Canterbury Cathedral World's Methodists to be challenged on global economy