Dec 01, 2006   | COMMENTS     

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI and Anglican leader Rowan Williams acknowledged there were “serious obstacles” to closer ties between their churches, a blunt reference to Vatican disapproval of gay bishops, women priests and blessings of same-sex unions in the Anglican Church. Benedict and the Archbishop of Canterbury, talking privately in the papal library and then praying together in a chapel, came together last week to celebrate 40 years of dialogue aimed at uniting the churches split apart in 1534 by King Henry VIII’s anger over the Vatican’s refusal to annul his marriage. But their frank assessment of where relations stand underscored the challenges. The two men in a joint statement expressed gratitude for the efforts at unity and pledged to pursue the path of continuing dialogue. “At the same time, our long journey together makes it necessary to acknowledge publicly the challenge represented by new developments which, beside being divisive for Anglicans, present serious obstacles to our ecumenical progress,” Benedict and Williams said.

Haggard to undergo
‘restoration’ program

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — The big difference between Rev. Ted Haggard’s “restoration” plan and a court-ordered recovery plan will be that he can quit anytime. “He can stop at any time. A guy on parole can’t stop,” Rev. H.B. London of Focus on the Family told the Gazette, a Colorado Springs newspaper. London will serve on Haggard’s counseling team. London, who said he has taken part in many rehabilitations of pastors, said Haggard’s case is similar in that he only admitted his failings when he was caught. Haggard resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals and was fired as head of the New Life Church, which he had founded, after a former male escort alleged Haggard paid him for sex. Mike Jones said he came forward because the pastor was a hypocrite for campaigning against gay marriage. Haggard has said publicly that he got a massage from Jones and was guilty of sexual immorality. “The end goal is to have that person healthy again,” said Tom Pedigo, a Colorado Springs man who wrote a manual on restoration after losing his own ministry for marital infidelity. London agreed. “It’s not so much getting back into ministry that concerns me as seeing them live in peace,” he said. London said.

United Church of Christ welcomes
gay-friendly Dallas megachurch

DALLAS (AP) — The acceptance of a predominantly gay Dallas megachurch into the United Church of Christ means that about a quarter of the mainline denomination’s members in Texas and Louisiana attend the same church. The North Texas Association of the Cleveland-based denomination voted 32-9 last month to admit the 4,300-member Cathedral of Hope after a yearlong courtship. The cathedral bills itself as “the world’s largest liberal Christian church with a primary outreach to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.” The cathedral, which became the fourth largest church in the denomination, was spurred to affiliate with the denomination after its controversial decision last year to endorse gay marriage. It is the largest Christian denomination to do so.

Christian Coalition president-elect
resigns over group’s narrow focus

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The reverend elected to take over as president of the Christian Coalition of America said he will not assume the role because of differences in philosophy. Rev. Joel Hunter, of Northland: A Church Distributed, a Longwood, Fla., church, said last week that the national group would not let him expand the organization’s agenda beyond opposing abortion and gay marriage. This is the latest setback for the group founded in 1989 by religious broadcaster Rev. Pat Robertson. Four states — Georgia, Alabama, Iowa and Ohio — have decided to split from the group over concerns it is changing direction on issues like the minimum wage, the environment and internet law instead of core issues like abortion and same-sex marriage. Hunter, who was scheduled to take over the socially conservative political group Jan. 1, said he had hoped to focus on issues like poverty and the environment. “These are issues that Jesus would want us to care about,” Hunter said. He resigned on Nov. 21 during an organization board meeting.