News from the North American Scene: February 19, 1990

ABORTION

March On Washington

An estimated 75,000 prolife activists attempted to seize momentum in the abortion debate last month with the seventeenth annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. At a rally in front of the White House, President Bush addressed the crowd via a telephone hookup.

“I want to share my deep personal concern for abortion on demand, which I oppose,” Bush said. “I think you know my deep conviction against Roe v. Wade. Millions of Americans care, fundamentally, about this issue and are committed to preserving the sanctity of life.”

March organizer Nellie Gray told the throng the real battleground is on Capitol Hill. Gray said there are misconceptions about last year’s Webster decision by the Supreme Court. “Webster did not overturn Roe v. Wade,” she said. “Webster did not turn the abortion issue back to the states. Webster did not give personhood to the preborn children.”

EPISCOPALIANS

Start The Presses

The Episcopal Synod of America (ESA), a self-described “church within a church” formed last summer by traditionalist Episcopalians, will no longer have to use only press releases to voice its grievances with the denomination. The group has launched the publication Foundations.

In the paper’s first issue, editor William Murchison, in calling for a return to traditional values, accused the church hierarchy of having “muffled, played down, reinterpreted” many of the church’s most cherished beliefs. He cited as an example the denomination’s decision in 1976 to open the priesthood to women.

Yet there are signs of disunity in the ESA, whose bishops in the past have said they would cross diocesan lines—with or without permission—to minister to traditionalist congregations who are at odds with their own bishops. The Religious News Service has reported that ESA President Clarence Pope has received an invitation from a traditionalist congregation in another diocese and has so far declined, leading some to call for his ouster. And two of the group’s six active founding bishops have expressed reservations about the ESA.

WORSHIP

Score One For Tradition

More than 10,000 people, ranging in age from 5 to 96, cast a vote for their favorite hymn in a recent nationwide poll conducted by George Plagenz, who writes the syndicated column “Saints and Sinners” for the New York City-based Newspaper Enterprise Association.

The winner was “Amazing Grace.” Plagenz observed, “America’s churchgoers love to sing, and what they love to sing most are traditional hymns.” The rest of the top ten: “How Great Thou Art,” “In the Garden,” “The Old Rugged Cross,” “What a Friend We Have in Jesus,” “A Mighty Fortress,” “Blessed Assurance,” “He Lives,” “Victory in Jesus,” and “Holy, Holy, Holy.”

Thirty-two denominations were represented in the poll, and over 300 hymns received at least one vote. Response was highest from the states of Texas, Oklahoma, Indiana, and Michigan, in that order. Survey respondent George Bush picked the navy hymn, “Eternal Father, Strong to Save,” which failed to make the top 25.

PRESBYTERIANS

A Poll On Homosexuality

In a survey conducted at the request of a Presbyterian Church (USA) task force on human sexuality, 74 percent of the church’s members and 80 percent of the elders surveyed said homosexual sex is “always wrong.” However, half the pastors and 56 percent of specialized clergy agreed with the statement that “the Bible teaches that it is possible to be both Christian and to engage in homosexual activities.”

On the topic of ordination, three-fourths of the members and two-thirds of the pastors expressed disapproval of “the ordination to the Christian ministry of a person who engages in homosexual activities.”

PEOPLE AND EVENTS

Briefly Noted

Defended: By Charles E. Anderson, interim president of the church-related Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania, the school’s decision to make contraceptives available to students provided they agree to counseling. Several of the other 28 colleges associated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America had already taken similar action, but the Gettysburg case drew wide attention because of opposition from board members.

Anderson said the school was concerned that the high incidence of sexually active students was exposing them “to dangerous sexually transmitted diseases.” He said this constitutes an important health issue that can be addressed “through contraceptives and counseling.”

Died: At the age of 58, of a heart attack at his home in Rhode Island, George Peck, the president of Andover Newton Theological School, in Newton Centre, Massachusetts. Peck was a native of Australia and a scholar on world mission and theology, whose essays, sermons, and book reviews have been published in the U.S., Australia, and Asia. He died just two days after returning from a six-month sabbatical spent in Prague, Czechoslovakia.

Hebrew and Yiddish scholar Solomon A. Birnbaum, who established the age and authenticity of the Dead Sea Scrolls shortly after their discovery. A native of Austria, he moved to Canada in 1970 and remained an active scholar until a month before his death on December 28, at the age of 98.

Have something to add about this? See something we missed? Share your feedback here.