NASHVILLE, USA - The United Methodist Church has made its final payment from a $23 million fund created to address pay inequities between the denomination's white and minority clergy.
The Temporary General Aid Fund was created in 1964, as Methodists planned for the integration of white and racially segregated sections of the denomination, which occurred four years later.
The money was used to increase pension and minimum salaries in the former Central Jurisdiction and the Rio Grande Annual Conference, the divisions for black and Hispanic members respectively, which were formed in 1939.
The final payment of $11,000 was made at the end of last year, marking the dissolution of the Temporary General Aid Fund.
CHICAGO (AP) - The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago plans to close 14 elementary schools in the city and suburbs because of continued low enrollment and dwindling finances. The archdiocese also will consolidate two schools and open three new ones.
The changes are expected to uproot 2,390 students in the nation's largest Catholic school system. Displaced students and staff will be sent to other archdiocese schools, according to Monday's announcement.
Many of the schools scheduled to close are in poor neighborhoods, where parishes are not able to subsidize the schools on their own. Eleven of the closures are in Chicago and the others are in west suburban Cicero and Melrose Park and south suburban Harvey.
``We are not turning our backs on any of those children,'' said Nicholas Wolsonovich, superintendent of archdiocesan schools. ``Even though we are closing these 14, we still have 91 Catholic schools that serve the inner city. We feel the remaining schools will be stronger because of this.''
Archdiocesan officials said changing demographics, smaller families and decreased enrollment were factors that contributed to the closures. Administrators also blamed the dwindling number of nuns, who serve as an inexpensive teaching force.
Some parents say they will work to prevent the closures.
``We are going to do a petition drive and we are going to fight,'' said Olintha Smith, who has three children and one grandchild at Blessed Sacrament-Our Lady of Lourdes School, and graduated from the Chicago school herself in 1969.
- New Hampshire Episcopalian still has hopes of being the first openly gay bishop
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - A clergyman who has sought six times to become the Episcopal Church's first openly gay bishop may try again when New Hampshire's bishop retires in 2004.
Search committee guidelines for the next bishop will be released later this year.
``It would be fair to say that I'm very open to the possibility,'' said the Rev. Canon Gene Robinson, assistant to the current bishop, the Right Rev. Douglas Theuner. ``My being gay is rarely alluded to by me or the congregation.''
Theuner, bishop for 16 years and a gay rights advocate, declined comment.
In Robinson's previous bids to become a bishop, he narrowly lost among both clergy and lay delegates in Rochester, N.Y., in 1999, and came in third behind two local candidates in Newark, N.J., in 1998.
The Episcopal Church is divided over homosexual clergy and same-sex unions. A 1979 church resolution that discourages homosexuality is not binding church law, so dioceses set their own policies.
SEATTLE (AP) - About 80 churches hope to win converts to Christianity by mailing 42,000 unsolicited copies of the film ``Jesus'' to every household in four Seattle-area ZIP codes.
Local churches including Roman Catholic, Lutheran and other denominations spent more than two years raising $115,000 to fund the video project, which begins this month. The 1979 film depicts the life of Christ, according to the Gospel of St. Luke.
The churches plan another mass-mailing to six more ZIP codes in October.
``I thought, 'Wouldn't this be a nice thing to do to serve God,''' said Ann Requa, a parishioner of the Catholic St. Francis of Assisi Church in Seahurst.
Groups around the country have distributed some 14 million Jesus videos, including some sent to communities in Washington state.
Campus Crusade for Christ International, an interdenominational ministry based in Orlando, Fla., distributes the video and conducts training sessions for grass-roots groups that want to distribute it. The goal of Campus Crusade's Jesus Video Project America is to get the video to every household in America.
``Are we looking for converts? Yes, we are,'' Gib Martin, a nondenominational pastor and chairman of the Southwest Seattle Jesus Video Project. ``But it's also a gift we're offering to the community. It's a natural way to learn about what Christianity is. It doesn't have to be conversion. It's just good, historical information.''
The aggressive mailing effort has offended some recipients in some other areas. About 100 cassettes were returned to the post office in East Contra Costa, Calif. Hundreds of tapes were ``returned to sender'' in Palm Beach County, Fla., which has a large Jewish population.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Financial woes have forced the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to drop plans for a denominational welcome center at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
The denomination had hoped to raise up to $7 million to build a center for worship and hospitality in the state where 70 percent of residents are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
``We scrapped the project because it was just too much money and not enough time,'' said the Rev. Robert Sheldon of the Rocky Mountains synod. ``It was just impossible.''
The Welcome Center was to house big-screen televisions broadcasting Olympic events, while offering Bible lessons and worship in a 10,000-square-foot sanctuary. Multimedia presentations on Presbyterian missions were also planned.
Summit Presbyterian Church of Park City, Utah, a recently chartered congregation, had hoped to make the new center its home when the Olympics ended.
CHICAGO (AP) - Orthodox Christian Laity, which represents several U.S. Eastern Orthodox churches, has assumed financial responsibility to operate Orthodox News, a Web site that provides information to church members.
Orthodox News publisher Stephen Angelides said the growing volume of stories became too great for his small editorial staff. He felt Orthodox Christian Laity had better resources to operate the service.
The site was launched in 1999, weeks after news and commentary disseminated by a now-defunct Web site had helped topple the U.S. leader of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, Archbishop Spyridon. Critics had accused the archbishop of stifling dissent.
Orthodox News is edited by administrative law judge Stephen Angelides, a Greek layman, from his home near Oakland, Calif. Production manager D. J. King, a computer programming executive, belongs to the Orthodox Church in America.
Orthodox Christian Laity, founded in 1987 with offices in Chicago, is currently promoting more independence for Greek Orthodoxy from the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarch as a step toward a self-governing church that would unite the various Orthodox jurisdictions in the United States.