Briefly noted

Christian Century, Nov 15, 2000

* The membership of the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod dipped slightly in 1999, showing a baptized membership of 2,582,440--a net loss of 11,964 from 1998. Its congregations also reported a tiny decline in average weekly attendance at worship. But giving by congregations surpassed the $1 billion mark for the second year in a row. The average combined amount of giving per confirmed member in 1999 was $570.41, an increase of $8.61. "If you have an aging membership, as in the Missouri Synod, and a smaller membership total, what you have remaining is people who are relatively more committed to the church and are giving more," said John O'Hara, research analyst for the church's planning and research department.

* Faced with bankruptcy due to legal costs, the Anglican diocese of Cariboo, in western Canada, has voted to disband within 12 months. Representatives of the diocese's 17 parishes in north-central British Columbia took the unprecedented--but expected--action October 14 in the face of a string of lawsuits related to abuse more than 30 years ago at St. George's School in Lytton, northeast of Vancouver. David Crawley, archbishop of British Columbia and the Yukon, which includes the Diocese of Cariboo, told Ecumenical News International that until now no Canadian diocese and--as far as he knew--no Anglican diocese worldwide had ever gone bankrupt. Crawley said the only glimmer of hope came with word that Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien was appointing a deputy to seek a way to resolve the crisis by settling claims out of court.

* Mexican Anglicans may once have looked north for leadership, but now "we are looking at each other," said Samuel Espinoza, a priest in the Anglican Church of Mexico. The 30,000-member, five-diocese province achieved autonomy from the U.S. Episcopal Church in 1995. Espinoza said that he personally devotes many afternoons each week to visiting people and families living with AIDS, which is increasingly a national crisis because of high health-care costs. The Anglican Church's Good Samaritan AIDS Ministry, based in Mexico City, is an important outreach of Mexicans to Mexicans. Through a 25-year process, the Anglican Church of Mexico is working to achieve its own financial solvency, he said. Espinoza said he views the relationship between the Mexican church and the U.S. church as "sister-to-sister," no longer as "mother-to-daughter."

* A woman Anglican priest in England would like naturists, or "nudists" to North Americans, "to be given a fair trial" by Christians and churches. "Naturism and Christianity: Are They Compatible?," a booklet written by Karen Gorham, priest-in-charge at St. Paul's Church in Maidstone, and Dave Leal, a lecturer at Regent's Park College in Oxford, traces "outdated" biblical associations of sin with nakedness, dating back to the Garden of Eden. The authors contend that nude baptism of men, women and children together was customary in the early church. Gorham said she was not advocating even seminudity in church today. "It is right and proper to cover up, to acknowledge other people's viewpoint," she said. "But naturism is a growing movement and there will be more Christians in it." In the proper setting, she said, "nude is neither crude nor rude."