eni-summary list Ecumenical News International News Highlights 03 June 2003

Church officials meeting in Geneva reject legitimacy of G-8 summit

Geneva (ENI). Church officials and protestors who met during the summit of the Group of Eight nations in Evian, France, which ended on Tuesday, rejected the legitimacy of the grouping of the most industrialized nations, also known as the G-8. “We see the G-8 as an illegitimate group because they were not elected by anybody to rule the world,” said Rogate Mshana, economy and justice programme executive for the World Council of Churches, at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, about 40 kilometres from the summit. [547 words, 03-0255]

Orthodox leader in Georgia apologises for attack on minority churches

Warsaw (ENI). An Orthodox church leader in the former Soviet republic of Georgia has apologised after appearing on television and urging Georgians to kill members of minority churches. Orthodox Metropolitan Atanase of Rustavi met Malkhaz Songulashvili, president of Georgia’s Union of Evangelical Baptists, and apologised for televised remarks in February in which Atanase said Orthodox Christians should “fight and kill” Baptists, Anglicans, Protestants, Pentecostalists and Jehovah’s Witnesses. [319 words, ENI-03-0254]

Church leaders embark on sea cruise to highlight ecological problems

Stockholm (ENI). European church leaders are to set sail this month for a four-day cruise off the Norwegian coast to focus attention on the environmental dangers facing the North Sea. Led by Patriarch Bartholomeos I, spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, who is sometimes nicknamed the Green patriarch because of his commitment to environmental causes, the 60 participants are scheduled to start the cruise on 22 June. [319 words, ENI-03-0253]

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