Word: synods
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...named him Archbishop of Munich in 1977, Ratzinger found an ally in a fellow Cardinal who shared his view of the church as the bulwark against barbaric atheism and dehumanizing secularism: Karol Wojtyla, the Archbishop of Cracow and the future John Paul II. Both were members of the worldwide Synod of Bishops -- an advisory council to the Pope. In 1980, two years after his accession, John Paul asked Ratzinger to join him in Rome. The Pontiff was turned down -- twice. Finally Ratzinger laid out his conditions. He would come only if he could continue to speak his mind on matters...
...THEIR PART, THE BISHOPS AND PRIESTS GAVE strong approval. But among lay delegates at the Church of England's synod in London, the historic ballot that approved women as priests reached the required two-thirds by a margin of just two votes. That close decision broke 19 centuries of tradition, and it brings pressure to bear on men-only branches in the worldwide Anglican Communion (70 million members) to imitate the English mother church, U.S. Episcopalians and others. (Australia's Anglicans are expected to authorize women this week.) In England one-fourth of the bishops and priests remain strongly opposed...
...vote's angry aftermath, rumblings of schism erupted not only in England but all across the Anglican Communion, with its 70 million members worldwide. Outside the synod hall, while women and their male supporters cheered and hugged, angry conservatives warned that thousands of members and clergymen would leave the church in protest. "I have become more and more disillusioned with the Church of England," declared Ann Widdecombe, an M.P. and junior minister in the Conservative government who quit the church after the vote. "Its doctrine is doubt, its creed is compromise, and its purpose appears to be party politics. This...
...United Church of Christ (1.6 million members). Next week's national synod will discuss how to deal with clergy who are involved in nonmarital relations...
...last month, Dutch Reformed Church theologian Willie Jonker declared apartheid a sin and confessed his guilt as well as that of the church and "the Afrikaner people as a whole." Although his declaration caused an uproar, his statements echoed a historic resolution adopted two weeks earlier at a church synod. Former President P.W. Botha briefly emerged from seclusion to express his anger. "The Afrikaners, my people, were not oppressors," he insisted. But progressive Afrikaners are advocating that the government take the matter further by actually apologizing to blacks and providing restitution for the damage done by apartheid...