RELIGION BRIEFING

Saturday, February 2, 2008

BAHAI FAITH IN EGYPT

Families Allowed New ID Cards

An Egyptian court ruled Tuesday that members of the Bahai faith can get new identification cards that don't state their religious affiliation, ending four years of court controversies.

The decision follows an appeal filed by two Bahai families who were refused ID cards by the Egyptian interior ministry because their religion is not recognized under the law. Egypt recognizes only Judaism, Christianity and Islam and requires ID papers and other documents, such as birth certificates, to state a person's religion.

The court said the Bahais would be "allowed to put a hyphen" in the religion column in documents instead of filling it out. The two Bahai families had asked the court allow them to leave the column blank.

-- Associated Press

ISLAMIC HEAD SCARVES

Turkey Lifts Ban at Universities

Turkey's ruling party and an opposition party have agreed to lift a decades-old ban on Islamic head scarves at universities in the mainly Muslim but secular nation.

A constitutional change would need a two-thirds majority in the 550-seat assembly, but the two parties have more than enough legislators.

The wearing of head scarves in universities was banned shortly after a military coup in 1980, but enforcement of the ban has varied over the years.

-- Associated Press

CINCINNATI CATHOLIC SCHOOLS

Students Barred From Body Exhibit

The Roman Catholic archbishop of Cincinnati has barred Catholic schools from visiting a controversial science exhibit on the human body, saying that it "fails to respect the persons involved."

"Bodies . . . The Exhibition," which displays preserved human cadavers and organs to demonstrate how the body works, is in a seven-month run at Cincinnati's Museum Center.

"The public exhibition of plasticized bodies, unclaimed, unreverenced, and unidentified . . . is unseemly and inappropriate," Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk said. "I do not believe that this exhibit is an appropriate destination for field trips by our Catholic schools."

The traveling exhibit, on view in 10 cities around the world, has drawn 4 million visitors, organizers said. The cadavers are unclaimed or unidentified bodies from a university in China, according to Premier Exhibitions, the group that runs the exhibit.

-- Religion News Service

ENGLISH CHURCH FUNDRAISER

Rare Sparrow Attracts Donors

A tiny bird blown across the Atlantic Ocean from America on winter winds is helping to raise money to repair the roof of an ancient church in the English village where it landed.

The white-crowned North American sparrow, a rare visitor to Britain's shores, has become an attraction for "twitchers" -- bird spotters -- in the Norfolk village of Cley Next the Sea and a fundraiser for the settlement's Church of St. Margaret of Antioch.

The twitcher tourists turning up in the thousands to view the seven-inch sparrow have chipped in more than $6,000 in donations that will be used to mend the church's 13th-century roof.

-- Religion News Service

MINNESOTA PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Gay Man's Ordination Is Restored

Minnesota Presbyterians have voted to restore the ordination of an openly gay man who has refused to pledge celibacy, the latest test of revamped pastoral guidelines in the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Paul Capetz, a seminary professor, asked to be removed from ministry in 2000 after the church voted to require that ministers be married to a member of the opposite sex or remain celibate. But changes made in 2006 allow candidates for ordination to declare a conscientious objection to church rules.

The Presbytery of San Francisco became the first to test the policy when it voted to allow a lesbian to continue on her path to ministry. An openly gay Wisconsin man is also in the beginning stages of seeking ordination.

-- Religion News Service