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Show Religion The Salt Lake Tribune SATURDAY,May 27, 1995 KIRBY COLUMN Page D-2 SECTIOND NEWS FROM TH { PEWS Page D-3 Doomsayers Having Their Say WORLD VIEW ManSays ‘Cleansing’ Will Begin With LDS Compiled by Peggy Fletcher Stack THE NEW MILLENNIUM Roman Catholic Cardinal Thomas Winning of Glasgowhascalled for an assembly of all Christian groups in Scotland to mark the coming of the new millennium. Winningissuedhiscall in a speech to the general assembly of the Churchof Scotland (Presbyterian). The meeting,hesaid, would discuss and debate secular issues facing Scotland on which the churches have something to say. One such issue could be Britain's involvement in the international arms trade. The Presbyterian body approved a resolution saying the armstrade‘can corrupt moraland financial judgment and adds immeasurablyto the anguish, pain and povertyofusall.” In addition, the general assembly called By Peggy Fletcher Stack LT LAKE scripture, speaking in tongues andtalking with angels Nowthesebelieversare trying to wake up humankind to its imminent demise. “The great cleansing of the Earth is about to begin,” declared a large advertisement in Sunday's Salt Lake Tribune “It will start with those who have been given the mostlight and yet deny his power among them.” The ad wenton to urge people to “seek the spirit of Godin their lives and to come out from underthe bondageof relying on the arm of flesh,” in preparation of a on the British government to support an thousand-year reign international ban on the production and use of land mines. — Religion News Service Qo Christ, natures. It was placed by Mike Rigby, a 39-year-old Orem man whoruns Modern Automated Publishing (M.A.P.) which specializes in life-after-death books. But Rigby denies that he is the leader of any organized group or movement Rather, he insists, he is just one voice testifying of God's continuing spiritual gifts. Rigby said he, like many of those associated with the movement, has been excommunicated from the Mormon Church. But manymore havenot. hesaid. Rigbysaid their revelations do not urge them to practice polygamy, stockpile weapons, escape to the mountains, attack Photosby Paul Fraughton/TheSalt LakeTribune People drive from all over the Salt Lake Valley to attend “First Church,”which boasts a growing congregationof 435. the Romans surveyed for the study said people can be good Catholics withoutfollowing church teachings on sexual morality. And only 14% said abortion alwaysis wrong. More than 70% of those surveyed said they condoned contraceptive birth control, divorce, cohabitation, premarital sex or masturbation. — National Catholic Reporter Oo ® oa ¢ The First United Methodist Church, built around the turn of the century, is reflected in the windowsof the modern-day US WESToffice building in downtownSalt Lake City. BLASPHEMY The headmistress of a governmenthigh school in central Pakistan, the school’s only Christian teacher, has become the ‘first Pakistani Catholic womanto be ac‘cused of blaspheming the prophet Mushammed. Muslim teachersat the school, ‘in Rangpur, 350 miles south of Islamabad, accused Catherine Gulzar,30,of in‘sulting Muhammed during one of her classes. Local Islamic leaders then demandedthat police charge her with blas‘phemy, which carries an automatic death By Peter Scarlet THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Salt Lake City’s First United Methodist Church may be 125 years old and its 435 members may meet in a 90-year-old building, but their reasons for doing so are as contemporaryas ever. “It's a warm andfriendlyplace,” said Doris Waldburger. “I've alwaysfelt like the congregation was family and that I wasa partofit.” Waldburger was one of the congregation's longtime members honored for 50 or more years of continuous membership during the church’s 125th anniversary program Sunday. She has gone to First United Methodist for 51 years. The downtown church was chartered May 20, 1870. Initially, the congregation metin a hayloft overa livery stable at 38 E. 200 South and later at Independence Hall on 300 South and Main. In December 1871, church members began meetingin their own building at 33 E. 300 South. Around the turn of the cen- tury, newandlarger quarters were needed and the current building wasbuilt on the southeast corner of 200 South 200 East. J.C. Penney, who gained fame and wealth by parlaying a store in Kemmerer, Wyo., into a national chain of department stores, made the final mortgage payment on the churchbuilding in honorofhis late wife, Bertha, in fall 1907. The Penneys were church members. The once-imposing church @ See CHURCH, Page D-3 Niederauer to Ordain Colembian-Born Priest “They're coming from a system where the prophettells them what to do and think,” he said. ‘So nowthey want a new leader.” But that is precisely the problem, said Rigby, who compares the movementto a colonyof ants in which each ant performs a specific function and contributes to the whole without central leadership. “The curse of a prophet is depending on him rather than on one’s own revela@ See DOOMSAYERS, Page D-4 TANOD ING Oneof the world’s oldestreligions, Hinduism — better knownas the Vedic religion - accommodates a variety of beliefs that make up the majorreligious tradition of the Indian subcontinent LIT LAKE TRIBUNE Langes J. Silva was 14 years old when he entered seminaryin his native Colombia. In June, he will be Utah's newest RomanCatholic priest when heis ordained by Bishorge H, Niederauer. ince I was a child, I was oriented to the church,” said Silva, who grew up in Medellin. “I was in the youth groups and analtar server for the parish priest.” Silva, 30, will be ordained June3 at 10 a.m. in Salt Lake City's Cathedral of the Madeleine. The next day, he will celebrate his first Mass at noon at Sandy’s Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church, where he workspart-time as a deacon, Silva will be a welcomeaddition to a diocese that may be hard-pressed for enough priests in the next six or seven years, said the Rey, Gerald Lynch, director of vocations for the Utah diocese. “We're OK, but we're not great,” he said. “We're OK in the sense that we can free someone upeach year to go on Divinities Beginnings Datesto 7,000 B.C. "Brahman: The One Practice Universal Spirit Worship:In corer and at home; domestic ines Sacred writings ® Scriptures: ‘The Vedas” # Epics: “The Ramayana" and “The Mahabharata,” including “The Bhagavadgita” ® Puranas ® Philosophy: Six schools, including Vedanta ® Ethics: Dharmasastras or moral codes Where Hinduism is sabbatical, but we have so many priests that arereligious — members of orders — and so manynearing retirement in the next four to five years that we are going to really be pressed to the wall to cover everything.” Lynch, who also serves as pastor of St. @ See NIEDERAUER,D-4 ~ oe a . ve Marguerite's Catholic Church in Tooele, said the diocese's vocations - templerituals for Benson, including posthumous baptism into the Mormon Church. The next morning, Rigby said, Benson and two ofhis friends “showed up in our bedroom. “Tt was fascinating,” he said Forthefirst six months, Rigbysaid, he didn’t tell a soul of his otherworldlycallers. Nowheis readyto tell the world. “We are raising the consciousness of people,” Rigby said this week. The destruction will begin in Utah with those Mormons“unwilling to accept additional light and truth.”” That includes current members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as wellasall the breakawaygroups such as the polygamists of Manti lead by Jim Harmston, Rigbysaid People whohearhis story want to join with him or formanorganization. induism By Peter Scarlet — Catholic News Service Qo is dwarfed bythe glassy high-rise US WEST Communications office building directly to its east, but the solid cross at its top remains a symbol of an enduring faith and religious communitythat continues to draw communicants. Waldburger wasstill in high school whenshe joined the church andits choir. Shealso recalls joining a short-lived ecumenical basketball team for womenin the 1940s. It competed with teams fielded by several other Salt Lake-area churches. It UNDER THE§ now the U.S. government, stop paying taxes or establish a church Rigby’s sojourn with the supernatural began when he published Life in the World Unseen, a book purportedly dictated by Robert Hugh Benson, an Anglican priest who died in 1914 The book describes theafterlife, allegedly from Benson's experience, Rigby said, and “it went along with LDS doctrine.” Bensoncould not reach “the upper levels of heaven’ without the appropriate signs and symbols, Rigby said. So Rigby and his wife Carol went to the Mormon temple in Provo to perform vicarious Mark 125 Years in S.L. STRAYING ROMANS The pope’s flock has goneastrayin his own back yard, according to a study by the University of Turin commissioned by the Rome Diocese. It said that nearly 80% ofthe city’s residents consider themselves Catholic, but that fewer than half believein an afterlife or in Christianity as the one true religion. Three-fourths of ~ Jesus three-quarters of a page, carried 75 sig- FEDERALCRITIC The Rev. Thom White Wolf Fassett, head of the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, has called on President Clinton and Congressto better control the Central Intelligence Agency. He said the federal agencyhas “noright to interferein the internal affairs of foreign nations.” He suggested the agencyshould be replaced with an in intelligence-gathering agency that functions only “‘in relationship to nations that are a direct security threat to the United States.” His comments cameafter recent disclosures by Rep. RobertTorricelli, D-N.J., that a Guatemalan colonel on the CIA payroll was responsible for at least two murders involving Americancitizens. — United Methodist Communications o ‘ECOLOGICAL STANDARDS Environmentalofficers from churches ‘all over Europe have called for ‘mini‘mumecological standards” in church life after a meeting in Germany. Theenviron‘mentalofficers warned that there was a ‘theological and ethicaldeficit in environimentalreflection and action. It was the ‘first time the churches’ environmentalof‘ficers have met at a Europeanlevel, ac‘cording to Rudiger Noll, secretary for Yustices, peace and humanrights of the ‘Conference of European Churches (CEC), which sponsored the meeting in coopera‘tion with the Protestant Academyin Mul‘heim/Ruhr, Germany. The conference, ‘with the theme "Protecting our environment — safeguarding God's creation” — took place from April 18 to May4. Partic ‘ipants were briefed on the results of a United Nations conference in Berlin on climate change. — Ecumenical News International by known asthe millennium. The $4,300 ad, which covered nearly NO MILITARY TAXES A Canadian government official told Mennonite and Quaker groups recently that the government would consider a proposalallowing taxpayersto legally divert part of their income tax away from military spending. The church groups have been pushing for the establishment of a Peace Tax Fund as an independent entity to which Canadians could redirect tax dollars. The governmenthasrejected the idea becauseit would not have control over a special fund. Instead, Finance Ministry officials said the government“‘is receptive” to the idea of finding a means to accommodatetheconscientious objectors to military spending within the current tax code and without creating another tax-receiving body. — Religion News Service Oo penalty TRIBUNE Dozens of current and former Mormonssay they are having visions, writing and regenerator Divine consorts Saktis (Energies) ® Saraswati, of Brahma ® Lakshmi, of Visnu © Parvati, of Shiva Sacred symbol fZ The written formof the Sanskrit word “om,” which is used as an object of meditation NY ORR Re aa REG SOURCES: Muttifaith Resources, Dictionary of World Religions, World Book 4 ‘ Knight Ridder 4 |