Religious Briefs

Baptist leader urges spiritual health exam

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A top Southern Baptist executive says leaders in the convention should examine the spiritual health of the denomination now that theological conservatives have been in control for several years.

Morris Chapman, president of the Southern Baptist executive committee, said his fellow leaders must look at whether the 16.3 million-member church is now better off.

“Is our convention any better spiritually because biblical conservatives are leading?” Mr. Chapman asked Monday during the committee’s winter meeting. “I leave that question for you to answer in the depths of your own heart.”

The conservative resurgence started in 1979, when Southern Baptists angry about what they saw as the liberal direction of their seminaries elected a fellow conservative as the convention president. It was a watershed that began a dramatic shift to the right in the years that followed.

Vatican: Grand sheik to meet pope

VATICAN CITY — The grand sheik at the highest theological college in the Sunni Muslim world has agreed to meet with Pope Benedict XVI in Rome, the Vatican said.

Cardinal Paul Poupard, who leads the Vatican commission on relations with Muslims, went to Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo to meet with Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, grand sheik at the Al-Azhar Mosque, and extended the invitation. It “was accepted with satisfaction,” the Vatican said.

No date was announced for the visit.

Benedict has been trying to improve Christian relations with the Muslim world, particularly since the speech he gave Sept. 12 at Regensburg University in Germany that provoked violent Muslim protests.

Presbyterian leaders plea to keep unity

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The threat of churches departing from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has become so serious that leaders have issued a letter asking them to stay.

The Presbyterian Church, like other mainline Protestant groups, has been struggling for years to reconcile members who disagree over how to interpret Scripture.

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