Notes on Church-State Affairs

Abstract

St. Mark's Anglican Church in Melbourne became the first Anglican church to apologize to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community for past hurts caused by church teachings. Anthony Venn-Brown, a Christian gay activist, spoke and accepted the apology. He said that, while it did not right all past wrongs, it did represent “the potential for healing and reconciliation” within the Anglican community. Deputy Prime Minister Sok An and U.S. diplomat Jeff Dingle participated in a ceremony marking the return of three Hindu statues to the Koh Ker Temple in Siem Reap Province. The statues had been looted during the Cambodian civil war and wound up in the United States, but the auction houses Sotheby's and Christie's and the Norton Simon Museum of California returned them as a gesture of goodwill. The National Assembly of Quebec passed a law legalizing euthanasia for the terminally ill. The law says that a person of sound mind who is experiencing unbearable physical and psychological pain can request a lethal injection. The status of the law, however, is unclear since the federal government creates the criminal code and that code bans euthanasia. The Quebec law does not use the term euthanasia and instead refers to “medical aid to the dying.” Other places that have legalized euthanasia are the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg.