News round-up

C.S. Lewis Company authorizes new Narnia books

Aslan will roar again, in a new series of books set in Narnia and authorized by the C.S. Lewis Company, reports The Sunday Times. Simon Adley, managing director of the Company, says, "What we wanted to avoid is what I call the Pooh situation. In other words, exploitation of the books," which is a charge some critics have levelled at Disney, which has profited handsomely from its use of A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh. "We're looking for established children's fantasy writers who will not mimic Lewis," Adley says. Susan Katz, president of HarperCollins' children's division, says the new books "will not be sequels as such, but books using the same characters and with story lines which fill in the gaps of existing ones."

United Church lawyers pack their bags for Bermuda

This summer, the United Church of Canada is sending lawyers to Bermuda to appeal a court ruling that could pave the way for congregations to leave the fold and take church property with them if they are unhappy with the Church's doctrine on sexuality, reports The National Post. The lawyers will ask the Appeal Court of Bermuda to strike down a 1998 decision allowing one congregation to take its church buildings away from the Methodist Church of Bermuda. The judge in that case gave the church property to the group which, in his opinion, adhered most closely to traditional Methodist theology. For another look at the tension between law and theology in current debates over sexuality, see this weekend's story about recent developments in the Anglican Diocese of New Westminster.