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The
church gets a wake-up call from persecuted believers
London, November 26th, 2003 (ACPress.net).
More than 1,000 people
heard speakers from around the globe give first-hand accounts
of the growing hardship faced by Christians around the world
who are persecuted for their faith.
Impassioned pleas went out for British Christians to use their
freedom to speak out for the persecuted church at what was believed
to be the world's largest Christian human rights conference
in London on Saturday, November 15th. The conference was held
jointly by two British human rights organisations, Christian
Solidarity Worldwide and Release International, at Westminster
Chapel. Delegates heard stories of faith under fire from Indonesia,
India, Peru, Nigeria, North Korea, Iraq, Sudan and the Middle
East.
Christian Solidarity Worldwide's President, Baroness Caroline
Cox, warned: "The church is asleep. Militant Islam is rapidly
gaining ground." "In India, if we raise our voice,
we become targets for assassins," said Joseph D'Souza.
"In the West, if you raise your voices, you become weapons
in the hands of God." "I have a problem with the phrase
'silent majority'," said Eddie Lyle of Release International.
"We are praying today for a noisy majority that will become
the voice of the persecuted church. We have been quiet for too
long."
Source: Assist News Service. Editing: ACPress.net
No altar
girls, thank you
Madrid, November 26th, 2003 (ACPress.net).
The corridors of the
Vatican are humming with activity as a document on alleged abuses
of the Communion service is being prepared.
The text, written in Latin, runs to 9 chapters and 200 paragraphs,
and highlights 37 liturgical abuses, most of them to do with
the Eucharist or Communion service. Abuses covered include women
participating in the administration of the bread and wine, dance
in the service, applause or unofficial texts used. The confirmation
of such bans has dismayed more liberal Catholics who would like
to see the liturgy 'freed up', rather than accentuating the
distance between the clergy and the laity.
Liberal elements want to see the Eucharist revitalised through
new ways of celebrating it. One opponent of the forthcoming
document is José María Arnaiz, General Secretary
of the Union of General Superiors. He considers it dangerous
that the defilement of the bread is classified at the same level
of abuse as the use of altar girls. Paragraph 40 though may
leave the door open for a particular bishop to give permission
to use girls, presumably in situations where there are no boys
available.
Arnaiz admits abuses exist but fears the document focuses too
heavily on correcting them rather than on revitalising the ceremony.
However, not all agree. Jaime Sancho, Chairman of the Liturgy
Commission in the Catholic diocese of Valencia, says the document
"only goes against excesses which disfigure the liturgy."
He is concerned at the use of rock or popular music, or of creating
an atmosphere at Communion more akin to a political meeting.
He also condemned what he called 'false information' that said
the document banned guitars, applause or other practices.
Source: ABC. Editing: ACPress.net
Fear
of hell knocks 20 years off your life
Berlin, November 26th, 2003 (ACPress.net).
The German Christian
television channel 'Bible TV' ended its first year of broadcasting
via satellite and cable, saying that 10,000 people had contacted
it as a result of its programmes.
It is estimated that between 200,000 and 300,000 viewers turn
on each day, especially for the programme 'Book of books', according
to the Director, Henning Roehl.
A German magazine, 'Neues Leben', says that it is worth being
a Christian as they live longer. Psycho-therapist Ulrich Giesekus
says Christians live without anxiety, on average live to 84
years of age, whereas atheists and agnostics only make it to
73, while those who live in fear of hell only live to an average
age of 64.
Source: MILAMEX. Editing: ACPress.net
Alice
Cooper talks about his faith in God
London, November 26th, 2003 (ACPress.net).
"I have always been
convinced that there was only one God and that Jesus Christ
existed, as did the devil. You cannot believe in God without
believing in the devil. When you believe in God you have to
believe in the Almighty. He is not just God, He is the all-powerful
God and He has the control over the lives of everyone."
Words from a converted ex-hell-raiser - male pop star Alice
Cooper.
"The devil, on the other hand, is someone who is trying
to destroy your life as much as he can. If you believe it is
just mythology, you are a primary target because this is exactly
what Satan wants: to be a myth. But he is not a myth. God pulls
us in one direction and the devil in another, we have to use
our choice. This does not speak to my intellect nor to my logic,
it speaks directly to my heart and soul. And I believe it totally."
Cooper adds: "I am not a very good Christian. I mean that
none of us is a very good Christian. When you are a Christian,
it does not mean you are going to be good, it means you have
a difficult path to tread." Cooper has always kept his
Christianity as something private, and has rarely preached at
someone through a song, except perhaps in 'My God of the lance
and whisky.' He thinks people are anxiously seeking answers.
"People do not feel satisfied with how many cars they own
or with their actions. Even addicts say, it doesn't matter how
many drugs I take, I am not satisfied. There is spiritual hunger."
So says Cooper, himself now free of his alcoholism.
Source: LA RAZÓN. Editing: ACPress.net
Baptists
to darken the door of the Vatican
Rome, November 26th, 2003 (ACPress.net).
Many a good Baptist should
be shaking in his boots. The first weekend in December sees
a meeting in the Vatican between the papal commission for Christian
unity and representatives of the World Baptist Alliance.
The purpose of the talks is to discuss the theological issues
on which they have obvious differences, such as justification
by faith, or the ministry of Peter. The Baptist delegates are
Theo Angelov from Bulgaria, Tadeusz Zielinki from Poland, Tarmo
Toom from Estonia, Nigel Wright from Great Britain, Ziljko Mraz
from Croatia, Jorge Pastor from Spain, Tony Cupit from Australia
and Denton Lotz, Executive Secretary of the Alliance.
Source: Alfa y Omega. Editing: ACPress.net
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Two
men arrested for murder of Mexican pastor
Chiapas, November 26th, 2003 (ACPress.net).
Two members of an ultra-Catholic
group in San Juan Chamula have been arrested on suspicion of
murdering an evangelical pastor, Mariano Méndez Díaz,
on October 24th.
Another pastor, Esdras Alonso, reminded journalists that only
a few weeks earlier another evangelical minister, Jairo Solís,
was also murdered. The "cowardly murder" of Méndez,
he said, is "a return to the radical attitudes of the traditional
local 'lords' in San Juan Chamula." The murder caused outrage
in evangelical circles in Chiapas and hundreds marched with
the body of Méndez through the streets.
Police are maintaining a strong presence in the area to try
and prevent clashes between Catholics and evangelicals in the
wake of the arrests. A group of evangelicals held a meeting
with the Governor of Chiapas, Pablo Salazar, to express their
fears of more ambushes and to call on the authorities to disarm
those who use violence against them. Their fears are not without
foundation, as Méndez was killed at a place where evangelicals
used to meet for prayer and meditation. Méndez, a member
of the indigenous community, was shot twice with a rifle.
Meanwhile, the Mayor of Chamula, José Gómez, denied
that there was a religious motive in the killing. He also denied
the involvement of members of his Council, given that the Organisation
of Evangelicals in Chiapas Heights (OPEACH) had earlier accused
some of them of selling high-powered arms to different groups,
among whom were some traditionalist Catholics.
Such denials fly in the face of the evidence, as local magnates
encourage the use of violence against evangelicals and, as OPEACH
spokesman Aureliano López points out, "the local
authorities are precisely the ones who finance and buy arms."
He adds that he cannot understand why the goverment does not
act agains these local 'lords' who maintain power through corruption,
blackmail and other kinds of pressure including violence and
forcing people to buy from them. Evangelicals refuse to accept
this pressure and set up their own markets, and because they
are teetotallers, they do not form part of the lucrative alcohol
trade run by the local magnates. Their lifestyle also encourages
non-Christian indigenous people to control their own business
as well.
The Roman Catholic bishop said it required an effort from all
concerned, starting with the Federal Government, to bring peace
to the region.
Source: unrecorded. Editing:
ACPress.net
WACC
in Latin America has new Chairman
Sao Paulo, November 26th,
2003 (ACPress.net).
The regional assembly
for Latin America of the World Association of Christian Communicators
(WACC) elected Dennis Smith as its new Chairman. Smith is an
American Presbyterian missionary who has worked in Guatemala
for 27 years.
Smith also coordinates a pastoral communication programme in
Central America, and is Chairman of the Guatemala Committee
of Verification for Behavioural Codes. He has informed goverment
sources in Guatemala of the situation of evangelicals in that
country.
Source: ALC. Editing: ACPress.net
Pentecostals
make up quarter of world's Christians
Sao Paulo, November 26th, 2003 (ACPress.net).
Pentecostal church growth
is the most spectacular social change seen in Latin America
in recent decades. It throws up the challenges of analysing
why it has grown so rapidly, and of how to create dialogue between
different Christian tendencies.
These were some of the conclusions
to come out of a Conference on Christianity in Latin America
and the Caribbean, held recently in Sao Paulo, Brazil. In 1900,
Pentecostals accounted for 0.9% of the world's Christian population.
By the 1970s, they had grown to 5.8%, and by the year 2000,
they were up to 26.2% of all believers in the world. Meanwhile,
Catholic numbers are decreasing in Europe and North America,
but growing in the Third World.
Pluralism is on the rise in South America and the Caribbean,
with charismatic groups forming within the Catholic Church and
the historic Protestant denominations. Roman domination of the
continent has been broken. One speaker quoted René Padilla,
who says evangelical churches need a new way of looking at things,
because they have changed from being an insignificant minority,
to being a significant minority in society.
Source: ALC. Editing: ACPress.net
Miss Universe
wants to sing
Madrid, November 26th, 2003
(ACPress.net).
Miss Universe - Amelia
Vega - is taking time off from her charitable activities to
launch a singing career, with a little help from her uncle,
popular Christian singer-songwriter Juan Luis Guerra.
The 19-year-old beauty queen from the Dominican Republic said
Guerra "will help as producer and writer of some songs.
I am starting to collect songs and talk to record companies
but I prefer to wait until next year, because I want to do a
good job in my year as Miss Universe. However, things have been
talked about."
Vega is the first Dominican to wear the crown, and in her role
as Miss Universe has visited China and Indonesia, with plans
to go to Mexico, Cambodia, Guyana, Vietnam and Thailand, as
well as certain African countries. She aims to promote awareness
of the problems caused by Aids. Apart from helping the local
tourist industry in the places she visits, she goes to hospitals
to try and raise funds for Aids patients.
Source: IBLNEWS. Editing: ACPress.net
Bolivian
maid wins Methodist peace prize
La Paz, November 26th, 2003
(ACPress.net).
A maid in Bolivia, Casimira
Rodríguez, has been awarded the World Methodist Peace
Prize for 2003.
The prize is given annually on behalf of the world's 39 million
Methodists to someone who has made a significant contribution
towards reconciliation and peace. Rodríguez was born
in Mizque, near the Bolivian city of Cochabamba. The only child
of an extremely poor family, she started work as a maid at the
age of 13. She was abused physically, mentally and sexually,
and worked for 2 years without being paid, which is quite common
in Latin America. She herself says there were moments when she
felt quite insignificant.
When she turned to Christ her life began to be filled with hope
and faith, because she understood that the Lord was with her
and against injustice. She became a member of Emmanuel Methodist
Church in Cochabamba. She attended basic education and sewing
classes on Sundays, her day off. This group became the Organisation
of Domestic Helps, and Casimira stood out as a leader. She has
twice been appointed its General Secretary.
Last year, the Bolivian government passed a law regulating maids
and Casimira was involved in the debate. She is a faithful Christian
and devotes her life to the search for peace and justice. Her
name was put forward for the Methodist prize by the Superintendent
of Bolivia, Carlos Intipamp. The Methodist Peace Prize was first
awarded in 1971, and previous winners include Nelson Mandela
and Kofi Annan.
Source: ALC. Editing: ACPress.net
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Christian
centre attacked by Egyptian army
Cairo, November 26th, 2003
(ACPress.net).
The Egyptian Army has
once again carried out a totally unprovoked attack on the Patmos
Christian Centre about 20 miles east of Cairo.
Just after midnight in the early hours of Tuesday 18th November,
an army dumper truck was driven repeatedly into the perimeter
wall surrounding the Patmos Christian Centre. Pictures show
that considerable damage was caused, including the destruction
of one of the reinforced concrete pillars. This is the eighth
attack on the centre in the past six and a half years. Soldiers
from the local army unit are seeking to destroy the wall supposedly
in order to conform to a new law passed on 25th January, 2003
which requires all buildings to be at least 100 yards from the
Cairo-Suez road. The wall stands 50 yards from the road and
was built ten years ago in full accordance with the law at the
time.
Workers at the centre point out that the local army barracks'
own walls also stand 50 yards from the road yet no attempt has
been made to demolish them. Similarly many other buildings in
the area are much closer to the road, including some 15 mosques
which stand only 5 - 10 yards from the road. Likewise no attempts
have been made to demolish any of these buildings.
Church leaders say that the Minister of Defence, who has been
opposed to the centre since 1997, ordered extreme and conservative
Muslim officers from the local army unit to enforce the law
on the Patmos Centre. They believe the repeated attacks are
a result of anti-Christian prejudice amongst Muslim officers
rather than a simple disagreement over building regulations.
On the other hand, other government representatives, including
the President's office and the Ministry of the Interior, have
intervened positively in the past to protect the centre from
intimidation and attacks by the military.
The Patmos Centre has been serving the local community in Egypt
for fifteen years. The centre provides care and support for
mentally and physically handicapped children and orphans, and
is legally registered with the Egyptian authorities. It receives
between 500 - 1000 visitors every day.
Source: Barnabas Fund. Editing:
ACPress.net
Egyptian
converts make heartfelt plea for justice
Cairo, November 26th, 2003
(ACPress.net).
In the light of the arrest
of 22 Christians in Alexandria in October and in response to
those who helped them obtain new identities, believers in Egypt
have made the following statement to the international community:
"Declaration by the Christian Converts of Egypt"
"A plea from Egyptian converts to Christianity who are
caught in the jaws of unjust laws."
"IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, THE SON AND THE HOLY SPIRIT."
'For many years, we have been struggling for the simplest of
our human rights, the freedom of belief and the freedom of worship.
We have been imprisoned, tortured, followed by the security
police and subjected to all forms of abuse for our faith in
Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. But in Jesus, our lives and
behaviour are so much better. Many among us were terrorists,
Islamist fundamentalists. We were burning churches, killing,
treating our whole society as apostates. But after we put our
faith in Jesus, we became pacifists, bonded to our nation, living
in the best way we could.
'But despite this change for the better, our Islamic government
does not accept the changing of our religion from Islam to Christianity.
This right is accepted by the Constitution of Egypt, but rejected
by Islamic Law: "And whoso becometh a renegade and dieth
in his disbelief, such are rightful owners of the fire they
will abide in" (Surah El-Baqarah 217, from the Koran).
Islamic law is the main source for the Egyptian Constitution:
Article 2: "Islam is the state religion, Arabic the official
language, and the principles of Islamic Law the main source
of legislation." According to this legislation, we as converts
are considered apostates. We need to repent within three days,
or we will be killed.
'But Al-Azhar [University in Cairo, generally acknowledged to
be the leading institute of Sunni Islam worldwide] was "merciful"
to us, and changed the punishment to repentance to be carried
out for the rest of the apostate's life. So, he will be imprisoned
for life, under surveillance, threatened-for the rest of his
life! We are between the jaws of the Constitution and the legislation.
To solve this dilemma of the freedom of belief guaranteed in
the Constitution, and the judgment for apostasy in Islamic Law,
they put us between the jaws of an illegal law. The Penal Code
states that whoever blasphemes or disdains a heavenly religion
must be brought before the courts. By "heavenly religion"
here, they mean Islam! But how, and why? No one knows. Is it
logical that the person who chooses a religion other than Islam
is accused of blasphemy, and the opposite is not applied?
'We as Christian converts therefore declare:
1] We claim our rights, as given by the Egyptian Constitution
and by all the international declarations and treaties of human
rights worldwide. We ask the Egyptian Government not to treat
its citizens in an unequal way. Just as it deals with the Christian
embracing Islam, giving him the right to change his faith, his
name, his identity and all his official papers in less than
24 hours, we as converts claim the same right-the citizenship
right by which we are subject to the same rights and the same
duties. Here Christians are not persecuted, because they have
the freedom to change their faith; but Muslims are persecuted,
because they are not enjoying that same right!
2] We ask that all cases of falsification of documents against
the converts to Christianity be dropped, with no conditions.
The Egyptian Government is itself responsible for this illegal
action, because it has deprived us of one of our basic legal
rights, to embrace a new faith and change our name, our identity
and our official papers. Give us our rights, and we will not
falsify these things.
3] We ask the Egyptian Government and all human rights organisations
all over the world to stop the torture, illegal detention, security
surveillance and incitement of families against religious converts.
It is unbelievable in the 21st century that the tribunals of
inquisition are still controlling our consciences, hearts and
minds.
4] We declare to the Egyptian Government that it has been playing
for time for many years now, while we have had to spend our
lives, our dreams and ourselves behind bars, kept in prisons
and under detention. In the face of the rising number of converts,
the government has no choice but to respect the desire of thousands
of Muslims to embrace Christianity. We do not want this to be
only an inner, secret faith, but a totally embracing one, so
that we will be able to worship freely our Lord and Saviour
Jesus, and be allowed to raise our children in all the boundless
grace of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour.
'Finally, we believe that: "In the world you shall have
tribulation: but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world."
"For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time
are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be
revealed in us."
Source: Barnabas Fund. Editing:
ACPress.net
A 'Second
Coming Project' tries to clone Christ
New York, November 27th, 2003
(ACPress.net).
In the most bizarre of
developments in genetic engineering, it has come to light that
certain organisations and laboratories are trying to make a
clone of Jesus from blood samples on the so-called 'Turin Shroud'.
The fact that this sheet is almost certainly a medieval fraud
seems not to bother them, never mind the theological implications.
Yet the 'Second Coming Project' is underway despite being banned
by international legislation. The 'experiment' is rejected by
the few scientists who have blood samples from the shroud, and
they have already made 'molecular clones' which allowed them
to identify the DNA. One of these scientists is micro-biologist
Leoncio Garza-Valdés, a Mexican who has analysed the
shroud. "Those people who try to clone Christ are groups
of fanatics from the USA, Italy, Spain and France. They wanted
to clone him for the millennium."
Valdés created a new discipline, 'archaeo-microbiology'
and wrote a book entitled 'God's DNA?' His investigations of
molecules on the shroud led him to determine the blood type
as AB, an unusual type today, but common among Babylonian Jews
and Galileans two thousand years ago. The blood has suffered
95% damage and was replaced by bacteria and microscopic fungi.
The finds were achieved by cloning three genetic segments from
the blood.
"I was the first person to have the honour of cloning genes
from the blood of Christ, and my research showed that the shroud
is the death cloth of Jesus of Nazareth." However, he added:
"But it is not possible to clone Christ! as you would need
an egg from Mary. If one used the little blood that is available,
one would have an incomplete genome, an incomplete formula of
the nuclear acids. Which would not be Christ but an individual
with a part of the genetic make-up of Christ. No more."
So it is just as well that the real Second Coming Project is
well in hand in heaven, does not depend upon shrouds or genetics,
and will one day be brought to glorious conclusion by the appearing
of our Lord Jesus Christ once again on Earth.
Source: LA CRÓNICA. Editing: ACPress.net
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