Madrid, November 25th, 2004 (ACPress.net). 
The FEREDE (Federation of Spanish Evangelical Organisations), which is the legal representative of Protestantism in dealings with the state, is to consult evangelical churches regarding the receiving of money from the government.

Although the churches can give their opinion, the real weight behind any decision lies with the Standing Committee, whose members hold the majority of votes in the full decision-making body, the Commission, of the FEREDE. The consultation is just that, and is not binding in any way. The government is setting up a Trust to administer the funds it is allotting the three recognised minority religions, and which can be spent on cultural, educational or social projects, but not worship activities.

The Trust is still in the process of being created and is expected to be up and running by the spring, and each department is likely to have at least one evangelical in it who is not an official representative. The different Federations ­ Protestant, Muslim and Jewish ­ will be able to present projects for the Trust's consideration directly, or let groups which belong to them ­ such as a church in the case of the FEREDE ­ do so themselves. The Trust would then study each application and allot funds accordingly.

Activities to do with maintaining worship, pastors' salaries and evangelistic projects are definitely excluded from receiving funds. Whatever model is implemented will be seen as provisional by the government, which wants to move towards establishing a definitive way of financing religious minorities in the future, yet without endangering the non-confessional nature of the Spanish state, as enshrined in the Constitution. The FEREDE is currently studying the criteria it wishes to follow in future negotiations with the government, on issues including finance, religious liberty and the application of the 1992 Accords. It is asking for suggestions for the churches before a General Meeting to be held in February 2005.

Alcala de Henares, November 29th, 2004 (ACPress.net). 
The George Borrow Society is preparing a conference on the English missionary and travel writer at Alcalá University, to be held on February 17th, 2005.

The provisional programme of events will include the talk:  "Borrow´s Spanish journey" by Ann M. Ridler Soutter, current Chairman of the George Borrow Society and author of "George Borrow as a Linguist: Images and Contexts" (1983). Carlos López, Anglican Bishop of Madrid and another member of the Society, will give a talk entitled 'Confusion or challenge: George Borrow and his controversy with the Roman Catholic Church'. Peter Missler, a Dutch writer who lives in Spain, will speak under the polemical title, 'George Borrow: Sorcerer, Missionary and Teacher.'

There will also be a panel composed of the above speakers, and Antonio Giménez, who has written a book called 'English things: the correspondence between George Borrow and Richard Ford.' The event will end with a dramatised reading of some Borrow texts in caló by members of the gypsy community in Alcalá. The conference is being organised jointly by the George Borrow Society and secular and evangelical organisations in Spain.

Madrid, November 29th, 2004 (ACPress.net). 
Mariano Blázquez, Executive Secretary of the FEREDE, the organisation which negotiates with the government on behalf of Spanish evangelicals, has found himself in the eye of the storm recently. On the one hand, newly-opened dialogue with the government, but a raft of immoral and anti-Christian legislation being passed by that same government. And then the issue of state money being offered to Protestants...

Blázquez believes that the role of the FEREDE as the exclusive organ which can negotiate with the state is vital in the ongoing fight for religious equality in Spain. To get anywhere, he argues, it is necessary that Protestants have only one voice. What about the risk of ecclesiastical professionalism and that all institutionalised Protestant action comes down to office-based discussions? Blázquez responds that this danger only exists in inward-looking organisations, but that Protestant evangelicalism strength is shown through unity and transparent dealings.

"We need leaders who draw together ideas which are representative of the evangelical world, and communicators who can transmit them to society in a comprehensible and coordinated way." The Executive Secretary adds that the government is grateful it has only one Federation with which to deal, and indeed demands this condition, and Blázquez says evangelicals should look for the unity on certain core issues: effective Church-state separation, religious sensitivity on the part of the government, the same treatment for all religious groups, and freedom for churches to develop their ministries.

As for the controversy over the new European Constitution, Blázquez says Christians are divided over whether Christianity should be mentioned in it or not. He himself does not think it is the kind of document in which any religion should be mentioned. "This applies in Europe, Spain or anywhere else."

Málaga, November 30th, 2004 (ACPress.net). 
Ukrainians, Rumanians, Russians, Germans or Finns. Around 40 Catholic churches in Málaga are lending their buildings to foreign non-Catholic groups for them to hold services.

One could enter a Catholic church in the province of Málaga and be caught out, both by the language and the type of service. It is often now not just another Mass as can be heard up and down Spain, but perhaps an Orthodox service held in Rumanian. Or it could even be a Protestant service led by a Lutheran minister in German. So far most of these services are held along the coast in tourist haunts such as Torremolinos or Fuengirola, but the Catholic Episcopate is looking inland too at offering buildings there.

How does a group go about asking for the use of a Catholic building? First he has to present his group's credentials to Manuel Torres, the priest appointed by the Málaga Episcopate to coordinate the lending out of properties. Representatives of the two groups then meet to work out the details of the agreement, and finally, a type of contract is signed. Some of the services attract large numbers. Around 150 German evangelicals meet every Sunday in San Pedro Alcántara, in the Angel Parish Church. Torres admits "Foreigners are more consistent (in their attendance) than Spaniards, whether Catholics or not, and they keep the faith with all its consequences."

Madrid, November 30th, 2004 (ACPress.net).  
The Secretary of the Socialist Party, José Blanco, believes that "the immense majority of Spanish Christians" approve of the legislation passed by his government, which he says are merely the fulfilment of their electoral manifesto.

Blanco did not want to mention any group by name, but rather highlight his belief that "the opinion of the public, many of them Christians, who are very positive about the decisions being made by the government." He continued, "I am a Christian, I have said so more than once, and as such, I feel very out of place with those who...try to call into question the actions of a government which is carrying out its electoral commitment."

Blanco is right to argue that no one should be surprised that the government is fulfilling its electoral pledges, but wrong to think that just because they were voted into power, most Christians are in agreement with their policies on ethical and moral issues. On the other hand, if Christians remain silent on these issues, the government will be right to conclude that nobody is that much bothered. Shifting tack, Blanco added that "the immense majority of Christians in our country agree that we have a very brave government working for peace, bringing troops out of Iraq, and doing something to alleviate hunger in the world."

Barcelona, November 30th, 2004 (ACPress.net). 
The ex-First Minister of Catalonia, Jordi Pujol, says the 'Catholic cultural community' there is somewhat 'unprotected', which is why he defends their right to demonstrate against recent government legislation.

In an interview on Catalan radio, Pujol complained that the Press has no problem with 'ridiculing' the figure of Jesus Christ or the Catholic Church, but "does not dare do so with Mohammed, not because of intellectual pressure, but because they are frightened that someone will kill them."

Madrid, November 30th, 2004 (ACPress.net).  
Rubén Proietti, Chairman of the Christian Alliance of Evangelical Churches in Argentina (ACEIRA), was interviewed in Madrid recently whilst visiting Spain as part of the arrangements for the forthcoming Luis Palau mission in the Spanish capital, 'FestiMadrid'.

Proietti said that although the Argentinian constitution guarantees religious liberty, evangelical churches and pastors are still not recognised by law and have to register themselves as clubs or cultural associations and their representatives. A burning issue for evangelicals to speak out about currently in Argentina is the proposal to give sex education in schools which accepts homosexuality and abortion as normal options. "The vast majority of evangelicals are against this law; we believe that teaching sexual morals is the right of the parents, that it should be taught at home and not in school." However, as ACPress has reported in previous weeks, a small minority of Christians supports the law, something Prioetti says has caused "some confusion."

As for Rosario Rivera, an ex-guerrilla who went to a Palau meeting in order to assassinate him but was hit herself by the message of Jesus and gave her life to Him. Proietti said she now "has the same zeal for justice, but now fights with the weapon of love, helping the needy tremendously." Proietti also said that he could not speak of Palau having a personal relationship with George Bush, but that the evangelist had been invited to meet the President, after the September 2001 attacks, along with 23 other religious leaders. Proietti said Palau did not adopt political positions, but that his only desire was to spread the Good News of the Gospel, to see lives transformed and be useful to Jesus and to society."

Proietti was visiting Spain in his capacity as Festival Director of the Luis Palau Mission organisation, which has been invited to hold a campaign in Madrid by several churches there. "This is the way we work, we only go where churches ask us." FestiMadrid will be a week of events at which Palau will speak to evangelical leaders, business people, local authorities and the Press, culminating in a massive evangelistic event on June 24th-25th, 2005.

Madrid, November 30th, 2004 (ACPress.net).  
ProtestanteDigital, probably the most up-to-date and representative evangelical magazine in Spain, has been running a questionnaire on whether its readers would have voted for George Bush in the recent American election.

The result, though hardly surprising given the huge Press bias against him in Spain, is that a majority of Spanish evangelicals would not have voted for him. However, the questionnaire did not actually ask them if they would have voted for Kerry either. Yet the survey puts them at odds with a majority of their Christian counterparts in the United States. Although the survey is not scientific and depends upon those who visit the website and wish to vote, it does seem to show that most Spaniards, and the 20% of Latin Americans who visited the site, would not have re-elected President Bush.

However, despite the massive media campaign against Bush in Europe, the vote on the ProtestanteDigital website was surprisingly close: only 52.6% against voting for Bush, and 47.4% in favour. 12% said they would have abstained and 5% would not have known how to cast their vote. There was though a clear distinction between those very unfavourable to Bush (46%) and those very favourable towards him (only 16%).

The issues which appear to put up a barrier between the majority of Spanish evangelicals and Bush are the Iraq war and the death penalty. Pedro Tarquis, Director of ProtestanteDigital, commented: "What is probably happening is that the experience of Spanish 'National Catholicism' (under Franco) means that Spanish Protestants separate legal issues from moral ones, and understand that morals are not something which can be imposed by the law." However, this view is evidently not shared by the 53% who did vote for Bush, primarily because of his moral stand. American and Spanish evangelicals are seen to have widely divergent ideas when it comes to ideology or, in Tarquis' words: "it establishes a clear difference of values and criteria."

Madrid, December 1st, 2004 (ACPress.net).   
Glancing across at secularised France, modern Spain wants to erect an altar to laicism despite still possessing a religious soul. Bashing traditional Catholicism becomes more fashionable but nostalgia for the old order remains. Thus all the major political parties, with the exception of the Opposition Popular Party, have launched a 'platform' to promote laicism and tackle what they call 'dogma'. It is curious, therefore, that lay actions copy religious ceremonial and merely remove the religious element from it.

Lay sacramentalism needs rites, symbols and form. Civil rites are beginning to replace religious ones. Sociologist Juan González-Anleo says "people who do not believe in religion need the aroma of the sacred, the perfume of the religious. A touch of liturgy without a priest, but with a Mayor or lay official. The nostalgia of the sacrament, the smell of incense and wax, the ritual of the big moments which make sense of life."

So are the incipient civil ceremonies about to replace the virtual monopoly enjoyed by the Catholic Church when it comes to key moments and ceremonies in people's lives? Is the sacramental age, as some theologians assert, dying? The first 'civil baptism' (of a baby) held recently near Barcelona was dismissed by ex-government minister Angel Acebes as a "tomfoolery", and by Monsignor Cañizares as "radical stupidity". A local MP, Mari Angeles Gabarró, defended the ritual: "We are not trying to replace baptism (ie. christening). It is an alternative for agnostics and could even be a complementary ceremony to the Catholic one."

According to Catholic figures, 33% of Spanish children aged between 7 and 10 do not dress up as princesses or sailors and receive First Communion, despite the fact that fewer than 8% of the population claim to be unbelievers. This does not prevent many families throwing an equally big 'civil' party, which sociologists claim has to do with the arrival of puberty. They say the Catholic Church turned it into a religious ritual, but that some kind of celebration is found in most cultures and should be kept.

Most people still get married in church because of the show. Civil weddings in Town Halls prove too anodyne for some, so there are companies which offer civil weddings with all the razzamatazz one could wish for; some even come with their own 'professionals' to officiate at the wedding. And funerals are also getting the civil touch. Hearses arrive at Almudena Cemetery in Madrid every half an hour, but while some are met by a priest, others are received by a hostess. The latter service is offered to those who do not want a religious ceremony. Evangelicals of course bring their own pastor.

If it is a good send-off you are after, you can always try ultimoadios.com who advertise a service with a 9-metre yacht which will take the ashes and scatter them at sea, "in an intimate and respectful act, without being seen by anyone else and far from the curious gaping of onlookers." For just 250 euros.