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An organ and tissue donation advisory board to the Ontario government has recommended the creation of a “network” to manage human organs for transplant. It also recommends the introduction of a law that would require doctors and hospitals to report all brain deaths to trained donor coordinators. To date, only British Columbia has such a law. Premier Mike Harris had instructed the board to find ways to double Ontario’s organ donation rate by 2005. Ontario has one of the lowest rates of organ donation in Canada (14.1 donors per million people). By comparison, the Atlantic provinces have a rate of 19.5 donors per million people. Currently, 1,720 Ontario residents are waiting for organs. In 1999, 617 transplants were done; about 100 people died waiting. After Pennsylvania enacted a referral law in 1994, organ donations increased by 63% to 33.8 donors per million people. Dr. John Yun, a B.C. oncologist, says that people are reluctant to donate organs because “they feel [that] if mom’s heart is still beating and she’s still breathing, then she is still living.” Yun believes that governments have too quickly accepted “brain dead” as the definition of death in order to justify organ harvesting. “No one has convinced me that brain death is actually death,” he says. In the 1970s, death was legally redefined as when a brain is dead. That definition has implications for unborn children as well. Dr. Henry Morgentaler, Canada’s foremost abortionist, argues that pro-lifers “cannot be opposed to early abortion done in the six or seven weeks before evidence of brain structure or function. Using the [accepted criteria] for brain death there is no evidence of the fetus being human.” – Western Report
“The English Church Attendance Survey” discovered that Sunday church attendance in England has fallen from 4.7 million in 1989 (10% of the population) to 3.7 million (7.5% of the population) in 1998. While 7.5% of the population attend church on Sunday, 10.2% go monthly and 16.2% go once a year. In addition, 0.5% of the population attend church on a weekday instead of on Sunday (these are not included in the Sunday attendance figures). Some of these weekday services are quite large – one of 250 is reported – but the majority are small. Moreover, 14% of churches have services targeted to older teens and those in their 20s; these also are not included in the Sunday attendance figures. While there were 1.4 million children under age 15 attending church in 1979, only 0.7 million attended in 1998. The survey also shows that 12% of church attenders are non-white, twice the percentage of non-whites in the population. This is especially true in inner London, where 51% of those attending church are non-white. – Lausanne Committee For World Evangelism
There were no churches in Mongolia and Jesus was virtually unknown in that nation, which had been under communist rule since 1921. In April 1991, the first church was started when 34 people were publicly baptized; almost 200 more were added by the end of that year. The church had over 1,000 believers by 1992 and has over 10,000 today. It is estimated that 1.6 million people out of a population of 2.6 million now have had a chance to hear the gospel through showings of the Jesus film and the distribution of 10,000 Jesus videos, 200,000 copies of Luke and 10,000 New Testaments. – World Pulse
Dr. Laura Schlessinger has been reprimanded by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council after she made statements against homosexuality on her radio show. “Dr. Laura” is a 53-year-old US physiologist and certified counsellor living in California whose radio show reaches 18 million listeners every week. It airs on 30 Canadian stations, and is said to have an audience approaching 1 million. Schlessinger, an Orthodox Jew, strongly promotes the 10 Commandments as the standard for personal conduct. She believes homosexual behaviour is sinful, calling the behaviour “aberrant”, “disordered” and “dysfunctional”. She has also said that male homosexuals are disproportionately represented among pedophiles. The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, acting on complaints from homosexual groups, has ordered the radio stations carrying her program to broadcast apologies, holding that Dr. Laura was “abusively discriminatory” of homosexuals, that she was not medically competent to pronounce on homosexuality, that the American Psychiatric Association had ruled that homosexuality was not a “disorder” and that her statements on pedophilia were factually incorrect. Schlessinger has refused to apologize for her comments. The radio stations in future may be forced to censor her programs, drop the programs or face sanctions from the CBSC or the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. – Western Report
Update: Schlessinger used Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) to apologize to gays and lesbians for her “poorly chosen” words. – Winnipeg Free Press
Grunthal (Man.) Bergthaler Mennonite Church will remain part of the Conference of Mennonites in Manitoba for the time being. The congregation, which has been a member of the CMM but not the Conference of Mennonites in Canada (now called Mennonite Church Canada), held a congregational meeting June 26 to determine whether it should remain in the CMM. The church needed a 66% vote to withdraw from the CMM, but received only 62%. The church has concerns about their denomination’s failure to discipline churches, or to define a clear position on issues such as homosexuality and the gender of God. – Canadian Mennonite
Calgary Inter-Mennonite Church sent a revised letter June 11 to the executive of the Conference of Mennonites in Alberta stating that it will withdraw immediately from the Conference. The letter also states: “We understand that our church will continue to participate in Mennonite church-related agencies . . . that our children and youth will continue to participate in conference-sponsored events, programs and institutions and that our pastors will retain their credentials.” An earlier letter indicated that the church was offering to take a five-year leave of absence from the Conference. Calgary Inter-Mennonite Church’s decision to accept practising homosexuals as members and CMA’s reluctance to discipline the congregation had caused a major split in CMA, with up to half the congregations threatening to leave. The Calgary church had also belonged to the Alberta Mennonite Brethren Conference, but was expelled from that body a year-and-a-half ago. – Canadian Mennonite
Human contact could not be made by telephone at 40% of churches, even after 12 attempts, and 44% of those churches did not have an answering machine, according to a survey of 3,764 Protestant churches in the US. Researchers for the Barna Research Group made an average of 2.1 telephone calls during regular business hours to reach a person at each church. One-third of the churches answered on the first call. The survey also found that among churches with 250 or more adult attenders 70% were answered the first time a person called, compared to 55% among churches with 100-250 adult attenders and 44% among churches with fewer than 100 adult attenders. – Evangelical Press News Service
Over 1,000 religious leaders representing 70 of the world’s religions gathered Aug. 28-31 at the United Nations in New York City to promote peace between religious groups. The group established a permanent advisory council of religious leaders to the UN, designed to help prevent and solve religious disputes. Absent from the assembly was the Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Organizers didn’t invite the Dalai Lama, currently exiled from Tibet, because of a request from UN advisors and pressure from Chinese delegates. The Chinese government accuses the Dalai Lama of creating unrest in Tibet, a country that has been under China’s control since 1959. Also absent were evangelical Christian groups. Ted Turner, honourary chairman and primary financier of the summit, took the opportunity to criticize Christianity. Turner said when he was a child, he wanted to become a pastor and Christian missionary, but after further study he decided that his Christian upbringing was wrong. “We thought that we were the only ones going to heaven,” Turner said. “It just confused . . . me because I said heaven is going to be a mighty empty place with nobody else there.” The billionaire also called for the establishment of a new world religion based on New Age principles. During her speech, Anne Graham Lotz, daughter of evangelist Billy Graham, told the assembled leaders that Jesus was the only true way to heaven. A Buddhist priest countered her statement, saying, “Every river leads to the ocean and every religion leads to God.” Delegates approved and signed a Commitment to Global Peace, which asks religious people of the world “to cooperate in building peaceful societies, to seek mutual understanding through dialogue when there are differences, to refrain from violence, to practise compassion and to uphold the dignity of all life.” The delegates also asked the UN to clarify a statement from the 1948 UN declaration of human rights: “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief . . . and . . . to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.” The delegates say Christian missionaries are misinterpreting this passage to favour “ unhindered conversions” and “proselytizing” in India. In a Sept. 1 meeting, the delegates drafted a resolution condemning organized proselytism for “creating tension between religious communities.” – EPNS
Consort Caritatis, under the direction of Howard Dyck, will be presenting the North American premieres of Reinhard Oppel’s Messe Op. 32 and Liturgien, Op. 6, No. 3 on Nov. 3 at St. Patrick’s Church in Toronto. Born in 1876, Oppel became a decorated World War I hero of Germany. However, during the 1930s, he opposed the Nazi regime. He died in 1941 of a heart attack. His widow was disallowed a pension, and the family lived in poverty. Before fleeing Germany at the end of World War II, she feared that her husband’s manuscripts might be confiscated by the communists and hid them in a church steeple in Leune. Long believed lost, Oppel’s music was discovered by his son in 1990. The Messe and other works by Oppel are now preserved in the Reinhard Oppel Memorial Collection at the University of North Texas. Consort Caritatis is a charitable organization made up of singers from across Canada. Formed in 1994, the choir raises money for Mennonite Central Committee, Habitat for Humanity, World Vision and landmine survivor programs. – Oppel Media Release
McIvor Ave. MB Church in Winnipeg is sponsoring the building of a Habitat for Humanity house as part of its 25th anniversary celebrations in 2001. The church is sponsoring a free benefit concert Nov. 5 at Jubilee Place, Winnipeg; an opportunity will be given at the concert to make a donation towards the housing project. – Mcivor Ave. MB Church
The B.C. Court of Appeal has unanimously ruled in favour of the Surrey School Board in its case against a primary school teacher who wanted three storybooks featuring same-sex parents to be approved for use in kindergarten and Grade one classes. The Court’s decision overturns an earlier ruling by the B.C. Supreme Court that favoured the teacher. Many parents had objected to the use of the books on religious grounds, and the Surrey School Board refused to approve the books. The B.C. Supreme Court’s ruled that the school board decision was improperly based on religious considerations because the province’s School Act requires schools to run on a “strictly secular” basis. In overturning that decision, the B.C. Court of Appeal said that parents cannot be excluded from public debate on moral issues on the basis of their religious beliefs and that religion-based convictions have as much right to be considered as convictions which are not based on religion. – Evangelical Fellowship Of Canada
“Conflict Resolution in Today’s Church” is a two-day conference for pastors, church teams and others scheduled for April 6-7 at Columbia Bible College in Abbotsford, B.C. Ron Claassen, director of the Center For Peacemaking & Conflict Studies at Fresno (Calif.) Pacific University, will present three sessions dealing with conflict in churches. The conference is sponsored by the B.C. MB Conference, the Conference of Mennonites in B.C., Columbia Bible College, Mennonite Central Committee and Emmanuel Mennonite Church.
Bakht Singh, an internationally known Bible teacher and founder of an indigenous church planting movement in India, died Sept. 17 in Hyderabad, India. He was 97. Raised a Sikh, Singh opposed Christianity. While studying engineering in Winnipeg, he met John and Edith Hayward, who shared their testimony and gave him a New Testament. After reading the New Testament, Singh converted to Christianity. In 1941, he started an indigenous church planting movement based on New Testament principles but contextualized to Indian culture. The movement now has about 10,000 churches in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Australia and the US. A memorial service was held Sept. 22 in Hyderabad’s soccer stadium. – Christian Mission
The K’ekchi’ Mennonite Church Foundation of Guatemala has been receiving grants from the European Union to improve health care to the K’ekchi’ indigenous people in Alta Verapaz. The Foundation, one of several non-governmental organizations receiving the grants, looks after two jurisdictions, each with a population of 18,000, in 60 communities. Many of these communities have a K’ekchi’ Mennonite Church. Four registered nurses work among the K’ekchi’ through Eastern Mennonite Mission. The Guatemalan government has a contract with Cuba to supply physicians for this project, modeled after the Cuban holistic health care system. Each jurisdiction has one Cuban physician, two auxiliary K’ekchi’ nurses, 10-12 community facilitators, about 200 trained K’ekchi’ volunteer health care workers and 120 volunteer midwives. Grant monies cover administrative costs, transportation, medicine, equipment, supervision and salaries. The Guatemalan government has set guidelines for its health care system to decrease mortality rates, increase vaccination coverage for children and improve health care for women, particularly pregnant women. Infant and maternal mortality among the K’ekchi’ people is among the highest in that country. – Mennonite World Conference
Two rival factions in the Javanese Mennonite Church (GITJ) of Indonesia have been reconciled after representatives of all 89 congregations met in August. The GITJ split in 1996 following disputes over issues such as the control of church agencies, civil court suits and the sale of church property. The reconciliation process has been assisted since 1998 by missiologist Lawrence Yoder of Eastern Mennonite University. The August meeting was facilitated by a team from Duta Wacana Christian University led by MCC volunteer Duane Ruth-Heffelbower. A GITJ general assembly in November will elect a joint board and develop plans for the future. – Mennonite Central Committee
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Last modified November 7, 2000.
© 2000 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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