|  | |
Previous | Next People & events
Gateway Christian Fellowship in St. Catharines, Ont. held an open house May 25 at its ministry centre located in a shopping plaza. The purpose of the event was to give the community and neighbouring storeowners a sense of who they are and what they can offer. The open house featured clowns, balloons, a bounce house, face painting, a barbecue and a bake table. A banner mounted on the wall announced that everything was absolutely free. Displays and information described the various ministries offered by the church: Alpha, moms and tots, youth drop-in, children’s ministries. Wearing brightly coloured Gateway T-shirts, teams handed out 500 cans of pop at a nearby intersection with a small note attached sharing God’s love. Others picked up litter and brought lunch for the personnel of surrounding stores. The church hopes to make this an annual event.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the US has ruled that the US Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional because of the phrase “one nation under God”. The June 26 ruling was made after a lawsuit was brought by California atheist Michael Newdow, who objected to his daughter being forced to listen as her fellow second-graders recited the pledge. The phrase “under God” was added by Congress in 1954 following a campaign by religious and civic leaders who wanted to differentiate the US from the atheistic Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War. If the ruling is allowed, recitation of the pledge would be prohibited in public schools in nine states under the jurisdiction of the Ninth Circuit Court. The ruling will likely be appealed to the US Supreme Court. The US Senate and House of Representatives, by votes of 99–0 and 416–3, have approved recommendations defending the wording of the pledge. The girl’s mother, Sandra Banning, has asked that her daughter be removed from the case, saying that she and her daughter are members of a Calvary Chapel evangelical church in Elk Grove, Calif. and have no objection to reciting the pledge. – Evangelical Press News Service
Acts deemed immoral in a recent Leger Marketing poll of 1519 Canadians: shoplifting (89%), spousal unfaithfulness (81%), cocaine and heroin use (79%), tax evasion (77%), prostitution (68%), alcohol abuse (66%), suicide (61%), smoking marijuana (47%), abortion (41%), gambling (41%), swearing (40%), homosexuality (32%), euthanasia (31%), pre-marital sex (27%), atheism (26%) and divorce (22%). Overall, 72.5% said they believed Canadians “have a strong sense of morals”. – ChristianWeek
For the first time, North Korea has replaced Saudi Arabia as the country where Christians are most severely persecuted, according to the “World Watch List” released semi-annually by Open Doors. Saudi Arabia, sees itself as the guardian of Islam. North Korean Communist ruler Kim Jong Il has tried to eradicate all belief systems other than the worship of himself and his deceased father, Kim Il Sung. Rounding out the top 10 on the list are Laos, Vietnam, Turkmenistan, Maldives, Bhutan, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Somalia. – Evangelical Press News Service
The 2001 census revealed that 70.5% of Canadian “families” are made up of married couples with children (down from 83% in 1981), 13.8% are common-law couples (up from 6% in 1981), 15.7% are single-parent families, and 0.41% (34,000 couples) are same-sex couples. This is the first census in which same-sex couples were counted. Same-sex couples were most common in Vancouver (1.98% of families), Montreal (1.47%) and Victoria (1.26%). A quarter of the country’s 11.5 million households are occupied by just one person. Forty-one percent of Canadians aged 20–29 are living with their parents (up from 27% in 1981). – Statistics Canada
Mennonite Central Committee is preparing a $1.46 million relief shipment to Iraq to deal with needs created by 12 years of economic sanctions and a possible US-led war. This is in addition to the $6.8 million in food and material aid MCC has shipped to Iraq in the past decade. The new aid will consist of 100 tents and 4000 blankets valued at $48,000, probably manufactured and purchased in Iraq; medicines valued at $80,000; 16,000 relief kits valued at $1 million, donated and assembled in North America (containing such items as soap, towels, feminine napkins, toothbrushes, powdered laundry detergent, a hair brush, a comb, fingernail clippers, bandages and shampoo); and 28,000 school kits valued at $335,000, donated and assembled in North America. – Mennonite Central Committee
Jerry Falwell, well-known leader of the Christian right in the US, appeared on the CBS television program 60 Minutes on Oct. 6 and said that in his opinion Mohammed was “a terrorist . . . a violent man, a man of war” in contrast to Jesus, who set an example of love. Earlier, on Fox television’s Hannity & Colmes program, Pat Robertson, another leader of the Christian right, had called Mohammed “an absolute wild-eyed fanatic . . . a robber and a brigand . . . a killer”; Robertson also said that Islam is “a monumental scam” and that the Quran, the Muslim holy book, “is strictly a theft of Jewish theology”. Evangelist Franklin Graham had called Islam “a very evil and wicked religion”. Falwell’s remarks aroused widespread protests by Muslim groups around the world, the National Council of Churches in the US, British foreign secretary Jack Straw, the Jewish Anti-Defamation League, Christian groups in India and the Middle East, and a variety of columnists and editorial writers in the US. Falwell was called “hate-filled”, a “fool”, “dumb”, “dangerous”, “bordering on the criminal”, “bigoted”, “irresponsible”, “sacrilegious”, “ignorant”, “paranoid”, “intolerant”, “an idiot”, “a terrorist”, “scary”, “hysterical”, “destructive”, “offensive”, “dangerous”, “factually untrue”, “duplicitous”, “conniving”, “repulsive”, “incredible”, “obsessed”, “narrow-minded’, “mean”, “insulting” and similar to the Ku Klux Klan, with some of the strongest language coming from US opinion and editorial writers. Muslim advocacy groups in the US called on US president Bush to repudiate Falwell’s remarks and to cut off government funding to one of Pat Robertson’s charitable organizations. Some Muslim politicians in Pakistan demanded that Falwell be put on trial for his comments. A Muslim protest against Falwell’s remarks in Solapur, India Oct. 11–12 led to mobs of Muslims and Hindus attacking each other with knives and stones and then being fired on by police, leaving 8 dead and over 90 injured. On Oct. 12, Falwell issued a statement saying he “sincerely apologized” for his comments which “were hurtful to the feelings of many Muslims. I intended no disrespect to any sincere, law abiding Muslim.” Noting that he had never preached or written against Islam, he added, “I have always shown respect for other religions, faiths and denominations. Unfortunately, I answered one controversial and loaded question . . . That was a mistake.” – Council On American-Islamic Relations
Sexual abstinence education in Uganda (including the “True Love Waits” program) has cut the HIV new infection rate by 50% from 1992 to 2000, according to a Harvard University study. The percentage of pregnant women who were infected dropped from 21% to 6%. The results are much better than in African countries that had tried to reduce the infection rate through the use of condoms. – World Pulse
Mennonite Disaster Service is beginning a six-month project Nov. 18 to build 200 16-by-16-foot houses on the island of Chuuk in the Federated States of Micronesia. Landslides caused by typhoon Chata’an in July destroyed or damaged more than 1000 homes on the Pacific island, which is a dependency of the US. The US Federal Emergency Management Agency will ship in lumber and tin for the rebuilding. MDS plans to send teams in 6-week rotations at a cost of about $2000 a week. Volunteers will live in primitive jungle conditions. – Mennonite Disaster Service
John Hostetler has become the first staff member to have served Mennonite Central Committee for 50 years. He went to Europe to work with refugees for 2 years in 1952, stayed 6, then spent 34 years as director of material aid at MCC headquarters in Akron, Pa. He now works in the MCC East Coast office. – Mennonite Central Committee
After Sudanese peace talks broke down in September, the Arab Muslim government based in northern Sudan banned all humanitarian aid from reaching largely Christian and animist southern Sudan Sept. 27–Oct. 6 while it conducted a massive bombing campaign. After the campaign, it signed a new ceasefire with the Sudan People’s Liberation Army and resumed peace talks. – Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, World Evangelical Alliance, Kairos, BBC, Globe and Mail
The Ontario government has given $2 million over 2 years to the Toronto police force to establish a 10-member task force to fight child pornography on the Internet. The task force has found 1.7 million images on 100,000 Web sites which offer nothing but child pornography. – Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, Canadians Addressing Sexual Exploitation
TourMagination, which was founded by Howard Cressman in 1970 to offer tours to Anabaptist heritage sites in Europe and other parts of the world, has now established “The Arnold Cressman European Anabaptist Heritage Scholarship Program”. The program offers full funding for a TourMagination tour for Mennonite pastors who have completed some Anabaptist study, have integrated Anabaptism into their ministry and can state how the tour will enhance their ministry in future. Recipients will lead devotions on the tour, make a presentation to the group on an Anabaptist leader or event, present sermons or classes on Anabaptist life/history/theology within 12 months after returning, and provide counsel for shaping future tours. For further information, call current director Wilmer Martin at (800) 565-0451 or e-mail martin@tourmagination.com – TourMagination
While participating in a worship service at a Bible college youth retreat, an 18-year-old girl (who has asked to remain anonymous) says she was “overwhelmed by how selfish I was being” in wanting to have an expensive prom dress she would wear only once when children in other parts of the world don’t have enough to eat. She returned to her home in southern Manitoba and asked her parents to take the $250 they had agreed to pay for her dress and give it to Mennonite Central Committee’s Global Family program to help build 14 preschools for 700 children in South Africa. She bought a much cheaper dress with her own money. – MCC Canada
Previous | Next
Last modified November 30, 2002.
© 2002 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
Masthead and usage information.
|
