People & events

Ron Rempel has been appointed executive director of Mennonite Publishing Network, effective Aug. 1. MPN, owned by Mennonite Church USA and Mennonite Church Canada, is the largest Mennonite book publisher in the world, but has recently undergone massive restructuring after it was discovered that the publishing house was $5 million US in debt. Rempel has been editor of Canadian Mennonite, periodical of Mennonite Church Canada, since 1997 and editor of its predecessor, Mennonite Reporter, for 18 years prior to that. In keeping with MPN’s decentralization strategy, he will remain living in Waterloo, Ont., one of MPN’s regional distribution centres.

—Mennonite Church Canada

A Pakistani appeals court acquitted Christian brothers Saleem and Rashid Masih of blasphemy March 19, overturning a May 2000 conviction which had resulted in them being sentenced to 35 years in prison. The brothers had been held without bail since June 1999 after an argument with a Muslim ice cream vendor. The vendor had refused to serve them ice cream in bowls used by Muslims, saying they would have to bring their own bowls; an argument ensued, and the vendor then accused the brothers of making “bad remarks” against Islam and Muhammad, a crime punishable by death. The brothers denied that they had said anything against Islam, and their lawyer argued in court that the witnesses contradicted each other and that the vendor had a grudge against the brothers because he had earlier lost a civil lawsuit to them concerning some land. It was expected to take about a week for the paperwork to be finalized and the brothers to actually be released. Only a few Christians are accused of blasphemy each year in Pakistan; they are often acquitted on appeal, but they and their families then have to go into hiding to avoid being murdered by Muslim extremists; several have in fact been murdered.

—Compass Direct, Evangelical Press News Service

The first student/faculty retreat for Menno Simons College was held Jan. 10–12 at the Dr. Jesse Salteaux Centre near Winnipeg, a facility for training aboriginal United Church ministers. During the retreat, faculty and staff used a large “medicine wheel as a metaphor for twinning Aboriginal spiritual understandings with Christian teachings” and shared “prayers and worship from a variety of faiths”. Menno Simons College is one of three partner schools in Canadian Mennonite University.

—Menno Simons College Newsletter

Sohag Criminal Court in Egypt on Feb. 27 acquitted 92 of 96 suspects charged as a result of a Jan. 2, 2000 riot in El Kosheh which left 21 Christians and one Muslim dead; 38 of the 92 suspects were Coptic Christians. Of the four convicted, one was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the death of the Muslim, another was convicted of that murder and unlawful assembly, and the other two received one and two-year sentences for property damage to a truck. Coptic Christians, who make up 10% of the population in the predominantly Muslim country, blamed police for not stopping the riots despite a curfew and the presence of 10,000 policemen, for bungling the investigation and for suppressing evidence. The riots were sparked by a dispute between a Muslim trader and a Christian shop owner. They came 16 months after the murder of a Coptic clergyman, after which police arrested and tortured 1000 Coptic Christians in order to force confessions.

—Evangelical Press News Service

Carman Gospel Light Church, the Mennonite Brethren congregation in Carman, Man., has closed, effective April 30.

—Carman Gospel Light Church

An Indonesian court on Jan. 30 acquitted Jafar Umar Thalib, a Muslim cleric, of charges that he incited a violent attack on Christians in Suya in the Moluccas Islands in April 2002, which killed 10 Christians and burnt 30 buildings. Thalib is head of the Laskar Jihad terrorism group which has links to Al-Qaeda but which supposedly disbanded in October 2002. After Laskar Jihad soldiers went to the Moluccas Islands in 1999 supposedly to protect Muslims, attacks on unarmed civilians increased, resulting in the deaths of 5000 people. When Muslims and Christians signed a peace agreement in February 2002, Thalib and the Laskar Jihad refused to honour it. The judge who acquitted Thalib said that Thalib was only exercising his right to free speech and should receive an award for speaking in favour of Indonesian unity.

—Evangelical Press News Service

Fresno Pacific University’s Center for Peacemaking and Conflict Studies is launching an International Peace Education Development project intended to train academics from other countries so that they can in turn teach peace studies in their home countries. The Center has an enrollment of about 30 graduate students a year, but hopes to add more foreign students, beginning with students from Brazil and Ethiopia, which already have Mennonite colleges. Mennonite Central Committee’s Peace Office will contribute $28,900 for the first year and $29,600 the second year, enough to fund at least one student’s studies entirely. FPU is operated by the Pacific District MB Conference.

—Mennonite Central Committee

Gujarat State in India on March 26 passed a law requiring government permission before converting anyone to another religion. For instance, a Christian minister would have to get government approval before baptizing an individual from another religious background. The law specifically prohibits the use of fraud or “allurements” to encourage conversion. Christians say the law is aimed at Christian organizations which provide humanitarian aid and medical care and which are winning converts among poor and lower caste people. Punishment for breaking the law is up to three years in prison or a $1000 fine.

—Evangelical Press News Service

At least 70% of American women having abortions believe that abortion is immoral, according to recent surveys. At least half say they felt forced into the abortion by others.

—Voice For Life Newsletter

Evangelical church leaders Kiros Meles and Abebayeh Desalegn were released from jail March 7 when an Ethiopian judge ruled there was no evidence against them. The two were accused of shooting a young Orthodox man during two days of Orthodox-led riots in April 2002 that badly damaged all five evangelical church buildings in the village of Maychew. In fact, the fatal shot came from the local police chief’s gun, wielded by an off-duty policeman. The two evangelicals were also cleared by a court in November 2002, but police refused to release them at that time. A majority of people in Ethiopia nominally belong to the Orthodox Church, but evangelical groups have been growing rapidly in recent years.

—Compass Direct

Moody Bible Institute has announced it will cease publication of its bimonthly Moody magazine, which has a circulation of 85,000 and had been published under various titles since 1891. It will also close its retail bookstores in Chatham Ridge, Ill. and Indianapolis and restructure the store on its main Chicago campus. It will also shut down its aviation school in Elizabethton, Tenn. in 2005, although it will keep its aviation technology school in Spokane, Wash. Moody Aviation graduated 25 pilots a year and is credited with having produced more than 50% of missionary aviation personnel worldwide since 1946. Moody cited the economic downturn, declining donations and changes in the magazine industry (several other general interest Christian magazines have also folded) for the cutbacks. A major study of Moody’s operations concluded that it should focus on its core education program. Moody will also retain its 200,000 circulation daily devotional guide Today in the World.

—Evangelical Press News Service, Christianity Today

A Christian convert from Islam who fled Iran after becoming a Christian, was ordered deported from Canada April 24. The woman, identified only as Nancy, was baptized and joined a Lutheran church in Montreal. However, a judge (from a Roman Catholic background) ruled that she was not really a Christian, partly because she only knew of two Christian sacraments – baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Roman Catholics believe in five sacraments, Protestants only two. Canadian also decided Nancy does not face significant risk, even though those who convert from Islam in Iran are often killed.

—Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, National Post

At least seven Anglican congregations have voted to leave the diocese of New Westminster based in the Vancouver area and join the diocese of the Yukon. The congregations took the action after the New Westminster diocese voted to formally bless homosexual unions, in violation of Anglican policy. New Westminster Bishop Ingham has threatened to remove the licenses from the clergy of the seven congregations and go to court to confiscate their buildings.

—The Abbotsford News

Mennonite Pilots Association, an organization of pilots and friends of aviation, is being revitalized. Formed originally to support the work of Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) in transporting MDS leaders to the sites of disasters when other means were not possible or efficient, it faded in the 90s when there seemed fewer opportunities for this service. To indicate interest in being part of the new MPA and to help chart its mandate, contact Clare Neufeld.

—news release

Mennonite Benevolent Society in Abbotsford, B.C. is celebrating its 50th anniversary May 24 at the Columbia Bible College gym. The program will consist of dinner, music by Calvin Dyck and Betty Suderman, reflections of the past, and the unveiling of the anniversary book, beginning at 5:30 p.m. To reserve, call 604-853-2411 or e-mail. There is no charge, but donations will be accepted.

—news release