People & events

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is poised to help rebuild war-torn Iraq. It will spend more than $865,000 Cdn. in emergency relief aid, trauma counseling, peace work and clearance of unexploded ordnance. This aid is in addition to on-going distribution of some $2.7 million in supplies pre-positioned before the war.

—MCC News Service

Sexually active teens are less likely to be happy, more likely to be depressed, and more likely to attempt suicide, according to a new study of American teens. The Family Research Council’s Bridget Maher says the study provides further support for abstinence education as a “more compassionate” approach than “pushing ‘safe sex’.” Conducted by the Heritage Foundation, it can be accessed at the Family Research Council website.

—Evangelical Press News Service

“Celebration 2005” hopes to bring Canadian Christians together in a country-wide public celebration of faith and witness in June of 2005. Initiated by Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, the still-evolving project will be spearheaded by David Macfarlane, former pastor of the Waterloo (Ont.) MB Church. “We want to help Christians build bridges to other Christians as well as to unchurched people,” he says.

—ChristianWeek

Donations to Canadian Foodgrains Bank topped $8 million last year, the highest level in the organization’s 20-year history. Grain donations on the Prairies decreased slightly, but good crops in Ontario and stronger grain prices meant actual values of donated grain rose. Cash donations increased significantly. In the fiscal year ending March 31, CFB supplied 47,023 tonnes of food to people in 19 countries. Of this, 380 tonnes were used as seed.

—CFB news release

The original “Jane Roe” of the 1973 Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion in the United States has filed a motion to re-open that case and reverse the decision. Since becoming a Christian in 1995, Norma McCorvey has tried to educate others that abortion is “a violent act which kills human beings” and works against the “real interests” of the women involved.

—Evangelical Press News Service

The children of Congo have suffered systematic torture and cruelty during that country’s ongoing war. A June report from the International Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict documents “gross violations against children” including assault, rape, abduction and recruitment as child soldiers. The 5-year war has claimed an estimated 3.3 million lives. Watchlist urges immediate humanitarian help to protect Congolese children.

—World Vision Canada

Margaret Avison, whose poems are “shot through with her Christian faith”, has won the Canadian portion of the world’s richest poetry prize, the Griffin Prize for Excellence in Poetry, worth $40,000, for her sixth book of poems, Concrete and Wild Carrot. Avison, also twice winner of the Governor General’s Award, converted to Christianity in 1963. She is now 85 and lives in a retirement home.

—from newspaper reports

“There is a growing demand for funds with a socially responsible mandate,” says Gary Hawton, CEO of Meritas Mutual Funds. Meritas announced June 4 that monthly sales had achieved their best level since launched in March 2001. Socially responsible investing includes consideration of a company’s record on matters like employee relations, international human rights, and environmental record as well as financial criteria, and may exclude companies involved in military contracting or production of tobacco or pornography.

—Meritas release

Methodists worldwide celebrated the 300th anniversary of the birth of the denomination’s founder, John Wesley, on June 17. The town of Epworth, England, where Wesley was born in 1703, marked the occasion with the premiere of a new play on his life and a new bronze statue.

—Evangelical Press News Service

Christians in China are finding new opportunities to share their faith in the midst of panic and discontent caused by the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) Virus. The country has been gripped by fear and violence since the seriousness of the disease and the government’s initial denials became known. Although Christian organizations are reeling from worker withdrawals and program cancellations, Christians report a growing responsiveness to the gospel from friends and neighbours.

—Compass Direct

“If I were a butterfly, I’d thank you, Lord, for giving me wings . . .” Brian M. Howard was recently surprised with a “gold” record for “The Butterfly Song” he wrote nearly three decades ago while helping out a children’s ministry in Houston, Texas. “We needed songs with movement that involved the children,” he said. The song went on to be recorded by major labels like Word and Maranatha and garnered more than 500,000 in recording sales.

—Evangelical Press News Service

Two well-established and quite different Mennonite institutions – Mennonite World Conference, a network of churches situated throughout the world, and Mennonite Central Committee, the North American-based service agency that sends workers worldwide – are cooperating more deliberately these days. The reason is the shift of Mennonite and Brethren in Christ population, with more in the south of the hemisphere than in the north. Churches in the South want greater involvement with churches in the North and like to be consulted when North American church workers arrive in their communities to do good. So far, the companionship is mostly consultation, as well as cooperation in the Young Anabaptist Mennonite Exchange Network and the Jerusalem Seminar. MCC Executive Director Ron Mathies and MWC Executive Secretary Larry Miller say neither group’s mandate will change, but they welcome closer ties “on behalf of the whole Anabaptist family”.

—MWC and MCC joint news release

Volunteers from Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) guide a team of local volunteers through the reconstruction of a home destroyed by typhoon Chata’an. Forty homes were rebuilt in Micronesia.