Haitians, Dominicans brace for Isaac; Russian and Polish churches sign new agreement; Some Israeli Parents Rethink Ritual Circumcision; With A Girl Jailed, Pakistan Law Again Under Scrutiny; Indian Ocean Province re-elects Primate
Haitians, Dominicans brace for Isaac
As Tropical Storm Isaac bore down on the island of Hispaniola Aug. 24, residents of Haiti and the Dominican Republic were warned to take shelter as best they could.
Diocese of Haiti Bishop Suffragan Oge Beauvoir told Episcopal News Service at midday that he had been in touch with clergy in the northern part of the diocese (which he supervises) telling them to make provisions for themselves and, where possible, their parishioners.
“It’s going to be very fierce,” he told ENS via telephone en route to his Cap-Haitien office in the Greater North Region of Haiti.
Beauvoir said he told the clergy to urge parishioners who lived near the coast or near rivers to move inland and stay with friends. He also reminded them to try their best to stockpile basic necessitates such as water.
http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2012/08/24/haitians-dominicans-brace-for-isaac/
Russian and Polish churches sign new agreement
Patriarch Kirill I of the Russian Orthodox Church and Roman Catholic Archbishop Jozef Michalik of Przemysl signed a statement of reconciliation in Warsaw on 17 August, meant to overcome historical and religious differences and focus on the churches’ common stance on traditional values – writes Sophia Kishkovsky.
Kirill’s 16-19 August 2012 visit was the first to Poland by a head of the Russian church.
The document referred to a shared experience of totalitarianism, saying it is something that can bring the nations together.
Although not referred to specifically, relations between the two countries were strained over the 1940 Katyn massacre in southwest Russia in which Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin’s secret police killed thousands of Polish army officers and intelligentsia. At the time, the Soviet government ascribed it to Nazi Germany. In the post-Soviet era, Russia refused to call the Katyn massacre a crime or acknowledge its scale.
http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/16961
Some Israeli Parents Rethink Ritual Circumcision
A debate is growing among Israel’s secular Jewish majority over the question of whether to circumcise newborn sons. The vast majority still chooses to have the procedure done, but voices of dissent are on the rise.
http://www.npr.org/2012/08/22/159807599/some-israeli-parents-rethink-ritual-circumcision?ft=1&f=1016
With A Girl Jailed, Pakistan Law Again Under Scrutiny
A young Christian girl is behind bars in Pakistan, accused of burning pages of Quranic verse. Defaming Islam or its holy book is punishable by death in Pakistan. The case has drawn wide attention to Muslim extremists’ influence on the law and intolerance toward religious minorities.
http://www.npr.org/2012/08/23/159918032/with-a-girl-jailed-pakistan-law-again-under-scrutiny?ft=1&f=1016
Indian Ocean Province re-elects Primate
The Most Revd Ian Ernest has been re-elected as the Primate of the Church of the Province of the Indian Ocean. The Anglican Church of the Province of Indian Ocean comprises the dioceses of Mauritius, Seychelles, Antananarivo, Toamasina, Antsiranana, Mahajanga, and Fianarantsoa.