Reports include – Christian Aid launches West Africa crisis appeal; ‘You can only cry and be together’ says priest from Flanders village; Canada: Church joins First Nations to challenge mining stake; Pope sends crocodile to Cuban government
Christian Aid launches West Africa crisis appeal
Christian Today – Close to 13 million people are facing acute hunger and malnutrition in the Sahel region of Africa, Christian Aid has warned.
The aid agency said the situation had been brought on by a “perfect storm” of failed rains, widespread drought, spiralling cereal prices, migrant unemployment, and mass population displacement due to regional conflict.
It has launched an appeal to continue its programme of food distribution across Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.
“Christian Aid have launched this crisis appeal because there is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to save lives and prevent the loss of livelihoods on a similar scale to what we recently saw unfold in East Africa,” said Cristina Ruiz, Christian Aid’s Africa humanitarian programmes manager.
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/christian.aid.launches.west.africa.crisis.appeal/29476.html
‘You can only cry and be together’ says priest from Flanders village
Irish Times – Belgium reacted with shock and sorrow to the deaths of 22 schoolchildren and six adults after the coach they were travelling in rammed head-on into the wall of a Swiss tunnel as they returned home from a ski trip.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2012/0315/1224313322487.html
Church council seeks to re-define mission and evangelism
ENI – Some 300 church leaders from various parts worldwide will be gathering in Manila from 22 to 27 March for a pre-assembly of the World Council of Churches’ (WCC) Commission on World Mission and Evangelism.
http://www.eni.ch/featured/article.php?id=5538
Archbishop of Canterbury to address RC bishops
Episcopal Cafe – Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has been asked by Pope Benedict XVI to speak to the 2012 Synod of Bishops, which will meet at the Vatican in October.
The subject is “the New Evangelization” and the consideration of associated lineamenta published to help guide the work of bishops.
According to one report,
This Synod will have a significant influence in the work of the new agency formed by the Pope [in 2010] for evangelization, the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization headed by Archbishop Rino Fisichella.
http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/archbishop_of_canterbury/archbishop_of_canterbury_to_ad.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+episcopalcafe+%28Episcopal+Cafe%29
Canada: Church joins First Nations to challenge mining stake
Anglican Journal – The Anglican Church of Canada has joined forces with a First Nations community 370 miles north of Thunder Bay, Ontario, to challenge a stake made at Sherman Lake by God’s Lake Resources (GLR), a Toronto-based gold mining company.
The conflict erupted in October when a mining exploration camp was set up by Sherman Lake without the knowledge or consent of the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation (KI) community. The area also holds grave sites where locals, most of them Anglican, are buried.
On March 6, National Indigenous Anglican Bishop Mark MacDonald joined the KI at their Toronto protest rally. “What KI is interested in is free, prior and informed consent,” MacDonald told the Anglican Journal. “They would like to establish a framework with the government about what that means and how that would work out prior to exploration.”
In a statement, GLR says it is willing to have a “negotiated agreement” with the KI but that under the new Mining Act, claimholders are required to consult with First Nations, not seek permission.
http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2012/03/14/canada-church-joins-first-nations-to-challenge-mining-stake/
Rise in Christians has China’s churches, government looking for help
Episcopal News Service – A small white chapel of Western design sits amid the high-rise residential buildings of Macau, a former Portuguese colony now administered by the People’s Republic of China. Popularly known as the “Morrison Chapel” in honour of Scotsman and Presbyterian minister Rev. Robert Morrison, the first missionary to land in the region in 1807 and the first to translate and publish the Bible in Chinese, it was the first Protestant chapel built on Chinese soil.
From there, Protestant Christianity spread throughout China.
“This is where the gospel came to the Chinese,” said the Rev. Stephen Durie, an Anglican priest and pastor of the chapel, officially christened a century ago as a nondenominational House of God, during a tour of the grounds in late February.
Christianity actually first reached mainland China in the seventh century during the Tang dynasty but didn’t begin to flourish until the 19th century. Later, in 1949, Mao Zedong banned the religion following the Chinese Revolution. It didn’t resurge until after his death in 1976 and the end of the Cultural Revolution. Now, with the communist central government’s sanction and oversight, Protestant Christianity has spread dramatically, manifesting in an unprecedented post-denominational, independent fashion.
And the Chinese government wants to work with the Episcopal Church, said Peter Ng, the church’s global partnerships officer for Asia and the Pacific, in an interview with ENS in China. “The government sees the Episcopal Church as a relevant voice in modern society.”
http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2012/03/14/rise-in-christians-has-chinas-churches-government-looking-for-help/
Madeleine L’Engle Goes to the Movies
One of her lesser known novels, ‘Camilla,’ is headed to the big screen. Here’s the story.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/movies/news/2012/madeleinelengle.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+christianitytoday%2Fctmag+%28Christianity+Today+Magazine%29
Swedish home-schooling leader goes into exile
MercatorNet – Swedish family policies are lauded for enabling women to go to work as well as have children. Sweden has one of the highest fertility rates in Europe. What you can do with your children once you have them, however, is not altogether a matter of choice. You can put them in a free kindergarten, costing $20,000 per child a year, from the time they are one year old, but if you wanted to look after them yourself at home you would be pretty much on your own. Homecare allowances are small and few and far between.
And if you want to educate your child at home, you are in real trouble. Home-schooling is banned in the Scandinavian utopia and families who defy the ban are feeling the full force of the law. Several families have gone into exile in neighbouring countries (which allow home-schooling) as a result, and a handful living on the Finnish Aland Islands were joined in early February by the most high-profile home-schooling dissident yet — President of the Swedish Association for Home Education (ROHUS), Jonas Himmelstrand, his wife and three children.
http://www.mercatornet.com/family_edge/view/10442
Ugandan faith leaders critique viral Internet video on Kony
ACNS – A film detailing atrocities committed by the Northern Uganda rebel leader Joseph Kony has become an Internet sensation, but faith leaders in the region said they fear the production will cause further trauma to the population who are recovering from a 23-year brutal war.
http://www.aco.org/acns/news.cfm/2012/3/15/ACNS5065
Churches demand UN action to halt Syria violence
Christian Today – Baptist Union of Great Britain Methodist Church and United Reformed want the UN Security Council to pass a resolution demanding an immediate halt to the killing in Syria
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/churches.demand.un.action.to.halt.syria.violence/29472.htm
Dissidents occupy Havana church
BBC – A group of Cuban dissidents occupies a church in Havana ahead of the Pope’s visit demanding he urge the Cuban government to end political repression.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-17376738
Havana church protesters evicted
BBC – A group of Cuban dissidents who had occupied a church in Havana ahead of the Pope’s visit have been removed from the building.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-17396306
Pope sends crocodile to Cuban government
Belfast Telegraph – The Vatican is hoping a 2ft crocodile can produce a thaw in its relations with Communist Cuba, as the Pope prepares to visit the island later this month. The creature – a rare Cuban variety of the reptile – was captured by an Italian during a trip there and smuggled to Italy inside a sock hidden in a suitcase in 2011, before being confiscated by officials and ending up in Rome’s Bio Park Zoo. But now, with much pomp and ceremony, the animal has been named the zoo’s ambassador for the environment and is being sent back to the Caribbean island with the blessing of the Holy See.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/pope-sends-crocodile-to-cuban-government-16131997.html