Lausanne World Pulse – News Briefs
As North Queensland experiences its worst cyclone on record, Anglican offices have been shut down, a church hall has been destroyed and a rectory roof has been ripped off. The town of Innisfail was most affected by Cyclone Larry, where houses were ripped apart by gusts of nearly three hundred km/h. “Innisfail is devastated,” said Rev. Chris Wright, area dean of the northern region in the Diocese of North Queensland. “The bulk of the church hall is gone and the rectory lost most of its roof.” Wright said no one was hurt. (Anglican Communion News Service)
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BRAZIL
The Rev. Walter Altmann, a Lutheran theologian from Brazil, has been elected the new moderator of the central committee of the World Council of Churches, a WCC official said on 24 February. Altmann is president of the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil (IECLB), a post he has held since the end of 2002. He was born in the southern Brazil city of Porto Alegre in 1944, and it was in that city on the last day of the WCC’s 14-23 February assembly, the first held in Latin America, that he was elected to lead the world’s biggest grouping of churches. (Ecumenical News International)
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CANADA
The board of trustees of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) has appointed Ida Mutoigo to the position of director of the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC), Canada. If the appointment is ratified by Synod 2006, Mutoigo, who currently serves as CRWRC’s team leader for East and Southern Africa, will be the first female director in the development and relief agency’s 44-year history. CRWRC is an agency of the Christian Reformed Church in North America providing a ministry of development, relief and justice education to people in need around the world. (Christian Reformed Church)
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ECUADOR
The Encounter with God churches in Quito continue to make sizable strides toward unifying their relationship and planning joint partnerships for future church multiplication in the area. Recently the churches formalized their relationship as a “RED,” the Spanish term for network. As part of the network, churches agree to work together in holding outreach events and planting daughter churches. Pastor Luis Estevez, senior pastor of the El Batan Church, has been named the RED coordinator. (Church Ministries International)
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ERITREA
Nearly 1,800 Eritrean Christians are believed to be under arrest because of their religious beliefs, according to Compass Direct. Many are being held in police stations, military camps and prisons in twelve known locations across the country and are routinely subjected to physical beatings and severe psychological pressure to deny their faith in Christ. According to Compass, since May 2002 all independent evangelical churches have been closed. (Assist News)
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INDIA
In Uttar Pradesh, Jharkand, Punjab and other places in India 175 Operation Mobilization India film and literature teams are working to add new believers to local fellowship for God’s glory. The teams are using a film on the life of Christ called Dayasagar. Each team is made up of four to six 18 to 30-year-olds. The teams use home visitations, film shows, literacy classes and health and hygiene awareness programs to share the love of Christ with those they meet. (Operation Mobilization India)
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NORTH KOREA
A new website www.prayfornorthkorea.org, dedicated to mobilizing and facilitating prayer for North Korea has been launched as part of the Global Week of Prayer for North Korea 19-25 June 2006. The website is a call for Christians to pray for the more than twenty-two million people in North Korea who are in desperate need of physical and spiritual healing. The site contains resources, including PowerPoint presentations and written materials, to equip participating prayer groups. (Christian Solidarity Worldwide)
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UNITED STATES
Urbana.org has announced the launch of a new blog: Missional Hands. The blog is intended to be a conversation with missions staff from around the world who are uniquely qualified to talk about what it takes to be a missionary today. (InterVarsity Christian Fellowship)
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UNITED STATES
Today’s Pentecostal Evangel, the magazine of the Assemblies of God denomination, received a record number of salvation responses in 2005. Nearly 1,900 people clipped salvation coupons from the magazine and sent them to the Evangel office, indicating they had decided to make Jesus their Savior. Individuals receive follow-up material to help them, and local churches are advised so personal contact can be made. Since the coupons began appearing regularly in the magazine in 1997 more than fifteen thousand have been returned. (Assemblies of God)
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UNITED STATES
The Episcopal Church and the Church Pension Group (CPG) are collaborating in a historical research project known as the Episcopal US Congregational Life Survey. Congregations were selected at random, and include communities of various sizes in rural, suburban and city locations. Each congregation’s response will provide an opportunity to better understand its participants; its strengths and the factors that make it unique; the areas where change is needed; and its options for the future. In addition, organizers say the survey will help create an accurate national portrait of those who attend Episcopal churches and missions. The results of the survey should be available fall 2006. (Episcopal News Service)
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UNITED STATES
The board of directors of International Teams mission recently appointed Dr. David Schroeder as president and CEO of International Teams USA. Outgoing president Stephen Freed will now serve as international ministry leader for the global organization, which serves fifty-three countries. Schroeder previously served as president of Nyack College where he has seen the student population nearly triple during his time of service. International Teams currently has over eight hundred missionaries from thirty-two countries. (International Teams)
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