Lausanne World Pulse – News Briefs
Fifteen key organizations that work with the Persecuted Church around the world launched a global network in order to cooperate more intentionally together. Meeting in Amsterdam, Holland, the group formed the Religious Liberty Partnership (RLP), with charter organizations that include Christian Solidarity International (CSW), Open Doors International, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Voice of the Martyrs (Canada) and the Religious Liberty Commission of the World Evangelical Alliance. The partnership will meet annually while a leadership team of five will oversee the work during the year. Mervyn Thomas from CSW in UK was named as chair of the RLP leadership team. The new partnership will attempt to coordinate joint activities, share information and avoid duplication of work. Two ongoing working groups were established for 2007 to address advocacy issues and to identify common best practices. “Obviously, the great winners in this important partnership are our suffering brothers and sisters,” said Johan Candelin of the WEA. “It sends a very strong, positive signal to the global church and is a historical milestone, much needed to be able to serve those who are under growing pressure for their faith in Christ.” (Christian Solidarity Worldwide)
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AROUND THE WORLD
Nearly 3.3 million Bible studies were completed worldwide during 2006 in areas with active Bible League ministry—that’s 376 every hour. Bible League provided 19.3 million scriptures in 2006—a twelve percent increase from 2005. Since 1938, the Bible League has provided more than 712 million scriptures to people around the world. Two examples of the tremendous growth last year are Thailand and Cameroon. In Thailand, 61,377 Bible studies were completed last year, an increase of nearly three hundred percent over 2005. In Cameroon, the number of Bible studies increased by 106 percent. “We give thanks and rejoice, not only for all that God has done, but also for the faithfulness of his people who serve in and through Bible League ministries around the world,” said Mike Southworth, executive vice president of ministries for Bible League. (Bible League)
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CHINA/ENGLAND
Increasing interest in Christianity among Chinese intellectuals is transforming China’s religious landscape, says Edmond Tang, an academic and consultant on China for British and Irish churches. “Today it is an open secret that Christian fellowships, a new kind of ‘house church,’ run by Chinese professors and students, are active in most Chinese universities,” said Tang in comments marking the re-launch of the China Study Journal, a publication analysing religious policy in China. More than thirty academic facilities and research centres in China are now dedicated to the study of a “once maligned religion,” whereas a few years ago there were only three, Tang noted. (Ecumenical News International)
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EL SALVADOR
When an earthquake struck El Salvador in 2001, the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) in Santa Tecla was so badly damaged that it had to be torn down. But the congregation itself was not destroyed. Meeting in makeshift quarters, church members laid plans to rebuild. And in March 2007, a new sanctuary was dedicated to the glory of God and for service to the community of believers and beyond. The event was a milestone for the work of Christian Reformed World Missions (CRWM) in El Salvador, which began in the late 1970s. Rev. Carlos Mejia, the pastor at Santa Tecla, came to the CRC through the denomination’s literature ministry. The CRC’s work in El Salvador continues through the work of CRWM missionary Ruth Padilla DeBorst, who is currently in the United States on study leave, along with her husband Jim, who worked for many years in El Salvador with the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC). (Christian Reformed Church)
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GREAT BRITAIN
The number of people in Britain going to church is falling rapidly and only one in ten adults attends church weekly even though fifty-three percent of adults or 26.2 million people in the United Kingdom identify themselves as Christian. A survey, “Churchgoing in the UK Today,” by Christian relief and development agency Tearfund said this reflects a drop of twenty percent in weekly church attendance from a similar survey conducted six years ago. The survey shows that 7.6 million adults go to church each month. One in four (12.6 million) attend at least once a year. (Ecumenical News International)
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INDIA
Despite opposition and threats of beatings, a team of seven women who are part of Gospel for Asia (GFA) Women’s Fellowship gave out fifty thousand tracts at the Kumbh Mela festival earlier this year. Coming to the Ganges River in Uttar Pradesh, India, to dip in its “holy” waters, sixty million people attended the Kumbh Mela over six weeks in January and February. Many Hindus believe this pilgrimage will give them forgiveness of sins. The women passed out tracts along busy roads to drivers, roadside vendors, security officials, traffic police and even the “holy men,” many of whom received the tracts eagerly. (ASSIST News Service)
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MEXICO
More than sixty thousand people recently attended the three-day Festival of Life 2007 outreach in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, the capital city of Chiapas, Mexico. Of these, more than six thousand people gave their lives to Christ. Nearly four hundred American Christians joined with more than seven hundred Mexican believers to stage mini festivals, free medical clinics, women’s breakfasts, BMX bike stunt riders and other events all over the city and surrounding communities. The stadium outreach was carried in television broadcasts on four thousand Latin American channels, including eight hundred Mexican stations and fifty stations throughout Europe and Africa. Mike MacIntosh, senior pastor of Horizon Christian Fellowship in San Diego, California, USA, spoke each night. (ASSIST News Service)
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NIGERIA
Rev. Kefas Kane Mavula was elected bishop of the United Methodist Church in Nigeria 3 March 2007. Mavula’s appointment comes at an exciting time for Nigerian United Methodists, who have been experiencing rapid growth over the past decade. According to Mark Tooley, Institute for Religion and Democracy United Methodist action direction, the United Methodist Church in Nigeria has gone from ten thousand members to over 400,000 members in the past fifteen years. “Africans now constitute about twenty-five percent of the United Methodist Church,” he said. “With this membership shift to theologically conservative churches in the Global South, United Methodism is slowly moving away from twentieth century liberal Protestantism, which wreaked havoc on America’s mainline denominations.” In addition to rapid church growth in Nigeria, United Methodism elsewhere in Africa is growing quickly. There are over one million United Methodists in the Congo and over 600,000 United Methodists in the Ivory Coast alone. (Institute for Religion and Democracy)
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RUSSIA
A senior official of the Russian Orthodox Church has told attendees at a meeting in Moscow that human rights cannot be considered only from a secular standpoint, which he said often fails to take into account questions of morality, and the difference between good and evil. “To speak of freedom and not speak of good and evil is impossible,” said Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, the chairperson of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department of External Church Relations. “This is what is absent from the absolute majority of contemporary documents that describe the rights and freedoms of people.” (Ecumenical News International)
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SOUTH AMERICA
Nearly one thousand leaders from Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela gathered in their respective countries as National Iberoamerica conferences sparked a renewed priority for evangelism and holiness. In addition to spending much time at the altar, people of all ages received practical training during various ministry workshops. General superintendent James H. Diehl, South America regional director Christian Sarmiento and field strategy coordinator Dwight Rich spoke at each event. The national conferences concluded with ordination services where Diehl ordained seven new pastors, including two indigenous pastors from Ecuador. (Nazarene Communications Network)
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WALES
The major contribution made by thousands of faith communities to Welsh society is to be quantified in the nation’s first faith audit. The audit, “Counting for our communities,” will survey the voluntary work carried out by faith communities for the benefit of people outside their congregations, assessing the economic value of this work. It will also look at the use made of their buildings, the aspirations of faith communities in this regard and the contacts they already have with government. The project, which aims to report back at the end of the year, is led by Evangelical Alliance Wales initiative Gweini—the Council of the Christian Voluntary Sector in Wales—in partnership with the Wales Council for Voluntary Action (WCVA), and is being backed by the Welsh Assembly. There are around five thousand faith communities in Wales. All faith leaders—including Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Christian and other faith groups—are being approached to build up the sample frame for the project. Questions cover a range of topics including what activities are facilitated by the congregations, how they work with their local community and how many volunteers from the congregation are involved in running community projects. (Evangelical Alliance Wales)
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