Zprávy HCJB 23.11.2008 - 29.11.2008

	Texaská diecéze opouští episkopální církev
	V pořadí čtvrtá episkopální diecéze v USA se oddělila od celoamerické episkopální církve. Diecéze Forth Worth v Texasu si podle listu The New York Times odhlasovala přechod k jihoamerické anglikánské církvi Anglican Southern Cone se sídlem v Jižní Americe. Biskup Jack L. Iker svaluje vinu za na „církev, která se stále více odklání od víry a poslušnosti Božímu Slovu, církev, která způsobila rozkol a neshody jak doma, tak v zahraničí, církev, která podstatu obecenství potlačila na nejnižší úroveň … Je čas říci dost.“ Diecéze hlasovala 72:19 mezi duchovenstvem a 102:25 mezi laiky, čímž vyvrcholilo letité zvažování možnosti oddělit se. Zdroj: Religion Today. Pozn. překl.: Jde m.j. o otázku svěcení homosexuálů.
	Útlak křesťanů na řadě míst Mexika pokračuje
	Podle došlých zpráv přibylo v jižním Mexiku evangelikálních sborů, nepřátelství „tradicionalistických katolíků“ však současně nabírá na síle. Zvláště v domorodých komunitách v jižním Mexiku převažuje názor, že na náboženskou činnost mají nárok jedině tradicionalističtí katolící, kteří směšují domorodé rituály s římským katolictvím. Dokonce se ukazuje, že tito tradicionalističtí katoličtí vesničané si myslí, že mají právo nutit jiné lidi provozovat jejich náboženství. Agentura La Voz píše, že ve státě Oaxaca v obci Santiago Teotlaxco byli 16. listopadu čtyři křesťané uvězněni za neúčast na slavnosti tradicionalistických katolíků a za neochotu platit vysoké příspěvky na pokrytí nákladů těchto slavností. Jejich sousedé se pokoušeli nutit je k účasti na obřadech, které jako evangelikálové považují za modlářské vyvyšování svatých, což je v rozporu s jejich vírou. Následkem tohoto nátlaku se místní nekatolíci včetně dětí obávají, že budou vyhnáni ze svých domovů. Zdroj: Compass Direct News. Viz též zprávy z 8.6.2000, 20.3.2001, 24.4.2007 a 26.2.2008
	Všechny zprávy v angličtině
	HCJB GLOBAL TRANSMITTER INSTALLED AT TWR’S SITE IN SWAZILAND Sources: HCJB Global, Trans World Radio A new 100,000-watt shortwave transmitter built at the HCJB Global Technology Center in Elkhart, Ind., is on the air at the Trans World Radio (TWR) site in Swaziland, broadcasting a message of hope across Sub-Saharan Africa and beyond. Through a cooperative effort between the two organizations, the HC100 transmitter began broadcasting about 12 hours a day on Oct. 23, replacing an outdated Continental unit and joining two other HC100s, also from Elkhart. “The results of the broadcasts from this transmitter are that people come to Christ and they are encouraged in their faith,” said Ray Alary, TWR’s director of operations in Africa. “For those with HIV/AIDS, we can encourage them in what seems a hopeless situation. Through Jesus we all have hope. The primary target areas are eastern and southern Africa, but our transmitters in Swaziland reach locations as far away as Pakistan. We broadcast in approximately 30 languages with our three HC100 transmitters.” Alary added that TWR’s partnership with HCJB Global “goes back a long way and has taken many different forms over the years . . . it is a model of a well-functioning partnership where each party gains from our ability to work together.” The partnership includes having a number of TWR missionaries serving at the Technology Center in Elkhart. Among those is veteran engineer Larry McGuire who lived in Swaziland for 16 years before moving to Elkhart in 1990. He helped build and install all three HC100s at the Swaziland site, spending 21 weeks in Swaziland in October to put the new transmitter on the air. “The new transmitter is much more efficient and has a clearer, more understandable signal than the one it replaced,” McGuire said. “The HC100 is also easier to maintain because it was designed by missionary engineers for that purpose.” Alary said that having “three identical transmitters at the same site makes our operation in Swaziland very efficient. In addition, we have purchased more than 20 suitcase transmitters through HCJB.” Tom Lowell, chairman of TWR’s board of directors, said the new transmitter has many economic advantages. “For example, parts needed to keep the old equipment on the air were expensive. The Continental transmitter uses three large tubes, at $13,000 each, compared to the HC100’s single tube. That’s an immediate savings of $26,000 on parts alone! The HC100 also operates much more efficiently, saving us $12,000 per year on our electric bill in Swaziland.” McGuire added that the installation of the HC100 in Swaziland culminates years of work and planning dating back to about 2000. Construction of this transmitter, the ninth of its type, was completed in 2005. After TWR agreed to purchase the unit, it was modified to, and tested for, Swaziland requirements, then packed and loaded onto a truck in Elkhart on July 31. It then traveled across the Atlantic Ocean by ship, arriving in Durban, South Africa, on Sept. 9. From there it went by train to Matsapha, Swaziland, where it cleared customs “almost immediately,” he said. Finally it went by truck to TWR’s transmitter site on a ranch 20 miles from Manzini along the White Mbuluzi River, arriving on Sept. 18. “The day it arrived, there ‘happened’ to be a work crew from a church in Elkhart that had been renovating the building,” McGuire continued. “They were way ahead of schedule, so they helped unload the transmitter from the container, got it in position and started putting up the heavy parts and then built the fascia—all before I started working on the installation on Oct. 6. I was very amazed. That’s never happened before!” David Russell, director of the HCJB Global Technology Center, calls it a “privilege to work closely with engineers of TWR Africa. During just the past year we have cooperated with TWR on projects in Benin, Kenya and Swaziland. We are presently refurbishing a used 50,000-watt AM transmitter that will be used at TWR’s Swaziland broadcast facilities. “It gives us a great sense of fulfillment to be able to support our fellow kingdom workers at TWR through the provision of technical consulting, equipment, installations and maintenance,” Russell added. “By pooling our strengths we are able to be more effective in the Lord’s harvest fields.” CHURCH RESPONDS TO DEEPENING CRISIS IN CONFLICT-TORN DEM. REP. OF CONGO Source: Tearfund Tearfund’s church partner agencies are delivering lifesaving food, water, shelter and emergency medical supplies to some of the tens of thousands of families affected by the violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo. More than 250,000 people have been forced to flee their homes to escape the upsurge in fighting in recent weeks, adding to more than 1 million who have already been displaced by the conflict. Tearfund, which has worked in the country for nearly 20 years, launched an urgent fundraising appeal to ensure that people get the help they desperately need. Among those who have already received vital aid from Tearfund’s partners are 300 displaced pregnant women and children in rebel-held territory north of Goma. They fled with nothing other than the clothes they were wearing, and many of them have been left traumatized by their ordeal. HEAL Africa found these vulnerable women and gave them clothes and blankets which are crucial for their wellbeing and survival. Tearfund is also engaging in advocacy. Through an All Party Parliamentary Group, the aid agency supports calls for actions that aim to end the country’s war, encourage warring parties to enter into a dialogue and respect human rights, and increase pressure on neighboring countries to refrain from supporting rebels. NEW ONLINE CHURCH MINISTERS TO TENS OF THOUSANDS Source: Christian Newswire Internet evangelist Bill Keller, founder of the interactive Christian website liveprayer.com, recently launched an exclusively Internet-based church. “This online cathedral will become the church home to well over 1 million people around the world within the first year,” Keller predicted. LivePrayerChurch.com was launched last month. More than 2.4 million people have subscribed to his daily devotional, penned daily by Keller since the site’s inception. Liveprayer.com has a team of more than 700 retired pastors who send personal responses to thousands of e-mail requests for prayer. Keller says he’s excited that in just 30 days his new online church is averaging more than 10,000 visitors weekly, and that 20 percent of these worshipers are visiting from outside the U.S. GOSPELCOM TO CLOSE INTERNET DIVISION, ZONDERVAN TAKES ON BIBLE GATEWAY Sources: Christianity Today, Web Evangelism Bulletin Gospelcom is closing its Internet division at the end of the year. Zondervan is taking over the name, including Bible Gateway. All current links to Gateway verses will continue to operate as before. Zondervan will also continue with other material currently displayed on the gospel.com site. However, hosting for Gospelcom partner ministries is not part of the change. Sites such as Internet Evangelism Day, which operated with a Gospelcom sub-domain, will switch to their own domain names, although link forwarding will continue for some time. Gospelcom was launched at the beginning of the mainstream Web. DIOCESE IN TEXAS LEAVE EPISCOPAL CHURCH Source: Religion Today A fourth U.S. Episcopal diocese has separated from the national denomination as the Diocese of Forth Worth, Texas, voted to align itself with the Anglican Southern Cone based in South America, according to The New York Times. Bishop Jack L. Iker laid blame for the split on what he described as “a church that is increasingly unfaithful and disobedient to the Word of God, a church that has caused division and dissension both at home and abroad, a church that has torn the fabric of the communion at its deepest level…. It is time to say enough is enough.” The diocese voted 72-19 among the clergy and 102-25 among laypersons, culminating a yearlong exploration into the possibility of a split. TEENAGE EGYPTIAN BELIEVER FORCED TO FOLLOW ISLAMIC EDUCATION Source: BosNewsLife Egyptian believers are concerned about the plight of a Christian teenager who has been forced to attend Islamic religious education in a case that has underscored disputes regarding religious affiliation in the mainly Muslim nation. Middle East Concern (MEC) reported that Egyptian Christians have requested prayers for the girl, identified only as 14-year-old Dina, for security reasons, and her father, Maher, an ex-Muslim. Maher is involved in a legal battle to have his religious registration as shown on his identity card changed to reflect his desire to be identified as a Christian. Unless his papers are changed, his daughter will also be identified as Muslim at the age of 16. “At present Dina is forced to attend Islamic religious education classes despite having been raised as a Christian. Maher does not want her to be forced to live under Islamic family and personal status law, which would include denying her the right to marry a Christian,” MEC explained. Maher has submitted his case to a local court, but after several delays was rescheduled to Jan. 6. Maher became a Christian in 1973, abandoning Islam despite mounting opposition. He and his daughter are “living in hiding due to the negative repercussions associated with his legal challenge.” OPPRESSION OF CHRISTIANS PERSISTS IN VARIOUS PARTS OF MEXICO Source: Compass Direct News As the number of evangelical Christians in southern Mexico has grown, hostilities from “traditionalist Catholics” have kept pace, according to published reports. Especially in indigenous communities in southern Mexico, the prevailing attitude is that only traditionalist Catholics, who blend native rituals with Roman Catholicism, have rights to religious practice, according to news reports. Moreover, the reports indicate the traditionalist Catholic villagers believe they have the right to force others to conform to their religion. In Oaxaca state, four Christians in Santiago Teotlaxco were jailed on Sunday, Nov. 16, for refusing to participate in a traditionalist Catholic festival and for not paying the high quotas they were assigned to help cover its costs, according to the news agency La Voz. Their neighbors, now fewer than the town’s 180 Christian evangelicals, have been trying to force them to practice what the evangelicals regard as idolatrous adoration of saints and other rituals contrary to their faith. As a result of such pressure, non-Catholics in the area, including children, live in fear of being expelled from their properties. * HCJB Global Hands sent an emergency medical response team from Ecuador to Mexico in November 2007, joining with Samaritan’s Purse to provide relief to flood victims. HCJB Global Voice has also helped with training and Spanish programming for a pair of partner stations in Chihuahua, Mexico, and provides five hours of weekly programs for a station in Cuauhtemoc. ANTI-CHRISTIAN VIOLENCE SPREADS IN INDIA’S KARNATAKA STATE Sources: RLG Media, Baptist World Alliance Baptist leaders in India’s southern state of Karnataka have informed the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) that persecution is on the rise in that state. A Baptist leader informed the BWA by telephone on Friday, Nov. 21, of the attacks and requested prayer for those facing persecution. In an e-mail message dated Friday, Oct. 31, another Baptist leader stated, “We are busy visiting churches that were attacked in recent times in our state,” and “we strongly feel that God’s people are uniting in prayers for peace and protection.” Anti-Christian violence has increased significantly in India. The latest wave of violence began after the murder of a charismatic Hindu leader on Aug. 23 in eastern India’s Orissa state. Radical Hindus blame Christians for the killing even though a militant Maoist group claimed responsibility. The violence, which sparked incidents of persecution across Orissa, has since spread to other states, inc luding Karnataka. More than 60 Christians in India have been killed and another 50,000 left homeless by the recent violence, mostly in Orissa. * Radio programs in 12 languages air to India from HCJB Global-Australia’s shortwave station in Kununurra. Most of the programs are produced at the ministry’s studios in New Delhi, India. © Copyright 2008 - HCJB Global - Colorado Springs, CO USA

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