An earlier trial run of a virtual, online church by the U.K. Christian webzine shipoffools.com plans to reopen this week as St. Pixels. This time the Methodist Church of Great Britain will sponsor the virtual church. In the summer of 2004, shipoffools.com did a four-month trial run where users logged on at their computers and became cartoon parishioners in an on-screen, gothic-styled church. The characters talked together with cartoon speech bubbles, sang hymns, prayed and listened to sermons together. On the busiest day, 41,000 log-on attempts were recorded with an average of more than 7,300 visits per day in the four months. More than half the users were under 30 years old, and 60 percent were male. "This kind of response begins to dispel the notion that church is only of interest to silver-haired spinsters," says Simon Jenkins, editor of shipoffools.com. (Assist News Service)

UPDATE: CONTINUED PERSECUTION SURROUNDS RAPES IN INDIA

In continued efforts to cover up the rape of two Christian women, the headmen of 12 villages in central India’s Madhya Pradesh state, including the village of Nadia where the women were raped, have asked Christians to renounce their faith or leave the village. Nadia’s village head, Pandya Patel, warned other villagers that anyone who spoke to police about the rapes would be expelled from the village regardless of their religious affiliation. Elsewhere, the head of the state’s Minorities Commission chastised a prominent member for calling a press conference about the incidents without approval from the commission. Extremist Hindus interrupted the press conference. "The situation in Madhya Pradesh is becoming most frustrating," said John Dayal, a member of the National Integration Council of India. "The Madhya Pradesh Minorities Commission should be sacked, and the chairman should resign for failing to deal with the increasing incidence of violence against Christians," he said. (Compass Direct)

LIVING BREAD CHURCH IN JERICHO AGAIN SET ON FIRE BY NEIGHBORS

Muslim neighbors angered over religious activities in the ancient biblical city of Jericho torched the Living Bread church in early June. Living Bread, an evangelical Christian ministry in a Palestinian refugee camp, has been the target of arson three times in the last three years since the ministry was founded. Twenty-five percent of the building was damaged, rendering the entire church unusable, according to a report from the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem. Pastor Karen Dunham was upbeat about the attacks, telling her friends and supporters in an alert that "we are a church on fire." (Assist News Service)

MORE THAT 16 MILLION CHINESE CHRISTIANS RECOGNIZED IN CHINA

At a ceremony celebrating the opening of the China Bible Exhibit in New York, Chinese religious officials spoke out about the Christianity in China. Wang Zuoan, vice minister of the State Administration of Religious Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, reported that Chinese Christians number more than 16 million. This number does not include the millions who are not a part of the officially recognized church, but are rather a part of the growing number of underground Christians. Charles C. West of the New York Committee for the Bible referred to these as the "quiet" Christian population, adding that their numbers are so broad that they are unknown. Wang admitted that Chinese officials have struggled to accept Christianity’s growth with the perspective of "one more Christian, one less Chinese." However, Wang said Protestantism has a wide space to exert its positive influence, and if the Chinese church can find a constructive part in society, then it can grow as a healthy body. (Christian Post/Religion Today)

UPDATE: WORLD VISION AIDS 100,000 QUAKE SURVIVORS IN PAKISTAN

World Vision distributed about $2 million in aid through the Pakistani organization Bright Education Society (BES) to help more than 100,000 people affected by earthquake in Pakistan last year. The aid arrived in answer to tribal leader’s desperate requests for outside help that ended more than a century with no significant outside contact. World Vision and BES has been distributing necessary non-food items and attempting to build trust and rapport with people who hadn’t received help since the earthquake hit in the isolated Kala Dhaka region. World Vision asks for prayers that doors would continue to open to the ministry there. (Mission Network News)

* HCJB World Radio sent two medical teams from Ecuador to Pakistan following the Oct. 8, 2005, earthquake that left tens of thousands dead and thousands more injured and homeless. Staff members helped SIM International with relief efforts.

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