Zprávy HCJB 7.12.2008 - 13.12.2008

 Nově vznikající anglikánská ‘reformace‘
   Konzervativní anglikáni budují v Severní Americe denominaci, která bude oddělena od Episkopální církve, což je americká odnož anglikánů. Ta se potácí na pokraji rozkolu již od roku 2003, kdy otevřeného homosexuála ustanovila jedním z biskupů. Představitelé konzervativních skupin anglikánů z celého světa se ve Wheatonu ve státě Illinois sešli ze zástupci sdělovacích prostředků, aby jim oznámili, že jejich skupina Common Cause Partnership (CCP) připravila provizorní ústavu a první soubor teologických zásad nové Anglikánské Církve Severní Ameriky (ACNA). Vedoucí pracovníci CCP řekli, že tato konkurenční denominace zastupuje 700 sborů (asi 100 000 lidí) v USA a v Kanadě. „Našim cílem je šířit evangelium Ježíše Krista a Jeho proměňující lásky v USA, Kanadě i jinde,“ řekl biskup Robert Duncan, který slouží jako předseda CCP a bude dočasným vedoucím ACNA. Představitelé Episkopální církve Duncana v září sesadili z funkce biskupa v Pittsburghu poté, co jeho sbor odešel z Episkopální církve a připojil se k jihoamerické anglikánské církvi Anglican Southern Cone sídlící v Argentině (viz zpráva z 23.11.2008). Založení ACNA je dosud největší hrozbou pro jednotu Anglikánského společenství sídlícího v Anglii, které má zhruba 77 milionů členů po celém světě. Zdroj: ministrytodaymag.com, charismamag.com. Viz též naše staré zprávy z 6.4.2000 a 17.12.2006.
 
 Medvěděv i Putin se zúčastnili pohřbu ruského pravoslavného patriarchy Alexeje II
   Ekumenický patriarcha Bartoloměj I. z Cařihradu a patriarcha Gruzie Ilja II. společně posloužili při pohřbu patriarchy Ruské pravoslavné církve Alexeje II, který se konal v Moskvě. Ruský prezident Dimitrij A. Medveděv, který se pohřbu účastnil, vyhlásil tento den – úterý 9. prosince – dnem státního smutku. Pohřbu se zúčastnil i premiér Vladimír Putin, který již předtím o smrti Alexeje řekl, že „je velmi tragickou a smutnou událostí.“ Tisíce Rusů stály v řadě před moskevskou katedrálou Krista Spasitele dlouhé hodiny, aby mohly vzdát poslední poctu patriarchovi Alexeji II, které až do své smrti vedl Ruskou pravoslavnou církev k obnově v posovětském období. Alexej zemřel v pátek 5. prosince ve věku 79 let. Ruská pravoslavná církev si za dočasného představitele zvolila metropolitu Kirilla ze Smolenska. Zdroj: Ecumenical News International
 
 Všechny zprávy v angličtině
   BGEA EMPOWERS CHRISTIANS IN SINGAPORE TO REACH PEERS WITH THE GOSPEL

Sources: Billy Graham Evangelistic Association
The gospel of Jesus Christ is being proclaimed in Singapore Dec. 12-14 as churches across the country launch My Hope, an evangelistic effort facilitated by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA). More than 20,000 homes representing some 250 churches in Singapore are involved in the Christian outreach. Local Christians have invited neighbors, friends and relatives to their homes to watch one of a number of moving and culturally appropriate programs on DVD. At the end of the video, viewers are invited to accept or rededicate their lives to Jesus Christ. The programs feature sermons by Billy and Franklin Graham and are in five different languages spoken in Singapore: Tamil, Chinese, Bahasa, Tagalog and English. An English-language program highlights Neville Tan, a desperate and hopeless young Singaporean prisoner who decided one night to take his own life. But in his dark cell, God’s light penetrated Tan’s heart with Scripture, giving him a freedom he had never known. Tan is now a missionary. The event comes on the heels of a massive My Hope effort facilitated by BGEA in Brazil involving more than 850,000 homes representing more than 50,000 churches.

* HCJB Global opened an office in Singapore in 2005 as the hub for Asia Pacific, the world’s most populous region with more than 3.5 billion people.

CHURCHES BIND TOGETHER THROUGH WATER FILTER PROJECT

Source: Mission Network News
This holiday season many U.S. churches are pursuing different initiatives to provide clean water for impoverished and desperate people around the world. United through Michigan-based International Aid, the churches are working to provide HydrAid BioSand water filters in the homes of families that otherwise have no access to clean water. A UNICEF report in 2008 stated that more than 884 million people worldwide still use unsafe drinking water. The churches are pursuing other initiatives as well. An Arizona church is petitioning grandparents to pay for sponsorships for the filters in the names of their grandchildren rather than buying them material items for Christmas. Another church raised money through their summer vacation Bible school program to provide filters for 20 different families while a Michigan congregation raised enough money to provide 61,000 water filters in Honduras.

BOOK FURTHERS ARGUMENT FOR BIBLICAL CREATION

Source: Reasons to Believe
A biochemist’s new book, The Cell’s Design: How Chemistry Reveals the Creator’s Artistry, uses scientific reasoning to build a weight of evidence for biblical creation. “Pattern recognition uses what scientists already know about life’s chemistry and about the organization of biochemical systems as reflections of human-designed systems—not on what science does not know,” says Fazale Rana, vice president of research and apologetics at California-based Reasons to Believe. Taking readers beyond the book, Darwin’s Black Box by Michael Behe, Rana unveils more than a dozen different systems inside each cell that have never before been discussed in Christian apologetics works. He illustrates how these systems reflect the mind of the Creator in whose image humans are made.

THE EMERGING ANGLICAN ‘REFORMATION’

Sources: ministrytodaymag.com, charismamag.com
Conservative Anglicans in North America are forming a denomination separate from the Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of Anglicanism that has been teetering on the verge of a split since it ordained an openly gay bishop in 2003. At Wheaton, Ill., leaders of a conservative group of Anglicans worldwide met with media to explain that their group, Common Cause Partnership (CCP), has drawn up a provisional constitution and first set of canons for the new Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). The leaders of CCP said the rival denomination represents 700 congregations (about 100,000 people) in the U.S. and Canada. “The purpose of the province is to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and His transforming love in the U.S., Canada and beyond,” said Bishop Robert Duncan, who serves as CCP moderator and is to serve as interim leader of the ACNA. Episcopal Church leaders deposed Duncan from his position as bishop of the diocese of Pittsburgh in September after which his diocese defected from the Episcopal Church to align with Latin America’s Southern Cone, based in Argentina. The ACNA’s formation poses the biggest threat yet to the unity of the England-based Anglican Communion which has roughly 77 million members worldwide.

ADRA CHIEF SEES CONTINUED FUNDING DESPITE ECONOMIC DOWNTURN

Source: Adventist News Network
Climbing unemployment in the U.S. and the loss of more than half a million jobs in November could spell lean times for nonprofit organizations, but so far giving to the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) has not declined. This year ADRA saw an unanticipated rise in donations. ADRA President Charles Sandefur said people continue to give because they understand the needs of the world go up in these dangerous times. “We will be working with the homeless of the world, and that is our major appeal for funding over the holiday season,” he said, “Other special projects this season include looking for funding for refugees and internally displaced persons or refugees who don’t cross borders.” Sandefur also mentioned advocacy against trafficking and gender violence. “This includes advocating against female circumcision—female genital mutilation,” he said of the ADRA’s Keep Girls Safe program. Another program [advocates against] human sex trafficking in India as “we are called to not just do good things but to speak out on behalf of people who have no voice and have no privilege in this world.”

CHALLENGE TO HYBRID EMBRYO EXPERIMENTS DENIED BY LONDON COURT

Source: BBC
A British judge has denied a formal request by Christians in Britain to bring a test case application that could have challenged scientists being allowed to create human-animal embryos for research purposes. The Christian Legal Centre (CLC) and Comment on Reproductive Ethics had wanted to overturn a decision of the research regulator, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA). In London, High Court Justice Linda Dobbs ruled that the CLC application was totally without merit. An earlier ruling by the HFEA gave scientists at Newcastle University and King’s College London the go-ahead to experiment with the embryos with a Warwick team subsequently receiving a license as well. Supporters of such research say it could eventually help treat or cure patients with serious medical conditions, while a person named in the court action said the regulator did not give opponents enough say in the decision-making process.

MEDVEDEV, PUTIN JOIN PATRIARCHS FOR FUNERAL OF RUSSIA’S ALEXEI II

Source: Ecumenical News International
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomeos I of Constantinople and Patriarch Ilia II of Georgia both served at the funeral of Patriarch Alexei II of the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow. Russian President Dmitri A. Medvedev, who attended the funeral, declared Tuesday, Dec. 9, a national day of mourning. The service was also attended by Prime Minster Vladimir Putin, who earlier had called the death of Alexei a “very tragic and sorrowful event.” Thousands of Russians stood in line for hours outside Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior to pay final respects to Patriarch Alexei II, who died after leading the Russian Orthodox Church to revival in the post-Soviet era. Alexei died on Friday, Dec. 5, at the age of 79. The Russian Orthodox Church elected Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk as the denomination’s interim leader.

* HCJB Global Voice reaches across Russia with a variety of radio ministries. The mission began sending gospel broadcasts across the country via shortwave in 1941, first from Quito, Ecuador, and in recent years from the U.K. In the early 1990s the ministry began “planting” local radio ministries in Russia and now works with partners nationwide. In 2000 HCJB Global Voice helped launch New Life Radio, the first Christian Russian satellite radio network. More than 76 downlinks have been placed in more than 46 cities across Russia and neighboring countries.

CHRISTIAN FAMILY IN BANGLADESH FACES CHARGES AFTER BEING BEATEN, CUT

Source: Compass Direct News
The harassment that Bangladeshi converts from Islam face from Muslim neighbors in southeastern Bangladesh can take serious turns as it did last month when an attack by about a dozen Muslims left a Christian family with machete wounds. Confident that no police would side with Christian converts from Islam, the Muslims in Chakaria (near Cox’s Bazaar 236 miles southeast of Dhaka) later filed false assault charges against the wounded Christians, according to family members. Laila Begum, a Christian convert from Islam, said that on Nov. 1 some 10 to 15 Muslim neighbors demanded 200 taka (US$3). Begum said she had borrowed 2,000 taka (US$30) last year from a Muslim neighbor and this year paid her back with interest. She told the group of Muslim neighbors that she would pay no more, she said, and they began beating her. The family informed local governing council members about the attack, but they demanded 20,000 taka (US$300) to settle the matter and also threatened them, Begum said.

COLOMBIA VIOLENCE AFFIRMS NEED FOR GOD’S WORD

Source: Bible League
Although Colombia’s security situation has improved, drug trafficking, corruption, kidnapping and murder continue to plague the nation. “This atmosphere of lawlessness, indifference and the abandonment of moral and ethical values creates a challenging atmosphere for Colombian Christians,” said Steve Lindahl, associate director for the Bible League in South America. At least 180,000 Colombians have sought refuge across Colombia’s border to Venezuela to avoid the violence, according to World News. Drug barons scramble for coca crops—the raw ingredient for cocaine—killing and kidnapping civilians in their path. Xulon Press reported that three Christian pastors were reportedly killed recently in separate incidents across the country. But Lindahl says that the violence is not deterring Colombian believers. “We are overcoming obstacles, evident by the 1,100 Colombian churches actively using Bible League’s evangelism and discipleship programs,” Lindahl said. “The encouraging ministry field reports indicate that in 2008 alone 74,812 Colombians completed a Bible study and received a copy of God’s Word.”

UPDATE: TERRORISM IN MUMBAI DRAWS ATTENTION TO INDIA’S LONG-TERM PROBLEMS

Source: Christian Newswire
With the world’s eyes focused on Mumbai, India, after terrorism left nearly 200 people dead, Gospel for Asia President K.P. Yohannan said the recent coordinated attacks aren’t the only terrorist activities in India—they just aren’t the most reported. “In the midst of the horrendous terrorist attacks on Mumbai, we must not forget that there is another wave of terrorism gripping India,” he said. “I am, of course, speaking about the attacks on Christians by religious extremists.” Some 1,000 miles from Mumbai, Christians in eastern India’s Orissa state continue to be murdered for their faith. The official death toll in Orissa violence is 118—all of them Christians. But some estimates put the number of deceased as high as 500. India’s national government has appointed a one-man commission to study the attacks and recommend action. Orissa police have only arrested three people in relation to the attacks.

* 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.

CHINESE OFFICIALS REACH OUT TO HOUSE CHURCHES WHILE RAIDS, ARRESTS CONTINUE

Sources: Compass Direct, Assist News Service
In recent months Chinese officials have attempted to build bridges with the Protestant house church movement even as police raided more unregistered congregations. They arrested Christian leaders and forced at least 400 college students to swear they would stop attending such worship services. Two research institutes in China have responded to human rights groups pleas for more efforts to address rights abuses and secure full religious freedom for Chinese Christians. The research institutes (one of which is a government body) set up a Nov. 21-22 symposium that concluded with an agreement for house church leaders to begin a dialogue with government officials. The forum, called “Christianity and Social Harmony: A Seminar on the Issue of Chinese House Churches,” was attended by house church leaders, scholars and university and research experts. The event was co-hosted by a branch of the China State Council’s Research and Development Center and the Beijing Pacific Solutions Social Science Research Institute.

* HCJB Global-Australia’s shortwave station in Kununurra broadcasts 25.5 hours of Mandarin programming each week. An additional five hours of weekly programming in Min Nan Chinese (Fujian) and 10.5 hours in English also air to China.

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