Christian climate scientists speak out
Iain Taylor
Date posted: 1 Sep 2023
The summer heatwave across the northern hemisphere has seen almost uncontrollable forest fires break out from Canada to China, Algeria to Greece, as soaring, record temperatures hit the high-40°sC.
But as soon as the flames were doused, the question on many people’s minds was – to what extent are these record thermometer levels the result of human-made climate change?
Auguste Rodin’s Thinker and the works of Christ
R.A. Miller
Date posted: 1 Sep 2023
‘The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach’ (Acts 1:1).
Auguste Rodin is one of the most famous artists of the last few centuries, specifically in the field of sculpting. If you are unfamiliar with his name, perhaps you will recognise his most famous piece, The Thinker. The statue was originally a part of a series of sculptures based on Dante’s Inferno. Initially small in size, The Thinker was eventually recast into the monument-size work that most of us would recognise. Today, different versions of this pensive piece can be found around the world in places like Paris, San Francisco, Buenos Aires, and Stockholm.
How should we respond to the world’s poorest?
Justin Hall
Date posted: 1 Sep 2023
Living in a post-Covid, post-Brexit UK has been, and will continue to be, challenging. Considering these realities, how is the Christian and the church in the UK to respond to the suffering of the poor, not only in this country, but in other nations too?
There is a fascinating encounter in Acts 10 that shows the gospel door to the Gentiles being flung wide open. What necessitated this glorious opportunity was an encounter in heaven wherein a memorial was brought before God consisting of the prayers of Cornelius, a Roman Centurion, and a copy of his financial records – specifically, that he gave much to the poor. It’s also interesting to note that Cornelius was stationed in the region of Israel during Rome’s occupation. This was not an easy time for anyone, and yet Cornelius’ financial generosity can be seen overflowing to those who were of a different nationality and who, to some degree, were antagonistic and unsupportive of who he was and what he represented.
Donna departs
Milla Ling-Davies
Date posted: 1 Aug 2023
Donna Jennings has stepped down as the Church and Mission Co-ordinator for the Evangelical Alliance in Northern Ireland. She is leaving to pursue a PHD with the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies.
In her role, Donna sought to equip the church in Northern Ireland to be strategic, creative and bold as they proclaimed the gospel. She served faithfully for four years as the world experienced the challenges of the pandemic, several global humanitarian refugee crises, and the cost-of-living crisis. She wrote several mission resources for the church during this time, including Walk, Pray, Talk a resource to encourage small groups and prayer walks. One church leader who used this said that it had catalysed their church into missional concern for the local area.
news in brief
Central America –
evangelical majority
Evangelicalism is now the majority faith
in Central America, a new survey shows.
42% now identify as Protestants (mostly
evangelical) while under 40% identify as
Roman Catholics.
The research was carried out in Nicaragua,
Guatemeala, Costa Rica, Panama, El Salvador
and Honduras
by M&R Consultores.
In Nicaragua,
for example,
the Catholic
Church has lost 60% of its adherents since
1950 and currently only one person
in
three claims to be Catholic. Non-Catholics
represented only 4% then, but by 2023 that
number has risen to 65%.
Haiti: rare piece of good news in dark situation
Iain Taylor
Date posted: 1 Oct 2023
A Christian nurse who was kidnapped in
Haiti has been released, saying she ‘holds
no grudges’ against her abductors and
forgives them.
She added: ‘My clinic doors are always
open to you or anyone in need when you’re
sick or wounded, without any problem.’
Scotland & Jewish people
Date posted: 1 Oct 2023
Dear Editor,
I greatly appreciated David Robertson’s forthright feature on the Church of Scotland’s decline It (September en). particularly grieves me too because of the debt my family owe to Scottish missionaries who came out to South Africa to help shepherd my Dutch-Afrikaner ancestors, scattered to the interior by overbearing British rule in Cape Town.
French evangelical group under fire
Iain Taylor
Date posted: 1 Oct 2023
Evangelical group Torrents de Vie has attracted the hostility of the media and the government in France after a journalist covertly recorded images and conversations at one of the organisation’s summer camps.
Torrents de Vie means ‘Streams Of Life’. Part of a larger international inter-denominational Christian ministry, it is active in ten French cities offering seminars, pastoral counselling and conferences. Its website says it ‘offers spiritual support, combining teaching, listening and prayer, to Christians of all denominations seeking help for their personal difficulties. Our values are based on Biblical love and grace’.
AI – our unnecessary angst?
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 1 Oct 2023
If you’ve seen Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, you’ll know the hunt is on for the key to a powerful sentient AI entity – a villainous entity that threatens to unleash god-like omnipotence over the entire world.
It’s a timely movie, illustrating the potential (if fictional) power of artificial intelligence; it’s prescience wasn’t lost on me (I watched it the same night I’d finished the first part of this article).
Seniors’ champ
Faith in Later Life
Date posted: 1 Oct 2023
Faith
in Later Life
has announced
the
appointment
of
a
new Lead Officer,
Alexandra Drew, to
take forward its work
to inspire and equip
Christians to reach,
serve and empower older people in every
community, through the local church.
Alexandra (known as Alex) comes from
the West of England Baptist Network and
the Seventy-Two network, which describes
itself as ‘a catalyst for missional movement,
across England and Wales, through Baptist
networks.’
Morocco: help comes
Iain Taylor
Date posted: 1 Oct 2023
Christians from around the world are on the ground bringing urgent relief in Morocco, following the huge earthquake there. The epicentre of the quake was in the Atlas Mountains, about 40 miles southwest of the busy tourist city of Marrakech. Thousands are dead and injured.
A representative of the Bible Society in Morocco said: ‘Your prayers and concern mean a lot to us here in Morocco … I am in the affected area, working alongside teams from different churches. We are delivering food supplies to believers and their families, and we are also assessing the needs for the near future.’
Ten Questions: Dad jokes and Spurgeon
Ross Hendry
1. How did you become a Christian?
Keswick: ‘My life is now full of colour and meaning…’
Hélder Favorin
Date posted: 1 Aug 2023
Keswick speaker Hélder Favorin writes: Amalia, from Eastern Europe, shared these words: ‘I turned 20 recently and I cannot stop appreciating how full of colour and meaning my life has become. I feel secure and confident about my future. I’ve had anxiety attacks and even a few severe panic attacks; I couldn’t handle it alone. But because of my faith in Jesus, I have found peace and protection. He is my rock and I know that I can rely on Him in any situation.’(1)
Amalia’s honest testimony may feel like an oasis in the desert-like spiritual landscape of European youth, the most secularised, atheistic and agnostic demographic in the world. At the same time there might be many more oases – and even rivers of God’s activity among youth in Europe – than we realise. The tide keeps turning.
a Jewish Christian perspective
Let my people know
Joseph Steinberg
Date posted: 1 Aug 2023
When the Israelites were held as slaves in Egypt, God commanded Pharaoh, via Moses, to ‘Let my people go’ (Ex. 5:1). You may remember that the Israelites had not yet discovered God’s purpose for them as a people. All they knew was slavery and the desire to be set free.
What they later discovered at Sinai and in the giving of the law, was that they were a nation created by God with a purpose – to be lights to the other nations – so that the whole world will know God and be filled with His glory. Israel was born as a nation on the slopes of Mount Sinai at that first Shavuot (Pentecost) and they were commissioned to be a light to the nations.
news in brief
Uganda: wife killed for
becoming a Christian
40-year-old Abudullah Waiswa, a Muslim
in Bugiri, eastern Uganda has killed his
wife for converting to Christianity. Amina
Nanfuka, 31, had returned from a medical
check-up
in Kampala, where
she also
attended a worship service at a church.
A
relative
said
‘We went
inside
the
bedroom and
found Amina unconscious
with blood coming out of her mouth. She
was rushed to a nearby clinic, but the doctor
pronounced her dead upon arrival. She had
been strangled and hit with an object around
her mouth’. The couple had three children,
aged 3, 6 and 9.
When a ‘naming day’ replaces a Christian prayer
Kevin Bettany
Date posted: 1 Sep 2023
A few weeks ago, on a Saturday afternoon in the beautiful countryside setting of Devon, an event involving about 50 friends and family gathered to mark our latest grandson’s birth. Called a ‘naming day’, it represented a kind of non-Christian christening.
Partly, perhaps because paganism pre-dates Christianity, my son and his partner hoped, like themselves, that everyone would be touched by a deeper and more meaningful experience of creation. Obviously, as infants, we would have been present when our parents had us either christened with names or prayed over with thanks to God. This event was markedly different and more interactively engaging than a traditional Christian service. As the ceremony began all those present were recognised as having different religious or non-religious backgrounds. This implied, for me at least, that some unspecified acceptance of religious diversity was expected.
Very different… but all one
Emma Harrison
Date posted: 1 Sep 2023
Record numbers of children and young people attended this year’s Keswick Convention, the organisers say.
Keswick Ministries has revealed that of the 10,000 attendees this summer, 2,500 were youngsters and teenagers.
Niger: plea for prayer
en staff
Date posted: 1 Sep 2023
Niger Christians are asking for prayer as the country continues to face turbulence.
Mission organisation Open Doors UK says people should pray for the safety of the churches, and especially believers who have converted from Islam.
Long-running camps cut
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 1 Sep 2023
The curtain has come down for good on Urban Saints national summer camps, which have been running across several sites across the UK and Ireland for many decades – though local and regional ones will continue.
Previously more widely known as Crusaders, Urban Saints summer camps for children and young people up to 18 have been run by volunteers since the early 1900s. This year’s camps ran through summer from the very first summer weekend. Interim CEO Richard Giles said : ‘We’re grateful for their servant heart and passion.’
Islam in the UK
Date posted: 1 Sep 2023
Dear Editor,
Just a quick note to thank you for Andrew
Marsay’s piece ‘How can we think deeply
about Islam?’
in the July
issue of en. I
thought this was an excellent article and
Andrew did a great job packing so much into
a short space.
Keswick role
Emma Harrison
Date posted: 1 Sep 2023
Keswick Ministries has announced the appointment of Mark Ellis as its new Ministry Director, effective from September 2023. He follows James Robson, incoming Principal of Oak Hill Theological College.
Mark has wide experience in Christian leadership, including overseas mission work with OMF, leading UCCF’s team in Scotland and as Director of Christian Unions Ireland, pastoring a flourishing church plant in Dundee, and most recently as part of the leadership team at Christ Church Newcastle.
Will there be a place for me in the Church of England?
In August, the Church of England announced that a series of meetings were to be held in September ahead of the bishops presenting to November’s General Synod ‘proposals to enable same-sex couples to come to church following a civil marriage or civil partnership for prayers of dedication, thanksgiving and for God’s blessing’.
This was a stark signal that the bishops are still intending to ‘move the goalposts’ in the Church of England’s teaching and practice regarding sexual ethics and to introduce significant change. As such, this will be a more substantive change than other liberalising changes in recent times since it will formally enshrine in our liturgy a doctrinal change divergent to our ‘foundation deeds’.