news in brief
Burma: building protested
Buddhist structures have been erected in a Baptist church compound, it was reported in late October.
Ethnic Karen Christians in Hpa-An, capital of Karen state, have protested a Buddhist pagoda and a stupa since building began in August. Myaing Kyee Ngu Sayadaw, a revered Buddhist abbot and founder of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, led the building despite the protests of the Christian community. The Karen Buddhist community reportedly did not support the monk’s decision. The Baptist church has been a functioning fixture at the site since 1919.
news in brief
Bonaire: radio upgrade
TWR are to upgrade the shortwave/AM transmitter on Bonaire to 450KW, doubling the potential audience to 100 million people across Latin America, it was reported in September.
TWR have been broadcasting Bible teaching from Bonaire for over 50 years. Thousands of pastors and small home churches exist purely because of the evangelism and discipleship offered through TWR’s broadcasts. The upgrade will cost around £2.5 million in total.
news in brief
Bangladesh: 18 baptised
Rural Muslims Bangladesh’s (RMB) partnership with FEBA UK combines Christian teaching with input on health and social issues, it was reported in July.
18 listeners have been baptised in the last year. Those who respond to RMB’s gospel message know that, in doing so, they risk being expelled from their villages. RMB broadcasts in Bengali, providing trustworthy material on faith and practical issues, and presents Christian content in a style that is accessible to non-literate listeners.
news in brief
Theology free
As theologyontheweb.org.uk celebrated its
14th anniversary on 1 September,
the
25,000+ theological articles that it hosts are
equipping millions of visitors around the
world to study in-depth, not only the Bible,
but also church history, biblical archaeology
and Christian missions without the need to
access a university or Bible College library.
Launched in September 2001 the original
website biblicalstudies.org.uk has developed
into eight inter-linked sites which provide
their resources free of charge.
news in brief
Algeria: turning to Christ
Due to their disillusionment with the Arab Spring and the rise of violent Islam, thousands of Muslims in Algeria are requesting Bibles and becoming Christians, it was reported in May.
Ali Khidri, executive secretary for the Bible Society in Algeria, said that ‘hundreds’ of people every month were turning up at his office in Algiers requesting a Bible, and that many more were going to churches to enquire about the Christian faith. According to Bible Society in Algeria, there are between 100,000 and 200,000 Christians in Algeria – an increase from just 2,000 30 years ago.
news in brief
CAR: attacks
On 17 February, more than 14 homes and churches were torched and missionary centres vandalised in the area around Kaga-Bandoro, in the north-central part of the Central African Republic.
Local Christians said that many pastors fled to the town of Kaga-Bandoro, where another church was burned.
news in brief
Outbid in Canterbury
Emmanuel
Church
Canterbury
(see
January en) was outbid in an auction for a
redundant chapel.
Despite the disappointment, the church
family has seen the Lord at work within it,
bringing a great sense of unity, seeing very
generous giving, and bringing
together a
team of ‘professionals’ from both within and
outside the church to work on the acquisition of a property. They plan to work together to this end in the months ahead.
news in brief
CAR: awards
On 13 November, three top religious leaders of the Central African Republic were awarded a prize for their efforts for peace in the war-torn Central African Republic.
In the midst of the country's two years of violence, often portrayed as confessional conflict, the three clerics formed a joint platform to promote peaceful coexistence between Christians and Muslims. Their message: violence in CAR is not primarily caused by religious conflict; instead, the root of the conflict lies in the struggle for political power.
news in brief
Bangladesh: threats
The congregation of a church in Boldipukur has been threatened by unknown parties warning them not to pursue legal action against attackers who carried out a violent robbery in early July.
Around 50 Muslim attackers rounded up and attacked workers at the church and seized valuable items. They attempted to rape female church workers. Police arrested 12 people in connection with the robbery. It is thought that the robbers were trying to find and steal land ownership documents for the site.
news in brief
New CEO
Christian Witness to Israel, the international mission to the Jewish people, which was
founded
in 1842, has appointed Joseph
Steinberg as its new Chief Executive Officer
from July 1.
Joseph grew up in a Jewish home in the
USA and as a teenager, after searching the
Old Testament scriptures, became convinced
that Jesus was the promised Messiah.
news in brief
Afghanistan: two shot
Two Finnish women working for International Assistance Mission (IAM), a Christian aid charity, were killed by gunmen in Herat in late July, both having worked in Afghanistan since March 1997.
Two men, travelling by motorcycle, shot the women while they were in a taxi. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. The IAM has worked continuously in Afghanistan since 1966 and is well known there as an openly Christian aid organisation that works to capacity build in healthcare and socio-economic development.
news in brief
Egypt: arrested
A Christian man has been arrested following complaints by Muslim neighbours that he was using his home as a church without a permit, it was reported in May.
The 55-year-old man from Minya in Upper Egypt, where Christians are particularly vulnerable to persecution, was arrested once before, in 2011, for the same offence. Every church building in Egypt requires a permit, but these are notoriously difficult to obtain and the Christian community has a woeful lack of places to meet for worship.
news in brief
Afghanistan: Taliban error
Taliban militants attempted to attack a Christian-run day-care centre on March 28 in Kabul, saying it was ‘a church used to convert Muslims to Christianity’.
The assailants, however, mistakenly targeted the next-door building, which houses workers with a US government-sponsored project that runs agricultural and de-mining programmes throughout the country.
news in brief
WEST by Northwest
WEST teamed up with the North West
Partnership in April so that students will be
able to study together for the Graduate
Diploma and Masters-level degree programmes at the centre in Liverpool.
Jonathan Stephen, principal of WEST,
said: ‘This is a highly significant development for WEST, as we continue to fulfil our
commitment to “bringing the academy into
missional church”’.
news in brief
Belgium: killing petition
The Bill to allow Belgian children of all ages to access euthanasia is being opposed by people all across Europe, via a petition organised just hours after the Bill was voted through in mid-February.
Although there are concerns that it will produce a constitutional crisis if the Bill isn’t signed by the Belgian monarch, the aim of the petition is to protect the vulnerable.
news in brief
Labelled racist
Parents at a Staffordshire school were told their children would be punished for racism – using a ‘Racial Discrimination’ note attached permanently to the child’s school record – if they missed a trip to a workshop on Islam, it was reported in late November.
The information was given in a letter, which was in part later apologised for by the head. The County Council reminded her about the parental right to withdraw children from religious activities.
news in brief
Mixed views
In a report published in mid-November, two thirds of GPs were shown to be in favour of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) dropping its opposition to assisted dying.
The survey found that 38% of 689 GP respondents favoured the adoption of a neutral stance on assisted dying by the RCGP, while 31% said the college should go even further and support a change in the law to allow doctors to help terminally ill patients to die in the UK. The article notes that the RCGP is currently opposed to a change in the law on assisted dying.
news in brief
Algeria: repeated attacks
The pastor of a church in southern Algeria
reported on November 12 a fresh attack on
his church – the third of its kind – which he
says proves that some Algerians are against
the presence of churches in their country
The attackers
threw a
tyre
inside
the
building and then tried to smash the gate
into the building. They dispersed when the
police arrived, but none were arrested.
news in brief
Algeria: protest
Around 200 people ate together at a public
lunch in the town of Tizi Ouzou on August
3 to protest against the ‘persecution of non-fasters and creeping Islamisation’ in the
Kabylie region in northern Algeria.
Another picnic was held simultaneously in
the town of Aokas in the neighbouring
Béjaïa province, which attracted over 100
people. In Algeria, where Islam is the state
religion, breaking the Ramadan fast in public is punishable by fine and imprisonment.