Christianity without apology?
Kevin DeYoung
Date posted: 1 Jan 2017
Kevin DeYoung asks if it is biblical for Christians to defend their rights
Christians in the West are familiar with apologetics as an intellectual or worldview exercise.
Adèle Ellis 1936 –2016
Ray Porter
Date posted: 1 Jan 2017
Adèle MacBeath was set on an academic
career in the early 1960s. An MA graduate
from Glasgow University with a double
first, she then completed an MLitt on the
Italian
author
Lampedusa
and
had
embarked on doctoral studies in Rome
when God intervened to redirect her life
into missionary service.
She had fallen in love with David Ellis, a
student at the Bible Training Institute, where
her father, Andrew MacBeath, was Principal.
Repeal Abortion Act
Donald Morrison
Date posted: 1 Jan 2017
Dear Sirs,
Back on a very dark and dismal October
day in 1967 one of the worst-ever laws in this
country, the Abortion Act, was passed by
Parliament. In 2017, if the Lord tarries, this
dreadful law will be 50 years old. While pitiless and heartless pro-abortion activists will
be celebrating
this anniversary,
there are
countless numbers across the UK who will be
lamenting. They are craving, and earnestly
praying,
for
the day when
the Abortion
(1967) Act will be forever aborted. And no
wonder, when one considers the appalling
statistic that, up to the end of 2015, nearly
8.5 million babies have been aborted across
the UK. Enough is enough.
A sense of place
George Moody
Date posted: 1 Nov 2016
George Moody gets us thinking about the meaning of locality
Over 40% of buildings on the English Heritage at Risk Register are churches.
Peru: jam and mission
Latin Link
Date posted: 1 Sep 2015
Homemade jam is bringing integral mission
to Quechua communities of Cusco, it was
reported in early August.
For the past four years, ATEK, an organisation that seeks to strengthen local churches through the use of Quechua Scriptures,
has provided training in needy communities
of Paruro province.
Thailand: needs of Grace International School
Ann Webb
Date posted: 1 Nov 2016
Grace (GIS) is an amazing school for missionary children in Northern Thailand that was set up in 2004 by a group of parents who wanted to keep missionaries on the field.
They recognised a need for a good, affordable education for missionary children, that would enable their parents to stay serving in Asia, to support and care for their children, third culture kids with different needs. Grace is more than a school, to many it is family.
news in brief
Azerbaijan: Bible society
After various attempts over more than 20 years, the State Committee in Azerbaijan registered a Bible society in September.
The Bible Society will have to subject all its publications to the State Committee for the compulsory prior censorship of all literature about religion produced in or imported into Azerbaijan. Publications will only be allowed to be distributed at state-approved venues. Bibles are still banned or removed during raids by the authorities.
Global South & GAFCON collaboration
Chris Sugden
Date posted: 1 Nov 2016
Delegates from 16 Anglican Provinces attended the sixth Global South conference at All Saints Cathedral, Cairo from 3-8 October, along with guests from Australia, Canada and England.
They issued a conference communiqué which gives strong counsel to the Church of England and foreshadows development of a structure to sustain orthodox Anglicanism. The Primates Councils of the Global South and GAFCON issued a further joint com-muniqué concerning same-sex unions.
We’ll see him at the Re-Org
Gavin Dickson
Date posted: 1 Nov 2016
Gavin Dickson, SASRA Army Scripture Reader with some thoughts for Remembrance Sunday
There is a saying in the army when someone dies: ‘We’ll see him at the Re-Org’.
Highland conference
Andrew Allen
Date posted: 1 Nov 2016
The 64th Free Church School in Theology
was held 5 – 8 September at Carronvale
House, Larbert.
As in previous years, it was an opportunity
for rekindling friendship and fellowship with
other ministers and committed Christians
from across the UK and Ireland.
Prisons: from despair to hope
Glynn Jones
Date posted: 1 Oct 2016
Glynn Jones challenges us to get involved with the mission field in UK prisons
The facts of hopelessness for those in prison are stark.
The Third Degree
Great Forum
Kate Duncan
Date posted: 1 Oct 2016
I’m shivering in a tent!
I’m in a Shropshire field surrounded by over 1,000 students. It is Forum, UCCF’s national training conference for Christian Union (CU) leaders, and it’s hugely exciting.
Niger: YWAM kidnap
World Watch Monitor
Date posted: 1 Dec 2016
The kidnap of a pioneering American missionary on 14 October is a ‘terrible tragedy’ for
the communities he served for 24 years,
according to the local mayor, and it has
raised security concerns among the country’s missionary community.
Jeff Woodke, 55, who worked for a branch
of the US-based Youth With a Mission, was
abducted by unknown assailants from the
town of Abalak
in northern Niger. They
killed two guards and he was taken to eastern Mali where Mujao – a radical Islamic
group – have a stronghold.
Demand for Bible app
Scripture Union
Date posted: 1 Dec 2016
Children and schools in Blackpool are having to join waiting lists for Christian schools clubs as demand has far exceeded expectations for the groups based around Scripture Union’s award-winning app, Guardians of Ancora, it was reported in October.
The clubs, which run at lunchtimes and after school, identified Guardians of Ancora as the perfect fit to engage their target age ranges with biblical stories in a fun and relevant way. Scripture Union commissioned the Guardians of Ancora project to help children grow in faith, in the digital space.
Letter from America
Trumped
Josh Moody
Date posted: 1 Dec 2016
I am a ‘legal alien’, I carry a Green Card and all our children have been born here, but I cannot vote in America.
With that in mind and also being a pastor, it is inimical, unwise, and probably unedifying for me to talk about party politics.
news in brief
Algeria: appeal hope
An Algerian Christian’s family appealed in October to the Algerian president for a pardon, after Slimane Bouhafs was convicted of ‘insulting Islam and the prophet Mohammed’ in posts he made on social media.
Bouhafs, who converted to Christianity in 1997, was sentenced to three years imprisonment on 6 September. He had shared someone else’s media posts. The family see the presidential pardon as the only possibly solution to set their father free as he is suffering with ill health and a Supreme Court appeal would take too long to come to court.
S. Sudan: school re-opens
Morning Star News
Date posted: 1 Dec 2016
On 14 November a judge in eastern Sudan
ordered a Christian school, that had been
taken over by government officials, to resume
classes under the prior Christian administration, according to the headmaster.
The Appeal Court
for Administrative
Affairs in Madani, Al Jazirah state, thus cancelled an order by the Madani commissioner
calling
for the closure of the Evangelical
Basic School, which armed police along with
civilians from Khartoum and elsewhere had
seized on 24 October, said the Revd Samuel
Suleiman Anglo, headmaster at the school.
Purchased with blood
Tom Marcus
Date posted: 1 Oct 2016
Tom Marcus suggests the relevance of the story of the early Ugandan and English martyrs for today
To understand the African bishops’ stand on homosexual practice today, it is helpful to remember the heroic early days of the Ugandan church.
What we need now
David Baker
Date posted: 1 Nov 2016
Unless the Lord builds the house, Psalm
127 tells us, its builders labour in vain.
In September’s en I wrote about how we
Anglican evangelicals need a biblical theology of unity and separation, which we seem to
lack. Theology is always practical of course –
for it is about how we follow Jesus. So this
month I want to write about another theological essential for our current situation,
and that is humility.
Knowing God Better
Uniting God’s people
Jonathan Lamb
Date posted: 1 Nov 2016
Social commentators frequently remind us of a paradox of our age.
Alongside the integration and cohesion of globalisation, there has been an accompanying and more troubling trend – the rise of nationalism and tribalism. Fracture lines are seen across nations, communities and eth-nicities. As Christians we joyfully affirm the counter-cultural unity which the gospel brings. But often we do not see this working as it should. A pastor was once asked if he had an active congregation. ‘Oh yes’, he replied. ‘Half of them are working with me, and half of them working against me’.
Sudan: teachers arrested
Morning Star News
Date posted: 1 Nov 2016
Authorities in southeastern Sudan arrested
the headmaster of a Christian school on 5
September and took over its property.
Armed police
and officials
from
the
National Intelligence and Security Services
arrested the Rev Samuel Suliman and 12
teachers at the school in Madani, capital of
Al Jazirah state. The Christians were accused
of supporting the Sudan People’s Liberation
Army-North (SPLA-N), a rebel group fighting government forces.
EA: great commission
Evangelical Alliance
Date posted: 1 Nov 2016
The Evangelical Alliance launched its Great Commission evangelism website on 26 October to help Christians share their faith, and to show people that Jesus is changing lives in the UK today.
New video stories will be released each week on the site, sharing how people have come to faith across the UK. There will also be inspiring accounts of Christians and churches.
Gap year
well spent
amandaporter@paismovement.com
Date posted: 1 Nov 2016
In September, Pais GB commissioned 57
apprentices, the biggest group of missionaries they have sent out in a decade.
Their apprentices, coming from Germany,
Brazil, America, India, Kazakstan, Ukraine,
Zimbabwe and the UK, comprise 17 teams
based in areas as far north as Newcastle and
as far south as Exeter!
