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Truman Dollar
, who resigned in 1988 as pastor of the 9,000-member Temple Baptist Church in Detroit after admitting "verbal indiscretions with a woman", took his own life March 27 in Grand Rapids, Mich. He was 58. Dollar was a former columnist for Fundamentalist Journal.--
EPNS
There are 5,000 K'ekchi' Mennonite church members
attending 70 churches in Guatemala. K'ekchi' are one of Guatemala's largest indigenous groups, half of whom work on coffee plantations in conditions reminiscent of slavery. (MCC has employed a half-time Mennonite lawyer from Guatemala City to train some K'ekchi' Mennonites in the legal processes of land registration and title transfer.) They live in dirt-floor shacks and subsist on tortillas and beans. Despite their poverty, church leaders decided in 1993 that although individual congregations were self-supporting, it was time to take more financial ownership for programs supported by North American agencies such as Mennonite Central Committee. The leaders agreed to teach church members about tithing, first-fruits offerings at harvest and end-of-year thanksgiving offerings. Their goal was to raise one-third of the annual national church budget within five years. The budget covers work in health, agriculture, literacy and adult education, and a Bible institute. To put teeth into their resolve, they asked MCC and Eastern Mennonite Missions not to give their portion of the matching grant until local churches had raised theirs. Two K'ekchi' Mennonite leaders visited Pennsylvania congregations March 7-25 to share how they succeeded in reaching their goal. The K'ekchi' also have a goal of growing to a membership of 8,000 in 100 churches by the year 2000.--
MCC
It costs the US government $276,000
to support one government worker in Cairo, Egypt for one year. American workers are required to buy American-made products and often ride in chauffeur-driven cars, according to Mick Sommers, a Mennonite Central Committee worker in Egypt. The total MCC annual budget for Egypt for 18 adults, seven children, two full-time Egyptian staff, various grants and material resource assistance is $289,206, slightly more than the US spends on one worker. According to Sommers, American government workers insulate themselves from the country they work in by insisting on an American standard of living.--
MCC
South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission
has begun to hear victims' stories of murder, police torture and other abuses. The commission aims to verify and publicize human rights violations under apartheid, recommending reparations to victims who are still living, and proposing measures to prevent future violations. Howard Zehr, director of Mennonite Central Committee's Office of Criminal Justice, who recently visited South Africa, believes a major problem of the process is the perpetrators' lack of accountability. "Amnesty is a political necessity, but it breaks the connection between violation and obligation. The offender is not encouraged to confess and repent, just to disclose. Victims also cannot confront their abusers." However, Zehr believes that the publicity of the commission will help the healing process.--
MCC
Mount Zoar Baptist Church
in Greene County, Ala., burned by arsonists in January, will be rebuilt this summer with the help of Mennonite Disaster Service. Mount Zoar is one of over 30 black churches burned recently. "Mount Zoar was selected because it had the least resources for rebuilding, including very little insurance," said MDS coordinator Lowell Detweiler.--
MDS
The periodicals integration committee
of the Mennonite Church and the General Conference Mennonite Church have recommended the merger of The Mennonite and The Gospel Herald into a single publication for the integrated Mennonite church. Mennonite Reporter, a Canadian Mennonite paper with links to the General Conference Mennonite Church, will also be a developed into a publication of the integrated Mennonite Church. It also recommended that each periodical have a governance board and that the publications should have a common graphic identity, at least 25% common content, possible joint issues, and editorial assumptions that reflect the vision and mission of the integrated Mennonite church.--
GCMC/MC
Former Baptist leader Raymond Affouka Eba
, who has embraced the ideals of anabaptism, has formed the Protestant Anabaptist Church of Ivory Coast, which is seeking recognition from the world's Mennonites. He founded the new church while serving as pastor of the Yopougon congregation. Already three congregations with nearly 200 combined members have officially become part of the church. But because of Eba's connections and reputation, the emerging denomination quickly could become a church of more than 23,000 members in cell groups spanning four African nations: Cote d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Chad and Togo. "He came to anabaptism, and actually started a denomination and nine churches without ever meeting a Western missionary," said James Krabill, Mennonite Board of Missions' outgoing West Africa director. "He didn't even know there were Mennonites in the country."--
Mennonite Reporter
After learning the Olympic Committee
had rerouted the Olympic torch run around a Georgia county to punish the county for adopting an anti-gay resolution, Spartanburg (S.C.) County Council rescinded a similar resolution which had stated that homosexuality is "incompatible with the standards to which this community subscribes". The Olympic torch run was scheduled to run through Spartanburg on its way to Atlanta.--
EPNS
St. Paul's United Methodist Church
in Denver, Colo. is providing Sunday evening Christian-Buddhist services, attracting about 50 people. The meeting is supervised by Jose Cabezon (a practicing Buddhist), Sister Mary Luke Tobin (a Catholic nun), and Toni Cook of St. Paul's. Cook says the goal is not to synthesize the various beliefs, but to provide a place where people of different beliefs can come together and practise their faith. Christianity believes in a creator God; Buddhism rejects the idea of a divine creator, believing that all can achieve enlightenment.--
EPNS
David Brickner, a fifth-generation Jewish believer,
has been named executive director of Jews for Jesus, replacing founder Moishe Rosen, who recently announced his resignation. Brickner, 37, currently heads the Jews for Jesus New York branch, has been on staff since 1981 and began volunteering in 1976.--
EPNS
Americans contributed nearly $144 billion US
to charities in 1995, up 10.78% from the previous year, according to a study by the American Association of Fund-Raising Counsel. The group attributed the increase to increased personal income and more effective fundraising techniques. Religious organizations received about half of all charitable contributions in 1995, a 5.39% increase in total giving to religious organizations from the previous year.--
EPNS
Jurors who found US President Clinton's
former Whitewater business partners guilty of fraud and conspiracy held regular prayer sessions during their deliberations. US District Judge George Howard praised the jury for seeking God's help with their deliberations. The complicated case involved conflicting testimony and more than 700 exhibits documenting decade-old financial transactions.--
EPNS
SAT-7
, a new Arabic-language Christian television station began test broadcasts May 31. The station is owned by a privately registered not-for-profit company in Cyprus, and its trustees include individuals from different Christian communities in the Arab world. It has the support of many Middle Eastern church leaders.--
SAT-7
Crossroads Television System
, which creates the daily Christian talk show, 100 Huntley Street, has applied for a licence to provide 24-hour-a-day programming in southern Ontario. The Canadian Radio-Television & Telecommunications Commission held public hearings July 8 in Ottawa/Hull. Founded by David Mainse, the organization has been seeking a licence to broadcast since 1979. If approved by the CRTC, it would broadcast from the new $20 million Crossroads Centre in Burlington, Ont.--
Crossroads
No Longer Alone
, a conference for people with mental illness and their families, pastors, church leaders and mental health professionals, is scheduled for Oct. 5 at Akron (Pa.) Mennonite Church. Keynote speaker for the weekend will be John Toews, psychiatry professor and associate dean of continuing medical education at the University of Calgary. He is the author of No Longer Alone, a book which explores relationships between mental health and faith. He attends Dalhousie MB Community Church in Calgary.--
Philhaven
Project Ploughshares
was founded 20 years ago by Ernie Regehr and Murray Thomson as a "working group on militarism and under-development". It soon amalgamated with the United Church group CANDA (Canadian Defence Alternatives). The organization's strategy was to study current defence policy, then focus on developing alternative policies. In 1977, Ploughshares officially became a coalition of the Canadian Council of Churches. Its core values are that war is to be avoided, the use of force is to be minimized and conflict is to be resolved as much as possible in the interests of justice and without resorting to violence.--
Project Ploughshares
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