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Mennonite Central Committee
has sent $13,700 to the Iranian Red Crescent Society to buy food for Kurdish refugees in Iran, displaced by renewed violence in Iraq. Another $100,000 was contributed by MCC through the Canadian Foodgrains Bank. The Iraqi Kurds fled to Iran following Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kurdish territory in northern Iraq in early September. MCC was forced to route its money through Canada because of US-imposed sanctions against Iran.--
MCC
Church House
, the national office of the Anglican Church of Canada, has decided to extend health benefits to same-sex partners of employees. Director of pensions Jenny Mason noted that the move did not reflect a shift in doctrine for the church. Rather, she said, whenever a person has taken the issue of same-sex benefits to the Human Rights Commission, the Commission has ruled that the company must pay the benefits. About half of the Canadian Anglican dioceses do not participate in the national church's health plan.--
Anglican Journal
The United Nations
has again named Canada as the best place in the world to live. The UN's 1996 human development index--which measures income, education and life expectancy--has placed Canada first among 174 countries for the fourth time this decade. Canada scored 95.2%, ahead of the United States at 94% and Japan and the Netherlands at 93.8%.--
UN Human Development Report
A former NASA scientist
has discovered a river that has been dry for most of recorded history, and some Bible scholars believe it is the Pishon River described in Genesis as one of the rivers feeding the Garden of Eden. Farouk El-Baz discovered the river while assessing Gulf War damage to the Kuwaiti desert, after noticing smooth pebbles of basalt and granite that were out of place. Analysis of satellite photos turned up a dry channel that was probably once a river. The second chapter of Genesis says the Pishon "winds through the land of Havilah, where there is gold". According to an article for Biblical Archaeology Review by archaeologist James Sauer, the Hijaz Mountains near the river site "do produce gold, and the river passes a city called Hadiyah".--
Evangelical Press News Service
Two archaeologists
writing in the journal Nature, say they've discovered evidence that Joshua did indeed fight the battle of Jericho during the early 16th century B.C. Radiocarbon dating of cereal grains in debris left by the destruction of Jericho support several aspects of the Exodus account, Hendrik J. Bruins and Johannes van der Plicht write in a brief letter to Nature. Some geologists have suggested that the parting of the Red Sea and the plague of darkness can be explained by the eruption of the Thera volcano on the Mediterranean island of Santorini in 1628 B.C., perhaps 45 years before the destruction of Jericho. That time difference could coincide with the 40 years of wandering in the desert mentioned in Exodus, note Bruins (professor at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negiv in Israel) and Van der Plicht (from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands). Bruins and Van der Plicht estimated the date of Jericho's destruction by dating grains excavated from the debris of the city. The date of the eruption of Thera is known more exactly through tree ring counts.--
EPNS
A 70-yard stretch of road
that was Jerusalem's main street during the time of Jesus has been uncovered by archaeologists digging on the western side of the site of the Jewish Temple. The street was covered with limestone blocks sent tumbling down from the Temple Mount by Roman soldiers when the Temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. Some of those stones are on display, along with tiny stone-walled shops, and ancient coins called prutot probably used by moneychangers.--
EPNS
France
, once dominated by the Roman Catholic Church, now has more psychics than priests. In 1994 more than 40,000 psychics, astrologers and mediums registered with the government for income tax purposes, compared with 26,000 Catholic priests and 6,000 psychiatrists.--
New York Times (quoted in Faith Today)
The US Senate voted 57-41
Sept. 26 in favour of overturning US President Clinton's veto of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act--8 votes short of the number needed to overturn the veto. Partial-birth abortion is a process in which a late-term baby is partly delivered prematurely, then killed before completely delivered.--
Family Research Council
Two resolutions
recently passed by the US House of Representatives call for the President Clinton to "expand and invigorate the United States' international advocacy on behalf of persecuted Christians." Both resolutions call for Clinton to appoint a White House Special Advisor on Religious Persecution, and applaud the efforts associated with the first International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church held Sept. 29.--
World Evangelical Fellowship
Ten US religious leaders
met with Michel Camdessus, the head of the International Monetary Fund, in summer to inform him of the conditions incurred in heavily indebted countries like Zambia and Honduras. The IMF is a worldwide organization that loans money to underdeveloped countries. It was originally created to enhance international financial and trade cooperation and to stabilize currency markets, but religious leaders such as MCC executive director John A. Lapp said the long-term debt that results is often crippling to residents of borrowing countries. IMF-imposed "structural adjustment programs", which call for borrowing nations to cut government spending on social services and other agencies in order to make bigger loan payments, were particularly criticized. In Honduras, for example, public spending on debt represents more than the country gives to health and education combined. Lapp and others told Camdessus that grassroots workers in indebted countries report school attendance is dropping, health care is deteriorating and food is scarcer because IMF structural adjustment programs force countries to devalue their currency, increase exports and decrease imports. The delegation also expressed concern that IMF's activities are largely kept secret. Another meeting was scheduled for the fall.
MCC
The world's current population
of 5.8 billion produces 15% more food per person than the global population of 4 billion did 20 years ago.--
Canadian Foodgrains Bank Update
Prisoner's Week
, a program of Correctional Service Canada, has changed its name to Restorative Justice Week: Community, Victims, Prisoners. Planned by representatives of various faith communities, the educational event will be held Nov. 17-23 this year.--
Correctional Service Canada
A disagreement over end-times beliefs
has led to the resignation of Richard P. Melick Jr. as president of Criswell College in Dallas, Texas. Melick, who headed the college for four years, said he does not agree with school chancellor W.A. Criswell's view that Christians will be "raptured" before the second coming of Christ. The school is named for Criswell, 86.--
EPNS
SELFHELP Crafts of the World
, a Mennonite Central Committee program, has changed its name to Ten Thousand Villages, effective Sept. 20. The organization's mission remains the same--selling crafts made by people in the Third World, providing them with a fair income. The organization works with artisans who would otherwise be unemployed or underemployed. The name change is to clarify the program's purpose; SELFHELP Crafts store staff say the stores are frequently mistaken for do-it-yourself crafts supply stores.--
MCC
The world's governments
spend $868 billion US a year to support military forces of 27 million soldiers, according to the brochure of a campaign which advocates redirecting world military spending to human need without reducing security. The campaign is led by Oscar Arias, former president of Costa Rica and 1987 Nobel Peace Prize winner. Global military spending represents 12% of all government expenditures. While the developed nations account for 75% of the world's military expenditures, developing countries today are spending about $221 billion yearly on armed forces. Military spending is declining an average of 2% yearly in developing countries, 4% in developed countries. The United States controls 60% of the international arms trade.--
Mennonite Central Committee
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