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A Catholic group in Quebec
and two of its trustees have been charged with tax fraud. Canadian authorities say the Antonian Order of Lebanese Maronites and trustees Ralph Nahas and Samir Boustany issued more than $10 million in false tax receipts to more than 209 parishioners to help them evade federal income tax. The government began its investigation in response to a tip from a former member of the religious order.--
Evangelical Press News Service
Two leaders of the Meserete Kristos Church
in Ethiopia were killed Nov. 23 in the crash of a hijacked Ethiopian Airlines jetliner. The two were Beyene Gutema, member of the MKC executive committee, and Zelalem Ayenew, an MKC pastor. Gutema served on the Mennonite World Conference General Council. He was scheduled to lead Africa Day evening worship January 10, 1997 during the Mennonite World Conference Assembly in Calcutta, India. Both Gutema and Ayenew have wives and children. They were employed by World Vision in Ethiopia and were travelling to Kenya for work-related meetings. The flight left Addis Ababa Nov. 23 with plans to stop in Nairobi, Kenya enroute to Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire in west Africa. Hijackers forced the pilot to fly south where the plane eventually crashed into the Indian Ocean just off the shore of the Comoro Islands, slightly southeast of Tanzania. The death toll was 123 with 52 survivors.--
Mennonite World Conference
Sophia
, a Winnipeg magazine produced by Mennonite women, is running a contest for writers who have not previously written for Sophia. Categories include life writing, a reflection from Scripture, experience as a Christian woman at the end of the 20th century, a theme of the writer's choice, and fiction. Submissions should not exceed 800 words. Cash prizes will be awarded. Deadline for submissions is March 31, 1997. More information is available in the Fall, 1996 issue or by writing Sophia, Box 28062, 1453 Henderson Hwy., Winnipeg, Man. R3G 4E9.--
Sophia
J.M. Klassen
, the first executive director of Mennonite Central Committee Canada, represented MCC at the 50th anniversary celebrations of the beginning of the LARA (Licenced Agencies for Relief in Asia) program, held in Tokyo and Osaka, Nov. 13-19. LARA was created to provide relief and rehabilitation assistance to those suffering in post-war Japan. It was organized in North America by residents of Japanese ancestry, with encouragement from three missionaries who had worked in Japan. The three were joined by MCC, YMCA, YWCA, Girl Scouts, Salvation Army, Church of the Brethren, American Friends Service Committee, Lutheran World Relief, Christian Science, Unitarian Universalist Service Committee and Church World Service. About $400 million of LARA relief supplies were distributed to 14 million people from November, 1946 to June, 1952. They were sent to welfare institutions, hospitals, schools and households. The agencies sending the supplies were allowed to send workers, but the supplies were distributed by LARA, not by the workers. MCC participated despite the fact that the goods lost their identity when they became LARA supplies. MCC sent five workers: Rhoda and Ruth Ressler of Orrville, Ohio, Henry Thielman and his wife of Kitchener, Ont. and Alice Fast of Blaine, Wa.--
MCC
Pope John Paul II
, in a letter to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, a body of scientific experts which advises the Vatican, wrote that "fresh knowledge leads to the recognition of the theory of evolution as more than just a hypothesis". The Pope insisted, however, that while evolution may be the mechanism of creation, creation itself is the work of God. He also stated that the human soul is created new in each human being, and is not the result of evolution. The Pope's statement puts the Catholic church at odds with conservative evangelical churches, many of which teach that the biblical account of six-day creation should be understood literally. While secular media reports suggest that the Pope has accepted evolution, The Wanderer, a conservative Catholic paper quotes several Catholic scientists who understood the Pope's statement to reaffirm that competing theories of evolution are incapable of fully explaining man's origin.--
EPNS
The Protestant and Catholics
in northern Ireland have been fighting so long that even the bats in church belfries have taken sides. According to Kate McAney, Irelands's authority on bats, long-eared bats build nests in Catholic churches, while Natterer's bats live in Anglican churches. The difference, however, has to do with flying habits, not theology. Long-eared bats like to begin their night of flight in the interior of a church, while Natterer's bats like to use enclosed roof spaces, so each chooses a church with an architectural style that accommodates its preferences.--
EPNS
The Russian Orthodox Church
has begun the process of canonizing Nicholas II, the last czar of Russia. Nicholas, his wife and their five children were executed in 1918 by Bolshevik revolutionaries who established an atheistic state. Martyrdom is a sufficient qualification for sainthood in the Orthodox church.--
EPNS
Mennonite Trust Ltd.
, a trust company based in Waldheim, Sask., has expanded by opening an office in Saskatoon. The origin of the company dates back to the 1800s in Russia when Mennonites had their own banking institution and inheritance laws. Gerald Peters, manager of the Swift Current branch, has been appointed manager of the Saskatoon branch.--
Mennonite Trust
Despite the emphasis placed on AIDS education
and "safe sex", there is little evidence that this approach is working, researchers said Nov. 20. William Darrow, a professor at Florida International University and an AIDS research pioneer, studied gay men living in southern Miami Beach, an area with a large homosexual population. Of 87 men ages 18-29, 16.1% were infected with AIDS, while 38.6% of those 30 and older had the disease. Fully 72.4% of younger men and 78.6% of older men said they had engaged in sexual acts likely to spread AIDS in the last year.--
EPNS
A Colorado constitutional amendment
which would have lifted the property tax exemption for churches and some other non-profit organizations, was defeated by an 83-17 margin in November. Amendment 11 was promoted by attorney John Patrick Michael Murphy, who said he was sexually abused by a priest as a child and was disappointed that the Pope did not apologize during his Colorado visit. The people of Colorado also voted down a "parental rights amendment" that would have guaranteed parents the right "to direct and control the upbringing, education, values and discipline of their children". Though Amendment 17 sounds like a common-sense statement of present reality, opponents--including teacher's unions and social workers--claimed that it would make it harder for the government to protect children from abuse. Carole Shields, president of People for the American Way, called the defeat of Amendment 17 "an extraordinary defeat for the religious right in Colorado and across the nation."--
EPNS
11 children from core-area Omaha, Neb.
spent Aug. 11-13 in a Minnesota farming community as part of a program initiated by Faith Bible Church in Omaha, Neb., Carson MB Church in Delft, Minn., and Mountain Lake (Minn.) MB Church. Campers were enlisted from church families at Faith Bible Church as well as from inner-city neighbourhood children who participate in the church's AWANA program. The children visited two grain farms, a pig farm and a dairy, went on a hayride and explored nature. Organizers said they would like to hold the camp again next year, possibly extend it to 3 or 4 days and invite a speaker to lead Bible study times.
Christian Leader
The Chinese Communist Party
has stepped up its campaign to build a "moral new man" in the wake of fears that rampant capitalism is eroding the moral fibre of Chinese civilization. The Party launched a new phase of the campaign Nov. 11, setting up classes to urge young people to forsake discos and other diversions and concentrate on "serving the people". One component of being "spiritual", according to the Chinese government is "not succumbing to superstition". Many see this as a reference to all forms of religion. The spiritual civilization campaign, which has been running throughout 1996, has been in tandem with a strong drive to force house churches to register with the government, resulting in the forced closure of hundreds of house churches.--
Compass Direct
Macau
, a small Portuguese territory near Hong Kong, is scheduled to revert to Chinese rule in 1999. Macau consists of two islands and a peninsula and has a population of 500,000 squeezed into six square miles, making it the most crowded place in the world. There are only about 50 Protestant churches with a total membership of about 4,000. The General Conference Mennonite Church sent its first mission workers to Macau this past summer. They plan to use a cell group model to reach out to the working-class Chinese who have few opportunities for emigration.--
General Conference Mennonite Church News
Although more than a dozen Pakistani Christians
have been accused to date under the country's 1991 blasphemy laws, all have been exonerated by the courts. Even so, five of their number have been murdered by Muslim extremists, and another four have fled the country for asylum abroad.--
Compass Direct
An Istanbul court
dismissed all charges against Korean Christian Seido Kim Nov. 5, ruling that his distribution of Bibles at Istanbul's Ataturk International Airport last April was not a crime under Turkish law. He had been charged with refusing to obey the orders of security officials, but the judge ruled that Kim was under no obligation to obey alleged police orders to stop giving out Bibles since it is not a crime. In addition, the judge observed, the police had failed to produce sufficient evidence that Kim had refused to obey their orders in any instance.--
Compass Direct
The new draft constitution of Algeria
contains a paragraph stating that Islam is the state religion of Algeria. It adds that political parties may not use Islam for their own purposes. Observers state that the proposal is an attempt by the Algerian government to counter the influence of Islamic fundamentalists. Since the annulment of the results of the 1992 elections won by the now-banned Islamic Salvation Front, the struggle between the Algerian regime and Islamic fundamentalists has cost the lives of more than 50,000 people.--
Compass Direct
Sudanese churches
from the Muslim-dominated north and the Christian-dominated south have issued a first-ever joint appeal for an end to the civil war in Sudan. The declaration asked for an end to the fighting, for a referendum and for international humanitarian aid. Churches from the Islamic north have been hesitant to speak out for fear of reprisals by the Muslim regime led by president Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir. Persecution of Christians increased dramatically in 1983 when Sudan was declared an Islamic state, and the government embarked on a campaign to forcefully Islamicize the country.--
Compass Direct
72% of conservative Christians in the US
agree that "Jews have a right to the land of Israel, since it was promisd to them by God", according to a study by the American Jewish Committee. 43% of other americans agreed with the statement. Also, 61% of self-identified members of the religious right say they support Israel, compared to 52% of other americais. The survey also found that 79% jof convservative Christians say homosexual groups have to omuch influence in America, 64% say atheists have too much influence and 48% siad they would support a constitutional amendment "declaring the US a Christian nation", compared to 23% of ther Americans.--
EPNS
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