People and Events

Youth Mission International's Waterloo, Ont. mailing address has changed to: YMI, Unit #2, 100 Rankin St., Waterloo, ON, N2V 1V9. Phone, fax numbers and e-mail address remain the same.--
YMI

Two Illinois Mennonite Conference churches , were placed under discipline recently for accepting practising homosexuals as members in violation of the IMC constitution. Under discipline, Oak Park (Ill.) Mennonite Church and Maple Avenue Mennonite Church in Waukesha, Wis. will not have voting privileges and may lose any conference subsidy and the opportunity for members to serve on conference commissions. In order to place the two congregations under discipline, IMC delegates first approved a constitutional change allowing levels of discipline in addition to expulsion--the only discipline provided for in the previous constitution. A vote to expel the two congregations, which required a two-thirds majority, was defeated at last year's conference.--
Gospel Herald

Canadian Foodgrains Bank has committed $4.5 million to go towards food relief for North Korea. The response includes program support from the Canadian International Development Agency and will provide an estimated 15,000 metric tonnes of Canadian wheat. CIDA's support marks the lifting of its ban to provide matching grants for aid destined for Communist North Korea. General economic decline and massive flooding in 1995 and 1996 produced a food deficit of 1.2 million mt in 1996.--
CFGB

The legislature of Peru extended amnesty to benefit hundreds of people, including scores of evangelical Christians serving prison terms on false charges of terrorism. The extension came one week before the February deadline marking the expiration of the Law of Pardon 26655. The law created a special ad hoc commission that reviews individual cases and recommends pardons for Peruvians unjustly imprisoned under emergency anti-terrorist laws. Congress voted unanimously to extend the amnesty program until August 1997. The program led to the release of 110 prisoners, including 18 evangelicals, last fall, but, during the hostage crisis when the Japanese embassy was seized by Tupac Amaru rebels, the pardon process was put on hold.--
Compass Direct

Don Posterski , in reflecting on a poll done by the Angus Reid in cooperation with World Vision Canada, writes that "In the Canadian population, the only significant positive correlation between forgiveness and death caused by drunk drivers is weekly church attendance".

Response of Canadian church attenders
% who agree strongly with the following:
God is very understanding and forgiving:
Weekly: 93
Monthly: 71
Occasionally: 59
Once a year: 41
Not at all: 35

"If the actions of a drunk driver resulted in the death of a member of my family, I would eventually forgive that person.'
Weekly: 26
Montly: 3
Occasionally: 9
Once a year: 8
Not at all: 6
--
ChristianWeek

In a Family Research Institute study published in the Journal of Psychology, 4,340 responses were gathered from a random sample of Americans to questions concerning school-age experiences with sexually-forward teachers. According to its findings, teachers make sexual advances toward 3% of students, and the advances "become physical" with about one-in-three. Anywhere from 25% to 40% of teacher-pupil interaction is homosexual, although homosexuals constitute only about 2% of the male population. A 1994 study found that 1% of homosexuals had their first sexual experience with a teacher, versus 0.1% of heterosexuals.--
Western Report

Sister Nirmala , 63, a Hindu Brahmin who converted to Roman Catholicism, was elected Mar. 13 to succeed Mother Theresa as head of the Missionaries of Charity, based in Calcutta, India. Because of Mother Theresa's increasingly frail health, the religious order bowed to her desire to step down and agreed to turn her administrative duties, but not her title, over to Sister Nirmala. The order has 4,500 nuns in over 100 nations.--
Evangelical Press News Service

The Presbyterian Church (USA) has confirmed its ban on the ordination of homosexuals Mar. 18 when regional bodies in Charlotte, N.C. and Miami approved it. The church's Book of Order, which embodies church law, will be changed to require single clergy to abstain from sexual activity. Since homosexuals cannot marry, the law has the effect of prohibiting ordination of sexually active homosexuals. The Presbyterian Church (USA) has historically refused to ordain homosexuals, and that practice was confirmed in 1993. Last year the denominations's General Assembly issued proposed requirement limiting ordinaiton to these who live lives of "fidelity within the covenant of marriage of a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness."--
EPNS

Over one million visitors have passed through Pensacola, Florida's Brownsville Assembly of God church since 1995 to witness the "Pensacola Outpouring" revival. Revival services are held four nights per week and are characterized by an emphasis on conversion, prayer and people weeping over conviction of sin. The revival meetings usually begin with worship, featuring fervent chorus-singing which sometimes continues for hours. Some attenders also display manifestations such as dancing, jerking and moaning that are compared to the "Toronto Blessing" at the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship. However, Brownsville worshippers are discouraged from being highly emotional or demonstrative. Christianity Today writer Steve Rabey says that Pensacola is a much more sober affair than Toronto. "Instead of Toronto's giddiness and proclivity for unusual signs, the mood at Brownsville Assembly is somber, even penitential", he says. Of an estimated 200,000 that have come to Brownsville's huge stagelike altar for prayer, 86,000 are new converts or repentant backsliders. Both Vineyard and Hosanna! have recorded live albums of the Brownsville church worship. Nearly 5,000 pastors have attended three pastors' conferences.--
Christianity Today

Just over half of Americans pray every day. That's one finding of a Newsweek poll, which also discovered that two-thirds of Protestants and half of Catholics believe that God often answers prayer. Good health, success for a family member, and victory over personal weaknesses led the list of things people can pray for, while about one in four Americans said they pray for financial success or career advancement. Four in five Americans said they believe that God sometimes answers prayers for healing in cases involving incurable disease.--
EPNS

Madelyn Murray O'Hair 's personal possessions were auctioned off Mar. 22 by the Internal Revenue Service to help satisfy an outstanding tax bill of nearly $250,000. O'Hair, the famed atheist who came to national prominence on connection with a lawsuit to ban school prayer, vanished in September, 1995 with her son and adopted daughter--and, some authorities say, with hundreds of thousands of dollars belonging to non-profit groups she controlled. There have been unconfirmed reports that three are living in New Zealand.--
EPNS

Fresno Pacific University student Billy Caldwell, 22, and an uncle were killed Mar. 28 outside Caldwell's grandmother's house in Pomona, Calif. in an apparent drive-by shooting. The university held a memorial service Apr. 1 at Butler Avenue MB Church. Caldwell was scheduled to graduate in May with a major in physical education and minor in art. He had also been the starting centre on Fresno Pacific's basketball team. He had applied for a position with the Fresno Police Department and was planning to ask his girlfriend to marry him.--
Mennonite Weekly Review