People and Events

Reports of the imminent execution of 56-year-old Xu Yongze, leader of the Born Again house church movement in China, appear to have been exaggerated. Xu was arrested March 16 along with seven other leaders. However, new reports indicate that Xu was to be freed during the second week of June with only a fine for not having a legal marriage. He was married in March in a church ceremony, not the required civil ceremony. Two other arrested leaders, Liu Zhengyin and Wang Xincai, were released earlier. When rumours of a death sentence first circulated, groups such as the Washington, D.C.-based International Christian Concern mobilized international pressure to force China to back off the sentence. The rumour also circulated on the internet, despite little evidence.--
Compass Direct

During Zaire's civil war , Mennonite Central Committee helped feed those who had the most difficulty: widows, orphans, the handicapped, the elderly and the chronically poor. MCC also used $21,000 to purchase seeds and tools for victims of looting around four MCC-created refugee camps: Muku, Mushweshwe, Bideka and Izirangabo. MCC distributed hoes, machetes and seeds to farmers in various areas affected by the war. MCC also purchased a three-month supply of medicine worth $17,000 for health centres in the four MCC camps. --
MCC

A Bogota court on April 25 closed the case against the Colombian Mennonite Seminary. The court ruled the seminary may remain open and need not be registered with the municipal office of education. Several months ago, Colombian military and government officials had attempted to close the seminary, which offers a "Hacedores de Paz" (Peacemakers) program as an alternative to military service for conscientious objectors. Some 70 youth participate in the program. In fall, 1996, the Colombian government refused to exempt the youth from military service, saying the seminary was not registered. With the new ruling, Colombian Mennonites may once again ask the armed forces for conscientious objection deferrals for seminary students.--
MCC

Lentils and cooking oil supplied by Mennonite Central Committee to the Iranian Red Crescent Society are likely being used to aid victims of Iran's latest earthquake. The IRCS is the Islamic equivalent of the Red Cross. Iran is particularly prone to natural disasters--last year, 200 earthquakes occurred there, as well as numerous floods. As a result, MCC provides the IRCS with an annual grant and with food and other items the organization can stockpile so it can respond quickly when disasters strike. On May 10, a quake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale devastated northeastern areas of Iran. In a May 13 fax to MCC headquarters, the Iranian Red Crescent Society reported 1,613 people killed, more than 3,712 injured and more than 10,000 families left homeless. The IRCS had MCC food supplies in stock prior to the quake and that food was likely used to feed victims. MCC committed $70,000 to the IRCS for emergency response this year. Since 1990, MCC has contributed $3.5 million to the IRCS.--
MCC

Mennonite Disaster Service began rebuilding flood-damaged homes in the Red River region of southern Manitoba in July. MDS, together with partner agencies Christian Reformed World Relief Committee and Habitat for Humanity first performed a needs assessment of victims before deciding who qualified for volunteer assistance. People most likely to be considered for volunteer help included the elderly, the handicapped, the widowed, people with low incomes, single parents and those unable to do or organize reconstruction on their own. By late August, MDS officials had lined up many volunteers, but in many cases were being forced to wait for the provincial government to award money to homeowners before rebuilding could begin. Still needed are carpenters, drywall tapers, sheet metal workers to install heating and ventilating systems, plumbers and electricians. Volunteers should call Paul Friesen at 1-888-240-5480 toll free, or locally 204-261-6381.--
MDS, CBC radio

Articles in the evangelical magazine World played a major role in convincing the International Bible Society and Zondervan Publishing House to abandon plans to use "gender-accurate" language in an updated New International Version of the Bible. Now those same articles have been sharply criticized by the Evangelical Press Association's ethics committee. The committee examined World's March 9 and April 19 coverage of the "Battle of the Bible" to determine if the EPA Code of Ethics had been violated. In a report submitted in July, the committee called the stories "gravely incomplete" and one-sided. The committee said the articles used "inflammatory language, insinuation and a blatant appeal to anti-feminist sentiment".--
EPNS

Jay Won is walking across Canada to raise awareness of the North Korean famine and to raise money for food aid. Won, a 43-year-old, self-employed businessman from Markham, Ont., started his "Walk for Lives" campaign June 2 in Halifax. He averages 50-60 km per day. Won is encouraging Canadians to make contributions directly to Canadian Foodgrains Bank, a Winnipeg-based charitable organization. CFGB sent a $4.5 million shipment of wheat to North Korea in June.--
CFGB

Ontario Bible College/Ontario Theological Seminary president Brian Stiller announced staff and faculty reductions recently as OBC/OTC enters the third year of a comprehensive restructuring plan. Two staff positions were eliminated in student services, and a full-time position in the Office of the Registrar was reduced to part-time. One college faculty member took early retirement, while two others received compensatory packages. "While this is one of the hardest management initiatives I have had to make in 30 years of ministry, we are building a solid fiscal base for the future," said Stiller. Meanwhile, the seminary announced that it will offer satellite classes in Ottawa, London and Oakville, Ont. beginning in September.--
OBC/OTS

Sexual abuse continues to be the most rapidly growing violent crime in the US, according to the American Medical Association. More than 700,000 US women are sexually assaulted each year. Only 20% of assaults are by strangers. At least 20% of US adult women and 12% of teenage girls have experienced some sort of sexual abuse or assault.--
Kansas City Star (quoted in Youthworker)

In 84% of US couples , both spouses work.--
Fortune (quoted in Current Thoughts & Trends)

Vision TV is featuring an eight-part series called Mandate for the Millenium in which former Evangelical Fellowship of Canada president Brian Stiller, US author and speaker Tony Campolo, writer and teacher Maxine Hancock and pastor Sunder Krishnan discuss issues facing the North American church. Topics include the future of the evangelical church, spirituality, women in leadership, the environment and poverty. The series airs each Tuesday from Oct. 14 to Dec. 2.--
Windborne Productions

Afghanistan's religious police have issued new regulations restricting women. Under the new rules, women are not permitted to work in any field except medicine, are restricted in leaving their houses, and are not to make noise when they walk. Under the laws of the Taleban fundamentalist Muslim faction, which controls most of Afghanistan, women can receive foreign aid only through male relatives. One policy says, "Women are duty-bound to behave with dignity, to walk calmly and refrain from hitting their shoes on the ground, which makes noises."--
EPNS

Christ the Saviour Cathedral in Moscow rang its 27-ton bell for the first time July 19, celebrating the near-completion of the church. The bell, which is the largest cast in Russia in this century, could be heard for miles. The church, which dominates the skyline near the Kremlin, is expected to be completed in time for Moscow's 850th anniversary this fall.--
EPNS

A unanimous US Supreme Court ruled June 26 that state governments have the right to outlaw physician-assisted suicide. The Court upheld laws from New York and Washington states forbidding physician-assisted suicide, rejecting an invitation to create a new constitutional right for terminally ill patients to receive medical help in committing suicide.--
EPNS

About 80% of Israel's 4 million Jews are secularized. The devout minority are mostly Orthodox. In the US, the Union of Orthodox Rabbis declares that the more liberal Reform and Conservative branches (each with about 40% of the US's 6 million Jews) are "not Judaism at all" but "another religion". The 1990 National Jewish Population Survey found that a majority of Jews now marry non-Jews, only 5% of their spouses convert, and only 28% of their children are raised Jewish. Some Jewish commentators predict that North American Jewry (including the 385,000 Canadian Jews) will virtually vanish in the next two generations.--
Western Report

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