People and Events

About 300 people from nearly 50 French, English and ethnic churches paraded through Olympic Stadium before a Montreal Expos baseball game on Sept. 5. A Christian choir, Kairos, sang "O Canada" and Christian Direction director Glenn Smith threw out the first pitch. Christian Direction and Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada sponsored the game. A portion of the ticket sales bought through the two organizations will go to local teen ministries.--
ChristianWeek

Since 1960, India's economic growth rate has nearly tripled. The percentage of poor people, however, has only gradually improved. In 1947, when the country was founded, 55% of the people lived below the poverty line. In 1993, 37% did. More than 300 million people are impoverished in India, a figure little changed from 1973.--
Pulse

What if, for 24 hours, no guns are fired? There is a movement afoot to make Jan. 1, 2000, "One Day In Peace", a day when whoever happens to be at war on Dec. 31, 1999 would agree that for one whole day no guns would be fired. Organizers also hope to make it a day when television programmers of the world would agree not to air programming with violent content. One of the organizations leading the campaign is Paxton Ministries, whose phone number is 717-236-5508.--
Paxton Ministries

Churchgoers, on average, give less than 2.5% of their after-tax income, according to the authors of Behind the Stained Glass Window: Money Dynamics in the Church. Evangelical and conservative church members tend to give more than those in other denominations, but all denominational averages fall short of 10 percent, and all giving is declining as a percentage of income.--
Evangelical Press News Service

Penalties for church arson hae been increased in California under a law signed by Gov. Pete Wilson. The bill makes it a hate crime to burn a place of worship, adding up to three years to the sentence of a convicted arsonist. --
EPNS

Pope John Paul II has ruled out any special measures to speed up sainthood status for Mother Teresa. The Pope told reporters that the standard five years would elapse before canonization of Mother Teresa could begin. --
EPNS

44% of evangelical church attenders would be committed to reconciling with an unfaithful spouse. This is according to an Angus Reid poll, which also suggested that 39% of Catholics and 29% of mainline church attenders would pursue reconciliation. Only 20% of non-attenders claim to be committed to such a course.--
ChristianWeek

The Indiana-Michigan Conference of the Mennonite Church Conference dealt with the question of homosexuality at its annual convention July 10-12. Two congregations, Southside Fellowship of Elkhart, Ind. and Assembly Mennonite of Goshen, Ind., had their voting privileges revoked on˙20June 19 by the Conference Executive Committee because these congregations accept into "membership persons living in same sex relationships . . . a postion that is not in agreement with the stated Mennonite position". At the convention, a motion to suspend the committee's disciplinary action against the two churches "until appropriate time for˙20delegate action" was defeated by roughly a five-to-one margin, thus affirming the discipline. Nevertheless, three other churches announced at the annual meeting their decision to dissociate from the Conference, partly because they considered the Conference too lax on the˙20issue of membership for practising gays and lesbians. On the other hand, two new churches joined the Conference, and there have been strong outreach programs to Hispanic people in Goshen, Elkhart and East Chicago.--
Gospel Herald

Malaria is the world's fourth biggest killer disease. Each year, 2.5 million children die of the disease, which has made a steady comeback after being basically eradicated in 27 nations. Malaria research receives $60 million annually, while AIDS and Alzheimer's receive $950 million and $300 million respectively. The World Health Organization believes half a million African children would be saved annually by having bed nets soaked in insecticide. AIDS kills 1 million people worldwide annually.--
EMIS

Hong Kong Christian groups are criticizing the Special Administrative Region's plans for elections next May. The government's proposal is to have six religious groups, including two Christian groups, select 40 religious representatives on an 800-member Election Committee. The 800 will choose 10 of the 60 legislative council members. Christians fear that the proposed arrangement will be used to make it appear that they condone what is really a government-controlled outcome. Other criticisms focus on how the religious groups have been chosen, on the basis that the Christian groups do not really represent all Christians in Hong Kong. Others maintain that elections should be based upon universal suffrage: one vote for one person.--
COMPASS DIRECT

Three Indian states have passed laws banning religious conversions, with a fourth state bill in process. Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Arunachal Pradesh have the laws, although India's constitution guarantees the right to choose one's religion and propagate it. A fourth state, Maharastra, has a bill in process prohibiting conversions and is designed to prevent Hindus from converting to Christianity. Maharastra is India's third largest state in area and population. About 1.12% of that state is Christian.--
COMPASS DIRECT

Evangelistic organizations at the World Championships of Track and Field in Athens, Greece in August were prohibited by Greek officials from conducting previously approved evangelistic activities. The music group Scarlet's Journey was forced from the stage, without explanation, just prior to its scheduled performance. More Than Gold had secured a booth and had received approval to distribute leaflets, but the booth was closed down by police on the third day of the event, and the group forced to leave the area. Despite the difficulties, 100 young Christians managed to distribute over 120,000 leaflets and about 800 Jesus videos in 25 languages.--
COMPASS DIRECT

Egypt's Coptic Christians fear that if the Religious Persecution Act is passed into law in the US, it will polarize relations between Muslims and Christians in Egypt. The Act proposes strict monitoring of 11 countries for their religious persecution record and threatens $2 billion in US foreign aid to Egypt. Egyptian Muslims believe the Act is an Israeli plot to divide Arab nations. Coptic Pope Shenouda III of Egypt advocated changing policies such as restrictions on church construction internally rather than through international pressure. While demonstrators in the US allege 16 Copts are murdered per minute in Egypt, published human rights reports document 79 Copt deaths in the past five years, out of a total of 1,100 victims of terrorism.--
COMPASS DIRECT

Casino dealer George Adli, an Egyptian Coptic Christian, alleges he was fired from the Cairo ITT-Sheraton Hotel casino for refusing to convert to Islam. Hotel authorities insist Adli fabricated the story of religious persecution to cover up his dismissal for theft. The Christian news agency Compass Direct polled several other Copts working in the Cairo Sheraton. They said that 20% of employees are Christians, including 5 of 6 managers. They also maintained that there has been no mistreatment of Christians and there have been no forced conversions. Adli has garnered attention from CNN, the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times,

Coptic associations in Canada and the US, US senators, and MPs in the European Parliament. Adli's 6-year-old son Alfred has written a letter to US President Clinton alleging that his father has been persecuted. An estimated 15,000 Coptic Christians formally convert to Islam in Egypt every year in order to legalize marriages and divorces or for financial and employment benefits.--
COMPASS DIRECT