People and Events

New Hope, a new organization that supports widows and widowers and their families, will be holding its first retreat May 1-2 at Okanagan (B.C.) University College, north campus. Topics include: grief recovery, single parenting, financial/legal matters, living alone, dating and remarriage. Carol Ann Green, founder of New Road Ministries in South Carolina, will be the keynote speaker. More information is available by contacting Grace Lacoursiere at New Hope, Box 20031, Vernon Square Mall, Vernon, BC, V1T 9L4; e-mail: lacoursi@bc.sympatico.ca; phone 250-549-7273 or its website: http://www3.bc.sympatico.ca/NewHope/
NEW HOPE

Jewish high priests from the Cohenim caste in Jerusalem are asking ultra-orthodox Jews to donate baby boys to the priesthood. The priests would raise the boys, keeping them in isolation in a special compound that has been donated by an Orthodox Jewish school until age 13. Several families have expressed interest and a seven-month pregnant woman has agreed to have her son raised as a priest. Parents, relatives and friends would be allowed visits, but would have to adhere to strict rules governing defilement. The religious group believes that if the temple, destroyed over 2000 years ago, is rebuilt high priests will be needed to ritually purify the Jewish people.
WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) ended its cleanup efforts in Ontario in March; 160 volunteers cleaned up 445 properties in three areas north of Kingston after a severe ice-storm hit the region earlier this year. Volunteers came from Leamington, Niagara, Aylmer and Waterloo. A broken arm was the only reported injury among the volunteers. Meanwhile, MDS continues to repair and rebuild homes in the Red River Valley damaged by flooding last spring. Crews have worked at 837 sites making repairs and cleaning up. Eight rebuilding projects have been completed. Four new houses and about ten rebuilds are planned for Spring. Approximately $1.2 million in donations has come in for the flood response and $460,000 had been spent by the end of February. MDS expects to exhaust most of the fund this summer as work increases. MDS needs qualified tradespeople volunteers. Volunteers can phone 204-261-6381 or 888-240-5480
MENNONITE DISASTER SERVICE

The editors of the Mennonite Historian, published by the Centre for MB Studies and the Mennonite Heritage Centre, will commemorate the 50th and 75th anniversaries of the Mennonite migrations from Russia in the 1920s and 1940s in the June and September issues. Also being planned is a celebration to take place in Winnipeg Aug. 15-16, focussing on the immigration experience of those who came to Canada between 1947 and 1951. Readers are invited to submit articles, stories and photographs about the experiences to the Centre for MB Studies, 169 Riverton Ave., Winnipeg, Man. R2L 2E5.
CENTRE FOR MENNONITE BRETHREN STUDIES IN CANADA

Mennonite Central Committee Supportive Care Services will be holding a conference and retreat on mental illness and the church May 22-24 at Western Pentecostal Bible College in Abbotsford, B.C. "At the King's Table: Taken, Blessed, Broken and Given" will offer participants a better understanding of the walk of a person with a mental illness, suggestions about how to involve all people in the life of the church and ideas on how to explore the giftedness of a person with a mental illness. Guest presenter will be Walter S. Friesen, a counsellor, professor and former pastor from Newton, Kan. More information is available from Peter Andres of MCC at (604) 850-6608.
MCC SUPPORTIVE CARE SERVICES

Russia's new religion law came into affect last October, but a final draft of the regulations for implementing will not be ready until the end of March. The first draft of the regulations in December was sent back to officials after many complaints by religious leaders. The Justice Department then issued to provincial officials guidelines to help them apply the new law until final regulations are completed. The temporary guidelines state that Article 27 of the new law contradicts the Constitution of the Russian Federation by taking away a citizen's rights. Article 27 also requires annual re-registration of already registered religious organizations that have existed in Russia for less than 15 years; during the 15-year period, the religious body would operate with limited legal rights. However, the federal constitution states that a new law may not have retroactive force. The guidelines suggest that the re-registration process involve merely informing local authorities of the religious organization's intention to continue its activities; these previously registered groups would continue to enjoy full legal rights. If the finalized regulations reflect suggestions contained in the temporary guidelines, they would diminish the most restrictive aspects of the new religion law
the 15-year rule. Some church leaders feel economic constraints rather than legal ones will be their biggest problem. Some churches have experienced massive increases in the rent and taxes they must pay, sometimes higher than the church can afford.
COMPASS DIRECT

The Integration Committee of the General Conference Mennonite Church and the Mennonite Church is proposing a new option: "one denomination, two countries", creating separate US and Canadian conferences and boards after the merger expected in 1999. The proposal also suggests binational conventions in 1999 and 2003 and separate US and Canadian conventions in 2001 and 2005; US General Board members are recommended to include 50% women, 40% former GCs and 20% racial/ethnic minorities. The new proposal replaces a proposal to have four regional conferences, one in Canada and three in the US.
MENNONITE WEEKLY REVIEW

The Turkish Interior Ministry ordered the Armenian Orthodox Church to disband its Advisory Council in December, declaring that the board, made up of local professors, lawyers, journalists and businesspeople, violated Turkish secular laws. Under the 4th-century canons of the Armenian Church, an elected patriarch governs the church with the assistance of two councils: the Patriarchal Synod (composed of bishops and ordained clergy) and the Advisory Council (composed of elected laymen). The Turkish government says an elected lay counsil could serve as a "government" for the Armenian ethnic minority, and it will not allow "lay interference" in religious matters since Turkey is a secular state. Church leaders argue that laypeople, as well as clergy are part of the church. The church has also been told it cannot operate press, cultural or other committees that were not specifically religious. Church leaders rely that "The church lives in the world" and it needs expert counsel on environmental and ethical issues such as cloning, abortion and euthanasia.
COMPASS DIRECT

Canadian Foodgrains Bank (CFB) shipped over 33,000 metric tonnes (mt) of Canadian Wheat to North Korea and Ethiopia in October. Earlier in 1997 CFB had shipped 23,854 mt of food to Africa, the Americas and Asia. Since 1996, CFB has provided close to 28,000 mt of rice and wheat to North Korea. Formed in 1983, the Winnipeg-based CFB is a consortium of church-based relief and development agencies; most of its donations are matched 4-to-1 by the Canadian International Development Agency.
CANADIAN FOODGRAINS BANK

The Nasarawa state government in Nigeria suspended work on an Islamic mosque in the town of Akwanga after youths destroyed it in December. The local chapter of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) said it made the decision to destroy the mosque because it believed that building the mosque was an act of discrimination by the government against Christians, who make up over 99% of those living in the area. The mosque was being built by the state government in a government compound, but a local government official said Muslims had raised the money for it and it had been approved by an inter-religious peace committee.
COMPASS DIRECT

Pope John Paul II said Jan. 28 he hopes that his trip to Cuba will help end communist rule in Cuba. He challenged communist ideology and said that religious freedom is "an inalienable human right". He claimed that his 1979 Poland visit helped end communism there.
EVANGELICAL PRESS NEWS RELEASE

World Literature Ministries, a ministry of the Christian Reformed Church, has translated into Russian one volume of John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion. Funding is needed before translation begins on the rest of the work. Written in 1536, the three-volume book presents Calvin's beliefs.
CRC NEWS RELEASE

First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, Calif. was granted permission by the city's planning commission Jan. 14 to build a 52-bed permanent homeless shelter and meeting hall. In 1996 the church was found guilty of violating building and zoning codes by allowing the homeless to sleep in an enclosed patio and in cars parked in the church lot. The church hopes to build the shelter before year's end.
EPNS

Alexander Haraszti, who helped evangelist Billy Graham arrange crusades in Eastern Europe in the 1970s and 1980s, died Jan. 16. He was 77. In 1956 Haraszti fled Hungary to the US, returning in 1977 as translator for Graham's Budapest crusade. He arranged invitations for Graham in Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Russia.
EPNS

The Russian Orthodox Church plans to hold a funeral for Czar Nicholas II before deciding whether to declare him a saint. Russia's last czar and his family were executed in 1918 by Bolshevik revolutionaries. In 1991 their remains were unearthed and have been kept in a morgue. Recent government DNA testing verified their authenticity.
EPNS

A Florida judge ruled Jan. 21 in favour of a public school board's proposal to implement a course based on the Old Testament, but refused permission for a similar course based on the New Testament. In October, the school board voted to adopt the National Council on Bible Curriculum in public schools program. The American Civil Liberties Union and People for the American Way launched a lawsuit, saying that the planned courses would unconstitutionally present the Bible as history. The judge said that the Old Testament course was designed to teach history and not religion, but had reservations about the New Testament course, saying that she "finds it difficult to conceive how the account of the resurrection or of miracles could be taught as secular history."
EPNS

By mid-1998 the world's population is expected to be 5,929,839,000, up from 3,701,909,000 in 1970. In the world in 1970, there were 1,222,585,000 Christians, 558,272,000 Muslims, 542,976,000 nonreligious people, 473,823,000 Hindus, 234,096,000 Buddhists, 172,744,000 atheists, 77,872,000 "New-Religionists", 166,525,000 tribal religionists, 10,618,000 Sikhs and 14,767,000 Jews. By mid-1998 it is expected that there will be 1,965,993,000 Christians, 1,179,326,000 Muslims, 766,672,000 non-religious people, 767,424,000 Hindus, 356,875,000 Buddhists, 146,406,000 atheists, 99,191,000 "New-Religionists", 244,164,000 tribal religionists, 22,874,000 Sikhs and 15,050,000 Jews.

Return to the M.B.Herald Vol. 37, No. 7 Home Page