People and Events

A Mennonite Brethren church is being planted in Draper, Utah. Draper has 14 Mormon "wards" and one Catholic parish; the MB church will be the only evangelical Protestant congregation in the city of 17,000. The church planters will be Paul and Jini Robie. Paul has been on staff at Laurelglen Bible Church in Bakersfield for 11 years. That congregation, Mission USA (an agency of the US MB Conference) and the Pacific District MB Conference are sponsoring the project. The Robies will be assisted by Mike and Joani Bell of Seattle. Robie wants the new church to attract former Mormons disillusioned over their church's misuse of power, emphasis on outward performance and changing church doctrine. Noting that Mormons will also be attracted by the MB focus on a gospel of grace, he said, "Our worship will be honest and heartfeltsomething that Mormonism doesn't experience." While the new church's main outreach will be to Mormons, other Christians moving into the area will also be targetted.

South Calgary Inter-Mennonite Fellowship, an inter-Mennonite church, celebrated the purchase of its first church building Feb. 8 with a dedication service. The building, formerly owned by the Slavic Evangelical Church of Canada, is located at 1308 Edmonton Trail NE, on the north side of Calgary (postal code: T2E 3K7). The Slavic congregation had been in that building for over 30 years but had dwindled to only four members. The church also has a new phone number (403-230-2962) and fax number (403-274-2247).

welcomed three new members at its General Council meeting April 30-May 1, increasing its denominational membership to 31. Joining are The Worldwide Church of God Canada, The Church of God in Canada and the Association of Vineyard Churches in Canada.
EVANGELICAL FELLOWSHIP OF CANADA

David Dyck is one of eight recipients of the Elmer Ediger Memorial Scholarship handed out by Mennonite Health Services of Goshen, Ind. Each recipient receives $1,000 US for the 1998-99 academic year for studies in mental health, counselling or developmental disabilities. Dyck, who is pursuing a master's degree in conflict resolution/transformation at Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, Va., is a member of River East MB Church, Winnipeg.
Mennonite Health Services

The question of how congregations will qualify for membership in the new integrated church formed by a merger of the Mennonite Church and the General Conference Mennonite Church has yet to be resolved. Meeting March 20-22, the boards of the two denominations decided to appoint a group to study and clarify the criteria for membership. The group will submit its initial report to the MC/GC executive committee in August. The issue arose because MC regional conferences have disciplined seven congregations and expelled two in recent years, primarily because those congregations accept practising homosexuals as members. GCs have a tradition of allowing congregational freedom. The MC Southern Conference wants the matter clarified before it will accept merger.

In May, Mennonite Central Committee moved its program office for the former Soviet Union from Moscow to Zaporozhye, Ukraine. The move is a return to MCC's roots. More than 75 years ago, MCC was founded to help Mennonites in this region of southeastern Ukraine who were suffering from famine. Zaporozhye was chosen as the site of the new MCC office because it is central for MCC operations in Ukraine, Siberia and the North Caucasus region of Russia; Moscow is no longer the centre for transportation, telephones and other infrastructure; and Ukraine is less expensive than Moscow. Moreover, the area has strong local churches which are eager to develop social and development projects such as homeless shelters for children and business loan projects. The area has 68 Baptist churches and a new Mennonite congregation.

Africa had a population of 728,074,000 in 1995. Of the 348,176,000 Christians there, 122,108,000 were Roman Catholics. There were 72,777,000 ethnic religionists and 300,317,000 Muslims.

Vietnam has the highest abortion rate in Asia. On average, every woman has 2.5 abortions in her lifetime. The cost of the procedure is $3, and a woman is not required to provide any information about herself before having an abortion. With 40% of all pregnancies ending in abortion, the government is trying to promote alternatives, but is keeping its two-child policy. Government employees who have more than two children can lose their jobs or be forced to give up some benefits.

Mandarin is spoken by 999 million people, making it the most spoken language of the world. English, the second most spoken language of the world, is spoken by 487 million people; 457 million people speak Hindi, 401 million speak Spanish, 204 million speak Bengali, 230 million speak Arabic, 186 million speak Portuguese, 280 million speak Russian, 126 million speak Japanese, 124 million speak German, 126 million speak French, and 164 million speak o a new facility March 29. The new industrial-style buildings are concrete tinted in a reddish sandstone colour with accenting blue metal awnings. The worship centre/gymnasium is the complex's largest building. Offices and large rooms for Sunday school and Awana programs are linked together with steel-roofed walkways. The site also includes soccer and baseball fields. The cost of the first phase is $3.8 million US. A larger sanctuary will be added later. The congregation moved from a location in the middle of Visalia's older, well-established suburbs to a 20-acre site outside the developed area of the city. During the transition, the congregation met for over a year at the Visalia Holiday Inn. Visalia has a population of 100,000. Chuck Buller, senior pastor, says that while the congregation has been averaging 600 attenders, he anticipates that, with the new facility located in a growing area, attendance will climb to 800 during the next months.

announced April 9 that it has accepted an application by Crossroads Television System (CTS) to provide a 24-hour Christian television station in Toronto. It's the first time a major Canadian market has been granted a single-faith licence. Three earlier applications by CTS were denied. Although the licence has been granted for a single-faith station, CTS has to provide 18 hours a week for other religious perspectives. CTS submitted a business plan that projects first-year advertising revenue of $2.1 million, increasing to $3.9 million in the seventh year, as well as first-year brokered time sales of $3.9 million, increasing to $6.3 million. Since CTS will be a commercial station, it will not have charitable tax status and will not receive revenue from donations. CTS is owned by Crossroads Christian Communications, producer of 100 Huntley Street. Meanwhile, Trinity Television of Winnipeg was refused a similar application for a Toronto station; it was the fifth time Trinity had applied. Crossroads and Trinity have expressed interest in working together. However, Willard Thiessen, president of Trinity, dismissed suggestions that he make his application for the Winnipeg market rather than for Toronto, saying the Toronto market is much larger.

Human Life International of Canada, a pro-life organization, has had its charity status revoked by a federal court of appeal because the organization's extensive information program, designed to convince the public about the merits of the pro-life position, was seen by Revenue Canada as an attempt to engage in "activities designed to sway public opinion on controversial social issues". That raises the question for many charitable organizations, especially Christian groups who protest issues such as gambling and pornography, which are ocial issues the court defines as controversial. They fear the ruling may pressure churches and charitable organizations to remain silent. The case is being appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Revenue Canada recently began applying a "detached, disinterested generosity" concept, which means that donors who receive a direct or indirect benefit from a gift are not eligible for a tax-deductible receipt. Last year, Revenue Canada tried to establish that money contributed to support a child under World Vision's child sponsorship program was "private benevolence" and not charitable because the individual knew in advance that some or all of her gifts would go to a named child. In another case in 1997, Revenue Canada argued that taxpayers who contributed to a student aid fund at First Mennonite Church in Kitchener, Ont. were not eligible for a charitable deduction because parents would receive an indirect benefit if their children attended Rockway Mennonite School or other schools. Revenue Canada lost both cases. Each charity proved that there had been sufficient detachment. Nevertheless, Revenue Canada is using the same concept in other cases. For example, gifts made by parents to a school in western Canada are being challenged because the school sends its students on short-term mission projects. Revenue Canada argues this constitutes a "benefit". If Revenue Canada's reasoning is upheld, it will have many implications. For instance, employees of any charity would be unable to make gifts to the charity that employs them.

The hands of the Doomsday Clock were set at 11:51 p.m. on June 11. The clock, located in Chicago, is a symbol of the potential for world nuclear holocaust. The directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists advanced the clock because of the stalement over a treaty to reduce nuclear weapons by the US and Russia, and the recent nuclear tests by India and Pakistan. The hands of the clock are now in the most dangerous setting since 1988, when nuclear doomsday was just six minutes away.

When a minor seeks an abortion, the other parent of the child to be aborted should be notified, according to a new law passed in February by the Washington State Senate. The law still needs to be approved by the House and the Governor.

A pilot, who crash-landed his paraglider in England while trying to call people to repentance using a megaphone, was fined 1,050 pounds plus 250 pounds in costs for flying too close to a populated area. The pilot said he thought people might think God was calling them when they heard his booming voice from the sky. John Holme reflected, "Considering it was the first time I had flown, I think my performance was not too bad."

The Conglomerate Hotel Nullagine in Western Australia's outback closed after a revival converted most of the area's population of 150 and Bible studies and hymn-singing replaced drinking in the hotel's bar. The manager of the hotel said, "We're empty, but so is the jail, so perhaps we shouldn't complain too much."

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