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"Agreeing and Disagreeing in the Church" was a one-day event held Nov. 14 at Columbia Bible College, Abbotsford, B.C. Sixty people attended. Guest speaker was Nan Cressman, coordinator of Mennonite and Brethren in Christ Conciliation Services of Canada. She gave three sessions offering an overview of Jesus and conflict, as well as providing some practical helps for dealing with disagreements, including cases of unresolved conflict. Worship, led by Walter Bergen, included a litany of people who experienced conflict in the Bible--from Cain and Abel to Hannah and Peninnah to Paul and Barnabas. "I never realized that conflict could be a positive thing," said one participant. The event was sponsored by Emmanuel Mennonite Church, the B.C. MB Conference, the Church Ministries Committee of the Conference of Mennonites in B.C., Columbia Bible College, Mennonite Central Committee Peace and Service Committee, and Conciliation Service of B.C.--APRIL YAMASAKI
Lendrum MB Church in Edmonton and other local Mennonite groups commemorated the formation and growth of a Chinese Mennonite congregation in Edmonton on Sept. 20. Formed in 1989 with assistance from the Mennonite Centre for Newcomers and the Edmonton Mennonite ministerial, the Chinese Mennonite Church was comprised of refugees who fled persecution. Now the church, located within the Chinese community near downtown Edmonton, has 23 members and an average worship attendance of 40 adults and 20 children. The congregation serves the spiritual needs of Chinese refugees from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Recently, the Chinese congregation purchased the building which they had been renting since 1991. Many Chinese refugees don't own cars and many could not come to church unless they could walk or take the bus.--NEIL KAARSEMAKER, LENDRUM MB CHURCH
Employees of Loewen Windows in Steinbach, Man. raised $2,212.65 in November for Mennonite Central Committee's relief efforts to Central American victims of Hurricane Mitch. The company pledged to match employee contributions, up to $25,000. Loewen Windows employs over 600 people at its Steinbach plant and has a dealer network in 15 countries, including Mexico and Latin America.--LOEWEN WINDOWS
One of the largest Mennonite Central Committee relief efforts in recent years is being planned for Central America due to Hurricane Mitch. Work teams will be working six-to-12 months in Honduras and Nicaragua. Work teams of five-to-eight people from North America will join teams of five-to-eight from Central America. Workers will have to pay their own transportation costs, and in-country expenses (about $540 per person), medical costs and insurance. Preference will be given to teams that come from one or two congregations and to teams that include one or more members who know Spanish well and who can understand and listen to people telling of their suffering. Workers should be physically fit, as the work involves clean up, construction and well-drilling. Health teams with nurses, doctors and public health workers are also welcomed. By Dec. 4, MCC had received nearly $3.4 million from North American donations for hurricane relief and nearly 35,000 relief kits. It had already provided aid valued at $1,369,695, including the first 9000 hurricane relief kits and $347,618 in grants to church agencies working in the region. MCC expects to spend between $4.6 million and $7.7 million in its rebuilding work in Central America. MCC long-term response to Hurricane Mitch's destruction will last three-to-five years.--MENNONITE CENTRAL COMMITTEE
A consultation on the issue of homosexuality and membership in the new integrated Mennonite Church was approved by the General Boards of the three merging bodies meeting Nov. 19-21 in Winnipeg. Disagreements over this issue have threatened to slow or derail integration of the General Conference Mennonite Church, the Mennonite Church and the Conference of Mennonites in Canada. Tensions over the membership issue were diffused after suggestions were made that a resolution be found before next summer's delegate assemblies in St. Louis. The membership committee originally proposed that all current GCMC, MC and CMC congregations be granted membership in the new Mennonite Church but that area conferences be able to discipline congregations as they see fit. The committee is now in the process of revising these membership guidelines. The difficulty is that some congregations expelled by regional Mennonite Church conferences for accepting practising homosexuals as members, are still part of the General Conference Mennonite Church regional conferences. The consultation proposal passed with two dissenting votes. The proposal calls for the consultation to be led by a conciliation expert. The date and location have yet to be determined. The consultation is not intended to question whether homosexuality is a sin as currently stated in various conferences' documents dealing with sexuality, but will use these documents as a starting point. At least five MC area conferences have implied or stated that they will not go along with integration if denominational membership guidelines allow for including congregations that accept practising homosexuals as members. Among those conferences is Lancaster, the largest area conference of the Mennonite Church.--THE MENNONITE, THE CANADIAN MENNONITE
Anabaptist-Mennonite Scholars Network is a newsletter for scholars who work primarily in the area of biblical studies, theology and religion in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition. Spearheaded by the Toronto Mennonite Theological Centre, the newsletter provides information on things such as conferences, publications and employment opportunities, and serves as a tool for conversation within the Anabaptist-Mennonite community. Edited by Lydia Neufeld Harder, the first newsletter was sent to 350 scholars in May 1998; 75 scholars responded by paying the annual $25 membership fee ($10 for students). Deadline for submissions for the May 1999 newsletter is Apr. 15. For more information, contact Lydia Neufeld Harder, Interim Editor, Toronto Mennonite Theological Centre, 47 Queens Park Cres. E., Toronto, Ont. M5S 2C3, or e-mail: lharder@chass.utoronto.ca.--ANABAPTIST-MENNONITE SCHOLARS NETWORK
The 1998 Ethical Money Guide by Eugene Ellmen lists Mennonite Economic Development Associates' "Global Investment Fund" as an alternative investment "that will help MEDA to expand self-help credit programs overseas". The fund is designed to help poor people in low income countries earn a "reasonable" income by starting their own businesses.--MENNONITE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATES
During ethnic and religious riots in Jakarta, Indonesia on Nov. 22, the Indonesian Christian Communications Forum (FKKI) says that 23 churches were attacked and five of them burned. Also suffering damage in the riots were six Protestant and Catholic schools, one of which was destroyed by fire. No churchgoers were killed in the Sunday riots, according to the FKKI; however, other sources say six churchgoers were severely injured. At least 14 people died when a nightclub was set on fire after a gang fight between Christian Ambonese and Muslim youths. Islamic leaders condemned the attacks, and swift action by police limited the scope of the attacks. In retaliation, on Nov. 30, "Christian" mobs set fire to several mosques and burned a Muslim school in Kupang, West Timor. Kupang's population of 120,000 is predominantly Christian. Christian leaders there have issued a call for calm. Of the 210 million people in Indonesia, 90% are Muslim.--COMPASS DIRECT
Three Coptic clerics in Egypt were charged Oct. 10 with interfering in the investigation of the murder of two Christians in an Egyptian village in August. Charged with interfering were Bishop Wissa of Balina, who reported allegations of abuse to local police authorities, and two priests. The three were released on bail the same day, pending a trial. During the month-long investigation, police detained more than 1200 Christians. In September, the bishop filed allegations with Egyptian human rights groups that at least 1,000 Christians in El-Kosheh, a predominantly Christian city, had been arrested, interrogated and tortured by police. On Sept. 22, police charged a cousin of one of the murder victims with the murders. However, on Oct. 7, two prosecution witnesses who had testified against the suspect declared their testimony had been given under torture and was not true. Consequently, they were charged with perjury. Forensic reports on 14 Christians, who made allegations of mistreatment, indicated "there was no confirmed truth about any bad treatment or any use of force" by the police. In November, The London Sunday Telegraph described the situation as a crackdown by Egyptian police against 1200 Coptic Christians. According to the story, nearly all were tortured and local church officials were arrested and faced with possible death sentences. The story erroneously reported that teenage Christian girls were raped and some Christians were crucified.--COMPASS DIRECT, PRISON FELLOWSHIP MINISTRIES, THE ASSEMBLIES OF GOD (US)
Mark Harding, a part-time evangelist from Markham, Ont., has been convicted of three charges of willfully promoting hatred against Muslims. The charges stem from leaflets he distributed outside a Toronto high school in June 1997. The leaflets argued that murderous Algerian Muslim terrorists are no different from Muslims in Toronto. Harding is the producer of the Voice of the Christian Martyrs local radio show (not affiliated with the international organization Voice of the Martyrs). He could face six months in prison. The Canadian Human Rights Commission has also appointed a tribunal to look into allegations that Harding is using his telephone line to transmit hate messages against Muslims. Harding continues to record two-minute messages on his answering-machine aimed at debunking Islamic beliefs.--FAITH TODAY
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