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At a marriage enrichment "I still do" conference June 19 in San Diego, 3,500 married couples renewed their vows of fidelity and love. Similar rallies are scheduled for San Jose on June 26, Washington, D.C., on July 10 and Houston on Oct. 23. Sponsors include Promise Keepers, Focus on the Family, the Christian Men's Network and Moody Bible Institute. Various Christian ministries are trying to prevent divorce through premarital and post-nupital counselling. More than 1 million marriages end in divorce each year in the US.--RELIGION TODAY
About 500 people from Mennonite churches across Ontario gathered on Parliament Hill May 13 to sing and pray for peace in the Balkans. The demonstration attracted people from Leamington, Niagara and Kitchener-Waterloo. The idea for the rally came after Darrel Toews, pastor of Tavistock Mennonite Church, preached about the power of music to shape both communities and the world. Six parliamentarians talked to the group. Lynn Myers (MP--Waterloo-Wellington) had sent a letter to all MPs announcing the event. Mennonite Central Committee helped with arrangements and prepared a letter to federal leaders. The letter, which was read at the event, stated that peace and justice cannot be achieved through violence.--CANADIAN MENNONITE
The youth group of North Peace MB Church, Fort St. John, B.C., held a wall signing March 29, as 10 youth pledged to remain sexually pure. The wall of the youth room with the "True Love Waits" symbol now has 27 names. Every second year for the past six years, the youth group has had six-to-eight Bible studies on the theme of sexual purity/abstinence, then been given an opportunity to sign covenant cards. Pastor Ken Braun is interested in gathering the numbers of youth who have signed similar covenant cards in youth groups across Canada. They can be sent to him at: North Peace MB Church, 10816-106 St., Fort St. John, B.C. V1J 5V2; phone 250-785-3869; fax: 250-785-5497; e-mail: jobraun@awink.com.--NORTH PEACE MB CHURCH
A doctor at Calgary's Foothills Hospital told a mother-to-be last August that her baby suffered from lethal genetic defects and persuaded her to undergo a "genetic termination". Five weeks before the baby was due, chemically induced labour was followed by a live birth. Because the mother had decided her child should not live, nurses were forbidden to provide the baby with food and fluids. Nurses took turns holding the baby until it died 12 hours later. About 40 genetic abortions occurred at the hospital in 1998, and nurses say they are now performing two-to-three induction abortions a week, many of which result in live births. The actual numbers are kept in a locked log book. Hospital administrators ruled that nurses cannot excuse themselves from assisting with abortions based on religious and moral objections. The Alberta government refuses to release data on late-term abortions, including how many children are born alive or how the live births are handled. Records in British Columbia show that since 1995 at least 16 babies have been born alive. According to the B.C. coroner's service, several of the aborted babies lived for more than an hour after birth, one for six hours. The largest baby weighed 4.9 pounds and was born in 1997 to a North Vancouver woman more than seven months pregnant.--WESTERN REPORT, B.C. CHRISTIAN NEWS
The Lancet, the British medical journal, looked at 33,000 pregnancies between 1991 and 1996. Researchers found 174 babies that were born healthy and normal after an ultrasound had suggested abnormalities. However, since 43% of fetuses identified as having an abnormality through ultrasound or other tests are aborted, the number of misdiagnoses is probably much higher. Ultrasound for example, is now sensitive enough to pick up features like skin thickening on the back of a baby's neck, which is sometimes a sign of Down's syndrome but can also be a temporary developmental phenomenon.--WESTERN REPORT
Eight Ontario nurses forced out of their jobs in 1995 for refusing to help perform abortions have reached a settlement with Markham-Stouffville Hospital. Part of the settlement includes a policy guaranteeing the right of nurses to choose not to assist in ending a pregnancy because of their religious or moral beliefs. The settlement came after the nurses lodged a complaint with the Ontario Human Rights Commission. The settlement is expected to renew pressure on the Ontario government to pass Canada's first "conscience" legislation to protect the jobs of health care workers in similar situations. Saskatchewan Reform MP Maurice Vellacott has introduced a similar private member's bill in the Canadian Parliament (Bill C-461) that would make it a crime to refuse admission to medical school or to deny membership in a medical association to those whose religious convictions do not permit them to participate in procedures that end human life.--CHRISTIANWEEK
Mennonite Central Committee Canada, through its partnership with the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, shipped or purchased locally 18,345 tonnes of food, worth about $10 million, to help troubled regions in 1998-99. The largest shipment, 6,700 tonnes of wheat, went to Bangladesh. As well, so far this year, MCC has shipped more than three times the amount of material aid (such as blankets, clothing and relief kits) from Canada and the US that it did in the same period last year. About 9,400 hurricane kits from Canada went to Honduras and Nicaragua. An unusually high number of countries experienced natural disasters in 1998 due to erratic weather patterns, including floods in Bangladesh, Hurricane Mitch in Latin America and famine in other countries. Also, about 80 million people in 47 countries suffer from hunger due to conflict, including the Balkans, Iraq, Sudan, and Rwanda and Burundi. Withholding food is often used as a weapon in some countries.--MENNONITE CENTRAL COMMITTEE CANADA
Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janatha Party lost a vote of confidence in Parliament on April 17. Vajpayee was in power for only 13 months. The Congress Party, led by Sonia Gandhi, received only 140 of the 272 votes needed to form a replacement government, so India is now scheduled to go to the polls this fall for the third time in as many years. During BJP's term, there were 140 attacks against Christians. BJP's agenda is to make India a Hindu nation. If the Congress Party wins the election, Gandhi would become the first Catholic prime minister in India's history. The BJP is attacking Gandhi as "a foreigner and a Catholic" and is blaming its defeat on a conspiracy by the Roman Catholic Church and the United States.--COMPASS DIRECT
"Equipping the Saints" is the theme for SEMSEC '99 (Southeastern Manitoba Christian Education Convention), to be held Oct. 1-3 at Steinbach Regional Secondary School. Keynote speaker for the convention will be Robert DeMoss Jr., former Focus on the Family Canada director and founder of Entertainment Today. Over 100 workshops will be offered in tracks such as Christian school teaching; children's ministries; music, drama and worship; special ministries (such as small groups); mission outreach; leadership and management; and electives (such as responding to homosexuality, ministering to the sick and elderly, and writing for periodicals). SEMCEC is held every two years. For more information, contact SEMSEC '99, Providence College, Otterburne, Man. R0A 1G0 or phone 204-433-7488 or 204-326-4134.--SOUTHEASTERN MANITOBA CHRISTIAN EDUCATION CONVENTION
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