Displaying items by tag: Christian leaders

A panel of hundreds of international scientists has released a report on climate change. The UN secretary general described the report as ‘code red for humanity’ the alarm bells are deafening, and the evidence is irrefutable.’ Words like ‘unprecedented’, ‘widespread’, ‘rapid’, and ‘irreversible’ abound in the report. We will reach a 1.5°C temperature rise in ten years, and however fast we act now, melting ice caps and rising sea levels will continue for thousands of years. Alongside this three senior Christian leaders have released a ‘Joint Message for the Protection of Creation’. The document quotes scripture frequently, emphasising our calling to ‘choose life, so that you and your children might live’ (Deut. 30:19), linking our care for the poor and the planet, and concluding with the challenge, ‘To whom much is given, much is required’ (Luke 12:48).

At a UN summit on religious freedom, Donald Trump praised President Erdogan. But since 2016 Turkey’s Protestant community of mostly Muslim converts, meeting in 150 Christian fellowships, report an increase of crimes against churches. There have been targeted deportations of senior foreign Christian leaders, many long-term residents. Since the Ottoman era Turkey has recognised Orthodox faiths, but now the interior ministry refuses to allow new patriarchs to be elected. Protestants are refused religious worker visas and are barred from running educational programmes. Forcing out Christians once welcomed in Turkey is part of a systematic attempt to eradicate them. There is now concern for Christian refugees in Turkey: 6,000 to 10,000 Iranians and thousands of Iraqi and Syrian Christians are under threat. Deportation for many could equal a death sentence. Many are demanding that the authorities explain how these Christians are a threat to Turkish society.

A maximum of 30,000 refugees will be allowed to resettle in the United States in the next fiscal year. The new ceiling marks a dramatic decrease from this year’s 45,000-person cap, which had also been a significant reduction from previous years. Evangelical and Catholic advocates for refugees were quick to argue that reducing the number of refugees allowed into the USA is a continuation of a series of unprecedented attacks on American values and on the humanitarian nature of the refugee resettlement programme; they said it falls far short of helping the large number of vulnerable people around the world. This argument over quotas comes as the number of displaced people worldwide reaches a record high. UNHCR said there are 68.5 million displaced people in the world today, more than 28 million of whom are considered refugees or asylum-seekers. The Trump administration says Christians in Iraq face genocide; yet only 18 have been allowed to resettle in America this year.

The Archdiocese of Harare issued a statement after the armed forces had taken over. The general secretary of the Zimbabwe Council of Churches, Rev Kenneth Mtata, called on politicians and social leaders to rebuild a broken society. ‘The current situation was inevitable. We had reached a point of no return. Our politics of attrition and toxic public engagement have had their logical conclusion.’ His statement echoed one made earlier by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference and the Council of Churches in which they described the country’s politics as ‘poisonous,’ and accused Mugabe of stifling political dissent. Mtata said, ‘Our hope is that we can put the train back on the rails of democracy and citizenship engagement.’ The fragmented society is a result of failures to deal with the hurts of the past, and the political system not allowing everyone to have an opportunity.