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‘The entire wealth of the Church is at the disposal of the country so that we c
an stand on our own two feet and not relying on foreigners,’ Archbishop Chrysostomos said after meeting Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades early on Wednesday. The Church of Cyprus is a major shareholder in Cyprus's third-largest domestic lender, Hellenic Bank. Unless Europe, the International Monitory Fund or Russia give Cyprus more money or the banks will go bust. Cyprus has become the tax evasion centre for Russian oligarchs. It is doubtful Angela Merkel would agree to a bailout blueprint that causes German taxpayers to subsidise Moscow billionaires with a German election looming this autumn. Anastasiades - a month in the job - gathered party leaders and the governor of the central bank at his office on Wednesday and was due to hold talks with officials from the EU, European Central Bank and IMF while Finance Minister Michael Sarris was in Moscow negotiating a Russia bail out to safeguard high levels of Russian deposits in Cypriot banks.
Pray: for God in His mercy to sort out the looming turmoil that would affect ex-pat European citizens. (Ps.20:1)
More: http://news.yahoo.com/cyprus-throws-bailout-disarray-seeks-russian-help-074339638--sector.html
The European Commission has come under fire for producing more than three million copies of an EU diary for secondary schools which contains no reference to Christmas. More than 330,000 copies of the diaries, accompanied by 51 pages of glossy information about the EU, have been delivered to British schools as a ‘sought after’ Christmas gift to pupils from the commission. But Christians have been angered because the diary section for December 25 is blank and the bottom of the page with Christmas Day is marked only with the secular message. While the euro calendar marks Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Jewish and Chinese festivities as well as Europe Day and other key EU anniversaries, there are no Christian festivals marked. If the commission does not mark Christmas as a feast in its diaries then it should be working as normal on December 25.
Pray: against the authorities that keep undermining the Christian faith. (Ps.28:18)
Christians have been told they must find a framework for promoting their beliefs if they are to confront the challenge of aggressive secularisation and the erosion of Christian values across all spheres of life. Opening the Beyond Individualism conference on Friday, Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali said it was ‘amazing’ that a Christian nurse in Britain today could be suspended for offering to pray for a patient, when it was Christians who had set in place many of the institutions and public services now taken for granted. He warned that the Christian values inherent in Europe’s heritage have been eroded by a process of ‘aggressive secularisation’ that Christians must understand if they are to challenge it. While politicians offer ‘thin’ values like respect and tolerance, the bishop said such ‘political mantras’ were ‘not enough for society to be cohesive’.
Pray: that the Church will take its rightful place in Europe and not give way to aggressive secularism. (Ep.3:16)
The vice-president of the Italian Parliament’s Chamber of Deputies has called on Christian politicians to ‘make sacrifices’ and value their conscience more than their position. In an interview with Catholic News Agency published last Thursday, Professor Rocco Buttiglione, a member of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences, said that Christian people must enter politics to play an active role forming ‘the future of the land. I think the great reservoir of values today is in the Christian people and we must tell them, you must make politics, you must enter into politics, you must make with your hands the future of the land,’ said the politician and academic. As previously reported by LifeSiteNews, Buttiglione became the focus of controversy in 2004 after critics blocked his appointment to the European Union Commission for his statements that homosexual acts are morally wrong.
Pray: for God’s people to take up the challenge and sacrifice position and value their conscience.(2Pet.3:17)
An Austrian think tank and non-governmental organisation is warning that freedom of religious expression is ‘at risk’ in Europe from secularist intolerance on the left. Public expressions of religious belief by Christians are growing in Western Europe, the cradle of Christendom. Gudrun Kugler, a lawyer and director of the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians in Europe says that ‘Europe Christianity is hated because it is the last obstacle to a new vision of secularity which is so politically correct that it verges on totalitarianism. Christians are increasingly marginalized and are appearing more often in courts over matters related to faith. So I think that we are heading for a bloodless persecution.’ Dr Massimo Introvigne, of the Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe, said this week that European Christians are not being ‘oversensitive.’ Discrimination against Christians in Europe, he said, ‘is more subtle’ than in countries where they are outright persecuted, but it is real. Pray: for all Christians as they battle secularism and anti-Christian persecution across Europe. (Ac.4:29)
SAT-7 says its financial difficulties have been ‘aggravated’ by the banking crisis affecting Cyprus. The Christian satellite channel's international office is based in the Cypriot capital, Nicosia, where the banks are only just reopening after nearly two weeks of forced closure. The organisation admitted to supporters at its Network 2013 conference last week that it is exploring new strategies for income generation as a result of increasing financial challenges. Dr Terence Ascott, SAT-7's Chief Executive, says ‘For four years we've operated with a flat budget which has been very challenging. Now if we don't significantly increase our support we will be unable to sustain our programmes at their current levels.’ Despite the financial struggles, supporters heard how the channel is being used to promote reconciliation and strengthen the faith of suffering Christians at a time of unprecedented upheaval in the Middle East and North Africa.
Pray: for a speedy resolution to this financial crisis and that alternative funding will be found for SAT-7 (Ps.119:153)
More: http://www.christiantoday.com/article/christian.satellite.tv.hit.by.cyprus.banking.crisis/31992.htm
A documentary by SAT-7, a Christian satellite television service to the Middle East and North Africa, has been chosen for screening at the European Television Festival of Religious Programmes in Berlin, along with programmes from the BBC, Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF, German national television) and other TV stations across Europe. Lasting from June 2-6, the festival will show 23 programmes from a total of 70 entered in the competition. Entries came from 36 stations throughout Europe, Canada and the Middle East. Held every three years, the festival shows off and rewards programmes which touch on values in religion, faith and ethics.
Pray: that the SAT-7 programme will receive Godly recognition in this mainly secular sector. (1Cor.16:18)
From May 9 to 12, 2013 the First Congress of Christian Doctors of Eastern Europe conference titled ‘Unity in the ministry, love in the action!’ will be conducted near Kiev at the recreation centre ‘Zhuravushka’, reports press centre of Medical service of Russia Christian Association, according to the Medical Christian Centre ‘Colleagues’. The event planners emphasize that such a representative forum of Christian doctors of CIS has never happened. The goal of this Congress is to unite Christian Doctors to create co-ministry in order to support each other and discuss some difficulties of medical and ethical issues from a professional and Biblical point of view. ‘We are the people to whom God has entrusted the important and significant task to heal the body and soul of patients. We all are aware of the responsibility and the importance of our work or service.'
Pray: that this significant gathering will bring Christian doctors together to encourage each other. (Ps.13:1-2)
More: http://www.christiantelegraph.com/issue18750.html
Europe is behaving in a dangerously two-faced way when it comes to protecting the world’s climate, Christian Aid warned as the UN climate talks drew to a close in Bonn last week. ‘European Union leaders claim they still support the only existing climate deal that has legal teeth, the Kyoto Protocol, but their actions tell a different story,’ said Dr Alison Doig, Christian Aid’s Senior Adviser on Climate Change. ‘By not giving the Protocol their strongest possible support and by allowing other rich countries to abandon Kyoto and instead make weak, non-binding pledges through the Copenhagen Accord, they are condemning Kyoto to death. Since many other rich countries want to let the Protocol expire, only enthusiastic backing from the European Union will save it now. We urge European leaders to seize the remaining opportunity in Bonn to show leadership on climate change.’ Under the Copenhagen Accord, countries would merely pledge the emissions cuts which they feel are politically expedient. Pray: for the Lord’s wise guidance to those in authority. (Job 12:13)
The European Commission is considering setting up an age-based authentication system that limits where children can visit online. The system is part of a series of proposals Brussels has put forward to make the net safer for children. It says children are in danger of finding inappropriate material because ways to control where they can go are ‘fragmented’. More details of the authentication scheme will be published on 30 May. In its draft proposals, the commission warns that neglecting protections for children could have a ‘profound impact’ on European societies. It says children's particular needs and vulnerabilities must be addressed so the net becomes a place of opportunities for them. It also notes that a uniform set of protections would help European businesses aiming services at children. (See Prayer Alert 17-2012)
Pray: that these proposals will lead to a system that would protect our young people. (Ps.5:11)