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It’s impossible to grasp the pain Norway is feeling today. A tiny country with less than five million people lost 87 precious children on an island purchased to enrich the lives of Norway's poor. In todays ultra-rich Norway we forget that for most of its history Norwegians were mired in subsistence-level poverty. There has been so much poverty in Norway’s history that poverty has been the norm and the rich are looked upon with great suspicion. The Labour Party organized these facilities to enable poor children to have a summer-camp experience and THIS is where the massacre took place. In the days ahead
we will probably read about a lone misfit with a bunch of psychological problems became a mass murderer. What we probably won't read is how neoliberalism creates so many ‘losers’ that in the most prosperous country on earth a serious young man cannot find a way to have a normal life and explodes in madness.
Pray:for all the hearts that ache and minds that cannot believe it has happened to them (Ps.23)
More: http://real-economics.blogspot.com/2011/07/norways-pain.html
The Lutheran Church of Norway in the next five years will be implementing a plan to enhance the role of the indigenous Sami people in church life. ‘We want Sami church life to be an equal and natural part of the church, and the Church of Norway to be a multicultural fellowship,’ said Jens-Petter Johnsen, director general of the Church of Norway National Council. The Sami are indigenous peoples in northern Norway, Sweden and Finland, and on the Kola Peninsula in Russia. There are an estimated 50,000 to 65,000 Sami in Norway, leading their traditional life in rural areas, but also living in Oslo and other cities. The Sami language belongs to the Finno-Ugric family. Ways to enhance the role of the Sami in church life from 2012 through 2016 will be the creation of new posts for pastors, deacons and other church workers, teaching of the Sami language and programs of recruitment, liturgy, Bible translation and church history.
Pray: for a powerful anointing on this initiative and protection for everyone involved in building God’s church in this region. (Ps.65:2)
More: http://www.eni.ch/news/
An ex-Muslim Convert to Christianity was attacked with boiling water and acid by Muslims at an 'asylum reception centre' in Norway last Friday, reports the Iranian Christian news agency (Mohabat News). An Asylum seeker in an immigration centre in Jaeren, Norway, had boiling water poured over him after he converted to Christianity and would not comply with Ramadan fasting rules. He and the other converts at the centre now fear for their lives. ‘If you do not return to Islam, we will kill you’ was the message from the other asylum seekers at the Asylum Reception in Hå, in the Jaeren region of Norway. He refuses to disclose his real name for fear of further reprisals from them. If Afghan authorities found out about the incident and he were to be subsequently deported he risks being sentenced to death by stoning, he claims. He survived the incident, but has been left with a severely disfigured back.
Pray: that such attacks on believers would cease, for their protection and that God would hold the hand of the enemy. (Ps.5:11)
Bishop Munib A. Younan, President of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), has called Norway a beacon of hope and inspiration for the way it has dealt with the horror and pain of last year's massacre. Younan was speaking on 30 July at the week-long St Olav Festival in Trondheim, which runs from 28 July to 5 August, according to a report from Lutheran World Information, the LWF's news service. He spoke following the one-year anniversary of Norway's deadliest attack since the Second World War, where an anti-Muslim extremist on 22 July 2011, killed 77 people in two separate attacks in Oslo and on the island of Utoya where a youth camp was gathered. ‘You have shown, in the way you have processed the horror and pain of 22 July 2011 that you do not accept violence as a means of obtaining social and political change. You represent today - in our tested, pluralistic world - values of social justice, multiculturalism and unity in diversity,’ he noted.
Pray: that Norway will continue to shine as a beacon of hope. (Job.27:8)
On 10.10.10 the new leader of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Irenjy, was enthroned at the Patriarchate in Pec. The two-and-a-half-hour service was a unique blend of a highly formal and informal Orthodox liturgy. Three hundred people gathered in the church, which holds only 100 comfortably. Patriarchates from all over the Orthodox world were represented, from Moscow, Athens, Jerusalem, and elsewhere, alongside invited Roman Catholic and Protestant leaders, three Serbian Islamic muftis, and two Anglicans: Canon Jonathan Goodall, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Ecumenical Secretary, and Canon Donald Reeves. The Pec Patriarchate, seat of the Patriarchs of the Serbian Orthodox Church since 1217, is regarded as its spiritual centre. However Pec is in the independent Republic of Kosovo, not Serbia. No Kosovo Albanians had been invited to the service. To have done so would have been to acknowledge Kosovo as an independent state, no longer part of Serbia. Pray: for reconciliation between the Serbs and Kosovans through the Church in the Balkans. (Ac.7:26)
The newly appointed General Secretary of the European Evangelical Alliance says revival is essential for Europe's traditional churches. Rev Niek M Tramper was appointed to his new post at the EEA's annual conference in Turkey on April 22. Rev Tramper, of the Netherlands, said there were many challenges facing the Church in Europe, including the need for greater cooperation between new and traditional forms of Church, a growing Muslim population, and tensions between the rich and poor. ‘The Church and Christian movements need each other in advancing the Kingdom of God,’ said Rev Tramper. ‘Traditional churches cannot continue without revival. Profound theology and missionary zeal are complementary. In places with few historic churches, the EEA is of great value for facilitating the replanting of churches in countries like Kosovo, Albania and Turkey, as well as in Central Asia.’
Pray: that the Lord directs Rev Tramper’s energy and vision in ways that promote Christ’s kingdom. (2Ti.3:9-11)
The European Evangelical Alliance (EEA) has welcomed the European Union's adoption of guidelines on the promotion and protection of freedom of religion. The guidelines were adopted by the foreign ministers of all 27 EU member states at a meeting in Luxembourg on Monday. They were developed in consultation with the European Platform on Religious Intolerance and Discrimination (EPRID), founded in 2006 by the EEA, Open Doors International and Christian Solidarity Worldwide. The focus of the guidelines is on the external policy of the European Union related to understanding, monitoring and promoting freedom of religion or belief and raising awareness of this right in non-EU countries. The EEA said the guidelines would strengthen the EU's capacity to defend religious freedom by addressing the causes of violations and formulating responses. Victims of religious freedom violations will also be in a stronger position to ask EU delegations and member state embassies to intervene on their behalf.
Pray: that the adoption of these new guidelines will strengthen the EU’s capacity to defend religious freedom. (Jam.2:12)
More: http://www.christiantoday.com/article/new.eu.guidelines.on.religious.freedom.welcomed/32964.htm
A consortium of homosexual, secular humanist and abortion groups are campaigning against the appointment of the Maltese Dr. Tonio Borg as the new EU Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner. The objection, they say, is nothing more than that Dr. Borg is a Catholic, with ‘staunchly conservative and outdated’ views on homosexuality, divorce and abortion. A document released by the European Parliament’s Intergroup on LGBT Rights admits that a Commissioner’s personal religious beliefs are not ‘topics of EU competence.’ However, they maintain that Borg’s ‘issues of conscience’ would ‘prevent him from being an impartial commissioner.’ The group say they fear that since ‘all 27 Commissioners are always consulted before Commission proposals are made public; this would give him considerable influence across EU competences’.
Pray: that the rights of all Commissioners be accepted and listened to and not blocked by pressures from those who oppose their views. (Jas.3:17)
Plans to introduce mobile medical teams that can euthanasia people in their own homes are being considered by the Dutch government. The teams of doctors and nurses would be sent out from a clinic following a referral from the patient's doctor. The proposals were disclosed by Edith Schippers, the health minister. In a written answer to questions from Christian Union MPs she said that mobile units ‘for patients who meet the criteria for euthanasia but whose doctors are unwilling to carry it out’ was worthy of consideration. ‘If the patient thinks it desirable, the doctor can refer him or her to a mobile team or clinic,’ the minister wrote. In her written answer Ms Schippers suggested that ‘extra expertise’ could be summoned in complicated cases involving mental health problems or an inability to consent to euthanasia because of dementia.
Pray: against this move by the Dutch government increasing the availability of euthanasia. (Lev.24:17)
A Dutch town known for its traditional churches and fishing community has forbidden an evangelism tent campaign, a move Christian Democrats say further threatens freedom of religion in the Netherlands. The local government of Urk said on Wednesday, April 13, it refused permission ‘because these activities must be organized by local churches.’ Additionally, licenses for evangelism can only be given in ‘summer holidays,’ it added. The decision comes as a major setback for the organizers of the evangelical 'Netherlands Bible Study Centre' (NBC), a foundation focusing on spreading Bible knowledge. NBC has been holding annual evangelism meetings in a circus tent in Urk, 85 kilometres north east of Amsterdam, as part of a tour through the Netherlands. A member of Urk's Municipality Council, Mr Foppen, said he would protest the evangelism ban at an upcoming council meeting on April 28. Willem Foppen, who represents the Dutch Christian Democratic Appeal party (CDA), said it was also strange that evangelism in Urk is apparently only allowed during summer holidays. Pray: that the meeting of the Council next week will lead to a licence being granted. (Lk.4:43) More: http://www.worthynews.com/10173-netherlands-town-urk-forbids-evangelism-campaign