Displaying items by tag: Religion

Pastor David Lynn leads a Toronto church and has preached on the streets for 22 years without conviction. He also heads up Christ’s Forgiveness Ministries, which has 40,000 supporters and a YouTube channel with 8.8 million views. When he preached outside Barking tube station on 20 March, he was arrested and kept in custody for over 20 hours. David began preaching at 1 pm, and at 3.30 pm a group of supporters joined him. He preached about people searching for love in the wrong places; only through a right relationship with Christ can this deep need be satisfied. A large crowd formed, and David handed the microphone to onlookers to allow them to respond to his preaching. Fortunately his preaching was videoed, so that when a lady accused him of calling her ‘perverse’ and ‘sinful’ the footage of the event did not substantiate her complaint.

A lawyer representing survivors of clerical sex abuse in the CofE said at a public hearing, ‘The Church of England is an inappropriate organisation to have charge or care of children and vulnerable adults, and would have been closed if it were a school.’ The inquiry used the diocese of Chichester as a case study to investigate the CofE’s failure to protect children from sex abusers. Another lawyer said, ‘Over the past three weeks I have been struck by how inappropriate the Church as an organisation is to have charge or care of children and vulnerable adults. Personally, I would not want my son to spend a moment in the company of a member of this organisation.’ The lawyers were struck by the ‘impotence’ of the Archbishop of Canterbury to hold bishops to account, calling it a deep-seated cultural and structural problem.

On 28 March DUP MP Jim Shannon commented during PMQs on the return of many believers to the Nineveh Plains, and asked the Prime Minister to pledge her support to them. In her reply Mrs May said, ‘Easter is of course the most important time in the Christian calendar. It is a time of new life and hope. The message of the cross and the resurrection helps to support Christians around the world. We stand with those persecuted Christians. We will be looking to see what more the Government can do to support them.’

The overwhelmingly Catholic Republic of Ireland will hold a referendum on 25 May on whether or not to alter its constitution to legalise abortion. The move follows the recent Irish Senate vote in favour of holding the poll by a wide margin. Last year prime minister Leo Varadkar won leadership of the governing centre-right Fine Gael party after campaigning on same-sex marriage and liberalising abortion laws.

Turkey was a secular country, but since President Erdogan's rise to power it is returning to its Ottoman and Islamic heritage. This shift is manifesting through authoritarianism, consolidation of power, increased support of radical Islam, reintroduction of Islamic cultural practices, the threatening of long-held borders, and the dismissal of thousands of government workers, military, and journalists. But what matters most is the 99% of 80 million people who call Turkey home but have never heard the Gospel. The early Church thrived there. Much of the New Testament took place there. For a nation so hardened to the Gospel, and resenting Christianity, prayer is the only way to bring change.

Last week we praised God for the release of 104 Dapchi school girls by Boko Haram. Five of the 110 girls died and were buried in the bush. What happened to the other girl? Her name is Leah Sharibu, and she defied Boko Haram by refusing to renounce her Christian faith! She is still in captivity. Her father, Nathan Sharibu, said, ‘They gave her the option of converting in order to be released, but she said she will never become a Muslim. I am very sad, but I'm also praising God because my daughter did not renounce Christ.’ Leah sent a message asking her family ‘to pray for the will of God to be done in my life’. What bravery, what faith, what a testimony to the world! One lone Christian girl among 110 defies the abominable Boko Haram. What will happen to her? President Buhari has been asked to ‘uphold the tenets and principles of the Nigerian constitution’. We must pray!

The following ideas are found in the Small Church Essentials book: *The lack of a powerful worship band doesn’t mean settling for passionless worship. *Small churches thrive if they prioritise culture, relationships, and history. *If you’re doing the Great Commandment and Great Commission, you have a great church, no matter the size, denomination, or liturgy. *Small congregations may be Christianity’s most overlooked, underutilised asset; but they’re multiplying and driving global church growth. *Healthy churches continually assess and clear space in their agenda, then they are ready to add something fresh and new. *Reaching the next generation will be done through ministry from the church in the community, not just in the church.

Mission networking in Cameroon is bearing fruit through evangelical cooperation to reach the unconverted. Please pray for three initiatives: 1) Christian Missionary Fellowship International has remarkable ministries in prayer, missions and publishing, all having a global impact. 2) Cameroon for Christ, launched in 1996, involves many denominations and churches in research and evangelism of the 2,400 villages of the north. 3) Mission BINAM targets the idol-worshippers of West Cameroon, especially the Bamiléké, and is very active in evangelism as it trains researchers for church and mission needs. Please pray also for the restless young people who are frustrated by high unemployment and cheating, bribery and favouritism in the education system. Many turn to crime and prostitution, and violent demonstrations are occurring. Cameroon has never before dealt with such disruptions. Also Christians in the north are under increasing pressure from Muslims.

All exercise of the right to freedom of religion or belief without state permission is banned in Kazakhstan, in defiance of the country's international human rights commitments. There is a growing trend of banning religious communities on various grounds. For example, on 16 March a court in South Kazakhstan fined and banned for a month a Protestant church for having three not five fire detectors in a property used only for storage. The fire inspector refused to explain why the order to install the extra fire detectors was not put in writing, or why the church was punished despite having installed those extra detectors within the specified one month. Also, at the same church, police arrested a woman for ‘missionary activity’ after she helped someone download a Bible onto her phone. Religious communities face raids and fines as parliament's lower house prepares the final text of a wide-ranging set of amendments to make the exercise of religion or belief more difficult. See also https://www.crisisgroup.org/europe-central-asia/central-asia/kyrgyzstan/kyrgyzstan-state-fragility-and-radicalisation

On 22 March the gay clergyman Canon Jeremy Pemberton lost his appeal against the Church of England after he claimed its attitude to same-sex marriage breached equality laws. The Court of Appeal upheld a previous ruling that he was not discriminated against when he was barred from becoming a hospital chaplain after marrying his partner. The CofE has now established that it can continue to discriminate legally against some LGBT people in relation to their employment, even when that employment is not within the boundaries of the Church's jurisdiction.