“Ramon A Williams”

Worldwide Photos Ltd The Religious Media Agency

WEEKLY NEWS REVIEW

January 2, 2003

INDEX

AUSTRALIA: 1. SALVATION ARMY OFFICERS GRADUATE (Warcry) 2. SYDNEY BAPTISTS MINISTER IN NIGERIA (Gymea Baptist) 3. HOME FOR RIVERINA WOMEN GETS GO AHEAD (Impact-Wesley Mission) 4. ‘WEEPING STATUE’ FINDING KNOWN SOON (Catholic Weekly) 5. DUTY OF CARE SEMINARS IN VICTORIA (The Vic Bapt Witness) 6. CHRISTIANS READY FOR NSW STATE ELECTION (Family World News)

OVERSEAS: 7. SLAIN WORKERS BURIED IN HOSPITAL GROUNDS (Baptist Press) 8. MORE PRAY THAN DRINK ON NEW YEAR’S EVE (US Prayer Center) 9. CHRISTMAS DAY COMES TO EGYPT – JAN 7 (CSW) 10. PERMISSION TO DISTRIBUTE GOSPELS IN TURKEY (Turkish World News) 11. RESPONSE TO CLAIMS OF FIRST HUMAN CLONE (Focus on the Family) 12. LILLY ENDOWMENT’S $1.6 MILLION GRANT (ENS) 13. SECRETARY STABBED BY HOMELESS MAN (ENS) 14. FIFTY WEDDINGS AND A WEBSITE (Christian Herald) 15. NOW THAT’S WHAT YOU CALL A TITHE (Misc Media)

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1. SALVATION ARMY OFFICERS GRADUATE (Warcry) At the end of each year, the Australian branch of The Salvation Army has its commissioning, where the latest graduates of the Melbourne and Sydney officer training colleges are officially recognised as officers of the Army, following their two-year course. The Sydney Commissioning, held at the Sydney SuperDome, saw 27 cadets commissioned as Salvation Army captains. In Melbourne the ceremony was held at the Camberwell Civic Centre and was the first of a new era. Previously cadets were not told what their official appointments would be, but this group were the first to be told some weeks prior to the ceremony. The new captains in Sydney and Melbourne will take up their appointments across Australia this month.

2. SYDNEY BAPTISTS MINISTER IN NIGERIA (Gymea Baptist) From January 3-7, a team of eight workers from the Gymea Baptist Church in Sydney will be serving at the SIM (Serving in Mission) Annual Spiritual Life Conference at the Miango Conference Centre in Nigeria. The Senior Pastor, Karl Faase will be the guest speaker while his wife, Jane, has been invited to encourage and support the missionary wives in their ministries. Children’s worker, Leanne Palmer will lead a series of children’s meetings for the 60 3-18 year olds of the missionary families. Following the conference, the Gymea team will visit areas of SIM ministry including the Evangel Hospital, AIDS ministry, ministry to street kids and beggars, as well as local schools and market areas.

3. HOME FOR RIVERINA WOMEN GETS GO AHEAD (Impact-Wesley Mission) Lockhart Shire Council has given the green light for the development of an accommodation centre for homeless women in Lockhart. A full meeting of the Council agreed unanimously to the Wesley Mission proposal. The New Gunyah Care Centre will house a maximum of 12 homeless women at any time and an average of 10 women throughout the year. The centre in Urana Street will provide a medium to long-term residential therapeutic community for the treatment and recovery of homeless and disadvantaged women. The centre is the former New Gunyah Hotel, which will undergo refurbishment before the centre begins operation early this year.

4. ‘WEEPING STATUE’ FINDING KNOWN SOON (Catholic Weekly) The results of investigations into Perth’s weeping statue of the Virgin Mary are expected to be known this month. The Archbishop of Perth, Archbishop Barry Hickey, appointed a committee of inquiry to investigate whether the source or cause of the ‘crying’ can be established. The committee included Dr Thelma Koppi, a non-Catholic, who is a microbiologist at the University of Western Australia; a surgeon, Dr Michael Shanahan; and a theologian, Fr Kevin Long, of the University of Notre Dame, Perth. The statue, which is on display at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in the southern Perth suburb of Rockingham, was first seen to ‘weep’ oil from its eyes in March during the feast of St Joseph and then during Easter. It stopped, but resumed weeping on August 15, the feast of the Assumption of Our Lady. Tests conducted by researchers from WA’s Curtin and Murdoch universities found no obvious scientific explanation for the weeping.

5. DUTY OF CARE SEMINARS IN VICTORIA (The Vic Bapt Witness) Early in 2003, the Baptist Union of Victoria will be providing a series of seminars around the state to help churches deal with implementing the policies contained in the project called “Our Church is a safe place”. The seminars will be provided at no cost to the participants “because of the importance on this part of the Church’s ministry”. Subjects covered will include “Public perception of the church and Duty of Care”, “Implications for church insurances”, “Making your Youth Ministry safe in the eyes of the community” and “Being good with youth is not enough – police checks and screening procedures” as well as other relevant subjects.

6. CHRISTIANS READY FOR NSW STATE ELECTION (Family World News) The Rev. Fred Nile MLC, founder and leader of the Christian Democratic Party in New South Wales, has reported that 50 CDP candidates will be standing for the 93 New South Wales Legislation Electorates, at the March 22 State Election, and 13 for the New South Wales Legislative Council (i.e. the Upper House). There are still vacancies in city and country areas and they would be interested in hearing from anyone interested in offering as a Christian Democratic Party candidate.

7. SLAIN WORKERS BURIED IN HOSPITAL GROUNDS (Baptist Press) If the gunman who murdered three Christian workers on Monday, December 30 in Jibla, Yemen, intended to take their lives, he did not succeed, one of their co-workers said on the day two of the victims were buried in the Middle Eastern country. Physician Martha Myers, hospital administrator William Koehn and purchasing agent Kathy Gariety were killed by a man who burst into their early morning staff meeting and sprayed them with gunfire. As they had previously requested, Myers and Koehn were buried in the hospital grounds, Tuesday, December 31. The body of the third murdered hospital worker, Kathy Gariety, will be returned to the United States. Yemeni hospital staff and friends built caskets for Koehn and Myers, dug their graves and lowered them into the ground themselves. During the funeral, several hundred Yemenis lined the street for a half-mile outside the hospital gates. Mourners sang “He Is Lord” in Arabic and recited the Lord’s Prayer. Though Southern Baptist workers have not spoken personally with the assailant, they’ve tried to communicate with him through an attorney that, though they grieve for their friends, they forgive him for what he did.

8. MORE PRAY THAN DRINK ON NEW YEAR’S EVE (US Prayer Center) Most Americans said a prayer on New Year’s Eve, according to a new survey. Pollster Scott Rasmussen, in a newly released survey, found that 72 percent of Americans planned to pray, to ring in 2003, while just 45 percent expected to drink an alcoholic beverage. Most hoped the prayer would usher in a better year than last year. Only 29 percent of those surveyed, rated 2002 as a good or excellent year. Forty-three percent called it fair, and another 27 percent described it as being poor. Looking ahead, expectations for next year are only modestly more upbeat, with 37 percent expecting it to be a good or excellent year, 41 percent expecting it to be fair and 17 percent poor.

9. CHRISTMAS DAY COMES TO EGYPT – JAN 7 (CSW) Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt has declared Christmas Day a National holiday for the first time in the country’s history. Coptic Christians celebrate Christmas on January 7, and starting in 2003, this date will be an official public holiday. In the past, Christian religious festivals have not been designated as public holidays even though Christians represent more than 10 percent of Egypt’s population.

10. PERMISSION TO DISTRIBUTE GOSPELS IN TURKEY (Turkish World News) For the first time in thirteen years of distributing Scriptures, permission was granted by the Istanbul Authorities to distribute New Testaments at Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve! One worker commented: “It was an exhilarating experience to distribute New Testaments even when the police came – to not be stopped, arrested, or taken in by them. We had permission, authority, and total freedom to distribute New Testaments on the street!” Over 3200 New Testaments were distributed in six hours on the main street of Istanbul! This is a 300% increase of New Testaments for a Christmas Eve.

11. RESPONSE TO CLAIMS OF FIRST HUMAN CLONE (Focus on the Family) Focus on the Family in America, has stated that there are “Dangers of Cloning and the need for a full ban” Reports continue to circulate that Clonaid, an organisation founded by a religious cult, claims to have produced the world’s first live human clone, born as a baby. Clonaid asserts that this baby was produced using DNA from her mother. While Focus on the Family remains highly skeptical of Clonaid’s claims, Dr. James C. Dobson, president of Focus on the Family, has expressed grave concern over the reports. “Whether or not a human child has been cloned, we must face the reality that scientists in the United States and around the world have pushed us to the edge of a moral and ethical precipice by trying to create life by artificial means,” Dobson said. “In January, Congress will have another chance to pass the Weldon-Brownback human cloning ban. Thankfully, Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle will not control the destiny of this vital legislation. For the sake of humanity, I hope incoming Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist will make it a top priority to pass this bill. Future generations depend on what we do with this issue now.”

12. LILLY ENDOWMENT’S $1.6 MILLION GRANT (ENS) Congregations and clergy in the Diocese of Chicago will be the beneficiaries of a $1.6 million grant from the Lilly Endowment Inc. for a pioneering clergy mentoring program. The grant, the largest the endowment has made in its Transition-into-Ministry Program, initiated in 1999, will fund the five-year “Making Excellent Disciples” pilot project being developed by the diocese’s Department of Congregational Development & Deployment. The project, the first of its kind in the Episcopal Church, aims to create and sustain pastoral excellence through a comprehensive training and mentoring program.

13. SECRETARY STABBED BY HOMELESS MAN (ENS) In the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri, a 64-year-old church secretary, known for her compassion and understanding in dealing with the homeless, died after apparently being attacked by a homeless man in the hallway outside her office at Christ Church Cathedral in downtown St. Louis. Carol Bledsoe, who had worked at the Cathedral for nearly four years, reportedly went into the hallway shortly after lunchtime to investigate a disturbance and was stabbed in the neck. She was taken to a nearby hospital, where she died a short time later. Police arrested a 45-year-old man outside the Cathedral whom one officer described as having “a mental condition.” Dean Ronald Clingenpeel told a congregation of about 150 persons who gathered for a prayer service in the Cathedral that evening, “I don’t know what to say. All I know is that it hurts.”

14. FIFTY WEDDINGS AND A WEBSITE (Christian Herald) Christian Connection – the dating website for UK and Irish Christians – has led to 50 weddings and engagements since its launch in October 2000. Jackie Elton, founder of Christian Connection, commented: “We never quite expected wedding bells to ring on this scale. We knew that the site could offer the opportunity for single and unattached Christians to connect with each other and of course we hoped that it might lead to some serious relationships and perhaps even marriage, but we have been delighted with the impact that the site has made on people’s lives.”

15. NOW THAT’S WHAT YOU CALL A TITHE (Misc Media) The helicopter he has had his eye on can wait, says the man who won the $314.9 million Christmas Day Powerball prize, in America, the largest undivided lottery jackpot in history. “The very first thing I’m going to do is, I’m going to go home, I’m going to sit down and make out three cheques to three pastors for 10 percent of this cheque,” said Andrew J. Whittaker Jr., 55, the winner. Mr. Whittaker, a member of the Church of God, said he would tithe, as has been his monthly practice for years, according to his gross income. So he plans that three pastors – one at a church in Hurricane, West Virginia, another in Jumping Branch, near the Virginia border, and a third in California – will receive a total of $17 million (AUD: Thirty and a quarter million)

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