WORLDWIDE PHOTOS Ltd The Religious Media Agency

WEEKLY NEWS REVIEW

March 27, 2003

INDEX

AUSTRALIA: 1. NO NEW COMMUNITY RADIO LICENCE IN SYDNEY (ABA) 2. CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATIC PARTY CLAIMS VICTORY (CDP) 3. ASSISTANT BISHOP APPOINTED IN BRISBANE (Focus) 4. FAMILIES IN POVERTY CYCLE IN A.C.T. (Anglicare Canberra) 5. FIRST WOMAN CHAPLAIN FOR WODONGA POLICE (Crosslight) 6. NEWSPAPER RELEASES A CD (Baptist Advocate)

OVERSEAS: 7. NDUNGANE IN NEW ZIMBABWE PEACE MOVE (Church Times) 8. AUTHORITIES SHUT DOWN HOUSE CHURCHES (Maranatha News) 9. FOOD FOR THE HUNGRY VISITS THE PENTAGON (Food for the Hungry) 10. BILL TO PREVENT CONVERSION TABLED (Christian Council India) 11. IRAQ EMERGENCY UPDATE (Christian Aid) 12. CHURCH LEADERS NOW PRAY FOR THE TROOPS (Baptist Times) 13. GREEN ISSUES WORK WINS TEMPLETON PRIZE (Church Times) 14. POW FOUND FAITH AT BAPTIST CHURCH (Baptist Press) 15. HOLY LAND SCAM UNEARTHED (Baptist Advocate)

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1. NO NEW COMMUNITY RADIO LICENCE IN SYDNEY (ABA) The Australian Broadcasting Authority has decided not to allocate a new community radio broadcasting licence in Sydney at this time. The ABA received eight applications for the Sydney licence. The applicants included Radio Rhema, of the Sydney Christian Broadcasters Ltd. “After giving careful consideration to the criteria laid down in the legislation and the information provided by the applicants, the ABA has decided in this case not to allocate the licence,” said Professor David Flint, ABA Chairman. The criteria included the existing and perceived future needs of the community, the nature and diversity of interests of that community and the capacity of the applicants to provide the proposed service. In relation to the matter of financial capacity, the ABA noted how much more expensive and difficult setting up AM services is compared to FM services.

2. CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATIC PARTY CLAIMS VICTORY (CDP) The Christian Democratic Party has claimed victory in the NSW Upper House Election Result, with the re-election of Rev Dr Gordon Moyes, who will sit with the Rev Fred Nile MLC, until 2007. “We are very pleased at our excellent result in the NSW State Election” said Rev Fred Nile MLC, President of the Christian Democratic Party. “Our Upper House result far exceeds all the minor political parties except the Green Party. Our Upper House vote is double One Nation, Unity Party and the Australian Democrats!”. “Even though the Electoral Office will not announce the final, official result until all preferences are allocated in two weeks time, we are very confident that the relative voting positions of Parties will not change dramatically.

3. ASSISTANT BISHOP APPOINTED IN BRISBANE (Focus) The Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane, The Most Reverend Dr Phillip Aspinall, announced on Tuesday that The Venerable Rob Nolan would be the new Bishop for the Western Region of the Diocese of Brisbane. Dr Aspinall said “Archdeacon Nolan will bring a wealth of pastoral experience to his new responsibilities. He has a love of bush parishes and of the people of the west and I am sure will give of himself generously and whole-heartedly as Bishop of the West. I expect Archdeacon Nolan to take up his responsibilities around the middle of the year,” said Dr Aspinall.

4. FAMILIES IN POVERTY CYCLE IN A.C.T. (Anglicare Canberra) The rising cost of housing, steep rents and stagnant levels of public housing construction have been highlighted as a major cause of poverty in Anglicare Australia’s “State of the Family 2003” report, released this week. Ms Sue Leppert, Executive Director of Anglicare Canberra and Goulburn, said: “We have a crisis in housing across Australia that is clearly exacerbating poverty and disadvantage. It is ironic that in a community like the Australian Capital Territory, perceived by outsiders to be well off, supported accommodation clients are more likely to remain homeless than those accessing similar services in others parts of Australia.”

5. FIRST WOMAN CHAPLAIN FOR WODONGA POLICE (Crosslight) The Rev. Kate Tierney, minister of the Wodonga Uniting Church, has been commissioned as the first woman to hold the position of Chaplain for Wodonga Police. Rev. Tierney acknowledged she has not had much to do with the Police previously in her ministry. However, she told the local newspaper, “The Border Mail”, that she is looking forward to working with the Police and sees it as an “exciting challenge”.

6. NEWSPAPER RELEASES A CD (Baptist Advocate) In February last year The Baptist Advocate in Perth, asked its readers to nominate their favourite hymns. After an astounding response, the editorial team began collating and analysing the responses to create the list of Western Australia’s top twenty favourite hymns which was published the following month. Now readers of The Advocate can enjoy those top twenty hymns on a new CD recorded in Western Australia by Scope Music and the keyboard talents of Derek Wood. “The CD is designed for your own worship times so that you can sing along with the piano or to simply enjoy the beautiful renditions of the hymns Derek plays,” said Advocate editor Terry Hicks. The CD was launched at the recent “Hymns of Praise and Inspiration” event to an enthusiastic audience. CDs can be purchased for $15 each from the Baptist Ministry Centre or by ringing 08 9322 5567 for credit card orders.

7. NDUNGANE IN NEW ZIMBABWE PEACE MOVE (Church Times) President Mugabe has invited the Archbishop of Cape Town, the Most Revd Njongonkulu Ndungane, to mediate between the opposing factions in Zimbabwe. These are the ruling ZANU-PF party and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Archbishop Ndungane last week went to Harare at the invitation of the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, where he met church, civil and MDC leaders. His visit, he said, was “a thumbs-up for mediation”; and he declared himself encouraged by the broad acceptance that an honest broker was needed. The Church’s credentials as a broker, he said, were that it did not come with any political baggage, though people were taking sides on the issue.

8. AUTHORITIES SHUT DOWN HOUSE CHURCHES (Maranatha News) Vietnamese authorities have shut down nearly all of the house churches in a province of the Central Highlands region. According to International Christian Concern (ICC), which recently sent a team to conduct a fact-finding trip, only two churches remain open out of 417 fellowships in Dac Lac. The Washington, D.C.-based human rights organisation said Christians living in other Central Highlands provinces — including Lam Dong, Gia Lai and Kon Tum, and areas north of Hanoi — report that persecution is increasing, although churches continue to grow. The pastors and church leaders are targeted through police interrogations and surveillance. The government also continues to deny jobs to believers, and benefits to Christians who are elderly or disabled are cut off.

9. FOOD FOR THE HUNGRY VISITS THE PENTAGON (Food for the Hungry) Food for the Hungry President Ben Homan has been invited to meet with Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other relief agencies to discuss relief and security issues for organisations operating in and around Iraq. Food for the Hungry’s team is on the ground just inside the Jordanian border near the town of Ruwayshid. The organisation and its partners will provide nutritious meals and other assistance to people fleeing Iraq in route to their native countries. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, about 60,000 people, predominantly Egyptian, Ethiopian, and Sudanese nationals, are expected to flee Iraq through Jordan in the coming weeks. Homan said, “We anticipate feeding 5,000 people a day at this camp.”

10. BILL TO PREVENT CONVERSION TABLED (Christian Council India) An official bill to prevent religious conversion by force or by lure has been tabled in the Gujarat Assembly in India. The bill standing in the name of the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Ashok Bhatt, is likely to be taken up for discussion on March 26. The Freedom of Religious Conversion Bill has been modelled on the pattern of a similar act adopted in Tamil Nadu and provides for three years’ imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 50,000 for any religious conversion by force or by lure. The bill seeks to make it mandatory to secure the District Magistrate’s prior permission for conversion. The bill also said such a measure was necessary to prevent “exploitation” of the innocent Dalits, who were being forced or lured into other religions by vested interests particularly operating in the tribal belts.

11. IRAQ EMERGENCY UPDATE (Christian Aid) The United Kingdom’s “Christian Aid” partners in northern Iraq report that people are on the move following the outbreak of conflict. Fearful of the potential consequences of war, people from the city of Kirkuk are leaving their homes to seek refuge in rural areas, often arriving with few personal possessions. Some inhabitants of rural villages are also leaving their homes and heading for the relative safety of the mountains. UN food distributions, which the Iraqi people were dependant on, have ceased and the supplies distributed last month are running out. If distributions are not quickly reinstated a food crisis may be imminent. An aid corridor needs to be opened quickly so that civilians can receive help from impartial humanitarian workers.

12. CHURCH LEADERS NOW PRAY FOR THE TROOPS (Baptist Times) The attention of Church leaders in the United Kingdom has shifted from praying against war to supporting the soldiers in Iraq. Concerns have been raised that the generally anti-war stance of many high-profile Christian leaders has left the armed forces with the impression that they are not supported in their task. The Rev. David Coffey has written as General Secretary of the Baptist Union of Great Britain and Moderator of the Free Churches Group of Churches Together in England, to the Army Chaplain-General, the Naval Chaplain of the Fleet and the RAF Chaplain-in-Chief to assure them of the prayers and pastoral support of the Christian community.

13. GREEN ISSUES WORK WINS TEMPLETON PRIZE (Church Times) The prestigious Templeton Prize, worth $1 million, has been awarded this year to Holmes Rolston III, Professor of Philosophy at Colorado State University, for his work in environmental ethics. The award, now 30 years old, focuses on scientific research as a way of discovering the spiritual world. Dr Rolston, a Presbyterian minister and the son of a country preacher, is credited with drawing together science and religion, biology and philosophy, and ethics and the environment. The prize will be presented by the Duke of Edinburgh at a private ceremony at Buckingham Palace on 7 May. Dr Rolston is to use the money to endow a Chair of Science and Religion at Davidson College, the liberal arts college in North Carolina where his intellectual journey began.

14. POW FOUND FAITH AT BAPTIST CHURCH (Baptist Press) A Southern Baptist church in Kansas is rallying to support the family of American POW Patrick Miller whose wife is a longtime member. Olivet Baptist Church in Wichita is reaching out to Miller’s wife, Jessa, and her two young children following the capture of her husband by Iraqis during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Miller, 23, and four others are members of the Army’s 507th Maintenance Company who became the war’s first American POWs. Miller and his wife were married at Olivet Baptist Church about a year ago. The church’s pastor, Ron Pracht, performed the ceremony and provided the couple’s marriage counselling, during which Miller accepted Christ.

15. HOLY LAND SCAM UNEARTHED (Baptist Advocate) For $170 Western Australian Consumers can supposedly purchase one square inch of land in the ‘Holy Garden of Peace’ of the First Baptist Church of Bethlehem, according to the church’s founder Pastor Dr Naim Khoury. Businesses and individuals are receiving unsolicited invitations to purchase single or multiple one inch plots at US$100 per inch in order to receive an “Honourable Sponsorship Certificate”. Consumer Protection Commissioner Patrick Walker said. “We are highly sceptical of this offer and strongly warn against any participation. Also of concern is the similarity of this offer being like that of undivided land shares in Australia some years ago. No one knew which piece of land was his or hers when the investment went bad,” he said. (Anyone interested in buying the Sydney Harbour Bridge?)

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