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Today’s Headlines:

REBEL GROUP IN UGANDA STRIKES AGAIN, KILLING 22 PEOPLE BELARUS AUTHORITIES DEMAND DATA ON SUNDAY SCHOOL CHILDREN COLOMBIAN CHRISTIANS OPTIMISTIC ABOUT PEACE PROSPECTS MINISTRY POISED TO TRAIN COLOMBIANS IN WITNESSING, CHURCH PLANTING EVANGELIST TO TRAIN CHRISTIAN LEADERS IN ANTAGONISTIC STATE IN INDIA ANGLICAN LEADERS TAKE STAND ON SAME-SEX MARRIAGE, GAY PRIESTS

Today’s News Stories:

REBEL GROUP IN UGANDA STRIKES AGAIN, KILLING 22 PEOPLE The 17-year civil war in northern Uganda continues to wreak havoc throughout the nation as armed rebels from the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a cult-militia group, have struck again, rounding up 22 people in a bar in the Lira district and shooting them to death. The Church Mission Society launched a campaign against the group on Aug. 21 by delivering a petition to Downing Street that asked British Prime Minister Tony Blair to help break what local churchmen have called an “international conspiracy of silence” regarding the LRA’s brutal reign. The latest rebel attack comes less than a month after the LRA members killed 10 people in a market. Uganda and Sudan have renewed an agreement to work together to help flush out the LRA. The worst victims are the youth as the LRA is responsible for the abduction of thousands of children with more than 20,000, some as young as 7, being used as soldiers, laborers and sex slaves. (Anglican Communion News Service)

BELARUS AUTHORITIES DEMAND DATA ON SUNDAY SCHOOL CHILDREN Local authorities in Belarus are demanding that religious organizations supply the names and dates of birth of all their Sunday school children. This comes a year after the country’s new religion law outlawed the “attraction of minors to religious organizations and also the teaching of religion to them against their will or without the agreement of their parents or guardians.” Pastor Pavel Firisyuk of the Salvation Baptist Church called this a “violation of believers’ rights [and violates] Christ’s command, ‘Let the little children come to me.'” However, Vladimir Lameko, vice chairman of the State Committee for Religious and Ethnic affairs, defended the move, telling the Baptists that officials failed to properly explain why they needed the information. (Forum 18 News Service)

COLOMBIAN CHRISTIANS OPTIMISTIC ABOUT PEACE PROSPECTS Many Colombians credit President Alvaro Uribe with notable success in the war on drugs and the campaign against rebel insurgents during his first year in office. Some evangelical leaders say their lives have changed for the better. “The government has taken back control of the highways,” said a veteran pastor. “Pastors are now able to go from one place to another, and the church is doing a good work.” However, churches that minister to the poor, reach out to refugees displaced by the fighting or raise their voices against human rights abuse say they face greater risk of being mistaken for guerrilla sympathizers. Church leaders also hold differing views on an amnesty plan that Uribe hopes will entice 13,000 members of the paramilitary group, United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC). This organization comprises several right-wing paramilitary groups supported by wealthy landowners, drug cartels and segments of the Colombian military. AUC forces have assassinated leftist guerrillas, politicians, activists and other Colombian civilians. Christian leaders agree that the gospel must play a key role in building a durable peace in Colombia. “I believe the church holds the answer for Colombia,” said human rights worker Ricardo Esquivia. “Only through the message of Jesus and His church can changes come.” (Religion Today/Compass/Council on Foreign Relations)

* Together with local partners, HCJB World Radio broadcasts the gospel on FM stations in four Colombian cities. The ministry also continues to air Spanish programs across the country and all of Latin America via shortwave from Quito.

MINISTRY POISED TO TRAIN COLOMBIANS IN WITNESSING, CHURCH PLANTING Global Missions Fellowship (GMF) recently trained Christians in five Colombian cities to witness using a tool called the “Evangecube,” an easy-to-use puzzle that opens up and rotates to explain the story of salvation step by step. This is part of a nationwide evangelistic effort in the country called, “Plan of 1,000 Days.” GMF spokesman Sam Ingrassia said church workers were impressed with this witnessing method. “They asked for 30,000 Evangecubes, and that was astounding to me,” Ingrassia said. GMF will distribute the cubes in 150 cities next month. GMF’s Mike Jorgenen added that the ministry will also train church leaders in church planting methods. “They indicated that they had not yet been planting new churches, so they asked us to train them,” he said. Plans are to provide training at 12 “model churches” in the next year. (Mission Network News)

EVANGELIST TO TRAIN CHRISTIAN LEADERS IN ANTAGONISTIC STATE IN INDIA In the face of increasing persecution against Christians in India, an American evangelist is heading there for ministry. Sammy Tippit will be in Tamil Nadu, a state where anti-conversion legislation passed last summer. Tippit says the purpose of his trip is three-fold. “I will be speaking to Christian pastors and leaders trying to equip them and challenge them in revival and provide leadership training. Second, I’ll be meeting with some of our partners who use our digital evangelism equipment. Third, we hope to meet with some broadcasting people who will perhaps broadcast our messages throughout India.” Tippit said anti-Christian sentiments make it impossible to hold large evangelistic meetings in area, so the work is in the hands of national believers. “If India’s going to be reached for Christ with the climate spiritually, religiously and politically there, then we must enable the local people to do that work,” he said. (Mission Network News)

* HCJB World Radio-Australia’s new shortwave site Kununurra airs 6.5 hours of daily English programming across South Asia, including India. Two half-hour programs in Urdu, airing Monday through Saturday, went on the air in July, and plans are being made to add Hindi programs. In partnership with FEBA Radio, HCJB World Radio also airs weekly Christian programs to eastern India via shortwave in three languages: Bhojpuri, Chattisgarhi and Mundari.

ANGLICAN LEADERS TAKE STAND ON SAME-SEX MARRIAGE, GAY PRIESTS Thirty-seven primates representing Anglican churches worldwide emerged Thursday, Oct. 16, from a closed two-day meeting at London’s Lambeth Palace, headquarters of the archbishop of Canterbury, with a strong statement on what they perceive as threats to unity. The special meeting was called by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams to address “controversial decisions by the Diocese of New Westminster” in Canada to bless same-sex unions, and the confirmation of the election of an openly gay bishop by the Episcopal Church’s General Convention in August. “These actions threaten the unity of our own Communion as well as our relationships with other parts of Christ’s Church, our mission and witness, and our relations with other faiths, in a world already confused in areas of sexuality, morality and theology, and polarize Christian opinion,” the statement said. The actions taken in Canada and the U.S. “could be perceived to alter unilaterally the teaching of the Anglican Communion. . . . Whilst we recognize the juridical autonomy of each province in our Communion, the mutual interdependence of the provinces means that none has authority unilaterally to substitute an alternative teaching as if it were the teaching of the entire Anglican Communion.” The Anglican leaders also established a commission to further investigate the matter. (Episcopal News Service)

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* * * * * * * * * * * * * James A. Ferrier Web: http://www.hcjb.org http://www.beyondthecall.org