AUSTRALIAN PRAYER NETWORK NEWSLETTER

* RELIGIOUS SITUATION CONTINUES TO DETERIORATE IN ERITREA

* ANTI-CHRISTIAN VIOLENCE BECOMES PERSECUTION IN KYRGYZSTAN

* PRAYER WORKS SAYS UGANDAN PRESIDENT

* TORY LEADER CALLS FOR FULL SUPPORT OF TRADITIONAL MARRIAGE IN UK

* POLAND’S DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER CALLS FOR EUROPEAN UNION BAN ON ABORTION

* EVANGELICAL GROWTH BECOMING POLITICAL FORCE IN BRAZIL

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RELIGIOUS SITUATION CONTINUES TO DETERIORATE IN ERITREA

The appalling religious situation in Eritrea continues to deteriorate. Newly compiled statistics smuggled out of Eritrea indicate that at least 1,918 Eritrean citizens are imprisoned and being subjected to torture and forced labour because of their religious beliefs. 95 percent of these known religious prisoners of conscience are Christians.

None of those imprisoned for their religious beliefs have been brought before a court of law to be charged or tried. The persecution has spread way beyond those Protestant churches initially targeted in May 2002. The Eritrean Orthodox Patriarch Abune Antonios, who was deposed and replaced by the government in January, remains under house arrest. 65 leaders of the Medhane Alem renewal movement within the Eritrean Orthodox Church have been openly threatened with excommunication if they refuse to confess following ‘heretical’ teachings.”

Asmara’s Anglican Church is also facing repression. The Department of Religious Affairs has refused to allow them to supply its own pulpit since October 2005, when their minister was summarily ordered out of the country. To the ‘expressed dismay’ of the Anglican congregation, control of the worship and activities of the church has been handed over to the government-registered Lutheran Church. Reports are circulating in Asmara that the government plans to shut down the Anglican Elementary School in the near future.”

According to a Compass Direct report: The Eritrean government demanded this month that the Kale Hiwot Church surrender all its property and physical assets to the government. The sweeping property confiscation would include all church buildings, schools, vehicles and other assets. The church’s computers, office equipment, files and keys to the property were confiscated in raids last October. The government action not only affects the church, but the orphanage and kindergartens run by the Kale Hiwot Church.

Eritrean Christians have told Compass Direct that they believe that a strategic persecution is being executed in three stages:

1) the arrest of pastors and leaders (leaving the congregations leaderless),

2) the raiding and sealing of church places of worship (leaving leaderless congregations destitute and without facilities),

3) the permanent confiscation of church properties and assets (supposedly bringing an end to the church’s existence).

“All the closed churches are undergoing a great deal of hardship and challenge to exist.’ But despite ongoing arrests and surveillance, local evangelicals told Compass Direct they were ‘continuing to meet for worship, prayer and Bible studies’ in their homes. ‘Please pray for God’s protection, especially when we meet for prayer,’ one said.

Eritrea has no independent media. Free Christians and human rights monitors leak this information at great personal risk. The government of Isaias Afewerki continues to deny that any religious persecution exists.

Source: Elizabeth Kendal – World Evangelical Alliance

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ANTI-CHRISTIAN VIOLENCE BECOMES PERSECUTION IN KYRGYZSTAN

Crowds of extremist Muslims attack and threaten Protestant pastors and demand that they shut down their churches. The authorities fail to intervene and instead ask Christians to be “less active”. Parliament is examining a bill of law to limit missionary activities.

In Kyrgyzstan, anti-Christian violence is on the rise and is assuming proportions of real persecution. Recently in the southern village of Karakulja, more than 80 Muslims attacked the home of Protestant pastor, Zulumbek Sarygulov and beat him. They burned his books and vandalized the fa §ade of his home, writing “house for sale”. Three policemen witnessed what happened without lifting a finger to intervene. Sarygulov said “People from the mosque have already come back to my house and told me they will kill me if I do not leave the village.”

The imam at the local mosque confirmed: “The believers are very unhappy that Sarygulov has opened a church in our village. Our village is purely Kyrgyz and we do not need any of these Christian churches. Many young Muslims are very aggressive and if Sarygulov does not leave the village, something irretrievable could happen.”

The head of police in Karakulja denied that Sarygulov had been beaten, despite the fact that he has a medical report from the city hospital in Osh, where he was treated. An adviser to the government’s Religious Affairs Committee, confirmed that the Pastor should leave the village and close the church “so as not to provoke the situation”, adding: “Sarygulov is not a local man and was specifically sent here as a missionary.”

The leader of the country’s Baptist Christians, confirmed that episodes of violence against Protestants were on the rise and that police were not doing anything about it. Muslims have threatened Baptists that they will burn their churches if they do not close them and leave town. Many Christians say this new “persecution” of Christians is being fostered by officials from the Religious Affairs Committee.

Source: Intercessors Network

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PRAYER WORKS SAYS UGANDAN PRESIDENT

Prayer works and answers can come within hours, President Yoweri Museveni testified during his nations national prayer breakfast. “I have seen prayer work and I’m not a superstitious person. I have observed it,” Museveni said. He said a stranger once came to their home inquiring about what he had prayed for an hour earlier. He said this was dramatic because the man offered the solution although he had no idea of the prayer.

“Prayer works and I am not saying this through intimidation because I don’t bow to intimidation. I am convinced it does. However, prayer is only 50% of what works and the other 50% is godliness in the character of the person praying. Otherwise people would pray then go and commit crimes,” he said.

Museveni castigated religious divisionism and rigidity, which he said God was not interested in. He said godliness does not necessarily mean belonging to groups like Protestantism, Catholicism or Islam. “Prayer is for you to ask God for guidance genuinely and not in a propagandist way,” he said. He said divisions cause religious strife in which people kill others in the name of God. “That is rubbish. It is not on behalf of God. It is on behalf of human selfishness,”

Museveni said. He said the interdenominational nature of the national prayer breakfast was encouraging. He also castigated people taking extreme stands in religious matters.

Ethics minister Nsaba Buturo said the national prayer breakfast was aimed at seeking spiritual strength from God and promoting brotherhood in the face of opposition against God. He said Uganda and Africa need to be rescued from spiritual vestiges.

Source: Intercessors Network

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TORY LEADER CALLS FOR FULL SUPPORT OF TRADITIONAL MARRIAGE IN UK

BBCBritain’s Tory leader, David Cameron, has strongly defended marriage in a speech he gave recently in Wales. Warning that with 70% of young offenders coming from single-parent families, family breakdown is “the central factor in social breakdown in Britain,” said Cameron, adding that fathers who run away from their family responsibilities should feel “the full force of shame.”

Cameron was also quoted as saying he did not care if some people said singling out marriage in this way was wrong. “One in two cohabiting parents split up before their child’s fifth birthday,” he noted, “compared to one in twelve married parents. That is why we support marriage.”

According to the BBC report, Cameron said he was not suggesting single parents do a bad job, just that “kids do best when mum and dad are both there for them.”

Source: BBC

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POLAND’S DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER CALLS FOR EUROPEAN UNION BAN ON ABORTION

Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister and Education minister, Roman Giertych, told European news reporters that Poland would not back down on plans to oppose abortion, saying: “Abortion needs to be banned immediately.”

Calling abortion “a new form of barbarism,” Giertych said, “A nation which kills its children is a nation without a future. A continent which kills its children will be settled by people who do not kill theirs. If we will not use all our power to strengthen the family, then as a continent there is not a future for us. We will be a continent settled by representatives of the Islamic world who care for the family.” he said.

Giertych also reportedly called for a serious discussion of the Christian foundation of morality that sustains Europe.

Source: LifeSiteNews

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EVANGELICAL GROWTH BECOMING POLITICAL FORCE IN BRAZIL

Evangelical Christians in Brazil are becoming a powerful political force for change within the nation of 187 million. According to the most recent census, evangelicals, defined in Brazil as any non-Catholic Christian, nearly doubled their population in the 1990s to about 26.2 million – 15 percent of the population.

Traditionally a Roman Catholic country, evangelicals have risen from the ranks to hold more than 60 seats in the nation’s congress, or about 10 percent of the legislature. They are the country’s most effective legislative caucus. The past three governors of the state of Rio de Janeiro have used their evangelical ties as selling points in their campaign, and national candidates regularly visit churches to garner votes.

Sociologist Maria das Dores Campos Machado, an expert on the evangelical political movement, said, “The evangelicals are opening political space for themselves and making room for what they see as their enormous potential.”

Source: Intercessors Network

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