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AUSTRALIAN   PRAYER   NETWORK   NEWSLETTER

* BRITISH   PRIME   MINISTER   STUDIES   PLANS   FOR   MULTI-FAITH

LORDS

* MPs   WARN   OF   ISLAMIC   EXTREMISM   IN   BRITISH   UNIVERSITIES

* SYRIAN   CHRISTIANS   ATTACKED   BY   ANTI-GOVERNMENT   PROTESTORS

* ANOTHER   MAINLINE   AMERICAN   DENOMINATION   IMPLODES   ON   SEXUAL

STANDARDS

* ATHEIST   WHO   WENT   TO   HELL,   NOW   A   BELIEVER

* CHINA’S   HOUSE   CHURCHES   BEGIN   TO   ROAR

* CHRISTIANS   AND   MUSLIMS   MEET   IN

NIGERIA

———————————————–

BRITISH   PRIME

MINISTER   STUDIES   PLANS   FOR   MULTI-FAITH   LORDS

Creation of a “multi-faith” House of Lords where Muslim imams could

sit alongside Anglican and Catholic bishops is suggested in a paper

drawn up by Tory officials calling for wide ranging reforms to the

Upper House. Currently 26 Anglican bishops have seats in the Lords.

But Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, is drawing up a separate

bill setting out changes including the eviction of hundreds of

existing peers, including the bishops, while at least 80% of new

members are elected. The Prime Minister is said to favour his party ¢â‚¬â„¢s

idea because he is determined that the House of Lords not be turned

into a secular institution and that it retains a link with

faith-based organisations.

Mr Clegg’s bill, which is being negotiated with senior Conservative

ministers and the Labour frontbench, is expected to be unveiled in

coming months. Senior Conservatives are drawing up a range of

alternative reform proposals, amid fears that Mr Clegg’s changes are

too radical. Mr Clegg wants to abolish the 26 bishops or “Lords

Spiritual” who are all drawn from the Church of England.

Conservatives hope to counter that by proposing the Lords Spiritual

become multi-faith. That would mean a range of Christian

denominations, including Roman Catholics and black Pentecostal

leaders, sitting on a bench of “spiritual peers ¢â‚¬  whose numbers might

also include representatives of Islam.

The prospect of imams sitting alongside bishops will raise questions

about the links between church and state. Tory insiders point out

there are already Catholic, Muslim and Jewish peers in the Lords.

Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks is a life peer, as is the Chairman of the

Conservative Party, Baroness Warsi, a Muslim. One senior Tory insider

said: “If we continue with a faith element to the Lords, Catholic

bishops and black Pentecostal leaders must be represented. Therefore

we must consider whether other faiths should be represented as well.

“Having imams in the House of Lords may upset some people. “Britain

is not solely Christian, so this would seem a natural

solution.”

The Tories’ alternative plan is thought to include proposals to phase

in elected peers rather than introduce them in one go. One proposal

gathering pace is for 76 new peers to be elected in the first

instance, based on boundaries used for European elections. The size

of the House would be cut from 792 to about 500. Currently, the house

is so overcrowded that peers often jostle for seats, and speeches

sometimes have to be limited to three minutes each. Hundreds do not

have desks or offices. One proposal to reduce the size of the House

involves bringing in a retirement age of 75  ¢â‚¬“ the same as high court

judges- which would eject several hundred peers immediately.

Many Tories are concerned that having an 80% elected chamber may

embolden members to constantly challenge the authority of the Commons

and thus risk constitutional crisis. Mr Cameron is considering

whether to accept Mr Clegg’s proposal for a majority elected element

in order to shore up the Deputy Prime Minister who is unpopular with

the electorate. Lords reform is a long-standing Liberal Democratic

commitment and part of the party’s wider constitutional reform

agenda. Mr Clegg’s plans are currently being considered by a

cross-party Leaders Group. All the three main parties’ manifestos

contain a commitment to some form of elected second

chamber.

Neither Conservative nor Labour peers will be bullied into what they

see as bad reform. “The Lords must be an effective revising chamber,

not a blocking chamber nor a retirement home for MPs,” said one

Conservative insider. The Conservative Christian Fellowship has

issued a statement saying: “Christians need to enter the debate and

make it clear that we value the presence of the Lords Spiritual, but

this doesn’t have to mean unquestioning support for the status quo.

There is an argument that our legislature would benefit from the

wisdom of a wider range of Christian leaders.  ¢â‚¬Å“A broad bench of Lords

Spiritual drawn from a range of churches could provide a powerful

vision of unity.”

Source: Barnabus

Fund

———————————————–

MPs   WARN   OF

ISLAMIC   EXTREMISM   IN   BRITISH   UNIVERSITIES

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Homeland Security has warned of

a serious problem of radicalisation in UK universities requiring

urgent attention by the Government. Witnesses said there is evidence

of a “serious problem” of radicalisation that raises “grave

concern”.   A report, Keeping Britain Safe, states that some

universities and colleges have become places where extremist views

and radicalisation can “flourish beyond the sight of academics” and

that the problem has been neglected for too long. The report also

noted that some universities were reluctant to cooperate with the

police as they did not want to be seen as “spying” on their

students.

Significant concerns were raised over foreign funding of

universities, which can have direct effects upon the structure,

curriculum, and appointments at the recipient university. British

universities have received hundreds of millions of pounds from Saudi

and other Islamic sources, apparently intended to change the

intellectual climate of the UK.   Keeping Britain Safe also identified

a problem of extremist preachers being invited onto university

campuses. A separate organisation, the Centre for Social Cohesion

cites a list of 15 leading British universities that have hosted

extremist preachers. Invited speakers include supporters of the

terrorist group Hamas.

Others have spoken in support of armed jihad and the Taliban, warned

Muslims not to integrate into Western societies, argued in favour of

domestic violence and advocated the destruction of Israel. At least

30% of individuals involved in Islamism-inspired terrorist acts in

the UK have attended university or a higher education institute.

These include Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the “underwear bomber”

responsible for the failed attack on a flight to Detroit in 2009, who

was president of the student union’s Islamic Society during his

studies at University College London. The same student union invited

Abdur Green, who has spoken in favour of domestic violence and

jihad.

Last month, it was reported that Islamists had taken senior positions

in the student union at Westminster University. According to the

study, at least four individuals involved in acts of terrorism in the

UK were senior members of their university Islamic Societies, and a

further six were studying at a UK university at the time of their

arrest. In a number of terrorism cases, both in the UK and worldwide,

the individuals involved were reportedly radicalised on UK campuses.

These instances support the call from MPs and peers to urgently

tackle Islamic extremism in universities.

Source: Barnabus

Fund

———————————————–

SYRIAN   CHRISTIANS

ATTACKED   BY   ANTI-GOVERNMENT   PROTESTORS

Christian communities throughout Syria have been attacked by

anti-government protestors led by hard-line Islamists in recent

weeks. Christians have also been pressured to either join protests

demanding the resignation of President Bashir Assad or else flee the

county. With the mass immigration of Christians from the Middle East,

notably from Iraq, Lebanon, and the Palestinian territories, Islamic

groups are now threatening to drive Christians out of Syria. In Duma,

a suburb of Damascus, protestors chanted,  ¢â‚¬Å“Alawites to the grave and

Christians to Beirut! ¢â‚¬  according to a Lebanese news agency.

 

Christians in Syria are concerned that the agenda of many hard-line

Islamists in Syria, including the Salafists, is to take over the

government and kick Christians out of the country.  ¢â‚¬Å“If Muslim Salafis

gain political influence, they will ensure that there will be no

trace of Christianity in Syria, ¢â‚¬  a Syrian Christian leader said. In a

Christian village outside of Dara ¢â‚¬â„¢a, in southern Syria, eye witnesses

reported that twenty masked men on motorcycles opened fire on a

Christian home while shouting malicious remarks against Christians.

According to another source in Syria, churches recently received

threatening letters telling them to join the anti-government protests

or leave.

In Karak, a village near Dara ¢â‚¬â„¢a, Salafists forced villagers to join

the anti-government protests and remove photos of President Bashir

from their homes. Witnesses reported that a young man who refused to

remove a photo was found hanged on his front porch the next morning.

 ¢â‚¬Å“People want to go out and peacefully ask for certain changes, but

Muslim Salafi groups are sneaking in with their goal, which is not to

make changes for the betterment of Syria, but to take over the

country with their agenda, ¢â‚¬  said the Syrian Christian leader.  ¢â‚¬Å“We

want to improve life and rights in Syria under this president, but we

do not want terrorism. Christians will be first to pay the price of

terrorism. ¢â‚¬ 

Aidan Clay, International Christian Concern Regional Manager for the

Middle East, said,  ¢â‚¬Å“Unlike in Egypt, where Christians predominantly

supported the revolution that removed President Hosni Mubarak from

power, Syrian Christians have not participated in protests,

anticipating that chaos and bloodshed will follow if radical Islam

takes hold of the country. Throughout the Middle East, Christians

have been fleeing their homeland in unprecedented numbers. Now, in a

country where Christians have historically taken refuge from nearby

purges in places like Turkey a century ago and Iraq in recent years,

Islamists are threatening their existence.

 

Source: Intercessors

Network

———————————————–

ANOTHER   MAINLINE

AMERICAN   DENOMINATION   IMPLODES   ON   SEXUAL   STANDARDS

The 2 million member Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) has become the

latest mainline Protestant denomination to implode on sexual

standards.     Members have voted to delete the denomination’s

expectation for ministers and elders of “fidelity within the covenant

of marriage between a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness.”

Presbyterians now join the United Church of Christ, Episcopal Church,

and Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in adopting a liberalized

policy of permitting clergy to be sexually active outside

heterosexual marriage.

Among the larger mainline Protestant denominations, only the United

Methodist Church, still officially prohibits clergy sexually active

outside traditional marriage. Almost uniquely international in

membership, with over 4 million members now in Africa, where

Christianity is very conservative and fast growing, United Methodism

almost certainly will retain its sexual standard. But the rest of

once pre-eminent mainline Protestantism in America is collapsing. The

PCUSA was already losing about 60,000 members a year, a figure that

surely will increase now, as it did for Episcopalians and Lutherans

after their votes to liberalize the sex teachings, in 2003 and 2009

respectively.

Forty-five years ago, one in every five Americans belonged to a

mainline Protestant denomination. Today, only one in 15 Americans

still do. Actual church attendance in America has remained remarkably

constant across the last 75 years. But among non-Catholic Christians,

attendance has shifted from mainline Protestant to more evangelical

churches. The implosion of mainline Protestantism almost certainly

will continue indefinitely, a trend to which church elites are

largely indifferent. Their nearly all white, mostly college-educated,

upper-middle class memberships, helped by endowments from earlier

generations, help to ensure that even empty churches can stay

open.

PCUSA members, spread across over 10,000 congregations, continue to

give over $2 billion every year. Although not unexpected, it’s still

a sad moment for traditional Presbyterians, who first ratified the

“fidelity and chastity” expectation in the 1990s with hopes of

staving off sexual liberalization.   “Now we belong to a denomination

that is no longer sure it believes that teaching.” And it’s a sad day

for America. The mainline denominations date back to America’s

earliest days. They profoundly shaped our national ethos, mostly for

the good. Can Catholics and evangelicals fill the void? Hopefully so.

But all of us should mourn the decline of yet one more once-great

church.

 

Source: National

Review

———————————————–

ATHEIST   WHO   WENT

TO   HELL,   NOW   A   BELIEVER

“Hell is a real place. Hell was never intended for us; God doesn’t

want any one of us to go there. He wants all of us to come to Him

through repentance. It’s a simple thing. We believe that Jesus is the

son of God and we should have a relationship with Him. It’s important

to spend time with Him and get to know His Word. It’s all based on

relationship.” Matthew Botsford ¢â‚¬”who, today has a ministry called

“Seeds of Love” ¢â‚¬”experienced Hell first-hand during a 27-day coma

after his business partner was killed and he was shot in the head. In

an interview by Josephine Vivaldo for The Christian Post, Botsford

explains that he was an atheist at the time of the shooting.

Of his experience in Hell, he says: “I was in my full bodily form. I

looked like myself but I didn’t have any clothes on and I was hung

like crucifixion style in a very deep abyss. All I could see beneath

me was very red, it was very hot. I was chained on both my wrists and

I had shackles on my ankles. I knew I was in some sort of cavern. It

was pitch black. I knew I was going to be there forever. I knew there

was nothing I could do to get myself out of it. I didn’t know the

name of Jesus so I never prayed, you know ‘Jesus, please save me.'”

“There was this continual mocking,” he added, “this sense of

hopelessness, and evil in all sides. There was nothing good there. It

was totally void. ¢â‚¬ 

In life if we are having a bad day we know that something good is

around the corner. There was nothing good around the corner.” It was

when his wife, who didn’t know the Lord at the time, prayed, that

everything changed. A hand came near him and “lifted me up and the

shackles fell off. I didn’t know if it was the hand of God but this

hand grabbed me by the waist and the blackness left. Everything

disappeared. I knew at that moment that I was going to be okay. Then

I heard a voice and this voice simply told me, sounding like the clap

of thunder, rushing waters and a bolt of lightning, all combined

together and it simply said, ‘It’s not your time.'”

Source: Christian

Post

———————————————–

CHINA’S   HOUSE

CHURCHES   BEGIN   TO   ROAR

In a historic move, clergy from dozens of mainland Chinese house

churches are petitioning China’s legislature to guarantee freedom of

religion and to peacefully resolve the recent church-state conflict

involving one of the largest house churches in the capital, China Aid

reports.   This is the first such move in 60 years of Communist rule

of China and represents a further emboldening of the house church

movement, which for decades was active only in the countryside,

meeting in small groups in private homes and careful to maintain a

low profile to avoid attracting government attention to the illegal

gatherings.

House churches in China are illegal because all Christian religious

activity is supposed to happen only within the government-controlled

churches run by the Three-Self Patriotic Movement, for Protestants,

and the Catholic Patriotic Association, for Catholics. The current

conflict with the authorities has now brought to a head an issue that

has been simmering in recent years of how to respond to the

phenomenal growth in China’s urban centres of these technically

illegal house churches that have grown into congregations of hundreds

and in some cases, even thousands of members.

Source: China

Aid

———————————————–

CHRISTIANS   AND

MUSLIMS   MEET   IN   NIGERIA

Leaders of Christian and Muslim groups in Nigeria have met to seek to

resolve religious conflicts between the two groups which have seen

millions displaced and up to half a million killed over the past 30

years. A spokesman for the Christian Association of Nigeria said that

“A lot of Muslim leaders crave for peaceful relationships with

Christians so we discussed how we can live together in unity and

peace.” The meeting was presided over by both Muslims and Christian

leaders in Nigeria and included religious groups from six different

states. The government also sent a delegation to the meeting,

signalling the importance of the talks to the stability of the

nation.

Source: Evangelical   News

International

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