Cybermissions: Using computer and internet technologies to impact lives for Christ

June 18, 2011 Leave a Comment

Imagine packing 500 hours of Bible college training on a $13 chip that plays from a cell phone. Add speakers to the cell phone for only $20 and a group of pastors can be trained in places far-removed or unreachable by conventional means.

Cybermissions training in the Amazon River basin

“I don’t need a visa to get into these countries,” says John Edmiston, founder of Cybermissions. (www.cybermissions.org) “We tunnel in and then we blast away.”

Edmiston started Cybermissions in 2001 to serve the church in Southeast Asia, especially pastors who had no training. Now their reach is global, with more than a million people each year making use of training materials they provide.

Through one of their contacts in Bhutan –- a country governed by a Buddhist-dominated monarchy hostile to the Gospel, Cybermissions materials are training dozens of pastors. “We’re reaching underground Christians,” Edmiston notes. “Through one man we’ve reached Bhutan.” Read more of this post

Filed under Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America, Oceania, South America

Archbishop of Canterbury’s comments provoke response from British government

June 11, 2011 Leave a Comment

In a strongly-worded opinion piece in the June 9 issue of The New Statesman, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, took a stand against recent economic, criminal justice, and healthcare reforms proposed by British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Williams, launching his broadside as guest editor of the weekly journal, said Britain’s coalition government is forcing through “radical policies for which no one voted.” He questioned whether democratic legitimacy existed for flagship policies on welfare, health and education, which we he said were causing “anxiety and anger.” He also dismissed Cameron’s “Big Society” initiative for the voluntary sector to play a greater role in providing services as “painfully stale” and condemned what he described as punitive action against alleged abuses of the benefit system. Read more of this post

Filed under England, Europe

CSW brings art exhbition on Egyptian Christians to Pentecost Festival

June 8, 2011 Leave a Comment

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) is pleased to bring the display of a remarkable art installation on the experiences of Egyptian Christians to Methodist Central Hall on 11 June as part of the Pentecost festival in central London.

The unique images have been created for CSW by artist Lorna Buchanan as part of CSW’s No Way Out campaign, which is calling for Christians in Egypt to be able to practise their faith freely, without fear of violence or discrimination.

At 11:45am and 3pm there will be an opportunity to hear CSW’s Advocacy Director, Andrew Johnston, and CSW’s Team Leader for the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa, Dr Khataza Gondwe, discuss the situation for Christians in the Middle East and the challenges for advocacy and religious freedom in the region. Read more of this post

Filed under Asia, Europe

German church gathering ends on note of reconciliation

June 8, 2011 Leave a Comment

The biennial faith gathering called the Kirchentag ended on 5 June after five days of theological and political discussions, concerts and a sense of reconciliation in a city devastated during World War II.

“It was a Kirchentag where a new culture of participation and shaping democracy was discovered. A Kirchentag of active politics. A Kirchentag where we had open, thought provoking debate, even if it was controversial at times,” Katrin Goering-Eckardt, president of the Kirchentag and a prominent politician said on 4 June.

The gathering, which means “church conference” and was founded after World War II, ended with an open-air church service on 5 June attended by 120,000 people on both banks of the River Elbe. Read more of this post

Filed under Europe, Germany

“Pray to Your God, Because I Have No Hope.”

June 1, 2011 Leave a Comment

I looked at Araz, sitting there looking utterly defeated. He had been crying, which was something for this tough fireman.

It was also something that he was asking me to pray. When we visited his city he often invited us to his home and prepared a table for us. But when we talked to him about God, he just said that he and his father were members of a different religion. He wasn’t interested in Jesus.

But now, he called and asked me to meet him. His wife was expecting a baby and had become extremely sick. They took her to the hospital where the doctor said she had an infection that would likely kill her and the baby – she was given almost no chance to live. Read more of this post

Filed under Azerbaijan, Europe

Refugee Crisis in Greece

June 1, 2011 Leave a Comment

Greece is not only facing a crisis. Thousands of refugees are pouring into Europe hoping to find a better life for themselves. Some come to escape persecution, some to find a better financial situation. The vast majority (90%) of these refugees are trying to come into Europe via Greece because of its porous borders with hundreds of easily accessible islands. Unfortunately Greece is totally unable to cope with the problem which isnt helped by its well publicized financial problems.

The Parthenon Acropolis, Athens, Greece

Because of Greece’s strategic geographical location, it is often used as a stepping stone by migrants traveling west from many war-torn or less developed nations. As a direct result, Athens has seen a tremendous influx of refugees over the past three decades, bringing a unique opportunity to minister “to the least of these” among us (Matt. 25:40).

Hellenic Ministries, a Greek based mission, is one of the ministries trying to reach out to the multitudes of helpless men and women refugees, who are mainly from Muslim countries. Read more of this post

Filed under Europe, Greece

Church of Scotland moves closer to accepting more gay clergy

May 26, 2011 Leave a Comment

The church of Scotland, which has been threatened with schism since it confirmed the appointment of an openly homosexual minister two years ago, voted at its general assembly yesterday to move toward the acceptance of gay and lesbian candidates for ordination.

Members of the general assembly, meeting in Edinburgh, voted by 351 to 294 to “consider further the lifting of the moratorium on acceptance for training and ordination of persons in a same sex relationship.”

The ban was put in place in 2009 in the wake of the controversy which followed the church’s appointment of Scott Rennie, who was living with a male partner in Aberdeen. A special commission was established to explore the issue, and the recommendation for further examination of the matter was contained in the commission’s report to assembly yesterday. Read more of this post

Filed under Europe, Scotland

UK Christian Doctor Under Fire for Sharing His Faith with a Patient

May 23, 2011 Leave a Comment

A CHRISTIAN doctor with 28 years experience has been reported to the General Medical Council (GMC), and fears he could lose his job after he discussed his faith in Jesus with a patient last year.

Dr Richard Scott, who works at Bethesda Medical Centre in Margate, Kent – a practice well-known for having Christian partners – has been threatened with an Official Warning by the GMC and is currently under investigation.

According to the Christian Legal Centre in 2010, Dr Scott saw a patient on the practice list at the request of the patient’s mother. At the end of the consultation, the patient and doctor discussed religion, each being of different faiths. The patient has continued to seek treatment from the practice, but his mother filed an official complaint, claiming that the GP had not offered medical advice during a consultation, but instead, talked about Jesus! Read more of this post

Filed under England, Europe

Queen’s visit to Ireland may ‘heal divisions’

May 12, 2011 Leave a Comment

Religious leaders are hailing Queen Elizabeth II’s historic state visit to Ireland next week as a sign of reconciliation following centuries of sectarian hatred and violence.

Arriving in Dublin on 17 May for a four-day visit, the queen will be the first British monarch to set foot in the republic since its founding in 1923 and the first to travel to Dublin since King George V in 1911. She is scheduled to visit Dublin’s Garden of Remembrance, which honors those who died fighting to free Ireland from British rule. She also will visit Croke Park Stadium, where British troops killed 14 people in 1920, and attend a state dinner in Dublin Castle, long a symbol of British power in Ireland. Read more of this post

Filed under Europe, Ireland

Church of England says attendance is growing at cathedrals

May 9, 2011 Leave a Comment

Five days after one of Britain’s great churches, London’s Westminster Abbey, was seen on television by millions as the site of a royal wedding, the Church of England released statistics showing that weekly attendance at its 43 cathedrals rose by seven percent in 2010.

“Attendance at services outside Sundays has grown more significantly by 10 percent over the past year … Steady growth since the beginning of the millennium is encouraging cathedrals to explore the unique position they hold in the life of the nation and is restoring confidence in mission,” commented the Rev. Lynda Barley, head of research and statistics at the Archbishops’ Council, in a news release. Read more of this post

Filed under England, Europe

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