“The church isn’t alone in its traditional view of the family in Latvia,” said Ivars Kubcis, spokesman for the country’s Evangelical Lutheran church.

“Our church’s attitude to homosexuality is strongly linked to our understanding of Bible teaching and the authority of God’s Word; in brief, we regard homosexuality as a sin. At the same time, we welcome different kinds of sinners in our churches, who admit they are sinners.”

Kubcis issued the statement to ENInews today as preparations were made to introduce the ninth-grade textbook, which includes favorable treatment of homosexuality by a leading psychotherapist, Jolanta Cihanovica.

A senior Baptist told ENInews most Latvians agreed with the churches, and said moral and social issues had become an important field of ecumenical cooperation.

“Seven years after we joined the European Union, many feel we are being forced to accept moral and social attitudes out of step with our traditions,” said Peteris Eisans, deputy presiding bishop of Latvia’s Baptist Union. “In Western Europe, people have grown into this slowly, step by step. Here, it’s as if a great fire truck has rolled up, opened its water pump with full force, and made people drink.”

Latvia de-criminalized homosexuality in 1992, a year after independence from the Soviet Union, and became the last European Union member-state to prohibit discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation in a 2006 Labor Code amendment.

An early May protest letter to premier Valdis Dombrovskis, drafted by the Riga-based “Moral Revolution” foundation, was signed by Latvia’s Roman Catholic and Lutheran archbishops, Zbignev Stankevics and Janis Vanags, as well as Baptist and Adventist leaders. It warned the textbook would spread a “false image of the family” in the Baltic Sea country, where a 2005 constitutional amendment restricted marriage to heterosexual couples. However, in his reply, Dombrovskis accused protesters of misrepresenting the textbook, adding that it reflected international norms.

An Education and Science Ministry spokesperson, Baiba Berzina, told journalists the work conformed with World Health Organization recommendations, and said sexual orientation was “something of great interest to 16-year-olds.”

In his ENInews statement, Kubcis said the May letter had been co-signed by “many organizations and private persons,” adding that all Latvian churches had taken a “strong common stand” on homosexuality and would “continue to bring traditional family-orientated values to the awareness of society.”
Bishop Eisans said Latvia’s Education and Science Minister had been criticized by gay and lesbian groups for offering to include a “Christian church perspective” in future editions of the textbook.

“We objected to this textbook’s positive portrayal of homosexuality as a viable lifestyle choice, and an equal alternative to the heterosexual relationship between men and women,” said the Baptist Union leader, whose 6600-member churches has 86 congregations in Latvia.

“The liberal part of our media regularly joins with lobby groups to promote positions like this, and it’s only the churches who’ve provided a vocal force of objection.”

The Evangelical Lutheran church makes up a quarter of Latvia’s population of 2.3 million, of which a quarter are Roman Catholic and six percent Russian Orthodox.

Source: ENI

With the diminishing presence of Christians in the region, the central committee said in a statement in February, the “conviviality among peoples from different faiths, cultures, civilizations, which is a sign of God’s love for all humanity, will be endangered.” The conference in Greece will explore the issue from a theological, ecumenical, cultural, and political perspective.

“The reality for the Christian community in the Middle East is quite stark as more and more stories in the public media tell of Christians fleeing the region or feeling increasingly threatened, even in the context of the recent democracy movements,” noted a WCC news release. “In Iraq alone the Christian population has declined by nearly half during the past decade. In Egypt, there has been heightened violence between Muslims and Christians since the downfall of former president Mubarak.” Christians also face problems in Israel and Palestine.

“Christian churches in the Middle East have shown signs of decline despite their continuous historical presence in different countries in the region where many of them embody a heritage of ancient patriarchal jurisdictions,” said the release. “This has become a growing concern as the churches there struggle to maintain their presence and at the same time contribute to a culture of peace.”

The WCC central committee has also called for a major conference on this topic in 2012.

Source: ENI

Tran Thi Thuy received eight years, Pastor Duong Kim Khai six years and Nguyen Thanh Tam a two-year sentence. The seven were denied access to legal representation at the trial, which took place under heavy security, and the outcome of which is thought to have been pre-determined. They were charged under Article 79 of the Criminal Law.

The three Christians are members of the unrecognised branch of the Mennonite church and attended the “Cow Shed Church” in Ho Chi Minh City. Inspired by their Christian faith, they worked assisting fellow Vietnamese citizens who lost farmland when it was forcibly sold by local government to large corporations, helping them to file complaint letters asking for adequate compensation. The three are also said to be members of Viet Tan, an overseas-based democracy party that calls for peaceful political reform.

Pastor Duong Kim Khai was held since 10 August 2010, having been detained in Ho Chi Minh City. Pastor Khai’s disabled wife and then 17-year-old son were not given arrest papers or details of Pastor Khai’s detention. Those close to the case told Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) that Pastor Khai is a gentle man who wanted to help others and speak up for injustice. Pastor Khai has previously served two years in prison on similar charges.

Human rights activists face increasing opposition from the State in Vietnam, where there is little tolerance for peaceful activism. CSW has seen an increase in arrests and harassment in recent months.

CSW’s National Director Stuart Windsor said, “The seven activists, three of whom were inspired by their Christian faith, attempted to assist their fellow citizens by standing up for justice after the unfair seizing of land from poor farmers. CSW calls upon the Vietnamese authorities to respect the rights of its citizens to peaceful protest and not to sacrifice the rights of the poor for economic development.”

For further information or to arrange interviews please contact Kiri Kankhwende, Press Officer at Christian Solidarity Worldwide on +44 (0)20 8329 0045 / +44 (0) 78 2332 9663, email kiri@csw.org.uk or visit www.csw.org.uk.
Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) is a Christian organisation working for religious freedom through advocacy and human rights, in the pursuit of justice.
Notes to Editors:

1. Vietnam requires legal registration of denominational groups; registration can only be granted following twenty years ‘stable operation’. There are two branches of the Mennonite Church in Vietnam – one is registered and the other is not. The “Cow Shed Church” belongs to the unregistered branch.

2. The other four activists are Pham Van Thong, Nguyen Chi Thanh, Ms. Pham Ngoc Hoa and Cao Van Tinh.

Source: Christian Solidarity Worldwide

According to a report by the World Evangelical Alliance’s Religious Liberty Commission (WEA-RLC), the perception of threat to Christians is so severe that many of them are reportedly seeking to move out of the country.

WEA-RLC said while for the youth and moderate Muslims of the country the Jan. 25 uprising was about democratic freedoms, the Salafis who had been inactive for decades quickly saw it as an opportunity to push an Islamist agenda.

Sectarian violence, mostly against Coptic Christians, escalated amid a debate on the role of religion in politics that began following the departure of Mubarak and picked up pace after the announcement of a referendum to adopt an interim constitution (mainly amendment to the 1971 constitution) paving the way for a democratic election.

WEA-RLC said the bone of contention was Article 2 of the previous constitution which stated that Islam was the state religion and legislation must be based on the principles of Islamic law. Although this article was retained in the draft constitution and insulated against the voting, there was still apprehension.

WEA-RLC said Islamists thought if Egyptians were to reject the draft constitution, a new one would have to be drawn up from scratch which might not include the content of Article 2. Liberal Egyptians, who see Islam mainly as a form of private faith, feared that the retention of the Article could lead to discrimination against Coptic Christians and other minorities – more than they experienced during Mubarak’s regime.

In the March 19 referendum, WEA-RLC said, a majority said “yes” to the amendments and the interim constitution was adopted. However, the debate is not over yet. The Salafist struggle for the formation of a more conservative state carries on.

WEA-RLC said Salafis read the Quran literally, and try to maintain a lifestyle that replicates early Islam in the days of Mohammed. They follow the salaf, Muhammad’s 7th century companions, and reject later movements as heresy. They believe in banning alcohol, the “mixing of sexes” and Christian worship. It is believed that they are being guided and funded by their counterparts in Saudi Arabia.

Before Mubarak’s departure, WEA-RLC said, Salafis would do little more than preaching and were known for dismissing democracy as un-Islamic – but they would not call for a revolt. But now things are different.

WEA-RLC said Salafis seem to have concluded that it is easier to establish an Islamic state through elections. They have founded a political party, Al Nour, and backed the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s most organized political group, during the March 19 referendum for the interim constitution.

In April, when Egypt’s military establishment, now the new government, appointed a Christian as the new governor of the Qena Governorate to replace the previous official who was also a Christian, the Salafis protested, saying a Christian could not be given authority of Muslims. They demanded that a Muslim governor be appointed.

In March, WEA-RLC said, a Salafi leader, al-Hosseini Kamal, a suspected terrorist, had cut off the ear of a 45-year-old Christian Coptic man, Ayman Anwar Mitri, in Qena. Kamal was one of the thousands of terror suspects who were released from detention after the revolution.

WEA-RLC said the provocations of the Salafis seem to be aimed at mobilizing Egyptian Muslims. Doing so is the easiest and fastest way to gain support from conservative sections of the Muslim community.

WEA-RLC said the Salafis cannot be expected to do well in the parliamentary election expected in September, but its sectarian activities are helping other religious groups, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, which claims to be a moderate Islamist party and promise equality to Coptic Christians, to garner support.

WEA-RLC said the Salafi violence makes the Muslim Brotherhood appear more mainstream, more tolerant and a saner option to the voter at a time when other political groups are still struggling to organize themselves.

Salafi leaders have also said they would partner with the Muslim Brotherhood to field Islamist candidates for the election.

One of the reasons why Salafi violence is not being dealt with strictly is that it is helping the military leaders, who, WEA-RLC said, have been eyeing increased financial aid from the United States in the wake of Mubarak’s downfall. Any possibility of an Islamist party coming to power makes Washington nervous and therefore more generous towards to transitional government.

WEA-RLC said giving in to pressure by the protesting Salafis, the military government on April 25 announced on national television that Qena’s new (Christian) governor’s appointment had been stayed for three months and the deputy governor, a Muslim, would temporarily act as the governor.

According to WEA-RLC, this sent a wrong signal to the Salafis that they can arm-twist the government, which claims it can no longer curb any “public” rally, lest it be seen as “authoritarian.”

There are many other obstacles.

WEA-RLC said Egypt’s media has been co-opted by the Salafis as they are being covered widely and their voices featured in news which further emboldens them. Some newspapers and news channels go to the extent of reporting on rumors which often result in violence.

Laws that help Islamists to incite violence also remain intact, WEA-RLC said. Egyptian law makes it difficult for Christians to build places of worship while Muslims can construct theirs without much regulation. As a result, many new churches use their buildings officially meant for other purposes for worship which causes tensions. Also, the authorities use Article 98(f) of the Penal Code, the blasphemy law, to restrict evangelism efforts.

In addition, WEA-RLC said, the Salafis are not an officially organized group without any provision for membership. Therefore, dealing with the movement is difficult, as only the individuals held responsible for an action can be prosecuted, which, too, happens rarely. Moreover, values such as secularism, justice and freedom are seen as “Western imperialism,” and therefore difficult to promote.

In addition, sectarian violence mostly takes place in regions where poverty prevails and where most people follow their religious leaders almost blindly – particularly in provincial towns in southern Egypt.

WEA-RLC said while there are always triggers of violence, the causes of the divide among sections of majority Muslims and minority Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt’s 80 million people, are rooted in history. Christianity in Egypt predates Islam but by the 10th century, the Christians were reduced to a minority.

While the “Hamayouni Decree” brought some equality in 1856, discrimination against the Christians returned with the Nasser Revolution of 1952 and remained in place for decades.

Solutions to the problem of sectarianism should be sought keeping these complexities in mind, WEA-RLC said.

Primarily, WEA-RLC said, the transitional government should be encouraged to ensure institutional equality for the minorities. Washington, WEA-RLC said, is currently best positioned to do so by linking its aid to sincere political and economic reforms and human rights and freedoms.

The Egyptian government must be asked to prevent the Salafis from receiving funding from abroad and enjoying impunity, WEA_RLC said. In addition, an effort should be made towards an institutional protection for Christians before the election. If it is left to the regime that comes following the election, which is likely to be dominated by Islamists, there will be little hope for equality.

WEA-RLC said military rulers should also be urged to engage the country’s elite – politicians, the intelligentsia, Islamists, and Coptic leaders – in discussions to address grievances and persuade them to refrain from any provocation. The government has made attempts earlier, but not wholeheartedly.

Let us help prevent conditions that can cause an exodus of Egypt’s Christians, the WEA-RLC report concluded.

The World Evangelical Alliance’s Religious Liberty Commission works to help individuals and groups pray for, and act on, religious liberty issues around the world.

Source: Assist News

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.”

A retired businessman based in Australia has used their program to start 100 Bible colleges in the Amazon River basin. “Pastor Jose” Keegan started developing a rapport with Latin American pastors via the internet in 2002. Now he oversees pastors throughout the Spanish-speaking world, who lead training groups ranging in size from 15 to 70 people.

“We don’t teach Hebrew and Greek, but the quality is on a par with Bible colleges in the U.S.,” Edmiston says. Harvestime International Network developed their college materials, which consist of 21 modules. Each module is between 150 to 300 pages long, with a “fill-in-the-blank” style commonly used in Theological Education by Extension.

Pastor Jose –- originally from Argentina –- has seen 14,000 people take the Harvestime courses in the last nine years. Initially, he talked up the courses using internet forums, but now he uses Skype, Facebook and any other available technology to guide the Spanish-speaking pastors he oversees.

Some of the pastors using the materials are deep in the jungle working with aboriginal people. “The aboriginal people don’t speak Spanish at all,” Pastor Jose notes. “The pastors teach them Spanish, then they teach them the courses.”

“We’re reaching every country in Latin America,” Edmiston says. The multiplier effect of the ministry is powerful, with 39,000 unique visitors to their website each month sharing the materials with others.

Through their www.GlobalChristians.org website, 3-4 people a day are receiving Christ. Email correspondence from seekers, new believers and itinerant pastors pours into their office from disparate parts of the world. “I am Hindu, but I want to convert to Christian. Please help me,” writes Ramesh from Oman.

A starter kit developed by Edmiston helps launch new believers on a growth path. He would like to find additional volunteers to interface with these new Christians as “cyber-shepherds,” following their progress as they mature in Christ.

Pastor Vincent Hisona, leading a flock among the urban poor in Cavite, Philippines writes, “Your material really touches my heart because it is easy to follow and simple but powerful, with sound doctrine of the Bible.”

“There are not enough people training pastors in the developing world,” Edmiston notes. “My heart is for the theologically poor and those who are disabled and can’t get out to a church. I don’t want to replace the local church, however.”

Edmiston has also developed a program that teaches missionaries to run internet cafes as a small business and ministry platform. “We’ve established internet cafes in Muslim areas of the Philippines and Indonesia,” he says, with others on the way in restricted countries.

“Internet cafes are great ministry platforms as they allow you to meet people when they come in to check their email,” he notes. “They can provide a source of financial support for a church-planting team.”

Internet cafes cost about $5000 to set up and a well-run internet cafe can support 2-3 indigenous missionaries, according to Edmiston.
“It’s a small business that shares the gospel,” he adds. “It is being extensively copied as a model.” Edmiston has also developed safeguards to deal with the phenomenon of Muslims pretending to be Christians.

One of the most frequently downloaded articles on his the website deals with the subject of breaking curses. “There are a lot of people affected by curses in the developing world,” Edmiston says. “They are looking for answers and we help them.” Edmiston developed all the teaching materials dealing with spiritual warfare.

While many mission organizations fill their websites with video, Edmiston takes a different approach. “The people we serve don’t have much bandwidth,” he notes. “That’s why I have so little video on our website.”

“I want to reach people in the last mile of the frontiers.”

Source: Assist News

According to a story by Compass Direct News, of those detained, police held two in protective custody in hotels, beginning on June 10, while another 14 who turned up at Shouwang’s designated outdoor worship site on June 12 were taken away and sent to 10 different police stations. Of those detained Sunday morning, 13 were released by midnight while the last was released the next day.

Compass reported the statement said police at Haidian station also locked into a basement three Christians who had come to visit detained church members.

The church reported that members of government-approved Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) churches had in the previous two weeks come to many local police stations to “educate” and “admonish” detained Shouwang congregants, urging them to leave Shouwang and join TSPM churches.

“Half a century ago, this practice failed for those who have gone before us; they would rather be put into jail for holding on to their position,” Compass reported the statement said. “We believe that for our generation, this practice will fail as well.”

Compass said following a series of evictions from rented facilities and denial of access to a property they purchased late last year, Shouwang church in April decided to meet outdoors as a form of protest against the government’s restriction of their right to worship.

On their first attempt to meet in a public plaza in Zhongguancun, northwestern Beijing, uniformed and plainclothes police arrived in droves, filming and interrogating bystanders, waving journalists away and herding church members into waiting buses, according to the China Aid Association (CAA).

Church leaders said 169 people were detained, and most were then taken to a nearby school where they were fingerprinted and had their names recorded, Compass said The New York Times reported.
Compass said similar confrontations have occurred every Sunday since, with church members determined to continue their peaceful protest despite many of the leadership team, including Senior Pastor Jin Tianming, being confined to house arrest.

All key leaders, including four pastors and three elders, have been under house arrest almost constantly since April 9, said one source who spoke to Compass on condition of anonymity.

The number of people turning up to the outdoor venue has dwindled as members of the highly educated and influential church face consequences in their personal lives.

“Some church members have lost their jobs or rented homes or both,” Compass reported the same source said.

International media agencies have followed events closely, particularly on Easter Sunday (April 24) when CNN reported that police had detained at least 36 church members and blocked more than 500 from leaving their homes.

By early June, Compass said, police had detained some 300 people. During the same period, police held many church members under house arrest, preventing them from traveling to the outdoor venue.

As the weeks progressed, police officers also asked church members to refrain from attending Shouwang’s evening prayer meetings, held in a room rented from the New Tree Church in Zhongguancun.

Compass said towards the end of May, the church was shocked by the departure of Pastor Song Jun, fellow minister Jian Lijin, and deacons Ji Cheng and Yuan Yansong, who left because they disagreed with plans to continue outdoor worship, the source reported.

Petition for Religious Freedom

Compass said while some house churches also disagree with Shouwang’s approach, claiming their “confrontation” with the government can only bring harm for house churches in general, others have chosen to stand in solidarity with them.

On May 11, Compass said, 17 pastors or church workers from almost 20 house churches in six Chinese cities delivered a petition to the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature. It asked that the keys of Shouwang’s property be handed over to them, and that the national Regulations on Religious Affairs be dropped and replaced by a more favorable law governing religious freedom, CAA reported.

Titled, “It is for our Faith: A Citizen’s Petition to the National People’s Congress on the Church-State Conflicts,” the petition made oblique reference to an article entitled, “We do everything for faith.” It was written by renowned Christian Wang Mingdao years earlier, defending the church before Communist officials.

In a recent program dedicated to Shouwang, Radio Free Asia (RFA) interviewed several of the petitioners, including Wang Wenfeng of the Wenzhou China Theology Forum.

“I hope the government can see that the Shouwang incident is not an isolated case; rather, many churches in China want the same thing,” Compass reported Wang told RFA. “The most basic request is, ‘Let us meet in public, and let us register.’”

“We Christians have nothing to hide,” he continued. “At the same time, our faith itself requires us to be open with non-Christians, society and the state.”

“City on a Hill”

Compass said Shouwang first made global headlines in Nov. 2009, after U.S. President Barack Obama visited China. The Wall Street Journal ran a piece entitled, “The China President Obama Didn’t See.” It recounted Shouwang’s first outdoor meeting in a snowstorm on Nov. 1 after officials pressured their landlord to evict them from an office space in northwest Beijing’s Huajie Mansion.

Founded in 1993 as a simple Bible study in the home of Senior Pastor Jin, Compass said the church soon grew into 10 separate fellowships throughout Beijing. In 2005 the church made an application for registration, soon rejected by officials. They then formed an integrated church with a vision to be like a “city on a hill,” broadcasting the light of the gospel. At this point they began to rent office buildings for Sunday worship.

Compass said the most serious direct crackdown prior to 2011 came on May 11 2008, when the armed forces broke into Shouwang’s Sunday meeting and ordered the church to stop meeting. The church then realized that government pressure on landlords was a detriment to its survival and began gathering funds to purchase its own property.

The church eventually bought the second floor of the Daheng Science and Technology Tower in Zhongguancun in late 2010. Compass said officials warned the property developer, however, not to hand over the keys and pressured the owners of their then-meeting place, the Old Story Club, not to renew a 2010 lease, leaving Shouwang “no choice” but to worship outdoors.

Compass said evictions are not confined to Shouwang or to Beijing. Several other large house churches, including the All-Nations Alliance Church in Shanghai and Liangren Church in Guangzhou, have resorted to outdoor worship after being driven out of rented facilities, according to the Rev. Liu Tongsu, a California-based Chinese pastor and scholar.

“The ‘outdoor’ in the outdoor worship is not a means to an end, but a stand,” Compass said Shouwang’s Senior Pastor Jin stated in a letter issued to church members on April 23. “It is a stand when we face our Lord of glory and the authorities … in this period of time it is a worship that is more precious than any hymn or sermon.”

For more information about Compass Direct News go to www.compassdirect.org

Source: Assist News

“What Christianity needs here is orthopraxy [right practice],” said Yasuo Furuya, professor of modern Christian systematic theology at Seigakuin University, north of Tokyo. The 85-year-old theologian made his comments in a new book, “Is Christianity Real in Japan?” released on 1 June by Kyo Bun Kwan, a Tokyo-based Christian publishing company.

He said Christian evangelism had long been overshadowed by the churches’ “compromise with militarism” in World War II, during which only Methodist groups had opposed government policy and faced oppression as a consequence.

“When socialists were oppressed by the government during the war, the churches broke off with socialism. One reason why the churches became powerless in Japan is that socially active Christianity became irrelevant.” The relationship between Christianity and Japan’s “emperor system” was in effect a “relationship between two religions,” Furuya added, which generally entailed that “if one becomes strong, the other becomes weak.”

“A Christianity that says nothing about social problems but merely preaches atonement is exactly the kind of Christianity the government wanted,” Furuya added in the book, noting that “that is why the government controlled the churches with the law [the Religious Corporation Act of 1939]. The churches were neatly trapped by the government.”

The book is the latest of several by the theologian, who has also authored two English-language works on the history of Christian theology in Japan.

In a 2003 book, he said the country’s “Samurai” elitist mentality had posed a barrier to the spread of Christianity, while in a separate 2007 work, he urged Japanese churches to stress God’s kingdom in order to overcome a “stagnation in evangelism” and “divisions between those focused on themselves and those socially active.”

Furuya said he believed Christians had remained at below one percent of Japan’s population of 127.5 million partly because their faith placed too much emphasis on cerebral knowledge and needed to become “a more popular and practical Christianity.”

He added that some Christians in modern Japan had apostatized, lapsed from their faith or dropped out, but said most of them could never have become martyrs.

“I think I wanted to publish this book as an attempt to escape from there,” the theologian said in the work. “Are we just spiritless humans who do neither good nor harm?”

Roman Catholic Christianity was brought to Japan by missionaries in the mid-16th century and faced official persecution until a ban on Christianity was lifted in 1873. In 2009, Japanese Protestants marked 150 years since their first mission.

Asked if he believed Christianity had changed in Japan after 11 March, when the country was hit by an earthquake, tsunami and nuclear power plant accident, Furuya said he had finished his latest book before the disaster, which brought a strong response by Christian churches, groups and individuals in the form of prayers, donations and relief operations.

“I wrote about what happened before 11 March and did not write about what has happened since,” the theologian said in an ENInews interview. “I think the effects of 11 March will be revealed later on.”

Source: ENI

This Jesus, however, has become our great high priest, and ‘[not] a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin’. And so the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews exhorts us, ‘Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.’ (Hebrews 4:14-16 ESV excerpts)

The number of Christians fleeing for their lives is skyrocketing. Those with financial means may emigrate or fly out and apply for refugee status in the West, an arduous enough process. However, poorer Christians must risk death traversing deserts, oceans and dangerous cities, while dodging bandits and people-traffickers just to seek refuge in a neighbouring state. Lately, finding refuge is becoming increasingly difficult.

Since 2003 Iraq’s Assyrian-Chaldean Christians have been fleeing for their lives into Syria and Jordan. But today secular minority-ruled Syria is in turmoil and is at risk of falling into the hands of Sunni fundamentalists or erupting into a regional sectarian conflagration. Jordan is volatile. As the doors close, where will Iraq’s threatened Christians go?

Christians fleeing repression and persecution in totalitarian Eritrea have normally headed for Egypt or Yemen, two states previously run by US-allied, politically secular dictators. Egypt and Yemen, however, are no longer ‘safe’. Meanwhile, reaching Israel involves crossing the Sinai Desert which is not only perilous in itself, but ridden with unscrupulous people-traffickers. According to Barnabas Fund an estimated 500-600 Eritrean refugees are presently languishing in Egyptian prisons, while an estimated 100-200 are in the hands of traffickers.

The greatest risk for North Korean refugees is that instead of finding the ‘underground railroad’ (safe passage organised by Christians) they will fall into the hands of Chinese security forces who return them to North Korea and certain incarceration or execution. Likewise, many Hmong, Montagnard and other Christians fleeing persecution in Laos and the Central Highlands of Vietnam do not always find refuge.

Hundreds of thousands of Ivorian Christians now live as refugees in Liberia, having fled ethnic-religious-political cleansing in Ivory Coast. Many more remain in Ivory Coast amidst terrible insecurity. As fighting intensifies on Sudan’s North-South border, hundreds of thousands of predominantly Christian Southerners are being displaced, forced to flee as Khartoum bombs the oil-rich regions to clear and claim them. Where will they go? What of the Christians residing in North Sudan?

The time Jesus spent as a refugee was no accident, having been prophesied long beforehand: Jesus, Mary and Joseph had not slipped through God’s fingers; they were not outside God’s providence. Furthermore, the time Jesus spent as a refugee in Egypt predicated his coming ‘out of Egypt’: an event filled with theological significance and pointing to Jesus being the ‘son’ of God, for ‘. . . out of Egypt I called my son’ (Hosea 11:1b; Matthew 2:15).

We need to pray for the safety and refuge of Christians forced to take flight and that they might discover that ‘they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles . . .’ (Isaiah 40:31a).

PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY FOR ALL CHRISTIAN REFUGEES –

• that God the loving Father will keep them safe as they flee: hidden from wild animals, people-traffickers and criminals; sustaining them in oceans, deserts, dangerous cities and other hostile environments.
• that the Holy Spirit will sanctify them as they seek their place in the purposes of God, confidently looking to Jesus, their great high priest, as one who is well able to empathise with and meet their every need.
• particularly those who are currently in the hands of jailers or unscrupulous people-traffickers: may the God of all grace, mercy and justice draw these vulnerable believers into his presence, deliver them from violence and brutality and restore their liberty and security.

Source: Assist News

Religious and political leaders, including WCC general secretary the Rev. Olav Fyske Tveit and Brazilian Senator Pedro Taques, will hand over the documents in a ceremony in São Paulo at the Public Prosecution Office. The information was collected by dissident lawyers and church leaders from 1979 to 1985, surreptitiously copied and sent to the WCC. Brazil was under a military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985.

In an interview at WCC’s headquarters in Geneva on 10 June, Tveit said the delivery of the material will add more documentation for people seeking compensation for their sufferings. It also manifests, he said, the role of the WCC, supported by denominations, in documentation of the abuses and torture that happened under military rule.
“It is a remarkable statement of how brave citizens of Brazil, particularly lawyers and church leaders, saw it as their duty to document what happened and to bring it to the outside world,” Tveit noted.

The U.N.’s top independent expert on torture hopes the action will spur the Brazilian government to act. “I can only express the hope that Brazilian prosecutors and judges will honor them by using the files that are being returned to Brazil in opening prosecutions against torturers and revealing the true nature of those practices to Brazilian society,” Juan Mendez, UN Special Rapporteur on torture, told ENInews. “In that way they will also fulfill Brazil’s obligations under international law,” he said.

Peter Splinter, Amnesty International’s Geneva representative, said, “you can’t have true reconciliation until you have true accountability, which requires knowledge and understanding of what happened.”

Human Rights Watch has said that Brazil has never prosecuted those responsible for atrocities committed during the period of military rule, adding that a 1979 amnesty law continues to bar prosecutions.

The archives will assist federal prosecutors in replacing essential data that has gone missing from the files of Brazil’s Superior Military Court, the WCC said. Among the records that have vanished in Brazil, the WCC noted, are accounts by political prisoners in which they denounced torture and named their torturers.

The project, named Brazil Never Again (Brasil: Nunca Mais) collected material from 1979 until 1985 under the direction of Cardinal Paulo Evaristo Arns of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of São Paulo and coordinated by the Rev. Jaime Wright, a Presbyterian minister, with financial support from the WCC.

According to the Rev. Charles R. Harper, who served as executive director of the WCC human rights resources office for Latin America from 1973 to 1992, “the files in question were extensive and highly detailed accounts of every person abducted, tortured, interrogated and killed by the security forces.”

Brazilian army officers were obsessive record keepers, he noted, and during the period 1964-1979, they kept files “of those that tortured, whom they tortured, and even the methods they used to torture.”

Harper, now a retired pastor of the Presbyterian church in the U.S., in his 2006 book, O Acompanhamento, said the documents revealed “over 200 types of torture, 242 secret torture centers, and [identify] 444 individual torturers by name and by pseudonym, all gleaned and cross-checked from official records.”

Source: ENI