News Update—6/14/10

The Rev. Kenneth Kearon, secretary general of the Anglican Communion, the worldwide fellowship that includes the Episcopal Church as its U.S. branch, outlined the demotions in a letter published on  June 7. Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the spiritual leader of the communion, proposed the removals last month.

Kearon said he wrote to Episcopalians on the affected committees last Thursday to inform them of the changes. The one Episcopalian on the “faith and order” committee, the Rev. Katherine Grieb of Virginia, can serve as a consultant, but not a member, Kearon said.

Religion Today Summaries

Nepal Churches Growing Despite Tensions, Group Says
Nepal’s churches are not shutting down despite the political turmoil in the country, Worthy News reports. International Christian Concern (ICC) says that churches in Nepal are actually growing while the Maoist party continues strikes and protests.

“Churches are growing by leaps and bounds everywhere,” amid difficulties, said Build International Ministries (BIM) President Sandy Anderson, who spent the last 25 years working with Christians in Nepal.

“We have had a heavy transition in Nepal, but despite the difficult situation the church continues to thrive.” The church presence has grown from tiny numbers in the 1950s for more than 100,000 active members today, according to BIM statistics.

Religion Today Summaries

Florida Enacts Legislation Protecting Private Prayer in Schools
Florida has enacted a new law protecting the rights of individuals at public schools to engage freely in prayer and other religious expression. Gov. Charlie Crist signed the bill, which had been passed by the legislature in May, on June 4.

The bill originated as a response to a controversy surrounding the Santa Rosa County School District, which had been pressured by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to adopt a policy that forbade all school personnel from engaging in non-official school-related religious activities.

The law states that district school boards and their employees are prohibited from taking proactive measures, including making agreements, that infringe or waive “the rights or freedoms afforded to instructional personnel, school staff, or students by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.” It says that written consent from “the individual whose constitutional rights would be impacted” would be necessary before such steps could be taken.

The version of the bill signed into law by Gov. Crist will prevent school officials from interfering in the religious expression of students and school employees at events. However, it would not authorize official, organized school prayer, religious expression, or recognition of God at events such as sports events and student assemblies.

Nonetheless, the new law will prevent situations like that in the Santa Rosa County school district, where school officials caved to ACLU pressure and signed onto a Consent Decree in 2008 which prohibited religious expression, such as voluntary, student-initiated prayers or off-the-clock religious discussion among adults.

LifeSiteNews

Guatemala Faces Twin Disasters over Weekend
ASSIST News Service reports that Guatemala has been hit with a double disaster, as the Pacaya volcano erupted May 27, and Hurricane Agatha hit the Guatemala coast 24 hours later. The rains, in particular, have brought mudslides and road wash-outs that have resulted in nearly 100 deaths in Central America, primarily in Guatemala.

The New Life Children’s Home, located just 8 miles north of the volcano, immediately began to receive a hail of small rocks and ash after the eruption. Agatha was dissipating over the mountains of western Guatemala, a day after it made landfall as a tropical storm near the nation’s border with Mexico with winds up to 45 mph. The rains, however, continued as the rivers continued to rise and word filtered out from isolated areas of more deaths in landslides.

A major concern is that the rains mixing with the lava ash may form a mud almost as strong as cement, which will seriously complicate clean-up efforts.

Religion Today Summaries

Korean Tensions Causing Increased Persecution
Christian persecution watchdogs and mission organizations worry that the abrupt halt in relations between North and South Korea will cause “total insanity” in North Korea.

According to Mission Network News, on Thursday North Korea invalidated the 2004 accord designed to prevent an escalation of war along the Demilitarized Zone, a 2.5-mile-wide buffer between Korea’s two opposing armies.

Open Doors President/CEO Carl Moeller said, “There’s more scrutiny on the border with China. People who are able to flee as refugees are being captured, and when they’re captured, they’re turned into labor camp convicts. Secondly, the underground networks of believers are under more pressure as a result of more government infiltration.” He also said total war is a possibility, which would cause “millions of casualties.”

Religion Today Summaries

Police Arrest Two Pastors in Karnataka State, India
ASSIST News Service reports that two pastors were arrested by Karnataka State Police on May 19 after a group of Hindu radicals accused them of forceful conversion in a children’s program.

Pastors Shanth Kumar, 27, and Nagesh Kumar, 35, had organized a Vacation Bible School (VBS) for the village children for three days and there were about 35-40 children who participated in the program.

The arrests occurred after an estimated 30 people belonging to Hindu radical groups Bajrang Dal and Bharatiya Janatha Party forced their way inside the meeting hall to accuse the pastors. The pastors and two teenage students were taken to the Police Station.

A court imprisoned the pastors overnight before releasing them on bail. Pastor Shanth Kumar works for Youth Mission Movement and Pastor Nagesh Kumar works for Campus Crusade for Christ.

Religion Today Summaries