Myanmar’s devastation UK missionary Brian Ellis has sent this report by Peter Ci Thang of a recent visit to the Irrawaddy delta, in Myanmar. Peter is a student of Grace Ministerial Academy, in Metro-Manila, Philippines. In early June I visited a number of island villages in Myanmar to help victims of the…
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UN backs down The president of the UN Human Rights Council ruled on 16 June that the Council is not to criticise or evaluate religions, particularly Islamic fatwas. This ruling followed attempts by Egyptian and Pakistani delegates at the council to silence criticism of the human rights of women in Islamic countries. A statement…
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Chinese persecution Bike Zhang, pastor and chairman of the Federation House Church, and his wife Xie Fenglan were forced from their home in Beijing on 6 July by Public Security Bureau officials. The couple found shelter at the home of a friend, but when Public Security Bureau (PSB) officials learned about it, they came…
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Love, the reality check John's first epistle seeks, among other things, to delineate the marks of a true Christian. And no characteristic features more strongly than love for our fellow believers. John's teaching on this matter is well summarised in 1 John 3:10-19. The apostle recognised that the churches to which he wrote contained both…
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God is a missionary God In his last letter to Timothy, Paul writes: ‘You … have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness’ (2 Timothy 3:10). The apostle Paul clearly knew what he was trying to achieve – hence he can write ‘my…
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Anglican split deepens Anglican conflict over the question of gay bishops has become sharper and more personalised since the Lambeth Conference. Writing in the Times newspaper the Archbishop of Uganda, The Most Rev. Henry Orombi, accused the Archbishop of Canterbury of 'betrayal' over the issue. In response, a number of UK bishops, led by the…
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Tory ambivalence Gay adoption and civil partnerships are 'right and moral', according to Conservative education spokesman Michael Gove in a speech to the Institute of Public Policy Research. In a speech on the family reported by the Christian Institute, Mr Grove said that the Conservatives had been wrong in the past to oppose 'gay…
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The delights of faith It is the year 537 BC and Daniel, who was taken captive by the Babylonians when he was only fourteen, is now eighty-two. But even though he himself is old, Daniel's faith is new. Stuart Olyott writes: 'Many years have passed since he last saw Jerusalem, but the old man's faith is…
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Iranian assault Iranian security police arrested a Christian couple, recent converts from Islam, in their home in east Tehran at the beginning of June. This followed a relative informing the police of the couple's Christian activities. Tina Rad and her husband Makan Arya were taken from their home and forced to leave their…
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Christians at work On Saturday 28 June, Christians from both the UK and as far afield as Hamburg gathered in Rugby for the annual conference of Christians at Work. The topic was 'You shall be my witnesses'. Following a time of small group prayer, our first speaker Roger Carswell preached on Acts16:20-33. Rather…
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Liddell story inspires the Chinese The launch of the Chinese version of Rev. John Keddie's biography of Eric Liddell, Running the Race (Evangelical Press), is very soon to take place amidst considerable glitz in China. Amongst the scheduled events are photo-calls with UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Lord Sebastian Coe and British Olympic Association…
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Rwanda accuses French An independent commission in Rwanda has accused France of being aware of preparations for the Rwandan genocide of 1994 and helping train the ethnic Hutu militia. Officials in the country have expressed hope that French officials named would be indicted for war crimes. Among those named in the report are…
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Ethiopian Jews A thirty-year immigration project to bring Ethiopian Jews to Israel has been brought to an end despite claims from campaigners that many more people should be admitted to the country. During the 1980s and 1990s 120,000 Ethiopians of Jewish descent, sometimes known as Beta Israel, were flown to Israel from Ethiopia and Sudan. …
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You are what you think Mary Slessor, the courageous red-haired missionary who became known as the 'White Queen of the Cannibals', wrote home to friends in Scotland about the victorious life of a certain woman believer in Africa. She is so poor that she has not one farthing in this world but what she gets from…
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Demolition protest Aid agency ActionAid has submitted an application to demolish St Paul's Cathedral in London in protest at plans by a British firm to mine a mountain in India. ActionAid put in the application to the City of London requesting the 'total demolition' of the famous landmark. The move aims to raise awareness…
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Missionary work – without the glamour In his final report Cliff Barton shares more of the down-to-earth challenges of pastoral work among the Pokot of Kenya. Korokou is a hilly area, yet characterised by much agriculture. We were able to drive up a rough road cut out to aid development. It takes…
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Lennox vs. Dawkins at Keswick In the first of this year's Keswick lectures, Dr John Lennox stepped beyond a robust defence of Christianity to point out that the 'New Atheism' of Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens et al was dangerous to society. 'The New Atheism seriously undercuts morality. If you teach their kind of secularism to…
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Somalia Sayid Ali Sheik Luqman Hussein, a young Christian convert from Islam, was shot dead by Islamic extremists on 10 July in the town of Afgyoye, Somalia. Mr Hussein, who was 28, became a Christian in 2004 and had been active in telling people in his community about his faith. On 8 July, two Muslim…
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Dawkins exposed One of the 20th century's most renowned atheists and influential philosophers has accused Professor Richard Dawkins - of The God Delusion fame - of being 'a secularist bigot' and amateur in his use of academic scholarship. Professor Antony Flew, now 85 and Emeritus Professor at Reading University, was for decades internationally regarded…
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Oliver Cromwell - 'God's Englishman' Few men have the honour of being buried in Westminster Abbey. Even fewer have the distinction of being dug up three years later and their body hung up for public derision. Such was Oliver Cromwell who died 350 years ago this year. In life as in death,…
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US bishop heckled Gene Robinson, the US bishop at the centre of the row about homosexuality within the Anglican Church, was forced to halt a sermon at a London church after being heckled. A member of the congregation called him a 'heretic' and urged him to 'repent, repent, repent'. The bishop began his sermon by…
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William Grimshaw 1708-1763 'The barren wilderness rejoiced and blossomed like the rose'. So wrote John Newton in a series of letters first published in 1799. He was not referring to the arid regions of the Sahara but rather to Yorkshire in the mid 18th century. Newton was not describing an agricultural phenomenon but…
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Discovering the heart of China China has been very much in the headlines lately, and we are often given negative impressions from the news reports we receive — whether they relate to the Olympics, the thorny issue of Tibet, or human rights and the persecution of ‘underground’ churches. China is even being blamed…
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Golden Compass sequels in doubt Atheist author Phillip Pullman says Christian opposition to The Golden Compass film hit audience numbers and may have damaged plans for two sequels. The film is an adaptation of the first book in an anti-Christian trilogy called His dark materials written by Mr Pullman. He is on record as…
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Knife crime crisis As the death toll for London's teenagers rises further, Simoney Girard asks how those in youth work should react. I knew that boy who was stabbed in Clapham', said Aislene. 'He was my friend's cousin'. She told us this at our local Girl Crusaders' Union (GCU) class in West Norwood last year.…
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Iran suspends stoning The punishment of death by stoning has been suspended in Iran in what is seen as a possible first move to abolishing the practice. Stoning is the penalty for crimes such as adultery under Islamic law. The last such execution was reportedly last year. According to reports from inside the country,…
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Edith Margaret Clarkson (1915-2008) Margaret Clarkson, whose rarely-used first name is Edith, was born in 1915 into, as Margaret herself described, 'a loveless and unhappy marriage', which broke up when she was 12. In 1946, C. Stacey Woods asked Margaret Clarkson, then in Toronto, to write a hymn. Recently turned 30, Margaret was a primary…
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The theologian's stone Guest Column I find it both intriguing and troubling that the great seventeenth-century mathematician and scientist Sir Isaac Newton appears to have believed in the Philosopher's Stone - the fabled substance capable of turning base metal into precious gold. Many Newton scholars now concede that the celebrated author of the Principia and formulator…
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Pastoring with both eyes open What attracts men to the pastorate? It is rarely prestige, power or money (especially the latter). In most cases it is love - love for Christ, love for people and love for the Word of God. The typical Bible college or seminary student can hardly wait to…
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Things we wish you knew I never dreamed my missionary calling would involve wearing so many hats – preacher, carpenter, translator, mechanic, linguist, plumber, photographer, solar electrician, conference speaker, dental assistant, grave-digger, airstrip maintenance man, and rodent extermination consultant. I’ve donned them all. On top of that, Beth is a pharmacist, schoolteacher,…
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Running the race A Chinese version of a new biography of Eric Liddell - the Scottish missionary and Olympic gold medal winner - was launched in China during the Beijing Olympics. Thousands of copies of Running the race in simplified Chinese have already been purchased by the official state bookstore in Beijing, where Liddell continues…
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Advert question An advert from a church citing examples of healing through prayer has been criticised as 'irresponsible' by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). The ASA also concluded that the advert was not factually correct and could discourage readers from seeking qualified medical advice. North Shrewsbury Community Church distributed a flyer containing a quote from…
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OBFPC outreaches From 14-21 July, a mission team from Bob Jones University in South Carolina, USA, visited Oulton Broad Free Presbyterian Church (OBFPC). Led by speech-communication lecturer David Schwingle and his wife April, the group comprised 10 students from different states, majoring in various subjects. They were serving churches across the UK for eight weeks of…
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New opportunities in Romania I first met Raul Costea on a flight from Bucharest to the UK. I had been on an assignment in Romania project-managing for a manufacturing business; Raul was a Baptist pastor from Transylvania in central Romania. While conversing we discovered a common bond of Christian faith. He told…
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Westminster Theological Seminary Westminster Theological Seminary (WTS) in Philadelphia, USA, has parted company with one of its professors. Professor of Old Testament Peter Enns was suspended in March from teaching there. This move was precipitated by Enns' book Inspiration and incarnation: Evangelicals and the problem of the Old Testament (Baker Book House). The…
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Anti-Semitism There were 266 anti-Semitic incidents against Jewish people or property in the UK up to June 2008, compared with 244 in the same period last year, a 9% rise according to the Community Security Trust (CST). 166 were incidents of abusive behaviour, including verbal abuse, hate mail and anti-Semitic graffiti. Incidents involving students or…
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Iraqi Christians Iraq's Prime Minister has urged Christians who fled the country after the US-led invasion to return home to help rebuild the country. Nearly half of Iraq's 800,000 Christian adherents are believed to have left the country since 2003. Many of those remaining have been targeted by Muslim militias.
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Sikh bracelet A 14-year-old Sikh girl has won a High Court claim against her school for discrimination, after it excluded her for breaking its 'no jewellery' policy. Sarika Singh, from Cwmbach, south Wales, was excluded by Aberdare Girls' School in November 2007 for refusing to take off her religious bangle. However, the High Court…
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Older people in society and the church 'The righteous will flourish like a palm tree ... they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age' (Psalm 92:12-14). Psalm 90:10 is a familiar verse to all those over 60: 'The length of our days is seventy years - or eighty,…
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Pro-life votes Following the defeat of Labour at the recent Glasgow East by-election, pro-life groups were quick to point to government policy on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill as contributing to the loss. Jim Dobbin MP, Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Pro-Life Group, said, 'It's clear to me that the HFE Bill…
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