]27 January 2000
Four projects win major awards from Protestant foundation in Geneva
Geneva: A church project intended to halt alcoholism in Madagascar, a Cuban seminary's plans to set up a community centre, an interfaith centre in India and a college for theology students in Madrid are all to receive major financial grants from a Geneva-based foundation which assists projects linked to Protestant churches around the world. [820 words, ENI-00-0021]

26 January 2000
Arctic's Anglican bishop looks to England for priests to brave the cold
Vancouver: Unable to find priests in Canada to minister in his region, Bishop Chris Williams of the Anglican Diocese of the Arctic has advertised in England for clergy to fill nine vacancies in the Anglican Communion's biggest diocesan territory. [826 words, ENI-00-0019]

Anglican report urges end to ban on church weddings for divorcees
London: A Church of England official working party has proposed that the church should drop its ban on the remarriage of divorcees whose former spouses are still living. [1028 words, ENI-00-0020]

25 January 2000
Czech Protestants debate legacy of controversial theologian
Warsaw: Thirty years after his death, Czech Protestants are deeply divided about the work of Josef Hromadka (1889-1969), a leading theologian and ecumenist. Hromadka's legacy has proved highly controversial, mainly because of his stance of critical solidarity with Czechoslovakia's communist regime, and is even now a matter of bitter argument. At the heart of the debate about Hromadka is continuing division within Protestant churches in the region about the role they played under communism and the role they should now play in post-communist society. [899 words, ENI-00-0018]

24 January 2000
Suspended sentence for Pole at centre of Auschwitz controversy
Warsaw: A Roman Catholic nationalist who directed the controversial placing of crosses at the Auschwitz concentration camp has received a suspended sentence for inciting racial hatred and insulting Polish institutions. [442 words, ENI-00-0017]

21 January 2000
Martin Luther King may join growing Catholic list of official martyrs
New York: The Vatican may declare the late Martin Luther King - America's most famous black pastor and a highly respected campaigner for civil rights - an official Christian martyr. [830 words, ENI-00-0015]

England's Baptists boost Sunday attendance, despite general decline
London: Baptists have managed to beat the trend of declining Sunday churchgoing in England that has seen attendances at churches overall plunge during the past decade. [532 words, ENI-00-0016]

20 January 2000
Communicate via modern media or face disaster, says Dutch clergyman
Amsterdam: The future of the institutional churches in the new millennium is very uncertain, according to a prominent Dutch clergyman and Christian communicator, Dr Albert H. van den Heuvel. [677 words, ENI-00-0014]19 January 2000

Guatemala's new president promises to solve mystery of bishop's murder
Guatemala City: The first Guatemalan president in nearly 40 years to take office during peace time has promised to bring to justice those responsible for the death of Roman Catholic Bishop Juan Gerardi, a human rights champion who was brutally murdered in 1998. [890 words, ENI-00-0011]

NCC presses case for boy's swift return to Cuba
New York: As the case of six-year-old Elian Gonzalez drags on in the US courts, the National Council of Churches (NCC), the nation's biggest ecumenical agency, is continuing mediation efforts to return the boy to Cuba. Robert Edgar, the NCC's new general secretary, told ENI in an interview on 15 January that he could not explain in detail the NCC's efforts. But he added that the NCC was supporting plans to bring either one or both of the boy's two grandmothers from Cuba to Miami, and then return them to Cuba with the boy. The plan involving the grandmothers is the latest in a contentious immigration case that has become an international incident, enflaming passions and sparking massive protests in the US and Cuba. [970 words, ENI-00-0012]

Churches share in opening of jubilee door in Rome
Rome: For the first time in history representatives of the Anglican and Orthodox churches have participated in a key ceremony in Rome marking an official Catholic jubilee year. The year 2000 has been designated by the Vatican as a jubilee year, a time of special importance for Catholics which includes the granting of special "indulgences" - remission of the penalty for sin to be served in Purgatory after death. However, some leading international Protestant organisations pointedly abstained from the ceremony. [1040 words, ENI-00-0013]17 January 2000

100 000 people mourn loss of church leader in southern India
By Anto Akkara, New Delhi: More than 100 000 people, from a wide range of Christian confessions, attended the funeral on 13 January of Metropolitan Alexander Mar Thoma, a highly respected and loved church leader who was head of the (Orthodox) Mar Thoma Syrian church for almost a quarter of a century. The funeral was held at St Thomas Cathedral in Tiruvalla, in the southern Indian state of Kerala, headquarters of the 900 000-member Mar Thoma church. According to church officials, about 200 000 people had also queued up earlier to pay their respects to the Valia (Great) Metropolitan who died in hospital on 11 January at the age of 87. [754 words, ENI-00-0010]

14 January 2000
Poland's Orthodox Church will build cathedral near Warsaw's airport
Warsaw: Poland's minority Orthodox Church is to build a cathedral near Warsaw's airport for Orthodox Christians serving in the nation's armed forces. The cathedral will be the first new Orthodox place of worship for a century in this predominantly Roman Catholic city. It will also be highly visible to all those arriving at the Polish capital's main airport. [860 words, ENI-00-0008]

Lavinia Byrne resigns after Vatican reprimand over liberal views
London: A prominent Roman Catholic nun in Britain has resigned from her order, blaming Vatican authorities for trying to force her into line over the issues of women priests and contraception. Lavinia Byrne, aged 52, is a well-known broadcaster in Britain and, since 1964, a member of a highly respected order of nuns, Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (IBVM) which she joined at the age of 17. She is also the author of seven books, including Woman at the Altar, in which she argued for the ordination of women priests in the Roman Catholic Church. [646 words, ENI 00-0009]

13 January 2000
Zambia's Christian nation status not convincing
Lusaka: Eight years after President Frederick Chiluba officially declared Zambia to be a "Christian nation", the declaration is largely meaningless, according to church leaders and officials. [651 words, ENI-00-0007]

10 January 2000
World Baptist leader's formula for church growth
Melbourne: If churches want to grow, their members must have a disciplined prayer life, according to the incoming president of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA), whose member churches account for 42 million Baptists world-wide. [709 words, ENI-00-0004]

As Russians prepare to elect new president, Putin shows interest in religion
Moscow: Russia's acting president, Vladimir Putin, joined worshippers at the weekend for the first major service held in the huge Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, whose reconstruction is nearing completion. At the service, which began late on 7 January to mark the Orthodox Christmas, Putin, a former colonel in the KGB, made the sign of the cross as he stood among a crowd of other leading politicians. [1085 words, ENI-00-0005]

07 January 2000
Evangelism now 'politically incorrect', Baptist official tells congress
Melbourne: Evangelism - seeking converts to Christianity - has become an embarrassing issue for most mainstream Christian churches, a leading Baptist from the United States has told delegates at the 18th Baptist World Congress. He stressed, however, that Baptists must continue to evangelise, "even if it's politically incorrect, even if others don't want us to". (ENI-00-0003)

1 January 2000
World's Baptists gather for first major church assembly of 2000
Melbourne, Australia: The first major international church assembly of the year 2000 began in Australia today as more than 6000 Baptists from around the globe gathered for the 18th Baptist World Congress which started with an exuberant service of "world praise" at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre. (ENI-00-0001)

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