Piketberg (ENI). Prominent anti-apartheid activist Allan Boesak has been readmitted as a church minister after the clearing of his criminal record by South African President Thabo Mbeki. Boesak was ordained in front of a large crowd of well-wishers at the Uniting Reformed Church - a branch of South Africa's Dutch Reformed Church - at Piketberg in the Western Cape. "Our church will be a beacon of hope to South Africa," Boesak said during his acceptance speech. [382 words, ENI-05-0059]

Church grouping head says Swiss industry 'too often' ignores injustice

Geneva (ENI). The general secretary of the Geneva-based World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC), the Rev. Setri Nyomi, has said Swiss banks and companies have ignored global inequality and he urged Switzerland's economic and political leaders to take a more prominent role in promoting economic justice. "With benefits to the Swiss banking system and other businesses, the Swiss have far too often turned a blind eye to an economic system that is impoverishing a large section of the world, especially in Africa, Latin America and Asia," Nyomi said at the Open Forum Davos, organized as part of the World Economic Forum. [389 words, ENI-05-0060]

US black Baptist churches consider eventual unity, oppose war in Iraq

New York (ENI). Four African American Baptist churches long-divided into separate denominations have taken a first step towards eventual unity and have also declared their opposition to the US-led war in Iraq. The National Baptist Convention, USA, the National Baptist Convention of America, the Progressive National Baptist Convention and the National Missionary Baptist Convention of America ended a meeting, held from 24 to 27 January, with a joint statement that evoked the memory of the late civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr, who late in his life came to oppose the US war in Vietnam. [332 words, ENI-05-0058]

28 January 2005

Jerusalem (ENI). Israel and the Palestinian Authority have asked the Vatican for an audience with Pope John Paul II to win his support for a campaign to bring Roman Catholics from across the world to the Holy Land for religious pilgrimages. "We believe that the time is ripe to further encourage pilgrimage to the Holy Land," Israeli tourism minister Abraham Hirchson and his Palestinian counterpart Metri Abu Aita wrote in a joint letter to the Vatican. They said that if the Pope publicly supported pilgrimage to the Holy Land it would spur a tourist boom that would help both peoples' economies and improve efforts to sow peace in the region. [303 words, ENI-05-0056]

Anglicans in global South urge repentance for US gay bishop consecration

Nairobi (ENI). Anglican church leaders from the southern hemisphere on have called on the Episcopal (Anglican) Church in the United States to repent for consecrating an openly gay man as a bishop. "By their actions they have repudiated the provisions of the scriptures," Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola, the chairman of the Global South Anglican Primates meeting, told journalists in Nairobi after a four-day meeting of the primates, or heads of churches, in the Kenyan capital. The call follows the consecration in 2003 of openly gay V. Gene Robinson as bishop of the US state of New Hampshire, a move that triggered controversy throughout the more than 75-million strong Anglican Communion. [236 words, ENI-05-0057]

As US Super Bowl looms, a 'Souper Bowl' aims to fight hunger

New York (ENI). The Super Bowl - a major annual event in American football - is being supplemented by a parallel initiative to raise money to fight hunger, much of it with support from US churches and other religious groups. The Souper Bowl of Caring, started in 1990 by a single US church congregation, enlists religious groups, schools, volunteer organizations and others to collect money in soup pots on or close to Super Bowl Sunday, which this year falls on 30 January. The Super Bowl is the culminating championship game of the National Football League and this year features a match between the New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles. [381 words, ENI-05-0055]

27 January 2005

Warsaw/Bielefeld (ENI). Church leaders joined heads of state to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp in Poland. More than one million people, mainly Jews, were gassed to death, or died of starvation and disease at Auschwitz. Pope John Paul II said in a message, "This attempt at the systematic destruction of an entire people falls like a shadow on the history of Europe and the whole world; it is a crime which will forever darken the history of humanity." In Germany, Protestant church leaders expressed penitence for anti-Semitism. "It was not only through its silence and neglect that the church became culpable. More than that, it became enmeshed with the systematic annihilation of European Jewry through a fatal tradition of estrangement and enmity towards Jews," they said. [692 words, ENI-05-0054]

Church-linked aid agency appeals for release of three workers in Darfur

New York (ENI). A US-based aid group is appealing for the release of three of its relief workers who were abducted at gunpoint in December in Sudan's western Darfur region, where conflict over the past two years has displaced an estimated 1.5 million people. "We are alarmed and deeply concerned for the safety of our workers. We don't know exactly who abducted them, and we've received no information on their whereabouts or condition," said Byron Scheuneman, senior vice-president of the aid group, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency International (ADRA). [272 words, ENI-05-0052]

Alcohol misuse in Ireland 'ruining young people's lives', says church

London (ENI). An epidemic of "binge drinking" among young people in Ireland is ruining lives, says a church report which demands action to tackle alcohol abuse. "For young people, alcohol misuse is now a stark reality and is accepted as a way of life for far too many," said Archbishop Robin Eames, primate of the (Anglican) Church of Ireland, launching the report in Dublin. "Society can no longer wipe its hands of responsibility through simple condemnation of the alcohol culture among our youth." [341 words, ENI-05-0053]

26 January 2005

Jerusalem (ENI). Israel's Ashkenazi chief rabbi has paid an unprecedented official visit to the headquarters of the Armenian Patriarch in Jerusalem in what is seen as a drive by Israeli officials to improve Jewish-Christian relations in the Holy Land. Rabbi Yona Metzger, one of two chief rabbis, made the visit as part of a series of meetings with Christian leaders to mend relations after a Jewish seminary student attacked an Armenian archbishop last year. "The rabbi condemned attacks against religious clerics and called for mutual respect between all faiths to be upheld in Israel and across the world," Metzger's office said. [400 words, ENI-05-0050]

Churches split as Canada prepares for same-sex marriage vote

Vancouver (ENI). Churches in Canada are finding themselves on different sides in a debate about same-sex marriage as lawmakers prepare to vote on the issue after the country's legislature returns from a Christmas break on 31 January. The Rev. Peter Short, moderator of the United Church of Canada, the country's biggest Protestant denomination, supports the government bill which would amend the marriage law to refer to the union of "two persons" rather than of "a man and a woman". But Cardinal Marc Ouellet, the highest-ranking Roman Catholic clergyman in Canada, said same-sex marriage "could bring in its wake bitter and unpredictable demographic, social, cultural and religious consequences". [313 words, ENI-05-0051]

25 January 2005

Geneva (ENI). A Zimbabwean lawmaker has condemned Harare's Anglican bishop, Nolbert Kunonga, saying the church leader is trampling on the rights of his faithful after the bishop suspended the resident priest in one of the capital's biggest townships. Kunonga in December suspended Paul Gwese, a parish priest in Harare's Glen Norah township, for giving the legislator, Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga, a platform to make a donation during a thanksgiving service. She is the member of parliament for Glen Norah and foreign affairs spokesperson for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party. [330 words, ENI-05-0049]

Asian tsunami spurs reflections on faith

Manila (ENI). As the deaths in Asia due to December's killer tsunami reportedly exceed 200 000, religious leaders and lay people in the Philippines continue to reflect on whether or not the post-Christmas disaster was an act of God. "O God, how could you?" was the title of a newspaper column by Roman Catholic Bishop Teodoro Bacani. The bishop speculated that God allowed the tsunami as a "brutal caress" so that in the end people's love, as shown in the spontaneous worldwide outpouring of support after the disaster, would prevail. Still, in a newspaper commentary responding to Bishop Bacani, Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr, a devout Catholic, questioned such explanations. [314 words, ENI-05-0048]

24 January 2005

Warsaw (ENI). Ukrainian religious leaders have disagreed over calls for a ban on political campaigning in churches, as Viktor Yushchenko was sworn in on Sunday as the country's new president. "Our church could not have stayed silent in the elections when basic principles were being violated - if we had, it would have been a crime," said Roman Catholic Bishop Markijan Trofimiak, reacting to a declaration by some members of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations, calling on the national parliament to deter religious groups from "illegally participating" in political campaigns. [356 words, ENI-05-0047]

African churches not 'winning the war' on AIDS, leaders told

Nairobi (ENI). Leaders of churches in sub-Saharan Africa, the region of the world worst-affected by the AIDS epidemic, say they appear to be failing in their endeavours to get across the message about the disease to their people. "We don't seem to be winning the war," said the Rev. Mvume Dandala, general secretary of the All Africa Conference of Churches in Nairobi. UNAIDS, the United Nations' programme on HIV/AIDS, estimates that while sub-Saharan Africa has just over 10 per cent of the world's population, it is home to two-thirds of all people living with HIV. [335 words, ENI-05-0046]

21 January 2005

New York (ENI). President George W. Bush evoked both the Bible and the Koran in an inaugural speech laced with themes of liberty and freedom to mark the start of his second term as the 43rd president of the United States. "In America's ideal of freedom, the public interest depends on private character," Bush said at the ceremony in Washington DC. "That edifice of character is built in families, supported by communities with standards, and sustained in our national life by the truths of Sinai, the Sermon on the Mount, the words of the Koran, and the varied faiths of our people." [334 words, ENI-05-0044]

S. African Anglican pleads for forgotten tsunami victim, Somalia

Nairobi (ENI). South African Anglican Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane has said the town of Hafun in Somalia urgently needs for humanitarian assistance after it was hit hard by December's tsunami that devastated countries in the Indian Ocean rim and beyond. "We have seen and heard the enormous damage caused by the tsunami. The heart and soul of the Hafun community has been shattered," Ndungane told journalists after arriving in Nairobi from Somalia where he had visited the stricken area. "A thriving self-reliant community is devastated and traumatised." [356 words, ENI-05-0045]

World Council of Churches' history to be preserved on microfilm

Geneva (ENI). The World Council of Churches and the Yale University Divinity Library have signed an agreement for long-term funding to microfilm WCC archives, seen as a unique source for 20th century church history. "It is very important ecumenical cooperation at a time when knowledge is so important [for] preserving the ecumenical memory," said WCC general secretary Samuel Kobia after the official signature ceremony at the council's library in Geneva. [324 words, ENI-05-0043]

20 January 2005

Nias, Indonesia (ENI). Almost a month after tidal waves engulfed shorelines across continents, people are still stranded in parts of Indonesia as emergency helpers battle to reach areas where bridges and roads were swept away and helicopters cannot land. International media attention has focussed on flattened cities like Banda Aceh and Meulaboh on Sumatra island. These have seen an outpouring of global compassion and assistance has reached them. But on the west coast of Indonesia there are still people stranded despite efforts to reach them. [573 words, ENI-05-0042]

Churches remember tsunami victims in East Africa

Nairobi (ENI). South African church leaders have made a fact-finding study in Somalia to assess damage from December's tsunami and explore ways of distributing money collected by religious communities in their country to help disaster victims. Anglican Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane of Cape Town and South African Council of Churches general secretary made the visit. [388 words, ENI-05-0041]

19 January 2005

Nairobi, 19 January (ENI) --A rise in drug and alcohol abuse among youth in Kenya is worrying church and civil society groups, which have warned the situation could get out of hand if no immediate action is taken. "Many people have become addicted," the Rev. Wellington Sanga, the conference secretary of the Methodist Church of Kenya told Ecumenical News International. Sanga said churches had to continue to teach against the drugs and alcohol abuse. "We don't want people to say the Church never told us the truth." [388 words, ENI-05-0040]

Beatles link fails to save Strawberry Field children's home

London (ENI). Its global fame as the inspiration for the Beatles song could not save Strawberry Field from becoming the latest statistic in a trend of how society looks after vulnerable children. The Salvation Army, operators of the Liverpool children's home, explained that large residential units are scarcely needed any more: they have been replaced by fostering with families or smaller group homes. When its closure was announced on 12 January, just three children remained at Strawberry Field. [430 words, ENI-05-0039]

18 January 2005

Geneva (ENI). Church groups in Zimbabwe have deplored as "a blatant example of gross injustice," the jail term imposed by the country's parliament on opposition lawmaker Roy Bennettt, now serving a hard-labour sentence and living in a cramped cell with 38 criminals. Bennett began one year in prison on 28 October after being sentenced without a court trial, for a scuffle involving another legislator. "We view Roy Bennett as being a representative of all those who have been detained without trial through the abuse of the legal system and all those who are being held in subhuman condition in jails and holding cells across the country," the Churches together for Justice and Peace group said. [505 words, ENI-05-0037]

Indian churches urge end to post-tsunami seafood boycott

New Delhi (ENI). Sharply declining fish sales, partly sustained by a seafood boycott because of superstitious fears following December's tsunami, have triggered a crash in fish prices prompting Indian churches to urge fish-eating to help millions dependent on fishing. "We need to educate the people to ignore irrational fears and rumours," said Roman Catholic priest Xavier Pinto, coordinator of the church's Apostleship of the Sea in South Asia. The tsunami has claimed more than 175 000 lives in south and southeast Asia and has also ruined a once prosperous southern Indian regional industry leaving fisherfolk homeless and with no livelihood. [446 words, ENI-05-0036]

Bulgarian government snuffs tax on church candles

Sofia (ENI). Bulgarian Orthodox Church head Patriarch Maxim has made some gains in a meeting with the country's finance minister, including an agreement to exempt the sale of church candles from Value Added Tax (VAT), said a government official. The sale of candles is a lucrative business in a country where the burning of tapers is an everyday part of Orthodox church rites. [444 words, ENI-05-0038]

17 January 2005

Johannesburg (ENI). South African President Thabo Mbeki's pardon for convicted cleric and anti-apartheid activist Dr Allan Boesak has been welcomed by the country's Anglican leader but condemned by the official political opposition as cronyism. Anglican Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane of Cape Town said the pardon for the former president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches was "good news. It will enable Allan to make a fresh start and enjoy the fruits of the struggle in which he played a big part." [445 words, ENI-05-0035]

US Episcopal bishops offer guarded apology for gay bishop ordination

New York (ENI). US Episcopal bishops have offered a guarded apology for the controversy surrounding the consecration of openly gay Bishop V. Gene Robinson but have refused to back down from the action that has threatened to split the worldwide Anglican Communion. Responding to a call by a special Anglican commission that the Episcopal Church apologise for Robinson's election and consecration, the bishops at a 12-13 January meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah, said they understood the actions "contributed to the current strains in our Communion" and had caused "pain", "hurt", and "damage". [331 words, ENI-05-0032]

Orthodox see hope for reform in World Council of Churches

Sofia (ENI). A meeting of leaders of Orthodox churches that are members of the World Council of Churches has taken a positive view of proposals to reform WCC worship and decision-making procedures to accommodate concerns of Orthodox churches. The proposals were drawn up by a special commission set up by the council in the late 1990s to deal with Orthodox concerns that the Geneva-based WCC was too dominated by Protestant theology and decision-making styles. [445 words, ENI-05-0033]

Film set in UK Muslim community wins Templeton European award

Geneva (ENI). The film "Yasmin" about a Muslim community in northern England and which deals with Islamophobia has won the John Templeton European Film of the Year Award 2004. The award is presented on behalf of the US-based Templeton Foundation by the International Church Film Organization INTERFILM and the Conference of European Churches, and is chosen by an international jury, the CEC said in a release on Monday. "Yasmin" features Archie Panjabi, who appeared in popular films like "East Is East" and "Bend It Like Beckham" which portray Asian families dealing with their new culture in modern Britain. [353 words, ENI-05-0034]

Germans want churches open during the day

Bielefeld, Germany (ENI). An opinion poll in Germany has found that almost three-quarters of those surveyed would like to see church buildings open during the week, not only at weekends and during services. The survey comes at a time when many of Germany's Protestant churches are looking at ways to keep their sanctuary doors open during the week. They are often closed due to fears of burglary or vandalism. [357 words, ENI-05-0031]

14 January 2005

Paris, 14 January (ENI)--The main body representing Protestants in avowedly-secular France has warned of a climate of "secularist zeal" as the country marks the centenary this year of the separation of church and state. At a meeting with French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, the president of the Protestant Federation of France, the Rev. Jean-Arnold de Clermont, said Protestant churches were facing a host of "administrative irritations". [439 words, ENI-05-0028]

Religious leaders call on Bush to push Middle East peace

New York (ENI). Religious leaders are calling on US President George W. Bush to renew efforts to settle the long-standing dispute between Israel and the Palestinians. "Israelis and Palestinians and Arab states need America's help," said members of the National Interreligious Leadership Initiative for Peace in the Middle East in a joint statement following the election of Mahmoud Abbas to head the Palestinian Authority. In Geneva, Lutheran World Federation general secretary, the Rev. Ishmael Noko, said the election of Abbas offered both Israelis and Palestinians "a new chance for peace" in the Holy Land [385 words, ENI-05-0029]

Orthodox church head rejects US claims of anti-Semitism in Greece

Sofia (ENI). A United States Department of State report on anti-Semitism that made several critical remarks about Greece has led Archbishop Christodoulos, head of the Church of Greece, to reject the allegations as unfair. The state department said there was a disturbing rise of anti-Semitic intimidation and incidents throughout Europe. The report said the Vienna-based European Union Monitoring Centre, in reports for 2002 and 2003, identified France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Belgium, and The Netherlands as EU member countries with notable increases in incidents. [424 words, ENI-05-0030]

World gives for tsunami recovery but urged not to forget other crises

Geneva (ENI). The tsunami that swept away tens of thousands of people after one massive shudder of the earth ruined the lives of millions, has also triggered a massive outpouring of humanity forging a global unity to ease the suffering. But some emergency aid experts have urged people not to forget crises that will not go away. [440 words, ENI-05-0027]

14 January 2005

Geneva, 13 January (ENI)--A feud is raging between an Anglican parish in one of Harare's biggest townships and the head of the church, a known supporter of President Robert Mugabe, in the Zimbabwean capital following the suspension of the parish's resident priest. Harare's Anglican bishop, Nolbert Kunonga, in late December suspended Paul Gwese, the resident priest for the St Francis of Assisi parish in Glen Norah township, fMushonga a platform to make a Z$1.5 million (US$270) donation to the church during thanksgiving on 16 December last year. [390 words, ENI-05-0025]

Filipino lawmaker says 'bigotry' to blame for arrest of Muslims

Manila (ENI). A Filipino lawmaker has said that the arrest of 17 Muslims in connection with an alleged plot to sow violence during a Roman Catholic festival, reeks of "Islamophobia" and "bigotry". Police raided the Islamic Foundation Centre in Manila on 7 January and arrested Muslims who were allegedly involved in what police said was a "terror plot" to create violence during a celebration of the feast of the Black Nazarene. The Roman Catholic ceremony in Manila's Quiapo district, assembled an estimated half-a-million faithful and honoured the Black Nazarene, a wooden life-size statue of Jesus brought from Mexico by Spaniards in 1606. [318 words, ENI-05-0026]

Polish Lutherans say some women can lead services

Warsaw (ENI). Poland's Lutheran church, which does not ordain women as pastors, has told other European Protestant churches that female pastors from these churches can lead services in Poland following a statement that was seen refuting such a case. "Of course, women pastors from abroad can participate in and lead our services - the only issues are practical ones," Marcin Brzoska, spokesman for the 90 000-member Lutheran church told Ecumenical News International, noting that in some cases language criteria would have to be met. [463 words, ENI-05-0024]

12 January 2005

Banda Aceh, Indonesia (ENI). The Indonesian government has imposed travel restrictions on foreign aid organisations and international media operating in the troubled province of Aceh which bore the brunt of the tsunami that wreaked havoc in south and southeast Asia. Indonesia's social welfare minister, The restrictions are seen as an effort to control the influx of foreign aid groups and media that have poured into Banda Aceh, the capital of the province close to the epicentre of the earthquake that triggered the tsunami, resulting in more than 155 000 deaths in the Indian Ocean rim area. [537 words, ENI-05-0023]

Indian bishop still marooned in far-flung islands after tsunami

Thrissur, India (ENI). Bishop Christopher Paul who heads the Church of North India diocese of the Andaman and Nicobar islands has yet to set foot in his office in the islands' administrative capital, Port Blair, following the tsunami devastation there. "Our bishop is literally in the jungle with everything, his residence and office, wiped out in the earthquake and the tsunami waves," said the Rev. Enos Das Pradhan, the denomination's general secretary. [420 words, ENI-05-0021]

Malawi churches want round-table after talk of foiled coup

Blantyre, Malawi (ENI). Religious leaders in Malawi have offered to mediate in a bitter dispute involving rival factions of the ruling United Democratic Front party, saying urgent action is needed to avoid civil disorder following an apparent foiled coup attempt. Civil society and the churches have joined hands in calling for talks after the attempted coup carried out by politicians loyal to the retired president Bakili Muluzi and who are alleged to have plotted to assassinate his successor Bingu wa Mutharika on 5 January. [469 words, ENI-05-0022]

11 January 2005

Galle, Sri Lanka (ENI). The work of a pastor is never easy. After disaster struck countries within the Indian Ocean rim on 26 December the work of priests and pastors has been unending, as they tend to millions of people in the region left traumatised in deep shock. After the tsunami thrust thousands of tons of water on her community, sweeping away everything in its path, 17-year-old Lilly Theresa in the town of Trincomalee on Sri Lanka's east coast has not been able to talk. She lost four of her brothers and two of her sisters. [625 words, ENI-05-0020]

Sudanese churches say huge resources needed to resettle refugees

Nairobi (ENI). Sudanese church leaders say they are ready to receive millions of refugees returning home following the signing of an agreement to end Sudan's civil war but caution that huge resources will be needed to resettle the returnees. "They don't have homes. They don't have food. Our challenge is how we can resettle them," Archbishop Joseph Marona of the Episcopal Church of Sudan told Ecumenical News International in Nairobi. "These are great challenges. We will need huge resources." [360 words, ENI-05-0019]

Episcopal Bishop rocks for Alaskan mission

Cincinnati, Ohio (ENI). US bishop John Bryson Chane has swapped his episcopal mitre for drumsticks to produce a rock and blues compact disc that has already made US$6000 in sales towards the church's youth missionary work in Alaska. "I hope we can make a lot of money out of it for the kids," said Chane who is Episcopal (Anglican) bishop of Washington DC and a former rock and blues drummer. [366 words, ENI-05-0018]

10 January 2005

Nairobi (ENI). Sudanese church leaders have expressed happiness at the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed in Nairobi on Sunday, but warn the actual work for holding in check a decades-long racial, religious and economic conflict has just begun. "Many people in southern Sudan are joyful about this signing of peace," Archbishop Joseph Marona of the Episcopal Church of Sudan told Ecumenical News International. " Marona, however, challenged churches to take a lead in reconciling a traumatised community, and he noted the real work for peace was just starting. [494 words, ENI-05-0016]

'Green' reconstruction call for tsunami-devastated communities

Geneva (ENI). The conservation group World Wide Fund for Nature says poorly planned coastal development had compounded the impact of the tsunami killer waves in the Indian Ocean and called on governments to ensure that reconstruction efforts are ecologically sustainable. "It is vital that we don't make the mistakes of the past," said Mubariq Ahmad, head of WWF Indonesia. "We need to rebuild in a sustainable and safe way." There is no direct link between climate change and the tsunami, but the rise of sea levels due to climate change could pose as great a risk to low-lying areas as the massive sea waves, say some Christian leaders. [552 words, ENI-05-0017]

7 January 2005

New Delhi (ENI). Maoist rebels in the central Indian state of Chattisgarh, who killed a police officer in a land mine explosion in a neighbouring state, are raising religious leaders' fears about the threat to freedom of belief in their area. An Indian police officer has been killed in a landmine blast in the state of Bihar's Munger district, illustrating the problems the rebels pose. In December, the Maoist rebels torched a Roman Catholic church in an area where the inhabitants are known locally as "tribal people", after the rebels had damaged several Hindu temples. [419 words, ENI-05-0015]

Meningitis halts hugging, holding hands in Philippine churches

Baguio City, Philippines (ENI). A deadly meningitis strain that has claimed 27 lives since March last year, most of them in this northern Philippine summer capital, has prompted the Roman Catholic Church here to change some liturgical customs at its services. "I already instructed my priests to give communion into the hand, and not into the mouth as was the tradition," Bishop Carlito Cenzon of the Baguio diocese told Ecumenical News International. [453 words, ENI-05-0013]

Nigeria's Christian leaders want good government in 2005

Abuja (ENI). Nigeria's Christian leaders have started the year by calling on the government of their oil-rich country - registered by Transparency International as one of the most corrupt - to work to alleviate the sufferings of Nigerians through good governance. And President Obasanjo Olusegun in a year-end message urged both Muslims, who make up about 50 per cent of Nigerians, and the 40 per cent Christians to embrace one another and reject religious intolerance. [343 words, ENI-05-0014]

6 January 2005

Manila (ENI). A national day of prayer for the victims of the tsunami that wreaked mayhem in the Indian Ocean rim, has been declared for 9 January by the Roman Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines, a country last year battered by four strong typhoons. "Our country received an outpouring of support from our Asian neighbours and other countries when many of our brothers and sisters were also battered by the last typhoons," said Bishop Carlito Cenzon of Baguio. "It is time for us to reciprocate." [340 words, ENI-05-0010]

Unity calls in Russian, Serbian Orthodox Christmas messages

Sofia (ENI). Some Orthodox churches that retain the Julian calendar celebrated Christmas on Thursday, with the Russian and Serbian Orthodox Church Patriarchs making calls for unity and highlighting political issues. In Moscow, Patriarch Alexei II of Moscow and All Russia said that the past year had been a difficult one for Russia. [411 words, ENI-05-0012]

Some Zambian clergy hot under the collar about Islam

Lusaka (ENI). A war of words has erupted between some Christian clergy and Muslims in Zambia, a country that was declared a "Christian nation" in 1992 by its then President Frederick Chiluba, but which has a tradition of religious tolerance. Some Christian leaders have said Islamic proselytisers are taking advantage of Zambia's dire poverty by giving gifts to woo people into becoming Muslims, which they see as unfair. Still, other church clerics have said that Islam is not a threat to Christianity. [545 words, ENI-05-0011]

5 January 2005

Maputo (ENI). A senior Roman Catholic bishop has sharply criticised the process in Mozambique's recently concluded elections for lacking transparency and said manipulation had kept the ruling party ensconced in power. The poll was conducted on 1 and 2 December, and the results gave the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo) 63 per cent of the votes against the opposition Mozambique National Resistance (Renamo) party's 34 per cent. After 18 years as president, Joaquim Chissano's anointed successor, business magnate Armando Guebuza, will lead the country. [419 words, ENI-05-0009]

Church leaders decry dire situation in Nigerian prisons

Abeokuta, Nigeria (ENI). Church leaders in Nigeria have reiterated concerns about the dire state of the country's prisons, saying the institutions are not reforming inmates but turning them into hardened criminals. Pastor Enoch Adeboye, general overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, urged governors and chief judges of states to do everything possible to free people in prison awaiting trial, repeating calls made in 2004 against horrific prison conditions. [403 words, ENI-05-0007]

Apathy marks British approach to religion, survey finds

London (ENI). A dramatic fall in religious belief over a generation has emerged from a major survey in Britain, with less than half of respondents expressing belief in God compared with more than three-quarters in 1968. "The national mood appears to be one of benign indifference," noted Anthony King, a professor at Essex University, and the polling specialist of the Daily Telegraph newspaper, which published the poll by the YouGov research company. [365 words, ENI-05-0008]

4 January 2005

Thrissur, India (ENI). The National Christian Council of Sri Lanka on Tuesday decried looting in areas devastated by the tsunami that have led to the death of some 150 000 people in the Indian Ocean rim, a toll still climbing. The grouping of eight major Protestant churches in the island nation expressed "deepest sympathies" to families hit by the 26 December tidal wave surges but it denounced attempts "to loot and plunder" possessions of those caught in one of the world's worst natural disasters. [517 words, ENI-05-0006]

British TV hit show boosts global anti-poverty campaign

London (ENI). Organizers of a campaign against global poverty hope wearers of their signature white arm-bands will become as common a sight as those with pink ribbons to support breast cancer research and red ribbons to help HIV/AIDS victims. The campaign received a boost when the internationally popular British Broadcasting Corporation television comedy, "The Vicar of Dibley" - screened in Britain on New Year's Day - showed star Dawn French, who plays the female vicar, and other main characters, wearing white arm-bands. [345 words, ENI-05-0005]

Swiss foundation rescues Alpine monks' St Bernard dogs

Geneva (ENI). A Swiss foundation is to take over the stock of St Bernard mountain dogs which Roman Catholic monks put up for sale because they did not have the resources to look after the creatures famed for rescuing travellers in the Alps. The foundation is being set up in January to look after the dogs, and a former Geneva private banker is to donate 4 million Swiss francs (US$3.47 million) to build a museum for them in Martigny, a town of 14 000 inhabitants in the Rhone Valley. [395 words, ENI-05-0004]

3 January 2005

Nairobi, 3 January (ENI)--Church leaders have breathed a sigh of relief that Sudan's government and the rebel Sudan Peoples' Liberation Movement/Army have signed a permanent cease-fire in Kenya, paving the way for ending one of Africa's longest running civil wars. "We can now prepare to go home," the Rev. Daruka Nyagak of the Episcopal Church of Sudan told Ecumenical News International in Naivasha, about 80 kilometres west of Nairobi. Nyagak lost all her children in the 21-year civil war between the mainly-Muslim north and the predominantly animist and Christian south. [431 words, ENI-05-0001]

Mwanawasa turning Zambia into police state, say church leaders

Lusaka, 3 January (ENI)--Zambian church leaders have joined forces in castigating President Levy Mwanawasa for allowing the use of force by police to crush a peaceful but illegal political demonstration in Lusaka that was demanding a new constitution. Zambia Episcopal Conference of Roman Catholic bishops' secretary general, the Rev. Joe Komakoma, and Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia's executive director, Bishop Paul Mususu, agreed the president was turning his country into a police state so as to entrench himself in power. [337 words, ENI-05-0002]

Basketball concerts are Filipino bishop's recipe to mobilise clergy

Baguio City, Philippines, 3 January (ENI)--The head of the Philippines' newest Roman Catholic diocese is using sports such as basketball and billiards to promote "bonding" with his priests to help them be effective in communicating the message of the Church. "We in the clergy also have to strengthen our own union and bonding," said Bishop Carlito Cenzon in an interview with Ecumenical News International after he was installed as bishop of the new diocese of Baguio, in northern Philippines. [416 words, ENI-05-0003]

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