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C U R R E N T N E W S S U M M A R Y
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by the Editors at ReligionToday.com
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> May 24, 1999
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> Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox leaders in Chile
have signed an historic agreement recognizing baptisms performed
in each other's churches. Each church will honor all water
baptisms "celebrated as a sacrament" in the name of the
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Latin American and Caribbean News
Service said. ...Baptism is an unbreakable tie that unites Jesus
Christ to all Christians in all times and places, a document
signed by the leaders says. It recommends that a common format
for baptism be established. This is "a step along the way
toward the visible unity of the single Body of Christ, so that
the world can believe," the document says. ...Ten
theologians from the churches worked for two years to create the
document. Signers include Catholic Archbishop of Santiago
Francisco Javier Errazuriz; Sergio Abad, Metropolitan Archbishop
of the Orthodox Church; Martin Junge of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church; and Bishops Neftali Aravena of the Methodist Church and
Jose Flores of the Communion of Brothers Church. ...It also was
signed by pastor Narciso Sepulveda of the Pentecostal Mission
Church, Bishop Carlos Navarrete of the Church of the Evangelical
Reform, Bishop Roberto Garrido of the Evangelical Wesleyan
Corporation, Bishop Sinforiano Gutierrez of the Free Pentecostals
Church, pastor Juana Albornoz of the Universal Apostolic Mission
Church, and Sister Blanca Vitalia Cancino of the Evangelical
Corporation of Sendas Antiguas.
> A U.S. commission that will investigate violations of
religious freedom around the world is fully staffed, funded, and
ready to start work. Congress approved funding for the 10-member
Commission on International Freedom May 20, the office of U.S.
Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) told Religion Today. The commission was
created as part of the International Religious Freedom Act, which
Congress passed last year. ...The commission will recommend a
range of policy options to the
> administration depending on the severity of the persecution.
Its findings will be submitted to the Congress, the secretary of
state, and the president by May 1 of each year. The commission
will "make a big difference in helping to identify and put
an end to religious freedom violations around the world,"
Wolf said. ...An ambassador-at-large will head the Office on
International
> Religious Freedom at the State Department. Robert Seiple
(see link #1 below), former president of the Christian relief and
development group World Vision, was sworn into that position (see
link #2 below) May 5. ...Commission members are Elliott Abrams,
president of Ethics and Public Policy; Laila Al-Maryati,
president of the Muslim Women's League; John Bolton of the
American Enterprise Institute; Firuz Kazemzadeh, an official in
the Baha'i religion; Archbishop Theodore McCarrick of the Roman
Catholic Diocese of Newark, N.J.; Rabbi David Saperstein,
director of the Religious Action Center;
> Nina Shea, director of the Center for Religious Freedom at
Freedom House; Charles Smith, a judge on the Washington State
Supreme Court; and Michael Young, dean of George Washington
University Law School.
> A group of Native American and white Christians are walking
together through the Southeast United States. They stop at sites
that were ancient Cherokee homelands before the tribe was driven
away by British and American troops, and at places where treaties
with the tribe were broken, Gene Brooks, a member of the group,
said. White members ask the Cherokee members to forgive the acts
of their ancestors, then pray that God will forgive and heal
divisions between their races. ...The team completed part of its
journey, a 250-mile trek through South Carolina, on May 20. It
will travel through western North Carolina in the fall, and go to
Tennessee and Georgia next year.
> ..."We have wartime records of what happened in these
towns. It was unadulterated genocide," Brooks said. It's
time a generation confessed these acts and asked for "the
healing of our wounds," he said. Forgiveness is difficult to
extend, Ad Winn, a Cherokee, said. "The anger that would
rise up in you was overwhelming. When I released it, then I could
forgive in the name of Jesus."
> Jordan's only Protestant seminary can buy land to build a
new campus in Amman. The school received approval from the
Intelligence Services April 29 after a nine-month wait, Compass
Direct News said. ...The school offers bachelor's and master's
degree programs and internships to train Arab church leaders.
There are more than 100 full-time students from Jordan and 13
other countries, and about one-third are women. Intelligence
Services officials expelled three students from Jordan this year.
They are former Muslims who converted to Christianity
> Government bulldozers destroyed a church and Christian
school in a shantytown on the edge of Khartoum, Sudan, last week
while leaving Muslim buildings intact. The buildings belonged to
the Episcopal Church of Sudan, Reuters news service said. Another
school and a church belonging to the Presbyterian Church also
were torn down, and four Catholic schools reportedly have been
given demolition notices. Officials said the buildings were
illegally built in unzoned areas. Mosques and a Koranic school
nearby were left untouched, a community leader said. Civil war in
the mainly Christian and animist south have caused thousands of
people to take refuge around Khartoum, where they have
constructed makeshift homes.
> A ministry provides food and education to children in
Khartoum shantytowns. Save the Saveable helps Christian refugees
who have fled from Muslim-Christian fighting and are living near
the capital, the Barnabas Fund said. Many can't attend school
because they are scavenging for food, and those who do reportedly
are threatened by Muslim students and pressured by teachers to
convert. "I was beaten because I told them I believe in
Jesus," a 7-year-old girl told her aunt. Save the Saveable
provides bread, beans, milk, and educational materials. To help
support the project, contact the Barnabas Fund at P.O. Box 16474,
Washington, DC 20041.
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> RELATED LINKS:
> 1:
http://www.religiontoday.com/Archive/NewsSummary/view.cgi?file=19981028.brf.
html
> 2: http://secretary.state.gov/www/briefings/statements/1999/ps990505.html
