News from Congo, Open Doors, Uzbekistan & Iraq
- Peace is Precarious in the Congo
- Open Doors Facilitates Training for Persecuted Church Leaders
- Uzbekistan: Uzbeks 'Not Allowed to Have Bibles'?
- New Archbishop of Canterbury Challenges Plans for Attack on
Iraq
Peace is Precarious in the Congo ... According to Mission Network News, a rift is appearing between the two sides who have signed the "Sun City" peace deal in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Tensions are on the rise, and Food For the Hungry's Beth Allen says they're being realistic about this longevity of this agreement. "Just because there's a peace accord signed on paper doesn't mean that it's going to happen. Not all of the factions are necessarily in agreement with it. We're very, very hopeful that the peace will continue, that areas that have suffered violence will become more stable and that we'll be able to work."
But, Allen says security has improved and there are plans for an aid distribution. What's more, it's the first step to helping churches evangelize their communities. "It will allow us to be sharing the Gospel in deed and also to be strengthening the existing church so that it can reach out as well. When churches are distracted, when church members are distracted by things like war, and violence and fear, and churches are divided, the church can't grow."
Open Doors Facilitates Training for Persecuted Church Leaders ... From ASSIST News Service -- Training Christian pastors to help lead and equip their congregations. That is happening all over the world thanks to Open Doors with Brother Andrew, a ministry to the Persecuted Church. Most pastors in the United States have ample opportunities to obtain the training and tools they need to lead effectively. But in many countries where Christians are being persecuted for their faith, church leaders struggle to get vital training in the Bible.
"Delivering God's Word is critical, but backing it up with solid teaching and instruction is vital in supporting and strengthening the Church," says Open Doors USA President Terry Madison. "Persecuted pastors and church leaders need to be equipped with the right resources to lead their congregations. They need instruction so they can teach others. This year Open Doors is training over 100,000 pastors and lay leaders in countries like Sudan, China and India and all over the world."
In several African countries, a course known as the Timothy Training Institute is being used to train pastors. It is based on 2 Timothy 2:2 which instructs us to entrust Biblical truth to "faithful men who will be able to teach others also." Many of the students who have completed the course, which is held for one week each month 10 months out of the year, are now tutoring others.
Currently working in 60 countries with 23 international offices and over 300 staff worldwide, Open Doors with Brother Andrew delivers Bibles and other study materials, provides literacy training and pastoral training and advocates on behalf of those who are persecuted for their faith in Christ Jesus. Open Doors will celebrate 50 years of ministry in 2005. To partner with Open Doors call 949-752-6600, go to its USA web site at www.opendoorsusa.org or write Open Doors with Brother Andrew, PO Box 27001, Santa Ana, CA 92799.
Uzbekistan: Uzbeks 'Not Allowed to Have Bibles'? ... Keston News Service has learned that in Nukus on August 9, police without a search warrant searched an apartment, seized religious literature including a Bible, and claimed that Uzbek citizens were not allowed to have Bibles. The 13 Protestants present were subsequently fined between five and 10 per cent of the minimum wage. The Karakalpakstan authorities have adopted a harsh attitude toward Christians in the Protestant churches. According to Keston, it is all but impossible for communities to register, and many Protestant leaders have been subjected to fines.
On Aug. 21, Keston spoke to the police chief in Khodzhali, Dzhurabek Ametov. According to Ametov, the policemen's actions were within the law, because meetings of unregistered religious associations are prohibited. Ametov denied that his subordinates had told the Protestants that Uzbek citizens were not allowed to have Bibles but admitted that religious literature had been seized from the Protestants and said "I do not believe there was a Bible among the confiscated literature".
New Archbishop Of Canterbury Challenges Plans for Attack on Iraq ... (ENS)-- Archbishop of Canterbury-elect Rowan Williams of Wales has joined other church leaders in questioning the legality and morality of plans for an American-led attack on Iraq in a declaration that was sent to Prime Minister Tony Blair. The declaration was written by Pax Christi, the international Roman Catholic peace movement, and says that "it is deplorable that the world's most powerful nations continue to regard war and the threat of war as an acceptable instrument of foreign policy, in violation of the ethos of both the United Nations and Christian moral teaching."
The statement, signed by over 3,000 leaders, added, "The way to peace does not lie through war but through the transformation of structures of injustice and of the politics of exclusion, and that is the cause to which the West should be devoting its technological, diplomatic and economic resources."
Williams has said that it would be immoral and illegal to support an American war on Iraq without authorization by the United Nations. Bishop Richard Harries of Oxford said it would be difficult to see how military action in Iraq could meet the criterion for a "just war." Church of England theologians argue that a war must have "proper authority and right intent."
Originally published August 26, 2002.
