Religion Today Summaries – June 1, 2005
Daily briefs of the top news stories impacting Christians around the world. In today's edition:
Bread for the World Organizes Historic Interfaith Gathering at Washington
National CathedralNigeria: Continued Fights Between Muslims And Christians
Two Bombs Kill Christians in Tentena, Indonesia
Missionary: Western Europe's Darkness Foreshadows America's Spiritual Decline
Bread for the World Organizes Historic Interfaith Gathering at Washington National Cathedral
Religion News Service
Bread for the World, the nation's largest grassroots lobbying organization on domestic and international hunger issues, is hosting the first-ever Interfaith Convocation on Hunger at the Washington National Cathedral on June 6th. This historic meeting of more than 40 religious leaders will call for the president and Congress to join them in making a commitment to end hunger. Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane of Cape Town, South Africa will preach at the Convocation. He will urge U.S. policymakers to address the needs of more than 852 million people across the world are hungry, including the 36 million people who struggle to put food on the table in America. People of faith concerned about hunger will raise their voices in song and seek guidance from the sacred texts of many faiths. The convocation will be the centerpiece of One Table, Many Voices: A Mobilization to End Poverty and Hunger. Bread for the World, with partners Call to Renewal and America's Second Harvest, will host the conference from June 4-7. Held in Washington, DC, the national gathering will include workshops, plenaries, and a lobby day on Capitol Hill. (www.onetableconference.org) Held on the eve of National Hunger Awareness Day, this convocation will usher in scores of observances around the nation. For a list of local events, visit www.hungerday.org.
Nigeria: Continued Fights Between Muslims And Christians
Charisma News Service
In the city of Lagos, a street fight between Muslims and Christians left four people hospitalized with injuries; properties valued in the millions of dollars were damaged. The clash broke out on April 28. Police said a group of Muslims accosted a Christian woman as she was walking on a street near a mosque and prevented her from passing. A fight broke out between the Muslims and Christians as believers tried to protect the woman. Police arrested 41 people. Over the last four years, religious violence in Nigeria has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people and displaced many thousands more from their homes and farms. Community leaders in Nigeria -- both Muslim and Christian -- blame the escalating violence on social tensions produced by the implementation of Islamic law in a dozen northern states beginning in 2001, Compass reported.
(www.Charismanews.com)
Two Bombs Kill Christians in Tentena, Indonesia
Sarah Page, Compass Direct
Two bombs exploded in a busy market in a refugee village for Christians in Tentena, Indonesia, on Saturday, killing 21 people and injuring 49. The timing of the attack was calculated to inflict the greatest possible damage. One source reported that phone communication was cut off immediately after the explosions and that only two ambulances were available to attend to the wounded. Observers believe the attack could stir up renewed fighting between Christians and Muslims in the troubled province. The bombing may be linked to an earlier raid on a Christian village in Mamasa regency on April 24. A young man arrested in connection with that incident was carrying documents that revealed a wider terrorist plot to carry out bombings and attacks throughout Indonesia.
Missionary: Western Europe's Darkness Foreshadows America's Spiritual Decline
Chad Groening, AgapePress
A Southern Baptist missionary stationed in Madrid, Spain, contends that Western Europe is currently the hardest mission field on Earth. A 32-year-old Christian worker says the hostility to Christianity has become so severe in Europe. He is responsible for ministering to missionary children throughout Western Europe and for taking part in evangelistic efforts. He says it is a tough place to share the gospel. The region is marked by "a spiritual deadness that you can't believe," he notes. The American missionary believes Europe can be viewed as a sort of bellwether for the future cultural and spiritual scene in the U.S. "Living in Europe," he says, "I see Europe as probably 50 years ahead of where the U.S. is going spiritually. In Madrid, the Spanish equivalent of the House of Representatives just legalized same-sex marriages." What has descended on Western Europe, he asserts, is "just a spiritual darkness." He says most people see churches or cathedrals as just "the buildings and nothing else. They are empty on Sunday morning. There's no spiritual sensitivity whatsoever." Nevertheless, he remains prayerful and determined, ever grateful for his opportunity to learn and serve in what feels to him like "the hardest mission field in the world."
Originally published June 01, 2005.
