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(ENI)--Two clerics have joined Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu, the former Anglican archbishop of Cape Town, fasting in solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe, which faces a collapsing economic and political order and reports of a military alert amid fears of a coup.
(ENI)--ACT International, a global humanitarian alliance of churches and agencies, says a hospital it supports in the densely-populated Shijaiya part of Gaza was reduced to rubble when the building was hit by an Israeli missile.
Richard John Neuhaus (1936-2009) was a Canadian become American, a Lutheran pastor become Catholic priest, a political liberal become conservative, and an all-around intellectual. His life journey made for an interesting mix of convictions and perspectives that, frankly, speak the language of so many post-moderns being dubbed the “O-generation” (hint: “O” for Obama).
(ENI) — Richard John Neuhaus, an activist U.S. Lutheran minister who became a prominent Roman Catholic priest is being remembered for his influential role in the rise of U.S. religious conservatism.
(ENI)--Church leaders in Muslim-majority Bangladesh have hailed the landslide victory of secular parties in national elections two years after a state of emergency was declared due to political violence.
"We are really exited about this result. It is a New Year gift to the nation," Elgin Saha, outgoing president of the National Christian Council of Bangladesh told Ecumenical News International on January 9 from Dhaka.
(ENI)--A South African bishop who came to prominence fighting apartheid has called Zimbabwe's crisis a slow genocide. He was speaking during the launch by a civil society grouping of a campaign to highlight the "immoral" role played by South African government in supporting Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe.
Bishop Paul Verryn, of the Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg, which is housing hundreds of Zimbabwean refugees, said on January 8, "We are witnessing a slow genocide in Zimbabwe."
Verryn spoke at a media briefing on an undercover mission in December to Zimbabwe by members of “Civicus,” an international alliance of non-governmental organizations. It announced it would send a DVD "video letter" entitled "Time2Act" to leaders of Zimbabwe's neighboring countries.
(ENI)--Church agencies and analysts have warned that an agreement signed four years ago to put an end to a two-decade long civil war in Sudan is threatened with breakdown, thereby endangering the already fragile Horn of Africa region.
The pact, called the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, signed on January9, 2005, ended a 22-year civil war between Sudan's central government and the southern-based Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army.
ENI)--Pope Benedict XVI has called for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, warning of "damage and suffering for the civilian population," while controversy has broken out over a Vatican cardinal's remarks comparing Gaza to a concentration camp.
"Military options are no solution and violence, wherever it comes from and whatever form it takes, must be firmly condemned," Pope Benedict said on January 8 at the Vatican as he engaged in his yearly address to diplomats accredited to the Holy See.
With the U.S. economic crisis deepening and unemployment soaring, a group of 11 denominational and religious organization leaders are among the inaugural signers of a call to raise the federal minimum wage to $10 in 2010.
The signers include Gradye Parsons, General Assembly stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Nearly 400 faith leaders from all 50 states have already endorsed “$10 in 2010,” a campaign led by “Let Justice Roll;” more are signing on each day.
As our congregations respond bravely to the worsening recession, we should also learn from it.
Last January, I became Committee of Counsel in the court action: Memorial Park Presbyterian Church v. Pittsburgh Presbytery. Memorial Park had filed a complaint to the Allegheny County common pleas court seeking to quiet title the property on which the congregation worships.
(RNS) A longtime executive of evangelical organizations became the new president of the American Bible Society on Jan. 1.
(ABP) — President Bush’s administration and a host of court rulings have indelibly altered the way that the federal government relates to religious charities, according to an analysis by experts on the subject.
Steve Monsma is senior research fellow at the Henry Institute for the Study of Christianity and Politics at Calvin College and professor..
Perilous times plagued our nation in the days before Lincoln and Obama took presidential oaths. Both realized one dynamic was certain: Uncertainty.
(PNS) The author of a book that calls for the acknowledgement and repentance of the morally negative events of America’s past is the winner of the 2009 Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion.
Chuy Gallegos, pastor of a Hispanic immigrant fellowship in Greenville, S.C., responds to questions by Leslie Scanlon, Outlook national reporter, about the impact on his congregation of the October raid on the Columbia Farms poultry plant.
Many people concerned about immigration reform will be watching the start of the Obama administration carefully, looking for indications of how the new president will lean on one of the nation’s most divisive issues.
Some convergences of timing — no matter how amazing — reflect little more than a coincidence. That an African-American would be inaugurated as the president of the United States just 23 days before the 200th birthday of the president who proclaimed emancipation for African-Americans is just such a coincidence.
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance has issued the following report and appeal today (January 9):
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
For surely I know the plans I have for you…to give you a future with hope.” Jeremiah 29:11
All people impacted by the current violence in the Middle East are facing overwhelming humanitarian needs as a result of the continuing violence. The most basic needs — safe shelter, medical care, food, water, electricity — are well beyond the reach of many of those caught in the crossfire.
The Presbyterian Writers Guild is again seeking entries for the James Angell Award to be presented to the best first book published by a Presbyterian author during the calendar year of 2008. The Guild and the family of James Angell, a prolific and respected Presbyterian writer, established the award to recognize and encourage new writers.
LOUISVILLE — Leaders of the Geneva-based World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) have called upon member churches to pray for an immediate cease-fire and for “a lasting peace with justice in this region ...”
“None of the violence is acceptable,” said WARC President Clifton Kirkpatrick of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and WARC General Secretary Setri Nyomi — a Ghanaian Presbyterian — in their Jan. 7 statement, entitled “A Call to Prayer and Action to End the Violence in Gaza.”
(ENI)--The University of California in Santa Barbara is to host what it says is a first-of-its-kind series of meetings between humanitarian organization leaders and scholars in international studies to examine the role of religion in human rights work around the globe.
The Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies at the university will conduct the research thanks to a $400,000 grant awarded by the Henry Luce Foundation.
(ENI)--A new book on Vatican diplomacy during World War II that examines the stance of Pope Pius XII on the persecution of the Jews has been hailed as "a path-breaking study" that will shed light on a controversial issue facing the Roman Catholic Church.
The book by Charles R. Gallagher, a London-based Jesuit priest, tells the story of Joseph Patrick Hurley, a priest who was the first U.S. citizen to become a diplomat for the Vatican, and who found himself embroiled in debates about communism and Nazism during the build-up to war in the 1930s.
LOUISVILLE — Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly Stated Clerk Gradye Parsons called Jan. 7 for an immediate end to the violence in Israel/Palestine and reiterated the church’s call for the “two-state solution” endorsed by the Bush administration and the World Council of Churches among many others.
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