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World Council of Churches – News Release

KOBIA URGES THE “COURAGE TO HOPE”

Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia sounded notes of hope as he delivered his final address as general secretary to the World Council of Churches central committee on 26 August.

“I hope it is unnecessary to emphasize that the ‘courage to hope’ has been a central theme of my personal ecumenical journey,” Kobia said. “Holding together cross and resurrection, the sinful reality we are facing and the good news of the gospel, hope in Christ combines realism with the inspiring vision of God’s reign to come.”

He pointed to examples of resilience in places such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, the Philippines, and Israel-Palestine – where he said the “effects of occupation are easily evident”. Kobia said he has valued the “pastoral dimension” of his role, walking with churches in those difficult situations so they know “they are not alone”.

“As I have travelled around the world, I have seen and heard expressions of despair and pessimism in all regions of the world,” Kobia said in a press conference following the address. “I thought that as I did my last report as general secretary that I would come back to what has been a major preoccupation of mine – whether the ecumenical movement can inspire hope … in situations that would otherwise seem hopeless.”

The comprehensive address touched on a host of other issues, including the need for greater involvement of youth and young adults in the ecumenical movement, the impact of migrant communities, climate change, the shifting dynamics of ecumenism in the 21st century and the new models of work into which the WCC is living.

He listed care for creation, interreligious cooperation and “the cry for transformative justice” as major areas the WCC has addressed “with greater urgency”. The current greed-driven economic crisis has added to global concerns, he said, and further constrained the WCC’s own financial situation.

Amid the many challenges, Kobia urged those present to maintain hope themselves, and not to lose focus.

“I plead with you not to lose sight of the greater picture or to get bogged down in the institutional necessities and concerns,” he said. “Let us always remind ourselves of the broader vision, which holds the key for the future of humanity and this world. This future has taken shape among us in Christ, in his death on the cross and resurrection.”

By Ethan Cole – Christian Post Reporter

Functioning as the main decision-making body of the World Council of Churches between assemblies, the Central Committee will meet from Aug. 26 to Sept. 2 to plan for the next WCC Assembly and to decide who will be its next leader.

Its current general secretary, the Rev. Dr. Samuel Kobia, had announced last February that he would not seek a second term in office.

Vying for the position are the Rev. Dr. Park Seong-won of the Presbyterian Church of Korea and the Rev. Dr. Olav Fykse Tveit of the Church of Norway (Lutheran).

Dr. Park is a professor of Theology at Youngnam Theological University and Seminary in the southeastern province of Kyeongsan, South Korea. He was previously executive secretary of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches’ Department of Cooperation and Witness.

Park is a member of the WCC Central Committee and serves on the Ecumenical Committee of the Presbyterian Church of Korea.

Meanwhile, Dr. Tveit has been the general secretary of the Church of Norway’s Council on Ecumenical and International Relations since 2002. He is a member of the Interfaith Council of Norway and a member of the board of trustees of Norwegian Church Aid.

Tveit is a member of the WCC Faith and Order Plenary Commission and co-chair of the WCC Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum core group.

The candidates were selected by a search committee in June after a more than yearlong process.

The Rev. Dr. Walter Altmann, who is the moderator of the Central Committee meeting, addressed attendees on the opening day Wednesday and spoke about the significant events occurring this year and then tied them to the challenges currently faced by the organization.

He then listed three decisions to be made at the meeting that would hold “particular importance for the life of the WCC”: the election of a new general secretary; the location for the next WCC Assembly, to be held in 2013; and directions related to the report of the working group on governance, accountability, and staff policy.

Altmann is the president of the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil and has served as moderator of the WCC Central Committee since 2006.

The WCC is an ecumenical fellowship of 349 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 560 million Christians in over 110 countries.

ALTMANN: WCC STANDS AT CROSSROADS

Rev. Dr Walter Altmann, in his moderator’s address at the start of the World Council of Churches central committee meeting in Geneva on 26 August, said that the WCC – as well as the world at large – stands “at a crossroads in the present”.

Altmann touched on a variety of events marking milestones this year and next, including the 500th anniversary of the birth of John Calvin, the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the upcoming centennial of the World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh.

He tied those episodes to some challenges of the present, including the shift of Christianity’s “centre of gravity” to the global south, the need for the WCC’s constituency to be more representative, the problems of poverty and “climate injustice” and the openness to change required for radical discipleship.

“Our reality is very complex and multi-layered”, said Altmann, president of the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil and moderator of the WCC central committee since 2006. He said the current time may offer a “particular opportunity” to respond creatively to the need for inspiring vision, one that addresses the realities of the day and the journey ahead.

“The new framework of the ecumenical landscape is in front of our eyes, being experienced in the daily lives of our churches and their relationships and networks,” Altmann said, “but yet we still seem not able to describe and/or define it”.

He named three decisions to be made at these meetings that would hold “particular importance for the life of the WCC” as it goes forward: the election of a new general secretary, the location for the next WCC Assembly, to be held in 2013; and directions related to the report of the working group on governance, accountability, and staff policy.

“It is not our cause which is at stake, but God’s plan”, he said.

Human progress depends on care for the environment, Pope says

Castel Gandolfo, Italy, Aug 26, 2009 / 11:09 am (CNA).- Wednesday’s general audience was held at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, where Pope Benedict XVI spoke about the precious gift of Creation, emphasizing that humanity’s treatment of the environment impacts “integral human development.”

“The different phenomena of environmental degradation and natural catastrophes,” Pope Benedict explained, “which unfortunately occur all too often, remind us of the urgency of dutiful respect toward nature, recovering and valuing a correct relationship with the environment each day.”

Returning to a message from his recent encyclical and his upcoming message for the World Day of Peace, Pope Benedict said that protecting the environment and being good stewards of it are “intimately linked with integral human development.”

“In my recent encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, I referred to such questions recalling the ‘pressing moral need for renewed solidarity’ not only between countries but also between individuals, since the natural environment is given by God to everyone,” Benedict XVI added. “Our use of it entails a personal responsibility towards humanity as a whole, particularly towards the poor and towards future generations.”

The Holy Father also tied the protection of mankind to the protection of the environment, adding,“the Church is not only committed to promoting the defense of land, water and sky, given by the Creator to all, but above all, she does so to protect man against self-destruction.”

“Creation, structured in an intelligent manner by God, is entrusted therefore to man, who is in a position to interpret it and actively remodel it without considering himself the absolute patron of it,” the Pope expounded. “Man is called, above all, to exercise responsible governance of it, cultivating it and finding necessary resources for a dignified existence of all.”

Turning to treatment of Creation around the globe, Benedict XVI said, “How important it is then, that the international community and individual governments send the right signals to their citizens and succeed in countering harmful ways of treating the environment! The economic and social costs of using up shared resources must be recognized with transparency and borne by those who incur them, and not by other peoples or future generations.”

“The protection of the environment, and the safeguarding of resources and of the climate, oblige all leaders to act jointly, respecting the law and promoting solidarity with the weakest regions of the world,” Pope Benedict added. “Together we can build an integral human development beneficial for all peoples, present and future, a development inspired by the values of charity in truth.”

The Pope also acknowledged that to accomplish this feat “it is essential that the current model of global development be transformed through a greater, and shared, acceptance of responsibility for creation. This is demanded not only by environmental factors, but also by the scandal of hunger and human misery.”

“Dear brothers and sisters,” the Pope concluded, “may we thank the Lord and make ours the words of St. Francis in the Canticle of the Sun: ‘Most high, all powerful, all good Lord! All praise is yours, all glory, all honor, and all blessing…Be praised, my Lord, through all your creatures.’ Such was St. Francis. May we also want to pray and live in the spirit of these words.”

Christian Institute

Police ‘gay social events’ prompt priority concerns

The Christian Institute

Tory: family breakdown has left kids moral-free

ANTHROPOGENIC GLOBAL COOLING?

There is a very good case to be made for anthropogenic global cooling from CO2 emissions. The beginning of rapid increases in global CO2 emissions started in 1945 with the rapid increase in post war industrialization that has seen CO2 emissions rise from under 4gt/year in 1945, to over 31.5gt/year today. This increase in CO2 emissions over the past 63 years has resulted in over 40 years of global cooling. The only time that there was a decrease in emissions was from 1979 to 1982 when the world was warming.

This forms a positive correlation of sufficient statistical significance to make a reasonable case for this relationship to be valid. Although correlation is not causation, there is nothing in the current science literature database that demonstrates any contrary evidence so based solely on “peer reviewed” science literature (as is the case for AGW), this hypothesis could be taken as valid.

The original paper on this topic by Svante Arrhenius in 1896 can be shown to be in error because at the time quantum physics had not yet revealed the physical process of interaction between the Earth’s radiative energy and atmospheric CO2.

The only part of the Earth’s thermal radiative spectrum that is affected by CO2 is the 14.77micron band, but Arrhenius, unaware of this fact used measurements limited to only 9.7microns and therefore was not actually measuring the effect from CO2. He also used an experimental source for thermal radiation that was at 100°C, and the radiative spectrum from this source includes the 4.2micron wavelength band of CO2 that is not part of the Earth’s radiative spectrum, so he was not measuring the actual effect from the thermal radiation from the Earth.

In 1970 the Nimbus 4 satellite measured the Earth’s radiative spectrum showing that the spectral band affected by CO2 had a deep notch in it centred on 14.77microns. This deep notch demonstrated that well over 90% of the possible effect had already been achieved from just the 325ppmv atmospheric concentration of CO2, so further changes in concentration would have only minor effects, and increases in CO2 concentration could neither be responsible for either global warming or global cooling of any significant degree.

While CO2 concentration increases can be demonstrated to have little further effect on global temperatures, this has no bearing on CO2 emissions because there is no correlation between CO2 emissions and CO2 concentration, and CO2 emissions may alter the global temperature by processes other than changes to the greenhouse effect. It is easily demonstrated that there is no correlation between CO2 emissions and atmospheric CO2 concentration. Over the three years from 1979 to 1982 when CO2 emissions were decreasing due to the rapid increase in the price of oil that drastically reduced consumption, there was no change in the rate of increase in atmospheric concentration of CO2 proving that humans were not the primary source for the increase in concentration.

The science literature data base is filled with articles about global warming and CO2, but none of these articles actually relate CO2 emissions to global warming, and just falsely assume that emissions and concentration are interchangeable. All of the articles are based on projections from climate models, which also make this false assumption about emissions and concentration, and these models have yet to demonstrate a result that matches physical observation. This is because models use a contrived CO2 forcing parameter that was clearly not designed on any physical basis either experimental or empirical. In fact there is nothing in all the global warming literature, even the articles about polar bears and melting ice, that can refute the anthropogenic global cooling hypothesis.

Even though there is nothing in the literature data base that can refute the hypothesis of anthropogenic global cooling, the hypothesis can be clearly shown to be false by strict adherence to science protocol and the scientific method. There is clear observational evidence that the Earth warmed from 1975 to 1998 as emissions increased, so even though the world cooled for more years than it warmed with increasing CO2 emissions, these 23 years provide observations contrary to the hypothesis that can’t be explained by the hypothesis, and therefore the hypothesis must be abandoned.

Another hypothesis that explains the current global cooling is based on solar cycles and their effect on solar output and changes to the Earth’s albedo from cloud cover. The driving mechanism for this is not fully understood, but to date there is absolutely no contrary evidence to the overall hypothesis. There is in fact clear supportive evidence including observational evidence from a project called Earth Shine which measures the Earth’s albedo by its reflection on the moon. The albedo measurements show reducing albedo concurrent with global warming, changing to increasing albedo concurrent with global cooling in 1998. (Figure 2 page 21). See here (PDF).

This is the way science is supposed to work, and while it is a simple matter to falsify the Anthropogenic Global Cooling hypothesis, it should be far easier to falsify the Anthropogenic Global Warming theory, because everything stated in the theory is contrary not only to observation, but contrary to established physical principles and physical laws as well. The fact that AGW still exists as a valid hypothesis seven years after the Earth started to cool in spite of the continued rapid increase in global CO2 emissions, is testament to how easy it is to misinform the public with well executed propaganda and media control.

Christian Post by Anne Thomas

Symposium to address state of black Britain

The state of black Britain symposium is being put together by fellow Street Pastors founder and Baptist minister the Rev David Shosanya.

It aims to provide representatives of Britain’s black community with a platform to assess past successes, current concerns and future achievements.

Panel discussions will explore religion and politics, the family and young people, economics and the new future of black Britain.

“The purpose of the symposium is to create an annual forum for a conversation across African and Caribbean communities with a view to evaluate progress, develop strategy and prioritise action around key social, political, economic and others issues of concern, and to facilitate the process of ongoing engagement,” said Rev Shosanya.

He said the symposium had the potential to “usher in a new paradigm” for community dialogue that could lead to engagement with issues of concern to Britain’s black community and coordinated action.

Rev Shosanya said: “The symposium will also be the only space that brings together both the leading thinkers within African and Caribbean communities and the organizations that represent us at Westminster and other key-stakeholders forums and holds them to account for the work done of behalf of us.”

The symposium will take place at the Commonwealth Club in London on 17 October.

Other panel members include Entrepreneur Levi Roots, the Mayor of London’s Ambassador to Young People James Cleverly, and BAFTA Award winner presenter and documentary maker, Angela Sarkis.

Huckabee: Evangelicals More Supportive of Israel than U.S. Jews
By Ethan Cole – Christian Post Reporter

Mike Huckabee, most widely known as a former Republican presidential candidate, said recently that evangelicals are more supportive of Israel than even American Jews.
In an interview with CBN News, Huckabee, who was wrapping up a trip to Israel, called evangelicals the “best friends” of Israeli Jews.

While American Jews are divided on the level of support for Israel in terms of its borders, the politician-turned-political commentator said in general he doesn’t see that “dichotomy” among the evangelical community. He says that “it’s pretty adamant” among evangelicals that “there ought to be one city (Jerusalem). There ought to be a Jewish state and it ought to be secured.”

“One of the things I find most interesting is, generally, evangelicals are so much more supportive of Israel than the American Jewish community,” Huckabee said.

But while Huckabee and other Christian Zionists claim to speak for the evangelical community, a growing number of the community’s leaders are saying that they disagree when it comes to the Israel-Palestinian state debate.

A group of 34 prominent evangelical leaders published a letter in the New York Times voicing support of a two-state solution. In the 2007 letter ad, they stated that both Israel and Palestinians have “legitimate rights” to the land.

They also said they wanted to rectify the “serious misconception” that all American evangelicals are against a two-state solution that creates a new Palestinian state.

“Nothing could be further from the truth,” they stated. “We, who sign this letter, represent large numbers of evangelicals throughout the U.S. who support justice for both Israelis and Palestinians.”

Signers included Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary; David Neff, editor of Christianity Today; Richard Stearns, president of World Vision; Stephen Hayner, former president InterVarsity Christian Fellowship; and Joel Hunter, senior pastor of Northland Church in Longwood, Fla., and member of the executive committee of the National Association of Evangelicals.

During the interview, Huckabee also criticized the Obama administration’s new cooler relations with Israel, especially its recent call for Israel to suspend construction in East Jerusalem. He called it a “reversal of policy” not only from the Bush administration, but also of U.S.-Israeli relations under the Clinton administration.

Huckabee may possibly run again for president in the 2012 election.

The Christian Institute

An extract from BBC Radio 4’s Sunday programme, broadcast on 23 August 2009. Visit the BBC’s website to listen to the entire programme.

An extract from BBC Radio 4’s Sunday programme

BBC highlights squeeze on Christian street preachers

The report, featured on Radio 4’s Sunday programme this weekend, included a recording of a recent incident where a street preacher was told by police officers that it is a criminal offence to identify homosexuality as a “sin”.

They said this to Andy Robertson, an evangelist with the Open-Air Mission (OAM), even though he had never mentioned homosexuality in his preaching.

Mark Jones, an employment lawyer who specialises in religious liberty issues, told the programme: “Giving offence of itself is not against the law.

“There is no protection that I may have from somebody simply walking up to me in the street and saying something that I might disagree with or I might be offended by.”

Mr Robertson is not alone in encountering problems while preaching in public.

Earlier this month it was reported that a street preacher had been arrested after reading out Bible passages in Maidstone, Kent.

Last summer a street preacher in Birmingham was arrested after he had mentioned homosexuality while preaching about sin and its consequences.

The Christian Institute’s Mike Judge told the Radio 4 programme why more cases like this are taking place.

He said: “I think the reason for this increase has been there is a diversity and equality agenda that doesn’t seem to allow for Christians to express their faith in a way where other people may disagree with them.”

He said that sensitivity about issues such as minority faiths and sexual orientation has put police officers and local authorities “under huge pressure to be seen to be responding”.

He added that “sometimes you get over-zealous public officials who want to step in and say, ‘you can’t say that because someone might be offended’, and that over-zealousness is I think part of the problem”.

Another evangelist with the OAM was recorded for the programme as he preached in Hounslow, West London.

Tim Whitton told the reporter: “Our approach generally is just to speak but not shout, to be friendly”.

He said the aim was to make sure that “if anyone is ever offended, they’re offended by the message of the Bible, rather than by anything that we’re doing”.