eChurch Blog

OK this is just a bit of voclanic theodicean humour from the BBC spoof website NewsArse:

Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajokull today entered its tedious third act with many viewers hoping for an exciting climax to what has so far proven to be an entirely underwhelming Act of God.

The ongoing eruption described by many fans of God’s previous work as a ‘terrifying Act of God’, has again disturbed flights across Europe, leading to accusations it is merely repeating the plot of the first and second act and failing to introduce and new elements to the ongoing narrative.

Act of God critic Eamon James told us, “I think most people had their interest piqued by the new and innovative ‘enormous volcano’ paradigm, and the grounded flights in the second act certainly maintained the momentum of the story, but this third act is just plain lazy.”

Continue Reading

….and yes I know it’s probably in bad taste, but when your sense of humour is as deviant and warped as mine, you just can’t help yourself.

I am currently seeking ‘deliverance’……

Fascinating and revealing comments from Saeb Erekat in response to Benjamin Netanyahu’s use of Scripture to authenticate the Jewish claim on Jerusalem.

Israel Today:

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat last week blasted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for quoting from the Bible in order to draw a connection between Jerusalem and the Jews.

In his Jerusalem Day address to the Knesset marking the 43rd anniversary of the reunification of the city under Israeli control, Netanyahu highlighted the prominent place Jerusalem holds in the Jewish Bible, where it is mentioned no fewer than 850 times (including the times the city is referred to as “Zion”).

A day later, Erekat told Reuters that he found it “distasteful, this use of religion to incite hatred and fear.”

Erekat insisted that the eastern half of Jerusalem is “an occupied Palestinian town” that must be surrendered by Israel.

The Palestinians have worked hard over the past few decades to erase the Jews’ millennia-old history in Jerusalem, including claims that there never was a Jewish temple atop the Temple Mount and that Jesus was in fact a Palestinian Arab.

I Just wanted to draw your attention to a few blog posts which have caught my eye this morning and I feel are worthy of your fine attention.

The first from TheChurchMouse who highlights the erroneous mainstream media headline pitting the Church of England against the BBC:

TheChurchMouse: CofE Vs BBC (yet again)

The second is from Brian LePort who is on sizzling form and explains to us why he is not Cessationisist, but rather an advocate for Continuationism

NearEmmaus: Why I Am Not a Cessationist

The third link is from Clayboy who identifies the inconsistencies and sheer oddity of the civil liberties organisation Liberty taking up the legal case of the gay couple (Michael Black and John Morgan) who were turned away from the Swiss B&B house by the Christian owner Susanne Wilkinson, who said it was “against her convictions” for two men to share a bed.

Clayboy: Gay rights, consumer choice and individual conscience: has Liberty lost the plot?

Catholic Online are reporting a foiled potential assassination attempt by radical Muslims on the life of Pope Benedict last month. They also claim this story was picked up internationally and circulated throughout the blogosphere. It’s very unusual for me to miss a story of this magnitude, but not impossible of course. Here’s the article from Catholic Online and in the meantime I’ll do some digging and try to find some more links to this.

Reports from AKI News (adnkronosinternational) an Italian news service reported on May 13, 2010 (while Pope Benedict was in Fatima, Portugal) that a plot to assasinate him was foiled in Italy last month. Catholic Online is seeking to independently verify these reports.

ROME, Italy (Catholic Online) – Reports from AKI News (adnkronosinternational) an Italian news service reported on May 13, 2010 (while Pope Benedict was in Fatima, Portugal) that a plot to assasinate him was foiled in Italy last month.

The Italian newsweekly Panorama made this claim in its Friday edition. It was the only source cited in the AKI story.

The claim was picked up internationally and circulated throughout the blogosphere. It was also reported by Catholic News Agency in a May 14, 2010 story entitled “Assassination plot by radical Muslims against Pope prevented.”

It was then picked up by Reuters and distributed widely.

Catholic Online is seeking to independently verify these reports. If and when we do we will bring the details to our global readers.

Given the seriousness of this allegation, it is a matter of deep concern that the only action taken against the two alleged to have been engaged in the plot appears to have been a deportation order back to Morocco.

The only other European Press coverage of the claim is found  in the AKI story from which the Catholic News Agency story seems to be derived. We include it below in its entirety. It can be found at http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=3.1.386822783

*****

” Two Moroccan terrorist suspects deported from Italy last month were allegedly plotting to kill Pope Benedict XVI, Italian weekly Panorama claims in its latest issue to be released on Friday. Mohammed Hlal and Errahmouni Ahmed were students at the University of Perugia until their repatriation to Morocco on 29 April.

“Hlal wanted to kill the Vatican’s head of state (the pope), saying he was ready to assassinate him and gain his place in paradise,” Italy’s interior minister Roberto Maroni wrote in the expulsion order authorizing Hlal and Ahmed’s deportations, cited by Panorama.

“Anti-terror police in Perugia intercepted Hlal discussing his plans to carry out attacks and readiness to obtain explosives for the attacks during a series of tapped telephone conversations, according to Panorama.

“Moroccan authorities on 6 May released Hlal and Ahmed, who had been receiving legal assistance from a local human rights association.

“The pair have denied any wrongdoing and said they intend to challenge their expulsions in the administrative tribunal in Italy’s Lazio region surrounding Rome.

“In a media statement issued at the time of their expulsion, the Italian interior ministry described the men as “dangerous” and a “threat to national security”.

“The interior ministry claimed they had links to an international network of Islamist miliists and were prepared to carry out “extremist acts”.

“Hlal and Ahmed’s deportation followed a probe begun by anti-terrorism police in October 2009 into a group of radical Muslim foreign students in Italy, most of whom came from the Moroccan city of Fez. Several were studying at Perugia.

“The interior ministry said Hlal and Ahmed belonged to this group.”

OK, here’s the Reuters report from 14th May:

ROME (Reuters) – Two Moroccan students deported from Italy last month were suspected of plotting to assassinate Pope Benedict, an Interior Ministry source said on Friday.

Mohamed Hlal, 26, and Ahmed Errahmouni, 22, students at the University for Foreigners in the central Italian city of Perugia, had been under surveillance by anti-terrorist police for months before they were expelled on April 29.

“During their inquiry, investigators found evidence suggesting the two (suspects) were plotting an attack on the pope,” said the source.

An interior ministry statement issued at the time of their deportation said they were being expelled under prevention of terrorism laws.

Six other foreign students, suspected of contacts with militant Islamic groups, are still under investigation.

News magazine Panorama, owned by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s family, reported on Friday that local anti-terrorist police had tapped Hlal’s phone and had raised the alarm when he said he wanted to acquire explosives.

The magazine said police discovered a map of Turin at Errahmouni’s house annotated with numbers and circles, ahead of a visit to the northern Italian city by Pope Benedict on May 2 to venerate the Shroud of Turin, which many Catholics believe was Jesus Christ’s burial cloth.

Panorama described Errahmouni as a computer expert who remained in contact with militant groups over the Internet. It said Perugia had become a centre for travelling imams to preach radical Islam.

Turkish citizen Mehmet Ali Agca, who shot and seriously wounded Paul John Paul in 1981, was also enrolled as a language student at Perugia university.
Intelligence reports and arrests show militant Islamic groups linked to al Qaeda, especially in North Africa, are active in Italy, mostly recruiting and financing for attacks planned elsewhere in Europe.
Continue

This is pretty much all I can find on this one at the mo…..

I’m popping this one on simply because I found it intriguingly odd:

BBC:

Building more churches is the answer to Romania’s economic crisis, according to the Orthodox church in Bucharest.

A church construction programme will create jobs and help Romanians cope with the despair brought on by recession, church authorities argue.

The Romanian government has announced plans to reduce pensions by 15% and public sector wages by 25%.

But church building programmes must not be axed the Orthodox Patriarchate says.

“In every community the church is a symbol of the faith, of the love, and of the hope of the community. And from an economical point of view every church which is in construction also provides work for citizens,” said Father Constantine Stoica, spokesperson for the Romanian Orthodox Church.

Last year the Romanian economy contracted by 7.1%.

Some commentators have suggested that too many new churches are being built when the country still lacks schools and other facilities. But the church disagrees.

“We have to first solve the moral and spiritual crisis and after that we can solve the economic crisis,” says Father Stoica.

“The role of the church is very important because inside church the people are taught to maintain hope and faith and solidarity in this very difficult time.”

Continue Reading

Different.

Interesting stats from Christian Today, scrutinising Christian representation within the Tory Party, which follows on rather neatly from this recent post, which charts the ascension of Christian thought and influence on (or more aptly within) the Conservative Party over the last decade.

Of the 143 new Conservative MPs, twelve are members of the Christian Conservative Fellowship (CCF).

Representing 8% of the new intake, the twelve were part of a group of 37 candidates who were supported in their campaign by the CCF.

According to research by The Sunday Times, 23% of the new intake are women, 6% are from ethnic minority backgrounds — with 2% black and 4% Asian — while gays make up 3%.

CCF member Robert Halfon, a former Chief of Staff to Oliver Letwin, overturned his 2005 defeat in Harlow to unseat Armed Forces Minister, Bill Rammell, through a 5.9% swing to the Conservatives. Rammell, who was involved in the release of Lockerbie bomber, Ali al-Megrahi, had the third smallest majority of any Labour MP, at just 97 votes.

Liberal Democrat spokesman for science, Dr Evan Harris, lost his Oxford West & Abingdon seat by 176 votes to Nicola Blackwood. Harris, first elected in 1997, had been outspoken in his support for euthanasia and abortion, earning him the nickname ‘Dr Death.’

Blackwood, a Cambridge graduate, is concerned ‘that the voice of Christians and people of other faiths on key issues of conscience is too readily dismissed in public debate,’ according to the CCF.

Continue Reading

With all of this in mind, and the failure of the separatist or sectarian “Christian Parties” in the recent elections, it would certainly appear to me that the way forward is Co-belligerence and alliance formation, as identified by Dr Calvin L Smith a few days ago.

Uh-Oh, am I advocating a form of entryism?

With all of the horror our Christian brethren are suffering in Iraq, I must admit I was somewhat heartened on reading this article.

Hat-Tip Polycarp:

Assyrian International News Agency

Our Lutheran CyberBrethren has put together a blog post which perfectly meshes and counter-balances with a recent post on the subject of the validity of the historical Adam.

Why Believing in a Real, Actual Adam and Eve Matters

I’ve been watching a lot of conversations across the Interwebernet for a long time, debates over the importance, or lack thereof, of believing that there was a real and actual Adam and Eve, you know, just as the Bible says there were. For me the largest stumbling block in the way of those who, frankly, rather blithely, and in some cases, obviously very desperately, wanting to wave-away such questions and put forward a view that Adam and Eve were really not actual persons, but part of the epic stories of origin that Genesis presents, from which we gain great spiritual truths, regardless of whether it is true, or not, is that our Lord Jesus Christ Himself was very clearly convinced that Adam and Eve were two very real people. For our Lord Christ, the fact of their creation by God and their union to one another, ordained by God, is the very foundation of marriage and all human sexuality and precisely because the Lord taught this, this has an enormous impact on how the Church and the faithful, should, no not should, that’s too soft a word, absolutely must affirm the historicity of Adam and Eve. Justin Taylor had a blog post recently on this, that puts it rather well.

Reformation21 reprints an essay by Michael Reeves (Theological Adviser for UCCF in the UK) on “Adam and Eve,” from the forthcoming book Should Christians Embrace Evolution? edited by Norman Nevin (IVP-UK, P&R). In particular Dr. Reeves takes on Denis Alexander’s proposed “third way” of understanding Adam and evolution.

Here’s the conclusion:

When theological doctrines are detached from historical moorings, they are always easier to harmonize with other data and ideologies. And, of course, there are a good many doctrines that are not directly historical by nature. However, it has been my contention that the identity of Adam and his role as the physical progenitor of the human race are not such free or detachable doctrines. The historical reality of Adam is an essential means of preserving a Christian account of sin and evil, a Christian under-standing of God, and the rationale for the incarnation, cross and resurrection. His physical fatherhood of all humankind preserves God’s justice in condemning us in Adam (and, by inference, God’s justice in redeeming us in Christ) as well as safeguarding the logic of the incarnation. Neither belief can be reinterpreted without the most severe consequences.

Cross-post by Cranmer’s Curate

There was a time when the vicar was always invited to the reception of the wedding he had just conducted. But that is now a thing of the past. You’re a functionary at what is increasingly becoming a fringe activity, namely a church wedding. Don’t expect to be handed a glass of champagne.

It almost seems as if some Anglican leaders, exercised about the National Secular Society attack on prayers before council meetings and the likelihood that bishops will get kicked out of the House of Lords, are missing the good old days when the established Church was always invited to the reception.

To quote the actor Mr Pierce Brosnan (speaking in this context about negative reviews), we’ve got to get up with it, get over it and get on with it. The British public just aren’t bothered about the absence of the vicar’s name from the seating plan. Some of them may describe their religion as ‘Christian’ on a census form but they are really not going to take to the streets over the dismantling of the last vestiges of Christian Britain.

The fact that a man (and soon a woman) in a purple shirt is no longer allowed to have an afternoon nap in the Mother of Parliaments is not going to be an occasion for the deployment of riot police.

Whilst there remains an important role for organisations such as the Christian Institute and for Christian politicians such as Lord Waddington and Baroness O’Cathain, what church leaders need to be focussing on now is the building of loving local churches full of mature Christians. Christian love carries its own unique spiritual authenticity and maturity into the infantilism of a pagan culture. As the Apostle Paul taught the church in 1st century pagan Corinth:

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I am fully understood. So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love (1 Corinthians 13v11-13 – RSV).

Oh surely this is just petty and vindictive:

BBC:

Plans to recruit more Muslim volunteers to the scouting movement have come under attack from secular campaigners.

Currently, there are 24 Muslim Scout groups in the UK and the Scouts Association says more adults are needed to cut long waiting lists.

But the National Secular Society, which campaigns to reduce the role of religion in public life, say such groups are “sectarian”.

It says they reinforce a perception UK Muslims are outside the mainstream.

Honesty

The Scouts Association has traditionally had strong links to several different faith groups in the UK, with churches and synagogues providing practical and financial support for local groups.

It said this allowed communities to use the scouting ethos as a template to instil broad religious values such as honesty and integrity into young people.

But the National Secular Society said separating young people on the basis of religious belief discouraged integration.

The society said although they wanted to see an end to all ties between religion and the scouts, they were particularly concerned about Muslim scout groups.

Of the 28 million scouts around the world, there are more Muslims than Christians.

The Scout Association hopes its campaign to recruit more volunteers will help to address a waiting list of more than 33,000 UK children who want to join the movement.

Membership in the UK has risen for five consecutive years, taking levels to nearly 500,000.

Is the NSS insinuating that it would be problematic for a non-Muslim child to join a local scout group which happens to be headed up by a Muslim volunteer?

The NSS has the cheek to argue that all of this reinforces a perception UK Muslims are outside the mainstream, which is so ironic and paradoxical it almost beggars belief.

Instead of bemoaning and whinging, the Secular Society could simply run their own scout leader recruitment drive and help cut the waiting list for volunteer leaders.

Surely any Scout leader who is a person of faith will welcome new scout members of any, or no faith, and yet the NSS wants a religion free environment and by carrying on as they do, they create the very sectarian environment they claim to oppose.

Tell me if I’m right or wrong on this one, as this has really peeved me.