eChurch Blog

Paul Shaw is back in court again, this time charged in relation to his election campaign in which he distributed leaflets that stated homosexual acts should be made illegal.

I literally can’t summon the will to comment on this and so I’m going to hand over to two very contrasting views for you to make up your own mind.

The first comes from Christian blogger and Patristic scholar Roger Pearse:

Freedom of speech ten miles away from me

The second comes from the prominent atheist blog the FreeThinker:

Hate preacher Paul Shaw back in court

On a purely personal note I feel Turkey is one of the most disheartening nations on earth, especially given its marvelous and rich Christian history and heritage. From Western media sources to Eastern, I never seem to come across anything positive reported about Turkey.

Fact of the day: The seven churches mentioned in the book of Revelation were located in western Asia Minor (present-day Turkey).

CNN:

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew is the living embodiment of an ancient tradition. From his historic base in Istanbul, Turkey, the 270th Patriarch of Constantinople claims to be the direct successor of the Apostle Andrew.

Today he’s considered “first among equals” in the leadership of the Greek Orthodox church, and is the spiritual leader of 250 million Orthodox Christians around the world. But few of them are in his own home country.

“We are a small Christian minority,” Bartholomew laments.

“We have suffered because of Greek-Turkish confrontation, struggle, and a lack of mutual trust and confidence. And that is why we lost most of our faithful.”

Turkey’s once-flourishing Greek community is fading away. The country is predominantly Muslim and led by a secular government that’s had a complicated relationship with the patriarchate.

If Turkish laws, demographics and attitudes aren’t changed, Bartholomew could ultimately be the last Patriarch of Constantinople.

“We are not all in despair for the future of our church,” Bartholomew said. “It is not easy, but it is not impossible.”

The Turkish government can veto any candidate put forward for the position of patriarch. And it requires the patriarch be a Turkish citizen. Bartholomew is, but most of those best qualified to succeed him are not.

So the government has proposed offering Turkish citizenship to Orthodox archbishops overseas. Several have applied; so far, none has been approved.

The Turkish government also refuses to recognize the title Ecumenical Patriarch, or Bartholomew’s role as an international religious leader.

Officially, he is viewed as a local bishop who leads a shrinking community of a few thousand Greek Orthodox citizens. Yorgo Stefanopulos is one of them. “I am a curiosity now in Turkey,” he said. “We used to be a minority; now we are a curiosity.”

Stefanopulos is an outspoken leader of Istanbul’s Greek community. About 50 years ago, that community numbered more than 100,000. Today, it’s probably less than 3,000.

He insists that decline was not accidental. Instead, he blames the Turkish government. Decades ago, he said, they targeted ethnic Greeks with nationalist policies, like wealth taxes, property seizures, and campaigns to speak only Turkish in the streets.

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Here’s a link to today’s BBC Radio 4 interview with Dr Tom Wright in which he claims that contrary to popular belief (Dawkins et al) we are actually living in an increasingly religious age:

BBC Radio 4: James Naughtie interview with N T Wright

He’s always well worth a listen….

Jerusalem Post:

On August 24, 1456, the Bible was printed for the first time. The groundbreaking project was started four years earlier by Johannes Gutenberg in Mainz, Germany, marking the start of the “Gutenberg Revolution” and the age of the printed book.

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It is believed that a total of 180 copies of the “Guttenberg Bible” were produced, 135 on paper and 45 on vellum, which is a high quality parchment. Widely praised for its high aesthetic and artistic qualities, the book has an iconic status in the West. Only twenty-one complete copies survived the five centuries since their printing, and are considered the most expensive books on the planet based on auction prices.

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While no longer as popular as it was during the centuries leading up to the era of the Guttenberg press, the Bible is still the most popular book in the world with close to three billion copies printed in several hundred languages

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The Anglican Church is currently having an All African Conference of Bishops in Entebbe Uganda (Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams is present) and the following rather perturbing article has just been released by Virtue Online.

This is written by David Virtue himself and from experience he can certainly be conisdered a trusted source for this kind of Anglican insider information:

Diplomacy is dead, say the archbishops of the All African Conference of Bishops, meeting here in Entebbe.

In private conversations with Archbishop Rowan Williams and in statements made among themselves the word is this; the African Anglican archbishops and bishops will have nothing more to do with a Western Anglicanism that has embraced a variety of unbiblical pansexual behaviors that have no basis in Holy Scripture.

How this will play out is still uncertain, but sources tell Virtueonline that if Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury calls a meeting of the Primates (Archbishops) they will not attend. It would be the end of the road and the final snub for the head of the Anglican Communion, and to all intents and purposes the end of the communion.

The Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa (CAPA) bishops who are meeting for the second time in their history are fed up with the churches of the West which they see dying because it has no gospel to proclaim and because of they have accepted and practice unbiblical sexual behaviors.

The conference of 400 African bishops meeting here are focusing their attention on the growth of the church in Africa and they are not much interested in engaging the West because they see no future being aligned with a dying church more interested in homosexual practice than in spreading the gospel.

This is crap news no matter how you spin it…

Birmingham Post:

About 15 families moved onto a field behind Sarehole Mill, off Wake Green Lane, Hall Green, on Tuesday.

When they were served with a police notice to leave, the convoy moved just yards across the road to the John Morris Jones Walk Way, at The Shire Country Park, in Cole Bank Road.

The group told local councillor Martin Mullaney that had come from Donegal, Ireland, to Birmingham, especially for Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Cofton Park on September 19.

Councillor Mullaney (Lib Dem Kings Heath and Moseley) said he was told by the group that they intended to return to Ireland after the Pontiff’s visit but had not purchased pilgrim passes, which cost £25 each, and guarantee entry to the park for the Mass.

In light of the move, Birmingham City Council officials, West Midlands Police, and a member of the Catholic Church were holding an emergency meeting to establish how they can get a clear message to other travellers who intend coming for the Pope’s visit, that they will be refused entry if they do not have a valid ticket.

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Further media link:

Sun – THE Pope’s visit to Britain has been thrown into turmoil amid fears swarms of gipsies will turn up hoping to meet him.

I haven’t blogged about the announcement made by the The Dove World Outreach Center in Florida of their plan to burn copies of the Qur’an on the anniversary of the September 11th World Trade Center attacks.

I didn’t blog about this as it is a despicable act by lunatic extremists whom in no way represent the vast majority of decent Christians in this world. This bunch are attention seeking and have already garnered global exposure.

Even though the Dove Center suffered a setback in their plans recently when city officials denied them a “burn permit”, they still plan to go ahead despite a potential fine and have even gone as far as to cite ten reasons why they should burn the Qu’ran.

So why have I blogged about this now?

It simply never occurred to me that this act may well endanger Christians living in Muslim nations. Whilst the Dove Outreach Center enjoy living in a society that will protect them from retribution and which is majority Christian, there are many other Christians who do not enjoy these privileges.

The Qur’an in Islamic thought is not comparable to the Bible as Muslims view the Qu’ran as the eternal word of God, perfect and pre-existing, rather like Christians view Jesus. This is why defacing the Qur’an is such a big deal in the Islamic psyche.

The Dove World Outreach Center are going to perpetrate a wicked, un-Christian and deliberately provocative act for which the only retribution will be meted out against the weak and vulnerable Christians living as minority groups in Islamic lands.

UCANEWS:

Worried Catholics and Muslims in Madhya Pradesh are to appeal to the Pope and other world leaders to try and prevent a US church holding a “Burn a Qur’an Day” next month.

We signed a resolution demanding positive action from world leaders to block the burnings, said Mazood Ahammad Khan

The letter will be sent to the “leaders shortly,” the secretary of the co-ordination committee for Indian Muslims said yesterday.

“We want action against such hate campaigners so that no one will do it again,” Khan said.

The Dove World Outreach Center in Florida plans to host the controversial event on Sept. 11 to mark the ninth anniversary of 9/11 terror attacks in New York.

Archbishop Leo Cornelio of Bhopal, and a delegation of Muslim leaders met earlier on Aug. 24 to condemn the plan and discuss the impact the burnings could have in the state.

Some Muslim leaders would feel a “strong sense of anger” and Church people suspect it would be directed at them, said Quazi Muhammad Faisal, the top Muslim leader in Bhopal.

At the meeting the archbishop and Muslim leaders decided to write to Pope Benedict, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and US President Barack Obama asking them to help prevent the church from carrying out its plan.

The Catholic Church “fully shares the sentiments of Muslims that no one should be allowed to burn the holy Qur’an,” Archbishop Cornelio said.

“Such an act violates the established traditions for peaceful co-existence,” he told ucanews.com.

Christian and Muslim leaders have stressed the need to respect every religion, every religious book and each other’s right to follow a religion, he said.

Sounds a bit weird to me….

Softpedia:

With the first announced chapter of the experience set to focus on the Genesis book of the Holy Book and allow gamers to experience the biblical narrative and explore the less known aspects of the story.

Players will be set in the role of leader of their tribe, building up their villages, manage limited resources and keep the budget in the black.

As players meet up with one another they will need to decide whether they prefer to try out diplomacy or whether they are ready to go to war to expand their influence.

The final challenge will be to lead Abraham’s tribe from Ur to Haran and then to Canaan.

The Bible Online will also include some role playing elements, with a birth right system that allows gamers to determine the fates of Issac and Jacob and side quests that help develop the setting.

Doctor Alan Kim, who is the president of FiAA GmbH, stated when the announcement was made that, “The Bible Online is developed for players of all ages to easily get closer to the Bible, while enjoying the game. The Beta is planned for the 6th of September. We plan to service the game in most of the European languages by the end of the year. We will also develop following chapters to cover all the stories of the Bible.”

I’ve oft noted P Z Myers ridiculing the colour, fonts and layout styles of some Christian websites, which in all fairness can be truly awful, here’s an example.

So it was no surprise when I clicked on a Telegraph article entitled, Nine Web Design Horrors to discover that first up was a website entitled; Accept Jesus, forever forgiven.

You have to view this one ‘live’ to get the full glorious appreciation:

Accept Jesus, forever forgiven

Wow…..just wow….

In my ‘umble opinion this is only a matter of time as both the Catholic Church and Orthodox Church perceive the challenges facing them in this day and age and look increasingly towards one another for strength in union and power in numbers.

Catholic Online

Full communion between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches is being prompted by the Holy Spirit. It is the most important development of the Third Christian Millennium and has implications for the whole world at this critical time in history. This coming communion between the Orthodox and Catholic Church will mark the beginning of the re- Christianizing of the West and a new missionary age.

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Zenit:

High-ranking representatives of the Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches embraced on Monday in a moment reflecting a will for unity between the two Churches.

A photo of the embrace between Cardinal Peter Erdo and Metropolitan Filaret was printed with the title “Europe’s Brothers.”

The embrace between the two high-level representatives was a highlight of the 31st Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples, an annual event sponsored by the Catholic Communion and Liberation Movement in Rimini, Italy.

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