USA: Chinese blocked religious freedom envoy
Chinese officials denied a visa to a top US State Department envoy and refused to meet with her to discuss issues of religious freedom days before this week’s high-profile visit to Washington by China’s vice president. The U. ambassador for international religious freedom (who previously was a New York Police Department chaplain) was scheduled to travel to China on Feb 8th but as the date drew near Chinese leaders refused to grant her meetings with government officials. The disclosure comes one day into the diplomatically sensitive visit by Xi Jinping (China’s presumptive next president) to the United States. During the visit the Obama administration hopes to ease tense in US-China relations.
Pray: for a new positive relationship between USA and China, allowing religious freedom issues to be positively discussed and implemented. (Pr.2:6-8)
Secularists lobby to remove NHS chaplains
Bishops in the Church of England are resisting calls from a secular campaign group to ban the use of NHS money to fund hospital chaplains. The National Secular Society (NSS) argue that the NHS is spending ‘millions of pounds a year’ on chaplains, and that public funds could be better spent on alternative health care services which were ‘non-discriminatory’. However, in a debate at the church’s General Synod this week, Rt Rev Mike Hill, the Bishop of Bristol, said that ‘every effort’ must be made to preserve the role of chaplains in the NHS to ensure that ill patients were offered full, comprehensive care.
‘As with much in life, the true value of our chaplains might only be appreciated if they were no longer present,’ he said. ‘Every effort ought to be made, and is being made, to resist secularist calls for chaplains to be excluded from the NHS.’
Pray: for our church leaders to stand up against the secular and humanist organisations who are attacking our Christian values. (Jude.1:3-4)
More: http://www.christianconcern.com/our-concerns/social/secularists-lobby-to-remove-nhs-chaplains
Archbishop decries possible legalization of euthanasia
Archbishop Rowan Williams has spoken out against assisted suicide saying it is un-Christian and dangerous for society. To make his point heard, the spiritual head of the worldwide Anglican Communion drew comparisons between the legalization of abortion and the possible legalization of euthanasia. According to The Telegraph, Williams told the General Synod earlier this week, ‘The default position on abortion has shifted quite clearly over the past 40 years’ and he lamented the impact that has had. Directly after abortion was legalized in the United Kingdom, abortion rates rose significantly. Abortion rates have now risen to about 200,000 a year. Williams fears a similar rise will occur in assisted dying rates if euthanasia is legalized. He also believes a rise in euthanasia holds grave consequences, saying, ‘To seek a change in the default position on the sanctity of life would be a disaster.’
Pray: for God’s guidance for all those considering any change in legislation and that the voice of the Church will be heard. (Ecc.8:8a)
Bishop calls on Christian MPs to rebel over gay marriage
The Rt Rev Mark Davies, Bishop of Shrewsbury, urged politicians to help protect the ‘God-given meaning of marriage for the sake of all generations to come’. He also criticised the idea that ‘progress’ should mean a ‘continuous shifting’ of society away from its Christian foundations – just days after a landmark legal ruling against prayers being said at council meetings. The Bishop’s intervention comes just weeks after reports that more than 100 Conservative MPs could vote against David Cameron’s proposals on same-sex unions.The Bishop said that the ‘timeless institution of marriage’ was recognised as a key building block of society, including by non-Christians. For politicians of Christian conscience this will be a moment to resist the leadership of their own political parties together with every parliamentarian who recognises the Judeo-Christian foundations on which our society rests. (See also Prayer Alert 06-2012 & 05-2012)
Pray: that the Government will listen and respect the views of the Church and others who recognise the importance of marriage. (Ps.85:8)
Another Welfare Reform Bill defeat for the government
The Government has lost a record eighth vote in the House of Lords over its plans to severely cut and restructure the British welfare system. An amendment to the Welfare Reform Bill, overturning a move to cut payments to specific council tenants with one spare bedroom, was carried by ten votes. The bill is now due to go back before the House of Commons, with the Government defiant but a huge swathe of political popular and public opinion - including charities and others making up Mr Cameron's 'Big Society' - wishing to see significant changes. The latest amendment, tabled by crossbencher Lord Best, would limit the impact of a ‘bedroom tax’, so that disabled people, war widows and foster carers with more than one spare bedroom would be exempt from a proposed £14 cut in housing benefit. It passed by 236 votes to 226, reports the BBC.
Pray: for the Government that they would have wisdom in making just decisions for all those who are affected. (1Ki.3:9)
France: Evangelical churches attracting youth
The atmosphere is like a pop concert in the Montparnasse area of Paris. Hundreds of young people sing catchy songs, waving their arms in the air, while a group plays booming music on stage. This isn't a pop gig. The Australian-born Pentecostal church ‘Hillsong’ planted a Paris church in 2005 and its congregation’s grown from a few dozen people to around 900 at each of its two weekend services conducted in French and English. On a recent Sunday, the 1,000-seat Théâtre Bobino (where the church holds its main services) was nearly full. This youthful, enthusiastic, multi-ethnic crowd is in sharp contrast to the diminishing French Catholic churches and represents the rise of the evangelical movement as a whole in a country that is officially secular. Census figures report 600,000 French members of evangelical churches, with 460,000 regularly practicing their faith - a ten-fold increase from 1950.
Pray: God will reproduce His message of truth and life to the youth of Paris across all of France. (Ro.10:14)
France: Evangelical churches attracting youth
The atmosphere is like a pop concert in the Montparnasse area of Paris. Hundreds of young people sing catchy songs, waving their arms in the air, while a group plays booming music on stage. This isn't a pop gig. The Australian-born Pentecostal church ‘Hillsong’ planted a Paris church in 2005 and its congregation’s grown from a few dozen people to around 900 at each of its two weekend services conducted in French and English. On a recent Sunday, the 1,000-seat Théâtre Bobino (where the church holds its main services) was nearly full. This youthful, enthusiastic, multi-ethnic crowd is in sharp contrast to the diminishing French Catholic churches and represents the rise of the evangelical movement as a whole in a country that is officially secular. Census figures report 600,000 French members of evangelical churches, with 460,000 regularly practicing their faith - a ten-fold increase from 1950.
Pray: God will reproduce His message of truth and life to the youth of Paris across all of France. (Ro.10:14)
Militant secularisation’ is taking hold
A British Cabinet minister has hit out at the way in which faith is being attacked by a rising tide of ‘militant secularisation’. Baroness Warsi, a Muslim, is leading a delegation of government ministers on a two-day visit to the Vatican. She said Europe needed to be ‘more confident and more comfortable in its Christianity’ as she criticised the way in which Christianity had virtually been written out of the European Constitution. Faith, she said, had been ‘neglected, undermined – and yes, even attacked – by governments’ in recent years. ‘My fear today is that a militant secularisation is taking hold of our societies’, she said. ‘We see it in any number of things: when signs of religion cannot be displayed or worn in government buildings; when states won’t fund faith schools; and where religion is sidelined, marginalised and downgraded in the public sphere.
Pray: that faith would rise and take a frontline position against those who criticise believers. (Is.26:2)
Militant secularisation’ is taking hold
A British Cabinet minister has hit out at the way in which faith is being attacked by a rising tide of ‘militant secularisation’. Baroness Warsi, a Muslim, is leading a delegation of government ministers on a two-day visit to the Vatican. She said Europe needed to be ‘more confident and more comfortable in its Christianity’ as she criticised the way in which Christianity had virtually been written out of the European Constitution. Faith, she said, had been ‘neglected, undermined – and yes, even attacked – by governments’ in recent years. ‘My fear today is that a militant secularisation is taking hold of our societies’, she said. ‘We see it in any number of things: when signs of religion cannot be displayed or worn in government buildings; when states won’t fund faith schools; and where religion is sidelined, marginalised and downgraded in the public sphere.
Pray: that faith would rise and take a frontline position against those who criticise believers. (Is.26:2)
“ From a very reliable source, we received the following message. Please join us in Prayer for our brothers and sisters in Syria. We've all seen and heard about the uprisings in the Arab world. The Middle East is heating up for better or for worse. We talk about fighting for democracy, desiring to see all ethnic groups obtain it, and even children seek some type of democracy of their own. It takes a huge amount of hatred and ignorance for anyone to refuse such democracy, and yet in the mind of fundamentalists and extremists, there is no room for it. This is the struggle of Christians in the Middle East, especially those living in Syria.
The last few months have been some of the hardest times for Christians in Syria, in the fight against corruption. They have united together to support the call to change. Things began to heat up in the streets, and the effort to fight corruption turned into power struggles, where sects in Islam are fighting each other, trying to take control, forcing their beliefs on one another.
Many slogans have been heard throughout the revolution. One in particular goes something like this, “Take the Christian man to the grave and their women to bed.” Hearing hundreds of men in the streets, chanting against Christians, has brought fear into their lives. Fear for the safety of their women and young children. It has come down to a battle for existence, all because of what they believe. Many stories of Christians being attacked and killed, woman being kidnapped and raped, are being heard throughout Syria. All in the name of Islam and of “Democracy!!”
Please Pray:
• For an end to the blood shed and that any change of government will lead to greater freedom for the people of Syria.
• That the rights of Christians and other religious minorities will be protected
• That the church will have strength to stand firm and bring the light of Christ to their nation.”