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Welcome to this first issue of Christian Today Digest for 2008. We trust you enjoy further news of what God and His people are doing in different countries. You will find cause for praise and thanks, and also challenge and matters for prayer.
We are grateful for all your comments and are so glad you find the magazine enlightening, helpful and encouraging. Keep the comments coming - they bless us!
The magazine has been jointly edited by Christian Today and Torch Trust for the Blind. All the articles were first published on the Christian Today website over the last three months.
The Christian Today Digest editors.
Baptists hope 400th anniversary will inspire vision for movement's future.
Preparations are already underway for celebrations in 2009 to mark 400 years of the world Baptist movement, which organisers are stressing will not only look at the achievements of the past, but also set out the vision that will ensure the movement's successful stride into the future.
Four hundred years have passed since the movement's founding fathers - refugees from England - gathered in the backroom of an Amsterdam bakery in 1609 to read the Bible together. That small gathering became the first Baptist-minded congregation and the European Baptist Federation (EBF) anticipates that 1,700 Baptists from across Europe alone will turn out from 24 to 26 July 2009 to celebrate the occasion, slated "Amsterdam 400".
With an expected cost of 300,000 euros, the EBF is urging all 52 member unions to participate in a large-scale fundraising drive that will allow Baptists from less wealthy countries to attend.
EBF General-Secretary Tony Peck and Financial Chairman Jan Saethre (Siljan/Norway) have already addressed a financial appeal to the member unions reminding them of the commitment they made at the EBF-Council sessions in Budapest last September to contribute one euro per member towards the cost of the conference.
Peck and Saethre are also requesting that union leaders press home the fundraising drive to their congregations.
"We are of course aware that one euro per member is too much for some unions," they said.
Each union that cannot manage the 'one-euro-per-member' donation is being encouraged to consider a one-off contribution of their own choosing in order to help keep costs down and cover the travel expenses of some participants.
There are more than 100 million Baptists worldwide, around 800,000 of which are in Europe and the Middle East, making them the world's largest Protestant denomination. The Dutch Union has some 11,500 members worshipping in 85 congregations.
Officials at the Embassy of Albania have expressed their thanks to British Baptists for the work they are doing together with the Albanian Government to stamp out people trafficking.
BMS World Mission's director for mission David Kerrigan handed over an 11,000-strong petition to the Counsellor to the Albanian Ambassador, Myzafer Alushi, during a 20-minute meeting on 20 February.
He stressed that the petition was not intended to be a protest but rather an expression of thanks and encouragement for the steps that the Albanian Government has already taken to end the trafficking of women, children and men in Albania, a major country of origin.
"We are grateful to the Albanian Government for taking this issue so seriously," explained Mr Kerrigan.
The 11,000 signatures on the petition belong to supporters of BMS' In Transit campaign, a six-month postcard campaign in 2007 urging Baptists across the UK to declare their opposition to human trafficking and support evangelical Christians in Albania who are actively lobbying their government to create more effective legislation.
Mr Alushi praised the work of the church in helping the Albanian Government to overcome the country's trafficking problem.
"The Church plays an important role and I want to thank you for what you are doing. Your contribution is very much evaluated by the Albanian government and we hope that together we will stop the shameful trafficking problem," he said. He added, "The issue is being tackled very carefully by our government and with full support of the UK and other governments in Europe. We have established successful centres to help trafficked women and the care by the government is certainly not lacking. We are doing what we can with limited resources, with support from other countries."
Mr Kerrigan was joined at the meeting by BMS World Mission's representative for counter-trafficking work, Hannah Wilson. She told Mr Alushi of some of the work that she and other Christians in Albania are doing in cooperation with the government to help victims and raise awareness of human trafficking, before handing Mr Alushi a copy in Albanian of a human trafficking booklet produced by the European Baptist Federation for church leaders.
Ms Wilson also announced in the meeting that the Albania's Vice Minister of the Interior, Iva Zajmi, had granted one of the In Transit campaign's policy asks for church representation on the 12 regional government anti-trafficking committees in Albania.
The Chair of Stop the Traffik, Steve Chalke, has been appointed as a special advisor to the UN's Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking (GIFT).
Chalke, who will advise the UN on Community Action against Human Trafficking within the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), addressed the opening session of the UN GIFT conference in Vienna earlier in February.
"My appointment is simply a symbol of the power for change that 1.5 million voices have created," said Chalke. "The crime of people trafficking or, to put it in stark terms, modern slavery, for sex, forced labour and even organ harvesting is one that shames us all. However, though the reality is that trafficking is now the world's fastest growing crime, I believe that every person, corporation and government can make choices which will turn the tide and that together we can see this great evil defeated. Stop the Traffik remains absolutely committed to that goal."
During the session, the Stop the Traffik coalition of 1,000 organisations engaged in anti-trafficking work also presented its Global Declaration signed by more than 1.5 million people.
The 1,200-strong delegation of leaders drawn from all 192 UN member states was joined by actress and activist, Emma Thompson, Latin American star, Ricky Martin, who is now involved in anti-trafficking work in both North and South America, and the Executive Director of the UNODC, Antonio Maria Costa.
Chalke's appointment is part of a wider collaboration between the Stop the Traffik coalition and the UNODC that will see the two bodies working together to produce resources for and strengthen connections with grassroots communities around the world. The organisations will also undertake joint research into trafficking in goods and product supply chains.
Speaking from Vienna for the United Nations, Costa expressed his enthusiasm for Chalke's new role and the work of Stop The Traffik, adding: "I believe that the Stop the Traffik Coalition has the potential to provide significant impetus to the United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking."
The plight of the world's poor already suffering the impact of global warming has been recognised in the Climate Change Bill going through Parliament thanks to the intervention of the Bishop of Liverpool, the Rt Rev James Jones, and the Bishop of London, the Rt Rev Richard Chartres.
Following advice from relief and development agencies, Tearfund and Christian Aid, the bishops, together with Baroness Northover, tabled an amendment to ensure that the Committee on Climate Change will include an expert on the social impacts of climate change policy at a national and international level. The committee will advise the Government when the Bill becomes law.
The bishops were concerned that the committee's deliberations on measures needed to tackle climate change could focus too exclusively on the costs involved to British society and business without considering the needs of the developing world.
The principle behind the amendment has been accepted by the Government and will now be included when a revised version of the Bill is published.
During a House of Lords debate on the Bill, Dr Chartres said the committee was charged with not putting undue burdens on UK business or unduly reducing UK competitiveness.
"That is a proper role and object for the committee, but who will make the case for developing countries?" he asked. "Who will make sure that their safety is not risked by an inadequate reduction? There has to be a capacity to put that case strongly within the committee."
Bishop Jones, who is also Vice President of Tearfund, welcomed the Committee on Climate Change's decision to an expert on climate science but added that someone with expertise in international development would bring the "human experience" of the impact of climate change.
"The tragedy of the present situation of global warming is that the poor in developing countries are already feeling and suffering disastrously from the effects of climate change. They do not, however, have the power to do anything about it," he said. "Those of us who possess the power do not as yet feel the full impact of our actions and have therefore been slow to bring in the necessary measures."
Having on the committee an expert in international development will "ensure that the voice of the poor and the plight of the powerless are heard and seen at the heart of Government and, most importantly, will underline the urgency which is still lacking in the popular mood", he said.
Both Tearfund and Christian Aid have offered their expertise to advise the Committee on Climate Change.
The Climate Change Bill, the first such piece of legislation in the world, will set Government targets for cuts in UK carbon emissions. Campaign groups, including Tearfund and Christian Aid, fear it will not be tough enough and are demanding 80 per cent emission cuts by 2050.
They warn that without drastic measures, temperature rises worldwide will rise above 2ºC, triggering widespread climate catastrophe.
An open letter from the president of the Chinese House Church Alliance has revealed the relentless persecution he and his family have endured under the hands of the Chinese Government.
Pastor Zhang Mingxuan, who heads the Chinese House Church Alliance, issued the letter on 18 February to the international community out of frustration over being driven from house to house by officials with no response from the central government or the judiciary system to his appeal for justice.
Zhang, who converted to Christianity in 1986, is used to persecution after having been stalked, arrested, beaten and imprisoned 12 times for his activities in the house church movement.
But the latest incidents have been more intense and frequent, forcing the house church leader to write two open letters to President Hu Jintao and a third open letter to the international community for help after receiving no response from the government.
As detailed in his letter, high-level Chinese officials visited an orphanage - which is supported by the house church alliance - last October after which authorities forced the foreigners teaching the children to leave, drove away the students, cut off the power supply to the building, and began to monitor Zhang's movement more closely. The orphanage was forced to relocate after the energy company refused to return electricity to the building.
In a period of a little over a month, Zhang moved six times.
"I had to appeal to the leaders of Sanhe City," Zhang said. "However, instead of resuming the power supply, they threatened us even further. We then sued the Bureau of Electricity Services in the name of civilian rights, but the justices of the court would not accept our case. They forced the landlord to kick us out. On Christmas Day, they drove the orphans out of the school.
"In all helplessness, I wrote two open letters to President Hu Jintao. While the letters did not produce any result, they all the more persecuted the orphans and the church and they even forced two of my sons to move. On November 6, 2007, the orphanage was moved to a residential compound in Beijing. However, on the next day, the police officers from Tongzhou District of Beijing tried to force the landlord to drive us out."
More evictions followed as the Public Security Bureau (PSB) tried to "isolate" the house church leader, Bob Fu, president of the China Aid Association (CAA), told The Christian Post.
According to Fu, the intensified campaign against Zhang is "absolutely" related to the Beijing Olympics and the government's efforts to crack down on the house church movement. Fu said the government's main goal is to destroy the house church network and isolate Zhang who is the leader of the underground church.
As noted by many other human rights groups, China has engaged in a softer crackdown on churches by preferring to target house church leaders instead of ordinary Christians to avoid attracting international attention to human rights violations.
In his third letter, Zhang urged the international community to pray for the upcoming Beijing Olympics and to press the Chinese government to practise true religious freedom as it claims in its official laws.
"We pray to God that those brothers and sisters imprisoned for preaching Jesus Christ will be released soon and that God will make leaders in the Chinese government to treat the believers in a correct way and that God will make China a country full of love, justice, freedom and prosperity." Zhang wrote.
On 19 February, CAA said it just learned that 21 major house church leaders were recently sent to labour camp for re-education. They were all detained on December 7, 2007, during a massive arrest at a leadership training gathering with some 249 leaders in Shandong province.
The 21 senior church leaders were sentenced from one year and three months to three years in the labour camp, according to CAA. They were accused of being members of an "evil cult" by the PSB. Among the 21 sentenced, 17 are men and four are women.
Open Doors, a Christian persecution watchdog group, has organised a prayer campaign for persecuted Christians in China centred on the Beijing Olympics. Participants will pray for persecuted Christians in China and for a spiritual revival in the country.
High profile evangelist, Luis Palau, is encouraging Christians to bring their Bibles to the Summer Olympics in China.
The Chinese Government is "wide open", he claims, and will not stop visitors from bringing Scripture into the officially atheist country.
"I have enquired officially of people here and over there. Any person can go in there and take Bibles, as long as they're not selling them," Palau told Christian Today. "If they're giving them away, they can take all the Bibles they want. And I think that's going to happen - and I think that's very valuable."
Palau's comments come after China persecution watchdogs criticised the Chinese Government last November for listing the Bible as one of the banned items in the Olympic Village. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, Liu Jianchao, however, clarified that China's law "will guarantee religious freedom during the Olympics", but not allow Bibles to be brought in for "distribution or propaganda", reported Agence France-Presse. According to the official, athletes, journalists and tourists will be allowed to bring worship items, including the Bible, for personal use.
Palau, who was in New York City in February to promote his new book, "A Friendly Dialogue Between an Atheist and a Christian", said he does not think Christians will face much opposition from the People's Republic of China during their stay there. "I'm encouraging people to book their flights because it's going to be jammed. And to get a hotel and bed and breakfast because it's going to be jammed with people," he said. "But they're going to be free, they're not going to be stopped from expressing the gospel, to preach," he assured.
He added, "They were afraid that the athletes would start. Athletes are there to play and win, you know. But they may witness for Christ like some Chinese athletes do."
The Chinese Government's repressive religious policies are well documented, with worship outside state-approved venues prohibited, and proselytising forbidden. Reports emerge on a regular basis of Christians being detained and harassed by police for defying the regulations.
Palau, however, is more optimistic. He said that his gospel message in China has never been censored, although many persecution watchdog groups note that his addresses have been in government-sanctioned churches. Despite being very open about his future plans in China, one obstacle Palau said he did encounter was permission to hold an open-door evangelistic rally in China. While he looks forward to such a rally in China by the time the Summer Olympics arrive in Beijing in July, Palau said that for now he will just have to wait for approval by Chinese officials.
"I believe you ask for permission - from my perspective as a foreigner coming to a foreign country," he explained. "They have said to me, 'Be patient. Keep coming back. In China, we'd like to befriend a person, get to know them, trust them'... So, we're looking forward to it any day now."
The Argentina-born evangelist even joked that he has personal reasons for wanting to hold the rally in China soon.
"I said to one of the ministers ... 'You know, I can't wait forever. I'm getting old, you know? You've got to give me my chance.'"
If the rally is permitted in China, Palau said he plans to hold it in one of the major cities: Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing, or Hangzhou.
In the meantime, Palau will promote his book and prepare for his next festival to be held March 14-15 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Palau's book was first released in China in August 2006 under the title, Riverside Talks: A Friendly Dialogue Between an Atheist and a Christian. In the book, Palau and Zhao Qizheng, an atheist and former spokesman for Communist China's Cabinet, share their unique perspectives on the Bible, philosophy of religion, history and politics. It became a national best-seller in China and is the first-ever book between a Chinese diplomat and a Christian evangelist.
The Scottish Bible Society has launched a new appeal to help its partners in Nepal bring God's Word to more and more people within the country's blossoming Christian community.
One year after the predominantly Hindu Nepal became a secular state in May 2006, the Nepal Bible Society's third attempt in 11 years to be registered "official" finally proved successful. The new Society joins nearly 150 others working in more than 200 countries worldwide.
The Scottish Bible Society acknowledged that working in the country had not always been easy but said there were positive signs of change to be seen.
"With the recent death of Sir Edmund Hillary who with the Nepalese man Tenzing Norgay climbed Everest, the highest mountain in the world, fresh focus has been brought onto Nepal," said Elaine Duncan, chief executive of the Scottish Bible Society. "The huge team effort that it took to get the top of that particular mountain might inspire us to join with our fellow workers to achieve another important feat. Out of a population of 26 million, there are around 700,000 Christians in Nepal. The formerly unregistered Bible Society had worked in the country for 30 years but always faced the risk of reprisals and prosecution."
Christianity continues to spread in Nepal, however, and churches are turning increasingly to the Nepal Bible Society for Scriptures to help the ever-growing numbers of Nepali Christians grow stronger in their faith and more mature in their Christian journey.
In 2008, the local Bible Society is hoping to radically change the faith journey of 400,000 Christians by giving them their own copy of God's Word.
Ms Duncan added, "Plans are in action, production estimates agreed, and now - with the help of Christians in Scotland - the presses can be rolling by the end of March. We're in exciting times."
Nearly three quarters of Christians say the Bible challenges them to live in a way that runs counter to today's culture, a survey commissioned by Bible Society has revealed - but they still struggle to apply that challenge to their daily lives, the organisation warns.
The report, "Taking the Pulse; Is the Bible alive and well in the Church today?", was undertaken by research company ComRes on behalf of Bible Society and other Christian organisations to give a snapshot of the way the Bible is used by the Church. More than 3,660 churchgoers and church leaders in England and Wales were quizzed as part of the study. Five focus groups were also interviewed in depth, in one of the most extensive research projects of its kind which will be extended to Scotland later this year.
Figures show that almost all churchgoers and leaders believe the Bible is relevant and the majority of churchgoers feel it should shape their lives "a great deal". The Bible challenged 91 per cent of church leaders and three-quarters of churchgoers to live differently, and most people felt "encouraged" when they read it. A third of churchgoers said they read the Bible daily, and a quarter read it several times a week. Half said they were "fairly confident" in their knowledge of the Bible.
However, when it came to living out its message, the focus group studies found that churchgoers "want to learn how to apply the Bible to their daily lives".
Just over one in three churchgoers (39 per cent) said what they read in the Bible affected a decision they had made in the last week, and many think the church needs to provide more help in connecting biblical teaching to day-to-day life.
The study also revealed a level of dissatisfaction among church leaders, who regard the Bible as very relevant to their own lives, but are not able to communicate that to others.
"This overwhelmingly positive attitude to the Bible among churchgoers and church leaders shows that people accept its significance to their lives in principle," said Ann Holt, Bible Society's Executive Director of Programme.
"But the study reveals - alarmingly but perhaps not unexpectedly - that the Bible is having a limited impact on people's lives and decisions."
The extensive questionnaire showed that both churchgoers and church leaders have growing concerns about the waning influence of the Bible - and the church - in public life. Two thirds of Christians thought the church should work towards a society that takes the Bible more seriously, and should promote it more widely. Focus studies with church leaders indicated that they would like to be more visible in public debate. However, leaders said the church had not so far succeeded in making its views known on issues that people care about.
"At Bible Society, our aim is to show that the Bible connects with the fabric of everyday life - and we do this actively by working with those in politics, education, the media and the arts. We want to take people from just knowing of the Bible, to making the most of its message in their daily lives," said Ms Holt. "This survey is a thorough and in-depth health check on the state of Bible use in the Church. The picture it paints is both encouraging, and a wake-up call to church leaders that will hopefully spur them on to help people live out the Bible's message."
The survey, carried out by ComRes, was commissioned by Bible Society in partnership with the Evangelical Alliance, Scripture Union, United Christian Broadcasters (UCB) and the Scottish Bible Society.
A summary version of the survey and links to Bible resources can be found on Bible Society's website, www.biblesociety.org.uk
Factbox
Christians are hoping that the election victory of assassinated Benazir Bhutto's party will move Pakistan towards democracy and greater religious freedom.
Former prime minister Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) won the most seats in the National Assembly in the 18 February election.
Christians in Pakistan have long yearned for equality in the predominantly Muslim country, suffering harsh discrimination daily in all areas of life, including education, finances and politics.
Their hopes that Bhutto, who was tutored by a Catholic nun, would lift them out of their second-class status were dealt a severe blow after her assassination last December, but with the PPP's success in the elections, hopes of a brighter future are being rekindled.
"Pray that the government that takes power will look out for the Christians, will protect their right to worship, will protect their right to change religions, will protect their right to conversion," said Todd Nettleton, spokesman for Christian persecution watchdog group Voice of the Martyrs, according to Mission Network News. "I think we can pray for the believers there that they will continue to be a witness," he added.
The WCC central committee said in a statement that the outcome of the elections was "encouraging".
"We very much hope this shows a return to democratic governance in Pakistan," the statement added.
Persecution continues to make life extremely difficult for Christians in Pakistan. The blasphemy law is often manipulated to accuse innocent Christians and have them sentenced to jail with the motive of business profit or revenge. There are dozens of Christians currently in jail because of blasphemy laws that forbid anyone from defaming Islam.
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom has urged the State Department to add Pakistan to its list of "countries of particular concern".
"It's one of the most serious problem spots for religious freedom in the entire world," said Felice Gaer, former chairwoman of the commission and director of the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights.
"Discriminatory legislation has fostered an atmosphere of religious intolerance and eroded the legislative status of people who belong to minorities," Gaer said.
Many welcomed Fidel Castro's recent resignation as a long-awaited opportunity for democracy to finally take root in the communist stronghold. But Christian human rights groups were more reserved in their hopes, expressing uncertainty if positive changes in the country's religious freedom will occur under Cuba's new leader, Raul Castro.
Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) USA director Tom White, for one, is not impressed with 76-year-old Raul.
"Castro's brother, Raul, is the one who would shoot prisoners in the head with a 45 pistol if they weren't altogether dead," White said to Mission Network News. "So that's the kind of person ... who would be inheriting the transfer of power there."
White was captured by Cuban authorities in the 1980s after the plane, from which he was dropping Christian leaflets, crash-landed on the island. He was tortured and sentenced to 24 years, but served only 17 months before he was released. International pressure and a personal appeal from Mother Theresa to Fidel Castro helped secure White's freedom.
In addition to Raul, the VOM director is not thrilled about Cuba's close ties with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. He called Chavez the "sugar daddy" of Cuba and noted that the relationship will make it difficult to move towards democracy. But the former victim of Castro's regime believes that for the most part, Cuban Christians will be left alone to worship as they have been, even if no improvements take place under the new leader.
"In my opinion, it would cause a total revolution on the entire island if they started smashing up the poor Christians," White commented.
Cuba legally bans house churches, but thousands of them openly hold services and activities without harassment.
According to WorldServe Ministries, an organisation serving the persecuted church worldwide, there were only 1,100 churches and houses on the island nation in 1991 - the year when the Congressional Communist Party voted to change Cuba's constitutional status from atheist to secular state. Now, there are more than 16,000 house churches, reported VOM, which has worked in Cuba since 1993.
Pope Benedict also expressed concerns over the future of Christians in Cuba.
"At times, some Christian communities feel overwhelmed by the difficulties, by the lack of resources, the indifference and even distrust, that can be discouraging," he said on 21 February in a message to Cuba's Catholic bishops.
Southern Baptists echoed White's sentiment, saying that they look forward to continuing their work under the new leader.
"The Cuban Baptist conventions are strong with a healthy focus on sharing the Good News of Jesus with all Cubans," one Baptist worker said, according to Baptist Press (BP). "Regardless of changes, Cuban Baptists are capable of continuing to expand their influence across the island.
"The one thing we ask is that all Christians pray for them as they move ahead with their plans. Southern Baptists will continue to assist Cuban Baptists as they request and as we are able."
According to a report, the enrolment of the Baptist Seminary in Havana rose from 54 resident students in 1999 to 610 students in 2007 including commuter programmes and extension classes last year, BP highlighted.
VOM's White urged prayer for the country's believers.
"Pray that [Christians] continue to exhibit the same kind of courage in their poverty. They knock the walls out of their houses and convert them into little house churches. Pray that they continue to be inspired and have creativity."
The Evangelical Alliance is calling for a meeting between the Immigration Minister and church leaders after a UN report outlined areas of concern for religious freedom in the UK. The Alliance was one of the faith groups which met UN Special Rapporteur for religion and belief, Asma Jahangir during her visit to the UK last June.
During the meeting, the Alliance gave her examples of translation problems and "ludicrous questioning" of asylum seekers by case workers and the judiciary, which led to people being refused asylum from dangerous home countries.
The Special Rapporteur's subsequent report on freedom of religion and belief stressed the importance of reliable and impartial interpretation services. It also reiterated that a conversion to Christianity after an asylum-seeker left his or her country of origin should not give rise to a presumption that the claim is fabricated.
She added that claims "based on well-founded fear of religious persecution, are subject to rigid scrutiny" and few applications are successful.
Gareth Wallace, Parliamentary Officer for the Evangelical Alliance, said: "I think rigid is putting it politely. Not only are caseworkers seemingly rigid in their desire to reject claims on the grounds of religious persecution, but their questioning is often both unfair and ignorant.
"Ascertaining a religious converts' genuineness by asking them questions including 'How do you cook a turkey for Christmas?' - as one asylum seeker we have spoken to was asked - does not cut the theological mustard with any Christian.
"The Special Rapporteur isn't the only one to find Government statistics hard to source on this issue. Liam Byrne [Immigration Minister] has admitted to Parliament that he doesn't record why people claim asylum, something we find absurd."
Mr Wallace said examples of poor interpretation the Alliance has been told about include one interpreter being unable to translate the word "gospel". He added that although civil servants have been helpful when the Alliance has raised these problems, Mr Byrne has so far failed to meet church leaders. They have asked for a meeting in the hope that he will take up the Evangelical Alliance's offer of arranging theological training seminars for Home Office staff, immigration, judges, adjudicators, caseworkers and interpreters.
"We hope this international pressure on religious liberty issues from the UN will inspire him to engage with the Church leaders, who have been working constructively and compassionately on asylum for years," said Mr Wallace.
The Muslim-majority country of Jordan admitted on 20 February to expelling foreign Christians for illegal preaching under what it claims was the guise of charity work.
The announcement is the first official acknowledgment that the government has clamped down on several foreign Christian preachers. Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh said Christians had come to Jordan under the "pretext of charitable and voluntary activities, but they had violated the law by undertaking preaching activities and were expelled", according to The Jerusalem Post.
Under Jordanian law, conversion from Islam to Christianity is not allowed in Muslim conservative Jordan and foreign missionary groups are banned from seeking converts, according to Agence France-Presse. But the government must sanction preaching and any religious activity, whether Christian or Muslim.
In January, the Christian persecution watchdog group, Compass Direct News, reported that at least 27 expatriate Christian families and individuals were refused residence permits last year. The foreign Christians include Americans, Europeans, South Koreans, Egyptians, Sudanese and Iraqis.
But Jordan's lower house of parliament countered on 21 February what it called "false reports" that the government was carrying through a crackdown on expatriate Christians.
In a statement, the lower house said "Christians in Jordan are an integral part of the society", holding positions in parliament, the government and the armed forces and "living in peace and harmony with their Muslim brothers", according to AFP.
Foreign Minister, Judeh, highlighted that the Council of Churches, the highest Christian body in Jordan, had "made it clear that Christians in Jordan lived in peace and security with their Muslim brethren and that the Jordanian constitution guaranteed the rights of all Jordanians regardless of their religion and sect," according to The Earth Times.
The Council issued a statement last week denouncing some unspecified missionary groups that presented themselves as charitable organisations and refuting allegations that the government was cracking down on foreign Christians in the country.
"It is puzzling that certain small groups with a few hundred members and which are foreign to Christians in Jordan and to the history of Muslim-Christian relations, permit themselves to speak in the name of Christians and act as protectors of Christianity as if it were in danger," the Council said, according to The Earth Times.
Jordan is 92 per cent Sunni Muslim, six per cent Christian, and two per cent belong to other religions.
The Mothers' Union has called for greater economic and social support for marriage and to encourage awareness that marriage is a beneficial lifestyle choice.
Speaking in response to the recent British Social Attitudes survey, which showed that the "average" adult no longer regards marriage as essential, Chief Executive, Reg Bailey said, "There's nothing 'average' about marriage, or making life-long commitment."
Mr Bailey said people who felt that marriage and cohabitation provide the same degree of stability for adult relationships, for children, and for society "are being seriously misled".
"The evidence shows that long-term cohabitation, especially where children are involved, simply doesn't provide the same stability, or for that matter, the same legal rights, as marriage," he said.
He said that, more than legal rights, Mothers' Union wanted to ensure that couples and families know that choosing marriage and commitment is "far more likely to provide them and their children with a healthier, more secure, financially stable relationship".
"We want to stand against media-encouraged expectations of marriage, which depict unrealistic fairytale hopes, and peddle a salacious focus on celebrity weddings and marriage breakdown," he said. "We want to help people 'get real' about how relationships need to be worked at, not given up on if a particular individual isn't 'ideal'."
Mr Bailey said that society needed "to foster a relationship culture that says to our children, the majority of whom fear parental separation more than anything else, that we, as community, are prepared to consider the implications of separation into the family and wider family, and to invest in a culture that values committed relationship".
Mothers' Union called for a societal shift towards promoting marriage in a positive, yet realistic light, and criticised the UK Government for financially discriminating against marriage.
The organisation is pressing for tax benefits that support marriage in order to "send a clear signal to the public that marriage is understood to provide benefit to society as a whole".
Government needs to fund initiatives which support relationships before breakdown, Mothers' Union said, adding its support for initiatives which nurture those who experience the trauma of separation and put forward policy solutions to other problems that put pressure on marriage such as debt.
Mothers' Union is stepping up its efforts to help couples see beyond the wedding day and seek a happy, nurturing, lifelong relationship where couples are prepared to be together "for better, for worse".
This year they will launch Loving for Life, a new training initiative for members and supporters to equip them to work alongside clergy in the provision of locally adaptable marriage preparation sessions.
The future of democracy across the entire African continent hangs on Kenya's ability to halt the horrific violence that has swept across the country after the disputed presidential elections last December, Kenyan church leaders said earlier in February.
They warned, however, that deep-rooted ethnic divisions would take a long time to heal and require more than unanimity on the political level.
"Kenya is a test case of whether Africa moves forward in the democratic process," Agnes Abuom, a Kenyan historian and former political detainee from the country's Anglican Church told a news conference in Geneva.
Ms Abuom was in the Swiss city for a 13-20 February meeting of the World Council of Churches central committee, the highest governing body of the ecumenical council.
More than 1,000 have been killed in ethnic violence in Kenya, formerly a bulwark of democracy and economic stability. Opposition leader, Raila Odinga, a Luo, says the 27 December elections were stolen by President Mwai Kibaki to secure his re-election.
Ethnic violence has boiled over in the western regions in particular, where around 20,000 Kikuyus - Kibaki's tribe - have been driven out by the majority Luos in the past months. Others have been butchered to death by machete-wielding mobs.
Ms Abuom, a former WCC president and campaigner for social justice, added, "What has happened was inevitable."
South African Methodist Bishop Mvume Dandala, head of the Nairobi-based All African Council of Churches, was also in Geneva for the WCC meeting.
"To allow democracy to collapse in Kenya would be to allow it to collapse around the continent," he warned.
Christianity is the dominant religion in Kenya, and the opinions of church leaders are taken seriously by the country's political leaders.
Earlier in the central committee meeting, WCC General Secretary Rev Dr Samuel Kobia told representatives of the body's 348 members that Kenya's breakdown "severely tests the notion of elections as a panacea for democracy and good governance".
He pointed to the reluctance of many government leaders - and bishops - on the African continent to give up power.
"One of the most difficult situations in Africa is change of government. This often produces violence. We don't have the culture or tradition for the change of one regime to another," said Dr Kobia.
Stories of God's saving grace and protection are emerging from the Christian pastors who chose to remain in troubled Chad throughout the recent violence in the country's capital N'Djamena.
Around 160 people were killed when rebels stormed the capital N'Djamena in early February, including many civilians, while thousands more fled to neighbouring Cameroon. In spite of the darkness of recent weeks, Jerry Dykstra of Open Doors USA is receiving testimonies from a number of Christian pastors that God protected them during the rebel attacks on the capital, reports Mission Network News.
Pastor Rene Daidanso of N'Djamena said that the crisis situation caused him "to experience progress in the reading of God's Word and in prayer".
"I don't exaggerate when affirming that I never prayed as much as I have during this period," he shared. "The Lord showed me that I must not leave the city of N'Djamena. I had to follow Abraham's example when he interceded of behalf of the city of Sodom and Gomorrah. I interceded for my city, and N'Djamena was delivered. He communicated to me clearly that if there were only 10 Christians in N'Djamena. He would not destroy the city. I asked Him in my prayer to direct all deadly bullets toward empty spaces so that lives would be spared. And my prayer has been granted."
Pastor Daidanso told Dykstra that the Church of the Good News, a Christian Assemblies of Chad church, survived the bombardments, whilst the Chadian Radio Television next door was completely burned to ashes. The Evangelical Church of Chad, with a congregation of more than 1,500 members, also survived the attacks unscathed, whilst N'Djamena's major market just 100 metres away was severely damaged.
Open Doors, whose ministry teams were scattered by the conflict, continues to keep a watchful eye on the situation in Chad, however. Although the violence has halted, an "uneasy calm" hangs in the air, admits Dykstra.
Christians in eastern Chad have appealed to Open Doors for prayer as armed rebels coming in from Sudan's Darfur region "spread terror in the name of Islam".
Open Doors works in the area, sending biblical materials, much of which is for the training of Christians.
"Continue to pray for them," he said. "The growth of Islam is a big threat in Chad, so we need to keep that in prayer, too."
Prayer appeals have also come in from Pastor Hadama Christopher in Kousseri, a border city in Cameroon sheltering Chadian refugees since the outbreak of the conflict. The lack of water and food, and the sharp escalation of prices for food and basic goods remain serious concerns.
"Pray for the Christians of Chad to be helped by God in all circumstances and to be strengthened in their faith," said Open Doors.