Displaying items by tag: Religion

There is no lack of UK church buildings, but less than 2% of the population are evangelical Christians, despite a strong Christian history. M4UK’s vision is to engage with the people who are unreached in 2022 and beyond, by revitalising and growing churches and planting new churches that declare and demonstrate the life-changing power of Jesus Christ. Its Team Process is two years of training that helps the church planter and their team succeed in their first years. At the end of the training process, the church-planting team is fully prepared to launch a healthy reproducing church that glorifies God and impacts society. It is Christ himself who builds his church, and the authority of the Bible is essential for the content and message of the M4 process.

Some worshippers left the chapel of Trinity College Cambridge in tears after guest speaker Joshua Heath explained how Jesus could have been transgender. Joshua, whose PhD was supervised by former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, showed the congregation three Renaissance and medieval paintings of Jesus and the 14th-century Prayer Book of Bonne of Luxembourg to defend his point. The dean of Trinity College said such a view was ‘legitimate’, but US evangelist Franklin Graham said the comments were ‘repulsive and shameful’. ‘To insinuate that Jesus Christ, the Holy Son of God, is transgender or to sexualise in any way his sacrificial death on the Cross for the sins of mankind is utter heresy.'

China might not come to mind when considering Advent, but 5.1% of Chinese are Christians who light their homes with colourful paper lanterns and red paper pagodas placed in windows. 86% of Croatians are Roman Catholic, and some Christmas preparations begin on 25 November, St Catherine's Day. Families gather around an Advent wreath each Sunday to sing carols and light a candle. Hungarian tradition during Advent is a daily Mass, called Angelic Mass or Golden Mass, held every dawn from the first Sunday of Advent to the first day of Christmas. Mexico’s Advent brings Las Posadas, a nine-day celebration from 16 to 24 December, marking Mary and Joseph’s journey. Each evening a child dressed as an angel leads a procession of children visiting homes, where they are denied entry but given refreshments. Poland’s Advent brings prayer, fasting and spiritual preparation for Christmas. Poles attend early-morning Masses and light candles symbolising the coming light of salvation.

Ecuador, one of four Latin American teams in the 2022 World Cup, is drawing attention not only for its impressive start to the tournament but also for the way the players are celebrating their goals. On 20 November former West Ham player Enner Valencia scored twice, securing the win against host team Qatar. Both goals were dedicated to God as the players came together to form a circle and fall to their knees before pointing and looking up to the sky to celebrate. It is understood most of the team’s players are Christians, with several videos on social media showing them praying before each match.

Bishop Paul Mason, the lead bishop for safeguarding in the Catholic Church in England and Wales, has defended the seal of the confessional even when a priest may hear disclosures of abuse. He said this after the biannual plenary meeting of bishops where a report by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) recommended that failure to report a disclosure of child sexual abuse should be a criminal offence, including disclosures made in the confessional. Bishop Mason said that it’s an extremely sensitive and difficult area, and IICSA noted that they didn’t come across priests who have described having had a paedophile in the Confessional. Bishop Paul said if we do have contact with these people, we have an opportunity to turn their lives around and report themselves to the authorities.

Polish video game company PlayWay SA has announced it will launch the first instalment of the world’s first game that allows players to simulate the life of Jesus, including performing miracles and battling Satan. The prologue, I Am Jesus Christ, is a stand-alone game which serves as an introduction; it will be available from 1 December. The full version, which will be published in the second quarter of next year, will allow players to walk in the footsteps of Jesus ‘from birth to resurrection’, recreating key events from his life, such as the Last Supper. Players will be able to perform miracles and carry out quests, including a fight with Satan in the desert. Along the way, players discover Jesus’s story from his perspective and will be able to cure the sick, help the needy and interact with over sixty characters, including Christ’s disciples.

In under two weeks, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine became a full-fledged humanitarian crisis. The turmoil is affecting gospel workers in Ukraine and throughout the region in significant ways. The Slavic Gospel Association (SGA) reports a sense of excitement. Kherson, a very important city to Ukrainians, is now accessible. Battlefields are constantly changing, with villages and cities burned to the ground. People are hiding in their basements: drones, missiles, and rockets are attacking their infrastructure, and they are bracing for a terrible winter. A new SGA initiative, Heat and Hope, will provide heating, blankets, and food to Ukrainians. They work through over 240 local churches across the embattled regions. They will not only be centres of warmth when all else has been destroyed, but centres of hope. In the middle of a bitter cold winter, these churches are proclaiming the hope and love of Jesus.

Golden Hills Elementary School in California is facing backlash from parents after promoting an after-school Satan club aimed at children as young as five. The controversial club is scheduled to hold monthly meetings starting in December. It was created by the Satanic Temple - not to be confused with the Church of Satan - as an antidote to the evangelical Christian groups cropping up in public schools. The organisation’s website states, ‘The Satanic Temple does not advocate for religion in schools. However, once religion invades schools, as the Good News Clubs have, the Satanic Temple will fight to ensure that plurality and true religious liberty are respected.’ In this instance, the after-school club was created in response to the Good News Club, a weekly Christian programme for 5- to 12-year-olds at the school. Many parents believe the Satan club is a Trojan horse to promote devil worship in schools.

Officials in Algeria are making it increasingly difficult for missionaries to evangelise or challenge Islam in any capacity. Algeria’s government-issued ordinances and restrictions on non-Muslim organisations attempting to attract Muslims to Christ are enforced with animosity, hefty fines, and the very real possibility of between three and five years in prison. Algeria’s population is 99% Sunni Muslim. The laws against blasphemy, proselytisation, and worship make ministry work extremely difficult and can come at a high price. They criminalise any individual offending the Prophet or belittling the precepts of Islam through writing, artwork, speaking, or other mediums. Laws regulating worship keep Christians confined to approved worship spaces made purposely in places difficult to attend regularly. Pray that church leaders will be strong and wise while enduring hardship, and for opportunities to distribute Bibles throughout the country, especially in the south.

The Anglican Church of South Africa has passed anti-Israel resolutions, including the call on members to observe Nakba (Catastrophe) Day, which effectively means believing that Israel has no right to be a nation. Nakba, the name applied by Palestinians to Israel’s annual Independence Day, is normally marked by protests. The approval by Anglicans of such behaviour is a challenge to God’s promises, as they allow themselves to be used as a mouthpiece of the ‘father of lies’. It also goes against the grain of the growing movement of reconciliation between Jews and Arabs who follow Jesus (most Messianic congregations in Israel are mixed). The apartheid regime was defeated mostly thanks to South Africa’s leading Jews: now clerics are accusing Israel of the same type of discrimination. Meanwhile, English Anglicans recently held a service of repentance in Oxford Cathedral for historic anti-Semitism perpetrated by Christians.