Iran Clamps Down on Evangelical Christians
THE CHRISTIAN POST: Iran Pushes Islamic Literature Onto Christian Prisoners to Bring Further Charges Against Them

Iran’s court system is tightening its hold on Christian prisoners, pushing Islamic religious literature on them and transferring some to higher security prisons in an attempt to quell Christianity in the Middle Eastern country.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) has been informed that during Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani’s stay in prison, officials provided him with religious Islamic literature “allegedly as part of an official campaign to convert Christian prisoners.”

Nadarkhani has been in an Iranian prison since Oct. 2009, awaiting a verdict on charges of apostasy and evangelizing Muslims.

According to Dr. Khataza Gondwe, Team Leader for Africa and Middle East at CSW, Christian prisoners who receive such literature have been advised to practice caution when responding to official interrogation pertaining to it.

Gondwe told The Christian Post that if prisoners read the literature and respond when interrogated, it must be “done very carefully because [the prisoners] may be open to further charges,” including blasphemy against Islam. » | Katherine Weber | Christian Post Contributor | Wednesday, October 26, 2011

One On One - Amr Khaled
The world's first Islamic television evangelist talks about encouraging peaceful change within Islam

African Clergy Told to Re-evangelise 'Ailing' Anglican Church
THE GUARDIAN: Archbishop of Uganda, Henry Orombi, reiterates opposition to homosexuality at Entebbe meeting of 400 bishops

Anglican bishops gather for the opening of the second meeting of the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa in Entebbe. Photograph: The Guardian
The archbishop of Uganda has urged hundreds of African bishops to shake off their fears, shame and superficial dependency and re-evangelise the "ailing" churches of the west.

In a rallying cry to the biggest constituency of the Anglican Communion, Henry Orombi said yesterday was time for Africans to "rise up and bring fresh life in the ailing global Anglicanism".

His call came on the day that US Episcopalians published a guide on liturgical and ceremonial resources for clergy and same-sex couples.

Orombi was addressing 400 bishops who are in Entebbe, Uganda, this week for the second meeting of the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa. He told them the "potentials" attending the conference must be free to go to Europe and the US and revive the "Mother Church desperate for the gospel".

Listening was the archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, who faces an awkward week as he visits Uganda for the first time since he took office in 2002.

According to the Daily Nation in Kenya, African church leaders will use the meeting to reiterate their concerns about homosexuality and criticise the archbishop for failing to punish communities that welcome gays and lesbians into the pews and priesthood.

Orombi told the paper: "Homosexuality is incompatible with the word of God. It is good archbishop Rowan is here. We are going to express to him where we stand. We are going to explain where our pains are." >>> Riazat Butt, religious affairs correspondent | Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Pope Launches Team to 'Re-evangelise' the West
THE TELEGRAPH: The Pope launched a team to stem the secularisation of Catholic countries and "re-evangelise" the West.

Pope Benedict XVI. Photo: The Telegraph
Benedict XVI announced the creation of a new Vatican department dedicated to tackling what he called "a grave crisis in the sense of the Christian faith and the role of the Church."

He expressed deep concerns that previously staunch Catholic countries in Europe and North America were facing "the eclipse of a sense of God". Tens of thousands of worshippers are deserting the Church over issues such as clerical sex abuse and the ban on married priests.

"I have decided to create a new body with the aim of promoting a renewed evangelism," in countries that are going through "progressive secularisation of society", the 83-year-old Pope said.

The new department, to be called The Pontifical Council for New Evangelisation, will try to reinvigorate belief among Catholics in rich, developed countries – or, in the pontiff's words, "find the right means to re-propose the perennial truth of the Gospel." >>> Nick Squires in Rome | Tuesday, June 29, 2010

West Turns Africa into Gay Battlefield
THE SUNDAY TIMES: Western evangelists and gay rights groups are stoking Africa’s bitter rows over homosexuality, writes RW Johnson in Cape Town

Steven Monjeza (L) and Tiwonge Chimbalanga. Photo: The Sunday Times
The trial of a young male couple charged with unnatural practices and gross indecency after announcing their engagement in Malawi was adjourned last week when one of the accused collapsed in court while enduring jeers from the public gallery.

Tiwonge Chimbalanga, 20, was made to return with a mop to clean up his own vomit, even though he has malaria.

He and his boyfriend, Steven Monjeza, 26, have been held in Chichiri prison, Blantyre, for more than a week — in order, the judge says, to protect them from mob violence.

Chichiri has a reputation for overcrowding, disease and homosexual rape. The couple say they have been badly beaten and Peter Tatchell, the British gay activist, describes their conditions as appalling.

Such scenes will only increase the pressure from western human rights activists and donor countries on Malawi’s government to moderate its draconian anti-gay laws, for which the couple have provided a test case. They face up to 14 years in jail.

Following similar donor pressure, President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda distanced himself from an anti-homosexuality bill before parliament in Kampala last week. Museveni appealed to MPs to “go slow” on the private member’s bill, which stipulates the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality”, including homosexual acts by HIV-positive men.

Museveni said he had come under pressure from Gordon Brown, Stephen Harper, the prime minister of Canada, and the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, in a 45-minute phone call. He was also struck by the fact that a US protest rally had drawn 300,000 people, saying he would have great difficulty attracting such a crowd.

The two cases illustrate the way Africa is becoming a battleground over differing attitudes to homosexuality in the West. >>> RW Johnson in Cape Town. Additional reporting: Rosie Kinchen | Sunday, January 17, 2010

For Secular and Catholic France, a Shock to the System: The Rise of the Evangelicals
THE GUARDIAN: Church insists it is not like the US right, but many fear growth of a political force

As the piano strikes up, the congregation sways, palms to the ceiling, fists in the air, murmurs of hallelujah punctuating the music. Pastor Franck Lefillatre, besuited and bathed in the spotlight on his podium, intones into a microphone.

"Let out the words that are in your heart," he urges. His whispers crescendo to booming rhetoric. Behind him, emblazoned in gold lettering, are the words: "Jesus Christ: the same yesterday, today, eternally."

As evangelical services go, this gathering on a rainy Sunday afternoon is nothing unusual. In countless churches around the United States and many other countries it would be a staple means of Christian worship.

But this is not the American Bible belt. It is the Church of Paris-Bastille, and this congregation is just one of a growing number of evangelical communities spreading through France and prospering in spite of its staunchly secular – and Catholic – traditions.

From a postwar population of around 50,000, French evangelicals are now estimated to number between 450,000 and 500,000. According to the Evangelical Federation of France (FEF), the number of churches has risen from 800 in 1970 to over 2,200 today.

This week the boom made headlines when thousands of evangelicals – who are estimated to make up two-thirds of the country's practising Protestants – descended on Strasbourg to turn the 500th anniversary of Calvin's birth into a mass, media-covered event. It was not something even the most hopeful of believers could have prayed for. >>> Lizzy Davies in Paris | Friday, November 06, 2009

Evangelical Christianity: It's Glastonbury for God
THE INDEPENDENT: Church of England pews may be empty, but the fields of Somerset are rocking with a series of evangelical festivals this summer. Jerome Taylor joined the faithful

Rich Nathan is just about to wrap up his evening sermon when a loud and piercing shriek erupts from the back of his congregation. A woman in the crowd of 3,000 worshippers is shaking uncontrollably and wailing. "Jesus!" she cries. "Jesus I feel you!" Nearer the front of the stage, a small and equally exuberant group of faithful is receiving the Holy Spirit in other ways. Some rock from side to side, others simply mutter in hushed tones or raise their hands skywards.

It could be a scene from the American Mid-West – Pastor Nathan is, after all, a prominent Jewish-born convert to Christianity who leads a church in Ohio. But today's energetic act of mass worship is taking place in the rolling countryside of Somerset, just to the south of the picturesque town of Shepton Mallet.

As the leaders of Britain's more mainstream denominations scratch their heads and debate how to revitalise their congregations, evangelical Christianity in Britain is going from strength to strength. The number of evangelical churches in Britain has risen from 2047 to 2,719 since 1998 and their followers now make up 34 per cent of Anglicans, figures show.

Nowhere is the strength of British evangelism more apparent than at the numerous summer festivals that have sprung up and attract tens of thousands of people every year. Britain's first atheist summer camp, attended by 24 children last week, made headlines around the world. But just down the road an estimated 60,000 Christians of many different but predominantly evangelical hues will pass through the gates of the Royal Bath and West Showground over the next five weeks for a succession of festivals that offers a heady mix of Glastonbury and God. >>> Jerome Taylor | Thursday, August 06, 2009

Evangelism Can Combat Islamic Terrorism, Says Bishop Akinola
TIMESONLINE: Archbishop Akinola of Nigeria, the world’s most powerful Anglican leader, tells Religion Correspondent Ruth Gledhill that his conservatism is the true faith and that evangelism can combat Islamic terrorism

When Peter Akinola, Archbishop of Nigeria, consecrated 20 bishops in a single service, an observer asked how this was possible. He replied: “You have not seen anything yet.” This is a man whose name strikes fear into the souls of Western Christian leaders. Heading a Church of nearly 20 million practising Anglicans, he is the most powerful leader in the Anglican Church. While churches are closing in the US and Britain, he cannot open them fast enough. If things continue as they are, his could well be the future face of worldwide Anglicanism. Time is running out for the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, to avert schism.

Dr Akinola has become a totem of conservatism in the debate over homosexuality. The irony is not lost on him that he is attempting to preach a gospel back to England that was brought to his country by English missionaries in the mid-19th century. To modern, liberal, Western eyes, Dr Akinola is at the most extreme end of fundamentalist Christianity. Few can imagine the “broad” Church of England being led by such a man – but in Nigeria he is at the more liberal end of the Christian spectrum. More importantly, he is in the front line of relations between Christianity and Islam. In the northern, Sharia states of Nigeria, Christians have been driven from their looted homes, even murdered. The relationship with Islam is central to his ministry and he has found a way to counter Islam without violence: it is called evangelism. For God’s sake (more)

Mark Alexander