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De-westernise theology, Catholic academics urged by
WCC leader
In Rome the general secretary of the World Council of
Churches, the Rev. Sam Kobia, spoke at the Fifth International Congress of the
European Society for Catholic Theology. Dr. Kobia stressed that European
theology needs to be "de-westernised" to adapt to a global shift of
Christianity to the Southern Hemisphere. According to Ecumenical News
International Dr. Kobia said in his speech to a gathering of Roman Catholic theologians,
that "Is it not high time to leave behind the destructive pride of the
dominant global culture that has its origins in the colonising drive to conquer
and subdue the world?
Lift sanctions on North Korea, global church body
urges
The Geneva-based World Council of Churches has appealed to
the international community to help lift sanctions against North Korea and to
restore humanitarian aid to defeat hunger and malnutrition in the country. The
appeal came after a completion of the World Council of Churches executive
committee meetings in Seoul. According
to Ecumenical News international the World Council of Churches expressed that
"The grave humanitarian crisis of hunger, chronic malnutrition and related
disease facing the North Korean people are a challenge not only to the
churches, but also to the conscience of the entire international
community,"
AWR Reformats South American Services
In South America, according to a recent announcement, Adventist World Radio, AWR, will close it’s America’s Region office in Costa Rica and move operations to Brazil to work in cooperation with the Adventist Media Center. 16 staff members, however, will lose there jobs as a result. Benjamin Schoun, president of AWR comments:
“Recently we’ve seen a tremendous development
of the local radio stations and the development of a very fine media center in
Brazil. And rather than duplicating
efforts, Adventist World Radio has felt that we should work more closely with
the media center and these other stations, saving some of the costs and
resources that we’re investing into that area so that we can more effectively
fulfill our mission in the hardest to reach parts of the world.”
In Nigeria Christian leaders have denounced ritual killings.
This after the police discovered more than 20 human skulls and 50 corpses at
traditional religious shrines in the south-west of the country. Nigerian police
said after the discovery of the corpses at the Okija shrines on 4 August that
they were people who had either been kidnapped and brought there for sacrifice
or who had visited the shrines seeking money, affluence, or influence. Police
later found a further 33 bodies at the site.
The Gospel is Filipino pastor's prescription for
managing stress
Baguio City,
In
the Phillipines according to Ecumenical news international.
Christians do not need to seek the advice of
psychotherapists and psychologists because the Gospel itself can "show us
the way out" of stress, says a Filipino pastor in his prescription for
dealing with the malady. "We suffer from stress because we worry too
much," said the Rev. Simplicio Dang-awan of the United Church of Christ in
the Philippines. "We worry about our weight, our height, our looks... and
we worry if our clothes are out of fashion."
Iraqi inter-faith body forms London link
A
religious coordinating body in Iraq, the Iraqi Centre for Dialogue,
Reconciliation and Peace, has formed an alliance with the London-based Three
Faiths Forum, which brings together Muslims, Christians and Jews. The forum,
announcing the link, said the Iraqi centre planned to send representatives to
London to study methods of religious reconciliation. Canon Andrew White of
Coventry Cathedral, England, who helped to forge the alliance, said this was
the centre's first association with any outside body.This according to
Ecumenical news international.
ADRA Buildings Damaged by Kabul Blast
In Afghanistan, two buildings housing the local
offices of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency, ADRA, have been damaged
by a recent explosion in the capital of Kabul.
ADRA had received a car bomb advisory the day before the blast. The explosion occurred in front of building
used by an American Defense contractor, only a short distance away from the
ADRA buildings. Fabiano Franz, project
director for ADRA Afghanistan comments:
“Myself
and my wife, we were outside in the yard, and then we heard the explosion. All the windows blew up, all the doors
broke, we saw some smoke in front of our office, and we found shrapnel, metal
pieces all around us. And then we
learned that it was a car bomb.”
Seven people were killed by the blast, several
more sustained injuries. Two ADRA
personnel suffered minor cuts from flying glass.
And finally
Rally anti-apartheid-type support for Dalit
untouchables, says Lutheran
Lutheran World Federation
general secretary the Rev. Ishmael Noko, a Zimbabwean has called for the
organizing of a global gathering to offer similar solidarity to South Asia's
Dalit communities, formerly called untouchables, to that which helped end South
Africa's racist policy of apartheid. "The exclusion suffered by members of
the communities known today as 'Dalit' is probably one of the most extreme and
violent expressions of exclusion."
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