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Newly Built Church In Refugee Camp Lifts Christians’ Spirits In Iraq

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July 12, 2020

Newly Built Church In Refugee Camp Lifts Christians’ Spirits In Iraq

The construction of a new church building in a Baghdad refugee camp has encouraged the camp’s inhabitants, as they now have a place for worship and for activities during the week.

According to Amigos de Irak (Friends of Iraq), a project of the Institute of the Incarnate Word, the church, named for the Virgin Mary, was dedicated during a Nov. 13 Mass.

The Mass was said by Archbishop Jean Sleiman of Baghdad, and concelebrated by priests of the Institute of the Incarnate Word and representatives from the nunciature, the Domician community, and local churches.

It was attended by Archbishop Ephrem Abba Mansoor of the Syriac Archeparchy of Baghdad, and by an Orthodox priest who is the refugee camp’s general manager.

Archbishop Sleiman’s homily reflected on “the suffering of refugees which will certainly not go unrewarded,” and following the Mass each family were given a picture of St. John Paul II.

The construction of the church was possible thanks to donations coming from different parts of the world and with help from the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need.

Amigos de Irak commented that “building in Baghdad is very expensive, so we reused materials from the temporary camps where we received the refugees when the conflict began.” The engineer in charge of the project, Abu Rami, did not charge for his work, and also helped out with the purchase of some materials.

They explained that Mass will be said in the church on Saturdays and Sundays, and it will be used for other activities during the week.

“Because there are so many needs, we try to make the most of the resources we have. But that doesn’t matter! It’s like every work of God, poor but abundant in fruits! And everyone worked on it! The refugees who are enjoying it and you who made it possible,” they said.

Turkey’s First New Church In 90 Years

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July 12, 2020

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Turkey has a habit of converting Christian churches into mosques. So it was a surprise when the prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, announced plans for a new church in Istanbul. It will be the first to be built since the founding of Ataturk’s republic in 1923.

The church will serve some 25,000 Syriac Orthodox Christians. Decimated by massacres and then by migration to Europe, this group, which once flourished along the border with Syria, has long been campaigning for a church in Istanbul.

The ruling Islamist Justice and Development (AK) party is facing growing criticism for retreating from its reform path. But it continues to win praise for its treatment of Christians. This is unlike previous governments which confiscated properties and did little to prevent pogroms. Last year the Syriacs were allowed to open a primary school where pupils will be taught in Aramaic, the tongue of Jesus Christ, for the first time. Thousands of church properties pinched by the state are being slowly returned. Formerly churches had to cut through endless red tape even to repair a leaky dome. In an unprecedented move, Mr Davutoglu has even appointed a Catholic Armenian, Etyen Mahcupyan, as an adviser.

“These are welcome developments,” says Erol Dora, the first and only Syriac member of parliament, who was elected for the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democracy Party in 2011. “Yet the scale of the discrimination becomes obvious when news of a church being built is hailed as such a monumental event.” The Greek Orthodox Patriarch’s repeated appeals to reopen the Halki seminary, where generations of priests were trained, continue to fall on deaf ears. Suspicion of Christian missionaries is ingrained. And a campaign to convert the Aya Sofia museum back into a mosque is said to enjoy the backing of Bulent Arinc, the deputy prime minister.

Newly Built Church Vandalised

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July 12, 2020

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A group of villagers on Sunday vandalised the newly constructed Lady of Fathima Church at Godamakunta in Kundapalli village of Keesara mandal in Medchal district, 25 km from the city.

The church consecrated on May 13 by the Archbishop of Hyderabad Reverend Thumma Bala came under attack after a mob of locals reportedly entered it.

The miscreants, it was understood, had earlier gathered at the gram panchayat office, where a meeting was held opposing the continuation of the church.

A watchman and five construction workers were on the church premises when the incident took place. According to eyewitness account, the mob forced its way into the church and broke the statues of Jesus Christ and Mother Mary besides pulling down the portraits and the chairs kept inside.

Phone snatched

When a person connected with the church rushed to the spot and tried to capture the incident on his mobile, miscreants snatched the phone and threatened him. After vandalising the church, the villagers left the place.

On information, the Archbishop, along with nominated MLA in Telangana Assembly Elvis Stephenson and national coordinator of the Disaster Management wing of the All India Catholic Union Roydin Roach, rushed to the spot.

The Keesara police also rushed to the spot and enquired about the incident.

Mr. Roach told The Hindu that the church was inaugurated on May 13 and no church service was being held as other civil works were on. “We had taken all the permissions for construction of the church and there was no dispute with anybody in the village,” he said, adding that it was an unfortunate incident.

“We Catholic people demand stern action against the culprits for vandalising the church and hurting our sentiments,” he said, adding that they had lodged a complaint with the Telangana Director-General of Police Anurag Sharma, who promised stern action against the people involved in the incident.

Keesara police said a mob arrived at the structure and damaged religious symbols claiming that the building was being used as a church when it was sanctioned for use as a function hall. The mob was led by the village sarpanch, said the police.

Rioters booked

“The irate villagers claimed that the owner of the land had illegally built the church. We have booked them for rioting,” Inspector M. Surender said, adding that they were yet to name people in the case. The inspector also said George Reddy, the owner of the land who had allocated about 1,000 square yards for the church, had applied for permission for constructing a church with the district administration but had not received approval yet.

Pope Francis Prays For Chicago Violence Victims In Letter

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July 11, 2020

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Pope Francis Prays For Chicago Violence Victims In Letter

Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich says Pope Francis has written him a letter saying he is praying for the city’s victims of violence.

Cupich read from the pope’s letter during an event Tuesday announcing the Chicago Archdiocese’s new initiatives to fight violence in the city. Chicago has seen killings spike, hitting a 19-year high last year when there were 762 homicides.

Pope Francis made a call for nonviolence in his letter dated Tuesday and told Cupich to tell the people of Chicago that he shared in their grief and prays they “may experience healing and reconciliation.”

The archdiocese’s anti-violence efforts will include a Good Friday “Walk for Peace” through the Englewood neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. The archdiocese also is creating a fund to invest in new anti-violence approaches.

Christians Hospitalized After Resisting State Surveillance In China’s ‘Jerusalem’

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July 11, 2020

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Christians Hospitalized After Resisting State Surveillance In China’s ‘Jerusalem’

Chinese Christians in a city known as the nation’s “Jerusalem” are clashing with the local government after a controversial directive to install surveillance cameras in churches.

Authorities have begun implementing the directive for the city of Wenzhou, in Zhejiang province, which was issued late last year. As a result, clergy in the city, which has an estimated 1 million Christians, protested, according to a report from the South China Morning Post.

“Government officials came to the churches and put up cameras by force. Some pastors and worshippers who didn’t agree to the move were dragged away,” an unidentified Christian in Wenzhou said to the paper, without specifying when the conflict occurred. “Some people needed to be treated in hospital after fighting the officials.”

China Aid, a U.S.-based religious rights group, said churches were told to install cameras at gates, raised platforms, offering boxes and other places, despite strong opposition from churchgoers who claimed the surveillance infringed their privacy.

One churchgoer said officials had installed the cameras one by one, but they had yet to be set up in his place of worship.

“I don’t support the government’s decision and I hope they will not put monitoring equipment inside our church,” the churchgoer said.

“We Christians do good deeds and we don’t do anything to endanger the public. I don’t understand why the government wants to monitor us. The government’s pressure on us will not deter us from our beliefs and will not affect the proliferation of our religion. The tougher the persecution, the more people will be encouraged to follow the religion.”

The new law comes two years after authorities in China ordered churches in the Zhejiang Province to remove neon crosses from churches and other buildings.

The controversial campaign made international headlines at the time and drew sharp criticism from religious rights organizations around the world. Nearly 360 crosses were removed and even one church was demolished, according to China Aid.

The city of Wenzhou, a manufacturing hub of 8 million people, has the highest concentration of Christians in mainland China. Crosses from more than 2,000 churches dotted the city’s skyline before a 2014 campaign to bring them down.

Wenzhou’s surveillance camera drive comes amid tighter controls on religious activities across the country.

Same-Sex Marriage Threatens To Split Coalition As Some MPs Consider Crossing The Floor

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July 11, 2020

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Same-Sex Marriage Threatens To Split Coalition As Some MPs Consider Crossing The Floor

Some Liberals have not ruled out crossing the floor to force the Lower House to debate same-sex marriage.

But others within the Coalition say that would be a dangerous move, because it would expose that the Government had lost control of the House.

Senator Abetz said they would be implementing Labor policy and abandoning the pledge the Coalition took to the last election.

He said that the Liberal Party had a very strong tradition of allowing people to cross the floor, but that he took issue with the idea they might vote to suspend other business to force the Parliament to deal with the issue.

“[It] would in effect set aside the Government’s agenda and the Government’s control on the floor of the House of Representatives,” Senator Abetz said.

“I think the Australian people would judge us extremely harshly if we had people within the Government that voted … to enable Labor/Green policy to be adopted in defiance of that which we took to the Australian people.”

The Prime Minister today refused to say how he will handle the next steps in the same-sex marriage issue that is threatening the stability of his Government.

Malcolm Turnbull insisted the Coalition’s policy is to have a plebiscite, which would give all Australians a vote on whether to change the marriage rules.

But the Senate blocked a bid to hold a plebiscite last November and Mr Turnbull has today refused to say if the Coalition will try again to pass that bill.

With the plebiscite blocked in the Upper House, some in the Coalition argue there should be a postal vote, which would not need legislation.

Mr Turnbull refused to take questions today on whether he supported that option.

Senator Abetz said he considered the postal ballot a second-best option, but argued it should happen if the Senate continued to block the plebiscite.

But he gave no guarantee that he or other members of Parliament would vote according to the result of any postal ballot.

“These postal ballots and a plebiscite are never actually binding — legally they cannot be binding” Senator Abetz said.

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Wife Of Pastor Imprisoned In Turkey Meets With Secretary Tillerson

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July 5, 2020

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Wife Of Pastor Imprisoned In Turkey Meets With Secretary Tillerson

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with the wife of a jailed American pastor, Andrew Brunson, in the Turkish capital Ankara on Thursday night, a State Department official said on Friday.

Brunson is a missionary who has been held in Turkey since October on charges of being part of a terrorist organization, according to news reports.

‎”Secretary of State Tillerson wanted to make sure he met with Mrs. Brunson to share the most recent information he had on Pastor Brunson’s case,” the official said.

“The secretary ‎committed to staying in touch with Mrs. Brunson regarding the case moving forward,” the official said.

The pastor and his wife, Norine Brunson, were initially detained on immigration violation charges in October, when they were operating a small Christian church in the city of Izmir on Turkey’s western coast, media reports say.

Turkish media reports say Brunson has been charged with membership of the Gulenist Terror Organization, the term which Turkish authorities uses to refer to the network of U.S.-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Ankara accuses Gulen and his followers of being behind an attempted coup in Turkey last July. Gulen rejects the allegations.

Tillerson was in Ankara to meet Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and senior government ministers for talks which focused on the conflict in neighboring Syria.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told a joint news conference with Tillerson that Ankara expected Washington to take concrete steps on the extradition of Gulen, calling for his detention in the United States.

Prophet T.B. Joshua Says He Predicted London Terror Attack

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July 5, 2020

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Prophet T.B. Joshua Says He Predicted London Terror Attack

A video footage has surfaced on YouTube about how founder and General Overseer of the Synagogue Church of All Nation, SCOAN, Prophet T.B. Joshua, claimed he predicted the terror attack that took place near the United Kingdom’s parliament building at Westminster, London.

Prophet Joshua reportedly gave a televised prophetic message at the SCOAN, regarding an attack on Sunday, June 19, 2016, and tasked members of the congregation to pray for the nation, the United Kingdom.

He said, ” Pray for the United Kingdom. I am seeing a strange thing happening to an innocent person. It is not yet over. They should pray and secure their lawmakers and their institutions.” It can be recalled that terror returned to the streets of London on Wednesday, March 22, as the UK parliament was attacked, leaving no fewer than five dead and about 40 injured.

However, this is not the first time T.B Joshua would claim he prophesied about a terror attack.

Emmanuel TV also released a video where the Prophet claimed he prophesied the terror attack that took place in the southern French city of Nice.

Why God Forbids Speaking To The Dead

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July 5, 2020

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Seances, Ouija boards and mediums are not fun and games meant for entertainment. The Lord expressly forbids speaking to the dead. Moses writes:

When you enter into the land which the Lord your God gives you, you must not learn to practice the abominations of those nations. There must not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or who uses divination, or uses witchcraft, or an interpreter of omens, or a sorcerer, or one who casts spells, or a spiritualist, or an occultist, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord your God will drive them out from before you. You must be blameless before the Lord your God (Deut. 18:13).

In 1 Samuel when Saul summoned a witch to bring the prophet Samuel back from the dead, End Time Headlines founder Ricky Scaparo says Satan was speaking to Saul.

Yet still Hollywood, and even local households, are full of men and women who do not heed this warning.

Some people may say this idea is all fantasy and a little indulgence won’t hurt, but “You cannot drink from the cup of the Lord and drink from the cup of demons,” Scaparo says (see 1 Cor. 10:21).

What can happen if the abomination goes ignored? Watch the video to see.

73rd Birthday Present: Seek ‘Face Of God’ – Pastor To Akufo-Addo

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July 4, 2020

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73rd Birthday Present: Seek ‘Face Of God’ – Pastor To Akufo-Addo

Head pastor and General Overseer of Christ Oilfields Authority Church, Reverend King David Abazeri, has urged the Akufo-Addo government to seek the face of God to curtail the series of disasters happening in the country.

He said: I have realised that the world is running out of ideas in science, politics, economics, and even in philosophies, and ideas are getting dead, so the answers we are getting for our contemporary life are no more effective. So, we have to yield ourselves to a high power and the high power can only be God, so it’s time to seek the face of God and hear from him so that we can generate new ideas by the spirit of God by His inspiration to be able to move our nation and the world better. Because there is no way the world is going to become better with the intervention of God.

His advice comes on the back of recent suicide cases and motor accidents across the country.

He told Class News Kwesi Parker-Wilson: Politicians don’t create human beings, it’s God who creates human beings, it’s only God who can diagnose the need and the problems of human beings properly and give him the right solution and so when politicians fail to hear from God, then they fail to produce and to provide the answers the people need and so they must align themselves with God and lead the people well.
He added that the frequent occurrences of suicides and road accidents cannot entirely be blamed on the NPP government but seeking the face of God can avert them.

The man of God noted: We cannot attribute what is happening immediately to a political party, all we can say is that it’s a sad situation, but since the NPP is in power, it will be good for them to seek the face of God to find out the root cause of all these disasters so that we can bring the hand of God to bear in solving the problems. The people who are dying once voted for them and when they are dead there wouldn’t be anyone to vote for them next time around, so they have seek the face of God so that God can speak for us to solve these problems.

He, however, urged politicians, stakeholders, and Ghanaians to let the voice of God they hear reflect in their lives. The voice you hear is what controls your life and so if that voice is controlling your life it automatically reflects on the things you do. Therefore, the voices that the parliamentarians, the president, politicians hear are the voices that are controlling the land; that is what they use to rule the land. If they hear from God they will rule the land according to the will, the plan, and purpose of God.

The construction of a new church building in a Baghdad refugee camp has encouraged the camp’s inhabitants, as they now have a place for worship and for activities during the week.

Turkey has a habit of converting Christian churches into mosques. So it was a surprise when the prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, announced plans for a new church in Istanbul. It will be the first to be built since the founding of Ataturk’s republic in 1923.

A group of villagers on Sunday vandalised the newly constructed Lady of Fathima Church at Godamakunta in Kundapalli village of Keesara mandal in Medchal district, 25 km from the city.

Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich says Pope Francis has written him a letter saying he is praying for the city’s victims of violence.

Chinese Christians in a city known as the nation’s “Jerusalem” are clashing with the local government after a controversial directive to install surveillance cameras in churches.

Some Liberals have not ruled out crossing the floor to force the Lower House to debate same-sex marriage.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with the wife of a jailed American pastor, Andrew Brunson, in the Turkish capital Ankara on Thursday night, a State Department official said on Friday.

A video footage has surfaced on YouTube about how founder and General Overseer of the Synagogue Church of All Nation, SCOAN, Prophet T.B. Joshua, claimed he predicted the terror attack that took place near the United Kingdom’s parliament building at Westminster, London.

Seances, Ouija boards and mediums are not fun and games meant for entertainment. The Lord expressly forbids speaking to the dead. Moses writes:

Head pastor and General Overseer of Christ Oilfields Authority Church, Reverend King David Abazeri, has urged the Akufo-Addo government to seek the face of God to curtail the series of disasters happening in the country.

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