IS to Vicar of Baghdad: “If we come to dinner we’ll chop your head off”
Vicar of Baghdad says reconciliation is not on the menu for IS
It is a far cry from the era in which the late Edward Heath said, “Saddam Hussein was not the sort of man you’d invite to dinner.”
However, there was a fair chance that the former PM would have survived the meal. These days Iraq is a far more dangerous place.
When the Vicar of Baghdad, Canon Andrew White, tried to share the love of Christ by inviting Islamic State leaders to dinner, they refused and threatened to cut off his head.
Canon White, Vicar of St George’s Church, sent the invitation while living in the Iraqi capital city. He wanted to start a peaceful dialogue with the militants who have tortured and killed countless Christians and others, young and old, in the Middle East.
Canon White, an experienced mediator, said: “I have a tradition. I always invite people, even bad people, to come and have dinner with me. I invited some of the IS leaders and they said, ‘If we come, we’ll chop your head off.’ I didn’t invite them again.”
He said the IS group oversaw an ‘evil regime’ and the leaders were not open to discussion. He added: “We can’t work with ISIS. We can’t discuss things with ISIS. There is no hope of discussion or moving forward. They are totally against reconciliation.”
Canon White was ordered to leave Baghdad last December by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, who was concerned about his welfare. Mr White is currently based in Jerusalem while embarking on international speaking engagements to raise awareness of the persecuted Church in the Middle East and build relations between Christians and Muslims.
Hillary Clinton wants Christians to give up on Bible beliefs
Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton has called for changes to religious beliefs
PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE HILLARY CLINTON has shocked Christians by publicly calling Americans to forsake the Bible.
When giving an address at the Women in the World Summit recently, she declared, “Laws have to be backed up with resources and political will. And deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed.”
The comment was picked up by Charisma News and circulated worldwide by Breaking Christian News, whose reporter Ron Cantor said, “In a day where anti-biblical behaviour is celebrated, it is only a matter of time before politicians began to boldly speak against the Bible.
It used to be, you were considered compassionate, caring and humble to embrace the values of the Bible. Now you are the enemy, according to Secretary Clinton and President Obama. It is only going to get worse.”
Jailed Pastor Saeed: “I’m crying out to God for America”
Saeed Abedini in prison has called on Christians to repent and pray in the USA
A JAILED CHURCH PASTOR suffering for his faith in an Iranian jail has asked Americans to join him in praying for their nation – him from inside prison walls and them outside.
Pastor Saeed Abedini, a USA citizen also holding an Iranian nationality, wrote an open letter from Rajayee Shahr Prison in Karaj, 20km west of Tehran, to all believers on the other side of the Atlantic in time for his 35th birthday on May 7, which was also the American National Day of Prayer.
The pastor, chained and suffering from regular beatings by prison guards, called for Ezra-style repentance across the States with weeping and pleading for revival.
Pastor Saeed wrote: “As an American and as a prisoner for Christ, I have spent many hours praying and crying out to God for revival for this great nation. We all hope for the success of the USA and for America to be blessed, but without revival there can be no true success or blessing.”
“How the Christians love us!” say Nepalese survivors
THIS PHOTO SHOWS REFUGEES who survived the Nepalese 7.8 magnitude earthquake and landslides waiting for aid in a valley in the Rasuwa District.
The 7.8 magnitude earthquake near Lamjung, in the middle of Nepal, struck at 12 noon on April 25. Some 4,000 people died although estimates vary about the effect of the worst quake to hit the country in 80 years.
Operation Mobilisation (OM) teams with 100 workers have been at the scene giving aid; OM confirmed that all their workers were accounted for.
Tridev, aged 23, an OM worker supporting victims in the Hakhaubese settlement, has treated injured villagers, and prayed for and counselled the frightened victims with his colleague Mahan, aged 21.Tridev said: “We’re not here for fun, we’re here for God’s work.”
But Tridev says their service has deeply touched the survivors: “The villagers were saying, ‘See how the Christians love us!’. People were believing. God was showing his glory. I saw his glory.”
Nepal: Israel sends in the clowns
Israeli ‘Dream Doctors’ in Kathmandu, Nepal
An Israeli ‘Dream Doctor’ cheers up a young patient
Israel has given more practical help to the Nepal earthquake victims than any nation apart from India. Although only the size of New Jersey, her young soldiers flew in to set up a field hospital. Just before the second quake in May, they were about to disband, having treated some 1,000 patients and conducted tens of life-saving operations and helped deliver new babies.
A small yet significant part of the team is the ‘Dream Doctors’ – medical clowns who dropped everything to join the Israeli medical professionals in Nepal. They brought laughter to Nepalese children recovering from injuries sustained in the disaster.
Church offers land to bail out Greek debt
THE ORTHODOX CHURCH has offered to help Greece raise money to repay the 240 billion Euros debt owed to the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
The Church owns a lot of property which could be developed to raise funds for the stricken Greek economy, according to Archbishop Leronymos of Athens, head of the denomination. He did not reveal the type of business development he had in mind but pledged that the land would stay ‘in Greek hands’ and not be sold.
“Come, let’s develop the property for Greece,” he said. “If needed by the state to co-operate, we’re here.”
Give Muslims respect plea
MUSLIMS SHOULD BE GIVEN RESPECT by people of other faiths rather than mocked or attacked, according to the son of world famous evangelist Billy Graham.
Franklin Graham, himself an evangelist, made the comment following the Islamic State linked attack outside a controversial cartoon contest displaying images of Mohammed in Garland, Texas, USA on May 3. Two assailants were shot dead by a police officer.
Franklin said: “The organisers of the cartoon contest in Garland, Texas, had the constitutional right to do what they did—but just because we have the ‘right’ to do something doesn’t make it right! As a Christian I’m offended when people mock my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
“Muslims are offended when people mock their faith. I disagree with Islam. But just because I disagree, I’m not going to mock them or resort to violence. We need to show respect to people of other races and beliefs. What happened to civility and respect?”
God praised as Liberia kills Ebola
GOD IS BEING PRAISED in Liberia after the country was declared free of the Ebola virus which left 4,700 people dead.
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf confirmed the country had met the World Health Organisation’s standard by having no new cases during a 42-day period.
President Sirleaf said: “We will celebrate our communities which have taken responsibility and participated in fighting this unknown enemy and finally we’ve crossed the Rubicon. Liberia, indeed, is a happy nation.”
Pastor ‘ready to go’ – dies
Pastor Kenneth Green suddenly died at church
A HAPPY PASTOR told his congregation that he was ‘ready to go’ during a church service before taking a sip of water and then keeling over – dead.
Kenneth Green, 56, was giving a sermon entitled ‘Down but not out’ in his role as senior pastor of the Greater Saint Mary Baptist Church in New Orleans on May 3.
He had told church members “If the Lord called me now, I’m ready”, seconds before he died.
New dawn of persecution in Eastern Europe
MEDIA HYPE during the Cold War birthed visions of Russian-linked secret agents knocking on doors, inspecting documents and roughly interrogating witnesses.
Most of us believed such Communist era activity, in eastern Europe at least, was a far thing from the past. It seems not so – reports from non-Orthodox churches in Eastern Ukraine and Crimea show a disturbing up-trend in persecution against the followers of Jesus and also Muslims.
Christians not linked to Russian Orthodoxy face many hardships, according to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom which has reported there is evidence of ‘systematic, ongoing and egregious’ violations of religious freedom.
Examples of persecution are questioning and spying on church leaders, various raids, fines, confiscation of literature, blocking visits by foreign religious leaders, and setbacks for religious groups trying to re-register under Russian law. A Protestant orphanage has also been raided and church property damaged.
Four leaders of a Pentecostal church in Slovyansk, Eastern Ukraine, were kidnapped during a worship service in March 2014 and their tortured bodies were found 35 days later in a mass grave. Pro-Russian rebels have been blamed for the horror.
A resolution condemning the murders and ongoing persecution was recently signed by Ukrainian church leaders in London which said the hurch was ‘key to the process of reconciliati