Front Page

WCC Welcomes United States Ratification of New START Treaty

December 23, 2010 – Following a vote by the US Senate to ratify the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty as proposed by negotiators representing the governments of the United States and Russia, an affirmation of the treaty was issued by Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches. "Such a decision is especially meaningful in what is for Christians the season of peace," wrote Dr Tveit. He concluded, "The ratification by Russia of the New START treaty would be a welcome start to 2011."

National Religious Leaders Question CIA's Decision to Pay
Millions of Taxpayer Dollars to Defend Torture Program Architects

December 18, 2010, WASHINGTON – In response to recent news reports that the CIA agreed to cover at least $5 million in legal fees for two psychologists, Jim Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, who were the architects of the agency's interrogation program, Rev. Richard L. Killmer, executive director of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture released the following statement: "Today's allegations that the CIA authorized $5 million in government funds to pay the legal costs of the architects of the CIA's torture program demand a full and public accounting.

Nigerian Muslims, Christians Seek Peace

December 21, 2010, JALINGO, Nigeria – One hundred Nigerian Muslims and Christians came in peace to Taraba, where they sought ways not only to coexist but also to work together to improve the lives of their beleaguered fellow citizens of all faiths. The Rev. Abenatus Hamman put the groundbreaking nature of the gathering in perspective when he noted that the religions have not been known for working together in the past. "This cycle of fear … the fear of coming close together" has kept Christians and Muslims at odds not just in Nigeria but around the globe, he said. Tensions between the religions have flared into violence in Nigeria in recent years. While history cannot be overcome in three days, the restorative justice seminar – held at the Christian Association of Nigeria Secretariat, Jalingo, Taraba State, Nigeria – was a start.

DREAM Act's Fate Dismays Church Leaders

December 19, 2010, SAN ANTONIO – United Methodist leaders are expressing disappointment at the failure of a bill that would have allowed undocumented immigrants who entered the United States as children, and who have lived in the country for five years, to gain conditional legal status after graduating from high school. A filibuster prevented the DREAM (Development, Relief & Education for Alien Minors) Act from coming to the U.S. Senate floor for a vote Dec. 18, effectively killing the legislation for this congressional session. The House of Representatives had already approved the bill in a 216-198 vote. "Though the Senate failed to supply the necessary leadership to provide humane and effective solutions to the badly broken immigration system, the DREAM Act students have shown themselves to be our leaders not only for tomorrow, but for today as well," said Bishop Minerva Carcaño, Desert Southwest Conference and chair of the denomination's Interagency Immigration Task Force.

Christmas Message

Archbishop of Canterbury's Christmas Sermon

December 25, 2010 – In his traditional Christmas sermon, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, focuses on how the birth of Jesus is but one stage of the fulfilment of God's unchanging promise of support in the struggle for human redemption, how ‘the story of Jesus is the story of a God who keeps promises.' So Christmas is a time of coming to terms with God's all embracing and redemptive love for us, despite the cost and the tragedy involved, the human failures and betrayals. God, he asserts, despite our limitations and the humiliation our weaknesses lay on him, realises " we cannot live without him; and he accepts everything for the sake of our well-being" In this Christmas context, Dr Williams urges us to first of all contemplate our mutual dependence on our fellow human beings – our need for a spirit of fellowship and loyalty to each other in sharing the burdens of adversity in difficult economic times.

General News

Christmas Project Finds Churches, Schools and Ministries Meeting Needs

December 21, 2010 – Thanksgiving meals, food baskets, Christmas meals and presents were a common theme for those churches, schools and ministries that responded to the third annual Christmas Project conducted by "AG News." The project asked readers to submit how their church/ministry was assisting people in need in their communities this Christmas season. "You will see some big numbers in some of these responses, and that's wonderful to see so many people being helped," says Dan Van Veen, "AG News" editor. "But I'm just as impressed with smaller numbers – where a smaller church does what it can to reach out to its community. If every church does what it can, whether it be to help a single family of five or provide presents for 5,000, each of those efforts makes a lasting impact."

South Carolina ELCA Congregation's Christmas Eve Worship on TV, Web

December 21, 2010, CHICAGO – The Christmas Eve service at Incarnation Lutheran Church, an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) congregation in Columbia, S.C., will be televised locally and carried on the Web, thanks to anonymous benefactors financing the broadcast. Incarnation's Christmas Eve worship will be a traditional worship service, with attention to U.S. military personnel, including those serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. The service will be taped Dec. 24 at 5 p.m. EST, the usual Christmas Eve worship time for the congregation. WIS-TV, Columbia, will broadcast the service locally at 7 p.m. EST.

Shepherd of Today Relates to Nativity

December 23, 2010 – "Nearby shepherds were living in the fields, guarding their sheep at night. The Lord's angel stood before them, the Lord's glory shone around the, and they were terrified." (Luke 2:8-9, Common English Bible) Each Christmas Eve when he hears the familiar account of the shepherds' angelic visit, Glen Fisher has good reason to sit up a little straighter in his pew. The United Methodist has herded sheep for more than 30 years on his ranch near Sonora in southwest Texas, and he is a respected leader in his profession. In January, Fisher will complete his two-year term as president of the American Sheep Industry Association, the national organization that represents the 82,000 sheep producers in the United States.

Faith Now ‘A Consumer Commodity in America,' Warns New Book

December 22, 2010, NEW YORK – In a culture that places a high premium on the consumer marketplace, U.S. churches have become too willing to embrace a "market mentality" in trying to attract followers, says a new book by a journalist who is an ordained minister. Thieves in the Temple: The Christian Church and the Selling of the American Soul, by G. Jeffrey MacDonald, argues that faith "has become a consumer commodity in America." This, he says, is a grievous mistake, because the Church is not a business. "Unlike commercial enterprises that sell widgets or life insurance, the Church doesn't exist to satisfy the wants of customers," MacDonald writes in the book, which focuses on U.S. Protestant congregations. Still, a market mentality prevails in the United States. "People shop for congregations that make them feel comfortable rather than spiritually challenged," writes MacDonald, a minister of the United Church of Christ.

U.S. Clergy's Professional Reputation Hovers in the Middle

December 22, 2010, WASHINGTON, DC – What do nurses, soldiers, pharmacists, elementary school teachers, doctors, and police officers have in common? U.S. Americans say they are all more ethical and honest than members of the clergy, according to a Gallup survey released on Dec. 3 December Slightly more than half of Americans (53 percent) rate the moral values of priests, ministers and other clerics as "very high" or "high." That percentage is a slight bump from 2009, when only 50 percent of Americans said men and women of the cloth are ethical paragons, the lowest number in Gallup's 32 years of measuring professional reputations.

Spanish News

Feliz Navidad Y Bendecido 2011

23 diciembre 2010, ARGENTINA – ALC no es solo una agencia de noticias de proyección cristiana. Es, sobre todo, una familia en la red. Y como familia de Dios, queremos agradecerte, en esta Navidad, el que hayas mantenido sintonizado tu corazón, todo el año, con nuestro afán de apostar por la Verdad y la Justicia, y ser cause de servicio a las iglesias y a la sociedad toda, desde este espacio vital que se llama Latinoamérica. Por ello, queremos seguir acompañándote en el 2011, siendo un destello de esa Esperanza que proclaman los Evangelios y ese anhelo que debe ser la utopía de todos y todas: "¡Gloria a Dios en las alturas, en la tierra Paz y buena voluntad para con toda criatura!."

Iglesia Luterana Pide Una Tregua En Navidad

20 diciembre 2010, SAN SALVADOR – Como parte de la Campaña que impulsa la Iglesia Luterana Salvadoreña, "No a la Violencia: Sí a la Vida," llamaron a los grupos de pandilleros a una tregua para la gente en Navidad. "La violencia nos está matando. La gente vive en zozobra, terror y miedo, y aunque la Navidad es una época de alegría, paz y convivencia familiar, la gente ha perdido la sonrisa...no puede seguir así," dice el comunicado. Rentas, asesinatos, extorsiones, persecuciones, robos, hurtos, masacres, son parte de la vida cotidiana. "Estos sectores que ejercen violencia indiscriminada, deben pedirle perdón la país, y cesar de su acciones bélicas contra la gente inocente," subrayan.

Human Rights News

Iran's Human Rights Record Condemned by United Nations

December 21, 2010, UNITED NATIONS – In a vote today, the United Nations once again strongly condemned Iran for failing to live up to international human rights standards. By a vote of 78 to 45, with 59 abstentions, the UN General Assembly confirmed a resolution that expressed "deep concern at serious ongoing and recurring human rights violations." In more than two decades of such resolutions about Iran, the vote passed with one of the highest percentages ever. The resolution specifically expressed concern over Iran's "intensified crackdown on human rights defenders and reports of excessive use of force, arbitrary detentions, unfair trials and allegations of torture," as well as its "pervasive gender inequality and violence against women," and its discrimination against minorities, including members of the Baha'i Faith.

National News

Phoenix Bishop Removes Hospital's Catholic Status

December 21, 2010 – Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted of Phoenix has declared that St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, located in the diocese, can no longer call itself a Catholic hospital because of a dispute over whether a procedure performed at the hospital last year was a direct abortion. "It is my duty to decree that, in the Diocese of Phoenix, at St. Joseph's Hospital, CHW [Catholic Healthcare West] is not committed to following the teaching of the Catholic Church and therefore this hospital cannot be considered Catholic," Olmsted said today in a news conference hosted by the diocese. "The Catholic faithful are free to seek care or to offer care at St. Joseph's Hospital but I cannot guarantee that the care provided will be in full accord with the teachings of the Church. In addition, other measures will be taken to avoid the impression that the hospital is authentically Catholic, such as the prohibition of celebrating Mass at the hospital and the prohibition of reserving the Blessed Sacrament in the Chapel."

International News

Church Covered up Priest's Sex Abuses: Irish Judge

December 18, 2010 – Roman Catholic authorities covered up the activities of a notorious former priest who sexually abused hundreds of children in Ireland over almost two decades, a report said on Friday. A judicial commission described Tony Walsh as "probably the most notorious child sexual abuser" to have come to its attention during a ground-breaking probe into child sex abuse in the archdiocese of Dublin, the country's biggest. The report strongly criticises the actions of the Vatican, the Dublin church authorities and the Gardai (Irish police) for their failures in dealing with Walsh, a "singing priest" whose speciality was Elvis Presley impersonations. While a priest, he sang with a group known as the Holy Show and a number of the abuse complaints against him relate to his activities at these performances.

Christians in Hualien Host First-ever Christmas Caroling and Carnival

December 19, 2010 – "Merry Christmas! Jesus loves you!" On December 11, 2010, more than 1,000 Christians from 4 Christian organizations in Hualien, came together at Hualien's 6th Re-development Region at 4:00 p.m. to host a Christmas carnival. The carnival began with a Christmas caroling where participants were divided into various groups to circle the bustling streets of downtown Hualien. After the caroling, a Christmas gala was held in the same location later on in the evening. During the caroling, participants were divided into two routes. Those in the first route included East Coast Presbytery, Bunun Presbytery, and Hualien Pastors Prayer Alliance.

Praying with and for the People of Sudan

December 21, 2010 – From the Secretary General, Canon Kenneth Kearon: The thoughts and prayers of many in the Anglican Communion are focused on Sudan at this time, as the people of Southern Sudan prepare for a referendum to decide their future. The referendum will take place on 9 January next, and all are invited to pray and to focus their concerns on that war-torn country at this time. Here are some prayers and background material which may help you to identify with Christians in Sudan at this time.

LWF General Secretary Calls for Prayer and Assistance on Sudan Referendum
Movement of Thousands to the South Compounds Serious Humanitarian Challenges

December 22, 2010, GENEVA – The General Secretary of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Rev. Martin Junge has called for prayer and assistance over Christmas for the people and churches of Sudan in anticipation of the 9 January referendum on autonomy in South Sudan. "Our hope is that the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005 between the respective Sudanese parties will hold, that the people of South Sudan will be free to vote in the referendum and free to choose the future direction for their region, and that whatever the result of the vote the consequences will play out in a way that is peaceful and respectful of human dignity," Junge said in a 21 December letter to LWF member churches worldwide.

Chinese Church Officials See Unity Behind Growth

December 22, 2010, GENEVA – Unity among Chinese Protestants is an important factor in the rapid growth of the church in China, the general secretary of the China Christian Council, the Rev. Kan Baoping, said during a recent visit to the Ecumenical Center here. A seven-member delegation with top leadership from the China Christian Council met with the Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and other staff of church organizations based at the Ecumenical Centere on Dec. 6. It was the fourth such visit to the WCC offices since the post-denominational China Christian Council (CCC) was established in 1980.

People in the News

Flushing House Board Member Paule Alexander Receives Director Emeritus Award

December 22, 2010, FLUSHING, New York – Paule Alexander, a board member of United Adult Ministries from 1974 to 2010, received the Director Emeritus Award upon her retirement on December 16, 2010. The award was presented to the 96-year-old Bayside resident at the United Adult Ministries (UAM) board of directors Christmas dinner, held recently at Flushing House. The award was in recognition of her strong leadership, commitment and dedication, in delivering outstanding care and services to older adults. UAM is the parent of Flushing House, and Alexander has served on their board since Flushing House was built in 1974.