c. 1997 Religion News Service
Violence forces further scaling back of aid in Rwanda
(RNS) Amid spiraling violence in Rwanda, several international agencies are further scaling back aid work in the beleaguered Central African nation.
The International Federal of Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC) announced Thursday (Feb.6) that it was suspending its relief efforts in Rwanda after five United Nations staff workers were killed in an ambush on Tuesday. The five included a Briton, a Cambodian and two Rwandans working as human rights monitors and another Rwandan who was escorting the team.
IFRC spokeswoman Marie-Francoise Borel said her organization has ordered 25 staff members to leave Rwanda, Reuter news agency reported. Borel said IFRC would consider returning if security in the region improved.
The United Nations has also suspended all operations in western Rwanda and urged other foreign agencies to follow suit.
The Atlanta-based CARE agency is one of the few organizations staying on for the time being.”Now is not the time to abandon the Rwandan people. Now is the time they need our help,”CARE spokeswoman Wendy Driscoll told the Associated Press.
Several foreigners have been killed in Rwanda in recent weeks. The Rev. Guy Pinard, a Canadian Roman Catholic missionary, was gunned down Sunday (Feb. 2) as he was celebrating Mass in a northwestern Rwandan village. Canadian officials have demanded a full investigation.
Three Spanish charity workers were murdered two weeks ago during an attack on their compound. An American was wounded in the attack.
British Christians plan ecumenical pilgrimages to mark conversion
(RNS) A group of British clerics and lay people, including Anglican Bishop Richard Llewellin of Dover, will make an ecumenical pilgrimage from Rome to Canterbury, England, in May to mark the 1,400th anniversary of Pope Gregory the Great’s sending of missionaries to convert the heathen English.
The group, which will begin with 50 pilgrims, will set out from Rome on May 18, Whitsunday, or Pentecost, and make their way via various important Christian sites such as Assisi in Italy and Taize in France, arriving in Canterbury on May 26, the day the Church of England celebrates the feast of St. Augustine of Canterbury, the missionary sent by Gregory in the year 597 to convert the English and who later became the first Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Canterbury event will be highlighted by an ecumenical celebration of monastic vespers with both Roman Catholic and Anglican Benedictine monks participating. Cardinal Basil Hume will preach at the service.
From Canterbury, a larger group of pilgrims _ organizers estimate 400 people _ will make their way to Derry, Ireland, the home of St. Columba, arriving on the saint’s feast day, June 9. St. Columba is credited with converting the inhabitants of the western Highlands.
A final strand of the pilgrimages will go to Aust, on the Severn river, where Augustine, in 603, antagonized native bishops. Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey will attend a service there on May 31 and church officials said it will include an”appropriate act of reconciliation.”
Americans United warns New Jersey on voucher plan
(RNS) A New Jersey school district’s proposed voucher plan to aid parents who send their children to religious and other private schools is likely to lead to a lawsuit, Americans United for Separation of Church and State said Thursday (Feb. 6).
On Jan. 30, the Lincoln Park, N.J., school board voted 7-2 to approve a voucher system allocation of up to $1,000 in public funds for tuition for ninth-graders who want to attend private schools, including parochial schools.
Under school board rules, the board must vote on the proposal at a second meeting _ scheduled for Feb. 11 _ and the plan would have to be approved by the state education department before it could be implemented.
In a Feb. 5 letter to the board, the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United, urged the officials to drop the voucher plan, charging it violates both the United States and New Jersey constitutions.”Religious schools are ministries of the churches that sponsor them,”Lynn said.”Thus taxpayers must not be required to support such schools.” Lynn said if the Lincoln School Board approves the voucher plan,”a lawsuit is certain.” Voucher programs are under fire from Americans United and other civil liberties groups in three states _ Wisconsin, Ohio and Vermont _ where voucher programs that aid religious and other private schools have been adopted.
Christian-Muslim clash leaves two dead in Pakistan
(RNS) Two men were killed by police _ one identified as a Muslim cleric _ after Muslim demonstrators rampaged through Christian villages in the central Pakistan’s province of Punjab, wire services reported Thursday (Feb. 6).
The demonstration was prompted by rumors that a copy of the Koran had been desecrated by being set on fire, according to the Associated Press. Reuters reported that the rumor involved the throwing of pages torn from the Koran into mosques.
Both wire services said that Christian officials denied the charges.
According to the AP, a Salvation Army church in the village of Shanti Nagar was burned down.”All the priests and workers living at the church have fled,”a church spokesman told the AP.
Police said they opened fire on the Muslim demonstrators after the protesters began pelting them with stones.
A curfew was imposed on the area and police and army troops patrolled the streets, barring any outsiders from entering the area.
Christian colleges pay tribute to retired Sen. Hatfield
(RNS) The presidents of more than 80 independent Christian colleges and universities honored retired Sen. Mark Hatfield, R-Ore., Tuesday (Feb. 4) for his contributions to politics and religious higher education.
Hatfield left office in January after five terms in the Senate. He is now a guest lecturer at Portland State University; his alma mater Willamette University, a United Methodist school in Salem, Ore.; and George Fox University, a Quaker institution in Newburg, Ore. George Fox University has named Hatfield its”Herbert Hoover Distinguished Professor.” At a Feb. 5 banquet in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the Coalition for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU), George Fox University President Ed Stevens called Hatfield, who is a Southern Baptist, one of a”small circle of Christian statesmen”who have made a significant impact on the nation.
David Warren, president of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, praised Hatfield for being a”guardian of student aid”at a time when budget cuts were threatening federal education programs.”Tens of millions of our graduates are the beneficiaries of your wisdom,”he said.
Hatfield has recently joined the CCCU board of directors.
Quote of the Day: author and pastor Larry Lea
(RNS) Author and pastor Larry Lea writes about the importance of wisdom in his new book,”Wisdom: The Gift Worth Seeking”:”Few of us long to be wise. We don’t seek wisdom the same way that we set our affections on a new car or work for a promotion in our careers. We don’t long for it the same way we long for loved ones we haven’t seen in a while. We don’t ask for it the same way we ask God for miracles of healing or the salvation of lost souls. And yet … wisdom is THE most important topic of the Bible.”
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