c. 1998 Religion News Service

Graham to kick off millennium with evangelism conference

(RNS) The Rev. Billy Graham has announced plans to kick off the next millennium with an international conference on evangelism that he expects will attract some 10,000 participants.

The conference will be held July 29 through Aug. 6, 2000 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.”In the midst of the rapid change in almost every phase of our lives, the task of worldwide evangelization remains a priority of the Body of Christ,”Graham said.

In a statement released Tuesday (Sept. 15), Graham, who will turn 80 on Nov. 7, said he expects three-fourths of those who attend the conference will be itinerant evangelists from at least 185 nations and territories.”The Lord of the harvest has many servants who are doing extraordinary work in bringing the Gospel to those who still sit in darkness,”said Graham, arguably the world’s best-known evangelist.”Their stories need to be known, their strategies multiplied, their commitments deepened and their fellowship enriched within the Body of Christ.” As far back as 1948, Graham has taken part in conferences aimed at improving evangelism. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association sponsored a major conference in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1974 that dealt with evangelistic strategies. Two conferences held in Amsterdam in the 1980s resulted in a”Biblical Standard for Evangelists”that is still in use today.

Violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims erupts in Pakistan

(RNS) Sunni Muslim militants set fire to a Shiite Muslim mosque near the Pakistani capital of Islamabad Tuesday (Sept. 15) in the latest eruption of conflict in that nation between Islam’s two main streams.

Police said no one was injured in the incident, the Associated Press reported.

The militants, members of the Sipah-e-Sahaba group, attacked the mosque two days after four gunmen shot and killed a Sunni Muslim leader and three of his companions in Islamabad.

Following the shooting, the Sipah-e-Sahaba group vowed revenge and staged demonstrations, some of which turned violent, in several cities throughout Pakistan. The demonstrators denounced both Shiite Muslims and Iran, who they accuse of funding their rivals. Iran, the world’s only Shiite-led nation, is also in a dispute with the Sunni Taliban movement that controls much of Afghanistan.

On Tuesday, police arrested some 200 members of the Sipah-e-Sahaba group as they gathered for a demonstration in Lahore.

The AP said that in recent years hundreds of people have been killed in the feud between Pakistani Sunnis and Shiites. Most Pakistanis are Sunni Muslims. Shiites account for about 15 percent of Pakistan’s population.

Recently, a Shiite was sentenced to death under Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy law for allegedly taking the name of Islam’s founder, the Prophet Muhammad, in vain. His reported offense came during a scuffle with a rival Sunni Muslim Pakistani.

Pakistani Shiites, as well as members of other religious minorities, say the blasphemy law is being used to persecute them.

Shiites and Sunnis differ over various points of Islamic doctrine dating back to the seventh century.

Indian police: Two `Chinese spies’ arrested at Dalai Lama’s headquarters

(RNS) Police in Chandigarh, India, announced Wednesday (Sept. 16) they have arrested two men believed to be spies for the Chinese government who had worked at the Dharmsala headquarters of the Dalai Lama’s Tibetan government-in-exile in northern India.

The men were identified only by their first names as Chomphil, 29, and Migmar, 30, the Associated Press said.

According to the report, one of the men was arrested near the residence of the Dalai Lama while the other was taken into custody in another part of Dharmsala. The two men had maps, sketches and other documents relating to the security around the Tibetan Buddhist leader.

In Beijing, Chinese government officials had no immediate comment on the arrests.

An Indian police spokesman said Chomphil had received training from the Chinese Army and arrived in Dharmsala disguised as a Tibetan refugee. He had been under police surveillance for weeks before his arrest.

The AP also quoted an unnamed police source as saying that security was tightened around the Dalai Lama earlier this year after security officials received intelligence reports that attempts could be made on his life by rivals within the Tibetan community who were trained in China.

Dharmsala has been the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile since the Dalai Lama fled his homeland in 1959 after an abortive anti-China uprising.

Earlier this week, the Los Angeles Times reported that newly released U.S. intelligence documents revealed that during much of the 1960s the CIA provided Tibetan exile groups with $1.7-million a year for operations against China. The Dalai Lama was said to have received $180,000.

Although past CIA support for Tibetan exile groups has long been known, the documents for the first time detailed the U.S. government’s involvement in the Cold War effort.

UCC, Disciples urge Senate to ease restrictions on Cuba

(RNS) Leaders of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ have called on the Senate to ease restrictions on the sale of food and medicine to Cuba.”Studies indicate that the (U.S) embargo has reduced the daily food intake of the Cuban people by as much as third since 1989,”said the Rev. Paul Sherry, president of the UCC, and the Rev. Richard Hamm, president and general minister of the Disciples, in a letter to senators.

That has meant, they said, that the embargo has caused”severe health problems, especially among pregnant women, children and the elderly.” The two church leaders urged support for a bill sponsored by Sens. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and John Warner, R-Va., which would give the president authority to permit the sale of food and medicine to Cuba.

The two church leaders said the legislation, which faces an uncertain future in the Senate, should be passed”not only for humanitarian reasons, but also as a step in the development of a more constructive relationship with Cuba.”

Quote of the Day: Gregg Easterbrook.”How admirable that our ancestors, who lived short lives of toil and suffering, turned so much of their thought to the ultimate issues of existence; when we today, possessing extended lifespans and every material advantage, engage in spiritual contemplation mainly as a diversion.” _ Author Gregg Easterbrook, writing his new book”Beside Still Waters: Searching for Meaning in an Age of Doubt”(Morrow).

IR END RNS