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The case of a Christian baker in Colorado who refused to make a cake for a same-sex wedding gets its big day in court today. While Jack Phillips’s legal team has emphasized his right to artistic expression as a cake decorator, many following his US Supreme Court case focus on another legal matter at stake: religious freedom.

Advocates on both sides anticipate Masterpiece Cakeshop Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission will set a nationwide precedent for whether the government can require businesses, organizations, and individuals to act against their own sincerely held religious beliefs—particularly following the legalization of same-sex marriage and equal rights granted to LGBT Americans.

Phillips’s refusal to bake the same-sex wedding cake in 2012 violated Colorado’s antidiscrimination law, and a state appeals court denied his free speech and free exercise claims. This spring, the high court opted to hear Phillips’s case, one of several cases involving Christian wedding vendors (such as florists, photographers, and caterers) currently making their way through state judicial systems.

Oral arguments in the case begin today at the Supreme Court. Most commentators expect Masterpiece Cakeshop will be a tight decision come spring, even with religious liberty defender Neil Gorsuch on the bench.

With Gorsuch, “there is some reason for optimism that the Court might narrowly find for Masterpiece Cakeshop,” Christian historian Thomas Kidd recently wrote for The Gospel Coalition. “If they do not, it will be a devastating blow to a number of Christian business people who have been disciplined under similar circumstances.

“A decision against Masterpiece Cakeshop would also raise more questions, such as whether a state can force Christian adoption agencies to place children with same-sex couples.”

During oral arguments, the court’s conservative justices challenged the gay couple’s counsel, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) legal director David Cole, over how Colorado’s law applies to people of faith.

Chief Justice John Roberts asked if Catholic Legal Services would be forced to choose between “not providing any pro bono legal services or providing those services in connection with the same-sex marriage,” and Cole said if it were operating like a retail store, yes, the Washington Examiner reported.

Justices Samuel Alito and Gorsuch asked about accommodations for same-sex couples at religious schools, but Cole saw the example of schools’ free exercise as separate from public accommodations.

The case has elicited support from evangelicals, from fellow Coloradans at Focus on the Family to the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. Officials from the Department of Justice also filed a brief on the baker’s behalf in September.

While the legal tensions between gay rights and religious rights have grown with legal recognition of same-sex marriage (Alito pointed out on Tuesday that gay marriage had not been legalized at the time Phillips turned down the cake order), the underlying issues surrounding religious belief and practice have plenty of precedent for the court to pull from.

Kidd and others bring up a 1990 case involving two men who defended their illegal use of peyote as part of a Native American religious ritual. In Employment Division v. Smith, the Supreme Court issued new operating procedures for when religion and the law come into conflict, stating that the free exercise clause “does not relieve an individual of the obligation to comply with a law that incidentally forbids (or requires) the performance of an act that his religious belief requires (or forbids) if the law is not specifically directed to religious practice and is otherwise constitutional as applied to those who engage in the specified act for nonreligious reasons.”

“The peyote case set the stage for Masterpiece Cakeshop,” wrote Temple University professor David Mislin on The Conversation. “It was in response to the case that Congress passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) of 1993. It required that laws restricting religious expression must show that they serve a compelling need.”

In other words, people of faith cannot be exempt from a law that doesn’t target a specific religious practice, and governments may pass laws that happen to limit religious freedom as long as they are shown to be the “least restrictive means of furthering a compelling government interest.”
For Full story, visit http://www.christianityupdate.com/blog/the-supreme-courts-judgement-on-a-christian-bakers-who-refused-to-bake-for-gay-wedding/

When attending Mass in Brisbane a few months ago I had my first experience of déjà vu.

Every time I left the church, a local parishioner would grab my arm, fix me with an enquiring look and ask with great earnestness: “What order are you from?”

After a few days of repeating the words “Dominicans” or “Order of Preachers” I added – with a smile – one further phrase: “I have been asked the same thing every day since I arrived; we really need to do something to promote the order.”

One parishioner suggested I make up business cards with my name and the contact details of the order.

He suggested that I put our bank details on the back of the card and – when handing it over – that I should fix my interlocutor with a winning smile and the phrase, “No personal cheques”.

As winsome a suggestion as that was, I thought I might be better off using this column as an opportunity to recall just a few of the Dominican saints whose feasts occur in November.

It seems an appropriate moment to embark upon this quest, given that we began the month with the feast of All Saints, and November is a time when the Church pays particular attention to those who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith.

Also, there are few better ways to understand the inherent nature and charism of the Order of Preachers than through its many canonised saints.

However, before beginning my panegyric to my brothers in religion, it occurs to me that there is a doctrinal point that might be worth exploring.

Why, after all, do we venerate the saints?

Why does the Church designate certain days throughout the year as memoriae, feasts and solemnities dedicated to particular saints?

Is Jesus Christ Himself not enough?

The answer to those questions – questions which have all been asked of me at one time or another – is really quite simple.

The answer is this – the brilliant lustre that the saints show through their lives is nothing other than the splendid glory of Christ Himself.

The saints are a proof of the infinite power of God and the work of the Holy Spirit in our midst: that power which is forever capable of calling forth eternal luminous souls from the pervasive dust and sin of our world.

We who venerate the saints are adoring Christ, as it is from His power that they emanate and it is to His true divinity that they bear witness.

It is for this reason that, over the course of the year, the Church has surrounded the great feasts of our Lord Himself with feasts of the various saints like a garland.

The saints that comprise the flowers and leaves of this garland testify to the fruitful power of Our Lord who is Himself the fruitful vine. (John 15:1)

They bear witness to the action of the Son of God throughout the course of the history of the Church within this world.

The saints testify to His actions and His passion, His resurrection and the gift of His Spirit.

In the lives of the saints the effects of the Life of Christ and its undeniable fruits are brought nearer to our hearts and our minds.

And so we celebrate men like St Albert the Great (1200-1280: November 15), one of the thirty-six Doctors of the Church.

He is named the “Universal Doctor” in view of the breadth and depth of his writing which covers everything from logic, theology, botany, geography, astronomy and astrology to mineralogy, alchemy, zoology, physiology, phrenology, justice, law, friendship and love.

In the Divine Comedy, Dante places St Albert in the Heaven of the Sun.

He earns a mention in Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein and even has a font named after him (Albertus).

The manner in which St Albert understood his analytical work as an inherent part of life as a professed religious and priest is a trait that continues among the friars with whom I live.

This commitment to study and the contemplation of revealed truth has ever been a part of Dominican life and is aptly summed up in the relevant section of our Constitutions: “God is the light and source of our study, the God who spoke in former times and in different ways, and who now speaks in Christ”.
To continue article, visit the link http://www.christianityupdate.com/blog/why-do-we-venerate-the-saints/

In the event of Daddy Freeze controversy about tithing. I have watched with keen interest the reactions of some online skeptics as they attempt to disprove Christianity with all sort of mouth bashing possible. Some comments on Christianity are as horrible and distasteful as the worldview that nurtured them. It is funny how some persons will brand Christians with such name as religitard, or dumb, unintelligent bands of idiots. I kid not, I have seen worst name calling, but growing old has been helpful in being socially conservative about issues of such inane concern.

Characterizing christianity with irrationality would imply that scholars like Alvin Plantinga (University of Notre Dame), Peter van Inwagen (University of Notre Dame), the late William Alston (University of Syracuse), Richard Swinburne (Oxford University), Robert Adams (University of North Carolina), Dean Zimmerman (Rutgers University); scientists: Francisco Ayala (highly decorated evolutionary biologist), Allan Sandage (world’s most famous astronomer), Christopher Isham (called Britain’s greatest quantum cosmologist), George Ellis (one who probably knows cosmology than anyone alive), Francis Collins (head of the human genome project); historical Jesus scholars: John Meier (author of a multi-volume study of the historical Jesus), N. T. Wright (another writer of prodigious works on Jesus), James D. G. Dunn (highly regarded scholar at the University of Durham) who happen to be Christians are all dumb, irrational and stupid. Whatever that even mean?

One should be keen to ask whether how many scholarly books have the destructive critic read on the subject of the historical Jesus, and Christian claims to have assumed the authority of branding the whole world Christians dumb, and stupid.

Let's grant for the sake of argument that Christians are infact stupid, irrational and dumb, how on earth does it show that Christianity isn't true?

Just take a look at this inductive argument

Premise 1: Christians are stupid, irrational, dumb and unintelligent
Premise 2: Therefore, Christianity is not true.
.
How does P2 follows from P1. That is simply non sequitur.
It is like attacking the intelligence of Christians to attack their worldview. In essence, you're not objecting the truth proposition of the Christians, rather their person. That is ad hominem. If you will attack christianity, do so intelligently, attacking Christians isn't good for the business of objective criticism or even of attention seeking, it is more like playing a Russian roulette with a loaded gun.
http://www.christianityupdate.com/blog/on-attacking-christianity/

The theological work and papal teaching of retired Pope Benedict XVI “continue to be a living and precious heritage for the church,” Pope Francis said.

The pope met Nov. 18 with the winners of the 2017 Ratzinger Prize, named for the retired pope to honor those who make significant contributions to theology and culture.

The three winners had met the day before with Pope Benedict in his residence in the Vatican gardens.

Pope Francis told the group that Pope Benedict’s “prayer and his discreet and encouraging presence accompany us on our common journey.”

The Ratzinger Prize is awarded each year by the Vatican-based Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Foundation, and Pope Francis urged the foundation to pay tribute to the retired pope not only by promoting the study of his writings, but to continue the spirit of his work by “entering into new fields in which modern culture asks for dialogue with the faith.”

“The human spirit always has an urgent and vital need for this dialogue,” the pope said. And faith needs dialogue as well to ensure that it does not become abstract, but “incarnates in time.”

“Joseph Ratzinger continues to be a master and friendly interlocutor for all those who exercise the gift of reason to respond to the human vocation of searching for truth,” he said.

“Co-workers of the truth,” the motto the retired pope chose in 1977 as his episcopal motto, “expresses well the whole sense of his work and his ministry,” the pope said.

Pope Francis said he was happy the three winners for 2017 come from different Christian traditions and he was pleased to approve the expansion of the prize to include the arts because it “corresponds well to the vision of Benedict XVI, who so often spoke in a touching way about beauty as a privileged path for opening us up to transcendence and an encounter with God.”

The prize winners were German Lutheran theologian Theodor Dieter, German Catholic theologian Father Karl-Heinz Menke and the Estonian composer Arvo Part, an Orthodox Christian.
http://www.christianityupdate.com/blog/pope-francis-calls-benedicts-teaching-precious-heritage/

Looking at life, we discover that it is a cycle that revolves round itself. The world we live in is full of many kinds of people as statistics puts it that there are about 7 billion people currently in existence. Therefore, it is important and paramount to know that all these people have their several and unique features, characteristics and personality. Knowing this to be true, therefore, we must endeavor to build capacity in order to accommodate people the way they are. The Lord Jesus Christ told us that “Offences must come”. There are no two ways about it. What must be must be and cannot be escaped or avoided. In life, the cycle of offences keeps on occurring and reoccurring. People keep offending us just the same way we keep offending people in our day to day life. Now the question is, “Who has offended you”? We have been hurt in several ways by people we least expect. Sometimes, we render help with a clear conscience to people in need but in turn, our good act is repaid with evil to the point that we are so vexed and think that nothing will ever make us forgive. Our inability to forgive makes us human but our ability to forgive shows that the seed of God is resident in our lives. If we have been hurt, indeed it seems difficult as human beings to let go. Of course we are all human beings and I know that some or even all the people reading this article has at one point or the other been offended that you promise not to let go. It is time to let go. He who harbors any burden in his heart suppresses himself greatly.

The Bible said in Colossians chapter three verse thirteen, “Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye”. Indeed it is difficult but God’s grace is sufficient for us and it is made perfect in our weaknesses. Therefore it’s time to forgo and let go to move on. This mountain of unforgiveness has kept a lot of people for so long that progress has gone far from them. Remember that the Lord’s Prayer says, “Forgive us our trespass as we have forgiven those who trespass against us”. If I am to paraphrase it, it means do not forgive me my trespasses for I have not forgiven those that trespass against me. Therefore, make life easy for yourself by easing yourself some burdens that are suppressing you. For give those who offend you, whether they apologize or not. Jesus said, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do”, and Stephen at the point of death also repeated the same thing. Therefore it’s you turn to forgive so that you can move further that no root of bitterness springing up may defile you. Then if you have wronged anyone, seek for opportunity to right your wrongs as God will be strengthening you. God bless you
http://www.christianityupdate.com/blog/who-has-offended-you-and-whom-have-you-offended/

Commandment #1

Thou Shalt be Humble.

Upon this one commandment do most (if not all) the other commandments hang. Humility is the key to reaching out to others. If arrogance fuels your witnessing, people take note and very rarely desire to listen to more than two sentences from you. If you are struggling in this area, pray for help. God will listen.

Proverbs 29:23- A man’s pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit.

Commandment #2

Thou Shalt Not Pick Fights.

Thou shalt not fight with thy neighbor, nor thy neighbor’s friends, nor thy website admins. This one should go without saying, but how often do we find Christians actually trading verbal blows with unbelievers and believers alike! What unChrist-like behavior to exhibit. If you feel the onset of AIMrage, step back and cool it. Go take a shower or have a run though the park. If it feels like people are being more unruly than normal, give the internet a rest for a day and come back to it. Doing nothing at all is better than ruining your Christian testimony online.

Proverbs 15:1- A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.



Commandment #3

Thou Shalt Listen.

Don’t come crying to me when people don’t want to hear you because you won’t hear them!! You want to make an impact right? Well so does everyone else online (well okay, maybe not everybody). But everyone at least wants to be heard or they wouldn’t be online in the first place. Give them that respect and open your ears and mind to what they say. Many people are driven to the online world because of stress, depression and loneliness. Reach out to them and hear their cries of desperation. When you hear them out they will return the favor in kind.

Proverbs 1:5- A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels.

Commandment #4

Thou Shalt Use Thy Bible Search Engine With Great Fervor and Diligence!

How canst thou take on the forces of the Evil One without thy sword? The answer is YOU CAN’T!! The internet has one huge advantage that witnessing in real life will never even come close to comparing to- Bible search websites. Twenty years ago if you were witnessing to a person and they produced a difficult question you had no answer to it might take a week or longer before you could get back to them. Not anymore. Drop the question into Google and have your answer.

Hebrews 4:12- For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Commandment #5

Thou Shalt Avoid Chatroom Arguments

What? Know ye not that nothing is resolved by arguing in chat rooms? Think back for a moment. Was there ever a time you were in a chat room and were just hit with an amazing spiritual epiphany? No? Me neither. Why’s that? Because there are 20 other people in there talking which distracts you and whoever you’re talking to from getting the message. Chat rooms should primarily be used for one purpose in regards to witnessing- meeting people to talk to one on one. Which is the more ideal witnessing situation- on a loud, profane, crowded bus, or in the quiet of someone’s living room? The same principle applies here. Leave the witnessing for instant message and watch your results change drastically.

Acts 8:31- And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him.



Commandment #6

Thou Shalt Begin With the Gospel Always

Remember that it is not by thy strength thou doest what thou doest. The Holy Spirit is the person that does the work of bringing people to an understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He’s going to have a time of it if you’re always butting in with different doctrines/beliefs/religious discussions. From the outset, your best bet is to present the word of God and see how it registers with the person. The Bible is the most powerful tool to use with unbelievers because it can say so much more than you or I can. It is the water of life, and people are thirsting. Keep the Romans Road and other great verses handy at all times (even memorize them if you can).

1 Corinthians 1:17- For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.

For the full list, visit: http://www.christianityupdate.com/blog/ten-commandments-of-online-evangelism/

The Anglican Bishop of Diocese of Egbu, Owerri North, Imo State, The Right Reverend Geoffrey Enyinnaya Okorafor, has advised President Muhammadu Buhari to read the handwriting on the wall, ignore political sycophants and leave office on May 29, 2019.

This is coming after analysing the economic, political and social condition of the country, for which the cleric also criticised the Buhari administration for not paying adequate attention to public opinion, especially on the corruption fight.
Okorafor, who advised Buhari in his 82-page address tagged: Presidential Address and Charge delivered during the first session of the eight synod of the church at the Cathedral Church of all Saints Egbu, in Owerri North Local Council of Imo State, also advised Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State to assess himself.
Let Okorocha assess himself on how the Imo people are faring under second term programmes, policies, actions and inactions, and charged that retirees should be paid their full pensions and entitlements without further tricks.
He argued that there are many perceptions held by the people on his government’s policies and style. He further advised Buhari to resist calls and suggestions for him to run for second term in 2019.

“My dear President, if you have ears hear this, these are your worst enemies and sycophants of the highest order. Do not listen to them.

“If I were you, Mr. President, I would pack all my bags and baggages from Aso Rock, if by God’s grace I pull through the hazards of governing this difficult and complex entity called Nigeria.

“To my mind, you have achieved your life ambition as military Head of State and a civilian President.”

Okoroafor spoke at the event attended by the immediate past Chief Judge of Imo State, Benjamin Njemanze, a former representative of Ezinihitte Mbaise constituency in the Imo House of Assembly, Oliver Enwerenem and some government and top religious officials.

On the fight against corruption, the bishop said: “Last year, we urged the President to do a house cleansing, beginning with his own house and office before engaging in the fight against corruption, but it fell on deaf ears. That was expected because we have a government that has no regard for the opinion of the ordinary citizens.

“May we ask, what has happened to the looted funds that have been purportedly recovered? When will Nigerians be given the account? Are we sure they are not passing from one corrupt hand to another? We need an answer,” he added.

The bishop wondered why the herdsmen are still going about freely armed with rifles, whereas the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), whose members held unarmed rallies, were declared a terrorist group and proscribed.

Please who knows about silver coin

In the early centuries Christianity was so strong yea that’s great.
I woke up this morning remembering two classes I attended in primary and secondary school, they were both Islamic studies classes. One in masalanchi GRA (GRA MOSQUE) and My class room. I can remember the Imam and my teacher elaborate on evangelism and dying for your faith, yeah. I also remember history quoting the words of Usman Danfodio saying to his followers “Ensure that Islam go from the Mediterranean sea to the Atlantic ocean (I know some of you don’t understand what that means, please go study) and I bet you this instruction is being carried out with great passion.

Now let’s consider Christians in this perspective. Now in the early centuries too but about 600year before the birth of Islam, Jesus instructed his followers “Go ye into the world, make disciples of all nation…” Good but I feel today reverse is the case, I rest my case on that.
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) keep shouting and crying out for Islamisation Agenda seeing that this agenda has been in existence for thousands of years but its being modernised as generations go by.
Now my big question is WHAT IS OUR OWN CHRISTIAN AGENDA AND HOW ARE WE CARRYING IT OUT?

Now all I see is structures of Churches after every 100meters with loud speakers shouting, “All your enemies shall die”, “You see that car you will drive it”, Crusades here and there, Argument about tithe and offering here and there, Pastor rape woman during deliverance
Denomination criticisms, Church committee embezzlement, Church building projects, Gay pastor and churches, Naked church weddings,
Wrong teachings, Over and self righteousness etc. What do we call this? It is actually a big shame on us Christians.

Sincerely if I am the President of Nigeria, my first agenda will be to shut down so many churches, imprison some pastors etc. OK, imagine two weeks ago a male pastor was asking me to come and sleep with him in a practice known as homosexual. I have never heard of this among Imam.

OK let’s go political. Check out these political leaders with records of embezzlement and corruption, they are still the ones that will come into our churches and give millions for building project and we will give them several awards like”Father of faith” and lots more.

London and major cities in England is today being ruled by Muslims and we are complaining. It has been their agenda take over leadership and enforce Islam. I bet you majority of Muslims that go into leadership go there to promote Islam but Christians go there to amass wealth, fame and power then use personal and selfish agenda to deceive the masses and they foolishly yell joyfully at him.

What is Christianity turning into? For now I rest my case because I don’t even know how to conclude this article but I know you have grabbed the message. May God bless you. Please read and share this message to every Christian you know.

Christianity needs revival. I see Christianity of nowadays as a troop that allow its wounded soldiers die without any form of aid. May God help each and everyone of us.
http://www.christianityupdate.com/blog/what-is-our-christian-agenda-and-how-are-we-carrying-it-out/

It promises to be a wonderful and refreshing moment in the presence of God as the Nigeria Christian Corpers’ Fellowship (NCCF) holds her 34th conference with the theme, “Behold I come quickly”, taken from Revelation chapter 22 verse 12. The conference is scheduled to take place from 18th to 22nd of October 2017 at the NYSC National orientation camp Mangu, Plateau state Nigeria. The conference will be bombarded with the presence and anointing of great men of God like; Bro Gbile Akanni, Apostle Joshua Selman, Apostle Arome Osayi, Nathaniel Bassey and a host of others. Missing the conference is not an option to be considered since the service year lasts for one year, which means this conference is once in a lifetime conference.
PLAN TO ATTEND.
http://www.christianityupdate.com/blog/34th-national-conference-of-the-nigeria-christian-corpers-fellowship/

So she started the business in 2012 and bought the car in 2008. Thats nice

The First United Methodist Church in Austin, Texas will not officiate any weddings as its national body has banned marriage between couples of the same sex.

An overwhelming percentage of the congregation, about 90 percent voted on September 24 to put a complete stop to wedding ceremonies supposed to be held in its chapel and sanctuary until the church’s national leadership lifted the gay marriage ban. In its social media post, the Austin branch of the church wrote that 93 percent of its congregants voted to stand in total solidarity with individuals of faith. The church said that ceremonies should be equal for all who want to get married.

The web page of the church’s national governing body states that it supports all civil society laws which define marriage as the union of a single man and single woman. Couples who have previously scheduled weddings prior to the resolution will have their weddings as planned. The church clergy, however, would not schedule any new ceremonies. To make their point doubly clear, the church released a video on their social media page on October 5. The video elaborates on the reasons that went into the decision.

Reverend Taylor Fuerst, the senior pastor, said that this step was taken so that the national governing body takes notice and take steps to make suitable changes. The Supreme Court of the United States has previously legalized gay marriages in all the 50 states as part of a historic ruling delivered in 2015. The clergy in the UMC, however, stands to be defrocked if they officiate any same-sex marriages.

The constitution of the UMC states that all persons continue to be sacred. At the same time, the Book of Discipline of the denomination holds that Christian teaching and homosexuality are incompatible. Present policies of the wider church prohibit any ‘self-avowed practicing homosexual’ to be ordained. Pastors along with their churches were barred from hosting or performing the same-sex weddings. To justify its stand, the Austin unit of the UMC argued that the policies of the national governing body when it comes to sexuality and marriage are not compatible with Christ’s inclusive teachings. They said that these teachings are also incompatible with the constitution of the UMC itself.

The UMC has about seven million congregants in the US alone. It has struggled on the ways to minister the LGBTQ people.
Source: http://www.christianityupdate.com/blog/methodist-church-stops-all-weddings-until-they-remove-gay-marriage-ban/

Peter Matthews and Alistair Dinnie have made history by being the first UK same-sex couple to get married in a church.

The couple was married in St. John Church in Edinburgh, a church run by the Scottish Episcopal Church (SEC). This historic moment arrived three years after the law on same-sex marriages was passed. One of the first couples to get married was Susan and Derrie Douglas Scott. Their wedding was performed in December 2014 in Glasgow but was not in a church building. This move by St. John’s Church is sure to have consequences. The decision to perform the wedding has been viewed as a contradiction with what the majority of the Anglican Churches believe. The belief held by this Christian movement, known to be the third largest, is that marriage entails “a union of one man and one woman.”

The SEC members voted to change this clause to exempt clergy who will not be comfortable presiding over these marriages. The Global Anglican Church leaders are yet to lay down the consequences for the church in a meeting later on in the year. The decision to be made at Canterbury is expected to include the exclusion of the church from policymaking as well as barring them from membership of Anglican bodies. The consequences are expected to be linked with the church’s shift from the Anglican teaching on marriage. Rev Markus Dunzkofer, from St. John’s, and Rev Kevin Holdsworth, from St. Mary’s Cathedral would like the Primates’ Meeting to have a different effect on the church.

They believe the move by St. John’s Church should be a model for their entire community rather than a reason for sanction. Rev Markus went on to say, “Finally being able to do the whole thing felt like the fulfillment of where the spirit had been telling us to get to. It completely made sense, it all came together,” alluding to the fact that he was able to lead the couple through their vows. While Matthews and Dinnie are on their honeymoon, it is expected the Scottish church in Edinburgh is up for a rough patch.
Source: http://www.christianityupdate.com/blog/anglican-church-sponsoring-first-same-sex-marriage-in-uk/

A Victorian church refused to marry a young couple and cancelled their wedding plans because the bride-to-be expressed support for same-sex marriage on Facebook.

The 26-year-old bride and 25-year-old groom were to be married in November at their Presbyterian church, Ebenezer St John’s in Ballarat, by minister Steven North.

In early August, when the Turnbull government announced the postal survey on same-sex marriage, the bride posted a Facebook status declaring her support for change.

“I know it’s something not everyone will agree on and that’s fine but this is what I stand for and frankly it doesn’t effect my relationship with my partner one bit,” she commented.

Days later, the couple were summoned to Mr North’s office and were told he would no longer marry them, nor would they be allowed to hold their ceremony at the church.

In a letter to the bride, provided to Fairfax Media, Mr North said the views expressed in the Facebook post had “practical consequences” for the wedding.

“After the pre-marital counselling that you attended and the sermons delivered at Ebenezer on this subject, you must surely appreciate that your commitment to same-sex marriage opposes the teaching of Christ Jesus and the scriptural position practiced by the Presbyterian Church of Australia and by me,” he wrote.

“This conflict of views has practical consequences in relation to your upcoming wedding.

“By continuing to officiate it would appear either that I support your views on same-sex marriage or that I am uncaring about this matter. As you know, neither statement is correct.

“Also, if the wedding proceeded in the Ebenezer St John’s church buildings, the same inferences could be drawn about the Presbyterian denomination. Such inferences would be wrong.”
Fairfax Media has spoken to the couple but has agreed not to name them, in line with their wishes. The couple did not seek media attention about the case – Fairfax Media was informed by a friend of the family.

Ebenezer St John’s did not return multiple calls. John Wilson, clerk of assembly at the Presbyterian Church of Victoria, said decisions about officiating marriages were at the discretion of individual ministers. He did not wish to comment further.

But Presbyterian ministers and churchgoers are under clear directions to oppose same-sex marriage. Mr Wilson, who is also moderator-general of the Presbyterian Church of Australia, published a blog post committing the church to the “no” case and calling on attendees to campaign actively.

http://www.christianityupdate.com/blog/church-cancels-wedding-because-bride-and-groom-supported-gay-marriage-on-facebook/

India’s Church, government and politicians from across the political landscape have all expressed relief and joy over the release of Salesian Father Tom Uzhunnalil, kidnapped in Yemen in March 2016.

Statements hailing the release of the Indian priest have poured in – from India’s foreign minister, Sushma Swaraj, to the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, Cardinal Baselios Cleemis.

“I am happy to inform that Father Tom Uzhunnalil has been rescued,” tweeted Swaraj at 15.40 (IST), breaking the news to the nation.

Apart from thanking the Indian government for its efforts in securing the priest’s release, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference in its statement thanked “Pope Francis, who took personal interest in Fr. Tom’s release efforts, and Bishop Paul Hinder, Vicar Apostolic of Southern Arabia, the Bishop in charge of the Middle East, and the Sultan of Oman, for their untiring efforts”.

In fact, the news of Fr Uzhunnalil’s release was made public after the priest had been flown to Muscat in a military aircraft.

A statement quoting the state-run Oman News Agency, published in the Oman Observer, said Fr Uzhunnalil “expressed thanks to God Almighty” following his release. “In compliance with the His Majesty, Sultan Qaboos bin Said, Oman, in coordination with the Yemeni parties, have managed find a Vatican priest,” said the state-run news agency’s statement. “He has been transferred to Muscat, from where he will return to his home in Kerala. Tom Uzhunnalil, a Vatican priest, expressed thanks to God Almighty and appreciation to His Majesty Sultan Qaboos. He also thanked his brothers and sisters and all relatives and friends who called on God for [his] safety and release.”

Father Joyce Francis from Bangalore, part of the Salesian order to which Fr Uzhunnalil belongs, also confirmed the news to World Watch Monitor. “We are thrilled. There are no words to describe our joy,” Fr Uzhunnalil’s cousin, V A Thomas, told World Watch Monitor from the family’s native Ramapuram parish.

“People are excited and distributing sweets,” added Thomas, who had been headmaster to Fr Uzhunnalil when he was a student in the local Catholic school in the 1970s.

“I got the news from a contact in Muscat,” Major Archbishop Cardinal George Alencherry, head of the Syro Malabar Church to which Fr Uzhunnalil belongs, told World Watch Monitor, after leading a thanksgiving prayer at the St Mary’s Basilica in Kochi.

“Father Tom is now being taken to the Vatican,” Cardinal Alencherry confirmed to World Watch Monitor, contrary to earlier news reports that he was being flown to Kerala.
http://www.christianityupdate.com/blog/indian-catholic-priest-released-after-18-months-kidnap/

American gospel musician, Donald James, popularly known as Don Moen has described the recent rumour about his death as something very strange to him at a time he had nothing to be linked to such incident.

The 67 year-old American gospel singer disclosed this while featuring during the special holy ghost night that climaxed the 35th annual Holy Ghost Convention of Christ Life Ministries International held at the Obafemi Awolowo Stadium, Oke-Ado, Ibadan, on Friday night.
Other guests’ ministers include Evangelist Dr Bola Are, Dr Panam Percy Paul, Pastor Moji Alawiye, 800 choir members of the ministry and a host of choreography group display.

Two months ago, an American online medium shocked the world by announcing the death of the popular song writer due to stomach pain, though the news later proved to be fake.
According to Moen, who says though he was not perturbed by the ‘strange news’ said his life is a testimony to God faithfulness in his music ministry, noting that he was just where God wants him to be at the time the fake news went viral.

He said, “It is glad to be in Ibadan, God is good to me all the time. I thank Bishop and Dr Mrs Wale Oke for believing in our ministry and the privilege to minister at this year’s holy ghost convention.

“I thank God I’m not dead as people think. It’s strange how this (death) rumour began. But I am happy I’m here today where God is and where he want me to be.”

He then capped it with one of his famous songs “I’m just to be where you are, in your dwelling place for ever ever, take me to the place you are.”
The popular worship minister further added that his life is already a testimony that irrespective of any rumour, he still hold God dear in his heart, reason such ‘rumour’ will never shake him.

According to him, “Lord, I thank you tonight for all God has done for me. This is about knowing him quickly in my life.
“I am the husband of one wife, Laura. We’ve been marry for 44 years. She would have been with me here tonight except she is watching over the grandchildren.
“We didn’t know we’ll ever have any children. After 12 years of marriage; we had a daughter, then we had a son, and then we have a daughter and then we have a son and then we have another son. And in just about eight years, we had five children after 12 years of trying while the doctor said it’s impossible. But people prayed and God did it for us.”
http://www.christianityupdate.com/blog/rumour-death-strange-don-moen/

A Church of England vicar incinerated himself with a can of petrol while being investigated for historic sex offences, an inquest heard today.

The Rev Martyn Neale, 60, a member of the General Synod, was found dead at his rectory in the village of Hawley, Hampshire, by his sister Janis Chandler on July 25.

His body was discovered just eight days after he was initially arrested by the Metropolitan Police regarding historic sexual offences committed 20 years ago.

North East Hampshire Coroner Andrew Bradley today the allegations against Mr Neale had ‘clearly weighed on him’ regardless of whether they were true or not.

A post-mortem found his body was covered in ‘near-total third degree burns and blackening by soot’. He could only be identified by dental records.

The inquest heard Ms Chandler had arranged the previous evening for Mr Neale to pick her up so they could spend the day with their parents.

After trying to contact him during the day, she went to find her brother at Hawley Vicarage at around 4pm.




She said: ‘I have a key, so I let myself in after getting no answer on the doorbell.

‘I went in. He wasn’t there so I had a look around. His cars were parked outside. I noticed that the back door was unlocked as the chain was dangling.

‘I went into the garden and, as I turned right, I saw the petrol can.

‘I walked further and I just saw something on the ground that was burned. I was not sure at first, but I realised it was a body when I got nearer.

‘I could see it was a body because there was a face and it was face down.’
His body was discovered just eight days after he was initially arrested by the Metropolitan Police regarding historic sexual offences committed 20 years ago

Ms Chandler contacted the police who attended the scene.

She said her brother would ‘help anyone’ and they were ‘a very close family’, seeing each other almost every day.




Friends described Father Neale as a ‘quietly-spoken but caring’ priest who had worked as the vicar for Hawley, in the Diocese of Guildford, for 20 years.

Father Neale became a member of the Church’s ‘parliament’, the General Synod, earlier this year and recently attended his first meeting in York. A prominent traditionalist, he was a council member of the pressure group Forward in Faith, which opposes women priests.

Detective Constable Matt Deery, of Basingstoke CID, told the inquest at Basingstoke Coroner’s Court that Mr Neale was arrested and interviewed on July 17 in connection with historic sexual offences.

DC Deery said Mr Neale was released without charge on unconditional bail following the interview, but said there was ‘an ongoing investigation’ still underway.

Ms Chandler said her brother ‘had not spoken’ about the allegations against him but said she knew he had been suspended by the Church.

Coroner Mr Bradley said Mr Neale ‘effectively incinerated himself’ in his garden against the backdrop of alleged sexual offences.

He added: ‘I do not and cannot look at these other than as allegations made. The relevance of them is that they have been made.’

Mr Bradley, recording a conclusion of suicide, added Mr Neale died as a result of ‘extensive third degree burns’.

He said: ‘Whether the allegations are true or false is not a matter for me, but they have been made and they clearly weighed on him.

‘It is a straightforward matter, but of a tortured soul.

‘He was under investigation for historic sexual offences. I merely note this as a relevant factor.

‘The verdict I enter is that he killed himself.
http://www.christianityupdate.com/blog/church-of-england-vicar-sets-himself-on-fire-with-can-of-petrol-while-being-investigated-for-historic-sex-offences/

The influential Archbishop of Nigeria is rejecting an invitation to the forthcoming summit of Anglican leaders hosted by the Archbishop of Canterbury in October.

Nicholas Okoh rebuked Justin Welby in a letter explaining his refusal to attend, saying he had overseen a ‘repeated failure to preserve’ conservative teaching on sexuality.
Nicholas Okoh is the Archbishop, Metropolitan and Primate of All Nigeria as well as being chair of GAFCON.

Okoh is head of the traditionalist network GAFCON which claims to represent the majority of Anglicans globally. Different factions of the Anglican Communion were brought by Welby to Canterbury for their second meeting in two years this October in an attempt to resolve deep differences around sexuality.



But Okoh’s snub comes as a challenge to Justin Welby’s authority as the head of 85 million Anglicans around the world and could fuel a de facto separation between conservative Churches in Africa and the global south and more liberal leaning ones in the US and the West.

‘Everything else is the same or worse,’ Okoh wrote comparing Welby’s tenure to that of his predecessor Rowan Williams. ‘There is endless debate, the will of the orthodox Primates is frustrated and misrepresented, false teaching is not being corrected, and nothing is being done to halt orthodox Anglicans in North America (and maybe soon elsewhere) being stripped of the churches that have helped form their spiritual lives.

‘In these circumstances, I have concluded that attendance at Canterbury would be to give credibility to a pattern of behaviour which is allowing great damage to be done to global Anglican witness and unity.’

Pointing to deep divides over sexuality Okoh said ‘we are living in the midst of the next great Reformation’ in a reference to the great split between Protestants and Catholics in the 16th century.



‘In our day also there is broken fellowship, over homosexual practice, same sex marriage and the blurring of gender identity, none of which are mentioned in the Creeds, but all of which contradict fundamental biblical understandings of marriage and human identity,’ he wrote.
The meeting will take place in Canterbury from 2-6 October and will be the first time all the leaders of the different Anglican provinces – known as Primates – have met since January 2016.

It comes after another influential Anglican leader, Stanley Ntagali, the Archbishop of Uganda, said he also would not attend.

He and other conservative primates who are part of the GAFCON group had called for ‘discipline’ to be administered to the US Episcopal Church, in the light of the 2003 consecration of the Bishop of New Hampshire, Gene Robinson, a gay man with a partner.

Tensions over the fissure on sexuality are reaching a climax after the Church of England’s General Synod, which Welby presides over, voted in July to condemn so-called gay ‘conversion therapy’ and to consider liturgical support to Christians who ‘transition’ from one gender to another.
http://www.christianityupdate.com/blog/why-i-wont-be-attending-justin-welbys-anglican-summit-primate-nicholas-okoh/

Unlike what we have grown to know that Ghana is a Christian nation, the founder, and leader of the Action Chapel International, Arch Bishop Duncan Williams has said Ghana is not a Christian nation.

The Bishop who was speaking to Bola Ray on Accra-based Starr FM said “One thing we must understand is that Ghana is not a Christian country. This is not the time where prophets appoint a king by the will of God; we are a secular country even though we have a lot of Christians than other religions.

So we have to be very careful of the situation where prophets get us and attack presidents and kings; you can’t do that, this is a different dispensation”.

For this, he indicated that it is not right for people of God especially Prophets to use their pulpit to insult people in authority because the bible speaks against it.

“One of my policies is not to criticise people in authority. Because I have learned that the bible says speak no evil about the ruler of my people. And the bible also calls our attention to the fact that you don’t dishonor and disrespect kings and those in authority.”
http://www.christianityupdate.com/blog/ghana-is-not-a-christian-nation/

This week in christian history marks a memorable event for us all as we remember the great mother Teresa after 20 years.

Mother Teresa, known in the Catholic Church as Saint Teresa of Calcutta, born on 26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997), was an Albanian-Indian Roman Catholic nun and missionary. She was born in Skopje (now the capital of the Republic of Macedonia), then part of the Kosovo Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire. After living in Macedonia for eighteen years she moved to Ireland and then to India, where she lived for most of her life.

In 1950 Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic religious congregation which had over 4,500 sisters and was active in 133 countries in 2012. The congregation manages homes for people dying of HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis; soup kitchens; dispensaries and mobile clinics; children’s- and family-counselling programmes; orphanages, and schools. Members, who take vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience, also profess a fourth vow: to give “wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor”.

Teresa had a heart attack in Rome in 1983 while she was visiting Pope John Paul II. Following a second attack in 1989, she received an artificial pacemaker. In 1991, after a bout of pneumonia in Mexico, she had additional heart problems. Although Teresa offered to resign as head of the Missionaries of Charity, in a secret ballot the sisters of the congregation voted for her to stay and she agreed to continue.

In April 1996 she fell, breaking her collarbone, and four months later she had malaria and heart failure. Although Teresa had heart surgery, her health was clearly declining. According to Archbishop of Calcutta Henry Sebastian D’Souza, he ordered a priest to perform an exorcism (with her permission) when she was first hospitalised with cardiac problems because he thought she might be under attack by the devil.

On 13 March 1997 Teresa resigned as head of the Missionaries of Charity, and she died on 5 September at the age of 87. At the time of her death, the Missionaries of Charity had over 4,000 sisters and an associated brotherhood of 300 members operating 610 missions in 123 countries. These included hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis, soup kitchens, children’s- and family-counselling programmes, orphanages and schools. The Missionaries of Charity were aided by co-workers numbering over one million by the 1990s.
http://www.christianityupdate.com/blog/remembering-mother-teresa-20-years/

A church belonging to a pastor, named as Anthony Obo, has been set ablaze by mob for allegedly killing of an 11-year-old girl in Calabar. The pastor, whose church, was located at 6, Abua Street, off Edgerly road in Calabar South Council of Cross River State, at mid-morning yesterday escaped being lynched by an angry mob, which succeeded in burning down the church.

An eyewitness said one among the three persons who kidnapped the girl on Thursday evening and killed her was caught and he confessed to the crime, prompting the Police to take the pastor into custody.

The eyewitness said: “The girl was killed and her heart removed and put in a basin obviously to be used for ritual. This was discovered in the pastor’s church, so we had to set this place on fire to stop him from coming back to commit havoc again.”

The church, which is an attachment to the front of the main building, used to serve as a shop, but was converted to a church in 2015. According to a source, the pastor was a commercial motorcycle (okada) rider until the then governor, Senator Liyel Imoke, outlawed operations of commercial motorcycle in Calabar and he started a church in his single room apartment at Atamunu Road, where he lived.

When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer, Irene Ugbo, confirmed the incident, saying the pastor was in Police custody and investigation was ongoing.

This attracted neighbors, who were only stopped from lynching the pastor, a father of four, by the prompt intervention of the Police. The church was ransacked and its altar desecrated.

Items found in the altar include ladies and men underwear, wooden dolls of men and women tied together with their photographs, photos of persons being padlocked, dresses and shoes supposedly belonging to victims.
http://www.christianityupdate.com/blog/mob-sets-church-ablaze-pastors-alleged-killing-11-year-old-ritual/

A new social media platform has been started by Christians who were banned from Facebook.

According to The Christian Post, the new Christian alternative to Facebook is called SocialCross.org. It was started by a group of pastors who were suspended multiple times from Facebook for posting unpopular thoughts and opinions on LGBT issues.

The pastors hope that the new social networking platform will be a place for Christians to freely express their beliefs and engage in conversations without fearing backlash.

SocialCross launched three weeks ago, and has thus far gained 2,300 users.

“This is a place where we can all come together as people who believe in Christ who want to share with one another and learn from each other and do so without an environment of fear of having people report our post or Facebook blocking us for 30 days,” said the website’s co-founder, Rich Penkoski, a West Virginia-based preacher and co-founder of the online ministry Warriors for Christ.

Penkoski was spurred on to create SocialCross after his Facebook account was banned for 30 days on multiple occasions. Once, it was banned because Penkoski said he would ban anyone who posted the rainbow flag emoji on his ministry’s Facebook page.

“The whole idea is that it’s a Christian site, run by Christians, designed by Christians and based on biblical principles,” Penkoski explained. “But anybody and their brother can join so long as they understand that we are a Christian site run by Christians.”

He added that “LGBT members are welcome so long as they are not going to try to cram that garbage down our throats. If you want to come and ask honest questions and have honest dialogue, you are more than welcome. But if the goal is to comment and force their lifestyle on others, that is not going to be allowed.”
http://www.christianityupdate.com/blog/pastors-launch-christian-alternative-facebook/

If u believe in Jesus then keep praying to Him and He will direct u

Hello fellow nairalanders, please what will it take to start up a pure water business in Nigeria and Ogun state to be precise in terms of Machineries, cost etc

Hello fellow nairalanders, can you all help me with what it takes to start up and run a pure water manufacturing business in Nigeria and Ogun state to be precise. In terms of machineries, cost etc

Exciting plans for LoveWorldUSA, a new evangelical Christian television channel, have just been unveiled by world-renowned television evangelists Pastor Chris Oyakhilome (founder of Believers Love World also known as Christ Embassy) and Pastor Benny Hinn. Telecasts begin across the United States this summer (2017) on the Charter/Spectrum cable In over 10,000,000 households in the US.

As more and more Christian media networks and programs in the United States target a more millennial-responsive, positive-lifestyle audience, LoveWorldUSA is being launched with a decidedly different emphasis. LoveWorldUSA will focus on the fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit and the supernatural demonstrations of God’s miracle-working power and its application to its viewers.


Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, DSc. DD, founder of the new LoveWorldUSA network, is also president of Believers’ LoveWorld Inc. and of Christ Embassy. As a beloved international pastor, healing minister, teacher, television host, and best-selling author, Pastor Chris exudes a God-given passion for reaching people worldwide, a divine calling he has fulfilled for more than 30 years.



“I’m so excited that Pastor Benny Hinn will be a vital advisor and ministry participant on our new LoveWorldUSA channel,” Pastor Chris said. “He has been a powerful force of Holy Spirit–empowered evangelism and teaching for more than 42 years. His breakthrough Good Morning, Holy Spirit is one of the most influential books of the past three decades, touching my life as a young minister in Nigeria and impacting millions of people around the world. Pastor Benny is also one of the very people alive today who has worked alongside the great pioneers of evangelism and media ministry: Kathryn Kuhlman, Oral Roberts, Pat Robertson, Rex Humbard, David Mains, Paul Crouch, Lester Sumrall, and more. He has been used to minister the largest healing crusades in history (including audiences of 7.4 million during three nights in India). No one but Pastor Benny Hinn could possibly bring such a wealth of seasoned experience and serve as the bridge between what God has done in the past and what He desires to do right now through the media ministry. And we are pleased he will be doing that for us at LoveWorldUSA!”




“God has miraculously brought Pastor Chris and me together for a time such as this,” Pastor Benny Hinn explained. “It was life changing when we met in October 2016. The more I learned about him, the more I realized that something remarkable was happening in the Spirit. Pastor Chris had already pioneered the first 24-hour Christian satellite network broadcasting from Africa, and expanded to Europe and the United Kingdom.

From the first time he discussed the new LoveWorldUSA channel with me and asked me to be instrumental in advising him and participating as a visible face of the network, I knew God was leading both of us in a mighty way. Just as my beloved friend Dr. Paul Crouch and other great media pioneers were invaluable to me as I was being led to move into television, I’m pleased to be able to share what I’ve learned with Pastor Chris as we begin this new era of his ministry in the United States.”

Pastor Benny Hinn added, “I want to emphasize to all my faithful Benny Hinn Ministries partners that BHM will continue to be a completely separate ministry. This Is Your Day telecasts will continue to feature teaching, miracle service highlights, and interviews from around the world on a variety of networks and stations. But we will now have the added opportunity to appear multiple times a day on LoveWorldUSA.

“BHM’s Atmosphere for Healing Network, with its blend of both classic and new programs, will continue providing 24/7ministry. Our miracle services and partner conferences will be held as always in strategic locations around the globe. And our worldwide ministry outreaches will continue to touch hurting and needy people of all ages.

“I want my partners to know that God has great things in store for us as we move ahead in the coming days. Tune in to LoveWorldUSA on Olympusat cable TV this summer and see the book of Acts come alive!”
http://www.christianityupdate.com/blog/pastor-chris-launch-loveworldusa-network/

Today dated 10th August 2017 is exactly 2 years I lost my dad who died on 10th of August 2015 at the age of 69. Coincidentally, today been exactly 2 years after his death, his closest and most beloved cousin brother is been buried still at the age of 69. My heart pains and it is still a fresh wound. I pray that Both of you keep resting in peace. For pix, check me up on faccebook, CMO CHUKWUEKE

Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke, Founder and President of Christ for all Nations (CfaN) will return to Nigeria for his final African Gospel Crusade in Nov., 2017. While certainly not CfaN’s final African crusade, Evangelist Bonnke’s return could inspire another historic global attendance as that of the Lagos, Nigeria Millennium Crusade in 2000, CfaN’s largest crusade to ­date.

Date: November 8 – 12, 2017

During the Lagos Millennium Crusade in 2000, over the course of five nights, 6 million attended, and 3.4 million decisions for Christ were made. In November, 2017, CfaN anticipates many decisions for Christ in response to Reinhard Bonnke’s farewell message. One of the highlights of this amazing crusade will be during the day sessions, to have a Passing the Burning Torch Conference for leaders and all kind of church-­workers. Evangelist Bonnke is believing for many thousands of pastors and evangelists from around the globe to be inspired to evangelism.

John Darku, CfaN’s African Director, shared, “This crusade will be like none we have seen before. Currently we plan to recruit 500,000 counselors, 200,000 intercessors, a choir of over 23,000 and a security force of over 10,000. There is great excitement from all the churches in the country, and we are expecting a spectacular harvest of people coming to Christ.”

In the coming months, CfaN will release information for people who would like to travel and become part of this remarkable journey and celebration. The current population of Lagos, Nigeria is over 20 million people. The potential magnitude of this crusade is breathtaking to consider. Lead evangelist of CfaN and successor to world-renowned evangelist Reinhard Bonnke, Daniel Kolenda speaks from his heart about this monumental event:

“I’m thrilled to join with Reinhard in this vision, and know that the results of this crusade will be farther-­reaching and of even greater consequence than we can even imagine.” Ever since God gave Evangelist Bonnke a vision for a blood-­washed Africa—a continent washed in the blood of Jesus Christ-over 40 years ago, he has been filled with a burning commitment to win the continent for Jesus. For full detail, visit
http://www.christianityupdate.com/blog/evangelist-reinhard-bonnke-returning-nigeria-farewell-crusade/

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has declared Sudan the 39th province of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

The declaration came six years after the predominantly Christian south gained independence from the north.

The Anglican church in Sudan, a majority Muslim country, has been administered from South Sudan since the 2011 split which followed a civil war that left more than two million people dead.

The ceremony in Khartoum added Sudan to the 85 million-strong worldwide Anglican communion’s 38 member churches — known as provinces — and six other branches known as extra provincials.

Welby said that creating a 39th Anglican province with its own Khartoum-based archbishop was a “new beginning” for Christians in Sudan.

He installed Ezekiel Kondo Kumir Kuku as the country’s first archbishop and primate at a ceremony in the capital’s All Saints Cathedral attended by American, European and African diplomats and hundreds of worshippers.

“We welcome the new primate with jubilation,” Welby announced to a cheering crowd as he handed a cross to Kuku.

Welby, spiritual head of the Church of England and of the global Anglican Communion, said it was a rare opportunity for an archbishop to declare a new primate.

“It is a responsibility for Christians to make this province work, and for those outside (Sudan) to support, to pray and to love this province,” he said.

“The church must learn to be sustainable financially, to develop the skills of its people, and to bless this country as the Christians here already do.”

The idea of a separate Anglican province in Sudan was first discussed in 2009 as it became clear that the south would secede.

Previously, the Episcopal Church of Sudan and South Sudan administered the region, Reverend Francis Clement of All Saints Cathedral said.

“But after the split it was decided to have a separate, autonomous Episcopal Church of Sudan,” he said.

“Today, we inaugurated that. It will have its own autonomous administration to take its own decisions.”

There is no central Anglican authority such as a pope, with each member church making its own decision in its own ways guided by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Earlier this week, the lower house of the Parliament in Pakistan elected Shahid Abbasi as Prime Minister. Pakistan is a mostly democratic, parliamentary republic, but Abbasi came to power because the Supreme Court of Pakistan recently decreed that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was ineligible to serve his third term as Prime Minister because of corruption. This was certainly an eventful week for the south Asian nation.

Abbasi is a loyal supporter of Sharif, and most observers assume he will continue Sharif’s policies and will eventually step aside so Sharif’s brother can take a seat in Parliament and become Prime MInister after run-off elections later this year. Abbasi belongs to Sharif’s ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) party, and previous served in Sharif’s cabinet. He was educated in the United States—at UCLA—and is noted for being one of the leading figures in Pakistan’s aviation industry.

For Christians in Pakistan, many of whom experience persecution—both explicit and implicit—a new Prime Minister is an anxious development, especially since Sharif was known for some cautious moderation in official religious policy in Pakistan. In March 2017, he gave a speech in which he said that “Islam gives people freedom to choose their religion,” and appeared to implicitly support a bill that makes forced conversions illegal that was controversial at the time. Christians who were encouraged by those developments likely wonder if those changes are at an end.

So will Abbasi continue Sharif’s more moderate approach? Only time will tell. Some Christians are worried about an uptick in persecution in a country long known for persecution of religious minorities. But Abbasi has said he is “Nawaz Sharif’s man, and the people’s prime minister is Nawaz Sharif,” so perhaps there is some hope for relief for Pakistani Christians.

Regardless of who leads the government of Pakistan, the unjust blasphemy laws remain on the books and those laws were repeatedly supported and upheld by former Prime Minister Sharif, which suggests Abbasi will continue those politics. Additionally, non-Muslims are legally barred from holding the highest public offices in Pakistan, along with positions on the Federal Shariat Court, which can overrule any civic authority in Pakistan.

Christians have also been victims of regular religious persecution and terrorist attacks, including a bombing in 2016 that killed more than 70 people, along with forced conversions, restrictions in job options, death sentences and other atrocities. Christians make up less than 2 percent of the population of Pakistan, which is around 96 percent Muslim. The state religion is Islam, and 62 percent of Pakistanis support the death penalty for anyone who leaves Islam.

So how will the new government treat Christians in Pakistan? It remains to be seen. If, as seems likely, the policies of former Prime Minister Sharif continue, the public freedoms for Christians will remain a mixed bag. On the one hand, there is verbal and public condemnation of forced conversions and religious persecution. But on the other, blasphemy laws remain entrenched in the country’s constitution, and popular sentiment seems strongly opposed to any religion besides Islam.

Pray for the Christians in Pakistan as they adjust to a new Prime Minister. Pray for Prime Minister Shahid Abbasi, that he will govern fairly and well for all Pakistanis, and will protect the lives and freedom to worship of the Christian community in Pakistan. And pray for the country and people of Pakistan, that they would see Jesus in action in the church in Pakistan and would come to embrace the Christian community—and the God that community serves.
http://christianityupdate.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=23&sid=027f28ab51ffe7c8ab7d0b4c089b29b2

TOPIC: MAKE AN END TO EVERY MIXED MULTITUDE SO THAT YOU DO NOT LOOSE GRIP OF WHAT GOD HAS FOR YOU.
TEXT: NUMBERS.11V4, EXODUS.12V38, PSALM.73V1 - END. ACTS.8V4 - 25
If we must run and fine, we must separate ourselves from those who have not surrendered their lives to the leadership and Lordship of the Most High God. In our various relationship with people, it is very important and paramount that we make conscious efforts in order to know the character, attributes and roots of our friends and acquaintances. the presence of the mixed multitude in the lives of the children of Israel made the journey which was supposed to last for few weeks or days linger for as long as 40 years. Therefore, if we must allow these mixed multitudes dwell with and among us, it surely will cost us a lot of good. It will delay a lot of thing God has purposed for His people. It is very important to note that from our text in Exodus, these mixed multitude were not children of Israel but rather Egyptians who probably might have seen how the hand of God was against them and therefore decided to follow the Israelite. Moses was careless to the point of not rebuking them and denying them the privilege to come with them. And now, coming to our other text in Numbers chapter 11 verse 4, we will discover that it was this same mixed multitude that started complaining which ignited Moses anger.
In Psalms chapter 73, we discover also that these mixed multitude might be prosperous and successful, yet they do not last long. Therefore, we must not envy them. As we embark on this glorious race to the kingdom of heaven, we must always remember when, where and how God started with us so that along the line, we do not see the mixed multitude and then begin to loose grip of God. If we allow the presence of these mixed multitude in our life, they will stop at nothing just to deceive us and when they have succeeded, they walk out of our lives. A typical example is Samson and Delilah, when Delilah had successfully deceived Samson and the Philistines came, Delilah woke Samson up and then she left Samson with the philistines and walked out and never showed up again - Be wise.
From Acts chapter 8, we also see a man known as Simon the sorcerer who also had the attributes of the mixed multitudes and might possibly ruin the early church if his request was granted, but through the grace of God and the help of the Holy Spirit, Peter resisted him. In conclusion therefore, separate yourself from the mixed multitude or else they will separate you from God.
You can now share your sunday sermon at www.christianityupdate.com/forum
http://christianityupdate.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=22&sid=c6d0728ceb281aaedac8405abe211426#p27