AUSTRALIAN PRAYER NETWORK NEWSLETTER April 2009 * BRITONS SEEK TO RENOUNCE THEIR CHRISTIAN FAITH THROUGH DE-BAPTISM * UN COMMISSION ON POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT SAYS NO TO ABORTION * EGYPTIAN MUSLIM RECEIVES FIRST CERTIFICATE OF CONVERSION * SUDAN OUSTS HUMANITARIAN AID GROUPS * SWEDEN ALLOWS HOMOSEXUAL MARRIAGE * ERITREA: TIME TO PRAY AS CHRISTIANS FACE PERSECUTION ----------------------------------------------- BRITONS SEEK TO RENOUNCE THEIR CHRISTIAN FAITH THROUGH DE-BAPTISM More than 100,000 Britons have recently downloaded "certificates of de-baptism" from the Internet to renounce their Christian faith. The initiative launched by a group called the National Secular Society (NSS) follows atheist campaigns here and elsewhere, including a London bus poster which triggered protests by proclaiming "There's probably no God.""We now produce a certificate on parchment and we have sold 1,500 units at three pounds (A$6.25) a pop," said NSS president Terry Sanderson. John Hunt, one of the first to try to be "de-baptised," held that he was too young to make any decision when he was christened at five months old. He said he approached the Church of England to ask it to remove his name. "They said they had sought legal advice and that I should place an announcement in the London Gazette," said Hunt, referring to one of the official journals of record of the British government. So that's what he did -- his notice of renouncement was published in the Gazette in May 2008 and other Britons have followed suit. The Church of England said its official position was not to amend its records. "Renouncing baptism is a matter between the individual and God," a Church spokesman said. "We are not a 'membership' church, and do not keep a running total of the number of baptised people in the Church of England, and such totals do not feature in the statistics that we regularly publish," he added. De-baptism organisers say the initiative is a response to what they see as increasing stridency from churches. "The Catholic Church is so politically active at the moment that I think that is where the hostility is coming from," said Sanderson. "In Catholic countries there is a very strong feeling of wanting to punish the church by leaving it." In Britain, where government figures say nearly 72 percent of the population list themselves as Christian, Sanderson feels this "hostility" is fuelling the de-baptism movement. De-baptism movements have already sprung up in other countries. In Spain, the high court ruled in favour of a man from Valencia, Manuel Blat, saying that under data protection laws he could have the record of his baptism erased, according to a report in the International Herald Tribune. Similarly, the Italian Union of Rationalists and Agnostics (UAAR) won alegal battle over the right to file for de-baptism in 2002, according to media reports. The group's website carries a "de-baptism" form to facilitate matters. According to UAAR secretary Raffaele Carcano, more than 60,000 of these forms have been downloaded in the past four years and continue to be downloaded at a rate of about 2,000 per month. Another 1,000 were downloaded in one day when the group held its first national de-baptism day last October 25. Elsewhere, an Argentinean secularist movement is running a "Collective Apostasy" campaign, using the slogan "Not in my name". Source: Agence France-Press ----------------------------------------------- UN COMMISSION ON POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT SAYS NO TO ABORTION As the sun rose on the last day of negotiations at the recent Commission on Population and Development (CPD) at the United Nations (UN), delegations were still embroiled in a contentious debate over language concerning “sexual and reproductive health and rights,” which some radical NGOs and UN committees have interpreted and used to promote abortion. As UN member states came together at the closing meeting to adopt the document, delegations took the floor to define abortion out of the document. Up until the eleventh hour, the contentious term “sexual and reproductive health and rights” remained in the draft document. Just prior to adoption, Iran took the floor to object to the phrase which has never before been included in any negotiated UN document. Iran stressed that the term remained problematic for a number of delegations and urged the Commission to revert back to previously agreed upon language from the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Program of Action, which is understood not to create any right to abortion. In an attempt to get consensus, the chairwoman from Mexico suspended the meeting and after twenty minutes, returned to the room and announced that Iran’s proposal would be accepted and that the term “sexual and reproductive health and rights” would be removed from the text. The document was then adopted by consensus. Several delegations, however, went further and made statements to explicitly define abortion out of the CPD document and to reiterate that the document created no new rights. Comoros, Peru, Poland, Ireland, Chile, the Holy See, Malta, and Saint Lucia spoke out against the other remaining reproductive health-related terms such as “reproductive rights,” “reproductive health services” and “sexual and reproductive health” and emphasized that these could not be construed to “support, endorse or promote” abortion. Malta’s ambassador stated that his delegation was finding it more difficult in accepting the resolutions of UN bodies like the CPD where there were consistent attempts to expand “reproductive health” to include abortion. Saint Lucia made an explicit objection to the term “safe abortion” because the term could “give the impression that abortion was a procedure completely free of medical and psychological risks.” Saint Lucia also highlighted a provision in the document which called on states where abortion was legal to “train and equip health service providers and should take such measures to ensure that such abortion is safe and accessible.” The Saint Lucian representative stressed that her delegation understood this provision did not impact the right of healthcare providers to refuse to perform or be complicit in abortions as a matter of conscience, stating, “Again, no new rights are created or acknowledged in this document, and the universal right to conscience can in no way be overridden or weakened.” Source: LifeSite News ----------------------------------------------- EGYPTIAN MUSLIM RECEIVES FIRST CERTIFICATE OF CONVERSION A Muslim man has received a conversion certificate from the Coptic Church. This is a very significant development in the ongoing debate on the right to change one’s religion on Egyptian ID cards. The man, Maher Al-Gohari, needed the certificate from the church in order to verify to the court that he had converted from Islam to Christianity and request the change to be made on his ID card. Converting to Christianity remains a very sensitive issue in Egypt: officially it is not illegal, but securing the necessary paperwork and approval for it has so far proved impossible. “It will be very interesting to see how Gohari’s case proceeds,” said a spokesman for Arab Vision. “We hope that it will pave the way for genuine freedom for Arab men and women to follow Christ and worship Him freely, without any backlash or hidden agendas.” The Coptic Church in Egypt, which is one of the oldest branches of Christianity in the world, would not comment on Gohari’s case specifically, but said, "In general, the church cannot turn away anyone who reaches out to it, otherwise it would be abandoning one of its roles as a church." Arab Vision is heartened by the bold stance the church is taking in essentially admitting that it is allowing Muslims to come through its doors and aiding in their conversion. “We think the Church is brave to formally admit that it is converting and baptizing Muslims. It may be impossible for those in western countries to imagine and understand how sensitive this is for the churches in the Arab World. We are so encouraged to see the Egyptian Church choosing to obey Christ rather than men,” added the spokesman for Arab Vision. Christians in Egypt are estimated to make up around 10 percent of the 80 million inhabitants. They constitute the largest Christian community in the Arab World. The relationship between Egypt’s Muslim and Christian communities has recently gone through tense times because of clashes and violent acts. Source: Arab Vision ----------------------------------------------- SUDAN OUSTS HUMANITARIAN AID GROUPS More than a dozen aid groups have been expelled from Darfur by Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir after the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued a warrant for al-Bashir’s arrest on war crimes charges in the ongoing conflict in Darfur. Accusing the groups of cooperating with the ICC, al-Bashir ousted organizations that provided cleanwater, medical treatment, food and shelter for millions of Sudanese in Darfur. The move by Sudan’s leader wipes away large sectors within the world’s largest aid operation and jeopardizes the lives of millions of displaced people at risk. At a clinic run by the expelled International Rescue Committee, health workers struggled, with almost no medicine, to offer limited services. Thousands of people in this sprawling camp depend on it for primary care. Sudan’s government has pledged that local aid groups and government agencies will fill the gap, and that assistance from the World Food Program will help avert an immediate crisis of widespread water and food shortages. Aid officials say, however, that the enormous aid effort in Darfur is already slowing. Samaritan’s Purse is the only humanitarian organization allowed to stay in the war-torn nation, feeding more than 200,000 victims of war in Darfur and conducting outreaches throughout the country. Of Sudan’s decision to let the humanitarian group stay, Ken Isaacs of Samaritan’s Purse said, “In addition to the Lord’s favour, in human terms, one reason is the fact that we have always conducted ourselves transparently. Even when we were working on different sides of the conflict before the peace agreement was signed, both sides knew we working on the other side as well.” Source: Intercessors Network ----------------------------------------------- SWEDEN ALLOWS HOMOSEXUAL MARRIAGE Sweden will allow homosexuals to legally marry from May this year after parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of the move. The change in the law, which currently allows gay couples to register unions but not formal marriage, comes into force on May 1 this year under the timetable set out in the bill. Scandinavian countries, known for their liberal attitudes towards gays and lesbians, were among the first countries in Europe to grant same-sex partners the same rights as married couples. Sweden gave same-sex couples the right to form a union via registered partnerships in the mid-nineties and made it legal for them to adopt in 2002. The passage of the bill was widely expected and the final tally was 261 votes in favour of the bill and 22 opposed. "The decision means that gender no longer has an impact on the ability to marry and that the law on registered partnership is repealed," the government said on its website. The Christian Democrats, part of the four-party coalition government, refused to back the bill. The new legislation eliminates legal distinctions between heterosexual and homosexual spouses, but does not force dissenting clergy to wed gay couples. The Swedish Lutheran church, which split from the state in 2000, has said it was open to celebrating and registering same-sex unions, although it wanted to reserve the term matrimony for heterosexual marriages. Source: Reuters ----------------------------------------------- ERITREA: TIME TO PRAY AS CHRISTIANS FACE PERSECUTION Since 2002 the regime of President Isaias Afewerki has detained well over 2,000 Christians, out of a tiny population of only 5 million, without trial, and has forced dozens of churches and Christian ministries to close. Many believers have been tortured to force them to renounce their faith. The Eritrean Government recognises only three churches: the Orthodox Church of Eritrea, the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran-affiliated Evangelical Church of Eritrea. All other churches have been closed. The secret police routinely spy on Christians. Many leading pastors and Christian activists have been arrested and often disappear without trace inside Eritrea's prison system. Relatives often do not know their fate. Christian prisoners are tortured by being locked in shipping containers where they suffer extreme heat by day, and biting cold at night, or by being forced to balance on their stomach for prolonged periods, with their hands and feet tied behind them. Christians undergoing military service are not allowed to meet together for worship or to read a Bible. Many have been told to renounce their faith or face lengthy jail terms. Source: Intercessors Network
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