Lives at stake in Iran

The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada is asking for urgent prayer for two young women who went on trial April 13 in Iran for “propagation of Christianity” and “apostasy” (departure from Islam). They face the possibility of execution if found guilty.

Maryam Rostampour and Marzieh Amirizadeh Esmaeilabad accepted Christ eight years ago. They were arrested March 5, 2009, and spent five months in jail without being told what they were charged with.

According to thepetitionsite.com, “Article 23 of the Iranian Constitution states: ‘The investigation of individuals’ beliefs is forbidden, and no one may be molested or taken to task simply for holding a certain belief.’”

At press time, no court decision had been made public.

The authorized Nouwen

The Henri Nouwen Legacy Trust has commissioned Michael W. Higgins to write the authorized biography of Roman Catholic priest and theologian Henri J.M. Nouwen (1932 – 1996).

Born in the Netherlands, Nouwen taught at the University of Notre Dame and the divinity schools of Yale and Harvard.

He later worked in a Trappist monastery, lived among the poor in Peru, and in 1986 joined L’Arche Daybreak community near Toronto, where he served people with developmental disabilities.

Nouwen wrote some 40 books, including The Way of the Heart and The Wounded Healer.

Higgins is past president of St. Jerome’s University in Waterloo, Ontario.

‘Open theologian’ stricken

Canadian theologian Clark H. Pinnock has told friends in an email that he is in the intermediate stage of Alzheimer’s disease.

He was once considered a staunch defender of evangelical orthodoxy because of books such as A Defense of Biblical Infallibility (1967) and Set Forth Your Case (1968).

He later stirred much controversy by becoming an advocate of ‘open theology’; these views almost got Pinnock expelled from the Evangelical Theological Society.

In revealing his disease, he stated, “I am not bitter. I have had a good life. I’ll meet you over Jordan.” Pinnock taught at several schools, including Regent College.

Free speech as misconduct

The University of Calgary has charged eight of its students with “non-academic misconduct” for setting up a pro-life display on campus April 8 – 9.

The Campus Pro-Life Club's Genocide Awareness Project display has been held on the university grounds without incident eight times since 2006. It compares abortion to historical atrocities, such as the Rwandan genocide and the Holocaust in Nazi Germany.

In 2009, the university charged six students with trespassing in relation to the display, but the crown prosecutor stayed the charges.  

The students were charged this time after they refused to turn the display inward. They could face  expulsion from the university.

Club president Leah Hallman stated: “We understand the severity of the charges, but our consciences could not contemplate silence.”

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That’s a relief

The Anglican Relief and Development Fund Canada (ARDFC) is now operational and has been granted charitable organization status by the Canada Revenue Agency.

 ARDFC was created to serve as a relief and development arm of the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC).

The ANiC is one of the theologically conservative groups that have broken away from the Anglican Church of Canada and its U.S. equivalent, the Episcopal Church.

The ARDFC’s first project is to raise $50,000 to work with the Diocese of Maseno in Kenya to educate pregnant women, mothers and volunteers on malaria prevention.

It worked for Chuck

According to an April 5 story in the Globe & Mail, Royal Canadian Mounted Police interrogators used Chuck Colson’s book Born Again to try to convince Liberal Party organizer Benoît Corbeil to confess to his involvement in the sponsorship scandal.

Colson was part of the Watergate conspiracy in the U.S. in the 1970s; he pleaded guilty in court and eventually became a popular Christian commentator and social activist.

In 2007, the RCMP urged Corbeil to follow Colson’s example, and “take responsibility to correct things that happened in the past.”

Corbeil confessed, and was convicted.

School persecution

A German couple appeared before an Immigration and Refugee board in Alberta March 23 to request asylum in Canada – on the grounds that they would be persecuted for home-schooling their children if they returned to Germany.

The couple’s two boys have health problems, and the German government wanted to place them in a school for children with physical and cognitive disabilities.

The couple insisted the boys were doing better when schooled at home.

Their fear of government action, they maintain, caused them to flee the country in 2007. They say they will be imprisoned and have their children taken away if they return.

In January, another German couple was granted asylum in the U.S. for similar reasons. Both couples have been helped by the Home School Legal Defense Association.

Students not loud enough

Micah Challenge Canada has invited Canadian students to participate in the 2010 Raise Your Voice Student Challenge in Ottawa May 9 – 12.

The program consists of a day-long advocacy training workshop, participation in the National Prayer Breakfast, meetings with Members of Parliament and a debriefing session with the Micah coordinator.

Students will commit to making one public presentation on their experience after returning home, and will be invited to become ongoing Micah Challenge ‘champions’ in their local communities.

The mission of Micah Challenge Canada is to “equip Christians in Canada to raise a prophetic voice for justice and mercy for the world’s poor,” through the achievement of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals.

– Jim Coggins

May 2010