He doesn't want to go home for Christmas

Mikhail Lennikov has not left First Lutheran Church in Vancouver for six months. The church has provided sanctuary to the former Russian KGB translator to help him avoid deportation. On December 18, Lennikov showed the press 3,500 pages of documents obtained through the Freedom of Information act which he said show he is not a threat to Canada. Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh and NDP MP Don Davies are supporting Lennikov's appeal to the Canadian government to let him stay in Canada. Lennikov came to Canada on a student visa with his wife and son in 1997.

Put Christians in prison

Prison Fellowship Canada is in discussion with the Manitoba government about creating a Christian prison unit in a new women's prison to be built near Headingley, Manitoba, in 2011. The unit would provide Christian teaching and counselling in order to transform the prisoners. Prison Fellowship operates five such units in the U.S., and there are others in Singapore, New Zealand and Brazil. This would be the first Christian prison unit in Canada, but Prison Fellowship would also like to open units in places such as Kingston, Ont,. and Langley, B.C.

That's where they are in China

The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) has issued a Religious Liberty Prayer Alert regarding China. On September 13, 2009, hundreds of police and thugs attacked the Golden Lamp Church in Linfen, an unauthorized 'house church' with 50,000 members. The attackers smashed doors and windows, seized Bibles, sent dozens of worshippers to hospital with serious injuries, and arrested 10 leaders. The church remains locked and guarded by armed police and vehicles. In October, at least two other large churches, Shouwang house church in Beijing and the Wangbang congregation in Shanghai, were also attacked and closed. Observers say large churches were targetted because the government fears their growing power. The EFC has called on Canadian Christians to pray and to write to Canadian minister of foreign affairs Lawrence Cannon about the issue.

No longer worldwide

Worldwide Church of God-Canada is in the process of changing its name to Grace Communion International-Canada. In a recent survey, Canadian congregations voted 60 percent to 20 percent in favour of the change. The US branch of the church made a similar change in 2009. The denomination was founded by radio preacher Herbert W. Armstrong in 1934 and was widely considered a cult at one time but has since become accepted as a mainstream evangelical denomination.

Let us pray, please

Paul Jubenvill of Cloverdale, B.C. filed a human rights complaint December 1 after his sons' school, Colebrook Elementary, refused to let him start a club for Bible reading and prayer. Jubenvill said that he wasn't asking the school to endorse the club, that he wouldn't object to other religions also starting clubs and that the school can't claim it wants to keep religion out of school because it teaches "a religion of self-confidence that I don't agree with." Jubenvill later withdrew his complaint saying that as a Christian he didn't want to start a war or use a tool (the human rights tribunal) that has been used for evil. He is still in discussions with school officials. The story received extensive news coverage in local newspapers, Surrey Now and The Province.

Worship at your fingertips

Batsirai Chada and Luis Vargas of Toronto, have created SongSuggest 1.0, the first iPhone app for worship leaders. Linked to iTunes, the application suggests over 600 songs which can be searched by theme, key, and/or tempo. The app is intended to help worship leaders find worship music quickly and easily.

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Giving in line

A new study on 'online charitable giving' by Ipsos Reid has found that 68 percent of online Canadians have sponsored someone in a fundraising event in the past year, 60 percent have added a donation to a bill at a store, 58 percent have bought a product from a retail store with a portion going to charity, and 57 percent have bought a lottery ticket with a portion going to a charity.

Sofa so good

HomeStart in Vancouver is a charitable organization that donates used furniture to needy families to help them get established in a home. By early December, it had already delivered over $100,000 in furniture in 2009 -- including 240 sofas, 188 kitchen sets and 229 dressers -- to more than 400 homes.

Not the glass ceiling

The Diocese of Los Angeles in The Episcopal Church has elected Mary Glasspool as bishop. If the election is approved by a majority of the national church's bishops and diocesan standing committees (a process that won't be completed until May), she will become the first partnered openly lesbian bishop in the worldwide Anglican Communion. Candidates are rarely turned down, but the church recently turned down a candidate who had been ordained as a Zen Buddhist.

He Darren face the winters

Darren Pries-Klassen has been appointed executive director of Mennonite Foundation of Canada (MFC) effective December 10. Founded in 1974, MFC is a charitable foundation that promotes stewardship education and provides fund management services, primarily for Mennonite denominations. Presently MFC manages over $110 million dollars; it distributed $8.1 million to more than 500 charities in 2008. Pries-Klassen has worked as an MFC consultant in St. Catharines, Ont., since 1988. Prior to that, he spent six years as associate pastor of youth and young adult ministries with his wife Monika at Waterloo-Kitchener United Mennonite Church in Waterloo, Ont. He will continue to work out of St. Catharines even though MFC's head office is in Winnipeg. Mennofoundation.ca

But does he speak Canadian, eh?

Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Pedro L—pez Quintana as the apostolic nuncio (the pope's representative) to Canada. He has been apostolic nuncio to India and Nepal since 2003 and succeeds Luigi Ventura, who recently became apostolic nuncio to France. Quintana was born in Barbastro, Spain, July 27, 1953 and was ordained as a priest in 1980. He has a doctorate in canon law and speaks five languages: Spanish, Italian, French, English and Portuguese.

New leader a relief

Emergency Relief and Development Overseas (ERDO), the worldwide humanitarian agency of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada (PAOC), has appointed David Adcock as chief executive officer. Adcock previously served as chief operating officer for Yonge Street Mission in Toronto, worked with World Vision Canada's Canadian programs and served as a pastor in several PAOC churches. Kelvin Honsinger, who had served as executive director of ERDO since 2004, has been appointed to a new position as director of international programs.

Back to the drawing board

Rob Beasley has resigned as chief executive officer of Back to the Bible Canada after having led the organization since 2003. The organization is seeking a replacement.

She's the Alpha female

Alpha Ministries Canada has appointed Shaila Visser as its national director, effective January 1, 2010. She has been with the organization since 2003 and before that directed Power to Change's women in leadership program for eight years. Alpha is an outreach course run by 3,000 churches in Canada.

December 22/2009