|
The Connection:
Christian News from the Holy Land |
| published by
United
Christian Communities, Inc. |
Issue 1
February 2008 |
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Holy Land's Last Christian TV Station
Closes
Debts, Threats and Woes with Palestinian Officials cited
The only television station in the Holy Land has closed. The station, the
Nativity, located in Bethlehem broadcast to Jordan, the West Bank and Israel.
It also served as a meeting place for Christians, Muslims and Jews. In
addition to its Christian programming, including Christian services, news and
entertainment, it broadcast Muslim prayers on Fridays.
Founded in 1996, it had been suffering annual losses of $63,000 a year, which
had its founder has been subject to death threats for more than a year and had
difficulties with Palestinian officials also. Its founders fear the
closing could foretell a "definitive" Christian exodus from the Holy Land.
In fact he noted it was his intention to leave.
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In Spite of
Threats, American Missionary Serves Jericho
Determined to stay and serve, even
in the face of firebombing
Karen Dunham, pastor
of the Living Bread International Church, draws hundreds each week to
her services in Jericho. But her ministry does not stop there. It also
provides food, medical aid, toys, blankets and equipment for local
hospitals and old-age homes.
As reported by the San Francisco Chronicle she ministers "in a
place where Christian-Muslim relations can be tense and sometimes spill
over into violence [but] she says she will not quit . . . despite being
fire-bombed by extremists.
She insists that she finds no inconsistency
between her love of Israel and her service to the Palestinians. But,
the Chronicle notes, she found "No Christians [who] had any desire to
help the Palestinians. . . . Christians talked about the Palestinians
as if they were lepers, as if they were the enemy."
Dunham is one of very few Christian missionaries
living and working with Palestinians.
Dunham declines to discuss how many people are
actually being baptized as a result of her efforts. "If talk about it
too much, we're just inviting more Molotov cocktails."
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A Sign of Hope?
First church in Qatar in 14 centuries, expected to
be inaugurated in February 2008
Qatar will witness the inauguration
of Our Lady of Rosary Church next February, constructed as reported by
Magalorean.com, a cost of $15 million. the land for the church was
donated by the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani. The
Church center will include conference facilities, temporary living
accommodations, a library, and a cafe. The church will not have a spire
or freestanding cross, since Christians are forbidden to display crosses
in the Arab Gulf states.
Permission to build a church, had been sought for the last 20
years. For the last fourteen centuries the Christians in this area have
been without a place of worship.
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African Choir of AIDS Orphans
Entertains Churches in Holy Land
Sponsoring church hopes to care for
10,000 aids orphans, raise future African leaders
The Watoto Children's Choir, made up
of Ugandan children orphaned by the AIDS pandemic in Africa, entertained
at in the Holy Land at Christian churches, at the Christian celebrations
of the Feast of the Tabernacles and at other venues during their
two-and-a-half week concert tour in October.
Edward, a manager of the Watoto choir, explained that there are
over two million AIDS orphans in Uganda alone. 'We need to rescue so
many children, and this motivates us to travel the world singing,
spreading hope and finding sponsors willing to help with this worthy
cause. At the end of the day, we are helping children to get their life
back,' he said. "
The choir celebrates the love and hope they have found in God
while raising awareness of the scourge of AIDS and other problems
plaguing Africa.
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Iraqi Prime Minister Pledges to Protect Christians
Christians attacked as "crusaders" by extremists,
50% leave
The Christian minority
in Iraq has been fleeing the chaos and sectarian violence in the
country violence which, in many cases, has been directed
specifically at the Christian Community. The Associated
Press reports that in response Iraq's prime minister Nouri
al-Maliki pledged recently to protect and support them. In
addition he affirmed the government's determination to undertake
actions necessary to stop the outflow of Iraqi Christians.
Constituting only 3
percent of the country's 26 million people, Christians are
vulnerable and has little political or military clout to defend
itself. Attacked by Islamic extremists, who consider
Christians "crusaders" loyal to U.S. troops, have resulted, in
some estimates, in the flight out of the country of as much as
half the population.
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