I generally do stand up for what I believe in. There was a time when I made a stand against a situation in a church because I believed it was heading in the wrong direction. It wasn’t popular, but I believed I was doing the right thing – which I still believe to have been the case. In the end I left because we couldn’t agree and I didn’t want to be the cause of division in the church.
Three months after the deadly massacre of more than 20 Christian journalists in this island region of the Philippines, a lady pastor and her 12-year-old daughter, were brutally killed by still unidentified men in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao, on Wednesday night, government authorities reported on Thursday, reports Noel Tarrazona, special correspondent to ASSIST News Service.
Juliet Catalan, 50, a pastor of the Born Again Christian group, was found in her backyard with several hack wounds to the head and body, according to Police Officer Ronaldo Patricio.
Patricio and Datu Odin Sinsuat, the local police chief, said Catalan’s daughter, Chelle, was found bloodied and dead inside the living room.
Meanwhile, the Philippine Daily Inquirer broadsheet reported that the twin killings could have occurred at about 9 p.m., on Wednesday, when neighbors alerted the police about what they described as "unusual yelling" inside the well-fenced compound of Catalan’s home in Barangay Dinaig.
Patricio said there was no indication of possible forced entry so the police believed the victims knew the attacker or attackers.
He said the killers had used a big axe, based on the injuries suffered by the victims.
Gammar Hassan, a respected Muslim leader doing missionary work amongst Christians, described the suspects as “violent and merciless.”
At the back of the compound is the Born Again chapel where the 50-year-old pastor was apparently heading to pray.
“She was found sprawling near the chapel,” Patricio said, indicating she ran toward the chapel during the attack.
Personal properties were scattered inside the house and police theorized the suspects were looking for something valuable.
The island region has the highest incidence of persecuted Christians doing missionary work. It was also in this region where a suspected man lobbed a bomb grenade at visiting Christian missionaries from the MV Doulos, while priests and missionaries have also been kidnapped.
Report from the Christian Telegraph
MIGDAL HA-EMEQ, Israel, June 22
(Compass Direct News) – When the congregation at St. Nicolay church in this northern Israeli town gathered on that quiet Friday morning of May 29, they never expected to be showered with stones.
The Russian Orthodox worshipers, including many women, children and the elderly, had filled the small building to overflow with several outside when they were stunned by the rain of stones. Some were injured and received medical care.
“The church was crawling with people – the worshipers stood not only inside the church, but also outside, as the building is very small, when suddenly a few young men started throwing stones at the direction of our courtyard,” Oleg Usenkov, press secretary of the church told Compass. “Young children were crying, everyone was very frightened.”
The church had also been attacked earlier that week, during a wedding ceremony. Stones and rotten eggs were thrown from the street, hitting guests as they arrived.
The same night, the Rev. Roman Radwan, priest of St. Nicolay church, filed a complaint at the police station. An officer issued a document to confirm that he had filed an official complaint and sent him home, promising that measures would be taken. But within 24 hours, the attackers again appeared at the church’s doorway and no police were present to deter them – although the police station is located a few dozen meters from the church.
The identity of the assailants is unknown – a police officer said the complaint “lacked the exact description of the attackers” – but eye-witnesses claimed they were ultra-orthodox yeshiva students who frequently cursed the church on their way to the school or synagogue.
“They often assault us verbally, curse and yell at us, although we tried to explain that this is a place of worship, a holy place,” said a frustrated Usenkov, adding that the police inaction amounts to nonfeasance.
Another member of the congregation identified only as Nina, born in Moscow and now living in Nazeret Ilit, said that she didn’t understand where all the hatred is coming from.
“They are heading to the yeshiva or going back home after praying at the synagogue – are they inspired to attack us during their prayers?” she said. “I hope not. We are all Israeli citizens, we pay taxes, serve in the army and are entitled to freedom of choice when it comes to religion.”
She and other members of the congregation fear hostilities could escalate quickly if measures are not taken soon. Already the small building, which barely accommodates the worshipers, is surrounded by a stone fence by order of Migdal ha-Emeq officials following a series of arson attempts and other attacks.
Members of the congregation, a few hundred Christians from Migdal ha-Emeq, Afula, Haifa, Nazareth and other Israeli cities still remember how their building was vandalized in June 2006. Under cover of darkness, unidentified men broke in and broke icons and modest decorations, smashed windows and stole crosses.
The identity of those responsible remains unknown.
Established in 2005, the church building was constructed to meet the needs of Christians who do not belong to the Arab Christian minority, mostly Russians who came to Israel from the former Soviet Union in the 1990s. Besides the Christians, these immigrants included other non-Jews, as well as atheistic Jews and Jewish converts to Christianity.
No official data on religious make-up of the immigrants are available, especially since many fear deportation or persecution for talking openly about their faith, but Usenkov – a Russian Jew who converted to Christianity after immigrating to Israel in the 1990s – said he believes there are at least 300,000 Christians of Russian or Russian-Jewish origin who live in Israel today.
According to Israeli law, non-Jewish relatives of a Jew are also entitled to citizenship, but Jews who have converted to other faiths are denied it.
Most of the Russian and Russian-Jewish Christians in Israel belong to the Russian Orthodox Church and find it difficult to adjust to Greek or Arabic services common in the Greek Orthodox churches of Israel. Since St. Nicolay’s church opened its doors, hundreds of worshipers from across Israel have visited it.
“Many people fear they might pass away without seeing a priest, or they dream of a Christian wedding service,” said Radwan, an Israeli-Arab whose family once owned the land on which the St. Nicolay church is located. “Here we can answer their needs. We do not want to harm anyone and wish that no one would harm us.”
Report from Compass Direct News
Azerbaijan’s wide-ranging religious literature censorship system has started to affect evangelical leaders in the country, reports MNN.
Vice President of Russian Ministries Sergey Rakhuba was just in the country and says, “Two Baptist pastors were traveling between neighboring Georgia and Azerbaijan — authorities confiscated Azerbaijani Bibles.”
According to Forum 18 News, an official of the State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations said, “Our society doesn’t need books that don’t suit our laws and our beliefs.” He claimed that unspecified religious literature could cause unspecified “social harm and possibly inter-religious and inter-ethnic violence.”
Rakhuba says an amendment allowing strict censorship will be heading for a referendum this month. He says believers may face raids reminiscent of the Cold War if the censorship issue continues. “Local police will be searching homes of evangelical leaders, and they will take all their Christian literature away from them.”
This will mean little, says Rakhuba. “Basically there is a dictatorship in Azerbaijan,” he says.
Russian Ministries works to empower the national evangelical church. They intend to do that despite the persecution. “We’re very much considering and praying and evaluating our resources to see how we can start our School Without Walls program for the next academic year in the fall.”
School without Walls is a program that helps train next generation church leaders, and Rakhuba says their work must continue. “The church is not scared. The church is growing. The church needs a lot more support to continue their ministry in the circumstances like that.”
Support comes in the form of prayer and dollars. Rakhuba says financial support is wide ranging. “The church needs support for training resources, to have more Bibles, to have more Christian literature. All of this is not allowed there, but they know how to smuggle it to Azerbaijan and make it available.”
Report from the Christian Telegraph
Syrian Catholics in Mosul targeted for their faith; captors didn’t seek ransom.
ISTANBUL, September 23 (Compass Direct News) – An unknown group of armed men killed a Syrian Catholic in violence-plagued Mosul, Iraq two weeks after his father was kidnapped and murdered.
The gunmen killed Rayan Nafei Jamooa near his home on Sept. 10. Few details have emerged in the murder case, but sources said he and his father were targeted purely for their faith. Nassar Jamooa, the victim’s father, was kidnapped two weeks before his son’s murder; the elder man’s body was found four days later in the city’s western industrial area.
A shrinking minority in Iraq, Christians are frequently kidnapped for a mix of financial and religious reasons, but Nassar Jamooa’s kidnappers did not ask for any ransom. He and his son were targeted strictly for their faith, said a clergyman.
“Nobody asked about money, they just kidnapped and killed him,” said Father Bashar Warda, dean of St. Peter’s Seminary in Ankawa, a small town near Erbil. “The reason [for Nassar Jamooa’s kidnapping] would definitely be a religious one.”
The murder comes amid other attacks against Mosul’s Christian population. In August, Haytham Khadar was killed inside his workshop by unknown armed men, according to Iraqi Christian website Ankawa.com.
In February, armed militants kidnapped Mosul’s Chaldean Archbishop Paulus Faraj Rahho, holding him for a $2.5 million ransom and demanding Christians in Mosul begin attacking U.S. soldiers. The archbishop was found dead on March 13.
Last October, two Syrian Catholic priests were kidnapped in Mosul while heading to St. Fatima Church to celebrate Mass and held for a week at a $1 million ransom. Church leaders did not confirm whether they had paid the ransom.
While the city’s security has improved following Iraqi military operations against Mosul’s militia, criminal and al-Qaeda forces in March and April, the situation for Christians remains tenuous.
Many Christians have fled Iraq from the violence embroiling the country since the toppling of Saddam Hussein. Attacks against non-Muslims are so common that police do not bother to investigate the kidnappings and murders of low-status Mosul residents such as Rayan and Nassar Jamooa.
“There are many incidents going on around Mosul, so nobody is bothering with an investigation,” Fr. Warda said. “Hundreds of incidents occurred like this last year and in Mosul especially.”
According to the U.S. State Department 2008 Report on International Religious Freedom, the Iraqi Christian population in 2003 was between 800,000 and 1.2 million. This year estimates of the Christian population have ranged from 550,000 to 800,000.
Mosul, the ancient biblical city of Nineveh located 250 miles northwest of Baghdad, has the highest proportion of Christians of major Iraqi cities.
Report from Compass Direct News
The nation of Russia appears to be heading back towards its former Soviet days following its invasion of Georgia and its deteriorating relationship with the west in recent times.
Now there appears to be an orchestrated campaign to apply pressure to Baptist Churches in Russia that have opted out of the government recognised Baptist Union and belong to their own fellowship, the Baptist Council of Churches. The churches have been harassed by state officials, including a state run television propaganda campaign.
Apart from the usual infighting in the New South Wales (NSW) Labor Government, could it be possible that NSW is improving? Morris Iemma (former premier) has gone, along with some of the old wood – though there is still plenty about to remind voters of who is still in government.
Nathan Rees is now the premier of NSW and already there have been attempts to sully his name seemingly just for the sake of doing so and for ensuring there is still turmoil in NSW politics.
However, the newest policy reform in NSW relating to the 10 day approval of school gyms and halls by local government (if it happens) is a mighty step forward. If only the approval process could be sped up for all other development applications across the state. This policy is brilliant in my opinion and long overdue.
Is NSW improving? Is it possible? It is possible, but one good policy is a long way from where this government needs to be heading.
Random Thoughts 