Weeks after their abduction in Yemen Christians still missing

Six weeks after their abduction in Yemen there is still no word about the whereabouts of a German Christian family and a British citizen, reports Wolfgang Polzer, special to ASSIST News Service.

The development worker, his wife, their three children and the British engineer were kidnapped in mid-June during an outing near Saada in North Yemen.

They were with two German bible school students and a South Korean teacher. They were found murdered on June 12.

The nine Christians were working at the Al Jumhuri hospital in Saada, which has since been closed for security reasons. The humanitarian agency Worldwide Services, based in the Netherlands, has withdrawn all staff members.

As a close family member of the missing Germans told the evangelical news agency idea that there is no news about the fate or the whereabouts of the hostages. No ransom demand has been made.

It is most likely that the Christians were abducted for religious reasons. Apparently the German development worker was seen talking to a man about the Bible. The family wanted to return to East Germany next year, when their youngest daughter is due to start school.

The Bishop of the Lutheran Church in Saxony, Jochen Bohl, has asked for intercession on behalf of the missing Christians.

In the last 15 years at least 200 foreigners have been kidnapped in Yemen. In most cases, they were set free after ransom payments.

It is not the first time that Muslim extremists have murdered hospital workers in Yemen. Two men killed three US-citizens at a Baptist hospital in Jibla, December 30, 2002. Another American was wounded. The culprits were later convicted and sentenced to death.

Yemen is one of the strictest Islamic countries. 99 percent of the 21 million inhabitants are Muslims. Small groups of Christians gather in secret.

Report from the Christian Telegraph 

Conservative Anglicans officially form new church group

Leaders who defected from the Episcopal Church completed the formation of a conservative branch of Anglicanism in North America Monday by ratifying the constitution of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), reports Charisma News Online.

The document was signed during ACNA’s Inaugural Provincial Assembly, which drew some 800 participants to Bedford, Texas, this week. Pittsburg Bishop Robert Duncan, who on Wednesday will be installed as the group’s first archbishop, said the formation of ACNA reflects a return to orthodox Christianity that is happening both within the 77 million-member Anglican Communion and beyond.

“Our God is up to something very big, both with us and with others,” Duncan said Monday. “The Father truly is drawing His children together again in a surprising and sovereign move of the Holy Spirit. He is again re-forming His church.”

On Tuesday, Saddleback pastor Rick Warren addressed the assembly, encouraging them to love one another but not the world’s values, the Associated Press reported. Other non-Anglican participants include Metropolitan Jonah of the Orthodox Church, the Rev. Samuel Nafzger of the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod, and Bishop Kevin Vann of the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas. The assembly ends on Thursday.

The formation of ACNA, said to represent some 100,000 Anglicans in 700 parishes, is the latest response to liberal moves within the Episcopal Church that culminated with the ordination of an openly gay bishop in 2003. Since then, roughly 200 congregations have left what had been the only U.S. branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion, ACNA leaders report.

Most of the defectors, including several charismatic parishes, have aligned with conservative dioceses in Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America, where Anglicanism is experiencing the most growth.

To read the full story, click here.

Report from the Christian Telegraph