Former Archbishop makes Fresh Call for Right to Assisted Dying

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Former Archbishop makes Fresh Call for Right to Assisted Dying

The former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey has made fresh calls for assisted dying to be made legal in the UK, along with 80 others in a letter to the Daily Telegraph.

It says an “overwhelming majority” of the public now supports a change in the law to allow assisted dying, and that refusing to debate the issue in Parliament would be “heartless”.

It also claims one Briton goes abroad to end their own life every two weeks.

Other signatories include the Booker Prize-winning author Ian McEwan, whilst notable backers of the campaign include actors Hugh Grant, Sir Patrick Stewart and Zoe Wannamaker.

Prime Minister David Cameron has said MPs will be given a free vote if the issue is debated in Parliament.

The Falconer Bill, which is currently going through the House of Lords, would allow doctors to help terminally-ill people take their own life, but only if they had less than six months to live and had demonstrated a “clear and settled intention” to end their lives.

The Bill does not have enough time to become law before next year’s general election in May.

It’s not the first time Lord Carey has given his backing to assisted dying.

Writing in the Daily Mail in July he announced he had changed his mind on the issue and would no longer ‘fiercely oppose’ the move.

“I would have used the time-honoured argument that we should be devoting ourselves to care, not killing.

“I would have paraded all the usual concerns about the risks of ‘slippery slopes’ and ‘state-sponsored euthanasia’.

“But those arguments which persuaded me in the past seem to lack power and authority when confronted with the experiences of those approaching a painful death.

“It fails to address the fundamental question as to why we should force terminally ill patients to an unbearable point. It is the magnitude of suffering that has been preying on my mind as the discussion over the right to die has intensified.

“Today we face a central paradox. In strictly observing the sanctity of life, the Church could now actually be promoting anguish and pain, the very opposite of a Christian message of hope.”

Source and Original Content by Premier Christian Radio

Archbishop Expresses Appreciation for Prayers as He recovers from Pneumonia

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Archbishop Expresses Appreciation for Prayers as He recovers from Pneumonia

The Archbishop of Canterbury has thanked Christians for their prayers as he recovers from a bout of pneumonia.

Most Revd Justin Welby had to miss his Christmas Day service because of his illness which was initially thought to be a bad cold.

He was ordered to take bed rest by doctors who had visited him at his home in Canterbury.

On Twitter he said:

“Grateful for prayers & support from so many, & to such a gracious God. Better fast, brill @NHSEngland, a gift! Sorry for missing Christmas”

On Christmas Day the Archbishop was unable to attend read his own sermon and instead the Dean of Canterbury, the Very Revd Robert Willis, delivered a homily.

Pneumonia is swelling of the tissue in one or both of your lungs and is usually caused by an infection.

Symptoms include a cough, fever and difficulty breathing and in patients with other health conditions it can be very serious.

Lambeth Palace has stressed that Archbishop Justin is on the mend.

Source and Original Content by Premier Christian Radio

US Female Bishop in Hit and Run Death

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US Female Bishop in Hit and Run Death

A newly ordained female Episcopal bishop in the US has killed a bicyclist, before reportedly fleeing the scene in the state of Maryland.

Police on Saturday said a 58-year-old female motorist drove away as the fatally injured 41-year-old father and custom bike maker Tom Palermo was taking his final breath.

A letter from the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland revealed on Sunday that it was, Bishop Heather Cook, Maryland’s first female Episcopal bishop, who disappeared from the fatal crash before finally returning to take responsibility.

Bishop of Maryland, Right Revd Eugene Taylor Sutton said :”I am distressed to announce that Bishop Heather E. Cook was involved in a traffic accident Saturday afternoon, Dec. 27, that resulted in the death of a bicyclist, Thomas Palermo, 41. Bishop Cook did not sustain any injuries.

“Together with the Diocese of Maryland, I express my deep sorrow over the death of the cyclist and offer my condolences to the victim’s family. Please pray for Mr. Palermo, his family and Bishop Cook during this most difficult time.

There is an ongoing police investigation into the accident. Several news organizations have reported this as a ‘hit and run.’
“Bishop Cook did leave the scene initially, but returned after about 20 minutes to take responsibility for her actions.

“Because the nature of the accident could result in criminal charges, I have placed Bishop Cook on administrative leave, effective immediately. I will meet shortly with the Standing Committee to discuss ways we can move forward. Also, I have decided to delay the beginning of my sabbatical to Jan. 24 to be pastorally present in this difficult time.”

According to Mail Online, the local cycling advocacy group Bikemore released a statement on their friend Palermo’s death, which read in part:”Tom was a passionate bicycle builder, a father, and a friend to many people who ride bicycles in Baltimore.

“While details of the crash are still emerging, we know the driver of the car involved initially fled the scene, leaving Tom to die on the street.”

Source and Original Content by Premier Christian Radio

Google Glass to Help Mothers Monitor Newborns

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Google Glass to Help Mothers Monitor Newborns

A US hospital is set to use Google Glass to enable mothers stay in contact with their newborns even after the infants are shifted to the intensive care unit (ICU).
The experiment is to be conducted at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston next week, Glass Almanac, the leading website for Google Glass enthusiasts, reported.

The suggestion for the test was mooted by the hospital’s nurse Stephanie Shine, whose baby remained in newborn ICU for 101 days.

Hundreds of babies have to be separated from their mothers after birth because one or both of them need immediate care.

As per the experiment, a participant visiting the ICU will wear Google Glass and the images they see will stream live to a tablet computer in the mother’s hands.

It will allow the mothers to hear the nurses talking about her baby and ask questions, as if she were in the room.

The experiment aims to find out if using Glass can help relieve the stress that a mother feels when she is separated from her kid.

“You should be the most important person in your baby’s life, but suddenly, you’re not involved. I want to take this super-high-tech device and capture what could be thought of as one of the strongest and basic human connections there is,” the Boston Globe quotes Shine to say.

Source and Original Content by Ndtv

Prayers for Iranian Pastor on Fourth Anniversary of his Arrest and Detention

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Prayers for Iranian Pastor on Fourth Anniversary of his Arrest and Detention

While many are celebrating Christmas cozy at home with family and friends, Pastor Farshid Fathi is celebrating the birth of Christ away from his loved ones in a prison cell in Iran.

Fathi, who has now been four years behind bars, was arrested and detained in Tehran’s Evin Prison in December 2010 for leading a network of underground evangelical house churches. He was later on found guilty of ‘acting against national security’ and sentenced to six years in prison.

But according to Miles Windsor, a London-based public affairs strategist who works on behalf of persecuted Christians in the Middle East, Fathi was convicted simply for being Christian in an Islamic country.

The 35-year-old father of two was born a Muslim but converted to Christianity when he was 17. Windsor wrote that being a Christian convert in Iran, wherein the official state religion is Shi’a Islam, is a dangerous thing.

Windsor stated in his Wall Street Journal article, “The mullahs reserve the most vicious treatment for Iranian Muslims, like Pastor Fathi, who have dared to convert to Christianity.

“Persian-language Bibles are banned in the country, and apostasy is punishable by death under Shariah law, which lies at the heart of the Iranian penal code.

“Yet to mask its naked persecution of Christian converts, the Tehran regime usually jails them on national-security charges or on the pretext that they spy for foreign powers.”

In his opinion piece, Windsor also detailed the abuses that the Christian cleric endured in prison, including being one of several inmates who were beaten during an attack by security forces on Ward 350 of Evin.

Windsor added, “More recently, he was transferred to a different prison, Rajai Shahr, outside Tehran, where he shares a cell with hardened criminals.

“His right to family visits, guaranteed under Iran’s own laws, is routinely violated. He isn’t permitted to sing Christians hymns, and prison authorities have confiscated his Bible.”

Fathi’s supporters, who have created a Twitter and Facebook campaign calling for his release, and were holding a day of prayer for the pastor on the fourth anniversary of his detention.

They wrote in their most recent post, “God can do the impossible and secure an early release for this greatly loved man.”

Fathi wrote in his most recent letter to his supporters, “Although the beauty of Christmas or the signs of Christmas cannot be found in this prison, with the ears of faith I can hear the everlasting and beautiful truth that: ‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel.'”

The pastor signed the letter “your captive brother who is free in Christ.”

Source and Original Content by CT

Passenger Kicked off Plane over Holiday Greeting

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Passenger Kicked off Plane over Holiday Greeting

The holiday greeting “Merry Christmas” caused a man to become irate at La Guardia airport on Tuesday.

The unidentified man was escorted off of American Airlines Flight 1140 before the plane left for Dallas.

Reportedly, the ticketholder approached the gate and was told “Merry Christmas” as his boarding pass was checked. The man replied, “You shouldn’t say that because not everyone celebrates Christmas.”

The attendant asked “Well, what should I say then?”

“Don’t say, ‘Merry Christmas!'” was the man’s reported reply.

When he entered the plane, he was again greeted with “Merry Christmas,” and became enraged.

“Don’t say, ‘Merry Christmas!'” he screamed, and began chastising the pilot and crew members, according to the New York Post.

The man reportedly would not calm down, and was escorted off the plane. It is unclear whether disturbing the peace charges or other violations were incurred. American Airlines has not commented on the incident.

Christmas holds religious significance for many, but the holiday can also include secular items and traditions such as decorating a pine tree and handing out candy canes. The dual significance of the holiday has led to protests and demonstrations across the country as organisations and governments are accused of endorsing Christianity.

Earlier this month, a University of Maine student allegedly complained about Christmas decorations in common areas on campus, leading Auxiliary Services Executive Director Daniel Stirrup to ban any “decoration that could be perceived as religious,” including “xmas trees, wreaths, xmas presents, candy canes, etc.”

Stirrup encouraged employees to have a more stripped-down approach to decorating.

“What is allowed are winter themes, plain trees without presents underneath, decorative lights, but not on trees, snow flakes [sic], etc.,” he wrote.

When word spread on campus about the ban, students were outraged. A Facebook community group, “Bring Back the Cheer to Maine,” was formed to protest the university’s stance, and has received over 1,200 likes.

“How can we celebrate diversity if we can’t even see it? #‎bringbackthecheer,” one post read.

The decision was later called a misunderstanding, and the ban was reversed.

Source and Original Content by CT

Christian Woman Apologises for Destroying Satanic Display at Florida Capitol

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Christian Woman Apologises for Destroying Satanic Display at Florida Capitol

The woman responsible for vandalizing a satanic organization’s display featured inside Florida’s capitol during the Christmas season has apologized for ripping the piece apart, but says she had to take it down because seeing it next to the nativity was “not right.”

Susan Hemeryck, 54, who damaged the Satanic Temple’s display on Tuesday “… was wearing a ‘Catholic Warrior’ T-shirt at the time of her arrest, [and] was charged with criminal mischief and released without bail,” according to UPI.com.

“Hemeryck … told a pair of Florida Department of Law Enforcement Capitol Police officers she was ‘sorry and had to take down the satanic display’ about 11:30 a.m. Tuesday because it was ‘not right.'”

The Florida Capitol has public space where various groups can put forth sectarian displays. During the Christmas season, a traditional manger scene is often present.

Last year, the New York-based Satanic Temple requested to have a display placed next to the manger and an atheist one honoring “The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.”

The display was decorated as the pits of hell, with an angel falling into the fires. Prominently included was the statement “Happy Holidays from the Satanic Temple.”

Officials, however, rejected the proposed display, arguing that it did not meet the standards for such displays as it was “grossly offensive.”

The Temple received legal support from the Madison, Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation and the Washington, D.C.-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

During the beginning of this year’s Christmas season, the Satanic Temple was granted its request to have the fallen angel kiosk display included.

Although we are pleased that the state has finally agreed to allow the Satanic Temple’s display, our clients should not have been forced to find legal counsel and plan a lawsuit just to get access to an open forum,” stated Americans United Senior Litigation Counsel Gregory M. Lipper.

“The state can’t give itself the authority to decide whether certain religious messages are ‘offensive’ — it needs to allow everyone’s speech or no one’s speech.”

In response to the damage inflicted upon the Temple’s kiosk display, Americans United released a statement calling the incident an “act of mindless vandalism.”

“It’s important to remember that free speech in an open forum is for all groups, even those whose message some deem controversial or unpopular,” stated Americans United. “Our attorneys fought hard for our clients to win the right to display their diorama in the Capitol rotunda, and we don’t intend to buckle under to this type of senseless destruction.”

Source and Original Content by CP

Islamist Gunmen kill Four in Deliberate Christmas Attack in Somalia

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Islamist Gunmen kill Four in Deliberate Christmas Attack in Somalia

Eight Islamist gunmen infiltrated the main African Union (AU) base in Mogadishu on Thursday and killed three peacekeepers and a civilian contractor, the AU mission in Somalia said.

Somali militant group al Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack, which lasted several hours, and said it had killed 14 peacekeepers. Witnesses reported hearing bomb blasts and volleys of gunfire through the day.

“We targeted the enemies at a time they were celebrating Christmas,” Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab’s military operations spokesman, told Reuters.

In the past, al Shabaab has exaggerated the number of soldiers it has killed, while officials have played down losses.

The al Qaeda-aligned militants want to topple the Western-backed Mogadishu government and describe AU troops as “Christian enemies”. The Islamist group also wants to impose its own strict version of sharia law in the country.

The raid showed al Shabaab’s ability to carry out high-profile attacks in the capital even as it is losing territory in rural areas to AU peacekeepers who have launched two major offensives this year.

“The terrorists, some of whom were disguised in Somali National Army uniforms, breached the base camp around lunch hour and attempted to gain access to critical infrastructure, during which five of them were killed and three others captured,” the AU peacekeeping mission in Somalia, AMISOM, said in a statement.

It did not disclose the nationalities of the peacekeepers and civilian contractor killed in the attack.

The AU’s Halane base is on the edge of the Mogadishu international airport compound, which houses the base for UN operations in Somalia as well as the British and Italian embassies and has a tight security cordon and blast walls.

Western diplomats who were celebrating Christmas in the sweltering Mogadishu heat were evacuated to safety bunkers until the raid was over.

Aleem Siddique, spokesman for the United Nations in Somalia, said all UN staff were safe and accounted for.

A spokeswoman for the US State Department, Marie Harf, called the attack “a cowardly terrorist act”, and said US support for the people of Somalia, the African Union Mission in Somalia, and Somali government forces in their efforts to defeat al-Shabaab would not waver.

Al Shabaab was pushed out of Mogadishu in 2011 but it still controls chunks of the countryside in south and central Somalia. This year it has lost several key towns, including the port city of Barawe, during the two AMISOM offensives.

Source and Original Content by CT

US Megachurch Closes its Doors at Year’s End

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US Megachurch Closes its Doors at Year’s End

Saddleback Church’s Pastor Rick Warren is scheduled to give the congregation at the Seattle-based Mars Hill Church, hosted at a dozen regional locations, its last sermon via video this Sunday, as the megachurch, founded and once led by Pastor Mark Driscoll, officially dissolves.

“As we reflect on over eighteen years of ministry, and ultimately close the doors on Mars Hill Church, we are thankful that many of our churches will continue as new independent, autonomous churches,” officials stated Tuesday on the church’s website. “While Mars Hill Church will cease to exist, God’s work through his people will continue.”

As Mars Hill staff were busy closing the final chapter on the church that once rocked the Seattle area and beyond with its edgy, strict orthodox preacher who had his share of leadership problems that led to his resignation in October, there were no official reaction statements coming from the church other than an announcement on its website. Both Driscoll and Warren declined to comment, according to their respective media representatives at press time.

“Our dear friend Pastor Rick Warren from Saddleback Church has graciously offered to preach the final sermon for us. Each of our churches will be showing a special message from Pastor Rick, based on John 12:24. ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit,’ stated officials in the church posting.

They concluded, “Our hope is that this timely message will be an encouragement for the people that have called Mars Hill Church their home, as we reflect on the great impact our church has had on the kingdom of God, as well as an encouragement for the new churches emerging out of Mars Hill, and the potential they have to continue bearing much fruit…Read More

Source and Original Content by CP

Nigeria’s Megachurch, Winners Chapel Records Landmark Figure of Six Million Members Worldwide

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Nigeria’s Megachurch, Winners Chapel Records Landmark Figure of Six Million Members Worldwide

The General Overseer of the Living Faith Church Worldwide (also knows as Winners Chapel), Bishop David Oyedepo yesterday disclosed that the church has six million members worldwide.

Oyedepo made the disclosure at a breakfast meeting with members of Omu-Aran Government Secondary School Old Boys Association (OGSSOBA) at the Landmark University, Omu-Aran, Kwara.

Oyedepo, who doubles as the Chancellor of Landmark and Covenant Universities owned by the ministry said that the figure was ascertained at the recent convention of the church.

Oyedepo who is also a member of OGSSOBA recently predicted the end of terrorist group, Boko Haram.

The popular preacher was also recently cleared of any illegality by the British Government after reports made rounds in the media that the Kwara-born Bishop was under investigation.

Source and Original Content by Naij.com

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