Christian business owners in war-torn Syria given fresh start

After violence subsided in the city of Aleppo and people started to return to the city, many found their livelihood destroyed.

In Vartouhi Abajian’s case, it was her sweets and food shop, which had been looted and badly damaged.

 

Abajian said: “There was damage to the shop, some parts had collapsed. I needed to work so I started making food at home but my kitchen was too small. My situation had become impossible, so this rebuilding of the shop was vital to restore my livelihood.”

She was able to give a fresh start to her business with the support of her local church, which was turned into a Centre of Hope – one of 16 such centres across Syria – through which Open Doors is providing vital aid to thousands of vulnerable families, as well as vocational training and loans.

In her restored shop, Abajian cooks takeaway food from the Armenian cuisine, both meals and sweets, and takes special orders. 

Her business is now “going very successfully”, she said.

“As women, we can do it, we can be productive, even in this difficult period we can produce.”

Open Doors

Vartouhi standing near her food shop

 

Another business that successfully restarted recently is the hair salon of Rober Karageozian. When Aleppo came under siege, he had to flee to Lebanon with his wife and two children.

Karageozian said: “It was a…

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Kanye West to release Jesus is King film, no longer making secular music

After attending a listening party for his new album Jesus Is King on Sunday, people in the music industry have been tweeting about the upcoming film and his new direction in music.

 

 

IMAX announced it will release the film exclusively in IMAX theatres around the world on 25 October.

Meanwhile, West’s fans are getting impatient as the release date for the album keeps getting postponed.

West’s wife, Kim Kardashian-West, originally announced the Christian-themed album will be released on 27 September, and then changed the date to 29 September.

On 30 September, still with no sign of the album, fans took to Twitter complaining about the delay and questioning if the album even exists.

 

 

The anticipation got #JesusIsKing trending on Twitter with some Christians bashing the rapper for using Christianity to draw attention to himself…

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Rosh Hashanah and Chuck Colson’s impeachment wisdom: Three urgent questions as I return from Israel

An Ultra-Orthodox Jewish man prays near the Mediterranean Sea during a Tashlikh ceremony in Herzeliya, Israel.

I am returning from the Holy Land this morning after having led a study tour of Israel. As our group left last night, Rosh Hashanah was beginning. This is the Jewish New Year, celebrating what Jewish tradition considers the birthday of the universe.

Unlike the American New Year, which is observed with parties and celebrations, Rosh Hashanah is a time of contemplation, repentance, and spiritual purification. 

This afternoon, Jews will go to a body of water to perform the Tashlikh ceremony during which they ceremonially cast their sins into the water. They will spend much of the day in their synagogue, followed by special feasts in the evening. 

Observant Jews will then mark the following days as the Ten Days of Repentance, concluding with Yom Kippur, when they gather in their synagogue for twenty-five hours of fasting and prayer. This entire period is known as the High Holidays. 

As one Jewish website notes, “The season of the High Holidays is a time for an epic journey for the soul, and Rosh Hashanah is where it all begins.” 

Why should we emulate them this week? 

Chuck Colson’s wise words on impeachment 

As the impeachment inquiry into President Trump continues to dominate the news, the Colson Center’s John Stonestreet invites us to consider wise words written by Chuck Colson in 1999 after President Clinton’s impeachment ended with his acquittal by the US Senate. 

Colson noted that while 80 percent of Americans believed Mr. Clinton to be guilty, two-thirds did not want him removed from office. By not convicting the president, Colson believed the Senators made a decision motivated by politics rather than the facts of the case. 

Then he observed: “Politics is nothing but an expression of culture. It is not enough to win elections, for political power alone cannot change how people live or change…

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Jerusalem voted UK’s favourite hymn

Members of the public chose from the 100 hymns that have featured most on the show over the past five years.

How Great Thou Art and In Christ Alone came in second and third.

 

Songs of Praise host Aled Jones made the announcement in a Songs of Praise special on Sunday which was filmed at De Montfort Hall in Leicester.

Jerusalem did not feature among the top 10 the last time the public voted in 2013.

Top 10 hymns, 2019

Jerusalem

How Great Thou Art

In Christ Alone

Dear Lord And Father Of Mankind

Abide With Me

I Vow To Thee My Country

Guide Me O Thou Great Redeemer/Jehovah

Amazing Grace

Be Still For The Presence Of The Lord

I, the Lord Of Sea And Sky

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Church leaders ‘gravely concerned’ by changes to abortion

Heads of the Church of Ireland, Methodist Church in Ireland, Catholic Church, Presbyterian Church and the Irish Council of Churches are calling on members and congregations to pray, call for change, and to lobby their locally elected representatives.

Unless devolution at Stormont is revived within weeks, the Government is bound to liberalise the law surrounding terminations following the passage of Westminster legislation.

 

The church leaders said: “There is no evidence that these changes reflect the will of the people affected by them, as they were not consulted.

“They go far beyond the ‘hard cases’ some have been talking about.”

They said they were gravely concerned that the imposition of Westminster legislation:

– Removes from law all explicit protection for the unborn child up to 28 weeks of pregnancy;

– Offers no specific protection for unborn babies with disability;

– Does not prohibit abortion based on the sex of the baby;

– Creates a potential vacuum of up to five months in Northern Ireland for unregulated abortion to exist with all the attendant health risks to women.

They invited their members to sign an online petition created by Baroness Nuala O’Loan, and added: “Our Northern Ireland political parties have it in their own hands to do something about this.

“They all need to take risks and make the compromises necessary to find an accommodation that will…

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How Do You Handle Improper Use of Social Media by Church Leaders and Members?

As I am writing this post, I just concluded a coaching call with an incredible friend and member of the Church Answers community. He was facing the uncomfortable situation where some of his church staff and church members engaged in a social media debate that did little good and, likely, a lot of harm. He painfully imagined the non-Christian community reading the heated digital conversation. He concluded that those Christians and his church had undoubtedly seen their Christian witness damaged.

I am typically not hesitant to offer my own opinion of issues related to church life and church leadership. This time, however, I would rather you the readers shape the narrative. I am not the brightest bulb in the chandelier, but I know there are some incredibly wise and godly people who read this blog.

Would you help me and the community who read this blog? Would you read each of the following questions and respond to one, a few, or all?

  1. Should the church have a policy regarding how paid staff interact on social media? We have addressed this issue in the past at Church Answers, but I really want to get your perspective.
  2. If your answer to the previous question is “yes,” what would be the guidelines or parameters you set? I am curious to know if you think it’s all subjective, or do you think there are some clear objective guidelines that should be included?
  3. What guidelines or steps should you take if church members are obviously behaving poorly on social media? This question was the most difficult…

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Laid-off Wrightbus employees protest outside church over donations

Wrightbus went into administration last week with the loss of 1,200 jobs.

Jeff Wright is a pastor at Green Pastures Church and owns a controlling stake in a company which was one of the UK’s main bus builders and supplied the “Boris Bus” red double decker Routemaster when the Prime Minister was London mayor.

 

Green Pastures is a Christian charity and received £15 million in donations from the Co Antrim firm when it was profitable.

Mr Wright said a lot of former workers were afraid and scared about the future.

He told the congregation at Sunday worship: “They don’t know what way to turn, so we must be mindful of that.”

He said negotiations to save the company were at a delicate stage.

“I won’t jeopardise the future so I can look good.”

He received a standing round of applause in the church.

Niall Carson/PA Wire

Protesters outside Green Pastures church in Ballymena during a Sunday Service

 

The decision to spend company dividends on the evangelical church has been criticised by some former workers and some held banners to that effect on Sunday.

Mr Wright said: “I am so sorry that this church has to go through what they went through, I never thought this would happen.”

He said he had fought to build Wrightbus into a world-class entity through crisis after crisis and maintained its reputation for quality and integrity.

He added: “It…

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Seven injured as car crashes into church

West Yorkshire Police said officers were called to Regent Street in Leeds at around 11.58am on Sunday after a silver Peugeot left the road and crashed into the building, reported to be a Universal Church of the Kingdom of God Help Centre.

A 26-year-old female passenger in the vehicle has been taken to hospital in a critical condition, while the driver and other passengers – including two adults and a baby – suffered minor injuries, the force said.

 

A spokesman said a blue Audi had been involved in the collision and that the driver of that car, a 27-year-old man, has been arrested on suspicion of driving whilst over the prescribed limit.

Two children who were on the pavement when the crash happened suffered minor injuries, the force said.

 

A spokesman added: “The road is still closed, and could be for some time whilst police carry out their investigation.

“Officers are appealing to the public for witnesses to the collision itself or if anyone saw the vehicles prior to the collision.”

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Catholic aid agency calls for governments to work with faith groups to achieve sustainable development goals

Attended by heads of state and government from across the world this year’s UNGA featured the first summit tracking progress towards delivering the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) since their adoption in 2015.  

Catholic aid agency CAFOD warned governments at the UN in New York they would not achieve the Sustainable Development Goals unless they work with faith groups at the heart of communities worldwide.

 

  

Director of CAFOD, Christine Allen, spoke in New York this week at an event called, ‘Why faith actors are critical to achieving the 2030 Agenda’, at the UNGA. She told Premier CAFOD’s message is that “it is really important to work with faith communities in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

“No one can do it on their own, faith leaders and faith communities are ready, willing and able, we just need a better invitation. We also need for governments both nationally and locally to invite us in and to be part of the planning and part of the delivery.”

In 2015, world leaders gathered in New York to agree a set of SDGs in order to make the world a better place. The goals include, reducing numbers of people in absolute poverty, improving nutrition, tackling inequalities, and to have a much more sustainable approach to care for the earth.

Christine Allen told Premier: “Organisations like CAFOD, Tearfund and Christian Aid, are…

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Priest leads funeral of Robert Mugabe

They chose a private farewell for one of Africa’s most divisive figures after a weeks-long dispute with the administration that forced him from power.

To cries of approval, the priest said: “This man lives forever,” and added: “This gathering is a paradox. We are mourning at the same time we are celebrating because this man lived his life in a manner that many of us would want to emulate.”

 

 

Later, standing by the coffin, he prayed: “God, take pity on him. Don’t judge him harshly.”

Mr Mugabe died this month in Singapore aged 95 after leading Zimbabwe for nearly four decades before being pushed into a shocking resignation as thousands danced in the streets.

His coffin, draped in the country’s flag, was carried into a tent for the service in Zvimba by military pallbearers as his black-veiled wife Grace looked on.

The tent displayed a photo of Mr Mugabe holding up his fist in a classic gesture of defiance, while a floral arrangement in front of the casket spelled “Dad.”

Many mourners wore T-shirts saying “Liberator” and “Torch bearer”.

Some of Mr Mugabe’s political rivals, including opposition figures who were routinely arrested or harassed during his 37-year rule, attended the service while long-time colleagues did not.

Notably absent were senior officials from the ruling party that he led for more than four decades, including during the fight for liberation.

Just a…

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