Police in Jerusalem arrest activists planning a sacrifice on the Temple Mount

It's only a matter of time before the Temple is rebuilt and sacrifices are resumed. As reported by Jacob Magid of The Times of Israel, April 9, 2017 (links in original):

Priests recite biblical priestly blessing following the demonstration Passover sacrifice, Jerusalem, April 6, 2017 (Alexander Fulbright/Times of Israel)

Police on Sunday arrested several Jewish activists, including five minors, who they said were suspected of intending to carry out a Passover sacrifice on the Temple Mount.

After security forces allowed a rehearsal sheep slaughtering to take place in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City on Thursday, it was widely believed that they would not let a “real” ceremony move forward at the contested Jerusalem site ahead the Passover festival Monday night.

In addition to arresting the activists, police raided the home of the parents of the head of a far-right group called Returning to the Mount, Raphael Morris.

A lawyer for some of the activists, Itamar Ben Gvir, decried the “silencing arrests” and called on police to allow “freedom of worship.”

A sheep that was slaughtered as part of a demonstration about the Passover sacrifice in Jerusalem's Old City on April 6, 2017. (Alexander Fulbright/Times of Israel)

He told Army Radio that “the police were acting disproportionately”
and that “Israel is losing its democratic character.”

Ben Gvir has a history of representing far-right clientele, including many perpetrators of attacks against Palestinian people and property.

“It is shameful that the State of Israel acts with an iron fist against people who simply want to renew one of the Torah’s most important commandments,” Morris said in a statement.

Approximately 200 people, including Likud MK Yehudah Glick, were in attendance for the rehearsal butchering that took place next to the Hurva Synagogue in the Old City on Thursday evening.

After the sheep was slaughtered in a lavish ceremony that included the blasting of silver trumpets by priests in white garments, the animal’s blood was sprinkled on a model altar. It was then flayed, roasted and eaten by the participants.

It was allegedly the first time in some 2,000 years that such a reenactment had taken place within the Old City walls.

For over a decade the group has held a reenactment of the Passover offering outside the Old City.

Activists annually request permission to fulfill the ritual on or near the Temple Mount, where such sacrifices were carried out at the time such sanctuaries stood. But each year they are refused by both police and courts, which say it could cause unrest if it is held at one of the most contested sites in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The flashpoint Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism, revered by Jews as the site where the biblical Temples stood.

Muslims call it the Noble Sanctuary and believe it is the spot where the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven. It is the third holiest site in Islam and houses the Al-Aqsa mosque and Dome of the Rock shrine.

Israel captured the Mount in the 1967 war, but allowed the Waqf Muslim trust to continue to administer it.

The Palestinians have frequently charged that Israel is trying to change longstanding understandings, in place since 1967, under which Jews are allowed to visit, but not pray at, the site. Israel denies any such intention.

Here's the article mentioned in the link above, as reported by The Times of Israel, April 6, 2017:

With priests blowing silver trumpets, a group of religious Jews slaughtered a sheep on Thursday in Jerusalem’s Old City to demonstrate the traditional paschal sacrifice, the first time such a reenactment has been held inside the city walls in 2,000 years.

The event was organized by Temple Mount activists and supervised by police and the state veterinarian service. Approximately 200 men, women and children attended the event, including MK Yehuda Glick.

The sheep was butchered in the main square of the Jewish Quarter, next to the Hurva Synagogue.

In accordance with the ancient rites, the blood was sprinkled on a model altar temporarily erected for the purpose. The sheep was then flayed, roasted and eaten by the participants.

Cohens, members of the priestly class, wearing specially made white garments, blew silver trumpets and sang psalms as the ritual was taking place. They also recited the biblical priestly blessing.

The group said it will conduct an actual sacrifice on Monday, the day before the Passover holiday, in order to fulfill a religious commandment requiring Jews to make an animal sacrifice for the festival.

However, it is unlikely that police will allow them to do so.

For over a decade the group has held a reenactment of the ritual slaughter of the Passover offering, a sheep or goat sacrifice, outside the Old City.

Each year the activists request permission to do it on or near the Temple Mount, where ritual sacrifices were carried out at the time of the temple. And each year they have been refused by police and the courts, which say it could cause unrest if it is held on or near the Temple Mount, the most hotly contested site in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

These activists wren't the only ones arrested; as reported by Mr. Winer in The Times of Israel, April 10, 2017:

Police said Monday they had detained for questioning a Jewish man who was apprehended in the Old City of Jerusalem as he prepared to sacrifice a kid goat for the Passover holiday.

The man was stopped as he carried the goat along a street. He was intercepted by police and the goat was transferred to the Agriculture Ministry’s veterinary service.

Police stressed that they will continue to act against anyone who tries to disturb the peace and public safety over the holiday, which begins Monday night and lasts for seven days.

On Sunday, police arrested several Jewish activists, including five minors, who they said were suspected of intending to carry out a separate Passover sacrifice on the Temple Mount.

Last week, security forces allowed a rehearsal sheep sacrifice to take place in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City.

Approximately 200 people, including Likud MK Yehudah Glick, were in attendance for the practice slaughtering that took place next to the Hurva Synagogue in the Old City on Thursday evening.

Activists annually request permission to fulfill the ritual, commanded in the Bible, on or near the Temple Mount, where such sacrifices were carried out in ancient times, when the sanctuaries stood at the site. Police and courts have refused to okay the practice on the grounds that it could cause unrest if it is held at one of the most contested sites in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The flashpoint Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism and the third-holiest in Islam after Mecca and Medina.

In 2016, seven Jewish men were arrested in a plot to sacrifice goats on the Temple Mount for Passover; as reported by Judah Ari Gross of The Times of Israel, April 22, 2016 (link in original):

Police detained seven Jewish men suspected of planning to sacrifice goats in the Old City of Jerusalem on Friday in honor of the Passover holiday, which begins at sundown.

Two of the young men were picked up on Friday morning on their way to carry out the sacrifice, but were stopped by police before they could do so. Upon their arrest, police spotted a second goat that had been left unattended, which they later connected to a third suspect who was subsequently detained.

Just a few hours later, officers picked up another four people — all minors — who had a third goat they intended to sacrifice, police said.

The charge against the seven suspects was “disturbing the peace,” a police spokesperson said.

In ancient times, Jews used to sacrifice a lamb on Passover Eve and eat it as part of the traditional seder meal. Nearly all Jews forego this ritual today. However, members of the Samaritan religion still carry out this practice.

The three goats confiscated by police on Friday were unharmed and have been handed over to the municipality’s animal control department, the police said.

Authorities had banned several right-wing activists from entering Jerusalem during the Passover holiday, which begins Friday evening, citing information they intended to carry out sacrificial rituals on the Temple Mount.

“The police are working and will continue to work with determination against any attempt to disturb the public peace and security, without favoritism,” the Jerusalem police said.

“We expect the public discourse during the holiday period to display tolerance and mutual respect,” the spokesperson added.

Two members of a group called “Return to the Temple Mount,” which advocates the construction of a Third Temple, have been barred from the city for the duration of the holiday. Members of the group had reportedly planned to carry out a ritual slaughter of a sacrificial animal at the site, as was customary on Passover in ancient times.

Jewish visits to the Temple Mount are allowed by agreement between Israel and the Jordanian custodians of the site, but worship at the site is forbidden.

The Temple Mount has been at the center of months-long tensions between Israel and the Palestinians, who fear a growing Jewish presence at the site that is also home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Israel is concerned that Jewish visits during the week-long Passover holiday to the Mount could trigger further Palestinian unrest.

Israel Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich on Sunday announced a renewed open-ended ban on Israeli lawmakers visiting the flashpoint location.

The directive was issued in a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which Alsheich wrote: “In light of attempts by many extremist elements from both sides to create provocations… I surmise that at this time, ascent to the Temple Mount by Knesset members is likely to result in an exacerbation of tensions and an escalation of incidents that would cause a real endangerment of the security of the state.”

Netanyahu warned last week that “extremist elements” were attempting to sow unrest in Jerusalem and other areas in efforts to renew violence between Israelis and Palestinians ahead of the Passover holiday.

The prime minister said security forces would increase their readiness to counter those attempts amid a wave of Palestinian attacks that began more than six months ago and has lately been ebbing.

Israel also closed off the West Bank at midnight on Thursday night, amid fears of attacks by the Hamas terror group during the holiday. The Islamist terror organization was behind Monday’s suicide bombing on a Jerusalem bus that wounded 20 people. The closure is to last until Saturday night.

Suspected child molester in Jewish religious school arrested in Jerusalem

It isn't only the Roman Catholic Church that has this problem. As reported by Stuart Winer of The Times of Israel, April 10, 2017:

Police said Monday they had arrested a man on suspicion of sexually assaulting multiple minors while he worked as a housekeeper in a religious academy for children in Jerusalem.

The man was arrested Sunday after investigators were able to track down some victims who spoke about the assaults, police said. Two victims aged 17 and two more between the ages of 10 and 12 have testified so far.

The man, 37, is suspected of indecent acts, sodomy of minors and threatening his victims.

The suspect, who was not named in the police statement, is believed to have assaulted minors attending the yeshiva where he worked as well as others in the neighborhood.

Police suspect the man invited pupils to a storage room near the yeshiva where he would sexually assault them. On several occasions he allegedly assaulted more than one victim at a time and would pay or threaten his victims to keep silent about the incidents.

Police said the man had access to the children due to his position as a housekeeper at the academy. The suspect has refused to cooperate with the investigation.

The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court extended his arrest until Wednesday.

10 years ago: The death of Johnny Hart

Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints. Psalms 116:15

On April 7, 2007, Johnny Hart went to be with his Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ at the age of 76. Mr. Hart created the comic strip B.C. in 1958 and co-created--with Brant Parker--the comic strip The Wizard of Id in 1964, both of which were enjoyed by this blogger.

Mr. Hart developed strong Christian convictions from the mid-1980s on, and increasingly wove Christian themes into his work. Some newspapers, which had no problem publishing comic strips with overtly political content, found Mr. Hart's expression of his Christian views in B.C. to be unacceptable, so in the name of tolerance and liberalism, they practiced censorship, and refused to print some of the B.C. strips. Mr. Hart, however, refused to cower before the god of political correctness.

Mr. Hart was still active when he had a fatal stroke at his drawing table. Fortunately, his work survives him.

75 years ago: Church of Norway clergy resign as civil servants while continuing as pastors

On Easter Sunday, April 5, 1942, bishops and a majority of the Church of Norway's pastors signed and proclaimed The Foundation of the Church: A Confession and a Declaration (Kirkens Grunn: En bekjennelse og en erklæring), in which they resigned as servants of the state, but vowed to continue their congregations as pastors. The declaration culminated a period of increasing frustration of the church with the government since the military forces of Nazi Germany had invaded and occupied Norway in 1940.

The Church of Norway, which was Lutheran and had a history of teaching obedience to the state, tried to get along with the Nazi occupation government, but the Nazis refused to honour their promises to respect Norwegians' freedom of religion or the Church's government and practices. On February 1, 1942, Vidkun Quisling was installed as Minister President of Norway; the country's equivalent of the Nazi Party was the Nasjonal Samling. On the day that Mr. Quisling took office, a mob of his sympathizers invaded Nidaros Cathedral and refused to allow the cathedral's dean to conduct services. The congregation gathered outside to sing "A Mighty Fortress is Our God," and all seven Church of Norway bishops resigned the next day.

Church Primate Eivind Berggrav was arrested shortly after the Easter declaration, and spent some time in Bredtvet concentration camp. The minority of pastors who didn't go along with the Easter declaration were tarred with the label of Quisling, and were not respected by the Norwegian people. The majority of Church of Norway clergy provided an inspiring example to Norwegians at large in resisting a state that was not only illegally and unpopularly occupying the country, but wasn't content to be just the state, but was refusing to respect the church's God-given role as the church. It's also worth noting that persecution by the state authorities produced a period of needed, if brief, independence for a church which under normal conditions was affiliated with the state, which was and is not the will of God. The existence in Europe of state churches, where people are "hatched, matched, and dispatched," has played a major role in that continent's sad drift into secular humanism, which can't stand against militant Islam. Courageous Christian pastors can still be found today, mainly in countries such as India, Myanmar, Vietnam, North Korea, Cuba, and Islamic nations.

For those interested in further reading, a recent book on the Church of Norway's experience during World War II (which inclued helping Jews) is Church Resistance to Nazism in Norway, 1940-1945 by Arne Hassing (2014).

Beware of the Simplicity Institute

The Simplicity Institute, which appears to include some people who are ostensibly Christians, also seems mostly composed of woolly-headed idealists and hippies who turned off their alarm clocks in the '70s, and get their lunch by squeezing it out of their beards. I agree with them to the extent that it's not necessary to live an affluent lifestyle, but these are the kind of people who know little or nothing about economics, and are always talking about distribution of wealth, but not about production of wealth, which is necessary in order for distribution to take place.

They go on about how economic growth is bad for the environment, but don't mention that it's the countries with the most productive economies that have the cleanest environments and healthiest people. Their "Charter of Sufficiency" is a masterpiece of vagueness, with no careful definitions of anything (link in original):

The following ‘Charter of Sufficiency’ is a vision statement for a sufficiency economy, which is intended to provoke thought about the contours of a just and sustainable society. (It is adapted from the ‘Charter of the Deep Future’ found in Chapter Five of Entropia: Life beyond Industrial Civilisation).
_______________________________________

CHARTER OF SUFFICIENCY

Enough, for everyone, forever

We affirm that providing ‘enough, for everyone, forever’ is the defining objective of a just and sustainable economy, which we seek to achieve by working together in free association.

We affirm that everyone should be free to create the meaning of their own lives, while acknowledging that this freedom legitimately extends only so far as others can have the same freedom. Freedom thus implies restraint.

We affirm that an inclusive democracy must not discriminate on such grounds as race, ethnicity, gender, age, sexuality, politics, or faith.

We affirm that generations into the deep future are entitled to the same freedoms as present generations.

We affirm that respecting the deep future requires maintaining a healthy environment.

We affirm that technology can help to protect our environment only if it is governed by an ethics of sufficiency, not an ethics of growth. Efficiency without sufficiency is lost.

We affirm that maintaining a healthy environment requires creating a sufficiency economy that operates within environmental and energy limits.

We affirm that a sufficiency economy means stabilising consumption and population, transitioning to renewable sources of energy, and adapting to a very moderate energy supply.

We affirm that strict limits on material accumulation are required if a sufficiency economy is to maintain a just distribution of resources and avoid corrosive inequalities.

We affirm that property rights are justifiable only to the extent they serve the common good, including the overriding interests of humanitarian and ecological justice.

We affirm that a sufficiency economy depends on a culture that embraces lifestyles of material sufficiency and rejects lifestyles of material affluence.

We affirm that material sufficiency in a free society provides the conditions for an infinite variety of meaningful, happy, and fulfilling lives.

It's hard not to notice that for SI's promotion of "degrowth," its leaders are content to live in countries that practice economic growth. Let's see the SI leaders move to countries that practice "degrowth," and I might be more inclined to take them seriously. They talk about voluntary simplicity, but experience shows that if enough people won't go along voluntarily, compulsion will follow. I highly recommend Thomas Dixon's novel Comrades (1909), about a utopian socialist community created off the coast of California that quickly becomes a total disaster. It's similar to Animal Farm, but is much funnier, and is available for free download.

The perceptive reader will notice that SI's homepage positively quotes New Ager Buckminster Fuller, which is par for the course for SI. Other than the Charter of Sufficiency, the only SI publication I've read is Mark A. Burch's report Mindfulness: The Doorway to Simple Living (2012), but that was enough for me to recognize him as a false teacher:

Mindfulness, or Right Mindfulness, is one precept drawn from a set of interdependent precepts called The Noble Eightfold Path of Buddhism. (p. 3)

Formal mindfulness practice consists of sitting meditation with attention focused on one’s breathing, either by counting breaths or by silently witnessing the act of breathing, to the exclusion of all other internal or external distractions...

...Practices that specifically develop stable states of mindful awareness often entail formal meditation or contemplation. In Buddhist Vipassana (mindfulness of breathing) practice, for example, attention is focused on the breath with the intention of slowly developing concentration, cultivating inner stillness and eventually an ever deepening insight into the activities and dynamics of one’s own conscious awareness ...

...Christian “Centering Prayer,” while differing from Buddhist Vipassana in its intention, is nearly indistinguishable in its method. The Buddhist is intent on liberation from suffering and growing in compassion whereas the Christian practitioner of centering prayer is intent on cultivating a state of inner stillness and spiritual receptivity to the action of the Holy Spirit. The Buddhist “anchors” attention on the breath while the Christian anchors it on a “prayer word,” not unlike a mantra, expressing the contemplative’s intention to open themselves to intimacy with God (Keating, 1998). But otherwise, all the physical postures, preparation, attitudes and activities that one brings to the practice are nearly identical. (pp. 4-5).

The reader will notice that Mr. Burch admits that mindfulness comes from Buddhism, and that Christian "Centering Prayer" is indistinguishable, in practice, from the Buddhist practice of mindfulness. The inevitable conclusion for those who indulge in such practices is that since the experiences are similar regardless of one's religious tradition, they must derive from the same source, leading the practitioner toward universalism. Why is Mr. Burch, a supposed Christian, engaging in and recommending a pagan practice?

Another thing I noticed was that Mr. Burch cites James Lovelock's belief on evolution (on page 21), without mentioning that he was the man who gave us the Gaia hypothesis, which states that the Earth is itself a living being--the natural spiritual result being nature worship. Right under that, Mr. Burch praises Carl Jung as a "great Viennese depth psychologist." Carl Jung is popular with New Agers--especially those who claim to be Christians--but was a man whose "wisdom" came from a "spirit guide," i.e., demon, named Philemon. For more on Carl Jung, see PsychoHeresy: C. G. Jung's Legacy to the Church.

Nigerian "Apostle" Johnson Suleman is embroiled in a sex scandal--and then his accuser admits that she lied

For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. II Corinthians 11:13

For those of us who clearly remember 1987, it's hard to believe that 30 years ago at this time, the televangelist scandals were underway. Jim Bakker had just been outed by the Charlotte Observer for having sex with employee Jessica Hahn, while Oral Roberts had decreed that if he didn't receive enough money by March 31 to keep his hospital open, he would be "called home." For those, who like this blogger, feel some nostalgia for those days, there are false "prophets" of the New Apostolic Reformation ready to pick up the slack. Johnson Suleman of Auchi, Edo, Nigeria is one such "apostle." According to the website of his Omega Fire Ministries:

God gave His choice servant, Apostle Johnson Suleman a divine mandate to: “wipe out tears, restore people to their destinies by the revelation of the word, the manifestation of power and reality of the Holy Spirit.” He equally told His choice Servant: “Put an end to affliction; I AM SENDING YOU WITH AN OMEGA ANOINTING…”

The OMEGA FIRE MINISTRIES INT. INC. was birthed to restore the joy of men, causing men to manifest destiny, becoming the best God created them to be and frustrating the wickedness of the enemy.

We believe in the fire operation of the Spirit of God that refines, purifies and equally destroys. Our ministry is one that believes in judgment on the wicked. We believe oppressions and demonic manipulations are real, we equally know that more real is the reality and authority of God’s power – it is all-powerful and all-pervading.

As a ministry, we hold as true the belief that all power belongs to God and that the enemy has no scriptural right to manipulate the destinies of believers; It is the right of believers to live a fulfilled life. Hence, this ministry is saddled with the divine mandate to restore the divine rights of believers.

OFM-South-Africa LogoOmega Fire Ministries Int’l was officially inaugurated on the 1st of February 2004 in Auchi, Edo State – Nigeria and is presided by the General of the Prophetic; Apostle Johnson Suleman. The miraculous is a common occurrence in the ministry as God confirms the Mandate given to his servant with infallible proofs. God’s servant Apostle Johnson Suleman is endowed with a rare prophetic insight; A Grace that has confirmed and established several African Leaders.

He speaks as an Oracle Of God on national and global matters as it affects the political, social and economic atmosphere of nations across continents of the world. The Accuracy of his uncommon prophetic analysis and confirmed predictions has earned him a name and fame in various fields of human endeavor. Omega Fire Ministries Int’l is one the fastest growing ministries in Africa and By God’s Grace clocked exactly Ten years on February 1st 2014. With just Ten years of operation our branch network spreads across Europe, America and various parts of Africa. The International Headquarter Church of the Omega Fire Ministries Int’l is located in KM 132, Okene/Abuja Expressway, Auchi, Edo State, Nigeria.

Needless to say, I'm not a believer in the New Apostolic Reformation, and we don't have Old Testament-style "Thus saith the Lord" prophets anymore. In the "here we go again" department, "Apostle" Suleman is now embroiled in a sex scandal. As reported by Ifreke Inyang of the Lagos Daily Post, March 6, 2017:

Senior Pastor of Omega Fire Ministries, Apostle Johnson Suleiman, is being accused by one Stephanie Otobo of impregnating and abandoning her.

A letter from Festus Keyamo Chambers dated March 4, 2017 and addressed to the Inspector-General of Police claimed that Stephanie began a romantic relationship with Suleiman in Canada in 2015.

She claimed that the pastor told her he was divorced from his wife and proposed to her, before meeting with her family for introduction, declaring his intention to marry her.

Stephanie also alleged she abandoned her lucrative career, her cars, friends and house in Canada because Suleiman promised to buy her a house in Nigeria.

In another letter dated March 3, 2017 written to Suleiman and also sent to the IGP, her lawyers claimed the cleric was so in love with her, that he had to lick her entire body every time they had sex.

It added that Suleiman invited Stephanie from Canada to Europe, where he made love with her all night after Church programmes.

It is even being alleged that Stephanie was the one sending topic of sermons for the pastor to preach and the songs to be sung.

The letter said the pastor invited Stephanie to his church in Nigeria and begged her to get pregnant for him, as he wanted more male children.

Stephanie who is demanding N500million in damages for the breach of trust, also revealed messier details like Suleiman asking her to bring a friend along for a threesome and to send her nude pictures to him.

Suleiman was also accused of intimidating and harassing Stephanie, after men of the Nigeria Police Force, Monitoring Unit, Kem Salem House, Obalende, Lagos, arrested her inside a banking hall.

Her lawyers gave Suleiman a seven-day ultimatum to meet its demands.

See documents below:

1

2

3

4

"Apostle" Suleman denies the allegations, as reported by Wale Odunsi of the Daily Post, March 6, 2017:

The Omega Fire Ministries has denied that the General Overseer of the church, Apostle Johnson Suleiman has a hand in the arrest and detention of one Miss Stephanie Otobo by the police last Friday, March 3, 2017.

A statement signed by Phrank Shaibu, Communications Manager to Apostle Suleiman also denied that there was a so-called amorous relationship between the said Miss Otobo and the General overseer.

Instead, the church stated that the lady was arrested by operatives acting on a tip off that the lady had repeatedly tried to blackmail the fiery preacher, including demanding N500 million from him, failing which she threatened to expose a purported amorous relationship between her and the Senior Pastor.

The statement of Omega Fire Ministries was in reaction to two letters written by Lagos lawyer, Festus Keyamo demanding the same N500 million on behalf of the said lady and also accusing Apostle Suleiman of procuring policemen to intimidate and detain his client unlawfully, having earlier promised to marry her.

But Phrank Shaibu said the lawyer was misled into believing that there was an amorous relationship between Apostle Suleiman and the said Miss Otobo, pointing out that the lady was caught up by her own machinations as she was arrested while trying to withdraw money paid into her account by the Church in a sting operation coordinated by the police.

“Unknown to Keyamo, the police was alerted following several attempts by the said lady to blackmail Apostle Suleiman.

“The police also recorded her conversations making the frivolous demand. The highpoint of the drama was her attempt to withdraw money paid into her account at the instance of the police.

“The lawyer should know that his client was arrested by the police with abundance of evidence confirming that she is indeed a serial blackmailer”, he said.

The Communications Manager further debunked Keyamo’s claim of an amorous relationship, a promise to marry and that the Senior Pastor had actually made the initial move towards marriage by seeing her parents, wondering how such a transaction could have taken place without any iota of evidence.

“Let me place it on record that, the lady in question is a self-confessed stripper in a nite club in Canada, who like thousands of people that seek help from Apostle Johnson Suleiman, called to pretentiously convey her intentions to embrace Christ and also needed financial help to keep body and soul as she no longer had a means of livelihood after quitting as a stripper.

“Does Keyamo or his serial blackmailing client have pictures of the visit by Apostle Suleiman or his representatives to her parents? In any case, how could such a relationship have existed when Apostle and the said lady have never met physically?

“How could he have made a promise of a house and a lifestyle comparable to what she has in Canada when he has never been to her house or seen her physically as to have an idea of her living standards?” He asked.

Shaibu contented that the Lagos lawyer must have been misled or excited by the prospects of getting a whopping N500 million, both reasons for which two letters were written and sent to Apostle Suleiman wondering how Keyamo could have fallen for such a gimmick in the first place.

“If Keyamo was not misled or excited by the prospects of a jackpot of N500 million and or an opportunity to save his already dwindling career in law practice from total caput by latching on the popularity of Apostle Suleman vide this tendentiously devilish plot and skewed romantic fantasy, then we may as well demand an evaluation of his mental state along with his client who was obviously on the verge of delusion before she was arrested.

“It’s either one of the options stated above or he is trying to engage in a proxy war on behalf of some unknown agents who had become irritated by Apostle’s stand on national issues. His inference to the latter incident in Keyamo’s letter to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) confirms this benign thought”, he declared.

The spokesman of the church advised Keyamo to drop the proxy war and focus instead on defending his client in court, adding that all attempts to impugn the integrity of the fiery preacher or the Omega Fire Ministries would fall like a pack of cards.

“We are not surprised that this serial blackmailer decided to join forces with a serial divorcee, who has had five children from four failed marriages to make this phantom claim.

“But we dare to ask: Is a serial blackmailer and or a serial divorcee capable of understanding the sanctity of the institution called marriage?The nature of their mental torpidity is understandable and we invite more recondite and decent persons to read in between the lines and separate the wheats from the chaff.

“In this well coordinated plot to pull down Apostle Suleiman at all costs, the lines of Reuben Abati will suffice: ‘lies have become standard stuff, mischief a major commodity, and indecency a character flaw.’

“If Keyamo and his Canada-returnee client think they can capitalize on the famed generosity of Apostle Suleiman to extort N500million through this plot, they sure have missed it as we shall have our day in court.”

Miss Otobo expanded on her allegations, as reported by Ifreke Inyang in the Daily Post, March 10, 2017 (link in original):

The adultery scandal involving the General Overseer of Omega Fire Ministries, Apostle Johnson Suleiman and a Canadian-based lady, Stephanie Otobo, is getting messier.

This is as she revealed more details about their alleged affair at a press conference in Lagos on Friday.

Ms. Otobo claimed the cleric loves sex a lot and that they had spent time together at hotels in Naples, New York and Lagos.

“Most of the times we spent together, we had sex,” Ms. Otobo told journalists.

“I refused to have a threesome with him because I’m not a lesbian and I don’t like women touching me.

“He told me he did that with all his past girlfriends, that I was the only one (who refused), that it’s very rude that I can do that to him.

“We were at New York together, two months after I left Napoli. Then he invited me to Nigeria. We were always having sex,” she said.

She added: “In Nigeria, we stayed at Protea Hotel in Ikeja. there’s another hotel after Airport Hotel, there’s a gas station, there’s a new hotel on your right, that’s where he gave me something to drink. I thought it was juice, he brought it, he said let’s drink together, and then he didn’t want to drink, he wanted to eat.

“The night he gave me 8,000 Euros, he was trying to show me that this was real and it would never end, I think he was trying to capture me both physically, spiritually, and mentally.

“Giving somebody so much money, you’re trying to capture them so that without you, they cannot live, because you wanna make yourself their god, that’s what he was trying to do.

“When he came, he was like, ‘this was all I realised today, here you go,’ on the table. Then he said this is how much I love you. After the three days crusade (in Naples), he collected all the money, I was inside, and he said, ‘this is all I realised.’ He gave me everything.

“He told me this was discreet, we couldn’t even call a taxi in the morning when he wanted to discharge me, he had to take a walk with me from his hotel by 4 a.m. to my hotel. I was worried because it could be dangerous, in a place where I don’t know, a new country and everything. He walked me to my hotel and stayed till 7am and went back to his hotel. He said because we have to be discreet, we cannot call a taxi.”

Ms. Otobo called on the police to check her bank records to see proof that Apostle Suleiman sent her money directly from his bank account.

She also denied that the pictures she released were photoshopped.

“He gives me a lot of cash, I’m not talking about 8,000 Euros, I’m not talking about 12,000 Dollars in two weeks.

“If I was a cheap prostitute, how much do you send a cheap prostitute in Canada all the way from Nigeria. I’m based in Canada, I’m sure there are a lot of women that needs money here in Nigeria, how many women or cheap prostitutes has he sent money here in Nigeria?

“We are petitioning the police on that. And also the issue of photoshopping pictures, in between the photoshopped pictures there should be an original copy if the pictures were photoshopped, it must be photoshopped from something, he should provide that. Because I have the cell phones that I used to take the pictures, I still have every original pictures.

“Also, the police should check my passport, he took me to Napoli, he had a programme there, a conference for three days. The police should check his passport, the period it was stamped to Napoli and check my passport, the period I was stamped to Napoli if it was the same stamp.

“He should wake up and face the truth,” she said.

Miss Otobo's mother says that her daughter "is not normal," as reported by Danielle Ogbeche of the Daily Post, March 24, 2017:

Mother of Stephanie Otobo, the alleged girlfriend of Apostle Johnson Suleman of the Omega Fire Ministries, has said she has not seen her daughter in the last three years, noting that her daughter ”is not normal.”

This is coming after Ms. Otobo, a Canadian-based Nigerian singer accused the fiery preacher of impregnating and abandoning her after he promised to marry her.

Following her initial allegation against the preacher, the singer had continued to release more intimidating details about her alleged romance with Suleman.

But her mother, popularly called Mama Tope has opened a fresh controversy on the much publicized saga.

In a chat with newsmen in Sapele, Delta State on Thursday, Mama Tope said she has not met the cleric before, neither has she been to the Omega Fire Ministries.

Describing as untrue claims that she accompanied her daughter to the headquarters of Omega Fire Ministries in Auchi, Edo State for a purported introduction ceremony, she warned that, “those manipulating her daughter against the man of God would be exposed.”

She expressed willingness to, “see the revered cleric to apologize if given access to him.”

She further lamented that, “all efforts to get Stephanie to lead a normal life had not yielded the desired result.”

Mama Tope appealed to Apostle Suleman to, “forgive my daughter and bury the hatchet” even as she blamed the devil for seeking to destroy her daughter.

Mama Tope then went to "Apostle" Suleman to beg for forgiveness, as reported by John Owen Nwachukwu in the Daily Post, March 27, 2017:

Tope Otobo, the mother of Stephanie Otobo, the accuser of founder of Omega Fire Ministry, and her elder sister were on Sunday at the Headquarters of the church at Auchi, Edo State to beg the pastor on behalf Stephanie.

Images of the two women surfaced online shortly after the church service.

Mrs Otobo had recently claimed her daughter was not normal.

In a swift reaction, Stephanie said her mother was threatened to make the speech, adding that the lives of her family members were in danger.

But to make her statement stronger, Mrs Otobo and Stephanie’s sister were captured in a video gone viral kneeling and begging Apostle Suleman.

"Apostle" Johnson then filed a countersuit, as reported by John Owen Nwachukwu in the Daily Post, March 29, 2017:

Founder and General Overseer of the Omega Fire Ministries Worldwide, Apostle Johnson Suleman has reportedly filed a lawsuit against his alleged mistress, Stephanie Otobo, and online news outlet, Sahara Reporters, for defaming his character and image at the Ikeja High Court, Lagos State.

Suleman filed a N1 billion suit on Stephanie Otobo, who claimed she had amorous relationship with him that resulted to pregnancy.

Recall that Mrs Tope Otobo, Stephanie Otobo’s mother, had last Sunday visited the pastor at his church Headquarters in Auchi, Edo State, knelt and begged him to forgive her daughter.

Joined in the suit as reported by the man of God’s media team, is Sahara Reporters who first reported the case and has been in the forefront of publishing interviews by the Canada-based stripper who keeps maintaining her stance of being romantically involved with the Apostle Suleman.

In the suit ID/ADR/347/2017 filed at the Ikeja High Court, Apostle Suleman is also asking N1 billion from each for damages done to his reputation and has hired four lawyers, Chief Efe Akpofure (SAN ), Erhabour O.I, Victor Idiapho and Emmanuel Usoh to represent him.

"Apostle" Suleman is now refusing to speak on the matter for the present time, as reported by Festus Owete and Idris Ibrahim of the Abuja newspaper The Premium Times, April 3, 2017:

Johnson Suleman, the clergyman accused by a Canada-based Nigerian woman of having amorous relationship with her, on Sunday, declined to speak on the allegation, saying he would only “open up” at the appropriate time.

PREMIUM TIMES met Mr. Suleman, the founder of Omega Fire Ministry, OFM, in his Auchi, Edo State office for about 20 minutes shortly after a church service that lasted about four hours.

Our reporters joined the service midway, where Mr. Suleman spoke about the need for unity in the body of Christ in his sermon.
The cleric, who said he was rushing to the Benin airport to catch a flight to Cyprus and Turkey for religious crusades, pleaded with PREMIUM TIMES to be excused from commenting on the matter because it would be subjudicial to speak on it.

This newspaper had on Saturday interviewed Ms. Otobo’s mother, Bukky, at her Sapele, Delta State base.

The light-complexioned woman had said during the interview that she travelled to Auchi to beg Mr. Suleman because her daughter had been manipulated by lawyers.

She had said, “I did that because of my daughter, (and) because I am a mother. The way I am seeing her is not the way I brought her up. And all those her character is not giving me happiness which I want to put an end to. That is why I went to Auchi.”

Mr. Suleman who was approached by this newspaper to speak on the issue, said he would “only do so at the appropriate time.”

He assured that he would speak to PREMIUM TIMES because of the newspaper’s credibility.

He thereafter offered to take a group photograph with the newspaper’s reporters in his palatial office.

Apart from veiled references to the matter during church services, Mr. Suleman has not publicly reacted to the allegations in the media.

His publicists, Phrank Shaibu, had however issued several statements denying the alleged illicit affair with Ms. Otobo.

Ms. Otobo was recently re-arraigned by the police for alleged blackmail, threat to life, conspiracy, and intent to steal from Mr. Suleman.

She was arraigned alongside her associate, Wisdom Godstime, before Magistrate Kikelomo Bukola-Ayeye of the Tinubu Magistrates’ Court in Lagos. Ms. Otobo and her co-defendant pleaded not guilty to the charges.

They were granted bail in the sum of N100,000 each. The case was then adjourned to April 27 for commencement of trial.

This development comes a week after Ms. Otobo formally filed a petition asking the police to investigate multiple allegations against the preacher.

In a letter to the Lagos State Police Commissioner, she accused Mr. Suleman of illegal procurement of abortion, threat to life, and attempted murder.

Ms. Otobo’s petition came days after she told journalists at a press conference that her relationship with Mr. Suleman ended after the preacher began to insist he wanted a sexual activity that involved a threesome.

Miss Otobo, meanwhile, has released a video containing screen shots of her face time with the "apostle," as reported by John Owen Nwachukwu of the Daily Post, April 3, 2017:

The alleged mistress of the General Overseer of Omega Fire Ministry, Worldwide, Apostle Johnson Suleman, Stephanie Otobo, has Presented original screen of her topless Face-time chat with the cleric.

The 23-year old Canada-based Nigerian singer released a video showing the moments they had a video phone call topless.

Recall that the Delta-born singer had accused the Pastor of engaging in an amorous relationship with her, getting her pregnant and promised to marry her, but abandoned her afterward.

There have been denial, accusations and counter accusations since then, with Stephanie’s mother, Mrs Tope Otobo attending the pastor’s church in Auchi, Edo State to plead with him to forgive her daughter.

Apostle Suleman has also file a suit, demanding N1 billion from his accusers.

But in a video gun viral Monday morning, Miss Otobo, in bid to justify her claims, revealed images of her and the cleric during a face-time chat.

Of course, Miss Otobo's allegations haven't yet been proven, but I suspect that this situation will get messier as it goes along.

January 27, 2018 update: Miss Otobo now admits that she lied; as reported by Fikayo Olowolagba of the Lagos Daily Post, January 27, 2018 (link inserted by blogger):

Stephanie Otobo, the Canadian-based singer has confessed she lied against Apostle Suleman Johnson of the Omega Fire Ministries.

She revealed this on Friday at Apostle Suleman’s church in Edo state.

According to Stephanie, she was paid heavily by some politicians to tarnish the image of the pastor in her desperation to become a popular singer.

In a video shared online, she appealed to the pastor and his wife, Lizzy, to forgive her, which they did. Mrs Suleman later prayed for her.

She said, “I came to Nigeria with a strong passion for my career and fell into the wrong hands of some powerful politicians and pastors who manipulated me in a wrong way to fault the man of God.

“They made me tell lies against him, because of my desperation for my career and I succumbed to it.

“At the time I didn’t know what was going on. I just wanted to help myself. They paid me a lot of money.

“I want to apologise to the body of Christ; Apostle Suleman and his wife. I was used and paid against Apostle Suleman.

Watch the video...

United Church of Canada-affiliated St. Stephen's College offers courses in Wicca, mindfulness, and Jungian psychology

Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; I Timothy 4:1

Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. II Timothy 3:5

As the late Dave Breese said, when you depart from the faith, you don't just take a step down, but you drop into the dark abyss. Submitted for your disapproval, more evidence that the United Church of Canada isn't in any biblical sense a Christian church (links inserted by blogger).

St. Stephen's College, founded and governed by the United Church of Canada, is affiliated with the University of Alberta:

St Stephen’s College is a graduate school founded by The United Church of Canada and an Affiliated College of The University of Alberta in Edmonton. An Act to Incorporate St Stephen’s College (April 27, 1927; amended 1968) authorizes St Stephen’s College to confer degrees in theology, including masters level divinity programs in pastoral psychology and counseling. These degrees include: Doctor of Ministry, Master of Theology, Master of Psychotherapy and Spirituality, Master of Theological Studies, and Bachelor of Theological Studies. We are an Associate Member of The Association of Theological Schools in The United States and Canada;

According to their statement of Missions and Values:

Mission & Values

Our Mission
To be an interfaith community that offers sacred spaces for learning and transformation.

Our Values
We are deeply committed to the values rooted in our experience and those that shape our response to changing rural, urban and global perspectives. These values help define our life together and are characterized by:

High standards and commitment to scholarship and academic excellence, with academic freedom to explore theology and spirituality;

Academic programs and policies that are grounded in adult learning principles and are learner-centered;

Accessibility to theological education through a multi-faceted program that creates communities of learners;

Integration of theory and practice;

We seek to achieve these values through:

Inclusivity and justice in language and practice for all persons, regardless of race, creed, gender, sexual orientation and sexual identities or physical abilities;

Commitment to social justice and ecological responsibility;

Honoring and understanding the need to be in care of one another;

Resiliency and creativity in the presence of a constantly changing social climate;

Consultative ethos, including academic planning and decision-making processes characterized by open communication, widespread consultation, and transparency;

Mutual respect for and honouring of diverse cultures, locally and abroad;

Openness to risk-taking, innovation and flexibility in offering of programs, in our relationship to the communities around us, and in supporting faith communities as they undertake theological reflection;

Shaping of our theology by the contexts in which we live and work and have our being, and solidarity with those who suffer;

Financial stability and accountability.

Updated: April 22, 2013

Courses offered for credit at St. Stephen's College include the following:

JUNGIAN PSYCHOLOGY [CHRTP523]

Psychotherapeutic process and spirituality is explored in the context of Jungian analytic thought. This course integrates key concepts such as projection, transference, and typology in exploring the individuation process. Further exploration will be made of dreams, the numinous and the psyche-soma relationship as they relate to psychological development and the Jungian therapeutic process.

MINDFULNESS FOR TEACHERS [CHRTP330]

“Mindfulness is the energy of being aware and awake to the present moment. It is the continuous practice of touching life deeply in every moment of daily life. To be mindful is to be truly alive, present and at one with those around you and with what you are doing.” [cite:plumvillage.org]This course will help you develop and nurture the energy of mindfulness in your own life and in turn in the lives of your students. In this course you will:

Increase body/mind awareness by practicing various forms of meditation

Develop your ability to be ‘present’ with your students

Explore the possibilities of contemplative play

Develop mindfulness exercises for students of varied age levels

Consider how the arts can be used for contemplation and transformation

SPECIAL TOPICS: INTRO TO WICCAN THEOLOGY [CHRTP400]

Introducing foundational ideas and practices of the New Religious Movement of Wicca. Wicca is polytheistic, syncretic, and experiential. It draws from Western occultism, European folk magic and tradition, feminism, ecological theology, and queer theory. The course mixes lecture, discussion of readings, writing and practice.

Carl Jung is popular with New Agers--especially those who claim to be Christians--but was a man whose "wisdom" came from a "spirit guide," i.e., demon, named Philemon. For more on Carl Jung, see PsychoHeresy: C. G. Jung's Legacy to the Church.

Mindfulness is a word that's been receiving a lot of publicity in recent years. A good description is provided by Mark A. Burch of the Simplicity Institute, an organization that appears to include those who are ostensibly Christian, but who follow Eastern religious practices (which is a subject for another post). From Mr. Burch's report Mindfulness: The Doorway to Simple Living (2012):

Mindfulness, or Right Mindfulness, is one precept drawn from a set of interdependent precepts called The Noble Eightfold Path of Buddhism. (p. 3)

Formal mindfulness practice consists of sitting meditation with attention focused on one’s breathing, either by counting breaths or by silently witnessing the act of breathing, to the exclusion of all other internal or external distractions...

...Practices that specifically develop stable states of mindful awareness often entail formal meditation or contemplation. In Buddhist Vipassana (mindfulness of breathing) practice, for example, attention is focused on the breath with the intention of slowly developing concentration, cultivating inner stillness and eventually an ever deepening insight into the activities and dynamics of one’s own conscious awareness ...

...Christian “Centering Prayer,” while differing from Buddhist Vipassana in its intention, is nearly indistinguishable in its method. The Buddhist is intent on liberation from suffering and growing in compassion whereas the Christian practitioner of centering prayer is intent on cultivating a state of inner stillness and spiritual receptivity to the action of the Holy Spirit. The Buddhist “anchors” attention on the breath while the Christian anchors it on a “prayer word,” not unlike a mantra, expressing the contemplative’s intention to open themselves to intimacy with God (Keating, 1998). But otherwise, all the physical postures, preparation, attitudes and activities that one brings to the practice are nearly identical. (pp. 4-5).

The reader will notice that Mr. Burch admits that mindfulness comes from Buddhism, and that Christian "Centering Prayer" is indistinguishable, in practice, from the Buddhist practice of mindfulness. The inevitable conclusion for those who indulge in such practices is that since the experiences are similar regardless of one's religious tradition, they must derive from the same source, leading the practitioner toward universalism.

The course in Wicca--advertised as an Arts option--is taught by Sam Magar. According to the course syllabus:

Sam Wagar MA, Wiccan 3rd Degree Initiate, is the author of four books and numerous published papers and articles. He has founded an international Pagan pacifist network, a religious retreat, five Temples, and several covens. He is a Doctor of Ministry student at St. Stephen's College and the Wiccan chaplain to the University of Alberta.

It comes as no great surprise, but is nonetheless disturbing to this blogger, to see that not only does the University of Alberta now have a Wiccan chaplain, but this publicly-funded university is offering credit for practicing a pagan religion ("practice" is said to be part of the course). I don't think the university is offering credit for practicing Christianity now, and if such credit was offered when I was a student there in the 1980s, I wasn't aware of it.

20 years ago: The Heaven's Gate mass suicide

On March 26, 1997, police officers in the San Diego–area community of Rancho Santa Fe, California found the bodies of 39 members of the unidentified flying objects transhumanist cult Heaven's Gate in the mansion which they rented. The dead included the movement's founder and leader, Marshall Herff Applewhite, 65. The people who committed suicide--consuming a combination of phenobarbitol and apple sauce, washed down with vodka, followed by securing plastic bags around their heads in order to cause asphyxiation--did so in order to reach what they believed was an extraterrestrial spacecraft following Comet Hale–Bopp, which was then clearly visible from Earth.

Heaven's Gate exhibited numerous classic characteristics of cults: the deadly mixture of a little truth and much error (a smattering of Bible passages on end times, but heavy reliance on extrabiblical sources of truth, with especially heavy doses of New Age teaching and literature); authoritarian leadership (especially dangerous when the leaders believe themselves to be directly fulfilling prophecy; a fortress mentality; and bizarre economic and lifestyle practices (including voluntary castration of Mr. Applewhite and seven other men).

As far as I know, the members of Heaven's Gate who committed suicide haven't yet been transported to Comet Hale-Bopp. I don't know the comet's current whereabouts, but it's somewhere--out there. Surprisingly, the website for Heaven's Gate still exists; it's reportedly maintained by surviving members, but that's far from obvious to the casual visitor.

Has the tomb of Jonah been discovered in Iraq?

And now for something completely different: a positive result from Islamic terrorism. As reported by Josie Ensor of the London Daily Telegraph, February 28, 2017:

Archaeologists documenting Isil’s destruction of the ruins of the Tomb of the Prophet Jonah say they have made an unexpected discovery which could help in our understanding of the world’s first empire.

The Nebi Yunus shrine - containing what Muslims and Christians believe to be the tomb of Jonah, as he was known in the Bible, or Yunus in the Koran - was blown up by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) militants soon after they seized huge swathes of northern Iraq in 2014.

The shrine is situated on top of a hill in eastern Mosul called Nebi Yunus - one of two mounds that form part of the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh.

The Iraqi army retook the area from Isil last month, revealing the extensive damage wrought by the jihadists.

But local archaeologists have told the Telegraph that Isil also dug tunnels deep under the demolished shrine and into a previously undiscovered and untouched 600BC palace.

Limited excavation was carried out by the Ottoman governor of Mosul in 1852, which was revisited by the Iraqi department of antiquities in the 1950s. But neither team reached as far as the palace.

It is the first evidence of Isil’s use of tunneling in ancient grounds in their hunt for artefacts to plunder.

Inside one of the tunnels, Iraqi archaeologist Layla Salih discovered a marble cuneiform inscription of King Esarhaddon thought to date back to the Assyrian empire in 672BC.

While the king’s name is not visible on the cuneiform slab, a historian who has seen photographs of it says phrases are legible which were used only to describe him, in particular his rebuilding of Babylon after his father Sennacherib had it destroyed.

The palace was built for Sennacherib, renovated and expanded by Esarhaddon (681-669 BC), and renovated again by Ashurbanipal (669-627). It was partly destroyed during the Sack of Nineveh in 612 BC.

There are only a handful of such cuneiforms recovered from the period, most of which from the second mound just north of Nebi Yunus in Kouyunjik.

In another part of the tunnel they discovered Assyrian stone sculptures of a demi-goddess, depicted sprinkling the “water of life” to protect humans in her care.

“I’ve never seen something like this in stone at this large size,” said Prof Eleanor Robson, chair of the British Institute for the Study of Iraq, suggesting they may have been used to decorate the women's quarter of the palace. “The objects don’t match descriptions of what we thought was down there, so Isil’s destruction has actually led us to a fantastic find.

“There’s a huge amount of history down there, not just ornamental stones. It is an opportunity to finally map the treasure-house of the world’s first great empire, from the period of its greatest success.”

Ms Salih, a former curator of the Mosul museum who is supervising a five-man team carrying out the emergency documentation, said she believes Isil looted hundreds of objects before Iraqi forces recaptured the eastern side of the city.

“I can only imagine how much Daesh discovered down there before we got here,” she told the Telegraph by phone from Mosul. “We believe they took many of the artefacts, such as pottery and smaller pieces, away to sell. But what they left will be studied and will add a lot to our knowledge of the period."

She warned that the tunnels were not professionally built, however, and are at risk of collapsing “within weeks” - burying and potentially destroying the new finds.

Experts from the British Institute for the Study of Iraq - alongside other international teams - are bidding to help local archaeologists secure and document the site. Unesco is due to hold a meeting in Paris later this month to decide who will be sent.

The terror group destroyed several other key landmarks in Mosul and elsewhere because they considered the worshipping of shrines not to be in keeping with their Islamic traditions. Isil militants believe giving special veneration to tombs and relics is against the teachings of Islam.

A report just released by the Iraqi Kurdistan regional government lists some 100 sacred buildings damaged or wiped off the map during Isil’s two-year reign.

They closed all of Mosul’s museums and cultural centres during their more than two-year reign over the city. Many of the city’s archaeologists and historians went into hiding.

“Many decided to stay in the city when Isil came, fearing what they might do to their families if they fled,” said Prof Robson. “They hid their books and lied about their expertise. Thankfully, most of them survived.”

40 years ago: Islamic terrorists take people hostage in Washington, D.C. while demanding the cancellation of the screening of a movie about Muhammad

On March 9, 1977, 12 Hanafi Muslim gunmen seized three buildings in Washington, D.C.--the District Building; B'nai B'rith headquarters; and the Islamic Center of Washington--beginning a 39-hour standoff. One of the terrorists' demands was that the U.S. premiere screening of the movie Mohammad, Messenger of God (1976) be cancelled because they regarded the film as sacrilegious. The incident concluded peacefully on March 11 when the more than 130 hostages were released after ambassadors from Egypt, Pakistan, and Iran joined the negotiations. The film's world premiere screening, on July 30, 1976 in London, had been beset by bomb threats and a hasty change of the film's title to The Message--but at least that screening had taken place without any hostages being seized.

Harry and Michael Medved, in their entertaining and fascinating book The Hollywood Hall of Shame (1984), have a chapter on Mohammad, Messenger of God (pp. 143-152), with detailed information on the movie. They note the irony of Muslims protesting a movie that was produced and directed by a Muslim--Moustapha Akkad--and financed by Libyan dictator Muammar al-Gaddafi--after initial funding from King Faisal of Saudi Arabia and subsequent funding from King Hassan II Morocco was withdrawn. For those who may be unaware, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and Libya are Muslim countries.

It's worth comparing the reaction of Hanafi--a branch of Sunni Islam--Muslims who protested Mohammad, Messenger of God with the reaction of Christians who protested the blasphemous movie The Last Temptation of Christ in 1988. In the latter case, there were letters of protest, and a rally outside the offices of MCA/Universal in Universal City, California, where 25,000 people heard a few speeches--and then quietly left. What violent protests did take place were in France, and were attributed to extremist Roman Catholics. See my post 25 years ago: Violent Islamic protests over The Satanic Verses contrast with peaceful Christian protests over The Last Temptation of Christ (February 21, 2014).

There's one delicious similarity in the case of both movies: The Last Temptation of Christ was a major box office failure, with a loss reported to be as much as $14 million, when promotional and other costs are added to the basic cost of making the movie. According to the Medved brothers (p. 151), Mohammad, Messenger of God had, by 1984, made less than $2 million in the United States and less than $5 million worldwide, making for a loss of almost $30 million. Wikipedia and Infogalactic report a take of $15 million, still a considerable loss when other costs are factored in. The movie was reportedly popular with Shiite Iranians.

75 and 60 years ago: Pope Pius XII relaxes fasting rules for Roman Catholics

Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. Mark 7:7 (citing Isaiah 29:13)

Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules:
“Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”?
These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings.
Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. Colossians 2:20-23 (NIV)

Yet another reminder that Roman Catholicism is manmade religion that can be changed on the whim of the leaders:

On December 30, 1946, Pope Pius XII authorized Roman Catholic bishops throughout the world to permit Catholics in their dioceses to eat meat on Fridays and omit certain fast days for the duration of the year.

On March 22, 1957, Pope Pius XII decreed that required fasting before receiving Holy Communion be reduced to three hours, with necessary medicines and water excepted.

See my post 50 years ago: Roman Catholic leaders in Canada relax the ban on eating meat on Friday (October 28, 2016)

Pakistan bans Valentine's Day

For once, the government of an Islamic country has done something I approve of; I've hated Valentine's Day ever since 1976, when I went to our high school Valentine's dance, and the girl I was in love with spent most of the evening necking in the corner with my hated rival (and a more offensive spectacle I cannot recall). As reported by Rachel Roberts of the British newspaper The Independent, February 13, 2017 (link in original):

Pakistan has become the latest country to ban Valentine's Day.

It has prohibited all public celebrations and any media coverage because the celebration is not part of Muslim traditions.

The ruling was handed down by the Islamabad High Court, following an unsuccessful attempt to ban the festival last year.

President Mamnoon Hussain urged Pakistanis not to observe Valentine’s Day, which he criticised as a Western import that threatened to undermine Islamic values.

“Valentine’s Day has no connection with our culture and it should be avoided,” he said at a ceremony last year.

The court passed its ruling to the ministry, federal government, chairman and chief commissioner, who are obliged to submit a response to the order within ten days.

The festival has seen its popularity increase in many cities in Pakistan in recent years, but religious groups have denounced it.

The order was in response to a private petition which argued the festival promotes immorality, nudity and indecency under the guise of celebrating love.

There have been localised bans of the festival by councils in previous years, although these are said to have been largely ignored.

Whether or not the national ban is implemented will depend largely on how the police, guided by the Government, decide to enforce it – in particular, whether they target shops selling Valentine’s cards and gifts.

Valentine’s Day evolved from a traditional Christian feast day and first became associated with romantic love during the 14th century, when the idea of courtly love flourished.

The first known romantic reference to the feast of St Valentine’s Day was made by Canterbury Tales author Geoffrey Chaucer in his poem Perlement of Foules, or the Parliament of Birds.

In 2015, Pakistan's top Islamic clerical body threatened to issue a fatwa against the sale of condoms following reports they were being sold together with chocolate to mark Valentine's Day.

Despite the objections from more pious Muslims, many Indonesians do celebrate the occasion, particularly in major cities where cards and chocolates to mark it are widely available.

The Pakistani ruling follows a protest against Valentine’s Day by students in Indonesia who believe the celebration encourages casual sex.

Teenagers in the Indonesian city of Surabaya chanted “Say no to sex” in the latest expression of anger towards the celebration in the world’s largest Muslim-majority country.

Religious police in Saudi Arabia banned the sale of all Valentine’s Day goods in 2008, telling shops to remove all red items - a move which is said to have led to a black market in roses, wrapping paper and “red goods”.

Georgian Orthodox priest detained on suspicion of plotting to poison the Patriarch

Fun and games in the Georgian Orthodox Church, as reported by Misha Dzhinzhikhashvili of Associated Press, February 13, 2017:

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — Police in Georgia have detained a high-profile priest who is suspected of plotting to poison a senior cleric, prosecutors said on Monday.

The announcement comes after well-respected Rustavi 2 television channel reported about an attempt to poison Patriarch Ilia, head of the Georgian Orthodox Church.

Irakli Shotadze, chief prosecutor in the former Soviet republic, told reporters on Monday that Father Georgi Mamaladze was arrested at the Tbilisi airport on Friday with cyanide in his suitcase. Mamaladze, chief of the property department of the Georgian Orthodox Church, was on his way to Germany where Ilia is undergoing hospital treatment.

Shotadze said the arrest was made after prosecutors received a tip from a man who reported that he had been contacted by a priest looking to buy cyanide. Police also found weapons at Mamaladze's home.

Shotadze refused to name the senior cleric that Mamaladze is suspected of having targeted.

The 84-year old Ilia has been in poor health for several years, and was visibly frail when he welcomed Pope Francis to Georgia in October.

Eka Beseliya, chairwoman of the parliamentary committee on legal issues, said Mamaladze's arrest "has prevented a grave crime" but she said she was unable to disclose details of the case since it is classified. Beseliya added, however, that the patriarch's "security and health are protected absolutely."

Retired Church of England bishops whine about Church's attitude toward sodomites

Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. Romans 1:24-32

Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. II Timothy 3:5

Yet more evidence that the Church of England--described in the 1990s by a Canadian traditionalist Anglican clergyman as "the natural spiritual home of the Queen and Mr. Bean"--is a Christian church in name only. As reported by Associated Press, February 12, 2017:

LONDON — Fourteen retired Anglican bishops are criticizing the Church of England's attitude to homosexuality, saying the church is not listening to the voices of gay Christians.

They are responding to a report from the church's House of Bishops, which calls for a "fresh tone and culture of welcome and support" for gays and lesbians, but says the church should not lift its opposition to same-sex marriage.

In an open letter , the ex-bishops say that "while the pain of LGBT people is spoken about in your report, we do not hear its authentic voice."

Former Bishop of Worcester Peter Selby, one of the signatories, said Sunday that some gay Anglicans feel betrayed by the lack of support for change.

Gay marriage has long divided the Anglican communion, which has 85 million adherents.

Buddhist monk in Myanmar arrested while in possession of four million methamphetamine pills

As reported by Associated Press, February 7, 2017:

YANGON, Myanmar -- A Buddhist monk has been arrested in Myanmar after authorities found more than 4 million methamphetamine pills in his car and in his monastery, police said Tuesday.

Officer Maung Maung Yin said the monk was stopped Sunday as he drove in northern Rakhine state, which borders Bangladesh. Authorities had been tipped off that the monk was carrying an illegal haul.

Maung Maung Yin said an anti-drug task force found 400,000 pills in the monk's car. A subsequent search of his monastery turned up 4.2 million pills along with a grenade and ammunition. A statement from the office of Myanmar's leader, State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, said that one million kyats ($769) in cash was also found in the vehicle.

Myanmar is a major producer of methamphetamine, usually smuggled from the northeast to neighbouring countries. It is also the world's second biggest producer of opium, from which heroin is derived.

"This is not a normal case, and when we were informed that the monk was arrested, we were all shocked," said Kyaw Mya Win, a township police officer.

Asked about the case, the director general of the Religious Affairs Ministry, Soe Min Tun, acknowledged some surprise.

"It is not a very common case, but not impossible to happen. What will happen to the monk is that he will have to give up his monkhood right away and face trial as an ordinary person," he said.

Police said they were still questioning the monk Tuesday.

Last year, Myanmar officials seized 21 million methamphetamine pills with a street value around $35.5 million near the border with China in the biggest such seizure in recent memory.

Uber tells man's wife where he is--so she divorces him

and be sure your sin will find you out. Numbers 32:23b

As reported by Rob Waugh of Yahoo News UK, February 10, 2017:

A businessman is suing Uber after what he claims is a flaw in the app allowed his wife to follow his comings and goings – and she divorced him.

The unnamed Côte d’Azur businessman is suing for 45 million euros (£38 million) after the app allegedly alerted his wife whenever he used an Uber.

He claims that he logged into his Uber account on her iPhone, then logged out – but the phone continued to give her alerts when he used the service.

He is now seeking redress in the courts.

The alerts allowed his wife to see information such as his taxi driver’s name, and whenever he used an Uber – and allowed her to read them without his knowledge, Figaro reports.

The French newspaper said that it was able to replicate the issue – and receive notifications about someone’s Uber account, even after they logged out.

It’s not clear how many people might be affected by this – the issue does not seem to affect Android users..

A spokesman for Uber said, ‘Uber does not publicly comment on individual cases, including the case of divorce proceedings between spouses.

Click on the link to see the original article in French as reported by Elisa Braun in Le Figaro, February 8, 2017.
See also my post Woman gets caught cheating on her husband--and sues the phone company (May 22, 2010).

Amalgamation of congregations in Edmonton provides more evidence of the continuing decline of the United Church of Canada

Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. II Timothy 3:5

As reported by Gordon Kent in the Edmonton Journal, September 29, 2016 (bold, link in original):

Two United Church buildings are being sold and four congregations have merged in another sign of the challenges Edmonton religious institutions face surviving in mature neighbourhoods.

South Edmonton members of Canada’s largest Protestant denomination say they needed to take steps to deal with aging facilities and shrinking numbers.

“Dwindling congregation members bring in less money. It makes it harder for us to meet all our monthly expenses,” Pleasantview United Church board chairperson Pat Williams says.

“Over the last seven years, things have just progressed to the point where we found it’s no longer viable for us to try to function on our own.”

Pleasantview and Ritchie United Churches closed and started worshipping jointly with colleagues at Avonmore United Church last January following two years’ of discussions.

Knox-Metropolitan United Church joined them in July.

They’re meeting at the Avonmore church, 7909 82 Ave., under the banner of the United on Whyte Pastoral Charge, although Williams says the name could change by the time work to form a single organization out of the four separate legal entities is completed.

Pleasantview’s head count on a typical Sunday had dropped to 25 to 30 people before they closed the building’s doors, she says.

She remembers multiple choirs, golf nights, potluck dinners and other popular social events during the vibrant days when she joined Pleasantview United, 10672 62 Ave., more than 25 years ago.

By the end, the youth group was only composed of a few university students.

“It’s going on throughout churches everywhere,” Williams says.

“We went from a church that had lots of family-oriented things … to where there were just so few people who were interested in that.”

Different religions, same problem

The problems at Pleasantview, opened in 1953, are shared by mainstream churches across Canada. Only 27 per cent of Canadians identified themselves as Protestant in 2011, down from 41 per cent 40 years earlier, and the number of Roman Catholics and Anglicans also declined.

Over the past 15 years, nine of about 45 Catholic parishes in the greater Edmonton area have shut down and merged with their neighbours, says Lorraine Turchansky, communications director for the Catholic Archdiocese of Edmonton.

There are also two sets of twinned churches, each served by the same office staff and a single pastor.

“In the case of some of the older parishes, it’s not unlike what we see happening with the schools, where the population is aging (and) the parish population is diminishing,” Turchansky says.

“We find that in the newer neighbourhoods it’s the opposite, where the population is much younger and growing.”

Three new Catholic churches have been constructed over the same period, mainly large structures in the suburbs where the congregation is more likely to drive than walk.

For example, Corpus Christi, opened this year in Mill Woods, has pews for 1,500 and cost $16 million to build.

“If you want to call it a catchment area, like you would with a school, people from a wider area would go to those churches now,” Turchansky says.

“It’s fairly expensive to build churches, so we have to keep than in mind as well … There are economies of scale to be considered.”

Although the Anglican Diocese of Edmonton says it’s doing well and isn’t expecting to shut any local churches, it was forced to sell crumbling St. Stephen’s on 96 Street six years ago.

Merging four churches into one is a first in Canada

Amalgamating United Church parishes isn’t unusual — 10 churches were initially part of the discussions about how to remain viable.

But Pleasantview’s Williams says four of the denomination’s congregations have never been combined in Canada before, so the national organization is watching the results.

“It’s an interesting experience to meld first of all three, and then a fourth one, but it’s an exciting experience. We’re burning a path, I guess, for the United Church. We have a lot of eyes on us to see how this works.”

An offer from a developer is pending on the Pleasantview half-acre property, listed for sale at $1.6 million.

Trustees have also accepted a developer’s conditional offer for 73-year-old Knox-Metropolitan church, 8307 109 St., which has an asking price of $4.2 million.

Proceeds from these two deals will be held locally in a special “futures fund” to help others in the city. While details are still being worked out, the fund is intended to continue the legacy of the four congregations, says Susan Bramm, vice-chairperson of the Knox-Metropolitan board.

The Ritchie site, 9624 74 Ave., isn’t being sold. It was transferred to the growing Edmonton Korean United Church, which is moving out of Avonmore, the newest of the four structures.

“There are certainly some uncertainties, particularly those people for whom getting to the location had already posed a challenge,” she says, estimating 80 to 100 members went to weekly services in the 300-seat church before it closed in June.

“This provided an opportunity for them to explore opportunities closer to their home.”

About 100 to 120 people now attend United on Whyte.

Furniture, hymn books, a baptismal font and other precious items from each facility are being taken to Avonmore to maintain links with the past.

This includes five of Knox-Metropolitan’s 29 stained glass windows — others are for sale or already have purchasers, such as the beautiful floral octagon facing 109 Street bought for $7,000 for a St. Albert United Church being constructed in 2018.

While Bramm says there’s grieving, she thinks the move was for the best.

“It’s really about the future … Look at it as a unique opportunity to come together with a common purpose and vision.”

Pleasantview’s Williams agrees there weren’t any options.

“Personally, I’m sad to leave my building, I’m sad to have lost a lot of our church family going in different directions, but I’m finding it really exciting,” she says.

“It’s nice to go where there are children. We haven’t had young children for Sunday school for a long time.”

And as reported by Rachel Ward in the Edmonton Journal, September 13, 2015:

Shrinking congregations and coffers have prompted members of five United churches near Whyte Avenue to consider coming together in one building.

Kevin Gue, treasurer for Knox-Metropolitan United Church on 109th Street, said his congregation will meet Oct. 4 to vote on what to do with its 75-year-old building and its octagonal stained glass windows. It is not a heritage building, he said.

“This is a massive piece of infrastructure that’s aging,” Gue said after Sunday service. “Do you apply more money to an old, aging building or do you apply it to programming and ministry?”

The other churches are Pleasantview United Church on 62nd Avenue, Ritchie United Church on 74th Avenue and Avonmore United Church, which shares a Whyte Avenue building with Edmonton Korean United Church. Knox-Metropolitan representatives spoke Sunday on behalf of the churches through the South Side Churches Joint Planning Council.

This “innovative” idea of all the churches relocating into one building could free up scarce resources, Gue said, and help them focus on further developing faith and social justice.

“As long as we’re fixing the roof, we’re not doing that,” he said.

The church is “making ends meet,” Knox-Metropolitan board co-chairwoman Cathy Martin said, but “it’s probably not going to be sustainable for the long term.”

The church cut a youth worker job and warned in its last annual report the reserve fund would be depleted in four years. In recent years it also paid about $30,000 to re-enforce the gymnasium roof and about $5,000 to repair the outside stucco siding, she said.

They’re starting to plan now while the finances are stable, she said.

“With any change, there’s excitement and anxiety,” Martin said. “But the thing is, we get to decide how we handle that.”

The five churches hope to have a decision by January 2016, a deadline Martin said her congregation fully supports.

“Their legacy is much more than a building,” Martin said of the congregation that dates back to 1892. “Their legacy has been their faith.”

The recent events come as no surprise to this blogger, and are a continuation of a half-century of decline for the United Church of Canada, whose membership peaked in 1965. The United Church began losing members within a couple of years of introducing a new Sunday School Curriculum; see my post 50 years ago: United Church of Canada unveils Sunday School curriculum denying the truth of the Bible (August 1, 2014).

50 years ago: The Apollo 1 fire, and an astronaut's last words

Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. Proverbs 27:1

Apollo 1, the first U.S. manned space mission with a three-man crew, was scheduled to lift off from Cape Kennedy, Florida on February 21, 1967. On the afternoon of January 27, the crew--Gus Grissom (Commander); Ed White (Senior Pilot); and Roger Chaffee (Pilot)--entered the spacecraft for one of the mission's final pre-launch tests. The test was not going well, with communications between the spacecraft and ground crews being just one of the problems. The test was about 10 minutes away from completion when a fire suddenly swept through the spacecraft. The crew began procedures to get out, but were killed in seconds; read the details here and here.

The audio recording of the last half hour of Apollo 1 has been posted on YouTube:



I began following the space program a couple of years after the Apollo 1 fire, and the astronauts, including those whose feats I was too young to remember, were my heroes. Gus Grissom was one of the original seven astronauts, and the second American to fly in space. Chief of the Astronaut Office Deke Slayton, who was in charge of flight assignments said in his autobiography Deke! (1994) that if Mr. Grissom hadn't perished in the fire, he may well have been the first man to walk on the moon. I still have great respect for Mr. Grissom's accomplishments, but it grieves me that his last words included the use of the name of Jesus Christ--as an obscenity (at about 28:56 in the video above). Less than a minute later, Gus Grissom and his crewmates were dead.

50 years ago: Soviet newspaper denounces the continuing survival of religion

The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Psalms 14:1a (also Psalms 53:1a)

For those not old enough to remember the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Pravda (which still exists today) was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. From the same section of The Edmonton Journal of January 14, 1967, that published the items in the post below (bold in original):

Pravda Urges More Atheism

MOSCOW (AP)--Pravda calls for an increased struggle against "religious survival" in this 50th year of Communist power.

50 years later, the dissolution of the U.S.S.R. is now 25 years in the past, while "religious survival" continues.

50 years ago: Newspaper religion pages record increasing ecumenism

Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. II Corinthians 6:14-17

Submitted for your approval: A few items from the religion pages of The Edmonton Journal of Saturday, January 14, 1967, to remind the reader that the ecumenical movement toward the religion of Antichrist has been going on for a long time (bold, italics in original).

Christian Unity Prayer Service

Members Of All Major Faiths Will Participate In City

Members of every major Christian faith will converge on the Jubilee Auditorium Wednesday for the most comprehensive ecumenical prayer service ever held in Edmonton.

The service sponsored jointly by the Edmonton and District Council of Churches and the weekly newspaper, Western Catholic Reporter, marks the opening of the world-wide week of prayer for Christian unity.

One way to further this unity is to pray together, according to Rev. Brian Brown, president of the Edmonton and District Council of Churches.

Mr. Brown said there must be a spirit of co-operation among Christians before church unity can be realized, but it must involve individuals as well as the hierarchies of their churches.

APPROPRIATE TIME

"The only way this can be accomplished is by getting to know each other and to Pray together."

Dr. C.F. Johnston of St. Stephen's College and chairman of the Council's inter-church committee, said the prayer service comes at a very appropriate time.

He said Canadians now are facing their second century, "a time of great challenge and promise for the future." Christians are being called on as one to serve Canada and the world, he said.

An important aspect of the service is the fact that two laymen are the only speakers, said Dr. Johnston.

They are Murray Stewart, president of Northwestern Utilities, Ltd., and an elder at Metropolitan United Church, and Ald. James Bateman, businessman and member of St. Anthony's Roman Catholic parish.

Clergy of several denominations, two bishops, and a nurse are also participating in the service, which begins at 8 p.m.

Douglas J. Roche, editor of the Western Catholic Reporter, said the paper was helping to sponsor the combined prayer service as a celebration of the admission of the Roman Catholic archdiocese to the Council of Churches as an associate member.

The Edmonton archdiocese is the only one in Canada which has joined the local council of churches.

Metropolitan United Church later amalgamated with Knox United Church to become Knox-Metropolitan United Church. Symptomatic of the decline of apostate mainline Protestant churches (and the subject of this post), Knox-Metropolitan merged with three other churches in July 2016 to become United on Whyte. Mr. Roche, a Progressive Conservative (and a lot more "Progressive" than "Conservative"), sat in the Canadian House of Commons from 1972-1994 and in the Senate from 1998-2004.
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Suggestions Sought On Vietnam Pray-In
The Edmonton and District Council of Churches would like suggestions on what form a Vietnam pray-in might take.

Rev. B.L. Brown, president of the Council, said the council found itself in some confusion about the meaning of pray-in when the idea was put before Tuesday's meeting.

"All clergy pray for peace, so we can't send out a notice saying 'Pray for peace'."

MEANINGFUL, SINCERE

The question will go to a committee, he said.

"We would like something the laity could take part in. Perhaps a service of prayer for peace. Something meaningful, sincere and quiet.

"The pray-in should be meaningful to young people, who feel, rightly, that we're all concerned in this war."

The council would not just pray that the U.S. get out of Vietnam, but that the fighting on both sides should end.

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Christian Pavilion To Stay

MONTREAL (CP)--The Christian Pavilion at the 1967 Montreal world's fair may be maintained as a permanent exhibition after the fair closes.

Rev. Louis Fosey-Foley, director of Credo, a French-language publication of the United Church, told a press conference the permanent status of the pavilion has been discussed by church officials.

Seven Canadian churches are interested in the project.

The pavilion, expected to cost about $1,300,000, is sponsored by the United Church of Canada, the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Baptist, and Greek Orthodox churches and the Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church of Canada.

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Churchmen To Launch Magazine

TORONTO (CP)--Two dozen churchmen of different faiths have decided to set up a theological magazine to help crate understanding of each other's views.

The group includes Jewish, Roman Catholic, Unitarian, Anglican and United Church clergy and laity.

Rev. A.C. Forrest, editor of the United Church Observer, who initiated the project, says that through such a magazine "we could talk to one another and listen to one another."

The monthly magazine will "publish expressions of opinion, sincerely held, honestly documented and forthrightly written, from as many areas of religious life as possible."

Catholic layman Paul Harris, another supporter, says "a clash of opinion is helpful, so the magazine will likely be controversial."

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Catholics Lift Ban On 'Y' Membership

NEW YORK (AP)--Roman Catholicism's long-standing ban against membership in the Young Men's and Women's Christian Associations appears headed for a quiet demise in the United States.

It already has been specifically rescinded in some dioceses.

YMCA PRAISED

Numerous Catholic appraisals lately have expressed an approving view of participation in the YMCA and YWCA.

"Indications of the change are coming from all around the country," said J.H. Pisarro, of the national YMCA office. "It's a kind of de facto thing, developing more and more extensively.

Lifting the ban last fall in New Orleans, Archbishop Philip M. Hannan praised the Ys for their community service, and said Catholics were permitted to join.

He said the step was aimed at strengthening fraternal relationships, and that the Ys seek to uphold Christianity in its "generic sense" and not as a particularly Protestant group.

In a similar action in New Mexico, a spokesman for Santa Fe's Archbishop James Peter Davis said: "The programs of the YMCA can help make of a good Baptist a better one, and a good Catholic a better one."

The ban against Catholic membership in the Ys dates back to a Vatican directive of 1920, when Ys were largely Protestant in orientation.

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New Sign Of Ecumenical Age

DALLAS, TEXAS (AP)--At the international assembly of the Christian Churches (Disciples), the list of principal speakers included as many churchmen from outside the denomination as in it, including two Roman Catholics, one Orthodox, four Baptist and three Methodists.