Missions struggle to reach 364 groups

REDLANDS, Calif. (AP) – New research released Tuesday by Mission Aviation Fellowship analyzes 364 isolated areas whose inhabitants are considered the hardest to reach for evangelistic work and social services.

Of the world’s 20 “least-reached” ethnic groups, 15 were in Asia, including five each in Afghanistan (Hazara, Pashtun, Tajik, Turkeman, Uzbek) and China (Han, Han-Gan, Kham, Salar, Tu) and two in Nepal (Magar, Rai). Other groups on the list were located in Djibouti, Guinea, India, Iraq, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Pakistan.

A broader index of the most difficult areas for Christian missionaries to reach showed 173 in Africa, 97 in Latin America and 94 in Asia. In all, two-thirds of the regions had little or no Christian ministry in place.

The “Operation Access” report was in preparation since 2000. It focuses on “pockets of people who are either forgotten or unreached,” and the problems that “prevent or impede peoples’ access to the Gospel” such as inaccessible locations, language barriers, economic factors, laws and religious opposition. It also lists any Christian agencies with contacts in each area.

The Protestant fellowship provides 40,000 flights per year, as well as communications and other support services for missionaries and nongovernment organizations in remote areas. It conducted the research to set its own plans for the next 15 to 20 years and help other evangelical groups with strategy.

Methodists put off gay issues to 2008

ST. CLOUD, Minn. (AP) – With the Episcopal Church and Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) meetings facing major gay policy decisions in coming weeks, the United Methodist Church is guaranteed a similar showdown in 2008.

That’s because the annual meeting of Minnesota Methodists approved several petitions to the denomination’s next general conference that endorse openly gay clergy and same-sex marriage.

The closest vote, 358 to 356, backed a proposal that the denomination define marriage as between “two adult persons” rather than “a man and a woman” and cease supporting civil laws that require heterosexual definitions of marriage.

A separate bill encouraged secular laws to “ensure full civil and economic rights for persons in civil unions and marriages without regard to the gender of the partners.”

Other measures would delete a Methodist rule that bars “self-avowed practicing homosexual” clergy and forbids church blessings for homosexual unions, and delete a policy statement that homosexual practice is incompatible with Christian teaching.

Each quadrennial Methodist conference since 1972 has debated gay issues.

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http://www.minnesotaumc.org

Senior Church of England bishop says Britain should assert Christian identity

LONDON (AP) – A senior Church of England bishop said Britain should assert its Christian identity rather than becoming a “multi-faith mishmash.”

Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali of Rochester also said Prince Charles was misguided in saying he wanted to be “defender of faiths” rather than “defender of the faith” when he is king.

In the coronation service, the monarch “takes oaths to defend the Christian faith,” the bishop told BBC radio May 27.

“If by saying that he meant that he wanted to uphold the freedom of people of every faith, then I have no quarrel with that,” the bishop said. “But you can’t defend every faith, because there are very serious differences among them.”

Nazir-Ali said respect for Christian roots doesn’t mean “we don’t welcome other people.”

“The basis for British society is Christian, constitutionally. Many of its institutions are based on Christian ideas,” he said. “All our values come ultimately from the Bible.

Nazir-Ali, who was raised Roman Catholic in Muslim Pakistan, was among several runners-up in 2002 for appointment by Prime Minister Tony Blair to be archbishop of Canterbury and lead the Church of England and international Anglican Communion.

Though more than 70 percent of Britons consider themselves Christian, less than 10 percent attend church regularly.

New leader of Britain’s Muslim Council seeks to allay fears

LONDON (AP) – The chairman of one of London’s biggest mosques, chosen Sunday to head the Muslim Council of Britain, said that organization’s duty “is to reassure British Muslims they can live lives in Britain as good British citizens and as devout Muslims.”

Many Muslims “may be feeling unsettled and perhaps fearful” due to last week’s anti-terrorist raid on an East London house, said Muhammad Abdul Bari, elected by delegates to be secretary general. “There is no need to be in fear.”

As chairman of the East London mosque, he helped steer community responses and allay fears after last July’s transit bombings. He served as deputy to outgoing secretary general Sir Iqbal Sacranie.

Founded in 1997, the Muslim Council is the nation’s largest Islamic group, with more than 400 affiliated mosques and organizations. Some younger Muslims have criticized it as out of touch with many of Britain’s 1.6 million Muslims.

European Union and religious leaders urge mutual respect for beliefs, freedoms

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) – European Union and religious leaders called for greater mutual respect of religious beliefs and democratic freedoms at talks in the wake of violent protests over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

The talks last week involved 16 religious leaders from Christianity, Islam and Judaism as well as Buddhism’s Dalai Lama.

Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel, the EU president, co-chaired the sessions with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

“All the speakers of Islamic communities repeated they understand the concerns of European citizens to defend their freedoms, to defend their rights of expression, of publication … and of course on the other side there was a clear will to understand the sensitivity of religious symbols and feelings,” Schuessel told reporters.

Barroso said all participants agreed the problem over the drawings was “not about Islam,” but finding a balance between freedoms and respect for other points of view.

The Brussels-based Rabbinical Center of Europe complained because the two Jewish representatives were Ashkenazi, and did not fully represent Europe’s Sephardic community.

Cartoon crisis helped Danish Muslims unite around mosque project

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) – Muslim groups in Aarhus, Denmark’s second largest city, say the crisis early this year over published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad helped them unite behind building of the nation’s first multi-community mosque.

Though Denmark has more than 100 Muslim places of worship, there is no proper mosque with a minaret. Chairman Sami Saidana said the Alliance of Islamic Associations in Aarhus tried to build a mosque for years but couldn’t surmount community divisions.

Now the city’s largest Muslims groups, including Turkish, Arab, Somali and Kurdish communities, have agreed on the project, he said. City authorities back the plan, though they said Muslims must finance construction.

Denmark escaped the violent cartoon protests that occurred elsewhere but Danish Muslims said the crisis showed lack of respect for their religion.

The Aarhus alliance envisions a mosque and cultural center that would cost at least $8.5 million.

The alliance represents most of the 15,000 Muslims in Aarhus, a city of 295,500, Saidana said. There are an estimated 200,000 Muslims in Denmark, a historically Lutheran country of 5.4 million.