A French-inspired plan, implemented last August to end the fighting in Chad between nomadic Muslim tribes in the north and Christian and animist tribes in the south, fell apart last month. Under the plan, President Félix Malloum, a Christian, brought in rebel Hissen Habre as prime minister. Cabinet posts were evenly divided between southern blacks and the so-called Arabs. An attempted coup by Habre last month was inconclusive. Habre’s forces appeared to have the upper hand in downtown areas of the capital, N’Djamena. A dozen or more missionaries were evacuated to Paris from N’Djamena and parts of the northern sector. But elsewhere, early this month, missionary activity appeared unaffected.
The text of the last and most complete of the Dead Sea scrolls was finally published in Hebrew last month after ten years of work. The seven other scrolls, found in a cave near the Dead Sea by a Bedouin youth in 1947, were deciphered and studied during the 1950s. But the 28-foot “temple scroll” was not uncovered until the 1967 war, under the floor of a shop whose Arab owner had been involved in purchase of the earlier documents. The scroll deals with reconstruction of the temple and with teachings of the Essene faction of Judaism that forbade divorce and polygamy and that support celibacy.
CORRECTION
In the March 2 news story about the lawsuit between leaders of two organizations active in Bible smuggling, the reference to evangelist John E. Douglas (p. 53) was garbled. CHRISTIANITY TODAY staff members who interviewed Douglas mistakenly assumed that the two events being discussed—the departure of L. Joe Bass from the Douglas organization and the 1959 arrest incident—were connected. The 1959 event took place after Bass left the Douglas organization. Furthermore, Bass denied that he was forced to resign, and Douglas, in a deposition in California last month, also denied under oath that Bass’s resignation had been demanded.
Two denominations in Australia, the Presbyterian Church and the Uniting Church of Australia, are bickering over rights to use the title “Australian Inland Mission” (AIM). The name has strong historical associations. John Flynn—“Flynn of Inland”—was probably the best known Australian Presbyterian of this century. His “outback ecumenism” and personal friendship with patrol ministers of other denominations led to the formation of the United Church of North Australia, which, in turn, influenced the formation of the Uniting Church, comprised of the Methodist Church and major elements of the Presbyterian and Congregational Churches. Both denominations are claiming bequests made out to the AIM.
Archbishop of Canterbury, Donald Coggan, spoke out last month against what he called pitiless strikes. “What we all need is a change of heart and mind, what Christians call repentance,” he said. Recent strikes have disrupted hospitals, schools, and garbage collection. Disaster lies ahead, he warned, for a people whose passion is to grab and not to give.
The Evangelical Alliance has assumed a major role in Britain’s National Initiative in Evangelism (NIE), recently begun as a ten-year evangelistic effort involving most of the nation’s churches. The archbishop of Canterbury presided at a launching service for the NIE last month. The Evangelical Alliance is calling a National Congress on Evangelism for April 1980, to be held in Wales. The congress program and evangelistic effort are being planned by Clifford Hill, Alliance secretary for evangelism and church growth.
Last month marked the fiftieth anniversary of the Italian-Vatican treaty, signed by Benito Mussolini and Pope Pius XI. Some believe the concordat, currently under joint revision, should instead be abrogated, but the Christian Democrat and Communist parties are calling only for revision.
Finnish authorities recently seized 2,500 Bibles, concealed in three autos, that were destined for the Soviet Union. A new customs agreement with the Soviets names the Bible as contraband. The customs agreement, reluctantly signed by the Finns at Soviet insistence, has been protested by the Arrangements Committee of the European Helsinki Group as a violation of the Helsinki agreement.
Churches in the (East) German Democratic Republic (GDR) have decided to form one body that would include all the Lutheran state churches. The resulting United Evangelical Church in the GDR would merge the five provincial churches of the Evangelical Church of the Union and the three of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church. The merger is scheduled in stages beginning in 1981.
Christians of the Sgaw Karen tribe of northern Thailand, aided by Swedish Baptist missionaries, reported a breakthrough to the animistic Pwo Karen tribesmen early this year. Six Pwos were baptized in the Yuam River of the Mae Saraing area; these new Christians now can work within the tightly-knit clan system to evangelize their evil spirit-worshiping relatives.
Japanese television this week completed airing a series of thirteen weekly evangelistic telecasts over a Tokyo channel. The series, which took the Pacific Broadcasting Association a year to produce, was sponsored by a group of evangelical pastors and laymen. Church members gave out handbills to housewives outside supermarkets to promote the telecasts, and letter responses are being referred to local churches for follow-up. Believers in Nagoya plan to sponsor the series there in the fall.
The Aymara Indians of Bolivia have formed a missionary association to sponsor their own missionaries to Navajo Indians in the United States. The Aymara tribe, which has had little contact with the outside world, numbers about one million and has been extremely responsive to the Christian message. In recent years, reports indicate an average of one Aymara church has been established each week, a rate that has brought evangelism among the Aymara close to saturation level.
The president and the secretary general of the Colombian Evangelical Federation have protested a growing backlash in that country against all non-Roman Catholics, triggered by the Jonestown tragedy in Guyana. They say in a report: “We refuse to be indiscriminately compared with sects in Colombia for which we are not responsible.” They also restate Protestant beliefs, including “respect for life and the human person.”
Last month an area in eastern Bolivia half the size of Ohio was under three to six feet of water. An estimated 10,000 families lost their homes or crops. Aid was being channeled through ANDEP, the association of evangelicals in Bolivia. The World Gospel Mission, Assemblies of God, and Mennonite Central Committee were among those distributing aid.
Sentenced in mid-1978 to six months’ imprisonment, three Romanian Christians filed an appeal. The verdict last month: their sentences were upheld and increased to six years. Gypsy evangelist Ion Samu, his brother, and an assistant pastor of the Gypsy church in Medias were arrested for holding an evangelical service in a village near Medias.
Personalia
R. Ronald Burgess was selected as convener of the Coordinating Council of Professional Religious Associations in Higher Education, which consists of a variety of Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish professional groups that address ministry concerns in higher education. Burgess, an Assemblies of God pastor and religious affairs coordinator at Memphis State University, reportedly is the first evangelical ever elected to the post.
Singer Anita Bryant placed first for the second consecutive year in the Most Admired Woman Poll of Good Housekeeping magazine. Readers cited her courage and faith in her ongoing opposition to the homosexual rights movement.
Edward L. Hayes, professor and academic dean at Conservative Baptist seminary in Denver, was named executive director of Mount Hermon Christian Conference Center near Santa Cruz, California. In July he succeeds William D. Gwinn, who resigned after fifteen years as director of the 73-year-old interdenominational camping and retreat center.
Singer Johnny Cash was given Youth for Christ’s “Man-of-the-Year-Award” during the organization’s annual staff conference. The award, which has been given only three other times in YFC’s thirty-five-year history, recognizes persons making a significant contribution to worldwide youth evangelism. Cash was cited specifically for his involvement in the YFC television special “Where Have All the Children Gone?”
Deaths
EMANUEL A. DAHUNSI, 61, called one of the most influential church leaders among nationals in Africa; general secretary of the 300,000-member Nigerian Baptist Convention, pastor, and Bible translator; on January 30, in Ogbomosho, Nigeria, in an auto accident.
FRANK P. WHITE, 49, United Presbyterian Church consultant who pioneered efforts to show denominations how they can influence corporations in which they have investments, a founder of the ecumenical, social action agency, the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility; on February 5, in New Hampshire, in an auto accident.
