MALI
Government Bans Bonnke Crusade
The Malian government canceled a campaign by evangelist Reinhard Bonnke only days before it was scheduled to begin, citing inability to ensure security. A government official said the cancellation was based on past campaigns held by the German evangelist in neighboring African states. In 1991, Bonnke’s scheduled crusade in Kano, Nigeria, led to a riot that left hundreds of Christians and Muslims dead.
The controversy centers on Bonnke’s references to Islam in his preaching, which are considered by some Muslims to be blasphemous. Though the Malian Association for the Unity and Progress of Islam had consented to the campaign, the governmemt cited evidence of a plot by radical Islamic elements to attack Christians and churches.
Christians represent less than 5 percent of the population; Muslims, 90 percent. The Bonnke campaign, scheduled for October, involved a massive interdenominational effort, yet it was not sponsored by the Association of Protestant and Evangelical Churches and Missions of Mali—the only Protestant group recognized by the government.
By Kelly Madden in Bamako, Mali.
RUSSIAN ORTHODOX
Church Defrocks Gleb Yakunin
The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church has defrocked maverick priest Gleb Yakunin, the Russian Parliament member who led the summer fight against proposed restrictions on minority churches and foreign missionaries (CT, Oct. 25, 1993, p. 90).
The synod divested Yakunin of his priestly rank on November 2, citing his refusal to remove his name from a list of Parliament candidates in the December 12 election. The synod in October had issued a decree saying priests cannot “remain faithful to their personal calling” while being active in politics.
Yakunin ignored the directive, saying he had the “constitutional right to be an elected member of any legislative body.” Yakunin says the decree was passed specifically to keep him out of the legislature because of his exposing KGB infiltration of Russian Orthodox Church leadership and his success in opposing proposed restrictions on non-Orthodox churches and foreign missionaries.
Yakunin plans to appeal the divestment at the next All-Russia Council of the Russian Orthodox Church.
News Network International.
ETHIOPIA
Christians Meet in Freedom
An estimated 55,000 evangelicals from ten denominations and seven parachurch organizations held a rally for the first time under sponsorship of the Evangelical Churches Fellowship of Ethiopia (ECFE).
Under the previous Marxist regime, many evangelicals were imprisoned and tortured. Most churches closed, forcing evangelicals to meet in secret. However, since the fall of communism in 1991, the transitional government has been anxious to prove a commitment to religious freedom.
Bruce Bond, director of the Society for International Ministries in Ethiopia, described the rally as a celebration of unity. “To see 55,000 people in Addis praise the Lord like that is an amazing miracle. It shows that the evangelical church has grown tremendously.” Mulato Taye, ECFE coordinating secretary, says all Ethiopian evangelical churches in Addis Ababa canceled services in order to participate in the rally, symbolizing growing unity among Protestants, who make up 8 percent of the population. Coptic Orthodox and Muslims evenly divide the rest.
By John B. Carpenter in Addis Ababa.
PEOPLE AND EVENTS
In Brief
San Antonio evangelist Sammy Tippit has completed the first major crusade in Mozambique in more than two decades. Recent meetings in Maputo were sponsored by the Christian Council of Mozambique, an alliance of churches in a nation that has been racked by famine and civil war.
• Julian Bandy, a 64-year-old missionary with Greater Europe Mission, was killed October 13 when his bicycle was hit by a streetcar in Seeheim, Germany. Bandy began his ministry in Germany in 1972 and had been music department director at the German Bible Institute.
• Stanley A. Black, 63, of Boulder, Colorado, is the new chairman of the Colorado Springs-based International Bible Society. He replaces the retiring John H. Pinkham, 75.
• The city council of Auckland, which is New Zealand’s largest city, has authorized the expenditure of $15,000 on life-size Nativity figures, despite protests from the Auckland University Atheists’ Society and the Rationalist Association that the manger display is “offensive” and promotes a “form of the cult of Christianity.” Responded councilman John Strevens, “To limit Christmas to things like Santa Claus and trees is to trivialize what is a commemoration of the birth of Christ.”
• R. Dean Stone has been appointed executive director of the International Children’s Pastors’ Conference of Denver. Stone has been a Free Will Baptist pastor.
• Charles H. Caudill has been appointed president of the Nashville-based World Christian Broadcasting Corporation, replacing Robert E. Scott. For the past five years, Caudill has been chief financial officer of the ministry, which broadcasts via shortwave into the Commonwealth of Independent States, China, and Japan.
