Art And Culture
Christian Opera At The Bolshoi
Metropolitan Opera basso Jerome Hines’s opera I Am the Way will be performed at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow next summer.
“Quite frankly, I didn’t think this was going to come off,” said Patrick Kavanaugh, director of the 500-member Christian Performing Arts Fellowship in Washington, D.C. Kavanaugh traveled to Moscow in July to negotiate with Bolshoi officials. “I was already aware that the Bolshoi had refused the Metropolitan Opera. In the theater’s 200 year-old history, operators had never allowed an American opera to come in.”
After encountering difficulties even getting a ticket to a Bolshoi performance, Kavanaugh raised eyebrows when he informed officials that his company, including the virtuoso Hines, wanted to perform the opera for free. About 100 Washington-area performers will make the Moscow trip. The company hopes to raise about $250,000 through private donations and foundation grants to cover the expenses.
Kavanaugh noted that while the director of a Washington theater had rejected the production (which is based on the life of Christ) because he felt it might offend his patrons, Bolshoi officials said they wanted the opera precisely because of its spiritual nature.
Brazil
Televangelist Trial Leaves Christians In A Quandary
While the leader of Brazil’s fastest-growing church awaits trial on charges of fraud and charlatanism, evangelicals in that country fear the conflict will aggravate tensions between Catholics and Protestants. Also at stake may be whether evangelicals can gain access to airwaves in Brazil.
Pentecostal prosperity preacher Edir Macedo, who oversees the 2 million-member Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, was arrested in May for allegedly mishandling funds, evading income taxes, and violating religious broadcasting laws (CT, Oct. 7, 1991, p. 54). He was released in June, but his followers and other evangelicals worry that their religious freedoms may be threatened during his trial.
Observers say the real issue is that evangelicals are currently barred from the airwaves by a law that does not allow churches to own TV or radio stations. Macedo ignored the law when he established his own TV network a few years ago. Catholic prejudices have made it difficult for evangelicals to buy time on some networks, says Caio Fabio, president of the Brazilian Evangelical Association.
People And Events
Briefly Noted
Urged: By 11 international Quaker organizations, for the United Nations (UN) to lift all nonmilitary sanctions against Iraq. “Civilians, especially children, elderly people, and other vulnerable groups, are dying in Iraq as a direct result of the Gulf War and the continuing sanctions,” said a group including Quaker organizations from New Zealand, the United Kingdom, United States, and Mexico.
Started: Far East Broadcasting Company Russia (FEBC), in the Commonwealth of Independent States. Prior to the fall of communism, Soviet people were persecuted for listening to the FEBC. Now FEBC is broadcasting inside the former Soviet Union and has headquarters in Khabarovsk in eastern Russia. Sergei Fomenko has been appointed regional director.
Elected: Arnold Cook, as president of the Christian and Missionary Alliance. Cook replaces Melvin Sylvester.
Theology
Wef Praises, Faults Wcc Document
The Theological Commission of the World Evangelical Fellowship (WEF) has praised the World Council of Churches (WCC) document Confessing the One Faith, a paper circulated by WCC’s Commission on Faith and Order. However, WEF criticizes the paper’s stance on biblical authority and its alleged ambiguity on the uniqueness of Christ.
The paper seeks to establish a set of core beliefs for all Christians by drawing from the 1,600-year-old Nicene Creed. WEF said the paper is an “important step towards bridging the gap between Evangelicals and the WCC.” The WEF praised the document’s confirmation of the evangelistic mission of the church.
Even so, WEF observed “that the document does not explicate, or even mention the phrase ‘in accordance with the Scriptures.’ ” The ten-member commission notes that the document contains only one statement that “suggests” the Bible is unique. They are also concerned by what they believe is a lack of clarity on the uniqueness and authority of “God’s saving revelation in Jesus Christ.”
Relief Work
Groups Align For Disaster Response
Over 50 evangelical mission and relief agencies are joining forces to ensure they respond more quickly and effectively to major world disasters, such as last year’s cyclone in Bangladesh.
“Instead of 12 people from different agencies hopping on airplanes to survey a disaster area, one person could represent them all,” says Stanley Davies, general secretary of Britain’s Evangelical Missionary Alliance, which is behind the Rapid Response to Major Disasters Network. The network includes such evangelical agencies as Tear Fund (the relief arm of Britain’s Evangelical Alliance), World Vision, and Africa Inland Mission.
