As ethnic fighting between Serbian and Croatian forces in Yugoslavia continued to escalate last month, churches were increasingly being drawn into the turmoil. Christian leaders say many local churches and ministries have been destroyed or forced to relocate due to bombing raids.
For example, the Home for Spiritual Rehabilitation, an evangelical youth center opened just last year in Zagreb, has been burned to the ground. And the Evangelical Theological Seminary (ETS) of Osijek, the only evangelical seminary currently serving Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, has temporarily relocated to a Christian camp near the Austrian border.
According to ETS director Peter Kuzmic, the religious diversity of Yugoslavia is adding to the tensions. The Serbian Orthodox Church represents 37 percent of the population, while Croatian Catholics number over 29 percent. Less than 1 percent of the population is Protestant. “The nationalistic fighting is closely intertwined with the national religious identity of the regions,” Kuzmic says. “The only reconciliation between Serbs and Croats has been in the evangelical church.”
Late in September, members of Duhovna Stvarnost, a Christian resource center in Croatia, sent an open letter to churches in the West detailing the difficulties. “We do not see the way out but to pray to God to intervene in his sovereign power to stop the war,” they wrote.
EGYPT
Churches Attacked
Islamic fundamentalists attacked two evangelical churches near Cairo, Egypt, last month during rioting between Christians and Muslims in the region. Two Egyptian sources, who requested anonymity due to the current religious tensions, said that the Imbaba Holiness Church, a Free Methodist church founded by Canadian missionaries, was burned to the ground during the disturbance. The pastor’s wife and daughter were briefly caught inside the building but escaped without injury.
Extremists also stormed the Apostolic Church in Giza Province, burning Bibles and hymnals. The rioting apparently stemmed from a fight that broke out on September 21 between a Christian and a Muslim in an economically depressed area south of Cairo. Evangelical leaders say the Mubarek government quickly put down the riot and arrested those responsible for the attacks.
The leaders also say the government is considering giving some financial aid to help rebuild the burned church. Tensions remain high between the Muslims and Christians, but evangelicals say they do not view this as a concerted national campaign against them. Rather, they say it is one of a few isolated incidents carried out by extremists.
The government of Ghana is continuing its push to register all the religious groups in that country. Recent selections by Ghana’s National Commission on Culture (NCC), charged with screening religious groups, brought the total number of groups believed to be recommended for registration to about 600, out of a potential list of some 1,600 applicants, according to a News Network International report.
The government recently lifted a 17-month ban on the Mormon church, which was allowed to apply for registration. However, the Jehovah’s Witnesses still are banned; at least two local neo-Pentecostal groups have also been banned, for behavior thought to “undermine the sovereignty of Ghana” and “not conducive to public order.”
Sources say most of the well-established mainline churches and Western missions have already been reregistered. Some mainline churches, however, have refused to comply with the registration order, charging that the government does not have the right to carry out such laws. Any group or individuals from such groups without NCC approval could be fined up to the equivalent of $300 or sentenced to three months in jail for religious activities.
PEOPLE AND EVENTS
Briefly Noted
Died: Patriarch Dimitrios I, head of the Greek Orthodox Church and spiritual leader of the world’s 300 million Eastern Orthodox Christians; of a heart attack. The patriarch was installed in 1972.
Restructured: The World Council of Churches (wcc), for the first time in almost 20 years. The new structure creates four major program areas within the ecumenical organization: Unity and Renewal; Mission, Education, and Witness; Justice, Peace, and Creation; and Sharing and Service. A wcc spokesman said that the structure emerged from the “major and dominant trends” that were cited at the WCC’s Canberra, Australia, assembly held last February.
Dedicated:Trans World Radio’s new international headquarters in Cary, North Carolina, on September 7.
Signed: a protocol between World Vision and the Peace Corps, formalizing their collaboration to help the world’s needy. The agreement will make possible such joint efforts as the two groups recently conducted in Romania, where World Vision professionals helped train 24 Peace Corps volunteers to work with orphaned children. World Vision has 6,000 projects in 94 countries; the Peace Corps has 6,000 volunteers in 90 countries.
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