Briefs: The World

Chris Wright, 52, has been appointed International Ministry Director of the Langham Partnership, a network of ministries based in ENGLAND and closely associated with John Stott Ministries. Langham and Stott Ministries award seminary and university scholarships to students from the developing world. They also give evangelical books to church leaders around the world. Stott, a prolific author, is also rector emeritus of All Souls, Langham, London.

Arabs living in North Africa and the ARABIC PENINSULA are now picking up a new digital channel on their televisions: sat-7. This satellite broadcast allows Arabs to view Christian programming in areas where many people remain unreached by the gospel. Of the 300 million Arabic-speaking people in the Middle East, 100 million own televisions with satellite access. Christians in these areas, along with Campus Crusade for Christ and the United Bible Societies, have worked for the past five years to expand sat-7 into a daily, digitally broadcast program.

The Roman Catholic Church in GERMANY has agreed to pay 5 million marks ($2.35 million) to forced laborers who were brought to Germany from abroad during World War II and worked in Catholic institutions. The church plans to spend an equal amount in promoting reconciliation. The announcement came one month after the Evangelical Church of Germany said it would contribute 10 million marks ($4.7 million) to a German government fund already established for laborers. The Catholic Church had previously denied that laborers were used at its institutions during the war.

An Anglican bishop in western KENYA has called for women in his church to reject the African tradition of joter, in which a widow marries another member of her husband's family. Joter, also known as wife inheritance, is common among the Luo people of the Nyanza province. The Luo people are often polygamous, and several widows may be inherited by a single family member. Bishop Joseph Wasonga recently told women that they should publicly reject joter at their husbands' funerals. Wasonga also denounced the second element of the ritual, in which a widow has sexual relations with an outsider before being given to another family member.