Will Anglicans talk about Evangelicals and Evangelism?

(The Anglican Church is the third largest grouping of churches in the "Christian World". Recently Archbiship Justin Welby became the leader of Anglicans. He lives in England but his long shadow falls across the world. His is a difficult task: fast declining membership statistics in England, USA, Canada, and the West, along with divisions over bishops who are practicing homosexuals. In Africa, especially, the Anglican communion is growing - no, exploding. What kind of a leader will he be? This is a bit long - but the nature of character in Christian leaders is paramount in today's world. This is part of an article written today by Andrew Atherstone, on web site, Evangelicals.org.)

 Archbishop Justin Welby very seldom uses the E-word - 'Evangelical'. He mentions it only when amongst friends. Speaking at New Wine, for example, in 2006 he declared: 'I'm an orthodox Bible-believing Evangelical ... Scripture is my final authority for all matters of life and doctrine.' But it's not a label he usually chooses to define himself. He speaks of churchmanship distinctions as a form of 'tribalism' - a significant choice of words given his first hand experience of destructive and violent tribal conflicts in Nigeria, Burundi and elsewhere across Africa.

By eschewing the E-word in public, Welby adopts the policy of his friends and mentors at Holy Trinity Brompton and the Alpha Course. Sandy Millar tells the story of the American evangelist Tony Campolo, who once proudly told a stranger in a cafe, 'I'm an Evangelical Christian.' The hunted look upon his interlocutor's face made Campolo vow never to label himself an 'Evangelical' again. Millar reflects: 'I come from an evangelical tradition but I don't like the words "evangelical" or "charismatic". I don't like any sort of word now that adds to "Christian" because the Spirit of God is uniting us all in a way that I don't think was happening ten years ago. There are Christians in every sort of denomination and tradition now and there is only one word for what they are: Christians.' Nicky Gumbel also speaks of his dislike of 'unhelpful and divisive labels.' Welby follows suit. Stereotypes are too often misunderstood, both inside and outside the church.

Nevertheless, most of Welby's teaching fits comfortably within an Evangelical framework. He testifies to a classic Evangelical conversion experience, specifically datable - Sunday, 12 October 1975, at ten minutes to midnight. He went up to Cambridge University a year earlier and struck up friendship with members of the Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union (CICCU). Gumbel was a year ahead of him at Trinity College, converted through the David MacInnes mission in February 1974, and used to carry pockets full of evangelistic tracts to distribute to all and sundry. Welby was taken to a CICCU evangelistic address by another friend, Nicky Hills, who himself had only been a Christian for six months. The address was uninspiring and Welby was 'bored out of my mind', but he and Hills spent the evening talking about what it means to be a Christian. Hills explained that Jesus had died for Welby on the cross and the future Archbishop prayed a prayer of commitment. He recalled: 'The penny dropped ... I asked Jesus to be Lord of my life ... The sense that something had changed was instantaneous'. He was discipled at Cambridge through Bash Camps and The Round Church, where he received his early grounding in Evangelical doctrine. The Cambridge years were of foundational significance in shaping Welby's Christian life.

Welby's priorities in ministry were further sharpened by his years as a lay leader at Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB), while he worked as a treasurer in the oil industry. The congregation enjoyed a period of rapid expansion and charismatic renewal in the 1980s. Their emphases were freedom in worship, intimacy with God, ministry with all the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and church growth. They learnt much from John Wimber and the Vineyard Movement. Wimber's friend, Peter Wagner, famously asserted, 'Planting new churches is the most effective evangelistic methodology known under heaven', so HTB translated these Californian principles into a Kensington context. Their earliest church plants were St Barnabas, Kensington in 1985 and St Mark's, Battersea Rise in 1987, the first of many, one of the reasons that London diocese has bucked the national trend of church decline over the last two decades. At HTB, immersed in a growing and innovative church, Welby learnt many of the key lessons he now brings to Canterbury. It was through listening to a visiting Vineyard preacher that he heard the call to ordained ministry. More recently his experience of dynamic growth amongst Anglican Evangelicals in Nigeria has convinced him that the same is possible in Britain. The Evangelicalism of California and Nigeria is a potentially explosive combination for the Church of England, and bound to shake up the status quo.

On the most controversial issues of the moment, Welby holds the classic Evangelical position on human sexuality. Speaking again at New Wine, he taught: 'sexual practice is for marriage, and marriage is between men and women, and that's the biblical position'. Although he acknowledges that this view is pastorally difficult, 'it's what the Bible says' and therefore the church needs to live by it. He is an enthusiastic supporter of the consecration of women bishops, but also 'personally deeply committed', as he recently told General Synod, to ensuring a 'proper place' for conscientious objectors. He promised his diocesan synod at Durham that he would 'spare no effort' to find a way for the Church of England to demonstrate, not only in words, that it values everyone.

Alongside his Evangelical heritage, Welby has been strongly influenced by Anglo-Catholic and Roman Catholic spirituality. For the last decade he has been a Benedictine oblate, attached to Elmore Abbey near NewburyButtet, founder of the Eucharistein community in Switzerland. These encounters have shaped Welby's sacramentalism and he receives Holy Communion every day as part of his personal spiritual discipline. He owes much to Roman Catholic social thought, encapsulated in papal encyclicals like Pope Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum, especially an emphasis on 'the common good' and 'human flourishing' which are regular themes in the Archbishop's teaching. He is vice-president of l'Association Internationale pour l'Enseignement Social Chretien (the International Association for Christian Social Teaching), a predominantly Roman Catholic organisation. Welby also enjoys regular spiritual retreats in France with Chemin Neuf, an ecumenical religious order founded in the 1970s by a young Jesuit who had experienced charismatic renewal. Its theological emphases are simplicity of life, ignatian spirituality, 'baptism in the Holy Spirit', mission and Christian unity. Chemin Neuf was the first to run the Alpha Course amongst Roman Catholics in France. This range of relationships is not typical for someone nurtured within English Evangelicalism, and provides the Archbishop with broad theological experience and perspectives.

Although the 'Evangelicalism' label will not often be heard at Lambeth Palace, that other momentous E-Word - 'Evangelism' - falls much more frequently from Welby's lips. His abiding passion is for people to come to faith in Christ and for churches to grow. As a young convert at Cambridge University he was an eager evangelist. For example, he took Michael Reiss (now a prominent professor of science education) to the CICCU mission addresses by John Stott in February 1977. Reiss had been raised in a secular family but found that Stott's expositions of the Christian gospel made sense and he put his faith in Christ. That pattern of evangelism has continued. Welby's desire, often articulated, is for every professing Christian in Britain to know how to lead their friends to faith in Christ. As a parish clergyman, cathedral dean and diocesan bishop, evangelism (not just generic "mission") was high on his agenda. At Liverpool Cathedral, the first person to his team was a Canon in Mission and Evangelism, a specialist in 'fresh expressions'. In Durham he has launched a rolling programme of deanery missions, emphasising that evangelism is not only the work of clergy or other specialists but of the whole people of God: 'We are looking for Cuthberts, not Billy Graham.'

Archbishop Welby agrees there are many strengths of the Anglican parish system, but 'we fish badly': 'The church is good at contact and presence but too often poor at bringing people to faith in Jesus. ... We are excellent at building bridges into the community and into society and rather less good at getting the gospel across the bridge, and bringing people back. Or to put it another way our net holds many but we land few.' His evangelistic passion is best encapsulated by a recent address to an Alpha Vision Day in Sheffield, attended by over 700 church leaders from across the north of Britain: 'We are facing in this country the greatest opportunity that God has given us since the Second World War. ... It is a moment of unique opportunity and the challenge that the Spirit is saying to the Church today is, "Will you take this moment and reverse the decline that we have seen for the last 70 or 80 years?"' With buoyant confidence in the grace and power of God, the new Archbishop believes that great things are possible in our generation. The task of the church, he insists, is 'to go out and ... to reconvert our land, to transform its society and all that goes with it.'

Something very big is happening in the Christian World

Is the split between the RC and Orthodox churches ending?

Something very big is happening in the Christian  world. In a few words...

 

For the first time in 1,000 years, His Holiness Bartholomew,(with the long white beard in the photo) the "First Among Equals" of the Orthodox Church, and whom we met in Istanbul, attended the inauguration of Pope Francis I in Rome.

This is the FIRST time since the split between the East and the West took place in 1054 that a Bishop of Constantinople will be at the coronation of a Pope in Rome.

 

(Starting 50 - 40 years ago) Roman Catholics, starting with Vatican II, and then moving through the last four popes have been able to speak as important voices in the world, especially with the media giving them a voice, and showing the huge drawing power they had.

Pope John Paul II was a master at this, and his speaking in 56 languages didn't harm his image, either. Pope Benedict XVI carried on the writing as a masterful teacher. I believe his personal library includes 200,000 volumes and a special building had to be prepared for his books - in many languages.

The emphasis of the RC Church towards the poor, but without losing its spiritual moorings, and also emphasizing the love of nature held by Francis of Assisi, is evident in Francis I, so is his evident humility and pastoral concerns.

On the part of evangelicals, as we 1) emphasized more and more the love of God combined with social action since about 1950, and 2) became less dogmatic about doctrinal issues, and 3) also less likely to criticize the erroneous beliefs of the RC Church towards prayers made to Mary,4)  obvious cases of discrimination towards Protestants in Southern Europe, Latin America and Africa, 5) prayers made to the saints and to Mary ... we began to see in the RC Church "distant brothers and sisters".

As the Untied Church, the Anglican / Episcopal church and other "mainline" denominations moved towards embracing homosexuality, we in the Protestant fold have begun to come together in greater affinity. Like Roman Catholics, most evangelicals tak a stand on Biblical sexual morality. Public debates resulting in  same-sex marriage in many countries, and the very real threats of civil servants actually losing their jobs when refusing  licences for marriages of same sex couples, shows that a Christian of any stripe who wants to obey Scripture is threated with a loss of their job. Thi is our "Secular world".

It is not just Secularism that is threatening Christians. The other major threat comes from the Muslim world, particularly around the Mediterranean Basin. Once the center of Christian faith and the most numerous, this region is losing its population to Paris, Melbourne, New York and other centers. Signs of new affinities within the Christian worlds are many and are found everywhere.

Two weeks ago, for the first time ever, Christians in Egypt formed an organization to embrace all Christians on a equal footing. Until now, the Coptic Christians refused to see other believers as being on the same level as themselves. This has changed with Moursi being the new president and with the amazing downwards spiral (in every sense) in Egypt. (Where I visited in the Valley of the Kings, and there were line ups to get buses, the average Egyptian today is fortunate to have a single customer, a single tourist. Egypt like many other nations around the Mediterranean is in free fall.)

I visited Iraqi Christians who participate in a church of 950 persons in London, Ontario. They are Chaldean Christians, refugees from Baghdad. Andrew White, the Vicar of Baghdad said goodbye to his church board when they left on a trip to Amman, Jordan. On their way back to Baghdad, all were killed at the same time.

The estimate of 300-400 Christians being killed daily around the world is shocking,. The secular press does not report on this, but gives long columns to homosexuality; same sex marriage; RC stand on contraception; RC issues of clergy abuse; still unresolved issues of the Residential schools; and unending friction between Christian denominations. Persecution against an estimated 200 million people in the world is relatively "unimportant". A single journalist killed on assignment in central Africa makes the news; church congregations killed at gun-point are not "news".

 

The total number of Christians dying for their faith is about the same as a 747 plane going down every day. Voices of the Martyrs and others are pointing out flash points. I don't see the Islam - Western Civilization divide being easily breached in the next several years.

So, as persecution, threats, killings and Internet be-headings take place, the tendency among Christians will be to see greater strength in unity. Evangelicals, especially are placing less emphasis on doctrinal issues and church government policies, on 'saints' and 'papal infalibility'.

So begins Millennium III, 1000 years after the Great Schism of 1054, which took place in the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul!

Jesus' Incredible Promise



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This gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. (Matthew 24:14)

I don’t know any more inspiring missionary promise than this word from Jesus.
Not: This gospel should be preached. Not: This gospel might be preached.
But: This gospel will be preached.

This is not a great commission, nor a great commandment. It is a great certainty, a great confidence.
Who can dare talk like that? How does he know it will? How can he be sure the church will not fail in its missionary task?

Answer: The grace of missionary service is as irresistible as the grace of regeneration. Christ can promise universal proclamation because he is sovereign. He knows the future success of missions because he makes the future. All the nations will hear!

A “nation” is not a modern “country.” When the Old Testament spoke of nations, it referred to groups like Jebusites and Perizites and Hivites and Amorites and Moabites and Canaanites and Philistines. “Nations” are ethnic groups with their own peculiar culture. Psalm 117:1: “Praise the Lord, all nations! Extol him, all peoples!”

As the sovereign Son of God and Lord of the church, Jesus simply took up this divine purpose and stated as an absolute certainty: “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world as a testimony to all the nations.”

The cause of world missions is absolutely assured of success. It cannot fail. Is it not reasonable, then, that we pray with great faith, that we invest with great confidence, and that we go with a sense of sure triumph? (From John Piper, "Then the End Will Come")

"You're a Champion - Now get out there and Run!"

10,000 runners begin the Istanbul Marathon

(A true story)
A young boy loved to run. Ari lived in a secluded area of the USA. One day he ran through the woods and found lots of boys running around a track. This was the first time he saw organized running and he loved it! The coach called him over, "I think you have potential to be a champion. Let me coach you."

Through middle school and then grades 9 and 10 he competed locally, always winning his school races. When he was taken to a Divisional Meet, Ari saw the much larger boys and heard their gruff voices. "We're going to leave you in the dust!" "No way! Look how small he is!"

Fearful of being shamed publicly he hid behind the bleachers and came out at the end of the race. "You didn't want to run that race, did you?" asked his coach. "Yes..." "No, you  didn't, why?"

"Because I was afraid of them. They're so much bigger."

"Nonsense! Look at the statistics. You run the 100, 200, 400, 800 and even the mile in better time than they do. You are a champion. Now, two months from now there's another track and field meet. Get out there and do what you are supposed to do!"

Ari raced the next time and won against the larger, heavier guys. He was a born runner.

In 1981, Ari Sorko-Ram founded Maoz Israel Ministries with his wife, Shira, a ministry in Israel that is a catalyst and vehicle for evangelism, training, translating, publishing, economic and disaster relief. It established and underwrites a Hebrew indigenous congregation in Tel Aviv. He was instrumental in the initiation of the modern Messianic Synagogue movement. Ari Sorko-Ram established on He chose 'to run the course' in Tel Aviv, using the same wisdom his coach gave many years ago. The congregation has brought many Jews to know the Jewish Messiah and the outreach of this congregation goes  far and wide, including poor Jews who need financial help to begin their own businesses, helping widows and orphans.

Today the Jewish Messianic movement is growing rapidly. (We'll write more on this later.) He often recalls that simple wisdom. "You' are a champion, no matter what others think! Now, get out on the track and run, like you are supposed to."

The Secret Assassination List

"The  Bible publisher murders (in Malatya, in 2007) were planned well in advance. The brutal massacre of three Christian missionaries who operated the Zirve Publishing House in the city of Malatya in 2007 was planned in a highly calculated manner, according to documents found on a computer belonging to a suspect in the killings have revealed.

What happens when people get carried away?

"Police have found a large number of documents that serve as evidence of how the murders were premeditated over a long period of time on a computer seized from the house of (an officer)-- one of the suspects in the Zirve trial. The hard drive of the computer includes video footage of the victims, phone conversation recordings belonging to them and a chart that details the organizational structure of Christian missionaries in Malatya.

" Victims Necati Aydın and Tilman Geske, a German citizen, had been tagged by the criminal network months prior to the murder, the documents on the computer show. In addition to Geske and Aydın, there is detailed information, complete with pictures and video recordings.

" The killers also had a list of missionaries residing in Turkey with personal information such as their passport numbers and detailed information about their families and residential addresses. Police have established that the documents were created by different members of the Gendarmerie Command in Malatya.

" The documents confirm the assertion of co-plaintiff lawyers in the trial that began four years ago that the gendarmerie was actively involved in the killings. The murders are believed to be part of a general plot targeting missionaries, devised either by Ergenekon -- a clandestine gang charged with plotting to overthrow the government -- or a related organization. Evidence that came out in the trials regarding the 2007 murder of journalist Hrant Dink, the 2006 killing of Father Santoro, an Italian pastor, in Trabzon and other attacks on non-Muslims shows that they are also likely to have come from the same master plan. Prosecutors and lawyers in these trials have found evidence linking these events to each other.

" It is not clear why Ergenekon or any other shady group inside the Armed Forces targeted Christian missionaries, but many coup plots that have been unearthed during the Ergenekon investigation and related trials now indicate that some groups inside these networks might have perceived missionaries as a threat.

" Observers have also recently suggested that extensions of Ergenekon and related structures are possibly still operative and currently very active. Recent attacks on elderly Armenians in İstanbul's Samatya neighborhood, threats directed at a protestant church in İzmir and the stoning of a Greek Orthodox church as of late might be the work of these same groups, many commentators note. Some also accuse the government of being negligent of the planned but foiled attacks against non-Muslims, and particularly missionaries, and therefore not actively encouraging prosecutors to investigate such crimes and bringing those behind them to justice."

Copied from Turkish Newspaper Zaman, Sturday, January 26, 2013

What to make of Pope Benedict XVI

Catholic populations are growing in the South America and Africa

(It is difficult for a Protestant to know how to understand the different currents in the Roman Catholic Church. The scandals of abuse by priests against children weigh heavily. Liberal proponents in the West want a more 'contemporary minded' pope in Rome. This quote, from an Anglican in South Carolina, William McKeachie, briefly notes Benedict's contribution in biblical theology. My Protestant friends in South America might not take such a compassionate stance, and Liberals in North America will have a different view, based on 'progressive' secularism.)

"Although I am no fan of the Curial system, of Tridentine ecclesiology, or of Rome’s soteriological compromises in dogma, it seems to this Anglican that Joseph Ratzinger was the providentially right man in the right job(s) for the last several decades.

He has helped steer the Roman Catholic Church closer to mutuality with Bible believing Protestants to a greater degree than any other pope since the Reformation; he has been a true mentor for orthodox Christians of many denominational stripes and an incomparably better biblical theologian than many who call themselves Protestant; and there has been no more stalwart spiritual warrior against the ideological assault on Christian civilization from without, and its betrayal from within, among his generation.
In the face of the twin twenty - first century threats to the Gospel from Mohammedanism [Islam] and Secularism, all adherents of Nicene Christianity are better equipped spiritually and intellectually to “fight the good fight” than they were before Benedict XVI’s pontificate.

As we await the emergence of his successor, thanksgiving for the servant leadership of Joseph Ratzinger during the last half century should be both oecumenical and fervent." Quoted from William McKeachie, March 6, 2013

Troy - Ancient City to (finally) get a Museum

Troy: a port city - excavations show nine periods of growth

(Incredibly, one of the most famous ancient sites in the world still has no museum. Further, with the constant flow of THOUSANDS of tourists, each paying a large entrance fee, this Turkish province at the mouth of the Dardanelles, has financial woes. Excavations were recently halted. Thus, this information today is good news for those interested in the interaction between ancient history and the Biblical narrative.)

The long-running excavations are of great significance to the Aegean side of Turkey and its archeology.  Troy is the place where pre-history began. Troy is the place where the first archaeological data relating to Homer’s epic was found. This means that this is not a surreal ancient city; this is the birthplace of archeology.
Excavations at the site of the ancient city of Troy, in the northwestern province of Çanakkale, began over 150 years ago, yet experts believe two or three more centuries of work will be needed to fully discover it.

There is huge potential for further excavation at the site, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University academic Rüstem Aslan told Anatolia news agency. “For the past 15 years, everyone has been discussing the dream of a Troy museum. The construction of the museum will start soon.”

Troy has been under excavation for 150 years by five different archaeologists.

“When digging first began in the soil of Troy, in 1863, the excavations were directed by Frank Calvert,” Aslan said. “It was later continued by German archaeologist Professor Manfred Osman Korfmann, in 1988. During that time the excavation area underwent huge changes.”

After Korfmann, Professor Ernst Pernicka took over the excavation works, but due to insufficient resources the excavation works stalled. Aslan said he himself had been involved in the excavations for 25 years.

Excavations at the site

Excavations at the site have also been carried out by foreign institutions. Germany’s Tübingen University has been conducting excavations since 1988-2005, first headed by Professor Korfmann and then taken over by Professor Ernst Pernicka in 2005. The university halted excavations due to financial problems in 2012. During the time of Korfmann, The Troy Foundation managed to accumulate sufficient resources to support the excavations.

In 1996 the area was turned into a national park, and in 1998 it was added to the list of UNESCO world heritage sites.

Noting that it is possible to excavate the ruins of Troy for another 300 years, as many parts of the site are still yet to excavated.

Aslan said Troy would become a source of huge prestige for Turkey. “The area is very important and it will contribute to the tourism in Çanakkale and the western side of Turkey a lot,” he added.

A recently published book of articles on Troy retraces the city’s excavation and its relation to Anatolian culture.

The articles had previously been published in magazines but were not easily accessible. “They are hard to find and have been forgotten over time. This is why we thought that we should collect important articles by Korfmann, and especially select those focusing on the fact that Troy is a part of Anatolian culture.”

Quoted from Hurriyet Daily News, Istanbul, Turkey, March 9, 2013

High Risk Boys overcoming the Risk in Wales - through a choir

A Group of At-Risk Boy's Sing a Heavenly Performance of You Raise Me UpThis all boy's Welsh choir was created to give young, at-risk boys a hope and a purpose in the midst of a despairing economic state. This performance of You Raise Me Up is so beautiful, that it will give you the chills!    This 2 minute 32 second video will lift you for the rest of the day.

http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=WKLYYWNX&utm_source=GodTube%20Must-See%20-%20Mobile&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=03/04/2013

The Prodigal Father - not the Prodigal Son

This amazing story makes sense, wherever the "home"

Two Brothers, the younger one "lost" far from home! The older brother 'lost' very close to home.

How many times have we looked at this incredible story told by our Master and asked, "Which of the two brothers are you? Which one of the brothers am I?"

I think explanations along these lines are wrong. Is there more than just a touch of both brothers in each of us? Have we not each gone our own way - going far from the Father's house, like the younger brother, finding our ways lead to little more than "husks offered to swine"? And, have we not acted in self-righteousness, upset that the Father is so generous towards those have been 'lost'?

It's not the 'prodigal son' that we are to compare ourselves to! It's the 'Prodigal Father'. We are 'lost' and need the rejoicing of a great party to welcome us home.

What words characterize the Father in Luke's story? Here are a few words describing the matchless character of the Father: compassion, forgiveness, unconditional love, welcoming, peace making, patience, happy to see the 'lost son' returning to his home. The overwhelming sense of generosity takes our breath away.

The Father runs toward his returning son, and as his been pointed out by Bailey, no man in the Middle East picks up his garment to run. The Father is not ashamed to run towards the son who is coming home. Jesus was not ashamed to sit with publicans and sinners, implying that he must have been seen at a bar or a pub, or someplace where many lost people were gathered.

The Father can't wait to celebrate. He is the one who wants to rescue the son, find the lost coing, search for the lost sheep - without consideration for his own comfort.

Now, the question comes to us: Having seen the Father in the Son, are we pressing forward towards the likeness of the Father?

Matthew 5:48 "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." Wow!

Immigration - A quiet revolution is remaking Canada

Vancouver hosts thousands of new comers to Canada

(Across the road from our home in Toronto, a restaurant was turned into a Muslim Prayer house two years ago. Last week, another block down the road, a large, well known, high end restaurant, became an 'unofficial mosque'. The 'white' patrons have disappeared. People in the area are up in arms because now there is not enough parking for the people arriving there, Muslims from many countries.

We in Canada are facing an opportunity of unprecedented proportions. People from every country under the world, with every kind of religious background, are being welcomed to our country. For Christians who understand the power of hospitality, who are able to live through the ambiguities of misunderstanding, we have never had a better time to show the love of Christ. We intend to return to this topic about profound social change in Canada.)

"The reason cabinet ministers have communications departments is so they can brag about themselves, and Jason Kenney is no slouch at the game.

A steady diet of self-congratulatory missives flows from the office of the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Canada, alerting Canadians to yet another example of political triumph, usually accompanied by a canned comment or two and a reminder that “Photos of Minister Kenney are available.”

Three such notices have recently informed members of the media (who, it is hoped, will pass on the news to Canadians at large, and especially to potential Conservative voters), of yet more examples of

"Without getting too overheated in the rhetoric department, it’s fair to say Mr. Kenney has fairly revolutionized Canada’s approach to new citizens. Among other initiatives he has toughened laws on human smuggling, frozen applications from grandparents and parents seeking to join children in Canada, eliminated a backlog of 280,000 would-be immigrants, cracked down on immigration consultants, tightened language requirements for new arrivals, introduced harsh penalties for people who lie on immigration forms and revamped citizenship documents to increase emphasis on Canadian culture and expectations.

Mr. Kenney’s mission to remake immigration as we know it. On Feb. 22 the ministry noted that, after just two short months, the number of asylum claims had plummeted, thanks to the introduction of stricter assessments.

Four days later it was revealed that the number of international students lured to Canadian universities had topped 100,000 for the first time, proof that Canada was “attracting and retaining the best and brightest immigrants from around the world.”

On Feb. 28 we learned that “Canada’s fastest growing immigration stream,” – which lets professionals and skilled workers cite Canadian experience as “a key selection factor” in applying to immigrate — brought the country more than 9,000 newcomers with needed skills last year. Photos of the minister available on request.

Mr. Kenney’s alterations are having a profound impact. How you react to that impact depends on how you view Canada: as a country that should open its doors and ask as few questions as possible, or as a culture that welcomes newcomers but sees membership as a privilege to be earned.

Under Liberal governments, Ottawa tended to view it as unseemly and selfish to probe too deeply into the personal affairs of newcomers, as if we had no right to ask. The result was lengthy waiting lists and a system internationally recognized as a soft touch.

The Conservative approach is unquestionably more demanding, but has also made Canada less open to abuse, and emphasizes that citizenship carries responsibilities as well as benefits.

The Liberals saw their no-questions-asked approach as a great way to win the loyalty of ethnic voters, and for a long time it was exactly that.

But Mr. Kenney also happens to be the man tasked by Mr. Harper with reversing that situation, and has managed to pull it off even while raising the bar on entry. 

Mr. Kenney has established himself as perhaps the most important member of the government not named Stephen Harper. With the possible exception of Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, there is no other minister whose decisions will have as profound an impact on Canada, in both the short and long term.

When analysts debate whether Mr. Harper has forever altered the Canadian landscape, many of the most critical changes originate either with Mr. Flaherty or Mr. Kenney. Even if he quit the portfolio tomorrow, it’s fair to say the changes introduced to Canadian citizenship and immigration will shape Canada for a generation or more."

From "National Post" newspaper, March 1, 2013

Muslims storm church in Egypt looking for woman suspected of converting to Christianity

LUXOR, EGYPT—Dozens of Muslim residents threw firebombs and rocks at police on Friday as they tried to storm a church in southern Egypt in search of a woman suspected of converting to Christianity, security officials said.

 

Clashes between Copts and Muslims usually are sparked by disputes over rumours of conversion, Muslim-Christian love affairs and the construction of churches. Violence between Egypt’s Christians and Muslims has risen in the past two years in the wake of the country’s uprising that ousted longtime President Hosni Mubarak, but also weakened security across the nation.

Officials said 11 policemen were wounded in the clashes in the town of Kom Ombo, which is near Aswan High Dam, about 980 kilometres south of Cairo. Coptic Christian activist Ibrahim Louis said 12 Christians also were wounded, including one man who was in serious condition.

The fighting erupted late Thursday night when hundreds of Muslim residents tried to get inside the church. Police used tear gas to keep the crowd from storming the church as some of the residents burnt tires along a major highway and cut off traffic. The clashes erupted again Friday afternoon when dozens of residents again threw firebombs and rocks at police. In anticipation of renewed clashes, police had set up checkpoints and increased their presence around the church.

Tensions rose after a 36 year-old Muslim woman, who has been missing for five days, was allegedly seen outside the church with a female Christian friend on Thursday. Some residents believe the woman, who is a teacher, converted to Christianity and is hiding inside the church. Others suspect she was forced into conversion and is being held against her will inside the church.

Egypt’s Coptic Christians, who make up about 10 per cent of the country’s 85 million people, have long complained of discrimination by the state. They are the largest Christian community in the Middle East. (This article appeared in Toronto's "The Star" newspaper on March 1, 2013