DOCSLIB.ORG

Asahel Grant's the Nestorians Or the Lost Tribes (1841) by H.L

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Asahel Grant's the Nestorians Or the Lost Tribes (1841) by H.L Asahel Grant's The Nestorians or the Lost Tribes (1841) By H.L. Murre-van den Berg Less than six years after the establishment of a Protestant mission station in Urmia (northwest Iran) in November 1835, the physician of the mission, Asahel Grant, published the first western monograph devoted entirely to the Assyrian people. This people, then known to the western public as the "Nestorians", had only recently been rediscovered in the west, among other things by a publication of two other American missionaries, Eli Smith and H. G. O. Dwight, who had visited the Urmia region as part of a missionary exploration tour around 1830. The establishment of the mission station in Urmia by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) was one of the policy decisions that arose out of the advice of these two travelers. Grant (born in 1807) and his wife Judith Campbell (born in 1814) had arrived in Urmia together with Rev. Justin Perkins (1805-1869) and his wife Charlotte Bass (1808-1897), and these four had been responsible for the initial successes of the "Nestorian Mission". During the first years of this mission, the activities had been limited to the Assyrians of the Urmia plain, but after a few years Grant had started to look for opportunities to extend the work to the Assyrians living in the Hakkari mountains. After his wife died in 1839, he took off for his first journey into the mountains and visited the head of the Church of the East, Mar Shimun XVII Auraham (in office from 1820 to 1860), in Qodshanis. He returned for a second visit the next year, after which he traveled on to the United States to entrust his motherless children into the care to family members. Two other important issues were settled during this furlough: Grant succeeded in acquiring permission from the Mission Board to establish a mission station in the Hakkari mountains and he saw his book through the press. After his return late in 1841, Grant immediately resumed his travels in the mountains, whereupon in the summer of 1842, he obtained permission from the patriarch and the Kurdish chief of Julamerik, Nurullah Bey, to settle in Ashita. In the meantime, H however, relationships between Kurds and Christians, somewhat tense already in 1840, had deteriorated considerably, culminating in the Kurdish attacks on Assyrians in the summer of 1843, and scattering all plans for Protestant mission work in the mountains. Grant, whose mission building in Ashita was later seen as one of the factors that had fuelled Kurdish suspicions of western support for the Assyrians, died the next year in Mosul, where he was involved in relief work for Assyrian refugees who had fled the mountains in the wake of the massacres. In his book, Grant makes clear that his strong attachment to the Assyrian people was based on a deep conviction that this people occupied a special place in God's divine economy. Naturally, Grant agreed with the reasons that other missionaries before him had given for this special place of the Assyrians among the mission work of the American protestants — their comparative purity as compared to other Eastern Christians (the "Protestants of Asia"), their opposition to Roman Catholic ("Papal") influences, and the glorious history of their missionary activities into Eastern Asia — like them, he was convinced that the Assyrians, once they had been sufficiently enlightened by Protestant missionaries, would prove a great help in the re-christianization of the "Bible Lands". However, for Grant, the Assyrians were even more special. Perhaps not surprisingly in view of the great attention that some of his contemporaries paid to the quest for the ten tribes — variously situated in Ethiopia, Afghanistan, India, and the United States — Grant became convinced that the Assyrians, together with the Jewish communities of the same region, were the true descendents of the ten tribes of Israel. This view firmly placed the Protestant mission among the Assyrians in a strong millennial setting in which the reawakening of the Assyrians could be equated with definite conversion of the whole of Israel, which then would be a sure sign of the approaching end of time, ushering in "the final and more glorious harvest of the Church" (p. 312). Many of Grant's arguments in favor of the identification of the Assyrians with the ten tribes are either not very convincing, e.g., his belief that the Modern-Aramaic language shared by Jews and Assyrians of this region is ultimately of a western, i.e. Palestinian, origin, or have not been confirmed by his contemporaries, in particular his assertion that both Jews and Assyrians of his day believed in their common ancestry as "Beni Israel". Other [ii] arguments, concerning the original region of settlement of the ten tribes, the mutually understandable language between Jews and Assyrians, and Assyrian manners and customs that are remarkably similar to Old Testament prescriptions might support theories of a Jewish origin of at least part of the early Assyrian converts, but, of course, do not inform us whether these "Jews" were from the ten or the two tribes. Luckily, the book is informative also in ways not directly related to his theory of the Israelite descent of the Assyrians. Grant's detailed descriptions of the Assyrian tribal communities in the mountains, his visits to chiefs, maliks, bishops, and the patriarch, his travels to and from Constantinople (once via Diyarbakir and Mardin), and Yezidi communities make interesting reading. Grant supplies us with a unique eye-witness account of the situation in the mountains on the eve of growing western and Ottoman influence, being the first westerner ever to travel into the heart of the Hakkari mountains who lived to write about it. Perhaps even more important, Grant also enables us to taste something of the life and thoughts of the early Protestant missionaries in the Middle East, some aspects of it sympathetic to modern-day readers, others not so much: the missionaries' strong biases against Eastern Christianity, Roman Catholicism and Islam and their naivete in dealing with the intricate political developments in the Middle-East, but also their strong attachment to the people they were working among, to the point of romanticizing their lives and origins, their commitment to the betterment of all peoples of the Middle-East, and their perseverance in adverse circumstances. Grant, who perhaps was more outspoken and romantic than many of his contemporaries, embodied these ideals as much as any one else. Leiden, March 13, 2002 [iii] .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • RISSIONS and MISSIONARIES PIETER N. HOLTROP and HUGH
    RISSIONS AND MISSIONARIES EDITED BY PIETER N. HOLTROP and HUGH McLEOD PUBLISHED FOR THE ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY SOCIETY BY THE BOYDELL PRESS 2000 CONTENTS List of Contributors vii Editors' Preface ix List of Abbreviations x The Vernacular and the Propagation of the Faith in Anglo-Saxon Missionary Activity i ANNA MARIA LUISEIXI FADDA St Willibrord in Recent Historiography 16 EUGÈNE HONÉE Political Rivalry and Early Dutch Reformed Missions in Seventeenth-Century North Sulawesi (Celebes) 32 HENDRIK E. NIEMEIJER The Beliefs, Aspirations and Methods of the First Missionaries in British Hong Kong, 1841-5 50 KATE LOWE Civilizing the Kingdom: Missionary Objectives and the Dutch Public Sphere Around 1800 65 JORIS VAN EIJNATTEN Language, 'Native Agency', and Missionary Control: Rufus Anderson's Journey to India, 1854-5 81 ANDREW PORTER Why Protestant Churches? The American Board and the Eastern Churches: Mission among 'Nominal' Christians (1820-70) 98 H. L. MURRE-VAN DEN BERG Modernism and Mission: The Influence of Dutch Modern Theology on Missionary Practice in the East Indies in the Nineteenth Century 112 GUUS BOONE 'Hunting for Souls': The Missionary Pilgrimage of George Sherwood Eddy 127 BRIAN STANLEY CONTENTS The Governor a Missionary? Dutch Colonial Rule and Christianization during Idenburg's Term of Office as Governor of Indonesia (1909-16) 142 PIETER N. HOLTROP Re-reading Missionary Publications: The Case of European and Malagasy Martyrologies, 1837-1937 157 RACHEL A. RAKOTONIRINA Women in the Irish Protestant Foreign Missions c. 1873-1914: Representations and Motivations 170 MYRTLE HILL There is so much involved ...' The Sisters of Charity of Saint Charles Borromeo in Indonesia in the Period from the Second World War 186 LIESBETH LABBEKE Missionaries, Mau Mau and the Christian Frontier 200 JOHN CASSON Index 217 VI WHY PROTESTANT CHURCHES? THE AMERICAN BOARD AND THE EASTERN CHURCHES: MISSION AMONG 'NOMINAL' CHRISTIANS (1820-70) by H.
    [Show full text]
  • Answering Christ's Call to Witness in the Middle East
    PRESBYTERIAN MISSION AGENCY / Spring 2015 pcusa.org/missioncrossroads mission ANSWERING CHRIST’S CALL TO WITNESS IN THE MIDDLE EAST AT THE CROSSROADS | By Amgad Beblawi, World Mission Area Coordinator for the Middle East and Europe Mission Crossroads is a Seeing the Middle East Presbyterian Mission Agency publication about the church’s through Christ’s call mission around the world. As reports of turmoil and conflict in the Middle East continue Presbyterian World Mission is to make news headlines, Western governments continue to committed to sending mission deliberate and strategize how to protect their national interests in personnel, empowering the the region. global church, and equipping On the other hand, the church’s outlook and response to events the Presbyterian Church (USA.) in the world is diametrically different. Compelled by the love for mission as together we address of God, the church responds to Christ’s call – “you will be my the root causes of poverty, work for witnesses” (Acts 1:8). reconciliation amidst cultures Christians in the Middle East have, in fact, been Christ’s witnesses since the Day of Pentecost. Successive generations of Christ’s followers proclaimed the of violence, and share the good Gospel to the region’s inhabitants for the past two millennia. However, since the dawn of Islam in news of God’s saving love the seventh century, Christians gradually became a small minority. By the beginning of the 19th through Jesus Christ. century, Orthodox, Assyrian, Maronite, and Eastern Catholic churches that trace their origin to the Apostolic Era were in a state of decline. EDITOR Presbyterian churches in the US and Scotland heard God’s call to send missionaries to Kathy Melvin strengthen indigenous churches in the land where Christianity had its cradle.
    [Show full text]
  • The Clarion of Syria
    AL-BUSTANI, HANSSEN,AL-BUSTANI, SAFIEDDINE | THE CLARION OF SYRIA The Clarion of Syria A PATRIOT’S CALL AGAINST THE CIVIL WAR OF 1860 BUTRUS AL-BUSTANI INTRODUCED AND TRANSLATED BY JENS HANSSEN AND HICHAM SAFIEDDINE FOREWORD BY USSAMA MAKDISI The publisher and the University of California Press Foundation gratefully acknowledge the generous support of the Simpson Imprint in Humanities. The Clarion of Syria Luminos is the Open Access monograph publishing program from UC Press. Luminos provides a framework for preserving and rein- vigorating monograph publishing for the future and increases the reach and visibility of important scholarly work. Titles published in the UC Press Luminos model are published with the same high standards for selection, peer review, production, and marketing as those in our traditional program. www.luminosoa.org The Clarion of Syria A Patriot’s Call against the Civil War of 1860 Butrus al-Bustani Introduced and Translated by Jens Hanssen and Hicham Safieddine Foreword by Ussama Makdisi university of california press University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu. University of California Press Oakland, California © 2019 by Jens Hanssen and Hicham Safieddine This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC license. To view a copy of the license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Hanssen, Jens, author & translator.
    [Show full text]
  • Personal Papers
    Personal Papers This is not a complete listing of all individuals for whom the Yale Divinity Library holds papers. For thorough searching, please use the Yale Finding Aid Database. See also microform collections such as "Women’s lives. Series 3, American women missionaries and pioneers collection" - University of Oregon Libraries. (Film Ms467) When an online finding aid for a collection is available, the record group number (e.g., RG 8) is linked to it. Hard copies are available for all record groups in the Special Collections Reading Room. Also available online is a geographical index grouping individuals and organizations by continent, region or country. For a list of abbreviations used in this chart, click here. Jump to: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z Abbott, Edward (RG 8) Collection of 57 photographs taken in China (1896-1900) primarily at American Church Mission stations and institutions. Also of interest: Imperial Examination cells at Nanking, Chinese Prayer Book Revision Committee. (.5 linear ft.) Abbott, James (Film Ms.121) Missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in New Zealand (1892-1896). (1 reel) Ableson, Bradford Edward (RG Prominent Yale Divinity School graduate, Captain in the Chaplain 222) Corps of the U.S. Navy, and clergyman. (11 linear ft.) Adams, Archibald (RG 8) ABFMS missionary to China, stationed in Suifu (Yibin) and Kiating (Leshan), Sichuan prov. (1914-1926); correspondence, writings, photographs of Peking, Western China, Buddhist funeral, people at work, etc. (1 linear ft.) Adams, Marie (RG 8) MEFB missionary in Peking (1915-1950); memoir, photographs and watercolors in silk cases, incl.
    [Show full text]
  • Kiepert's Maps After Robinson and Smith
    Haim Goren, Bruno Schelhaas Kiepert’s Maps after Robinson and Smith: Revolution in Re-Identifying the Holy Land in the Nineteenth Century Summary In the long history of Palestine research one interesting devel- aus den USA stammende Theologe Edward Robinson in Be- opment has to be noted. In the 19th century the Holy Land gleitung des Missionars Eli Smith eine Reise durch das Hei- was ‘rediscovered’, leading to the detailed use of all existing lige Land. Ihre Vorreiterrolle in der Erforschung des Heili- sources, the foremost being the Scriptures. The US theologian gen Landes und die ausführliche Rekonstruktion der Bibel als Edward Robinson, accompanied by the missionary Eli Smith, historisch-geographische Quelle wurde von ihren Zeitgenos- traveled in the Holy Land in 1838. The pioneering role in Holy sen anerkannt und stellte einen Meilenstein auf dem Weg der Land research, the detailed reconstruction of the Scriptures Palästinaforschung zur akademischen Disziplin dar. Ergebnis as a historical-geographical source was accepted by contempo- der Reise war ein umfassendes dreibändiges Werk, das mehre- raries – a milestone in the process of establishing Palestine re- re Karten des jungen Kartographen Heinrich Kiepert enthielt. search as a modern academic discipline. The voyage yielded a Mit diesen Karten wurde ein neues Narrativ im historisch- detailed, three-volume work, including various maps drawn by geographischen Diskurs eingeführt, das zu einer neuen Iden- the young cartographer Heinrich Kiepert. These maps estab- titätskonstruktion des Heiligen Landes führte. lished a new narrative within the historical-geographical dis- Keywords: Palästinaforschung; Kartographiegeschichte; Ed- course, leading to a new construction of the identity of the ward Robinson; Eli Smith; Heinrich Kiepert Holy Land.
    [Show full text]
  • Toward a Conceptual History of Nafir Suriyya Jens Hanssen
    Chapter 4 Toward a Conceptual History of Nafir Suriyya jens hanssen Both words of the title of al-Bustani’s pamphlets require inves- tigation, as well as his definition of them as wataniyyat: What did he mean by nafir and what would have been its connotations? And what did Suriyya mean to al-Bustani and his generation? Was it a description of a real territory or a potentiality? al-Nafir and Suriyya are terms that go back to antiquity, but neither had much traction outside liturgical literature until contact with Protestant missionaries gave them new political valence. al-Nafīr means “clarion” or “trumpet,” which was perhaps so self-evident that al-Bustani did not explain the term in his pamphlets.1 But in Muhit al-Muhit, he dedicated almost an entire page to the different declinations and meanings of the rootn-f-r (from the “bolting of a mare,” to “raising of troops,” “the fugi- tive,” “estrangement,” and “mutual aversion”), before defin- ing al-nafir itself: “someone enlisted in a group or cause,” and “al-nafir al-ʿam means mass mobilization to combat the enemy.” The Protestant convert al-Bustani also lists yawm al-nafir (Judgment Day)2 and informs the reader that al-nafir is also a trumpet or fanfare (al-buq)3 containing associations with Israfil, 45 46 / Chapter 4 the archangel of death alluded to in the Bible and the Quran.4 Then he mentions Nafir Suriyya itself as a set of “meditations on the events of 1860 published in eleven issues that we called wataniyyat.” Like many historians before us, we translate the term as “ clarion” in order to capture both the apocalyptic mood of the text and the author’s passionate call for social concord and overcoming adversity.5 At first sight, the term Suriyya is less complex.
    [Show full text]
  • Presbyterians in Persia: Christianity, Cooperation, and Control in Building the Mission at Orumiyeh
    Presbyterians in Persia: Christianity, Cooperation, and Control in Building the Mission at Orumiyeh by Natalie Kidwell Submitted to the Department of History of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for departmental honors Approved by: _________________________ Dr. Marie Brown Thesis Adviser _________________________ Dr. Anton Rosenthal Committee Member _________________________ Dr. Sam Brody Committee Member _________________________ Date Defended Kidwell 1 Table of Contents Introduction .......................................................................................................................................................................................2-3 Persia and Presbyterians ................................................................................................................................................................... 4 Persian government and foreign powers at play ........................................................................................................... 7-11 Education in Persia ................................................................................................................................................................. 12-14 Western Christianity in Persia ............................................................................................................................................ 15-25 Dwight and Smith ...........................................................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Mardin from Tales to Legends 2
    1 MARDİN FROM TALES TO LEGENDS 2 künye 3 MARDİN FROM TALES TO LEGENDS 4 Introduction Mesopotamia is among those few names in the world that almost everyone is familiar with. Think of a region that is the birthplace of many tools, philosophies, systems and religions. Think of a region that so much that it pioneered has been adopted throughout the world and has played such an important role in shaping everyday lives. Imagine a place which witnessed so much for the first time: first writing system, first state, first city, first water irrigation sysems, first law and many more. Mardin situated right at the centre of this incredibly rich region can therefore be seen as a fortunate city, blessed in history. It has Anatolia on one side and Mesopotamia on the other, an ancient region which transported so many innovations that had originated in the Middle East to the western world. Despite the common assumption, the word Mesopotamia is not of Middle Eastern origin. It comes from the ancient Greek root words mesos (middle) and potamia (rivers) literally meaning “(land) between rivers.” It is curious that although writing was introduced in the region almost 3000 years earlier than in Greece, the region’s name is of Greek origin rather than a Middle Eastern language. In Syriac, Mesopotamia is called Beth Nahrin. Composed of the words beth (house, land) and nahrin (two rivers), it literally means “the land of/between two rivers.” Based on this, it can be deduced that the region was named not by the Greek civilizations of the west but by the people of the region themselves.
    [Show full text]
  • Medieval Shiloh—Continuity and Renewal
    religions Article Medieval Shiloh—Continuity and Renewal Amichay Shcwartz 1,2,* and Abraham Ofir Shemesh 1 1 The Israel Heritage Department, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Ariel University, Kiryat Hamada Ariel 40700, Israel; [email protected] 2 The Department of Middle Eastern Studies, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 5290002, Israel * Correspondence: [email protected] Received: 25 August 2020; Accepted: 22 September 2020; Published: 27 September 2020 Abstract: The present paper deals with the development of cult in Shiloh during the Middle Ages. After the Byzantine period, when Shiloh was an important Christian cult place, it disappeared from the written sources and started to be identified with Nebi Samwil. In the 12th century Shiloh reappeared in the travelogues of Muslims, and shortly thereafter, in ones by Jews. Although most of the traditions had to do with the Tabernacle, some traditions started to identify Shiloh with the tomb of Eli and his family. The present study looks at the relationship between the practice of ziyara (“visit” in Arabic), which was characterized by the veneration of tombs, and the cult in Shiloh. The paper also surveys archeological finds in Shiloh that attest to a medieval cult and compares them with the written sources. In addition, it presents testimonies by Christians about Jewish cultic practices, along with testimonies about the cult place shared by Muslims and Jews in Shiloh. Examination of the medieval cult in Shiloh provides a broader perspective on an uninstitutionalized regional cult. Keywords: Shiloh; medieval period; Muslim archeology; travelers 1. Introduction Maintaining the continuous sanctity of a site over historical periods, and even between different faiths, is a well-known phenomenon: It is a well-known phenomenon that places of pilgrimage maintain their sacred status even after shifts in the owners’ faith (Limor 1998, p.
    [Show full text]
  • Eli Smith and the Arabic Bible
    ELI SMITH AND THE ARABIC BIBLE YALE DIVINITY SCHOOL LIBRARY OccasionalPublication, No. 4 YALE DIVINITY SCHOOL LIBRARY OccasionalPublication, No. 4 ELI SMITH AND THE ARABIC BIBLE by Margaret R. Leavy NEW HA VEN, CONNECTICUT 1993 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 Eli Smith and the Arabic Bible The A.B.C.F.M. Press in Malta 7 The Press in Beirut - A New Arabic Type 11 The Bible in Arabic 14 Note on Sources 22 Appendix: Eli Smith on the Difficulties of Translating 23 an Arabic Grammar: From a letter to Moses Stuart, reprinted in the Biblical Repository,vol. 2, January, 1832. Introduction This essay by Margaret R. Leavy was. commissioned to mark·the opening of two exhibits at the Yale Divinity School Library.: "Missionary Translators" and "The, Yale Missionary Bible Cpllection." Thes,e exhibits, prepared tO' G<>incidewith a symposium entitled LANGUAGE, CULTl.J!IB'AND TRANSLATION:·FURTHER: STUDIES :·IN THE MISSIONARYMOVEMENl', described the lives and werk of. various missionary translators and displayed products of their labors. Recent scholarsqip has drawn attention to the impact of Bible transJation on the social and cultural'{ievelopment of societies. Lamin.Sanneh, for e~ample, has pointed to the "connections between Bible· translatiqg· and related issues such as cultural self­ understanding·, vernacular pride~ ,social awakening, religious renewal'; cross-qultural dialogue, transmission and recipiency, reciprocity in mission~, .. "1 IA. his work Translatingthe Message:.The MissionaryImpact on -Culture,.Sannenfurther notes that: Tlie distinguishing mark of scriptural translation has been the effort to <;ome.as close as possible to the speech of the common people. Translators have consequently first de~oted much time, effort, and resources to building the basis, with investigations into the culture, history, language, religion, economy, anthropolo~y, and physical environment of the peoI?le concerned, before tackling tlteir 'concrete task.
    [Show full text]
  • “Native Christians Massacred”: the Ottoman Genocide of the Assyrians During World War I
    Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal Volume 1 Issue 3 Article 8 December 2006 “Native Christians Massacred”: The Ottoman Genocide of the Assyrians during World War I Hannibal Travis Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/gsp Recommended Citation Travis, Hannibal (2006) "“Native Christians Massacred”: The Ottoman Genocide of the Assyrians during World War I," Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal: Vol. 1: Iss. 3: Article 8. Available at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/gsp/vol1/iss3/8 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Open Access Journals at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal by an authorized editor of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ‘‘Native Christians Massacred’’: The Ottoman Genocide of the Assyrians during World War I Hannibal Travis Florida International University College of Law The Ottoman Empire’s widespread persecution of Assyrian civilians during World War I constituted a form of genocide, the present-day term for an attempt to destroy a national, ethnic, or religious group, in whole or in part. Ottoman soldiers and their Kurdish and Persian militia partners subjected hundreds of thousands of Assyrians to a deliberate and systematic campaign of massacre, torture, abduction, deportation, impoverishment, and cultural and ethnic destruction. Established principles of international law outlawed this war of extermination against Ottoman Christian civilians before it was embarked upon, and ample evidence of genocidal intent has surfaced in the form of admissions by Ottoman officials. Nevertheless, the international community has been hesitant to recognize the Assyrian experience as a form of genocide.
    [Show full text]
  • Full of Stones
    Lausanne World Pulse, P.O. Box 794, Wheaton, IL 60189. E-mail: [email protected] A FREE monthly, online magazine that provides you with missions and evangelism news, information and analysis. NOVEMBER 2005 issue WORLD NEWS BRIEFS BELARUS Two months after a regular Sunday morning service of the New Life Church in Minsk was raided by police, a court fined the church’s administrator Vasily Yurevich the equivalent of 160 times the minimum monthly wage for organizing what the court called an “illegal” service. Yurevich told Forum 18 News Service that Judge Natalya Kuznetsova ignored church members’ insistence that he had not organized the service, while the court decision maintained that the judge “believes offender Yurevich is trying to evade responsibility for what has been committed.” This is Yurevich’s second massive fine and he fears further fines in the wake of a recent police raid of a church service. (Forum 18 News, http://www.forum18.org/ Archive.php?article_id=661) BELARUS After spending more than thirteen years in Soviet labor camps for his faith, Pastor Ernst Sabilo has promised that the Belarusian Evangelical Church he leads in Minsk will continue to meet for worship despite the recent liquidation of its legal status by the city court. Belarus’ restrictive 2002 religion law bans unregistered religious activity. The liquidation came a month after the same court liquidated a Calvinist church. Other religious communities which failed to gain re-registration by the deadline also remain uncertain as to the legality of their parishes as well. (Forum 18 News, http://www.forum18.org/ Archive.php?article_id=664 CANADA After serving with Christian Reformed World Missions in the Philippines for nearly a decade, Ontario native Rev.
    [Show full text]