Latest news with #Christians
The Hindu
an hour ago
- Science
- The Hindu
300 students take part in free career counselling
Indian Christian Journalists' Collective, in collaboration with Unicorpus Health Foundation, organised a free career counselling programme at CSI Institute of Technology, Secunderabad. About 300 students took part, both offline and online, for guidance and know-how on career paths in engineering, medicine, agriculture and allied fields. Telangana Council of Higher Education secretary Sriram Venkatesh said prospects in core subject areas in engineering are bright as the State gives it special importance. Computer Science and Engineering professor at JNTU-Hyderabad Raju said students need not feel anxious about trend shaping courses such as AI. Expert sessions were led by Sita Laxmi of CSIIT's School of Architecture and Planning, Samson Sujith Kumar and Shilpa Gaddam of Unicorpus Health Foundation for medicine stream, and of Prof. Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University on agriculture and allied courses. Manasseh John Wesley, founder of Kareerkindle, an EduTech platform Career building and upscaling platform for students addressed the aspirants. Telangana State Christian Minority Corporation chairman Deepak John said representation of more Christians in public sector employment must be encouraged. Telangana Minority Commission vice-chairman B. Shanker Luke wanted more such interactive session to be conducted for students. ICJC Chairman K. Stevenson said they were planning to conduct job fair and digital health and wellness campaigns too.
New Indian Express
2 hours ago
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Nimisha Priya case: Sheikh Habib has close ties with Kerala, visits Kanthapuram's institutions often
KOZHIKODE: Sheikh Habib Umar bin Hafiz, who initiated talks with the officials in Yemen and with the relatives of the person murdered by Nimisha Priya, has close ties with Kerala and is a regular visitor to the institutions run by Kanthapuram A P Aboobacker Musaliyar. A prominent figure in the Ba Alawi Tariqa in the Sufi order, Habib Umar is the founder of Dar al-Mustafa, a religious institution in Tarim in Yemen. Many from Kerala had studied at the institution before the internal strife in the country. He figured in the list of 500 most influential Muslims prepared by Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre in Jordan and George Town University in the USA. His students say that Habib Umar commands respect among all sections in Yemen, barring a few extremist groups. It was his stature that helped him to depute his men to have a dialogue with the officials and the relatives of Talal, the person murdered by Nimisha. Habib Umar was present for the inauguration of the mosque at Knowledge City and the Ma'din Sadath Academy in Malappuram. He created a platform called 'A Common Word Between US and You' in 2007 which works for coordination between Muslims and Christians.
The Sun
4 hours ago
- Politics
- The Sun
Church of England removes outdated sexuality document for clergy selection
LONDON: The Church of England's governing body voted on Tuesday to do away with requiring those who want to become clergy to agree to a 1991 document on sexuality, saying some of the assumptions in the paper now appeared prejudicial and offensive. The document, titled 'Issues in Human Sexuality,' described 'homosexual practice as especially dishonourable' and called on homosexual Christians to lead a life of abstinence. The mother church of 85 million Anglicans worldwide said the decision, which marks another step towards making the Anglican faith more inclusive for the LGBTQ+ community, was independent of the ongoing 'Living in Love and Faith' process that is exploring sexuality and marriage. The CoE's decision to allow blessings for same-sex couples in 2023 deepened divisions both at home, where it is the established church, and in Anglican strongholds in Africa and Asia, where homosexuality remains illegal in some countries. The motion to change the vocations process was passed overwhelmingly at a meeting of the General Synod, made up of bishops, clergy and laity, the CoE said. It added that the move does not alter the Church's doctrine. The paper was originally intended as a teaching document, but had assumed a more definitive role to set out expected conduct within the Church's discernment and vocations process. The 48-page document states that 'homophile orientation and its expression in sexual activity do not constitute a parallel and alternative form of human sexuality as complete within the terms of the created order as the heterosexual.' 'A paper introducing the item to Synod members noted that the tone, language, and some of the assumptions in 'Issues' are now contextually inappropriate, and appear prejudicial and offensive to many people,' the CoE statement said. Charles Bączyk-Bell, an openly gay Anglican priest from London, said the document was dated even at the time of publication, and that it had been used to screen people out of the ordination pathway. 'Now it has gone ... it opens the way for liberalisation of the church's policy on same sex relationships and means we can stop using it as a kind of reference text,' he told Reuters. - Reuters
Boston Globe
6 hours ago
- Politics
- Boston Globe
John MacArthur, firebrand preacher and culture warrior, dies at 86
Advertisement His church's growth defied conventional wisdom about 'seeker-sensitivity,' a model that emphasized appealing to non-churchgoers. Rev. MacArthur rejected a more accessible evangelical preaching style that favored ostensibly real-life anecdotes and practical applications. His dogged emphasis on expository preaching -- narrowly focused on the meaning and historical context of a particular piece of Scripture -- influenced thousands of conservative Protestant pastors who studied at the seminary he led, or simply listened to his sermons on the radio or online. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'Evangelicalism is a pulpit-driven movement, and John has driven the most influential pulpit in evangelical Christianity for more than a half a century,' R. Albert Mohler Jr., the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, in Louisville, Ky., said in an interview this year. In recent years, Rev. MacArthur increasingly waded into political and cultural skirmishes. He denounced critical race theory and became a leading Christian critic of 'wokeness.' After his church closed for several months at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, it defied state public health orders and began holding indoor in-person services. The church later received an $800,000 settlement from the state and Los Angeles County, after suing on the grounds that the restrictions impinged on religious freedom. Advertisement In August 2020, Rev. MacArthur told an interviewer for a podcast associated with Liberty University that President Trump had called him to thank him for 'taking a stand' on church closures. The two men discussed why 'Christians could not vote Democratic,' MacArthur said. 'There's no way that a Christian could affirm the slaughter of babies, homosexual activity, homosexual marriage, or any kind of gross immorality.' Rev. MacArthur didn't just clash with secular authorities and liberal politicians. More often, he took on perceived enemies within Christianity. He preached on the errors of Roman Catholicism and published multiple books on the dangers of charismatic theology and the prosperity gospel -- strains of Protestantism that emphasize miraculous healing and promises of wealth, and that flourished over the course of his lifetime. He attacked popular evangelical figures including the Bible teacher Beth Moore and various pastors, including televangelists Robert Schuller and Joel Osteen, always citing specific Bible verses in his critiques. His interest in threats to Christianity from within was evident early on: He wrote his graduate thesis on Judas Iscariot, the apostle who betrayed Jesus in the Gospels' account. Rev. MacArthur's preaching style was deceptively simple. He would speak for about 45 minutes, walking his congregation line by line through a single Bible passage. He also produced a popular study Bible and a 33-volume set of New Testament commentaries, among many other books. Advertisement His critics said that he misled listeners by insisting that even the thorniest passages in the New Testament had a single clear, true meaning. To his supporters, this was exactly the point. Unlike liberal pastors and academics, Rev. MacArthur believed that 'there's a historical, grammatical, literal sense to the text that can be derived through study,' said Austin Duncan, the director of the MacArthur Center for Expository Preaching at the Master's Seminary in Sun Valley, Calif., which Rev. MacArthur had founded in 1986. 'It isn't a subjective thing, it's an objective reality.' In 1985, Rev. MacArthur became president of the former Los Angeles Baptist College, now known as the Master's University. He opened the Master's Seminary soon afterward to train men -- and only men -- to become pastors. Unlike many pastors who ascend to a national platform, Rev. MacArthur never gave up his local role: He was the head pastor at Grace Community Church for more than 56 years. An online archive of his sermons includes more than 3,000 recordings. Known in many evangelical circles as simply 'JMac,' he had a preaching approach that translated well overseas, where it required little cultural interpretation. His books have been translated into at least 40 languages. And even his older sermons have not aged as noticeably as more recent ones from other pastors, who make frequent reference to pop culture or newspaper headlines. Rev. MacArthur 'inspired thousands of pastors to believe that explaining what the Bible means honors God, saves people, and is just plain interesting,' John Piper, a retired pastor and popular theologian in Minnesota who was a longtime friend, said in an email. 'To this day, from Dallas to Dubai, young people (especially men) come up to me and say that they listen to John MacArthur.' Advertisement John Fullerton MacArthur Jr. was born June 19, 1939. He was the eldest child of Jack MacArthur, a Baptist pastor, and Irene (Dockendorf) MacArthur, who managed the home. The family lived briefly in Philadelphia and Chicago during his childhood, but he was raised primarily in Southern California, where he would spend the rest of his life. He spent a few years at the fundamentalist Bob Jones University, following his father's prodding, and then transferred to Los Angeles Pacific College to play football and other sports. Rev. MacArthur was a fifth-generation preacher. His grandfather, Harry MacArthur, had a live weekly radio and television program in the 1940s, 'The Voice of Calvary.' His father eventually took it over, and Rev. MacArthur began preaching occasionally on Sunday evenings. He married Patricia Sue Smith, whom he met at his father's church, in 1963. In addition to his wife, he leaves their four children, Matthew, Marcy Gwinn, Mark, and Melinda Welch; two sisters, Jeanette DeAngelis and Jane Walker; 15 grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren. He arrived at Grace Community Church in February of 1969. On his first Sunday, the 29-year-old preached to his new congregation on three verses from the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew. In the passage, Jesus says that not everyone who professes faith will enter the kingdom of heaven. Most American church members, Rev. MacArthur told his congregants, were likewise 'dead spiritually.' Advertisement He intended to nurture Grace as a living church, which to him meant one that boldly proclaimed the truth, no matter if it led to conflict. 'The church must be the conscience of the world,' he said. 'The church must be so well defined that it becomes the antagonist of the world.' This article originally appeared in
Rudaw Net
7 hours ago
- Business
- Rudaw Net
Cardinal Sako urges Iraqi PM to halt ‘violations' against Christian sites in Najaf
Also in Iraq Senior KDP, PUK figures to meet Iraqi PM amid financial crisis Iraq's three presidencies condemn 'drone attacks' on Kurdistan oil fields Kurdistan Region presidency condemns drone strikes on oil fields, urges Baghdad to act Iraq signs oil deal with US firm A+ A- ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church, on Tuesday called on Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani to intervene and halt what he described as violations against sacred Christian sites in the southern province of Najaf. This follows reports that land belonging to historic Christian cemeteries is being considered for investment projects. In a statement, Sako Cardinal Sako cited a 'reliable source' in Najaf indicating that 'ongoing attempts are underway to convert historic Christian cemeteries into investment sites.' He highlighted two specific cemeteries under threat: the al-Manathira Cemetery, which houses 'prominent patriarchal tombs,' and the "Umm Khashm Cemetery for Christian Manathira,' both located in Najaf. Sako urgently appealed to Sudani to ensure that 'these archaeological sites are protected and fenced,' and that 'no approval is granted for private investment projects that would erase their historical and religious features.' He proposed instead that these Christian heritage sites be preserved and developed into religious and cultural tourism destinations, generating long-term economic benefits for the country. Beyond threats to their heritage, Iraq's Christian community has suffered significant decline over the past two decades. Their population has dwindled from an estimated 1.5 million before the 2003 US-led invasion to roughly 250,000 today. The mass migration of Christians was further accelerated by the rise of the Islamic State (ISIS) in 2014, when the extremist group captured large swathes of northern and central Iraq.
