News, September '04

September 28th, resumé.

(Church and Sport news click more) ETA video rejects regional president Ibrarretxe's plan for peace and justifies violence; imprisoned ETA members gave contact for 3/ bombers to get explosives; several bombs have ben placed at the foot of power line towers in the past 2 weeks - most have been defused in time, with no victims; newly approved divorce law likely to cause more marriage breakdown as separation proven to allow reconciliation; Barcelona's Forum of the Cultures has closed after 141 days of activity, the last week being finally very busy after a slow start, while conclusions remain as divided as the opinions expressed before the start; 700 hectares burnt close to Costa Brava - fires still out of control due to strong Tramuntana winds.

Sport:

Principe de Asturias Sport Prize This year it goes to Olympic double winner Hicham El Guerrouj, who just beat Carlos Sainz, the rally driver, in voting.

Olympics Spain finally achieved better results than expected, with a total of 19 medals, including 3 gold and 11 silver placing it in 20th position. More: http://www.prayforspain.com/archive/p14/art0.html
Football (soccer): Champions' League underway: Valencia and Barcelona beat their oponents; R Madrid and Deportivo lost games; after 2nd League round, Real and Atletico Madrid lead alongside Barça - Atletico is bouncing back after years in the doldrums; David Owen made a great debut with Real Madrid in the League, helping to line up the first game's winning goal; Barça now has two evangelicals, as Edmilson has joined Sylvinho there - both are Brazilians and members of Athletes for Christ; Spain drew with Bosnia in first official game for World Cup qualification.
Motor: Bikes: Czech GP, Gibernau won, good results in 250 and 125; Rally: Carlos Sainz wins 26th Rally victory in Argentina to become record holder of rally victories; F1 Chinese GP: Fernando Alonso finished in 4th position - currently Alonso is in 4th championship position, having overtaken team mate Trulli; the top 3 positions are now unchangeable.
Cycling: the 2004 Vuelta Ciclista de España was one of the most exciting for years, with the final day's chrono into Madrid determining the winner, Roberto Heras, who held off new-comer Santi Perez, the Vuelts's revelation and winner of several stages including the last one; this was Heras's 3rd victory in the race; Australia's Matthew White hung on in valliant last position for most of the 3 week race; course (and other daily info) is available at: http://www.lavuelta.com/04/ingles/recorrido/index.asp
Tennis Davis Cup team through to final against USA after defeating France

Churches

FEREDE announces new web page with directory The national federation of evangelical churches has, after a year without a proper web site, now gone online with its new web. A significant help will be the directory of member churches. http://www.ferede.org

Girona Gospel Concerts A series of concerts will take place in October. Full details: http://www.prayforspain.com/projects/index11.html

Protestant Cesar Vidal to present programme on Catholic radio station Cope. Cesar Vidal is a well known journalist and TV presenter, as well as being a Doctor in Theology. But his nomination has caused ripples of delight and criticism that the station sponsored by the RC church should appoint an evangelical to present a programme. La Linterna (the torch) is a popular programme on the station. Vidal also has a column on http://www.protestantedigital.com

[Image 19???]Prince Felipe and princess Letizia thank the evangelicals. The Ferede sent them a gift on behalf of the churches for their wedding in May.

Rights claimed: Protestants, Jews and Muslims, through their official representative bodies, claim the same advantageous financial rights as Roman Catholics. The 3 recognised minority religions have for years demanded an end to the unconstitutional financing by the 'lay' Spanish State of the Catholic Church. Now they are changing their tune and demanding that they, too, should be financed by the State. The argument is primarily economic, but the events of 3/11 and the change of government have caused some significant rethinking all round. Evidently, there is concern about state intervention in church life which has prevented the protestants from adopting this position before, but the current state of things causes much discrimination. Evangelicals will surely be divided on this new position!

Both Roman Catholic and Evangelical churches are campaigning against the government plans to extend 'marriage' to same sex couples.

Sources El Mundo, TVE, EP, ACPress, Ferede