News, August 2006

News from the Churches

Summer outreach reports are starting to come in. Galicia fires cause at least one summer camp for children to close. New agreements with the government are bringing joy and grief to the churches. A new radio programme will go out on national radio from September, while many prison visitors are now banned from jail. Meanwhile, summer has brought not only campaigns to city streets, but also many church youth and children are out of town for camps. Read on!

5000 were reached by the puppets of Titriteros para Cristo in Ciudad Real during early August. Decision's outreach photos are also on line. Other outreaches are also posting reports.

The summer camp of the brethren assembly in Marín in Galicia, one of Spain's historically largest churches, has had to close temporarily due to the fires burning close by. Fire broke out some 2 km away on the afternoon of 7th august. Some 80 camp participants were affected, as well as numerous parents and other visitors (some 300 in all) who were there when the fire broke out.

National radio programme gets goahead The national station Radio Nacional de España has just awarded the evangelicals, jews and muslims a shared programme on Sunday mornings from 17th September. Called Faith and living together, each of the faith groups will have a slot in the Sunday morning schedule, starting at 6.00 a.m. The evangelical slot, of 15 minutes will be called Protestant World.

The agreement was made on 20th July at a meeting of the directors of the equivalent TV programmes and the management of the radio station. The agreement came as a result of pressure from the evangelical federation, FEREDE, which brought about an initial interview in May. In this way, the religious monopoly of Roman Catholicism on the public service station comes to an end. FEREDE will continue to press the state for an end to the Catholic monopoly on ownership of radio stations as such.

New regulations for prison visiting have been accepted by the different faith groups, including the Evangelical Federation, FEREDE. This means only fully employed (and included in the special Social Security system for pastors) 'Ministers of Religion' have the right to enter prisons for religious purposes. As a result, most of the churches' appointees for prison visiting are now excluded, since they are non-employed church ministers and elders or specially trained volunteers. Under the previous system, all these people were acceptable. Nor are the ministers allowed to take in others to accompany them. As a result, over-worked and under-paid (but paid!) pastors have to do everything, while volunteers are left frustrated at the prison gates. These include many from the well-established MEP (Ministerio Evangélico en Prisiones).
To stress the importance of this prison visiting ministry, we rejoice at the news that on 21st July 22 prisoners were baptised at Huelva prison, close to Seville. Church members were allowed to join the pastors and prisoners at the prison's pool side for the ceremony.

The 2nd National Leadership Congress will take place on 11th to 13th October with guest speaker Paul Yonggi Cho. Cho will be in Las Palmas at a crusade with the Korean church on the 11th and join the Congress for the 12th and 13th. !2th October is Spain's national day. The first Congress took place in 2004 and guest speaker was David Wilkerson. AoG.

At this time of yeaar many churches and organisations are organising outreaches. Here is a list of some of these events.

With schools out for 2 1/2 months, many churches and inter-church groups are organsing Summer Camps for the children.

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