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News, November 2006News from the ChurchesThe ship, Logos 2 is visiting the Canaries, Ceuta and Melilla. The Valdepeñas Evangelical Church has placed the foundation stone for a new building 90 years on. Nueva vida radio installs better antenna in Almería, while Radio Sevilla has just signed up for a family life based weekly programme. Evangelical organisations celebrate anniversaries. A prostestant woman pastor is Bible teacher at a Catholic university! Read on! The OM ship Logos 2 is visiting Spain! The ship is making final, farewell visits to Grand Canary, Ceuta and Melilla,, the latter its home port in its earlier life as the Antonio Lazaro, part of the state owned Trasmediterranea fleet of ferries. After 17 years of service, the ship will be replaced next year by the Logos Hope, currently being rebuilt for OM service. From the Logos 2 web site: Originally, Logos II wasn’t planning to welcome visitors in the Canary Islands. After crossing the Atlantic, the ship needed to briefly load supplies of fresh water before sailing on into the Mediterranean. However, the stay is becoming a little longer with maintenance work now taking place on the vessel’s main engine. None of this is bad news for the Las Palmas public, who are happy to have the ship and crew back in the Canary Islands. The ship is now welcoming visitors on board and the book fair is open until Friday 24th November. Dates of the visits: On 7th October, the church in Valdepeñas laid the foundation stone for a new building, 90 years after it was first founded by the Spanish Gospel Mission. Incredible, but true: the local authorities are providing the ground and paying the architect, in recognition of the importance of the church in the town. Many evangelical leaders across Spain grew up in this church. Concert time! The Continentals have just been on tour in Spain, giving 7 concerts across the peninsula between 28th October and 3rd November. Then, on 19th November, the Madrid Gospel Choir gave a concert in aid of the Evangelical social service organisation Diakonia, with guest singer Bob Bailey, once grammy nominee and collaborator with Ray Charles, Nat Cole, BB King.... Radio waves, good news and bad! Nueva Vida (New Life) radio in Almería has just installed a new antenna 1000m above the city enabling much better reception across the city and out towards the region's coastal resort. Meanwhile, Radio Seville has an evangelical programme. As from 10/10 at 10 p.m., Juan Varela of Campus Crusade's Family Life Andalucía office directs a weekly one hour programme with music, chat and messages of hope for the family. At 10 p.m., this is hardly prime radio time, but much better than most stations are willing to offer. Radio Seville is one of the city's most popular stations. On the other hand, Radio Encuentro, a radio station which broadcast to the Madrid area for a number of years has had its accounts embargoed due to a court case against it for interference with state owned Radio 5. A fine has been referred to a higher court, but this has not deterred the authorities from their confiscation of its funds. It has continued to operate over the Internet since the airwaves of Madrid were closed to all evangelicals wishing to broadcast, despite the fact that the Catholic Church has numerous stations. The law is very messy and the most powerful usually come out on top. A new State financing model for the Catholic church has just been approved. The government is also in discussions with Evangelicals and other recognised religious groups over adoption of the same model. The idea is for tax payers to select which religious body to give 0.7% of their tax bill. While the Catholic church is one organisation, almost each evangelical church is independent, thus complicating maters, but government is now discussing options with the representative body FEREDE. On the other hand, many evangelicals don't want to be 'on the record', after having experienced not just discrimination, but also physical persecution in their lifetime. Until 1967 only Roman catholicism was permitted as the religion of the Spaniards. Anniversary Time! The evangelical churches' federation, FEREDE, is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the formation of its forerunner the Commission for the Defence of the Evangelical Churches, back in times of religious intolerance during the Franco regime. And the Catalan churches' council is also celebrating, this time 25 years of existence. During these years the two organisations of churches have achieved much for their member churches in terms of recognition. Not all agreements with the authorities have been quite to the liking of all, but almost noone would have us return to the times of persecution and intolerance which live on in the memory of older church members. Autumn is conference time! A number of significant conferences are taking place this autumn. Perhaps the most significant, internationally, is one for Latin Americans working in or interested in missions, organised by COMIBAM in Granada in mid-November. A prostestant woman pastor has just taken up a post as teacher of Biblical Theology and the Anthopology of Judaism at Deusto University in Bilbao. Dr Lidia Rodríguez is from Valencia. This is one of Spain's leading Roman Catholic universities and it is the first time since the heady years of the reformation that a follower of Luther's teachings has been found in such a position. The previous ones were all burnt at the stake or in effigy after a timely escape to northern Europe! A number of articles appeared in September in the press reflecting the reality that are the evangelicals in Spain. El País praised the Madrid Gospel Choir as being well worth hearing, while La Vanguardia reported on the only fully registered church in Turkey in 83 years of 'secular rule', led by a Catalan pastor. |