News, December 2007

News from the Churches

Arriving at the Congress

TVE announces Christmas service. As Spain enjoyed a long weekend (6th to 9th), Spanish evangelicals gathered in Barcelona for the 7th Protestant Congress. Zaragoza water Expo gives go-ahead to Agua Viva Christian pavillion. Catalan government to regulate 'Places of Worship', while churches elsewhere end up on the street. People Sans Frontieres. Vademecum goes online. This and more... Read on!

Buenas Noticias TV will again televise a Christmas Service, which goes out on TVE2 on 23rd December. This is the second year that the public service channel TVE has broadcast an evangelical Christmas service. Windows users will be able to view it here.

Pablo Simarro, Congress President

The 7th Spanish Evangelical Congress is now over. The gathered mission and church leaders and members were able to express their very diverse unity in an action packed programme of plenary sessions, seminars and workshops on a wide variety of subjects. For many, the informal encounters with friends and fellow workers from other parts of the country were the most significant part of the event. We should be able to place a full article soon.

Recently Protestante Digital suffered a major hacker attack, which put the site off the internet for half an hour. It appears that someone is getting upset at the level of interest that webs like ours are producing in Spain. Thank you for praying for the ministries informing about the reality of God's People in Spain. For sure, Protestante Digital recently published its 200th weekly edition.

7th December. Agua Viva (Living Water) has finally got the go-ahead to prepare a pavillion at the Zaragoza Universal Expo next summer. The group which has previously produced the Pavillion of Promise in Expos such as Seville '92, Hannover and Lisbon, had been one of the first to request a pavillion in the 2008 Water Expo. But from the outset, the organisers were set against allowing religious groups access. Now -last week it was confirmed-, they have changed their mind and from 14th June to 14th September, 2008 an evangelical pavillion will present the Living Water to a thirsty world. They have been acknowledged as a 'nation', so the pavilion's leaders say we must now act as a Holy People'! 6 million are expected to visit the Expo, including 4.5 million Spaniards. Volunteers are now being sought to join the pavillion team.

The Bible Society has just launched a DVD Bible in Spanish sign language.

The Catalan Generalitat has announced it plans to regulate 'places of worship'. Although we are unsure quite what this entails, it is intended to provide guidelines on what kind of building can be used as a place of worship and to limit the powers of town halls to set their own standards. One of the problems is that evangelicals and muslims have found it very difficult to find suitable buildings at reasonable prices in many places and end up renting shop front 'locals' which are often barely suitable.
Meanwhile, some local authorities demand that the churches fulfil the requirements for a discotheque or theatre, providing all kinds of facilities and sound proofing which is rarely found in mediaval Catholic Church buildings! It remains to be seen whether this regulation will be a step forward or just force non-Catholics onto the streets. This is a situation which has happened all too frequently in the recent past. The most recent was that of the 'Good News' church in Aluche, Madrid. Despite having existed for some 25 years, the neighbours have grumbled and local authorities refused to give the place a licence. Indeed, early on they had to use a 'big top' tent on a piece of land temporarily granted by the authorities, but then had to leave when the council refused planning permission for the building. A licence for the current building has also never come, giving rise to the current expulsion.
Other recent cases involved a church with over a century of history in the north and that of Oleiros, in A Coruña, mentioned further down these lines. It is about time this discrimination came to a stop in a so-called democracy with freedom of religion.

Madrid's churches got together again on 24th November for 'Pueblos Sin Barreras', a cultural event bringing together God's People from across many frontiers. Unlike the TV game of a similar name, this includes games, but also concerts, workshops and other activities bringing together the resources of a regional churches' membership of thousands. In addition, the social work of groups from other parts of Spain will also be on show. But this time around the emphasis will be on Cooperation and Development, with World Vision playing a significant part, along with smaller Spanish NGOs. Meanwhile, in Barcelona there was a missions event sponsored by YWAM and in Estepona, Costa del Sol Assemblies of God had a missions conference. A busy weekend, which we hope will result in bringing the Gospel to millions.

On 25th October the presidents and general secretaries of the Spanish Churches' Federation (FEREDE) and the Spanish Evangelical Alliance (AEE) met to discuss ways of better cooperating and understanding the differences in their roles as representatives of the Spanish evangelicals. On 14th november they published a brief statement saying this was a very successful encounter in which understanding and agreement was reached on the need to maintain a good and clear relationship. Some documents are now being produced which will guide the relationship in the future. These will be agreed with the boards of each organisation.
It is good news that the FEREDE and AEE are talking and working closely together. In past years there were some disagreements, most notably when a united press office (ICPress) came to grief and the AEE decided to go it alone with Protestante Digital. On the other hand, personal relationships between the leaders have always been good.
In a nutshell, FEREDE represents the churches, particularly the denominations, with a specific brief concerning relationships with the government. AEE is an alliance of individual believers and tends to represent the more conservative elements in the protestant-evangelical world.

Jaume Llenas, general secretary of the Spanish Evangelical Alliance has been elected onto the European EA's executive board and appointed spokesman. The election took place at the EEA's annual assembly in Greece. lenas is the second Spaniard to be elected to the board, a privilege only previously enjoyed by José María Martínez, pastor and father of the current Spanish EA president, who held the EEA's presidency. Jaume was particularly pleased with the appointment because, as he said 'it is some time since southern Europe was represented on the board. In a sense it is a recognition of the work being done in the southern countries, which come from a strong Catholic background.'

Home schoolers Ketty and Michael Branson are in trouble for doing things properly. They asked permission from the authorities not to send their children to school. The idea was, they wanted to send the children to take the Spanish exams, as well as having them take the American ones. They live in the Basque Country. Unfortunately for them Spanish law does not recognise the option of home schooling, so they are considered to be in default of their obligation to send the children to a recognised school. The authorities have taken them to court. in what is likely to be a test case.

The Vademecum, Spain's oldest and most revered directory of churches has gone online. To find a church or other evangelical outfit near you click here!

For earlier news from the churches, click here!
For other news from the churches we remind you that Protestante Digital always has a selection of interesting news and opinion articles.