News, January 2007

Annual Resumé, 2006

As we move into 2007, we look back on a year which has been highlighted by numerous evants and tendencies. Sadly, terrorism has once again topped the news headlines, although this year the hopes were high. In sport, numerous Spanish personalities were world class players, with a number of trophies between them. As to the evangelical churches, this year marked a number of key anniversaries, but may -although we will probably never know- have marked the year when the membership of Spanish evangelical churches became over 50% foreign born.

Current Affairs

The key event of 2006 was the announcement, on 22nd March, that ETA was to definitively abandon arms. Time was allowed to determine whether this was a reality, but by early summer the government was keen to start talks for the disolution of the Basque terrorist band. against a background of inter party disagreement and a resumption in August of street violence in the Basque Country, hopes did not grow of talks ever getting seriously under way. finally, on the morning of 30th December, the band decided enough is enough and resumed its bombings, with a car bomb at Madrid airport.

Other events in comparison pale: operation Malaya uncovered a major corruption scandal involving building licences in Marbella, a second affair coming later in Andratx, Mallorca. A new anti-tobacco law made it harder to smoke in the work place and 2% of smokers gave it up. The trial of a number involved in the 11 March train bombings took place and Briton Tony King was found guilty of a nasty rape and murder in Mijas, Malaga. Numerous gangs were on the prowl to rob out of town 'chalets', but the police had several sccesses in arresting the culprits. Bird flu hit Spain just before the Pope arrived and then terrible forest fires, provoked by arsonists, affected large tracts of land in Galicia. Indeed heat was the essence of the year, becoming the hottest on record. And another record was the arrival of (mostly) African migrants by open boats 8cayucos) to the Canaries, overwhelming the possibilities of local government to cope. The immigration laws and humanitarian considerations make it impossible just to send them all straight back, but finally agreement was reached and transport was arranged to their 'last port of call'. New on the statute books in the government's 'social legislation' are a law allowing sex changes, but another empowering the disabled.

Economics

The year was dominated by a strong Euro and rising IBEX market index. Several takeover bids hit the headlines, especially E.On's bid for Endesa, the main incoming bid, but also bids by Spanish firms for foreign companies. Thus Ferrovial took over the British airports Authority, while Abertis attempted to merge with Autostrade of Italy.

Low interest rates began to come to an end, but personal credit grew to over 700 billion Euros. So far, personal bankrupcies are not outstanding in the news. A new tax law introduced (for 2007) an 18% rate for all unearned income, allowing pensioners to live well on the Costas! The government again made a 'profit' on running the country, despite a sizeable overdraft! Immigrants are considered largely responsible for continuing growth.

Sport

Individual sports players abounded in world headlines, particulary in motor sport (i.e. Alonso, Pedrosa, Lorenzo, Bautista); tennis: Nadal; basketball: Gasol; Oscar Pereiro became virtual winner of the Tour de France; etc.. In football Spanish teams Barcelona and Sevilla were victorious in Europe, but the national squad failed -as always- in the World Cup. The national basketball squad, however, broke the spell and won their world cup.

Churches

This was the 50th year for the FEREDE, the evangelical churches' federation and main inter-church forum as well as body for talking with the government. Originally known as the Evangelical Defence Commission, its secretary for most of these years was José Cardona, who in December became serioulsy ill for a week, thus being unable to join the celebrations. It was also the 25th anniversary of Spain's first regional 'Evangelical Council', that of Catalonia. Both anniversaries were celebrated together.

As any visitor to the majority of evangelical churches in Spain will soon notice, there are now many immigrants among those in attendance. People arriving from Latin America in particular, but also from Romania, sub-Saharan Africa and other parts of the world are not only attracting attention due to the arrival of some in open boats. They are also often open to the gospel or even clearly born again believers. This has been both a great opportunity and overwhelming challenge for the majority of churches, struggling to reach out to an apathetic middle class European population. Now all seats are filled in many churches, but the abilities of the churches to cope have been stretched to the limit. In addition, many new churches have been established purely for immigrants, particularly for Romanians and Nigerians, but also for Spanish speaking Latins.

Between the look-back events and the growth in attendance of the past few years, the churches have been continuing to relate to a society which is increasingly alienated from things 'Christian' through new media. We rejoiced at Christmas, 2005, at the first televised Christmas service, an event repeated in 2006 and at the opportunities to run weekly programmes on national and regional TV and radio stations, but grumbled because it is still impossible to gain an actual station for 24 hour broadcasting. On the web Protstante Digital and its English language edition now calle Spain Today are informing to an ever wider audience, but effective evangelistic and apologetic web sites are still few and far between.