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News, October 2008News from the Churches The Agua Viva Gospel Choir (FEREDE) From 1st to 7th November a Swiss organisation, which for many years has produced the Buena Semilla/ Good Seed calendars, will be distributing the 2009 calendars in the area of San feliu de Guixols and Palamos on the Costa Brava. On 15th October, Guillem Correa and Pau Simarro, members of the Catalan Evangelical Council were questioned by a commission of the Catalan Parlament on the opinions of the evangelical churches towards the proposed regional law on Places of Worship. This was the first time evangelicals have been consulted in any representative assembly concerning a bill. representatives of Catalonia's major religious groups were unanimous in arguing that the bill will make the establishment of new places of worship almost impossible and that it therefore effectively limits our freedom of religion. The buildings which have caused most concern in society in general have been the mosques. The Moslem community in Catalonia is large, but they have far fewer buildings than the evangelicals, partly because they are newly arrived, partly because without outside help they have limited resources (also true for most evangelicals). Even the Catholic church is against the proposals, which might require any reforms to their ancient buildings to fulfil all the requirements, such as ramps and toilets for the disabled, acoustic insulation, etc.. 163 years of the gospel in Linares. An exhibition with this title is on this month in the city, located in north eastern Andalusia. The church itself was inaugurated in 1875 and Charles Spurgeon was among early visitors. The mining district of Linares was developed by British firms and among them were 'tent maker' engineers who used every opportunity to share their faith with local people. The exhibition is at the municipal gallery, under the name 'A stroll through the Linares you never knew.' The government, in its budget proposal for 2009, aims to maintain the 5 million Euros dedicated in 2008 to religious minorities. IBSTE, the Bible School founded by GEM close to Barcelona has 46 students registered this year, including 17 who will join a special course in Chinese. The school is widening its courses to include an intensive training for religious Edication teachers, and also extending international links to Dallas and SETECA in Guatemala, schools already relating to SEFOVAN in Madrid. Pentecostal Europe Convention (PEC) is coming to Madrid. A European prayer day on 6th September for this event gathered small groups of up to 25 in many Spanish cities. David Wilkerson was to be a keynote speaker, but sadly his wife is seriously ill and has had to cancel the trip. However, other speakers are Carlos Anacondia, Marcos Barrientos and several international and Spanish leaders. The convention itself is 24th to 25th October. On 28th September, Antonio Padilla, leading figure in the evangelical world died. Antonio was a Brethren elder in Madrid and long resisted the move to be recognised by the authorities. Indeed, for many years he represented before the government those churches which felt joining the evangelical federation FEREDE to be a kind of contamination and compromise. Carlos Martínez, one of Europe's top mime artists, is to perform at next Easter's European missions conference Mission-Net. More here! A Spanish contingent will be there, seeking out opportunities to be involved around the world in missions. And don't miss us training sketchboard evangelism and at the OACI stand in the missions exhibition! Sooner, Carlos Martínez will perform in the open air at the theatre of la Vaguada shopping mall in Madrid on 17th October: 'Grace without words' On 30th September the second meeting of PECOM will take place. This is a coordinating group under the auspices of FEREDE, the evangelical federation, with the aim of encouraging church planting. The groups brings together denominations, ministries and missions involved or interested in church planting. At a first meeting, last June, the group were able to congratulate themselves that despite the anarchy of the past 40 years of religious tolerance and then freedom, during which Judges 21:25 has ruled decisions, the number of churches has grown from 300 to over 2600. Yet there remain on the one hand 44 million people outside the evangelical churches, but mostly within walking distance of them and on the other 7200 municipalities with no church, leaving at least 3 million many miles (in some cases 60 miles) from the closest point of contact. The good news is that, with the large number of churches and organisations now around, some can concentrate on reaching the cities more effectively, while others reach out to untouched areas. Yet any attempt to plan and coordinate this at a human level is resisted by a majority from across the doctrinal spectrum, considering that it would interfere with the groups' autonomy as well as with the work of the Holy Spirit. The feeling is that a 'grand plan' will never work, but consensus on some basic values of collaboration could be reached. The Royal family has never attended an event organised by protestants in Spain, much to the resentment of evangelical leaders. In particular, all invitations to attend the maximum meetings of evangelicals, the Evangelical Congresses, have been turned down. The 7th Congress took place in December, 2007. Now the palace has accepted an invitation for Prince Felipe and his wife, Letizia to attend the opening of the first International Congress on the Protestant reformation and Freedom in Europe. This will take place next March. In so doing, the royal family will put right what is considered an offence against the Reformation and Spanish protestants since Charles V (1st of Spain) rejected Luther and Philip II set the Inquisition against them. On 11th September, the state funeral for the 154 victims of the Spanair plane crash (20th August) was the first occasion in which a representative of the protestant federation FEREDE was invited to speak at such an event. Carlos Lopez, Anglican Bishop of Spain spoke briefly. Although the only protestant victim of the accident was a baptist and while the FEREDE would have preferred a civil ceremony of 'multi-confessional' service, it was happy that this first step was made to involve other faiths at such a time. On 4th September Madrid's First Baptist church ('General Lacy'), was full to overflowing as many gathered to commemorate the life and service of Rubén Hernández, a key lay outreach leader of the Baptist churches in Madrid, who died in the tragic air accident on 20th August.   Agua Viva and Aragon pavilions  Roping in the visitors!  The video presentation can be downloaded  A gospel or Jesus film to take away  Kids programme outside Other summer outreaches have been going on elsewhere. Read about them in the archive. Pray for the results of all these outreaches. For earlier news from the churches, click here! Finally, more news from the churches is always available at the Protestante Digital site.You can also listen to some reports and comment. This week on Protestante Digital: (24th October)Evangelical Alliance enters abortion battlefield (17th) (10th) (3rd): |