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News, November 2008News from the ChurchesSpanish Evangelists' Conference this week. B. Manley Pippert speaks in Barcelona. Stop the Traffick on TVE. Embargo threat on board of Andalusian Congress. MCO present Spain-2009-365-prayer year of prayer. Good Seed calendar distribution comes to Costa Brava. 20 years of Open Air preaching in Puerta del Sol. New Interconfessional Bible presented. Catalan evangelicals address Parlament on regional bill on places of worship. Carlos Martínez to perfom at Mission-net. New church planting cooperation group established. This and more... Read on! Becky Manley Pippert is coming back to Barcelona, where her book 'Out of the salt shaker' began. She will be giving a series of conferences between 28th November and 4th December, mainly at Verdi Baptist church, challenging believers to put their belief into action. Several talks will also be evangelistic. The talks are leading up to the GBG (IFES) conference which takes place from 5th to 8th December. This week, 5th to 8th December, the Conference for the Evangelisation of Spain takes place in El Escorial, close to Madrid. This important event is clouded by the recession, causing many to have changed plans to attend, but now even more by the death, although long expected, of the spouses of two of the committee members. On Sunday, 9th November the evangelical programme Buenas Noticias TV on Spanish national channel TVE had a focus on the Stop the Traffick campaign. This campaign against the continuation of slavery, even in Spain, highlighted the fate of sex workers and African migrants. Spain-2009-365-prayer With this title, a coordinating group (MCO), including Intercessors for Spain, Global day of Prayer, Open Doors, AoG, etc., are working towards recruiting 365 churches across the country to cover Spain in prayer. More info from their site (in Spanish). If you prefer to get in touch through us, please feel free to use the form on our contact page. The year of prayer will be kicked off with the Universal Week of Prayer of the Evangelical Alliance and 40 days of prayer coordinated by Intercessors for Spain. From 1st to 7th November a Swiss organisation, which for many years has produced the Buena Semilla/ Good Seed calendars, was distributing the 2009 calendars in the area of San Feliu de Guixols and Palamos on the Costa Brava. The team worked so hard that they ran out of calendars by the end of the week! On 30th October, the joint teams of Misión Urbana (Madrid City Mission) and KM0 celebrated together the 20th anniversary of open air witness in Madrid's Puerta del Sol, the plaza which marks the centre of the city - and of Spain! Two board members of the First Andalusian Congress, which took place in 2006 are threatened with embargoes, meaning the loss of their homes and savings, due to the 150,000 Euro debt left over from the event. The banks have now called in this debt and the board must pay up. Another recent event which still has debts is The Agua Viva pavilion at the Zaragoza Water Expo this last summer, despite it costing little more than one Euro per visitor. The churches in Spain are not well-off and have consistently failed to cover the costs of big events and conferences. The current recession will have to be a time to make major adjustments in the way things are handled. The forthcoming Spanish Evangelists' Conference (December 5th to 8th) has already cut attendance expectations and budget. On 31st October the new Interconfessional Translation of the Bible (BTI) was presented in Madrid by the Bible Society and Catholic equivalent Casa de la Biblia. This follows the popular Good News version and translations into Catalan and Basque. 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) took place in Madrid over the weekend of 25th October. David Wilkerson was to be a keynote speaker, but sadly his wife is seriously ill and had to cancel the trip. However, with other speakers such as Carlos Anacondia, Marcos Barrientos and several international and Spanish leaders, the organisers were delighted with the results. One of the highlights was the testimony of Juan José Cortes, a gypsy pastor and father of little MariLuz, who so tragically died last winter at the hands of a convicted rapist. Thousands attended the convention at the covered bull ring in Leganés. 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' A Spanish group will be attending the conference and you will find us (P4S) on the OAC stand at the missions exhibition. The Evangelical Federation (FEREDE) claims there may be as many as 1.4 million protestants in Spain now, including 400,000 evangelical church members and the rest being immigrants of protestant background (such as the 350,000 British ex-pats). See the article in Protestante Digital, below. 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: (28th November)In the footsteps of George Borrow (21st) (14th) (7th): |