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News, March 2008News from the Churches 31st March. Santiago del Valle has now been arrested in the Mari Luz case. The body of MariLuz Cortés has been found floating in the Rio Tinto estuary docks in Huelva, close to where she was kidnapped on 13th January. Mari Luz Cortés, 5 year old daughter of a gypsy pastor in Huelva, went missing on Sunday, 13th January. On the news of the discovery of the body it appears that del Valle went on the run. But he should have never been free to do so, since a court order for him to go to prison had for inexplainable reasons been unenforced. Now the justice ministry is attempting to deal with the cause of the problem and put things right. 28th February. The foundation stone has been laid for what will be Catalonia's largest newly built evangelical church. The 'United Church' in Terrassa, with over 250 members and which dates back over 90 years, has swopped its old building, dating from 1924, with 7,000 square metres (70,000sqft) of ground in an outlying area of the city belonging to the city. The building will serve the whole community, with youth work, music classes, a club for people with learning disabilities, support for foreign missions and in the future a school, creche and old people's home.The building has been designed by top architects Carlos and Lucia Ferrater. The mayor and regional authorities were present for the stone laying ceremony. There was commendation for the 'normalisation' of church-city relationships that this project means, while others lamented that some authorities still make life difficult for the churches which want to establish themselves, refusing the permits for their activities. (See article about the new law in Catalonia.) [Image 70???]On 1st March 'Spain prays for Spain' held a united national prayer meeting on the concourse in front of Madrid's Santaigo Bernabeu stadium, home of Real Madrid football club. Almost 5000 attended, with others viewing live by internet and TBN-enlace TV. This was the third stage of three monthly events, first city-wide, then regional and now national. [Image 71???]As the photos show, several thousand believers from across Spain joined the rally -with more by TBN tv and internet- and prayed for the country at the mid-point of the general election campaign. Spain Prays for Spain called the event, which was coordinated by the Madrid Evangelical Council. The Independent Civic Observatory, allied to the Spanish Evangelical Alliance is a body observing the relationship between politics and society and religious freedom. Just before the 9th March election campaign it posted a PDF advice booklet on how to use your vote. 2200 downloads were recorded in the first week. But before we come to the conclusion that the evangelicals are imitating the Catholic Church, the Alliance is keen to emphasise that there are no suggestions as to whom to vote for. Another 2000 copies have been posted to church leaders. 24 hour church available in Valencia... until the end of February. Some years ago a (RC) parish had the idea of opening round the clock for a month. This year it did so in January, but in February an evangelical church took over the 'baton', as if it were a chemists or filling station (well they work in a similar way in Spain). Up to now neither Catholic parishes nor evangelical churches have been open much except for services and mid-week evening meetings. Now there is a move to make the church open all hours and accessible to people outside official activities. At night time numbers of drop outs have found solace in a cup of coffee and someone with whom to talk. But so far it is just the two churches that have 'volunteered', so from 1st March the Gospel is limited to specific hours only! On 8th March, a united churches' meeting will galvanise local support in Zaragoza for the efforts to set up the Agua Viva pavillion at the International Water Expo. This project is still in need of finance and volunteers, although a number of evangelical organisations have committed themselves to supporting the event and the 5 neighbourhood campaigns which will carry on across Zaragoza over the summer. A new inter-church open air ministry in Seville's city centre is uniting efforts to reach the capital of Andalusia. Under the title Reacciona Sevilla, the outreach aims to emulate the effective work of Kilómetro Cero in Madrid's Puerta del Sol. 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 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. For earlier news from the churches, click here! |