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News, November 2009News from the ChurchesRed box preachers on TV show. Sell-out for first Evangelical Communicators' Encounter. George Borrow Society meeting in Salamanca, 15th to 19th Sept. Amazing Grace finally available to Spain. This and more... Read on! On 23rd November the evangelical Independent Civic Observatory published its annual report, concentrating on 'white slavery' in Spain, the exploitation of women in the sex trade. The Madrid Evangelical Council put on an exhibition over the week of Reformation Day (31st October) to commemorate the 450th anniversary of Philip II's Autos de Fe, when early Spanish evangelicals were burnt at the stake by the Spanish Inquisition. 4 trials were held between 1559 and 1560 extinguishing the first Spanish Reformation. Recently Spanish novelist Miguel Delibes published a best-seller entitled The Heretic which describes one of these events. The open air 'Red Box' outreach team Kilómetro Cero from Madrid was interviewed - and preached- on the Canal Sur chat show Ratones Coloraos in mid-October. Download the message here, or the entire programme here! Amazing Grace, the film about William Wilberforce, was finally released in Spanish cinemas on 11th September. May it have a suitable impact! The first Encounter of Evangelical Writers and Communicators went well over the weekend of 12th October, the national holiday. And it was sold out! The weekend, mainly for people involved in the media, was the first of its kind and drew a lot of interest from many parts of Spain. Much of this interest is due to the great success of the Evangelical Alliance's communication branch, most notably the online news service Protestante Digital, which is also available in English. Nevertheless, for those concerned about the lack of publications, evangelical journalist Jordi Torrents, currently in Equatorial Guinea on an education project, is publishing two novels and a book on autism this autumn. A meeting of the George Borrow Society took place in Salamanca, from 17th to 19th September. Borrow, most famous for his book The Bible in Spain, spent 4 years in the country during the 1830s, publishing his travelog in 1842 to great acclaim in Britain. It is still one of the finest ever books on travel anywhere, particularly concerning Spain. But what made it special was the fact, as Borrow himself admitted, that he did not primarily do it 'for fun', although he seems to have thoroughly enjoyed the experience. rather his objective was to print and distribute the Bible in Spain at a time in history when the country had been only a decade free of the Inquisition and well before freedom of religion was declared, in 1869. On 1st September the Madrid city council adjudicated two of five available plots to evangelical churches for their use to build places of worship. The remaining plots went to other religious groups. Both churches are in eastern Madrid, close to the airport: Alameda de Osuna and calle Talía Baptist churches. A pentecostal church, pastored by world renowned singer Marcos Vidal, lost out in an application in another district when the Orthodox church got the grant. For many years the government has provided the Catholic church land though local councils, but very few plots have been granted to other religious groups. A few examples of earlier cases can be found in our archives. Future eventsClame '09, Building Bridges In November a major congress is taking place in Malaga to gather Latins working among maily immigrants from a particular religious group in Europe. The congress is run under the auspices of COMIBAM (Latin missions association) and the Spanish and European Evangelical Alliances. Earlier news in bullets:
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: (27th November)Ecumenism is “a dialogue of the deaf” (20th) Biographer praises importance of book on Protestant martyrs (30th October) |