News, July 2010

News from the Churches

Jimmy Carter opens new church building. Catalonia sets rules for new church buildings. Ferede's secretary general speaks on new Religious Freedom law. Services start at Madrid airport. September brings Madrid a European preachers' conference, while OM ship Logos Hope will visit the Canaries. New Bible now available. This and more... Read on!

Coming soon!

Summer outreach and camps are here! Many churches, denominations and support ministries are holding outreaches and camps across the country during the months of July and August. In particular, Decision will be holding a summer campaign in Fuengirola during the first half of August.
The OM ship Logos Hope will visit the Canary islands during September. between the 2nd and 21st the ship will visit Las Palmas and Santa Cruz, the islands' provincial capitals. The world's largest floating book exhibition will bring hope to the 'fortunate islands' before heading on towards Malta. Ken Barrett will be among those welcoming the ship to Spain.
Protestante Digital is to get a major overhaul and update. The news service of the Spanish Evangelical Alliance had almost 2 million visits in 2009 and from late spring 2010 will become a daily updated medium. We wish them well. Get a preview here! (To read the latest from PD scroll down.)
Meanwhile, our P4S renewal continues gradually as decisions are taken about the new look on the one hand and the underlying 'engine' continues to develop on the other. From May 1st the same engine (but not content!) is being used at St. Pixels, the online church.
On 23rd September On the Red Box brings us their first European Open air Preachers' Conference. The Madrid based ministry, which under the local name Kilometre Zero reaches out daily at the city centre Puerta del Sol, is spreading its wings to bring back open air preaching to the centres of Europe's major cities. The conference lasts until 26th.
On 10th October, Spanish churches are being asked to join the Micah Challenge on poverty. The Spanish Evangelical Alliance is promoting participation for the first time this year. For most churches it will be on 10/10/10... at 11.00!

Recent news and events

On 20th July the Generalitat of Catalonia published the new rules for establishing 'places of worship'. Existing buildings will have 5 years to comply, but meeting places of under 100sqm (1000 sqft) are exempt from the requirements. The law giving rise to the regulations was passed in July 2009.

On 3rd July ex president Jimmy Carter was the guest of honour at the opening of the new building of the Terrassa United Church, linked to the Spanish Baptist Union. On the same visit Carter was given the Premi Internacional de Catalunya, awarded by the Catalan government for being 'a man of heart and courage'. The new building is considered the largest evangelical church building in Catalonia. The regional vice-president, Carod-Rovira and the mayor of Terrassa also attended the opening. The event was well covered by regional and some national press and TV. Watch here (in Catalan) the TV report.

The national government has postponed the introduction of a new religious liberty bill. It appears it may be giving rise to more complications than originally contemplated.
Meanwhile, it has been forced by the financial crisis to close down the office which dealt with religious matters, the Directorate of Relations with the Religious Confessions. It will be merged with the Directorate of International Legal Cooperation.

Balearic vice president Moragues with pastor Sintes

On 9th June Mariano Blazquez, general secretary of the Evangelical federation FEREDE was among the guests on a TVE chat show on the topic the new Religious Liberty bill. The show went out on TVE 1. More (in Spanish): from TVE.

1000 attended the presentation

CEDIB, the Evangelical Council of the churches in the Balearics, was officially presented to society on 6th June. The presentation began with a video presenting the history of protestantism, how it came to the islands in the late 19th century and what evangelicals are doing here today. Key dignitary was the regional vice-president, Albert Moragues, who was presented with a Bible by Menorcan pastor Josue Sintes after his speech - to which he added that, having attended a Catholic seminary before getting married, he was already familiar with the Book and had been given copies by several religious groups. About a thousand local church members attended the event, which closed with two songs given by a united churches' choir, formed for the occasion.

From June there is an evangelical chaplaincy service at Madrid airport's Terminal 4. The inter-confessional oratory in the terminal, which serves One World airlines, has a notice giving the times of pastoral attention and services. Generally, attention is from 10 to 12 and 6 to 8, except Tuesdays. A quiet place for meditation, you can also speak with a counsellor or pick up a New Testament or other piece of biblical or evangelical literature, courtesy of the Gideons and other organisations. For more information you can call (+34)-91.381.89.88.

A new home-grown Spanish Bible translation, La Palabra (The Word), is now on sale! The new translation, made by the Spanish Bible Society, claims to use almost twice as many words as most current versions, increasing both accuracy and beauty. La Palabra was presented officially on 17th February at SEUT Bible School, El Escorial, Madrid, although it was not available in shops until June.
Meanwhile, the Gideons have taken delivery of 5.000 copies of the Bible in Catalan. It is hoped this will be particularly welcome in Catalonia, but also in the Balearic Islands and Valencia, where Catalan dialects are also spoken.

The 'Evangelical Olympics' season has begun, with the XII Madrid Evangelical Olympiad taking place on May 15th. Pocket Testament League is the motor behind this event, which brings children from many of the region's churches for a great day of sport and meeting new friends. Madrid is followed by other cities, such as La Coruña (Galicia) and Málaga (Andalusia), ending in Barcelona in September.

On Friday, June 26th, another Spanish evangelical was expelled for no other reason than her religion. She was a Spanish language teacher in El Aaiun, Moroccan controlled former Spanish Sahara. Moroccan officials claimed she was 'a serious threat to public order'. On Thursday, 13th May a Spanish businessman in his 60s was expelled from Morocco, the sole reason again appearing to be his evangelical faith. He had lived most of his life in the country, which was still a Spanish dependency at the time of his birth. (Morocco became independent in 1956.) He ran a business installing photovoltaic solar panels. This is the first Spaniard to be affected by this year's wave of persecution. Last year a literacy worker was expelled.

Earlier news in bullets:

OM has opened an art studio in Southern Spain. Trough art they are reaching out to Spaniards and North Africans alike. The art centre opened at the end of May.
On Sunday 23rd May the churches of Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, planned an open air celebration of Pentecost. Permission had been requested but never came, just an offer of a power socket. Then, as the system was tested, local police officers arrived asking for the paperwork and ordered the churches to remove the sound equipment. Eventually, the celebration went ahead. The churches held a silent demonstration on 19th June. See the video of the demonstration here! (Login Kamiseting)
The number of evangelical church buildings in Catalonia has reached 600, according to a survey by the regional government.
During the spring Chris Mathieson and Ken Barrett gave several Open air training seminars, in Barcelona and Valencia. Ken was also instrumental in organising various open air events in Alcalá de Henares, Madrid over the past couple of months, despite on-going obstruction of their constitutional right by city authorities.
Pastor Miguel Rueda, of Málaga, suffered a heart attack while preaching in his church on 14th March. He was a member of the council of the Spanish Evangelists' Conference.

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: (30th July)

Minority religions can´t decide if they want government money or not
Franco `gave´ Hitler a list of 6.000 Spanish Jews
Evangelical protest demonstration outside Moroccan Consulate
Metropolitan Community Church brings “inclusive Christianity” to Spain
94% of parents don’t want government to impose sex education

(23rd July)
Government postpones Religious Freedom Law till Pope´s gone home
Growing Evangelical church in Asturias makes its presence felt

(16th July)
Evangelical Alliance gives cautious response to Religious Freedom Law draft

(9th July)
Under age girls allowed to abort without parents´ knowledge

(2nd July)
Spanish government condemns lack of religious freedom in Morocco
Popular Party and Evangelical Alliance form working group
Cape Town 2010 accessible on Facebook
Immigration authorities separate Evangelical pastors from their children
Religious freedom for all, even in Italy