Week Ending 1/1/18

Happy 2018 to All!!!

Things were relatively quiet on the Church policy and news front because people were busy going to church, visiting family, etc.  Nonetheless, there were a few grinches around trying to spoil the holidays.

Terrorism Puts Damper on Holidays in Kenya, Pakistan, Egypt, and New South Wales (Australia)

Terrorist attacks or the threat of them spoiled holiday celebrations in several spots around the world.  The attack December 29, 2017  on  worshipers at a Coptic Church in Egypt resulted in 11 dead.  In Pakistan, 9 more were killed in an attack on a Christmas Pageant  (or pageant rehearsal depending on the news source) December 17 at a Methodist Church in Quetta, attended by the whole Christian community in the city. In Kenya, a police raid recovered a stash of weapon that terrorists planned on using to attack a church on Christmas.  Among the weapons was a gun taken from one of two policemen killed in September while on duty outside St Paul’s Anglican Church in Ukunda, Kenya.  No one was killed in New South Wales, but an Anglican parish that had sponsored a major New Year's Eve celebration for the town for a number of years had to cancel this year's celebration because they could not afford the $10,000 that it would cost to properly protect attendees given a heightened security risk.  The event drew more than 4000 people last year.

Telling Statistics of America's 100 largest Churches

 Church Clarity has released the first of its findings on a study of more than 600 evangelical congregations.  The first data released covered the status of America's 100 largest "mega" churches.  None are Episcopalian.  Seventy-nine of the congregations were non-denominational, Southern Baptist, or Independent Christian.  Among the 100, only 7 had non-white head pastors. Only one had a woman as lead pastor and she was listed as co-pastor with her husband.  Fifty-four per cent of the largest churches hid their positions on LGBTQ people.  Of the 35% that had clear policies, none had a policy affirming of the LGBTQ community.