American released from North Korean jail

JEFFREY FOWLE, an American imprisoned in North Korea after he left a Bible in a nightclub, has been released and flown back to the United States. Mr Fowle, aged 56, was a tourist when he was arrested in May in the city of Chongjin. It is not known why the Communist state decided to release him. Two other Americans, including the missionary Kenneth Bae, remain in North Korean prisons.

Clergy under kidnap threat in Central African Republic

CHRISTIAN Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) has warned that clergy in the Central African Republic are at risk of being kidnapped. A Polish Roman Catholic missionary, Fr Mateusz Dziedzic, was abducted by rebels on 12 October, CSW said. There was a separate incident in April where an RC bishop and three priests were kidnapped by militants from the mainly Muslim Seleka group, which was ousted from power earlier this year. They were all later released.

Malawi mission ship faces uncertain future

THE future of a ship built more than 100 years ago to spread the gospel on Lake Malawi remains unclear. The MV Chauncy Maples, named after an Anglican missionary, was used by the Universities' Mission to Central Africa from 1901 as a base for evangelism. It was later requisitioned during the First World War, then turned into a fishing boat, and later a floating bar. Plans were afoot to convert it into a mobile clinic, but the Portuguese construction firm that owns it has shelved this scheme, leaving the future of the ship in limbo.

New director of unity for Anglican Communion

CANON JOHN GIBAUT has been appointed as the next director for unity, faith, and order in the Anglican Communion. He will succeed Canon Alyson Barnett-Cowan in March 2015. Canon Gibaut is currently the director of the World Council of Churches Commission on Faith and Order, which works to resolve divisions between Churches. Canon Gibaut is both a priest in the Anglican Church of Canada and an assistant priest at a church of the Old Catholic diocese of Switzerland, in Geneva.