Oklahoma diocese marks 20th anniversary of
bombing
THE Bishop of Oklahoma, Dr Edward J. Konieczny, called his
diocese to prayer as it marked the 20th anniverssary of the
Oklahoma City bombing, on Sunday. "Let us turn our attention to the
stories of hope, love, and community that surround that day," he
wrote in a pastoral letter.
Man suspected of planning church attack
arrested
FRENCH police have arrested a man suspected of planning an
attack on "one or two churches", the BBC reported on Wednesday. The
country's Interior Minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, said that the man,
an Algerian national who has lived in France for years, was known
to security services as having expressed a wish to travel to
Syria.
Pakistan province amends rules on blasphemy
ANYONE who is accused of blasphemy or attempts suicide must
undergo a mandatory mental-health assessment, a provincial assembly
in Pakistan has ruled. The Sindh Assembly also said that if the
accused person was found to be suffering from a mental disorder, he
or she should be given treatment. The director of CLAAS-UK, Nasir
Saeed, welcomed the amendment.
Court grants South Carolina appeal
ARGUMENTS about the rightful owner of the name and property of
the Episcopal Church in South Carolina (News,
13 February) will be heard by the South Carolina Supreme Court,
after it granted the Church's appeal last week. Last July, a lower
court gave the name and property to the realigned Diocese of South
Carolina, a group that is not recognised by the Episcopal Church,
in the United States (News, 8 August
2014).
Prayer in Canada for 'destroyed families'
THE Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Canada, which has
addressed the legacy of the Indian residential schools run by the
Anglican Church of Canada, will hold its final event on 31 May. The
Church is calling for 22 days of prayer up to the National
Aboriginal Day of Prayer on 21 June. A website, http://22days.ca, states that the
underlying aim of the schools was "to break Indigenous cultures,
and to assimilate the children into the bottom rungs of a
hierarchical society. Doing that, we . . . drove students and their
parents, siblings and children into dysfunction and addiction. Many
were also sexually abused." The Church stopped running the schools
in 1969, but no apology was issued for 25 years.