Cholera returns to Zimbawe

CHURCHES in Zimbawe have been told to act to help stop the cholera outbreak raging in the country. It is the worst outbreak for a decade, and has killed at least 28 people. Public gatherings have been banned in Harare. The Anglican News Service reported that Dr Kenneth Mtata, the General Secretary of the Zimbabwe Council of Churches, said last week that “churches are faced with a special challenge” in dealing with the disease.

Primates warn of climate change realities

“REALITIES must be faced” as regards the care of creation and climate change, the Primate of Hong Kong, the Most Revd Paul Kwong, warned in an open letter for the Season of Creation. The Archbishop of Canterbury invited Primates to write about what “the care for God’s creation” means in their Province. Archbishop Kwong said that Hong Kong “faces enormous challenges”. The Archbishop of Cape Town, the Most Revd Thabo Makgoba, wrote that the next five years would be “crucial to stop us from reaching the tipping-point where climate change becomes unstoppable”. The full letters can be read at creationtide.com/letters-for-creation/

Boko Haram executes humanitarian worker

A FACTION of Boko Haram this week executed a female humanitarian worker it was holding hostage in Nigeria. Saifura Husseini Ahmed, who worked for the International Committee of the Red Cross, was one of three humanitarian workers kidnapped in March by the militant group, according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide. Boko Haram has threatened to kill the other two, along with a Christian schoolgirl, Leah Sharibu, if Nigeria’s government does not obey its demands.

GAFCON proposal for “structural separation”

THERE should be a “structural separation” between two different jurisdictions in the Anglican Church in New Zealand after its vote to allow such blessings for same-sex marriage, GAFCON’s chairman, the Primate of Nigeria, the Most Revd Nicholas Okoh, has said. He recommended in his September letter a separation “which acknowledges the reality of irreconcilable differences about the nature of the Bible and the gospel, but calls for it to be done peacefully”. The Anglican Church in New Zealand voted to allow blessings earlier this year (News, 11 May), but has faced opposition from conservative parts of the Church (News, 31 August).