South Sudanese bishop condemns corruption
THE Bishop of Malek, in South Sudan, the Rt Revd Peter Jon Mayom, has written an open letter to church and government leaders in the country. He calls in it for an end to bribery and corruption. He said that they should use the current ceasefire to correct their ways, the Anglican News Service reported. He said: “It is a chance to change and put things right. It is not time to loot and kill innocent people any more. It is time to deliver service to our citizens.”
First graduates from new Ethiopian college
STUDENTS have graduated from St Frumentius’s Anglican College, Gambella, in western Ethiopia, for the first time. Two of the seven graduates are refugees. The college, which provides theological training, was founded in response to the growth of the Church in the country and region, largely attributed to arriving refugees from South Sudan. The bishop of Maywut, the Rt Revd Peter Gatbel Kunen Lual, from the Episcopal Church of South Sudan, was present at the graduation, with the Church Mission Society mission partners Chris and Suzy Wilson and Rosemary Burke, and the first Dean of the college, the Revd Dr Johann Vanderbijl.
‘Credible’ irregularity allegations in Haiti election
ALLEGATIONS of irregularity in the election of a coadjutor bishop for the diocese of Haiti are “credible”, an ecclesiastical court has found. A group contested the election in June of the Ven. Joseph Délicat, Dean of Holy Trinity Cathedral, Port-au-Prince. The matter has now been referred to the Court of Review of the Province II of the Episcopal Church in the United States, by the Presiding Bishop, the Most Revd Michael Curry. It is part of a long-running dispute between the Bishop of Haiti, the Rt Revd Jean Zaché Duracin, and his former Suffragan, the Rt Revd Ogé Beauvoir, who was forced to stand down (News, 9 December 2016). A covenant was signed between Bishops Duracin, Beauvoir, and Curry in an effort to resolve the situtation, but the Court of Review found that this had not been honoured.
PARespected Republican dies: John McCain, an influential United States senator who was the unsuccessful Republican candidate in the 2008 presidential election, died last week, aged 81. The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the US, the Most Revd Michael Curry, said on Sunday that he had given “witness to the nobility of living not for self alone, but for the ideals and values that make for a better world”. The former President Barack Obama was among those who paid tribute to him. Senator McCain was a critic of President Donald Trump
Another priest murdered in Mexico
A ROMAN CATHOLIC priest, Fr Miguel Gerardo Flores Hernández, was murdered in the Tierra Caliente region of Michoacán, in Mexico, last week. The archdiocese labelled it an “isolated case”. He was the latest priest to be murdered in a wave of violence in Mexico (News, 27 April). It is suspected that he was murdered in the course of a robbery.
More than 200,000 left homeless Indian floods
MORE than 200,000 people will be unable to return home for at least six months after the south Indian floods, Christian Aid has estimated. Monsoon floods in Kerala have killed hundreds of people (News, 24 August). The charity has also estimated that a further 75,000 people would never be able to return to their homes. Official figures estimate that 750,000 people remain in emergency camps. The Indian government has turned down foreign aid for redevelopment in the region, sparking anger among local authorities, The Times reported.
WHO appeals for extra funding for Syria
THE World Health Organization (WHO) appealed on Monday for $US11 million in additional funding to provide “life-saving care” to parts of Aleppo, Hama, Idleb, and Lattakia in Syria. WHO said that two million people could be left without essential health-care services without the funding, which would be used to support primary health care, childhood vaccination, and trauma services in north-western Syria.